Line #82 Main/SkeletonKeyCard


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13	[[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{memento}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/memento_keycard.jpg]]]]
14
15	->''"Any lock can be picked by a credit card or a paper clip in seconds."''
16	-->-- [[https://web.archive.org/web/20121005005756/http://bertc.com/subfour/truth/movies.htm "What Movies Teach Us"]]
17
18	In TV land, some 90% of locked [[DoorTropes doors]] can be opened in seconds by following three simple steps:
19	# Insert a credit card between the door and the frame just above the lock.
20	# Jiggle card a bit.
21	# Turn handle.
22
23	Up to a point, this used to be TruthInTelevision. Early spring-bolt locks could be circumvented with flexible strips in a similar way (though actual credit-cards are usually too stiff for the purpose), especially if carelessly installed. However lock manufacturers introduced features to prevent this kind of attack a long time ago, and dead-bolt locks were always immune to it. As such, it's a DiscreditedTrope.
24
25	SubTrope of ImprovisedLockpick. Not to be confused with a SkeletonKey or a key card that acts like a Skeleton Key. Or ''Film/TheSkeletonKey''.
26	----
27	!!Examples:
28
29	[[foldercontrol]]
30
31	[[folder:Advertising]]
32	* Given that Barclays Bank used the advertising slogan "a Barclaycard gets you anywhere" and had several ads featuring a ''Film/JamesBond'' parody,[[note]]starring Rowan Atkinson, playing a similar character to Film/JohnnyEnglish[[/note]] it's an odds-on bet this trope would come up at least once. This slogan is also responsible for the SAS nicknaming their door-breaching shotguns "the Barclaycard".
33	* A 118 118 advert has somebody trying this and failing, only to be handed a fake moustache which opens the door no problem.
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
37	* Played straight in ''WesternAnimation/FantasticMrFox''. Fox is more surprised that Kylie is eligible for a Titanium card.
38	-->'''Fox''': A Titanium card?! How the cuss are you eligible for this?!
39	-->'''Kylie''': I pay my bills on time! I've always had good credit.
40	* In the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jffXPq8iKPw teaser trailer]] for ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'', Mike opens a child's locked closet door using a key card.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
44	* ''Film/AceVentura'' did it with a door sign.
45	* Used by Visser in ''Film/BloodSimple'' to get into Ray's house.
46	* Subverted in ''Film/TheBurbs'' when Ray's store credit card snaps in half as he attempts this.
47	-->'''Ray''': [''to Art''] You have a credit card I can borrow?\
48	[''Art checks his wallet to find that all of his cards are fused together after his HarmlessElectrocution moments prior'']\
49	'''Ray''': Never mind. [''pulls out a store credit card of his own and sticks in into the door frame'']\
50	'''Art''': I didn't know you knew how to do that.\
51	'''Ray''': I DON'T know how to do this. [''[[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome card breaks]]'']\
52	'''Art''': [[SarcasmMode That's a shit store anyway]].\
53	[''[[OpenSaysMe Ray picks up a rock, breaks the window on the door, reaches inside, and unlocks the deadbolt]].'']
54	* Arriving at David's house in ''Film/DeathSpa'', the two cops obligingly turn their backs while Michael jimmies the lock with a credit card.
55	* ''Film/Desperados2020'': {{Subverted\|Trope}}, Wesley attempts to use a card to unlock Jared's hotel room, but she just ends up breaking it instead.
56	* ''Film/{{Fletch}}'' plays with this one when the titular character, trying to avoid his ex-wife's attorney, uses a credit card on a window to break into ''his own'' apartment.
57	* ''Film/TheFrenchConnection''. Popeye Doyle's ''partner'' uses a credit card to get into Popeye's apartment.
58	* In ''Film/{{Frequency}}'', Frank Sullivan uses this technique to get into Sissy Clark's apartment. Unfortunately he's too late.
59	* DoubleSubverted in ''Film/GetSmart''. Agent 99 points out that the credit card won't open the deadbolt lock that 86 is using his card to open... until Max reveals that the secret heat laser built in will certainly do the trick.
60	* Subverted in ''Film/HighHeelsAndLowLifes'' with multiple credit cards of Frances', apparently since she figured it might work This Time.
61	* In ''Film/{{Insomnia}}'', when Dormer first enters Finch's apartment, he picks the lock using a credit card.
62	* ''Film/JamesBond'':
63	** Parodied in ''Film/AViewToAKill'', where Bond pulls out a credit card to unlock a window. But after flipping it over we see that it's an electronic lockpick from [[ProductPlacement The Sharper Image]].
64	** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'' has a Visa credit card with a lockpick inside it. Sliding back the lower portion of the card causes the spring-loaded pick to pop out.
