History Main / DownInTheDumps

* The New Haven area in ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' is right next to a gigantic landfill, that actually takes up two thirds of the whole map.

* Also the base of the ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats''- though not by choice, they were previously Enforcers, but got [[ReassignedToAntarctica shunted]] here after an incident- see their page for more details. But they managed to take advantage of this to build and keep hidden all their crime-fighting equipment (yes, including their [[CoolPlane fighter jet]]).
* In ''Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling'', the Wrestling/JunkyardDog lives in a junkyard.
* This is where the [[WesternAnimation/HeathcliffAndTheCatillacCats Catillac Cats]] live.
* ''WesternAnimation/AaahhRealMonsters'' takes place in an ElaborateUndergroundBase under a junkyard.
* ''Mickey's Trailer'' opens with WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse stepping out of his travel trailer, greeting a new morning in a pastoral glen - he pulls a lever and the picket fence spools in, the carpet of lush grass rolls up, and the ''entire backdrop'' accordions up like a folding fan, revealing the town dump he's camping at.
* Creator/ChuckJones' ''No Barking'' opens with a sunrise (music: the peaceful part of the "William Tell Overture") in what looks like a sylvan garden in silhouette with an ornate gate - which, as the light grows, turns out to be a bed frame in the city dump, where Claude Cat peacefully dozes.
* Tina from ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' apparently lives inside one of these.
* The climax of ''WesternAnimation/TheRealGhostbusters'' episode "Lost and Foundry" takes place in a New Jersey junkyard.
* ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR'', the character Goat owns a junkyard. It is there that Coop found Megas, and he and Jamie visit it frequently. Also, in the episode "Junk in the Trunk", they visit a junkyard in space to find new parts for Megas.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS3E8SupermansPal Superman's Pal]]", Superman and ComicBook/JimmyOlsen fight Metallo in a junkyard.
* The go-to location for both the [[WesternAnimation/TheTrashPack Mondo TV]] and [[WebAnimation/TheTrashPack webseries]] iterations of ''Toys/TheTrashPack'' is Trash Town, a large dump. While the Mondo TV series is surprisingly organized (with robotic sorters that put waste in each respective category), the webseries version is gross and sloppy, just like the original aspect of the toyline.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'' is set in a junkyard whose "dog" is a giant trash monster.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfChuckAndFriends'': Chuck and his friends hang out in a junkyard full of towering piles of old parts that his parents sometimes use for their repair shop business.

* The climax of the ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'' PilotMovie "House of Bloo's", where Mac and the rest of the main gang come to rescue Bloo from being killed by an Extremeasaur, takes place in a junkyard. The same junkyard is shown to be where teenage boys fight their Extremeasaurs with each other in "Eddie Monster".

* ''Anime/JinRohTheWolfBrigade'': The ending [[spoiler:has Fuse executing Kei in a junkyard.]]
* ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' has an entire city built on the junk dumped from the floating city above it.
* ''Anime/DigimonFusion'': The Dust Zone is both a junkjard and a ScavengerWorld.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* One of the characters in ''WesternAnimation/TheIronGiant'' lives in a scrap metal yard; he's a modern artist who uses the trash to make sculptures. It's also a useful place to hide (and [[MetalMuncher feed]]) the eponymous giant.
* Earth, in the 2009 ''WesternAnimation/AstroBoy'' film, has become a sort of LandfillBeyondTheStars to the residents of Cloud City, who have since forgotten that they left quite a few people behind.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' - Leia, Luke, Han Solo and Chewbacca drop down a garbage chute into the disposal to avoid being trapped by stormtroopers. Now they're trapped in the garbage with a monster and walls that close in on themselves.
** In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Watto's junkyard on Tatooine is pivotal to the plot as it is where Qui-Gon goes to find a replacement part for the disabled starship and this leads him and Padme to meet Anakin, who works there.
** The planet Jakku in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' is essentially a giant junkyard, littered with the wreckage of downed ships and vehicles from the last great battle between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Rey lives inside a wrecked Imperial AT-AT and spends her days scavenging for parts she can sell.
* In ''Film/MaxKeeblesBigMove'', Max sets up a meeting between the Evil Ice Cream Man and a YoungEntrepreneur in one. Pretty sure a giant magnet shows up to wreak havok.
* In ''Film/GoldenEye'', James meets his long-lost nemesis in a sort of junkyard for statues of Soviet heroes.
* The trash planet in ''Film/{{Soldier}}''.
* ''Film/CorvetteSummer'' (1978) starts in an auto junkyard, as a group of high school kids look for a car to fix up as their auto shop project for the year.
* Pretty much all of Richard Lester's post-apocalyptic black comedy ''Film/TheBedSittingRoom'' is filmed in real-life junk pile locations.

