Line #2 Main/EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace


1	->''"...what the fuck? Who are ''you''?! NO! I DON'T WANNA BE A SCHIZOPHRENIC!"''
2	-->-- '''[[VideoGame/HalfLife Gordon Freeman]]''', ''WebVideo/FreemansMind'', episode 3
3
4	Good morning, ''[[HelloInsertNameHere [Insert Name Here[=]=]]]!'' [[YouWakeUpInARoom You wake up]] bright, early and refreshed in...hmm. Where ''[[OntologicalMystery are]]'' you? [[LaserGuidedAmnesia You can't quite recall much of anything,]] but judging by the decor, you might be tempted to call it [[AbandonedHospital a woefully understaffed hospital of some kind]]. Maybe you're here for your own good, what with your amnesia and all. At any rate, [[TemptingFate surely it can't hurt to look for some answers?]]
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6	You step out of the prominently-marked Quarantine Room and decide to take a stroll around. Something's not quite right about this place. [[RoomFullOfCrazy There's cryptic writing on the walls]] [[CouldntFindAPen in what looks like blood,]] [[EverybodysDeadDave the halls are strewn with corpses]], the only other people you find are either [[AxCrazy trying to kill everybody else]] or getting slaughtered, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking your phone can't get a signal]], and the people in charge are either [[TheNeidermeyer completely out of touch with reality,]] [[PointyHairedBoss utterly incompetent]], or helpless to fix a situation [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone horribly]], [[FromBadToWorse horribly out of control]].
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8	[[BodyHorror And why]] is the [[EvilHand back of your hand]] demanding you [[HorrorHunger feed it human lungs]]?
9
10	Welcome to the Crazy Place, my friend. It's your job to escape from it.
11
12	An Escape From The Crazy Place ensues when you have a protagonist trapped in a bottled WorldGoneMad: it might be a hospital suffering an outbreak of the HatePlague, [[RunningTheAsylum an insane asylum taken over by its own inmates]], an underground CityInABottle, a spaceship [[ZombieApocalypse under attack by zombifying parasites]] or generally any setting where a once-orderly (and sealed-off) environment has fallen completely into chaos and the protagonist, who is (or has good reason to believe themselves to be) the OnlySaneMan, is tasked with escaping (usually with the lingering risk of releasing the craziness upon the world at large in the process). Frequently, the protagonist finds fellow survivors; less frequently do these escape, let alone remain sane. Worst-case scenario, [[EvilVersusEvil everyone is out for themselves,]] [[HumansAreBastards and the depths of depravity will be plumbed as the survivors eat each other.]] [[ImAHumanitarian Possibly literally.]]
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14	The Escape from the Crazy Place is an effective {{horror}} setting, but it can also be played for laughs.
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16	A SubTrope of ClosedCircle. For the post-apocalyptic variant, compare CityInABottle. Compare EscapedFromTheLab.
17
18	----
19	!!Examples:
20	[[foldercontrol]]
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22	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
23	* ''Anime/GregoryHorrorShow'' starts off with an everyman lost in the woods who happens upon a mysterious hotel in the middle of nowhere; he gets not only a room for the night, but the experience of his life as he tries to escape from Gregory House ([[Series/{{House}} not that one]]) and all its crazy inhabitants. [[spoiler:In the end, he confronts his own feelings and manages to escape... only for him to realize how crushingly dull his life is and return to the House, not as its prisoner but as its willing guest.]] The second season has a woman going through much the same ordeal, [[spoiler:[[DownerEnding but instead of solving her personal problems and escaping, she is consumed by them and becomes a permanent resident]]]].
24	* The ''Manga/KingOfBanditJing'' story arc "Seventh Heaven" has the eponymous King of Bandits ''intentionally'' landing himself in the titular maximum-security prison in order to steal a treasure created by the legendary magician Campari, one of Seventh Heaven's many inmates. Of course, said treasure has the power to bridge the real and dream worlds, and Jing ends up dealing with man-eating mice, the AxCrazy mirror halves of a "saw a man in half" trick gone horribly wrong, and a giant dodo who learns to fly before discovering the tragic truth about Campari and freeing him from his prison, both mental and physical.
