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{{trope}}
{{quote|''If I ever get out of here
''Thought of giving it all away...
''If I ever get out of here
''If we ever get out of here
|[[Wings (band)|Wings]], "Band on the Run"}}
Two characters, usually two characters sharing a large amount of animosity, get locked in a room (safe, elevator, etc.) and must spend the episode alone together. During which time they learn a new appreciation for each other.
If being locked in the room also puts the characters in danger, then they are [[Locked in
Usually a type of [[Bottle Episode]], this trope is almost a requirement of any [[
This is also an extremely common trope for playwrights, particularly for short two-hander plays. In addition to being an easy way to force conflict, it makes set design much simpler.
See also [[Chained Heat]], [[Rats in
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', Shinji and Asuka are forced to spend an episode locked in a room so they can learn how to work in perfect sync with each other, in order to defeat an Angel which split into two parts that also move in perfect sync. (Admitedly, half this and half 'chained together')
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** Subverted with the infamous '[[Leave the Camera Running|elevator scene]]' between Rei & Asuka. It's only a few minutes.
* An episode of ''[[Mahou Tsukaitai]]'' has Sae and Ayanojyo locked in a closet, with Sae more and more unnerved as she realizes how long it might be before someone finds them. The audience thinks it's sexual tension between her and the attractive [[Bishonen]]... and then, when she's finally freed, the true problem is discovered as she [[Potty Emergency|races to the nearest bathroom]].
* In ''[[Hitohira]]'' Nono and Mirei wind up in the store room with each other, which gives them a chance to discuss their differences. Of course, the fact that Nono just lost her voice ({{spoiler|or fakes it}}) doesn't make things easier.
* Rito and Haruna find themselves in this situation, and in true ''[[To
* Subverted in ''[[Dennou Coil]]''. Yasako and Isako bond very slightly when they get locked in a room, and Isako later saves Yasako's little sister from a dangerous situation, but she ultimately remains as distant and antagonistic as before.
* In ''[[Toradora
* Happens to Shiro and Mozart in ''[[Afterschool Charisma]]'', along with little Pandora. It's more to keep them safe than to make them get along, though, and they don't really learn a new respect for each other. Earlier, it ''looks'' like Napoleon and Ikkyu are going to do this to Shiro and Freud to help them reconcile... but they actually just throw them into the girls' locker room. [[Fan Service|While the girls are changing]].
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** ''Saw IV'' has three of the victims in a room, not necessarily locked in, but if they open the door, two of them die. {{spoiler|Rigg blows the trap and causes two of them to die, but not one of them who was necessarily implied to be a victim.}}
** ''Saw V'' provides an interesting example as well: each of the four traps is seemingly designed so that one person has to die for the others to move on, {{spoiler|while all five could have survived to the end if they had worked together}}. Cryptic message "Five must become one" works on so many levels.
* [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] in the remake of ''[[The Parent Trap (1961 film)|The Parent Trap]]'', when the camp counselors force Hallie and Annie to bunk together to work out their issues.
** This was actually taken from the original film, which also had the girls forced to room together.
* The four kids in ''[[The Hole]]'' are
* Referenced in one [[John Wayne]] movie.
{{quote|
"One of them walks out alone." }}
* Lisa and Jackson from ''[[Red Eye (
* [[Roman Polanski]]'s ''[[
* ''[[Kiss of the Spider Woman]]'' (1985) revolves around this trope.
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== Literature ==
* Done intentionally in [[David Eddings]]' ''[[Belgariad]]''. When Polgara finds that the bickering heirs of two rival countries are male and female, her solution to the feud is to lock the two together in a room, wait until the shouting stops, and then officiate the resulting wedding. Implausibly enough, this plan works perfectly.
** That sounds more like [[Ten Minutes in
* Done to a couple of minor characters in a few different [[David Eddings]] series. Usually at Polgara (or her [[Expy]]'s) behest.
* In ''The Hunting of the Snark'', the Butcher and Beaver both happen to choose the same spot to hide from boojums. The Butcher ends up teaching the Beaver some mathematics and natural philosophy, and they soon become good buddies.
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== Live Action TV ==
* The 60's TV series ''[[I Spy]]'' raised this trope to an art form as main characters Kelly Robinson (Robert Culp) and Alexander Scott (Bill Cosby) were being locked in a room together in many an episode, giving them ample opportunity to flex their often hilariously witty repartee while attempting a frequently humorous escape.
