Bag of Holding: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

A specific portable item which is [[Bigger on the Inside]] than it is on the outside. Much bigger. It may not look it, but that's because it contains [[Hammerspace]]. Because the holding capacity of the bag comes from internal [[Hammerspace]], a thoroughly-packed '''Bag of Holding''' will weigh no more than a full normal bag. Odds are, it will weigh no more than an ''empty'' normal bag.

Because of the sheer amount of goods you can store in one, trying to find something specific usually results in a [[Rummage Fail]].

 

 

A [[Portable Hole]] is a similar device. In universes where the two coexist, it's never a good idea for them to intermingle (i.e. [[Divide by Zero|don't put the portable hole in the bag of holding...]])

 

For an entire room or building that is [[Bigger on the Inside]], see that.

{{examples}}

 

* ''[[Dennou Coil]]'', in spades. Makes sense when half the things in the world are VR superimposed on the world and only visible through cyber-glasses. No tactile feedback, though—at one point the main character wishes she could feel her virtual dog's fur. Presumably they've just gotten used to acting as if the VR constructs were actually present for convenience of use. That virtual keyboard is going to be useless if you can't get used to poking the same relative location for the Enter key.

* In Part 5 of ''[[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure]]'', the heroes eventually get a hold of a turtle with a stand called Mr. President, which causes its shell to become a Bag of Holding. It's even stocked with a fridge and a functional bathroom, which is a source of confusion for more than one of the heroes, who wonders where everything goes.

* In ''[[Pokémon Special]]'', it is shown that props and accessories are kept in capsules, which is how they fit in a prop case.

 

** In the final volume, it's revealed to be a gateway into her head too, as Scott enters the bag to find not only Ramona, but a gigantic Gideon Graves holding her captive, as well.

* [[Marvel Comics]]: There was a period where Hank Pym of the Avengers wore a trench coat that acted as a Bag of Holding because he had used "Pym Particles" (the same ones previously used to make him into Ant-Man/Giant Man/Yellowjacket) to shrink all manner of useful gadgets so that they fit in his pockets.

{{quote|"You know, what you should have asked is why I would bother to shrink these things in the first place." ::clocks the villain with a ''sledgehammer'' that he grows back to normal size as he swings it::}}

** It was also revealed to be a bad idea to ''turn it inside-out''.

* ''Savant Garde''. A ''WILDC.A.T.S.'' spin-off title. The main character has a less malicious bag of holding. Which is a blessing when you are a bibliophile archeologist.

** The idea was later expanded into the concept of "Bag Wurld". A certain percentage of "large capacity storage items" do not open onto individual storage spaces, but onto an otherdimensional planet, where items from individual bags and devices rest in "Bag Zones" separated by many miles. Once a character is aware of this, the option is available to enter a bag and travel to other Bag Zones for various purposes (most often theft of other bag holders' property, but at least one recurring antagonist was established to be using travel via bag as an escape route, and in fact had built his own hideaway within Bag Wurld). Another twist is that the usual dimensional-explodey badness does not happen when you put one Bag Wurld-connected item inside another; while the storage item placed inside is destroyed (and its Bag Zone is disconnected permanently), the other bag and all other Bag Wurld-connected bags have their Bag Zones shuffled. (The good news? Your stuff isn't "lost" as in "destroyed for all time". The bad news? It ''is'' "lost" as in "million-to-one odds of ever finding said stuff again".)

* Disney character Eega Beeva wears a skirted garment which contains an incredible number of objects, often ''huge'' objects. The problem is finding ''useful'' objects in a reasonable amount of time. Usually, he manages to find what he's looking for, but [[Rummage Fail|only after extracting refrigerators, truck tires, furniture and other big and useless stuff]].

* [[Incredible Hulk|Bruce Banner]] built himself one of these, though unusually for this trope, it actually connects to his lab in the same dimension. [[Incredible Hercules|Amadeus Cho]] once defeated an [[Eldritch Abomination]] by stuffing it inside. Since this meant said abomination was now running around his lab, Banner was annoyed.

