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| - Not to be confused with Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt, a common hazard in video games. The villain ties the goodie to a conveyor belt, an ore cart, a log floating in a flume, or any other mechanized delivery system. At the other end is a blast furnace, grinding machine, large saw or other such unfriendly device, into whose open maw the hero is expected to go. Often found in factories, mills, mines, labs, sweatshops and other places that have safety issues. Playing Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" in the background is purely optional. Examples of Conveyor Belt O' Doom include:
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abstract
| - Not to be confused with Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt, a common hazard in video games. The villain ties the goodie to a conveyor belt, an ore cart, a log floating in a flume, or any other mechanized delivery system. At the other end is a blast furnace, grinding machine, large saw or other such unfriendly device, into whose open maw the hero is expected to go. Often found in factories, mills, mines, labs, sweatshops and other places that have safety issues. Playing Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" in the background is purely optional. Occasionally this is used as an incentive to talk during an interrogation. Other times there is no tying involved. The hero just finds himself on a running conveyor belt and must avoid all sorts of machinery that, while doing its job, also has the annoying tendency to kill, maim and/or destroy any extraneous entities on the belt. If the belt has a stationary side, or is above a floor, the Hero never, ever runs diagonally to the side, where he would be safe, but instead always opts to run straight against the direction of the belt. Sometimes, while doing so, he gets stuck on something, and the situation reverts back to the original trope. Occasionally, the Big Bad's minions find themselves on the belt along with the hero, and invariably end up cut up, smashed or perforated by the machines. Originated as a standard Cliff Hanger scenario in 19th-century melodramas and the silent matinee film serials that followed them, such as The Perils of Pauline (and echoed repeatedly on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop). Probably a Dead Horse Trope, at least in the dramatic sense. But then, it wasn't too bad in Enemy Mine. See also Packed Hero. Examples of Conveyor Belt O' Doom include:
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