History Main / TheOutsideWorld

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': When Link firsts awakens, he is stuck on top of the Great Plateau with no friendly company except for a strange Old Man. He is contacted telepathically by Zelda, who implores him to save Hyrule by defeating Calamity Ganon, but he has no way to safely get down from the Plateau. The Old Man offers to give a Paraglider for that task provided Link goes through several [[MiniDungeon Shrines]]. Only once Link does this, receives a last bit of exposition from the Old Man, and gets the Paraglider can he soar down and begin the quest proper.

* The first act of ''Film/TheIsland2005'' takes place in an underground bunker, inhabited by people who believe the world has been devastated some vague disaster, with their bunker and a paradise-like place called 'The Island' from which no-one ever returns to be the only remaining bastions of human civilisation. The protagonists, Lincoln and Jordan, escape the bunker when they learn that it's a PeopleFarm where the inhabitants are [[WalkingTransplant cloned and harvested for their organs]], and discover that the outside world is fine.

-->-- '''Max''', ''VideoGame/DarkCloud2''

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII''. The inhabitants of Cocoon believe the outside world, Gran Pulse, to be a DeathWorld, and it's inhabitants have formed an army that is ready to invade Cocoon at a moment's notice. Leaving Cocoon is forbidden by law and those suspected of being Pulse l'Cie (in the service of the gods that rule Gran Pulse) are sentenced to exile or execution without trial.
* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud2'' Max's first group of dungeons involves him trying to get to the Outside World. In fact, the entire world outside Palm Brinks is called the Outside World. It is there where the rest of the game takes place.

* Some of the Vaults in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' universe have adopted this mentality:
** ''Videogame/{{Fallout 1}}'' your character is exiled from their home in Vault 13 because the inhabitants fear you've been "contaminated" by the outside world.
** In ''Videogame/{{Fallout 3}}'', the DrunkWithPower Overseer of Vault 101 has forbidden anyone from entering or leaving the vault in order to maintain his power over the inhabitants. TheProtagonist ends up on the Outside anyway, and the reveal of the world is something special for first-time players; a bright blinding light introduces the player to [[CrapsackWorld The Wasteland]].

** The Institute in ''Videogame/{{Fallout 4}}'' live in a technologically advanced underground facility which can only be accessed via [[spoiler: teleportation]], and most of their interactions with the world above are carried out by synths, RidiculouslyHumanRobots which they send to either bully the Commonwealth's inhabitants into giving the Institute advanced technology or using KillAndReplace to infiltrate their communities for the Institute's benefit.

* ''Film/TheVillage'' has the blind protagonist journeying outside world beyond the titular village on a mission to retrieve medicine despite the monsters. [[spoiler:The outside world is actually modern 90s society, and the Elders had only set up the village to appear to be in the 1800s and surrounded by unknown dangers in order to start over and protect their kin from the murders and violence they witnessed in the "real world".]]

* ''WebOriginal/LoomingGaia'': Elska grew up in a small centaur village surrounded by fog and was always told that if someone left it, they'd fall in an endless void. Only after her villagers had been captured by slavers or killed was she forced to leave it and see that there's a whole world outside.

* The first act of ''Film/TheIsland'' takes place in an underground bunker, inhabited by people who believe the world has been devastated some vague disaster, with their bunker and a paradise-like place called 'The Island' from which no-one ever returns to be the only remaining bastions of human civilisation. The protagonists, Lincoln and Jordan, escape the bunker when they learn that it's a PeopleFarm where the inhabitants are [[WalkingTransplant cloned and harvested for their organs]], and discover that the outside world is fine.

* In ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' an old con, having finally been released after serving a long sentence, kills himself when he discovers he can't handle life in world outside prison. Red considers this too after he's released.

** In ''Catching Fire'', Katniss finally gets to really see the other districts on her tour. They are increasingly more privileged the lower the number gets.
** In ''Mockingjay'' Katniss learns that [[spoiler: there is a District 13! She actually gets to go there for the first time, but finds that it is another UndergroundCity.]]

* This is the ultimate destination for Doon Harrow and Lina Mayfleet, recognizing that the limited lifespan of ''Literature/TheCityOfEmber'' is winding down. It's an uphill struggle against Ember's corrupt mayor to navigate the exit sequence engineered by the city's original builders.

A character begins as a member of some commune, or is living in some form of confinement, that has been segregated from the rest of their world. It can be through psychological means, (laws, threats of violence or death, etc.) or physical (walled, domed, buried, locked, ensorcled, etc). Usually, though, it is a SmallSecludedWorld. ThePowersThatBe might confine an entire society for a variety of different reasons, like to make sure that nothing dangerous gets into the community. Or gets out...

* First Comics' ''ComicBook/{{Mars}}'' by Wheatley and Hempel has a team of terraformers in orbit around Mars find that Earth has gone ominously radio silent. They decide to let their robots terraform Mars on automatic, and place themselves in stasis pods for ten thousand years in hopes that Mars will become habitable by then. Good news: Mars has become habitable; bad news: almost the whole planet bears them a grudge as "the gods who abandoned us."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLorax'' has Ted wanting to go to the Outside World to find a real live tree for a girl he likes. However, he finds that [[spoiler:the outside is a really bleak and dark CrapsackWorld.]]

This is one of the most important steps on TheHerosJourney. If it's only reached at the end of a work, EndingByAscending may be involved.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''. The continent of Pandaria has been hidden from the outside world by enchanted mists for millennia, though some restless Pandaren left to explore beyond the mist on a turtle that would eventually become the Wandering Isle. In ''Mists of Pandaria'' the mists lift and the outside world begins coming to Pandaria.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' takes place exclusively underwater, but for a couple episodes in which the characters tentatively go above to dry land. They exhibit apprehension and horror at the thought. It is seen as a place of terror where creatures end up as pets or tourist souvenirs.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' takes place on The Boiling Isles, an archipelago made up of the [[GiantCorpseWorld giant corpse]] of a dead Titan in the middle of an ocean of boiling water. The Boiling Isles appear to be the only land in the Demon Realm, but there are eventually revealed to be uncharted islands far from the Titan [[spoiler:and a whole other landmass on the other side of the world which appears to be made of another Titan's hand, complete with a native population of Witches]].

* Inverted in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'', where one of the big story twists is that the characters were already living in the outside world without knowing it, and they need to return to the "Matoran Universe" to save it. Turns out [[spoiler:[[PhysicalGod their deity Mata Nui]] is a [[HumongousMecha planet-sized robot]], [[GeniusLoci their actual home world]], and their tropical island paradise was just the robot's camouflage that wasn't meant to be inhabited. They evacuated the robot when Mata Nui crashed and lost their memories, with only their Turaga elders guarding their history.]] The final parts of the story explore the outer world in more detail, but the series was CutShort before they found the [[{{Precursors}} Great Beings]] who created the Matoran Universe in the first place.