History Main / SwallowTheKey

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': In one episode Mr. Blanket, the school's insane Guidance Counselor, handcuffs Moseby and Zack together and swallows the key.

* In ''Yellow Blue Tibia'' the main MC swallows the key to his hospital room (many floors up) when an assassin tries to kill him. Then he takes a Geiger counter and points it at himself, activating it to demonstrate extremely high radiation levels coming from him. The assassin is trapped, and the very ill MC said it would be fun to do the chasing. [[spoiler: He wasn't radioactive, just using the test button,]] but the freaked out assassin didn't know that!

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Subverted and lampshaded in the episode "The Wolf of Wharf Street", when Bob attempts to swallow the key after handcuffing Teddy to the table, [[ItMakesSenseInContext because he's tripping on pain pills, and thinks Teddy's a werewolf]].

** In the Silence Circle from ''Film/Saw3D'', Bobby must free Nina with a key in her stomach, which he has to pick with a fishhook. Due to this, he has to be careful when pulling it out, as the hook can tear her apart from the inside.

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}''
** Apparently ''forced'' on one of Jigsaw's captives in the original ''Film/SawI'', so that another prisoner could be required to cut it out of his body to stop her own rapidly-approaching demise. [[spoiler: No, contrary to what she'd been told, the key-swallower was ''not'' dead when she started cutting.]]
** Done again in ''Film/Saw3D''. The protagonist must free a woman from her trap, with the key in her stomach attached to fishing line coming out of her mouth, with fishhook included, so he had to be very careful when pulling it out or else the hook would tear her apart from the inside.

* ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'':

** In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'', Luigi is haunted twice over by Polterkitty, who pops out of the elevator control panel with the button he just tried to install, subsequently swallowing it whole and forcing him to chase after it. It gets away via detachable tails, but it only has so many of those. No need to ask why he doesn't try to use the elevator anyway; even if the hotel wasn't haunted, Luigi's a plumber, not an electrician.
*** Early on in the game, one of the elevator buttons also repeatedly gets stolen and swallowed by some of the rats around the hotel, though they're considerably easier to deal with compared to Polterkitty.

* In the WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck cartoon "Trick or Treat", Don locks away all his Halloween candy in a closet and swallows the key. A witch then casts a spell on Donald's feet so that they kick out the key. (He then kicks the key under the door of the closet, making the witch angry, and increasing the spell's potency so his feet make him ram the door down.)

Subtrope of EatingSolvesEverything. Sister-trope to EatTheEvidence. May be indicative of CrazyConsumption. See also StomachOfHolding, ExtremeOmnivore, IAteWhat. Compare TreasureChestCavity, PhlebotinumMuncher. Could be a rather unfortunate outcome of PetGetsTheKeys or JailBake.

* In ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', when Bruce Banner is cornered by the Army at a university campus, he swallows a thumb drive containing vital data on his transformations so he won't risk losing it or letting it fall into the wrong hands. Amazingly, it still works after he... retrieves it.

** Done again in the final movie, ''Film/Saw3D''. The protagonist must free a woman from her trap, with the key in her stomach attached to fishing line coming out of her mouth, with fishhook included, so he had to be very careful when pulling it out or else the hook would tear her apart from the inside.

* The forgettable ''Film/BioDome'' had one of the {{Idiot Hero}}es swallow the key to the titular biodome to keep the project going.

* ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'': GOB tries to do this in the episode "[[Recap/ArrestedDevelopmentS1E4KeyDecisions "Key Decisions"]] to aid his escape from prison, but first has trouble swallowing the key and later is unable to pass it because of a ShyBladder.

* In the pilot of ''Series/TheInvisibleMan'', villain Arnaud DeFöhn attempted to escape with the data on the I-Man project by swallowing a vital data drive when Darien confronted him. Unfortunately for Arnaud, by the time the drive had passed through his system his stomach acid had caused so much damage that the vital data was lost, preventing him from creating his own Invisible Man.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': In the episode "Diamonds are for never", Lola and Mr. Grouse are fighting over who gets to sell a diamond they found. At one point, Mr. Grouse locks it in a box, and swallows the key, to Lola's shock. He then assures her that it won't be inside him for long, since a lot of fiber, and Lola reacts in disgust.

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Subverted and lampshaded in the episode "The Wolf of Wharf Street", when Bob attempts to swallow the key after handcuffing Teddy to the table, because he's tripping on pain pills, and thinks Teddy's a werewolf.

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Suberverted and lampshaded in the episode "The Wolf of Wharf Street", when Bob attempts to swallow the key after handcuffing Teddy to the table, because he's tripping on pain pills, and thinks Teddy's a werewolf.

A character swallows a key for safekeeping, whether to lock something or someone inside a device or room. Since you usually don't get something back once it's been swallowed, this is usually done when the character in question has no intention of the lock it goes to being opened, ''ever.''

A character swallows a key for safekeeping, whether to lock something or someone inside a device or room.

[[folder:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* ''Manga/YuGiOh''

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* The televised ''Series/{{Zorro}}'' with Duncan Regehr twisted this -- at the end of one episode, he chained up the alcade in the town square and forced the alcade to swallow the key.

[[folder:{{Music}}]]

[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]

[[folder:{{Toys}}]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder:RealLife]]

* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'', Luigi is haunted twice over by Polterkitty, who pops out of the elevator control panel with the button he just tried to install, subsequently swallowing it whole and forcing him to chase after it. It gets away via detachable tails, but it only has so many of those. No need to ask why he doesn't try to use the elevator anyway; even if the hotel wasn't haunted, Luigi's a plumber, not an electrician.
** Early on in the game, one of the elevator buttons also repeatedly gets stolen and swallowed by some of the rats around the hotel, though they're considerably easier to deal with compared to Polterkitty.

* In the WesternAniamtion/DonaldDuck cartoon "Trick or Treat", Don locks away all his Halloween candy in a closet and swallows the key. A witch then casts a spell on Donald's feet so that they kick out the key. (He then kicks the key under the door of the closet, making the witch angry, and increasing the spell's potency so his feet make him ram the door down.)