History Main / BookshelfDominoes

* ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'': [[http://whateleyacademy.net/index.php/original-timeline/371-the-three-little-witches The Three Little Witches]]:
--> Palantir and Abra reached up and applied all their might into keeping the shelf from falling. Clover scrambled to her feet and pushed. Together, they shoved the tall bookshelf back-
--> -so far back that the bookcase tipped over the other way, hitting the bookcase on the other side, tipping IT over, creating a domino effect. Fortunately, it only tipped over three more bookcases, but from where the Three Little Witches stood, it was a scene of horrific devastation.

Implied in [[http://www.precociouscomic.com/archive/comic/2014/06/02 this]] {{Webcomic/Precocious}} strip.

* In ''Three O'Clock High'', a fight in a library leads to entire bookshelves getting knocked down like dominoes.

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheMummy1999 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mummy_3573.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:400:[-[[ImplausibleDeniability It was like that when I got here]]-].]]

** This is [[RecycledScript echoed in the second film,]] where the child of the main characters causes a series of pillars in an ancient temple to smash into each other, one by one. They can hardly be mad at him, though, as the last pillar broke open the wall to the sealed room where they were "drinking from the Nile".

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSmurfs'' episode "Unsound Smurfs", the Smurflings cause this to happen when they look through the Soundkeeper's sounds to find the one that would be sufficient enough to break the magical sound barrier cast over the entire Smurf Village.

** This is [[RecycledScript echoed in the second film,]] where the child of the main characters causes a series of pillars in an ancient temple to smash into each other, one by one.

* ''Literature/HarryPotterandtheOrderofthePhoenix'' has a variation of this, where the shelves in question do not contain books, but glass receptacles of spoken and recorded prophecies. This doesn't make the shelves themselves any lighter however, and it is implied one of the Death Eaters unlucky enough to be caught underneath the whole collapse is so badly injured that the others, though all skilled and wand-bearing adult wizards, would rather leave him to his fate than try to heal him, as it would take too much of their time away from the pursuit of Harry and his friends.

-->-- ''Film/{{The Mummy|Trilogy}}''

[[quoteright:350:[[TheMummyTrilogy http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mummy_3573.jpg]]]]

See also: DisasterDominoes.

!!Examples

* In the first movie of ''Film/TheMummyTrilogy'', Evey's introduction has her doing this ''by accident'' because she's a klutz. This is [[RecycledScript echoed in the second film,]] where the child of the main characters causes a series of pillars in an ancient temple to smash into each other, one by one.

* Occurs in the book ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons''.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''

->'''Dr. Bey:''' [''stutters in disbelief''] Oh, look at this! Sons of the pharaohs! Give me frogs, flies, locusts! Anything but you! Compared to you the other plagues were a joy!
->'''Evelyn:''' I am so very sorry. It was an accident!
->'''Dr. Bey:''' My darling girl, when Ramses destroyed Syria, ''that'' was an accident. You are a catastrophe!
-->-- ''[[TheMummyTrilogy The Mummy]]''

In the library or archive, there are always stacks upon stacks of books, and so many bookcases in so many rows. The fight begins, and a bookcase falls...into its neighbor, which falls onto its neighbor, and causes a chain reaction that levels the whole library.

!!Examples:

* This happened momentarily in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' when Nodoka came under the effects of the LovePotion Negi had just drunk. A large section of the library ended up toppled over.
* In ''CaseClosed'', they set one up on purpose in order to nail a perp.
* Happens in an early chapter of ''Manga/YuGiOh''. When Yugi tries to debunk a classmate claiming to be psychic, said classmate predicts that Yugi would be crushed by "countless letters", and tries to make this prediction come true by pushing a bookshelf onto Yugi.

[[folder:Film]]
* In the first movie of ''TheMummyTrilogy'', Evey's introduction has her doing this ''by accident'' because she's a klutz. This is [[RecycledScript echoed in the second film,]] where the child of the main characters causes a series of pillars in an ancient temple to smash into each other, one by one.
* Happens in ''{{Tremors}}'' in a grocery store. This time, it's the monster's fault, forcing the heroes to escape onto the roof.
** In this case, the heroine happens to be standing ''on top'' of the shelves, and is flung out the window by their collapse!

* In the film version of ''AngelsAndDemons'', Robert Langdon intentionally topples the shelves in the Vatican Archives in an attempt to escape the hermetically sealed (and locked) library, which is quickly running out of breathable air. The glass is reinforced and bulletproof, however, so it fails to work... initially.

* Occurs in the book ''AngelsAndDemons''.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* Used in a sketch in ''{{The Armstrong and Miller Show}}'', a British comedy clip show.

* Happened in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' when there was an earthquake.
** And again later on during a large fight, with [[spoiler: Willow]] getting crushed underneath them and being put in a coma.
* A DavidLetterman Top Ten list, "Top Ten Ways To Get Kicked Out Of A Bookstore," has as its number one method, "Knock over the bookshelves like giant dominoes."
* Subverted in the "Bull An A China Shop" episode of ''{{Mythbusters}}''. Bulls have very sensitive ears and will be careful to avoid crashing ceramics.
* Happens in ''[[Series/TheOfficeUS The Office]]'' in the episode "Boys and Girls" when Michael accidentally drives the warehouse forklift into a large metal storage rack causing the other racks to topple over like dominoes.

* ''ElTigre'': causes it in his mother's library because the bad guys duck his RocketPunch. The falling bookcases end up getting them in the end.
* In ''MegasXLR'', a flashback shows Coop doing this while trying to get a book off a high shelf. The same episode ends with the same thing happening to an alien ringworld library.

* ''KickButtowski'': the episode where Kick had to escape from an evil librarian. The last shelf misses her when it falls against a statue, but then the books fall and bury her.

* ''TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In ''The Bet''.

* Happens in an early chapter of ''Manga/YuGiOh''. When Yugi tries to disprove a classmate claiming to be psychic, said classmate predicts that Yugi would be crushed by "countless letters", and tries to make this prediction come true by pushing a bookshelf onto Yugi.

* [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy]] is beaten this way in ''[[FreddyKruegersTalesOfTerror Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror: Twice Burned]]'', being pinned under knocked-over bookshelves while the library is burning to the ground.
* In the climax of the StephenKing novella "The Library Policeman", during the battle with the parasitic Ardelia, one character manages to topple all the library bookshelves in an attempt to stop her advance.

* In the climax of the StephenKing novella "The Library Policeman, during the battle with the parasitic Ardelia one character manages to topple all the library bookshelves in an attempt to stop her advance.

* [[Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet Freddy]] is beat this was in ''[[FreddyKruegersTalesOfTerror Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror: Twice Burned]]'', being pinned under knocked over bookshelves while the library is burning to the ground.

* In the first movie of ''TheMummyTrilogy'', Evey does this ''by accident'' because she's a klutz. This is [[RecycledScript echoed in the second film,]] where the child of the main characters causes a series of pillars in an ancient temple to smash into each other, one by one.