History Main / StairwayToHeaven

** Notable in that the movie does have an elevator to... some form of the afterlife. (Which looks suspiciously like a boiler room.)

* In ''KeysToTheKingdom'', there's a magical staircase that you can go on that will ''eventually'' take you where you want to go, but with a bunch of seemingly-random 'landings' that consist of various different places, worlds and times. While walking on the staircase once, Suzy Turquoise Blue runs into someone she used to know before she became a Piper's child.

[[folder:Film]]

* {{Inverted}} in ''NightOnTheGalacticRailroad'' -- while the characters are exploring the Heavens, they find a stairway that apparently leads down to Earth.

* In ''Anime/CowboyBebop'', when Spike was [[MushroomSamba high on mushrooms]] he hallucinated a staircase that he climbed infinitely (he was really just stepping on the the same step of a real set of stairs) and meets a frog:
-->'''Frog:''' This here's the stairways to heaven. You know that, don't you?\\

* ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' cartoon "Wild And Woody" - Buzz Buzzard has just been [[AnvilOnHead crushed by a large object]], ahd he arrives at a lobby with elevators to both heaven and hell with Woody as the doorman: one opens and the angelic operator says "Going up" and woody forces it closed, the other opens and the demonic operator says "going down" and Woody gives Buzz Buzzard a kick in the rear forcing him into the elevator

[[folder:Music]]

[[/folder]]

->''There's a lady who's sure''
->''All that glitters is gold''
->''And she's buying a stairway to heaven''
-->--'''Music/LedZeppelin''', "Stairway to Heaven"

* The Led Zeppelin song of the same name, of course.

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* In ''DungeonsAndDragons'', Mount Celestia (or the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia) is both Heaven and Stairway To. LawfulGood mortal souls arrive on the lowest layer upon death, some joining the lowest ranks of the [[OurAngelsAreDifferent archons]], and must gradually ascend the mountain through service and understanding of the nature of Law and Good. Once a soul (or archon) has grown in understanding enough, it can eventually pass into the Seventh Heaven from which (almost) nothing returns, where most guess they merge with the plane or find a realm of pure rapturous bliss that lives up to the name. (The one archon that regularly passes in and out of the Seventh refuses to explain what goes on in there.)

-->- '''Music/LedZeppelin''', "Stairway to Heaven"

Sometimes when a character [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence ascends to a higher plane of existence]] they also have to ascend the stairs to that higher plane of existence - Which is usually a FluffyCloudHeaven or a CelestialBureaucracy.

For example, in [[Literature/TheBible Genesis 28:12]], Jacob dreams of a stairway (or ladder, translators disagree) connecting earth to {{heaven}} with angels going up and down it. The {{Ancient Egypt}}ians actually tried to ''build one'' (known today as the Step Pyramid of Djoser).

A more "modern" take is to replace the stairway with an escalator; though even that iteration of the trope dates back at least to the 1941 movie ''Here Comes Mister Jordan''.

* In ''CowboyBebop'' when Spike was [[MushroomSamba high on mushrooms]] he hallucinated a stair case that he climbed infinitely (he was really just stepping on the the same step of a real set of stairs) and meets a frog:
-->'''Frog''': This here's the stairways to heaven. You know that, don't you?\\
'''Spike''': Obnoxious little frog.

* Subverted in ''KannazukiNoMiko''. The stairway that Chikane going up to at the shrine of the moon led to her solitary imprisonment, which is required to save the world. [[spoiler:It's better in the manga, where Himeko decided to stay with Chikane at the shrine on the moon.]]

Named after [[Film/AMatterOfLifeAndDeath the British film]], although the later Music/LedZeppelin song is better known.

Contrast {{Hellevator}}. Not to be confused with SpaceElevator.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: Beast With a Billion Backs'' has the golden escalator version, although subverted as [[spoiler:they lead to a planet-sized being, who sent shkler/sklis image to primitive man, thus creating the universe's concept of FluffyCloudHeaven.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' "Satan's Waitin'" - escalator to both Heaven and Hell. Unfortunately for Sylvester, the up escalator is corded off.

->''"There's a lady who's sure''

->''And she's buying a stairway to heaven"''

->''"There's a lady who's sure
->All that glitters is gold
->And she's buying a stairway to heaven"''

All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven"''\\
--'''Music/LedZeppelin''', "Stairway to Heaven"

->''"There's a lady who's sure all that glitters is gold and she's buying a stairway to heaven"''\\

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons Game'', the characters go to heaven by ascending a stairway made of everything in the Simpsons' house.

* ''{{Futurama}}'' - During ''The Beast With A Billion Backs'', when Yivo invited all creatures in our universe to live on shklerself (which, for all intents and purposes, IS heaven), shklee transported everybody in via golden escalators. Barring being unceremoniously dumped onto Bender's invading pirate ship, this was apparently also the way ''out'' of heaven, as shklee was about to call an escalator back to earth when Leela had a hard time getting over her misgivings about the whole setup.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' "Bart Gets Hit by a Car" - escalator. He spits over the side clearly pushing his KarmaMeter over to the dark side and get gets sent to hell, by {{Hellevator}}.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: Beast With a Billion Backs'' has the golden escalator version, although subverted as [[spoiler:they lead to a planet-sized being, who sent shkler/sklis image to primitive man, thus creating our universe's concept of FluffyCloudHeaven.]]

* ''ShinMegamiTenseiNocturne'' Subverted, [[spoiler: In the Tower of Kagutsuchi, it's an elevator and it doesn't take one to heaven, but to have an audience with the titular being of creation, also the elevator is on Floor 666.]]

* In the religion of Allsaints in ''{{Literature/Seraphina}}'’ the dead are lead by St. Eustace up the Heavenly Stair to Heaven.