Bear Trap

"You can't kill a Hindu!" (CHOMP) "AAH! Help me, Jesus!"

"I'm so happy 'cause I'm a Gummy Bear, Gummy Bear! [gets caught in a bear trap] AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

— Gummy Bear, Robot Chicken, "Delicious Gummy Bears"

A trap that's huge, about two or three feet across, with big zigzag teeth, and constantly trembles with tension, and snaps if you breathe on it funny — unless you're the intended target, who can jump up and down on it safely. The standard mode of exit is always to chew your own leg off, no matter who or what you are. Palate Propping tactics may offer an effective defense if applied in time.

Depending on the genre and tone, this can be either funny (especially as Amusing Injuries) or horrifying when someone gets snared by it.

For horror movies, you can expect these in wooded areas, no doubt set and placed by some deranged killer.

These sorts of traps do exist in real life (their official name is Foothold traps), and date back to the 1600s. However, they are restricted or banned in many areas of the world today and the modern-day versions tend to not use the steel saw-tooth design seen in most fictional depictions, due to concerns about both animal cruelty and potential injuries to any humans who inadvertently wander into the trap. Instead, rubber or offset ridges are used so that an animal is simply trapped rather than injured.

Compare Mouse Trap. Not to be confused with Clam Trap, which is about literal clams biting people, although granted sometimes said trope takes inspiration or even has the Clam outright act like a Bear Trap.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: OVER's special battle arena, "Desperado Colosseo" (or Calamity Canyon), involves being shot into the air with a cannon and risking either being slashed by Over or falling into a field of these in the anime (the manga used swords and knives instead).
• Doraemon: Nobita's Three Visionary Swordsmen have Nobita (under his Nobitania alias) finding a bear cub ensnared in one such trap shortly after entering Yumemiru. Nobita then releases the cub, and later on he's attacked by a huge bear... who turns out to be the cub's father, when the cub suddenly appears and stops the larger bear from attacking, with Nobita gaining a bear as an ally subsequently.
• Ham Egg/Viper Snakely uses these to aid him in his killing of Panja/Caesar in Kimba the White Lion.
• In the Lupin III: Part II episode "50 Ways to Leave your 50-Foot Lover," Lupin has the unfortunate luck to sit on one.
  Goemon: Ah, the old "exploding bear trap in the ass" trick.
• In Studio Ghibli film Pom Poko, some Tanuki transform themselves into bear traps in order to ensnare any hapless humans who cross into their territory. The idea is played a little for comedy, but also goes to show the more violent lengths the raccoons are taking.
• In Psycho-Pass, Ouryou Rikako gets her leg badly mangled by one of these when she flees to Senguji Toyohisa's hideout. It's rather satisfying to see it happen as she was a remorseless Serial Killer who had already seduced and murdered at least half a dozen girls from her academy.
• In Yuri Kuma Arashi, Ginko is caught in a massive one that suspends her in the air when she goes after Kaoru.

Comic Books

• In issue #10 of Batgirl (2011), Batgirl breaks up a group of car thieves working the parking garage of a high-class charity event, only to stop in horror when one of the fleeing thugs triggers a bear trap that nearly slices off his leg at the knee. People claiming to be security for the event explain that it has become a new part of gang warfare for one gang to follow another as they commit crimes and leave traps to capture them afterwards.
• Batman: In their first appearance, Tweedledee and Tweedledum trap Batman and Robin in wolf traps while they are robbing a furrier. Batman comments that if they had been using bear traps instead, he and Robin probably would have been crippled.
• Black Panther got caught into a bear trap among the many injuries he received during the "Panther's Quest" story in Marvel Comics Presents.
• In Judge Dredd, Judge Fear slings around chains with bear traps on the ends.
• The EC Comics Shock SuspenStory "Stumped!" has a trapper setting a bear-trap for a rival trapper and then leaving him there to die. The rival trapper takes his revenge after chewing his leg off.
• In the Tintin comic The Black Island, Dr. Muller has a lot of these set up in the garden around his house.
• In Violine, Violine has a dream where both her legs become trapped in two bear traps, with bloody results. It reflects her legs being trapped in plaster casts when awake.
• In the Topps Zorro series, villainous Hunter Trapper Buck Wylde uses bear traps as one of his primary weapons.

Fan Works

• The My Hero Academia fic I’m Not Leaving You has Aizawa caught in one set by a villain. Hizashi is unable to get it off him and Aizawa is near to passing out from the pain. It’s definitely played for drama. Hizashi is coaxed into leaving him to take in the villain after catching him, then returns with backup to help him. Aizawa is in a fair bit of pain through it all.

Films — Animated

• In the climax of Disney's The Fox and the Hound, when Amos Slade tries to flee a bear he's pissed off, he gets his foot caught in one of his own bear traps.
• Mavka: The Forest Song: Mavka, the soul of the forest, rescues a lynx cub from an old bear trap she forgot to remove when she had to clean up the old battlefields where the Guardian incinerated human enemies.
• Who Framed Roger Rabbit: When Greasy Weasel attempts to search Jessica Rabbit's bosom in an exceedingly lecherous manner, he instead discovers much to his dismay that Toon Physics cuts both ways; Jessica's generous figure also means she has the space to conceal a full-size steel-jaw trap down the front of her dress.
  Eddie Valiant: Nice booby trap.