* ''Snarfquest'' a comic strip in the old ''Dragon'' Magazine had a moment when the hero, Snarf, wanted to impress a robot from outer space by showing him the revolver pistol he got. Although that obviously would not have impressed the robot, the machine was astounded to see him search his magic pack of holding (essentially a medieval fanny pack) for the gun until he literally climbed into it.

 

* George's “closet” in ''[[With Strings Attached]]''. He can store stuff in some unfathomable limbo by holding a thing and changing into himself not holding it, then retrieve it by changing into himself holding it. So far he can put anything in there that he can actually lift, though he hasn't dared try it with a living creature more complex than a plant.

* The Hypercube (a small Rubik's Cube) in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]''.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* [[Marx Brothers|Harpo Marx]] often pulled impossibly large and numerous objects out of his coat pockets. This was most likely the inspiration for Wakko Warner, the Doctor, and probably most of the more comical examples listed herein. Unlike most examples of this trope, Harpo initially developed this as a gag for ''live performances on stage''.

* In ''The Mask'', Jim Carrey's character Stanley Ipkiss is searched by cops while wearing the titular magical artifact, and they find an impossibly huge stash of items in his trouser pockets, including (but not limited to) a bazooka, a bowling pin, giant sunglasses, [[Crowning Moment of Funny|and a picture of Lt. Callaway's wife.]]

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** And in a similar vein, the Weasleys own a pup tent that is the size of a 3 bedroom apartment on the inside.

** And a true Gryffindor may pull Godric Gryffindor's sword out of the ''Sorting Hat''. You know, the hat sized to fit on 11-year-olds' heads? (Granted, it is not confirmed if they are actually pulling it from the hat, or from wherever it is when it isn't in use.)

* In Donita K. Paul's ''[[Dragon Keeper Chronicles]]'', Kale's moonbeam cloak has pockets like this.

* Nakor from Raymond E. Feist's ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'' has an empty Bag of Holding which seems to contain infinite oranges. It's actually a regular sack with a portable rift hidden inside it, with the other end located in an orange storeroom.

** Later comments suggest the other end of the portal is just above a fruit merchant's stand.

** Kit has learned the trick of opening his up inside of his pocket, allowing him to retrieve and store objects even while in the presence of [[Muggles]].

** The series combines a room sized version of Bag of Holding with [[Portable Hole]] to get wizardly "pup tents": slap the pup tent up against the nearest convenient wall and it turns into a doorway to your own personal-and-portable bedroom. Or, in a pinch, use magic to hang it off of thin air.

* In ''[[Fablehaven]]'''s fourth book, Kendra gets a knapsack that has an entire storage room inside of it.

* In ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'', Mappo Runt was given a bag with an entire warren inside of it by the shoulderwomen of his tribe.

* A variant of this is given to Gurgi at the end of ''The Book of Three'', the first book of the [[Prydain Chronicles]]. His wallet holds an infinite supply of food, which magically restocks itself.

 

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor has pulled objects out of his pockets which, even if they fit, would have been clearly present by ruining the lines of his suit. This is [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the Doctor's pockets being bigger on the inside, a common feature of Time Lord technology.

* This trope is common in commercials as well, most often used to indicate how spacious a car's interior is, how comprehensive a store's inventory is (most often by a woman pulling more stuff out of one shopping bag than it could possibly hold), or how portable and advanced a piece of technology is (the recent General Electric ad with the doctor in India.)

* ''[[All That]]'' had the recurring character Baggin' Saggin' Barry who could produce at will almost anything a person asked for from his pants. At one point that included an airplane after missing his flight because he kept setting off the metal detector.

* Chris from ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]'' speculates this is what his mother's purse must be like.

*pulls identical purse out of purse* }}

* ''[[The Friendly Giant]]'' - Rusty the Rooster not only kept his stuff in one of these, but lived there as well.

* Jerry in ''[[Parker Lewis Can't Lose]]'' owned a trenchcoat from which he could instantly extract any needed item, to the accompaniment of ripping Velcro.

** Likewise [[The Rival|Kamen Rider Diend]]'s card holder, which is smaller and much less fancy.<ref>As well as being a [[Prop Recycling|Recycled Prop]] from ''[[Kamen Rider Den-O]]''</ref> It's implied that Decade and Diend both dip into the same "well", explaining why Diend only uses primary Riders after Decade has unlocked them.

* Dave's red hat on ''[[Imagination Movers]]''

* On ''[[How I Met Your Mother]]'' Robin is the designated "vice girl" at funerals, carrying a bag with every form of intoxicant or other carnal delight the mourners might need to handle their grief. The bag's ''so'' well stocked that it becomes a cross between this trope and [[Crazy Prepared]]; if she's even able to produce a copy of ''[[Crocodile Dundee]] 3'' on demand, what all else must she have in there?

* In ''[[Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger]]'', the titular pirates have belt buckles that store their [[Transformation Trinket|Ranger Keys]]. Despite being no bigger than a pack of cards, it seems to hold an infinite number of keys and will eject them if the Gokaiger in question doesn't have a free hand.<ref>Best demonstrated in Episode 4, where Gokai Blue is [[Dual-Wielding|quintuple-wielding swords]] and his buckle ejects five keys for a [[Finishing Move]]</ref> One episode shows that the buckles are linked to the treasure chest that holds all the keys normally and resides on the Gokaigers' home ship, as well as demonstrating the process by which a buckle is linked to the chest (done for the just-recently-joined [[Sixth Ranger]]).

 

* [[Santa Claus]] carries his toys and other gifts in one of these, naturally.

* [[Older Than Print]]: [[Celtic Mythology]] has a couple:

** There's the crane bag of Aoife, owned by Manannan Mac Lir. In one story ("Manannan at Play"), he pulls out of it a long string of silk, a hare, a dog, [[Fridge Horror|a boy, and a woman]]; and you can figure out happens next.

** In the ''[[Mabinogion]]'' the crafty Rhiannon uses a what is specifically described a small bag to trick her unwanted suitor, Gwawl. It holds an entire feast's worth of food without being full and when he puts both feet into it, Gwawl himself, with enough space to tie the bag closed over his head.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

** Actually, there is no limit on the number of times you can recurse with a Bag of Holding. You just have to [[Rummage Fail|search all of them]].

** This is taken to its (il)logical extreme with the legend, told in ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'', of a kender ''founding a city'' in his Bag of Holding.

*** Here's a fun trick - slap a Portable Hole onto something living, like a dragon... horrors of falling entrails aside, then throw in said Bag of Holding. Can you say, "[[Memetic Mutation|divided by zero]]?"

*** An alternative version of the portable hole has been changed in the latest edition. It's a five-foot circle of fabric that, when you place it against a flat surface, it instantly makes a five-foot deep hole through that surface. (This means that if it's less than 5' thick, it's open on the other end.) Anyone can grab an edge (from either side, if it's open on both) and pull it off, as long as the hole is empty at the time. It's no longer an infinite-storage item, now you can pull stunts that would make Wile E. Coyote proud.

** ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' produces stats and story for a magic item in every edition. One such item is a variant of the Bag of Holding, a hat which contains a home of varying size and quality on the inside. The rim expands to allow people to enter, and the inside can be anything from a comfortable, one room apartment to an immense manor house.

** A fairly low-level spell in Edition 2 was Deeppockets, which temporarily enchanted a wizard's robe with a large number of pockets so that they became miniature bags of holding. No matter how many pockets it had, the robe as a whole could hold no more than 100 pounds and 5 cubic feet, but it weighed only ''10'' pounds, and the pockets didn't bulge at all.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** In his appearances in ''[[Super Smash Brothers]]'' and ''[[Soul Calibur]]'', he's shown pulling the items from his hat (or that general area).

