Certain genres of fiction depend on forcing the characters into some kind of enclosed space they cannot leave at will. The plot of these usually depends on the tensions among the characters and their efforts to get out.

The different settings of this kind are usually strongly associated with particular genres. Examples:
* ''The submarine'': Home to an entire [[SubStory sub-genre (owch!) of war films]]. Archetypal example: ''Das Boot''.
* ''The space ship/station'': Often seen in sci-fi horror, like the ''[[{{Film/Alien}} Alien]]'' films or the ''SystemShock'' games.
* ''The underwater base'' works much like the above. The film ''The Abyss'' and the game ''{{Bioshock}}'' feature such locales.
** A sub-type is the sunken/capsized ship on which the heroes are trapped in air pockets and must make their way out. ''The Poseidon Adventure'' is the archetypal example.
* ''The Arctic base'': Also similar to the space station. Seen in ''The Thing from Another World'' and its more-true-to-the-book remake ''TheThing''.
* ''The mansion isolated by adverse weather'': Extremely common in murder mysteries.
** There's also the train, appearing in ''Murder on the Orient Express'' and ''TheLastExpress''.
* ''The deserted/private/uncharted island'': So common it's often passed over. Drop-in of viewpoint characters via shipwreck or plane crash is almost required.

DungeonsAndDragons (and DungeonCrawl games in general) come to mind. The third edition justifies this trope, pointing out that dungeons are actually a convenient way to place characters. Furthermore, a dungeon can be imagined as a diagram of a scene-based adventure, with rooms as key encounters and corridors as travels between scenes. Therefore most RPGamers refer to any setting as ''dungeon''.

Note that the setting of a BottleEpisode does not count as an Enclosed Space unless the characters are ''forced'' to remain where they currently are. Compare LockedInARoom and LockedInAFreezer.

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!!Examples:

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[[folder: Film ]]

* The movie ''{{Cube}}''.
* In both verions of ''DawnOfTheDead'', they're trapped in a mall. Not the worst, or smallest place to get trapped, eh?
** Not to mention the farm house in ''NightOfTheLivingDead''
* The movie version of the board game ''{{Clue}}''
* ''TheHouseOnHauntedHill''

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* The MichaelCrichton novel (and movie of [[AdaptationDecay technically]] based on the novel) ''Sphere'' featured the underwater base version.
* ''IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' does this in an underground complex (inescapable because it's the only habitable place on Earth).
* The only reason that the crime in AgathaChristie's ''Murder on the Orient Express'' was not a complete success is that the train was blocked by immense snowdrifts, making movement impossible for several days and allowing Hercule Poirot to investigate and solve the crime.
* Again from Agatha Christie, ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone / Ten Little Indians'' is set entirely on [[{{Racelift}} "Indian"]] Island, which is isolated from the outside world on account of bad weather and (?) a holiday on the mainland. As the people on the island are murdered one by one, the sense of terror in isolation grows.
* One of the ''HaruhiSuzumiya'' light novels is set in a mansion where they are trapped not only by bad weather but by an alien god that can warp space and time.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* In an episode of ''{{Robocop}}: The Series'', the title character is thrown into a trash compactor by a group of thugs. He escapes through sheer force of will, although it takes a third of the episode to accomplish it.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* The game ''{{Earthdawn}}'' [[JustifiedTrope justifies]] a large number of dungeon-like structures in the game world with its backstory of humanity driven into underground shelters by a rising tide of eldritch horrors swarming the world, a tide which has subsided enough to allow some of the survivors to venture forth -- and explore/loot the shelters of those who didn't make it.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The ''{{Chzo Mythos}}'' makes use of this trope in all of its four component games. In the first, you're stuck in a mansion. In the second, you're stuck on a spaceship, in the third you are trapped in a HellHotel, and finally the fourth which takes place in a underground complex.
** The third game, Trilby's Notes, is being rather sadistic about it. You can go outside the hotel, but if you try to walk away from it, you will always come back, presumably because of the evil influence inside the hotel.
** If you play the tie-in InteractiveFiction for the fourth game, you will learn that [[spoiler:there is a perfectly safe exit behind the locked door in the room with the security desk and the petroleum barrel.]] Theo, the PlayerCharacter, remains unaware of this throughout the whole game, [[spoiler:and never gets around to ask Trilby, a character capable of cracking ANY lock, to open the door]].
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