Line #323 Main/ClosedCircle


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9	->''"The term 'Closed circle' is a mystery term. It refers to a situation where contact with the outside world has been severed... This is where the setting is truly allowed to shine. The culprit and other characters are unable to escape the [closed circle]. At the same time, there won't be any new characters from the outside."''
10	-->-- '''[[MrExposition Itsuki Koizumi]]''', ''[[Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]''
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12	%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
13
14	This is a stock plot designed to force the characters or players to stay in a location and get involved in the adventure... and not be able to leave until it's done.
15
16	The variations on this set up are nearly limitless, and can work in pretty much [[UniversalTropes any and every genre or setting]]. The classic set up though is as follows: The heroes are driving along, when all of a sudden what should happen but an inconvenient flat tire. Unfortunately, the spare is flat too, the rain is coming down, and of course [[DramaticThunder it's also thundering]]. There's no choice but to stay at the HauntedCastle until the weather clears. Lo and behold, the MadScientist living there has just reached the critical phase in his [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow breakthrough in bio-chemical research]], and ''of course'' something [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]] and the [[TheUndead undead]] [[ManEatingPlant Venus flytrap]] gets loose and starts picking them off one by one. The heroes are now locked in and can't leave, have to solve the mystery to find the demonic plant's one weakness (hint: [[KillItWithFire it ain't water]]) and hopefully survive long enough to leave.
17
18	This plot bears similarities to YouAllMeetInAnInn, coupled with a BrokenBridge, and usually beginning as a DeadlyRoadTrip. Some genres can't get enough of it; ZombieApocalypse movies like ''Film/NightOfTheLivingDead1968'' and its various spinoffs, remakes, and homages all use it, as do most other monster movies and many {{Horror}} stories in general. They'll even up the drama by [[TenLittleMurderVictims picking them off one by one]] until only TheAloner is left to fight for their life. The screenwriting book ''[[TenMoviePlots Save the Cat]]'' calls the premise ''Monster in the House'', and points out that the story falls flat if the protagonist could just cheerfully catch a bus out of danger.
19
20	Think it's been around long enough to be a [[DiscreditedTrope Discredited]] or DeadHorseTrope? Nah, it's more like an archetype, a versatile tool used to [[JustForFun/HowToGatherCharacters stick your characters in one spot]] and force them to deal with the danger. The heroes can be [[SpacePolice space cops]], vacationers on a [[BeachEpisode beach trip]], or FBI investigators. They can be trapped by a ghost, simple mechanical troubles, a man in a mask, or an eccentric billionaire. To get out they might need to solve a mystery, survive a serial killer, repair their car, or just wait out the rain. Like we said, the variations ''are limitless''.
21
22	'''There are the following ways to go about this:'''
23	# The location, normally connected to the rest of the world, is made inescapable.
24	** [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight Inclement weather]], see: HostileWeather; SnowedIn.
25	** LockedInARoom
26	** BrokenBridge
27	** LockedDoor
28	** DieHardOnAnX
29	# Orientation is difficult and any attempt to leave will end with GoingInCircles. Usually nightfall or bad weather is making it even more difficult. Maps, [[CellPhonesAreUseless phones, GPS etc. have been lost or destroyed]], or never existed in the first place. The characters are too glad to have one certain point on the horizon (even if it is the HauntedHouse) to risk wandering off and get hopelessly lost. In some cases this may be due to magic or space warps.
30	# If the characters arrived by vehicle, circumstances will prevent them from using that same vehicle to leave.
31	** The vehicle is inoperable. (The car has a flat tire, the motorbike has no gas, or the spaceship's [[FTLTravel warp drive]] is on the fritz). The characters must find a way [[TheGreatRepair to repair it]] before they can escape.
32	** The vehicle has been destroyed. A replacement must be found, stolen, or built. Typical DesertedIsland scenario.
33	** The vehicle is on a schedule, has already departed, and will not return for a certain amount of time. The characters do not realize the danger until after their ride leaves. In this case, their objective is to survive for the set amount of time until the [ferry to the mainland/chartered flight/evac chopper/etc.] arrives.
34	** The vehicle IS the dangerous, inescapable setting. See ThrillerOnTheExpress, DeathInTheClouds.
35	# The characters are under a compulsion to stay, either by their own will or because something else forces them to remain.
36	** The heroes are physically unable to leave an EnclosedSpace because there is no where to leave ''to''.
37	** Police or authorities quarantine the area, possibly in search of the characters if they're criminals.
38	** There's a SerialKiller or monster killing anyone who tries to leave.
39	** The location is [[LockedInAFreezer booby-trapped to be inescapable.]] Often there's a way to unlock the mansion, which might involve puzzles, murder, or solving a mystery.
40	** Your PlayerCharacter is holding the IdiotBall and simply refuses to leave [[ButThouMust Because The Plot Says So]].
41	*** [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Alternatively]], your PlayerCharacter is on [[TheQuest a mission]] and [[{{Determinator}} will not be deterred]].
42	** The location is a MobileMaze that won't let them leave.
43	** Each of the characters is equipped with a RestrainingBolt that won't let them leave, or an ExplosiveLeash that will kill them if they try.
44	** The characters know that if they leave without solving the mystery, the culprit will escape.
45	** The characters learn of a dangerous threat that must be resolved quickly and can only be done on-site.
46	** A loved one or particularly important item or piece of information are held in the area and leaving before they are secured will result in the protagonists losing them permanently.
