Elevator Going Down - Television Tropes & Idioms

Shakin' in the elevator (whoa)
Lingerie, second floor (whoa, yeah)
She said, "Can I see you later (whoa)
And love you just a little more?" (whoa, yeah)
I'm kinda hopin' we get stuck
Nobody gets out alive
She said, "I'll show you how to fax in the mail room, honey
And have you home by five"
Love in an elevator
Livin' it up when I'm goin' down
Love in an elevator
Lovin' it up 'til I hit the ground

— Aerosmith, "Love in an Elevator"

What better thing for two characters bounding with Unresolved Sexual Tension to do when they get in an elevator together? Make out until the doors open, of course — which could be a while if the elevator gets stuck...

Sometimes preceded by an Uncomfortable Elevator Moment. Compare Born in an Elevator.

Do not confuse with an elevator plummeting to the bottom of the shaft, or an elevator whose destination is much further down than anyone would want to go.

Examples

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Anime & Manga

Parodied in Neon Genesis Evangelion, where Misato and Kaji are stuck in a lift. They go to great length to keep their hands off one another, only to end up falling into a compromising position the second the doors get opened.
Maya: "...sex fiends."
The Hentai anime Kininaru Kimochi is entirely about this trope. Three episodes, three explicit cases of Elevator Going Down.
Hayate the Combat Butler makes fun of this one. Hayate and Maria (she in a paper thin disguise) get into an elevator. While they do have UST, Hayate's thoughts of whether he should confront her about having seen through the disguise are running through his head instead. Then the elevator gets stuck, and he knocks her to the floor accidentally while she's trying to fix it, just as Hinagiku (who he's about to rush headlong into UST with) gets the elevator working again in time to see.

Fan Works

There is a chapter in the NGE fanfic Curious Rei where Shinji and Rei get into an elevator. When it arrives, Rei steps out and Kaji steps in. Elevator goes on... then Kaji makes a grinning remark to Shinji that he knows what happened, courtesy of his excellent observation skills. Specifically, he noticed Shinji's shirt is buttoned up wrong, his fly is not done up and — because those could be explained with getting up late — the drop of liquid he tried to obscure with his shoe then looked down to make sure he caught it.

Films — Live-Action

Mallrats: Also a Slap-Slap-Kiss moment.
The movie Class has a young man and his roommate's mother having a sexual encounter in a glass elevator.
The Matrix Reloaded featured this pretty straight-up. Neo and Trinity are in the elevator along with Link and the Kid; as soon as the latter two leave, the make-out session begins.
Two students trapped in an elevator during a blackout is the inciting action for the whole plot of 100 Girls.
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio did this, during the ball scene where they meet.
Played with in the Leslie Nielsen parody of The Exorcist, Repossessed. A couple are enacting their own pun on "going down", when the elevator doors open. Linda Blair politely asks the man, "Are you getting off?"
The Secret of My Success ends on one of these. Then again, this was also referring back to the running gag of the main character using the emergency stop on the elevators to give him a chance to change from mailroom-boy to hot-shot executive. Uncomfortable Elevator Moment was fully used too.
What's New Pussycat? Capucine and Peter O'Toole's characters agree the proper setting is essential, then promptly make use of an elevator. In the throes of ecstasy he assures her it's perfectly safe, so long as the combined weight of the two people does not exceed 1400 pounds.
Subverted for laughs in Day Watch. The protagonist Anton, while in the airport, needs a private place to swaps back bodies with his colleague Olga (It Makes Sense in Context). Finally they tuck into an elevator and perform the ritual, which just happends to be accompanied by some rattling and moans. Then the doors open and out come tousled Olga and very content Anton who just for good measure readjusts his zipper. The look on the face of some Asian woman waiting for the lift is priceless.
Smokin\' Aces references this. One of the main characters who is dressed as a hooker is waiting for an elevator. When the doors open, three heavily armed half-naked skinheads are struggling into their clothes.
Georgia: ... I'm Going down.
Tremor: I'll Bet you are!
In Fatal Attraction, Michael Douglas and Glenn Close's characters have a sexual encounter in an elevator, preceded by this exchange:
Alex: Have you ever done it in an elevator?
Dan: Not recently, no.
Alex: I bet you haven't.

Literature

In The Otherworld, Hope starts making out in an elevator with her ex-boyfriend Karl, an attractive conman who often seduces wealthy women just to steal their jewelry. When the elevator reaches her floor:
Hope: That "stop" button looks pretty good.
Karl: Unfortunately, if it stops for more than a couple of minutes, we'll be rescued by the building super.
Hope: Had some experience with that, have you?
Karl: On a job.
Hope: That's what I meant. Seducing the marks in an elevator. How declasse.
The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook: Dating and Sex talks about how to have sex in an elevator (among other places).

