History Main / TrappedWithMonsterPlot

* The researchers on ''Film/{{Saturn3}}'' see a shuttlecraft / supply ship once every six months. When obsessive psychopath Benson joins them and builds a mind-linked super-robot, the robot downloads Benson's psychoses and begins lusting after nubile Alex. Retreat becomes impossible when the robot destroys the only launch capable craft on their moon.

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E24EmpokNor Empok Nor]]" has a squad from Deep Space 9 trapped aboard its sister station Empok Nor by a unit of Cardassian black ops soldiers left behind in stasis as a booby trap. [[spoiler:There's also a gas in the air that makes Cardassians go crazy, which makes Garak take over he kills the last soldier.]]

-->-- '''The Doctor''', ''Series/DoctorWho'', "Horror of Fang Rock"

* In ''Film/DeepBlueSea'', a group of scientists are trapped inside an underwater research laboratory with three genetically enhanced sharks.

* It's a slightly larger space, but ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' has a similar plot. The residents of a small desert town are menaced by giant {{SandWorm}}s, and must try to survive. They can't easily leave because there is only one road out of town and it has been blocked by the worms and attempting to leave on foot would be suicide.

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* ''Film/TheAbyss'' has a twist- the crew of an experimental seafloor habitat encounter aliens, but these turn out to be benign (ish), and one of their own members is the real threat.

* In ''VideoGame/Mother3 Mother 3'', there is a segment in which your party is locked inside a [[MixAndMatchCritter chimera research]] lab. It's not long before the experiments start getting uncaged, including the lab's magnum opus, the Ultimate Chimera. [[OneHitKill It's not exactly friendly]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/MotherThree Mother 3]]'', there is a segment in which your party is locked inside a [[MixAndMatchCritter chimera research]] lab. It's not long before the experiments start getting uncaged, including the lab's magnum opus, the Ultimate Chimera. [[UnderStatement It's not exactly friendly]].

[[quoteright:300:[[Film/SnakesOnAPlane http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SOAP_poster.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:300:Not always this literal.]]

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[[AC: {{Film}}]]

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]

[[AC: LiveActionTV]]

[[AC: {{Mythology}}]]

[[AC: VideoGames]]

* ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'' traps the eight protagonists with the [[spoiler:Wendigo]] on a frozen mountaintop, in the snowstorm, with the only way down being a cable car that's been moved too far away from the station for them to be able to jump to it, and the key that would activate the cable car missing.

->"Leela, I've made a terrible mistake. I thought I'd locked the enemy out. Instead, I've locked it in. With us."

* ''Film/EventHorizon''- An experimental hyperdrive [[GoneHorriblyWrong goes horribly wrong]].

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E742 42]]"- One of a space freighter's crew is possessed by a sentient star and becomes bent on [[TheVirus spreading its influence]] to the rest. A subplot concerns trying to reach and repair the main engine to get away from said star before the ship falls into it.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]"- In an interesting twist, the vehicle is only the size of a small room, with rescue on the way, but the monster hunts the characters through labyrinths that are psychological rather than physical: it takes them over by [[StopCopyingMe repeating their words]], in a process that [[TheUnreveal is never entirely explained]].
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseOfTheBlackSpot The Curse of the Black Spot]]"- The crew of a becalmed pirate ship is hunted by a siren who targets anyone with an injury or health deficiency.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E8ColdWar Cold War]]"- A Martian Ice Warrior is discovered and thawed by a Soviet nuclear submarine during the '80's. It spends a lot of time hiding in air vents and {{Neck Lift}}ing people, and the rest of the time trying to fire the sub's missiles in a deliberate gambit to start a nuclear war.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E10JourneyToTheCentreOfTheTardis Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS]]"- What starts as a search for Clara, who has gotten lost somewhere in the bowels of a damaged TARDIS, becomes a flight from a handful of burnt zombie-creatures.
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E8MummyOnTheOrientExpress Mummy on the Orient Express]]"- A train, reconstructed for space travel, harbors a mummy-like creature called the Foretold that drains the life from its victims one at a time.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' and its sequel downplay this; you're stuck in a building full of murderous animatronics, but you're willingly in there for a ([[ComicallySmallBribe minimum wage]]) paycheck. The sixth night of the sequel, though, [[spoiler:does this more literally: you missed a memo and weren't supposed to be at the building that night. You're then encouraged to stay there and hold out until the robots shut off at 6 am, rather than try to escape out of there in the dark.]]

* In ''Horror Express'' people are trapped on the Trans-Siberian Express train with a prehistoric monster which was found frozen in ice but has thawed out.

The isolation creates an environment with a lot of potential. There are cubbies, alcoves and storage areas to hide in; corridors to run through; [[AirVentPassageway air vents to sneak through]]; open, communal areas that create the illusion of safety. There is also maintenance equipment that can be used as an ImprovisedWeapon; devices and instruments that can be reconfigured as [[MalevolentArchitecture traps]]. Any of these can be used by the protagonists or the creature in their perpetual game of cat-and-mouse.

