Trapdoors - too silly?

[Deleted member 4007]

I'm writing a fantasy fiction series, which is mostly realistic in nature. Set in an Industrial Era, on another planet.

I wanted to have a scene where someone is sitting, eating dinner with the wealthy host in his elaborate castle, and then, the host pulls a lever, and the guest falls through a trapdoor, into the dungeons.

First off, is this too cheesy? Or would it make for exciting writing?

Secondly, has any such thing ever happened in real history?
Thanks.

 

[Russ]

Yes it has happened in real history. It may however lean to the cheesy side.

 

[Aidan of the tavern]

Not necessarily cheesy depending on how its written, but how practical is it? There could be a chance of broken bones if he falls through at least one room, and the trapdoor would have to be well disguised so he doesn't look like an idiot for sitting there in the first place. If you want the aesthetic of a trapdoor-capture then go for it, but if they're eating dinner wouldn't it be easier to just drug him?

 

[Miskatonic]

Sweeney Todd's barber chair was a cool take on the trapdoor.

 

[goldhawk]

If your villain is a showoff like the Joker, then it might be appropriate. But most of the time, it's cheesy.

How would one get such a mechanism to work reliably?

 

[evolution_rex]

I think there are some steps to avoid cheesiness with this.

1. Use it more than once. It's a crafty invention and using it once might feel a cartoon. If someone had a real one, they'd be pulling that trick all the time.
3. Some foreshadowing.
4. Make sure there is a nice build up to the scene. Make it a big deal that this kind of thing is happening.
5. Characters reflecting on how ridiculous it is.

 

[Deleted member 4007]

I'm imagining that there would be a guest chair, and underneath it is some ornate rug. When it opens up, the victim falls through a chute, and they roll down into the dungeons.
Yes, I could have it happen multiple times. Yes, the character who has set it up would be very classy, and a dangerous man.

 

[Chilari]

Silly? Whatever gave you that idea...

[video=youtube_share;tDedpreZH-0]https://youtu.be/tDedpreZH-0[/video]

But they could possibly be done well.

 

[Uffda]

Sure wish I had one of those sometimes!

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

It may be a bit of a cliche but you could get away with it in my view. Set your character up perhaps as a bit of a paranoid recluse perhaps - (Howard Hughes?), or give him some real enemies he has to guard against 24 / 7 - wasn't their an epp of Misummer where a member of the nobility had an electrostatic security system set up on his house to protect him against a life long enemy. Perhaps give him a history of big game hunting where he used to use traps for elephants which is where he got the idea.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[BeigeCerberus]

it's a lil' cheesy, but they have been used well throughout history, and have a record of being effective. it's easy enough to hide under something like a rug or splitting floor - especially if its in an industrial thing (think like a mechanical door on the floor). I'd recommend handling the concequences of the fall fully if you do use it, them falling down and hitting the ground etc.

also, have it still remain in existence once used

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Also just remembered. Thirty years ago I lived in a student flat in Dunedin which was an old turn of the century farm house. It had due to its age a couple of unique features. One was the meat safe which was essentially a cupboard with a grill that connected straight to the outside of the house. Damned cold in winter! But another was also in the kitchen, a thing called a milk store. In essence it was a small hatch in the base of the kitchen floor which you pulled up and which was just large enough to hold a couple of steel milk pails - I said it was old! The pails sat on a concrete pad underneath house so were always at ground temperature which is usually much colder than air temperature, and never saw the light which tends to brown milk. We used it as a beer fridge though!

So if that was simply a circa 1900's farm house in Dunedin why not have other trap doors?

Cheers, Greg.

 

[MineOwnKing]

No, not silly.

The thought of a trap door immediately reminded me of a documentary I watched a few years ago about Shanghaiing drunken men in bars and dropping them through trap doors to work ships.

This link provides some of the details.

Portland's Shanghai Tunnels | Atlas Obscura

 

[DanJames]

Context speaks volumes, it is inherently goofy seeming, but goofy and realistic can work together, provided this isn't the first time goofy has cropped up in your story. However, if there are already goofy elements present, then it'd be worth trying to subvert expectations. Have all the dining room chairs have strange hazard lights, much in the same presentation as that mitchell and webb look sketch posted above. They pull the liver, all the sirens go off, the guest is looking around, taking in the scene and trying to fathom out what's going on. Eventully clicks and jumps up in the nick of time, only for there to be a second trap door parallel to the chair and the charatcer talking about just how stupid he's been for getting off at the left hand side, instead of the right, or something to that effect.

 

[Rufanacious]

Oooh, that's just dastardly!! A second trap door!!

However you could also, I think, un-goof-ify it. With a bit of work. If you wanted it to be taken seriously, and not be comedic.

The first step I'd take would be to get rid of the chair - I read somewhere there was an ornate rug under a guest chair? - simply because... what happens to the chair when the trapdoor opens? Does it fall down with them? (ouch!) Does it tip over, and spill them out? Why wouldn't they grab onto it? ... this is just a personal opinion (!!) but my instinct is, it's easier to make non-comedic and un-cheesy without the chair... but just IMHO!

Instead, I'd suggest something such as... a trapdoor in the floor, in a certain place in the room, next, perhaps, to an interesting statue or tapestry or other objet d'art... to be triggered when the protagonist moves to look at it, stands next to it, on the correct piece of floor...

If your villain is in the room at the time, talking to the protagonist, ready to pull his lever, or give a signal, or such - the villain can point out the piece of art/item, suggest they go and have a closer look at it... this also takes some of the 'blame' for falling into the trap away from the character, as they were tricked and lured into place, they didn't plonk themselves willingly into the heart of the trap...?

On which note, final piece of advice: as the trap is triggered, or in the seconds before it's triggered, I'd suggest - the protagonist "senses" it. A flash of metal in the corner of their eye as a mechanism shifts - a suspicious quick movement as the villain reaches for the lever - an odd shift of the floor beneath their feet... anything of that sort, just some small, flicker of awareness, wait, something's not right, what's going on - .... too late for them to react, of course, but again, this helps with the reader feeling like they were *caught*, there was nothing they could do and OH NO! A chute leading down to a tank full of ravenous piranhas. :wink:

 

[FifthView]

What if the person being dropped has a phobia of falling? Then, the person using the trap door could have chosen the method specifically for that reason. I know this is a stretch, but it would make the trapdoor less goofy or even play off the goofiness of the idea by making it more sinister & manipulative. Perhaps the person's phobia is of heights, and his host could engage him in a discussion about the depths below his castle/manor -- say, a natural cavern he discovered recently. The victim could be shown to grow nervous because of the very idea of such open depths. Then the host says something like, "Well, words just don't give a proper measure of it; here, let me show you." So the point would be: The trapdoor exists not simply because, hey, trapdoor, but has a real purpose, was perhaps built specifically for this victim.

 

[DanJames]

Yea, screw my idea. Go with any if the two above, I already like them better. They could probably burn work to be honest.

What I would say in terms if the phobia thing, the underground cavern suggests he'd be falling a long time, a good subversion could be to not have any long plunge into a cavern. The character only needs the fear, I've the fear kicks in, even a small drop will have them go ballistic and unimaginably terrified, even when the land a few below.

It also removes the thought going through the readers mind of 'why didn't they die after that huge fall'.