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{{trope}}
[[File:yolt3.jpg|link=You Only Live Twice
{{quote|'''JGSDF Soldier''': Who are you?
'''Sam Fisher''': I'm the guy who's here to save the world.
'''JGSDF Soldier''': I thought I was the good guy....
'''Sam Fisher''': No, no. You're on the team with the super-secret underground base. I'm the guy breaking into the base. That makes me the good guy.
|''[[Splinter Cell|Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory]]''}}
To maintain [[Plausible Deniability]] and hide from magical TV [[Spy Satellites]], any sufficiently powerful or advanced covert organization of heroes, villains, conspirators, or military personnel needs an
The
▲To maintain [[Plausible Deniability]] and hide from magical TV [[Spy Satellites]], any sufficiently powerful or advanced covert organization of heroes, villains, conspirators, or military personnel needs an [[Elaborate Underground Base]] to use as their headquarters and hide their [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. [[After the End]], or in preparation for [[The End of the World As We Know It]], openly known organizations may elect to move [[Beneath the Earth]] as well. And it's a good location for a [[Supervillain Lair]].
Particularly secretive organizations may hide their
▲The [[Elaborate Underground Base]] will generally have a [[The War Room|war room]], and may also include hangar space for [[Humongous Mecha]] or a [[Cool Starship]]. Particularly large examples may be the size of an entire city, and might include hydroponics bays for growing food or even actual fields of crops lit by sun lamps. The larger sizes of [[Elaborate Underground Base]] frequently serve as an [[Adventure Towns|Adventure Town]]; the smaller ones are frequently the setting for a [[Bottle Episode]].
▲Particularly secretive organizations may hide their [[Elaborate Underground Base]] in the middle of a city, and include lots of elevators, trams, pneumatic tubes, and other means of transportation between the base and hidden chambers in buildings on the surface.
Compare with [[Underwater Base]], [[Island Base]], [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]] and [[Space Base]]. See [[Beneath the Earth]] for a related phenomenon, minus the [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. May induce [[Sigil Spam]] if the organization really loves their logo.
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples|suf=s}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has NERV setting up shop inside the GeoFront, a massive cavern that is actually just the upper 11% of an even larger spherical cave almost completely filled up with earth and rock debris. And going [[Up to Eleven]], Terminal Dogma is an
▲* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has NERV setting up shop inside the GeoFront, a massive cavern that is actually just the upper 11% of an even larger spherical cave almost completely filled up with earth and rock debris. And going [[Up to Eleven]], Terminal Dogma is an [[Elaborate Underground Base]] built below another [[Elaborate Underground Base]].
** Not really. Terminal Dogma is a more-or-less natural cavern system. Well, as natural as caves inside a spherical asteroid carrying an alien terraforming device can get.
* The Island of Bardos from ''[[
** Dr. Kabuto's lab basement also counts. It was hilariously lampshaded by Kouji in the original manga (since Juzo had built Mazinger Z in his home in the middle of a city whereas his anime version did it in his mansion located in Mount Fuji), when he found the entrance and asked: "Since when is there a basement in the garden?"
** ''[[
* Jaburo of ''[[
* Numerous Galactor bases on ''[[
* [[Fullmetal Alchemist|Father]] has the ''entire area underneath [[Capital City|Central]]!''
* The manga and live action of [[Sailor Moon]] have an underground base under the [[Local Hangout]] .
* [[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Macross]]/''[[Robotech]]'' have an underground base in Alaska (possibly in the site of the real life Elmendorf AFB), armed with the ''[[BFG]]'' of the [[Wave Motion Gun
* The Autobots' base in ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]''. Mineral deposits prevent sensor scans of any kind from detecting that the terrain has been hollowed, but the equipment had to be painted with a stealth coating to prevent the Decepticons from detecting it.
* One of ''[[Doraemon]]''`s future gadgets allow instant creation of
* The main characters' HQ in ''[[Senki Zesshou Symphogear]]''. {{spoiler|It's probably remnants of a [[Precursor]] race.}}
== Comic Books ==
* The Batcave from the various ''[[Batman]]'' series.
* The original headquarters of the [[Justice League]] was an elaborate base built into the base of a mountain. Several other teams have taken this base out of mothballs, such as [[Young Justice (
* ''[[
* Xavier's mansion of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' is usually presented as being only living quarters and classrooms for students and staff; the actual base of operations is underground.
* The [[Thunderbolts]] have their base located inside a mountain.
* ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' is rife with these. The original Joe base, "The Pit", is hidden underneath the chaplain's assistants' motor pool at Ft. Wadsworth in Staten Island. When this is destroyed by Cobra, a new Pit is built out in the desert. And Cobra has a fair number of secret bases themselves, including an ''[[Town
* During the Silver Age, Lex Luthor's "Luthor's Lairs" numbered in the hundreds, and could be found anywhere. At least one of them lasted until the 30th Century, showing up in a ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* During the Hydra arc of [[JMS Spider-Man|JMS's run on Spider-Man]], Peter wonders how HYRDA can build one of these in New York while it's taken the city three extra months to finish a subway extension.
{{quote|
* [[Warren Ellis]]' [[Lampshade Hanging|Hangs a Lampshade]] on the subject in [[Astonishing X Men]] #34 - ''then deconstructs it as grotesque with the very next sentence.''
{{quote|
'''Beast''': ''I'm always up for a Doctor Crazy-Pants volcano headquarters.''
'''Cyclops''': ''This is the bit that really annoys me. All the things in this world that can be fixed with money? And every time it's "Well, I've got all this cash, but I bought myself an asteroid hideout instead."''
'''Beast''': ''Aaah. That, my friend, is indeed classic.'' }}
* In the ''[[Zorro]]'' comics written by Don McGregor (for Topps and Dynamite), Zorro has an elaborate underground base that rivals the Batcave.
== Fan Works ==
* Expressed, averted and [[Played for Laughs]] at various points in ''[[The Secret Return of Alex Mack]]'':
** Played painfully straight by various bad-guy headquarters, most especially the complexes under the Spencer mansion and the Umbrella building during the ''[[Resident Evil]]'' segment. Lampshaded and mocked by both Jack O'Neill and Alex.
** Averted in that the SRI operates out of several perfectly above-ground military bases and office blocks.
** [[Played for Laughs]] with the backdrop Alex literally cut-and-pastes together for use in videoconferencing as her superhero identity Terawatt, which shows a huge Batcave-like base that most of the SRI knows doesn't really exist.
== Film ==
▲* ''[[THX 1138 (Film)|THX 1138]]''
* ''[[Logan's Run]]''
* In ''X2: [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] United'' the underground base becomes a plot element when the [[Spy Satellites]] actually detect the [[Cool Ship]] in its hangar underneath the Mutant Academy. William Stryker uses this evidence to convince the President to okay a commando strike on the school, secretly to further his plan to wipe out all mutantkind. Stryker's also got an
* Zion in ''[[The Matrix]]''. A Very Elaborate Underground Base and a full blown city.
* Dr. Evil from ''[[Austin Powers]]'' has an underground lair.
* ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]'' (2004). [[Mad Scientist]] Dr Totenkopf has a base populated by [[The Swarm|hordes]] of flying [[Killer Robot|killer robots]] that is large enough to contain a brobdingnagian [[Raygun Gothic]] rocketship.
* ''[[The Avengers (1998
* ''[[James Bond (
** ''[[
** ''[[
* In ''[[Hellboy (
* ''[[Hollow Man]]'' - Secret underground lab {{spoiler|accessible by a single secure elevator, which Sebastian uses to trap his coworkers.}}
* The supercriminal Diabolik in the movie ''[[Danger
{{quote|
* ''[[The Island]]'': An underground base is used to {{spoiler|house clones who are led to believe that the outside is a wasteland}}.
* Team America, in ''[[Team America: World Police]]'', had an elaborate base ''inside Mount Rushmore''.
* The HYDRA facilities in ''[[Captain America:
== Literature ==
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* David Wingrove's ''[[Chung Kuo]]'' has a series of underground bases in the Alps, the only part of Europe that is not occupied by the City or its plantations
* The Wildfire facility in ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]''. The only entrance is the elevator shed, and the facility topside ''is'' what it's disguised as - a wheat modifying facility.
* Willy Wonka's crazy factory in ''[[Charlie and
* A similar rationale obtains for the enormous set of underground tunnels built by the deep-down dwarfs in Ankh-Morpork in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld]]'' novels. By digging under the city, they can create their own dwarfs-only authentic dwarf mine under the city, unbeholden to city law or city rents. After the events of the book ''[[Thud!]]'', the deep-downers are thoroughly discredited and Lord Vetinari appropriates their delve for the city government. (It is heavily implied that these tunnels will form the basis of a future Ankh-Morpork subway system.)
** And the dwarfs have better legal standing than Wonka, considering that on parts of the Disc that dwarfs normally live, such as the Ramtops and Überwald, dwarf-law does cover the underground and is entirely separate from surface law. This just isn't true on the Sto Plains.
** The bulk of Dwarf civilization away from Ankh-Morpork is also mostly underground. There are huge cities.
* Supervillain Doctor Impossible of ''[[Soon I Will Be Invincible]]'' has a base descending deep into the Earth: when he returns to it after his last defeat, the deeper levels are still intact. Also, his first base was dug down from the basement of an ordinary suburban house.
* [[Super
* Center, [[The Chessmaster]] AI of ''[[The General]]'' series located in a warren of abandoned hi-tech tunnels deep beneath East residence. It is unclear whether this ancient HQ was designed to be underground or has been buried by subsistence over the millennia since the Fall.