* This trope occurs on nearly every single episode of ''[[Victorious]]''.
* In one episode of ''[[Drake and Josh]]'', Megan locks Drake and Josh in a tree house.
* ''[[
** The same thing happens when they're held hostage in the second half of ''iPsycho''.
** Done intentionally in ''iSam's Mom''.
** Spencer is trapped in a box [[For Science!]] in ''iOMG''. The entire school population is locked into the school for an overnight project, which eventually leads to a [[Relationship Upgrade]] between Sam and Freddie.
* Happens to Susan and Edie during the fifth season of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]''. It turns into a [[Truth-Telling Session]]... which ends with [[It Makes Sense in Context|Edie throwing old magazines at Susan]].
* One episode of the [[NBC]] drama ''Las Vegas'' is an episode titled [[Exactly What It Says
* In ''[[
* The premise was repeatedly and relentlessly beaten to a pulp in the ''[[That's My Bush!]]'' episode: [https://web.archive.org/web/20050412224848/http://www.comedycentral.com/tv_shows/tmb/episode_107.jhtml "Trapped In A Small Environment"].
* ''[[Blake's
* ''[[
** There's a nice subversion of this trope (as well as [[Locked in
** An episode by [[Neil Gaiman]] had several people locked in different rooms with ghosts. Some were lost loves, some were friends they lost, at least one had a mortal foe giving snarky advice.
* A variation of this occurred in ''[[Kenan and Kel]]'', where people arriving in said room ended up getting locked in by the closing door.
* The penultimate episode of ''[[The Prisoner]]'' features the most byzantine of all the Village's plots to break the hero: "Let's lock you in a room for six days with [[The Dragon]] while he hypnotizes you and digs up your repressed memories like an evil Sigmund Freud." {{spoiler|It may have been byzantine, but it worked.}}
* In the "Earthquake" episode of ''[[Night Court]]'', Dan and Roz are trapped in an elevator with two sumo wrestlers.
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' examples:
** Numerous episodes of ''[[Star Trek:
** Done with multiple groups in the ''[[Star Trek:
** In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episodes "Starship Down", where Bashir and Dax are trapped in a malfunctioning turbolift together and resolved the issue of Bashir's unrequited crush on Dax by agreeing to remain [[Just Friends]].
** In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "The Dogs of War", Bashir and the new Dax end up having their [[First Kiss]] in an elevator on their way to Ops, much to Worf's disgust.
** In the ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "The Forsaken", Bashir gets stuck in a malfunctioning section of the station with a posse of annoying diplomats with no respect for him and the whole group come out friends, and Odo and Lwaxana Troi are trapped in a turbolift together.
** The ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "Life Support" sees Jake [[Invoked Trope|arranging]] to get locked in a cell with Nog in order to make up with him after an argument.
** There's also a Voyager episode where Janeway and Chakotay get a contagious disease that forces Voyager to maroon them on their own planet for a few months.
* The main thrust of the ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' episode "One Day, One Room" was a patient refusing to speak to anybody other than House (he explicitly describes himself as "trapped in the room with her"), and the two of them forcing each other to confront their demons (being victims of {{spoiler|rape and paternal abuse, respectively}}).
** "Lockdown" has several pairs of characters trapped together; Wilson and Thirteen, Taub and Foreman, Chase and Cameron, and House and a dying patient.
* ''[[Eastenders]]'' has done about fifteen of these.
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** There was actually one episode which was just Victor and Margaret in their bedroom late at night trying to fall asleep. Technically, the door wasn't locked, but the episode was essentially just thirty minutes of the two of them arguing. Of course at the end {{spoiler|they get absolutely nowhere}}.
* In ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael gets stuck in a hostage situation with Agent Bly, who up to this point had been a major pain in Michael's ass, and vice versa. They have to work together to get out of the situation (with Bly shot, no less) and end up with a mutual respect.
* ''[[Studio 60
* A tenth season episode of ''[[Murphy Brown]]'', "From the Terrace," has many characters trapped on the terrace of their new space.
* Daphne and Niles in ''[[Frasier]]'' spend an episode trapped on their roof, where they were supposed to be having a romantic date.
