History Main / DoorRoulette

* Neo's path to the Architect in ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' had roulette doors.

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* In the film montage show, ''[=CineMagique=]'' at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Walt Disney Studios Paris]], there's a scene where the main character is in the film, ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', and trying to find Jack in a hallway of doors. Behind each door he finds, in order: [[Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Jack Sparrow]], [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles the Parr family]], [[Franchise/ThePinkPanther Inspector Clouseau]], [[Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs Hannibal Lecter]], [[Film/TheLordOfTheRings Gollum]], and [[Film/TheExorcist Regan [=MacNeil=]]]. [[ItMakesSenseInContext It all makes sense in context]]. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Sort of]].

* In ''Series/TheTenthKingdom'', our heroes get past this trap in an unusual way: the father has had it at that point, so he picks up the toad who serves as the keeper and [[TakeAThirdOption tosses him into the corridor beyond one of the doors]], which immediately erupts into flame. They then decide to take the other door.

* One of the duel mini-games in ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' has 12 switches in a circle. Eleven of them are hazardous; the object is to be the first to find the safe switch.

** In ''Bugs Bunny and the Three Bears'', Bugs tries to escape the bears' house after his plan to seduce the Mama Bear [[GoneHorriblyRight works]] [[AbhorrentAdmirer too well]], but finds her behind every door dressed in different lingerie. "Tell me more about my eyes!"
** Both ''The Trial of Mr. Wolf'' and ''Plane Daffy'' feature a gag where a character tries to flee a his pursuer's house, but finds him behind every door brandishing increasingly deadlier weapons.

* ''Series/TheMonkees'' - In the episode �Monkee Chow Mein,� Micky and Peter must choose between four doors to escape sudden death from the clutches of [[YellowPeril evil Chinese Restaurateurs]].

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* ''Literature/TheLadyOrTheTiger'',([[http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml found here]]) by Frank Stockton. Significant criminals in a "semi-barbaric" society are judged in the king's arena, where they must choose between a pair of identical doors. One door contains a tiger that will kill the criminal, while the other door hides a beautiful woman whom the criminal must marry. The 'defendant' is considered innocent or guilty based on which outcome befalls him.

* ''Literature/TheLadyOrTheTiger'',([[http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml found here]]) by Frank Stockton. Criminals in a "semi-barbaric society are placed in an arena and must choose one of two doors. One door has a starving tiger that will kill the criminal, while the other door has a beautiful woman the criminal must marry.

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* In the original ''Manga/YuGiOh'' manga, when Shadi is trapped inside Dark Yuugi's mind, he was forced to do this to find his way out. One door contained the true mind of Dark Yuugi while countless others held nasty surprises. It was implied that had his adversary not shown a rare bit of mercy and helped him at the last moment, he would have been lost there forever.

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* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'' has the KnightsAndKnaves riddle variation. Hoggle also helped Sarah escape the oubliette with a magic door. Open it one way and it goes to a cupboard. Open it the other way, and it leads outside.
* ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' has this when Harry and his friends are in the Department of Mysteries and they're trying to find which door is the one with all the glass balls seen in Harry's dreams.

* Neo's path to the Architect in ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'' had roulette doors.

* In ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'', the "one door leads to two different locations" variation is used.
* In the EnsembleCast comedy ''Film/NothingButTrouble'', there is a sequence where a character tries to open several doors in a hallway, only to find bizarre things like tombstones or a room full of bats (and guano). Unusually for this trope, they're not stock footage but actually there. It's a very strange house.
* In the 1949 film ''I Was a Male War Bride'', French army captain Henri Rochard (Creator/CaryGrant) experiences a variation on this trope. In the hallway of a U.S. Army office building in post-war Germany, he experiences AcronymAndAbbreviationOverload in a hallway filled with solid office doors labeled with alphabet soup acronyms. He recites what he thinks the acronym on each door means until he comes to the women's restroom. He starts to recite what he thinks the acronym "LADIES" might stand for when a female corporal walks out.
* In ''Film/CasinoRoyale1967'', Sir James and Moneypenny end up in a hall with many doors which all look alike.

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* ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'' did it with the Showcase game at the end of the show.
* ''[[Series/TreasureHuntUS Treasure Hunt]]'' used to do it with good prizes and booby prizes they called "klunks".

* The American version of ''Series/HellsKitchen'' has an unusual variation. In the finale, Gordon Ramsay shows doors to the audience. The finalists stand behind the doors, and only the winner's door is ''unlocked''.

* Subverted on ''Silent Library''. A recurring punishment is "Bad Door", with punishments including a zombie, a motorcycle spewing exhaust, and more.

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* ''The Lady Or The Tiger'' is [[DiscussedTrope discussed]] by Picard and Worf in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' novel "Rogue Saucer". Worf opines that the only appropriate ending is for the man to open the door with the tiger, [[AttackAttackAttack hurl himself upon it, and die an honourable death]].
* ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' has this when Harry and his friends are in the Department of Mysteries and they're trying to find which door is the one with all the glass balls seen in Harry's dreams. In fact, the doors spin around the group like an actual roulette wheel.
* ''Seven Ancient Wonders'' by Creator/MatthewReilly has a pair of these puzzles in rooms as {{Death Trap}}s. The rooms quickly fill up with quicksand, and were designed to be disorientating to make it harder to find the correct door.

