History Main / TrappedWithMonsterPlot

* ''Literature/JamesAndTheGiantPeach'': Subverted. When James first enters the stone of the giant peach he discovers it to be a large cavern with several giant insects within. He attempts to sneak back out but discovers that the opening has disappeared, sealing him within. The giant insects soon take note of James and discuss how hungry they are seemingly implying that they plan to eat him. But they're soon revealed to be kind, friendly creatures and it's not long before they become his adopted family.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

[[folder: Webcomics]]

Compare SharkPool and FedToTheBeast, where the villain intentionally puts the hero in a confined space with a monster. Often coincides with ExploringTheEvilLair. Contrast AloneWithThePsycho. DieHardOnAnX is the [[InvertedTrope inversion]] of this, where [[PerspectiveFlip the "monster" is the hero]]; a common joke among fans of ''Film/{{Alien}}'' is that, for a xenomorph audience, that film would be ''Film/DieHard'' on a space freighter.

* In ''Webcomic/{{TREVOR}}'', the staff at the facility are effectively trapped there by [[spoiler: Trevor]], as he knows where they may go, and they know he knows.

** It's a slightly larger space, but ''Film/Tremors1'' has a similar plot. The residents of a small desert town are menaced by giant {{SandWorm}}s, and must try to survive. They can't easily leave because there is only one road out of town and it has been blocked by the worms and attempting to leave on foot would be suicide.

* The premise of Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]'' is that a polymorphic alien crashed on Earth during the Ice Age, and has been in suspended animation in Antarctica until some Norwegian researchers discovered it. The alien wiped out their compound and fled to the American base disguised as a sled dog. Given enough time, the alien can mimic any organism it consumes, and the American researchers have nowhere to flee that isn't sub-zero cold.

* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''How to Kill a Monster'' is about Gretchen and Clark, siblings sent to stay with their grandparents at their huge house by the swamp while their parents travel on business. They notice that their grandparents are hiding something upstairs and cooking more food than any human could ever eat, and while playing a game, and eventually learn that there is a swamp monster lurking in the house. The grandparents have left [[TooDumbToLive to try finding help (Gretchen pointing out to Clark that nobody will believe them when they say a monster's in their house) and decided to leave the kids locked inside the house, saying it's safer inside than in the swamp, rather than take the kids with them]], forcing Gretchen and Clark to fight back. [[spoiler: The TwistEnding of the book makes it worse -- the kids ''do'' successfully escape the beast and flee into the swamp... only to learn, too late, that the monster had many siblings. And now they're out in the middle of the bog with all of them.]]

* Myth/GreekMythology: In the myth of Theseus, human sacrifices are locked in the Labyrinth where the [[ALoadOfBull Minotaur]] lives.

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* The premise of Creator/JohnCarpenter's ''[[Film/TheThing1982 The Thing]]'' is that a polymorphic alien crashed on Earth during the Ice Age, and has been in suspended animation in Antarctica until some Norwegian researchers discovered it. The alien wiped out their compound and fled to the American base disguised as a sled dog. Given enough time, the alien can mimic any organism it consumes, and the American researchers have nowhere to flee that isn't sub-zero cold.

* ''Fer-de-Lance'' is a 1974 TV movie about a submarine trapped on the ocean floor with escaped poisonous snakes running loose.

