History Main / EerilyOutOfPlaceObject

* The miniseries ''ComicBook/DCUniverseRebirth'' ends with the [[ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} Comedian's button]] being found ''lodged in the wall of the Batcave.'' Since ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' doesn't even exist in the main DCU, its origin is a complete mystery, which ComicBook/{{Batman}} and ComicBook/TheFlash investigate over the course of the subsequent crossover ''ComicBook/TheButton.''

* The miniseries ''ComicBook/DCUniverseRebirth'' ends with the [[ComicBook/Watchmen Comedian's button]] being found ''lodged in the wall of the Batcave.'' Since ''ComicBook/Watchmen'' doesn't even exist in the main DCU, its origin is a complete mystery, which ComicBook/Batman and ComicBook/TheFlash investigate over the course of the subsequent crossover ''ComicBook/TheButton.''

** This was the original point of the [=TARDIS=] being a police box — the [[Recap/DcotorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild first story]] has it mysteriously found in a fog-bound scrapyard, and then appearing on prehistoric Earth. Now forgotten, as the police box is now known by most viewers only as the [=TARDIS=], and it's become an object of comfort.

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* This was the original point of the [=TARDIS=] being a police box in ''Series/DoctorWho'' - the first story has it mysteriously found in a fog-bound scrapyard, and then appearing on prehistoric Earth. Now forgotten, as the police box is now known by most viewers only as the [=TARDIS=], and it's become an object of comfort.
* ''Series/FlashForward'': The kangaroo. (Of course, it could have simply escaped from a zoo during the blackout. Still, in context it's exactly played as this trope.)
* ''Series/{{Lost}}'': The polar bear. Seemingly out of place on an island in the pacific. [[spoiler:This later is revealed to be part of one of the Dharma Initiatives experiments.]]

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* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia: Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. The iconic lamppost in the forest of the otherwise medieval world of Narnia. Not creepy, but its uncanny sense of not-belonging served to make the otherworld feel all the more otherworldly. The prequel ''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'' explains that it was accidentally transported there from London while Narnia was still in the process of being formed and... took root.

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'': A wheelchair is a common sight in hospitals or around handicapped people. Lying on the side in the middle of a road, with not a single person in 1000 meters around it, however, is not a good place for it to be. There isn't even blood. This pops up a lot throughout the series, really; often the objects have some associated significance to a character in the story even though they may or may not have put it there, but sometimes there will be a single colorful toy or baby carriage into a bloody, rusted-out room, just for the sake of unexplained, incongruous creepiness.

* ''Series/Lost'': The polar bear. Seemingly out of place on an island in the pacific. [[spoiler:This later is revealed to be part of one of the Dharma Initiatives experiments.]]

Sometimes an otherwise ordinary, commonplace, and utterly inoffensive object can become disconcerting simply by being found unexpectedly in a place which, by all rights, it simply ''should not be''. Sometimes it's merely in an absurdly remote location, or one so far divorced from the object's apparent function that no one in their right mind would ever put them there, such as a lighthouse in the middle of the desert or a child's shoe in the cavity between the wall of an old church. Other times, the objects presence is not only unlikely but ''impossible'', such as the wreckage of a modern-day fighter jet embedded in solid rock several millions of years old or an abandoned 1950s-style diner on an uncharted alien world. It shouldn't be there. It ''can't'' be there. In any reasonable universe, it wouldn't be there. And yet... there it is, plain as the nose on your face, raising unsettling questions about who (if anyone) put it there and why, and what possible sequence of events could have led it to where it is, sometimes even going against reason at such a fundamental level that it calls into question the very nature of reality as you thought you knew it.

* ''Inherit the Stars'', the first book in the Giants series by James P. Hogan, begins with the discovery of a man in a spacesuit found dead on the moon. All that's known about him is that he's not from any nation on earth and he's been there for 50,000 years.

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'': A wheelchair is a common sight in hospitals or around handicapped people. Lying on the side in the middle of a road, with not a single person in 1000 meters around it, however, is not a good place for it to be. There isn't even blood. This pops up a lot throughout the series, really; oftentimes the objects have some associated significance to a character in the story even though they may or may not have put it there, but sometimes they'll place throw a single colorful toy or baby carriage into a bloody, rusted-out room for the sake of incongruous creepiness.

* ''Franchise/SilentHill'': A wheelchair is a common sight in hospitals or around handicapped people. Lying on the side in the middle of a road, with not a single person in 1000 meters around it, however, is not a good place for it to be. There isn't even blood.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E3TheSurvivors The Survivors]]": Acting on a distress call, the ''Enterprise'' encounters a desolate world where the inhabitants who sent the SOS signal have been annihilated by an alien race, the Husnock. There's just one thing out of place: a quaint little spotless cottage belonging to an elderly human couple, the only survivors on the entire planet. How they remain there alive with everyone else dead remains a mystery until Picard figures things out at the end: [[spoiler:Only one of them survived the attack. The woman is an illusion and the man isn't even human. He's an incredibly powerful entity called a Douwd, possibly nearly as powerful a [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Q]]. He was also a pacifist, who refused to fight with the colonists. When his wife was killed along with the other colonists, he lashed out in anger and annihilated not only their assailants, but also the entire 50 billion members of the Husnock species. He voluntarily isolated himself to atone for his crime.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E3TheSurvivors The Survivors]]": Acting on a distress call, the Enterprise encounters a desolate world where the inhabitants who sent the SOS signal have been annihilated by an alien race, Husnock. There's just one thing out of place. A quaint little spotless cottage belonging to an elderly human couple, the only survivors on the entire planet. How they remain there alive with everyone else dead remains a mystery until Picard figures things out at the end: [[spoiler:Only one of them survived the attack. The woman is an illusion and the man isn't even human. He's an incredibly powerful entity, called a Douwd, possibly nearly as powerful a Q. He was also a pacifist, who refused to fight with the colonists. When his wife was killed along with the other colonists, he lashed out in anger and annihilated not only their assailants, but the entire 50 billion members of the Husnock species. He voluntarily isolated himself to atone for his crime.]]

