History Main / ThisIsNotAFloor

** In two books (''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'' and ''Literature/MovingPictures''), the Tower of Art at the University is the scene for this trope. In both cases, the hero has to ascend a spiral staircase inside a crumbling 800foot tower, trusting to their senses that the stairs are still there under their feet -- this is not a given. The trick is to close your eyes and really believe the stairs are still intact and can carry your weight -- even when they are not.

* [[spoiler: Lasciel]] in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Dead Beat'' pulls this on Harry, filling an apartment with illusionary [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes flame]] and putting an illusionary fire escape outside the window before breaking the illusion to show that it ''could'' easily kill Harry, [[IfIWantedYouDead but doesn't want to.]]

* The ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' games occasionally use this trick. Two examples that stand out are ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', where they can be detected by a weapon that follows the ground, the Bubble Lead, and ''9'', where there are actual enemies that fly by to create holographic platforms over pits right by the real ones.

* In ''Point Blank'', the second book in Anthony Horowitz' ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, a murder is set up by putting a holographic elevator into an out-of-order elevator shaft.

** **Series/{{Columbo}}** did the same in ''A Deadly State of Mind,'' only the woman stripped down to nothing at all.

** In two books (''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'' and ''Discworld/MovingPictures''), the Tower of Art at the University is the scene for this trope. In both cases, the hero has to ascend a spiral staircase inside a crumbling 800foot tower, trusting to their senses that the stairs are still there under their feet -- this is not a given. The trick is to close your eyes and really believe the stairs are still intact and can carry your weight -- even when they are not.
** In ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Moist has a ghostly vision of the post office at its height and splendor. During this vision, he's walking around and realizes that the balconies overlooking the main hall are long gone, and a section of floor ahead of him is, in the present, the top of a staircase. Moist realizes that two of the previous postmasters hired to get the Post Office working again died because they fell for the illusion; one walked onto a balcony that's not there anymore, and one took a tumble down a staircase that wasn't there in the past.

* ''{{Series/Probe}}'', a short-lived scifi-detective series from the Eighties, had a plot where a murderer lured people into an open elevator shaft to their deaths, by using holograms to make it seem like the elevator car had arrived.

* ''Manga/{{Needless}}'' inverts this with a character who can turn things invisible - large projectiles, most of the floor except the small patch on which the heroes are standing, the wall between him and them... the trick is to keep them from realizing what he's doing.
* In ''Anime/{{Fractale}}'', the system maintaining a HardLight town flickers off, and several people fall through the fake floor to their deaths.

* [[spoiler: Lasciel]] in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Dead Beat'' pulls this on Harry, filling an apartment with illusionary [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes flame]] and putting an illusionary fire escape outside the window before breaking the illusion to show that it ''could'' easily kill Harry, [[IfIWantedYouDead but doesn't want to.]]

* In ''Point Blank'', the second book in Anthony Horowitz' ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, a murder is set up by putting a holographic elevator into an out-of-order elevator shaft.

* While Calesta, the BigBad of the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'' is incapable of hurting people directly, his illusion powers make it easy for people to not notice a real danger, or a way to avoid said danger. At one point he makes an entire city fail to notice an incoming tidal wave.
* A version of this is used to perform a nearly perfect murder in the ''Literature/FatherBrown'' series. The murderer simply informs his (blind) lover that he is holding the elevator for her, then heads up a floor (the elevators are essentially silent), heads out onto his balcony where several hundred people can testify to his location, and waits for the lover to run into the now-empty elevator shaft.
* Something similar happens in ''Literature/TheDayOfTheTriffids'' after most of the world population go blind. The protagonist overhears someone leading their blinded partner to what they're told is an exit. It is -- [[DrivenToSuicide the window]].
* A Force-sensitive MonsterOfTheWeek attempts to inflict this on Luke Skywalker in ''[[Literature/NewJediOrder Rebel Stand]]'', but fails because Luke's well-honed combat instincts (especially his piloting instincts -- he's used to subconsciously noticing terrain so he doesn't crash into it) raise an alarm at the last second.
* The CorruptCorporateExecutive who tried to arrange an assassination at a major Park reception in ''[[Literature/DreamPark The Barsoom Project]]'' nearly succumbs to this when his office's private elevator is tampered with, replacing the floor with a realistic hologram. Never mess with the master imagineers of Dream Park, especially when your office is on the top floor and their bosses just bought out your elevator-repair service....

* One case in the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'' involved a woman who'd jumped off a high-rise apartment balcony in her bikini. She'd been hypnotized to think she was taking a dip at the beach.
* ''Probe'', a short-lived scifi-detective series from the Eighties, had a plot where a murderer lured people into an open elevator shaft to their deaths, by using holograms to make it seem like the elevator car had arrived.

* In the ''Series/MetalHurlantChronicles'' episode "Back to Reality", the bad guy makes a woman jump off a building by making her think she's about to jump into a pool.

%%* Used in some ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, usually in dungeons that use the [[SeeThruSpecs Lens Of Truth]] or local equivalent.
* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'' had fake floors, which can only be detected if you fell through them or if you made use of Holy Water to figure out which floors aren't fake.

* While he occasionally does the opposite, Wile E. Coyote is known for his painting of a bridge in front of a chasm. The road runner [[RealityWarper takes the bridge]], Coyote tries to chase it, rips through the picture and falls. And then there was the time that the ''opposite'' happened - the Roadrunner rips through the canvas while Wile E. falls off the painted cliff.
* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Spellbinder uses an illusion to nearly trick Terry into walking off a cliff. He has also tricked Terry into diving off of a building by projecting a waterfall over it.

Trope name references Creator/ReneMagritte's ''[[TheTreacheryOfImages Ceci n'est pas une pipe]]''. See also LeapOfFaith for a way to invert the trope. For the video game version of this, see FakePlatform.

* Appears in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' with a booby-trapped floor: tiles that don't spell out Jehovah (with an I) are fake and drop trespassers into a deep pit.

* Used a couple of times in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, and at least once in [[Film/SilentHill the movie]].
* Used in some ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, usually in dungeons that use the [[SeeThruSpecs Lens Of Truth]] or local equivalent.

* Something similar happens in ''Literature/DayOfTheTriffids'' after most of the world population go blind. The protagonist overhears someone leading their blinded partner to what they're told is an exit. It is -- [[DrivenToSuicide the window]].

* The CorruptCorporateExecutive who tried to arrange an assassination in ''[[Literature/DreamPark The Barsoom Project]]'' nearly succumbs to this when his office's private elevator is tampered with, replacing the floor with a realistic hologram. Never mess with the master imagineers of Dream Park, especially when your office is on the top floor and their bosses just bought out your elevator-repair service....