Line #131 Main/HairpinLockpick


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9	[[quoteright:299:[[Film/ConAir https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lockpick_3.png]]]]
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11	->''"Another fine illustration of your need for tactical assistance. Admit it, Michael. You need me. You don't even have your own hairpin."''
12	-->-- '''Fiona Glenanne''', ''Series/BurnNotice'', "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E10FalseFlag False Flag]]"
13
14	Alice and Bob are in a tight situation; maybe they need to break into a closet, or maybe they have been locked up by the bad guys. Either way, a lock is blocking their... way. Bob's mind is racing. How are they going to get out? And what is that [[WrittenSoundEffect ''click!'']] he just heard? [[DoubleTake Wait a second]]... ''did the lock just open?!''
15
16	Alice holds up something. "My Handy Hairpin," she says. "Don't leave home without it."
17
18	When a resourceful character picks a lock, be they {{hand\|yCuffs}}cuffs, [[LockedDoor doors]] or {{secret diar\|y}}ies, with a hairpin, paper clip, or similar, you get the Hairpin Lockpick. Most often utilized by females as they are way more likely to have a hairpin actually on their person.
19
20	This is TruthInTelevision, as locksmiths and amateur enthusiasts can jimmy a lock with materials like paper clips and hair pins quite easily. However, unless it's a ''very'' simple lock, you have to break it in half and use one piece as a torsion wrench and the other as the pick.
21
22	SubTrope to ImprovisedLockpick. Compare SkeletonKeyCard, MacGyvering and MasterOfUnlocking.
23	----
24	!!Examples:
25
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
29	* ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'': One of Miu's hairpins contains an actual lockpick that she uses from time to time.
30	* ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'': [[LongHairedPrettyBoy Duo]] does this from time to time.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comic Books]]
34	* In ''ComicBook/Agent327'', a safety pin is standard issue for every Dutch secret agent for exactly this reason.
35	* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': In the first appearance of Anthony Lupus, Batman is left shackled on a building site by Professor Milo. With his arms stretched out to the sides, he is unable to reach his UtilityBelt. However, he finds a bent cotter oin in the dirt, and is able to sieze it with his teeth and use it to unlock his shackles before he becomes a snack for a hungry werewolf.
36	* Night Nurse in ''ComicBook/DoctorStrange: The Oath'' opens a door this way. The impressed Strange can only comment "You should wear your hair like that more often."
37	* In ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #7, Marian gains access to Marcus' study by picking the lock with a bobby pin.
38	* In ''ComicBook/TheGoldenAge'', ClassyCatBurglar Paula Brooks (Tigress) uses one to break into the SecretDiary of Tex Thompson, revealing that [[spoiler:he is the Ultra-Humanite and that Dynaman is Adolf Hitler's brain in Daniel Dunbar's body]].
39	* ''ComicBook/StrangersAtTheHeartsCore'': While investigating her parents' disappearance, ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} finds their house's door is locked from the inside; undeterred, she picks one of her hairpins and snaps the lock open.
40	-->'''Supergirl:''' Hmmmm, looks as if Kandorian locksmiths could learn a few things from Earthmen-- this lock'll be a snap to pick-- with a hairpin!"
41	* ''Franchise/{{Tintin}} in the Lake of Sharks'' plays this straight, after he and a pair of young siblings are locked up by Rastapopolous.
42	[[/folder]]
43
44	[[folder:Fan Works]]
45	* ''Fanfic/FatesCollide'': Yang Xiao Long can do this, saying she taught herself how to do it to sneak into her father's liquor cabinet.
46	* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10038615/3/A-Jump-To-The-Left A Jump to the Left,]]'' Xander demonstrates that he can pick handcuffs with a paperclip. He also explains that keeping it in the collar of a shirt makes anyone who notices assume it's to keep the collar stiff while also keeping it close enough to grab with your mouth.
