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{{trope}}
[[File:PandorasBox.jpg|link=Classical Mythology|frame|"I [[Stealth Pun|hope]] it's not too late to return this."]]
{{quote|''"Old folk saying: 'You can catch the devil, but you can't hold him long.'"''
|'''[[Rod Serling]]''', from ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode [[The Twilight Zone/Recap/S2/E41 The Howling Man|"The Howling Man"]]}}
Long ago, [[Precursors|An Ancient People]] faced a terrible evil. Using various methods, they [[Captured Super Entity|bound the evil]] into a [[Tailor
It did.
'''Sealed Evil
Sometimes, the [[Big Bad]]'s plan is to unseal the can of some ancient [[God of Evil]]; hoping they'll get some of that great power as a reward. If they succeed, it almost always turns out that the Sealed Evil was manipulating them into freeing them, making the Sealed Evil the ''true'' [[Big Bad]]. Sealed Evil™ almost ''never'' rewards those who release it. It may act like the malevolent flavor of a [[Literal Genie]], twisting their releasers' wishes back on them, or it may simply decide that [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness]]. Remember: [[Evil Is Not a Toy]].
The primary question is usually "Why did they just seal it, as opposed to KILL it?" Well, the answer tends to vary; but usually it's a variant of [[
Expect the mere release of the SEIAC to cause a [[World-Wrecking Wave]], [[Walking Wasteland]], and sundry other disasters. That said, being cooped up for centuries is likely to have weakened the SEIAC, meaning it needs some time to recover its lost strength.
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Since this trope can be traced back to Greek mythology, it's [[Older Than Feudalism]]. Notice that it is exactly the same, without the mystical magical mumbo-jumbo, as any plot where a horrible criminal escapes from or is released from prison.
Polar opposite of [[Sealed Good in
Compare [[Tailor-Made Prison]], when the current generation makes its own can to ([[Cardboard Prison|temporarily]]) imprison evildoers. Compare [[Pointless Doomsday Device]].
For cases where a particularly powerful Sealed Evil overshadows a setting but never manages to affect the plot directly enough to be a [[Big Bad]], see [[Bigger Bad]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Ryoko, from ''[[Tenchi Muyo!]]!'', was sealed away as a traditional demon in the [[OVA]]s; however, after calming down by dueling Tenchi for an episode, she joined the cast as a protagonist and suitor for Tenchi's hand. Washuu was in a similar situation in the TV series.
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'', Pharaoh Atem took the contingency plan of sealing both the [[Big Bad]] and [[Sealed Good in a Can|himself]] 3000 years ago, until both resurfaced roughly simultaneously when their respective containers were found by archaeologists.
** Despite his good intentions, his [[Demonic Possession|less than polite hosting methods]] and [[Disproportionate Retribution|outdated ideas of justice]] made Atem ''himself'' a close case of Sealed Evil In A Can in the early manga until Yugi got hold of [[Kid with the Leash|The Leash]].
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's]]'', the Book of Darkness regenerates every ten years, sealing its programs (the Wolkenritter) inside of itself until then. Also, {{spoiler|Gil Graham plots against both the heroes and Wolkenritter to allow for the Book, Wolkenritter and their [[The Kid with the Remote Control|innocent mistress]] to be sealed in the space between dimensions forever, because the Book would just keep regenerating. Of course, he is stopped and regrets ever deciding to put these lives at risk.}}
* In ''[[One Piece]]'', [[The Alcatraz|Impel Down]], the world's most secure prison has a level that most people don't even know exists, Level 6 the "Eternal Hell" which contains at least two ex-Warlords of the Sea {{spoiler|former [[Big Bad]] Sir Crocodile & Jinbe}}, {{spoiler|Luffy's brother & Whitebeard Division leader Ace}} & Shiliew, the insane ex-Head Jailer who was a match even for Warden Magellan.
** {{spoiler|Luffy frees Jinbe and Crocodile on his way to free Ace, who was at Marineford at the time}}, but {{spoiler|in Blackbeard's raid, he brings Shiliew and the worst of the worst of Level 6, including what is confirmed to be the biggest [[Our Giants Are Bigger|Giant]] alive into his crew. But, he (possibly) inadvertently unleashed a unknown amount of prisoners, who thanks to the World Government deciding to cover it up, escaped into the world without resistance... [[Oh Crap|or any warning for the populace]]}}.
** {{spoiler|Caribou, sealed evil in a barrel.}} Poor mermaids.
* The Panthalassa and the real Michel in ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]''.
* In ''[[
** Later, in ''[[Dragonball Z]]'', the five-million-year-old sorcerer Babidi comes to Earth seeking energy to power Buu, the Sealed Evil In A Can that ate God's superiors. Originally, Toriyama wanted to finish the series after the defeat of Frieza, the ruler of the galaxy and the most powerful being in the universe. When the series' success made this impossible, he was forced to invent ever more implausible reasons why the ever more powerful villains hadn't shown up before and kicked Frieza's rear end. Androids, super-clones made from our heroes' DNA... by the time Babidi came to Earth, the current villain (Dabura) was the evil God of a [[Bizarro Universe]]. When he couldn't top that, Toriyama simply pulled Buu out of a Can.
** Toriyama acknowledges his reliance on the Sealed Evil In A Can formula in the ''Neko Majin Z'' parody comic, in which the titular "hero" keeps a powerful demon sealed in a small rock balanced on top of a boulder by the side of a road. If anyone picks up the rock, the demon is released, requiring Neko Majin to step in and re-seal the demon... for a fee.
** In the 13th movie, ''Wrath of the Dragon'', the monster Hirudegarn is split in two and sealed inside Tapion and Minosha. Hoi breaks him free and rejoins the two halves... {{spoiler|You guessed it, Hirudegarn stomps on Hoi and kills him. And Hirudegarn is eventually killed by Goku (who at that point used a technique that could have defeated him right from the start).}}
** In the
* The Decepticon army that Crosswise was jailer of in ''[[Transformers]]: Cybertron'', until [[The Starscream|Starscream]] freed them.
* ''[[The Slayers]]'' has Ruby-Eye Shabranigdo, which was broken into seven pieces and sealed in humans (and gets out every now and then), Zanafar, and for good measure Shabranigdo's lieutenant Chaos Dragon Gaav.
* In ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' the evil raven was sealed away by a prince who broke his heart into shards; the raven gradually gains power through the series and is fully freed when the prince's heart is returned to him.
* After "Him" in ''[[Powerpuff Girls Z]]'' is defeated horribly by [[Magical Girl|a bunch of girls]], he is contained in a tomb in an abandoned museum until [[Exty Years From Now|the present day]] at which point he sends out a mummy to find the means to release him from his prison. His main goal is to conquer the world and destroy the Powerpuff Girls for their resemblance to the Ōedo Chakichaki Musume, the first three to defeat him.
* The title character of ''[[Inuyasha]]'' is a half-demon who was sealed to a tree by the priestess Kikyo's arrow for 50 years, until Kikyo's reincarnation Kagome freed him out of necessity. Of course, [[Jerk
** The seal is played straight with Ryuukossei, however. The powerful youkai that killed Inuyasha's father is first mentioned only when it becomes necessary for Inuyasha to succeed in an achievement that surpasses his father so he can master his sword. Cue introduction of Ryuukossei who had never been mentioned prior to that point. Reason being that Inuyasha's father managed to seal Ryuukossei with a fang the way Kikyou had sealed Inuyasha with an arrow. Naraku frees Ryuukossei who fights Inuyasha and dies, allowing Inuyasha to surpass his father and master his sword.
** Also from ''[[Inuyasha]]'', the {{spoiler|Shikon no Tama}}. Unique in that it is both Sealed Evil In A Can ''and'' [[Sealed Good in
** ''[[Inuyasha]]'' also features an anime-only example where the cast actually tries to seal away something evil to create this trope. When [[Evil Weapon|Toukijin]]'s creator is killed as a result of the sword possessing him, the sword lands in the middle of a field. Even [[Ultimate Blacksmith]] Toutousai is unable to approach its immensely powerful evil aura, leaving them at a loss what to do. In the manga, this is the moment where Sesshoumaru (who comissioned the creation of the sword) arrives, defeating and mastering the sword as soon as he touches it. In an [[Adaptation Expansion]], the [[Filler|anime]], has the blade begin to corrupt the ground around it as soon as it lands, spreading swiftly. Since none of them can approach it, they debate what to do and Miroku decides to build a small shrine around the sword, blessing it to keep Toukijin's evil from spreading. Only then does the anime allow Sesshomaru to arrive to defeat and master the sword.
** In the third movie, the evil sword Sou'unga was also sealed away for a few hundred years, only to break the seal while in Kagome's time and go about trying to kill everyone.
