History Main / PressurePlate

[[quoteright:300:[[VideoGame/Portal2 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cubes_portal_2_8.jpg]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'', the Ndipaya tribe are apparently very fond of these as even their heavily-guarded ancient uins feature these.

** Some Zelda games take this trope further by including some floor switches that cannot be tripped with Link's weight alone. For example, a couple of floor switches in the "Inside Jabu-Jabu" dungeon in [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]] require Link to be carrying Princess Ruto while stepping on the switch. In [[VideoGame/LegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]] some switches can only be tripped by the heavy Goron Link.

* There is a simple BlockPuzzle in the last level of ''PerfectDark'' which is needed to reach the final boss.

* First-generation {{Pokemon}} games and their remakes featured these in Victory Road, in the form of a BlockPuzzle.
** As does the Cipher Key Lair in ''PokemonXD''

* ''PokemonXD'' has pressure plates that you keep activated by pushing boxes of Poke Food onto them. Now if some of them didn't reset every time you left the room....

* ''SoulReaver'' beat the Christ out of this trope as part of its beating-the-Christ-out-of the Block Puzzle.

* ''{{VideoGame/Portal}}'' has many of these, usually involving the CompanionCube.

** Pressure plates also react on the weight of water (or even magma, if made of materials ''that'' heat-resistant) or more recently added minecarts, and currently are the only sensor other than levers that can control mechanisms. Thus these are included in all automation assemblies, whether running functions useful in the game (flood safeguards, defences, drowning-safe timed flush swimming rooms, weight-sensitive automated cattle butchery, etc) or assembled in "dwarfputers" as a SelfImposedChallenge. Plates can control floodgates, hatches and bridges used as valves, which [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/Fluid_logic opens great possibilities]] for hydraulic automata and other contraptions -- whether [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Computing#Creature_logic creature logic]] elements using [[TheAllSeeingAI pathfinding routines]] or mechanic elements activating water pumps or [[http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2012:Minecart_logic minecart-controlling]] components.

* ''{{Videogame/Mari0}}'', being a crossover with ''{{Videogame/Portal}}'' naturally has these.

* ''{{VideoGame/La-Mulana}}'' features placing bags of sand on pressure plate pedestals as a primary game mechanic. There are also the tiles which you have to [[BlockPuzzle push blocks]] onto, several of which cause other blocks to appear out of thin air. There are also the old standby "step on it and something happens" type, although they're relatively rare.

* On your way to the Red Queen's domain in ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'', you need to retrieve an insane child(who ran off the pressure plate) back to stand on it to open the gate to the portal.

* Pressure plates are found throughout ''LegendOfGrimrock'', used to raise/lower gates and activate {{trap door}}s.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', an idol that Indy needs is set upon a pressure plate, such that removing it without [[WeightAndSwitch putting something equally heavy in its place]] will collapse the cave. Unfortunately, Indy miscalculates the exact amount of weight and has to book it out of there.
* The first of ''TheLibrarian'' movies with Noah Wyle features a shout out to the above. Finding the first MacGuffin, the love interest reaches for it. The Librarian pulls her back and throws a rock at it. MacGuffin moves, Enormous stone head slams down in front of the pedestal.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' there's a [[LockedRoomMystery locked room]] with a pressure plate near the entrance that compares the weight of people entering and leaving. So how was the Scone of Stone stolen? [[spoiler:It wasn't.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' players ''dread'' the activation of a pressure plate, because nine times out of ten, it will set off a nasty trap that will ruin your whole day.
** Subverted in one of the Grimtooth's trap books for d20 systems, which features the "Click Plate", a pressure plate that gives an ominous click when you step on it... [[MindScrew And does nothing else]]. No problem... unless you intersperse them in a trapped dungeon with other plates that go click just before the trap goes off...
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', as a ''D&D''-inspired comic, has this as a staple of the traps found in dungeons by the Order. Vaarsuvius gets caught by a rather nasty one in the Draketooth pyramid in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0843.html strip #843]].
* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': In Castle Heterodyne, pressure plates are only one of the many ways intruders can get themselves messily killed.
-->'''Zola:''' Avoid any floorstone marked in ''white''. It is a trap that will kill you.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender,'' the Sun Warriors' temple has a room with a ring of statues and corresponding pressure plates. When visitors perform the dragon [[InsistentTerminology firebending form]] on the pressure plates, a pedestal with a golden egg on it comes out of the ground. [[SchmuckBait Don't touch the egg.]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Read it and Weep" the protagonist of the story Rainbow Dash is reading has to steal a small stature from off of a pressure plate, referencing the famous ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' scene. Only the protagonist in question doesn't even attempt to trick the counterweight system and grabs the statue anyway, triggering a massive DeathTrap.
* Seen in some DungeonCrawling episodes in ''{{WesternAnimation/Wakfu}}''. The ones from the TempleOfDoom of the Dragon-Pig are especially nasty: the pressure plates change positions regularly, and the safe ones can only been spotted by looking into mirrors framing the trapped corridor. The heroes don't quite make it without triggering the trap.
-->'''Sadlygrove:''' I really don't like clicks!
[[/folder]]

* In ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'' there's a [[LockedRoomMystery locked room]] with a pressure plate near the entrance that compares the weight of people entering and leaving. So how was the Scone of Stone stolen?

* Various Rare games: ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', ''{{VideoGame/Banjo-Kazooie}}'', ''Banjo-Tooie''...
** There is a simple BlockPuzzle in the last level of ''PerfectDark'' which is needed to reach the final boss.

* Sometimes summoned in ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''.
* Lots of them in the ''{{VideoGame/LEGO Adaptation Game}}s''.

Sometimes they're used for {{Block Puzzle}}s. Sometimes they're to make sure you need two people to get through an area. Sometimes they just mean you don't have to press the use button. And sometimes they're just barely discernible and you [[BoobyTrap really don't want to step on them]]. Whatever the case, a surprising number of mechanical doors are hooked up to pressure plates. Common in puzzle platformers.

* Let's see, is there a ''Zelda'' game that doesn't have this?
** ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'', and the little-known GameAndWatch game.

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' use them as trap triggers.

** Subverted in one of the Grimtooth's trap books for d20 systems, which features the "Click Plate", a pressure plate that gives an ominous click when you step on it... and does nothing else. No problem... unless you intersperse them in a trapped dungeon with other plates that go click just before the trap goes off...

* A staple of ''TombRaider'' games. Many of them require a block to keep the plate pressed down so a door or other mechanism stays active.

* ''{{Terraria}}'' also has these, either purchased from the mechanic for 20 silver a pop or found naturally in caves hooked up to a BoobyTrap.

** Some Zelda games take this trope further by including some floor switches that cannot be tripped with Link's weight alone. For example, a couple of floor switches in the "Inside Jabu-Jabu" dungeon in [[VideoGame/LegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]] require Link to be carrying Princess Ruto while stepping on the switch. In [[VideoGame/LegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]] some switches can only be tripped by the heavy Goron Link.

* Ol' good ''VideoGame/PrinceOfPersia'' made extensive use of pressure plates to open distant doors; they could be held down permanently with a slain {{Mook}} or a fallen TemporaryPlatform.

** Usually instead of pressing them yourself to do things, you get others to press them. One example is a pair of pressure plates that open and close doors or bridges, then chain up an animal on either end, load it with automated traps, and get goblins to run down it. When they hit a plate, it closes the bridge they're running towards, preventing them from pathing to the cat chained on that end, so they reverse direction and head the other way. Over the traps. ArtificialStupidity can be fun as well as !!FUN!!.