History Main / Hellevator

[[caption-width-right:275:Going down?]]

* There is a story about an old lady waiting for an elevator in an A-kon in Dallas and the elevator opens up with only one guy cosplaying as Devilman who looks at her and asks, "Going down?"

* Used in ''Series/{{Angel}}''... sorta. At some point during the "Wolfram & Hart" arc, he's invited to finally enter the "Home Office", the source of Wolfram & Hart's power, and gets into an elevator... which goes down. And down. And down. And down... and finally arrives at street-level, the exact same spot. Even Angel has to point out the {{Anvilicious}}ness of the "Our world is Hell" moral.

* In the Black Rose Arc of ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', the VictimOfTheWeek takes an elevator endlessly down into the darkest depths of a mysterious building in order to have a "counseling session" with Mikage, a SatanicArchetype who corrupts people into an evil form of themselves defined by their greatest insecurities and bent on murder.

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* A scene that subtly invokes this in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' appears in the episode ''CourageInTheBigStinkinCity''. In it a sinister low-life cockroach named Shwick convinces Courage's family to come with him to a rehearsal room right before a sitar concert which happens to be several stories underground and is part of a long corridor with unnatural red lighting. Even though it is a physical place it may be closer to the real thing than it looks, since Shwick is connected with [[EldritchLocation another building that has many portals to other dimensions (most of whom are very unfriendly)]] and is implied to have some sort of alliance with the demonic denizens of this domain.

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* A cat-shaped cave (resembling the Cave of Wonders from ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'') actually serves as the entrance to Hell in ''Disney/PlutosJudgementDay'', during the scene where [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto]] is arrested.

See StairwayToHeaven for its sister trope (usually, there are stairs or an escalator leading to Heaven, but an elevator to Hell for some reason), and EvilElevator for when the elevator itself tries to kill you. May head to wherever somebody DugTooDeep to.

* A scene that subtly invokes this in ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' appears in the episode ''CourageInTheBigStinkinCity''. In it a sinister low-life cockroach named Schwick convinces Courage's family to come with him to a rehearsal room right before a sitar concert which happens to be several stories underground and is part of a long corridor with unnatural red lighting. Even though it is a physical place it may be closer to the real thing than it looks, since Schwick is connected with [[EldritchLocation another building that has many portals to other dimensions (most of whom are very unfriendly)]] and is implied to have some sort of alliance with the demonic denizens of this domain.

* Disney gave us ''Series/TheTwilightZone [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Tower of Terror]]'', a semi-nightmarish ride which takes the classic freefall ride, turned it into one of these, and randomized it so that each ride has a different drop pattern. The story of the ride (except for the Tokyo version) is that in 1939, five passengers board an elevator in the Hollywood Tower Hotel, which is struck by lightning that transports the elevator and parts of the hotel into the Twilight Zone... and it's going to happen again, this time with the ride's current riders.

* ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' has had at least one Hellevator, probably because several demons pose as businessmen or lawyers and therefore need transportation between hell and office buildings.

* Implied in the last episode of ''Series/AshesToAshes'', when [[spoiler: Jim Keats persuades Ray, Chris and Shaz to be transferred to his department, reachable by elevator. It's implied that Keats is the devil and his "department" is hell. The main characters are in some sort of "purgatory" for dead cops.]]

And yes, this trope title and StairwayToHeaven could both be considered FridgeBrilliance since it's easier to be immoral (and stand lazily in an elevator) than it is to be moral (and climb stairs.)

[[TheStinger So we've got the "Hellevator" and the "Stairway To Heaven", but what about the "Escalator to Purgatory?"]]

[[TheStinger So we've got the "Hellevator" and the "StairwayToHeaven", but what about the "Escalator to Purgatory?"]]

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* Disney gave us ''Series/TheTwilightZone -- [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Tower of Terror]]'', a semi-nightmarish ride which takes the classic freefall ride, turned it into one of these, and randomized it so that each ride has a different drop pattern. The story of the ride (except for the Tokyo version) is that in 1939, five passengers board an elevator in the Hollywood Tower Hotel, which is struck by lightning that transports the elevator and parts of the hotel into the Twilight Zone... and it's going to happen again, this time with the ride's current riders.

* Ride/TheHauntedMansion in Disneyland has an example of this, even though you're supposed to think the room is stretching.

Many floors down where the earth is fire and molten"''
-->— '''The Builders and the Butchers''', ''Black Elevator.''

-->— '''The Builders and the Butchers''', ''Black Elevator''

* The premise of the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' mod ''Going Down''. You begin from the rooftop of a regular corporate bulding and head down in the elevator. Initially you visit normal-looking, if a bit twisted offices, laboratories etc., but later the elevator takes you to an underground necropolis, a Satanic cathedral, and finally, yup, Hell itself.

->''"We're on an express elevator to Hell — going down!"''
-->— '''Private Hudson''', Film/{{Aliens}}

!!Examples

* In ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', the term is used to describe any pit, shaft, or tunnel of any kind that leads ''directly'' from the surface (or very close to the surface) straight down to the very lowest level of the game world; Hell itself. No map is really complete without one. Digging several of them is also the easiest way to stop the spread of Hallow/Corruption after hardmode is activated.

* There's something of a metaphorical example in ''MissionHill'' where Andy has been loafing on unemployment and visits friend Jim at work, who turns out to have a good prestige job. As Andy rides down the elevator he's listening to professionals younger than him discussing their comfortable lives, and ends up at a gloomy sub-basement with a scuzzy maintenance man who looks like an older version of himself.

* The elevator into the Undercity in ''WorldOfWarcraft'' is sometimes referred to as this, both due to the Undercity's tomb-like nature and the elevator's tendency to accidentally send players falling to their deaths.

* In The beginning of ''CryOfFear'', the pedophile rendered the apartments elevator unusable for everyone without an access code. The children had to bear it and take the stairs, where he would wait and pull them into his apartment. When Simon finally finds the code and take the elevator, it goes down. Deep in the earth it stops, forcing Simon to take the stairs even deeper.