* The anime version of ''[[Prétear]]'' starts with [[Dark Magical Girl|the villain]] breaking free after sixteen years of being sealed away.
** And in the manga version, she ''remains''
* Most of the villains in ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' were sealed until recently, except for the last season. In the first season, inside the can (the Dark Kingdom/Negaverse) was ''another'' can, with another, bigger Sealed Evil (Metallia/Negaforce) inside it; the forces of the Dark Kingdom spent most of their time draining energy from people in order to charge the metaphorical can opener needed to release her.
** In the last season (in the anime at least), it is revealed that {{spoiler|at the end of the first Sailor War, Sailor Galaxia had sealed Chaos inside her own body.}}
* In the Gonzo version of ''[[Hellsing]]'', the final episode reveals that Incognito plans to {{spoiler|release the Egyptian god Set in order to}} destroy the world. Of course, {{spoiler|Alucard defeats the released Set, it is left ambiguous if Set was really destroyed or just resealed}}.
** Hell. What about Alucard himself? He used to be in a state of hibernation as a dead, rotting husk in a basement. And then ''someone'' found a way to splatter him with ''blood'' of all things...
* In ''[[Soul Eater]]'', the
** [[Body Horror|In a bag made out of his own skin]]. [[Squick|Ew]].
*** Not only does said Evil [[It Got Worse|get out]] but the manga later reveals that there are [[Eldritch Abomination|similar]] creatures trapped elsewhere, although the Great Old One in Eibon's book has more in common with Shinigami than their estranged comrade Asura.
* In ''[[Deadman Wonderland]]'' the "evil" are people affected by the "Branch of Sin" {{spoiler|dangerous blood-manipulating powers}} who are secretly hidden deep in the "can", a maximum security prison/publicly open ''amusement park''
* ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' features two examples, one completely straight and the other a little bizarre. First, as the straight example we have Ryomen Sukuna no Kami, a gigantic four-armed two-faced demon god sealed in the Kansai region of Japan; releasing and controlling him was the motivation for the villains of the Kyoto arc. Second, and rather more unusual, we have the ancient and legendary vampire sorceress Evangeline A.K. McDowell. While she ''was'' a wanted magical criminal, responsible for multiple heinous crimes and with a huge bounty on her head, her sealing was based less on her evil and more on her [[Stalker
** Played straight again with {{spoiler|the Lifemaker, the ultimate [[Big Bad]] of the setting,}} who is sealed {{spoiler|inside the Sacred Tree of Mahoro Academy.}}
* ''[[Hell Teacher Nube]]'' has a demon who tried to kill him in his childhood sealed into his left hand by his [[The Obi
* The three big bad Tayutai in ''[[Tayutama]]'' are strong, but their method of sealing might have needed to be reinforced. They were freed by, of all things, a runaway moped. On the other hand, it let [[Sealed Good in
* The plot of ''[[My Balls]]'' has been summed up as "sealed evil in a man-can." Naturally, [[Can't Have Sex Ever|sex will let it out]], and [[Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere|there are just so many temptations]] . . .
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro
* The character Isaac from ''[[Eternal Sabbath]]'' was sealed in a glass tank for several years before breaking free and wreaking havoc using his [[Psychic Powers|charm and charisma]].
* In the third part of ''[[
* In ''[[Kamichama Karin]]'', the [[Big Bad]] sealed himself inside the ring of Zeus. {{spoiler|In the anime, it's implied that [[Big Good|Kujyou Kazuto]] [[Sealed Good in
* In ''[[Bleach]]'', {{spoiler|this is [[Big Bad]] Aizen's final fate, as he's put in jail for 20,000 years.}}
* Tailed Beasts in ''[[Naruto]]'' are generally [[Sealed Inside a Person
* In ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'', [[Big Bad|Lucemon]] was sealed away in the Digital World's core. {{spoiler|Some time later, he ends up using the Royal Knights to scan the entire Digital World and its three moons, effectively vaporizing them, to break free. }}
* {{spoiler|Zeref}} of ''[[Fairy Tail]]'' is revealed to be this right after someone wastes their life trying to raise him from the dead.
** Even worse, the guy who wasted his life was just a diversion while someone else got the keys to unseal {{spoiler|Zeref, who reveals later that he was ''never even sealed''.}}
* In "[[Utawarerumono]]", Hakuoro finally has his [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] and has the [[Big Bad]] Sealed In A Can. {{spoiler|Since he has to merge with his [[Evil Twin]] to do so, it counts as both
* Soushu from ''[[Kyou Kara Maou]]'' is Sealed Evil in [[Four Is Death|four]] Boxes.
* Liselotte Werckmeister in ''[[
* Poseidon from ''[[Saint Seiya]]'', sealed in a jar.
* Mag Mel{{spoiler|1=/Emperor Barodius}} and Razenoid{{spoiler|1=/Dharak}} started the fourth season of ''[[Bakugan]]'' as this. Credit must be given to {{spoiler|Code Eve}} for being ''extremely'' thorough though. He was sealed inside armor [[Made of Evil|crafted from his own evil]], then imprisoned in an alternate universe, ''and'' tied to his own throne with powerful webbing. The only reason he was able to free himself was simply because he had a [[Psychic Link]] to [[The Hero|Dan and Drago]], allowing himself to become powerful enough to free himself, something the one who put him there wasn't aware of.
* The ghosts of ''[[Ghost Stories]]'', until the construction sites destroy the places where they had been imprisoned. Satsuki then has to spend the rest of the series re-sealing them.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* In ''[[The DCU]]'', the [[Phantom Zone]] is essentially an other-dimensional prison that holds numerous Kryptonian criminals. As such, there many stories where the prisoners escape and the heroes have to fight to throw them back into the Zone.
* In ''[[Hsu and Chan]]'', the Tanaka brothers fight off a demon invasion by sealing them in various trinkets and keepsakes.
* In ''[[Johnny the Homicidal Maniac]]'', Johnny's constant murders are (partially) motivated by the need for fresh blood to paint on one of the walls in his house, which keeps the monster trapped behind it from physically getting out. {{spoiler|After Johnny's accidental suicide, the creature breaks free and is revealed to be a [[Cosmic Horror|horrible, bloodthirsty mass of tentacles and faces]]; Johnny's conversation with [[Satan|
* In ''[[Lucifer (
* In ''[[The Astounding Wolf Man]]'' {{spoiler|Gorgg}} is an ancient and evil golem that was imprisoned under Stonehenge. As soon as he is released by {{spoiler|The Face}} he goes to kill the blood relatives of those who imprisoned him.
* The Lord of Locusts from ''[[Bone]]''.
* Ragamuffin, from ''[[Lenore the Cute Little Dead Girl]]'', [[Complete Monster|the eternal vampire scourge who eats people alive]], is [[Sealed Evil in
* ''[[Green Lantern]]: Rebirth'' revealed that the long-established "[[Kryptonite Factor|yellow impurity]]" in the Central Power Battery was actually ''Parallax'', the "yellow fear entity," an [[Anthropomorphic Personification|insectile manifestation]] of that emotion, released when Hal "Greatest GL of them All" Jordan entered the Central Battery years before.
* ''[[
* Parodied in a 1983 nine-page story in ''[[Love and Rockets]]'' by Jamie Hernandez called ''Maggie vs Maniakk''. Maggie plays with a "Mayamese mini transporter" and accidentally frees Maniakk, a costumed super evil trapped in limbo/the ninth dimension by Ultimax, a superhero now down on his luck.
* In "The Garden" segment of ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]: His 9 Lives'', Garfield (who is a kitten here) and Cloey (his owner in this life) are given a magical garden by Uncle Tod when he joins the circus, under the condition that they never open the crystal box on the checkered toadstool. The trope is subverted here because, out of loyalty to Uncle Tod, they decide ''not'' to open it.
* ''[[
** Also, the djinn that Frau Totenkinder dealt with earlier, although that was more of a case of amoral and incredibly dangerous and destructive, especially in the hands of an evil man, but not evil in and of itself.
* Lampshaded in the short-lived comic ''BMG'', where the [[Big Bad]] literally releases [[The Dragon]] from a can labeled "Instant evil. Just add water."
* One episode of ''[[
* One of the main foes of ''[[Hellboy (
* ''[[
* In Marvel comics, [[Planet Eater|Galactus]] acts as a can on a greater, multiverse-destroying evil. Most of the energy he gets from his food goes to maintaining the seal, explaining his unusual diet.
* The Warlock Graveyard in ''[[I Hunt Monsters]]'' is this, housing many powerful monsters in it and kept in check by an obelisk that needs to be recharged every century of so. It the protagonist's disbelief and reluctance that ends up freeing the monsters and he forced to track them down and re-seal them.