47	* ''VideoGame/OversaturatedWorld'': Referenced with Bobby Pin's MeaningfulName, as revealed in [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/323071/51/group-precipitation/supernal-by-artiestroke#comment/7630862 a comment]]: Bobby Pin is said to have "got his start with (questionable) investigative journalism", a.k.a information / document theft and infiltration, which involves unlocking doors.
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Films -- Animated ]]
51	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', Abu uses one to free Aladdin from his shackles in the dungeon.
52	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingMaurice'', Malicia carries a set of hairpins in her adventure bag, because [[GenreSavvy that is what the heroines in stories always use to pick locks]]. Despite just shoving the pin in the lock and jiggling it around randomly, [[AchievementsInIgnorance she is able to unlock the door of the Rat Catchers Guild]].
53	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheDoomThatCameToGotham''. Kai Li uses an actual lockpick to open a triple-locked door in the Queen mansion, but produces it from her hair in reference to this trope.
54	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMansionsOfTheGods'': After Asterix and Dulcia's husband fail to break open the door to the building in which Getafix and Appeldjus are being held captive, Dulcia pulls out one of her hairpins and picks the lock within seconds.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action ]]
58	* In ''Film/{{Coherence}}'', Mike manages to open the mysterious box with a pin from his pocket. Lampshaded by his line: "Holy shit, it worked."
59	* ''Film/{{Colombiana}}''. The hitwoman protagonist uses one to get out of her cell after a GetIntoJailFree ploy. The hairpin appears to be a [[HiddenInPlainSight professional lockpicking tool however]].
60	* In ''Film/ConAir'', Cyrus and Nathan use needles to unlock their handcuffs as part of their GreatEscape plan.
61	* In ''Film/FatalInstinct'', Ned once walks into his office to find [[FemmeFatale Lola]] waiting there for him. When asked how she got in, she says, "Isn't it amazing what a real woman can do with a hairpin?" Cut to the door, the lock of which has been completely destroyed.
62	* In ''Film/FinalJustice'', Maria uses a hairpin to pick the lock to the door on Don Lamanna's mansion, then says she has been doing this since childhood.
63	* ''Film/TheGoldenChild''. When Kee Nang needs to get through a locked door into the house headquarters of a biker gang, she pulls a hairpin out of her hair and jimmies the lock.
64	* The father in ''Film/HomeMovie'' teaches [[EnfantTerrible his kids]] how to do this. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard It comes back to bite him in the ass]].
65	* A variation in ''Film/{{Madeline}},'' Pepito uses a paper clip, and later on, Madeline's hairpin, to start a few motorcycles.
66	* ''Film/MajorGromPlagueDoctor''. After Grom is framed for being the Plague Doctor, [[IntrepidReporter Yulia poses as his lawyer to get an exclusive]], but Grom just wants her to help him escape. She walks out on him instead, but Grom slips the paper clip from her file and goes to pick the lock on the cell, only for his partner to open it from the other side, give him a police uniform and lead him to where Yulia is waiting with a getaway car.
67	* Another variation in the climax of ''Film/{{Pompeii}}'': when [[spoiler:[[DamselInDistress Cassia]] is chained to the chariot of the BigBad and an epic ChariotRace is taking place, she tears a splinter from the wooden platform of the chariot and manages to unlock her chain with it]].
68	* In ''Film/TheProwler1951'', Webb pulls a bobby pin out of Susan's hair and uses it to pick the lock on John's desk to help himself to a packet of cigarettes.
69	* In ''Film/{{Rags}}'', Kadee's friend gets Charlie out of a closet by picking the lock with her hairpin.
70	* There's a subversion in ''[[Film/ShanghaiNoon Shanghai Knights]]'' where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is attempting to do this but Chon Wang gets impatient and shatters the door window with a rock, reaches in, and unlocks the door.
71	* ''Film/SherlockHolmes2009''. Once Holmes and Watson stop the ConveyorBeltODoom that Irene Adler is handcuffed to, Holmes removes a pin from her hair and uses it to unlock the cuffs. Given that Holmes is shown to have proper lockpicking tools, [[AffectionateGestureToTheHead it's likely put in just to increase]] their ShipTease.