Films — Live-Action

• In The Abominable Snowman, a trapper on an expedition to capture a Yeti sets a trap under the snow without telling the two members of the expedition who are behind him. Naturally he captures one of them. He claims the man shouldn't be hurt since it's his own design but it was designed for Yetis, not people.
• All Cheerleaders Die: Terry digs a pit trap in the cemetery and lines it with bear traps as part of his plan to destroy the cheerleaders. It winds up killing Tracy when a bear trap closes on her head.
• Early in the Spanish horror film The Blood Spattered Bride, a hunter uses a bear trap to capture and kill a fox. later, during the climactic chase, Lesbian Vampire Carmilla steps barefoot into a similar trap set by the same hunter as an Ironic Echo.
• The bandit hideout in The Blade (1995) have bear traps littered all over their exteriors to deter intruders. The hero had an arm caught in one such trap during an infiltration, and is forced to sever an arm or let himself be captured alive by the bandits. In a later fight scene the hero kills a bandit by knocking him head-first into another trap.
• In The Cabin in the Woods, Pa Buckner uses a Bear Trap on a chain as a thrown capture-weapon.
• Swan gets his right leg caught in one in Cannibal! The Musical. He's told to look on the bright side, as at least he didn't get his head caught in it.
• In Clegg, Lord Valentine steps in a bear trap set for him by Suzy while hunting rabbits. While he is helpless on the floor of the forest, she shoots him.
• Don't Look: In the film's climax, as she and Nicole are going through the field together, Lorena gets her foot caught in a bear trap. She manages to get it off later on, but her leg's too injured to move.
• In Aussie horror Dying Breed a character winds up caught in more than one of these devices (including one around his head).
• The Final: Dane lines the boundary of his property with bear traps. Tommy is released and told that if he can make his through the woods to highway, he is free to go and fetch help. He steps in one of the traps and breaks his leg.
• The Final Girls set one in an attempt to trap Billy. Instead of him, it's Tina who falls on it.
• In the Friday the 13th reboot, Jason uses a bear trap to keep Richie from saving Amanda from being roasted to death. During the final battle, Whitney uses one against Jason himself.
• In The General, Buster Keaton's character Johnnie and his girlfriend walk into one of these immediately after escaping from an actual bear. It takes several minutes to get themselves free. Fortunately it's of the non-toothed variety.
• Goosebumps (2015): R.L. Stine has bear traps by the ton littered all over his basement floor.
• Tom and Karen nearly step into a pair of them in Hard Rain.
• Hayride: In one scene early on, a worker on Morgan's farm states that he can't find the bear traps they use to keep coyotes away from the hayride. Later, when several customers are fleeing the hayride when the killer attacks, they get caught in said bear traps. One of the people caught is seen trying to free himself.
• In Headless Horseman, a bear trap buried in the road shreds the tyres of the teens' van. They later discover the woods are lined with bear traps to stop the sacrifices from escaping. Tiffany falls on one and is decapitated.
• In Hot Fuzz, Nicholas Angel shoots a bear trap hanging from a wall to make it fall on a bad guy's head.
• In Hot Spur, Carlo plants a bear trap on the trail leading to the cabin where he is holding Susan. Tom steps in it while fleeing Carlo and breaks his leg.
• The suspicious neighbor in Housebound booby-trapped his yard with a bear-trap.
• Martin sets many of these to catch the Tasmanian tiger in The Hunter.
• Ilya Muromets: "I had set a trap for a marten, and I've caught a boyar's pants".
• Used in Ladyhawke by the wolf trapper. He ends up Hoist by His Own Petard in the end.
• Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance: Lady Snowblood steps in one. She first bonds with Shusuke when he, a random passerby, frees her.
• In The Mansion, the lawn of the mansion is seeded with these shortly into the film. The only victim they claim is Enzo, and they mysteriously disappear later in the film.
• In the 1980 version of The Miser directed by Louis de Funès, Harpagon is seen adding a bear trap atop his cash-box to protect it at the beginning of the movie. Later, after La Fleche unearthed said treasure, he's seen dragging the bear trap around his ankle.
• Amusing Injuries version in The Mouse That Roared — Peter Sellers' character Tully Bascomb, keeper of the tiny country's forest, is first seen trying to shoo off a puzzled-looking fox while his foot is caught in a fox-size trap.
• In The Naked Gun, Nordberg steps in one of these, which for some reason has been set up on the deck of a yacht.
• Nobody Sleeps in the Woods Tonight II: Mariusz and Slawek start setting up bear traps in the woods to help the police capture Zosia after she gets infected with black alien goo and kills Sergeant Waldemar.
• In the 1930 Our Gang episode "Bear Shooters", the kids try to trap a man in a gorilla suit ^note one of two moonshiners trying to scare them off with one. It doesn't go well for him.
• Predator franchise:
  • In Predators, the Predators set a ton around one of the group they previously caught and left in the open, hoping to catch others who try to help. Later on, Edwin gets caught by one in a different location, forcing him to walk at a limp.
  • In Prey (2022), the French hunters have simple bear traps set around their camp to catch wayward animals. They're pretty dull, so even when the protagonist is caught by one, she's barely injured. They don't do much to the Predator, either.
• In Preservation, Mike sets a bear trap when he and Sean are setting snares for the deer. The hunters reposition it and Mike later steps in it himself.
• The Private Eyes: Tibet's loyalty to the Morleys comes from how they saved him from an animal trap, although said trap is still stuck to his leg years later.
• A character gets thrown head first into a bear trap in Pumpkinhead: Blood Feud.
• The protagonist of A Pure Formality gets his foot trapped in a bear trap. He manages to escape by stripping off his gumboot.
• A Quiet Place Part II: Marcus gets his leg caught in one of these. Even though any little noise will attract one or more of the killer aliens, he screams in agony and his mother has to cover his mouth and beg him to be quiet.
• The "hero" from Ravenous used one of these in the movie's climax. It could also be considered a Chekhov's Gun as it can be seen being played around with various times earlier in the film.
• Riddick in his third (and namesake) movie finds some very large traps in a Bounty Hunter station, which he puts to good use when the owners show up. One snaps shut on a mercenary's legs, then as he crawls along the ground in agony another crushes his head.
• Rovdyr opens with a girl being pursued through the forest. Suddenly she steps in a bear trap which snaps closed on her leg. As she is struggling to free her mangled leg, she gets shot In the Back.
• Romasanta: The Werewolf Hunt: When Romasanta, Maria and Theresa camp for the night in the woods, Romasanta warns Maria to be careful because the woods are full of wolf traps. He demonstrates by thrusting a stick into the leaves so a steel trap snaps shut on it. Later, when Maria's body is discovered, her ankle is caught in a wolf trap.
• Brenda of the 1984 vigilante film Savage Streets uses a set of these as one of her weapons against the street gang who brutalized her sister and murdered her friend.
• The "Reverse Bear Trap" from the Saw series is, as its name implies, a device resembling a bear trap that snaps open instead of closed, and is hooked onto the victim's jaws, prying them apart with great force once the snap happens. Due to its simple nature in comparison to the series' other Death Traps, everyone who got put in the Reverse Bear Trap managed to escape it (as long as they weren't in inescapable circumstances, which was the case with Jill Tuck in Saw 3D).
• Severance (2006): Andy gets caught in a bear trap and loses his foot when his co-workers try to free him.
• Straw Dogs (1971) has one of the home invaders trying to break into David's house fall victim to a Chekhov's Gun trap which, whilst not intended for bears, operates very similarly in mechanics and effect.
• Tales of Halloween: Combined with Burning Bag of Poop in "The Night Billy Raised Hell". Billy places a flaming paper bag on the doorstep and rings the bells, but when the householder goes to stomp it out, the bag contains a bear trap that snaps shut on his leg.
• Bear traps are frequent props in The Three Stooges shorts, notably in "The Brideless Groom," where Moe and Larry try to use one to break up an all-female brawl. Naturally they're caught in their own trap.
• In Ticks, Jarvis is startled by the giant tick and stumbles onto a bear trap he was playing with earlier.
• In Timber Falls, Mike steps a hidden bear trap (or, more accurately, a man-trap) planted by Ida, while searching for Sheryl.
• In The Tripper, the redneck chasing Linda through the forest steps in a bear trap that breaks his leg. While he is screaming in agony, the killer arrives and finishes him off with a knife.
• The first battle that Qingyun's army fights in The Warlords is an ambush on a Taiping convoy marching through a deep valley. As part of the ambush, they set a number of hidden bear traps in the ground that snare a few of the horses and soldiers at the front of the convoy.
• White Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf: In minor antagonist Lloyd Halverson's last scenes, after he's been trying to rob main character Henry Casey and kill White Fang, Henry discovers Lloyd having fallen on and been caught by a bear trap, to which Lloyd pleads, "Get this trap off my butt, boy... or shoot me where I lie!" Henry winds up letting him out and he's last seen limping away with holes in the seat of his pants.
• White Wolves III: Jack gets his leg stuck in an animal trap for at least twelve hours, but he doesn't let it slow him down once he gets out of the trap.
• Halley steps in one during the opening sequence of Wrong Turn. Later, while fleeing through the woods, Chris spots one before he steps in it and instead sets it off with the stick he is carrying.

