History Main / SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere

* A humorous version of this happens in ''VideoGame/{{Rayman 2}}''. After The Cave of Bad Dreams, you find a room filled with gold. If you choose to accept the gold, you end up stranded on a stormy island with it... and you're really fat for some reason. Also, Game Over since you're the only one who can save the world.

* Elizabeth Bathory. Since she was a noble, she couldn't be executed for her multiple murders (as her servants were). So she was locked in her room for the rest of her life with no human contact. She lasted three years.

** [[Theatre:AidaJohnRice The musical]] makes it a little happier by [[spoiler:revealing that Aida and Radames [[ReincarnationRomance find each other in a later reincarnation]].]]

** The musical makes it a little happier by [[spoiler:revealing that Aida and Radames [[ReincarnationRomance find each other in a later reincarnation]].]]

** Khan wants to do this to Kirk specifically because he feels that Kirk did this to him, though it was largely an accident. Kirk's intention was to leave Khan and his crew on an uninhabited but habitable planet where they could make a fresh start, unaware that the planet would be turned into a barren wasteland by a natural disaster six months later. Initially, Khan himself understood this decision as a mercy and was pleased with the opportunity.

* Not strictly an oubliette, but ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'''s "Cave of Two Lovers" was a death trap (just ask the nomadic music group the Gaang was saddled with for the episode) and the Fire Nation exploited it to easily dispatch our heroes.

* ''Series/{{Angel}}''
** The {{Cliffhanger}} ending of Season 3 has Angel sealed into a metal coffin and dumped into the Pacific Ocean. The following season opens with him going mad from [[HorrorHunger blood-thirst]] and [[GoneMadFromTheIsolation isolation]].

** And via {{Flashback}} in the first season episode "Rm w/a Vu" where Dennis Pearson's mother walled him up to keep him from running off with his girlfriend. She was planning to let him out after a while, but had a heart attack and died just after finishing the wall.

** In "Planet of the Daleks", Dalek scientists are TrappedInContainment when a bioweapon is [[HeroicSacrifice released by a prisoner]]. While they've been immunized, they can't open the door because the bioweapon will kill every other Dalek in the area.

* Literature/{{Aladdin}}, in the Cave of Wonders, both in the original and the [[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Disney version]]. Would have worked too if he didn't have a [[GenieInABottle genie]] with him.

* This trope is well encountered in [[Myth/NorseMythology Nordic folklore]]. A traitor -- usually a young lady who has fallen in love with an enemy warlord -- is masoned inside a castle or town wall as punishment for her treason and left to die of starvation. This trope is present at Castle Olavinlinna in Finland, town of Visby in Sweden, Castle Kuressaare and Põlva in Estonia and town of Haapsalu in Estonia.

* In ''ComicBook/SupermanRedSon'', the Soviet Batman attempts to trap Comrade of Steel in a bunker permanently illuminated with Red Sun lamps. Due to circumstances beyond Batman's control, Superman manages to break free. Batman does get back at him, by screwing up his girlfriend and eroding his belief in humanity.

** King also did this in a short story, called (appropriately) "[[Literature/JustAfterSunset A Very Tight Place]]." The room? A steel-plated, overturned, and uncleaned port-a-toilet located on a long-abandoned construction site.
* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's "Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado." The narrator, [[DisproportionateRetribution in revenge for an insult]], lures a drunken friend into the catacombs beneath his palace. With the promise of the titular cask of wine, he gets him to enter a niche in the wall, then chains him in place and bricks up the niche, [[strike:completely deaf to]] ''enjoying'' the pleas for mercy.

* In the {{Bowdlerize}}d American dub of the 1st Movie to ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'', [[TheChessmaster Clow Reed]] sealed his student (and former [[HotForStudent girlfriend]]) in an alternate dimension after she started practicing dark magic. Although she is long dead, her spirit is stuck in there, waiting for him to come back and set her free. [[FridgeHorror Whether or not he ever intended to do so and when is unknown.]] Sakura has to set her free and help her move on to the afterlife, as this (very) unfriendly ghost attacks her and her friends.

* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', the Hyperbolic Time Chamber becomes this if one stays in it for more than two days, or if the door is destroyed, as happens during the Buu/Fusion saga.

