History Main / SecretGovernmentWarehouse

* The ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' book ''Specials'' includes one of these. The two main characters sneak in to steal a specific tool, and end up finding vast shelves of forgotten "Rusty" (present-day) technology and artifacts as well as extremely dangerous weapons of more modern make. The example is both subverted and played straight: the government IS hiding these tools from the general populace, because the cities are all supposed to be at peace and war is unheard of, and subverted because the two main characters are themselves special government agents (and arguably living weapons) that the general populace is unaware of.

A sub-trope of BlackSite and ExtranormalInstitute. Not to be confused with AbandonedWarehouse, even though the two can overlap.

* ''Fanfic/NobledarkImperium'': Ganymede as a wholes serves as this for the Imperium; whenever the Inquisition finds something that's too dangerous to leave alone but which cannot be destroyed and/or might come in handy someday, which happens often, it gets stashed on Ganymede behind layers of security. Among other things, the facilities there contain ancient Old One artifacts, two copies of a nanotech terror weapon, an imprisoned Daemon Prince, a bioengineered super-assassin, a set of lockpicks capable of opening literally anything, and a human preserved in amber several millions of years old. The eldar think that the whole thing is a huge security risk and they and the Inquisition tend to get into heated arguments over it whenever something breaks out or when some object or inmate becomes useful.
* "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12987190/1/The-Worst-Witch-2017-The-Curse-of-Jumanji The Curse of Jumanji]]" sees Mildred Hubble and Ethel Hallow (''Literature/TheWorstWitch'') spend thirty years trapped in Jumanji (''Franchise/{{Jumanji}}''). Once they escape (returned to the moment they entered the game), Ethel suggests that they contact the Great Wizard so that he can take the game to the Morgana Vaults, a magical research facility created by Merlin and Morgana themselves with the goal of keeping dangerous magical artefacts or knowledge contained away from the general public.

* In ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'' the Department of Mysteries houses one of these which holds items considered strange and dangerous even to the wizarding world. There were even more such items in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the book]] but they seemed to have more of an effect on their [[MalevolentArchitecture surroundings]] and [[MobileMaze were]] [[AlienGeometries housed very]] [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} strangely]].

* ''Film/TheLibrarian'', featuring the Metropolitan Public Library.
** The third film reveals that the Library is actually thousands of years old and that [[spoiler:the Librarian's mentor may, in fact, be the original Librarian]].
* The conclusion of ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'' is one of the most famous uses of this plot device: the ending of the film is a shot of TheArkOfTheCovenant, in a crate, being filed in a massive warehouse. ''[[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles Filled with identical crates.]]''

* In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', after his defeat, [[spoiler: Khan and his crew are returned to their hibernative sleep within pods sealed inside one of these]].

* In ''Literature/TheDreamsideRoad'', the massive transports that move [[PowerOfTheSun the Solar Saver crawlers]] were taken from these after [[ApocalypseHow destabilization]]. This same operation enabled Brett Nalrik and his crew to collect their PoweredArmor.

* Subverted in ''Literature/TheLaundryFiles'' novel ''The Rhesus Chart'' when Bob Howard visits such a warehouse, but it's used to store mundane (yet still secret) items like government warning posters stockpiled for an invasion by {{Eldritch Abomination}}s from AnotherDimension. [[spoiler:Then it turns out a vampire is using this secret location to hide its activities from both the public and the Laundry.]]
* Not run by a government, which doesn't seem to exist in the {{Literature/Nightside}}, but the Collector's vast collection of, well, ''everything'' rare and legendary meets most criteria for this trope. Definitely secret, because he's a selfish JerkAss who's paranoid about people stealing what he's stolen.
** Also, reference is made to a "House of Blue Lights" beneath the Pentagon, from which the [[spoiler: Unholy Grail]] was stolen. Possibly a subversion, as it's unclear whether this facility houses other items or just the one.
* The Folly from the ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' series is, aside from a specialist police facility, the UK's covert repository for books, materials and artifacts pertaining to Newtonian magic or magic-related crimes and disturbances. [[spoiler: The Black Library hidden underneath it is an example ''within'' an example, being a highly-restricted secure vault for captured Nazi BlackMagic lore.]]
* Scott Westerfield's book ''Specials'' includes one of these. The two main characters sneak in to steal a specific tool, and end up finding vast shelves of forgotten "Rusty" (present-day) technology and artifacts as well as extremely dangerous weapons of more modern make. The example is both subverted and played straight: the government IS hiding these tools from the general populace, because the cities are all supposed to be at peace and war is unheard of, and subverted because the two main characters are themselves special government agents (and arguably living weapons) that the general populace is unaware of.
* ''Literature/TaleOfTheTroika'' by Creator/StrugatskyBrothers takes place in one, very poorly organized and overrun by {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}s.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsLegends series ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'', the Emperor is revealed to have had such a storehouse, which contained (among other things) plans for a starship cloaking device and an immense and fully functional cloning facility. In fact, its existence was so secret that after his death, it was five years before one of his most trusted officers (one of very few beings who was even aware of it) was able to piece together the details of its exact location. However, even though Grand Admiral Thrawn didn’t know exactly where the facility ''was'', he did know what specific artifacts he expected to find there, as well as exactly how they would factor into his overall strategy.

