History Main / CityInABottle

* Suramar in ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' was protected from the [[WorldSundering Sundering]] by a [[DomedHometown magical barrier]] and has remained sealed away for 10,000 years since. The society forced back into the world by the Legion's arrival is ruled by a DeadlyDecadentCourt and [[AddictiveMagic severely addicted to mana]].

* The human territory of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', sometimes referred to as "The Walled City" (it's actually the size of a small country and is ruled by a monarchy, but functions more or less like a city-state), is the ''only'' land that humans still control. The government is totally comfortable with sending unarmed, untrained citizens to "reclaim land from the Titans" in order to maintain a comfortable population density. [[spoiler: Turns out to be all a lie, as there's people living outside the walls, in fact the Walls are a VestigialEmpire that decided to seclude itself from the outside world and specially from the superpower that dominates the continent]].

* The BBC RadioDrama ''Earthsearch'' has the protagonists encounter another ship like their own with the 'colony that's forgotten they're on a spaceship' version. The locals are panicked by the sight of their spacesuits, assuming they are monsters. A ReasonableAuthorityFigure takes them into custody, but when they reveal they're searching for Earth has them sentenced to death by hanging, the fate of anyone who suggests the Earth is a real place instead of the afterlife it's assumed to be. Fortunately they're rescued by the Underpeople, inhabitants of another colony on the spaceship, who mention that any attempt to show the Earth Worshippers outer space causes them to GoMadFromTheRevelation or just accuse the Underpeople of creating illusions to deceive them. Incidentally, the author James Follett also wrote a prequel novel ''Earthsearch: Mindwarp'' based on this concept, in which the protagonists of an UndergroundCity go in search of the dreaded Outdoors.

* Alpha Complex in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}''. OK, so most people are aware that there is "an Outdoors", but all info on it is ''very'' heavily restricted to the point that showing that you know that grass is green is grounds for execution.
** Unless you're rank Green or above of course.

** Vault 13 ''would'' have been this, but their water chip broke, so they had to leave.
*** Actually, the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series plays this trope straight -- the Vaults ''weren't'' intended to shield humanity from a nuclear attack, they were a series of social experiments designed to test the occupants' reactions to stressful situations. One Vault contained a population of 999 women and one man, one was rigged to open six months after it was sealed (when the inhabitants were told it would be sealed for the next 200 years), one was even rigged so that it ''couldn't'' close, and so on. Needless to say, this is pretty much a CrapsackWorld combined with this trope, with a hearty dash of AfterTheEnd thrown in for good measure.
*** It isn't clear that the 'Vaults as experiments' notion isn't a {{retcon}}, they may or may not have been in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'', were mentioned to be by the Enclave president in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', were confused by the addition of 'Vault 0' in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout Tactics|BrotherhoodOfSteel}}'', and were vastly expanded upon in ''Fallout 3''. Whether or not the experiments had a ''point'' is a matter of opinion, but then again, it was the [[GovernmentConspiracy Old Enclave]] that did it. They weren't exactly concerned with human life other than themselves.

** In "Spock's Brain", Captain Kirk has entered the UndergroundCity and asks one of the beautiful but childlike inhabitants. She just responds in confusion, "This place is here!" With the exception of men used for servants and procreation whom they lure from the surface when needed, they don't require anything else as the city provides it all.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' The episode "For The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" featured this on a [[GenerationShips generation ship]].

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-->-- '''Opening narration''', ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/WallE'', [[spoiler:The directive to keep the ''Axiom'' from going back to Earth]] doesn't necessarily ''force'' humanity to forget life on Earth; it just happens all on its own.