* In the ''[[
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' had the deliberate version of this - when Buffy fell out with Cordelia, the rest of the Scoobies conspired to lock the two in a limousine on the way to the Homecoming Queen dance with a note telling them to sort it out. Doubly subverted, because not only did they spend the entire journey arguing over who should have which corsage (very snidely), the journey then ended in the middle of nowhere, at which point bad guys appeared and started hunting them down like animals. Which actually ''did'' cause them to bond a little, in between running from gunmen and fighting demons.
** Played straight in "What's My Line". Xander and Cordelia are trapped in Buffy's basement with [[The Worm That Walks]] lurking upstairs. They start arguing about whether or not to break out, degrading into [[Volleying Insults]] which due to [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] ends in a [[Big Damn Kiss]]. They then break apart, stare at each other in horror, and mutually agree to break out immediately.
** And averted in the spinoff series ''[[Angel]]''. Angel is furious with Cordelia because she rejected Angel's love only to sleep with his son. Later they're both on guard duty, in the same room for four hours.
{{quote|
'''Angel:''' Maybe we shouldn't.
'''Cordy:''' Valid point.
* ''[[Family Ties]]'' had an episode where Mallory and Skippy were locked in a basement together.
* ''[[Stargate SG
** In a nod to this, Sheppard suggests something similar with the leaders of two soon-to-be warring villagers, but Weir turns him down. Given later events, everyone would have been saved some trouble had she ok'd it.
* ''[[The West Wing]]'' episode "[[Literary Allusion Title|No Exit]]", which trapped four pairs of people in a White House lockdown, giving them time to argue and come to terms with each other. Ish.
* Done in a hilariously bad scene of the hilariously bad ''Birds of Prey'' live action series wherein Huntress and her wannabe boyfriend get locked into a sauna together. Naturally to avoid overheating they both have to strip down to their skivvies.
* ''[[All in The Family]]'' - In "Two's a Crowd", Archie and Mike get locked in the storeroom of Archie's bar. (This, after Archie had locked himself in the basement of his house a few seasons earlier; you'd think he would have learned...)
** The first-season episode "The Elevator Story" had Archie get stuck in a stalled elevator with, among other people, a supercilious black businessman and a Puerto Rican man whose wife is [[Born in
* ''[[The Bob Newhart Show]]'' - Bob and Emily spend the 1976 Bicentennial locked in their apartment building's storage room.
* Played straight with a twist on the '80s Nell Carter sitcom ''Gimme a Break''. Nell is trapped in a basement after an earthquake with a Hispanic woman who only understands Spanish. To top it off, she's also deaf. I will never forget how to say "taco" or "cockroach" in sign language because of that episode....
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** During a citywide blackout, Chandler was locked in an ATM vestibule with supermodel Jill Goodacre.
* [[Double Subversion|Doubly Subverted]] in [[My Name Is Earl]]. The heads of two rival prison gangs were locked in a solitary cell together by a [[Genre Savvy]] warden. Once they got out, the fighting was worse than ever, but Earl later discovers that {{spoiler|not only did the two leaders secretly make up, they became [[Star-Crossed Lovers]]}}.
* Happened with nearly every main character in ''[[The 4400]]'' episode ''No Exit''. They had to work together to survive and escape a building that was trying to kill them (long story). In the end
* Masterfully subverted in the episode "Dawg Days" from [[The Shield]]. After an escalating feud between two gang members threatens to spiral out of control, a group of police officers lock them together in a storage container overnight, they jokingly assume that the normal course of events will occur and the two will settle their differences. However, when they return the next morning one of the gang members walks out and proclaims of his 'container-mate' "he ain't coming".
* ''Hancock'' (i.e. ''[[
* An early ''[[
* In ''[[Moonlighting]]'', David Addison and Maddie Hayes get stuck in an elevator, and finally have to deal with Maddie's pregnancy and her avoidance of David going on for months prior to this.
* ''[[
* In the re-imagined ''[[Battlestar Galactica
* In the ''[[Eureka]]'' episode "If You Build It...", Larry and Fargo get locked in the trunk of a car together.
* In ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel
* An interesting version appears in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', when Peter gets himself stuck inside Sylar's head while the latter is in a telepathy-induced coma. Naturally, they start seething at each other, complete with Sylar getting punched in the teeth. They end up having to draw an truce at the end of the episode, which allows them both to escape and wake up from their comas.
