Alright, team. We’re trapped in a spaceship that’s going to self-destruct in one hour if we don’t reset the control panel and reroute the vessel back to Earth. We’ll need undivided attention from our most brilliant minds on this project. Ready? Let’s go!

Escape rooms can be an exciting and fun way to disappear from reality for an hour and focus on solving a series of puzzles and riddles. And while you might believe that what happens in an escape room stays in an escape room, that’s not really the case. Because employees are watching you through cameras the entire time. Redditors have recently been sharing the funniest and most embarrassing escape room fails they’ve witnessed, so we’ve gathered some of their tales down below. Keep reading to find a conversation with Gord and Liz of Review the Room, and be sure to upvote the memories that you think people are hoping to escape from!

#1

The guy that used a hammer on the drywall, because he swore there was a secret door, because he could “see the seam”.

Image credits: Tangboy50000

To learn more about escape rooms from a couple of experts, we reached out to Gord and Liz, creators of the Review the Room blog. They were kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda and share where their love for escape rooms came from.

“We were introduced to escape rooms by a friend of ours back in 2015,” Gord and Liz said. “At first, we weren’t hooked, and it was a few months before we played another. We then started playing more and more, and it’s been a slippery slope ever since (just this last weekend, we played our 500th game).”

“It sounds cliché, but we love the ‘escape’ of it all,” the bloggers shared. “For that 60 mins (or more or less) we are on a mission, and all our focus is on that. Everything that’s going on in the outside world just fades away, and we get to escape reality for just a little while.”

#2

Every first date couple that thought an escape room was a good idea for a first date. Always super awkward.

Image credits: crunchybucket86

#3

The escape room I worked at had a real fire alarm inside the room… I’m sure you can see how this ended up.

Image credits: DieselPickles

We also were curious what Gord and Liz believe makes a successful (or a not so successful) escape room. “For an escape room to be great, it needs the full package; great puzzles, a strong narrative, a well designed set, and great hosting, or, in a word – immersion,” they shared. “You can have good rooms that are lacking one of these elements, but we tend to find the rooms that stand out are the ones that have taken that extra step to immerse you in their world from the minute you walk through the door.”

“Escape rooms are interesting as what one person loves, another may hate (and vice-versa),” the experts continued. “We generally find a room less exciting if it is just a bland room full of padlocks, no narrative, and very minimal decoration. I’m not saying padlocks are bad, they’ve just got to be used in the right way.”

#4

My wife and I got stuck on a door. We unlocked the door. We pushed it, we pulled it, for like 5 minutes. We had to ask for help. It slides open. We still solved the escape room otherwise.

Image credits: elvishfiend

#5

A friend works at an escape room. A group of Mom’s come in once every few months but do not even attempt to solve any thing…they all just lay down or relax in the silence! I think they come to “escape” life for a bit. The workers all know them and they are lovely women who just need to escape.

Image credits: jersey8894

#6

One memorable attempt involved a group who spent the entire hour fixated on a single clue, convinced it held the key to their escape. Despite hints from staff, they refused to move on. When time ran out, they realized they had ignored crucial clues early on, which highlights the importance of teamwork and time management in escape rooms

Image credits: DataGoaz123

We also wanted to know how often Gord and Liz estimate people fail to complete their missions in escape rooms. “Many escape rooms now want everyone to succeed and will do everything they can to help players get through the game, especially the independent companies,” they shared. “Escape rooms are often passion projects of the owners, so they want everyone to see their full creation and get that wonderful dopamine hit when you succeed.”

“Saying that, escape rooms do use ‘success rate’ but this can be more of a guide to help new players understand the difficulty level of a game (and should be taken with a pinch of salt),” Gord and Liz added.

