Basic Trope: Airport security resort to excessive methods to screen passengers.
- Straight: Bob is passing through an airport when he sets off a metal detector. The airport security immediately escort him to get strip searched.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob is passing through an airport when he sets off a metal detector. The airport security immediately escort him to an interrogation chamber.
- Over 50% of the customers end up getting strip searched.
- Racial profiling means that Bob can't even enter the airport without being interrogated.
- Bob is forced to strip naked in the middle of the airport and get a cavity search.
- Downplayed: Bob is passing through an airport when he sets off a metal detector. The airport security give him an extensive pat down on the spot.
- Justified:
- The airport Bob is passing through is located in a dangerous area, like a smuggling hot spot.
- Bob is a criminal on a watchlist, so he probably is up to no good.
- This is just after a major criminal aviation event (EG: the tightening of American airport security just after 9/11).
- Inverted:
- Bob scrutinizes the airport staff on their loose checkpoint security.
- Bob passes through the airport without security even batting an eye.
- Subverted: Bob sets off a metal detector, but the airport security say that there's nothing to worry about and he can proceed.
- Double Subverted: The door through which Bob was directed to was actually a security chamber.
- Parodied: A small child speaks up in a conversation about Admiral Ackbar, and the airport security don football helmets and dogpile him.
- Zig Zagged: Some people go through the metal detector and get escorted to a strip search area, while others set it off and get an average pat-down.
- Averted:
- Bob goes through a metal detector and passes through normally.
- Alternatively, Bob just gets a pat down for his trouble.
- Enforced: The airport would have shown someone getting through with a dangerous item, but the government threatens them about the scene and forces the producers to change it.
- Lampshaded: "You guys are going to give me a strip search, aren't you?"
- Invoked: Alex sneaks a pair of scissors into Bob's luggage to get him in trouble with security.
- Exploited: Charlie deposits his dangerous items in Bob's luggage so Bob gets framed, while he gets through unharmed.
- Defied: The airport security manager refuses to be hyperactive about security because he's concerned about the PR his staff get at his facility.
- Discussed: "Is that a shotgun that security guard's carrying?" "Yup, let's hope they're not Trigger-Happy."
- Conversed: "See, this is where the airport security guards get Bob strip searched."
- Implied: Bob is taken into a security chamber by the security guards and comes out later with bruises and ruffled clothing.
- Deconstructed: The airport loses its PR due to complaints by the passengers about the rampant security. Thus, fewer and fewer passengers visit the airport, resulting in the airport losing money day by day.
- Reconstructed: However, a new tourist attraction opens up near the airport, keeping money flowing in. However, the tourist attraction attracts a lot of smuggling, thus increasing the need for security.
- Played For Laughs: When Bob sets off the metal detector, an airport security officer approaches him and performs a Glove Snap.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob sustains serious injuries while in custody which he will need time in the hospital to recover from.
- Bob is sexually assaulted by a perverted guard.
- Bob is Mistaken for Terrorist because of a very minor mistake and is arrested, furthermore he is treated as hostile when he tries to protest the security team manhandling him.
- Played For Horror:
- Bob is Mistaken for Terrorist and executed by trigger-happy guards when he attempts to protest.
- Bob has the very bad luck of meeting the one airport security agent who is a serial rapist on the side. Not only is he assaulted in the airport, now the agent knows where he lives…
Watch out for the Overreacting Airport Security- They've got tasers and aren't afraid to use them.