* Caged Demonwolf (Molestor of Worlds!) from ''[[
* Jurid from ''[[
* Zom, from ''[[Doctor Strange]]'' - a surprisingly obscure hyperdemon who was this trope almost literally, having been sealed in a special amphora in another dimension. ''Horrifically'' powerful. He was initially imprisoned by a coalition of cosmic beings, including Eternity and frickin' Dormammu, and when he was let out, he frightened Umar (Dormammu's even scarier sister) so much she ran home and said she'd never come out again. Considering how bad-ass he is, the "can", or amphora, must truly be the can of the gods.
** Then came ''[[World War Hulk]]'', when a [[Godzilla Threshold|desperate Strange]] let Zom back ''out'' of the
* In the comic strip ''[[Wormy]]'', the titular dragon owned a collection of magical orbs containing vicious demons, which a human wizard attempted to steal. This being a humor comic, Wormy used the orbs as snooker balls.
* The Source Wall in [[The DCU]] is a huge cosmic barrier between the Source (the source of power behind existence itself) and the rest of creation. The Wall is decorated with the bodies and visages of all of the would be conquerors who have sought to claim the power of the Source for themselves, imprisoning them for all eternity. The Wall is one of the more effective Cans in fiction and only three people have ever escaped it. One of them, Yuga Khan (the father of [[Darkseid]]), managed to summon just enough power to free himself from the Wall...only to get himself imprisoned in it again in another bid to obtain the Source, this time for good. The second one was Darkseid himself, and he needed the help of the one who imprisoned him in the first place ([[Superman]]) to do it. The third was Superman, who was trapped by Darkseid and required the help of every variation of Supergirl from the last twenty years to break free.
* In the conclusion of ''[[The Thanos Imperative]]'' event, {{spoiler|the now immortal Thanos is trapped in the Cancer Verse. Star-Lord and Nova trapped him there along with themselves to keep him from destroying their own universe in his rage at being forever denied the embrace of his beloved Death.}}
* In a [[The Disney Afternoon|Disney Afternoon]] crossover event in ''[[Disney Adventures]]'', the [[The Legend of the Chaos God|Chaos God himself]], Solego, was trapped in two pieces: a crystal held his mind and a gold medallion held his powers. Uniting the pieces released him and ''that'' isn't a good thing.
* [[Marvel Comics|Tiamut the Dreaming Celestial]] was exiled to Earth by his Celestial brethren for committing a crime against "life itself". {{spoiler|Later revealed to be a case of [[Sealed Good in
* The
* The Sohrem of ''[[Nightschool]]''.
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* In ''[[Fuck the Jesus Beam]]'', BaROCK Dominatus Caesar Inferno Vespucci Giovanni Goku Super Sexy Awesome Absolute GOD O.B.A.M.A., officially known as the greatest evil the world has ever known, is a Kenyan terrorist who was president for 14,657 consecutive terms and started 95 world wars who has been sealed away for 100 million years. Niamy releases him to deal with the Bombignats and Fetii, only for him to take control of them.
* Daemon from the ''[[Tamers Forever Series]]'', who breaks ''himself'' out.
* The ''[[Touhou]]'' fanfiction ''[[Imperfect Metamorphosis]]'' has both {{spoiler|Rin Satsuki}} and {{spoiler|the Shadow Youkai}}, who were sealed in the different ways and for different reasons, although while they're both thought of as evil only one of them actually is. The characters involved in the sealings also spend a lot of time justifying them, which ultimately boils down to the two being too damn tough to kill and requiring a different method.
==
* The Titans in Disney's ''[[Hercules (1997 film)|Hercules]]'' film. Zeus imprisons them all beneath the ocean with lightning bolts, but when the planets align, Hades is able to release them. {{spoiler|Hercules uses the Tornado Titan to suck the other Titans in, then throws them all into space where they explode.}}
* Jafar in Disney's ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' and (of course) ''The Return of Jafar''.
* The villain Hexxus in ''[[Fern Gully]]'', who for ages was sealed into a tree, and was released when the tree was cut down.
* ''[[Superman (film)|Superman]]'' and ''Superman II'' both feature the Phantom Zone, but make it out to be a one-time prison for a specific set of three villains.
* In the movie ''[[The Ruins]]'', as well as in the book, the protagonists are attacked by {{spoiler|a sentient, carnivorous, and parasitic vine living on an ancient pyramid (or in a mine shaft, in the book). The vine is kept on the pyramid by a ring of deforested and salted land carved out of the jungle around it, and is effectively sealed up by a very stringent quarantine set up by the villagers living nearby}}. In the end of [[The Movie]], {{spoiler|one woman manages to escape, but it is hinted that the vine is living inside of her}}, and in one alternate ending, {{spoiler|it is directly shown that she has taken the vine with her back to civilization, unsealing the evil and letting it go free.}}
* [[Wishmaster]] is this trope. A powerful djinn sealed inside a fire opal since biblical times is awakened by [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|the heroine who accidentally broke it]]. The monster will wreak havoc on earth as soon as the girl ask her proverbial 3 wishes. But she wont, 'cause that would be wrong. And so on.
* John Carpenter's ''[[
** And then there's ''[[The Thing (
* Most [[Egregious]] Example of All Time: In the 1999 version of ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy]]'', it is the very act of Sealing Imhotep in a Can that ''bestows'' the apocalyptic abilities that he displays in the movie. Moral: [[
** 2001's sequel, ''The Mummy Returns'', opens up another can of evil in the form of [[Dwayne Johnson|The Rock's]] CGI-animated appearance as The Scorpion
** Averted in the third ''Mummy'' movie, when the already incredibly powerful Chinese Emperor didn't gain anything from the curse that transformed him into a crumbling clay figure. In fact, if it wasn't even the curse that revived him, but some miracle water. As a side effect, though, he has the [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|ability to throw his face at people]]. [[Combat Pragmatist|He used it]].
* The ''[[Van Helsing]]'' movie has [[Dracula]] sealed inside his own part of the world, but circumventing it by developing wings, which he passed on to his other kin.
* In the 2007 ''[[Transformers (
** [[All There in the Manual|Prequel comics]] for the third film reveal Shockwave to be this; he was found by the USSR decades ago. And, of course, there's {{spoiler|Sentinel Prime}}, who's {{spoiler|been locked in stasis on board the Ark, which crashed on the moon}}.
* The comic books as well as the movie adaption of ''[[Hellboy (
* In the first ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' movie, the Ghostbusters seal all of their captured ghosts in a large containment unit that can only stay locked through the help of a power grid. When they capture an individual ghost, they suck it into a smaller container. {{spoiler|And of course, it then gets unlocked.}}
* In [[Clive Barker]]'s ''[[
* In ''[[Gremlins]] 2: The New Batch'', Billy traps the Electric Gremlin in the Clamp Corp. phone system, where the villain suffers the torture of being on-hold.
* In ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (
** In ''[[Power Rangers Turbo|Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie]]'', Maligore is freed from a volcano on an island that is sealed in another dimension.
* The titular monster of '' [[The Beast
* ''[[Time Bandits]]'': "Don't touch it -- it's ''concentrated evil!''"
** Also, Evil himself is unable to leave his fortress.
* Played with in the film adaptation of ''[[The Shadow]]''. A museum receives a silver sarcophagus from a mysterious source, with an inscription on it saying it's the coffin of Genghis Khan. When the security guard is left alone with it the coffin starts to shake around and eventually opens up to reveal a man in the dress of a Mongol warrior, who telepathically forces the security guard to shoot himself. However, it turns out it's not actually Genghis Khan, but a modern-day descendant.
* ''[[Living Hell]]'', a recent horror movie has sublevel 4, vault 12, on a military base, which the protagonist doesn't want disturbed. Of course, the military had completely missed the hidden door in the vault 'til the protagonist waltzed in and told them there was something there... and we all know what to do with hidden doors, right? So, [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|nice job there, hero]].
* Played with and subverted in ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]''. The Beast is locked up in an insane
* The crew of the Enterprise almost let Evil out of its can in ''[[Star Trek V:
* ''[[
** The sequel ''Beware The Blob'' plays the trope much more literally: a oil worker brings home a frozen chunk of the Blob, sealed in a thermos. But not sealed too tightly, of course, or else [[Too Dumb to Live|we wouldn't have a movie]].
* Another candidate for Most [[Egregious]] Example of All Time is the movie ''[[Hobgoblins]]'', where a group of mischievous, killer, evil, mind-controlling, rapidly-nodding hobgoblin puppets are "sealed" inside a large, vault door, behind a barred gate, neither of which are, you know... locked. Worse yet, the man who's spent thirty years "guarding" these "sealed" horrors is a demolitions expert and always was. {{spoiler|He ends up blowing them up.}} [[Fridge Logic|Too bad that didn't occur to him, you know... sometime during the last thirty years?]]