47
48	This is the driving force behind many LetsYouAndHimFight scenarios: Why would this group of incongruous heroes and/or villains fight that other group of incongruous heroes and/or villains? Because some wizard/super-scientist/EldritchAbomination stuck them in a pocket dimension! Trying to get out is impossible because there are either no exits or because they're all locked in such ways that would be impossible to open by the group(s). The only way to open the Closed Circle is a fight to the death! Needless to say, most times, [[TakingAThirdOption they either find a way out that was NOT accounted for, or just take out the ringmaster of the whole debacle]].
49
50	Thanks to TechnologyMarchesOn, an increasingly unavoidable bit of FridgeLogic crops up in modern works regarding why the characters don't just call the police/mountain rescue/the Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}} on their mobile phones. Hence the nigh-omnipresent AcceptableBreaksFromReality that show that CellPhonesAreUseless. Even works that avoid that trope play with it in that having a functional means of communication isn't really important, due to inaccessibility or a time limit that's shorter than the time it would take for rescue to arrive.
51
52	A SuperTrope to TrappedInAnotherWorld and EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace. A common such plot is DieHardOnAnX. In a VideoGame may be enforced by a BottomlessPit, BrokenBridge, InsurmountableWaistHeightFence, {{Invisible Wall}}s, {{Locked Door}}s, or a PointOfNoReturn. A good excuse for a BottleEpisode. In a TabletopRPG, this is a {{Railroading}} technique. See also GatelessGhetto, TrappedWithMonsterPlot. The GroundhogDayLoop could be considered a temporal version of this. EnclosedSpace is a subtrope.
53
54	Subtrope to UnableToRetreat.
55
56	----
57	!!Example subpages:
58
59	[[index]]
60	* [[ClosedCircle/LiveActionFilms Films — Live-Action]]
61	* ClosedCircle/LiveActionTV
62	* ClosedCircle/VideoGames
63	[[/index]]
64
65	!!Other examples:
66
67	[[foldercontrol]]
68
69	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
70	%%* The Flying Pussyfoot in ''Literature/{{Baccano}}'' as well as the case of the Advena Avis two hundred years prior.
71	* ''Manga/BusoRenkin'': Doktor Butterfly's Alice In Wonderland does this in its dispersed form, trapping the students in the school so that the [[ZombieApocalypse Revised Humanoid Homunculi]] can feed on them.
72	* Roughly a quarter of ''Manga/CaseClosed'' stories, rising to half for multiparters. For example, Episode 52 has one of these where the main characters get a flat tire and have to stay at a spooky temple where a murder takes place. At least the episode explains that it's a ''second'' flat tire, so they can't just use the spare.
73	* The first half of ''Anime/CrossAnge'' takes place on Arzenal, a PenalColony, where Norma are forced to fight and kill [=DRAGONs=].
74	* ''Anime/DeathParade'' mostly takes place in a bar where two dead people arrive to have their eternal souls judged over bar games. [[YouWakeUpInARoom They have no idea how they got there]], they are threatened into playing the games, and they cannot leave until the game is over.
75	* Kirisaki Island in ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ'' leaves classes Q and A stormbound on said island. There is a serial killer involved. [[spoiler:Fifty years ago, and the rest is Dan screwing with Class Q.]]
76	* In ''Anime/DigimonAdventure'', Myotismon creates a fog barrier that turns people around when they try to escape the city.
77	* If you are chosen by the titular ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'', try to exit a set area before the time limit and YourHeadAsplode. Everybody else is free to move through the area as they please, but the scenario is always set so they can affect nothing.
78	* ''Literature/HaruhiSuzumiya'':
79	** {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d during the Island mystery, in which the SOS Brigade is on a mansion on a private island, with only themselves, the island's owner, his brother, and his staff. A storm prevents anyone from leaving and destroys phone reception. Then their host turns up dead... Itsuki even uses what might be the common name for describing it: a Closed Circle. Ultimately, [[spoiler:it turns out to have been an invoked trope: no murder ever took place, the "victim" is alive and well, and he and the others are actually part of the Organization, who set the whole thing up due to their worry that Haruhi would subconsciously make a real murder mystery due to the setting and her desire to experience strange things.]]
80	** In the novels they later get in a similar situation while going on a ski resort. [[spoiler:Turns out this one isn't intentionally done, and it took practically all of Nagato's powers and some basic knowledge in graph theory for them to escape.]]
81	** The conclusion of ''The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya'' (both the book and the first season) is effectively a closed circle invocation as well, the circle being delimited by the dimensions of Haruhi's "closed space", and the time available to escape being delimited by how effectively the Celestials can stomp about. It is an interesting reduction of the trope to its simplest arrangement. There are only two people in the closed space, one of whom is the hero (Kyon), and one of them the unknowing monster (Haruhi), but only Kyon recognizes what is going on. Kyon has to figure out the "mystery" of how to escape the trap. The two ghostly intrusions (Nagato and Koizumi) are allowable in that their fates are also tied to the resolution so are arguably closed in as well, and they don't give Kyon any new information (they basically remind him of what they had previously told him).
82	* ''Anime/HellGirl'' had an episode in which a writer and his daughter are trapped in an old asylum.
83	* Many a case arc in ''Manga/TheKindaichiCaseFiles'' would have the participants being forcibly stuck where the murder case is taking place in said arc (the only way in & out of the area is made inaccessible, the communication devices to the outside world are sabotaged and/or have no connection access point, the ferry service that is due to arrive to pick people up has left and won't return for a few days, etc.), creating panic for the survivors as a result.
