History Main / StairsAreFaster

** The first episode has this. None too happy that his friend Captain Augustus Black knocked him out, he steps out of his work van and enters a phone booth to call a taxi, not knowing its the secret entrance to Section 13. When he comes out, he sees Black reached his area first, Jackie questions this and Black replies "the stairs". Less than two minutes later, Jade rips through the area with a motor scooter. Two agents capture her and asks her how she got in, and she gives Black the same answer he gave Jackie. When Jackie gets a call from Tohru telling him Uncle is hostage and demands a trade for an antique Jackie acquired from his recent expedition. He returns to Uncle's shop and asks Black to watch Jade. Black is about to only to see Jade disappeared. When Jackie gets home, he startled by Jade's sudden appearance, with Jade giving the same answer. Jackie then demands Jade take extra stairs to her room. Then it gets inverted around in a different building where Jade and Uncle take the stairs to get away from Tohru--who simply takes the elevator down and exits it just as the now-exhausted Jade and Uncle reach the bottom.

Compare ElevatorSnare, when the pursuers take the stairs and the pursued takes the elevator only to be caught.

** There are too many examples to list of Jackie reaching Section 13 or returning to street level and being met by either an enemy he was racing against or (usually) Jade. He questions how this is possible, and they reply, "The stairs." At no point does Jackie ever try to learn from this. Then it gets flipped around in a different building where Jade and Uncle take the stairs to get away from Tohru--who simply takes the elevator down and exits it just as the now-exhausted Jade and Uncle reach the bottom.
** Inverted in a Season Four episode where the group must recover moss from the top of an enormous statue to break a curse. Jackie rappels up the statue and, after a lot of effort, reaches the top, exhausted...only to see Jade already standing there. She points out a nearby--and much faster--tourist tram that she rode instead: "I'm ''stubborn.'' Not ''stupid.''"

* ''Film/TheLavenderHillMob''. Holland and Pendlebury realise six of the solid gold paperweights have inadvertently been sold to a party of schoolgirls at the top of the Eiffel Tower. They try to catch the schoolgirls before they get to the lift, but the doors close ahead of them, so they take a set of emergency stairs down to the ground, by which time they are too dizzy to intercept the schoolgirls' car before it leaves.

Compare ElevatorSnare, when the pursuers take the stairs and the pursuee takes the elevator only to be caught.

* ''Anime/FullMetalPanicFumoffu'': In a hurry to get up to Sôsuke's apartment to retrieve her homework, Kaname first goes to elevator, presses the button, and waits for a few seconds -- then screams in frustration and runs for the stairs.

* ''Film/TheRing''. Rachel is racing to warn Noah that Samara has not been put to rest and is after him. When she arrives at his apartment she tries to use the elevator, but gets frustrated by the delay and runs up the stairs instead.

* Parodied in ''Series/MrBean'' ''in Room 426''. Another guest makes it into the elevator to head to the top floor, and the doors close just before Mr Bean gets there. He races up the stairs to the next floor and presses the button there, so that the elevator stops; he does this on every floor.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries,'' the Clock King pulls a heist using a device that accelerates time for him to the point of the rest of the world effectively being at a complete stand-still. As the goods he's after are on an upper floor, he hits the elevator button...then remembers that it's just as temporally frozen to him as everything else and opts for the stairs.

** There are too many examples to list of Jackie reaching Section 13 or returning to street level and being met by either an enemy he was racing against or (usually) Jade. He questions how this is possible, and they reply with, "The stairs." At no point does Jackie ever try to learn from this. Then it gets flipped around in a different building where Jade and Uncle take the stairs to get away from Tohru--who simply takes the elevator down and exits it just as the now-exhausted Jade and Uncle reach the bottom.

* In most cases, this is true so long as it's only three or four floors at the most; the elevator is meant for people carrying packages, for people who may be unable to take stairs due to injury or infirmity, or for people ascending or descending so far that it would make the stairs difficult or impossible. Usually taking the stairs is faster than waiting for the elevator's arrival, boarding the elevator, waiting for the doors to close, waiting for the ascent or descent to the proper floor, potentially being interrupted as new passengers board or exit on the intervening floors, waiting for the doors to open, and disembarking. It's also easier go downstairs than it is to go upstairs.

* [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] on ''Series/RedDwarf'', when the elevator's AI deliberately lies to Rimmer about how long it'll take for a lift to arrive. It explains that it ''has'' to make its services sound speedier than they are, for fear of losing business to its chief competitor: the stairs.

* ''WesternAnimation/JackieChanAdventures'': There are too many examples to list of Jackie reaching Section 13 or returning to street level and being met by either an enemy he was racing against or (usually) Jade. He questions how this is possible, and they reply with, "The stairs." At no point does Jackie ever try to learn from this. Then it gets flipped around in a different building where Jade and Uncle take the stairs to get away from Tohru who simply takes the elevator down and exits it just as the now-exhausted Jade and Uncle reach the bottom of the stairs.

Compare ElevatorSnare, when the pursuers take the stairs and the pursu-ee takes the elevator only to be caught.