25	[[/folder]]
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27	[[folder:Fan Works]]
28	* ''Fanfic/{{Bird}}'': The climax of the Alchemilla Asylum arc invokes this, as Faultline's mercenary band causes a cascade failure in the security system, releasing several dangerous patients. Taylor and her friends use the opportunity to escape in the chaos.
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31	[[folder:Literature]]
32	* In the ''Literature/TimeScout'' series, most downtimers who end up on Shangri La either want to go home or go crazy. Only UsefulNotes/JackTheRipper would dream of going uptime to the present and ruling as a god.
33	* ''Literature/TheWitchOfKnightcharm'': Multiple students try to run away after arriving at Myth/TheScholomance, the evil WizardingSchool where most of the plot is set. They don't get far before they're killed. The protagonist Emily also wants to escape eventually, but she has some tasks to take care of there first.
34	[[/folder]]
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36	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
37	* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'': He is not a number; he is a free man, but the people at the [[GildedCage glorified madhouse]] called the Village seem to think otherwise. "[[YouAreNumberSix Number 6]]" is forced into their service as an operative, all the while trying to escape; things come to a head in the GrandFinale, [[spoiler:in which the minions of the Village gather together to hold a grand celebration ostensibly to honor his achievements, but when the mindless goons begin repeating his words over and over, Number 6 snaps and a glorious GainaxEnding ensues where he discovers that the mysterious Number 1 is himself in an ape mask and shoots his way out with two fellow prisoners [[SoundtrackDissonance to the tune of]] Music/TheBeatles' "All You Need Is Love"]].
38	* ''Series/TowerPrep'' has been described as "''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' [[JustForFun/XMeetsY meets]] ''ComicBook/XMen''".
39	* In ''Series/BeyondTheWalls'', Lisa and Julien have to try to find the red door to leave the house. This sounds a ''lot'' easier than it actually is, as that door might not be real and can only be found by correctly interpreting a specific poem.
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42	[[folder:Toys]]
43	* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}} Legends 2: Dark Destiny'' sees Jaller and his team of six stumble upon the forgotten land of Karzahni, ''BIONICLE'''s metaphorical version of Hell, which is actually a valley in a dried-up sea where things work backwards (ice is hot, fire is cold, waterfalls contain only dust, gentle breezes produce loud thunderclaps, and sitting on a rock for too long gets you TakenForGranite while the rock becomes a sessile organism capable of screaming when walked upon), inhabited by physically and mentally unwell villagers who've been stuck there for a hundred thousand years, and ruled by the tyrant Karzahni, who {{mind rape}}s people into obedience by using his [[MaskOfPower Kanohi Olisi]] to project horrible [[WhatIf visions of]] [[MultipleChoiceFuture alternate futures]]. (Millennia ago, villagers who worked poorly were sent here to be healed, but Karzahni couldn't seem to do it well, and after some time spent deforming them and then sending them to the Southern Continent, eventually he started punishing the villagers instead.) Their only way out is distracting Karzahni by trapping him in his own vision which [[IgnorantOfTheirOwnIgnorance makes him aware]] of TheOutsideWorld, then hopping into six Toa-carrier canisters [[{{Intangibility}} that can phase through rock]], after being told by the canisters' crazed inventor that riding in them is deadly to anyone not a Toa. Jaller and company of course survive BecauseDestinySaysSo.
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46	[[folder:Video Games]]
47	* ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'' has this trope nested in itself several times.
48	** It begins with the Nameless One [[WakingUpAtTheMorgue waking up in a morgue]] manned by some very disturbing and morbid characters who are aided by pitiful zombies.
49	** During the course of one playthrough, the Nameless One will also escape from: a nation of the undead; a slum of insane folks (by following worshipers of chaos through a painted door); a fake "dungeon" made by mechanical beings running a psychological experiment on dungeon crawling adventurers; a nonsensical maze containing a deadly witch; a town whose AlwaysChaoticEvil residents are sending it into an EpiphanicPrison because of their ChronicBackStabbingDisorder; Hell; and a fortress filled with furious shades. This list is not exhaustive.