84	* ''Manga/LiarGame'' frequently invokes this trope by setting its various challenges in secluded locations. Rarely are the players physically prohibited from leaving, but only winners can truly "escape" by paying half their winnings to the tournament committee; the rest end up in crushing debt.
85	* Happens OncePerEpisode in ''Anime/{{Mononoke}}'', since the Medicine Peddler always seals off the area with magic to protect its inhabitants and prevent the mononoke escaping. Moreover, two episodes take place in a boat out at sea and a moving train carriage.
86	* Ruhenheim in ''Manga/{{Monster}}'' is a particularly grand-scale case of the horror take on this trope.
87	* ''Anime/PrincessTutu'' slowly reveals [[spoiler:the town is magically cut off from the outside world. The spell is broken at the end of the series.]]
88	* In ''Literature/RokkaBravesOfTheSixFlowers'', the main cast is trapped within a magical barrier that prevents them from leaving the forest. The plot involves figuring out who the traitor among them is who activated the barrier.
89	* In ''Manga/ShadowsHouse'', the Children's Wing is surrounded on all sides by walls and a steep cliff, and the only way in and out of the premises is the bridge to the Adult's Building, a place that is strictly off limits to the children. Even without these security measures, the children are never compelled to leave because [[spoiler: they have all been brainwashed to be unconditionally loyal to Lord Grandfather and the Shadows House.]]
90	* The setting of ''Manga/SummerTimeRendering'' is an island 4km away from the mainland, with only a ferry responsible for bringing and returning people from the island. As Hizuru notices, the boat operatives are already Shadows themselves, and considering that now the Shadows know they have opponents, if any of the heroes try to leave, they're likely to be killed on the trip.
91	* In the final act of ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'', the Spiral transforms Kurozu-cho into this; anyone entering by sea has their boat destroyed by hurricanes, all paths out on foot spiral back to the town, and in the end [[spoiler:[[TimeStandsStill the boundaries of the closed circle shrink to nothing, ending with the flow of time at the center standing still, trapping Shuichi and Kirie at the heart of the Spiral, surrounded by the petrified bodies of everyone else of the now-erased town]] to gaze upon [[GeniusLoci the source of the Spiral’s curse]] forever]].
92	* ''Anime/ValkyrieDriveMermaid'' is set in the artificial island of Mermaid, where Armed Virus carriers are sent to be quarantined until a cure can be found.
93	* In ''Anime/YuGiOhCapsuleMonsters'', the gang has to complete five trials before being able to return to their world, and early episodes are spent wondering why they're in the Capsule Monster world in the first place.
94	[[/folder]]
95
96	[[folder:Comic Books]]
97	* In the Franchise/{{Batman}} storyline ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand'', Gotham City cut off from the rest of the United States after a massive earthquake ravages most of it. The city's remaining bridges are destroyed and the National Guard are set up around the other end to prevent anyone getting in or out. Numerous named characters are able to slip in through various means, however.
98	* In ''ComicBook/CinemaPurgatorio'', once somebody enters the cinema, they aren't able to go back out. While they are free to roam anywhere inside, taking one of the exits just warps a person back in front of the door. At first, the protagonist just accepts this as part of a dreamlike experience, but as she keeps waking up in the theater, she becomes just as resigned to staying as the other patrons.
99	* The protagonists of ''ComicBook/ElksRun'' happen to ''live'' in their Closed Circle. Their town was built to be isolated from the rest of society, with the only way out being a tunnel through the mountains that could easily be blocked off during an emergency. Police investigation of a VigilanteExecution qualifies as an emergency to those who participated in said execution, no matter how much the rest of the cast wants to get out of town.
100	* ''ComicBook/TheMazeAgency'': Gabe and Jen are stranded on island with a (literal) boatload of suspects when the boat that brought them there is blown up in #20. And then someone is murdered following a séance...
101	[[/folder]]
102
103	[[folder:Fan Works]]
104	* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': The entire cast and crew of Bolt's TV show are gathered together on a movie studio set in "The Murder Mystery" after The Director is killed. All are suspects with plausible motives, and Penny monitors the proceedings.
105	* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' fic ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/34282366/chapters/85296475#workskin The Corn Maze]]'', Dib drags Gaz along with him to sneak into the titular tourist trap at night to investigate rumors of ghostly activity. After bumping into Zim and GIR (the former humoring the latter's desire to make crop circles) and determining that they're responsible for the activity, they decide to go home... only to find that every pathway suddenly leads back to the center of the maze, even if they walk in a straight line. The rest of the plot follows the siblings and Zim trying to figure out what's causing this and how to get out.
106	* ''Fanfic/ACrownOfStars'': In chapter 45 [[spoiler:Shinji and Asuka are transporting troops from Avalon to their homeworld when the portal gets shut and they are cut off and trapped in a post-apocalyptic world inhabited by warlords and bandit gangs.]] Their only option is [[spoiler:fighting the dictators ruling the wastelands and ruins as trying to convince the person who blocked the dimensional gate to let them leave.]]
107	* The first installment of the ''FanFic/ElementalChessTrilogy'' turns Central City into this when it gets invaded. All entrance and exit points are blocked off.
108	* ''FanFic/EscapeFromTheMoon'': The entire story ([[spoiler:except for the last chapter]]) takes place in a small space station and the area right outside.
