Line #23 Main/ShackleSeatTrap


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16	A stock BoobyTrap used by {{Mad Scientist}}s, {{Supervillain}}s, and other mechanically-inclined bad guys to take prisoners captive, a Shackle Seat Trap resembles a normal chair, sofa, or bench, at least until someone sits down on it. Once they're seated, either the act of sitting itself or some secondary trigger causes sturdy restraints to pop out of its armrests and/or back, ensnaring the sitter and holding them in place. Miraculously, these restraints will always prove just the right size and length to bind them snugly, whatever the ''sitter's'' size and height.
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18	Variants using [[ChainedToABed beds]], [[JammedSeatbelts car seats]], [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable operating tables]], or other places a potential victim might settle into also occur, though rarely.
19
20	Often a form of SchmuckBait, if the victim already has cause to be wary of traps in the vicinity.
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22	MurphysBed is its reclining and accidental sister trope.
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24	----
25	!!Examples
26
27	[[foldercontrol]]
28
29	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
30	* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', at the pier duel, Anzu is placed in one of these as part of Marik's latest death trap. More exactly, the BrainwashedAndCrazy Anzu ''straps herself'' to the seat as Malik uses her as a mouthpiece to explain his evil plan, then is released from the mind-control and wakes up [[OhCrap not knowing what the Hell's going on]]...
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Comic Books]]
34	* In Nina Paley's ''ComicBook/{{Joyride}}'', the seats of the spaceship ''Puddlejumper'' have wrist clamps that trap Hoyt when he sits down. When Patty the hacker suggests she reprogram the ship's AI to stop it from doing things like that, it traps her wrists too.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Film -- Animation]]
38	* ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby'': When Tim and the Baby are trapped at [=PuppyCo=], they're dropped through a trap door into chairs that shackle them around the waist.
39	* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc1'': Boggs has a contraption called a "scream extractor" which has automatic wrist straps that hold a victim in the seat while a plunger-looking device attaches itself to their face to suction and capture the sound as they scream, which the titular company uses as a power source.
40	* Prince Naveen from ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' visits the voodoo villain Doctor Facilier, and finds himself restrained in his chair by armrests that have transformed into serpents. The serpents hold Naveen securely in place while Facilier extracts a blood sample.
41	* "WesternAnimation/RunawayBrain": This happens to WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse when he applies for a job under MadScientist Doctor Frankenollie. He drops through a TrapDoor into exactly this kind of chair, and remarks "[[{{Pun}} Talk about your ironclad contract]]..."
42	* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'', Colonel Calloway learns too late that he sat in one of these when he visits Ms. Grimwood.
43	* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': At the lab, Doc Ock hurls Peter B. into a chair which subsequently shackles his arms and legs, allowing Doc Ock to take a cell sample from his cheek.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
47	* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'': When James Cole is brought in to meet the panel of scientists, his guards caution them about how dangerous he is. A scientist assures them that Cole isn't going to do them harm, and asks him to take a seat. Cole sits in the only chair available, whereupon metal clamps close over his wrists and the seat elevates halfway up the wall.
48	* ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars'': When Shad lands on the space station of Dr. Hephaestus, an automated vehicle with a bench seat turns up to receive him, but when he sits down on it restraints snap shut around his arms and throat, choking Shad so he's unable to speak. The vehicle then takes Shad to [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Nanelia]] for repair, apparently in the belief that he's one of their RidiculouslyHumanRobots who has malfunctioned. She only finds out otherwise when she touches Shad and is shocked to find his body is warm.
49	* At the climax of ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', the titular ghost animates two of the ugly abstract statues. They move up behind Lydia's parents, press against them from behind so they're forced to recline on the awkward sculpted shapes and enfold or entwine the hapless couple in their protrusions.
50	* In ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'', Dana slumps down into a chair, which sprouts grabby demonic arms. These hold her captive as the chair itself slides into a gateway to Zuul's realm.
51	* In ''Film/HardcoreHenry'', Punk-Jimmy coaxes Henry into one when he realizes that Akan is tapping into Henry's visual feed. It fails to hold Henry for long.
52	* ''Film/TheHaunting1999'': When Crain's ghost animates the woodwork in Nell's room, ornamental spikes above her bed extend to pierce the mattress all around her, boxing her in.
53	* ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'': When Film/JamesBond sits down inside Mr. Big's headquarters, steel bands in the chair's arms snap shut on his wrists, holding him prisoner (though the bands [[SpecialEffectsFailure don't quite encircle]] Creator/RogerMoore's wrists).