#7

Went for a friend’s girlfriend’s birthday. She wanted to do the hardest room they had, so we did, but none of us had ever done an escape room before. She ended up basically having a meltdown and yelling at us. We didn’t solve anything, but after about 40 minutes, one of the employees let us use our hint to solve the rope puzzle where someone was tied to the middle of the room

Image credits: nfSan

#8

We had a group of 10-year-olds come in for a birthday party. The adult accompanying them into the room took the walkie-talkie and refused to accept any hints. We even tried to talk through the walkie-talkie with freebies (maybe check under so-and-so), and they just wouldn’t do it. Needless to say, they didn’t get anything accomplished in an hour, and it was the easiest reset

Image credits: BustyRucketBay

#9

A huge group came into our escape room. Halfway through the game the cameras went out. Managed to facilitate the game with audio only but the group still did absolutely horribly, they barely made it through half the room. Went back in once they were done – they’d gotten behind the wall and unplugged the cameras so they could p**s in the room. Didn’t even bother with most of the puzzles.

Image credits: cowboylore

“In 500 games, we have failed to escape on perhaps three occasions, but this comes with a caveat,” Gord and Liz told Bored Panda. “Of those three games, two were ‘broken’ in that they couldn’t be solved due to a reset or tech error and the host didn’t realize in time to correct the problem. The third time we did complete the game, just in ‘overtime’ as that wonderful host gave us a few extra minutes to solve the final puzzle.”

#10

I went to one once and we had the code for like 15 minutes and the lock just wouldn’t work. Guy running it finally came in, couldn’t get it either… ended up giving us a screw driver to take off the side of the lock instead… was pretty dumb.

Image credits: Phraoz007

#11

I’m 100% positive that I’m the subject of one of these stories. My group once put me in charge of a puzzle involving wires during crunch time, since I’m a tech geek.

I stood there with a handful of wires being completely useless, and it took a couple of precious minutes to get the team to stop panicking with their own projects before they realized what was wrong.

I’m colorblind.

Image credits: MaximumZer0

#12

Back when I worked at one, I had a couple give up on the room for the last 5–10 minutes and make out with each other instead. I ended up turning the monitor off because I was so done

Image credits: meteoriteisthesource

“Escape rooms exist for fun,” the bloggers continued. “If you get out within the time limit, then that’s great. But even if you don’t, having fun is the key thing. The Games Master is there to ensure you have the best experience you can, and they want to see you succeed. Don’t be afraid to ask for clues if you need them, sometimes you just need a little nudge to get you back on the right track.”

“When you’ve decided to do an escape room, have a think about what theme may interest you,” Gord and Liz suggest. “Always wanted to rob a bank, raid a temple, stop AI taking over the world, or perhaps just break into an office? Whatever theme interests you, there is almost certainly an escape room that will match.”

#13

Had one group get stuck on the thought a lock was the next solution. Even after basically telling them the solution and that it wasn’t that lock, they ran back to it.

It wasn’t even a lock they were supposed to open. It was one for us. And they wasted 75% of their time on it.

Image credits: HasSh*ttyIdeas

#14

Me and my buddies (after a few drinks and a lifetime of construction) did an escape room that had multiple red Xs painted on the wall, and our first instinct was to just kick in the drywall. It turned out you were supposed to put mirrors or pictures or something on the Xs and you could read a code for a door, but we did not get that far. We just put person-sized holes in every wall and were immediately kicked out. We’re idiots, but it was bound to happen. They just got unlucky that it was five people who can rip drywall down really fast

Image credits: Hour-Shake-839

#15

Not an employee but the group I was with spent 30 minutes trying to figure out how to use a combination lock(3 right turns, 2 left, 1 right). We had the right numbers and I assumed my group knew how to use that type of lock.

Image credits: Axel_Dunce

“People often think escape rooms are scary, and don’t get me wrong, some are. But many are family friendly, we’ve even seen people playing escape rooms with newborn babies strapped to their chests,” Gord and Liz shared.

“There’s often debates in the escape room community if ‘escape room’ is even a correct term for these experiences,” they added. “Puzzle rooms, Adventure rooms, or even Immersive experiences could be a better name for them. Whatever you call them, give one a try, and lose yourself in a different reality.”

