History Main / ElevatorFailure

* In the ''HalfLife'' Mod ''Elevator: Source'', the lift can fail at certain floors and the player(s) and any [=NPCs=] on the lift will fall onto another lift below it unharmed.

* In ''{{Half-Life}}'', an elevator carrying some scientists falls, carrying them to their deaths. Elevator failures happen in other parts of the game as well.

* ''Series/{{Oz}}''. There have been a couple of murders involving service elevators at the prison; in one a corrupt police officer was pushed down the shaft after the doors were forced open, on another the man was servicing the elevator and it was lowered on his head.

* Happened in an episode of the Australian series ''Police Rescue'', leading to real-life elevator repairmen to write in complaining of the technical inaccuracies.

* The FatherBrown story "The Eye of Apollo" deals with the mystery of a body found at the bottom of the elevator shaft. The solution is that [[spoiler:she was blind, and the murderer tricked her into thinking the elevator was there, and she fell down the shaft]].

* In the first ''DresdenFiles'' novel, ''StormFront'', Dresden is escaping from a giant scorpion in his office building, and is carrying a wounded comrade and can't take the stairs. But because, as a wizard, he's a WalkingTechbane, the elevator fails halfway down. Dealing with the scorpion involves smashing the elevator against the roof, then the floor of the shaft, and the resulting wreck regains power just long enough to open on the ground floor. (It's [[CrazyAwesome that kind of series.]]) A few books later, it's mentioned that the repairs raised the rent on everyone in the building.

* Several variations in the ''MassEffect'' series:
** Minor example in ''MassEffect1'', where the elevator to the top of Citadel Tower fails [[spoiler: During Sovereign's assault on the Citadel]]. In this case, the elevator merely gets stuck, and Shepard's team simply goes out through a hole in the side of the elevator and [[GravityScrew begin running up the side of the tower]].
** In ''MassEffect3'', this ends up happening back and forth in a sort of elevator duel during [[spoiler: Cerberus's raid on the Citadel]], with two opposing forces fighting their way up an elevator shaft and trying to blast the elevators out from under each other.

* In general, engineers are hard at work to make this as much a DiscreditedTrope as possible. Modern elevators have at least 6 cables, and each individual cable can support 150% of the elevator's listed maximum load (though the motor itself [[MaximumCapacityOverload still can't carry that much]]). If all the cables fail, automatic hydraulic brakes and/or springs are there to slow your descent to a non-lethal velocity. (This was investigated on ''{{Mythbusters}}'' when they were trying to see how a woman whose elevator ride took a plunge in the Empire State Building several decades ago managed to survive. (In her case, it also helped that the cables coiled under the elevator when it landed, absorbing some of the shock.)

* Given an ''horrible'' spin in Manga/TokyoBabylon. [[spoiler: Shinji Nagumo deliberately tampers with an elevator and then gets in alongside his boss. It plummets down and almost crashes - which is ''exactly what Nagumo wanted'', as due to him being BornLucky, he ends up surviving... and the boss, an old rich man with a weak heart, [[FrightDeathTrap dies of cardiac failure induced by the massive terror he felt when the lift failed]].]]

[[folder:Films -- Live Action]]

* In ''{{Earthquake}}'':

* ''TheToweringInferno'' has:

* Occasionally used in the ''GiveYourselfGoosebumps'' series. The books were fonder of EvilElevator, but there were a few endings where you would fall down an elevator shaft while running from a monster, or similar.
* ''Sweet Valley University'', a spin-off of ''SweetValleyHigh'', had a book called "The Roommate" that copied the plot of ''SingleWhiteFemale'', where Isabella acquires a roommate who begins imitating her and taking over her life. At the end of the story the roommate falls to her death down an elevator shaft during a psychotic episode.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

--> '''[[TheStoic Hotch]]''': Was that the alarm? You guys okay?
--> '''Reid''': I'll get back to you on that.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' had the protagonist ([[ItMakesSenseInContext Who was paranoid about being cursed by an ancient Mayan Emperor at the time]]) get trapped in a broken elevator, which goes pitch black [[SicklyGreenGlow and then creepily green.]]

* In one episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', alien programming starts to take over the computer, causing numerous problems. When Geordi La Forge takes a turbolift (an elevator that can also travel ''sideways''), he ends up violently thrown around and pinned to the walls and ceiling. When it finally comes to a stop, he is thrown violently out of the turbolift and onto the bridge.
** In another episode the Enterprise encounters a cosmic string fragment, causing massive damage throughout the ship. When it hits [[TheCaptain Captain]] [[Creator/PatrickStewart Picard]] is in the turbolift with three children (a situation he wasn't exactly thrilled about to begin with), and the impact is so violent he breaks his leg. Later on they discover that one of the safety clamps has been damaged, forcing all four to climb out before the turbolift plummets to the bottom of the shaft.
* In one episode of ''OneThousandWaysToDie'', a mean office manager suffers a KarmicDeath this way. While attempting to escape from a stopped elevator, the brakes fail and she is crushed/bisected.
* In one episode of ''BoyMeetsWorld'', Cory has a nightmare where he pushes all of his friends down an empty elevator shaft.
* ''{{Jam}}'' had a sketch where an office elevator breaks down, but because the security guard has a speech impediment, he isn't able to warn people in time and they all plunge screaming to their deaths.
* One episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show has Rob and Laura (pregnant in a flashback) mugged while in an elevator. The mugger simply pressed the stop button on the elevator so he could hold them up, but pressing the resume button does nothing. The entire episode is devoted to Rob, Laura, and the mugger trying to find a way out and hoping Laura doesn't go into labor while in the stopped elevator. At one point the mugger reads the inspection record of the elevator and finds that just this year they switched inspectors. Dick even climbs out the top of the elevator but only reads a sarcastic comment left by the building workers.
--->'''Rob''':"In (year), John Freeny laid these bricks. I want to wish you lots of luck, cause if you're reading this you're stuck!"