109	* In ''Fanfic/HopeForTheHeartless'': When the invisible and powerful servants of [[CosmicEntity the Fates]] are assigned to temporarily serve and counsel the Horned King, they are bound within the borders of his castle courtyard.
110	* ''WebComic/MegaManDissonance'': All teleportation in the city has been disabled [[spoiler:(except for the Element 5, naturally)]], so Mega Man and Proto Man must find out the source of the jamming.
111	* The DesertedIsland in ''Fanfic/MotherOfInvention'' is already this for Applejack, who as an earth pony has no access to {{Pegasus}} {{Flight}} or {{Unicorn}} {{Teleportation}}. [[spoiler:She later finds out that these are all blocked as well.]]
112	* In the Sabrina Gaiden of ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'', when the title character begins to terrorize her hometown, some people try to escape, but they always run into her on the edges of the town.
113	* In ''Webcomic/{{Springaling}}'', the undead characters can't leave Fazbear's Fright until they "earn their balloons". While other characters can enter and leave the building, circumstances often conspire for Springtrap (the only one with a physical form) to be unable to exit.
114	[[/folder]]
115
116	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
117	* The Other World in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Coraline}}'' movie is only as big as the surrounding area of the Pink Palace. Once Coraline gets the idea to just walk away, she finds the forest flaking apart to reveal a white void - which reforms into the Pink Palace right in front of her again. It's presumably because the Other Mother doesn't have the power to reach any further. "Small world."
118	* ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeTheMeltdown'': A literal closed circle made from ice prevents the protagonists from leaving the valley. Their goal is reaching a "boat" (a vast piece of wood from a giant tree) to survive the inevitable flooding.
119	* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMeetsTheBooBrothers'': Shaggy and Scooby want to leave the mansion as soon as they find out it's haunted, but Shaggy's jeep [[QuicksandSucks sinks into the swamp]], no one can come to get it out until morning, and it's miles to the nearest town (with a gun-totting hillbilly with a grudge against Shaggy's family roaming through the woods). [[spoiler:Unusually for this trope, he gets the truck back some time later. Instead of hightailing it out of there, as you might expect, Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy decide to stay and finish the case. Seems even Shaggy and Scoob can't let a mystery go when it hooks them.]]
120	* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': Most of the plot takes place in Sugar Rush because Vanellope, being a glitch, is unable to leave her game.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Literature]]
124	* ''Literature/TheCloneWarsSecretMissions'': ''Curse of the Black Hole Pirates'' takes place near a black hole that affects navigational systems and keeps anyone, hero or villain alike, from taking their ship out of the region.
125	* As a GhostShip [[RecycledInSpace in space]], the Aurora in ''Literature/DeadSilence'' is inescapable. Doubly so if the passengers (or the rescue crew) activate the "Versailles Contingency", which locked the rich passengers in secured section of the ship as a panic room, but only could be opened from the outside.
126	* ''Literature/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'': Even when the Nautilus travels around the whole world, TheProfessor Aronnax, BattleButler Conseil and IdiotHero Ned Land [[EnclosedSpace are confined to the submarine]]. They can only talk with Captain Nemo (since all the other crew speak a secret language).
127	* ''Literature/UnderTheDome'': Stephen King's survival thriller novel is set in the fictional town of Chester's Mill, where a literal impenetrable dome is created around the town, separating it from the outside world entirely, with several parties struggling for survival, but also undermining each other due to being at odds. To make matters worse, the dome causes a greatly diminished air circulation, making breathing increasingly difficult due to accumulating pollution.
128	* ''Literature/AnnaPigeon'': In ''Firestorm'', Anna is working with a fire crew during a wildfire. The crew is caught in a firestorm and retreat into their personal shelters. After the firestorm passes, one of the crew is found stabbed to death inside his shelter, meaning the killer has to have been one of those present when the firestorm hit. Then a rampaging winter storm descends, cutting the survivors off from civilization.
129	* ''Literature/BattleRoyale'' takes place in a purposely vacated, remote island. Moreover, the students are equipped with radio transmitters that will explode if they somehow ''do'' manage to leave the confines of the island, forcing them to compete in the titular Battle. Moreover, as the "game" goes on, more and more zones of the island are made off limits, tightening the circle.
130	* Arthur Clarke's short ''Breaking Strain'': the realities of interplanetary navigation.
131	* In Lawrence Block's ''The Burglar in the Library'' Bernie, Carolyn and the other guests and staff of Cuttleford House are trapped there after the rope bridge is sabotaged.
132	* Creator/AnthonyBoucher's ''The Case of the Seven Sneezes''.
133	* The Other House and garden in ''Literature/{{Coraline}}''. If you walk too far, you find yourself coming back to the house again, and only Coraline herself and the cat can leave. The real Pink Palace is not this, but when Coraline attempts to call the police for help, they don't believe that her parents have been kidnapped and so she has to deal with the situation herself.
134	* Creator/MichaelCrichton loved this trope. Seriously, pick nearly any one of his books.
135	** Played with in ''Literature/TheAndromedaStrain'' in that the characters enter and remain at Wildfire by choice, since it is the best place in the world to study Andromeda.
136	* Creator/AgathaChristie liked this:
137	** ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'': The mystery occurs on a remote island where communications have been sabotaged and stormy weather makes it unsafe to take a boat to or from the mainland.
