History Main / SaunaOfDeath

[[folder:Theater]]
* Raoul and the Persian get trapped in one in ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. To be fair, it wasn't exactly a "steam room" per se -- more like a "heat-and-optical-illusion room", but it still qualifies.
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* A sauna is intended to cause perspiration, which implies losing body fluids. First-timers are usually advised "to drink a lot" to cover the fluid loss. This is to be interpreted as "[[CaptainObvious to hydrate a lot]]", not to "[[IThoughtYouMeant get plastered a lot]]". Being inebriated in a sauna will lead easily to passing out and being dehydrated to death, due both to the effects of the sauna and the dehydrative effects of alcohol (alcohol impairs the body's ability to reabsorb water, and too much of it can lead to vomiting). For this reason, it is strongly advised NOT to drink any alcoholic beverages stronger than mild beer in sauna.

* A sauna is intended to cause perspiration, which implies losing body fluids. First-timers are usually advised "to drink a lot" to cover the fluid loss. This is to be interpreted as "[[CaptainObvious to hydrate a lot]]", not to "[[IThoughtYouMeant get plastered a lot]]". Being inebriated in a sauna will lead easily to passing out and being dehydrated to death, even without alcohol's dehydrative effects (alcohol impairs the body's ability to reabsorb water, and too much of it leads to vomiting) adding to it. For this reason, it is strongly advised NOT to drink any alcoholic beverages stronger than mild beer in sauna.

* Used against NancyDrew in ''Two Points to Murder'', when she's investigating a college basketball team and gets trapped in the sauna room. She winds up stripping to her underwear to buy time before finally figuring out an escape.

* Sauna is intended to cause perspiration, which implies losing body fluids. First-timers are usually advised "to drink a lot" to cover the fluid loss. This is to be interpreted as "[[CaptainObvious to hydrate a lot]]", not to "[[IThoughtYouMeant get plastered a lot]]". Being inebriated in sauna will lead easily on passing out and being dehydrated to death. It is strongly advisable NOT to drink any alcoholic beverages stronger than mild beer in sauna.

* In one of the ''Franchise/PinkPanther'' show bumpers, Blue Aardvark was shrunk to ant-size by a steam cabinet. Charlie then chased ''him'' around for a while.

* Incredibly, this has actually happened. The World Sauna Championships 2010 in Finland ended in one contestant getting killed and another suffering third degree burns and falling into a coma for two months. Mind you, it was about a contest on being able to stand longest in the hottest sauna. An autopsy revealed that the contestant who died had used painkillers and anesthetics to bypass his physical limitations.

* In ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'', the player can kill one of the targets by blocking the door to his steam room and increasing the supply. It helps that he has a heart condition.

* A death trap operating on the same principle (though not made to look at all innocuous, as in some examples) was shown in ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}} vs. Mechagodzilla''.

* Happens in the movie ''Film/DaddyO'', which was featured on an episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheatre3000''.

* The bizarre WidgetSeries ''Kiki Ippatsu Musume'' uses this as one of the many life-and-death situations in which protagonist Kunyan finds herself. Keeping with the series' FinaglesLaw setup, the door isn't locked but she can't open it because both her arms and legs dislocated simultaneously. When she tries to open the door with her mouth, the first attempt bashes her nose against the door and the subsequent nosebleed makes the knob slippery and harder to turn. Yeah, it's that kind of series.
* Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket episode [[Recap/LupinIIIS2E19 "A Safe Bet"]], had a safemaker's son seeking revenge. In this case, it was one of those enclosed one-person units. Lupin, of course, managed to escape and the kid was expecting as much. The sauna was a warning shot.

* The Bookworm once locked Series/{{Batman}} and Robin in a steam room disguised as a giant cookbook, saying it was a recipe for steamed bat. And it wasn't a sauna, it was hooked up to super-heated steam from a steam tunnel.

* In ''Powerhouse'', one of the kids is taking advantage of a weight loss program run by crooks who were using it as a to get the bakery he was working at empty for a robbery with the neighboring bank. Deciding he had outlived his usefulness on the night of the job, he's talked into using their sauna, locks him in and turns up the heat full blast. Fortunately, he was able to manipulate a vent to signal SOS which his friends spotted and rescued him.

* In the first episode of the Series/MissFishersMurderMysteries. (See also Literature above.)

* Raoul and the Persian get trapped in one in ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. To be fair, it wasn't exactly a "steam room" per se -- more like a "heat-and-optical-illusion room", but it still qualifies.

* In the first ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' game, the player can kill one of the targets by blocking the door to his steam room and increasing the supply. It helps that he has a heart condition.

* Bizarrely used in ''{{Wonderfalls}}'', when the sister and her rival are at the gym rivalling with each other. They then head to the sauna, where the sister storms out, accidentally locking the rival in the sauna. Later, [[spoiler: it turns out that being locked in a sauna forced her to have a crazy Native American vision quest and become leader of her tribe, thus solving every single problem on that show]]. Hooray, logic! But that's how ''all'' the plots in ''Wonderfalls'' work. (That is, they all involve that sort of Rube Goldberg logic, not "every time someone gets locked in a sauna and [[spoiler:has a vision quest]].")

* In the first episode of the MissFishersMurderMysteries. (See also Literature above.)

* Appears on ''KennyVsSpenny'' in the "Who can wear a Gorilla suit the longest?" episode, though the endgame was to force the other participant to remove the costume (and lose the competition), not actually ''kill'' them.

* The tanning bed death from ''FinalDestination'' also [[http://articles.latimes.com/1989-05-28/news/mn-1499_1_tanning-booth-burns-medical-examiner happened in real life]] but due to the victim taking medication that made her skin more sensitive rather than a malfunction.

* ''Film/UrbanLegend: Blood Mary'' features the tanning bed variant. The character is StrippedToTheBone by the heat.

* The Tanning Beds of Death from ''Film/FinalDestination 3'' could be considered a less dated variant of this.

* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'', where somebody tries to do this to Gintoki and [[TheRival Hijikata]]... only instead of realizing the villain is there, they just accept it as part of a challenge and start trying to make things even hotter. Unsurprisingly, this episode drew waves of [[MrFanservice squealing fangirls]].* The bizarre WidgetSeries ''Kiki Ippatsu Musume'' uses this as one of the many life-and-death situations in which protagonist Kunyan finds herself. Keeping with the series' FinaglesLaw setup, the door isn't locked but she can't open it because both her arms and legs dislocated simultaneously. When she tries to open the door with her mouth, the first attempt bashes her nose against the door and the subsequent nosebleed makes the knob slippery and harder to turn. Yeah, it's that kind of series.

* ''DarkJustice''. A BlackWidow killer bumps off her first husband this way.

** In ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', both novel and film, James Bond locks his rival Count Lippe in a Turkish Bath, causing him serious injury and delaying the SPECTRE scheme in which Lippe was supposed to play a part. See also VillainBall to know ''why'' Bond was fighting Lippe.

* In Richard Matheson's novel ''Hell House'' (in a scene that never made it to the movie ''The Legend of Hell House'') the scientist trying to prove that a haunting is all science finds himself locked in a sauna. While he's trying to get out and others are trying to batter in the door, the mud from the tarn outside starts to seep in and fill the room. It becomes a race to see if he'll escape or if he'll die from the heat or drown. [[spoiler: When the door is opened and he's pulled out there is no mud on him or in the room]]

* Was once attempted on Manga/LupinIII by an enemy (a safemaker's son seeking revenge). In this case, it was one of those enclosed one-person units. Lupin, of course, managed to escape and the kid was expecting as much. The sauna was a warning shot. (His ultimate plan was: Poison Lupin and cuff him to Fujiko to force Lupin to try and crack a super-safe containing the key and antidote and then admit defeat to restore the safemaker's reputation).

* ''TheFoolOfTheWorldAndHisFlyingShip'': the tsar locks the fool into his bathhouse and orders the furnace cranked up to kill him. The fool, of course, borrows his friend's straw that can soak up any heat and actually has to try to stay warm in the bathhouse.

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* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Gintama}}'', where somebody tries to do this to Gintoki and [[TheRival Hijikata]]... only instead of realizing the villain is there, they just accept it as part of a challenge and start trying to make things even hotter. Unsurprisingly, this episode drew waves of [[MrFanservice squealing fangirls]].
* The bizarre WidgetSeries ''Kiki Ippatsu Musume'' uses this as one of the many life-and-death situations in which protagonist Kunyan finds herself. Keeping with the series' FinaglesLaw setup, the door isn't locked but she can't open it because both her arms and legs dislocated simultaneously. When she tries to open the door with her mouth, the first attempt bashes her nose against the door and the subsequent nosebleed makes the knob slippery and harder to turn. Yeah, it's that kind of series.

* In an ''{{Archie|Comics}}'' comic book, Veronica was placed in an overheating steam cabinet and left to die by a supervillain. Jughead (who was in superhero mode) was charged with rescuing her, but didn't do a very good job of it. Losing quite a bit of weight and starving in the ordeal, she consumed a vile concoction the beanied one had prepared earlier for his lunch so as to fatten back up a bit -- grossing everyone, including the bad guy, totally out.

* A pack of crooked doctors tried to kill [[Film/TheThreeStooges Moe and Larry]] this way in ''Monkey Businessmen'', but Curly freed them by TurningItUpToEleven and blowing the door off its hinges.

* In ''MasterOfTheFlyingGuillotine'', the One-Armed Boxer lures the Thai kickboxer into a cabin with a metal floor that his students heat up with a bonfire. The floor burns the feet of the barefooted Thai, allowing the One-Armed Boxer to pummel him to death with ease.

* PhryneFisher and Sascha are locked in a Turkish bath by the killer in ''Cocaine Blues''.

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