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Playing With / Skeleton Key Card

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Basic Trope: A credit card or similarly shaped object can be used to pick locks.

  • Straight: Bob opens the locked door with just his credit card.
  • Exaggerated: Bob opens enormous automatic door by jiggling his credit card between the leafs.
  • Downplayed: Bob opens an early spring-bolt lock with a flexible strip.
  • Justified: The door is kept shut with a cabin hook.
    • The card is actually a disguised sabotage tool.
  • Inverted:
    • Bob closes the door to his house with a credit card.
    • Planet of Hats B'ohb's society keeps their credit card equivalent in a lockpick.
  • Subverted: Bob tries to open the door with his credit card, but it doesn't seem to work.
    • Bob tries to pry open an alien door with a keycard - it opens up. He tries it on another door and it doesn't work. It turns out that is just how they are supposed to unlock.
  • Double Subverted: ...until he pulls the card back and the door opens before him.
  • Parodied:
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is able to pick cheap locks this way in the present. In the future he finds some locked doors with no apparent key hole and is able to stick in a credit card and it opens up. It turns out that future doors include a back up scanner in the frame and it works based upon the identifier. Although there is also a futuristic pass key which looks like a credit card but is actually a lock hacking device.
  • Averted:
    • Bob opens the door with the key.
    • Bob doesn't have a credit card to begin with.
  • Enforced: Bob is locked in a room with nothing but credit card in his possession.
  • Lampshaded: "I can't believe I just broke into someone's house with a credit card."
  • Invoked: Someone replaces the key to Bob's house with a credit card.
  • Exploited: Alice is aware of Bob's ability to pick locks with credit cards, so she electrifies the gap between the door and the frame.
  • Defied: Bob's captor makes sure to remove his credit cards.
  • Discussed: "You cannot pick locks with credit card, Bob. This Is Reality."
  • Conversed: ???
  • Implied: Alice asks Bob how he escaped. He replies he had his wallet with him.
  • Played For Laughs: Bob finds that he has a massive credit card bill after using it to pick locks to escape from Evulz's lair.

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