138	** Even better: ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' (1934). The entire murder investigation goes on while the eponymous train has been immobilized due to a snowstorm. The idea that the killer or killers could have escaped away is quickly shot down, by establishing that an attempt to escape on foot would be suicidal.
139	** ''Literature/DeathInTheClouds'': [[DeathInTheClouds Named a trope for its particular method]]; the murder occurred on a plane in flight, so the murderer couldn't be an outsider, and can't leave until the plane lands.
140	** ''Literature/CardsOnTheTable'': The only people in the room when Mr. Shaitana gets stabbed are the four successful murderers he "collected".
141	* ''Dead Mountaineer's Hotel'': The characters are in a hotel in a snowy valley, and an avalanche locks them from the outside world for at least a couple of days.
142	* ''Literature/{{Devolution}}'': Greenloop is several miles from the nearest main road... and that's ''before'' it turns out the whole road was destroyed in a landslide caused by the Rainier eruption.
143	* Cyril Hare's ''An English Murder'': heavy snow.
144	* This happens in several books of ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear''. It takes place on a number of different planets, and the very first book ended with their ride being destroyed. Although they were [[BigDamnHeroes rescued]] by the crew of the ''Millennium Falcon'', they were dropped off on another world to make their way from there right in the next book. In many other books, if the ship they picked up in the second one isn't damaged in some way, they have another reason they can't just leave.
145	* In Chuck Palahniuk's ''[[Literature/Haunted2005 Haunted: A Novel]]'', the cast of characters trap ''themselves'' in an isolated theater, each unwilling to leave until they're able to present themselves as the hero of the resulting news stories and RippedFromTheHeadlines movie.
146	* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'': Twenty-four tributes are forced to fight to the death in an arena surrounded by force fields ''and'' natural boundaries like mountains and lakes. Tributes can receive supplies that float out of the sky on parachutes, but otherwise they're on their own. The Gamemakers can even instantaneously alter the arena to make it smaller and smaller as the games progress, thereby increasing the drama for the audiences both in- and out-of-universe.
147	* Some of [[Creator/MatthewReilly Matthew Reilly's]] works have this. ''Contest'', ''Literature/IceStation'', ''Area 7'', ''Army of Thieves''...one would think he uses this trope so as to help concentrate the [[StuffBlowingUp explosions and other demolition]]. The protagonist of his short story "The Dead Prince" invokes this trope so as to prevent the culprit from getting away.
148	* In ''Literature/InCryptid'', James Smith has a HereditaryCurse that prevents him from leaving the tiny Maine town he was born in. Every time he's tried, he collapses and would die if he didn't get back within the town limits. In the past, Thomas Price, who made a [[DealWithTheDevil deal]] with [[EldritchAbomination the Crossroads]], the same entity responsible for James's curse, was eventually magically confined to his own house, unable to leave it.
149	* Several interesting examples in Italo Calvino's ''Literature/InvisibleCities''. Cecilia is a city which has swallowed the world, Trude cannot be left because it is all cities and Penthesilia consists only of outskirts, leaving Creator/MarcoPolo uncertain as to whether or not he can ever be not in the outskirts of that city.
150	* ''The Invisible Host'': human agency.
151	* In ''Literature/{{Krabat}}'', you can't run away from the mill -- the master (an evil wizard) will prevent it. [[spoiler:Even suicide won't work.]]
152	* ''Christopher Manson's MAZE'' has two. The first is a network of menacing rooms that lead you around in circles with only one way out. The second is [[{{Hell}} where you end up when you take that one way out]].
153	* ''[[Literature/TheMazeRunner The Maze Runner Trilogy]]'':
154	** ''The Maze Runner'' features a place called The Glade. A bunch of teenagers are trapped in it with no memory of their lives before they woke up there. The doors open at dawn and close at dusk, but only lead to a giant maze with no exit. Better yet, the maze changes every night while the doors are closed. Oh, and if you're in the maze at night, giant metal monsters attack you.
155	* Richard Connell's ''Literature/TheMostDangerousGame'': a man is shipwrecked on a remote island, with only an AxCrazy hunter for company.
156	* In ''Literature/MurderAtColefaxManor'', the player can't leave the manor's grounds until they have solved the mystery. [[spoiler:Played straight when the player enters the caverns, as they are then unable to return to the manor or its grounds.]]
157	* SJ Morden's ''One Way'' is largely set in an under-construction Mars base, so even if there was anywhere else on the planet to go, there wouldn't be enough oxygen or battery power to get there anyway.
158	* ''Literature/OurWivesUnderTheSea'': Half of the story consists of Leah's voyage in a submarine which had its power cut out and dropped to the bottom of the ocean. The crew has enough food and water to survive, there isn't anything dangerous outside, and the sub is in good condition; they just can't drive it or communicate with the surface world. It leads to both their physical and mental health deteriorating.
159	* ''Literature/ProjectNRI'' has the Niege Research Institute, where all the characters are trapped in.
160	* In ''Literature/{{Pyramids}}'', once the gigantic pyramid is completed, its incredible amount of PyramidPower [[spoiler:almost]] completely severs Djelibeybi from the world, trapping its inhabitants with ALL of its gods. Since several of the gods often were responsible for the same thing, HilarityEnsues as the gods duke it out for control over things like the sun.
161	* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'':
162	** In ''Magyk'', Draggen Island is the Closed Circle, preventing Silas from returning and also [[BigBad [=DomDaniel=]]] from arriving.
