Line #32 Main/MovingBuildings


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[TabletopGame/{{Talisman}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/babayagashut.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350: [-Literature/BabaYaga: Redefining ChickenWalker since the 1700s.-] ]]
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9
10	Basically, a building suddenly starts to inexplicably move, but it's just RuleOfCool. Bonus points if it shows anything happening inside during the move, such as rooms shaking, swerving or tilting and objects or even people being displaced.
11
12	See also EverythingDances. If it's a fortress designed specifically to move, see BaseOnWheels. If it's a statue that starts to move, then it may be a LivingStatue. For this trope's much bigger cousin, see MobileCity.
13
14	----
15	!!Examples:
16
17	[[foldercontrol]]
18
19	[[folder:Advertising]]
20	* This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVGvWGyh7wg Halifax]] advert shows a building being launched into the sea like a ship.
21	* This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNX9nkHjbfM T-Mobile advert]] shows a guy dragging his house. Another guy is dragging a shop, and we even see a lady inside a moving office building.
22	* This [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_isBnk5lwDY trailer]] for ''[[VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater Tony Hawk: SHRED]]'' has someone playing the game on the [[{{Waggle}} skateboard peripheral]]... and the whole house starts moving and jumping off of ramps as he plays, ending it with [[spoiler:the house crushing Tony Hawk's car]].
23	* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC4a6CGeDkE a UK advert]] for UsefulNotes/McDonalds' Great Tastes of America advertising the Tennessee Stack, Chuck is in a kitchen of a house presenting it in the style of a cooking show. Suddenly, the room starts to bounce and shake, disrupting his balance and displacing the objects in front of him. It turns out the house he's in is riding on the back of a pick-up truck being driven across a bumpy road.
24	-->'''Chuck:''' What's going on?\
25	'''Driver:''' Sorry, Chuck. There's some kind of bumpy things in the road.\
26	'''Chuck:''' Easy! This is a cooking show, not an action movie!
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
30	* In ''Anime/{{FLCL}}'' episode 1 "Fooly Cooly", when Haruko attacks Naota insde the hospital, the building starts moving around and finally jumps into the air and falls back to the ground.
31	* ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'': In the episode "A Staravia is Born!", Team Rocket has a wooden house base that sits on a top of a giant mecha buried underneath. They use this mecha to recaptured the escaped Flying-type Pokémon and because it's made of wood, [[NoSell Pikachu's Thunderbolt can't harm it]]. Too bad they didn't account for the fact that wood is a lot more frail than metal, which proves to be the mecha's downfall when the ground underneath it gives way.
32	* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''. The buildings of New Tokyo-3 can retract underground into the [=GeoFront=] in the event of an attack by the Angels.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Comic Books]]
36	* ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'': In ''Recap/AsterixInSpain'', as a parody of modern day tourists with caravans, the various tourists waiting for the Spanish border all have houses on wheels, pulled by horses.
37	* A classic ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' issue has the Baxter Building get launched into space like a rocket as part of a scheme by Doctor Doom.
38	* An "aftersmash" issue of ''ComicBook/WorldWarHulk'' starring ''ComicBook/DamageControl'' has the Empire State Building come to life because it was rebuilt with [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum psychoreactive shadowstone]] from the Sakaaran invaders. Failing to prevent it from getting up to explore the world, they affix it with a giant hover platform so it can leave on yearly vacation.
39	* A classic ''[[Creator/DCComics Strange Adventures]]'' cover has skyscrapers sprouting mechanical legs and going on a rampage.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Fairy Tales]]
43	* In Eastern European folklore and legend, the witch Literature/BabaYaga has a house that can walk around on giant chicken legs. This house has shown up in a number of adaptations.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
47	* [[Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena Ohtori Academy]] is this in ''Anime/AdolescenceOfUtena''.
48	* In ''Anime/HowlsMovingCastle'', the titular castle walks around on giant mechanical legs, powered by some [[{{Magitek}} combination of magic and]] {{Steampunk}}.
