History Main / WeHaveTheKeys

* In ''Film/BlackMask'', at one point the BadAssNormal police detective manages to handcuff a SuperSoldier who feels no pain to a bar. The super soldier immediately and without hesitation ''cuts off his own hand''. The detective stares at him for a second and then (in the English dub at least) says "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny Damn. I had the key.]]"

* In ''Film/ThePinkPanther'', Clouseau is about to shoot the lock off of a door, when Tucker says "Don't do that, old man" and casually opens the unlocked door.

This includes examples when the hero ''fails'' with his tactic, and the companion uses the simpler way, which works. Another possibility is that the companion unlocks the door (or tries it and finds that it wasn't locked in the first place) just before the hero breaks it down.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'''s "Day of the Doctor" special sees three incarnations of our hero shut away in the Tower of London together, trying to work out how to get through a wooden door (it's [[RockBeatsLaser too primitive to hack with a Sonic Screwdriver]]). After some discussion, they work out a way to do it, but it would require hundreds of years to do the calculations. [[spoiler:But, since they're all from different timestreams, if the ''earliest'' Doctor inputs the calculations into the Screwdriver, the ''newest'' one will have the result stored away in his! They confirm it, congratulate themselves on their cleverness...and then Clara walks in. The door wasn't actually locked.]]
** "In The Forest of the Night". A little girl is being chased by wolves, but runs into a tall fence. The Doctor's companion urges her to climb the fence and she'll help her over. The girl ignores her, moving several steps to the side and opening a gate.

* During John Byrne's run on ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'' there was a notable [[Comicbook/TheAvengers Avengers]] crossover involving the return of [[Comicbook/XMen Jean Grey]]. At one point, Hercules and members of the FF accompanied Jean to her parents' home to uncover the reason for her resurrection, but their front door was locked. After Hercules smashed the door down, Jean took him to task, pointing out that her folks kept a spare key in a secret compartment inside a fake rock by the front step.

* In ''[[Literature/MaximumRide The Angel Experiment]]'', Max and company steal a van to get to the School. After hotwiring it, taking it for a joyride on the interstate, and proceeding to scare the living crap out of everyone except Iggy, Max slams on the brakes and a compartment pops open. Something falls into her lap. She's afraid it's a bomb... nope, just the keys.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Hurricanes}}'': In "Techno-Team", Stavros Garkos' finance company takes over a laboratory and he decides to break in to mess with a worker's research so she'll have no choice but help him with one of his plans. When he arrives at night, his henchman Genghis is ready to use a crowbar to open the door when he points out that, as the place's owner, he has the keys.

* In ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Identity]]'': Bourne plans out a complex plot to get information from a hotel information desk. When he doesn't get the phone call from Marie, he assumes that she's bailed on the plan. [[CrowningMomentOfFunny She then appears right behind him. "I just asked them for it."]]

* In ''[[Literature/MaximumRide The Angel Experiment'', Max and company steal a van to get to the School. After hotwiring it, taking it for a joyride on the interstate, and proceeding to scare the living crap out of everyone except Iggy, Max slams on the brakes and a compartment pops open. Something falls into her lap. She's afraid it's a bomb... nope, just the keys.

* In James Patterson's ''Literature/MaximumRide'': The Angel Experiment, Max and company steal a van to get to the School. After hotwiring it, taking it for a joyride on the interstate, and proceeding to scare the living crap out of everyone except Iggy, Max slams on the brakes and a compartment pops open. Something falls into her lap. She's afraid it's a bomb... nope, just the keys.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'''s "Day of the Doctor" special sees three incarnations of our hero shut away in the Tower of London together, trying to work out how to get through a wooden door (it's [[RockBeatsLaser too primitive to hack with a Sonic Screwdriver]]). After some discussion, they work out a way to do it, but it would require hundreds of years to do the calculations. [[spoiler:But, since they're all from different timestreams, if the ''earliest'' Doctor inputs the calculations into the Screwdriver, the ''newest'' one will have the result stored away in his! We see a few clips from old episodes confirming that, yes, the Screwdriver has indeed been quietly working out this problem in the background for 400 years of the Doctor's life... and then Clara walks in. The door wasn't actually locked.]]

-->-- ''Overheard during TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

[[folder: Anime ]]

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* In ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', Arnie punches through a car window then hot wires the car. John Connor flips down the windshield visor to reveal the keys. Arnie actually learns from this experience -- the second time he's required to steal a car, he gets in and flips down the visor. Boom! Keys.

* From ''TwoFastTwoFurious'': One of the protagonists smashes a car window with his shirt covered fist. His partner stops him and simply opens the already unlocked door.
* A variant in ''Film/TheMuppetChristmasCarol'': Rizzo very reluctantly climbs up a gate and jumps off, and then, realising he's left his jellybeans behind, ''slips through the bars'' to get them.
-->'''Gonzo''': You can fit between those bars?
-->'''Rizzo''': Of course.
-->'''Gonzo''': You're an idiot.
-->'''Rizzo''': What? Hey, ''what''?