* In ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors'', Freddy Krueger's body was hidden in the trunk of an old car at the dump after the parents of Elm Street burned him alive, and to defeat Krueger his body has to be recovered from the dump and given a proper burial. The same dump appears as a setting in the fourth movie, when Freddy reawakens.
* ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesIITheSecretOfTheOoze'' has the remnants of the Foot Clan reunite in a junk yard, which serves as their base for most of the movie.

* ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' had Thor ending up in Sakaar, an artificial trash planet created by the Grandmaster surrounded by numerous wormholes that deposit space waste.
* Tommy Walker in the film version of ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' is led to a junkyard in one of his visions, where he comes across a pinball machine that he ends up being good at.
* Superman's [[LiteralSplitPersonality good self vs. evil self fight with himself]] in ''Film/SupermanIII'' takes place in a junkyard, with the evil self almost coming out on top by putting his good self into a crusher before his good self busts out in a rage and permanently subdues his evil self.
* In ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', Sarah wakes up from her dream with the enchanted peach to find herself in a junkyard, with the Junk Lady showing her a facsimile of her own bedroom that's buried under a pile of junk.

* ''Film/TheHoodlum'' starts and ends in the city landfill, with the scenes in-between telling us HowWeGotHere. This landfill is the one that the Lubeck's first apartment overlooked, the one that Vincent grew up seeing and smelling, and the one that he has spent his entire life running away from. And that Vincent's rottenness has cost his brother Johnny everything he loved, Johnny has brought Vince here to kill him: so he can die in the garbage like he deserves. [[spoiler:Ultimately Johnny can’t bring himself to do it; Lt. Burdick, however, has been trailing them, and has no such compunctions. Vince is shot to death in the dump as he attempts to flee, and dies in a heap of garbage, old tires, and industrial refuse.]]

* In ''Film/DickTracysDilemma'', the final showdown between Tracy and the Claw take place in the junkyard the Claw is using as a hideout.
* In ''Film/PsychOut'', the protagonists' search for Steve leads them to a junkyard, where Steve used to live in an abandoned car.
* ''Vengeance'', a 2009 HeroicBloodshed drama, has a shootout in a junkyard between the heroes and multiple mooks. Those mooks are actually smart enough to use rolling cubes of garbage as impromptu shields as they advance on the heroes.
* ''Film/LargerThanLife'': During Jack's first night as an elephant owner, he and Vera are forced to sleep in a junkyard, since none of the hotels allow elephants.
* In ''{{Film/MortalEngines}}'', the characters live in huge wheeled cities that rove over Europe. The largest city, London, consumes small towns, after which point scrap workers pull apart the wreckage and sift through the debris for valuable resources and artifacts.

* ''Literature/TheThreeInvestigators'' had their HQ in a junkyard.

* The main setting of the 1960s children's novel and later 1980s TV series ''Stig of the Dump'', where Stig is a caveman who scavenges rubbish in the dump for his home.
* Billy ends up in one in ''Literature/OlliesOdyssey'' where he finds a whole bunch of thrown out objects who just sit around reminiscing about when they were useful. Billy raises their spirits and makes them a rescue team to help him save Ollie.
* In the Burke novels by Creator/AndrewVachss, Burke's friend The Mole lives in a junkyard, partly because he has NoSocialSkills but also because there's [[MadScientist plenty of stuff for him to play with]]. There's also a pack of mean junkyard dogs keeping away anyone who might do him harm.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/SteptoeAndSon'' & ''Series/SanfordAndSon'' both took place in junkyards.
* ''Series/{{Salvage 1}}'' mostly took place in a junkyard.