Literature

• James Herriot of All Creatures Great And Small had to try and repair the damage after someone's pet dog got caught in one of these at least once.
• Discworld: Samuel Vimes has several bear traps hidden in the shrubberies around his house to keep assassins from sneaking through them. This is one of the many painful and/or humiliating reasons why nowadays the only assassins to sneak into his home are students sent there by their teachers to learn humility.
  • Due to the relative size of the rat protagonists, sharp-jawed mousetraps work this way in The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - some of them can cut a rat in half. Sardines narrowly escapes one by jamming a stick between the jaws, and an ancient, rusted trap almost kills Darktan before Nourishing manages to gnaw through the spring and release him.
• In Flawed Dogs, Sam loses his leg after stepping on one of these.
• In Secret Histories, the first book of the young Repairman Jack series, Jack and Weezy come upon a set of bear traps illegally set in the Pine Barrens, and they spring them with sticks before tossing the traps into a nearby pond. This has later plot implications.
• In Seeker Bears: River Of Lost Bears, Yakone gets caught in one, and to make matters worse, coyotes arrive to pick him off. He escapes from it and the coyotes thanks to Kallik, Lusa, and Toklo, but since he was caught by the foot, he loses a few toes.
• In The Witchlands, Aeduen gets caught in a bear trap and it tears his legs to shreds. Good Thing You Can Heal, indeed.
• Tod spends a good chunk of time in The Fox and the Hound learning how to safely set these traps off. He eventually starts doing it for fun, which nearly costs him a few toes when the Hunter finds a method of setting them up that Tod couldn't anticipate. Tod escapes and avoids the traps from then on, but later loses a mate to one.
• Red Nails: Conan the Barbarian rushes to save a Damsel in Distress from a Human Sacrifice, only to get caught in a foothold trap inset into the temple floor. He doesn't have his weapons with him so he can't even cut his leg off.