72	* ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'': Hannibal unlocks his handcuffs with a pen clip that Doctor Chilton carelessly leaves in his cell (Hannibal is forbidden from having even staples and paperclips because of this trope).
73	* In ''Film/Sunburn1979'', Jake breaks into a closet this way.
74	* In ''Film/{{Superdome}}'', the killer breaks into [[spoiler:Rita]]'s hotel room this way before killing her with a VorpalPillow in her sleep.
75	* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'':
76	** ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'': Sarah Conner uses unfolded paper clips to pick the locks on the straps holding her and the lock on the door of her room. Bonus points because Creator/LindaHamilton actually managed to do it for real.
77	** ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'': When Reese is handcuffed to a hospital bed, he uses forceps to pick the lock. He succeeds within seconds.
78	* In ''Film/TomorrowNeverDies'', Bond uses his love interest's earring to unlocks the handcuffs that had them both tied together. Justified as she's a DistaffCounterpart, and the earring is implied to be her version of a Q gadget.
79	* Michelle Pfeiffer uses a hairpin to pick Jack Nicholson's handcuffs in ''Film/WolfMikeNichols''.
80	[[/folder]]
81
82	[[folder:Jokes]]
83	* The cleaning lady asks the bank director: "Boss, could you lend me the key for the vault?"
84	--> '''Director''': "Of course not! How did you get the idea?"
85	--> '''Cleaning lady''': "Well, you told me to clean up ''everywhere'', and today I forgot my hairpin."
86	[[/folder]]
87
88	[[folder:Literature]]
89	* In ''Literature/TheAmazingMauriceAndHisEducatedRodents'', because Malicia believes she's the main character in an adventure story, she thinks hairpins are ''better'' at picking locks than actual lockpicks. Everyone else is very surprised when this actually works. It runs in the family.
90	* In the ''Literature/DocSavage'' novel ''The Lost Oasis'', a woman tries to pick the lock on her slave collar with a hairpin after seeing Doc perform a similar feat. She doesn't have the necessary training.
91	* In the ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' novel ''[[Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresEnginesofWar Engines of War]]'', the Time Lords created an intricate, sonic proof lock that someone might unlock via a different, cruder method. Cinder breaks out using her bracelet.
92	* In "Literature/TheEndOfThePierShow", Richard borrows a hairpin from Vanessa and uses it to unlock the door of the room they've been imprisoned in, pretty much without breaking stride.
93	* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', Ron picks the lock on Hedwig's cage with a pin. It turns out the twins taught him, and he teaches Harry.
94	** In the next book it's mentioned that Harry used this method to get his school things, which had been locked up by the Dursleys.
95	* Meparik from ''Literature/HeraldsOfRhimn'' always has a couple hairpins hidden in his curls specifically for the purpose of lockpicking. They’re sure to show up whenever Stonehold or handcuffs become relevant to the plot.
96	* Literature/JudgeDee uses a hairpin from his topknot to pick the lock of a secret passageway in ''The Haunted Monastery''. The BigBad that Dee finds on the other side is surprised, as he has the only key.
97	* In ''Literature/MaledictionTrilogy'' Cecile de Troyes does it several times. Justifies, as the locks are not that complicated (this being [[FantasyCounterpartCulture equivalent of XVIII century or so]]) and she was taught how to do it by her older brother.
98	* Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{Misery}}'' has a segment where the author-hero {{lampshade\|Hanging}}s that he fortunately learnt how to do this as research for one of his books. King gets to [[ShownTheirWork Show His Work]] by having the character show his work; it's a somewhat recursive book.
99	* ''Literature/MyDarkVanessa'': When the shower drain gets clogged with hair one too many times, the janitor gets fed up and locks the bathroom. Ms. Thompson has to pick the lock with a paperclip.
100	* If Literature/NancyDrew didn't have those Industrial-Strength bobby pins, she would still be locked in many a closet.