49	* The titular ''WesternAnimation/MonsterHouse'' at the climax uses trees as makeshift legs to uproot itself and chase the protagonists through the neighborhood.
50	* ''WesternAnimation/SecretMagicControlAgency'': Baba Yaga's hut, of course, has a pair of chicken legs on which it can walk around. When Gretel sets it afire during their escape, the hut begins to panic and run about the swamp wildly, before tossing itself upside down into the water.
51	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Up}}'', Carl turns his home into a makeshift airship by tying thousands of ballons to it.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
55	* In the ''Creator/MontyPython'' short film "''The Crimson Permanent Assurance''", the building remains a building, but it's mobile enough to be used as ''a pirate ship.''
56	* ''Film/OurManFlint''. While Derek Flint is breaking into a safe, GALAXY minions lock him inside, then attach a towbar to the outside wall and tow away the entire room which turns out to be a wheeled trailer. The rest of the building sinks into the ground and an outdoor cafe is set up in its place, so when Flint's backup arrives [[ItWasThereISwear there's no sign of the building.]]
57	* ''Film/TopSecret'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akLC_JMjpjA Nick Rivers is aboard a train.]] It appears to pull away from the station, but as we look out the train's window we see that the station has pulled away from the train.
58	* In ''Film/TheJerk'', Navin attempts to prevent a car full of thieves from escaping before he can call the cops by tying a rope between their car and the side of a building. When they drive off anyway, they end up dragging half the building away with them. And it's a church. With a wedding being celebrated, and the groom and bride trapped in different parts.
59	* ''{{Film/Krull}}'': [[BigBad The Beast]]'s Black Fortress flies, floats and teleports at his command. It never stays for too long nor in the same place twice when put down, necessitating the good guys finding a {{seer\|s}} who can tell them it's next location.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:Literature]]
63	* In the novel ''Bad Magic'' one character's house has an emergency escape feature where it sprouts wings and flies away. This causes significant problems when the owner is forced to use it, since TheMasquerade is in full effect and his house ends up having to land in the Pacific Ocean.
64	* The evil wizard's cottage from ''Literature/BookOfBrownies'' can move on its own once the doors are closed. The brownies who get imprisoned in the cottage eventually managed to trap the evil wizard and prepares to leave, only to find out the cottage has moved from the edge of a forest to the beach.
65	* James Blish's ''Literature/CitiesInFlight'' novels take this to its (il)logical conclusion by having entire cities fitted with antigravity and faster than light propulsion. The idea of flying cities was later used in a British Airways commercial depicting Manhattan in flight.
66	* One of Creator/TanithLee's ''[[Literature/TheClaidiJournals Claidi]]'' novels has a building with moving rooms.
67	* ''Literature/{{Spellbreaker}}'': The Baba Yaga's hut can be explored by adventurers in order to find a magical clue ), although whomever attempting an entry will need to fight and defeat the crow's foot first.
68	* ''Literature/MortalEngines'': In the prequel series, which documents the rise of Municipal Darwinism and the setting's MobileCities, various smaller-scale variations on the theme can be seen. In ''A Web of Air'' we see the funicular houses of Mayda, which rise and fall on diagonal tracks up and down the valley the city is set in. In the same book, the previously static city of London lumbers gradually to its, uh, wheels and tracks.
69	* In Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/RainbowsEnd'', the library at the University of California in San Diego is designed to move under computer control in case of earthquake. At one point, hackers take over the building's computers during a public demonstration, to make the building dance along to the music. It doesn't work quite as planned.
70	* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' book, ''Literature/WitchesAbroad'', Mrs. Gogol's home in the swamp grows four legs and walks around as needed. It's a reference to Baba Yaga's house on chicken legs, but because it's in a swamp Mrs. Gogol's house has duck legs instead.
71	* ''Literature/MaulLockdown'': This is Cog Hive Seven's specialty as the warden can shift the prisoner cells around till they connect with that of another prisoner. Then the deathmatch begins.
