History Main / ElevatorSnare

* ''Film/AtomicBlonde''. Lorraine is in a hotel and realises a KGB team is about to enter to kill her and capture Spyglass, so she leaves him at the bottom of the stairs and takes the elevator to the top to gain a height advantage, getting into an immediate shootout with a couple of KGB agents (who have gone up the stairs) the moment the lift doors open.

SubTrope of ChaseSceneObstacleCourse.

* ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'': A girl is being chased by two car thieves because she has information that they need for their next job, she ducks into the elevator, and the door closes on the thieves, forcing them to wait for the elevator to come back down, later the babysitter and her friends take the elevator and retrieve the girl

* ''Film/{{Commando}}'': {{Justified|Trope}}. When Creator/Schwarzenegger jumps on top of the elevator car the chase-ee is taking.

* ''Film/TrueLies'': Whether due to RuleOfCool or RuleOfFunny, a terrorist taking a woman hostage enters an elevator motorcycle and all. Harry, TheHero, takes a second lift while mounting a horse. To hammer the hamminess, Harry is aiming his gun at the villain, which the latter can perfectly see since the walls are made of glass.

TheChase inevitably leads into a multi-story building. The chase-ee ducks into an elevator, and the chaser arrives JustInTime for the doors to close in on his or her face. As their quarry rides up to the top in relative comfort, the pursuer is forced to wait for the next elevator or, more likely, take the stairs. Regardless of which route they take, it's still somehow possible for the chaser to arrive at the same floor just seconds before their quarry. It isn't that hard to climb stairs faster than the typical elevator ascends, though if the building is tall enough, stamina will become an issue eventually -- elevators don't tire. This can also be used in a race against time.

* ''Film/TrueLies'': The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPgJ8tBvJY4 Second Elevator]] variant is used.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'': The Flash has a TooDumbToLive moment when, after the rest of the League is possessed by an ancient evil, he tries to take the elevator instead of [[ForgotICouldFly running]].

* ''Series/DueSouth'': A man Fraser and Ray Kowalski are chasing, [[spoiler: who is Ray Vecchio, still undercover]], dodges into an elevator. Ray tosses Fraser his cell phone, and while Fraser races up the stairs, Ray calls from a payphone to tell him which floor the elevator stops on.

* ''Film/TheManFromUNCLE2015'': Victoria and the agents race back to the plaza hotel to preserve their cover stories, Solo and Kuryakin run up a lengthy flight of stairs. Victoria simply takes the elevator.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "Intervention", Spike forces open the doors to the elevator shaft and drops onto a descending elevator to escape Glory's minions. However, they're able to get to the ground floor to cut him off by the time the slow-moving elevator gets there, as they're going down the stairs.