Live-Action TV

• The 1960s series The Avengers. In “Silent Dust”, Steed steps in a bear trap while being chased by one of the bad guys. He manages to free his foot but passes out shortly afterward.
• Blake's 7: In "Hostage", Blake gets caught in one set by his enemy Travis. Fortunately he's wearing a spacesuit boot that protects his foot from any serious damage, but it pins Blake in place out of reach of his teleport bracelet, leading to his capture.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: In a Hunting the Most Dangerous Game episode, Buffy (thanks to her slayer reflexes) narrowly avoids getting her foot caught in a bear trap laid by one of the hunters. He moves to shoot them instead, but Buffy throws the trap at him, causing him to lose his balance and step into another trap.
  Buffy: That's gotta smart.
• CSI: NY: In "Consequences," someone sets a bear trap in a blind alley in order to catch an alien. The trap works, but it's really a paint baller with green paint dripping down his gear who gets caught.
• In one episode of Dark Matter (2015), Three finds a bear trap when he goes to rescue Five from some kidnappers. He turns it against one of them to gruesome effect.
• The woods surrounding the camp on Dead of Summer are filled with these, as the counselors learn in episode 5 when they lead the kids out for a hike. One of them kills Cricket when she gets knocked over by one of the cultists and her head lands in one, causing instant death.
• Doc Martin goes out into the woods with the local ranger, trying to find PC Milo, brought low by a snake bite. The two stumble into a clearing loaded with animal traps set by poachers. Simultaneously played realistically and for comedy, as the two struggle to get one another out of what are in fact incredibly painful, but not lethal to humans, traps.
• Doctor Who: In "Pyramids of Mars", a robot mummy gets its foot caught in one. It merely pries the trap open and walks out.
• The Drew Carey Show: a "Groundhog Day" Loop Cold Open had Mimi setting a pizza-bear-trap for Drew.
• In the season 1 finale of Fargo, Lester Nygaard deploys a bear trap against Lorne Malvo.
• Much of the Farscape episode "Revenging Angel" was a tribute to the classic Warner Brothers cartoons. Naturally, character picking on John Crichton winds up with his leg in one of these.
• In Fort Boyard, crazy Quebecois trapper Gary Boo put a bear trap around the key of his cell, claiming he needed to protect it from a grizzly. This forces the candidate to try and catch the key with a fishpole and hook.
• El internado: Las Cumbres: Paul, Amaia, and his sister Adèle sneak away from school to go look for Manu, who is being held captive. Some distance away from the school, Amaia's foot is caught in a bear trap, and the other two have to carry her to where they think Manuel might be.
• Kaamelott: Séli once tries to stop Karadoc's nightly raids on the kitchen with some bear traps. It doesn't work. Karadoc even adds a few so that no-one would bother him while he's stuffing himself in his room.
• Parodied in a The Kids in the Hall sketch where the trappers' targets are office workers. (One of the workers actually manages to escape, and is seen hopping away on his one good leg, so the trappers don't give chase.)
  François: Shall we go after him, Jacques?
  Jacques: No, François, let that one go. He has spirit! Someday, he may be vice president.
• Often used as a Zonk on the current version of Let's Make a Deal.
• MacGyver (1985) had an episode where Mac stepped in a bear trap while hiking and was freed by two elderly sisters named Faith and Hope.
• In the Masters of Horror adaptation of F. Paul Wilson's "Pelts", Larry uses one to commit suicide, plunging himself into the trap face-first.
• Midsomer Murders:
  • In "The Green Man", Simon Mayfield gets a phone call and leaves to drive into the woods. He walks in towards a car with headlights on and steps in an animal trap. Someone gets out of the car and shoots him.
  • In "Country Matters", a woman pretends to be caught in a bear trap as part of an elaborate sexual roleplay.
• In the Murdoch Mysteries episode "Loch Ness Murdoch", a crotchety ex-naval man who lives by Lake Ontario has these all round his property. They're used to fake attacks by a Stock Ness Monster.
• MythBusters: Grant obtains a real bear trap in his research for the Flying Guillotine myth. He concludes that the trap is strong enough for the job, but too heavy to effectively wield as a ranged weapon.
• In one episode of Psi Factor, Matt Prager walks into a bear trap and is seriously injured.
• In the Found Footage-style episode of Psych, Lassie accidentally steps in one while berating Shawn for his carelessness. After getting lost, he is found and cared for by the trap's setter, who felt horrible for what happened.
• In the miniseries The 10th Kingdom the Huntsman falls into one of these, and is crippled for the rest of the series.
• A Walker, Texas Ranger episode had a random goon stepping into one of these—in the middle of an apartment for some reason—and screaming in agony until Walker himself came along and punched him out, snapping at him to "Shut up".
• The Weird Al Show: The Expository Theme Tune claims Al got his own show by freeing a TV producer who got caught in a bear trap.

Music

• From Rob Cantor's "Shia LaBeouf": "But your leg! Ah! It's caught in a bear trap!" You're stranded in the dark woods with a killer, so you opt to gnaw off your leg to escape the trap.

Puppet Shows

• The John Goodman episode of Muppets Tonight had John accidentally dropped out a window by Andy and Randy Pig into a truck containing a large number of mousetraps... and one bear trap.

Toys

• BIONICLE:
  • The promo animation for Hahli Inika had her running through a field of bear traps.
  • The reboot introduced the Shadow Traps in the second year, which are essentially bear traps with legs.

