History Main / TheGameNeverStopped

* ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' episode "The Get Away". The girls are sent on a vacation, but get involved in a madman's plot to cause volcanoes all over the world to erupt (a la Dr. Evil). During the episode they find out that it was all a test set up by their WOOHP boss Jerry, who tells them they failed. Then a volcano really explodes and they have to save everyone, and Jerry decides they passed the test after all.

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** "Déjà Cruise" is like this too, having them go through a faux GroundhogDayLoop in which a terrorist tries to take over WOOHP's luxury cruiser, and every attempt they do to foil him ends up with the girls thrown into the sea then waking up in their room as if time had rewound to earlier that day. In the end, when they decide to ask for the other agents' cooperation, it is revealed this is another of Jerry's insane tests.

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* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', the first Kingsman test ends with a girl named Emilia drowning. This convinces the candidates that the tests they are undertaking really ''will'' kill them if they screw up. The second and third tests both initially seem potentially lethal but are immediately revealed not to have been; the final test is for Eggsy and Roxy to [[ShootTheDog shoot their companion dogs]], and it's only after Eggsy refuses and fails the test that it's revealed [[spoiler:the gun was loaded with blanks. Not only that, Emilia was a Kingsman employee and merely faked her death so the candidates would ''think'' they were in real danger, when they were actually safe the whole time; the whole thing was just one SecretTestOfCharacter after another]].

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Named after a quote from the ''SavedByTheBell'' episode "Mystery Weekend", where such an event was the entire plot.

* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', the first Kingsman test ends with a girl named Emilia drowning. This convinces the candidates that the tests they are undertaking really ''will'' kill them if they screw up. The second and third tests both initially seem potentially lethal but are immediately revealed not to have been; the final test is for Eggsy and Roxy to [[ShootTheDog shoot their companion dogs]], and it's only after Eggsy refuses and fails the test that it's revealed [[spoiler:the gun was loaded with blanks. Not only that, Emilia was a Kingsman employee and merely faked her death so the candidates would ''think'' they were in real danger, when they were actually safe the whole time; the whole thing was just a series of SecretTestsOfCharacter]].

* ''Film/EXistenZ'' pulls this off too [[spoiler: possibly up to four times over the course of the movie, with the cast pointing guns at each other and wondering if they were still inside the game.]]

* The mind games in ''{{Inception}}'' pretty much invoke this trope. In the beginning of the movie, a character is pointed out that he is dreaming, and awakens, realizing (as the dream-inducers intended) that the dream was an attempt to extract information from his memories. Only when the perpetrators try to interrogate him the old-fashioned way and make a blunder, he realizes that he is still dreaming -- the second layer of dreams was a part of the plan.

* TedDekker's book [[spoiler:Skin]] turns out to be this, and [[spoiler:does it AGAIN in the end]]. [[MindScrew Dekker likes to mess with his readers' heads sometimes]].

* Seen on ''TheGoldenGirls'': "The Case of the Libertine Belle"
* Also seen on an episode of ''TheJeffersons'' where the Jeffersons take a mystery cruise with a group of mystery authors. One of the authors drinks poisoned wine, throwing suspicion on his compatriots. No one takes George's attempts at detecting seriously... until he figures out who the "killer" is.

* ''TotallySpies'' episode "The Get Away". The girls are sent on a vacation, but get involved in a madman's plot to cause volcanoes all over the world to erupt (a la Dr. Evil). During the episode they find out that it was all a test set up by their WOOHP boss Jerry, who tells them they failed. Then a volcano really explodes and they have to save everyone, and Jerry decides they passed the test after all.

* "''WhatsNewScoobyDoo''" episode "E-Scream" -- Velma gets a false mystery inside a VR machine during E3. She spots some errors dealing with other members of Mystery Inc. revealing she was in a VR machine.

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* There was, apparently, once a murder during a B&B's mystery weekend. The perpetrator was counting on the confusion to get a head start on a getaway. The other guests simply called the police.

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* In UminekoNoNakuKoroNi in [[spoiler:[= EP6=]]] it turns out that the victims were only playing dead to [[spoiler: play a prank on Erika. And then it turns out that as the detective, Erika took the liberty of 'ensuring' the bodies were dead by sawing their heads off.]]

* The GenreSavvy title character of ''LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya'' is invited, along with the rest of the FiveManBand, to a small remote island which seems perfect for a murder mystery setting, and despite there not being any suspicious people present, Haruhi tries predicting the first murder victim and the murderer's identity. Then her best candidate for murderer turns up dead. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a game put on by Koizumi's organisation, who are even ''more'' GenreSavvy than Haruhi and provided her with the murder mystery she desired so that her god-powers didn't kick in and create a ''real'' murder mystery]].