* ''[[Diablo]] II'' goes even further with the Horadric Cube, which takes up four inventory spaces, but holds twelve spaces worth of stuff.

* The [[Everything's Better with Penguins|Prinnies]] of the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series all wear fanny packs in which they store their various weaponry (Dual swords, bombs, and a magical, beam shooting skull). The Prinny forms of some characters keep other things in it, like Kurtis, who keeps [[Rocket Punch|rocket fists]] in his, and Asagi, who keeps an entire arsenal of heavy-duty weaponry including a rocket launcher, gatling gun, and flamethrower in hers.

{{quote|"That's the second biggest duck I've ever had in my pants!"}}

* In ''[[Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga]]'', the [[Super Mario Bros.|titular plumbers]] store everything they collect in a suitcase given to them by Toadsworth. The sequel also utilizes a suitcase, though this particular one is an anthropomorphic suitcase named Stuffwell, created by [[Mad Scientist|E. Gadd]]. The third game features the Star Menu, which the characters use to hold their things via Starlow.

** It gets stranger when "team leader" Flay wants to speak with Muppy who has apparently gone off to some nearby hills. Jess reaches into her bag and somehow pulls Muppy out of it.

* Clank in ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' somehow shrinks things and stores them in his abdomen. It's been speculated that this is how Ratchet carries around all his weapons.

** You can also fill a foot-wide desk drawer with enough guns, armor and ammo to equip an army. Unlike in the first two games, containers have no upper limit.

* Gasald's sack in ''[[The Game of the Ages]]'' is big enough to carry the entire nearby cave. The character's counterpart in the source novel had an entire world in his sack.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

{{quote|'''Karn''': We'll use...'''[[Mundane Made Awesome|THE BAG!]]'''}}

* Gertrude & Brunhilda of ''[[The KAMics]]'' have magical bags of holding inside their helmets.

** Red Mage also had a [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/10/19/episode-205-superstring-summoning-and-you/ hypercube] (which looks like a sphere) capable of storing [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2002/10/22/episode-206-dont-stand-next-to-spatial-anomalies/ an entire armoire] within itself.

* In ''[[WTF Comics|WTC Comics]]'' characters will occasionally reach into what appears to be an ordinary bag, sometimes going shoulder deep into it, and pull out something large. Like in once scene where the groups warrior, Straha, pulls a huge warhammer out of a small bag.

* Kiran from ''[[Chirault]]'' is in possession of such a bag.

* When Natasha Wing from ''[[Electric Wonderland]]'' graduated college, her parents gave her a cardboard box with an unlimited capacity. She put all of her furniture in the box when moving out of the dorm, [[Awesome but Impractical|but a truck ran over it as she exited.]]

* ''[[Homestuck]]'' features "captchalogue" cards, which in practice work like this. They are small enough to fit inside a wallet, yet can contain a whole ''car'' or ''ten tons of pipe tobacco''.

** They also come in many different forms, with different carrying capacities and methods of retrieving items. They [[Hyperspace Arsenal|can be weaponized]] and [[Inventory Management Puzzle|may have some parameters for storage]]. Really it all depends on how many captchalogue cards you have and how much each one is allowed to hold.

* ''[[DM of the Rings]]'' mentions it [http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=984 here]:

{{quote|'''Gimli:''' I'm just saying... You don't have a backpack. What you have there is an invisible leather TARDIS.}}

* [[Flipside|Maytag]] carries a purse with her that holds several items you wouldn't normally fit into a single purse. We're never told where she keeps the purse itself, but the one time Bern starts thinking about it, she's visibly freaked out.

* In ''[[Wapsi Square]]'', there exists one of these inside [http://wapsisquare.com/comic/timetogetup/ Bud's torso.]

