History Main / ImprovisedLockpick

* DoubleSubverted in ''Series/GetSmart'' when Max has to get the Chief's phone from a locked box while the Chief is kidnapped. Max goes to a special hidden file cabinet and pulls out a piece of paper. He goes to the wall safe and uses the paper to open the combination door to the safe... then gets a hammer from the safe and bashes the locked box with it so he can get to the phone inside.

[[quoteright:330:[[ComicBook/TheLifeAndTimesOfScroogeMcDuck https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/improvised_lockpick.jpg]]]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'' episode "Thelma and Luis", when Suga Mama and Penny break in to rescue Papi from an okra farm masquerading as a retirement home, they find him in a locked cell. Dijonay fails to unlock the cell with her {{hairpin|}}, so Suga Mama uses her long toenail to pick the lock of the cell.

* Subverted in the ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesOfEvil'' episode "Total Eclipsa the Moon": After running into a locked door, Eclipse asks Moon for a hairpin. Moon hands her one, then Eclipsa uses put it in her own hair and uses a hole in the wall to circumvent the door entirely.

* ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'' has Sarah Connor picking the locks of her restraints and the lock to her room with a piece of wire she stole earlier. The awesome thing is that Linda Hamilton learnt how to pick locks for her role and did it for real on that scene -- and the U.K. censoring committee actually tried to cut the scene because they feared people would learn how to pick locks from watching the movie.

* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017''. Hercule Poirot uses his L-handle cane to force open the door to the murder victim's cabin by levering it against the door handle until it breaks.

* ''Film/MurderOnTheOrientExpress2017''. Hercule Poirot uses his L-handle cane to force open the door to the murder victim's cabin by levering it against the door handle, breaking the lock.

* ''Film/BloodrayneIIDeliverance'', Muller uses the frame of Piles' glasses to pick the lock on Rayne's manacles.

* The ever-resourceful ''Series/MacGyver'' once needs to open a door with a palm-print reader as the lock. Mac uses toner from a copier to adhere to the residue of the previous palm print, then carefully blows away the rest and lays a blank page on the scanner. Pressing his palm on the paper activates the scanner, which reads the residual palm print of an authorized user and grants Mac access.

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', Joel uses shivs to unlock doors to supply rooms, [[InterchangeableAntimatterKeys expanding them in the process]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'', Joel uses shivs to unlock doors to supply rooms.

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', Sarah Connor steals some paper clips during an interrogation and later uses them to break out of her cell. Her actress Linda Hamilton took training in lock-picking before the film, and [[ShownTheirWork shows her work]] in using multiple clips to hold the pins in place rather than just jiggling a single wire around.

!!Examples
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* In ''Disney/TheRescuersDownUnder'', Frank tries to pick the lock of his cage with his tail. It takes him a while but he succeeds.

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* In one ''Series/BurnNotice'' episode Michael [[HeroStoleMyBike steals a motorcycle]] by turning the ignition lock with a penknife, then kicking the handlebars to break the steering lock.

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* Creator/GerryAnderson's marionette series ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' has the episode "Vault of Doom" wherein the Bank of London installs an airtight vault to discourage safecrackers. One bank employee is in the vault when it gets shut for the day, and the Thunderbirds team race to tunnel through reinforced concrete to rescue him. Happily, Lady Penelope's manservant Aloysius Parker is a former safecracker. He asks Lady P for a hairpin, which defeats the lock and opens the vault door in seconds.
--> '''Bank Manager:''' Let's go back to the old design; at least it took him five hours to open it.

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* A bike lock manufacturer experienced [[http://money.cnn.com/2004/09/17/news/midcaps/kryptonite/ some embarrassment]] when it became public that their locks could be jimmied with the plastic cylinder from a ball-point pen.

* In order to pick a standard pin-tumbler lock, two tools (rather than one as is often portrayed) are needed; a torque wrench and a pick. The torque wrench is used to turn the cylinder, while the pick is used to manipulate the pins in such a way to allow it to turn. A flat headed screwdriver can substitute for one. In addition, a screwdriver can also be used to force the lock (literally just twist it hard enough to snap the pins) or rake it (drawing it across the pins in a particular way until they snap in place).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', a screwdriver is used as a torque wrench (the picking itself is done with bobby pins).

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', Gumball shapes one of his fingers into a paper clip, which he then unbends to make a lock pick.

