History Main / ForbiddenZone

* The Dead Marshes and Moria in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Also contains a subversion in that the Fellowship attempts to cross the Pass of Caradhras and is forced to turn back and go through Moria instead. Subverted in the films, in that Gimli fully expected Moria to be a safe place still populated by dwarves, indicating that most people (or at least most dwarves) don't ''know'' that it's become a ForbiddenZone.
** The Old Forest. The Barrow-downs. Fangorn. The pass of Cirith Ungol. Tolkien ''liked'' this trope.

* The Hall Of Kings in Terry Brook's {{Shannara}} series.

* The DMZ between the Koreas.

Not to be confused with ''Film/ForbiddenZone'', which is an awesome DannyElfman film.

** Slightly less dangerous than most; the fire can be dodged by listening for the noise that precedes each burst, the Lightning sand can be avoided by watching your step, and the [[RodentsOfUnusualSize Rodents]] of Unusual Size? [[TemptingFate I don't think they exi--]]
*** (Interestingly, this last is also a [[BlatantLies blatant lie]], as he had seen one not thirty seconds earlier.)

* ''PlanetOfTheApes'' prominently features a Forbidden Zone, which contains the important information that [[spoiler: they were really on Earth the whole time.]]
** It's worth noting the area is actually called "The Forbidden Zone" and is also an inhospitable desert, so there's some practical reason beyond the withholding of scientific information.
** In the Tim Burton remake, the Forbidden Zone is the [[spoiler: crash site of the spaceship that originally brought the apes and humans to that planet ages ago, as well as the proof that the humans were their original masters.]]

* The Dead Marshes and Moria in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Also contains a subversion in that the Fellowship attempts to cross the Pass of Caradhras and is forced to turn back and go through Moria instead.
** Subverted in the films, in that Gimli fully expected Moria to be a safe place still populated by dwarves, indicating that most people (or at least most dwarves) don't ''know'' that it's become a ForbiddenZone.
*** ItMakesSenseInContext. Moria was a Forbidden Zone before Balin's expedition set forth to reclaim and repopulate it. They haven't been heard since and Gimli is just being hopeful, while Gandalf is more pragmatic.

** Possibly it was never really this trope, if the name and Hagrid's stories about its dangers are a deliberate ploy by Hogwarts faculty to keep clueless first-years from wandering around in the woods.
*** Although most of the rumored dangers of the forest never materialize, Aragog and his brood are ''more'' than enough reason to keep students as far away from the woods as possible. The centaurs, although normally not hostile, can also be extremely dangerous if they feel disrespected.
* ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' features two Forbidden Zones, the Blight and Shadar Logoth, each saturated with evil. [[spoiler:Both are entered in the first book, and the latter is revisited repeatedly.]] Neither is a pleasant place to be. It's a safe bet that anything in the Blight that lives (though "lives" is stretched in some cases) is a deadly threat, and Shadar Logoth is home to the physical manifestation of hate itself.
** Also, [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Ways]]. You do not want to run into [[TheCorruption Machin]] [[EldritchAbomination Shin]].

** And that's only because Sin and Death built a safe path through it.

** Well, shooting at ground level towards their goal with the blasters from Liberator (which are said to be quite powerful) and then running as the wires could self-repair. There's many such "zones" in ''Series/BlakesSeven'', including the Darkling Zone, from where no ship has ever in 300+ years of space travel have ever returned (it's explicitly said to be inhabited by aliens who hate humans), some planets have magnetic fields/shields that fry even Liberator's wiring and after the great war/s in between season 2 and 3 great reefs of debris, bacteriological waste, electromagnatic interference and so forth. Basically you take your life in your own hands leaving Earth in ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (especially as there are diseases out there that only affect people who've left their native planets and suffered from "the shakes" which are minute changes in your DNA that are a result of exposure to stellar and interstellar radiations).

* From the ''DungeonsAndDragons'' ''ForgottenRealms'' campaign setting: for the love of the gods, stay ''away'' from "The Plaguelands"!
** The Mournland over in ''{{Eberron}}'' isn't all that pleasant either.

* Misty Island in JakAndDaxter, which is where the entire plot for the game is introduced.
** The Wasteland and anywhere located outside the walls of Haven City also qualify in [[Jak3Wastelander Jak 3]] and JakII, respicatively.

** The game ''[[VideoGame/{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' takes place entirely in a fictional version of the forbidden zone that surrounds the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
*** The RealLife example is also acceptable, due to the massive amount of radiation still there. Better yet, anywhere in former USSR is an acceptable trope, if you know your history. (Look at the Aral Sea, for example)
*** ''S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'' is said to be inspired by the book ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'' by the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers, which featured such a Zone. There were no monsters there, it was dangerous simply by abundance of things lethal to humans. Still, a lot of people went there for the artifacts.
**** Such hazards and artifacts appear often in the game. The hazards are just as dangerous to the monsters as the player, and the artifacts grant status effects as well as being worth money to merchants.

** FridgeLogic: Why would there be pirates if there were no civilian craft?
*** That's where pirates would hide when they are not attacking civilian craft.

* MetroidFusion has the Restricted Labs, located in the NOC secto-[[MostAnnoyingSound WARNING! NO ENTRY WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION!]]

* In the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' expansion pack ''Old World Blues'', Dr. Mobius harasses and threatens the Think Tank from his dome-shaped... dome... in the Forbidden Zone. It used to be the X-42 robo-warfare facility, from which Mobius creates and unleashes his deadly, intellect-draining robo-scorpions.