* Salamandastron for the Long Patrol, and the Kingdom of Malkariss for one set of baddies, in the ''[[Redwall]]'' books.
* Tolkien was big on these, both for good and bad guys. In ''[[The Hobbit]]'', you have dwarf fortress in the Lonely Mountain (owned by Smaug the dragon). In ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' you have Moria, also mostly dwarven but built with some assistance from the high elves. Melkor, the [[Big Bad]] of ''[[The Silmarillion]]'' had [[Hell|Utumno]], which amounted to an underground ''country'' and Angband (whose excavation produced enough refuse and slag to pile into ''three''
** The Hobbit mentioned a few elven cultures, one of which was the "deep elves," which might refer to the Noldor who lived in places like Nargothrond (though canonically, the underground-dwelling Wood Elves of Mirkwood are separate from the Noldor). Underground elves are rather unusual... perhaps the assumption that [[Our Elves Are Better]] means they don't live in holes in the ground anymore. Only [[Exclusively Evil|dark elves]] would do that sort of thing nowadays.
** While, contrary to [[Our Elves Are Better|tradition]], Elves of all kinds (Noldor and Sindar- see Menegroth or Thranduil's halls) do live underground in Tolkien's books, it's fair to assume that "deep-elves" in that case, as in the ''Lost tales'', refers to "Gnomes", or Noldor, Elves which are deep in knowledge and thought, not Elves who dwell underground.
** The Dead Men of Dunharrow lived in an elaborate system of caves in the mountains. Even 3,000 years after they died.
* The Alchemists' Guild in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' has an elaborate underground Guildhall composed of a labyrinth of tunnels, cells, halls, and warehouses filled with highly explosive wildfire. The place is designed to limit the damage should a cache of wildfire combust.
* [[Stephenie Meyer]]'s ''[[The Host (
* In the [[Dale Brown]] novel ''Fatal Terrain'', Taiwan has a secret underground air base.
* In [[Kim Newman]]'s short story ''Swellhead'', the the ghostly remains of the
* The Yeerk Pool in ''[[
* The government's ''[[Daemon]]'' task force base is largely underground. The trope is subverted (in a moment that is simultaneously hilarious and horrifying) in that the Daemon's operatives {{spoiler|know exactly where the base is - in their [[Augmented Reality]] goggles there is a huge neon sign floating above it saying "Super Secret Daemon Task Force Headquarters" - and simply allow it to continue operating because it ''poses no threat to them''.}}
* The sapient rats from ''Mrs Frisby And The Rats Of NIMH'' built themselves a [[Mouse World]] version of this trope under the farm. No actual [[Applied Phlebotinum]] is present by ''human'' standards, but by the standards of other animals it's a regular [[Mad Scientist Laboratory]].
* The Ministry of Magic in ''[[Harry Potter]]'' is completely underground that can be reached via elevator telephone booth, flushing down magic toilets (no joke), Apparation or Floo powder.
* Dénis Lindbohm's ''Frostens barn'' (''Children of the Frost'', given the context of the story) features this trope as the home of the surviving remnants of humanity and their descendants, with them living in an increasingly sprawling set of constructions under the [[Creator Provincialism|Scandinavian Mountains]]. In story, more installations were supposed to be built... but they were either unfinished or sabotaged when World War III came.
* In [[Star Trek:
* In the [[
* [[The Hunger Games]] gives us {{spoiler|District 13}}, which is extraordinarily large.
* The Observatory in ''[[
▲== Live Action TV ==
** In ''[[Joe 90]]'' the BIG RAT was located in a secret underground facility beneath Professor McClaine's house.▼
** In ''[[Stingray (1964 TV series)|Stingray]]'', during alerts the entire ''city'' of Marineville can descend into a secure underground facility on hydraulic jacks. (Just in case anyone thought ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' did that first...)▼
▲* Gerry Anderson seems quite fond of this one.
▲** In ''Joe 90'' the BIG RAT was located in a secret underground facility beneath Professor McClaine's house.
▲** In ''[[Stingray (TV)|Stingray]]'', during alerts the entire ''city'' of Marineville can descend into a secure underground facility on hydraulic jacks. (Just in case anyone thought ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' did that first...)
** ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' of course had the Thunderbird hangars beneath Tracy Island.
** SHADO Headquarters in ''[[UFO]]'' is located beneath a film studio. Think about it...
** The second season of ''[[Space: 1999]]'' saw the command team move from the above-ground "Main Mission" set to a "Command Center" located deep underground.
* Season four of ''[[
{{quote|
'''Riley:''' [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|I don't like to brag.]] }}
* In the ''[[
** Of course, that's far from the only ''Doctor Who'' example. In particular, the [[Lizard Folk|Silurians]] are fond of these.
