History Main / SafeCracking

A safe is a box designed to house valuable items, protected with a lock to prevent unauthorized access to the contents. In the pre-digital world, people tended to load safes protected by combination locks with tons of money, important documents, and fabulous jewelry. (They did in popular media, anyway.)

Naturally, other people would sometimes want the fabulous loot hidden away in someone's seemingly impregnable safe. These people won't be given the combination to the safe's lock, as they're usually enemies of the owner. They may not be able to steal the combination. [[CuttingTheKnot Breaking into the safe with sledgehammers]] or just [[StealTheSurroundings stealing it outright]] isn't advisable since the safe is probably in an enemy's house, protected by guards.

It's a DeadHorseTrope now - but survives due to the GrandfatherClause in older material, and is [[PlayedForLaughs used for comedy]] occasionally but ''never'' straight. In modern settings it's been largely replaced by PasswordSlotMachine.

In a digital world, valuable information is rarely stored in physical formats - well, '''except''' backups of printed materials like magazines etc. - digital publishing, despite the name, also produces physical magazines. Other valuables are likely to be protected by safes using electronic locks, buried deep in highly inaccessible vaults. Even when a safe does have a combination lock... well, modern combination locks are much better thanks to new materials and manufacturing methods. While it is possible to break your average safe open with the right tools, it'll usually take hours and will involve cutting open the safe (with a slight risk of damaging whatever's inside).

Typically this trope is only played straight in older media (and sometimes parodies, homages, or remakes of said older media). Otherwise, the Safecracker's role is most likely to be played by a main character equipped with cool gadgets or a computer hacker who needs to work inscrutable magic on an electronic lock.

** ''Film/OnHerMajestysSecretService''. Bond uses a device that directly manipulates the dial automatically to open it, and has a photocopier function so Bond can put back the documents he wants so as to eliminate evidence of his break in. The cold bastard [[FelonyMisdemeanor then steals a]] ''[[{{Filth}} Playboy]]'' in the safe.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': A suspect named Scoletti hires a guy to break into NCIS' evidence locker and switch his gun. He uses this method.

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* ''{{Comicbook/Bookhunter}}'' has the detective investigating a thief who apparently cracked a safe without leaving any physical evidence of safecracking, since the theft wasn't discovered until weeks after the fact. The eventual solution: [[spoiler:The thief drilled through the safe door, noted its old combination, then disassembled the safe with a torch. Then they replaced it with another safe of the same model, and set it to the same combination as the old one.]]

* In the remake of ''TheItalianJob'', this is Stella's role, inherited from her father after he was shot on the last job they pulled.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' cartoon "Dial P For Pink" shows this trope taken UpToEleven with AmusingInjuries quite obviously PlayedForLaughs, including StockCostumeTraits too.

* ''Manga/DetectiveConan'': Kaitou Kid is asked by Jirokichi Suzuki to crack his safe the Iron Tanuki.

* In ''Film/ArmyOfTheDead'', this is the job of quirky German mercenary/thief Ludwig Dieter (Creator/MatthiasSchweighofer). A {{prequel}} titled ''Army of Thieves'' is centered around him and his previous team.

* In ''Film/ArmyOfTheDead'', this is the job of German mercenary/thief Ludwig Dieter (Creator/MatthiasSchweighofer). A {{prequel}} titled ''Army of Thieves'' is centered around him and his previous team.

* UsefulNotes/RichardFeynman got into the habit of breaking into safes while working on the Manhattan Project. He discovered that, due to a design flaw, when one of the combination-locked filing cabinets that were used to hold the project's documents was open, he could read off all but one number of the combination. Then he broke into the main project archives, [[CrazyAwesome because the guy who could have let him in was out of the office]].

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[[caption-width-right:293: Now in {{minigame}} form!]]

* Done numerous times in ''Series/BurnNotice'', though Michael tends to cut out the bottom of a cup and use that to listen to the tumblers falling into place. He also is seen in several episodes practicing on similar safes, before actually cracking the real thing. When he ''can't'' break into a safe (usually because he doesn't have the time), he [[TakeAThirdOption takes another route]] and steals the safe, knowing that just having it (or depriving his target of it) is sufficient for his purposes.

* In ''No Deposit No Return'' Duke is a safe cracker he and his partner are held hostage by two rich kids that are faking their own kidnapping. At the climax of the film [[spoiler: Duke has to crack a safe to save the children who have been locked inside - in front of the police detective that has been hunting him down]]

* In ''Film/UnderworldUSA'', Tolly is an expert safecracker. When he infiltrates the mob, they initially put him to work as a numbers runner, but after he proves himself, they send him to break into the federal prosecutor's safe to find out what evidence he has against them.

* ''Film/DieHard'' has Hans Gruber and his gang deal with a super secure vault. Here, Gruber's tech expert, Theo, notes that he can break through 6 of the seven locks, the final electromagnetic lock is beyond him. However, Gruber's EvilPlan is set up to deal with this.