If you’d like to hear more about Gord and Liz’s experiences or get some recommendations for great escape rooms in the UK, be sure to visit Review the Room!

#16

I somehow got into being an escape room tester, and I’ve seen some bizarre behavior. Usually a new place will get some friends/family to come in, and then a couple more experienced folks, and the totally new folks can get weird. Was doing a Edgar Allen Poe themed room and this lady just sat down and started reading the prop books telling us “the answer is in here”. 40 minutes of reading for this lady.

Image credits: MaverickDago

#17

My wife sh*t herself inside of the escape room. And she ran out into the car fully embarrassed. And I had to finish the escape room by myself ( I didn’t finish). I assumed the employees thought we broke up because she dashed out so quickly. And when I lost, they still asked me to take a photo… by myself.

Image credits: TameTasmanian

#18

Not as funny as the others on here, but the least successful (not really even an attempt) was a group of completely drunk bachelors party (already drinking in the parking lot at 10 in the morning drunk, was so close to just not letting them participate) that did not manage to solve more than two riddles. Gave all of the tips I could up to the point of telling them the solution and they just did not believe me. One of the guys sat down on a chair and straigt up fell asleep after 5 mins. Rest stumbled around and I was never as scared before and after that they will break something. Worst group ever.

Image credits: MCMC_aka_DrStoner

We were also lucky enough to get in touch with David Spira, President of Escape Room Artist, to learn even more about escape rooms. David shared with Bored Panda that his passion for escape rooms started in December of 2013 while planning a trip to Budapest and Prague. “As I was browsing things to do on TripAdvisor, I found a business with a ton of 5 star reviews called ‘Claustrophilia.’ That name and all of the stars warranted further investigation, and it turned out that it was an escape room. I immediately fell in love with the concept before playing one,” David says.

“Back then, I loved the puzzles and the challenge. Today, I love some of the absolutely insane games that high-end escape room creators make,” he continued. “If you’ve never played a top escape room, you can’t comprehend what these amazing people produce. I also truly love the escape room player community. It’s a wonderful group of people.”

#19

A group of brunchers came to attempt our hardest room. They had brunched thoroughly and were already very wild and immobile. The room they were attempting was big — six separate rooms with a simulated earthquake that a normal, sober group of 6 would struggle to do. Turns out one of them snuck beers in their cargo pants and spilled it EVERYWHERE. 10 minutes in, the game was stopped and they were asked to leave. Moral of the story, brunch and escape rooms do not mix. Side anecdote: Have had many peerers, as well. I could go on for awhile with the wild things I’ve seen, haha 

Image credits: Manejar

#20

You get these kinds of people from time to time, but there are people that no matter how much help you give them, they just cannot understand what to do. You get people sometimes where you can straight up tell them “put the code 1234 into the lock that you’re holding to unlock it,” and they just will not get it. We have a room where there are backpacks that you find with items inside. In an escape room, if you ever find a bag, usually, the first instinct is to open it. So I had one team where I told them to check out the backpack in the room, and they just picked the backpack up and then said, “Now what?” And I had to tell them that they’re supposed to open it and see what’s inside.

Also, FYI, when we say that we’ll be watching your game, we’re telling the truth. If you ever go to an escape room, understand that someone is always watching and they can see absolutely everything that you do and hear everything that you say. I’ve seen and heard many things that I wish I could forget, don’t be all over your partner to the point where you’re borderline f*****g in the rooms and please, don’t play an escape room at the same time that you have a phone appointment with your doctor, I learned more intimate information about a woman who is a complete stranger than I ever wanted to know.

Image credits: LilyWednesday666

#21

Had a work group play as a team building. The second puzzle was to find a key to unlock a desk. The middle compartment lifts up after you unlock it. The person who unlocked it tried to pull it open, wouldn’t budge, so instead of then trying to lift proceeds to tell the whole group “guys we need another key to unlock this drawer”. Now I thought surly someone would double check this persons work but no. Everyone believed them and no one else gave the desk a try. I chime in asking if they’d like a nudge since they did unlock it and I don’t want them to be stuck but they shoot me down and say no. 30 minutes go by and they finally cave and ask for a clue. I tell them that desk is in fact unlocked they just need to lift it open. They were very pissed off at the one person and did not make it out.