163	** Syren island in ''Syren''.
164	** The Heaps' room in ''Darke''.
165	* The novel ''Severance Package'' takes place mostly on one floor of an office building. It's revealed that the financial services firm where the main character works is really a cover branch for the CIA, and they're being shut down -- the hard way. The people are given a choice: drink poisoned mimosas for a peaceful death, or be shot in the back of the head. The elevators have been disabled and the exit doors rigged with gas so no one can leave. Then the real fun begins ...
166	* In Ellery Queen's ''The Siamese Twin Mystery'', a forest fire traps the cast.
167	* ''Literature/WetDesertTrackingDownATerroristOnTheColoradoRiver'': As the water in the Grand Canyon retreats, David and the others find themselves trapped on a ledge high over the river.
168	* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Myth/TheScholomance, an evil WizardingSchool, is set up this way. The school is deep underground, the front doors lead right into hungry monsters, and the only other way out--a room where magic teleportation works--can only be used by students on official school missions, which neither the protagonist nor most of her classmates qualify for. As a result, the students are stuck there and cannot leave.
169	[[/folder]]
170
171	[[folder:LARP]]
172	* A very significant percentage of all theater-style LiveActionRolePlay games have some version of this trope. Otherwise, players being true to their characters might very well leave the game area.
173	[[/folder]]
174
175	[[folder:Music]]
176	* In the ''{{Music/Eagles}}'' song ''Hotel California'', the narrator arrives at the hotel and later discovers that he apparently can't leave.
177	[[/folder]]
178
179	[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
180	* PlayedForLaughs in ''ComicStrip/GetFuzzy'', whenever Bucky tries to pretend he didn't do whatever thing he did. Rob is always quick to realize that there are only three of them in the apartment, and he and Satchel can be accounted for.
181	--> '''Rob:''' (as Satchel freaks out over a broken piggy bank) Well, it's only you and me and Bucky in this place. And since you and I didn't do it...
182	--> '''[[TheDitz Satchel]]:''' This is no time for riddles, Rob! If you know something, then for the love of food, out with it!
183	[[/folder]]
184
185	[[folder:Podcasts]]
186	* In the first season finale of '' Podcast/QuestInShow'', [[BigBad Droog Hemlock]] put a magical forcefield around Trottleara Castle for his coup, forcing [[TheHero Pratt]] to find and destroy the runes holding it up.
187	[[/folder]]
188
189	[[folder:Role Playing Games]]
190	* Almost all dramatic JournalRoleplay games take place in closed circles, forcing characters to stay where they otherwise wouldn't (unless a player drops). This is so prevalent that this type of game has earned the name "spooky jamjar".
191	* The entire point (at least initially) of ''[[Roleplay/IronheartTrilogy Escape from Ironheart]]'' is to, well, escape from Ironheart, a massive, supposedly inescapable prison.
192	* ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'' is set in a big underwater facility with no escape. [[spoiler:Well, until the end.]]
193	[[/folder]]
194
195	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
196	This is a classic game master technique for getting players to [[RailRoading stick around for a while and follow the plot.]]
197	* In ''TabletopGame/BetrayalAtHouseOnTheHill'', the players always start in front of the main door, but can't just turn around and leave. You have to explore, triggering Omens, until the Haunt starts, at which point you ''may'' be able to escape... if the scenario ''lets'' you.
198	* Part of the setup for "Cthulhu City", a ''Trail of Cthulhu'' variant setting, is that there's no reliable, mundane way to leave the city, and even if you think you've managed it, you haven't, to the point where there's a specific page the GM can reach for to come up with an excuse for why this particular escape attempt didn't work, plus some extra ideas in the text for specific areas. These can range from the straightforward (stopped by the Transport Police; car sabotaged) to the suspicious and occult (ship sunk by Something in the water; encounters with cultists; lost in the fog) to the just plain weird (trees in the forest gradually blur together until the investigators find themselves on a city street; attacked by invisible serial killer; the outside world is a post-apocalyptic landscape, an alien world, Carcosa or something; the first time you fall asleep after reaching another city, you wake up back in Great Arkham, but part of that city has been taken back in with you).
199	* Mark Rosewater discusses the unique problems this trope presents for the story of ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering.'' Since ''Magic'''s main protagonists are almost all planeswalkers, and the defining trait of planeswalkers is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin that they can freely move between planes]], each story must carefully explain why the protagonists either can't or won't just planes-walk away.
200	* A ''Magazine/{{Pyramid}}'' article on unusual artifacts included the Enigma Van. While it could resemble any mode of transport suitable for the setting (from Conundrum Carriage to Secret Starship), the key points were that it was [[MysteryMagnet attracted to mysteries]], and once it found one it would break down until the mystery was solved. An obvious {{Deconstruction}} of the [[Franchise/ScoobyDoo Mystery Machine]]. The same series also had the Bloody Typhoid Mary Celeste, a vehicle which was more generally attracted to trouble (and therefore seen as ''being'' trouble - it was also very distinctive), but which would likewise break down if the [=PCs=] tried to leave before the situation was resolved.
201	* In a ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'' campaign, a DM can use the Mists to keep players from straying from a certain area (ie, players go into the Mists and emerge in the same place), but doing so is a cheap trick.
202	** Moreso, every Darklord has the power to forbid anyone to leave his Domain by raising an inpassable supernatural barrier.