72	* In ''Literature/HowlsMovingCastle'', Howl's castle glides across the ground with no visible means of propulsion. (Not like a hovercraft -- more like an unseen hand was trying to hold it a bit above the ground while ''pulling'' it in the desired direction, causing it to smash into rocks or tree stumps, bounce off the ground at times and generally behave as if its motive force didn't especially care either about damage to the castle's exterior or the effects of the ride on the castle's inhabitants. This is actually several clues as to the nature of the castle rolled into one.)
73	* ''Literature/{{Seveneves}}'':
74	** The habitats on the Great Chain keep rotating to simulate gravity.
75	** The Eye itself constantly moves around the Ring Habitat, acting as a form of transport.
76	** The Cradle, being a counterweight attached to the Eye, is essentially a floating town that moves above the surface of Earth. It gets parked in sockets from time to time.
77	* ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'': The brass city has a pedestal with a button on top of it that when pressed, causes the buildings to move about.
78	* ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'': On one planet, a party was going ''so'' well that the party-goers wished it would never end. As it turned out, several of them were rocket engineers. The next morning, the building the party took place in was airborne. It's still going generations later, though the people at the party have gotten steadily more inbred due to a limited gene pool; the rockets are seemingly kept intact by an engineering CargoCult, and the party sustains itself by raiding farms it passes over.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
82	* The World Space Headquarters complex in ''Series/FireballXL5'' incorporates a control tower that rotates for no very obvious reason except RuleOfCool.
83	* And then in ''Series/{{Stingray 1964}}'' all of the buildings in Marineville can be lowered underground on hydraulic jacks in case of an attack.
84	* ''Series/{{CSI}}'' had an episode where someone literally stole a house and dumped it in the desert.
85	* Norwegein duo Music/{{Ylvis}}'s show ''I kveld med Ylvis'' [[labelnote:translation]]''Tonight with Ylvis''[[/labelnote]] had two segments ''Dagens Spørsmål'' [[labelnote:translation]]''Today's Question''[[/labelnote]] and ''Tid for Hobby'' [[labelnote:translation]]''Time for Hobbies''[[/labelnote]] apparently set in one of these.[[note]]They're actually inside the back of a moving truck disguised as a building interior, as shown at the end of one of the episodes.[[/note]] They show [[MundaneMadeAwesome mundane tasks being preformed]] (such as setting up a tent and hammock, or replacing a light in a chandelier) whilst [[{{Slapstick}} constantly losing balance and being tossed about]] as the room they're in swerves and shifts about, and not acknowledging the inexplicable motion at any point. HilarityEnsues.
86	* ''Series/TheGoodies''. In "The Race", our heroes enter the ''24 Hours of Le Mans'' but don't have a car, so Graham Garden turns their office into one, after an early attempt to build a car from scratch is sabotaged by an evil competitor.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89	[[folder:Radio]]
90	* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'':
91	** In the scene where Arthur and Ford are first exposed to the Infinite Improbability Drive, they briefly see an apparition the holiday resort of Southend-on-Sea, Essex, where the sea remains steady as a rock but all the buildings on the seafront roll up and down, like waves.
92	** The [=h2g2=] building in which Zaphod and Marvin have taken refuge is bodily uplifted by the dread Frogstar Fighters and transported through space to the world of the Total Perspective Vortex.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
96	* ''The Widening Gyre'', a steampunk setting for ''[[TabletopGame/{{Champions}} HeroSystem]]'', has several Walking Towns. If danger approaches, the entire town can unfold legs and leave the area.
97	* TabletopGame/{{Chess}}: Rooks, represented as towers, are able to zip around the board as they please.
98	* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''' Stronghold Builder's Guidebook has locomotion as a feature for a fortress as an option. how fast and what kind of movement depends on what your willing to pay.