* A variation happens in ''GlassMask''. [[spoiler: main chracters Maya and Ayumi, in an audition for the role of the deafblind writer [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller Helen Keller]], are told to "wait as Helen" along with a group of other child actresses. Some time later, a fire alarm goes off and the girls react to it... except for Maya and Ayumi. Therefore, they're the only ones who pass the audition.]] Note that this is [[TruthInTelevision inspired in a true story]]: actress Patty Duke got the same role in a similar way.
* The FiveManBand of ''DetectiveAcademyQ'' are also sent to a remote island which was supposedly the site of a gruesome series of unsolved murders. Again, the inevitable occurs. [[spoiler: But nobody ''truly'' died: it was a Test of Character coming from their seniors, who ''faked'' their deaths to see if the band was tough enough. They realized it and counterattacked by setting up a fake attack from the "murderers", who admitted their plan.]]
* BlackButler has a manga [[spoiler: arc that plays with this trope, fittingly called the "Phantomhive Manor Murders Arc."]]

* The GenreSavvy title character of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' is invited, along with the rest of the FiveManBand, to a small remote island which seems perfect for a murder mystery setting, and despite there not being any suspicious people present, Haruhi tries predicting the first murder victim and the murderer's identity. Then her best candidate for murderer turns up dead. [[spoiler:It turns out to be a game put on by Koizumi's organisation, who are even ''more'' GenreSavvy than Haruhi and provided her with the murder mystery she desired so that her god-powers didn't kick in and create a ''real'' murder mystery]].

* In the Michael Douglas movie, ''Film/TheGame'' never stopped, either.

* ''DetectiveConan'' episode 57-58 has the characters at a Sherlock Holmes-related gathering, which will end with a mystery to be solved, the prize being a rare Sherlock Holmes book. But when the time for the test approaches, the owner's car drives him off the edge of a cliff. The body is unrecoverable. [[spoiler:This is actually an ''aversion''. It's a real murder, and no character ever suspects that it's just a test (although some think that the owner is alive but that other murders are real). The fact that the body is not recoverable is important to the mystery in a different way, not as a sign that he's not really dead.]]

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty'', Raiden is performing a complicated operation with the goal of rescuing the president from terrorists. As the story progresses, he realises the operation is actually a very complicated training exercise-cum-social experiment by an organisation called The Patriots, with only Solid Snake's presence as an unplanned-for element. In the final scene of the game, we overhear a conversation between Snake and Otacon in which Otacon reveals that their biggest contributor shares a name with a member of The Patriots, implying their involvement was part of the simulation after all.

** [[WrongGenreSavvy Clearly, it was one of us.]]
** [[GenreSavvy Or the guests were.]]

* Subverted in Joan Hess's ''Murder at the Murder at the Mimosa Inn'', in which the designated murder victim of a mystery game is KilledOffForReal. This trope is invoked by a minor character who assumes it's yet another contrived plot twist, at least until the real cops show up.

* An episode of ''StargateSG1'' had a group of four trainees taking part in a training exercise to see if they could qualify to be part of an SG team. Just as they believe they've failed, they are suddenly embroiled in an Goa'uld plot where the Goa'uld have infiltrated the SGC. However, it turns out that "foiling" this plot was the true exercise, as was the sudden Stargate malfunction that takes place at the end.

* ''{{Existenz}}'' pulls this off too [[spoiler: possibly up to four times over the course of the movie, with the cast pointing guns at each other and wondering if they were still inside the game.]]

The cast is put in VR to gauge their reactions to a variety of tests as part of a trial; Rimmer starts screwing with the VR to hide his own guilt, causing it to break down. Only it didn't break down, Rimmer was in VR with them the whole time. Amusingly, their actions prove their innocence, but rev]]

* Done during the start of series 8 of ''Series/RedDwarf.'' [[spoiler: The cast is put in VR to gauge their reactions to a variety of tests as part of a trial; Rimmer starts screwing with the VR to hide his own guilt, causing it to break down. Only it didn't break down, Rimmer was in VR with them the whole time. Amusingly, their actions prove their innocence, but they commit whole new crimes getting out that have the same sentence.]]

* The GenreSavvy title character of ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' is invited, along with the rest of the FiveManBand, to a small remote island which seems perfect for a murder mystery setting, and despite there not being any suspicious people present, Haruhi tries predicting the first murder victim and the murderer's identity. Then her best candidate for murderer turns up dead. [[spoiler: But not really..]]