203	** Some individual locations within the setting are Closed Circles by their very nature, as with Baron Evensong's one-room study/prison.
204	[[/folder]]
205
206	[[folder:Theatre]]
207	* Used for the basic premise of ''Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark'', in which the characters are confined to a mansion due to both an inmate from the local asylum being loose and a relative's will stating that they forfeit their inheritance if they leave.
208	* All of the entries in the WebVideo/{{Hatchetfield}} series take place in the titular [[ThePlace island]] island [[WordOfGod located]] between the upper and lower peninsulas of UsefulNotes/{{Michigan}}. Add the EldritchLocation nature of the setting and you’ve got a Closed Loop.
209	* The second act of ''Theatre/HereWeAre'' is this, being an adaptation of ''Film/TheExterminatingAngel''.
210	* Also the premise of ''Theatre/TheMousetrap''.
211	* Jean-Paul Sartre's ''Theatre/NoExit'' plays with this trope. The characters are only locked in by their own flaws and mediocrity.
212	* ''Theatre/WaitUntilDark'' is about a blind woman whose basement apartment becomes her prison when she is targeted by a trio of criminals looking for a misplaced heroin shipment.
213	[[/folder]]
214
215	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
216	* ''Franchise/{{Danganronpa}}'':
217	** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': 15 students are trapped inside a prestigious academy by a sadistic Teddy Bear named Monokuma. The only way to escape? [[DeadlyGraduation Kill one of your classmates]], then successfully cover up the crime.
218	** ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'' continues the trend, but this time the students are trapped on a group of islands with no means of escape. There's even a closed circle within a closed circle in Chapter 4, when the students are trapped within a funhouse located on one of the islands.
219	** ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' has a similar premise to the first, but the students can leave the school building and go outside... whereupon they run into the "End Wall" surrounding the school and the area outside.
220	* On the field trip to Barbarossa in ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'', the class ends up at a ski lodge with no way out and no way to call for help, with Dennis harassing all of them, [[spoiler:and Dr. Mosely/Zeta seemingly in his pocket]].
221	* ''VisualNovel/EndlessSummer'' revolves around a group of college students, along with their tour guide and pilot, finding themselves trapped on a Caribbean island.
222	* In ''VideoGame/EverybodysGoneToTheRapture'', this actually took place prior to the events of the game, in-universe; the village the game takes place in was apparently quarantined in the days leading up to the "Rapture." Plenty of people still tried to escape, with varying results.
223	* ''VisualNovel/ExitCorners'' revolves around five people trapped in a hotel forced to play an insane mastermind's game. This trope is somewhat PlayedWith because the circle isn't ''entirely'' shut off from the outside world (as is usually the case); each captive is granted a device that allows them to send and receive text messages from only one person in the outside world.
224	* ''VisualNovel/{{Gnosia}}'' is about a spaceship fleeing from the planet Liu-An and the titular Gnosia HatePlague when it's revealed that at least one passenger brought on-board during the planet's evacuation is infected with said disease. Due to the high danger of the disease, the ship's AI is programmed to have the ship self-destruct if any Gnosia is detected. The TabletopGame/Werewolf1997-style voting is agreed upon between the AI and crew as a hasty compromise as the ship makes its journey, effectively leaving them stuck in the ship unless they manage to put the infected into cryostasis.
225	* ''VisualNovel/{{Infinity}}'' series:
226	** ''VisualNovel/Ever17'' revolves around a group of people trapped in an underwater theme park.
227	** ''VisualNovel/Remember11'' involves two Closed Circle groups. Kokoro, Lin, Yomogi, and Yuni are trapped in a mountain cabin due to bad weather, and Satoru, Utsumi, Hotoru, and Yuni are at the SPHIA psychiatric hospital, which is located on a remote island.
228	* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' and its first sequel ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'' are set on a cruise liner designed to flood after nine hours, and at an AbandonedWarehouse respectively, both converted to house a series of {{Deadly Game}}s intentionally designed to test the limits of [[WeAreStrugglingTogether group mentality]]. The third game, ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'', is set in a deliberately created Closed Circle designed for an experiment, which the BigBad has modified to be even more malicious than the first two.
229	* ''VideoGame/{{Obduction}}'' uses ''literal'' Closed Circles: each of the four abducted races is encased in a spherical bubble of force, cut off from each other. Even when you find a way to traverse the force-bubble walls, you only pop out on the opposite side of the same bubble, still confined within it.
230	* ''VideoGame/QueenAtArms'' has this going on, sort of. Protagonist Marcus is serving in the Ortheran army. Although a few chances come up for her to desert and run away, she is [[ButThouMust unable to take them]]. Even if the player has her try, it doesn't work.
231	* ''VisualNovel/RagingLoop'' has this happen to the remote village of Yasumizu every so often, during which [[TabletopGame/Werewolf1997 feasts]] are held, and the village is closed off from the rest of the world and has other methods of outside contact removed. The only way out is through the river Saranaga, which is dangerous because it's considered a gate to the underworld, and it's a dangerous rapid even disregarding that.
232	* ''VisualNovel/RomansChristmas'' The inn that the story takes place in remains snowed in for the course of the story, forcing the guests to remain trapped there as they slowly turn against one another.
233	* ''VisualNovel/ShinraiBrokenBeyondDespair'' takes place at the Miyamoto Mountain Resort, which is out in the mountains. None of the cast members have cars or a license, due to their all being ninth graders. Cell phone reception is rather poor in the mountains, and the phone lines end up being early on. As a result, when someone ends up dead, the survivors initially have no way to call for help, and when they do manage to make a call, the authorities take a while to arrive.
