History Main / ExploringTheEvilLair

* ''Series/ScreamTVSeries'': In "Aftermath", Noah, Audrey, and Emma discover Ghostface's lair in an AbandonedHospital. Noah geeks out about this, explaining how the "psycho killer's lair" trope is so prevalent in fiction, but then points out that it's ''only'' in fiction. Real-life {{Serial Killer}}s would never have something so blatantly staged as what the three of them find.

For starters, the place is probably full of {{Death Trap}}s, and [[AloneWithThePsycho the owner is likely not far off]] and just waiting to [[OffScreenTeleportation sneak up]] on the intruder at just the right time. That they've been brought to the lair alive is seldom good news, he "[[IHaveYouNowMyPretty has you now]], [[TermsOfEndangerment pretty!]]" and can intend anything from marrying, killing, eating, mating, or ''wearing'' the captive[[note]]([[{{Series/Firefly}} And hopefully, it'll be in that order]])[[/note]]. Fun times.

Which makes the idea of a free character willingly exploring the lair once they find it ([[LetsSplitUpGang and alone,]] which is usually the case) all the more bizarre. Of course, exploring the lair represents an enormous opportunity. If they don't know who [[DwindlingParty has been killing them off]], or [[NighInvulnerability how to kill the unkillable]], exploring the lair represents a treasure trove of clues in the form of finding a StalkerShrine, ShrineToSelf, SupervillainLair or other clues to their identity/weakness (remember, villains ''[[EvilOverlordList always]]'' keep the one thing that can harm them in their lair). It can also present them with the irresistible and incredibly dangerous chance to attack the villain or monster in their sleep. Thus characters are advised to NeverSplitTheParty; threaten to leave TheSoCalledCoward [[FineYouCanJustWaitHereAlone to wait alone]] to get him to cooperate, if necessary.

Typically, whoever is doing the exploring may be unlucky and killed or captured, or get lucky and manage to hide from the villain and escape in a tense and nail biting sequence (or think they did, only to have their arm [[BarrierBustingBlow bust through a wall and catch them]]). Usually, they get just as far as the threshold before the one, ''tiny'' sound[[note]](Or ringing cell phone, in modern versions. Extra {{irony}} points if it's the trespasser's partner calling to warn them that they're in the villain's lair)[[/note]] wakes it, or it shows up at the doorway. [[SortingAlgorithmOfMortality Survival varies by victim, of course.]]

[[AC:Fan Works]]

* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'' Tyrion finds the Wolf's ship deserted and climbs aboard. While in the hold, he finds a helmet last seen on Euron Greyjoy, who's supposed to be far away from King's Landing, and starts realizing the Wolf may be PlayingBothSides (he is, but not for the reasons Tyrion thinks), and hears some scratching noises next to the hold. And then two Norscans block the way out of the hold, clearly angry at him, and he doesn't speak their language... [[spoiler:He manages to make them understand he's looking for the Wolf, who then shows up. He doesn't mind Tyrion's presence, but on learning the Norscans weren't guarding the ship like they should have been, gives ''them'' a beating.]] The scratching turns out to have been from [[spoiler:Cersei]] who was gagged and bound in another compartment.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

* In ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney'', Radagast the Brown enters Dol Guldur, thought by that point to have been abandoned, only to encounter the spirits of the Witch King and the Necromancer.
** The following film, ''Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug'', saw Gandalf venture inside the fortress to determine if Sauron had indeed returned, which at this point was inhabited by a vast Orc army in addition to Sauron and his spirits. Bilbo and the dwarves also ventured into the lair of Smaug as in the book. The final film, ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'' , had Radagast return with Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel to rescue Gandalf, much more successfully than Gandalf's entrance.
* ''Film/{{Legend 1985}}''. Jack and his friends enter Darkness' lair to rescue Lili and the unicorn.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MickeyDonaldGoofyTheThreeMusketeers'', Donald is kidnapped and brought into Captain Pete's lair, where he discovers his plot to seize the throne and notices headstones reserved for him, Mickey and Goofy.
* In Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/RearWindow'', Jeffries (convalescent with a broken foot) helplessly watches his girlfriend Lisa checking out the villain's [[strike:lair]] apartment.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* Creator/JRRTolkien did this a couple of times:
** ''Literature/TheHobbit''. Bilbo enters Smaug's lair.
** ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Frodo and Sam in Shelob's lair.

* JustifiedTrope in ''Literature/{{Swellhead}}'' as it's their job to find out why the SupervillainLair is there in the first place--it's an ElaborateUndergroundBase that's suddenly appeared out of nowhere on an [[IslandBase island off Britain]].

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' Willow is taken to the [[AffablyEvil Mayor's]] office and guarded by one incompetent vampire. After she escapes she starts looking around for information on his plans. She's caught by Faith, who quite rightly mocks her for "Nancy Drewing" instead of escaping.
* In the pilot of ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'', Galadriel and her small company of Elves are searching for one of Sauron's hideouts in Forodwaith Mountains. There, they found what could be Utumno and starts to explore it. Inside, Galadriel notices that this place is so evil that the fire from torches stops giving any heat at all. As she searches the place, she discovers a lots of sinister signs of Sauron's dark magic being used on Orcs for some unknown reasons.
* In ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' No 6 wakes up in the village and slowly gets to realise how good a trap it is.
* ''Series/{{Scream}}'': In "Aftermath", Noah, Audrey, and Emma discover Ghostface's lair in an AbandonedHospital. Noah geeks out about this, explaining how the "psycho killer's lair" trope is so prevalent in fiction, but then points out that it's ''only'' in fiction. Real life {{Serial Killer}}s would never have something so blatantly staged as what the three of them find.