Image credits: JustA_Ghost103

#22

I once saw a group of top tier Microsoft engineers come in for a team building exercise… and fail a Pirate themed room that 12 year olds successfully solve all the time.

They were obsessed with doing weird things including:

-listening for Morse code in the ambient wave noises
-climbing on each other’s shoulders to change the source channel on the projector that showed the intro video
-deciding our novelty SpongeBob picture of his pineapple house was a reference to the Pineapple Express airstream and then trying to stop the ceiling fan with their bare hands
-taking apart the pirate ship wheel on the wall with a swiss army knife, down to removing the ball bearings inside
-debating where North on a permanently mounted map was, based on where they must have been angled in the room and where our physical building was in relation to the ocean (there was a compass rose PRINTED ON THE MAP)

Software engineers are the smartest fools in the whole wide world. P.S. We kept trying to radio them to stop when things got dangerous, but they kept switching the single designated walkie talkie channel as though this is also a clue source.

Image credits: ParticularEscape6730

#23

We did one in NYC that was totally busted.

They prepped the room with the wrong answer key, which made it impossible.

They had one puzzle that didn’t work and the employee at the end just told us “oh yeah you guys solved this one quickly but the button doesn’t work”

Another puzzle we had access to was missing 1 of 4 blocks, and due to having a mechanic where we’d be locked out for 10 minutes in 3 wrong answers then 5 minutes every time after that we couldn’t even just try to input random things for the missing digit (we did eventually but were locked out the whole time)

So we got stuck impossibly 20-30 mins in then just sat around. It sucked.

Image credits: captainofpizza

#24

Waiting to read our story. PSA: don’t do a wine tasting and then do an escape room. One person just laid on the floor and slept the whole time. The other tried and eventually joined her. My friend and I got some of the clues but after a while just gave up because the wine started hitting real hard. I didn’t know until reading that the employees listened to us. Well, I hope we gave them.some good laughs.

Image credits: LookeyLoo81

#25

We had a group from work go to an escape room for team-building. They got into the elevator, and it stopped working. They spent 15 minutes trying to figure out if the elevator was meant to be part of the escape room or not. They didn’t want to press the emergency button because they weren’t sure if it was some reverse psychology thing. They ended up getting really hot, and one of the dudes started panicking. He took off his shirt while in the elevator. Basically, they spent the whole time debating. They ended up getting a call from the escape room people asking if they were going to miss the appointment. Then, they waited another hour for the fire department. They got out and had to come back to work. Team-building activities have been on hold since. No one talks about naked Brian

#26

Not an employee, but a fun story from one of the only rooms we lost.

There was this table with a design matching these metal tiles of various Gods. The tiles stuck with slight magnetism. We had too many people in the room so we were letting each person tackle a task on their own while the rest explored. My poor friend spent 45 minutes on this tile puzzle before we realized the table and tiles were just set dressing.

Image credits: derbyt

#27

One group spent the entire time arguing and never even solved the first puzzle.

Image credits: fitorlki

#28

Group pressed emergency escape button because they were too scared.

They were college kids.

Image credits: GoliathStance

#29

Not an employee, but the first (and only) time I’ve been to an escape room, one of the guys in my group (a friend’s husband) thought he was going to be a bada*s, and just break his way out of the room. So he whipped out a pocket knife and tried to jimmy the door latch open so he could break out. There was so much 2nd hand embarrassment that I suffered from that. Just super cringe. Like dude, just play the fkn game.