101	* Subverted in ''Literature/ASeriesOfUnfortunateEvents'', where the fallacy in this trope is pointed out, and Violet uses an electrical plug as a lock pick.
102	* Subverted in the ''Literature/TowersTrilogy''. Xhea spends an entire hour unsuccessfully attempting to pick a lock this way using a filched surgical tool; finally, the tool breaks, and Xhea concludes that the door must be sealed by the strongest lock in the known universe.
103	* In ''Literature/AStudyInMurder'' by Robert Ryan, a FemmeFataleSpy is being smuggled out of the country under guard for a PrisonerExchange. She's disguised as a nurse to hide the fact that she's being ShippedInShackles, so asks for something to pin her hair up. Later when the spy escapes, her escort kicks herself for not counting the hairpins to make sure they had all been returned. [[spoiler:Though it turns out someone else released her.]]
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
107	* In ''Series/{{Bizaardvark}}'', Belissa escapes from military school by picking the lock on the gate with a hairpin she stole from Paige.
108	* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', when Jesse is [[spoiler: being held captive by the Neo-Nazis, he picks the lock on his handcuffs with a paper clip.]] It only takes him a few seconds.
109	* A ChekhovsGun in the ''Series/BurnNotice'' episode "[[Recap/BurnNoticeS1E10FalseFlag False Flag]]". Michael borrows one of Fiona's hairpins to get himself out of handcuffs. [[spoiler:He later uses the same hairpin as a replacement trigger bar spring for his pistol to defeat a hitman.]]
110	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}''
111	** In the two-part episode "Target"/"Hunt," when [[spoiler: Alexis is kidnapped]], she uses her friend's bobby pins to pick the lock. Castle had learned how as book research and taught her. She does describe using the torsion and pick, and actually breaks a few before succeeding.
112	** In an earlier episode, Castle offers to pick the cuffs when he and Beckett are chained together, but she isn't wearing hairpins.
113	* In the HistoricalReCreation ''Churchill's Secret Agents: The New Recruits'', the eponymous recruits are taught how to pick handcuffs and door locks with hairpins, bicycle spokes or fence wire. They then have to use their skills in an SOE training exercise where they have ten minutes to uncuff themselves and break out of the courtyard they're in.
114	* In ''Series/{{Continuum}}'', Jasmine Garza picks the lock on her handcuffs using her nipple piercing.
115	* Done as a VisualPun in ''Series/CowboyBebop2021'' when Faye Valentine has to break into a bulletproof glass case, so she loads a hairpin into the [[MagneticWeapons railgun]] she [[ChekhovsGun recently purchased]] and fires it.
116	* ''Series/DoctorWho''
117	** Used by Victoria in the serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E6FuryFromTheDeep Fury from the Deep]]".
118	** In "[[Recap/DoctorWho2011CSTheDoctorTheWidowAndTheWardrobe The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe]]", Madge Arwell offers to pick the lock of the TARDIS with her hairpin when the Doctor can't find his key. He points out that it's a multi-dimensional, triple-encoded temporal interface, then is bemused when she succeeds. "Suddenly the last nine hundred years of time travel seem that bit less secure." Turns out she's brought him to a real police telephone box.
119	* Subverted in ''Series/FatherBrown'' when Father Brown faces a locked door and asks for a hatpin. Mrs. [=McCarthy=] is slightly disappointed that he uses it for a PaperKeyRetrievalTrick rather than actually pick the lock.
120	* In an episode of ''Music/FlightOfTheConchords'', [[LoonyFan Mel]] uses a hairpin to open the bathroom door. While Bret's in the bathroom.
121	* In the ''Series/{{Forever\|2014}}'' episode "The Pugilist's Break," on finding the door to the rec center locked, Jo tells Henry, "I got this," reaches up into her hair, and pulls out a hairpin, which she then uses to pick the lock. She tells him she learned how from her criminal father.
