History AirVentPassageway / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheDeep'': In "Lonesome Jim", Ant and Fontaine crawl through the air vents on EvilPoacher Conger's submersible base. Fontaine comments on how overrated air vents are as a means of passage.

** Parodied in the 100th episode. Santa's Little Helper gets into the school ventilation shafts, and only a greased Scotsman can catch him....

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Subverted. The Gaang was stuck in a room and the only exits were air ''tubes'', so they tried to get Momo through it. However, Momo ate too much, and couldn't fit. Momo later ''did'' crawl through some tubes in Roku's Temple, though it wasn't actually an "escape".

* ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'': "[[Recap/StarTrekLowerDecksS2E02KayshonHisEyesOpen Kayshon, His Eyes Open]]": Rutherford and Tendi combine their knowledge to break into the engineering ducts on the Collector's ship, bypassing the trapped galleries entirely.

* Subverted in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. The Gaang was stuck in a room and the only exits were air ''tubes'', so they tried to get Momo through it. However, Momo ate too much, and couldn't fit. Momo later ''did'' crawl through some tubes in Roku's Temple, though it wasn't actually an "escape".

* An earlier episode of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'' about the trio trying to watch a monster movie marathon had them use this to get out of the bathroom and to the TV around Rolf(who was talking their ears off with another outlandish story). They do briefly get stuck, but Ed is able to push them out with relative ease.

* Helga from ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' used this method to sneak into the boarding house in "Helga Blabs it All".

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':

* The strangely clean air ducts of the SHIELD Helicarrier are {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in the ''WesternAnimation/UltimateSpiderMan'' episode "For Your Eye Only" which, as a spy movie parody with nods to ''Film/DieHard'', has Spidey using air ducts rather frequently.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'':

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}}'' episode "The Quake Threat". When Birdman is trapped in an ElaborateUndergroundBase, Avenger the eagle breaks in through an air vent to save him.

** In "Homefront" - the DieHardOnAnX episode - Robin and Artemis spend a lot of time trying to avoid the Reds by crawling through the ducts; with varying degrees of success. In this case Robin downloaded the schematics and switched off the motion sensors.

** In Season 2, a group of female team members do this in a bad guy's lair. The only one it makes sense for is Bumblebee who uses her shrinking powers to fit. On a more realistic note, all of the full-size heroines are shown having some difficulty maneuvering in the tight space.

** In "Homefront" - the DieHardOnAnX episode - Robin and Artemis spend a lot of time trying to avoid the Reds by crawling through the ducts; with varying degrees of success.

** In "Fireworks", our heroes are escaping from Cadmus ElaborateUndergroundBase through the vents, but Dr. Desmond sends the genomorphs after them and smirks that Robin forgot to hack the motion sensors along with the CCTV cameras. He's waiting for where the sensors say they are coming out, only for the genomorphs to burst out of the vent on top of him. Turns out Robin ''did'' hack the motion sensors.

** In "Raiders of the Doomsday Vault!", Dewey is the only one small enough to climb through the vent to get to the other side of a blocked passage in the Doomsday Vault in order to let Della in.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' is fond of this. Somewhat surprisingly, it's always played straight.

* {{Defied|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'': Wolverine and Gambit are trying to break into a secret lab to steal back a power inhibitor collar, and Wolverine suggests taking advantage of this trope. Gambit counters with: "Heh, only in the world of cinema. [[ThisIsReality In real life, they never hold]]." It certainly doesn't help that Wolverine's metal skeleton makes him about three times as heavy as a normal person.

** The second episode of the unfinished Utapau arc had Anakin and Obi-Wan try to escape from a group of armed weapons dealers by crawling through their ship's ventilation system. However, [[RealityEnsues not only do the arms dealers simply shoot into the vents, the vents are so cramped that the Jedi have to use the Force to move each other around to avoid getting shot.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the first two seasons, Ezra Bridger spends a ''lot'' of time crawling around in ducts. The fact that he's a scrawny, underfed teenager helps a great deal. By Season 3 he's had a growth spurt, [[RealityEnsues so he can't do this anymore]]. [[spoiler:Oddly enough, serves as a CallBack in the series finale: when Ezra decides to sacrifice himself he escapes the room through the air ducts, even noting "one last time" as he does.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/SonicSatAM'', most episodes that contain Robotropolis have the main characters in an air duct at LEAST once. Robotropolis is perhaps Air Duct Central, essentially one giant factory bathing in its own heated (polluted) air. Lots of cool (polluted) air has to be moved around to keep the place from overheating somehow. By the way, Robotnik hates this trope:

** "Cloak of Darkness": Ventress used the airvents to infiltrate and sabotage a Jedi Cruiser unnoticed.

** "Assassin": Aurra Sing used these to attempt to assassinate Padmé.
** Subverted and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d in [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS3E18TheCitadel "The Citadel"]]. With the entry point the Jedi wanted to use blocked, Anakin and Obi-Wan muse how to get in, and Ahsoka points on the ventilation hatch. Anakin argues that they're too small to gain access, but in response Ahsoka points out, that they might be too small for Anakin, Obi-Wan and the clones, but she might be able to squeeze through -- which she is, although barely. In the next episode Obi-Wan's entire team tries to escape the Citadel in absurdly spacious airvents. However these had lethally effective security doors, and the warden at least had enough common sense to send at least one drone in the airvents.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the first two seasons, Ezra Bridger spends a ''lot'' of time crawling around in ducts. The fact that he's a scrawny, underfed teenager helps a great deal. By Season 3 he's had a growth spurt, [[RealityEnsues so he can't do this anymore]]. [[spoiler:Oddly enough, serves as a CallBack in the series finale, when Ezra decides to sacrifice himself he escapes the room through the air ducts, even noting "one last time" as he does.]]

** In Season 2, a group of female team members do this in a bad guy's lair. The only one it makes sense for is Bumblebee who uses her shrinking powers to fit. On a more realistic note, all of the full-size heroines are shown having some difficulty maneuvering in the tight space.