History Main / ShackleSeatTrap

* The villains trap Erast Fandorin in one of these during their final confrontation in ''Literature/TheWinterQueen''. Fandorin manages to escape by pretending they've sedated him with chloroform when they unshackle and try to move his "unconscious" body.

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': Boggs has a contraption called a "scream extractor" which has automatic wrist straps that hold a victim in the seat while a plunger-looking device attaches itself to their face to suction and capture the sound as they scream, which the titular company uses as a power source.

** In "[[Recap/FuturamaS2E18TheHonking The Honking]]", when rampaging were-car Bender captures Fry in his driver's seat, the seatbelts animate and wrap around Fry to secure him in place. Then the belts tighten so Fry can't avoid Bender's steering wheel, which smacks him repeatedly in the face.

* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', Logan is tricked into extending his adamantium claws while he's sitting on a chair in Viper's lair, at which point the chair locks his hands and wrists in place, rendering him unable to retract them. Then Silver Samurai appears and uses his super-heated adamantium blade to cut Wolvie's claws.

* In the ''Anime/YuGiOh'' anime, at the pier duel Anzu is placed in one of these as part of Marik's latest death trap. More exactly, the BrainwashedAndCrazy Anzu ''straps herself'' to the seat as Malik uses her as a mouthpiece to explain his evil plan, then is released from the MindControl and wakes up [[OhCrap not knowing what the Hell's going on]]...

* Prince Naveen from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' visits the voodoo villain Doctor Facilier, and finds himself restrained in his chair by armrests that have transformed into serpents. The serpents hold Naveen securely in place while Facilier extracts a blood sample.

* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys''. When James Cole is brought in to meet the panel of scientists, his guards caution them about how dangerous he is. A scientist assures them that Cole isn't going to do them harm, and asks him to take a seat. Cole sits in the only chair available, whereupon metal clamps close over his wrists and the seat elevates halfway up the wall.
* ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars''. When Shad lands on the space station of Dr. Hephaestus, an automated vehicle with a bench seat turns up to receive him, but when he sits down on it restraints snap shut around his arms and throat, choking Shad so he's unable to speak. The vehicle then takes Shad to [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter Nanelia]] for repair, apparently in the belief that he's one of their RidiculouslyHumanRobots who has malfunctioned. She only finds out otherwise when she touches Shad and is shocked to find his body is warm.

* ''Film/LiveAndLetDie''. When Film/JamesBond sits down inside Mr. Big's headquarters, steel bands in the chair's arms snap shut on his wrists, holding him prisoner (though the bands [[SpecialEffectsFailure don't quite encircle]] Creator/RogerMoore's wrists).

* In ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'', Creator/MelBrooks forces Kermit into the seat of a brain-scrambling device, and plastic restraints clamp shut on the frog's skinny wrists and ankles.

* The school bus to ''Film/SkyHigh2005'' sprouts seat belts and shoulder straps, securing the students in their seats, just before it drives off the unfinished highway and transforms into an aircraft.
* The ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'' movie has a chair in Koopa's devolution chamber that straps people in and forces them into the machine. Mario and Luigi later use this against Koopa by knocking him into the chair, briefly de-evolving him so they can escape.
* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', the title character is tricked into extending his adamantium claws while he's sitting on a chair in Viper's lair, at which point the chair locks his hands and wrists in place, rendering him unable to retract them. Then Silver Samurai appears and uses his super-heated adamantium blade to cut Wolvie's claws.