Image credits: alwaysmyfault

#30

Had a radio in our game that linked to a specific station using an FM transmitter. When the player tuned to the correct frequency it played a nice, clear, loud message from the game character giving a clue. Players thought they had the right frequency but this was in fact a real radio therefor they accidentally tuned to an actual radio station. The announcer gave the phone number for the radio station and one of the players called it thinking they would get a clue. I reminded them that phones weren’t needed and gave them some extra time for the clever effort.

Image credits: bornacidgaming

#31

I played a cowboy themed escape room with a friend once. We made it into a second room which had a few air rifles mounted to the wall, which I assumed was just part of the theme and were decorative only.

Well, my friend had other ideas, unbeknownst to me as I was facing the other direction trying to solve another puzzle. She managed to pull one of the rifles off the wall and fire it. It wasn’t loaded but made a very loud bang. Yeah… we got in a lot of trouble (still managed to escape though!).

Image credits: nightowl088

#32

Did a Silent Hill escape room once. You had to get past Pyramid Head to escape. Me and my friend were convinced it was animatronic and was gonna jump at us when we went by, so we wasted time throwing slippers from the previous puzzle at/near it to try to trigger it.

It was not an animatronic. We got out to the guy running the room doubled over laughing. We had run out of time but he’d let us finish because he saw and heard us panicking over PH and wanted to see what we’d do. He said no one else had ever done that before. ??‍♀️?.

#33

Oh, I have a story. But, I am not am employee.

We had a group from work go for team building. They got into the elevator and it stopped working. They spend 15 minutes trying to figure out if the elevator was meant to be part of the escape room. Didn’t want to press the emergency button because wasn’t sure if it was some reverse psychology thing.

Ended up getting really hot and one of the dudes started panicking. Took off his shirt while in the elevator.

Basically spent the whole time debating.

Ended up getting a call from the escape room people about if they were going to miss the appointment.

Waited another hour for the fire department.

Got out and had to come back to work.

Team building things have been on hold since. No one talks about naked Brian.

#34

My husband and I have done so many of them, and we usually do fairly well, but this one was our first. We got stuck. We were handcuffed to a bed at what was supposed to be a prison or mental institution (I don’t recall, as it was years ago). It was the very first clue, and we were supposed to find the key. There were codes, equations, random words, etc. all over the four walls. We spent 35 minutes out of the hour combining these scribbles in the most complex ways possible and trying to do complex math in our heads. At one point, I embarrassingly thought some of the words needed to be translated into Ancient Greek. The workers on the intercom kept telling us to slow down and just look at the wall. We kept saying, ‘We are looking at the wall!!! We’re trying!’ The key was literally just hanging in the middle of the large wall at eye level

#35

My wife managed rooms, the best story is where a laser pointed to a wall and instead of redirecting it they kicked the brick wall in.

My friends had one in a tower with a water tap in a cage. They managed to open it with a wrench through the bars. It was not part of the game, they could not get it closed and the water ran into the control room below. They gave them a record time for that.

#36

Not an employee but did an escape room with my family once. There was one wall with a magnet on a chain on it. My dad spent 20 minutes playing with the magnet while my mom, sister and I actually solved the clues. 

Eventually we opened a door to a room on the other side of the wall. There was a maze of the other side of the wall and a key on the ground. Turns out, we were supposed have someone on one side of the wall using the magnet to move the key while someone else told them how to get through the maze.

The employee later told us he never saw anyone get the key out of the maze by just randomly playing with the magnet. .

#37

My friend worked at an escape room and her story made me laugh.

A group of guys were doing a room. Not great, but they weren’t terrible. But they also weren’t going to escape on time, and they realized it. They all panicked, one of them stripped off his shirt, and they peed on it and then tried to use that on the door handle to open it.

It didn’t work.

#38

I’ll flip it a bit. A while ago there was a national eacape rooom championship. We decided to try to participate, sounded fun. Basically you got a slot of 2.5 hours, where you had 10 min each for 20 mini-rooms. You were timed. It was a disaster.

The slot before us ran over by more than 90 minutes. When we finally started the cast majority of rooms were way too complicated. Out of the first 10 we maybe solved three – and one do them was because the lock fell on the floor and openend itself. You could see the times of teams before/around you.