50	* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'':
51	** The first ''VideoGame/Portal1'' puts the player in control of a woman named Chell with no past, no personality, and no way forward except to do as the [[AIIsACrapshoot crazed computer]] running the so-called [[MaximumFunChamber "Enrichment Center"]] commands. This involves running through death courses armed with only your wits and an unorthodox {{BFG}} which makes holes in the fabric of space-time that you can use in new and interesting ways. [[spoiler:Eventually, the computer tries to kill you, and you make a bid for freedom through a part of the Center you were never supposed to see, destroying the computer and finally escaping... [[SubvertedTrope only to be dragged right back into Aperture Science, while the credits song reveals that the computer is Still Alive]].]]
52	** The trope is used again in ''VideoGame/Portal2''. It should be a lot easier to escape now that [[spoiler:the Enrichment Center is in ruins]], [[TemptingFate right]]? Well, guess who wakes up [=GLaDOS=]? [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job breaking it, hero.]] However, at the end of the game [[spoiler:[=GLaDOS=] actually ''lets you go.'']] This actually counts as a TwistEnding, considering the atmosphere of the game.
53	* Henry Townshend of ''VideoGame/SilentHill4'' is one of the rare non-amnesiac cases; in fact, unlike many examples, he's actually ''trapped in his own room'', with the major mystery being the circumstances of his imprisonment. His front door is chained up and no one can hear him. The only way out is a hole in his bathroom, which leads him to a nightmarish mirror world populated by monsters: there are others trapped like this, but despite his best efforts, they all meet a gruesome end at the hands of the serial killer Walter Sullivan. [[spoiler: Eventually, it is revealed that Walter Sullivan killed himself in prison, [[ThanatosGambit but not before completing the first half of a grisly ritual]] [[DeityOfHumanOrigin that has turned him into a sociopathic demigod]]; he is in the process of completing his transformation through a second round of killings, and Henry and his love interest are marked for death unless they can stop him.]]
54	* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilOutbreak'' and its sequel are another non-amnesiac case. The eight playable survivors find themselves trapped in some part of Raccoon City when the zombie outbreak struck, and they must cooperate to find some means of getting out to safety. Available locations include a bar, an Umbrella lab, a hospital, a university, the city zoo, and a subway.
55	* The ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games have an introductory cutscene and that tutorial/choice thing, respectively, but the player barely knows anything and for that matter the characters are pretty clueless too, when the game starts. It fits the trope pretty well. Strictly speaking, you're not trying to escape in ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', as there's nowhere to escape ''to'' if you don't fix up the FTL ship.
56	* ''VideoGame/BioShock1'' plays a lot like this in the beginning of the game with Jack seeking the nearest refuge from a plane crash and ending up in Rapture, a city overrun with psychopaths and corruption. The first third of the game is his attempt to escape to the surface with the mysterious Atlas. He still is trying to escape the place throughout the rest of the game but has some unfinished business before he leaves it behind.
57	* ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber'' details a game describing the events of a girl who has just woken up on a space station that's missing its crew and has a weird habit of shifting into a DarkWorld. Your goal is to discover what is going on, where everyone is, and why you seem to be unable to remember how you got here.
58	* ''VideoGame/LimboOfTheLost'' begins with the main character Benjamin Briggs awakening in a cell with a crazy man hanging from the ceiling as company, and has to escape. Most players will likely be clamouring to escape their own little Crazy Place with Alt-F4 about five minutes later.
59	* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'': You wake up in insane asylum, things get worse.
60	* ''VideoGame/CorpseParty'': A handful of students wind up in another dimension where a haunted school exists, they need to escape, and survive.
61	* ''VideoGame/TheBrightInTheScreen''. ''Having trouble finding yourself?... There you are! Continue to the right. [[BrickJoke Mind]] the [[ButThouMust gap]].''
62	-->''[[MissionControlIsOffItsMeds TRUST ME AND EVERYTHING WILL BE FINE]]\
63	I AM A GOOD PERSON''
64	* In ''VideoGame/UnrealI'', you spend the game trying to get of a deadly planet after a prison ship crash. Then, you have to do it all over again in the expansion pack...
