How to subvert the laser security field trope?

I have screenplay which involves a female passing through a laser field. But it's really overdone in my opinion.

Is there any of way I can show off her flexibility while evading security?

Maybe motion detection?

Honestly, I think the whole thing, not just with laser beams, is fairly cliche, and the only way to make it not would be to reach for absurdity, such as passing through a field of sleeping cats or a field of practicing mimes.

The one other option is making her try but ultimately having her fail.

That said, I will ask the question that I think has to be asked: why do you need to show off her flexibility?

edited 16th Aug '17 8:09:49 AM by Kazeto

Because it's a short screenplay about a ballerina-turned-thief who is hired by a rogue art thief clan.

The first scene shows her last ever dance.

In the next scene, I plan to quickly show the audience some ballet shoes but theyre being used by the character to evade security some how as it aids her flexibility and agility.

It also quickly indicates why she's valued by clan.

My story is set in the future so I could play around with absurdity as you say but I just know I can't have her doing the usual bullshit as there's way too many references to play that straight haha.

Tbh because of budgeting I think I'll go with her failing.

It does actually subvert the trope as I can't even think of film where the character fails in that situation.

Just to note, don't use motion sensors. Motion censors are defeated by moving at a sluggish pace. Well, unless you wish to trigger, which goes into the one suggestion I can give.

If you're going to trigger them, my immediate thought on how to approach it is to turn the alarms into the boy who cried wolf. Find a way to make the response believe they're faulty and decide they're best to ignore in the meantime. If they can't be avoided with triggering them, then take to the opposite extreme. Also can fool whoever checks into believing something else triggered the alarm, with some good thinking and preparations. If she's a smart thief, she should come prepared for that possibility.

edited 7th Nov '17 12:58:29 AM by Prime_of_Perfection

Years ago I saw a movie in which the thief did just that - had some sort of cross-shaped boomerang that he would throw out into the field and trigger the alarm. By the time the guards got there the hall was empty. After a few of these mysterious alarms they ended up shutting off the "faulty" alarm system so it wouldn't keep spontaneously triggering.

The Laser Hallway trope is so absurdly overdone that it's a grotesque cliche by now. I don't know about "subverting" it per se, but if you want to go with actual realism...

• The laser field is not navigable by a supernaturally agile person. The gaps are too small and they don't move around in easily avoided patterns.
• The laser field is not visible, as it uses the infrared spectrum, or its intensity is too low to reflect off of air particles. Special detection gear might see it, but see above.
• The laser detectors are smart enough to sound an alert if the air gets particularly opaque, like if someone's using smoke to make the beams visible.
• The laser field is combined with other security measures, such as body heat and motion sensors.
• There are cameras. With recording features. So if someone tries to false trip the alarms, someone can look at the recordings to see who did it.
• In addition to standard interruption detection, the lasers also use interferometry to determine if someone's trying to redirect them around an object or otherwise manipulate them.

Generally, every use of this trope in fiction that doesn't take into account at least one of the above factors is going for Rule of Cool over realism and would utterly fail any real world security test.

edited 7th Nov '17 8:52:36 AM by Fighteer

If you wanted to subvert it, the first thing that pops to mind for me would be to do the standard 'misting to make beams visible', have the ballerina dance through the beams, but trip some of them... and when the guards rush in to respond to the alarm, they hit the knockout gas that she had sprayed into the air to make the beams visible, and crash into a tangled heap while the ballerina is chided by her handler for 'fooling around' with the lasers when they've got work to do.