History Main / DurableDeathtrap

** For instance, the ruins of the Ancient Giant civilization of Xen'drik in the ''{{Eberron}}'' campaign setting usually have deathtraps that have stood for thousands of years.

** One such, the SS ''Richard Montgomery'', is in the Thames estuary. It contains enough explosives and is close enough to built-up areas that if it went off it would cause nuclear levels of destruction, albeit without the radiation. Despite being in shallow enough water that the tops of its masts are still visible, it is considered safer to enforce an exclusion zone of several miles around it than to try to clear it up. This may however turn out to be a self-defeating strategy -- decades of decay have made it ever more likely to go off by itself, while decades of property development have increased the potential for destruction if it does.

* Sometimes averted, sometimes played straight in ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress''. Traps ''can'' get jammed if triggered enough times in quick succession and projectile weapon-based ones require reloading, but they don't require any maintenance and can stay functional indefinitely. Whether this stays true after the promised mechanical engineering overhaul remains to be seen.

* In ''NationalTreasure'', when they [[spoiler: discover the lost city of gold]] it is opened through a complex series of counter weights and then the door immediately shuts behind them using equally complex mechanics. Also [[spoiler: The traps and actual city of gold are complicated to the point that even setting them up would be nearly impossible without killing yourself in the process, this also happens in the first one]]. Partially subverted though in that they slowly fall apart after the first use indicating that they weren't durable enough for daily operation but durable enough to be in the single state and then perform a single transition for centuries. Only partially due to the complexity involved in the set up.

* The Angkor Thom temple from the video game ''EternalDarkness'' fits this trope perfectly, featuring hallways equipped with slamming wall sections, ''humongous'' blades capable of slicing a man in a single blow, and holes that fire poisonous darts. Of course, since all the characters are MadeOfIron, Ellia will only die after being hit 3 or 4 times by these traps... ''even though she's the weakest character in the game.''

** {{Justified|Trope}} in that some of the temples are meant as tests for TheHero, and various Hyrulian dieties likely maintain the traps to ensure that only TheHero enters.

* In ''StarWars: VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed'', Starkiller visits the ruins of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and the security system is still operational, forcing Starkiller to contend with droids and HardLight simulations.

** European countries including Germany and Britain still discover unexploded bombs from WorldWarII. There are also artefacts from the first world war being unearthed in France and Belgium to this day, called an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_harvest Iron Harvest]].

* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', in which Aang and [[spoiler:Zuko]] explore the ruins of a long extinct culture. When they run into a series of booby traps, [[spoiler:Zuko]] wonders how the traps are still operational after all this time. [[spoiler:It is soon revealed that the race wasn't so extinct after all.]]

-->'''Ford:''' I think they're going to have [[{{Understatement}} a very good try at applying to us]].

** The primary purpose of those pits was to catch rainwater to prevent it from ruining the tombs, by the way. Catching graverobbers was just a side benefit.

->''Your car needs a service at least every 3 years, but a temple built from ''stone'' with primitive tools over one thousand years ago can have a mechanism that runs smoother than a hot curry through a digestive system. Because of ''magic''.''

* In ''[[SeriousSam Serious Sam III: BFE]]'': You go inside a pyramid where everything is crumbling and yet there are still levers that activate falling ceilings. Could be justified in that there might be some Sirian technology behind the scenes holding everything together.

* Pi'illodium in VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam. Keep in mind the entire Pi'illo Kingdom which it was supposed to guard the temple of had literally collapsed about two thousand years before the game starts. That still didn't stop this thing firing an infinite barrage of heat seeking missiles at Mario and Luigi, flying, making comments in RoboSpeak about how their deaths were imminent and setting off a thirty second self destruct timer when its health got low. Probable same deal with Earthwake in Dreamy Wakeport, assuming it was given the nightmare chunk to hold back when the BigBad was defeated the first time round. Two thousand years of no kingdom or civilisation didn't stop that HumongousMecha either.

* ''TheJourneymanProject 2: Buried in Time'' graciously averts this. You visit Cichen Itza at 1050 AD, when the traps for the three underground trials have been recently built and are fully functional.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', a Jaffa proverb recited by Teal'c states: [[SpockSpeak "They do not build them as they once did."]]
** Semi-justified though as a lot of the stuff the Ancients and other civilizations built are very durable, functional magic, and made out of Unobtainium.

* Ancient ruins in ''{{Drakan}}'' feature fully functional traps. It seems that whirling blades are much more durable than stationary stone walls.

* In ''{{Painkiller}}'', the medieval-style shields used by the Templar enemies can block all of Daniel's weapons - even the rockets that should have taken both shield and user simultaneously.