There were at least 6/7 rooms that no-one had been able to solve all day. We ended up walking out as it was getting late and we were seriously over it.

There has not been a repeat championship….

#39

Not an employee, but a player:

The game had runes on the ceilings/walls that were supposed to correspond to certain numbers based on how far apart they were to one another. We just thought that they corresponded to the order they were in. Typed that (incorrect) code into the door lock and it opened, because it lined up with an old code from a previous game that had never been wiped from the keypad.

It worked, but did we successfully complete the game? I think we broke it!.

#40

Customer. Was part of the office’s social committee consisting of three members. We set up a night at the city’s most popular pub followed by a round at the nearby escape room. We advertised for two months.

The only people to show up were the social committee.

When they asked for a team name I said ‘the antisocial social committee’. Before I even knew people were printing antisocial social club on clothing.

#41

Not an employee, but I went on a date years ago with a girl and her work friends. They were all very nice, but…. let’s say not the most likely to be solving puzzles.

We go in, they close the door, play the little introduction that tells you where to get started, and say “GO!”

Apparently, I was the only one who paid any attention, because IMMEDIATELY everyone races around the room picking things up, trying to turn knobs, moving things to look behind them, opening drawers, legitimately trashing the place “looking for clues”. The employee watching us on camera is flabbergasted.

We couldn’t solve several puzzles because things were no longer the way they were set up. We didn’t even come close to escaping, and I obviously said no the next time I was invited to go out with them. It was for axe throwing, and there was just no way.

#42

Customer/contestant – work social event.

The room had a sign saying “keep off the grass”. The floor was AstroTurf. A group of six of us managed to balance on a plinth, which had enough space for 2-3 normal sized people in a big group hug. After balancing up there for 20 seconds we hear over the intercom:

“Erm… that’s adorable. But no. Not part of your room. Please don’t fall off. Injury reports are a massive faff”.

We only missed out on the room record by only 2 minutes 16 seconds, and best the 3 other teams by a good 10-25 minutes so we were still pretty pleased.

#43

Not an employee, but something I heard about from a former coworker. She invited me out for her 21st, among the festivities was an escape room. I couldn’t make it due to previous commitments, but I heard from her after the fact that she was so drunk that she was trying to tear things off the walls and dismantle lamps and things.

About a year later for my birthday, I decided to do an escape room. I went with family only, and we asked about the wildest stuff they’d seen with someone trying to get out. The game master went on to describe what I’m pretty sure was my coworker, it was kind of odd hearing an identical description but from someone totally different. Needless to say, coworker did not escape (but we did!).

#44

Player, start of the game had a alarm going off in a museum, with flashing warning lights and yes we had told the game company there was a player with epilepsy and please to turn off such things, had to use the emergency key and wait 10 minutes for the alarm sequence to finish.

#45

Not my story but one I heard from the teller after we finished.
The first puzzle is you being locked into a “prison” and having to find your way out. Next to the door is a panel you can remove with a string noose and a mirror, the group spent nearly 40 minutes trying to figure out what to do with it before the realised they could the noose to hook the door latch by using the mirror to see outside the room.

#46

We had one guy who wanted to do a room by himself. No big deal, it was slow so we said why not.

He was bad… very bad. Our rooms are an hour long. Since it was slow we let him go over time*. He ended up taking TWO HOURS. Not to win, to get halfway through. We then had to kick him out for the next group. He had so much fun he immediately wanted to do another. We sent him to another location a couple of blocks away.

This was with help. Gentle nudges at first, into nudges, into shoving, into step by step guides. That was… not a fun game to GM

*Side note, if you ever had a close escape, you probably went over time a little bit. They system we used we could pause and add time however we wanted. We would never subtract time (your fast runs are 100% yours and you deserve to celebrate if it only took you 30 minutes), but we wanted people to be happy and escape so we would help the clock when needed.

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