** Also seen in ''The Sun Makers'', filmed in the real-life deep air raid shelters of London.
* Sheriff Jack Carter in ''[[Eureka]]'' lives in an experimental intelligent house that is underground. It doesn't fulfill all of the requirements, but it's underground, it's where he lives, and it's full of exciting gadgets, so it counts.
* In ''[[Hogan's Heroes]],'' the Allied POWs/spies had a network of tunnels under Stalag 13, to which Colonel Klink was consistently
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in one episode in which the grounds have even more snow than usual, and the POWs have built a snowman. At one point, Col. Hogan indicates a particular patch of dirt and claims that it is "the only spot in camp that doesn't have a tunnel under it."
* Most of the Dharma stations on ''[[
* Deep 13, from ''[[
* [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[Neverwhere]]'' features an entire sub-culture beneath London. There were also undergrounds beneath every major city on Earth, each distinctively dangerous. At least according to Huntress.
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' uses this quite often. Some seasons, such as the original, simply imply it, while others are more blatant about it. The fifteenth season, Operation Overdrive, commonly does a cutaway to the base by showing the aboveground mansion, and then dropping the camera via CGI through several layers of planetary crust. For added hijinks, the Rangers in this season are implied to be sliding down kilometer-length fireman poles to reach said base. And on top of that, they have ''three'' [[Humongous Mecha]] ''and'' a [[Cool Ship]] hidden inside.
* British puppet character Roland Rat was originally supposed to live in the sewers beneath King's Cross railway station. In ''Roland Rat: The Series'' this suddenly became "the Ratcave"; an
* ''[[Madan Senki Ryukendo|Ryukendo]]'' has such a base hidden beneath a police station, accessed by praying to the elevator (really). It also serves as a [[Haunted Headquarters]].
* In ''[[
* The Genii of ''[[
* The 60's series ''[[
* Torchwood Three in ''[[
{{quote|
'''Gwen:''' "Big...science fiction superbase. Honestly!" }}
* M.I. 9 has an
* ''[[The Avengers (TV series)|The Avengers]]'' episode "The Living Dead" had a huge underground city built by the villains for the purpose of raising an army.
* The ''[[Dollhouse]]'' underneath Los Angeles is pretty much a self-sustaining spa eight stories down.
* Xenon Base in ''[[Blake's
* Season 4 of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' introduced APO, a black-ops branch of the CIA (that most of the CIA doesn't know about) located underneath Los Angeles and accessed by the subway.
** ''Alias'' was always radically unrealistic...in an oddly gritty way. The first three seasons took a great deal of care that the actions and settings of the heroes and villains made sense ''on their own terms''. That is, given the weird premises of the setting, the actions and places made a great deal of logical sense. In Seasons Four and Five they threw all that aside and started making it all up as they went along, and it showed, as in nonsense like APO HQ.
*** Case in point, in one scene in season 3, they're bringing a Master Villain (Arvin Sloane) into the Rotunda, the top secret HQ of a joint CIA/FBI/Other task force, and they made a visible point of locking all the computers, securing everything remotely 'sensitive', and the villain is brought in blindfolded and ear-plugged to keep the location and details secret from him. In season five, they bring the master villainess Irina Derevko, almost as dangerous as Sloane, into APO HQ with ''no precautions at all''. The writers just stopped trying or caring.
== Tabletop Games ==
* Alpha Complex from ''[[Paranoia (game)|Paranoia]]'' is usually an elaborate underground warren with all the super-science facilities you could ever need.
* The dwarves of ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' live in huge undergound cities, following the example set by [[
▲* Alpha Complex from ''[[Paranoia]]'' is usually an elaborate underground warren with all the super-science facilities you could ever need. <ref>Then again, continuity has never been a big deal in ''[[Paranoia]]'' so it can be a a domed city, underwater, whatever the GM desires.</ref>
* ''[[Warhammer
▲* The dwarves of ''[[Warhammer]]'' live in huge undergound cities, following the example set by [[JRR Tolkien (Creator)|JRR Tolkien]]. And the [[Rodents of Unusual Size|Skaven]] live below those in big cities and tunnels that span every continent.
* Despite the name, virtually none of the "dungeons" in any ''Dungeons & Dragons'' campaign are prisons. They're either natural caverns full of unintelligent monsters (rare), tombs full of undead (uncommon), or this trope for the [[Villain of the Week]] (''extremely'' common).
▲* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' gives us the planet of Calth in the Ultramar sector, where this is the ''only'' kind of base because the sun is deadly. Necron tomb complexes also qualify.
**
* The entire raison d'etre of House Telamones, Nosferatu bloodline from [[Vampire: The Requiem]]. They build elaborate underground bases to suit the tastes of their undead betters, but woe to the Would-Be Vampire Overlord who accepts the bid from a competing firm... it's mentioned in the text that House Telamones has BLOWN UP an entire CITY BLOCK OF SEATTLE rather than lose a bid.
