History Main / SearchingTheStalls

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': When Mike, Sulley and Boo are hiding from Randall, he punches the stalls open one by one, and Sully flinches as every door opens. [[spoiler:Randall actually slams open the stall the trio is hiding in, but isn't looking at the time. Momentum closes the door before Randall can see them.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', when Mike, Sulley and Boo are hiding from Randall. He punches them open one by one, and Sully flinches as every door opens. [[spoiler:Randall actually slams open the stall the trio is hiding in, but isn't looking at the time. Momentum closes the door before Randall can see them.]]

* The first ''Film/BlackCat'' film have Cat escaping into a courthouse washroom, while an assassin searches the stalls for her. The assassin then realize one of the stall's toilets doesn't have a lid - cue Cat coming up behind him and using the lid to smash his brains out.

* ''Film/{{Edge of Darkness|2010}}'': Craven is being followed, and to lose his tails he goes into a highway rest stop bathroom. A moment later the tails enter the bathroom and search the stalls, only to discover that Craven has escaped out a window and lost them.
* Detective Arrosio does this when he hunts for the killer, having almost put the pieces together, in the bathroom at the train station in ''Film/FourFliesOnGreyVelvet'' so eager to solve the case that he reverses the usual roles. It ends badly for him.
* Jack Carter (Creator/MichaelCaine) does this in the toilets in the dancehall in Newcastle while looking for the weaselly Thorpy (Frank Windsor) in ''Film/{{Get Carter|1971}}''; Thorpy is not pleased to be found.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'': This situation occurs during a hostage crisis in season 2, at least, until Lee Adama jumps the guy supposedly hunting him from behind.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime "Partners in Crime"]], it turns out that [[spoiler:the bad guys are actually searching for a ''different'' person, also a spy, who happens to be in the stall next to Donna's.]]
* ''Series/{{ER}}''. Pratt goes into the bathroom and overhears incompetent resident Morris on the phone with someone who he's asking for information and promptly goes ballistic.

* ''Series/NowhereMan''. In "Marathon", Thomas Veil is investigating a suspicious office building, and as a pretext for checking the place out asks the receptionist to show him where the men's room is. Just when they get there a squad of assassins burst in and start killing everyone. He drags the receptionist into the toilet to hide, but a mook with a submachine gun starts checking the stalls. Fortunately he's asked to help check the upper floors before he can kick open the last stall, so the mook just takes a quick peek underneath to check no-one's there, and Veil and the receptionist are sitting with their feet up so aren't seen.

* ''Series/TheSentinel'' Blair is in the stalls when the terrorists take over the building. As the searcher is about to open his stall, Blair grabs the walls, pulls himself up, and kicks the door as hard as he can. Knocks the terrorist out cold. (Later in the same episode he's hiding behind a vending machine and tips it over on another terrorist, squashing him flat.)

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* There's a Japanese UrbanLegend about Hanako of the Toilet, the ghost of a schoolgirl murdered in a bathroom stall who kills anyone who happens to be using that particular toilet. According to the story, if one is unfortunate enough to be using that stall, they'll hear Hanako herself checking each stall, giggling to herself "No one in here," until she finds the victim. Then she kills them.

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* In ''TabletopGame/BurgleBros'' the Lavatory tile starts with 3 Stealth tokens. When a character is in the Lavatory when a guard enters (or vice versa), a Stealth token from the Lavatory tile is lost in lieu of the character losing a Stealth token. This represents the character hiding in one of the stalls of the Lavatory.

* ''VideoGame/{{The Punisher|THQ}}'' (2005): A male mook sometimes will try to hide in the women's restroom (at Central Park Zoo). Doesn't work out, as Frank can explicitly [[TheCanKickedHim drown him in the toilet]]. That's going to give a tourist a scare.

* In ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'', Michelle searched for Clementine and ordered her to come out with her own gun.
* In ''VideoGame/Prey2017'', Morgan can do this with the many, many bathrooms aboard Talos 1, hunting for mimics in hiding. Every stall is empty, except for ONE that has a poltergeist in it.

* In the ''[[WebAnimation/ShutUpCartoons Smosh Babies]]'' episode, "Potty Training", when Ian starts to suspect that Anthony is acting weird, he follows him into the bathroom and searches each stall for him. When he reaches the last one, he is shocked to find Anthony using the toilet.

** "King-Size Homer" opens with Mr. Smithers leading a pair of goons into the men's bathroom after Homer, where all the stalls are closed and there's nothing visible below. Smithers looks closely for a moment and orders one of the doors kicked open. This reveals Homer standing on the toilet (and inside the bowl), who the goons drag off.
--->'''Mr. Smithers ''': I've never seen a man so desperate to avoid five minutes of calisthenics.
** In "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", the soldiers search the port-o-lets for Bob, but only find Grandpa. (Who tells them, "This elevator only goes to the basement. And someone made an ''awful'' mess down there.")

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'': Brock is looking for Phantom Limb inside a bathroom. He begins searching each stall, encountering a different villain in each one, before finding his target.

** "King-Size Homer" opens with Mr. Smithers leading a pair of goons into the men's bathroom after Homer. All the stalls are closed and there's nothing visible below, but Smithers looks closely for a moment before having one of the doors kicked open. This reveals Homer standing on the toilet (and inside the bowl), who the goons drag off.

** "King-Size Homer". To paraphrase, "I've never seen anyone so desperate to avoid ten minutes of calisthenics".

* Jack Carter (Creator/MichaelCaine) does this in the toilets in the dancehall in Newcastle while looking for the weaselly Thorpy (Frank Windsor) in ''Film/GetCarter''; Thorpy is not pleased to be found.

* The bad guy does open all the stall doors, but our hero [[ImplausibleCorneredEscape escapes unseen]], e.g. by means of an IndyHatRoll, an AirVentPassageway, or a CeilingCling, and his stall is either revealed to be empty or the villain FailedASpotCheck.

* The bad guy does open all the stall doors, but our hero escapes unseen, e.g. by means of an IndyHatRoll, an AirVentPassageway, or a CeilingCling, and his stall is either revealed to be empty or the villain FailedASpotCheck.

* The hero stands on the toilet lid and a lazy henchman decides to make do with checking for feet.

* Less commonly, the hero surprise attacks the villain before or after his stall is opened.

* The bad guy does open all the stall doors, but our hero escapes unseen, e.g. by means of an IndyHatRoll, a large air vent or a CeilingCling, and his stall is either revealed to be empty or the villain FailedASpotCheck.

A character hides inside a bathroom stall, and to find him, another character enters the bathroom and begins a systematic search of each stall. Sometimes accompanied by a ComeOutComeOutWhereverYouAre. If it's our protagonist hiding from the villain, then four things may happen (and none of these count as subversions!).
* The villain gets interrupted before he makes it to the hero's stall.
* The hero escapes unseen, e.g. by means of an IndyHatRoll or a CeilingCling, and his stall is either revealed to be empty or the villain FailedASpotCheck.

* If the villain is smart and armed with a gun, he'll shoot into each stall, though the hero will likely find a way to avoid getting shot up.

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Such searches are standard operating procedure at closing time for building security staff at any place that's closed overnight, as no one's supposed to be in the building after business hours other than security and maybe the custodial staff. The easiest way for burglars to get in is to walk in during the late afternoon/early evening while the place is still open and hide somewhere until everyone's gone home; most commonly, going into a public restroom stall and hunkering down on top of the toilet. Such searches don't typical result in anyone getting shot unless the perp attacks a security guard when found.
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