Not Thriving: Oops I Dropped The Keys

Wouldn't this work better if we broadened it to encompass ANY needed/life saving item dropped, fumbled, or knocked out of reach?

That's either a supertrope or an index. Not sure which. Still could be expanded to not have immediate danger, but the mere possibility of danger or other trouble, ie Peter Griffin locked himself in the car with the keys outside; he couldn't get the keys

edited 8th Apr '13 3:32:52 PM by spacemarine50

I was saying that because I haven't seen this done with keys much, we could maybe broaden it to just having trouble getting the door or whatever open during a chase, no matter what the cause of the trouble is, fumbling a passcode, keys, forgetting a combination, old rusty lock, fumbling with a puzzle lock, dropping something needed to open the door, ect.

Panicked Key Fumble would probably work, but Dangerous Key Fumble is fine.

bump

I like "Dangerous Dropped Keys" or "Panicked Key Fumble".

Though this trope was parodied in Zombieland, so it must be fairly common in those types of movies?

edited 20th Apr '13 9:14:10 AM by Cremia

I prefer to go with 26 - broaden the trope to encompass those moments when characters get clumsy with life saving/plot critical items. A subtrope involving keys is simply The Same But More Specific.

"Key fumble" to me reads like "an important fumble" (as in "key person" or "key advantage"). That doesn't strike me as a good idea.

OK, since this one isn't moving - shall we make a crowner? In that case, which one?

Panicked Fumbling Of Keys, perhaps?

(Edit: Or Panicked Keys Fumble, since usually people have multiple keys.)

edited 28th May '13 3:59:47 PM by Pig_catapult

Single prop crowner's hooked.

Unanimous crowner called.

Alt Names Crowner

Crowners are swapped.

When this done, I think we need a vote about expanding the trope to fumbling with anything required to escape. Like keys, keycards, key items(like inserting a emblem to open a door), keycodes, ect.

All of those are basically keys anyway. For the purpose of the plot, they are keys.

Well, it should still be noted anyway, something "Doesn't only apply to keys, can be any object or mechanism needed to open the characters escape route"

I think it falls under Tropes Are Not Narrow, and can basically just be mentioned in the description without a definition change at all.

I agree.

Same for me.

I know, I just think it bears mentioning.

Ah, but does it mention bears?

If it doesn't, it should.

This seems to be a subtrope of Broken Heel to me.

Late to the game, but any thoughts on the name Critical Key Fumble?