[[AC:{{Mythology}}]]
* OlderThanFeudalism: ''Literature/TheOdyssey'': Odysseus and his men explore the cave of the cyclops Polyphemus in which they're trapped by his return, knowing it's only a matter of time before he eats them all.


[[AC:{{Podcast}}]]
* Podcast/DiceFunk: The party spends a whole episode searching the underground compound of a villainous faction. Said villain later taunts them for missing important clues while they had the chance.

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* Near the end of ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'', Madison manages to track down the base of the Origami Killer, and bravely/foolishly breaks into it, hoping to find information about where the kidnapped boy, Shaun, is being held. Whether she succeeds at that or not, the killer surprises her on her way out. She CAN escape with her life - potentially - but if you don't think fast, she will die there.
** And then she does it again in the DownloadableContent episode ''The Taxidermist''; the entire episode consists of breaking into a man's house, [[spoiler:finding out he's a serial killer who stuffs women]], and then trying to escape when he comes home. Whether she gets out of the house undetected or in a chase (if she does get out at all!) is entirely up to the player.
* Rosella does this in ''VideoGame/KingsQuestIV''. Justified in that case, as she does need to grab Genesta's talisman and the magic fruit if she hopes to see Daventry again.
* The entire point of the ''VideoGame/DragonsLair'' games.

* The end-game of ''VideoGame/{{Blackout}}'' has such a sequence with the twist being that [[spoiler:it is actually the {{Amnesiac| Hero}} PlayerCharacter's own (or rather one of his {{Split Personalit|y}}ies') evil lair which is being explored]].
* The player character and Literature/CAugusteDupin do this quite often in the ''VideoGame/DarkTales'' series - justified, as this is usually the only way to solve the mystery.

[[AC:VisualNovels]]

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]
* Subverted in ''Webcomic/{{Earthsong}}'', where [[TheHero Willow]] finds herself in Tristram's lair. She gets up to walk off while he's asleep, and then he calls after her... to note that there are some pretty crystals down that passage there, and, oh, she'd never find her way out.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' and Mr. Cat wind up doing this in the Season 2 finale in order to find Quack Quack, who has been kidnapped by [[NotSoHarmlessVillain Olaf]].
* ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure'' features this trope when Pooh and the gang are forced to explore Skull as they seek out Christopher Robin even as this puts them on a collision course with whatever perils might lie in store for them. It doesn't help that they decide to split up, even if it means they cover more ground.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In a parody of Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Film/RearWindow'', Bart Simpson sent Lisa to investigate the Flanders pad when he thought Ned had killed his wife.
* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'': In [[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E10LairOfGrievous "Lair of Grievous"]], Kit Fisto, his former Padawan Nahdar Vebb, and a squad of clones wind up in General Grievous' secret hideout while searching for Nute Gunray. This is all a test arranged by Count Dooku because he thinks Grievous is losing his edge.

* In ''Film/TheHobbitAnUnexpectedJourney'', Radagast the Brown enters Dol Guldur, thought by that point to have been abandoned, only to encounter the spirits of the Witch King and the Necromancer.
** The following film, ''Film/TheHobbitTheDesolationOfSmaug'', saw Gandalf venture inside the fortress to determine if Sauron had indeed returned, which at this point was inhabited by a vast Orc army in addition to Sauron and his spirits. Bilbo and the dwarves also ventured into the lair of Smaug as in the book. The final film, ''Film/TheHobbitTheBattleOfTheFiveArmies'' , had Radagast return with Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel to rescue Gandalf, much more successfully than Gandalf's entrance.

* In ''Film/TheGhostAndTheDarkness'', the two protagonists investigate the lions' den, filled with the remains of their human and animal victims.
* In ''WesternAnimation/MickeyDonaldGoofyTheThreeMusketeers'', Donald is kidnapped and brought into Captain Pete's lair, where he discovers his plot to seize the throne and notices headstones reserved for him, Mickey and Goofy.

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/{{Earthsong}}'', where [[TheHero Wil]][[TheChick low]] finds herself in Tristram's lair. She gets up to walk off while he's asleep, and then he calls after her... to note that there are some pretty crystals down that passage there, and, oh, she'd never find her way out.

* ''Fanfic/TheMountainAndTheWolf'' Tyrion finds the Wolf's ship deserted and climbs aboard. While in the hold, he finds a helmet last seen on Euron Greyjoy, who's supposed to be far away from King's Landing, and starts realizing the Wolf may be PlayingBothSides (he is, but not for the reasons Tyrion thinks), and hears some scratching noises next to the hold. And then two Norscans block the way out of the hold, clearly angry at him, and he doesn't speak their language... [[spoiler:He manages to make them understand he's looking for the Wolf, who then shows up. He doesn't mind Tyrion's presence, but on learning the Norscans weren't guarding the ship like they should have been, gives ''them'' a beating.]] The scratching turns outto have been from [[spoiler:Cersei]] who was gagged and bound in another compartment.

There are very few situations that warrant an "OhCrap" quite as much as waking up in the villain's Evil Lair. The reasons are many and obvious, but this wouldn't be Wiki/TVTropes if we didn't analyze 'em all!

[[AC:{{Podcasts}}]]