65	* Leonard uses this tactic in ''Film/{{Memento}}'' to break into a motel room.
66	* Parodied in ''Film/TheNakedGun'' where Frank tries this with BrandX card and it doesn't work. He tries it with an [[ProductPlacement American Express card]] and the door opens.
67	* Subverted in ''Film/{{Roxanne}}''. Charlie is called to Roxanne's house to unlock her door. He opens his tool chest to reveal nothing but a single credit card, however the door doesn't take Master Card. He then uses the [[BlatantLies Old Reliable]] method to gain access to her house (deftly scaling the 3 story home to crawl in through the unlocked attic window).
68	* ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'' : Lois uses a credit card to get into Clark's apartment to return the cape he lost in his battle with the Nuclear Man.
69	[[/folder]]
70
71	[[folder:Literature]]
72	* ''Literature/OneEightHundredWhereRYou'': In book 5, while breaking into the apartment where Rob's little sister Hannah had been staying, Jess initially asks Rob for a credit card she can use to slip the lock (he refuses, since he knows it'd be destroyed in doing so), but winds up using her Juilliard ID card instead.
73	* A few characters do a similar trick with a knife at various points in the ''Literature/{{Catteni}}'' books; the protagonist explicitly compares it to the credit card trick.
74	* ''Literature/{{Clue}}'': Book 3, chapter 7 ("Sound the Alarm!") has Boddy installing a great deal of security equipment in the mansion, and asks Mr. Green (and all the other guests) to try to break in through the front door. Falling back on this trope, Green uses a credit card to slip the lock... and like everyone else who tried to break in that way, triggers a trap door under the welcome mat. And then his suitcase falls in after him, landing on his head.
75	* In the ''Literature/InspectorMorse'' book "The Dead of Jericho", Morse (who has no official standing in the case) makes a surreptitious investigation of the crime scene, and is caught by Detective Constable Walters. Once Morse has satisfied him about his motives for being there, Walters asks him how he got in. Unwilling to reveal the real answer (which involves bribery) Morse attempts to use this trope as an explanation:
76	-->"You see, the lock on the back door there's a Yale, and with a Yale the bevel's always facing you when you're on the outside. So if you take a credit card and slip it in, you'll find it's just strong enough and just flexible enough to—"\
77	"I know, sir. I've seen it done on the telly."\
78	"Oh."\
79	"And the lock on the back door there ''isn't'' a Yale, is it? Goodnight, sir."
80	* In Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{The Lost World\|1995}}'' Arby used his credit card to escape the cabinet he stowed away in the RV.
81	* ''Literature/NancyDrew'' used this trick once.
82	* ''Literature/NickVelvet'': After being locked in a closet in "The Theft of Cinderella's Slipper", Nick attempts to use a credit card to shim the lock, but the door is too well-fitted and he can't slide the card in. He is instead reduced to a laborious process of HookingTheKeys.
83	* In ''Literature/OnHerMajestysSecretService'', Bond sneaks a strip of plastic from the Piz Gloria ski shop to defeat the room locks while spying at night. Part of why he gets caught and has to escape is the SPECTRE agent running the shop actually having good enough inventory records and paying enough attention to notice a strip is missing after "Sir Hilary Bray" leaves and calling it in.
84	* In ''Literature/OddThomas'' by Dean Koontz, the title character jimmies the lock on a sliding glass door using an ID card. Although this was stated to have something to do with the general disrepair of the home... or, at least, a fairly valid explanation was provided.
85	* It's mentioned in some of the Literature/PhilipMarlowe stories by Creator/RaymondChandler that Marlowe carries a strip of celluloid in his wallet precisely for this purpose (this was in the days before credit cards).
86	** In TheSeventies, ''Film/NationalLampoon'' published a parody called "The Big Recall", starring [[CelebrityStar Ralph Nader]] as a detective. The sole reason he kept a gasoline credit card was to break into buildings; he figured that the interest rates the corp. charged justified his using its card that way.
87	* Jack does this in ''Literature/TheSixtyEightRooms'' with his library card, to hold open a door leading into the maintenance area behind the Thorne rooms.
88	* ''Literature/UniversalMonsters'': Subverted in book 5, where the teens have to break into Ben Browning's RV. Captain Bob breaks out his library card to try and get the door open... and breaks the card in the attempt. Then [[AllForNothing it turns out the door wasn't locked]].
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
92	* On the ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' episode "Chasing Amy", Jake and Amy get locked out on a roof. Jake tries to open the door with a hotel key card he had forgotten to return.
93	* ''Series/{{Columbo}}'': In "Double Exposure", the murderer (played by Robert Culp) uses a credit card to jimmy the lock when he breaks into the home of his first victim to steal a weapon to murder his second (ItMakesSenseInContext).
