Line #5 Main/ThisIsNotAFloor


1	[[quoteright:905:[[Literature/AlexRider https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/point_blanc.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:905:“Watch out for that first step - it’s a doozy”]]
3
4	...[[TheTreacheryOfImages It is the image of a floor.]]
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6	When you have a MasterOfIllusion or a LotusEaterMachine, why bother bloodying your hands or risking the victim fighting back, when you can trick them into walking across empty air? A perfect plot (bar necromancy or mind-reading) when the only evidence that points toward you, or even murder at all, rests in the mind of the deceased. Often, another character will call attention to the character's actions and unknowingly break the illusion, or the illusionist will break the illusion himself at the last instant to [[ManipulativeBastard play with the victim's mind]] [[SmugSnake just to show]] how [[TheChessmaster in control]] he is.
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8	This is where PsychicAssistedSuicide meets TrickedToDeath. See also LeapOfFaith for a way to invert the trope. For the video game version of this, see FakePlatform.
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10	Trope name references Creator/ReneMagritte's ''[[TheTreacheryOfImages Ceci n'est pas une pipe]]''.
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12	----
13	!!Examples:
14
15	%%
16	%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add your examples alphabetically by series.
17	%% And make sure there is an element of illusion, else it is TrickedToDeath.
18	%%
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
22	* In ''Anime/{{Fractale}}'', the system maintaining a HardLight town flickers off, and several people fall through the fake floor to their deaths.
23	* ''Manga/{{Needless}}'' inverts this with a character who can turn things invisible - large projectiles, most of the floor except the small patch on which the heroes are standing, the wall between him and them... the trick is to keep them from realizing what he's doing.
24	* Shows up twice in ''Literature/{{Paprika}}'', first from the outside, as a character rants about "[[WordSalad the fifth grade class with the photographic zoom lens]]" and runs through a full-length window, then from the inside, with the main character snapping out of it just in time to avoid going over a balcony.
25	* A variant occurs in one manga of ''Anime/ReadOrDie'', where the floor is in fact a lot of paper being held rigid by Yomiko's will. The building was under construction at the time.
26	* In ''Anime/YuGiOhCapsuleMonsters'', in episode 4 Yugi falls through an invisible hole in the floor and into a trapped room.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:Comic Books]]
30	* This is part of Mysterio's M.O. in ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' comics and cartoons.
31	[[/folder]]
32
33	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
34	* In ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler'', one of the op-art tile patterns in the palace turns out to be a pit.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38	* ''Film/Anon2018''. The killer hacks into Sal's eyes and makes him drive into oncoming traffic, (almost) step into an empty elevator shaft, and fall down a flight of stairs by making him think a landing is beneath his feet. After being chased into a subway, he splices an image of a subway train onto Sal's vision when there's actually an empty platform, to try and make him step onto it and get run over by the real train which arrives moments later.
39	* Peters of ''Film/EventHorizon'' is killed in this fashion when the evil ship creates an illusion in her mind of a bridge across an open shaft with her son on the other side, resulting in her falling to her death on the gravity chamber floor.
40	* Inverted in ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome''. [[spoiler:Mysterio]] creates an illusion around Spider-Man that they are on top of the Eiffel Tower, then an illusion of MJ is thrown off it. Spider-Man falls for it and tries to dive down and save her, only to hurt himself when he face plants onto the concrete floor he was standing on.
41	[[/folder]]
42
43	[[folder:Literature]]
44	* In ''Point Blanc'', the second book in Anthony Horowitz' ''Literature/AlexRider'' series, a murder is set up by putting a holographic elevator into an out-of-order elevator shaft.
45	* While Calesta, the BigBad of the ''Literature/ColdfireTrilogy'' is incapable of hurting people directly, his illusion powers make it easy for people to not notice a real danger, or a way to avoid said danger. At one point he makes an entire city fail to notice an incoming tidal wave.
46	* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'':
47	** In two books (''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'' and ''Literature/MovingPictures''), the Tower of Art at the University is the scene for this trope. In both cases, the hero has to ascend a spiral staircase inside a crumbling 800 foot tower, trusting to their senses that the stairs are still there under their feet -- this is not a given. The trick is to close your eyes and really believe the stairs are still intact and can carry your weight -- even when they are not.
48	** In ''Literature/GoingPostal'', Moist has a ghostly vision of the post office at its height and splendor. During this vision, he's walking around and realizes that the balconies overlooking the main hall are long gone, and a section of floor ahead of him is, in the present, the top of a staircase. Moist realizes that two of the previous postmasters hired to get the Post Office working again died because they fell for the illusion; one walked onto a balcony that's not there anymore, and one took a tumble down a staircase that wasn't there in the past.
49	* The CorruptCorporateExecutive who tried to arrange an assassination at a major Park reception in ''[[Literature/DreamPark The Barsoom Project]]'' nearly succumbs to this when his office's private elevator is tampered with, replacing the floor with a realistic hologram. Never mess with the master imagineers of Dream Park, especially when your office is on the top floor and their bosses just bought out your elevator-repair service....
50	* [[spoiler: Lasciel's shadow]] in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'' book ''Dead Beat'' pulls this on Harry, filling an apartment with illusionary [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes flame]] and putting an illusionary fire escape outside the window before breaking the illusion to show that it ''could'' easily kill Harry, [[IfIWantedYouDead but doesn't want to.]]