* Vault 101 in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. It and the other "Vaults" were constructed to shelter a human population safely underground in the event of a nuclear war. In theory, as radiation levels decreased the Vaults would open to the outside world and the survivors would rebuild civilization, but Vault 101 remained closed for two hundred years, and the Overseers tell the population that the surface is still inhabitable. Whether or not it remains a CityInABottle depends on the player's decisions.[[note]]It wasn't always sealed, despite it being the main focus of the "experiment". There were ''several'' expeditions that gradually expanded the knowledge of the outside world (that and radroaches). Eventually, James brought the Lone Wanderer there to raise them in safety before he had to leave 19 years later.[[/note]]
** Vault 13 ''would'' have been this, but their MacGuffin broke, so they had to leave.
*** Actually, the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series plays this trope straight -- the Vaults ''weren't'' intended to shield humanity from a nuclear attack, they were a series of social experiments designed to test the occupants' reactions to stressful situations. One Vault contained a population of 999 women (and one man), one was rigged to open six months after it was sealed (when the inhabitants were told it would be sealed for the next 200 years), one was even rigged so that it ''couldn't'' close, and so on. Needless to say, this is pretty much a CrapsackWorld combined with this trope, with a hearty dash of AfterTheEnd thrown in for good measure.
*** It isn't clear that the 'Vaults as experiments' notion isn't a {{Retcon}}, they may or may not have been in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'', were mentioned to be by the Enclave president in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', were confused by the addition of 'Vault 0' in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout Tactics|BrotherhoodOfSteel}}'', and were vastly expanded upon in ''Fallout 3''. Whether or not the experiments had a ''point'' is a matter of opinion, but then again, it was the [[GovernmentConspiracy Old Enclave]] that did it. They weren't exactly concerned with human life other than themselves.
** There is a slightly more conventional example in Fallout New Vegas, Nellis Air force base with its population of explosive loving Boomers. They trace their origins to Vault 34 and have a strict isolationists policy, enforced upon the outside world with artillery fire. The Boomers make everything they need inside the airbase, and only have one goal outside its walls. Unlike a HiddenElfVillage, they are pretty ignorant of the outside world. While they have gathered some intel through binoculars, they are surprised that the courier even speaks the same language when he or she drops by.

Compare CrapsaccharineWorld, HiddenElfVillage (especially if the inhabitants are PerfectPacifistPeople), LostWorld, SpaceAmish, and SpaceElves (of the ProudScholarRace sort). Contrast TheOutsideWorld. See also SpaceBrasilia.

* On a less [[StealthPun philosophical]] note, cities in AncientGreece were akin to micro-countries, and looked down on everything and everyone outside the city's boundaries as uncivilized and barbaric.

* The titular hospital in ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'' is this to the Nose and he can't imagine anything besides the hospital.

* In the ''Literature/FineStructure'' story "[[http://qntm.org/?crushed Crushed Underground]]", [[spoiler:a revolution overthrows the governor of such a city - until he reveals that the surface of earth outside the city really ''is'' uninhabitable.]]
* A ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' article lists [[http://www.cracked.com/article_19976_6-isolated-groups-who-had-no-idea-that-civilization-existed.html 6 isolated groups who had no idea that civilization existed]].

* In an episode of ''Series/MutantX'', some of the group [[LightningCanDoAnything accidentally enter a pocket dimension]] that had been set up to be an agrarian utopia. All references to the outside world had been erased, in the belief that human nature could be changed with a clean break from human history and all its violence.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' The episode "For The World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" featured this on a [[GenerationShips generation ship]].

** One episode has the SG-1 team mind-swapped with some stored memories about working in a mine. Said mine was actually underneath a magnificent city and was used to keep said magnificent city running. But it was sold as a city in a bottle. They were told they kept it going or else the cold feezing air above the mine would kill them all. They thought that nothing else was above them. They thought that if they didn't work, they'd die, or at least, no longer get fed. It wasn't as bad as normal cities in bottles, but it was pretty bad.