* The ''{{Uncharted}}'' series plays with this - while the adventuring segments rarely actively try to kill the player, any slippery handhold or misjudged jump can spell a quick, flat death. The puzzles often involve navigating rooms with huge clockwork systems and complex hydraulics which are always visibly decayed but, as a rule, will never be quite so decayed that Drake can't get past them. There are countless occasions where the loss of one more tiny architectural detail would render the game unwinnable, and just as many occasions where that same brick or pole will fall off the wall as soon as Drake is done with it - meaning if anyone had tried before him, or if it had rained particularly hard the day before, Drake would have had to turn around and go home. While not exactly "Death traps", this trope is also invoked with the old guns that Drake and crew pick up in the first and second games that have been laying around for a half century at least in conditions that would utterly destroy the functionality of any firearm within a few months, and having them operate perfectly without jamming, specifically the MP-40s and P08 Lugers he picked up left over from {{Those Wacky Nazis}}, as well as the AK-47s he finds left over from an old expedition into Shambhala.
** And then it gets played straight in the second game, where Nate and Chloe fall into a room with a descending spiked ceiling.

** One such is in the Thames estuary. It contains enough explosives and is close enough to built-up areas that if it went off it would cause nuclear levels of destruction, albeit without the radiation. Despite being in shallow enough water that the tops of its masts are still visible, it is considered safer to enforce an exclusion zone of several miles around it than to try to clear it up. This may however turn out to be a self-defeating strategy -- decades of decay have made it ever more likely to go off by itself, while decades of property development have increased the potential for destruction if it does.

** A deleted scene from ''Discworld/RaisingSteam'' (included in the exclusive Discworld Convention 2014 Folio) has Moist meet a dwarf whose job is maintaining and resetting the traps in a dungeon. To keep it sporting, he also leaves food and first aid kits in various places. The author's note at the start assures us that this scene was a gift from the goddess Narrativia and has nothing to do with [[Franchise/TombRaider any video game series]] he and [[Creator/RhiannaPratchett his family members]] might enjoy.

* In ''StarWars: TheForceUnleashed'', Starkiller visits the ruins of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and the security system is still operational, forcing Starkiller to contend with droids and HardLight simulations.

*** One particularly impressive example of how true this trope can be was the case of the unexploded Luftwaffe 2,200-pound bomb that was uncovered in 2008 under the then-in-construction British Olympic Stadium. Apparently at some point during defusal efforts the bomb began ticking, with the internal clockwork fuse being apparently jarred into action. A clockwork mechanism, buried underground and under the water table for 60 years after slamming into the ground after being dropped by a plane, began ticking. Wrap your mind around that for a moment.
*** This perpetual danger of unexploded ordinance remains the drive for contemporary landmine bans. The US response has been to create landmines that deactivate after a set time, or when batteries fail.

* Ironically, in RealLife you don't need to put traps in most caves or ''any'' decayed ruins- they're plenty dangerous to explore on their own.

** One such is in the Thames estuary. It contains enough explosives and is close enough to built-up areas that if it went off it would cause nuclear levels of destruction, albeit without the radiation. Despite being in shallow enough water that the tops of its masts are still visible, it is considered safer to enforce an exclusion zone of several miles around it than to try to clear it up. This may however turn out to be a self-defeating strategy - decades of decay have made it ever more likely to go off by itself, while decades of property development have increased the potential for destruction if it does.
* It was thought it was just a myth that Qui Shi Huangs tomb was filled with mercury rivers so small ships could sail for eternity, by killing anyone who tries to disturb it. When his tomb was finally found, it was discovered that the tomb is filled with extremely deadly levels of mercury, meaning the legends may be true, and that Huangs may get his wish. Even though the tomb hasn't been opened yet, ancient accounts of its construction mention it having bronze cross bows rigged to fire when disturbed. In the past several bronze cross bows from this time period have been found needing little to no maintenance to fire. Fear of these death traps is cited as the number two reason the Chinese government won't allow any expeditions to open the tomb.

*** They still cause deaths to this day, often from being turned up by ploughing, or set of by fires burned over them. They're also a LOT less stable after nearly 100 years, and tend to be easier to set off than when they were made. It makes it very tough to make them safe - there is work for the Belgian and French bomb disposal squads for many years yet...

Picture the following: Our adventure/fantasy heroes enter some ancient ruins in search of [[MacGuffin something important]] or valuable. Although the site may have laid undisturbed for centuries or even millennia, [[TempleOfDoom the place is filled with a variety of lethal, fully functional traps]] left behind by the previous occupants. Said traps are often BambooTechnology considerably more complex than anything else the creators were capable of making. Even more remarkable is the fact that they have not decayed at all, even if the environment is one that should require extra maintenance, and are just as lethal as they ever were, let alone the fact that any poisons should have decayed centuries ago. Projectile traps might even be capable of [[BottomlessMagazines reloading themselves an indefinite number of times]].

* DonaldDuck, his uncle Scrooge [=McDuck=] and their nephews Huey, Luey and Dewey often run into these in CarlBarks' and DonRosa's comics.

* In Fanfic/WhipAndWing, both [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Daring Do]] and IndianaJones venture through ancient ruins filled with these. They manage to avoid dying, but their pursuers often don't. When Daring finally meets the worker assigned to maintain and reset the traps, [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown she beats him half to death]].