History Main / ElaborateUndergroundBase

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The [[Manga/SailorMoon manga]] and [[Series/PrettyGuardianSailorMoon live-action]] versions of ''Franchise/SailorMoon'' have an underground base under the LocalHangout.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'':

* In ''ComicBook/SonicTheComic'' the Freedom Fighters used Kintobor's laboratory containing living space, storage areas, monitoring equipment (which left plenty of screens on which to play video games!), a hangar for the Freedom Fighters' biplane, and the mainframe of the Kintobor Computer itself. The Freedom Fighters also expanded the facility in light of their new status as guerillas, excavating further chambers for additional capacity. The most prominent of these was a prison block (less charitably, dungeon), and later Tekno's Workshop the home and workplace of Tekno the Canary.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'': After the Restoration's headquarters is destroyed during the [[ZombieApocalypse Metal Virus Saga]], the ''Test Run'' arc reveals that they've built a new facility beneath the ruins of the old one. Accessible through a hidden elevator, it contains a command center, computer labs, a machine shop, and a central area that's designed like a mall.
* ''ComicBook/StrikeforceMorituri'' has the team start off with a base hidden inside a mountain. [[spoiler:When the alien Horde discover its location, it is destroyed with a [[DeathFromAbove nuclear bombardment.]] ]]
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':

* The ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} have their base located inside a mountain.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Paula von Gunther has a multi-room labyrinth base beneath Holliday College, where she keeps the Space Transformer and works on scientific breakthroughs for the Allies and Wonder Woman. She also lives down there to keep hidden from the Nazis.
* ''Franchise/XMen'':

* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'' features this often and in diverse flavors. The Dungeons themselves, are a little more feudal, but Ami's underground bases just keep getting more elaborate and more DungeonPunk. Mecha? Check. Underground magical hudrophonics bays? Check. War Room? Check. SigilSpam? Check. Lacks a proper hangar for the [[CoolAirship airship fleet]], but one was actually an UnderwaterBase, and another an IslandBase...

* ''Film/UndercoverBrother''. The BROTHERHOOD has an extensive base located beneath a barbershop.
* In ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' the underground base becomes a plot element when the SpySatellites actually detect the CoolShip in its hangar underneath the SuperheroSchool. William Stryker uses this evidence to convince the President to okay a commando strike on the school, secretly to further his plan to wipe out all mutant-kind. Stryker's also got an Elaborate Underground Base of his own.

* In the ''Literature/DirkPittAdventures'', Dirk Pitt has infiltrated his share of these.

** how much actual digging was required is debatable, in that what Ankh-Morpork is built on is largely Ankh-morpork. The current city is just the top level of several layers of older buildings and construction, which over the generations have sunk, buried, or just been built over so many times that it is a whole warren of passages and compartments, with old streets ending up as sewer tunnels, and old shops now serving as the (often unknown) basements or subbasements to current buildings.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter''

* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls''

* Fort Schmerzen in ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonor'' and ''Allied Assault''.

* Vanishing Gungaroo's stage from ''VideoGame/MegaManX7''.

* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'':
** The fangame ''[[VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance MOTHER: Cognitive Dissonance]]'' has one on Mars that helps make Starmen.
** ''VideoGame/EarthBound1994'' has a huge base under Stonehenge in Winters.

* The entirety of ''VideoGame/{{Overblood}}'' takes place in one.
* Naoto's dungeon in ''VideoGame/Persona4'' is one of these.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* The secret base of NLNS in ''VisualNovel/{{Nukitashi}}''. It connects to the school and several caves and it's equipped with computers, 3D-printers, and the necessary facilities to stay the night.
* Tokugawa's secret warehouse on the moon in ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}''.
* ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward''[[spoiler: takes place in one of these, but ON THE MOON.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]

%%* The Labyrinth in ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}''.%%ZCE

* The Tracy Island of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'' could well be the TropeCodifier.

* ''Film/TheAvengers1998''. Sir August's underground base, is on an island in the Thames in London.
* The HYDRA facilities in ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger'' are above ground and in the open, and their main base is dug into the Alps, and is implied to be 500 feet underground. In addition, the SSR's main base is hidden within various old stores in Brooklyn.

* ''Film/JamesBond'' has very few of these, despite the series being ridden with cartoon villains and conspirators. The closest they ever got was the hollowed-out volcano complex in ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' and Drax's Amazon launch facility in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}''.
** ''Film/GoldenEye'' had an elaborate underground military bunker at Severnaya, and the BigBad's Lair is actually below the giant pool where the cradle antenna is hidden.
** ''Film/DrNo'' had an elaborate nuclear facility but it's not clear that it was underground. Although fairly likely, given that it explicitly is in the book and in the film they dine in a glass-windowed room below the waterline and thus presumably underground as well.
** Dr. Kananga from ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' had an underground base near one of his poppy fields in San Monique for processing the poppies' morphine into heroin.