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* The [[Whateley Universe]] has loads. Whether it be through technological means; magical means; mutant powers to expand the insides of stuff, or shrink things to fit more in regular bags; or having sponsors who are awesome Chinese trickster gods; between bags, utility belts, pockets, cars, rooms, or simple [[Hammerspace]], loads of characters have more holdouts and hidden gear of their own than the average platoon of soldiers.

* Sam G in ''[[Avatar Adventures]]'' has one of these. [[Rule of Cool|It has a much cooler name, though.]]

* There are several of these in the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]''. The "bag o' tricks" wielded by Chuckles the Happy Clown contained anything that Chuckles could imagine... but only if it was funny. The mutant wanderer known as "Pockets" could literally turn any pocket on any piece of clothing he was wearing into one of these (and more... at least once, he kept an entire alternate dimension in one of his coat pockets). Doctor Ka's [[Cool House|mansion]] technically counts as one of these, being much, much bigger on the inside than on the outside.

* The party in ''[[Critical Hit (podcast)|Critical Hit]]'' have a Handy Haversack to share their stuff between them.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Dora the Explorer]]'': "Backpack, Backpack!"

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda (animation)|The Legend of Zelda]]'', Link is explicitly shown to have a pouch of this nature on his belt; items shrink when placed in the bag and grow to normal once removed.

* Merlin, in Disney's ''[[The Sword in the Stone]],'' packs everything in his cottage into a single suitcase [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hfahp4J_-_o by shrinking it down]. In this case, he also has a ''Cottage'' of holding, since the stuff that he has, once unpacked, would take up far more space than his cottage would allow. But of course, [[A Wizard Did It]].

* [[Castlevania|Simon Belmont]]'s backpack in ''[[Captain N: The Game Master]]''.

* In ''[[Animaniacs]]'', Wakko explicitly has one of these, referred to in the show as his 'Gag Bag'.

* ''[[Felix the Cat]]'' had one in one of his incarnations.

** Specifically, it was the 1950s TV incarnation, which was later used for [[The Movie]].

* In ''The Super [[Harlem Globetrotters|Globetrotters]]'', Gizmo had an "afro of holding".

* Hamilton's box on ''Maggie and the Ferocious Beast''. Not only is it Hamilton's home, he also seems to be able to pull out of it just about anything that he, Maggie or the Ferocious Beast need.

* In ''[[Wakfu]]'', Ruel's Havresac is big enough to accommodate whole [[Five-Man Band]], with room to spare.

* In ''[[Drawn Together]]'', Wooldor Sockbat does a literal [[Ass Pull]], producing items from his rectum.

* In ''The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That'', The Cat in the Hat often uses his hat as one.

* Batman's utility belt seems to function as a Bag of Holding in the [[DCAU]]. When Luthor manages to open it in "Injustice For All", the Batarangs and other gadgets that spill out of of the belt are far larger than any of the pouches could possibly contain.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* ThinkGeek.com's aptly named [http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/bags/aaa5/ Bag of Holding]. It is ''actually'' bigger on the inside! {{spoiler|In that when fully loaded it can contain up to 16" x 13.5" x 8" but when empty and folded in half it is roughly 8" x 13.5" x 2".}}

* There are any number of "As Seen On TV!"-type ads that ''want'' you to believe that this is true of their products.

** Possibly true for vacuum-sealing procedures (such as Space Bag, assuming it works). But that involves the actual process of compressing it down, then returning it to normal.

* As noted above, a [[wikipedia:Klein bottle|Klein bottle]] has no distinct "in" and "out" sides, so basically everything is inside it. Doesn't mean it's easy to retrieve, though.

* Women's purses manage to contain an improbable volume of [[Crazy Prepared|seemingly-incongruent-yet-oddly-practical]] clutter, as noted by male and female comedians and humorists.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Hyperspace Index]]

[[Category:Video Game Items and Inventory]]

[[Category:Hammerspace]]

[[Category:Tabletop Game Tropes]]

[[Category:CRPG Tropes]]

[[Category:Magic Items Index]]