Basic Trope: A character is captured, but is then secured in a room containing several items they can use to escape.
- Straight: The Mafia Boss orders the mooks to lock Bob up in a room. Said room contains supplies to create an explosive to escape.
- Exaggerated:
- Said room has a Wall of Weapons.
- Said room is full of tank parts.
- Downplayed: Said room contains a ladder and an unlocked window.
- Justified:
- All of the rooms in The Mafia's hideout look identical, so the mooks don't know which one is which.
- The Mafia kidnapped Bob in the first place because they needed him to make special explosives for them.
- Inverted: Bob locks himself inside the room, with the Mafia Boss and his goons, and proceeds to wipe them out with the supplies at hand.
- Subverted:
- Said room has items which can't be used for anything.
- Bob is unable to build anything.
- The room was empty of anything useful for escape. Bob however, had smuggled proper tools.
- Double Subverted: But Bob manages to use the items to create distractions.
- Parodied: Said room is full of escape kits.
- Zig Zagged: Bob rigs up several gadgets to use in escape attempts, none of which work—but he does rig up some improvised weapons to use on the guards when they open the door—except his True Companions bust him out first and they brought guns—but when their ride gets shot up, they're able to fix it using one of Bob's failed escape attempts.
- Averted:
- Bob is able to escape without building anything.
- Bob never gets trapped.
- Enforced: It's an episode of MacGyver, or a Mythbusters special testing if those methods would actually work.
- Lampshaded: "Well, that was lucky."
- Implied: Bob is a master engineer Actual Pacifist caught up in a hostage crisis. His captors have no idea. He makes a nuisance of himself until two of his captors drag him away, saying something about "solitary confinement." The scene cuts away right as they enter a hallway adjacent to the storeroom and the next time we see Bob, he's free from his bonds.
- Invoked: One of the mooks is The Mole, who convinces the other mooks that the useful room is useless.
- Exploited: The Big Bad places Bob in a deathtrap for the sole purpose of watching him build tools to get out, hoping to learn his craft.
- Defied: The Mafia Boss makes sure said room is empty without anything to use to escape.
- Discussed: "Hey, if we're lucky, they'll lock us in the hardware shed."
- Conversed: "Ever notice that the bad guy is always dumb enough to lock MacGyver up in the hardware store, chemistry lab, or other location where he can cause mayhem in the last act of the script?"
To demonstrate, we built this link out of all the computers in this room.
