History Main / HookingTheKeys

* A variation shows up in the ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' episode "Missing". Tony [=DiNozzo=] ends up getting drugged, captured, and trapped in the same room as the missing marine NCIS is searching for by the same SerialKiller who kidnapped him in the first place. Tony uses [[CrazyPrepared a knife he had hidden in his belt]] and a piece of string to get the piece of wood bolting the cell door shut out of the way so the both of them can escape.

[[caption-width-right:350:Sweet freedom.[[note]]Pun 100% intended. No apologies.[[/note]]]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'': In "[[Recap/RugratsS3E12CuffedTheBlizzard Cuffed]]", Angelica swipes some toy handcuffs intended for donation and [[ChainedHeat handcuffs herself to Chuckie]] when the latter comes over to visit. Angelica loses the key to the handcuffs, so she has to find a key that will unlock them without Drew noticing. At one point, Angelica uses a broom handle to push some keys hanging on some hooks on the wall off them. None of the keys she uses fit the lock to the handcuffs.

* In "Knights of Knavery", a classic [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] story in ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' #25, ComicBook/TheJoker and ComicBook/ThePenguin are locked up in the same jail cell. A guard unwisely gives them a broom to clean their cell. They unwind the wire holding the straw together and fashion it into a hook which they use to lift the keys off the guard's belt. They unlock the cell door, knock the guard unconscious with his own keys, and escape.

* In DC's ''Comicbook/{{Star Trek|DCComics}}'', Kirk is locked in a cell with RJ Blaise, with the guard standing outside the energy bars. Kirk spends their time in confinement humming an innocuous tune, which eventually gets on RJ's nerves. Kirk points out that it's because she's not an [[RubberForeheadAliens Andorian]], like their guard, who has been lulled to sleep by the melody. It's subverted when Kirk slips his hand between the bars to snatch the key card, and the guard (who was not quite as asleep as it seems) grabs him and chastises him over trying to pull such a simple trick. DoubleSubverted when Kirk [[CuttingTheKnot simply grabs the guard and yanks him into the bars]], shorting them out.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice''. When the rats are locked up in separate cages, Darktan keeps struggling to reach the key that is hanging on the wall just out of his reach. After watching him do this for a while, Maurice just shoves his cage close enough to the wall for him to grab it.

* ''Series/{{Hardball}}'': After Kevin's failed trial of digital locks puts the school into {{Lockdown}} in "The Odd Cpuple", Mikey and Tiffany work together to fashion a fishing rod, a tennis racquet, wire hangers and [[DuctTapeFForEverything duct tape]] to fashion a reaching device to lift the key to the override box from the caretaker's storeroom so they can shut the system off.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice''. When the rats are locked up in separate cages, Darktan keeps struggling to reach the key that is hanging on the wall just out of his reach. After watching him do this for a while, Maurice just shoves his cage close enough for him to grab it.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* Early on in ''VideoGame/PajamaSam 3'', Sam is locked in a candy-themed jail cell, with the key hung on a hook on the opposite wall. Sam's method of escape combines two versions of this trope: first he knocks the key off the hook by throwing a Bon Bon at it, and then he hooks the key with a giant candy cane once it's on the floor.

* ''Film/TheBravados'': When TheSheriff is killed, he drops the keys to cell out of reach of the door. The prisoners try desperately to stretch for them, before one of them gets the bright idea of using a blanket to snag them and drag them to the cell.

* ''Film/HotShotsPartDeux'': When Topper Harley has to rescue Colonel Walters from a jail cell, he uses a broom to lift the keys from a table next to the sleeping jailer. PlayedForLaughs when Topper falls short tossing the keys to Walters...and Walters steps ''completely out of his cell between the bars'', retrieves them, and slips back into his cell to let himself out.