== Theater ==
* The prototypical
▲* The prototypical [[Elaborate Underground Base]] may well be Erik's lair under the Paris Opera in the various incarnations of ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'', making this [[Older Than Radio]].
== Video Games ==
* The whole of ''[[Breath of Fire|Breath of Fire V]]'' takes place in a geofront like super cave.▼
* A few games have appeared where constructing an
▲* The whole of Breath of Fire V takes place in a geofront like super cave.
▲* A few games have appeared where constructing an [[Elaborate Underground Base]] is a major aspect of the gameplay, notably:
** The ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' series
** ''Evil Genius''
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*** Although you don't technically ''have'' to do that (one of the DF Wiki's "optional goals" is to create a fortress that is based entirely around surface structures).
** ''[[Minecraft]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' features this to an almost ridiculous extent. The Cobra-wannabe Council (formerly the Fifth Column) generally base themselves in converted caves, as do the [[Alien Invasion|Rikti]], and even the evil cultist Circle of Thorns have their ancient underground city. The Faultline zone (former [[Scrappy Level]] [[Rescued
▲* ''[[City of Heroes]]'' features this to an almost ridiculous extent. The Cobra-wannabe Council (formerly the Fifth Column) generally base themselves in converted caves, as do the [[Alien Invasion|Rikti]], and even the evil cultist Circle of Thorns have their ancient underground city. The Faultline zone (former [[Scrappy Level]] [[Rescued From the Scrappy Heap]]) is said to be filled with former superhero bases that were abandoned in the earthquake that gave the zone its name, and people are trying to dig them up...
** Not to mention the Shadow Shard - an alternate dimension seemingly comprised entirely of floating islands in the sky, with caves and bases dug into them anyway. If the game world had a consistent geometry, it'd likely resemble a very big ant hill with more empty space than rock.
* ''[[
** The [[Spin-Off]] games ''[[
** As well as the first ''[[
* The No One Lives Forever series had a couple. The first game had one in the US Pacific Northwest and an underground rocket launch facility somewhere in the South Pacific. The 2nd had an underwater base you had to infiltrate.
* In the ''[[Command
** Expanding on that, in Red Alert, there were the beautiful and famed internal missions. With computer consoles that actually did things.
* From the ''[[Fallout]]'' [[RPG
** ''Fallout'' had the Glow, the Mariposa Military Base and the Brotherhood's Lost Hills HQ.
** ''Fallout 2'' had the Sierra Army Depot and the Hubologist base. The Brotherhood bunkers in the Den, NCR and San Francisco might also count.
** ''Fallout 3'' had Raven Rock and the Rockland comm. facility.
** ''Fallout 4'' had The Institute, an underground base serving as the HQ of the organization of the same name, and the only way to enter or exit is by teleporting (“relaying”).
** ''Fallout Tactics'' had the Brotherhood bunkers and Vault 0 which was simply the Cheyenne Mountain Complex coverted into an even larger facility.
* ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.E.A.R.]]'s'' Armacham Technology Corporation established the main facility for the Origin Project in an old military-industrial complex, and built the entire facility deep underground. Emphasis placed on the past tense, what with the [[Earthshattering Kaboom|explosive ending]] of the first game.
** ''Project Origin'' takes it even further. The Auburn Memorial Hospital is a full-sized building constructed underground ''inside'' another
*** One wonders how nobody found out about it or that all the excavations didn't fatally weaken the ground.
* ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' had the Catapult, an underground/underwater base of [[Lost Technology]]. Among other things, it features an airship docking bay, a teleporter and a ship-sized elevator to the sea surface. And the icing on the cake? It's ''yours'' now.
* Black Mesa Research Facility in ''[[Half Life]]''.
* The Aperture Science Enrichment Center in ''[[Portal (
* The entirity of ''[[Overblood]]'' takes place in one.
* [[Gears of War]] features the hollow, which is home to the entire Locust civilization. It runs all throughout the planet and there are areas inside of it big enough to have skyscrapers and air patrols.
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** Every single Forerunner [[Halo]] installation in the Halo universe is built underground. Presumably, this is so that experiments could be performed on the surface, while the Forerunners would stay underground to monitor the results.
** ''[[Halo|Halo 3]]'' - the second level takes place in Crow's Nest, an "old 20th century" military base inside Mount Kilimanjaro, which has been re-activated after the Covenant took over Earth. This base comes fully equipped with a hangar bay, hidden landing pads, big imposing steel doors and a war room, complete with big screens and [[Bridge Bunnies]].
* ''[[Metro 2033 (
* In ''[[Resident Evil]]'', seemingly every building in Raccoon City, or in the forests surrounding it, has at least one well hidden elevator leading into one of the multiple underground Umbrella Corporation labs (which makes sense when you consider that Umbrella essentially owns and runs the city).
* The British army in ''Resistance: Fall of Man'' has two underground bases from which they were staging their attacks on the Chimera. Extra content reveals that they had a ''third'' underground base, but it was flooded by the Chimera before the start of the game.
