History Main / LaserHallway

* In ''LightNovel/GoshuushouSamaNinomiyaKun'', this trope is combined with [[spoiler:[[GagBoobs gag boobs]]]] to comical effect. After much careful sidestepping, eventually [[spoiler:Tsukimura Mayu's breast obscures one of the (sensory-only) beams and sets off the security response]].

In reality, low-power lasers can't be seen from the side, even with CoolShades; they don't energize the air enough with photons to cause it to glow, and any laser that ''would'' give off a glow would be harmful or even deadly to touch. The aerosol trick does work on visible-frequency lasers, but if it scatters too much energy the alarm will still go off. Diverting a laser sensor with mirrors works in principle. In practice, however, it would be impossible to position the mirrors with enough precision to pull it off, or to find mirrors sufficiently flawless that they could be moved into place without their edges breaking the beam.

[[folder:Film — Animation]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

* ''Unreal'' features a laser hallway in one of its last levels.

* ''VideoGame/Unreal'' features a laser hallway in one of its last levels.

* In ''LightNovel/GoshuushouSamaNinomiyaKun'', this trope is combined with [[spoiler:[[GagBoobs gag boobs]]]] to comical effect. After much careful sidestepping, the lasers eventually [[spoiler:Tsukimura Mayu's breast obscures one of the (sensory-only) beams and sets off the security response]].

* Natsuki and Mai prepare to infiltrate a laser hallway in ''Anime/MaiHime'', only to discover that Mikoto has already walked into the lasers and triggered the alarms.

** Amusingly subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. The Enclave fortress doesn't have the traditional laser beam corridors, but it does have anti-vermin laser traps under the various passageways. If the player crosses them, a weak flamethrower is ignited. They are utterly ineffective against the player at that point, and not only can they be avoided by simply going fast -- the player needn't even bother with them to exit the level.
** Played straight in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}''. If you don`t have the right lockpicking perks to bypass it, you have to go through a laser beam corridor to obtain the "Treasure of Jamaica Plain." If you trip a laser beam, [[MoreDakka several machine gun turrets immediately open fire on you]]. Assuming you painstakingly disable every single laser beam without getting filled with bullets, you can finally get your hands on the treasure...[[spoiler:a time capsule filled with mundane pre-War items]]. The ''Automatron'' DLC has a laser hallway in the Mechanist's stronghold, which you can either short out with the decontamination sprinklers, or bypass by picking an Expert-locked door.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}'': If you mention the Laser Trap in [[spoiler:Xibalba]] first, that's what you'll encounter. You will encounter it later anyway even if you didn't choose it.

* In VideoGame/ViewtifulJoe while fighting your way through the upper floors you have to navigate your way through one of these. It's a bit of a pain due to the fact that the lasers start in the background and move their way to the foreground doing damage if they make contact.

* ''Under Ten Flags'' (1960) had a British spy breaking the German naval codes out of a safe guarded by invisible beams (he put on infra-red goggles). Rather ironic when you realise the codes were actually obtained by the [[BoringButPractical less glamorous but methodical method]] of Ultra cryptography ([[DatedHistory still classified at the time the movie was made]]). Quite possibly the {{Trope Maker|s}}, since the first real-life laser was built the same year.

* In the third season ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode "Snow Day," the lab is infiltrated by drug dealers. After capturing one of them, Mac rigs up a makeshift claymore mine to keep him in place, using a web of laser beams to bar the hallway. [[spoiler:At the end of the episode, the leader of the drug leaders dives for the gun that slid under the web. Mac takes cover, but the criminals ([[TrashTheSet and a sizable portion of the lab]]) go up in a massive fireball.]]
** In season 4, Mac's stalker creates one around him after taking him hostage and attempting to kill the first one of the team who comes thru the door to rescue him. Naturally, he fails as the first person in is [[spoiler:his own brother wearing a bullet-proof vest,]] followed by Don and Co. in the commotion, Mac gets free and shoots the perp himself.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}, the Royal Art Museum in Ankh-Morpork has the {{Magitek}} version. To separate the public from the paintings and sculptures, the building employs cherubs - decorative indoor [[OurGargoylesRock gargoyles]] - to act as a security system. If anyone steps between two gargoyles who are in line of sight of each other, they are trained to make a high-pitched shriek of alarm. More with Creator/AAPessimal.

** In episode five, [[spoiler:Mimi]] now hides out in a Buddhist temple that comes with a "laser cage" consisting of vertical [[FrickinLaserBeams laser beams]] to trap intruders and leave them open to [[FiveRoundsRapid fire]] by her army of [[ChurchMilitant nuns with guns]]. Since it's designed to contain rather than detect, the beams are spaced at a small distance from each other.