** That's the bowdlerized version. The [[Comicbook/TheSandman DC Comics version]] sticks closer to the original.
*** Keep in mind the DC version was also written [[UsefulNotes/TheModernAgeOfComicBooks after it was realized that]] [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids comics are not just for kids anymore]]. The Marvel version was done in TheSixties at the height of the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]].
*** Also, at least before the late 2000's, Marvel's Loki was destined to suffer the exact same fate, and was once even chained up to face it, though this turned out to be part of a Ragnarok-averting XanatosGambit on Odin's part.
* In [[Franchise/MarvelUniverse Marvel]]'s ''Acts of Vengeance'' [[BatFamilyCrossover crossover]], Loki gathered several supervillains together for a scheme against ComicBook/TheAvengers. Among the group were the ComicBook/RedSkull and ComicBook/{{Magneto}}. The Red Skull was [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Hitler's]] right hand man. Magneto is a ''survivor of the Holocaust''. So, in the ''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica'' portion of the crossover, Magneto took the opportunity to [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome seal the Skull in a underground chamber with just enough water to survive, but no way to escape]]. The Skull is [[JokerImmunity eventually rescued]] by his henchman Crossbones, who had to hire a [[{{Seer}} psychic]] [[OccultDetective detective]] to find him.

* In the ''Anime/{{Kirby|OfTheStars}}'' anime, Kirby ''himself'' may be considered a Sealed Room In The Middle Of Nowhere. In one episode, he inhales a Dedede doll, which means he also inhaled Dedede himself due to the circumstances. At the end of the episode, Dedede and said doll are shown floating in what looks like outer space. This makes for less of a room and more of an alternate dimension of nothingness. It is never explained how Dedede escaped, but one can presume that the other characters figured out what happened and convinced Kirby to let him go.

* As the page quote shows, this was Khan's intention towards Kirk in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.
** Khan wants to do this to Kirk specifically feels that Kirk did this to him, though it was largely an accident. Kirk's intention was to leave Khan and his crew on an uninhabited but habitable planet where they could make a fresh start, unaware that the planet would be turned into a barren wasteland by a natural disaster six months later. Initially, Khan himself understood this decision as a mercy and was pleased with the opportunity.

* As the page quote shows, a variant of this trope was employed by Khan in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.

->''"I've done far worse than kill you, admiral. I've '''hurt''' you. And I wish to go on... '''Hurting''' you. I shall leave you as you left me -- as you left her. Marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet. Buried alive... Buried alive!"''

Also known as an {{Oubliette}}, the Sealed Room in the Middle Of Nowhere is the least dramatic DeathTrap of all. Not being an elaborate plan of disposing enemies, the sealed room is usually more of an opportunistic ploy -- the good guys have gone into an abandoned mine or ancient crypt or isolated cave of their own volition, and the villain just takes this lucky chance to seal them in forever. Of course, forever turns into the twenty minutes or so it takes the hero to find an alternate way out, or occasionally to be rescued. Sometimes the stakes are raised by having the room [[DrowningPit slowly fill with water]] or [[GasChamber gas]].

* ''Series/ZeroEscape'' series. In Virtue's Last Reward, 9 people are trapped in a warehouse not knowing the exact location. They are forced to play a game where they need 9 points to open a door that leads outside. However, the door only opens once and once it closes, it stays closed forever trapping whoever didn't make it out[[note]]Leaving before accumulating 9 points is not an option either, as doing so will cause the device on their wrists to activate a toxin that would kill them[[/note]].
** In ''VideoGame/ZeroTimeDilemma'', 9 people are trapped in another warehouse in the middle of the desert. This time, the rule is that 6 people must die in order for the door to be opened and just like the prequel, the door only opens once and anyone who didn't leave are trapped.

* The {{Opera}} ''Theatre/{{Aida}}'' ends with [[spoiler:Radames sentenced to death by starvation/dehydration in a tomb for unknowingly revealing the location of the Egyptian army to the king of Ethiopia. It's a happy ending, though, because Aida sneaks in before the door is sealed, and [[TogetherInDeath they get to die together]].]] What? This is opera we're talking about, that '''''is''''' a happy ending!

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]
* This trope is well encountered in [[Myth/NorseMythology Nordic folklore]]. A traitor -- usually a young lady who has fallen in love with an enemy warlord -- is masoned inside a castle or town wall as punishment for her treason and left to die of starvation. This trope is present at Castle Olavinlinna in Finland, town of Visby in Sweden, Castle Kuressaare and Põlva in Estonia and town of Haapsalu in Estonia.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Myths & Religion]]

* Played with in the Literature/KnownSpace story ''The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton''. Gil is abducted the OrganTheft gang he's investigating and wakes up in an anonymous apartment (memory form technology is used to extrude furniture from the walls when needed, so in a neutral state it's almost a WhiteVoidRoom). He's arranged for a police psychic to read his mind at regular intervals to ensure he's OK, but without knowing where Gil is that's no help. Fortunately Gil makes an accurate guess as to his location, but with no visible clock he has no idea how long he's got before the psychic checks on him.