* ''Film/TheAbyss'' has a twist -- the crew of an experimental seafloor habitat encounter aliens, but these turn out to be benign (ish), and one of their own members is the real threat.
* ''Film/EventHorizon'': An experimental hyperdrive [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]].
* ''Film/SnakesOnAPlane'' is basically this trope played up to the most {{troperiffic}} possible level.
* ''Film/{{Predators}}'' features a group of hardened mercenaries and murderers, general scum of the earth, sent offworld to the hunting grounds of a trio of Predators who systematically hunt them down.
* In ''Film/Bait3D'', a group of people are trapped in a partially submerged convenience store with two great white sharks after a tsunami devastates the coastal town.
* In ''Film/DeepBlueSea'', a group of scientists are trapped inside an underwater research laboratory with three genetically enhanced sharks. It also happens over the weekend, meaning that most of the facility's personnel is on leave, leaving only a skeleton crew of about 10 people to deal with the sharks.
* In ''Film/TheRuins'' (and the book it's based on), a backpacking group is trapped on a Mayan temple, the ruins of which are covered with an intelligent plant with a craving for human blood. Slightly twisted in that the humans and the plant are ''both'' trapped by a group of natives who are keeping the plant from spreading any further by burning and salting the earth around the temple; once the ignorant tourists have entered the ring of salt, the natives keep them penned up as well, knowing that the plant can infect them.
* Most of ''Film/DeepRising'' takes place on a stalled cruise ship. Although the protagonists do have a boat of their own, its engines are damaged in a collision early on, so it won't be able to take them to safety unless they can retrieve replacement parts from the tentacle-infested cruise ship's machine shop.
* ''Film/ItTheTerrorFromBeyondSpace'' has various astronauts trapped with a blood-sucking NighInvulnerable Martian inside of a rocket that is in the middle of its four-month journey back to Earth from Mars. Essentially a prototypical ''Alien'' made in TheFifties (and not really that odd--it was one of Dan O'Bannon's favorite films).
* ''Film/TrainToBusan'' has an increasingly-dwindling number of humans trapped with an increasingly-growing horde of zombies on a train en route to a safe zone.
** Also provides the page image.
* ''FIlm/Trench11'': An early grenade explosion destroys the entrance and forces the men to find an exit tunnel while the infected roam the halls.
* ''Film/AQuietPlace'': The mother is trapped with one of the monsters in the house a couple of times and is forced to be incredibly quiet lest the creature's powerful hearing picks up on her. The kicker? [[spoiler:The first time, she's ''on the verge of giving birth''.]]
* ''Most'' of the films from the ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' franchise use this trope, although they alternate the Trapped With Carnivorous Dinosaurs action scenes with Aesops about not messing with nature and TheWorldIsJustAwesome shots of ''non''-predator dinosaurs looking dramatic.
* ''Film/{{Rogue}}'' has a boatful of tourists in the Australian outback trapped on a tiny island in the middle of a huge crocodile’s territory.

* ''Literature/LifeOfPi'': Kid trapped in a lifeboat with a tiger.

* The ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' book ''How to Kill a Monster'' is about Gretchen and Clark, siblings sent to stay with their grandparents at their huge house by the swamp while their parents travel on business. They notice that their grandparents are hiding something upstairs and cooking more food than any human could ever eat, and while playing a game, and eventually learn that there is a swamp monster lurking in the house. The grandparents have left [[TooDumbToLive to try finding help (Gretchen pointing out to Clark that nobody will believe them when they say a monster's in their house) and decided to leave the kids locked inside the house, saying it's safer inside than in the swamp, rather than take the kids with them]], forcing Gretchen and Clark to fight back. [[spoiler: The TwistEnding of the book makes it worse--the kids ''do'' successfully escape the beast and flee into the swamp...only to learn, too late, that the monster had many siblings. And now they're out in the middle of the bog with all of them.]]

* In ''VideoGame/Mother3'', there is a segment in which your party is locked inside a [[MixAndMatchCritter chimera research]] lab. It's not long before the experiments start getting uncaged, including the lab's magnum opus, the Ultimate Chimera. [[OneHitKill It's not exactly friendly]].

* One level in the [[BubblegloopSwamp third, swamp-based chapter]] of ''VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus'' sees Sly investigating an area of the bayou guarded by a massive gate. As he explores, he realizes that the gate wasn't to keep intruders out--it was to keep something ''in.'' Immediately after this, a [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever gargantuan snake]] bursts from the water and starts [[GetBackHereBoss chasing him]].