Plot Escalators

The following are some classic plot escalators:

Escalator	Examples
The straight road is blocked	The literal straight road to the goal is literally blocked. To use the obvious solution would cause more problems than it solved. Before we can solve this issue, we have to get the resources to do so by solving another issue.
It’s worse than we thought	The enemy is stronger than we realized. The stakes are higher than we realized. Someone is competing with us. We have fewer allies/more enemies than we thought. A key resource is not available/not working. Time is shorter than we believed. Succeeding will probably kill us. The mission brief we were working to omits a vital piece of intelligence and this is now biting us. It looks like we were lied to to get us to do this, but now we can’t go back. We’re not the first to attempt this and the others are dead.
Frustration at every turn	Nothing we try works. Everything we try produces more problems. Helpers desert us, prove unreliable, or fight among themselves. We fight amongst ourselves. Our backers abandon us or tell us to drop the issue for political reasons. We’re not the right people for the job, but we have to do it anyway.
Cleft stick	We can’t save both. Bad things will happen regardless of what we do.
We’re in trouble too	We’ve been captured en route to our goal. We’ve annoyed someone and they’re pursuing us. We’ve been betrayed or sabotaged by someone we trusted. Our cover has been blown.
Lack of trust	There are two conflicting versions of reality, and some of us believe one, some the other, some aren’t sure. Someone allies with us who we don’t trust.

The plot can also escalate by introducing further situations (goals and dilemmas), resolution of which may conflict with resolution of the original situation, or which may need to be resolved before the original situation can be resolved.