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** Including, but limited to raping a dolphin and driving contaminated swans to fights.
* Used literally in ''[[Return of the Living Dead]]'', where a brain-eating zombie and corpse-animating 245-Trioxin gas are accidentally released from a sealed metal cannister.
* ''[[
* In the ''[[Mother of Tears]]'', Mater Lachrymarum's powers are restored by the unearthing of a lost talisman, making it more a case of "Sealed Evil Artifact In A Can." Lachrymarum herself was apparently in some sort of self-imposed hibernation prior to this.
* In ''[[Jumanji]]'', the titular board game is buried underground for decades until it is unearthed by a construction team and found by Alan. "What if someone digs it up?" "Then may God have mercy on his soul."
* ''[[Rare Exports]]'': In prehistoric times the Sami-folk of Lapland, tired of the tyranny of [[Bad Santa|Santa Claus]], lured him on weak ice, and he sank to the bottom of the lake, which subsequently froze through. He was cut out and covered with tons of sawdust to keep him from melting, and then layers upon layers of dirt and stones over the centuries, until the Korvatunturi mountain on the border of modern Finland and Russia was formed. And this Christmas an obsessed American millionaire decides to dig him out. He is not happy.
* ''[[
* ''[[The Keep]]'': An ancient monster has been trapped in a castle for centuries, until some Nazis awaken it.
* ''[[Quatermass and The Pit]]'' has an ancient alien evil buried under London for millions of years, finally unearthed by building works.
* Uwe Boll's ''[[Alone in
* Maxim Horvath in ''[[The
== [[Gamebook]]s ==
* A ridiculous number of these show up as non-Darklord threats to harass poor ''[[Lone Wolf]]''. In a slight subversion, one of these sealed evils, {{spoiler|namely Darklord Vashna, the most powerful Darklord of them all, who even tried to play [[The Starscream]] to [[Big Bad]] Naar in the [[Backstory]],}} is already dead. Not sealed alive in a prison somewhere, but ''dead''. The goal of two of the books in the series {{spoiler|(''The Chasm of Doom'' and ''The Legacy of Vashna'')}} is to prevent him from [[Back from the Dead|coming back]].
** Lord Zahda in ''Castle Death'' is another interesting example: he's definitely a powerful evil who had been sealed away, but not so much in a can as in a castle on an island which he ruled over, where he had subjects of his own. So a much larger, more comfortable can, at least.
** Of course, at the end of book 3, ''The Caverns of Kalte'', you are the one doing the sealing, when you exile Vonotar the Traitor to the Daziarn Plane by pushing him through a shadow gate. Of course, the Daziarn is a whole dimension of its own, not really a can, and, of course, you would eventually see Vonotar again.
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** Agarash the Damned, Naar's most powerful champion of evil, was sealed in another dimension by the Elder Magi millenia ago. In the ''Grey Star'' books he is the [[Bigger Bad]] goading the [[Big Bad]] Shasarak into freeing him. Grey Star of course has to prevent this.
== [[Literature]] ==
* 19th century example: The 1842 German novella ''Die schwarze Spinne'' (''The Black Spider'') by Jeremias Gotthelf: heavily steeped in Christian-conservative symbolism, the story, based on folktales, contrasts pastoral life with satanic influences. The titular black spider (a metaphor for the Black Plague) is created when a ruthless [[Evil Aristocrat|knight baron]] forces the peasants of a remote valley in the Alps to work themselves nearly to death. The [[Satan|devil]] in the form of a wild huntsman offers the desperate peasants his help, in exchange for a yet unborn unchristened child. The only person who is willing to strike such a pact is a farmer's wife (and originally a foreigner, adding a touch of xenophobia). The devil kisses her cheek; from this kiss grows an evil tumor in the form of a black spider. Twice, when the devil comes to collect a newborn, the local priest baptizes the child in the nick of time, but as punishment, the monstrous spider, now adult, births thousands of tiny spiders that start killing livestock and people, and finally breaks free from the face of the farmer's wife (who dies) and kills the priest and baby. The spider is finally sealed away when a brave mother, to protect her own newborn, grabs it and, dying, imprisons it in a hole in a wooden beam of her house, into which she hammers a peg to seal away the spider forever. Generations later, when people have stopped believing in the tale and become "sinful", [[Alcohol-Induced Idiocy|a bragging servant pulls out the peg on a drunken bet and releases the devil spider]], until it can again be sealed away by a pious woman who remembers the old tales and sacrifices her life for her child.
* One of [[Montague Rhodes James|MR James]]’s favorite tropes was having an unpleasant being imprisoned in a tomb, grave, or ruin, inevitably later disturbed. Stories in this pattern include "Count Magnus" (the count's sarcophagus has three padlocks on it), "An Episode of Cathedral History", and "The Rose Garden".
* The Damned, from ''[[Hells Children]]'', by Andrew Boland, are sealed evil in a can, who spend the entire book trying to get out.
* [[
** Let's not forget that he almost gets out in ''[[Cthulhu Mythos|Call of Cthulhu]]'', only to be [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|run down by a steamship]] stuffed back in the can.
** However, the Great Old Ones are not evil per se (save perhaps Nyarlathotep, and he is not always classed as one, and is properly an Outer God, ) but uncaring - they are simply far too powerful for us to matter to them, rather like a human stepping on ants (or for a better example, but purely Scots, the midge) and/or simply mindless - Azathoth for example, could (and apparently will) destroy everytihng, but he is blind, deaf, mute and completely unintelligent,and is no more evil than a hurricane.
** Another example in Lovecraft's work is ''The Haunter of the Dark'', an avatar of the god Nyarlatotep who is sealed inside the shining trapezohedron and can be summoned by gazing into it. Unlike the Great Old Ones, summoning him doesn't result in [[The End of the World
* Jadis the White Witch in ''[[Chronicles of Narnia|The Magician's Nephew]]'' put herself into suspended animation after destroying her world, and left [[Schmuck Bait|a way for any visitors to wake her up]], so that they’d take her to a new world.
* ''[[
** Tolkien's ''[[Unfinished
** From ''[[
** The [[Artifact of Doom|One Ring]] itself is Sealed Evil In A Can, as it has [[Soul Jar|Sauron's ill will forged within it]].
* [[Larry Niven]]'s ''[[Known Space]]'' story ''World of Ptavvs'' has a scientific team releasing a Slaver, an ancient alien with large-scale mind control powers and an intense attitude problem, from the stasis field it has been trapped in for a billion years.
* [[Fred Saberhagen]]'s ''Empire of the East'' did this in an interesting way: the Demon-Prince Orcus, who founded the titular [[The Empire|Empire]], was imprisoned under the earth by his own lieutenants, John Ominor and Wood, in a coup. Eventually, Wood convinces Ominor that they should release Orcus, believing that only Orcus has the power to match Ardneh, and believing that they can keep Orcus controlled. {{spoiler|They were right about the first point, barely. About the second, they were wrong. Also, Ardneh tricked them into releasing Orcus so that he could destroy Orcus and the Empire [[Thanatos Gambit|in a single stroke]].}}
* The blade Stormbringer in the ''[[Elric]]'' saga by [[Michael Moorcock]] straddles the border between this and [[Evil Weapon]] as it is both the form of an [[Eldritch Abomination]] that it takes on the mortal plane, and is the trap it is bound into. At the end of the saga, {{spoiler|it finally breaks free as it is forced to consume a truly indestructible soul, Elric's, and is finally free to race through the universe, the last bit of Chaos left to supply growth and change in a universe of Law — supposedly this one.}}
* [[Christopher Moore]] is a big fan of this trope, most notably in ''[[
* Colin Wilson's ''The Space Vampires'' has a space mission to find a derelict ship drifting in the solar system. The astronauts board it and retrieve what they believe to be several [[Rubber Forehead Aliens|human-like alien]] bodies. It turns out they're possessed by evil energy beings that live off the life energies of others. The very pulpy movie adaptation (called ''Lifeforce'') has a similar initial situation, though it diverges pretty massively after that (the aliens {{spoiler|turn their victims into zombies}}).
* In ''
* F. Paul Wilson's ''[[The Keep]]'' has Radu Molasar, advance man for [[Cosmic Horror|The Otherness]], sealed in a castle in Romania until [[Those Wacky Nazis]] let him out.