* In ''[[Literature/SecretHistories Casino Infernale]]'', Molly sits down in an office chair while she and Eddie are searching a room for traps, and metal restraints pop out of it to hold her in place. As Molly is a very powerful witch who doesn't need her hands free to use magic, she just sends them snapping back into the chair with a Word, then glares at Eddie daring him to laugh at her for falling for the chair's SchmuckBait.
* ''Literature/DreamPark'': In ''The California Voodoo Game'', Captain Cypher accepts the challenge of a loa-possessed video arcade game and sits down on its contoured seat to play. The plastic seat immediately re-molds itself to wrap around his body, leaving only his arms and head free.
* In ''[[Literature/JackelianSeries From The Deep Of The Dark]]'', villainess Gemma hauls her captive brother from his cell on board her morphic-matter submarine. She uses her mental domination over the vessel to make tentacular bindings sprout from the chair she forces him into, immobilizing him for interrogation. [[spoiler: Subverted, because she's been mesmerized to ''think'' she's got her brother at her mercy, while he's actually escaped. Her co-conspirator soon finds Gemma beating the hell out of an empty chair, its shackling tendrils entwining only air.]]

* In one of the Creator/EricVanLustbader novels, a KGB general is killed this way during a [[TestedOnHumans deadly demonstration]] of a virtual reality interrogation room. He's told to sit down in the sofa, which restrains him, then the subsequent images cause him to die of a heart attack. It was mentioned earlier that [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes he had a phobia about being restrained]] as well.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "Where The Wild Things Are", Spike is sitting in HauntedHouse, smirking at all the running and screaming going on, when suddenly [[BoundAndGagged straps whip across his arms and mouth]].

* In an episode of ''Series/KCUndercover'', K.C. is trapped in a car via this trope when [[spoiler: her boyfriend, actually a double agent, kidnaps her]].

* In the ''Series/NightGallery'' episode "A Question Of Fear", Leslie Nielsen gets trapped by a ''bed'' that's rigged this way.

* On ''Series/TheOrville'', Alara gets strapped down by automatic restraints on a sick-bay examination table during [[spoiler: a fear-testing simulation she had Isaac design for her]].
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''. Celesta, the embodiment of Death, comes to take King Sisyphus [[{{Psychopomp}} to the afterlife]] at the start of the "[[Recap/XenaS01E09DeathInChains Death In Chains]]" episode. He offers her some food before she takes him. After she sits down, restraints snap around her wrists and he takes away her Eternal Flame, [[CapturedSuperEntity trapping her there]].

* Famously used by [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Hephaestus]] to prank his mother, Hera.

* Happens ''without'' a seat in the video for Asia's "Don't Cry", when one of the ill-fated explorers leans against the wrong wall and his wrists are trapped this way.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]
* One odd trap in Undermountain, an infamous ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' dungeon complex beneath Waterdeep, consists of a canopy bed with a suspiciously-lumpy frame. This is because the "frame" is an animated owlbear skeleton, stretched out on its back. Intruders who sit or lie on the "bed" are subject to its bear-hug attack.

* ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite''. Near the beginning, the only way for the plot to proceed is for Booker to sit in a chair in the top floor of the lighthouse. Bands snap down trapping him and a lift-off sequence begins.

** In "2D Blacktop", the safe-but-boring replacement ship has seats equipped with what Bender assumes are cup-holders. They're actually arm-holders, which flip around and restrain his wrists when Leela activates the seat.
** In "The Honking", when rampaging were-car Bender captures Fry in his driver's seat, the seatbelts animate and wrap around Fry to secure him in place. Then the belts tighten so Fry can't avoid Bender's steering wheel, which smacks him repeatedly in the face.

* Ruby-Spears' ''WesternAnimation/{{Mega Man|RubySpears}}'' cartoon had Roll thrown into a makeup chair in episode 2, which restrained her.

* ''WesternAnimation/RunawayBrain'': This happens to WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse when he applies for a job under MadScientist Doctor Frankenollie. He drops through a TrapDoor into exactly this kind of chair, and remarks "[[IncrediblyLamePun Talk about your ironclad contract]]..."
* Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E5TreehouseOfHorrorXVIII Treehouse Of Horror XVIII]]" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where Bart, Lisa, Milhouse, and Nelson are whisked away into Hell and are put in chairs with demon arms that bind them. Nelson pulls his hands upward before he can get bound, but another set of arms pops out.
** In the episode ''[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Burns' Heir]]'', Mr. Burns hits the wrong button and the chair Bart is sitting in suddenly sprouts shackles.
* WesternAnimation/{{Spongebob|Squarepants}} falls victim to this after being crowned the King of Karate in the episode "Karate Island". He is shackled to his own throne.

* In one of the WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit ''Cracking Contraptions'' shorts, Wallace's device for clearing the table includes shackles on the chairs so that he and Gromit don't get sucked in by the vacuum that removes the dirty plates. Unfortunately, the power goes out before they can be freed.
* Used on Zach and Ivy in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego''. Ivy, however, was able to stand up in the heavy steel chair, and nearly burst her restraints, when a rogue judge pushed her BerserkButton by threatening to jail Carmen Sandiego without a fair trial.

* Downplayed in "Literature/TomorrowTown". The protagonists get into the ZeeRust monorail train of a community-of-the-future and find that automatic safety belts are being strapped around them. They brace themselves for the implied high-Gee launch, only for the train to amble along at 25 miles an hour. It's an early sign that everything in the community is AwesomeButImpractical.

* Creator/WillSmith sits down in one of these early in Music/DJJazzyJeffAndTheFreshPrince's video for "A Nightmare On My Street".

* ''Literature/DreamPark'': In ''The California Voodoo Game'', Captain Cypher accepts the challenge of a loa-possessed video arcade game and sits down on its contoured seat to play. The plastic seat immediately re-molds itself to wrap around his body, leaving only his arms and head free.* In ''[[Literature/JackelianSeries From The Deep Of The Dark]]'', villainess Gemma hauls her captive brother from his cell on board her morphic-matter submarine. She uses her mental domination over the vessel to make tentacular bindings sprout from the chair she forces him into, immobilizing him for interrogation. [[spoiler: Subverted, because she's been mesmerized to ''think'' she's got her brother at her mercy, while he's actually escaped. Her co-conspirator soon finds Gemma beating the hell out of an empty chair, its shackling tendrils entwining only air.]]

MurphysBed is its reclining sister trope.

* Creator/WillSmith sits down in one of these early in D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's video for "A Nightmare On My Street".

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* In Nina Paley's ''Joyride'', the seats of the spaceship ''Puddlejumper'' have wrist clamps that trap Hoyt when he sits down. When Patty the hacker suggests she reprogram the ship's AI to stop it from doing things like that, it traps her wrists too.

[[folder:Films--Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBossBaby'': When Tim and the Baby are trapped at [=PuppyCo=], they're dropped through a trap door into chairs that shackle them around the waist.

[[folder:Films--Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/TheWolverine'', the title character is tricked into extending his adamantium claws while he's sitting on a chair in Viper's lair, at which point the chair locks his hands and wrists in place, rendering him unable to retract them. Then Silver Samurai appears and uses his super-heated adamantium blade to cut Wolvie's claws.

* In ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'', Dana slumps down into a chair, which sprouts grabby demonic arms. These hold her captive as the chair itself slides into a gateway to Zuul's realm.
* In ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'', Creator/MelBrooks forces Kermit into the seat of a brain-scrambling device, and plastic restraints clamp shut on the frog's skinny wrists and ankles.

* In ''Film/HardcoreHenry'', Punk-Jimmy coaxes Henry into one when he realizes that Akan is tapping into Henry's visual feed. It fails to hold Henry for long.
* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys''. When James Cole is brought in to meet the panel of scientists, his guards caution them about how dangerous he is. A scientist assures them that Cole isn't going to do them harm, and asks him to take a seat. Cole sits in the only chair available, whereupon metal clamps close over his wrists and the seat elevates halfway up the wall.
* The school bus to ''Film/SkyHigh2005'' sprouts seat belts and shoulder straps, securing the students in their seats, just before it drives off the unfinished highway and transforms into an aircraft.
* ''Film/TheHaunting1999'': When Crain's ghost animates the woodwork in Nell's room, ornamental spikes above her bed extend to pierce the mattress all around her, boxing her in.
* The reclining sled used to launch Runners into the game zone in ''Film/TheRunningMan'' has automatic restraints for ankles and wrists, that pop out and bind whoever sits down in it.
* ''Film/Madhouse1974'' features a shackle ''bed'' trap. When the victim lies upon it, shackles lock around his wrists and hold him in place as he is crushed to death by the descending canopy.
* At the climax of ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', the titular ghost animates two of the ugly abstract statues. They move up behind Lydia's parents, press against them from behind so they're forced to recline on the awkward sculpted shapes and enfold or entwine the hapless couple in their protrusions.

* The villains trap Erast Fandorin in one of these during their final confrontation in ''Literature/TheWinterQueen''. Fandorin manages to escape by pretending they've sedated him with chloroform when they unshackle and try to move his "unconscious" body.

* In one of the Eric Van Lustbader novels, a KGB general is killed this way during a [[TestedOnHumans deadly demonstration]] of a virtual reality interrogation room. He's told to sit down in the sofa, which restrains him, then the subsequent images cause him to die of a heart attack. It was mentioned earlier that [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes he had a phobia about being restrained]] as well.
* ''Literature/DreamPark'': In ''The California Voodoo Game'', Captain Cypher accepts the challenge of a loa-possessed video arcade game and sits down on its contoured seat to play. The plastic seat immediately re-molds itself to wrap around his body, leaving only his arms and head free.
* Referenced in "Literature/TheGypsiesInTheWood", in which an agent of the Literature/DiogenesClub feels a brief interlude of anxiety when he sits down in an examination chair at the village doctor's office. He knows this ''particular'' doctor is no MadScientist, but his personal experience with ones that ''were'' is such that he can't help but suspect this trope may come into play.
* In ''[[Literature/JackelianSeries From The Deep Of The Dark]]'', villainess Gemma hauls her captive brother from his cell on board her morphic-matter submarine. She uses her mental domination over the vessel to make tentacular bindings sprout from the chair she forces him into, immobilizing him for interrogation. [[spoiler: Subverted, because she's been mesmerized to ''think'' she's got her brother at her mercy, while he's actually escaped. Her co-conspirator soon finds Gemma beating the hell out of an empty chair, its shackling tendrils entwining only air.]]
* Downplayed in ''Literature/TomorrowTown''. The protagonists get into the ZeeRust monorail train of a community-of-the-future and find that automatic safety belts are being strapped around them. They brace themselves for the implied high-Gee launch, only for the train to amble along at 25 miles an hour. It's an early sign that everything in the community is AwesomeButImpractical.
* ''Literature/SecretValley'': In the second book, the BigBad, currently away from his HQ, gets a video call from said HQ. There he sees his prisoner, recently escaped, taunting him, sitting in his seat, drinking his wine, etc. Then the prisoner makes the mistake of actually leaning onto the seat's backrest, triggering a shackle booby-trap that ensures his recapture.

** In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E4TheAndroidsOfTara The Androids of Tara]]", Romana lies down on a bed for examination by a doctor, and metal brackets pop up and encircle her body to hold her there.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''. Celesta, the embodiment of Death, comes to take King Sisyphus [[{{Psychopomp}} to the afterlife]] at the start of the "[[Recap/XenaS01E09DeathInChains Death In Chains]]" episode. He offers her some food before she takes him. After she sits down, restraints snap around her wrists and he takes away her Eternal Flame, [[CapturedSuperEntity trapping her there]].

* One odd trap in Undermountain, an infamous TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms dungeon complex beneath Waterdeep, consists of a canopy bed with a suspiciously-lumpy frame. This is because the "frame" is an animated owlbear skeleton, stretched out on its back. Intruders who sit or lie on the "bed" are subject to its bear-hug attack.

* ''WesternAnimation/DetectiveBogey'' once homaged the ''Madhouse'' scene, with Kid getting caught in a booby-trapped bed with a spiky descending ceiling. Bogey rescues her in-extremis.
* In ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndTheGhoulSchool'', Colonel Calloway learns too late that he sat in one of these when he visits Ms. Grimwood.