* In one of the final episodes of ''Series/{{Lost}}'', Jacob and the Man in Black's mother tells the Man in Black that the island is all there is, and that nothing exists beyond the sea.
* ''Series/TheOrville'' episode “If the Stars Should Appear” has the crew encounter a huge bioship that has a giant ecosystem inside it with a single city and lots of farmland. The people believe that this are is the entire universe, created by their god. To believe otherwise is heresy, punishable by death. In fact, the leader admits there is a possibility their beliefs are wrong, but he doesn't want to cause a panic (and lose power). After getting to the bridge, the crew see a message left by the ship's captain, who reveals that the ship's journey was supposed to only last for a century, but a NegativeSpaceWedgie knocked out the engines, leaving the ship adrift for two millennia. The dome is also designed to open to simulate night but hasn't been opened in a long time. They open it to show the people the stars for the first time in their lives.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "A New Life", approximately 40 young people who are tired of the rat race join a religious community in an isolated wooded area. It turns out that the 20 square mile area surrounding their village is part of a massive spaceship and that aliens intend to sell their descendants into slavery, after humanity's rebellious traits have been bred out of them.

* Alpha Complex in ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}''. OK, so most people are aware that there is "an Outdoors", but all info on it is ''very'' heavily restricted to the point that showing that you know that grass is green is grounds for execution.
** Unless you're rank Green or above of course.
* The early SF RolePlayingGame, ''TabletopGame/MetamorphosisAlpha'', is set on a lost and damaged [[GenerationShips generation ship]] packed with mutants.

* The 1981 miniseries Goliath Awaits features a British ocean liner sunken by a U-Boat in 1938 a la the Lusitania, which was partially saved and transformed into an underwater version of this by a genius inventor/Chief Engineer played by Creator/ChristopherLee. Generations have grown up, and some people don't want to return to the outer world when a crew finds them 43 years later.
* The premise of ''Dialect'' by Thorny Games, is that the players exist in this sort of community and have developed their own language. They reconnect to the outside world, and the rest is exploring the changes in language.

* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'': A major supernatural cataclysm ripped the world AND its spirit apart, meaning the various island cities ripped apart from the former continents don't even remember that a few decades ago, there were others. For all they know, there has only been their island, the sea, the sky, ''and nothing else''. The protagonist's job is to fix the screwed up problems that each island has developed so they can stitch their world back together.

* Crysta in ''VideoGame/{{Terranigma}}''.
* In the underground world in ''Videogame/BreathOfFireDragonQuarter'', the existence of 'the surface' is a legend, a myth - after all, how could it even be possible for a place to have ''no roof''?
* This is a perfectly legitimate strategy in ''Videogame/DwarfFortress'', and in fact was used on a regular basis in the 2d version-which has been described as a Nintendo Hard, single-player version of Korean Starcraft. In 40d it was much less necessary for the experienced player-due to 40d being ridiculously easy-but it is back, to a certain degree, in the 31 series. Depending on your supplies, it is perfectly possible to survive for a hundred in-game years (consider that at 50 FPS a season will take ''two to three hours'') off incest, kittens, and Plump Helmets.
** Some players generate worlds with no surviving civilizations to embark with this trope invoked. Embarking to an isolated island a simpler method. In either case, after the first wave of immigrants, there will be no contact with the outside world, or evidence that it exists.
* The city of Palm Brinks in ''VideoGame/DarkChronicle'' was cut off from the outside world by a giant stone wall, the only exits being the train station and main gate. This was actually done by the mayor to [[spoiler: protect the citizens from the villain. He was after a mystical artifact called the Atlamillia (actually three jewels but the city has the red one), and he didn't want to destroy the city with the artifact floating around in there somewhere. The male hero, Max, has been carrying the jewel around for some time now, and no one noticed.]]

* ''VideoGame/CustomRobo'' for the Gamecube eventually reveals that you've been living in a domed city and your "flat world" was actually the last habitable area of a ruined round planet. Rahu destroyed most of the planet, with nothing left outside but a handful of ruins and the Z-Syndicate's base surrounded by floating abyss and storms.

* This is the background premise to the 8-bit era game ''Cholo'': the radiation from the nuclear holocaust has mostly died down, but you must take control of robots on the surface and crack the exit open from the outside before anyone can leave. (BTW, there's a free PC version available now!)