* In ''[[Who Censored Roger Rabbit?]]'', it turns out that the titular murderer is {{spoiler|a genie imprisoned in a Persian teapot that can only be released by a bonafide toon, who is sick of taking orders from self-centered people and starts deliberately spoiling the toons' wishes, until finally he just flat-out starts murdering them.}}
* The initial premise of ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'' is that the God of Evil was imprisoned by the other surviving gods, but is now reaching out to influence things. Later books introduce successive complications, but those drift rapidly away from this trope.
* The ''[[Black Company]]'' starts out with the can already having been opened but not all of the way in a bit of evil on evil backstabbery. Their employer was sealed away by the White Rose but then released by a group of sorcerers called the Resurrectionists. As thanks the Lady, a powerful sorceress who was sealed in there, kills them and then prevents her husband from getting out so she can keep the power to herself. Needless to say, he is not pleased and it's implied the world is doomed if he ever does get out.
** Not to mention that {{spoiler|once the Lady loses her powers and essentially switches sides against her former lieutenant, the Dominator is ultimately defeated and sealed in a silver spike, at which point is instantly reduced to ostensible [[Artifact of Doom]] and consummate [[MacGuffin]] that spawns a titular sequel chronicling the mad scramble to be the first wizard to obtain and unlock its secrets. Since the attempt to put the evil in a can inside another can that just happened to be the offspring of a [[Physical God]] was foiled miserably by a band of local scum, the [[Physical God]] drops it off in a [[Swirly Energy Thingy]] with assurances that the threat is [[As Long
* In ''Deep Wizardry'', the second ''[[Young Wizards]]'' novel, the seal on the [[Satan|Lone Power's]] can is weakening and needs to be recharged. However, what is sealed is only ''one'' aspect out of many that the [[Big Bad|Lone Power]] possesses, so It can be safely sealed away in one place while simultaneously being an active menace somewhere else.
** Then in ''A Wizard's Holiday'', the protagonists have to, among other things, {{spoiler|open the seal and let the Lone Power out}}.
* The Dark Ones in ''[[The Wizard
* In the ''[[Dragonlance]]'' novels, and ''D&D'' campaign setting, Takhisis was essentially a sealed evil in a can from the end of the Third Dragonwar, when Huma Dragonbane forced her to swear to leave Krynn and never return, and the Cataclysm, when she found a way to get around that oath. In an interesting variation on this trope, it was when Berem stole the emerald from the pillar of Takhisis' temple, killing his sister Jasla in the process, that Takhisis was partially resealed.
** She was actually able to get around her oath because of the Cataclysm — its precise wording was that she would never return "while the world was whole". With half the main continent blown up, the world was no longer whole so she was able to return. It's a bit of a stretch, but Takhisis ''is'' the [[God of Evil|Queen of Darkness]].
* In the series ''[[
** Stasis Boxes pretty much fit this trope when used for preserving the Gholams, not-quite-undead super assassins from the War of Power, beyond time and space.
** How about Mierin's experiment in the Age of Legends that let the Dark One out in the first place? Even better because back then, nobody knew the Dark One existed, and her experiment was intended to tap a greater source of magical power able to be used by men and women (as opposed to the separate halfs of the one power). She later became Lanfear, one of the Forsaken, the most powerful servants of the dark one, though judging by a bit of Aiel ancestral memory that is tapped into, she was not evil to begin with, ie at the time of her experiment (as part of a team).
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* The insane clone Dark Jedi Master [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Joruus C'baoth]] more or less sealed himself, ending up on the planet that [[The Emperor]] used as a personal museum/storehouse. C'baoth had no interest in the storehouse facility even after killing its guardian, and inhabitants of the planet had roughly feudal levels of technology. So he stayed there and ruled them, using his raw Force abilities and sort of mass mind-control to keep them cowed and obedient. Then Grand Admiral Thrawn [[Evil Is Not a Toy|showed up and recruited C'baoth]] with promises of new Force-sensitives to train and mold, both because C'baoth's Battle Meditation could allow great synchronization and increased efficiency in the fleet, and because he wanted the cloning technology in the facility. Thrawn's second in command ''really'' did not want to rely at all on someone so unreliable, but he was overruled. C'baoth's inevitable attempt at seizing power involved taking control of the ''entire Imperial fleet''; when Thrawn talked him down and sent him back to that planet, C'baoth's next plan started with brainwashing an officer to the point where he had no will or mind anymore and died shortly after being taken away from the insane Master.
** Another example of sorts in the same trilogy — an insane Bpfasshi Dark Jedi had been killed by Yoda on Dagobah, and his essence infused the tree where Luke had his pivotal vision during ''[[The Empire Strikes Back]]''.
* [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[
* Daniel Keys Moran's ''The Last Dancer'' has a scientific team releasing an ancient human, whose physical conditioning and skills approach [[Badass Normal]] from the ''other side'' and who has a major attitude problem (compare ''World of Ptavvs'' above). He proceeds to spend the rest of the book mainly kicking the ''other'' [[Big Bad]]'s ass, making him not so much Evil, just Sealed Badass In A Can.
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** Not truly ''evil'', but definitely not good. In ''[[Hogfather]]'', Archchancellor Ridcully decides to unseal the door to a special bathtub invented by Bergoldt Stuttley "Bloody Stupid" Johnson, simply because it was barred shut. When asked why he wanted it opened, he replied, "To see why they wanted it shut, of course!" [[Terry Pratchett]] added the following footnote:
{{quote|This exchange contains almost all you need to know about human civilization. At least, those bits of it that are not under the sea, fenced off or still smoking.}}
** Pratchett also explores this theme in ''[[Reaper Man]]'', where, in a time when Death is non-existent, Evil returns in the form of dinky little snow-globes that people want to love and cherish, since as you pick them up and shake them, snow appears to fall around models of city landmarks, and look, they're even labelled ''A Present From Ankh-Morpork'', how cool is ''that''? But the globes are seeds of a potent and cruel ancestral evil that preys upon and kills cities.
* Peter F. Hamilton does this in at least two series: in ''[[The Night's Dawn Trilogy]]'' Series, a wandering alien accidentally opens a portal to the afterlife, and in ''Pandora's Star'' and ''Judas Unchained'', an alien menace is released by its hidden enemy (who has {{spoiler|arranged a long-term "[[Let's You and Him Fight]]" situation between the menace and humanity}}).
* Subverted in [[Matthew Tobin Anderson|M. T. Anderson]]'s book ''[[Thirsty]]'', in which a group of vampires are trying to free the Sealed Evil, the god of vampires, and one character pretends to be trying to kill the vampire god in order to protect humanity, but in reality is assisting the god in committing suicide.
* In ''[[Harry Potter and
** Also in the same volume, Tom Riddle's diary has the "memory" of the teenage Voldemort sealed inside, which Ginny unknowingly awakens through her liberal use of the diary.
** In ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (
* In James Alan Gardner's ''[[The League of Peoples Verse|Hunted]]'', the [[Humanoid Aliens|Mandasars]] have queens who are very smart, very large, very strong, can persuade other Mandasars to do just about anything by emitting the right pheromones, and are physiologically hardwired so that each queen believes that ''she'' is the most competent person around and ''should'' be in charge. Having more than about four of them on the planet tends to mean endless power struggles; having that few risks having them all die. The solution implemented is to have a bunch of queens in [[Human Popsicle|cryonic storage]]. While they aren't evil per se, waking them all up at once is still [[Civil War|really, really bad]].
* In William King's ''[[Warhammer
* In Garth Nix's ''[[Old Kingdom]]'' trilogy, the latter two books lead up to the release of Orannis the Destroyer, the [[Big Bad]], from his "can".
* Quite a few of John Connolly's short stories involve
** Also, in his novel ''[[The Black Angel]]'', the [[Our Angels Are Different|fallen angel]] Immael is plunged into a vat of molten silver during the [[Backstory]] and the resulting statue becomes the angel's prison for several centuries. Naturally, the novel itself is all about Immael's twin brother and his followers attempting to free him.
* In [[John C. Wright]]'s ''[[
* In Gerald Brom's ''[[The Plucker]]'', the titular monster is sealed within a voodoo spirit doll. [[What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?|It's up to regular dolls to stop it when it is accidentally freed]].
* Using the Greek Titans myth cited above as a jumping-off point, the main plot arc of Rick Riordan's ''[[Percy Jackson
* [[Cosmic Horror|Something Bad]] is waiting in [[Charles Stross]]'s ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]''....
