History Main / SlowDoors

* Inverted in NealStephenson’s SnowCrash: “Residents don’t have time to sit idling at the Burblave entrance watching the gate slowly roll aside in Old South majestic turpitude, so it’s mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun.”

** The first arc of the animated series ''Droids'' featured a landspeeder chase scene that used this trope, plus several others (like the ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy) repeatedly and in quick succession. R2-D2 suggests it's a trap, and it turns out it is: Behind the last set of slow doors is a dead end and a bunch of guys with blasters.

* Used with crazy timing in ''Webcomic/ElfQuest'': [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html The Searcher and the Sword]], when two elves are trying to escape from [[spoiler:crazed trolls]]. What's crazy about it is that it's implied that the elves had plenty of time to escape, except that the rescue party's entrance alerts their enemies, who ''then'' check on the prisoners, see that they're gone, and trigger the trap, leaving the escapees to vault through the door at the last second. Drama! Did I mention that this is all done with giant slabs of stone a la Egyptian tomb? Read up on the thrilling escape [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html?page=76 here]].

* The final level of SyphonFilter has this. You have to make it through a missile silo before the missile blasts off. There's a slowly closing blast door, and the controller has an UnnecessaryCombatRoll button. Do the math.

* Two appear in the second stage of ''{{Axelay}}'', but you can use your guns to blast them open.

* Averted in episode 5 of ''KiddyGrade''. When [[{{Technopath}} Lumiere]] closes all of the doors in an enemy spaceship, they snap shut before the bad guys even realize what's happening.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'' games play this trope straight, particularly in ''Riven'' and ''URU''.

* ''Penumbra'' Overture has a door that's opened by a remote lever. When Philip gets back to it after having pulled the lever, it's sliding closed. What raises the tension is whether or not you killed all the spiders in that area, as they just might be chasing you at that point if you haven't.

* ''{{Terminator}} 3'', allowing Ahnold to jump under the door and hold it long enough for John and Katherine to crawl under it.
* In ''WarGames'', we see NORAD personnel walking in and out while a ridiculously thick metal door is closing. This is TruthInTelevision: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NORADBlast-Doors.jpg blast doors]] of the Cheyenne Mountain Complex are 25-ton monsters of concrete and steel, and take about 15 seconds to close. They're on record as the world's largest hinged doors.

* Near the end of ''{{Entrapment}}'': After the characters accidentally trip the security system, a wall of gates closes rapidly around them, but for some reason the door blocking the actual exit moves incredibly slowly, long enough for them to escape.

* Played with twice in the pilot episode of ''SeaQuestDSV''. In the first case, an undersea wildcat miner is attempting to escape corporate security after he infringed on their mining fields one too many times; he pulls off an IndyHatRoll ''with his mini-sub'' by asking his buddy at home base to start closing the docking bay doors before he's through. The trope is played straight in the second case (and re-used as stock footage several times thereafter), as a crewman is seen jumping through the main "clamshell" hatch to the titular submarine's bridge as general quarters is sounded.

* The ''{{Myst}}'' games play this trope straight, particularly in ''Riven'' and ''URU''.

* Used with crazy timing in ElfQuest: [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html The Searcher and the Sword]], when two elves are trying to escape from [[spoiler:crazed trolls]]. What's crazy about it is that it's implied that the elves had plenty of time to escape, except that the rescue party's entrance alerts their enemies, who ''then'' check on the prisoners, see that they're gone, and trigger the trap, leaving the escapees to vault through the door at the last second. Drama! Did I mention that this is all done with giant slabs of stone a la Egyptian tomb? Read up on the thrilling escape [[http://www.elfquest.com/gallery/OnlineComics/SAS/DisplaySAS.html?page=76 here]].
* Shows up in ''MoltenBlade'' (in a [[http://moltenblade.comicgenesis.com/d/20081108.html government research facility]], even. Talk about being underfunded). They aren't really even heavy doors.

* Parodied twice in ''{{Futurama}}'': In the Central Bureaucracy everyone manages to make it through the door, except Bender, who just walks right through the metal. The second one is when fleeing the spaceship Titanic, when Zoidberg stops the door with only a few inches of space, forcing Hermes to ''limbo'' underneath.
* Subverted in WallaceAndGromit: ''The Wrong Trousers''. When Wallace [[spoiler:under the control of Feathers Mcgrew attempting to steal a diamond]] trips a laser beam, the chamber's vertically-dropping entrance door starts to close slowly (about 10 seconds after the alarms first go off), but instead of attempting an IndyHatRoll, he instead immediately turns around and heads for the window - granted, he was walking on the ceiling!

* Some doors in the ''{{Marathon}}'' franchise, such as the DoorToBefore in Blaspheme Quarantine, and the big doors on Durandal's ship in the second game.

* Averted on ''Series/BabylonFive'. The blast shield closes quickly enough to protect C&C from an attack that had already been launched.

->''"Close the blast doors! Close the blasted doors!"''

->"Close the blast doors! Close the blasted doors!"

* The HalfLife chapter "We've Got Hostiles" has fire doors that take forever to close. Luckily you set them off manually, meaning you can shut them behind you and cut off the hostiles creatures dogging you. It's only one way, but you can open it again, except for the DoorToBefore; the blast door you went through [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom is securely shut]].

* Played straight, but also TruthInTelevision, in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}''. Remember those ginormous blast doors at Cheyenne Mountain? Also, the Stargate itself has been stated by WordOfGod to stay open as long as plot dictates, which has resulted in more than a few Slow Stargates moments over the series' run. The "Iris" blast door on the Gate closes very quickly; so, of course, [[TheWorfEffect it often fails to close at all, or the enemy goes right through it somehow]].

* One small area in ''{{Penumbra}}'' requires you to flip a lever in a far off room which opens the exit door that slowly closes as you approach. The tension is greater if you didn't kill all the spiders.

* Subverted in NealStephenson’s SnowCrash: “Residents don’t have time to sit idling at the Burblave entrance watching the gate slowly roll aside in Old South majestic turpitude, so it’s mounted on some kind of electromagnetic railgun.”

* One small area in ''[[Penumbra]]'' requires you to flip a lever in a far off room which opens the exit door that slowly closes as you approach. The tension is greater if you didn't kill all the spiders.

* The HalfLife chapter "We've Got Hostiles" has fire doors that take forever to close. Luckily you set them off manually, meaning you can shut them behind you and cut off the hostiles creatures dogging you. It's only one way, though, and you can't open it again if you're on the wrong side, maintaining Half-Life's proud tradition of {{Railroading}}. Even when you get to the DoorToBefore, the blast door you went through [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom is securely shut]].

* Averted in ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'', where the internal security doors of the Geofront, once activated, snick shut instantly, sealing corridors extremely quickly.

* Played straight, but also TruthInTelevision, in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}''. Remember those ginormous blast doors at Cheyenne Mountain? Also, the Stargate itself has been stated by WordOfGod to stay open as long as plot dictates, which has resulted in more than a few Slow Stargates moments over the series' run.