Live-Action TV

Grey's Anatomy: Surprisingly, Meredith Grey only got to first base in the elevator.
- Yes, but it became such a Running Joke that the creators felt the need to awkwardly insert an elevator gag into the pilot of Private Practice.
One episode of Frasier has Frasier and his boss trapped in his building's service elevator after agreeing they wouldn't pursue a relationship. The elevator also contains all the possessions of one of the other tenants, a romance author, including a music box that plays romantic music, poster-sized versions of her book covers, musk oil and a double bed. They just about manage to resist temptation.
Herman's Head. Handsome Lech Jay and his female counterpart Heddy have this trope very much on their minds when they're stuck in an elevator together. First they talk about how much they despise each other and so they're not going to do it, then they start boasting of their varied sexual experiences, then they start making out passionately. Of course, that's the moment when the firefighters break in.
In an episode of the remake (reboot maybe, not sure what it actually counts) of the series Cupid, this trope is invoked by a) giving the potential couple a gift basket before they get on the elevator, and b) having the security guard stop the elevator for several hours.
There was a period on General Hospital where this happened all the time, to the point where anytime uninterested people where in the same elevator, they gave each other odd looks.
In Farscape, during the pre-miniseries finale, Aeryn and John use this as their cover to investigate the Scarran supply of crystherium at the bottom of the elevator.
- Well, the scene IN the elevator was more of a Crowning Momentof Heartwarming when Crichton uses the private moment to teach Aeryn how to dance.
Used in an episode of the French Sitcom Un Gars, une Fille where the title couple is stuck in an elevator. Neither really wants to do it (or so they say), but they still start taking off their clothes and making out in hope of invoking Murphy's Law — that is, that they should get rescued as soon as they try going down in the elevator. It works.
Lois and Clark in the 9th season Smallville episode "Charade".
Lois: Sometimes I swear you have more than two hands.
- Clark and Maxima attempted to have sex in an elevator in the 8th season episode "Instinct", but they are interrupted when the doors open and Lois sees them. She was pissed.
Also, Lois and Clark in the 4th season Lois and Clark episode "Brutal Youth".
In one of the last Deep Space Nine episodes, after some major flirtation, Bashir and Ezri end up making out in the turbolift on the way to Ops. When they get there (and they keep kissing) a bemused Worf sends them back down rather than interrupt them.
In an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Munch and Fin are watching security tapes of an elevator. When the camera cuts to them, one of them remarks "this is the tenth couple making out in the elevator."
The Good Wife: At the end of the season 2 finale, Will and Alicia almost casually decide to resolve their WTWT and take a room at a hotel.The ride to the presidential suite starts off as an UncomfortableElevatorMoment and gradually turns into this with every stop.
In a Veronica Mars episode, Veronica's classmate Madison Sinclair and Sheriff Don Lamb are filmed in a passionate embrace in a hotel elevator. Keith and Cliff proceed to turn it into a hilarious blackmail campaign flyer with the slogan "18 - It's Legal! Re-Elect Don Lamb"
On Judging Amy, Kyle and Lily repeatedly have sex in the hospital's elevator, to the annoyance of their co-workers.

Magazines

Used for at least one photo set in Penthouse magazine.

Music Videos

The video clip for the French song "En Apesanteur" by Calogero features a couple making out during an elevator ride. A very lengthy elevator ride.

Video Games

The Sims
- In The Sims 2, one of the places you can have your sims have sex is on an elevator. Not sure whether it's possible to do that and have the elevator crash at the same time.
- And it's back as of the Late Night expansion to The Sims 3.
Parodied in a section of Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors when the main character and the female lead have to take a down lift together, but the lower ship decks are flooded. June is worried about drowning down there — but a dialogue option you can choose makes the main character think she's worried about being in a small lift alone with a boy. Cue hilarious dialogue with the main character getting scared about dying of asphyxiation after the first time.
Was... was that really how it happened? It occured to Junpei that perhaps that was how it worked... Perhaps he had been mistaken all these years. Had he misunderstood life so gravely? The thought terrified him.
Parodied during a particularly scenic elevator ride in Bulletstorm, when Grayson asks Ishi if he wants to snuggle out their woes "in a totally hetero way".

Web Animation

The trope is called by name in episode 4 of the semi-interactive Flash cartoon 3|Way. Choosing the elevator path leads to a screen displaying prominently "GOING DOWN"... just before the S.L.U.T.s and Lady Dom (the 3 heroines and the hostage they've just freed, respectively) use the reprieve for some lesbian sex.

Web Comics

Subverted in Schlock Mercenary, where the chaplain gets trapped in an elevator for hours with the improbably-proportioned doctor who used to be an exotic dancer. They spend the next several hours telling each other their life's stories. Remember, kids, there are very good reasons not to take a vow of chastity, and this is one!
- Fortunately, it's a limited vow. The two of them eventually get engaged.
Nick and Charisma continue their quite-resolved sexual tension in an elevator in Penny and Aggie.

The Elevator from Ipanema

Just for Pun

Elvish Presley

Dress Hits Floor

No Real Life Examples, Please!

Entitled to Have You