History Main / BookcasePassage

* The International Spy Museum has one which is a dark twist on the trope. It was in the office of a KGB official and lead to a TortureCellar where interviewees would be taken following casual conversation in the office.

* ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}''. Two British agents are about to be discovered in a castle in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, but one finds a secret passage in the room they're in. He used to be a joiner before the war, so he could see where the wall panels didn't fit together properly.

%%* The first ''Film/ScoobyDoo'' has this {{Lampshaded}}.

It doesn't '''have''' to involve books; it could be any kind of hidden or secret passage with a disguised door. It just tends to be behind bookcases [[DeadHorseTrope an awful lot]]. Another common form is where the passage is hidden behind a fireplace, and activated by a lever of some kind. The switch is often found using a LuckBasedSearchTechnique.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'' episode "The Math Book". In the library, Milo notices a single red book out of place and reaches for it. Of course, UsefulNotes/MurphysLaw being what it is, it just causes the bookcase to collapse. And then part of the wall collapses, and ''there's'' the secret tunnel.

* Played with in the ''WesternAnimation/MiloMurphysLaw'' episode "The Math Book". In the library, Milo notices a single red book out of place and reaches for it. Of course, MurphysLaw being what it is, it just causes the bookcase to collapse. And then part of the wall collapses, and ''there's'' the secret tunnel.

* Series/TheAddamsFamily {{Pinball}} table has one. You are [[SequenceBreaking supposed]] to unlock it first, [[DevelopersForesight but Gomez will happily compliment if you don't.]]
* One appears in ''[[Pinball/WHODunnit WHO dunnit]]'' when the player locks a ball for Basement Multiball.

* ''Film/TheEqualizer2''. Robert [=McCall=] has a panic room hidden behind a bookcase in his apartment. When the villains turn up there looking for him, he talks Miles (who is painting his apartment) how to activate it (by removing a particular book and pressing the button behind it). However the villains suspect the room is there and trick Miles into thinking they have left so he leaves the panic room.

* Subverted in ''Film/DanBrownsInferno''. When the Palazzo Vecchio is surrounded by police, Sienna is impressed when Langdon quickly finds an escape passage behind a painting, only for Langdon to point out that he was shown it in the official tour.

* In ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', the Cave (headquarters of the Team and formerly of the Justice League) features at least one of these. When Artemis expresses mild surprise at seeing it, Robin replies that she should see the Batcave.

* In ''Film/DickTracyVsCueball'', Simon Little has a secret passage concealed behind a bookcase in his basement. Cue ball uses it on multiple occasions to slip out when the building is under police surveillance.

* ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', in the strip called [[http://xkcd.com/1049/ "Bookshelf"]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'': At Dr. Galvani's house, there's a bookcase with a selectable book on a shelf. When clicked, this opened the bookcase and reveals a SecretRoom. The room contains a rat sample that can be used to poison the bootleg elixir producer at the Whiskey Distillery, or in the Golden Cat mission a rune.

* The discovery of one leads to the solution to a murder in ''Manga/DetectiveConan'', which has at least two mysteries surrounding old houses and the secret passage(s) therein.

* A staple of many GothicHorror stories; Ann Radcliffe, acknowledged TropeCodifier (along with Horace Walpole) of the genre, used them fairly often. One which figured particularly critically in the plot was that of ''Literature/TheItalian''.

* ''Anime/DigimonUniverseApplimonsters'': The heroes discover a hidden passage in the local bookstore owned by one of their friends' family. It becomes their secret headquarters with the permission of that friend, while the rest of the family remains oblivious to the fact that they have a huge basement just below their store.

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMario'', there's a switch in Peach's bedroom that makes a grate in the fireplace fall; you walk through into a tunnel that leads to a rotating platform into a certain other room. Peach uses this passage several times over the course of the game.

'''Draven:''' So I guess that just rules out ''Literature/TheSecret'', ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'', and ''Open: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Agassi Andre Agassi's]] Autobiography''.