54	-->'''Bond:''' You'll forgive me if I don't get up.
55	* ''Film/Madhouse1974'' features a shackle ''bed'' trap. When the victim lies upon it, shackles lock around his wrists and hold him in place as he is crushed to death by the descending canopy.
56	* In ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'', Dr. Krassman forces Kermit into the seat of a brain-scrambling device, and plastic restraints clamp shut on the frog's skinny wrists and ankles.
57	* In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster'', when Freddy attacks Sheila in the dream-classroom, hers and Alice's desks sprout extra bars to trap them both.
58	* The reclining sled used to launch Runners into the game zone in ''Film/TheRunningMan'' has automatic restraints for ankles and wrists, that pop out and bind whoever sits down in it.
59	* The school bus in ''Film/SkyHigh2005'' sprouts seat belts and shoulder straps, securing the students in their seats, just before it drives off the unfinished highway and [[FlyingCar transforms into an aircraft]].
60	* ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'': Koopa's [[DevolutionDevice devolution chamber]] has a chair that straps people in and forces them into the machine. Mario and Luigi later use this against Koopa by knocking him into the chair, briefly de-evolving him so they can escape.
61	* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', Logan is tricked into extending his adamantium claws while he's sitting on a chair in Viper's lair, at which point the chair locks his hands and wrists in place, rendering him unable to retract them. Then Silver Samurai appears and uses his super-heated adamantium blade to cut Logan's claws.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
65	* Late into the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' book ''Literature/CryptOfTheSorcerer'', you'll need to get yourself trapped in one of these ''on purpose'' in order to confront Razaak, the titular necromancer. Entering a bare room with a single chair built into a wall, you take a seat (choosing ''not'' to sit will have you leaving the room and going nowhere), at which point you're suddenly shackled as a disembodied voice from the chair demands you to identify yourself. If you have a zombie's tag, the chair and wall then flip around and the chair released you into Razaak's innermost sanctum; if you ''don't'', a spike then extends from inside the wall and through your back.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Literature]]
69	[[AC:Examples by author:]]
70	* In one of Creator/EricVanLustbader's novels, a KGB general is killed this way during a [[TestedOnHumans deadly demonstration]] of a virtual reality interrogation room. He's told to sit down in the sofa, which restrains him, then the subsequent images cause him to die of a heart attack. It was mentioned earlier that [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes he had a phobia about being restrained]] as well.
71	[[AC:Examples by title:]]
72	* ''Literature/DiogenesClub'':
73	** Referenced in "Literature/TheGypsiesInTheWood", in which an agent of the Literature/DiogenesClub feels a brief interlude of anxiety when he sits down in an examination chair at the village doctor's office. He knows this ''particular'' doctor is no MadScientist, but his personal experience with ones that ''were'' is such that he can't help but suspect this trope may come into play.
74	** Downplayed in "Literature/TomorrowTown". The protagonists get into the ZeeRust monorail train of a community-of-the-future and find that automatic safety belts are being strapped around them. They brace themselves for the implied high-Gee launch, only for the train to amble along at 25 miles an hour. It's an early sign that everything in the community is AwesomeButImpractical.
75	* ''Literature/DreamPark'': In ''The California Voodoo Game'', Captain Cypher accepts the challenge of a loa-possessed video arcade game and sits down on its contoured seat to play. The plastic seat immediately re-molds itself to wrap around his body, leaving only his arms and head free.
76	* "Literature/TheElixirOfLife1903": After Armitage learned that he couldn't drug his victims because that would make it impossible to extract their vitic force, he designed and built a chair that seems innocuous enough and sits comfortably, but which conceals a hinged steel shutter at the footrest that with the press of a button slides up to encase whoever is seated. Only the body from the neck upwards remains out in the open.
77	* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' Harry views Dumbledore's memories in the Pensieve, specifically of the wizarding equivalent of the Nuremberg tribunals after Voldemort's defeat. The accused is placed in a chair equipped with chains magicked to automatically bind them when they sit down. When Harry himself is tried for underage magic in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' in a similar room with a similar chair with shackles, he's relieved when the chains stay still for him.
78	* ''Literature/JackelianSeries'': In ''From the Deep of the Dark'', villainess Gemma hauls her captive brother from his cell on board her morphic-matter submarine. She uses her mental domination over the vessel to make tentacular bindings sprout from the chair she forces him into, immobilizing him for interrogation. [[spoiler:Subverted, because she's been mesmerized to ''think'' she's got her brother at her mercy, while he's actually escaped. Her co-conspirator soon finds Gemma beating the hell out of an empty chair, its shackling tendrils entwining only air.]]
