History Main / DeathTrap

* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' had an episode where an old house was rigged with death traps; the CSI team had to go in because they found the recently dead body of a young man who'd broken in and been killed by one of the traps. They included things like a spiked ax falling from the ceiling if you didn't follow the right steps to deactivate it, and a room that could cook you to death or alternately whose walls would close in on you.

* ''[[LetsPlay/{{Dream}} Dream's]]'' and ''[[LetsPlay/GeorgeNotFound [=GeorgeNotFound's=]]]'' Minecraft Death Swap videos feature many death traps, as the goal is to catch your opponent in one and kill them when a swap happens. If you don't survive, the trapper wins.

* The protagonists of ''Series/{{Castle}}'' run into their fair share of these over the course of the show's eight seasons. Recurring villain [[SerialKiller 3XK]] has a particular fondness for them as part of his narcissistic personality, but there are other perpetrators, too. Memorable examples include, but are not limited to, Castle and [[FairCop Beckett]] being LockedInAFreezer, Beckett ending up StrappedToAnOperatingTable by an insane beauty surgeon intent on stealing her (admittedly gorgeous) face, and Beckett spending almost an entire episode forced to stand completely still because someone rigged her apartment with a pressure plate-activated bomb right under her living room carpet.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E149TheJeopardyRoom The Jeopardy Room]]", Commissar Vassiloff traps Major Ivan Kuchenko in a hotel room with a hidden explosive booby trap. If Kuchenko finds the bomb in time, he will be allowed to go free. If not, he will die when it detonates. [[spoiler:Kuchenko eventually determines that Vassiloff has connected the bomb to the telephone and has rigged it to explode when it rings and someone picks up the receiver. After escaping from the hotel room, Kuchenko rings the phone. Vassiloff's assistant Boris absentmindedly answers the phone and both of them are killed in the resulting explosion.]]

*** Lex Luthor and Doctor Octopus' warehouse. When Franchise/SpiderMan sneaked in the place, he found himself in a dark corridor. Then the door shut behind him suddenly. Then he found out about the machine guns in the floorboards, the electrified walls and the red-hot ceiling, and his spider-sense warned him about wire screen designed to slice him apart.

* ''VideoGame/{{Nightshade}}'' uses these in place of continues -- if you lose a fight, you need to escape a trap in order to avoid a game-over. There are a total of seven traps (counting the one you start in at the beginning of the game), and each one is harder to escape than the last. [[ControllableHelplessness The seventh is impossible to escape]].

* BabyBoomers

* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': An evil WizardingSchool requires all its students to race through a lethal obstacle course before they can become full students. The course is full of all kinds of deadly traps, ranging from the magic equivalent of land mines and spike pits to much more exotic ones, and the students have to evade these traps (while also possibly maneuvering their fellow racers into them) in order to get through the course alive.

* In ''ComicBook/AllFallDown'', [[spoiler:AIQ Squared]] employs a deadly PowerNullifier on the moon. [[spoiler: It succeeds in killing Siphon.]]
* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

** For ComicBook/TheRiddler, however, it's implied to be part of the same crippling Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder which compels him to leaves clues and riddles about his crimes.
** In ''ComicBook/DeathOfTheFamily'', [[spoiler: Catwoman gets trapped in a centrifuge by the Joker. The idea is to be spin her around really fast until it kills her. Just when she's about to escape that, the centrifuge get flooded in an attempt to drown her. She escapes that, too]].
* ''ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse'': In Creator/DonRosa's ''[=Scrooge McDuck=]]'' story "Treasure of the Ten Avatars", Scrooge and Donald have to get out of [[DeathCourse a series of these]]. Among other things there's a DescendingCeiling and FakePlatform with SpikesOfDoom, TheWallsAreClosingIn, FedToTheBeast, and a SnakePit. Donald even lampshades it by the end when he points out that they've already been through every B-movie cliché.
* Although victim to the usual power fluctuation of comic book universes, Franchise/TheDCU's {{ComicBook/Darkseid}} never attempts to kill Franchise/{{Superman}} by using his consistently effective vaporizing Omega Beam. Rather, he prefers to inflict pain by slow and agonizing methods, from which Superman inevitably breaks free.
* In ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'', ComicBook/LexLuthor's secret underground facility is protected with traps such like laser hallways and turret guns built in elevator shafts. ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}, ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} and ComicBook/{{Nightwing}} find them annoying and trite. Especially Nightwing.

* [[MeaningfulName F.A. Schist]] has a scientist build one of these to end {{NighInvulnerab|ility}}le Comicbook/ManThing's meddling, once and for all.

* ''Franchise/XMen'''s villain Arcade ''always'' uses elaborate death traps, intentionally providing his victims a chance at escape however slim, because he's in the business for the fun of it. After all, it's not really a game at all if there's no chance of losing. Arcade is rich enough that he doesn't really need the money to begin with, and so his deathtraps are more for his entertainment than anything else. He also [[CutLexLuthoraCheck markets his deathtraps to others]], setting up obstacle courses that villains sometimes use to train themselves. When he uses Murderworld in that capacity, he ''still'' has at least some of the traps set for lethal effect...but the supervillains are informed of this in advance. Just not ''which'' parts are lethal.

* Lampshaded and played straight simultaneously in the ComicBook/XMen's first confrontation with Doctor Doom: He captures them, places them in situations which could kill them, then explains to his temporary ally Arcade that he doesn't care if they escape or not. If they don't, he's rid of them; if they do, he gains valuable information concerning their skills and powers. [[XanatosGambit Either way, he benefits]].

* TheChainOfHarm (see description, it can be used as one)

* There was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Douglas_Wells a bizarre real-life murder]] involving something like this. A pizza delivery man had [[ExplosiveLeash a bomb strapped to his neck]] and was required to rob a bank. He supposedly had instructions for disabling the bomb, but was stopped by the police, after which the bomb exploded, killing him. Funnily enough it was discovered that the pizza guy [[HoistByHisOwnPetard was the one who originally came up with the plan]]. Actually, he did not. The bomb and plan was made by acquaintances of his and forced on him. He neither came up with the plan, nor built the bomb, nor was he a willing participant.
It's like the end of ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' when Elliot Carver gets taken out by his own drill.

* There was [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Douglas_Wells a bizarre real-life murder]] involving something like this. A pizza delivery man had [[ExplosiveLeash a bomb strapped to his neck]] and was required to rob a bank. He supposedly had instructions for disabling the bomb, but was stopped by the police, after which the bomb exploded, killing him. Funnily enough it was discovered that the pizza guy [[HoistByHisOwnPetard was the one who originally came up with the plan]]. It's like the end of ''Tomorrow Never Dies'' when Elliot Carver gets taken out by his own drill.