* In ''[[Mistborn]]'', Ruin, the [[Omnicidal Maniac|primal force of chaos and destruction]] was imprisoned by his "good" counterpart Preservation after they teamed up to create life. This is a bit more complicated than most examples because Preservation split Ruin apart to make his release more difficult. Ruin's mind was put in {{spoiler|the Well of Ascension}}, while the bulk of his power was bound into {{spoiler|the atium}}. The problem was, even an imprisoned Ruin still had some power, so he {{spoiler|altered the prophecies regarding a messianic figure called the Hero of Ages to say that the Hero should go to the Well of Ascension and release its power to the being trapped there. Following the prophecy, the heroine of the trilogy does this. [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Oops]].}}
* ''[[The Pilo Family Circus]]'' is built on the prison for a {{spoiler|race of [[Cosmic Horror|gigantic reptiles — all of whom possess godlike power and all of whom are hungry for tender human flesh]].}} The circus' managers, Kurt and George Pilo, do {{spoiler|their}} bidding by causing as much havoc on Earth as possible — in the hope that whoever jailed {{spoiler|them}} will be forced to negotiate {{spoiler|their}} sentence. However, their attempts at escape are temporarily foiled when the circus is closed down and most of its staff killed at the end of the novel — though the main character's dreams suggest that it will return one day.
{{quote|
* While not a single character, the Mijaki were confined to the borders of their lands in Karen Miller's ''[[Godspeaker Trilogy]]'' because they made the '''world''' evil. [[God Save Us From the Queen|Hekat]] then decides to change things.
* In Mitchell Scalon's ''[[Warhammer
* In [[Dan Abnett]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* In the [[Stephen King]] novel ''[
** Another king example is the short story "The Crate", later adapted as one of the segments of ''[[Creepshow]]'', where a crate containing a terrible monster is opened by a janitor.
* The [[Our Zombies Are Different|T'lan Imass]] of the ''[[Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'' are notable offenders for this. During their genocidal war against the Jaghut and, off-and-on, the Forkrul Assail, they developed a ritual for binding enemies when they lacked the strength to directly kill them. Either pinned under massive stone slabs or buried in barrows, it's not uncommon for their ancient enemies to be unearthed.
** The Azath House seals away both good and evil, trapping them until such a time as they are needed in the world or the Azath dies.
** It's not entirely clear who was doing the sealing, but there have also been cases of bound K'Chain Che'Malle who predate even the T'lan Imass.
* In [[Robert E. Howard]]'s [[Conan the Barbarian]] story "
** Thugra Khotan in "[[
* The Scourge in ''[[The Black Tattoo]]''.
* ''[[
* Arguably, a lot of the Immortals of [[Tamora Pierce]]'s [[Tortall Universe|Tortall]] series, after a bunch of mages locked them up in the Realms of the Gods. It didn't stick.
* Okoya, the eponymous soul-eater of ''[[Star Shards Chronicles|Thief of Souls]]'', begins the book immobilized on a cliff face. In the prologue, he's unsealed by an earthquake.
* Morhavon the Black and the place under the palace catacombs where evil spirits are sealed away from the ''[[Green Rider]]'' series.
* Several times in the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]]. There's the ''Dithparu'' (essentially evil spirits), who are trapped by magnetic fields in an [[Ancient Tomb]], [[Star Trek:
* In the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] novels ''The Rising'' and ''City of the Dead'', the [[Our Demons Are Different|obots]] were sealed by [[God]] in another dimension, known as the Void. An experiment [[Gone Horribly Wrong]] cracked it open, and [[Kill
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' and ''[[Super Sentai]]'' repeatedly use this trope:
** Rita Repulsa from the first season of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' was originally trapped in a "space dumpster" on the moon for 10,000 years until astronauts accidentally released her. Her line from the intro sequence is rather iconic:
{{quote|
* ''[[Star Trek]]'' used this a few times.
** Khan Noonien Singh and his cryogenically frozen followers, in the [[Star Trek:
** In the classic series episode "The Alternative Factor", if Lazarus and his insane counterpart from the antimatter dimension were ever to meet in the same universe, that universe would be destroyed. Both of them are sent into an [[Phantom Zone|intermediate dimension]] so that this can never happen, and where the two of them will be [[Sealed Evil in
** {{spoiler|"God"}} in ''[[Star Trek V]]''. He claimed to have been imprisoned {{spoiler|on the planet in the center of the galaxy}} and wanted to {{spoiler|"join" with the ''Enterprise''}} so he could escape.
** Data's evil "brother" Lore. He's found disassembled in Dr. Soong's lab and the ''Enterprise'' crew make the mistake of putting him back together.
** Well, in [[Star Trek:
** This was supposedly the plot behind the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Dragon's Teeth", when Seven of Nine releases an alien race from a 900-year stasis... only for them to turn out to be your bog-standard Villains of the Week piloting obsolete spaceships. Disappointing.
** The ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' episode "Regeneration" features Borg in the ice.
** Another episode played off the [[Real Life]] example (see below) of nuclear waste- Data is injured while retrieving said material from a crashed Starfleet ship, and after the ensuing memory loss he stumbles into a local village. His radioactive-shielded briefcase doesn't stay closed for long.
* Many, many examples in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' (the Judge, Acathla, others) and ''[[Angel]]'' (Illyria, Pavayne,Sajan). In fact, the Angel example showed us a veritable warehouse of sealed demon gods like Illyria, which (as of the end of the series) is left unguarded.
** There is also a very literal variant in the ''Buffy'' episode "Get It Done", when {{spoiler|The Shadow Men try to infuse Buffy with the essence of a demon that they kept sealed in a box.}}
* The aliens of ''[[War of the Worlds (TV series)|War of the Worlds]]'' were literally sealed in cans at the opening of the series.
* Despite the frequent use of the "Pandora's box" analogy, it was really ''Earth'' that was sealed in a can at the beginning of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''. On the other hand, there are several examples of villains being effectively sealed in cans, such as Osiris (who was in a canopic jar), Anubis' son (in a stasis chamber), the Wraith (hibernating), and the Ori (in a distant galaxy blissfully unaware that free humans existed).
** One of the most literal ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' examples would be Hathor, who had been sealed in her sarcophagus for 4,000 years, only for some unwitting archaeologist to open it.
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** The Replicators were sealed in a can by the Asgard, but [[It Gets Worse]] when the Replicators outwit the trap and crank it [[Up to Eleven]] before SG-1 arrive to fix the can.
* One episode of ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' featured a Nazi Immortal who had been chained and thrown into a river by a young boy. How do you make a Nazi cross? Forty years of drowning and reviving every few minutes ought to do it...
** There is at least one story of an Immortal being on a sunken ship and having to walk
** And then there's the example of the Immortal stranded on a deserted island for years, dying of starvation and thirst every so often, just to wake up and do it again. For some reason he held a grudge...
* In the ''[[
** The original series used this trope often. Sutekh The Destroyer in "Pyramids of Mars", Omega in "The Three Doctors" and "Arc of Infinity", the Ice Warriors, the mutagen under the Earth crust in "Inferno", the Krynoid pods in "The Seeds of Doom", and many more.
** A slight variation happened in "The Stones of Blood", where the Doctor releases a pair of biomechanical judges from a ship stranded in hyperspace, {{spoiler|and the judges promptly sentence him to death for letting them free without the proper legal authorization.}}
** "Doomsday" features the Genesis Ark: a Time Lord device imprisoning millions of Daleks. "Time Lord science: it's [[Bigger
** In the new series episode "The Runaway Bride," it is revealed that the centre of the Earth contains
** In the episode "The Pandorica Opens", the Doctor investigates the eponymous Pandorica, which is advertised as containing the most feared being in the universe and is [[Exactly What It Says
** In "The Waters of Mars", Humans accidentally released Sealed Evil in a Glacier.
* The first ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'': {{spoiler|the immortal, [[Good Thing You Can Heal|self-regenerating]] [[Knight Templar|Adam Monroe]]}} was imprisoned for thirty years after he tried to [[Kill All Humans|release a virus that would have killed most of mankind]]. Then, after being released (and having done plenty of damage in the meantime, including a second attempt at the virus thing) he was sealed in a coffin deep beneath a cemetery.
*** In Season 3, {{spoiler|in a slight subversion, [[Big Bad|daddy Petrelli]] appeared to be far more powerful than Adam and took his power, killing him instantly.}}
** {{spoiler|Arthur Petrelli}} himself has elements of this, starting off the series on life support and only able to communicate through telepathy.
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** Volume 5 has {{spoiler|Sylar being imprisoned inside his own head and Parkman sealing his comatose body inside a brick cell.}}
* In ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' TOS episode "The Howling Man," the evil sealed in a cell was the Devil himself.
* In ''[[Babylon
** The Thirdspace aliens are effectively sealed until their gateway is opened.
** Also The Hand. (Who are probably the Thirdspace aliens anyway.)
* One episode from ''[[Los Luchadores]]'' dealt with a plot to awaken a demon in a ritual involving three descendants of the people responsible for originally sealing it. In this case, the ritual is successfully interrupted just before its completion, denying the audience the spectacle of watching an ancient evil being defeated by a masked professional wrestler.