* Obviously ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' (as seen in the page quote). Also in the episode "A Bicyclops built for two", there was the Forbidden Valley.
** As it turns out however, [[spoiler:the Forbidden Valley actually seperates and stops Alcazar's brides from seeing the other four identical castles, where the other brides live]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania Centralia, Pennsylvania]]. An underground coal fire expected to rage for thousands of years means it's strictly off-limits. This town served as inspiration for ''Film/NothingButTrouble'' and ''Film/SilentHill''.
** To this day, there are still people who refuse to leave, although their numbers are dwindling.

** Which nevertheless doesn't prevent ''tour buses'' from going there.
** You're fine as long as you have air conditioning. Without it though...
* The Exclusion Zone around Chernobyl in the Ukraine, including parts of Belarus. These days, you can actually go there, but not for long.
** It's worth noting that hundreds of people work there daily, and their numbers are likely to increase as the new radiation shield needs to be built around the reactor soon. Still, the area is large enough that a casual visitor is unlikely to see anybody else during a brief visit.

* Area 51. Assuming it exists, of course.
** Even the US government has admitted that it does, by now. In hindsight it was probably a bad idea to burn radioactive waste in their backyard without any safety measures.

* For a time in the 1980s the Libyan government declared the Gulf of Sidra off-limits to international shipping, calling their boundary the "Line of Death." Yet oddly, a pair of U.S. aircraft carrier battlegroups encountered ''no trouble at all'' when they entered it. The Libyans did send aircraft after them on two occasions, in each case the Libyans getting blown out of the sky by F-14s.

*** I think the Ukrainian government recently declared it safe for tourists and a daily visit will now get you about as much radiation as a trans-Atlantic flight.

* ''[[{{Thief}} Thief: The Dark Project]]'': The Sealed Section of the Old Quarter. The information [[AntiHero Garrett]] has on it is sketchy (he knows that there was some sort of disaster involving [[ZombieApocalypse zombies]] and raging fires 50 years prior to his time, but he doesn't know precisely what happened or why). Having been hired to retrieve an artifact from the quarter's cathedral, he's about to find out.

* The so-called "No Fly Zone". USA and its allies unilaterally declared Libya to be the zone where no aircraft can fly, following the allegation that Gaddafi administration had used his air force against the Libyan dissenters. In reality, it's used to corner Libya to not able to use the its air force in order to defend itself as a sovereign country against the imperialist intervention from the aforementioned countries. When the USA later tried to do the same to Syria, the world was quick to call out the BS.

* The Dead Marshes and Moria in ''TheLordOfTheRings''. Also contains a subversion in that the Fellowship attempts to cross the Pass of Caradhras and is forced to turn back and go through Moria instead.
** To say nothing of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Valley of Dreadful Death]], located in the Mountains of Terror. Only [[TheChosenOne One Man]], Beren, has ever passed that way alive... and [[TakeOurWordForIt he doesn't like to talk about it.]]

* On ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'', Teal'c tells Daniel of a world whose address is know to all Jaffa and Go'auld as a place to be avoided at all costs. SG-1 sets out for the place at once. The planet is under Asgard protection and has a device that teleports any Jaffa or Go'auld to a maze that the symbiote cannot escape from.

* The City Council of [[WelcomeToNightVale Night Vale]] would like to remind you that dogs are not allowed in the Dog Park. ''People'' are not allowed in the Dog Park. You are not supposed to know about the Dog Park.

* ''Tormenta'', a Brazilian RPG setting has its namesake, the "Torment Areas". Easily recognizable by being covered in blood-red clouds at all times, these are regions that were taken over by a very Lovecraftian interdimensional species, making the places absurdly dangerous to anything that finds itself inside.

[[quoteright:205:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/forbidden-zone_6201.jpg]]

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania Centralia, Pennsylvania]]. An underground coal fire expected to rage for thousands of years means it's strictly off-limits. This town served as inspiration for the movie version of ''SilentHill'' (see below)

* ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has Area 69, a military and research compound that instantly gives you a 5 star warrant level if you approach it and you'll be shot down by missiles or the military's fighter jets if you approach the area by air. There's one mission where you do get the chance to sneak into the facility and see why the area is so heavily guarded; using alien technology, the military created a jet pack that allows the wearer to fly. You get to keep it as well once you complete the mission.

* ''[[http://thesickland.blogspot.co.uk The Sick Land]]'' kinda speaks for itself.

* In one of TheSimpsons flash forward episodes, a teenage Bart works as a delivery boy for Apu, who tells him he has to deliver groceries to an elderly shut in (Mr Burns) in the "Forbidden Zone". Not the one with the smallpox, or radioactivity, or eternal midnight, but the one with the [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Uniclams]].

* In one of TheSimpsons flash forward episodes, a teenage Bart works as a delivery boy for Apu, who tells him he has to deliver groceries to an elderly shut in (Mr Burns) in the "Forbidden Zone". Not the one with the smallpox, or radioactivity, or eternal midnight, but the one with the [[PirateNinjaZombieRobot Uniclams]].

* The Zone in ''{{Stalker}}''.

** The game ''[[{{STALKER}} S.T.A.L.K.E.R.]]'' takes place entirely in a fictional version of the forbidden zone that surrounds the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

*** That's were pirates would hide when they are not attacking civilian craft.
* In ''[[HalfLife Half-Life]] 2'', Gordon Freeman arrives at Black Mesa East and is taken on a quick tour, including a boarded-up mine shaft that leads to the city of Ravenholm. "We don't go there anymore," Alyx says. Unsurprisingly, the only other path is soon blocked.