99	* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' has Mobile Structures, which are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: massive buildings built on enormous tank treads. The technology to make them originated in the Star League, and like so much else was largely lost during the Succession Wars. However, Comstar, and therefore the Word of Blake, retained this knowledge. It's largely AwesomeButImpractical since Mobile Structures are slow, impossible to take off-planet, and so expensive that you could easily build and garrison multiple standard bases.
100	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' has several examples.
101	** A commonly revisited mechanic are, "man-lands," Land cards that have abilities that let them become a creature (usually temporarily, though Stalking Stones does so permanently). Art typically depicts a landscape assembling into ambulatory form.
102	** Many spells will turn lands into 0/0 creatures with some number of stat-fortifying counters on them (''Battle for Zendikar'' even used this as a named mechanic, Awaken). Some of these cards, like Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi (the guild hall of Ravnica's Selesnya Conclave), depict a building getting up.
103	** ''Eldritch Moon'' featured the Meld mechanic, where two specific double-faced cards could merge into a single, double-sized permanent. One of these is Hanweir, the Writhing Township, depicting the village of Hanweir crawling across an open field, courtesy of an intruding EldritchAbomination.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Video Games]]
107	* ''Videogame/BattleForge:'' Constructs, a Tier 4 Frost unit, are essentially temples on legs whose tower at the top has been converted into high-caliber magical artillery. [[MightyGlacier They're as slow as a building on legs would be, but their blasts hit hard and will floor even the biggest giants in the game]]. According to the lore, Constructs were once just rubble scattered by a siege, reanimated in the same way a Necromancer would reanimate the undead from corpses.
108	* ''VideoGame/DoubleDragonNeon'': Skullmaggedon's dojo turns out to be a rocket dojo and takes off into space shortly after you enter it. This may be your first clue this ''Double Dragon'' game isn't to be taken as seriously as the previous ones.
109	* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasy'':
110	** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'': Early in, it's shown that Figaro Castle is capable of submerging. It's also capable of moving while submerged, which is how the party gets to the town of South Figaro. After the WhamEpisode, it gets stuck underground while trying to avoid [[spoiler:Kefka destroying the world]], and you have to go into its engine room and kill the CombatTentacles that have seized the engines.
111	** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', [[spoiler:Balamb Garden and Galbadia Garden]] are buildings that can fly.
112	* In the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series, outer walls of combine architecture have a tendency to “walk” and stretch out in a matter that pulverizes and erases whatever was there before, while securing the now flat land for further development.
113	* ''VideoGame/LegoCityUndercover'': [[spoiler:Blackwell Tower, which turns out to function like a space rocket.]]
114	* In the ''Baba Yaga'' DLC in ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'', the Baba Yaga's house is a boss fight. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a house with makeshift bird legs on a pulley system, which looks real to you because of the [[MushroomSamba hallucinogen]] you get dosed with upon entering the area.]]
115	* Most of the major Terran buildings in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' can just pick up and move on whenever they wanted to. In the sequel, the command center can carry [=SCVs=] with it as it flies.
116	* The final boss of ''VideoGame/SunsetOverdrive'' is the [[EvilInc FizzCo]] HQ Building as a mech piloted by an evil AI.
117	* The Boomsday Machine from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2''.
118	* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'', after clearing Ludwig Von Koopa's castle, Mario's pulls the plunger to destroy it, but instead the whole thing lifts off into the sky like a rocket, only for it to crash into the hill in the background afterwards.
119	* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'': Night Elf buildings (which are actually giant, sentient trees known as Ancients) can get up and walk around, very, very slowly. Doing so reduces their armor, but it can be useful (and one level is based on exploiting this gimmick by giving you very scant resources spread around the map).
120	* Although they don't move from place to place, the military and prison forts on Gahreesen in ''VideoGame/UruAgesBeyondMyst'' constantly rotate on an axis, to foil any unauthorized attempts to link in or out of specific rooms.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Webcomics]]
124	* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' the buildings in the city of Mechanicsburg shift and slide to new positions, such as two houses sliding together to close and alley full of invading troops or even be ''launched'' at invaders.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	[[folder:Web Original]]
128	* In the ''Podcast/ThrillingAdventureHour's'' episode "The Piano Has Been Thinking", the Barkeep's Saloon is taken over the the AI of its doors and proceeds to get up and leave after being jilted in love by Croach, and having its second attempt stopped when the player piano is destroyed. It briefly spends some time afterward as a bounty hunter.