Video Games

• Alan Wake has lots of bear traps scattered across the woods, apparently due to poachers. Getting caught in one will cost you a bit of health, leave you stuck in place until Alan manages to free himself, and will cause a Taken to spawn next to you, attempting to score some cheap hits on an incapacitated Alan. Worst of all, one stretch of the game that is absolutely lousy with them is a No-Gear Level, meaning you have no way of fighting back against any Taken that spawn as a result of getting caught and are forced to run for your life... which will most likely just get you caught in another trap and spawn another Taken.
• These can be crafted in ARK: Survival Evolved once you hit level 28 and have created a Smithy, with large versions following shortly at level 31.
• Armory & Machine has the Clamp Trap and Reinforced Clamp skills. They require Steel Traps as ammo and have a short casting time that can be interrupted by enemy attack, but if successfully pulled off will deal a good amount of damage and penetrating damage while most importantly interrupting the enemy's current attack causing it to fail. Naturally, both Clamp Trap and Reinforced Clamp are best used against slow-casting but powerful enemy skills.
• In the various Baldur's Gate games, the mouse cursor turns into a bear trap icon when the player moused over a trap with the "Remove Traps" ability was on.
• Blood Breed: The Player Character can find bear traps set up on the floor in various rooms of the Killamoor Meat Works. They're easily avoidable depending on where they've been placed.
• Bloody Spell have these as a recurring obstacle in the snowy mountains, which can deal quite some damage if you step on one. They're rather well-hidden in snow and tall grass, too, to make things even more difficult.
• Brütal Legend has a critter called a Tollusk that can be found wandering in some areas. It's a giant, bulldog-like beast with spikes sticking out from its body and a bear trap for a mouth. Usually seen chasing smaller animals like Raptor Elk, it has no qualms about attacking Iron Heade, Lyonwhite, or Tainted Coil troops and will happily try to make a meal of Eddie, too. It's the only creature in the game that will bring the Deuce to a dead stop if you ram it. If Eddie successfully stuns it, he can ride on its back and use it to attack enemies.
• Commandos has a giant beartrap as a Booby Trap option for your Sapper, being one of his few genuinely silent killing implements. At all other times, you'll know when the Sapper's been doing his job.
• Used by the Trapper in Dead by Daylight, which the player can place around generators, windows or hooked survivors to immobilize them. Or you can get hooked by one yourself.
• This is one of the most basic traps for the player in the Deception series, it's surprisingly damaging and holds the enemy for a bit of time - setting them up for a different trap to hit them.
• Decision lets you place bear traps on the ground that prevent the trapped zombie from moving. If they have another method of moving (such as the wolfmen's leap attacks), they can still change location... but then remain stuck where they landed.
• Hector of Desperados III can deploy a huge one and then lure enemies into it.
• Don't Escape, particularly 4 Days in a Wasteland, includes these to fend off of huge spiders and/or bandits on days 1 and 3 respectively.
• A lot of these in Dragon Age: Origins. However, all the characters are apparently tough enough to be merely pinned to the spot for a few seconds by them.
  • Justified for warriors and mages; metal or magical armour probably helps a lot. though how they manage with leather...
  • You can also build your own if you have the appropriate skill and parts. Sadly, they're usually Awesome, but Impractical as you can't set them (or any other traps) if there's an enemy who can see you, but against some opponents who'll only turn hostile after you've triggered something specific, a few well-placed bear-traps will turn what would have been a tough encounter into a Curb-Stomp Battle.
• Drakensang has bear traps in both games as traps you can build, place or disarm: they deal damage and have a moderate chance of causing Wounds (which decrease the characters/enemy's skills), though as with most of the other traps they can be unpractical to set up (more often than not, you're just better off attacking the enemies head on.
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has these as a minor trap hazard in dungeons. You can move them about to set up your own traps as well.
• Bear traps are an occasional hazard in ENIGMA: An Illusion Named Family.
• The Evil Within also utilizes lots of bear traps among other hazards, and is especially fond of deviously hiding them in tall grass and shallow water.
• Fallout:
  • Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have these as trap hazards, just to make creeping through dark, Ghoul-infested subway tunnels all the more memorable. They're great at crippling your legs, reducing your speed to a painful hobble, which is especially brutal on New Vegas' Hardcore Mode since limbs are much harder to heal. And in the New Vegas expansion Dead Money you get to see what happens when the mooks decide to wear a bear trap on their knuckles: the Bear Trap Fist.
  • Fallout 4 allows you to build these with the Far Harbor DLC. They're not terribly powerful, but when scattered around a settlement they can prove occasionally hilarious if Raiders or other enemies attack.
• Bear traps are an environmental hazard as well as a deployable item in Fear & Hunger and its sequel, Fear & Hunger: Termina. Stepping into one will immediately sever or cripple both of the victim's legs, drastically reducing overworld movement speed and making it easier to hit NPCs in the head.
• In Friday the 13th: The Game, the counselors can use these against Jason. Considering who we're talking about, it just slows him down briefly. Jason also has his own crudely made ones (each version of Jason has a different amount), which can only be used on outdoor ground areas, but they are covered with leaves to conceal them from view, and they hurt the counselors more than the traps counselors set, on top of taking them a bit longer to free themselves.
