Didn't get to 50, will try to filter even less next time.
1. email the police
2. wifi-call a friend
3. smash the protective glass panel of my cell phone and get thin shards to pick the lock (subgoal: learn how to pick locks)
4. read up on dark arts and manipulation techniques to trick your captor into letting you go
5. smash the door with your bare hands, Kill Bill style
6. give online English lessons/freelance until you have enough ransom money
7. seduce your captor
8. make a lot of noise and call for help
9. find friends/ lovers/ a purpose online and escape into the realm of the virtual
10. social engineer the military of the country your in to stage a rescue
11. use your cell phone to smash in the window, if there is one, and climb out
12. escape into death
13. try to "hack" the network your on to find out things about your captor, find embarrassing details of their personal life and extort them
14. use parts of your phone/ belt/ buttons to scratch away the paint and plaster, and then proceed to attack week points in the walls and the door frame
15. start singing in a really annoying way (Quirrell style) so that the captor will try to let you go or kill you. In the latter case, use the shards of your phone's screen as a weapon (Breaking Bad now?) and learn how to use it by reading up on martial arts
16. pay/social engineer/bribe a construction company to demolish the building you're in
17. make a fake Airbnb posting to draw attention to your location
18. write to journalists to create public pressure to release you
19. start a cult with the premise that your release will bring about the revelation
20. make a reddit post where your release is framed as a challenge or as something that would annoy somebody (this is probably the most effective way)
21. get a job, make a lot of money and hire mercenaries
22. study up on explosives, hijack a US military drone and fire a hellfire missile into the sweet spot where the structural integrity of the building you're in is compromised, but you are spared
23. if the type of lock allows, make a small loop out of your hair and try to get it around the door handle on the other side. You have time, after all
24. bribe someone to pass you a lock pick or a saw blade (for wooden doors) under the door
25. (warning gross): use your clothes to rub the door joints clear of lubricating oil, then iterate spitting, waiting, and rubbing, to weaken them through corrosion
26. if the door is merely slammed shut, use strips/threads from your clothes/ your phone's screen to get it to retract (like opening a door with a credit cart, in principle)
27. Short out the circuit of the room's light. When someone comes to investigate, use your aforementioned weapon
28. Use your phones battery as an explosive charge by shorting the circuit out and damage the lock
29. Make a rope out of your clothes, use the door handle and some more rope to create a tackle block and see if you loosen some component of the door
30. Pull at the handle really, really hard, at different angles. It may be a weak spot
That's all I got in an hour.
Great post! Thanks to this, I'm now going to force myself to host a movie night, and slowly try to turn this initiative thing into a habit.
Thanks a lot for setting these up! I'm really looking forward to the new upcoming practice challenges.
It took me 72 minutes. The 101 isn't for swag, I just miscounted somewhere and decided to leave it, since the last one is a lot more practical than many.