122	* In one episode of ''Series/{{Friends}}'', Chandler and Joey are trying to open a locked closet door. Joey asks Chandler whether he has a bobby pin; Chandler runs his hand through his hair, then says, "Oh, that's right, I'm not a 9-year-old girl". Ultimately the trope is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as they can't get the door open this way and Joey eventually admits he has no idea what he's doing.
123	* Spoofed as always in ''Series/GetSmart''. Max asks 99 for a hairpin so he can pick a lock, but she doesn't have one. Then Max remembers he has one himself. When an amused 99 asks why a man wears a hairpin, Max indignantly replies that it's for picking locks.
124	* In an episode of ''Series/GilligansIsland'', Ginger says she [[SawItInAMovieOnce did it in a movie once]], and wants to try it on a locked chest. She doesn't get a chance to try it, though.
125	* ''Series/{{Hardball}}'': After being locked in the toilet during the accidental {{Lockdown}} in "The Odd Couple", Ms. Crapper attempts to unlock the door with a hairpin before realising the futility of trying to pick an electronic lock.
126	* In ''Series/{{Haven}}'', as a former criminal, Duke Crocker knows how to pick locks with pins, ballpoint pens, etc.
127	* In a two-part episode of ''Series/{{Hazel}}'', Hazel has to retrieve some tranquilizers from a mobster's desk so she can dope the food of a roomful of crooks with them and, hopefully, escape while they're incapacitated. She sneaks into the mobster's office and discovers that the desk drawer is locked, so she immediately pulls out a hairpin and opens the lock. However, before she can get the pills, she hears someone coming, so she shoves the drawer back in and hides. One of the crooks comes in to get a couple of tranquilizers for his boss. He's surprised that the desk is open, and locks it when he leaves. Thus, Hazel has to hairpin it open ''twice.''
128	* ''Series/HouseOfAnubis'' used this a few times.
129	** In the first season, Nina was locked in the attic by Patricia. With no key, she was still able to escape by using a hairpin.
130	** In the second season, Eddie taught Fabian how to do it properly when he was trying to break into the cellar, and Fabian later used Amber's hairpin when they were rescuing a kidnapped Trudy.
131	* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Lost Love, Part 2", Mac frees himself from handcuff captivity with a bobby pin that he got from Lisa, a soviet double-agent and one of his many girlfriends. When he was free from the handcuffs, he can't use the pin to open the door of the room he is trapped in, so he uses the handcuffs to pick the lock the same way he did to free himself from the handcuffs.
132	* In an episode of ''Series/TheManFromUNCLE'', a captured Napoleon Solo steals hairpins from a female jailer with his mouth, and then uses them to pick the locks on his restraints.
133	* A variation in ''Series/MobCity'' when someone holds Jasmine hostage using a grenade with the pin pulled. Teague grabs hold of his wrist to hold the grenade lever down, then asks if anyone has seen the pin. There's a MassOhCrap until Jasmine supplies a hairpin that gets used instead.
134	* Maddie does it in an early episode of ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}''.
135	* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''.
136	** In the episode where John Reese meets his future LoveInterest Zoe Morgan, she lampshades that he must be one of those guys who can get out of anything with a paperclip. Later when they're captured, Zoe cuts a deal for her life, but secretly leaves a paperclip in Reese's hand. Sure enough, he unpicks his handcuffs and escapes.
137	** In "YHWH", Harper uses a hairpin to pick the lock on Fusco's handcuffs, shaping it with her teeth first. Fusco finds this kinda hot.
138	* ''Series/ScarecrowAndMrsKing''. At the start of one episode, Lee is teaching Amanda [[ChekhovsSkill how to open handcuffs when your hands are cuffed behind your back]]. At the end of the episode, she has to do exactly that, using Lee's stickpin as a picklock.
139	* In the ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Hope And Fear", Captain Janeway uses a microfilament from her commbadge to adjust some nodes in Seven of Nine's Borg circuitry so that she could walk through the force field of the prison they were held in and gain control of the ship that was bringing them into Borg-controlled territory. Despite all the {{technobabble}}, it's basically this trope RecycledInSpace.