• Bear traps are one of the hazards that complicate platforming in Gex.
• Elemental and magic traps in GreedFall all look like bear traps, despite being used more like explosive devices.
• Hello Neighbor has the Neighbor setting them all over his house to ensure that you don't trespass into his property, he also throws them at you if he spots you.
• Icewind Dale also has the mouse cursor turn into a bear trap icon when the player moves the cursor over a trap when the "Remove Traps" ability is enabled. Unsurprising, since it shares the Infinity Engine with Baldur's Gate.
• Bear traps are one of the items that can be found and deployed in Thelast.io. However, it takes a couple of seconds to do so, and while you won't be damaged by your own trap, you cannot take them back either, so you have to be careful about choosing a location. For the other players, the trap is invisible until you approach it closely, and the players who are going somewhere in the hurry will likely not notice at all until it closes on them. Once it does, it deals 30 damage and traps them in place for several seconds. Oh, and killing their original owner does not deactivate the trap.
  • It is also possible to further disguise a trap through dropping an item on top of it, which will also act as a lure, especially if it's something of a higher tier.
• These are one of the three possible kinds of traps in The Last Stand 2.
• Lead and Gold has this with the sniper class. She can lay them down to incapacitate enemies whilst she takes aim.
• League of Legends
  • Caitlyn, the Sheriff of Piltover throws down "Yordle Snap Traps" to inconvenience enemies. She baits them with cupcakes (which provides her with her partner Vi's Affectionate Nickname for her, "Cupcake"). After a few changes they no longer do damage themselves, but they do both hold down anyone who steps in them for a short while, and mark them for Caitlyn to headshot with her sniper rifle, doing a scary amount of bonus damage.
  • Kled, everyone's favorite psychotic Noxian hobo murder Yordle, has his Bear Trap On A Rope ability. Which is exactly what it sounds like.
• In Lemmings, bear traps are the most frequently occurring of the three types of trap in the dirt tileset. As with every trap in the game, if a lemming steps in it, it's instant death.
• Giant bear traps are scattered around the world of Limbo, and, unsurprisingly, will kill you in one brutal chomp if you blunder into them. Sometimes they swing towards you on ropes. You can also push or pull them across the ground without triggering them if you're careful, which is necessary to bypass some obstacles.
• A few minor Mega Man (Classic) enemies are robotic bear traps. Burner Man has a special attack that throws down three hidden bear traps to limit your mobility. They do no damage, but you have to wiggle the D-pad to escape if one catches you, and in the meantime Burner Man is probably pummeling you with powerful, hard-to-dodge attacks.
• In Mordhau, players can lay bear traps. It will incapacitate and heavily injure the caught enemy. Bear traps will kill the enemy with no leg armor instantly, since it dismembers their feet instead of capturing.
• In Mother 3, Kumatora gets her leg caught in one of these (which kind of Makes Sense In Context considering that kuma means bear in Japanese.)
• Mountain Troll: These appear as a hazard in the game. If the troll steps on one, then it's Game Over.
• In Mutant Football League, a few sawtoothed steel "mutant traps" are found near the sidelines on some teams' home fields. Stepping on one kills any player instantly, forcing a fumble if he had the ball. Like the other lethal hazards, you can use them to your advantage by herding the opposing defense (or the ballcarrier) into them. Also like other lethal traps, having them on your home field is a double edged sword, especially in Dynasty Mode; your less intelligent/agile players on the kickoff team (offensive linemen and underdeveloped 3rd and 4th string defensive backs) will walk right into them.
• In Naughty Bear, bear-traps are - appropriately enough - one of your main weapons against the other bears. You plant 'em on paths, and then walk up to kill or scare whatever bears get caught in them. And unlike the similarly-useful Mines, they can be reused!
• NetHack has bear traps which merely pin you (or another creature that has legs) down until it gets pried open. You can jump out, but this'll cripple your leg for a very long time, and so it is a really bad idea. Players with picks can also dig down, which destroys the trap, but places them in a pit, although it'll still be a little faster to escape from on average. You can also teleport away from the trap, or change your form into something that's either too small to be held in a trap (like a rat), or isn't solid enough, like a green slime or an air elemental, or can straight-up eat metal items like the trap, like a rust monster. However, this last set of solutions is normally only available in the very late game, and is generally an overkill for what would by then be a mere nuisance.
  • If you manage to disarm one (preferably before you stumble into it), you can pick it up and then set it somewhere else. However, they both take a while to set up (meaning that you usually can't use them vs. the enemies already aware of your presence, unless you spam Elbereth beforehand), incur a minor alignment penalty for Lawful characters (which can theoretically lock you out of your class quest until you fix your karma), and weigh a lot. The latter means that you'll often have to abandon a lot of potentially-more useful stuff like potions, wands or extra arrows/throwing daggers/darts to avoid becoming Burdened or worse, Stressed, which slows the player down and makes them easy prey for tough enemies like soldier ants in the early game and mind flayers in the mid-to-late game.