234	* Nukige ''Starless'' is this, for a very cruel reason. The Mamiya mansion is in a ''very'' isolated place, to the point where there's supposedly no internet or phone service, it requires a taxi just to reach, and has a gigantic gate with a hyper aggressive guard dog to boot. Even if you did manage to get out, an early plot point is that the unremovable-without-special-tools bracelets they force their employees to wear function as both trackers and stun collars. This is to give the Mamiyas an extra way to avoid trouble for all the illegal stuff they have going on (as it wouldn't be hard to drain their entire extensive fortune strictly through keeping themselves out of prison for a few decades if what they did caught wind), which the protagonists are caught up in.
235	* The protagonist Sakurai and his group of friends in ''VisualNovel/TokyoChronos'' are trapped in a loosely quantum physics-based dimension called the Chronos World, where they have no access to outside help and only the bare minimum of food and facilities. The world's purpose is to solve a "mission", in this case to ostensibly discover the culprit behind a murder, and they'll only be able to leave once they've solved it.
236	* The characters of ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry'' [[GenreSavvy joke about]] how being trapped on a remote island in a storm feels like an old-fashioned murder mystery -- right before the corpses start stacking up.
237	[[/folder]]
238
239	[[folder:Webcomics]]
240	* Goro of ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors'' had to fend off four thieves assaulting a hospital. The first attempt at doing so, activating an ice barrier around the hospital, accidentally locked the thieves ''in'' the hospital with her.
241	* ''Webcomic/MitadakeSaga'' has an automatic lockdown triggered by the death of a teacher. This leaves the students trapped with a murderer. Who just so happens to be one of them...
242	* ''Webcomic/OddityWoods'', "The Demon of Labyrinth Inn": The innkeeper invites his guests to a dinner party, and subsequently locks them inside at the mercy of a demon prowling the halls... except he was lying, and just wants the guests to ''think'' they're locked in so they'll get rid of the demon for him... except they actually ''are'' trapped in the inn, due to interference from [[spoiler:an angry poltergeist]].
243	* ''Webcomic/{{Objectified}}'': Trains running to and from Center Ring are halted as news of a parasitic infection spreads, forsaking the entire city (and everyone inside).
244	* The entirety of ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' takes place inside a cruelly labyrinthine office building. The main characters spend all 1600+ pages solving its puzzles both in the building and in their imaginary worlds.
245	* ''Webcomic/WhiteRooms'': The white rooms loop, and if you walk in a straight line you always come back to the start. Rits hypothesizes that the exit must not be in the edges, but somewhere in the middle.
246	[[/folder]]
247
248	[[folder:Western Animation]]
249	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Amphibia}}'': In "A Night at the Inn", Bessie the snail suddenly comes to a stop while pulling Anne and the Plantars back home, forcing them to stay at a bed-and-breakfast that turns out to be run by cannibalistic toads. When they escape the inn, they find that Bessie has a BearTrap on her tail, and then discover snails belonging to the toads' past victims, also with their tails trapped.
250	-->'''Sprig:''' This was all a set-up! They entrap passengers at the inn! ''We're'' the "breakfast" in bed-and-breakfast!
251	-->'''Hop Pop:''' [[CaptainObvious Yeah, obvie!]] ''Let's go!''
252	* ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' has 5-7 Maximals fighting 5-7 Predacons at Pre-historic Earth. Both factions' spaceships were totaled after the initial crash landing and the massive amount of energon radiation ensured that they could not communicate with any possible rescue parties.
253	** They do get the chance to get back several times, but the attempt is foiled each time. For example, the Maximals on Cybertron start sending out transwarp probes all over space and time, looking for Optimus Primal. One of these happens to show up in orbit of prehistoric Earth. The Maximals start building a communication array to contact the probe, but Megatron finds out and has the array destroyed, not willing to go to prison again. Another time, a transwarp wave is sent out from Earth and is intercepted by the Tri-Predacus Council (the rulers of the Predacons). They send a Predacon agent to find Megatron and arrest him but disrupt the wave before it reaches the Maximals. When the agent, a former Decepticon named Ravage, arrives, his ship seems like a way off Earth. [[StatusQuoIsGod it is destroyed at the end of the episode]].
254	* [[Recap/FamilyGuyS9E1AndThenThereWereFewer In the Season 9 premiere of]] ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''And Then There Were Fewer'', a storm has taken out the bridge, stranding everyone in the mansion, there's no cell reception, and the landlines are dead.
255	* In the last few episodes of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'', during the Weirdmaggedon arc, [[spoiler:the town is completely cut off from the rest of the Universe by the formation of a sort of bubble or dome]]. This is a rare example where this isn't really a bad thing, given the fact that it also keeps [[spoiler:Bill Cipher and his hench-maniacs]] from leaving the area.
256	* Most episodes of ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' and similar series start this way.
257	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' when the only bridge out of town is destroyed as a meteor is headed straight for them. Conveniently forgetting that Springfield has been shown to be on the ocean, bordered by a desert, a forest, and several other biomes.
258	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E18MysteryOfAThousandMoons , "Mystery of a Thousand Moons"]]: People can ''come'' to Iego no problem, but the superweapon in the moons destroys any ships that try to leave.
259	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ClosedCircle