* The very first episode of ''Series/DoctorWho'', "An Unearthly Child" has the TARDIS located in a junkyard. Much later and much, much farther away, the episode "The Doctor's Wife" also took place in a junk yard.
* Bobby Singer, one of the main characters on ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' runs a junk yard as a day job. His house is also located on the junk yard grounds. Several scenes have included using random rusted cars and parts to dispatch ghosts, leviathans, etc.
* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Heisenberg arranges for his first major drug deal to go down in a junkyard.
-->'''Jesse,''' {{hanging a lampshade}}: This is like a non-criminal's idea of a drug meet. This is like "Oh, I saw this in a movie, ooh, look at me!"
-->'''Tuco:''' What, was the mall closed?
* Seasons 7 and 8 of ''Series/TheWalkingDead'' include a group of survivors called the Scavengers who make their home in a junkyard.

* ''Here Come the Double Deckers'', a 17-part British children's TV series from 1970–71, revolved around the adventures of seven children who had made a den in an old double-decker London bus in a disused junk yard.
* ''Series/TheGoodDoctor'': After Shaun and Steve run away from home, they live in an abandoned bus in a junkyard.

* The cover of Music/JoeWalsh's album, ''There Goes The Neighborhood'', has Joe driving a tank in a junkyard. The video for the song, "Life Of Illusion", takes place at the photo shoot for it.

* Part of Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews' "Perfect World" video takes place in a junkyard, probably to underscore what the lyrics are saying "there's no living in a perfect world; there ain't no perfect world anyway."

[[folder:Tabletop RPG]]

* [[Website/FourChan /trash/]] in world-building threads is, logically enough, depicted as a garbage dump stacked with TrashOfTheTitans and filled with tubes that dump all manner of junk in daily. (It's where OffTheRails threads end up, or ones about things [[BerserkButton the mods don't like]].)

* The Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles have fought in one on many occasions.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': The Gangreen Gang live in a shed located in Townsville's junkyard. In the episode, "Buttercrush", they trick Blossom and Bubbles into going there in order to trap them in crushed car cubes and dispose of them in a lava pit.
* WesternAnimation/{{Fat Albert|AndTheCosbyKids}} and his gang hang out at the dump, and even play music using junk-based instruments.[[note]]Rudy, whose family is considered relatively wealthy, has an actual (monogrammed) electric guitar but still hangs out at the clubhouse in the dump.[[/note]]

* The Junkions of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' are on a whole planet that is a junkyard. In one episode, after he [[ActualPacifist refused to fight]] and chose to [[TenMinuteRetirement leave the Autobots]], [[TheMedic First Aid]] took refuge in a junk yard on Earth.

Dumps, scrapyards and junkyards are, just like abandoned warehouses, a common setting for fights, club houses, secret meetings, and the various other fantastic situations fictional characters get themselves into. There's something about dumps-- everything there is dirty, old, worn out, broken.

Symbolically, it's a place of decay; pragmatically, there's lots of junk to play with, and it can be broken [[StuffBlowingUp or blown up]] without having to worry about property damage. You could hide old vehicles and containers easily here, as they blend in with the scrap. There might even be some rewards for anyone willing to sift through the scrap, such as a rusted CoolCar or old military surplus gear you can weld into impressive improvised weapons.

* ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'' has MickeyMouse traversing Mickeyjunk Mountain, which is a huge heap of old Mickey Mouse merchandise. Oh, the irony...

* ''Mickey's Trailer'' opens with MickeyMouse stepping out of his travel trailer, greeting a new morning in a pastoral glen - he pulls a lever and the picket fence spools in, the carpet of lush grass rolls up, and the ''entire backdrop'' accordions up like a folding fan, revealing the town dump he's camping at.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Longest Monday", Park has a secret fortress hidden at a junkyard where the fourth graders can hide from the fifth graders on the hunt for them during [[StuffedIntoATrashcan Trash Can Day]], a school hazing ritual that takes place in the first Monday of June. Unfortunately, the fifth graders still manage to find them.

* The Junkions of ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' are on a whole planet that is a junkyard.
** In one episode, after he [[ActualPacifist refused to fight]] and chose to [[TenMinuteRetirement leave the Autobots]], [[TheMedic First Aid]] took refuge in a junk yard on Earth.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' episode "Longest Monday", Park has a secret fortress hidden at a junkyard where the fourth graders can hide from the fifth graders on the hunt for them during [[StuffedIntoATrashcan Trash Can Day, a school hazing ritual]]. Unfortunately, the fifth graders still manage to find them.

** In one episode, after he [[ActualPacifist refused to fight]] and chose to [[TenMinuteRetirement leave the Autobots]], [[TheMedic First Aid]] took refuge in a junk yard on Earth.