79	* ''Literature/SecretHistories'': In ''Casino Infernale'', Molly sits down in an office chair while she and Eddie are searching a room for traps, and metal restraints pop out of it to hold her in place. As Molly is a very powerful witch who doesn't need her hands free to use magic, she just sends them snapping back into the chair with a Word, then glares at Eddie daring him to laugh at her for falling for the chair's SchmuckBait.
80	* ''Literature/SecretValley'': In the second book, the BigBad, currently away from his HQ, gets a video call from said HQ. There he sees his prisoner, recently escaped, taunting him, sitting in his seat, drinking his wine, etc. Then the prisoner makes the mistake of actually leaning onto the seat's backrest, triggering a shackle booby-trap that ensures his recapture.
81	* Villain-free variant: In ''Literature/{{Strata}}'', Kin climbs onto a mechanical horse, only to find her legs trapped by metal bands that spring from its sides. She'd have been quite alarmed, except that the bands are comfortably padded, being a safety measure to ensure riders can't fall off or be crushed if the horse is knocked on its side.
82	* ''Literature/TheWinterQueen'': The villains trap Erast Fandorin in one of these during their final confrontation. Fandorin manages to escape by pretending they've sedated him with chloroform when they unshackle and try to move his "unconscious" body.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
86	* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': The prison transport shuttle Cassian is forced onto startles the captives aboard by abruptly and forcibly magnetizing their cuffed wrists to the sides of their seats.
87	* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E18WhereTheWildThingsAre Where the Wild Things Are]]", Spike is sitting in a chair in a HauntedHouse, smirking at all the running and screaming going on, when suddenly [[BoundAndGagged straps whip across his arms and mouth]].
88	* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
89	** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E4TheAndroidsOfTara The Androids of Tara]]", Romana lies down on a bed for examination by a doctor, and metal brackets pop up and encircle her body to hold her there.
90	** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E1DeepBreath Deep Breath]]", the Doctor and Clara get snared by restraints that pop out of the upholstery of a restaurant booth. The whole booth then drops through the floor like an elevator, carrying its captives with it.
91	* In an episode of ''Series/KCUndercover'', K.C. is trapped in a car via this trope when [[spoiler:her boyfriend, actually a double agent, kidnaps her]].
92	* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Strictly Business", Murdoc rigs a DeathTrap in which metal clamps spring out of a chair to hold him in place, a statue of Cupid spins around automatically, and a candle burns through a string to launch a cyanide-coated dart from Cupid's bow at Mac's heart.
93	* ''Series/NightGallery'':
94	** In "A Question of Fear", Leslie Nielsen gets trapped by a ''bed'' that's rigged this way.
95	** Another variant in "The House That Cried Murder" features a man being psychically 'trapped' in a vision in which he's chained down to the floor under a swinging blade, ''Literature/ThePitAndThePendulum''-style.
96	* In ''Series/TheOrville'', Alara gets strapped down by automatic restraints on a sick-bay examination table during [[spoiler:a fear-testing simulation she had Isaac design for her]].
97	* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'': Celesta, the embodiment of Death, comes to take King Sisyphus [[{{Psychopomp}} to the afterlife]] at the start of "[[Recap/XenaS01E09DeathInChains Death in Chains]]". He offers her some food before she takes him. After she sits down, restraints snap around her wrists and he takes away her Eternal Flame, [[CapturedSuperEntity trapping her there]].
98	[[/folder]]
99
100	[[folder:Mythology]]
101	* Famously used in Myth/ClassicalMythology by Hephaestus to prank his mother, Hera.
102	[[/folder]]
103
104	[[folder:Music]]
105	* Happens ''without'' a seat in the video for Music/{{Asia}}'s "Don't Cry", when one of the ill-fated explorers leans against the wrong wall and his wrists are trapped this way.
106	* Creator/WillSmith sits down in one of these early in Music/DJJazzyJeffAndTheFreshPrince's video for "A Nightmare On My Street". Notable in that the shackles are plainly visible from the start, yet he sits down in the rigged chair anyway, presumably because caution and foresight don't always apply in dreams.
107	[[/folder]]
108
109	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
110	* One odd trap in Undermountain, an infamous ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' dungeon complex beneath Waterdeep, consists of a canopy bed with a suspiciously lumpy frame. This is because the "frame" is an animated owlbear skeleton, stretched out on its back. Intruders who sit or lie on the "bed" are subject to its bear-hug attack.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113	[[folder:Video Games]]
114	* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'': Near the beginning, the only way for the plot to proceed is for Booker to sit in a chair in the top floor of the lighthouse. Bands snap down trapping him and a lift-off sequence begins.
