History Main / InvisibleWall

Compare {{Skybox}}, rendering a 3D game's sky as a cube that wraps around the world. See also GatelessGhetto.

See also GatelessGhetto.

* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'':
%%** The series uses these a lot. Sometimes they're traditional, sometimes they're in-universe magical barriers locking you into a boss fight. The latter tend to be accompanied by camera shots of them flashing into life and disappearing. %%"These" could mean anything.
** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', Goofy and Donald bounce off invisible walls just before Sora fights Possessed Riku. It happens again in the final dungeon just before he fights Darkside.
** The first area in the End of the World is literally an entire invisible ''maze'' -- as in, it is a huge empty area full of invisible walls. Your only clue of how to navigate it is the random bits of rock at the center of each intersection, which form arrows pointing in the direction you have to go. The battle zones are similarly invisible, but during said battles the maze is visible.

** Some of the later games introduce another variant: you can't go into areas you're not supposed to go to at the moment, and your character will remind you that it's not the right way.

* ''VideoGame/ForzaMotorsport4'' has on on the ''Series/TopGear'' test track. If you go backwards over the hump on Gambon corner fast enough, you hit an Invisible Wall coming up from a wall that seems to be about a foot high.

* ''VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame'': Certain games, such as ''DC'' and ''Marvel Super Heroes'', have these surrounding their respective open worlds. In the case of Manhattan, the walls cut halfway across the bridges, where a construction worker informs you that the bridge is under maintenance. Keep trying to cross for long enough, and he'll confide in you that nothing exists on the other side. LEGO Batman ''really'' pushes this in the level ''Flight of the Bat''. To progress through the level you need to take out obstacles like billboards and walls of flame. The only reason you ''can't fly right around them'' is you either hit an invisible wall or Bats turns the Batplane around. The only reason you can't fly over or under them is you can't change altitude.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox'':
** In the SNES original, all stages consist of a linear corridor. Approaching the edge will display a triple arrow guiding you back where you're supposed to be, and your ship will drift back in to the corridor unless you continue to push against the edge of the screen.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS4E105ValleyOfTheShadow Valley of the Shadow]]", after Philip Redfield learns that there is something unusual about the town of Peaceful Valley, UsefulNotes/NewMexico, its mayor Dorn activates an invisible wall to prevent him from leaving. His car crashes into it and his dog Rollie is killed, though he [[BackFromTheDead is brought back to life]]. Later, Philip very reluctantly agrees to remain in town and another invisible wall is erected around his house.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "I of Newton", the demon creates an invisible wall so that Sam can't escape his classroom.

* ''VideoGame/{{Another}}'': There are more than one, and they keep you from exploring the city, or going onto the road.

* In the short-lived ''The Cosby Mysteries'', Bill Cosby's character confronts the murderer with his evidence. Naturally she tries to shoot him, only to find there's a screen of bulletproof glass between them.

* ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' has you run into what appears to be one of these in the Biosphere, but almost immediately afterwards you run into a control panel that reveals that it was a real wall -- the {{skybox}}es in the ship's artificial biomes are holograms of some sort. Occasionally you will have to disable them to reveal an actual door to leave the room (presumably the panel locks the doors automatically when it turns on the holograms). It later plays it straight with an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_nS1ADTJY0 infuriating Missile Tank]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'':

* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** In "The Invasion of Time", Rodan's office is protected by a forcefield that doesn't even [[SomeKindOfForcefield have a flash or a sound effect]], just Leela miming "there's something blocking this apparently open doorway" and then Rodan explaining that there's a force field there.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E3Orphan55 "Orphan 55"]], the walls of the environmental dome Tranquillity Spa is secretly built inside of are hidden by holograms, with this effect, as shown when Graham bumps his head on the wall while trying to walk around an area where the hologram's been temporarily deactivated to show a breach.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E8TheHauntingOfVillaDiodati "The Haunting of Villa Diodati"]], the Doctor realises a PerceptionFilter is altering the appearance of the villa to stop them escaping. She works out where the door really is, opens it to walk through...and everyone winces as she smacks her face on an invisible wall.

* ''Videogame/SunsetOverdrive'' actually has [=FizzCo=]-branded Invisible Walls around Sunset City, [[BreakingTheFourthWall as per the game's style]]. [[FridgeBrilliance It is actually justifiable though]] as [=FizzCo=] have likely put them up to contain the OD outbreak and maintain the conspiracy. Oddly, [[MindScrew the walls are totally visible when you get close to them]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy: The Game'' features an unobstructed street where a mime is moving back and forth along an invisible wall. Trying to go around the mime prompts Peter to say "Stupid mimes and their invisible walls..."

** ''Grand Theft Auto V'' avoids using invisible walls at all, preferring to use a BorderPatrol of [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks killer sharks]] instead.

* ''VideoGame/NiGHTSIntoDreams'' includes a variation of the Invisible Wall combined with an invisible cannon, ala ''Motocross Madness''. The edge of a Dream World is marked by a change in the floor to a strange purple surface, and trying to go on it or over it results in Claris or Elliot being flung back a large distance. ''VideoGame/NiGHTSJourneyOfDreams'' plays this normally. Quite annoying, since in the original, at least you could temporarily stop the Egg Timer. Here, the Awakers can't be stopped, so if you come up against an Invisible Wall, you're pretty much screwed.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'': The Fuchsia City Gym has a Gym puzzle of invisible walls. However (until the remakes, at least), there are slight pattern differences in the floor tiles that determine tiles which have invisible walls on them. If one plays the original games on a Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, or Game Boy Advance SP, the invisible walls can be seen.