** The Kingsman themselves also have a large base and training facility hidden beneath a mansion, complete with a secret monorail and jet hangar.

* Tokugawa's secret warehouse on the moon in ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}''.

* Zion in ''Film/TheMatrix'' that is also a full-blown city.

** ''VideoGame/MetalGear2'' has a variation: Although Metal Gear D is fought in the third (sixth?) basement floor of the main building of Zanzibar Land's detention center, it is not specified if it was actually the main hangar for Metal Gear D.

* ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' is fond of these, appearing in ''The Secret of the Swordfish'', ''The Yellow M'', ''The Francis Blake Affair'', and ''Professor Satō's Three Formulae'', among others.

** and its subsequent owners found a pretty profitable use for it that's legal: its year-round consistent temperatures provide the perfect conditions in which to age cheese.

* ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' is fond of these, appearing in ''The Secret of the Swordfish'', ''The Yellow M'', ''Professor Satō's Three Formulae'', among others.

* ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'' is fond of these, appearing in ''The Secret of the Swordfish'', ''The Yellow M'', ''Professor Satō's Three Formulae'', and others

* The titular protagonist of the comic book ''ComicBook/{{Diabolik}}'' has ''a lot'' of these, each containing gadgets, laboratories, holding cells, spare [[CoolCar Jaguar E-Types]] and loot while he and his lover Eva live in the luxury homes built right on top of them.

* From the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games, the various Vaults.

** Raven Rock, most famous to gamers from ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', is a real base built for much the same purpose as Cheyenne Mountain.

*** Or not. Maintaining any large underground object would require much better logistical capabilities that could be provided by third-class narrow mountain road and long-defunct (and partially dismantled) railway, which seem to be the only roads near Yamantau.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'':
** The first game concludes in [[spoiler:Bob Page]]'s base beneath Area 51. On the good side, Tracer Tong has a sophisticated laboratory several floors beneath his [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs Triad's]] compound.

** ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' features several underground bases -- a FEMA facility, the Harvesters' hideout, and [[spoiler:Panchaea]] to name a few.

** ''VideoGame/Halo3'' -- the second level takes place in Crow's Nest, an "old 20th century" military base inside Mount Kilimanjaro, which has been re-activated after the Covenant took over Earth. This base comes fully equipped with a hangar bay, hidden landing pads, big imposing steel doors, and a war room, complete with big screens and BridgeBunnies.

* In the first ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' game, the LaResistance's base is located underneath an abandoned city. While the "base" itself is run-down, there is still some machinery functioning there, like an elevator and a teleporter. The base, after numerous attacks, was completely abandoned by the group in favor of a ''more'' elaborate, newer base (although it's not underground anymore).

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGear'' and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', the titular HumongousMecha is hidden in one of these.

* The Russian missile base in the last act of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', which is also YeOldeNuclearSilo.
* ''VideoGame/{{MOTHER}}'':

* In Travis Corcoran's ''Literature/{{Aristillus}}'' series, the entire Lunar Colony pretty much counts as this, especially from the perspective of the Earth government. The colony is composed of miles of tunnels carved out by tunnel-boring machines under the lunar surface of the Aristillus crater, and when the Earth military [[spoiler:invades the colony]] they find it a maze of twists, turns, and angry natives trying to kill them with extremely large guns.

* A similar rationale to Wonka's stands for the enormous set of underground tunnels built by the deep-down dwarfs in Ankh-Morpork in Creator/TerryPratchett's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels. By digging under the city, they can create their own dwarfs-only authentic dwarf mine under the city, unbeholden to city law or city rents. (In regions with larger dwarfish populations, there really ''is'' a separate "surface law" and "deep law".) After the events of ''Literature/{{Thud}}'', the deep-downers are thoroughly discredited and Lord Vetinari appropriates their delve for the city government, possibly as the basis of a future Ankh-Morpork subway system. Notably, Commander Vimes actually realizes the "dirt has to go somewhere" problem and realizes the extent of the digging when he has his Disorganizer look through the gate reports for an increase in garbage leaving the city.

* In the Literature/DirkPittAdventures, Dirk Pitt has infiltrated his share of these.

* On ''Series/The100'', Mount Weather is an enormous underground bunker, used to house a small (but technologically advanced) community of people who can't survive on the radiation-soaked surface.

* ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' episode "The Living Dead" had a huge underground city built by the villains for the purpose of raising an army.
* Xenon Base in ''Series/BlakesSeven'' was an Elaborate Underground Base owned by a VillainOfTheWeek. Upon his death, the heroes moved in and made it their base of operations for the remainder of the season. When you are a marginal band of outlaws facing a star-spanning empire, there is significant psychological comfort of being hidden under megatons of rock.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS15E4TheSunMakers "The Sun Makers"]] was filmed in the real-life deep air raid shelters of London.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]] features the secret bunker of billionaire Henry van Statten, located in Utah. It houses his secret museum of alien artifacts, including one live specimen. Take another look at the title of this episode and make a wild guess what the "Metaltron" is.
** [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion "The Christmas Invasion"]] revealed that UNIT had a massive subterranean base underneath the Tower of London, of all places, its excavations and comings and goings seemingly unnoticed by the attraction's thousands of visitors.
** [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]]: The Doctor finds an elaborate ex-Torchwood One research facility beneath the Thames river in London.

