History Main / InescapableNet

-->-- ''Bat Thumb''

* In the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' anime, Pokémon caught inside Team Rocket's nets will only rarely manage to free themselves, despite them usually being pretty powerful in battle. Usually handwaved as being electric/whatever proof nets.

* On ''Series/TheElectricCompany'', Spider-Man catches criminals this way.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* Justified in ''OnePiece'', when the Marines use a net to trap Alvida and Buggy - it's a net specifically designed to counter Devil's Fruit powers, so they're screwed.

[[AC:ComicBooks]]
* Averted in a very early {{Spider-Man}} comic featuring Kraven the Hunter's debut. Kraven catches Spidey in a net, but Spidey reasons that, just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the net must have a weak joint in it, and he then tests the netting till he finds a part he can make big enough to escape through. All at super-spidey-speed, of course.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''ReturnOfTheJedi'', the protagonists find themselves suspended in snare-nets laid by the Ewoks. They are able to quickly escape, but not before the [[KillerRabbit Ewoks]] arrive in force to surround them.
** And Force Nets in the EU, which are actually a darkside method of executing someone by constricting the net.

-->'''Mayor''': Master Betty, my compliments! That tiny net was sure-fire!
-->'''Master Betty''': Mm, yes, a tiny net is a death sentence. It's a net and it's tiny!
* The nets in the ''Film/{{Predator}}'' film series are quite effective, but that's also because they automatically contract on the target and are apparently made out of something like piano wire, so targets are less incapacitated and more cubed.
** How well this works when the "prey" starts bleeding an insanely corrosive acid however...
* In the ''Aasman Ko Chukar'' sequence in ''Animation/TheReturnOfHanuman'', Hanuman used a net to capture figures with a bad name such as terrorists and UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush.

[[AC:{{Gamebook}}s]]
* In ''Literature/LoneWolf'' #8, your traveling companion Paido is snagged by the bad guys in a net that is also studded with fish hooks, making it practically impossible to quickly free him before they drag him off. You see him again a couple of books later, alive but covered in scars from where the hooks were pulled out.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]
* The StarWarsExpandedUniverse features 'Connor Nets', which are capable of doing this to ''starships''.
** Connor Nets are justified by them being EMP's in the form of a net to tangle stabilizers and shut down engines.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* On ''Series/TheElectricCompany'', Spider-Man caught criminals this way.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* The [[CombatPragmatist Brawler]] subclass from ''DungeonFighterOnline'' has a skill called Heaven's Net, where they throw a net forward and use it to pull enemies up to them, as well as immobilize them.
* ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' has the Ensnare ability, throwing a net on the unit to keep it from moving. While it makes sense when bringing down air units to ground level, why ground units never try to break out is anyone's guess.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

** Done most blatantly in ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}''. These are characters with the ability to vibrate through walls, move entire planets, turn into lightning bolts -- but put them under a net and they have no idea what to do. If you're lucky, it'll be a kryptonite net, but that still doesn't explain that no one else can escape.

* On ''TheElectricCompany'', Spider-Man caught criminals this way.
* One episode in the second season of ''WhoWantsToBeASuperhero'' had this happen to the good guys early on to act as a lead-in to the supervillain death-trap challenge.

* RiseOfTheTriad has troops that can fire nets at you. If you don't have a knife handy (a knife whose sole purpose it is to cut nets, apparently), your character is pinned down ''hard'' until you shake it off. No moving, no shooting, not even any turning. Though curiously, if you DO have a knife, you can still run around as usual until you cut the net off.

* In the ''Aasman Ko Chukar'' sequence in ''TheReturnOfHanuman'', Hanuman used a net to capture figures with a bad name such as terrorists and UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush.

-->'''Mayor''': That tiny net was sure-fire master!
-->'''Master Betty''': Yes, a tiny net is a death sentence, it's a net and it's tiny!

* In the ''Aasman Ko Chukar'' sequence in ''TheReturnOfHanuman'', Hanuman used a net to capture figures with a bad name such as terrorists and GeorgeWBush.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "WesternAnimation/ElmersCandidCamera", Elmer puts a net over BugsBunny (or his prototype at any rate). Bugs then begins gasping for air and [[FakingTheDead pretends to die]], causing Elmer to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone sob and call himself a murderer]].

* Lampshaded/justified in the ''PlanetOfTheApes'' book: The protagonist and narrator writes that he was so panicked he did exactly the wrong thing when trying to escape from the net, which led to his capture.

* Also parodied by DaisyOwl [[http://www.daisyowl.com/comic/2010-01-26 here]].

* Many {{Hanna-Barbera}} cartoons, but done most blatantly in ''{{Superfriends}}''. These are characters with the ability to vibrate through walls, move entire planets, turn into lightning bolts- but put them under a net and they have no idea what to do. If you're lucky, it'll be a kryptonite net, but that still doesn't explain that no one else can escape. Also used in ''ScoobyDoo'' and shows like it to capture the monster at the end.

* In ''TheFairlyOddParents'', fairies are literally incapable of escaping if trapped in a butterfly net. Not a special, fancy net--an ordinary butterfly net. Talk about WeaksauceWeakness! [[AWizardDidIt Rules of magic.]]
** Handwaved the first time it's brought up, with Wanda stating that if it has wings and flies, a butterfly net will catch it.

* WarcraftIII has the Ensnare ability, throwing a net on the unit to keep it from moving. While it makes sense when bringing down air units to ground level, why ground units never try to break out is anyone's guess.

Want to incapacitate somebody without killing them? Then the most foolproof way of pulling this off is with the Inescapable Net, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's a net that, when thrown over someone, causes them to just flail around helplessly, trapped like a bunch of fish, ready to start DyingLikeAnimals.

[[AC:{{Gamebook}}]]
* In ''LoneWolf'' #8, your traveling companion Paido is snagged by the bad guys in a net that is also studded with fish hooks, making it practically impossible to quickly free him before they drag him off. You see him again a couple of books later, alive but covered in scars from where the hooks were pulled out.

* In ''ReturnOfTheJedi'', the protagonists find themselves suspended in snare-net
** And Force Nets in the EU, which are actually a darkside method of executing someone by constricting the net.s laid by the Ewoks. They are able to quickly escape, but not before the [[KillerRabbit Ewoks]] arrive in force to surround them.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "ElmersCandidCamera", Elmer puts a net over BugsBunny (or his prototype at any rate). Bugs then begins gasping for air and [[FakingTheDead pretends to die]], causing Elmer to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone sob and call himself a murderer]].

* In ''ReturnOfTheJedi'', the protagonists find themselves suspended in snare-nets laid by the Ewoks. They are able to quickly escape, but not before the [[KillerRabbit Ewoks]] arrive in force to surround them.

** And Force Nets, which are actually a darkside method of executing someone by constricting the net.

* Averted in ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' episode "Consequences". The Watcher's Council trap Angel under a net, and to make sure he stays down they start whaling on him with crowbars.

* Happened in ''DarkwingDuck'' several times, the most {{egregious}} of which is when a villain made entire of malleable, liquid water gets trapped in an ordinary net.

* In the ''LooneyTunes'' short "ElmersCandidCamera", Elmer puts a net over BugsBunny (or his prototype at any rate). Bugs then begins gasping for air and [[FakingTheDead pretends to die]], causing Elmer to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone sob and call himself a murderer]].

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* Even happens in ''ReturnOfTheJedi'', when the protagonists are caught (of all things) by the Ewoks.
** Don't know if that's a good example of this trope or not, since they actually get out of the net on their own pretty quickly, but it did give the Ewoks enough time to surround them.