* ''[[
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', the Dark Iron Dwarves have their own underground base in Blackrock Mountain. Technically so does the Dark Horde and Nefarian, since their towering base is built ''inside'' a volcano's cone.
** The Defias Brotherhood has the extensive Deadmines, a combination mining facility, smelter, sawmill, and wetdock.
** The Scholomance is a large school dedicated to dark magic carved out of the crypts of a castle. The Undercity is much the same, only it was built under an entire ''city''.
** The entire kingdom of the Nerubians was built underground, as is much of the temple to C'thun.
* In ''[[Thief]] II: The Metal Age'', the Cetus Project is run from Markham's Isle, a former pirate base taken over by the Mechanists. As you learn when you go there, the administration of the project is a bit complicated, but Markham's Isle certainly fits the [[Island Base]] and
* The ''[[X-COM]]'' franchise. All of the X-Com bases (situated and built, room by room, by the player) were only accessible through the main elevator and the vehicle hangars, which affected gameplay if the aliens located said bases and attacked them with a relatively manageable number of alien foot-soldiers.
** Same goes for Alien Bases, including the {{spoiler|main base at Cydonia}}. Crosses over with [[Underwater Base]] in the case of the Colonies and Artifact Sites from ''Terror From the Deep'', which are underground installations built on the ocean floor.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Elder Scrolls III
** In Oblivion you can get one for yourself via the Thieves Den DLC. It is pirate-themed and has once taken over you can recruit pirates to give services(like skill-training and selling stuff like lockpicks) and go out stealing for your benefit.
* The area under the Optimology building in 6 days a Sacrifice counts.
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* The Alpha Protocol base in, well, ''[[Alpha Protocol]]'' is a large underground complex apparently located somewhere in the American northwest. Reaching it is pretty difficult; agents are sedated into unconsciousness and transported to the location, via aircraft and boat in order to keep the base's location secret. {{spoiler|At least until the endgame, where Mike arranges for his allies to track him while he's being sedated and ruin everyone's whole week with a surprise assault.}}
* ''[[Colossal Cave]]'', including the maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
* The ''[[
* Fort Schmerzen in ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' and ''Allied Assault''.
* The Descent series lives for this trope. Granted, a lot of them are mines, but there are a bunch of military, scientific, and testing facilities as well. Of particular note is the final level of Descent 3, Dravis' Stronghold.
* In ''[[Metal Gear]] 1'' and ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'', the titular [[Humongous Mecha]] is hidden in one of these.
** ''[[Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake]]'' has a variation: Although Metal Gear D is fought in the third (sixth?) basement floor of the main building of Zanzibar Land's detention center, it is not specified if it was actually the main hangar for Metal Gear D. Similarly, the Big Shell is technically above ground (or in this case, above water), but it is disguised so well as a cleanup facility that the personnel could literally get away with having armed forces stationed there as well as developing Arsenal Gear without the populace ever suspecting anything.
*** This seems to be fusing metal gear two, and metal gear solid two.
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops]]'', there are three elaborate underground bases: One is the Nuclear Storage Facility (which is the deepest mapped area of the game), another is the Silo Complex (which is pretty deep underground, although the mapped areas themselves are actually shallower than the Nuclear Storage Facility), and it was originally intended in-game to have more than one missile silo. The last one isn't actually visited by the Player: {{spoiler|It is the underground bunker underneath Langley that the CIA director attempted to retreat under with the impending nuclear strike against America with his half of the Legacy, and where Ocelot essentially murdered him and made it look like he committed suicide.}}
** In ''[[Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker]]'', both the heroes and the villains have elaborate bases: The Peace Sentinels had an AI Weapon assembly plant situated within a pumped storage hydroelectric power plant within Irazu's crater, an AI programming lab constructed either within an unknown ruin or an AI lab disguised as a ruin (Paz's description of the plant makes the ruin's exact origin a bit ambiguous), and an AI Weapons forwarding/Peace Walker construction base built within a gold quarry. In addition, the FSLN / KGB's drug facilities were also disguised as Banana and Coffee processing factories, and the Militaires Sans Frontieres also utilized an elaborate base in the form of an off-shore OTEC research facility.
* The Ancients in (old verse) [[Might and Magic]] seems to have been fond of placing large facilities underground. The inhabitants of Deyja went one step beyond and built themselves an Elaborate Underground ''City''.
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[Narbonic]]'', Narbonics Labs moved to an underground lair early in the strip's run. Later subverted when Madblood brags to Helen about ''his'' underground lair; when she and Mell come to visit, they find him [[Basement Dweller|living in his mother's basement]].
* Seems to be the basic design for all Orsintos laboratories in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]''. Surprisingly, there's been nothing so far to suggest that [[Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Hereti-Corp]] has one of these.
