History Main / MissingFloor

** Before the 1980s, the airport had three terminals. Terminal 1 was for international flights, and the other two terminals housed domestic airlines. However, in 1985, the original Terminal 1 concourses were demolished and replaced with the current pair of two concourses. So from 1984 until 1993, a temporary "Terminal 4" was erected on the ground floor of the main parking garage for international passengers, who would check in for their flights there and be taken directly to their aircraft by bus. When the current international terminal was opened in 1993, though, it was numbered Terminal 5, and the Terminal 4 designation was dropped entirely. There is rumor that Terminal 4 may return if expansions and increases in air traffic at O'Hare justify the need to build additional terminals.

** Before the 1980s, there were just three terminals : Terminals 1, 2 and 3. Terminal 1 was for international flights, and the other two terminals housed domestic airlines. However, in 1985, the original Terminal 1 was demolished and replaced by the current one (which today is used for United Airlines flights). While the new United terminal 1 was being built, and until the current International Terminal opened on the east side of the airport, a temporary "Terminal 4" was erected on the ground floor of the main parking garage. International passengers would check in for their flights there and be taken directly to their aircraft by bus. It was used from 1984 to 1993 prior to the opening of Terminal 5 as the International Terminal, and currently the Terminals are numbered 1, 2, 3 and 5. There is rumor that Terminal 4 may return if expansions and increases in air traffic at O'Hare justify the need to build additional terminals.
** Another example is in the concourse letters: they have concourses B, C, E, F, G, H, K, L, and M. There actually used to be a Concourse D at O'Hare, which was used by carriers like [=AirCal=], Braniff, Continental, Eastern, Northwest Orient, Piedmont and United Express, but it was demolished as well to make room for the current Terminal 1 concourses. ORD, however, has never had a Concourse I or Concourse J.

** Originally, fixed grip chairlifts on Peak 8 were numbered. There was a Lift 1, Lift 2, Lift 3, Lift 4, Lift 5, Lift 6, and Lift 7. Only the last three are still around: Lift 1[[note]]which ran from Peak 8 base to a point about halfway between the offloading points of the current superchairs[[/note]] was replaced by the Colorado [=SuperChair=] in 1986, Lift 2[[note]]which ran from around the junction of Spruce and Crescendo up to the Vista Haus[[/note]] was removed around 1997 due to lack of use, Lift 3[[note]]which ran up the Mach One trail from the bottom of Lift 4 to the top of Lift 5[[/note]] was removed around 1980, and Lift 4 was replaced by the Peak 8 [=SuperConnect=] in 2002.

* Europeans who come to the United States (or other countries that adopt its floor-numbering scheme, like Japan or Canada) may feel like this trope is in effect when they are in multi-floor buildings with American-style numbering. European buildings designate the street-level floor as "ground floor", the floor immeidately above it as "first floor", and the floor immediately below ground floor as "first basement" (which can be interpreted as "floor -1"), which can evoke the idea that street level is "floor 0". In the U.S., however, ground floor is labeled "first floor", the floor above as "second floor", and the basement floor immediately below American first floor is "first basement" just like in Europe, so going from street level to the floor below is basically going from "floor 1" to "floor -1" with just one floor's descent, with "floor 0" nonexistent.

* Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger is infiltrating TheMafia in ''Film/RawDeal''. In one scene he gets into a hotel elevator and tells the operator to take him 'down'. When the operator replies "There is no 'down'", Arnie gives him a big tip and is taken down to an illegal gambling den.

* ''Film/{{Red}}''. Creator/BruceWillis' character is sneaking into a CIA file room that's so secret most agents don't know it exists. He gets into the elevator and presses the bottom button marked P2, holding his finger there as the floor indicator goes past that number to P3, B1 and finally B2 before the doors open.

** Then there's the oddity of the Viennese U-Bahn having a line 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6, but no 5... Due to the simple reason of plans for the U5 line being repeatedly considered unworkable. However, as of 2019, construction of the U5 line has started.

A variation of this trope involves building wings (like those of airports) or suite/room numbers (like in an office complex or a hotel). You might be going down a hotel hallway and there will be rooms numbered 210, 211, 212, and 21''4'' -- no room 213.

** In the third book, the nineteenth chapter features Miss Zarves complaining about never being noticed, as well as a cow who won't leave her room (which is a CallBack to the beginning of the book). Later, in chapter 27, some students play a game where they bounce a ball off the school, scoring points based on which story it hits. At the end, the janitor takes a shot at it, and gets the ball all the way to the nineteenth story. The ball doesn’t come back down. There is no nineteenth story.

** In the third book, the nineteenth chapter features Miss Zarves complaining about never being noticed, as well as a cow who won't leave her room (which is a CallBack to the beginning of the book).

** The [[FourisDeath fourth floor]] of Alchemilla hospital.

** Mornington Crescent station on London Underground's Northern Line closed in 1992 so that the lifts could be replaced. However funding ran out and the work was stopped, and for six years trains would pass through slowly but never stop. The station itself still appeared on Underground maps, but crossed out. The work was eventually completed and the station was reopened in 1998 by the cast of Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. For a short time the Arrowcave is in a subbasement accessed via a secret elevator in the Palmer Technologies building, that the board of directors don't know about.

* ''Anime/DragonBall'': Muscle Tower's floor numbering does not make sense. The MobileMaze floor that comes after the 4th floor is unnumbered even though you have to go through it to get to the 6th floor so logically it should be the 5th. The floor that is numbered 5th, which is the home of a dangerous monster, is only accessed through a trap door in the 6th.

* [[WebOriginal/SCPFoundation SCP-]][[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-3790 3790]] has a seventh sub-basement level that is visible through the floor of the elevator, but the lift mechanism has been modified so that it's no longer accessible.

* The former Hotel Alexandria in Los Angeles has a "phantom wing" that was sealed off from the rest of the hotel due to a rent dispute in 1938. As a result, access to all seven floors was bricked up by Alexandria's management. The ground floor could still be used, and the seventh could be accessed from nearby rooftops, the ones inbetween became inaccessible, as they relied on Alexandria's staircases and elevators for access. They remained sealed off until 2012 when the wing was sold as a condo en tirely separate from the hotel.

* In the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, The Hand have a fondness for this trope. In ''Series/Daredevil2015'', Daredevil and Elektra have to break into the security-restricted thirteenth floor used for the more illicit activities of the Roxxon Corporation, while in ''Series/IronFist2017'', Danny Rand is shocked to find Madame Gao is running her operation from the thirteenth floor of his own building.

* * ''Film/HiddenFloor'', a Korean horror film, takes place in an apartment building haunted by spirits that dwell on the supposedly non-existent [[FourIsDeath fourth floor]].