* Heritage Games' ''Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier'', adventure "The Slaver Ruins." One corridor is protected by FrickinLaserBeams that will damage anyone they hit as if shot with a laser rifle.

** The best one is from "A Sitch In Time", where the entire room is filled with deadly laser beams, and Kim gets her first job: using her cheerleading and gymnastics moves to dive through all the beams and turn it off. She was looking for jobs like babysitting.

** In Season 5 Lindsey just walks through them using a magical glamor to prevent detection.

* The closing credits of ''WesternAnimation/{{COPS}}'' had Nightshade navigating one wearing special goggles in order to see the lasers.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}''. Electrical-powered thief Gwen Raiden somehow bends the lasers and goes around them. In Season 5 Lindsey just walks through them using a magical glamor to prevent detection.

-->-- '''Annika-709''', ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}, the Royal Art Museum in Ankh-Morpork has the {{Magitek}} version. To separate the public from the paintings and sculptures, the building employs cherubs - decorative indoor [[OurGargoylesAreDifferent gargoyles]] - to act as a security system. If anyone steps between two gargoyles who are in line of sight of each other, they are trained to make a high-pitched shriek of alarm. More with Creator/AAPessimal.

** The first episode of the reboot has Scrooge and Dewey encounter a bridge containing one of these, with Donald Duck below them on a lower level. Interestingly, Scrooge -- who is more interested in the smart approach than the thrilling one -- recommends they just find another way around, but Dewey, in this continuity an action junkie, insists on unnecessarily crossing through the lasers. And for further face-palming value, he seems to think that the point of such a bridge is to activate every single laser, meaning he would have been fried to a crisp had Donald not been underneath preventing this with a metal shield.

* Variant in the ''Series/BabylonFive'' episode "A Voice In the Wilderness, Part 1", perhaps counting as an inversion; the lasers don't set off an alarm or a trap; rather, an unseen sensor of some kind sets off a series of death lasers (or some other form of visible {{Death Ray}}s) in a hallway.

* In ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'', the characters build such a system just for fun: they play a game, where the players have to avoid the lasers, to make a move in a chess match. Or ''[[MundaneMadeAwesome eat a slice of pizza]]''.

* In the third season ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode "Snow Day", the lab is infiltrated by drug dealers. After capturing one of them, Mac rigs up a makeshift claymore mine to keep him in place, using a web of laser beams to bar the hallway. [[spoiler:At the end of the episode, the leader of the drug leaders dives for the machine gun that slid under the web. Mac takes cover, but the criminals ([[TrashTheSet and a sizable portion of the lab]]) go up in a massive fireball.]]

* ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'': Mac had to negotiate his was past the deadly version in "Pilot"; and the detector version in "The Heist".

* In the ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'' episode "Deliverance", [[ActionGirl Kensi]] is kidnapped and held in a room full of lasers; breaking one of the beams will set off a bomb. Fortunately, [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Deeks]] has a laser of his own which he uses to fool the laser sensors so Kensi can escape.

* Done rather well and "realistic" in a two-part episode of ''Series/TheSaint'', "The Fiction Makers", which first aired in December 1968 and was later released as a theatrical film. Instead of a hallway, it was a corridor between two fences.

* ''Series/WonderWoman1975'': Perhaps due to airing during the era of [[Film/ANewHope the first]] ''Franchise/StarWars'' movie, Wonder Woman started facing various laser weapons, including a hallway in "I.R.A.C. Is Missing".

* In the music video for Music/BritneySpears' "Toxic", stealing the vial of Mysterious Green Stuff sets off one final trap to get through: a hallway of rotating laser beams that she must dance through.

* Heritage Games' ''Star Trek: Adventure Gaming in the Final Frontier'', adventure "The Slaver Ruins". One corridor is protected by FrickinLaserBeams that will damage anyone they hit as if shot with a laser rifle.

* ''Film/{{Cube}},'' the movie that inspired that scene, featured similar devices which sliced the characters to pieces whenever they entered a room.

'''The Boss:''' You have fun with that, I'm taking the [[AirVentPassageway air vent.]] * Ring Man's level in ''VideoGame/Rockman4MinusInfinity'' has 2 sections filled with laser beams. Fortunately, they are not {{one hit kill}}s.

Whenever there's a security system in place, there's always a highly visible laser sensor grid with man-sized holes in it. The infiltrator must then use cunning acrobatics or clever trickery to navigate around the lasers to reach the target on the other side. Or, if he's Series/MacGyver, he can rig up a cunning system of mirrors to deflect the lasers around himself.