This is probably going to seem WAY random, but I have a character who spends the entirety of my story trapped inside of a building. The climactic ending I envision has her physically breaking down the barrier and finally making her way outside, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out what, other than a vault door, might fit the bill. What are some kinds of man-made barriers like walls and doors that are known for being difficult to penetrate? It doesn't matter if it seems unlikely to be found in a public building; I'm actually sort of going for a barrier that will seem out of place in its context. Thanks!
[QUOTE="g_man526, post: 1800994, member: 31895"The climactic ending I envision has her physically breaking down the barrier and finally making her way outside, but I'm having a little trouble figuring out what, other than a vault door, might fit the bill.[/QUOTE] Even an ordinary, locked door would do the trick, but maybe I'm not getting what you are saying. Does she have any tools?
If this building has windows you have a problem. So many professionals (movies in particular) have a character trapped and they walk through a ground level room with either a wall of windows or a human sized window and the person doesn't break that crap open to escape whatever is after them. Crazy. But it depends a lot on what tools your character has, what knowledge she has, what the door is made of. Solid wood door, like olden day doors when, not easy to break through. However if the hinges are on her side all she has to do is unscrew them. Stone would be difficult, she'd need heat to be able to crack the door and super heavy tools. Unless she just takes the door handle off, then the locking mechanism is gone unless it's an external barrier like a piece of wood across the doorway or something. Doors are easy to get through if you can think of a way to. If she had a sledge hammer and a stone door she should just smack it into the bottom or the top of the stone to shatter it. A vault door would require mechanical expertise allowing for knowledge about its inner workings or about explosives.
Right, probably should've provided some more details. Sorry about that: 1. She will discover a sledge hammer in the dark recesses of the basement of the place, but that's near the end (the basement is not immediately accessible in this story). As I said above, she will smash the barrier open. 2. No windows or glass, just a few skylights that she wouldn't be able to climb to. 3. This story takes place within the last decade or so, so a wooden door would probably not hold her. I was thinking on the level of a bank vault door or for a nuclear fallout shelter.
I believe highly tempered glass (the kind they make skyscraper windows out of) is extremely hard to break. I've seen demo videos where cars get dropped on this glass, and the cars just bounce off. A sledge hammer wielded by a single person is unlikely to break through. It might make an interesting scenario as well, if she is being held against her will. If all the walls were made of one-way glass, with the mirror side turned inward, anybody outside would be able to observe what she was up to, while she wouldn't be able to see out at all.
I seem to remember someone won a Darwin award, a lawyer (?), who was telling people about the strength of the windows in his skyscraper by running at it full tilt and apparently bouncing off it each time.....til he broke through and fell to his death. I'd say the windows are only as strong as they have to be. Unless you live in an earthquake zone and the zoning bylaws call for extra, extra strong windows, I don't think they are unbreakable.
I've heard the same story but was under the impression that the window itself didn't break, it simply came out of its frame. Anyway, does the barrier itself have to be what's hard to get through. One of those outside basement doors may not be difficult to smash through with a sledgehammer, but if an old tree happened to fall on top of it a long item ago, you aren't going to get it open from inside no matter how hard you smash it. These types of doors also have the added advantage (to you) that they're usually at very strange angles, so just swinging a hammer at it would be difficult.
Cement blocks are pretty hard to break through with your bare hands, especially a wall of them. But with a sledgehammer, you can break through it pretty easy
Panic room or tornado/ bomb shelter. Concrete blocks, especially if filled with dirt or concrete would be very hard to break. Thick steel plates would be hard to break as well but with a sledge and time you could do it.
I'm not sure I understand the problem . Most buildings have walls and doors that are hard to get trough . You could make it impossible by placing you character in a cellar, or just hard, in a normal brick house with bars in the windows and a strong door.
If I built a room that was impenetrable, I would use 1 inch Lexan sandwiched with 4 inch precast concrete slabs, with embedded rebar. Any hinges would be hidden and all locks would require rare-earth magnets to work.
Just to add Lexan is a trade name. There are others that make polycarbonate materials and variances of these products. That said, having some experience of using polycarbonate materials it would complimented very well by that design Thundair.
simple external wall fire doors are very thick and heavy and could be held shut with an electric magnet lock, most are. as the storey ends and the building dies and finally the power shuts down the locks release opening the doors may be the doors dont open by a hole in the wall happens? a furniture sliegh cascade ride down a staircase and punches through the external wall or glass window how about a car in the reception as an art work piece or a tank or robotic gunship, that after her experience in the war building she realises that by plugging it in and pressing the red button it fires a missle off to open the doors