* In ''BlackMask'', at one point the BadAssNormal police detective manages to handcuff a SuperSoldier who feels no pain to a bar. The super soldier immediately and without hesitation ''cuts off his own hand''. The detective stares at him for a second and then (in the English dub at least) says "[[CrowningMomentOfFunny Damn. I had the key.]]"
* In ''BachelorParty'' the hotel manager instructs the security guys to break down the door, then tells them wait, and unlocks it with his pass key.
* In ''ThePinkPanther'', Clouseau is about to shoot the lock off of a door, when Tucker says "Don't do that, old man" and casually opens the unlocked door.

* [[DefiedTrope Defied]] in ''{{Film/Ricochet}}'', when a pair of bad guys are preparing to rob a place, one of them starts to unlock the door with a key, before JohnLithgow smashes a window in and asks if they want to just leave a note saying "Inside Job".
* In ''[[Film/MirrorMirror Mirror, Mirror]]'', this ends up happening ''twice'' to the dwarves:

[[folder: Literature ]]

* In James Patterson's ''MaximumRide'': The Angel Experiment, Max and company steal a van to get to the School. After hotwiring it, taking it for a joyride on the interstate, and proceeding to scare the living crap out of everyone except Iggy, Max slams on the brakes and a compartment pops open. Something falls into her lap. She's afraid it's a bomb... nope, just the keys.
* Played with in the ''StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' novel ''[[XWingSeries Starfighters of Adumar]]''. Wedge Antilles and his fellow pilots are on the run from the citizens of Adumar, and encounter a door. Wedge orders the lock shot out, but fellow pilot Hobbie simply opens the door instead--it was unlocked.
--> '''Hobbie''': [[LampshadeHanging Worth trying]].

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

* ''Series/{{Animorphs}}'' - Jake and Marco discuss climbing a fence with barbed wire, then see Cassie standing on the other side of the fence, smugly waving the keys.

* In the first season of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'', Jack Bauer and George Mason come upon a fence. Jack immediately hops over it, while George rolls his eyes and strolls through the gate.

-->'''Riley''': You shouldn't have done that to the door.
-->'''Buffy''': I do not have time to play by the rules tonight.
-->'''Riley''': I have a master key. It opens every shop on main street.

[[folder: Magazines]]
Around the time that Star Wars: Episode 1 debuted in theaters, MAD magazine featured a strip which parodied an early scene where Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-gon Jin use their lightsabers to cut open a locked door. In the strip, Qui-gon is the only one doing anything, and is clearly struggling... until he's about half-way through, at which point Obi-wan produces the keys.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Web Comics ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{X-Men}}'' episode "Night of the Sentinels", {{Wolverine}} uses his adamantium claws to slice open a locked door. However, after getting inside.
-->'''Beast''': Ahem...the guard's keys?\\
'''Wolverine''': So I'll buy him a new door!
** Seven episodes later show why they don't bother with keys. When Rogue and {{Storm}} try breaking out Colossus, Rogue had the wrong key and simply ripped the door off the hinges.

-->'''Timmy''': Yes, I knew.

* Argost does this to his own door in ''TheSecretSaturdays'' episode "Once More the Nightmare Factory" even as Munya is approaching with the keys and a long-suffering look on his face. Of course, this might just have been showmanship.

* On {{Wings}}. To defend the Hackett house from a prowler lurking outside, roommate Lowell grabs a shotgun and breaks one of the living room windows with it. An exasperated Joe informs him, "Lowell, the window opens!"

* Series/JonathanCreek helpfully whips out a set of lockpicks to take care of the fact that his {{Watson}} Maddy has had her car clamped. Maddy is both grateful and impressed, but it turns out that she has the key for it herself and uses it as camouflage.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'''s "Day of the Doctor" special sees three incarnations of our hero shut away in the Tower of London together, trying to work out how to get through a wooden door (it's [[RockBeatsLaser too primitive to hack with a Sonic Screwdriver]]). After some discussion, they work out a way to do it, but it would require hundreds of years to do the calculations. [[spoiler:But, since they're all from different timestreams, if the ''oldest'' Doctor inputs the calculations into the Screwdriver, the ''newest'' one will have the result stored away in his! We see a few clips from old episodes confirming that, yes, the Screwdriver has indeed been quietly working out this problem in the background for 400 years of the Doctor's life... and then Clara walks in. The door wasn't actually locked.]]

This includes examples when the hero ''fails'' with his tactic, and the companion uses the simpler way, which works. Another possibility is that the companion unlocks the door ([[DoorDumb or tries it and finds that it wasn't locked in the first place]]) just before the hero breaks it down.

-->"I don't know why I keep bothering to steal the keys since you always insist on kicking the door down."\\
''Overheard during TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''

* In ''[[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Terminator 2]]'', Arnie punches through a car window then hot wires the car. John Connor flips down the windshield visor to reveal the keys. Arnie actually learns from this experience -- the second time he's required to steal a car, he gets in and flips down the visor. Boom! Keys.

* In ''TheMatrixReloaded'', Trinity is on a motorcycle with the Keymaker and asks for a download on how to hotwire vehicles, only to have her passenger hand her a key. Both convenient and [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as the Keymaker is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin in addition to his more figurative role.

This includes examples when the hero ''fails'' with his tactic, and the companion uses the simpler way, which works. Another possibility is that the companion unlocks the door (or tries it and finds that it wasn't locked in the first place) just before the hero breaks it down.