The use of a vehicle adds further complications. If operational, is imposes a time limit on the story, as it will (hypothetically) eventually carry everyone to safety; thus, the protagonists in principle need only survive long enough for it to arrive. It not operational, getting it running will be the major goal for at least the first act. This in turn creates an extra level of threat, as the monster can, if unable to reach the protagonists, still screw them over by wrecking their transportation.

Compare SharkPool and FedToTheBeast, where the villain intentionally puts the hero in a confined space with a monster. Often concides with ExploringTheEvilLair. Contrast AloneWithThePsycho.

* In ''Horror Express'' a bunch of people are trapped on the Trans-Siberian Express train with a prehistoric monster which was found frozen in ice but has thawed out.
* The premise of ''[[Film/TheThing1982 John Carpenter's The Thing]]'' is that a polymorphic alien crashed on Earth during the Ice Age, and has been in suspended animation in Antarctica until some Norwegian researchers discovered him. The alien wiped out their compound, and fled to the American base disguised as a sled dog. Given enough time, the alien can mimic any organism it consumes, and the American researchers have nowhere to flee that isn't sub-zero cold.
* The researchers on ''Film/{{Saturn3}}'' see a shuttlecraft / supply ship once every six months. When obsessive psychopath Benson joins them, and builds a mind-linked super-robot, the robot downloads Benson's psychoses and begins lusting after nubile Alex. Retreat becomes impossible when the robot destroys the only launch capable craft on their moon.

* ''Film/{{Predators}}'' features a group of hardened mercenaries and murderers, general scum of the earth, are sent offworld to the hunting grounds of a single Predator who systematically hunts them down.
* In ''Film/Bait3D'', a group of people are trapped in a partially submerged convenience store with two great white sharks after a tsunami has devastated the coastal town.
* In ''Film/DeepBlueSea'', a group of scientists are trapped inside a underwater research laboratorium with three genetically enhanced sharks.

** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]"- In an interesting twist, the vehicle is only the size of a small room, with a rescue on the way toward it, but the monster hunts the characters through labyrinths that are psychological rather than physical: it takes them over by [[StopCopyingMe repeating their words]], in a process that [[TheUnreveal is never entirely explained]].
** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E3TheCurseOfTheBlackSpot The Curse of the Black Spot]]"- The crew of a becalmed pirate ship are hunted by what a siren who targets anyone with an injury or health deficiency.

* The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E24EmpokNor Empok Nor]]" has a squad from Deep Space 9 get trapped aboard its sister station Empok Nor by a unit of Cardassian black ops soldiers left behind in stasis as a booby trap. [[spoiler:There's also a gas in the air that makes Cardassians go crazy, which makes Garak take over where they left off after he kills the last one.]]

* In ''[[VideoGame/MotherThree Mother 3]]'', there is a segment in which your party is locked inside a [[MixAndMatchCritter chimera research]] lab. Its not long before the experiments start getting uncaged, including the lab's magnum opus, the Ultimate Chimera. [[UnderStatement It's not exactly friendly]].

* It's a slightly larger space, but ''Film/{{Tremors}}'' has a similar plot. The residents of a small desert town are menaced by giant {{SandWorm}}s, and must try to survive. They can't easily leave because there is only one road out of town and it has been blocked by the worms.

* In the [[GreekMythology myth of Theseus]], human sacrifices are locked in the Labyrinth where the [[ALoadOfBull Minotaur]] lives.

A basic, now classic, {{horror}} plot which follows the simple formula: Some characters are stuck in a partly constricted space, such as a building or large vehicle of some sort, while menaced by some threat, usually some vicious creature that is hunting them. The cast avoids the threat to the best of their ability while trying to concoct a method of resistance; if initially more than a few people, their number dwindles as they are devoured or otherwise disposed of one after another, until such time as the monster is defeated or they manage to engineer an escape. The essence of the trope is the immediacy of the conflict between characters and their predator, who have no chance to flee or withdraw to form an ideal plan of attack; with every moment, the risk of an encounter is mounting.

The isolation creates an environment with a lot of potential. There are cubbies, alcoves and storage areas to hide in; corridors to run through; air vents to sneak through; open, communal areas that create the illusion of safety. There is also maintenance equipment that can be used as an ImprovisedWeapon; devices and instruments that can be reconfigured as [[MalevolentArchitecture traps]]. Any of these can be used by the protagonists or the creature in their perpetual game of cat-and-mouse.

Compare SharkPool and FedToTheBeast, where the villain intentionally puts the hero in a confined space with a monster. Often concides with ExploringTheEvilLair.

* ''VideoGame/FiveNightAtFreddys'' and its sequel downplay this; you're stuck in a building full of murderous animatronics, but you're willingly in there for a ([[ComicallySmallBribe minimum wage]]) paycheck. The sixth night of the sequel, though, [[spoiler:does this more literally: you missed a memo and weren't supposed to be at the building that night. You're then encouraged to stay there and hold out until the robots shut off at 6 am, rather than try to escape out of there in the dark.]]

* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' is a SurvivalHorror game in the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' franchise with the player character trapped aboard a space station with a xenomorph that killed the entire crew.