* In one of the WesternAnimation/WallaceAndGromit ''Cracking Contraptions'' shorts, Wallace's device for clearing the table includes shackles on the chairs so that he and Gromit don't get sucked in by the vacuum that removes the dirty plates. Unfortunately, the power goes out before they can be freed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', just about any time Perry the Platypus sits down whenever his nemesis Doofenshmirtz is around, it's in one of these.

* Ruby-Spears' ''WesternAnimation/{{Mega Man|RubySpears}}'' cartoon had Roll thrown into a makeup chair in episode 2, which restrained her.
* Used on Zach and Ivy in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego''. Ivy, however, was able to stand up in the heavy steel chair, and nearly burst her restraints, when a rogue judge pushed her BerserkButton by threatening to jail Carmen Sandiego without a fair trial.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'': When Robin finds Terra hacking the Titans' computer in "Terra-rized", he sics the T-Tower's defenses on her. Among the resulting auto-defenses is a set of restraints that pop out of the couch cushions and entrap her arms and torso.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheMagicSchoolBusRidesAgain'': When the bus takes on tree-like qualities for the communication-in-Nature episode, leafy vines sprout in the interior as animated seat/shoulder belts for the students.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** In "2D Blacktop", the safe-but-boring replacement ship has seats equipped with what Bender assumes are cup-holders. They're actually arm-holders, which flip around and restrain his wrists when Leela activates the seat.
** In "The Honking", when rampaging were-car Bender captures Fry in his driver's seat, the seatbelts animate and wrap around Fry to secure him in place. Then the belts tighten so Fry can't avoid Bender's steering wheel, which smacks him repeatedly in the face.

* In Nina Paley's ''Joyride'', the seats of the spaceship ''Puddlejumper'' have wrist-clamps that trap Hoyt when he sits down. When Patty the hacker suggests she reprogram the ship's AI to stop it from doing things like that, it traps her wrists too.

* The reclining sled used to launch Runners into the game zone in ''Film/TheRunningMan'' has automatic restraints for ankles and wrists, that pop out and bind whomever sits down in it.

* At the climax of ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'', the titular ghost animates two of the ugly abstract statues. They move up behind Lydia's parents, press against them from behind so they're forced to recline on the awkward sculpted shapes, and enfold or entwine the hapless couple in their protrusions.

* Late into the ''Literature/FightingFantasy'' book ''Literature/CryptOfTheSorcerer'', you'll need to get yourself trapped in one of these ''on purpose'' in order to confront Razaak, the titular necromancer. Entering a bare room with a single chair built into a wall, you take a seat (choosing ''not'' to seat will have you leaving the room and going nowhere), at which point you're suddenly shackled as a disembodied voice from the chair demands you to identify yourself. If you have a zombie's tag, the chair and wall then flips around and the chair released you into Razaak's innermost sanctum; if you ''don't'', a spike then extends from inside the wall and through your back.

* The villains trap Erast Fandorin in one of these during their final confrontation in ''Literature/TheWinterQueen''. Fandorin manages to escape by pretending they've sedated him with chloroform, when they unshackle and try to move his "unconscious" body.

* ''Series/MacGyver1985'': In "Strictly Business", Murdoc rigs a DeathTrap in which metal clamps spring out of a chair to hold him place, a statue of Cupid spins around automatically, and a candle burns through a string to launch a cyanide-coated dart from Cupid's bow at Mac's heart.

* Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS19E5TreehouseOfHorrorXVIII Treehouse Of Horror XVIII]]" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where Bart, Lisa, Milhouse and Nelson are whisked away into Hell and are put in chairs with demon arms that bind them. Nelson pulls his hands upward before he can get bound, but another set of arms pops out.

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' Harry views Dumbledore's memories in the Pensieve, specifically of the wizarding equivalent of the Nuremberg tribunals after Voldemort's defeat. The accused is placed in a chair equipped with chains magicked to automatically bind them when they sit down. When Harry himself is tried for underage magic in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'', he's relieved when the chains stay still for him.