* In the original and revived ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'', vampire Barnabas Collins made his series debut when he was released from the chained-up coffin in which his father, unable to go through with staking his own son, had sealed him.
* ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' has used so many variants of this it's basically the only kind of [[Myth Arc]] they've ever had, but at least it always varies: Devil's Gate was opened with no warning and a ''bunch'' of stuff got out along with the actual new [[Big Bad]]; Lucifer was freed by [[Thanatos Gambit]]; the Leviathan were the real problem with opening Purgatory since Cas managed not to blow up the universe, but Death didn't have the decency to warn the characters about them...
** Formed the [[Story Arc|central arc]] of ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'s'' fourth season. {{spoiler|Lucifer}} is imprisoned in Hell and Lilith is out trying to release him... [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|guess how that turns out.]]
** As it turns out, they manage to {{spoiler|stick him back in,}} although he's {{spoiler|[[Heroic Sacrifice|wearing Sam's body at the time]]}}.
** And one of the seals used to seal {{spoiler|Lucifer}} was itself undoing the seal that kept in Samhain. (Which is a [[Sadly Mythtaken|demon that raises the dead and pronounced Sam-Hane]]. Ugh.)
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*** And then the first episode of the seventh season reveals that {{spoiler|Purgatory was originally created to seal away the Leviathans, beasts that God feared would (as Death put it) "wipe out the rest of the petri dish"}}.
** To put it simply, thus far the end of every even-numbered season has involved letting some great evil out of its can. Seasons three, five, and seven have been about dealing with these evils (which are, in order, a plague of demons led by Lilith, then Lucifer, then the Leviathans. Evil in this show also tends to start with L.)
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Lexx]]'', Kia is an assassin who spends most of his time frozen so he's save his protoblood for when he's needed, which is pretty much only when someone needs to be killed.
* A sketch on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' has the [[Brown Note|funniest joke in the world]] being buried after [[World War II]] so it can never kill anyone again.
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** In ''[[Kamen Rider Kuuga]]'', the Grongi were imprisoned in a tomb by {{spoiler|the original Kuuga after he defeated them}}.
** In ''[[Kamen Rider Agito]]'', the {{spoiler|Overlord of Darkness}} has a somewhat odd version of this, {{spoiler|he was already dead, but left his DNA around, allowing him to retake his physical form when humans uncover it}}
** ''[[Kamen Rider Blade]]'' has the Undead, who have been imprisoned since the beginning of time, after serving their purpose and deciding the dominate species of life on Earth. Though since not all of them are evil, some would be [[Sealed Good in
** In the newest series, ''[[Kamen Rider OOO]]'', the Greeed have been imprisoned in a stone box for 800 years until they're released during a robbery. The stone box? {{spoiler|The original OOO}}.
* In ''[[Fringe]]'', the pieces of the First People's Machine, which has the power to {{spoiler|create or destroy universes}}, were scattered all across the globe and buried hundreds of feet underground.
* In ''[[Smallville]]'''s fifth season, Brainiac's primary goal is to release Zod from the Phantom Zone. He eventually succeeds in the season finale and Zod's first action upon being freed is to [[Sealed Good in
** Clark manages to escape on his own, without help from the outside, and subsequently reimprisons Zod in the season six premiere. He then spends the rest of season six hunting down the other Phantom Zone prisoners who escaped at the same time he did one by one and either killing or preferably reimprisoning them.
* In ''[[Forever Knight]]'', LaCroix's daughter was sealed inside a coffin after LaCroix staked her. The Egyptian sun disk kept her prisoner much like a Christian cross, until she was released by grave robbers and came after him and his children.
** Also pops up in the first Forever Knight novel, "A Stirring of Dust".
* In ''[[
* ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' and the goblin, who was sealed in a box, then escaped to torment everyone in the castle, and then resealed after being trapped by Merlin and Gwen.
== [[Music]] ==
* Pretty much every Bal Sagoth song starts with "[[Oh Crap|Oh shit]], we just woke up Cthulhu." This is all the more impressive considering that (actually) awakening an elder god would crush the mind of anyone near it, then plunge the Earth into a never ending night.
* "Bark at the Moon" by [[
* Just saw this in the opening of an article about the third ''[[Guitar Hero]]'' game:
{{quote|
* In "Gatekeeper" by [[Within Temptation]] sort of [[X Meets Y|meets]] [[Taking You
== [[Mythology and Religion]] ==
* This trope [[Older Than Feudalism|hearkens back]] to the [[Greek Mythology]] of Pandora's Box (actually a jar, which is traditionally mistranslated to box).
** The box itself is an unusual case, as it was created and given to her for no other reason than Zeus felt like being a dick.
*** A little more detail: after seeing all the atrocities emanating from the box, Pandora quickly shut it, leaving only one thing inside—Hope. As aforementioned, all according to [[Magnificent Bastard|Zeus']] plan.
** The Titans were locked inside Tartarus, a dank, gloomy prison "as far beneath Hades as heaven is high above the Earth", where they were guarded by their siblings the Hecatonchires.
** Typhon was trapped beneath a mountain by Zeus.
* [[Norse Mythology]]: Unbreakable magic chains kept Fenrir (a gigantic wolf so massive that is must crouch down to avoid scraping against the dome of the sky) bound, until he eventually breaks them. Ironically, it is implied that binding him is what made him so pissed off at the Gods in the first place. (Well, that's the trouble with prophecies... and he is a child of Loki, God of betrayal, mischief, and "evil".
** That kind of thing happens a lot in Norse mythology. The Gods were so afraid that Loki and his monstrous children might turn against them, that they imprisoned them all in various unpleasant ways... [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|thus ensuring their pissed off-ness and guaranteeing Ragnarök when they eventually get out]].
** Ragnarök could be best be described as every Can in [[Norse Mythology]] opening at once. ''Everything'' broke free. Jormungandr, Fenri, Loki, the forces of Hel, Garm, etc.
* The legends of genies often fall under this trope. Not all genies are good, ya see, and even the good ones will interpret wishes [[Literal Genie|literally]].
** Moreover, the [[Ur Example]] for many of the bad jinn/wicked ifrit stories is the tale that Solomon/Sulayman used his ring to seal (yes seal, with molten lead and a magic seal ring) a number of bad jinn into brazen urns (which is a fancy name for brass cans) and cast them into the ocean, only to have them later dredged up as in stories like "The Fisherman and the Genie." Since this has an evil spirit sealed in an actual can, this makes this trope '[[Older Than Feudalism]].'
* In ''[[The Bible]]'', specifically in the ''Revelation'' (''[[Insistent Terminology|not]]'' Revelations) of John, [[Satan]] is going to be confined to the bottomless pit for 1,000 years, after which he'll be released to wreak havoc upon the world one last time. Then [[Curb Stomp Battle|God will smoke Satan's entire army]] at the [[Final Battle]], and then [[Humiliation Conga|he will be thrown into the Lake of Fire to stay]].
** It's pretty much what happens at the end of the [[Left Behind]] book ''Kingdom Come'', with [[La Résistance|the Other Light faction]] serving as Satan's [[Final Battle]] army. In fact, the Other Light subsect The Only Light believes that Satan purposely sealed himself away so that he could be powerful enough to defeat God (whom [[Elephant in
* According to Scientology's OT III, [
* According to Islam, Dhu'l-Qarnayn, or "He of the Two Horns" (a lesser prophet who appeared long before Muhammad) encountered a race of monsters (split into two tribes, the ''Yahjuj'' and ''Mahjuj'', or Gog and Magog of Biblical fame) that were harassing the people, so he built a giant wall to keep them enclosed. They won't be able to escape until Allah says so, which will be during the lead-up to ''Yawm al-Qiyāmah'' ([[The End of the World
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'':
** In
** Of course, the seal wasn't made to save mortals from Asmodeus and his
*** ''{{color|Red|You have grasped the entire concept wonderfully. Asmodeus will be pleased.}}''
** Another ''D&D'' example: in the ''[[Scarred Lands]]'' setting, in the backstory the current gods sealed the evil gods that ruled before them, each in a different way befitting them and tailored so that their powers couldn't get them out. This editor's personal favorite: Thulkas, the Iron Lord, was so strong that he couldn't be moved, so he was ''hammered into an arrow and shot into the sun''.
** The Scarred Lands also has the Slarecians, psionic beings who challenged both the gods and the titans. The twist is is that they sealed ''themselves'' into the can so they wouldn't be destroyed.
** In the published version of ''B3: Palace of the Silver Princess'', a huge ruby called My Lady's Heart turns out to be a Canopener for an evil Immortal, Arik. Even the ''leakage'' of Arik's power which the gem emits is enough to petrify an entire royal court, trap its best defenders in a dimensional prison, and attract monsters and fanatical dark priests from hundreds of miles around.