* Basically subverted in the ''Series/{{Elementary}}'' episode “Ready or Not”; an investigation of ‘the Keep’, an apparent underground facility based in an old Cold War bunker, allegedly intended to protect the elite in the event of a nuclear holocaust, swiftly reveals to Holmes and Watson that [[spoiler:it’s all an elaborate scam to get money out of the intended residents. They deduce that the bunker provides the kind of superficial comforts that the target residents would look for, but it lacks more sophisticated details such as appropriate air filtration systems, the walls are damaged behind the immediate coverings, and the cupboards are full of empty boxes to give the impression of medical and food supplies being kept in storage]].

* In ''Series/{{Helix}}'', isolated research base Arctic Biosystems has ''several'' subterranean levels, the depth, and extensiveness of which initially jar the CDC team sent to investigate there.
* In ''Series/HogansHeroes,'' the Allied [=POWs=]/spies had a network of tunnels under Stalag 13, to which Colonel Klink was consistently oblivious -- not the sort of cramped tunnels [=POWs=] might dig with spoons, but what you would find in a long-worked industrial mine. How the tunnels had been dug undetected was never explained. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in one episode in which the grounds have even more snow than usual, and the [=POWs=] have built a snowman. At one point, Col. Hogan indicates a particular patch of dirt and claims that it is "the only spot in camp that doesn't have a tunnel under it."
* ''Series/{{JAG}}'': In "Sightings", the abandoned military airfield was built with underground aircraft shelters, being used by [[spoiler: drug runners]] to conceal their operation.
* Most of the Dharma stations on ''Series/{{Lost}}'' are partially or completely underground, and are of varying complexity. The Pearl and the Orchid are entirely underground. The Orchid is quite elaborate [[spoiler:and gives way to an even deeper cave containing the wheel which moves the island.]]

* Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'' features an entire sub-culture beneath London. There were also undergrounds beneath every major city on Earth, each distinctively dangerous. At least according to Huntress.

* ''Series/ThePeripheral2022'': The Research Institute. It goes down at ''least'' 95 storeys, and contains an aquarium large enough to hold whales, hydroponics farms, factories, and Lord knows what else. The use of Assembler {{Nanomachines}} probably serves to {{Handwave}} the financial and structural constraints that a facility of this magnitude would face in RealLife.

* ''Series/Stargirl2020'': The Injustice Society operates out of a bunker secreted in the heart of a TunnelNetwork running underneath Blue Valley, Nebraska. At the very least, it contains a central meeting room, [[MadScientist Dragon King's]] laboratory, and a staging ground for building [[MindControlDevice Project New America]]. It's revealed later that it was built by the founders of the town long before the Injustice Society ever arrived; the Injustice Society specifically chose the town because they learned of the tunnels and figured it would make a good hiding place.

* The 60s series ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'' featured a colossal underground base that housed the titular TimeTravel device.

* The Operations Center level in ''VideoGame/ThreeDUltraPinball''

* Despite the name, virtually none of the "dungeons" in any ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign are prisons. They're either natural caverns full of unintelligent monsters (rare), tombs full of undead (uncommon), or this trope for the VillainOfTheWeek (''extremely'' common).\\
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Taking this to its logical extreme is [[http://images.yuku.com/image/pjpeg/45536ba641a897edcc85536f05a293fe97906a7c.jpg Malsheem,]] fortress of [[{{Satan}} Asmodeus]], [[GodOfEvil god of sin and tyranny]] and [[DemonLordsAndArchdevils lord of devils]]. As the fourth edition has transformed the Nine Hells into a planet, Asmodeus' fortress is comprised of the ''entire core'' of that planet.

** In Season 3, [[NebulousEvilOrganization HYDRA's]] main base is a bunker revealed to be built underneath an abandoned oil refinery. Coulson [[LampshadeHanging says that]] they don't even appear to be trying to avoid villain cliches at this point.

** Season 5 also has [[GeneralRipper General Hale's]] bunker, which was originally used by HYDRA as a [[AcademyOfEvil training academy]] in their heyday.

* Center, TheChessmaster AI of ''Literature/TheGeneral'' series located in a warren of abandoned hi-tech tunnels deep beneath East residence. It is unclear whether this ancient HQ was designed to be underground or has been buried by subsistence over the millennia since the Fall.

* During the Hydra arc of [[ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManJMichaelStraczynski JMS's run on Spider-Man]], Peter wonders how ComicBook/{{HYDRA}} can build one of these in New York while it's taken the city three extra months to finish a subway extension.