65	* {{Subverted\|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' in that Batman isn't trying to escape from the crazy place (though he is trying to ''stop'' the craziness that engulfed it), but is still in one.
66	* In ''VideoGame/{{Outlast}}'', at first you go in to investigate the Asylum, but discover it's filled with crazed monsters, and now have to escape it.
67	* The player character in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' wakes up in Peragus II, a mining facility where all the staff were massacred by their own droids, and the mastermind who planned it lies in waiting.
68	* Present in both of Team Psykskallar's major games.
69	** In ''VideoGame/AfraidOfMonsters'', David Leatherhoff wakes in a dark, monster-infested hospital and has to get out. Unfortunately, the city outside isn't much better...
70	** In ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'', Simon Henriksson wakes in an empty Stockholm. All he wants to do is get home, but his path leads him through several crazy places he must escape from: an unholy apartment complex, the city's subway station, a dark forest, and an asylum populated by axe-wielding psychopaths. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, it's all in his poor, crazy head.]]
71	* ''VideoGame/TwelveThirteen'' stars yet another amnesiac protagonist in a hostile hospital environment full of monsters and madmen. [[spoiler:The twist: the protagonist is not entirely normal himself, and there's a secret the people in charge are keeping that turns the entire situation on its head.]]
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74	[[folder:Webcomics]]
75	* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' had this in '28 Geeks Later'.
76	* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'' dabbles at this with Gabriel and the ''White Diamond Crisis''.
77	* ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'': Fern's ultimate goal, after finding her son of course.
78	* ''Webcomic/{{Jailbreak}}'' starts out like this, causing a [[FollowTheLeader spawn of fan adventures]] to adopt the general idea. The OntologicalMystery of the mental hospital is an extremely easy setting to pull off, though, which means most of the fanworks are, uh, uneven in quality.
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81	[[folder:Web Original]]
82	* The {{Trope Namer\|s}} is the Literature/ChooseYourOwnAdventure ''[[http://jjguest.com/ESCAPE/INDEX.HTML Escape From The Crazy Place]]'' by J. J. Guest. The protagonist starts off in a padded room with a clown named [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Donald McRonald]]; wacky hijinks and dadaesque nonsense ensue as the unlikely pair attempt to Escape from the Crazy Place and thwart the efforts of the Bowler Hat Guy to keep them trapped there forever. [[spoiler: The game is technically {{Unwinnable}}, though: there are clues that apparently lead to an ending, but they either lead into each other or are simply red herrings. The author admitted that he couldn't come up with a satisfying finale, so there wasn't one...but exploring everything the Crazy Place has to offer is rewarding in and of itself. That, and as one character subtly hints, you can "escape" any time simply by closing your browser...]]
83	* ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'': [[FunnyAnimal Endearing]], disturbing, heartwrenching, [[GrotesqueCute cute, cuddly, dark and bloody]]. A girl wakes up to find herself in an underwater lab; a boy is imprisoned in the floor below. Employing her wits, she frees the boy, makes a friend, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick and decapitates a zombie]]. This sets the tone for an adventure full of mystery, madness, sweetness and HighPressureBlood. And BodyHorror. Lots and lots of Body Horror. [[spoiler:Stitches (the zombie) is first encountered as a head attached to a bloody, snakelike mess of bones and organs, and his head itself splits open to reveal a gaping maw full of teeth. And Daisy, originally a sweet little puppy-girl, is mutated beyond recognition and serves as the story's first real boss fight.]]
84	* In the ''Podcast/AliceIsntDead'' episode "Alice", when the distressingly mobile VanishingVillage Charlatan insists on reappearing multiple times despite her driving away from it, illustrating a curious GroundhogDayLoop with bonus horrible violations of the laws of physics, the long-haul trucker CharacterNarrator becomes increasingly desperate waiting for the stoplight to change so she can depart. So are the citizens of Charlatan, judging by the weeping elderly man who attempts to escape [[spoiler:by teleporting into the cab of her truck and mutely pointing to the road, only to be locked back into his loop as she leaves for the last time]].
85	[[/folder]]

Context Main / EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace