Stealthy like a cowboy.
The villains are chasing the hero and corner him in a room with a big wooden box. The hero hides under the box. The villains are coming closer and closer. He's going to get caught! The villains heave up up the box and look on the ground... huh? Where'd he go?
Then the camera shifts. The hero is actually wedging himself inside the box to avoid detection. Usually an Animated Trope. Of course, there's Fridge Logic involved. The characters lifting the box should notice that it is a whole person heavier than it was but they don't. Yes, low-rent henchmen may be dumb, but not that dumb. Behind the Black is in there somewhere too.
Compare: Shell Game, Gone Behind the Bend, Behind a Stick, Ceiling Cling, and Underside Ride.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Berserk: In the Conviction Arc, Guts reaches Bishop Mozgus' torture chamber only to find that everyone who remained inside was reduced to skeletons by the gelatinous monsters that came out of the Iron Maiden. He notices one of the torturers' empty helmets scooting along the floor all by itself, and when he picks it up he finds Puck clinging to the inside where he was hiding.
- The Legend of Zelda: In the Wind Waker manga story Monsters Are Not Good With Tricks, Link sneaks up behind a Moblin in a barrel only for the Moblin to suddenly turn around and snatch up the barrel. Link manages to hold on inside in the barrel and the Moblin wanders off confused.
Comic Books
- Spirou & Fantasio: If needed, Spip hides under Spirou's cap and if a suspicious person looks behind it, Spip will cling inside the hat.
Fairy Tales
- In Asbjørnsen and Moe's "The Old Dame and her Hen", the youngest daughter smuggles her sisters out of the troll's lair by getting them in sacks and asking the troll to carry food to her aging mother. When the troll wants to peek inside the sack to find out why it is so heavy, the daughter -or her sister mimicking her voice- shouts "I'm seeing you", and the troll relents.
Films — Animation
- Woody does this in Toy Story 1 to avoid being tied to a rocket by Sid. More justified than most, as the light weight of a toy is easier to miss when lifting the box.
- In An American Tail, Fievel escapes the Cossack cats by clinging to the lid of a teapot. He narrowly avoids detection when a cat looks under the lid, but he moves to the other side just in time.
- In Megamind, the titular character clings to the door that Titan ripped off while searching for him.
- In The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Luigi pulls one when his cage is dipped into the lava pit, and he manages to hold enough until Donkey Kong manages to pull the chain back up, right when all but the cage's roof has been melted off.
Films — Live-Action
- In Matilda, Matilda is hiding under a table from the wicked Principal Trunchbull. When the Trunchbull gets near the table, she lifts up the tablecloth, but doesn't see Matilda. It turns out Matilda was clinging to the underside of the table. This example is played slightly more realistically than most examples in that Matilda doesn't have the strength to hold this position for more than about a minute, and since Trunchbull is sitting at the table Matilda is under Ms. Honey has to act quickly to keep her from being discovered.
- Hanna hides under the bed when CIA agent Marissa Wiegler enters the room, apparently unaware of her presence. All of a sudden however she drops down in mid-conversation and looks under the bed...but sees nothing, as Hanna is clinging to the underside of the frame.
- In Van Helsing, Mr. Hyde traps Van Helsing under a church bell, then hears the sound of his buzzsaw weapons and lifts the bell to find a round hole in the floor. It turns out Van Helsing was actually still hiding in the bell, and he slices off one of Hyde's arms.
Literature
- The BFG: Subverted. When the BFG's cave is invaded by the man-eating Bloodbottler giant, Sophie hides behind a snozzcumber (a giant foul-tasting vegetable). When she realises that the snozzcumber would not hide her if the Bloodbottler picked it up, she hides inside it. The Bloodbottler does indeed pick it up, and bites a huge hunk off it, while Sophie is still inside.
- The Old Dame and her Hen: The youngest daughter smuggles her sisters out of the troll's lair by getting them in sacks and asking the troll to carry food to her aging mother. When the troll wants to peek inside the sack to find out why it is so heavy, the daughter -or her sister mimicking her voice- shouts "I'm seeing you", and the troll relents.
Video Games
- Wario World: The boss battle against the Mean Emcee has a Shell Game gimmick, where the player has to track which of three cups the boss is hiding under as they shuffle around. Hit the right cup and it'll raise up to reveal apparently nothing... jump up and hit the cup again and the boss falls out.
Western Animation
- In Adventures of the Gummi Bears, Grammi hides under a basket, an ogre lifts it up and is surprised by her disappearance. He looks up into the basket, and she dropkicks him.
- Mr. Bogus does this in the first act of the episode "Totally Bogus Video" under all three garbage can lids that he was hiding under when confronted by Ratty and his rottweiler accomplice during a sequence that parodies The Terminator.
- The Legend of Korra: Korra has been kidnapped and is trapped in a metal box. Amon appears with a group of Equalists and asks them to zap the box with their electric gloves and electrocute Korra in case she would use her bending to trounce them all and escape. Korra manages to avoid electrocution by using one of her armbands to hang from a bar on the top of the box and keep her from touching the sides.
- Classic Disney Shorts: In The Autograph Hound, Donald Duck hides from a studio guard by hiding in a himself in a tray being carried by Henry Armetta. When he lifts the cover, Donald isn't there, but he soon reveals himself clinging to the inside of the cover.
Guard: Have ye got a duck in there?Armetta: What'sa mat? No duck-a, boss. Roast-a beef. (lifts cover)Guard: (sees nothing there) Roast beef?Donald: Yeah, roast-a beef, flatfoot! (throws the beef at them and flees)
- Looney Tunes:
- In Sniffles Bells the Cat, Sniffles does this with a teacup when the cat is looking for him on a trap of cups.
- In Rabbit Stew and Rabbits Too!, the rabbit is caught in a Box-and-Stick Trap, but clings to the box when the fox lifts it.
- In The Movie of Drawn Together, I.S.R.A.E.L. tries searching under the van the Jew Producer is in to look for the housemates. It turns out they're clinging under the van.