* An AlternativeUniverse story by Creator/HarryTurtledove explores a situation where the first atomic bomb was dropped on Berlin rather than Hiroshima. Here, the Fuhrerbunker is well enough protected to just about survive the blast. But Adolf Hitler is trapped a long way underground, alone in a room damaged badly enough for him not to be able to open the door, surrounded by corpses and with Berlin above him being a blasted sea of rubble. with no way out, he ends up shooting himself...

* Played with in the Literature/KnownSpace story ''The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton''. Gil is abducted the OrganTheft gang he's investigating and wakes up in an anonymous apartment (memory form technology is used to extrude furniture from the walls when needed, so in a neutral state it's almost a WhiteVoidRoom). He's arranged for a police psychic to read his mind at regular intervals to ensure he's OK, but Gil has no way of knowing where he is. Fortunately he deduces his location anyway, but with no visible clock he has no idea how long he's got before the psychic checks on him.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven'': In the seminal episode "Rumours of Death," Avon teleports himself and a notorious torturer into an underground cavern with absolutely no surface access, and, after getting the information he needs, ''leaves him there''. He's "merciful" enough to [[LeaveBehindAPistol leave the man a gun]]. This is how the episode ''[[FromBadToWorse begins]]''.

** ''Clear Card'' revisits this trope when Sakura's room turns into one of these as a result of one of the new cards. The room seemly has no way out, and pushing on the walls only causes it to stretch. It soon begins to actively try to kill them, but they find a way to escape rather quickly when they realize it's made of rubber and so can be popped with a sharp object like you can a balloon.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* In ''Comicbook/SupermanRedSon'', the Soviet Batman attempts to trap Comrade of Steel in a bunker permanently illuminated with Red Sun lamps. Due to circumstances beyond Batman's control, Superman manages to break free. Batman does get back at him, by screwing up his girlfriend and eroding his belief in humanity.
* IDW's run of the ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' series features Twilight and Fluttershy falling into an abandoned one of these in the first story arc. A trap like this is of course no problem for Fluttershy, a pegasus ... especially since Twilight just teleports them out anyway. Twilight helpfully defines the term 'oubliette' for the target audience.

[[folder:FanFiction]]

[[folder:Film]]

* ''Franchise/{{Saw}}''

* Fiorina "Fury" 161 in ''Film/{{Alien 3}}'' is basically this. The prisoners spend their lives in a prison facility in the middle of nowhere, on a planet in the middle of nowhere in the universe. As the warden puts it: The prisoners are free to leave anytime they want, only the rest of the planet is a much bigger shithole than the facility itself.

* In the 2003 Korean film ''Film/{{Oldboy|2003}}'', Oh Dae-su is confined to a hotel-like room for fifteen years, fed only fried dumplings and with a television as his only form of information on the outside world.
** [[spoiler:In the end, it turns out that the room isn't exactly "in the middle of nowhere" -- Oh Dae-su later uses the taste of the dumplings to work out the location of room, and then proceeds to beat the living shit out of his captors.]]

[[folder:Folklore]]

[[folder:Tabletop [=RPGs=]]]
* The effective purpose of the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' spell "imprisonment" is to trap the target in a sealed chamber, deep underground. Granted, they are in a magically sustained stasis until the end of the world (or the spell is removed by it's reverse, "freedom"), so it isn't actually played for drama after the effect, except possibly as a FateWorseThanDeath.

* Baron Lyron Evensong, a minor darklord of ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', is cursed with a version of this trope. Every evening, he's compelled to return to the music room of his residence and close himself inside, remaining until dawn. To the rest of the world, he's there overnight, but to him the world outside the room vanishes and leaves him stuck there for ''100 years'': magically-sustained and ageless, but stir-crazy and bored out of his mind. Any unfortunates he can lure into staying in the room with him through dusk experience this trope also ... unfortunately for them, ''without'' the benefits of agelessness.

* In ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'', a door hooked up to a lever is either "always open" or "closed and locked," with no other states in between. The player can take advantage of this when creating his {{Death Trap}}s, either for building "starvation chambers" for recalcitrant dwarves or to seal the room off so that you can reroute [[DrowningPit water]] or [[LavaPit magma]] into it.
** A lever is actually completely unnecessary. One can simply mark the door to be "forbidden", and dwarves will never open the door, even if it leads to their death.
* ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' has a very literal one.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', at one point Barry kidnaps Malory and locks her, BoundAndGagged, in an underground chamber with air provided by a pump. The rest of the main cast have to help him beofre she runs out of air. However, sine she's a RetiredBadass, her escape makes up the b plot of the episode.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/ActsOfVengeance http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/captain_america_367_red_skull_trapped.png]]]]