* A non-scifi example in ''VideoGame/BlackSigil'', where Bel Lenora voluntarily sealed itself off from the rest of the world then forgot that the rest of the world existed.
* [[http://twofoldsecret.com/games/sanctuary-17/ Sanctuary 17]] is one of these.

* In an in-Verse example, in the ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles'' game ''Return to Ravenhearst'', there's a map on the wall of Gwendolyn and Charlotte's home-schooling classroom that depicts nothing but an outline of England and Wales, with "Unknown" scrawled on the vague, fading-out edges of Scotland, Ireland, and the French coast. The only settlement on the map is Blackpool, nearest town to the Ravenhearst estate.
* In ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIV'', the residents of the Kingdom of East Mikado really do believe that there isn't anything outside--the thought never once occurs to anyone. They are so convinced East Mikado contains the entirety of humanity that a major character finds a novel set in France and immediately assumes it's a fictional country. It's not that they're super-ignorant: [[spoiler:The Archangels, led by Gabriel, are deliberately subtly influencing the thoughts of the people of East Mikado in this way, treating the place much like a human ant farm.]]
* ''VideoGame/Injustice2'' adds modernization to the old myth: Brainiac invented a form of non-euclidian [[VideoGame/{{Borderlands}} digistruction]] so he could digitally compress stolen cities into head-sized data matrices with some pocket-dimension bullshit involved. Depending on who defeats Brainiac, the cities are restored, destroyed, or kept preserved, for good or evil.

* Maraposza Street, also known as "the dreaming street", in ''Literature/{{Abarat}}''

* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Truckers}}'' features inch-high people known as 'Nomes' who live in a large Store and refuse to believe that there is any such thing as 'the Outside'. When the Store Nomes are visited by Nomes who are from the Outside, one of the Store Nomes' leaders actually pretends not to be able to see them.
** A recurring metaphor throughout the series is the RealLife bromeliad plant, which, to the frogs who live inside, is the entire world. Indeed, ''Truckers'' and its sequels, ''Diggers'' and ''Wings'' are collectively known as ''The Bromeliad Trilogy''.


* H. M. Hoover's ''This Time of Darkness'' tells of [[spoiler:a city several kilometers underground]] whose inhabitants don't realize that they're [[spoiler:basically a slave race whose labor is being used to keep the above-ground inhabitants in luxury]]. There's a strong contrast between the CityInABottle environment ([[spoiler:an incredibly filthy city with low lighting, poor food, cramped living quarters, and no choice of clothing or haircuts... not to mention that generations of malnutrition has made the entire race unfit and ugly]]) and the other environment... and then there's contrast between ''both'' of these environments and [[spoiler:the wild outdoors that the children get cast out into, and the town they eventually reach]].
** The basic premise is reused in an episode of ''Series/StargateSG1'', with a planet in the middle of an ice age. The apparently pristine domed city on the planet's surface [[spoiler:is supported by the efforts of slave laborers in an underground complex, who have no idea that the city exists and believe themselves to be the last remnants of their civilization. Dissenters in the city are brainwashed and sent to be laborers]].
* Nancy Farmer's ''Literature/TheEarTheEyeAndTheArm'', set in futuristic Zimbabwe, includes an area cordoned off - much like in ''Film/TheVillage'' - where the people chose, generations ago, to live apart from the modern world, and where they have turned into a shamanistic backwards tribe that believes in boogey men and kills certain unwanted babies ([[spoiler:specifically twins - or, rather, ''one'' of the twins, the girl if it's a split-gender pair]]).
* In Christopher Priest's novel ''Literature/TheInvertedWorld'' the inhabitants of the mobile city are told that they, originally colonists from Earth, are bottled in because of the harsh environment of their alien planet. Only the elites are allowed to go outside and know the real truth.
* Creator/RobertAHeinlein's novel ''Literature/OrphansOfTheSky'' and the two short stories it's based on feature this trope. It is about a [[GenerationShips multi-generational space craft]] where the inhabitants lost the knowledge that they were on a ship (along with most other knowledge) after a failed mutiny, so the current generation thinks the whole universe is just the ship.
* ''Phoenix Without Ashes'' by Creator/HarlanEllison is set on a massive GenerationShip composed of hundreds of completely independent and isolated biospheres, each featuring a different civilization. Originally written as a screenplay for a television series, the main character is from a SpaceAmish biosphere, whose inhabitants threaten to execute him for blasphemy when he tries to inform them of his recent discovery -- that they are all on a giant spaceship.

* In AndreyLivadniy's ''Ark'', the protagonist turns out to be the last "pure" descendant of the human crew of a Moon-sized (it's literally made out of the Moon) GenerationShip, drifting in space for millennia, during which the alien inhabitants of the various biospheres (who mutinied against the humans long ago), as well as the other human descendants (who have their own Earth-like biosphere), have forgotten that they're on a ship and reverted to more primitive technology. After millennia of lack of maintenance, the ''Ark'' is beginning to fall apart at the seams, with more and more systems shutting down. The ship's AI is unable to affect repairs in most areas. This, however, is not the biggest [[TheTwist twist]] of the novel.
* One of the few (perhaps the only) novels based on the ''TabletopGame/{{Earthdawn}}'' game used this trope. A kaer, built to withstand the centuries-long invasion of the Horrors, is supposed to let its inhabitants out when the threat is over. However, [[spoiler: thanks to a Horror that slipped inside before the kaer was sealed,]] something went wrong with the mechanism designed to tell the occupants it was time to leave, and the kaer's residents are slowly dying out in their needless confinement.
* 'The Allegory of the Cave' from Plato's ''Literature/TheRepublic'' uses such a society as a metaphor for the human soul and the philosopher.
* The D'ni, as seen in the VideoGame/{{Myst}} novel "The Book of Ti'ana", are a strange example. The central hub of D'ni culture is indeed located underground, tunelling deep and wide in all directions. But they also have access to special books which can transport them to a theoretically infinite number of Ages, many of which are outdoorsy. But when Atrus and his team are building upwards through disused tunnels, they still encounter resistance from politicians who believe that, in their homeworld, the "Surface" is an impossibility!
** Though most of the political opposition to tunneling to the surface has less to do with a belief in its impossibility, and more to do with a belief that D'ni has nothing to gain by going to the surface (they can write linking books for any surface resource they need) and much to lose (if there are hostile dwellers on the surface they may follow the D'ni back down the tunnel and sack the city.)
* Saraksh from the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' Literature/NoonUniverse is a "planet in a bottle" -- the index of refraction of their atmosphere causes them to believe that they live on the inside of a hollow sphere, and they're very confused by the arrival of Earthlings.
* Literature/DeltoraQuest 2 features Lief, Barda and Jasmine attempting to collect three pieces of a magic pipe. One piece was being held on a literally bubble-enclosed island, citizens of said island banishing the part of their group who told the truth and acknowledged the past. What brings down the bubble is [[spoiler:Jasmine's insistence on telling the truth, rocking the faith of the one sorcerer still left alive on the island.]]
* The planktonic humans from the short story "Surface Tension" -- genetically modified descendants of a crashed colony vessel, whose survivors deemed the planet unlivable by anyone larger than a water flea -- believe they live in a complete universe bounded at top and bottom. In fact, they live in a puddle, and the "space expedition" they launch only travels to the next puddle over.

* Cowslip's warren in ''Literature/WatershipDown''. The rabbits there are fed and protected from predators by farmers who lives nearby, [[spoiler:but the humans don't do this out of the goodness of their hearts; The undergrowth is littered with snares. The rabbits are too comfortable in such a sheltered life, so they to deny any knowledge of the snares and the friends taken by them.]]

* Creator/EMForster's short story "Literature/TheMachineStops" features an underground city. There the inhabitants have forgotten what the surface world is like to the point of believing it is a lifeless, barren world. Believing their artificial environment is the only solace from a dead world, the protagonist of the story ends up finding otherwise with disastrous results.
* In ''Literature/TheForestOfHandsAndTeeth'', set generations after a ZombieApocalypse kills most of humanity, Mary lives in a town that is fenced in to keep the Unconsecrated (or zombies) out. [[spoiler: It is revealed that pretty much all surviving towns are like this.]]
* In ''Literature/AcrossTheUniverse'' by Beth Revis, the remainder of humanity is riding aboard a single, city-sized spaceship to their new home planet. The trip will take generations, so the important people have been cryogenically frozen while the rest are ruled by Eldest and his protege, Elder.

* In ''Literature/{{Divergent}}'', the people of Chicago, having resided there [[spoiler:for eight generations]] believe that Chicago is the last remaining bastion of humanity, and that what lies beyond the outer gates is desolate wasteland. [[spoiler:Averted in ''Allegiant'', when it's revealed that not only does Chicago is not the only bastion, the US government still exists, albeit as a FallenStatesOfAmerica. Half of the US population is dead, but other peoples still exist in other cities, some of which were also formerly used for experiments to produce more GP population. In fact, Tris' mother, Natalie was a refugee from one of those cities: Milwaukee]].

* ''Film/TheVillage'': The film is about a village whose population lives in fear of creatures inhabiting the woods beyond it, referred to as "Those We Don't Speak Of". It is revealed that the village was founded in the late 1970s. Edward Walker, then a professor of American history at the University of Pennsylvania, approached other people he met at a grief counseling clinic, all suffering the crime-related death of loved ones. He asked them to join in creating a place where they would sustain themselves and be protected from any aspect of the outside world. They built Covington in the middle of a wildlife preserve purchased with Edward's family fortune. The head park ranger tells Kevin that the Walker Estate pays the government to keep the entire preserve a no-fly zone, while also funding the ranger corps who ensure no outside force disrupts the preserve.
* ''Film/LogansRun'', the TropeCodifier. In the year 2274, the remnants of human civilization live in a sealed city contained beneath a cluster of geodesic domes, a utopia run by a computer that takes care of all aspects of life, including reproduction. The citizens live a hedonistic life but, to prevent overpopulation, everyone must undergo the rite of "Carrousel" when they reach the age of 30. There, they are killed under the guise of being "renewed.” When Logan and escape the dome, they discover that they have been lied to and that life exists outside the dome, and that it is possible to live past 30.
%%* ''Film/AeonFlux'' could almost be a remake of ''Film/LogansRun''.
* ''Film/TheMolePeople'', about a subterranean albino Sumerian race who disbelieved in the surface world.
* 2005 film ''Film/TheIsland''. The last remnants of humanity hope to win a state-run lottery to be resettled on an island paradise. Actually, [[spoiler: they are clones harvested for body parts by an unscrupulous corporation.]]
** Of course, this film is an unacknowledged remake of ''Film/PartsTheClonusHorror'' which is about a colony of people who similarly hope to be resettled in a paradise known only to them as "America." [[spoiler: And who are likewise clones raised to provide spare organs for the rich and powerful.]]

* ''Film/CityOfEmber'', an underground city with tons of lights, which became a new home for civilization AfterTheEnd, and it turns out fine...until the power generators start to go out.
* The underground city of Topeka in ''Film/{{A Boy and his Dog}}'' is one of these, sheltering its genetically and culturally inbred populace from a post-apocalyptic world.
* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'' is set on a GenerationShip, primarily due to SpaceMadness and LaserGuidedAmnesia.
* ''Theatre/{{Brigadoon}}'', the 1954 film based on the stage play, features a Scottish village which only appears every one hundred years and became isolated based a local pastor's prayer for a miracle to protect the villagers from change. The miracle is then jeopardized by Harry's wish to leave.
* The plot of ''Film/TheThirteenthFloor'' involves a simulation of the early 20th century city that only extends to the city limits.