129	* ''Website/OrionsArm'' has [[https://orionsarm.com/eg-article/4a5f4c8f7071a scrub slugs]], buildings (or collections of buildings) which crawl around using a "foot" made of [[{{Nanomachines}} utility fog]].
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Western Animation]]
133	* An instance of this happens in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' where sentient buildings (which later grow ''teeth'') attack Kevin. [[spoiler:These were somehow created by Elena Validus using the nanochips first seen in ''Film/Ben10AlienSwarm'']].
134	* Professor Nimnul from ''WesternAnimation/ChipAndDaleRescueRangers'' once invented {{Flying Carpet}}s and used them to steal what was placed on them. The Rangers had the brilliant idea to nail these carpets down to prevent this. So, Nimnul [[TimTaylorTechnology turns up the power]] resulting in an entire mansion lifting off.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' episode "House Call" has a doctor of sound use MagicMusic to draw the Bagge household to him because he's desperate for neighbors. It does this by making the entire house rise up on legs built from its foundation and walk over to his house.
136	* In the WesternAnimation/{{Classic Disney Short\|s}} "The New Neighbor", after WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck and WesternAnimation/{{Pete}}'s climatic neighborhood battle, Pete is seen sitting on the front porch of his house defeated as it is being towed out of town.
137	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}: [[Recap/FuturamaM2TheBeastWithABillionBacks The Beast with a Billion Backs]]'', there's an apartment block where the apartments rise and fall, like elevators.
138	* Mike, the evil living building in ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents''.
139	* The ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' film "WesternAnimation/DesignForLeaving" has WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck outfit Elmer Fudd's home with modern gadgets. One of these is an elevator that lowers the second story... which crushes everything in the first story. Also, the BigRedButton that Elmer is warned not to push [[spoiler:lifts the entire house hundreds of feet up in the air, in case of tidal waves. And, Daffy has yet to install the little blue button to bring it back down... which he will, [[CrookedContractor with some additional payment]].]]
140	* The ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' episode "Campus Commandos" climaxed with Dr. Wily using an anti-gravity ray to steal a government building and carry it off. Mega Man eventually took back the ray to return the building.
141	-->'''Dr. Wily''': Mega Man! That's my building! Give it back!
142	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', Hooty is a sentient house that can grow chicken legs to move around, similar to the Baba Yaga's home.
143	* Prof. Frink on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' once invented a burglar-proof house that would sprout mechanical legs and run to a "safer location" if it detected it was being robbed. The demonstration model he built took two steps, and [[StuffBlowingUp exploded in flames]]. The same thing later happened to a real house.
144	-->'''Prof. Frink:''' ''[As a 'family' of to-scale dummies falls out of the house, also on fire]'' Well, obviously the ''real'' people won't, won't burn... quite so quickly.
145	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':
146	** One episode has Squidward installing an advanced security system. When Squidward accidentally sets it off, the whole building grows arms and feet and starts attacking Bikini Bottom.
147	** In the episode "Secret Box", Patrick says that no one must know what's in the box, "not even... Squidward's house!" And sure enough, the house is leaning in to listen.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Real Life]]
151	* Motorhomes. They are ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Additionally, the rest of the RV set, including travel trailers, 5th wheels, and the most fitting and aptly named version: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_house_movement Tiny Homes on Wheels]]
152	** Motorhomes don't completely qualify for this trope, being essentially trucks fitted out like houses rather than buildings. Trailer homes, on the other hand, fully qualify. They are small (usually one-story) houses that can easily be jacked up and towed from location to location behind a truck.
153	[[/folder]]

Context Main / MovingBuildings