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* Candice set up a fixed, unwinnable version of this trope with her illusion powers in season 1 of ''Series/{{Heroes}}''. No matter what door Micah ran to, ''all the doors'' led him back to the room he was trying to leave.

* ''Series/TheMonkees'' - In the episode �Monkee Chow Mein,� Micky and Peter must choose between four doors to escape sudden death from the clutches of [[YellowPeril evil Chinese Restaurateurs]].

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* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'''s Nuka-World {{DLC}} has a side-quest where the player must traverse a decaying funhouse run by a stage magician who was transformed into a Glowing One[[note]]A Ghoul whose body emits nuclear radiation[[/note]] when the bombs dropped. One of the rooms is a circular chamber with a spinning floor and about ten different doors, some of which lead to blank walls, others to staged "scenes" (like skeletons watching TV), and of course one leads to the next part of the area.

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* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Bart Simpson encounters this when he's in the Shelbyville Zoo trying to leave without being eaten by a tiger.

* Happened in the ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "Courage in the Big Stinking City", where behind door number 1 is StockFootage of [[Franchise/{{Godzilla}} King Ghidorah]], behind door number 2 is stock footage of a shark, and behind door number 3... is a cute girl playing a violin. [[spoiler: Until she turns around, revealing [[DemonHead a monstrous screaming face]].]]

* The {{Creator/Filmation}} ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' episode "The Nine Lives of Catwoman" started with this.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' had an episode, "What Is Reality", where Batman and Robin had to save Commissioner Gordon from a virtual reality simulation constructed by The Riddler. The first obstacle Batman encounters is a hallway full of doors. This being the Riddler, however, the doors were all labeled with clues as to what was behind them. The door labeled "crazy intent", for example, had an oncoming [[VisualPun locomotive]].
* Creator/FleischerStudios cartoon ''WesternAnimation/BimbosInitiation'' has this as one of the obstacles in Bimbo's initiation ceremony.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', "Mystic Manor", had Garfield searching a haunted house for Odie and encountering this. Behind one door was [[ShoutOut Nancy and Sluggo]], behind another was the manor's crazy caretaker taking a shower, and behind another was a sunny beach crowded with surfers, which results in Garfield being drenched by a huge wave.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'' episode "[=HallowEek=]", Eek was running around a room at the haunted house freaking out, and opens three doors, but there are different monsters behind them that scare him, and then he opens another door and [[Series/MisterRogersNeighborhood Mr. Rogers]] is behind it uttering "Won't you be my neighbor?", which also scares him.

* ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'': In "Affair Weather Friends", Mac, [[DrunkOnMilk on a sugar bender]], goes through the house of Bloo's new friend Barry and opens several doors trying to find him. One closet contains various possessions and a photo of a family that doesn't look like Barry's, the next is a StalkerShrine to Bloo, and the next contains said family BoundAndGagged. This shows that [[spoiler: Barry isn't what he seems.]]

What the heroes are looking for is behind one [[DoorTropes door]]. The problem is that the heroes stand in a long hallway or circular room lined with doors in any direction they care to proceed. Every other door but the exit has something [[AddedAlliterativeAppeal disheartening, dopey, dangerous, disastrous or deadly]] on the other side, but none of them are marked or visibly distinct from each other, so they have no choice but to try each one to find the way out. Named for the game of chance in which there's only one way to win and many ways to lose, this trope is the same thing -- lots of doors lead nowhere (or nowhere ''good''), but only one is the way forward.

* ''Film/TheMasterOfDisguise'' has a deleted scene combining this trope with ScoobyDoobyDoors where ThoseTwoBadGuys chase Pistachio into a hallway of doors and Pistachio somehow appears in a different disguise behind every door which somehow open and close by themselves, leaving the bad guys thoroughly confused. A few moments from this scene and a few extras that weren't used in it can also be found in the movie's end credits.

* There was once a recurring Franchise/ArchieComics strip called ''Open the Door, Dilton'', where Dilton Doiley would open doors leading to {{Visual Pun}}s based on their labels; a door leading to 'Tennis Court' featured a player being sentenced a $500 fee for a double-fault by the judge, and a 'Roller Derby' had people racing derby hats on wheels.

* [[http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/LadyTige.shtml The Lady or the Tiger]] by Frank Stockton.

* ''Film/TheMasterOfDisguise'' has a deleted scene combining this trope with ScoobyDooDoors where ThoseTwoBadGuys chase Pistachio into a hallway of doors and Pistachio somehow appears in a different disguise behind every door which somehow open and close by themselves, leaving the bad guys thoroughly confused. A few moments from this scene and a few extras that weren't used in it can also be found in the movie's end credits.

* ''Film/TheMasterOfDisguise'' has a deleted scene where ThoseTwoBadGuys chase Pistachio into a hallway of doors and Pistachio somehow appears in a different disguise behind every door which somehow open and close by themselves, leaving the bad guys thoroughly confused. A few moments from this scene and a few extras that weren't used in it can also be found in the movie's end credits.

* In ''Series/{{Batman}}'' Catwoman did it with the choice of "The Lady or the Tiger", giving Batman a chance to catch her or die.

* ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''. While the protagonists are looking for Paul inside a HallOfManyDoors, they open several doors leading to (a) King Kong reaching in to get Fay Wray, (b) an oncoming train (one of the Beatles slams the door shut) and finally (c) Paul giving a concert performance.