94	* ''Series/{{Community}}'': Alluded to in "Accounting for Lawyers", while trying to break into Alan', Jeff's old lawyer buddy, office to find evidence that he turned Jeff into the state Bar, Abed pulls out things people use for capers, including a credit. The ineffectiveness is possibly lampshaded in that he states "the credit card doesn't work".
95	* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': In "Penny and Dime," Karen uses this method to break into Frank Castle's house.
96	* Kirk tried to use this method to break into a sperm bank on ''Series/DearJohn'' (American version). Subverted when the card (John's) breaks off in the lock. ("Oh. I guess it doesn't take American Express.") Like the ''Perfect Strangers'' example, the part with the John's name is stuck in the door. Ralph, on the other hand, manages to do this successfully.
97	* ''Series/DeathInParadise'':
98	** DI Mooney uses his credit card to slip the lock on an empty house rented by one of the suspects in "Written in Murder".
99	** In "Murder Begins at Home", the VictimOfTheWeek uses a playing card to unhook the latch on the police station shutters and climb inside, locking the shutter after him, before experiencing a TimeDelayedDeath: thereby inadvertently creating a LockedRoomMystery.
100	* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. In "A Human Reaction", John Crichton steals the ID card of one of TheMenInBlack holding Aeryn Sun prisoner. It looks like he wants it to get into somewhere secret, but instead he uses it to break into a house so they can hide out.
101	* ''Series/FBIMostWanted'': In "[[Recap/FBIMostWantedS03E21 Inheritance]]", Remy and Ortiz arrive at the house of a woman they believe might be the killer's next target and find the door locked and no response when they knock. Ortiz offers to kick the door down, but Remy instead opens it with his platinum card.
102	* Subverted in ''Series/{{Friends}}'', where Chandler tries this to open a locked cupboard, but loses his credit card through the gap.
103	* The Nickelodeon series ''Series/HeyDude'' had an episode where one character manages to snap his father's credit card in half trying this trick. He tried desperately to find some way to hide or replace the broken card, only for the ending to reveal that it was expired anyway and the bank had already sent him a replacement with instructions to destroy the original.
104	* ''Series/HomeImprovement'' has an episode where Tim, attempting to show the efficacy of the anti-theft system he's installed, has a guest star thief try to break in. Moments after saying that he's engaged the system, the front door opens and the thief walks in. He explains that he used a credit card to slip the lock. Tim replies "Sure, if you don't mind destroying your credit card doing it" to which the thief says, "That's why I used yours" and hands Tim's wallet to him.
105	* Subverted by ''Series/{{House}}'' who brandishes his credit card while betting his team he can unlock a door in under 20 seconds, only to grab [[KeyUnderTheDoormat the spare key under a flowerpot]] once they're foolish enough to take the bet.
106	* Subverted in ''Series/IDream'', where a pair of characters destroy every (fake) credit card they have trying to open a door this way.
107	* ''Series/JustAGigolo'': Simon needs help with a dog in Episode 6, but the door is locked, so Nick uses Natalie's credit card to get in. Unfortunately for him, it ends up breaking in the door, so they just smash in through a window.
108	* In ''Series/KyleXY'', Stephen Trager uses this to get into a locked door. This is followed with an amazed "Teach me" from his teenage son.
109	* When master improvisator ''Series/{{MacGyver\|1985}}'' travelled (hallucinogenetically) into the past, he witnessed none other than Merlin himself pulling this stunt.
110	-->'''[=MacGyver=]:''' Gee, I always wondered who invented that...
111	* ''Series/TheMagician'': In "The Magician - Pilot", a heavy uses his credit card to jimmy the lock on Tony's dressing room.
112	* One episode of ''Series/MidsomerMurders'' has Barnaby and Jones trying to get inside a closed building in a hurry (his daughter's wedding is coming up). Jones tries to open the lock with Barnaby's credit card, leading to a still-locked door, a broken credit card and a very annoyed Barnaby.
113	* In the ''Series/{{Monk}}'' episode "Mr. Monk and Sharona", Monk, Natalie and Sharona play this method straight in one scene to look for evidence.
114	* ''Judge'' Harry T. Stone on ''Series/NightCourt'' once helped the guys break into a strip club this way.
115	-->'''Harry:''' Let's just say I mastered the possibilities.
116	* Subverted on ''Series/PerfectStrangers'' when Larry tries to open a door with his credit card and it breaks. Worse, the part with his name on it is stuck inside.
117	* ''Series/{{Phoenix}}''. In "Give a Dog a Bone", a member of the so-called Dogs (the Victorian State Police surveillance unit), does this while executing a covert warrant while the owner is absent.
118	-->'''Grumpy:''' Police call credit card. Don't leave home without it.