140	* In "Chapter Six: The Monster" from ''Series/StrangerThings'', Nancy's mother uses her hairpin to open Nancy's room after her knocking remains unanswered.
141	* In the pilot of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', Dean uses a paperclip to free himself from handcuffs in the police station. Like most depictions of this trope, he merely bends it to make it work.
142	** In "Adventures in Babysitting", Dean has to work with the 14-year old daughter of another Hunter. He refuses to take her into a demon nest to rescue her father, so handcuffs her to the steering wheel. Well aware that she had the same training he did, Dean then insists she hand over her lockpick. However she gets free anyway using a bobby pin.
143	* In an episode of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'', Parker uses one of Lady Penelope's hairpins to open a sophisticated electronic lock on a ''Bank of England bullion vault''.
144	* ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger''. When Sydney and (of course) Alex are kidnapped, the former uses a hairpin to undo their handcuffs. Unfortunately, the bad guys walk in just as they've gotten free and not only smack her and restrain them both again, but order the maid to "make sure she doesn't have any more".
145	* Occurs multiple times on ''Series/{{White Collar}}'' as Neal uses anything at hand to pick locks and get out of handcuffs and Peter even uses the pin from his dry cleaners tag to get out of handcuffs at one point.
146	* In ''Series/TheWildWildWest'', Artemus Gordon utilizes this technique in "The Night of Sudden Death" when he's left locked in a cage by his partner.
147	[[/folder]]
148
149	[[folder:Video Games]]
150	* Possible in ''VideoGame/SixteenWaysToKillAVampireAtMcdonalds.'' [[spoiler:The main character has to take them out of her hair, which covers her neck and prevents her from luring the vampire, but gives her access to a plunger to turn into a stake and some duct tape]].
151	* In ''VideoGame/TheBindingOfIsaac: Rebirth'', the Paper Clip trinket allows you to unlock chests without having to use a key (you'll still need keys for locked doors and key blocks, though).
152	* In ''Videogame/BioshockInfinite'' Elizabeth is downright surprised Booker doesn't pick locks, and on being asked why she '''does,''' she explains, "I spent my life surrounded by nothing but books and time. You'd be amazed what I can do." By the time he shows up, the people maintaining her Tower prison/apartment have it sealed with a bank vault door and use Songbird as a guard, so it's no shock they actually let her keep studying how to pick ''simpler'' locks.
153	* In ''[[VideoGame/TheBlackwellSeries Blackwell Convergence]]'', Rosangela picks a door lock twice with a paper clip.
154	* Nico Collard of the ''VideoGame/BrokenSword'' series knows how to pick a lock with a hairpin, and does so in most of the games. Being an IntrepidReporter, it's probably a useful skill to have.
155	* In ''VideoGame/{{Drakensang}} - The Dark Eye'', you can use hairpins to open chests.
156	* The Pilot in ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'' starts out with one, giving him a chance to open a door or chest without a key, at risk of damaging the lock and rendering the door/chest unopenable.
157	* In ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', Bobby Pins are your standard lockpicking resource. They're damaged and eventually break when you screw up the LockpickingMinigame, but fortunately, loads of them have survived The Great War intact. The trope is even lampshaded in ''Fallout 4'', as one of the issues of Tumblers Today (a collectable magazine that improves your lockpicking ability for every issue you collect) has a cover claiming that hairpins are superior to a locksmith's tools.
158	* ''VideoGame/LoveAndPies'': Esme uses her decorative hair pins to pick a lock on a treasure chest.
159	* Twice in ''VisualNovel/HotelDuskRoom215'', Kyle uses part of a coat hanger to pick the lock on his suitcase and a hotel door.
160	* In ''VideoGame/KathyRain'', Kathy uses a bent paperclip to open her jail cell.