    • Humorously, if a bugbear or an owlbear stumbles into a bear trap (whether one you placed, or one already present on the level), you'll get the "You hear the roaring of an angry bear!" message. If you changed your own form into that of a bear and then stumbled into the trap, you'll be the one to howl in anger!
• All the trap kits use the "bear trap" inventory icon in Neverwinter Nights.
• Ninja: Shadow of Darkness have these as traps in the mountain levels. And given the game runs on Everything Trying to Kill You; at one point you're dodging ice blocks in a Hair-Trigger Avalanche, the traps will not trigger despite the falling ice but will trigger when you step on them!
• In No One Lives Forever 2, you can place beartraps. They have the effect of holding enemies still whilst they struggle to free themselves, and whilst you line up the sights of your crossbow.
• Focusing on mining in Oasis (2005) eventually unlocks bear traps.
• Claw Traps in One Step From Eden trap characters that step on them for a few seconds. Both the player and the boss Shiso can deploy them.
• Overwatch gives these to Junkrat, who tosses one out to catch enemies for some quick target practice.
• Bear traps can be deployed in Path of Exile, and there are even helmet enchantments that'll increase their damage and reduce the cooldown on their deployment.
• Pokémon Sword and Shield: The Galarian Stunfisk resembles a bear trap and serves as the region's Chest Monster.
• Quest for Glory I has you find a talking Fox in one of these.
• Questron II places these traps in the dungeon. They destroy armor, and you can't attempt to detect them if they are behind a door (causing them to hit without warning).
• Radiant Historia has traps throughout the world which damage you when touched, sometimes to force you to take another path but other times seemingly randomly. Partway through the game when you get the ability to see things that are hidden you find out that the entire continent is scattered with Invisible Beartraps.
• Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 4 (Remake):
  • Leon encounters a dog snared by a bear trap. The player can choose whether to free or ignore it. Doing the former will result in the wolf helping you against El Gigante.
  • There are also a number of bear-traps set in various areas waiting for you to step in them. Doing so causes you damage and also freezes you in place as Leon has to stop and pry it open. Naturally, they don't hurt enemies running towards you, and they can be avoided by either shooting them or getting close enough to hit them with your knife, which causes them to spring early.
• Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves calls them wolf traps, but the principle is the same. They'll insta-kills regular wolves, and will hold down the stronger werewolves for a while, especially after upgrades.
• These are the first traps encountered in Shadow of the Beast.
• Shut Eye: One of the Killer Teddy Bears stalking girl has one-to-two bear traps clamp down on his head.
• Spikes Belly's room in Silent Hive features one.
• In The Simpsons Wrestling, Groundskeeper Willie can drop these as a special move. If you drop one on an opponent who's already knocked down, it will go off whenever they try to stand up — this doesn't really help you win, as it doesn't reduce their health, but it will really annoy your opponent.
• Skinwalker Hunt: You have a bear trap as part of your Skinwalker hunting equipment. You can set it up, and even put meat on it to attract the Skinwalker.
• In Skuljagger, bear traps are commonly encountered lying on the ground. When the player gets near them, the bear traps jump up and start biting by themselves.
• In Skullgirls, Peacock's suspiciously metallic, razor-toothed smile is due to her having a bear trap for a set of dentures. She puts them to good use in some of her attacks, where she spits them at her opponent.
• Soul At Stake: One of the "devil" cards allows devils to place these.
• The Heavy Steel Trap in SYNTHETIK, which deals high amounts of damage and slows down the enemy.
• Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven has bear traps as a usable item, though the game refers to them as "tiger traps" instead. The trap's item description says that it "clenches the feet of fools." And yes, you can get caught in your own trap, with everything that implies.
• In Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster's Hidden Treasure, this is a rare level hazard.
• The traps in Two Worlds II are all stylized bear traps, albeit ones that release anything from poison gas to magic to physical damage.
• A Valley Without Wind has bear traps as a deployable item, which both damage and immobilizes enemies and is one of the most effective means of defeating certain foes. It also has explosive beartraps, which somehow manage to still immobilize for the same length of time despite instantly exploding on activation. Both types will only snap shut on enemies, ignoring yourself or any allies.
• The Walking Dead (Telltale): an unlucky survivor ends up with his leg trapped in one at the beginning of Episode two.
• Witchkin: The teddy bear Witchkin has one in place of his mouth.
• Hunter traps in World of Warcraft look like bear traps. Strangely, none of them actually does what you'd expect from a bear trap (root the target in place) unless the hunter spends talent points for it.
  • They did intend a bear trap skill for cataclysm that would snare targets, but because snaring was all it does, they ultimately decided it wasn't worth it and swapped it out for other skills.
  • Hearthstone, being based on World of Warcraft, has several hunter Secret cards depicting bear traps. Special mention goes to the card "Bear Trap" which summons a Bear when triggered.
• In some early Yu-Gi-Oh! video games such as Yu-Gi-Oh! The Sacred Cards, one of the Trap Cards is Bear Trap. When an opponent's monster with 1500 ATK or less (2000 ATK in Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories) attacks when this card is set, it is automatically destroyed. Funnily enough, despite being a video game exclusive card, it has shown up on a few real life cards and one anime only card (Remove Trap, Trap Jammer, A-Team: Trap Disposal Unit and Trap Booster).