119	* ''{{Series/Probe}}'''s "[[Recap/ProbeMetamorphicAnthropoidicPrototypeOverYou Metamorphic Anthropoidic Prototype Over You]]": Josephine becomes the prime suspect in a murder due to being able to pick the lock on her cage with a credit card that she stole from Austin.
120	* ''Series/TheProfessionals'' do this in their first episode, showing that [=CI5=] aren't hampered by [[CowboyCop petty matters like search warrants]].
121	-->'''Bodie:''' Right credit card opens so many doors.
122	-->'''Doyle:''' [[{{PSA}} You should get a deadlock, it's much safer.]]
123	** An odd one occurs in "A Hiding To Nothing" when Doyle appears to be picking a lock with a skeleton key, but when he opens the door he's shown holding a credit card. You'd think the skeleton key would be more effective so he wouldn't have to change methods.
124	* In the ''Series/SevenDays'' episode "Pinball Wizard", Parker uses his newly acquired "Platinum Card" first to rent a Porsche and then to break into a girl's apartment.
125	* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Dean uses a credit card to get into Angela's house in "Children shouldn't play with dead things". Of course, when Angela's roommate freaked out at his being there he calmed her down by showing her he had a key, so... maybe he was just using the credit card as a joke?
126	* ''Series/ThreesCompany'': After Jack's girlfriend locks herself in the bathroom and refuses to come out, Mr. Furley attempts to use his credit card to open the door. She steals the card when he inserts it and the door remains locked.
127	[[/folder]]
128
129	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
130	* In the third edition ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Lite'' rules, the example given for using defaults for skills is a player who doesn't have the Lockpicking skill rolling against IQ-5, and their character running a credit card against the latch because they saw that in a movie once.
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Video Games]]
134	* Played straight in ''VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky'', using Reich's ID card.
135	--> '''Robert Foster''': [[LampshadeHanging It's an old trick, but it still works!]]
136	* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland''.
137	* Parodied in ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'' with a weapon called Master Key. It's a fire axe.
138	* ''Franchise/JamesBond'':
139	** The Q-card in ''VideoGame/AgentUnderFire'' opens ''one'' electronically-locked door in "Night of the Jackal." It is never used again.
140	** ''VideoGame/{{Nightfire}}'' has one that can open doors on a computer: the Q-Worm, a miniature CD-ROM hidden inside a credit card.
141	* ''VideoGame/NetHack'' lets you use your anachronistic credit card that the Tourist class starts the game with to open any lock - even, for some reason, padlocked [[InexplicableTreasureChests treasure chests]].
142	* Maya Fey does this to escape her captor in the fourth case in the second ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'' game. She manages to open the door, but is still caught.
143	* ''VideoGame/TheSilentAge'': Joe does this [[{{Irony}} with a police ID card]] to enter a locked office in the second chapter of the first episode.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Web Comics]]
147	* Taken to extremes in ''Webcomic/TheBMovieComic'', where Snuka [[http://www.bmoviecomic.com/?cid=814 opens a vault door]] with his mastercard.
148	[[/folder]]
149
150	[[folder:Western Animation]]
151	* The Ice King uses a credit card to unhook the latch on Bubblegum Princess' shutters in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "Mortal Folly".
152	* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'':
153	** Louise tries to use a credit card to open the "Room of Secrets" of a frat house in "My Big, Fat, Greek Bob". Unfortunately, she finds that modern doors are immune to such tactics.
154	** In "Sheshank Redumption", Bob finds that his ATM card is unusable because it has been scratched. A flashback shows that Louise used it to show Tina and Gene how to open a door as part of a "life seminar".
155	* Deedee does it in the very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory''.
156	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Fillmore}}'': In "Test of the Tested", Ingrid uses her library card to spring the lock on the equipment storeroom in the basement of the gym.
157	* ''WesternAnimation/GreenLanternTheAnimatedSeries'': Hal tries to open the door to Scar's quarters with a credit card [[HardLight light construct]] in the "Scarred" episode. [[TheBigGuy Kilowog]] just breaks the door down.
158	* Viper invokes this trope in ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'' when the entire gang is locked up in Section 13. However, Jade pulls out a macguffin "card" that renders this trope meaningless.
159	* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Box Office Bunny", Daffy Duck, outraged at the prices of movie tickets, pulls out his library card - and uses it to open the back door of the theater.
160	* When Goofy tries this in a ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseWorks'' short, he only gets a sales receipt for the door.
161	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Marge Gets a Job", Marge's new office at the nuclear plant doesn't have a key to the door because it was lost. Instead of replacing the lock, Smithers just tells Marge she can get in with a credit card.
162
163	[[/folder]]
164

Context Main / SkeletonKeyCard