161	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' subverts this in the first game during the field study in Bareahard. Rean, Fie, and Emma all attempt to sneak into the sewers to rescue Machias, who has been arrested on false charges of breaking into a military fortress. The entrance to the sewer is locked, and Rean is worried that using his sword to break the lock would create noise and attract unwanted attention. Emma decides to deal with this with a hairpin, except she casts a spell to make the door open. It's never clarified if the pin was needed for the spell, or if it was used to avert attention from her magic. When Rean is suspicious about how she unlocked the door, she tries to avoid suspicion about her magic by saying [[SawItInAMovieOnce it's a trick she read about in a book]].
162	* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry7LoveForSail'': Larry manages to use the needle after bending it with vice grips, both of which he found in the La Costa Lotta complimentary Lil' Hair Weave Kit, to open his handcuffs at the beginning of the game.
163	* ''VideoGame/MurderInTheAlps'': After Anna spends the entirety of ''Forgotten Memento'' chained up from her leg in a cell, she frees herself by unlocking the chain with a hairpin taken from the corpse of [[spoiler:Iris Knef]].
164	* ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' has a lockpick disguised as a hairpin.
165	* More of a jewelry example in ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryII'', but the Hero as a Thief must use the decorative golden pin given to him by the Katta as a mark of friendship earlier in the game to pick the lock of a cell door. Actually, creative lockpicking is something of a recurring theme throughout the series for a Thief hero...
166	* Unlike the first ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' where Jill uses an actual lockpick given to her by Barry, she in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'' and Claire in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'' use what looks like a safety pin that was bent into a makeshift picking tool. [[FridgeBrilliance Likely this is why it works on far less locks than the pick in the first game did]]. Ethan in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7'' uses what looks like an ice pick to jimmy open locks, which breaks them after one use.
167	* Parodied in ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders''. The group has to unlock two doors using two provided keys, but one of them disintegrates as soon as it's picked up. What do you do? Well, the key in question was pretty big, so you use wire cutters to cut down the hairpin sign from a closed down salon and use the hairpin sign to pick the lock.
168	[[/folder]]
169
170	[[folder:Webcomics]]
171	* One of the talents possessed by Bina in ''Webcomic/AllNightLaundry'' is the ability to pick simple locks with a paperclip, a talent gained through events involving a sleepover, her future girlfriend, and her future girlfriend's parents' fuzzy handcuffs. It comes in handy when she and another woman are handcuffed to a pipe and have to escape a collapsing building and a [[AnimalisticAbomination giant temporally undead dog thing]].
172	* In one ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'', Jim asks if his character Padme has a bobby pin in her hair. Since Padme happens to be chained up at the time, the GM assumes that Jim intends this trope and congratulates him on the idea. Since Jim's actual idea is [[CloudCuckoolander much more foolish]], Jim decides to use this trope instead.
173	* One of the first things Rory from ''Webcomic/DemonFist'' learned in his travels was to always hide a pin in his clothes.
174	* Prince Zander from ''Webcomic/LatchkeyKingdom'', who by this point has gotten a bit used to being captured, is seen [[http://latchkeykingdom.thecomicseries.com/comics/578 trying to open a cage door]] with a bobby pin. He fails and breaks the pin, but pulls another out of his hair rather than let that stop him. %%Page is Castlemania 26
175	* The hairpin from ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' is in the same category of items as keys: All their weapon counterparts are guns (pistol for key, Tommy gun for ring of keys, [[MoreDakka heavy machine gun]] for hairpin). It's also actually used as a lockpick during [[MarathonBoss the final battle]].
176	* In ''Webcomic/SurvivingRomance'' Cheram opens the lock to the chained principal's office with a safety pin given to her by Mihui.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Web Video]]
180	* ''WebVideo/LockPickingLawyer'': The titular lockpicking lawyer has an array of tools to use for picking apart difficult locks. However, a common SelfImposedChallenge is to pick a lock with an improvised tool, often a twig, broken piece of plastic, or yes, even a hairpin.
181	[[/folder]]
182
183	[[folder:Western Animation]]
184	* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': In "The Mask", Courage locks Eustace and Muriel in their bedroom while he goes out to find Bunny. Muriel eventually unlocks the door with a bobby pin, to Eustace's amazement.
