History Main / DumbwaiterRide

* In ''Literature/TheMissingPieceOfCharlieOReilly'', the New York Asylum for Orphaned Children had a dumbwaiter. [[spoiler:Charlie's final memory as Kieran is of being trapped in the burning Asylum with his mother Brona. The two tried to escape by riding the dumbwaiter to a lower floor, only to find themselves trapped in the wine cellar. There's a hidden door behind a shelf that leads to the salt mine, but neither of them knows about it, so Kieran is killed when the first floor caves in.]]

* In the first book of ''Literature/TheSpiderwickChronicles'', the Grace siblings find a dumbwaiter in the kitchen of their old family home and use it to try to chase an animal they can hear scrabbling in the walls. Because Mallory is too big to fit inside, Jared rides it and discovers a SecretRoom containing mysterious riddles.

* ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse2018'': Theo and Luke discover a dumbwaiter in the house and decide to mess around in it. Luke ends up in a [[SecretRoom mysterious basement room]] and discovers a frightening creature.

* ''Series/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'': Theo and Luke discover a dumbwaiter in the house and decide to mess around in it. Luke ends up in a [[SecretRoom mysterious basement room]] and discovers a frightening creature.

* ''Series/{{Wednesday ))'' episode "[[Recap/WednesdayS1E6QuidProWoe Quid Pro Woe]]": Wednesday and Enid hide from the monster in the Gates Manor's dumbwaiter. It tries to reach them by clawing at the door, but the shaking and the weight of the girls mean the rope holding the dumbwaiter gives up first, sending them falling to the basement.

* ''Film/CryWolf1947'': Played for drama. Susan's husband Jim is supposedly dead, but Susan begins to think that her brother-in-law Mark, who is obviously up to ''something'' nefarious, may be holding Jim prisoner in his attic laboratory. When Susan finds out that Mark gets his meals sent to the lab by dumbwaiter, she hauls herself up. Her husband isn't there, but she overhears a suspicious conversation before she has to go back down via dumbwaiter, barely avoiding being caught.

* On ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'', Lenny & Squiggy get in trouble with Mrs. Babish when they ride the building's dumbwaiter playing "Coal Miner".
* In the ''Series/MacGyver1985'' episode "Fire & Ice", Mac sneaks into a consulate pretending to be a kitchen hand carrying a box of vegetables, then climbs into the kitchen's dumbwaiter to reach the upper level.

* ''WesternAnimation/LittlestPetShop2012'': Blythe and occasionally the pets use a dumbwaiter to travel from Blythe's upper room to the downstairs playroom at the eponymous shop.

* An early Literature/HerculePoirotstory has the dumbwaiter considered as a way out for the murderer, as it had been used to bring dinner for three men that evening. [[spoiler:In fact the murderer was the victim's manservant, who killed his employer then ordered three dinners to make it look as though the victim has received people that evening.]]

-->-- '''Angie Sage''', ''Araminta Spookie: My Haunted House''

* In the children's novel ''Araminta Spookie: My Haunted House'', the title character discovers a dumbwaiter at the end of a SecretPath leading up to SecretRoom. She knows how to use it because one of her house's kitchens also contains one, connecting it to the dining room, and she has amused herself by riding up and down in it.

* ''Film/{{Cry Wolf|1947}}'': Played for drama. Susan's husband Jim is supposedly dead, but Susan begins to think that her brother-in-law Mark, who is obviously up to ''something'' nefarious, may be holding Jim prisoner in his attic laboratory. When Susan finds out that Mark gets his meals sent to the lab by dumbwaiter, she hauls herself up. Her husband isn't there, but she overhears a suspicious conversation before she has to go back down via dumbwaiter, barely avoiding being caught.

Most modern dumbwaiters are motorized, but the ones appearing in fiction can usually be operated from within by pulling on a rope to hoist oneself up. Often {{Justified}} by the character taking the ride being a child who is just barely small enough to fit inside. A ScareDare may be involved, as these spaces (beyond being potentially dangerous, especially in old buildings) can easily induce {{Claustrophobia}}. Expect [[CobwebOfDisuse Cobwebs of Disuse]].

* In ''Film/HomeAlone3'', Alex uses a dumbwaiter to evade the terrorists who were looking for him. One of them realizes this was how he got outside the house from the attic after she and two of her cohorts realize too late the trampoline was a trap and tries it herself, but the moment the dumbwaiter reaches the attic, [[BatmanGambit she falls down the shaft, because Alex removed the bottom shortly before escaping the house]].

* In ''VideoGame/PajamaSam in: No Need to Hide When it's Dark Outside'', there's a sentient dumbwaiter in Darkness's House that leads from the laboratory to the kitchen and vice-versa. Sam can ride the dumbwaiter up from the lab to the kitchen, but if he tries to ride it down to the lab, the dumbwaiter will prevent him from doing so. In the path where Sam's mask is hidden under a sentient table that dances when it doesn't see Sam, Sam needs to use a [[InvisibilityWithDrawbacks short-term invisibility]] potion on himself. However, the only way quick enough to get up to the living room, which is right next door to the kitchen, is by riding the dumbwaiter.