--- title: Determined Rat Defies Traffic and Fate on Escalator VIDEO description: A brave New York rodent was spotted going down an up escalator in busy Penn Station during the Monday morning work commute. canonical: https://time.com/4606540/esclator-rat-video/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-12-19T17:08:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:39:37.339Z og:title: This Determined Rat on a Busy Escalator Is All of Us og:description: A New York rodent made a dramatic attempt to take the escalator—the wrong way. og:url: https://time.com/4606540/esclator-rat-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Determined Rat on a Busy Escalator Is All of Us twitter:description: A New York rodent made a dramatic attempt to take the escalator—the wrong way. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Rat Racing Against Time on a Busy Escalator Is a New Hero > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9c6344e4-616f-4637-93f3-17d6ab85668f&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 19, 2016 5:08 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Dec 19, 2016 5:08 PM UTC One thing must be said for the [rodent citizens of New York](http://time.com/4043383/rat-pizza-slice-subway/?iid=sr-link1): their spirit, like that of their human counterparts, is truly indomitable. Today’s example comes thanks to [busy transport hub Penn Station](http://time.com/3816411/beautiful-train-stations/?iid=sr-link4), a crowded escalator, and one paragon of rat persistence: a creature whose intent to go down an up escalator cannot be stopped by either the tide of human traffic or the reality of the machine s/he seems so determined to defy. In video captured by [YouTuber Samstagram](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A38itisFTuA) of the Monday morning commute—or “rat race,” as it were—the sizable animal makes its way down 13 moving steps as people step nimbly around it. In an apt metaphor for all Monday mornings, for the Sisyphean nature of life, or perhaps for the never-ending fight against the system, the rat’s valiant efforts do not actually move it toward its destination. (Its current status is unknown.) [Like Pizza Rat before it](http://time.com/4043383/rat-pizza-slice-subway/?iid=sr-link1), this rodent at least deserves recognition for making the attempt to live in a world overrun by humans. It turns out that the struggle is real for all of us, no matter with which species we identify. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4606540/esclator-rat-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4606540/esclator-rat-video/"},"headline":"This Rat Racing Against Time on a Busy Escalator Is a New Hero","datePublished":"2016-12-19T17:08:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:39:37.339Z","description":"The struggle is real for all of us, rat and human alike","url":"https://time.com/4606540/esclator-rat-video/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4606540/esclator-rat-video/","name":"This Rat Racing Against Time on a Busy Escalator Is a New Hero"}}]}] ```