Visual Novels

• Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: Mikiko Hayami carries one on her parka. It snaps shut during her breakdown.

Web Animation

• In the first episode of The Grim, Gertrude sees a closed bear trap with something inside it while walking through the woods. It freaks her out enough to make her start running, causing her to get caught in another bear trap she didn't see.
• Happy Tree Friends: In "It's a Snap!'', Lumpy gets caught in a bunch of bear traps when trying to get a block of cheese. Splendid chops them off and chucks them into the distance, with one landing right on Cub's head.
• In the Piemations short, Papyrus Finds a Human, Papyrus does this as his first attempt to catch Frisk. After Papyrus dramatically announces it as a trap and Frisk must surrender to him combined with a "Dun, dun dun!" sound effect...Frisk just uses a stick to trigger and walks off. Sans states "That kid knows how to get out of a STICKy situation!" and laughs before Papyrus tells him to be quiet and Papyrus says he won't be outsmart that easily and he'll get Frisk next time.

Webcomics

• The Adventures of Dr. McNinja/Axe Cop crossover story "Stolen Pizza, Stolen Lives" has the eponymous heroes using pizza beartraps. As in, pizzas that snap shut like bear traps when their victims go to eat said pizza.
• Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures has things that resemble them, but they are actually aggressive earrings
  Alexsi: They're not on your ears Mab.
  Mab: Very aggressive earrings with very bad aim!
• The Boss's first appearance in The Redacverse has him walking into a bear trap set by one of his employees.
• Pip from Sequential Art demonstrates one non-conventional application.

Web Original

• "A Bear Trap Mishap".
• In the Creepypasta I Wasn't Alone in Seeking Shelter from the Blizzard, a hunter lost in a blizzard takes refuge during a storm in a shed. He is able to sense someone else in the shed, whom he offers to share his kill with. The person accepts with gusto. In the morning, he sees that his companion was a man whose foot was caught in a bear trap, and, unable to free himself, starved to death. He can explain the conversation as stress, but the tooth in the half-eaten rabbit is a little harder...
• Lucy Ashmore's designated weapon in Survival of the Fittest is one of these.
• Zombie Go Boom's test

Western Animation

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • In "Sonic's Song", Scratch and Grounder attempt to catch Sonic in one of these. Sonic dances to the song dedicated to him in it the entire time, and escapes from it just before Scratch and Grounder pounce at him. The trap doesn't go off when they land in it, and they try to figure out what's wrong. Grounder then sees it was switched off, and turns the switch on, causing it to go off on them.
  • In "Grounder the Genius", Scratch and Grounder use one of these as part of a plan to catch Sonic, placed underneath a giant Mouse Trap. Sonic is quick enough to avoid it, but they aren't when it falls on them.
• Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! combines both elements of bear traps when a deranged cryptozoologist uses them in his attempt to capture the Yeti. When he is caught in his own traps, it is vaguely scary to small children and vaguely humorous to everyone else.
• In the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf", Tank Muddlefoot lays a bear trap at the bottom of his chimney for Santa Claus to land on. However, "Santa" Darkwing comes in through the window and accidentally hits Tank with his sack, knocking him right into his own trap.
• Johnny is caught by one in the head in Ed, Edd n Eddy Big Picture Show.
• In the How to Train Your Dragon spin-off Dragons: Race to the Edge, Hiccup steps in a bear trap in a boat full of traps, but is unhurt because it snapped shut on his metal leg.
• Looney Tunes:
  • Wile E. Coyote has tried these to catch the Roadrunner. Naturally, they end up biting him in the ass — literally.
  • The short "Injun Trouble" (and its remake "Wagon Heels") has a trap catch Injun Joe by the leg, but the Implacable Man feels nothing. In response, Joe bites the trap with his just-as-sharp teeth, sending it whimpering away like a dog.
  • The same gag was used, this time with an actual bear, in "The Chewin' Bruin".
• Robot Chicken has a sketch where a gummy bear steps on one, and after screaming in pain, escapes by eating off her own leg. Finding it delicious, she gets through in no time. Then hops away, onto another beartrap.
• In The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror episode where Bart and Lisa are Trapped in TV Land in the middle of an Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Bart and Lisa are launched into the air and Bart takes it cool, until Lisa points out to him the ground, where Itchy and Scratchy are laying out hundreds of bear traps for them to land in. Electrified bear traps, no less!
• At the beginning of the short, "Concord the Kindly Condor" from the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Toons From the Crypt", a bear gets caught in one of these. Concord arrives and takes out a thermometer to pry open the trap so the bear can escape, but the close-up shown beforehand of the bear's satisfied face, surrounded by hearts, implies something else.
• Done in many occasions in Tom and Jerry. Tom, of course, predictably falls victim to these.
• Tom Goes to the Mayor has an example where the city council sets up bear traps around children parks to keep pedophiles out. Naturally, they only manage to trap children.
• Total Drama: Bear traps are rarer than mouse traps, but they do feature from time to time.
  • In the "That's Gonna Leave a Mark!" segment of "Aftermath III: O-wen or Lose", an outtake of "Oceans Eight.... Or Nine" shows Duncan not just keeling over upon discovering that the bank teller is Courtney, but keeling over into a giant bear trap that's set up next to the decor. It clamps down around his waist.
  • The Toxic Rats reach the Haunted Forest first in "Finders Creepers" and Lightning follows Chris's instruction, as relayed by loudspeaker, to get a written clue from a hole. It's only after he's put his arm in that Chris adds that there's a bear trap in there too. It clamps down on his forearm and Lightning leaves it like that for a bit as the team concerns itself with the clue and tells the other team to buzz off.
  • Alejandro encounters a bear trap hidden in a pile of giant pancakes he's eating from in "Food Fright".
• VeggieTales:
  • "Silly Songs with Larry" once features an opening where Larry is caught in a bear trap wearing a coonskin cap. His segment is then promptly canceled and replaced with "Love Songs with Mr. Lunt." We never find out what his intended song was about.
  • Also seen in the Silly Song "The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps", when a bear with a trap on his hand is brought to the doc.
• The 1984 TV series The Wind In The Willows has the episode “The Weasels’ Trap”, where the weasels find one and try to use it to injure Badger as revenge for foiling a robbery they were attempting. Laser-Guided Karma hits when the Chief Weasel ends up caught instead after his henchman moves the trap without telling him.

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