115	* ''VideoGame/TheEvilWithin'': The chair that you have to sit in to upgrade your abilities does this. The first time it happens, Castellanos freaks out, but afterwards he knows it's coming and just puts up with it.
116	* ''VideoGame/ShantaeAndThePiratesCurse'': The opening scene shows Shantae taking a bath in her home while reminiscing about the consequences of her previous adventure. Then she remembers she doesn't own a bathtub, and shackles appear, imprisoning her.
117	[[/folder]]
118
119	[[folder:Western Animation]]
120	* ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'' had an episode with a Bond parody, naturally including the laser scene.
121	* ''WesternAnimation/DetectiveBogey'' once homaged the ''Film/Madhouse1974'' scene, with Kid getting caught in a booby-trapped bed with a spiky descending ceiling. Bogey rescues her in-extremis.
122	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
123	** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E18TheHonking The Honking]]", when rampaging were-car Bender captures Fry in his driver's seat, the seatbelts animate and wrap around Fry to secure him in place. Then the belts tighten so Fry can't avoid Bender's steering wheel, which smacks him repeatedly in the face.
124	** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS7E14TwoDBlacktop 2-D Blacktop]]", the safe-but-boring replacement ship has seats equipped with what Bender assumes are cup-holders. They're actually arm-holders, which flip around and restrain his wrists when Leela activates the seat.
125	* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain'': When the bus takes on tree-like qualities for the communication-in-Nature episode, leafy vines sprout in the interior as animated seat/shoulder belts for the students.
126	* In episode 2 of ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'', Roll is thrown into a makeup chair which restrains her.
127	* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', just about any time Perry the Platypus sits down whenever his nemesis Doofenshmirtz is around, it's in one of these.
128	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
129	** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Burns' Heir]]", Mr. Burns hitting the wrong button causes the chair Bart is sitting in to suddenly sprout shackles.
130	** Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E5TreehouseOfHorrorXVIII Treehouse of Horror XVIII]]" when Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, and Nelson are whisked away into Hell and are put in chairs with demon arms that bind them. Nelson pulls his hands upward before he can get bound, but another set of arms pops out.
131	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS4E11WhaleOfABirthdayKarateIsland Karate Island]]", [=SpongeBob=] falls victim to this after being crowned the King of Karate, being shackled to his own throne.
132	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'': When Robin finds Terra hacking the Titans' computer in "Terra-rized", he sics the T-Tower's defenses on her. Among the resulting auto-defenses is a set of restraints that pop out of the couch cushions and entrap her arms and torso.
133	* In one of the ''WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit's Cracking Contraptions'' shorts, Wallace's device for clearing the table includes shackles on the chairs so that he and Gromit don't get sucked in by the vacuum that removes the dirty plates. Unfortunately, the power goes out before they can be freed.
134	* Used on Zach and Ivy in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego''. Ivy, however, is able to stand up in the heavy steel chair, and nearly bursts her restraints, when a rogue judge pushes her BerserkButton by threatening to jail Carmen Sandiego without a fair trial.
135	* ''WesternAnimation/WildKratts'': In "Octopus Windkratticus", Martin sits down in one of the Octo-pod's seats and is wrapped by eight flexible appendages that hold him down. He initially assumes they're automatic seat belts, but they're the arms of a giant Pacific octopus that's clinging to the back of the chair.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Real Life]]
139	* According to Russian legend, UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat employed a torturer named Sheshkovsky, whose main implement was such a chair. Sheshkovsky invited his victim to sit in a chair, then the mechanism locked the occupant in place, and the chair lowered midway to the floor below to expose the occupant's rear end to the two burly men with whips who were waiting downstairs and whipped the victim hard. One intended victim of the device, one Count Razumovsky, allegedly forced the torture master to sit in his own chair. The mechanism worked, and the burly men with whips unknowingly whipped their boss instead of their proper victim. While Sheshkovsky is known to have truly existed, no proof of this particular device has ever been found.
140	* A very dubious source claimed that in ancient China there was an invention named the "Collapsing Chair", solely intended to assist in raping peasant maidens (and for this reason the state outlawing it by death penalty). Given that any landlord getting away with that wouldn't have needed a device, anyway, it is very probable that the author made it up for titillation of the reader.
141	* A harmless joke version can be seen on display in Rosenborg Palace in Copenhagen; it grabs a sitter with levers hidden in the armrests, then soaks them with water from a container hidden in the back.
142	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ShackleSeatTrap