** As it turns out, {{spoiler|Dr. Steve's Baselab was designed to burrow underground.}}
* The main characters of ''[[The Pocalypse]]'' have a base placed under a supermarket in a city.
* ''[[
== Web Original ==
* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', most of the [[Diabolical Mastermind|Evil Overlords]] and [[Evil Overlord|Diabolical Masterminds]] have one of these. The most notable example might be [[Nebulous Evil Organization|TAROT's]] primary base in the United States. It is a multi-level complex located four stories beneath the Pentagon's lowest level, and is entered through a secret elevator located in that building. The fact that Federal law enforcement agencies would never think to tear the Pentagon apart looking for it amuses The Emperor greatly.
* Pelvanida from ''[[
== Western Animation ==
* In a series full of [[Supervillain Lair
* In the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (
▲* In a series full of [[Supervillain Lair|Supervillain Lairs]] to begin with, in the ''Birdman'' episode ("Number One") that brought them into the open and really defined them as a threat, [[Nebulous Evil Organisation|F.E.A.R.]] turned out to have an elaborate underground base.
* ''[[
▲* In the ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'' pilot, Aldrin Klordane had turned a cave conveniently placed underneath the Federal Gold Reserve into his own [[Elaborate Underground Base]] which not only has a diagonal monorail, but even a real railroad connection.
▲* ''[[Danger Mouse (Animation)|Danger Mouse]]'' lived in an underground base in postbox on Baker Street in London, the same road as Sherlock Holmes.
* Vlad built himself one in ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' by the beginning of Season Three. Through an alternate universe, the underground base was a [[Foreshadowing]] element in a previous episode. [[Executive Meddling|Too bad he didn't find the time to put it to good use]].
* ''[[
* Gummi Glen in ''[[Gummi Bears]]''. This version distinguishes itself by its surprisingly realistic take of an underground structure of such extraordinary complexity in medieval times. Namely, the Glen requires a sophisticated infrastructure like a mechanical ventilation system to maintain air quality while the Gummis have a variety of maintenance concerns like water levels, plant growth and erosion of the surrounding ground.
* Syndrome has an absolutely awesome underground base in ''[[The Incredibles]]'', complete with the 50's-60's Tiki/Googie/Art Deco look. Egg shell people-movers, yeah!
** Don't forget, it was built ''inside an active volcano!''
* ''[[
* Global Justice headquarters, and several of Drakken's lairs, in ''[[Kim Possible]]'', which also has a twist on the trope: Frugal Lucre's lair in his mom's basement.
** Also, a few of the locations that Drakken raids are themselves underground bases. Case in point, the episode where he steals some [[Hypno Trinket|HypnoTrinkets]] had him raiding a base in the [[Cold Opening]] that was built underneath a desert, and a conspicuous Cactus acted as a card key scanning device to grant entry.
* The ''[[
* The ''[[
* The ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' live in a hideout within the sewers of New York City.
* Don't forget about the Labrynth in ''[[
** Or the base Hacker dug out for himself in an episode of Cyberchase. He abandoned it by the next episode, though.
* ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' TOS episodes "The Dreadful Doll" (arms and submarine base being built on the island), "Pirates From Below" (cave system with submarines and hovercraft), "The Fraudulent Volcano" (built under/in the title volcano).
* In ''[[The Simpsons (
* ''[[
* Perry The Platypus has one underneath [[Phineas and Ferb]]'s house, and the rest of the [[Fun
== Real Life ==
* Underground command-and-control centers started getting popular sometime after [[World War I]], and much more so after nuclear weapons and ICBMs. [https://web.archive.org/web/20150903044739/http://www.greenbrier.com/site/bunker.aspx Greenbrier Resort] was the site of a US Congressional command center for 30 years, until [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/july/25/brier1.htm a Washington Post reporter exposed its existence in 1992.] Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, is quite famous as the "brain" of [
** The famous [
▲* Underground command-and-control centers started getting popular sometime after [[World War I]], and much more so after nuclear weapons and ICBMs. [http://www.greenbrier.com/site/bunker.aspx Greenbrier Resort] was the site of a US Congressional command center for 30 years, until [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/july/25/brier1.htm a Washington Post reporter exposed its existence in 1992.] Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, is quite famous as the "brain" of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NORAD NORAD] (NORth-american Air Defense), SAC (Strategic Air Command, bombers and land-based ICBMs) and the US Space Command (more to do with satellites, though). The latter two are now defunct, absorbed into other organisations. NORAD is now based at Peterson Air Force Base (a conventional above-ground air force base nearby), but keeps Cheyenne Mountain on warm standby.
▲** The famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_House_Situation_Room Situation Room] (yes, it really does exist) underneath the West Wing of the White House. Yes, this is where the President and his cabinet meet to make life-or-death decisions. No, it is not full of beeping computers.