* In the ''[[Castle]]'' episode "Setup" Beckett and Castle are locked up while they are tested for radiation poisoning and again in the same episode when they are locked in a freezer to freeze to death.
** And then again in the episode "Cuffed" where Castle and Beckett wake up in a locked room, handcuffed together on a bed with [[You Wake Up in
* In the [[Britcom]] ''[[Peep Show]]'', Mark and Jeremy spend the best part of an episode locked in a stairwell.
== Radio ==
* An episode of ''[[
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* The play ''[[No Exit]]'' (''Huis Clos'', in the original, by Jean Paul Sartre) has three people, each with their own issues, trapped together in a room in hell. But not only can't they help each other, but they were specially chosen to keep each other company for eternity, tormenting each other's weaknesses with their own character defects.
* The 1972 play ''6 Rms Riv Vu'' has a man and woman, strangers to each other and both married, responding to a newspaper ad for an apartment to rent, and developing a romance after getting locked inside together when they show up to look at it.
* In ''[[Wicked (
* In ''[[Sweet Charity]]'', almost immediately after Oscar and Charity meet, they get trapped together in an elevator between floors.
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== Video Games ==
* In the first level of ''[[Second Sight]],'' John Vattic has the opportunity to lock two security guards in the isolation cell he just escaped from; very quickly, the two of them discover that neither of them owns a working radio, and help will not be arriving for hours. Since the windows of the cell are large and shatterproof, the [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|player has the luxury of watching the two guards slaughter each other]]. [[Pass the Popcorn|Bring some popcorn.]]
* [[Clannad (
* Several pairs of characters in ''[[Knights of the Old Republic (
* Joker's relationship with EDI in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' runs much more smoothly after the two are forced to run the ship by themselves after the Collector attack.
* In ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'', after you get the Oppressor tablet in the prison cell, [[Ghost Butler|something temporarily blocks the door]].
* If this happens to you in ''[[
* The core aspect of ''[[Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors
* [[Fate/stay
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== Western Animation ==
* Used as the [[Framing Device]] in the ''[[Rugrats]]'' Passover special: Tommy, Chuckie, and Angelica (and eventually the rest of their families) get locked in the attic with Grandpa Boris, and Boris passes the time by telling the story of Passover, [[Fable Remake]] style.
{{quote|
*SLAM!*
"[[Running Gag|Door...]]" }}
* The same happened to most of the cast on ''[[Sealab 2021]]'', in the episode "Trapped In The Closet". One by one, over the course of the episode, they were locked into a storage closet by a malfunctioning hatch. In an ironic inversion of [[Locked in
* Thanks to Mike and Bryan being a little too aware of the [[Shipping]] that goes on in the fandom of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the character Katara has found herself trapped inside a cave alone not once, but twice, with both the [[Official Couple|main protagonist]] and [[Ship Tease|antagonist]] of the show.
* The second episode of ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' revolved around this. The old friends locked in an industrial refrigerator together started to reminisce about their wacky adventures, turning the trope into the framework for a [[Clip Show]]...except, since this was the ''second episode'', there was only one episode to show clips from. This got even more surreal when the second episode was broadcast first, meaning viewers had never seen the clips it kept referencing.
* One memorable episode of ''[[
* [[You Suck|Ron Stoppable]] and Mr. Barkin spended an entire episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'' locked inside a truck. They hardly got to know each other, because Barkin got goofier and crazier.
* Used in the made-for-grade-school ''[[Arthur]]'': While the titular character and his little sister, DW, are locking in a refrigerator of a restaurant, they learn to use their imagination as they listen to an old radio show on the ancient radio in the fridge.
** Another time Arthur and Francine were locked in the library overnight while they were mad at each other, and made up during the course of the story.
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'', when Mr. Burns and Homer wound up getting snowed in a log cabin, they both end up getting paranoid about the other's intentions.
** Also invoked in another episode, where the characters lock Skinner and Krabappel in a room to get them to work out the teacher's strike. After banging on the door for several hours they finally agree to talk.
* Inverted in ''[[
* The ''[[Family Guy]]'' 150th episode "Brian and Stewie" center on Brian and Stewie locked in a bank vault for a weekend.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Rule of Drama]]
▲[[Category:Elevator Tropes]]
[[Category:Stockholm Syndrome]]
▲[[Category:Locked in a Room]]
|