185	* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Duckman}}'' episode "Bonfire of the Panties", Duckman attempts to break in to his neighbor's house using a hairpin... then barges the door in and tosses the hairpin away.
186	* ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'': In the short "Locksmiths", Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are locksmiths whose office door is locked and they can't find their key. In one attempt to get out, Mickey uses a hairpin to unlock the door, which opens up to reveal many other doors behind it (including one with the Doorknob from ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'') before Mickey opens up on Clarabelle Cow taking a ShowerOfAwkward.
187	-->'''Mickey:''' Heh-heh, wrong pick.
188	* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': Subverted in the last episode of Season 4. When the J-Team is trapped in a cell, Viper tries using a hairpin to pick the lock, but it doesn't work because the lock is magically sealed.
189	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d and {{subverted\|Trope}} in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'': Ron and Monique are facing a locked door, so Ron asks Monique whether she has a bobby pin. Her response? "I don't know; why don't you ask my grandmother?"
190	* Done on the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' WartimeCartoon "The Weakly Reporter" about women in the work force. When a factory breaks down, a repairwoman goes into her toolbox and pulls out a bobby pin, which she uses to start the factory up again.
191	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'':
192	** Leni uses this in "It's A Loud, Loud, Loud, Loud House". Given that she's the DumbBlonde of her family, her sisters are understandably shocked.
193	--->'''Leni:''' What? There's more to my head than just air, you know.
194	** In "Kernel of Truth", this is how Stella opens the door behind which the popcorn culprit is hiding.
195	* In ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop'' episode "Carnival Calamity," Penelope used one of her hairpins to open the padlock on the loop-the-loop ride.
196	** Penelope also uses a hairpin to do a repair on her car the Compact Pussycat in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces.'' That is, after she's pulled out half the engine to see what the problem was to start with.
197	* ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' episode "[[Recap/TheProudFamilyS2E22ThelmaAndLuis Thelma and Luis]]" has Papi being sent to a nursing home that turns out to be a front for an illegal okra plantation where the residents are enslaved. Suga Mama is the only one who believes the kids when they discover the truth, and when she, Penny, [=LaCienega=], Dijonay, Zoey and Sticky infiltrate the nursing home to rescue Papi, Dijonay tries using this to open his cell, but it fails, so Suga Mama employs, of all things, her ''toenail''.
198	* Parodied in a ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' version of Hansel and Gretel (called Hansel and Debbie).
199	-->'''Heffer/Hansel:''' Hey Debbie, don't you have a hairpin or something?\
200	'''Rocko/Debbie:''' No, but I have a key. ''(pulls key out of hair)''
201	* ''WesternAnimation/SallyBollywood'': In "Call My Lawyer", Sally uses a hairpin to the pick the lock on Bob's locker in search of incriminating information.
202	* The titular character of ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'' uses the pin holding up his topknot to pick locks in a couple episodes.
203	* Producing a hairpin to pick locks was one of the only things Daphne ever did of use in ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo''. Velma, of all people, did this on ''WesternAnimation/TheNewScoobyDooMovies'' when Don Adams was locked in a trunk.
204	* ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'',
205	** Marco says he learned how to pick locks with bobby pins from watching prison movies. In "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses", he uses a bobby pin to pick the locks on the school's doors. However, when he is captured and strapped to a chair, he attempts to pick the locks with a bobby pin in his mouth, but he accidentally drops it.
206	** Subverted in "Total Eclipsa the Moon": After running into a locked door, Eclipse asks Moon for a hairpin. Moon hands her one, then Eclipsa puts it in her own hair and uses a hole in the wall to circumvent the door entirely.
207	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'': In "[[Recap/TotalDramaOceansEightOrNine Ocean's Eight - Or Nine]]", Heather attempts to unlock a bank vault as part of a challenge. When Harold questions why she's using a bobby pin, she snaps, "It worked on my sister's diaries!"
208	[[/folder]]

Context Main / HairpinLockpick