51	* A Force-sensitive MonsterOfTheWeek attempts to inflict this on Luke Skywalker in ''[[Literature/NewJediOrder Rebel Stand]]'', but fails because Luke's well-honed combat instincts (especially his piloting instincts -- he's used to subconsciously noticing terrain so he doesn't crash into it) raise an alarm at the last second.
52	* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': An evil WizardingSchool requires all its students to complete a lethal obstacle course before they can become full students. On the day of the competition, the death traps in the course are changed out from the practice ones, and some of the new traps include deep chasms which are concealed by illusions that just look like a normal floor.
53	* In ''Literature/{{Xanth}}'', Iris has the power of illusions, and this is one of the things she can do.
54	[[/folder]]
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56	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
57	* ''Series/AlienNation'': Downplayed. The illusion showed a hole right where the actual hole was, but hid the plank the cult leader used to "walk on air" as she crossed... and which she ''removed'' before telling her marks to follow her.
58	* One case in the original ''Series/{{CSI}}'' involved a woman who'd jumped off a high-rise apartment balcony in her bikini. She'd been hypnotized to think she was taking a dip at the beach.
59	** ''Series/{{Columbo}}'' did the same in ''A Deadly State of Mind,'' only the woman stripped down to nothing at all.
60	* ''Series/{{House}}'' uses this a lot, in the "patient of the week is hallucinating" form.
61	* In the ''Series/MetalHurlantChronicles'' episode "Back to Reality", the bad guy makes a woman jump off a building by making her think she's about to jump into a pool.
62	* ''Series/RoyalPains'' does a similar version, where a "haunted" client can't tell the difference between a floor three inches below or thirty feet below.
63	* Inverted in ''Series/StargateSG1'' when the heroes have to cross a narrow bridge over a deep chasm. One of them falls... and lands unharmed on top of the illusory hole.
64	* A ''Series/{{Taggart}}'' episode involving hypnosis had a hypnotist tell Jardine that you couldn't hypnotise someone to jump off a building (as the VictimOfTheWeek had done) unless they already wanted to, and he comes back by asking her if you could hypnotise someone to not ''know'' they were jumping off a building.
65	[[/folder]]
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67	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
68	* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'':
69	** 3rd Edition suggested in the Dungeon Master's guide that an effective trap would be an illusory floor over a pit of acid.
70	** [[CastingAShadow Shadow magic]] creates illusions that are [[YourMindMakesItReal just real enough]] to affect people who don't disbelieve them -- like floors that work for gullible meat shields but drop the stronger-willed SquishyWizard into a spike pit.
71	** Pretty much any Illusion spell can produce this effect, if the image it creates is big enough. Of special note is Phantasmal Force, which will make its target believe in it, no matter what. One example of this effect in its description is a target falling through an illusory bridge, and assuming the wind blew them off instead.
72	[[/folder]]
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74	[[folder:Video Games]]
75	* ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'' had fake floors, which can only be detected if you fell through them or if you made use of Holy Water to figure out which floors aren't fake.
76	%% Zero Context Examples
77	%%* Used in some ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' games, usually in dungeons that use the [[SeeThruSpecs Lens Of Truth]] or local equivalent.
78	%%* Used a couple of times in the ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series, and at least once in [[Film/SilentHill the movie]].
79	* The ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games occasionally use this trick. Two examples that stand out are ''VideoGame/MegaMan2'', where they can be detected by a weapon that follows the ground, the Bubble Lead, and ''[[VideoGame/MegaMan9 9]]'', where there are actual enemies that fly by to create holographic platforms over pits right by the real ones.
80	* The mage tower in ''VideoGame/RealmsOfArkania: Shadows over Riva'' has a fake corridor that can drop you outside. Falling isn't necessarily fatal, but getting your party back together inside can be a pain.
81	[[/folder]]
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83	[[folder:Webcomics]]
84	%% These links are broken
85	* In ''Webcomic/CwensQuest'':
86	** The main character [[http://www.cwensquest.com/?comic=chapter-1-page-4-rough-start runs into one of these]] when she steps onto the edge of a floating island.
87	** A more deliberately deceptive example [[http://www.cwensquest.com/?comic=chapter-8-page-7-good-start doesn't quite fool]] its intended victim.
88	* Invoked in ''Webcomic/RustyAndCo'' by GuileHero Prestige Perkins with a low-lying cloud, a covert Fly spell, and a [[http://rustyandco.com/comic/level-5-23/ really good bluff]].
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Western Animation]]
92	* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Spellbinder uses an illusion to nearly trick Terry into walking off a cliff. He has also tricked Terry into diving off of a building by projecting a waterfall over it.
93	* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'': While he occasionally does the opposite, Wile E. Coyote is known for his painting of a bridge in front of a chasm. The road runner [[RealityWarper takes the bridge]], Coyote tries to chase it, rips through the picture and falls. And then there was the time that the ''opposite'' happened - the Roadrunner rips through the canvas while Wile E. falls off the painted cliff.
94	* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', Spider-Man inverts this with one of Mysterio's holocubes by projecting a gaping chasm below Rhyno, making him panic and flail around.
95	* In the ''WesternAnimation/ThunderCats1985'' episode "Trial of Mind Power", Tigra uses an illusion to trick the Mutants into driving off a cliff.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Real Life]]
99	* In 2018, an art gallery visitor [[https://nerdist.com/man-fell-into-vantablack-hole/ fell into]] an eight-foot-deep pit lined with vantablack, a super-black paint, after mistaking it for a black circle drawn on the floor.
100	* One particularly old-school trapping method is to simply cover a pit with sticks (along with other debris to make it look like an ordinary patch of ground) and leave some bait on top.
101	[[/folder]]
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