So you’re tied up and left alone in a castle on the Austrian- German border? Congratulations! It could be worse. You could be handcuffed. You could be eyeing a cobra. You could be riddled with bullets and lying at the bottom of a moat. Whenever adversaries take pains to bind you hand and foot, it usually means they need to keep you alive for some other nefarious purpose. Since you don’t know how much time you have, it behooves you to free yourself from your bonds before they enact the next stage of their plan. Since they won’t expect you to do this, you may be able to use the element of surprise and turn the tables against them. As long as you’re conscious and still breathing when they tie you up, you’ll be able to sabotage your bonds so they are more likely to give way later. The trick is to get started the second someone whips out the rope.
1. ACT INDIGNANT.
Your captors will expect you to be angry, so they won’t be surprised to see you jut out your jaw, puff up your chest, and tense your muscles as you hurl epithets at them. Good. Pour it on. The most important part of evading rope bonds is to expand and tense your muscles as much as possible while you are being tied up. This may be tough to do throughout your body, all at once, so focus on expanding the area that is being tied first. If they’re tying your torso and wrists, fill your lungs with air and take baby breaths.
Flex your biceps and forearms. Then, when they switch to your legs, focus on doing the same there. The more you puff up, the larger the loops they’ll have to use to bind you.
2. SNEAK SOME WIGGLE ROOM.
If you’re badmouthing them as they tie you, they may be too defensive to notice that you are keeping your wrists and ankles slightly apart-about a millimeter or so-while they coil the rope and tie the knots. Whatever you do, don’t allow these critical parts of your body to touch each other. Even just a smidgen of air between them will feel like the Grand Canyon later.
3. RELAX.
As soon as they leave you alone, expel all the air from your lungs and relax all your muscles. Now inspect the ropes. If you’ve done your job, the ropes should be looser now that your muscles are relaxed. Try to determine the integrity of the ropes, the knots, and the object to which they have tied you. Not to disparage the world’s ruffians, but most skimp on the rope budget. They use whatever’s lying around the castle, and that will tend to be old, possibly fraying, and poorly sized for restraining a human frame. Furthermore, most people do not know how to tie knots properly. This should be obvious upon inspection. In general, the thicker the rope, the harder it is to knot. Thin rope is easier to knot, but it takes less time to cut when abraded against the right surface.
4. PICK AN APPROACH AND WORK QUICKLY.
You don’t know how long you’ve got, so you must work quickly. Decide which classic method of getting free you will use and get cracking.
- Wriggle: You might have just enough wiggle room to work free a wrist. Go for it. Don’t waste time getting your feet or torso free, since nine times out of ten you’ll need to get your hands loose first. Exception: If you need your torso free to lower your mouth to your wrists, do what you gotta do.
- Abrade or cut: If you can locate a fixed surface in the room, you can saw through your bonds by rubbing them back and forth against the surface. Ideally, you want a flat, metallic, knifelike surface or a rough texture such as the corner of a brick-and-mortar wall.
- Manipulate the knots: Untie the knots by whatever means necessary. Teeth, as noted. Fingers. Or someone else’s teeth and fingers.
- Burn: Use this method with caution. Remember that when Indy and his father were tied to a pair of chairs, the elder Jones tried to burn the ropes and ended up torching the place. Still, burning is a viable method if you can control the flame or your proximity to it. If you’re going to be in the adventure business, avoid wearing thick, flammable tweeds.
ESCAPE CLAUSES
Here are other classic binding scenarios-and corresponding escape options.
- If you’re tied to a chair: Many chairs are poorly constructed .You may be able to smash it if you propel yourself into a wall using your legs. Or, using your feet, push or pull yourself and the chair close to another object that you can use to abrade your bonds.
- If your hands are behind you: Bring your knees up to your chest and work your wrists over your backside, under your legs and feet, and finally over the top of your knees. Once you’ve successfully gotten your hands in front of you, use your teeth to untie the knots.
- If you’re tied to someone else: One of you can untie the other, and then vice versa. Often, captors lazily bind two victims together by throwing a loop or two of rope around both captives’ torsos. If you both wriggle, one of you may be able to slip under the largest loop and create slack for both of you.
- If you’re tied in a standing position with your arms above your head: This is an extremely difficult position to work free from, because your legs cannot be used as leverage without causing your weight to drop, further tightening the rope. From the moment you are tied, try not to sag against the restraints. Stand as tall as possible. Wriggle a wrist free, if possible. If you can get your teeth to the knot at your wrists, try manipulation. If you are athletic, damn the torpedoes. Pull yourself up, either using your arms or swinging your legs up to the point where the knot is fastened to a stationary object.
- If you’re bound with duct tape: This sticky, diabolical restraint was not invented until 1942 and was originally intended for military use. Don’t waste your time trying to chew through it; it’s too tough. Focus on getting yourself to a sharp surface, which you can use to slice it.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:34 pm
thank u we were kidnapped and were took to a castle if it wasn’t for u we would still be there
thanks so much
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:00 am
I find all of it useful, I bet it helped quite a number of people (who’ bother to read this through for their own benefit of course) and it salvaged their lives.
Thanks on their behalf.
The only point I find a little impossible is “If your hands are behind you” because I doubt you’d be able to successfully get your hands in front of you when it is knotted at the back.
Well, not that I know of! Hmm.