* In ''Manga/MobPsycho100'', when Ritsu and the others need to break out of their cage, Ritsu uses a spoon to unlock the lock on the cage. He has Gou use his [[PlayingWithFire pyrokinesis]] to make the spoon soft so it can stick into the lock and then have Takeshi uses his [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]] to twist the spoon so it fits the lock.

* In the animated movie "Here Come Literature/TheLittles," Cousin Dinky uses his tail to pick the lock on a trunk, with little success at first.

* In ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', Mulch uses his beard hair (dwarves are weird in this series: their beards function more like antennae) as a lockpick by pushing it in as far as it can go then plucking it, letting the hair stiffen until it can be used as a key.
* In one of the ''Literature/StainlessSteelRat'' books, Jim picked a lock with the wires connected to his ShockCollar on a rare occasion when he had been strip-searched thoroughly enough to deprive him of his regular tools.

* DoubleSubverted on ''Series/GetSmart''. The Chief has been kidnapped, so Max is filling in in the Chief's office. Chief's private phone line is ringing. Max takes out a locked box in which it is enclosed. Max goes to a special hidden file cabinet, pulls out a piece of paper. He goes to the WallSafe, uses the paper to open the combination door to the safe. He gets a hammer from the safe, and bashes the locked box with it so he can get to the phone inside.

* In ''Series/{{Rome}}'', Titus Pullo keeps one of his thugs in a locked cage, feeding him off scraps, in punishment for trying to steal from him. Unfortunately he picks the lock with a piece of bone and nearly kills Pullo.

* In ''Series/HannahMontana'', Season 1 "Good Golly, Miss Dolly" when Miley, Lily, and Aunt Dolly needs to get inside the school to recover a tape on Miley accidentally professing her love for Jake, Aunty uses her long fingernail to unlock the doors.

* The ever-resourceful ''Series/MacGyver'' needed to open a door with a palm-print reader as the lock. Mac used toner from a copier to adhere to the residue of the previous palm print, then carefully blew away the rest and laid a blank page on the scanner. Pressing his palm on the paper activated the scanner, which read the residual palm print of an authorized user, and granted Mac access.

* In ''VideoGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', as in [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons the tabletop game]], characters usually need special lockpicking tools to open doors, but can also attempt it with improvised implements at a substantial penalty to the Disable Device roll.
* In ''VideoGame/ZakMckrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'', the heroes need to access a particular chamber to acquire the crystal that powers their device. The alien who gives them this assignment provides them with the key to open the door, but it disintegrates upon being picked up. How do you open the door it was supposed to unlock? By going to a hair salon and cutting down the giant bobby pin hanging outside, then using it to pick the lock.

* The Thursday 26 March 2009 installment of ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo'' has the plucky raccoon defeat a padlock on the birdcage to an annoying Tweety Pie {{expy}}. Woo's fingers clearly double as assorted lock picks.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', Tommy is often able to pick locks with his (toy) screwdriver as easily as he can reach and push latches with it.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily'', Season 3 "Thelma and Luis'', when Suga Mama and Penny and her friends break into a retirement home that is secretly an okra farm that forces their residents to work on the fields all day to rescue Papi, they find him in a locked cell. Dijonay fails to unlock the cell with her [[HairpinLockpick hairpin]] so Suga Mama uses her long toenail to pick the lock of the cell.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'' in Season 14 "Portrait of Francine's Genitals": when Roger is hiring a crew to help Stan steal a portrait of Francine's genitals from an art museum, he hires a Belgian locksmith named Claude Verdeer, who has the smallest fingers in the world. It looks like he was going to uses his small fingers to pick the lock to entrance door, but then he pulls out a drill to use on the lock instead.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen}}'', [[{{Snowlems}} Snowman]] Olaf uses his carrot nose to unlock the door behind which [[spoiler:Princess Anna]] is dying of her frozen heart.

* ''Film/GrandTheftParsons'' features a yellow hearse, the keys to which have been lost since before the beginning of the movie. - '''ZCE'''

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars'' uses a car theft mechanic that involves this with low-end cars. - '''ZCE'''

* In the ''Series/ICarly'' episode "IPsycho", Sam gnaws on a duck bone into a lock pick to unlock the door out of the recording booth that she, Carly, and Freddie are trapped in by Nora.

RollingUpdates; draft adopted by Intastiel

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