** Russia, ex-Soviet Union, undoubtedly has its own, but locations are disputed.
*** There's supposedly an entire [
*** Nobody in the West seems to know what's under [
** Similar to the Greenbrier Resort are the Canadian [
** A few shots in the movie ''[[
*** The Second-In-Command of NORAD is a Canadian (it's NORTH AMERICAN Air Defence, not American Air Defence) - and yet in all the movies set in Cheyenne Mountain there is nary a Canuck in sight.
** Also, Cheyenne Mountain is in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Jeremiah (TV series)|Jeremiah]]'' (This one has the benefit of being a real complex). In the original movie ''[[Stargate (
** Raven Rock, most famous to gamers from ''Fallout3'', is a real base built for much the same purpose as Cheyenne Mountain.
** Offutt Air Force Base is rumored to have an underground command center proof against anything short of a direct hit with a nuke. It's impossible to be certain, because those chambers are ''not'' on the Official Elementary School Field Trip tour, they're still in use. ([[George W. Bush]] did not fly to Omaha on 9/11 because he wanted steak for lunch ....)
** After the Cold War, the Strategic Air Command bunker in Amherst, Massachusetts was put up for sale. Who besides the government could want an elaborate concrete bunker? Librarians, apparently; the Five Colleges bought it for cheap, and now use it for book storage. The low temperatures and lack of sunlight are ideal for preservation, and it's hard to beat the security.
** Speaking of decommissioned bunkers and missile silos, there's a
* After the First World War, the French built the [[
* Toward the final years of [[World War 2]] Japanese took to building these to escape the intense naval and air firepower. The result was that some of the nastiest island battles(sieges might be a more accurate description) centered on rooting Japanese out of caves. Generally they would fight on, even when communications were cut, to near annihilation.
* For contrast, Britain had Kelvedon Hatch Nuclear Bunker, a base for the nation's power structure hidden beneath a nondescript house. Apparently, it was active until 1992 (but only ever activated once: not for a nuclear crisis but for the poll tax riots). [https://web.archive.org/web/20130616133436/http://www.muddyclay.com/october.htm This site] has pictures of it. It's now a tourist attraction and the real command centre is somewhere secret.
** Has been used as a filming location.
*** Tourist signs directing people to it clearly say "[http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/images/secret_nuclear_bunker-thumb.jpg Secret Nuclear Bunker]".
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* The Cu Chi Tunnels in Vietnam are another great example, and are almost the archetype of the EUB.
* The term "undisclosed location" entered the [[Memetic Mutation|public lexicon]] after US VP Dick Cheney was stated to be touring them after attacks on DC and New York. Because of [[Strawman Political|his reputation]], it is somewhat assumed that any use of the term implies this trope played to the hilt.
** [[Conspiracy Theorist
* Željava Air Base in former Yugoslavia is the world's largest underground ''Air Base''. While they still have overground runways, everything else is underground and has enough food, fuel and ammo to survive 30 days without outside intervention. It has been, alas, demolished.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110119221743/http://www.news.com.au/features/wikileaks/inside-wikileaks-founder-julian-assanges-lair/story-fn79cf6x-1225968685673 Julian Assange's Wikileaks facility in Stockholm.]
** It's just a web host. It doesn't belong to Assange.
* It happens in private as well. In 2005, Fred Strunk was sentenced to 18 years for running an elaborate [https://web.archive.org/web/20131102163222/http://sparkreport.net/2009/03/the-full-story-behind-the-great-tennessee-pot-cave/ pot growing operation] in a cave in Tennessee.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwlATf9xse4 This datacentre in Sweden], located in a cold war era nuclear bunker.
* In London, the [https://web.archive.org/web/20120415090440/http://www.silentuk.com/?p=2792 underground railway] linking Royal Mail facilities, now closed, but documented by urban explorers.
* The North Korean military has a lot of bases created underground, some hollowed out from mountains to protect their equipment from bombardment in a future conflict involving South Korean and American bombing raids. The North Korean military also had several underground tunnels built so their troops could surprise-invade South Korea when the time is right.
* Muammar Gaddafi, the former dictator of Libya, had a huge underground base hidden under Tripoli. Among other things, it contained an entire functioning hospital and stockpiles of food large enough for an entire city. It also had tunnels big enough to drive tanks through.
* It is commonly speculated that Area 51 has a vast underground system where all the top secret research and technology development is made. From the surface there have been signs of hangers and Air Force bases but nothing truly out of the ordinary, this had led people to believe that there must be something underground they are hiding if the surface appears to be normal.
* Humans don't have a monopoly on this trope either; ants have been known to form some [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFg21x2sj-M fantastically complex underground structures]. You think this one is impressive then the largest one know, under Hokkaidō, has an area of roughly 2.7 square kilometers.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Older Than Television]]▼
[[Category:Settings]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Home Base]]
[[Category:Video Game Settings]]
▲[[Category:Older Than Television]]
▲[[Category:Elaborate Underground Base]]
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