* ''VideoGame/SilentHill'': A wheelchair is a common sight in hospitals or around handicapped people. Lying on the side in the middle of a road, with not a single person in 1000 meters around it, however, is not a good place for it to be. There isn't even blood.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E3TheSurvivors The Survivors]]": Acting on a distress call, the Enterprise encounters a desolate world where the inhabitants who sent the SOS signal have been annihilated by an alien race, Husnock. There's just one thing out of place. A quaint little spotless cottage belonging to an elderly human couple, the only survivors on the entire planet. How they remain there alive with everyone else dead remains a mystery until Picard figures things out at the end: [[spoiler:Only one of them survived the attack. The woman is an illusion and the man isn't even human. He's an incredibly powerful entity, called a Douwd, possibly nearly as powerful a Q. He was also a pacifist, who refused to fight with the colonists. When his wife was killed along with the other colonists. He lashed out in anger and annihilated not only their assailants, but the entire 50 billion members of the Husnock species.]]

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* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E3TheSurvivors The Survivors]]": Acting on a distress call, the Enterprise encounters a desolate world where the inhabitants who sent the SOS signal have been annihilated by an alien race, Husnock. There's just one thing out of place. A quaint little spotless cottage belonging to an elderly human couple, the only survivors on the entire planet. How they remain there alive with everyone else dead remains a mystery until Picard figures things out at the end: [[spoiler:Only one of them survived the attack. The woman is an illusion and the man isn't even human. He's an incredibly powerful entity, called a Douwd, possibly nearly as powerful a Q. He was also a pacifist, who refused to fight with the colonists. When his wife was killed along with the other colonists. He lashed out in anger and annihilated not only their assailants, but the entire 50 billion members of the Husnock species.]]
* This was the original point of the [=TARDIS=] being a police box in ''Series/DoctorWho'' - the first story has it mysteriously found in a fog-bound scrapyard, and then appearing on prehistoric Earth. Now forgotten, as the police box is now known by most viewers only as the [=TARDIS=], and it's become an object of comfort.

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* "Star Trek: The Next Generation" The Survivors (TV Episode 1989) acting on a distress call, the Enterprise encounters a desolate world where the inhabitants who sent the SOS signal have been annihilated by an alien race, Husnock. There's just one thing out of place. A quaint little spotless cottage belonging to an elderly human couple, the only survivors on the entire planet. How they remain there alive with everyone else dead remains a mystery until Picard figures things out at the end: [[spoiler: Only one of them survived the attack. The woman is an illusion and the man isn't even human. He's an incredibly powerful entity, called a Douwd, possibly nearly as powerful a Q. He was also a pacifist, who refused to fight with the colonists. When his wife was killed along with the other colonists. He lashed out in anger and annihilated not only their assailants, but the entire 50 billion members of the Husnock species.]]

* James P. Hogan complained about the ending of 2001 to his friends, who then ridiculed him about the impossibility of his writing and publishing a science fiction novel. This led him to write and publish what would be the first book in the Giant Series, Inherit the Stars. It begins with the discovery of a man in a spacesuit found dead on the moon. All that's known about him is that he's not from any nation on earth and he's been there for 50,000 years.

* SilentHill: A wheelchair is a common sight in hospitals or around handycapt people. Lying on the side in the middle of a road, with not a single person in 1000 meters around it is not a good place for it to be, however. There isn't even blood.
* In TheLastOfUs you will find children drawings and toys inside an underground shelter that is flooded with infected. Joel tries to calm Sam by saying they probably escaped. [[spoiler: They didn't.]]

* These pop up occasionally in ''WelcomeToNightvale'', with one of the more notable examples being the lighthouse with the red beacon on the top of the mountain in the middle of a desert otherworld with no human inhabitants, and a miniature (and very hostile) civilization beneath the floorboards of the bowling alley. The later eventually declares war on our world, while the former plays an important and very un-lighthouse-like role in one of Nightvale's larger and more [[{{Mindscrew}} mindscrewy]] crises. Neither is ever fully explained.

* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'', 'Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe''. The iconic lamppost in the forest of the otherwise medieval world of Narnia. Not creepy, but its uncanny sense of not-belonging served to make the otherworld feel all the more otherworldly. The prequel '''Literature/TheMagiciansNephew'' explains that it was accidentally transported there from London while Narnia was still in the process of being formed and... took root.

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