The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast (possibly some odd jobs for the BigBad); as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed [[Getaway Driver getaway car]] to disappear, or if you need to dispose of a [[CarpetRolledCorpse rolled-up carpet]]. More benign scrapyard managers might have a MysteriousPast that gives them an encyclopedic knowledge of spare parts and old technology.

The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast (possibly some odd jobs for the BigBad); as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed getaway car to disappear, or if you need to dispose of a [[CarpetRolledCorpse rolled-up carpet]]. More benign scrapyard managers might have a MysteriousPast that gives them an encyclopedic knowledge of spare parts and old technology.

The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast; as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed getaway car to disappear, or if you need to dispose of a [[CarpetRolledCorpse rolled-up carpet]]. More benign scrapyard managers might have a MysteriousPast that gives them an encyclopedic knowledge of spare parts and old technology.

The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast; as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed getaway car to disappear, or if you need to dispose of a rolled-up carpet. More benign scrapyard managers might have a MysteriousPast that gives them an encyclopedic knowledge of spare parts and old technology.

There may be homeless people living in the junkyard, mingling with scavengers and junk pickers.

Symbolically, it's a place of decay; pragmatically, there's lots of junk to play with, and it can be broken [[StuffBlowingUp or blown up]] without having to worry about property damage. You could hide old vehicles and containers easily here, as they blend in with the scrap.

The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast; as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed getaway car to disappear, or if you need to dispose of a rolled-up carpet.

More benign scrapyard managers might have a MysteriousPast that gives them an encyclopedic knowledge of spare parts and old technology. There might even be some rewards for anyone willing to sift through the scrap, such as a rusted CoolCar or old military surplus gear you can weld into impressive improvised weapons.

The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast; as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed getaway car to disappear, or if you need to dispose of a rolled-up carpet. More benign scrapyard managers might have a MysteriousPast that gives them an encyclopedic knowledge of spare parts and old technology.

Expect towering columns of crushed cars and piles of assorted garbage, perfect for hiding behind; a giant magnet or claw that can be easily operated by someone without training; a ConveyorBeltODoom leading into a crushing machine or incinerator; at least one [[AngryGuardDog junkyard dog]]; plenty of TrashTalk; and [[RealIsBrown brown]]. There might even be some rewards for anyone willing to sift through the scrap, such as a rusted CoolCar or old military surplus gear you can weld into impressive improvised weapons.

Dumps, scrapyards and junkyards are, just like abandoned warehouses, a common setting for fights, club houses, secret meetings, and the various other fantastic situations fictional characters get themselves into. There's something about dumps-- everything there is dirty, old, worn out, broken. The junkyard manager is likely to be a similarly rough and worn out person with a DarkAndTroubledPast; as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities, if you need a bullet-holed getaway car to disappear,

Dumps and junkyards are, just like abandoned warehouses, a common setting for fights, club houses, secret meetings, and the various other fantastic situations fictional characters get themselves into. There's something about dumps-- everything there is dirty, old, worn out, broken. The junkyard manager is likely to similarly rough and worn out people with a DarkAndTroubledPast; as such, you can likely bribe them to allow off-the-books or illegal activities.

Symbolically, it's a place of decay; pragmatically, there's lots of junk to play with, and it can be broken [[StuffBlowingUp or blown up]] without having to worry about property damage.

Expect towering columns of crushed cars and neat piles of assorted garbage, perfect for hiding behind; a giant magnet or claw that can be easily operated by someone without training; a ConveyorBeltODoom leading into a crushing machine or incinerator; at least one [[AngryGuardDog junkyard dog]]; plenty of TrashTalk; and [[RealIsBrown brown]]. There might even be some rewards for anyone willing to sift through the scrap, such as a rusted CoolCar or some impressive improvised weapons to wield.

Dumps and junkyards are, just like abandoned warehouses, a common setting for fights, club houses, secret meetings, and the various other fantastic situations fictional characters get themselves into. There's something about dumps-- everything there is dirty, old, worn out, broken. Symbolically, it's a place of decay; pragmatically, there's lots of junk to play with, and it can be broken [[StuffBlowingUp or blown up]] without having to worry about property damage.

* Short anime ''[[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3962656/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_3 Gôruden Taimu]]'' involves AnimateInanimateObjects trying to escape from a junkyard.