* One episode of ''Series/{{NCIS}}'' centered around the team being assigned to figure out how had broken into one containing ''cheese''. There was nothing secret about the cheese -- the real secret was the fact that the government, through pork barrel and/or kickback related subsidies to the dairy industry, had purchased enough surplus cheese to fill a top-secret bunker in the first place. It eventually turned out that the criminals had broken into the wrong classified storage bunker -- there was another one nearby with a similar serial number that held guns -- and then the case shifted to figuring out who had cracked the encryption on the access panels so they could enter the bunker in the first place.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': In "The Bounty", Riker, Worf, and Raffi infiltrate the Daystrom Station's vaults, where [[NoSuchAgency Section 31]] is storing the likes of [[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan the Genesis Device]], [[Film/StarTrekNemesis a thalaron generator]], and [[Film/StarTrekGenerations Capt. James T. Kirk's body]]. While sneaking through, they trigger the station's AI, taking the form of the holographic Professor Moriarty from the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episodes "Elementary, Dear Data" and "Ship In A Bottle", who can only be deactivated by [[SongsInTheKeyOfLock a musical lock]], which Riker realizes is [[spoiler:"Pop Goes The Weasel"]], leading to them discovering [[spoiler:another Soong-type android, M-5-10, that contains not only Data's consciousness, but also Lore and the previous Soong-type androids, too]].
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': In "Point of View", one is present at Area51. Several rows of shelves piled high with artifacts and technology from off-world, many of which were seen in previous episodes. It looks suspiciously like the show's props department.

* ''Series/WarOfTheWorlds1988'': In the first episode, a triad of war machines are collected from a Government Warehouse ("Hangar 15") where they had been stored since an invasion in 1953, thus linking the television series to the 1953 film ''Film/{{The War of the Worlds|1953}}''.

* ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'': The dungeons of the Light College, the headquarters of the wizards of the Light Order in the Empire's capital city, are used to store and contain arcane artifacts obtained by Imperial forces. These include both arcane treasures of immediate or potential use to the Empire or the wizards in particular, stored to keep them safe and away from unwelcome eyes, and many malign objects and monstrous beings imprisoned to keep them from working their designs upon the world.

* In ''VideoGame/UFOAftermath'', two plot missions involve going to such warehouses. Unfortunately, it is only possible to get info on government relationships with aliens there.
* One of the (best) possible endings in ''VideoGame/VampireTheMasqueradeBloodlines'' has an elder vampire decide to store the [[MacGuffin sarcophagus]] in one of vampire society's secret warehouses rather than find out whether it really does hold an apocalyptically powerful antediluvian.
-->'''Strauss:''' I told you before that there are some powers in this world that are best left undisturbed.

* The FEMA facility from ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' qualifies.
** Palisade Bank from ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'' is a Secret [[MegaCorp Corporate]] Warehouse, thanks to Pragues pro corporate laws they can actually pull SwissBankAccount style tricks and the various corporations use it to store information and physical objects related to their [[CorporateConspiracy schemes]] without fear of media or government scrutiny.

* Parodied in ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing''. The endgame of the Actually Ed the Undying challenge path have you raiding the Council of Loathing's secret warehouse for the Holy MacGuffin, and finding a bunch of other [=MacGuffins=] and {{plot coupon}}s in the process, including [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk the Ark of the Covenant]], a [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas platinum casino chip]], and [[Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit Marvin Acme's will]].

* The Paranormal Things That Are Of Little Use To Anyone Storage Facility from ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' is a decoy secret government warehouse. It's a collection of useless and inert magic items designed to look painfully underfunded and under-secured. It serves to distract would-be thieves from another facility containing actually useful artifacts, and it also serves as a trap for said would-be thieves. The security systems don't even kick in until you try to remove an artifact from the premises.
* [[http://www.drunkduck.com/The_Repository_of_Dangerous_Things/ The Repository of Dangerous Things]] had the titular repository, wherein most of the comic took place.
* An early ''Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob'' installment features [[https://bobadventures.thecomicseries.com/comics/26/ one of these]] where [[PhlebotinumKilledTheDinosaurs a bomb of the same type that killed the dinosaurs]] is stored. It also houses the [[Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk Lost Ark]], UsefulNotes/RichardNixon's missing 20 minutes of tape, [[WhoShotJFK magic bullets]], [[UsefulNotes/RichardNixon Checkers]]' favorite soup bones, and... some Manga/{{Bath}} parasites, of all things.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Maintaining secret warehouses is pretty much the entire job of the Website/SCPFoundation, they have warehouses for storing dangerous items that are usually safe if no one touches them, and they also have prisons for dangerous monsters and humans with powers, although some of the items that look like inanimate objects are actually sentient and are trying to ''escape''. The warehouses containing the most dangerous items each have [[SelfDestructMechanism a nuclear warhead which is set to go off if too many of them escape at once]]. For some of the items, ''this will only slow them down''. Also, [[NGOSuperpower the Foundation operates outside of any government jurisdiction]], and could probably instantly take over the world if they weren't so very busy constantly trying to prevent TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.