* High Sacristan, location of the Canticle Engine in Micah E. F. Martin's short story ''Literature/TheCanticle'', is the last city on Earth. Everything visible from its walls is desolate, endless dessert.
* Again, ''Literature/LogansRun''.

* The H.G. Wells story, ''The Country of the Blind'' is about a mountaineer who, while visiting Ecuador, stumbles upon a lost population of people living in a valley that has been cut off from the rest of the world. Thanks to a disease that rendered their citizens blind and unable to produce sighted children, the entire population is now sightless. They have no concept of how vision works -- and no idea of what eyes are for. The visitor thinks, because of his extra sense, that he will be able to easily take over the valley, but it turns out the villagers' ''other'' senses have [[DisabilitySuperpower compensated for their loss of vision]] and they remain virtually unimpaired. (They also regard his "vision" as something of a curse, which is driving him crazy, and decide there is only [[EyeScream one medically sound solution]].)
* Maraposza Street, also known as "the dreaming street", in ''Literature/{{Abarat}}''

* The third book of the ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' trilogy, Titus Alone.

* Agatean Empire (an {{Expy}} of China) from Literature/{{Discworld}}. It is completely surrounded by a high wall and general population only knows outside as a desert wasteland populated by homicidal vampire ghosts. Their word for foreigner also means ghost -- until Twoflowers' (Discworld's first [[{{HawaiianShirtedTourist}} tourist]]) book "What I did last summer" kick-starts a revolution.
* ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber''; a small town completely surrounded by darkness on all sides. The only light the residents have ever known is the harsh glow of the town's street lights. [[spoiler: Until the citizens find their way out and realize that the world has gone on without them]].
* [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Airstrip One]] is generally considered to be one of these. Opinions vary on what the rest of the world might hold.
* Elizabeth Bear's ''[[Literature/JacobsLadderTrilogy Dust]]'' plays with the "stranded generation ship" version.

* Jiiha village in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where Simon and Kamina hail from. Kamina steadfastly believes in the surface world, much to the dismay of the chief, who only believes its existence once Yoko and a Ganmen crash through the ceiling.
** Adai village is an extreme example: they have so few resources that they can only maintain a population of 50, and must exile any excesses, chosen by lottery.
* Tokyo Jupiter in ''Anime/RahXephon''.
* ''Anime/{{Megazone23}}'' does this with what the inhabitants believe to be Tokyo during TheEighties; anyone who travels overseas is secretly brainwashed with memories of their "trip".

* The unnamed village from the Komi Naoshi oneshot, ''Island''. Though this is merely a case of ignorance, and not evil. [[spoiler: The town fell victim to land subsidence, which was interpreted by the villagers at some point or another as the world being engulfed by the sea.]] This being Komi Naoshi, the ending is happy.

* The human territory of ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', sometimes referred to as "The Walled City" (it's actually the size of a small country and is ruled by a monarchy, but functions more or less like a city-state), is the ''only'' land that humans still control. The government is totally comfortable with sending unarmed, untrained citizens to "reclaim land from the Titans" in order to maintain a comfortable population density. [[spoiler: Turns out to be all a lie, as there's people living outside the walls, in fact the Walls are a VestigialEmpire that decided to seclude itself from the outside world and specially from the superpower that dominates the continent]].

* In ''ComicBook/GothamCityGarage'', ComicBook/LexLuthor built a dome encircling Gotham City to protect it from the gangs of marauders roving around the wastelands... and to keep everyone controlled. Thirty-five years later, no local is certain that there's beyond the dome other than a dangerous desert.
* In the Malibu Comics' ''[[ComicBook/TheUltraverse Ultraverse]]'' continuity, the Fire People were an offshoot of humanity that lived in a hidden community BeneathTheEarth for so long that the "world of light and air" was considered a myth.
* ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' features a literal case: the majestic city of Baghdad is sealed inside a bottle at the request of its king and given to Dream to take care of; this allows the city to continue forever in dreams, even when the city is war-torn and battered in reality.
* Inverted in Age of X: while the mutants only think they're fighting in a TheSiege situation against the rest of humanity, it turns out [[spoiler: there is literary nothing outside of their "bubble" and they are trapped in an EpiphanicPrison]].