** In another episode the Enterprise encounters a cosmic string fragment, causing massive damage throughout the ship. When it hits [[TheCaptain Captain]] [[PatrickStewart Picard]] is in the turbolift with three children (a situation he wasn't exactly thrilled about to begin with), and the impact is so violent he breaks his leg. Later on they discover that one of the safety clamps has been damaged, forcing all four to climb out before the turbolift plummets to the bottom of the shaft.

* ''Film/AViewToAKill'' features JamesBond and [[DamselScrappy The Bond-Girl]] stuck in one of these -- made more dangerous as the BigBad (ChristopherWalken) has just firebombed the thing.

* In general, engineers are hard at work to make this as much a DiscreditedTrope as possible. Modern elevators have at least 6 cables, and each individual cable can support 150% of the elevator's listed maximum load (though the motor itself [[MaximumCapacityOverload still can't carry that much]]). If all the cables fail, automatic hydraulic brakes and/or springs are there to slow your descent to a non-lethal velocity.

** Minor example in ''MassEffect1'', where the elevator to the top of Citadel Tower fails [[spoiler: During Sovereign's assault on the Citadel]]. In this case, the elevator merely gets stuck, and Shepard's team simply goes out through a hole in the side of the elevator and [[GravityScrew begin running up the side of the tower.

Note that this trope deals with ordinary elevators that fail or are sabotaged by someone. When the elevator ''itself'' can make itself fail, that's ''not'' ElevatorFailure, that's EvilElevator.

* Nephrite tries to kill SailorMoon by sabotaging an elevator. Zoicite tries to do it to get rid of both her and Tuxedo Mask.
* The Teddy Bomber tries to kill Spike and Andy in the ''CowboyBebop'' episode "Cowboy Funk" with a sabotaged elevator; instead of plummeting to the bottom, it's rigged to go to the ''top'' of the building, causing a bomb to explode. Andy anticipated this scenario and changed the codes on the elevator controls so he could stop it; unfortunately so did Spike, making them what the bomber set originally.

* One episode of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' had the protagonist ([[ItMakesSenseInContext Who was paranoid about being cursed by an ancient Mayan Emperor at the time]]) get trapped in a broken elevator, which goes pitch black [[ItGotWorse and then creepily green.]]

* ''FinalFantasyVIII'' had this in [[spoiler: Balamb Garden during the evacuation]] and your party had to use the hatch on the bottom to advance [[spoiler: The elevator will fall down immediately after they leave.]]

* [[GearsOfWar Marcus Fenix]] lampshades this tendency in his [[DeadpanSnarker typical style]] at around the end of ''Gears Of War 2''.

* In the ''HalfLife'' Mod ''Elevator: Source'', the titular lift can fail at certain floors and the player(s) and any [=NPCs=] on the lift will fall onto another lift below it unharmed.

* Happens to Fred Pacer in [[{{Cars}} ''Cars 2'']] during the scene where Finn McMissile is shown fighting off several Lemons in a back alley in Tokyo.

* In the ''HalfLife'' Mod ''Elevator'', the titular lift can fail at certain floors and the player(s) and any [=NPCs=] on the lift will fall onto another lift below it unharmed.

* Bud takes the elevator not realizing it is malfunctioning in the ''{{JAG}}'' episode "Yeah Baby".

* ''Film/{{A View to a Kill}}'' features JamesBond and [[DamselScrappy The Bond-Girl]] stuck in one of these -- made more dangerous as the BigBad (ChristopherWalken) has just firebombed the thing.

** John [=McClane=] drops a chair with C-4 explosive tied to it down a shaft in order to kill some terrorists on a lower floor.

* The ''Series/{{iCarly}}'' episode ''[=iSaw Him First=]'' has the girls fighting over a guy, and at the end he gets fed up and leaves... accidentally stepping into an empty elevator shaft. Believe it or not, it's PlayedForLaughs.

* In one episode of ''OneThousandWaysToDie'', a mean office manager suffers a KarmicDeath this way. While attempting to escape from a stopped elevator, the brakes fail and she is crushed/bisected.

* In the ''Series/{{Bones}}'' episode "The Blackout in the Blizzard", Bones and Booth are stuck in an old elevator in Booth's apartment building.

* Happens to Chuck in the ''{{Early Edition}}'' episode "Baby".

* One ''{{Paranoia}}'' mission uses malfunctioning elevators to the 99th floor as a RunningGag. One has the walls and ceiling rise, while the floor stays in place; another is airtight and slow, leaving the [=PCs=] to choose between laser-ventilating the wall (and paying a fine for damaging Computer property) or [[ColdEquation each other]]...

* [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in AgathaChristie's ''Towards Zero'': the murderer places an "out of order" sign on the elevator, so the elderly victim takes the stairs instead, and suffers a heart attack.

* In ''CardcaptorSakura'', Eriol magically traps Sakura and Li in an elevator. The results are adorable.

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