%%* ''Film/TheVillage''
%%* ''Film/LogansRun'', the TropeCodifier

** The shadow elves, when they finally found their way to the surface, found themselves in the midst of an uninhabitable wasteland (the Broken Lands). They concluded that the whole surface was like this, so returned to their underground realm, where they didn't learn pf their mistake for centuries.

* Vault 101 in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. It and the other "Vaults" were constructed to shelter a human population safely underground in the event of a nuclear war. In theory, as radiation levels decreased the Vaults would open to the outside world and the survivors would rebuild civilization, but Vault 101 remained closed for two hundred years, and the Overseers tell the population that the surface is still inhabitable. Whether or not it remains a CityInABottle depends on the player's decisions.[[note]]It wasn't always sealed, despite it being the main focus of the "experiment". There were ''several'' expeditions that gradually expanded the knowledge of the outside world (that and radroaches). Eventually James brought the Lone Wanderer there to raise them in saftey before he had to leave 19 years later.[[/note]]

*** Actually, the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series plays this trope straight -- the Vaults ''weren't'' intended to shield humanity from a nuclear attack, they were a series of social experiments designed to test the occupants' reactions to stressful situations. One Vault contained population of 999 women (and one man), one was rigged to open six months after it was sealed (when the inhabitants were told it would be sealed for the next 200 years), one was even rigged so that it ''couldn't'' close, and so on. Needless to say, this is pretty much a CrapsackWorld combined with this trope, with a hearty dash of AfterTheEnd thrown in for good measure.

** Skyloft in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'' qualifies -- the civilization apparently consist of less than a thousand people, all of whom live on a few dozen floating islands in the sky. The land below is a complete mystery, believed to be overrun with hideous monsters, but an impenetrable cloud cover prevents anyone from even descending to it.

* In ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsAlpha Gaiden'' the American Sunbelt region is similar to the Pleasantville example above. For some reason it never occured to any of these people to go visit the ''[[Anime/AfterWarGundamX Gundam X]]'' crew up in Canada or the ''Anime/CombatMechaXabungle'' guys across the sea.

** Though most of the political opposition to tunneling to the surface has less to do with a belief in its impossibility, and more to do with a belief that D'ni has nothing to gain by going to the surface (they can write linking books for any surface resource they need) and much to loose (if there are hostile dwellers on the surface they may follow the D'ni back down the tunnel and sack the city.)

* Most of the Scandanavian countries have become this in ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'' after a ghastly BodyHorror plague spread across the rest of the world, particularly Iceland. There's some in-universe speculation about whether any other small clusters of survivors are out there, but if they do exist then they might as well be on Mars, given the vast wasteland of shambling horrors ([[WasOnceAMan some of which used to be human]]) between them and the homelands of the viewpoint characters.

* Most of the Scandanavian countries have become this in ''StayStillStaySilent'' after a ghastly BodyHorror plague spread across the rest of the world, particularly Iceland. There's some in-universe speculation about whether any other small clusters of survivors are out there, but if they do exist then they might as well be on Mars, given the vast wasteland of shambling horrors ([[WasOnceAMan some of which used to be human]]) between them and the homelands of the viewpoint characters.

* ''VideoGame/CustomRobo'' for the Gamecube,([[spoiler:apparently the people there were taught that the world was flat and that the end of the world was a wall. turns out that the real world was destroyed by a being called Rahu so they entrapped themselves in a safe-dome for a very very LONG time. Long enough that the idea of an outside world without walls, and even the idea of "real grass" seems perfectly absurd to the characters.]]) Freaky, ain't it?