** An important part of ''[[Eberron]]'' is that there are multiple Sealed Evils in various Cans, with sealants as strong as the plot demands of them.
** The massive Ptolus setting by Monte Cook is set on the world of Praemal, which exists as a giant can in which to seal evil. The city of Ptolus itself is built on top of a can or ten and has a giant, impossibly high spire in it where a cleric once, long ago, tried to seal all the evils of the world in a can. Of course, then he became evil, and eventually his fortress atop the spire was itself sealed with the remains of his work (and his remains) within it. It's a pretty can-heavy setting.
** Another notable example of sealed evil in a can in the [[Points of Light]] setting is Torog, god of torture and imprisonment. The kicker? The earth is his can. He's trapped in the underdark, actively crawling around down there, and occasionally reaches up from below the earth to pull whole cities down into his can with him.
** In the [[Greyhawk]] setting: Zuggtmoy (in the Temple of Elemental Evil), Iuz and Fraz-Urb-Iuu (in Castle Greyhawk) and Tharizdun (in his Forgotten Temple).
** In the [[Midnight]] setting there is the evil god Izrador, who was sealed (along with some other beings) in the world of Aryth. The bad part ? Your characters live on Aryth and they're also sealed there. Not only is the evil in the can but you're in the can with it. [[Crapsack World]] indeed.
* Many examples from ''[[Warhammer
** Daemon weapons contain bound daemons within them, giving them incredible power and just as incredible malevolence. However, the greatest threat isn't them escaping, but rather [[The Corruption|corrupting]] the weapon's wielder and [[More Than Mind Control|twisting them to its will]].
** More powerful daemons, who couldn't at the time be banished back to [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place|the Warp]], are often sealed in the Materium in some way that prevents them from killyfying everything at the moment, perhaps in the hope that they can be banished later. [[Crapsack World|This being WH40K]], not only does the sealing frequently make things worse, but most of the time those doing the sealing ''never tell anyone about it''.
** Both literal and metaphorical in the case of the Necrons and their [[Physical God|C'tan masters]], who sealed ''themselves'' deep beneath the surface of numerous worlds approximately '''sixty million years ago'''.
** The [[God
** In 4th Edition, ''all'' genies qualify, as the given reason they are trapped in objects like lamps and rings and compelled to serve mortals who release them is a punishment for siding with the [[Our Titans Are Different|Primordials]] during the [[Death of the Old Gods|Dawn War]]. [[Benevolent Genie|Some have been humbled and reformed]] as a result - [[Jackass Genie|others, not so much.]]
* In the prehistory of ''[[Exalted]]'', the defeated Primordials were stitched into the twisted body of their god-king Malfeas and confined to another realm... mainly because the Exalted looked upon the Primordials who ''had'' been killed, seen that they'd brought the Underworld into existence, and said, "Yeah, that ain't supposed to happen."
** There are also the Neverborn, the aforementioned Primordials that ''had'' been killed. Being too big to die properly, they instead wrapped themselves up in giant sarcophagi spanning infinite distances as they resisted the pull of [[Deader Than Dead|Oblivion]]. Then the Solars decided to pop a [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|few blocks open to learn Necromancy]]...
** From the perspective of the Bronze Faction, this was the case for the Solar Exaltations locked in the Jade Prison for ~2000 years.
* ''[[
* ''[[Champions]]'' adventure ''The Blood and Dr. McQuark''. Azor (an agent of some [[Eldritch Abomination
* In the game ''[[Neuroshima]]'' there is a number of items scattered around the world, which adventurers refer to as Pandora's boxes. Each is a large metal canister that contains something nasty (from biological weapon to a very compact assassin droid). Everyone knows what they are but humans being humans, every once in a while someone opens one, either because of the [[Schmuck Bait]] involved or in some desperate gambit against his enemies.
* In ''[[Iron Kingdoms]]'' the Skorne have Ancestral Guardians, which are statues empowered by the souls of fallen Skorne warriors.
* ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' has a card called [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=121155 Dark Depths], which, after certain conditions are met, i.e. the costly "unsealing" process of removing ten ice counters from it, creates a [https://web.archive.org/web/20160809024826/http://sales.starcitygames.com/carddisplay.php?product=43164 large and damn near unkillable monster].
** For a much older example, consider the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200122161718/https://status.wizards.com/ Bottle of Suleiman], which upon being sacrificed has a 50/50 chance of either releasing a fairly powerful djinn that joins your forces or else simply blowing up in your face.
** And then there's the [http://ww2.wizards.com/gatherer/CardDetails.aspx?&id=74492 Tomb of Urami], who nets you a big demon at the price of sacrificing all of your lands.
** Yawgmoth, the guy who makes planeswalkers look like muggles and Dominaria's version of the Devil, was sealed in a whole other plane back when he was a mortal. He wanted back in, of course, and spent thousands of years in a battle of wits with [[Anti-Hero]] Urza with his freedom as the stakes.
** In the ''Zendikar'' expansion a group of [[Eldritch Abomination]]s called the Eldrazi were got sealed away by [[Dark Is Not Evil|Sorin Markov]] and two other guys, turning all of Zendikar into a prison for them. The final set in the ''Zendikar'' block, ''Rise of the Eldrazi'', sees them loosed on the Multiverse.
** A plot-relevant example can be found in the ''Innistrad'' expansion: The Helvault was created by the archangel [[Big Good|Avacyn]] to seal away demons that she couldn't outright defeat. The plot of the expansion is set in motion when, by twist of fate, Avacyn herself becomes sealed inside the Helvault.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!'' has several monsters like this, the most memorable being Exodia (who is split up into five pieces and allows you to ''win the game'' should you have all five in your hand; in the anime, it did take a huge ritual to unseal it) and all versions of the three God Cards (Egyptian, Sacred Beasts, and "Wicked Gods", all of which need three sacrifices to bring out and have devastating power, and two of which have fusions of themselves that are even ''more'' powerful). In the anime, they are so powerful that most of them are sealed up themselves, and it's considered madness for anyone to try and duel with them in their deck.
== [[Toys]] ==
* ''[[Bionicle]]'': Makuta Teridax encased in a Toa Seal by the Toa Metru by their [[Elemental Powers]], but much later they unintentionally released him with the same powers when they attacked Roodaka holding a piece of the Toa Seal.
== [[Video Games]] ==
This is an ''extremely'' common plot and backstory in video games because it's such a simple backstory: the [[Big Bad]], put away by some ancient hero, has escaped. You (the player) must put him back in.
* ''[[Dawn of War]]'', the original one, has an absolutely beautiful example. An ancient demon imprisoned in a stone manipulates Orks into attacking human cities on the planet. Space Marines come to the rescue and do what [[Space Marine]]s do best - spill ungodly amounts of Orkish and human blood - just so at the end, the demon can reveal that {{spoiler|the entire planet had previously been converted into a blood altar for releasing him}}. Bonus points: most characters wanting to use demon or its power for their own end up badly.
** The Chaos Rising expansion to ''[[Dawn Of War 2]]'' also features a plot to unseal a demon trapped inside a planet that was lost in the Warp.
* In ''[[Dark Messiah of Might and Magic]]'' the Demon lord is locked in a prison under the city of Stonehelm, however the original prison is flawed and can be broken, the player can choose to get the good ending and seal him away forever by repairing the seal or get the bad ending by releasing him.
* In the first ''[[Avernum]]/[[Exile]]'' game, there is the Haakai Lord Grah-Hoth, who was sealed in a bottle before the game begins.
* Every game in the main ''[[Tengai Makyou]]'' series.
** Ziria has the Daimon Cult trying to revive Masakado.
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* In ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' and the remake, Tomb Raider Anniversary, {{spoiler|Natla was locked in limbo for thousands of years after using her powers for evil.}}
* In ''[[Okage]]: Shadow King'', King Stan has been (purportedly) stuck in a bottle for the last 300 years, waiting for someone wimpy enough to let them possess his shadow. Additionally, while he was stuck in the bottle, a number of monsters stole portions of his evil power and became "Fake Evil Kings". He then drags the main character around to defeat them and get his powers back so he can take over the world.
* In ''[[Rune Factory 2]]'', mysterious earthquakes start happening about a third of the way into the game. Eventually, the character's child finds these are being caused by a
* In many of the ''Zelda'' games, Ganon is a sealed evil. Link must either re-seal him or stop him from fully unsealing himself or his power. (The first time he is sealed away actually takes place at the end of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
** So is Vaati, the baddie from the ''[[
** And there was also Bongo Bongo, the Evil Shadow Spirit from ''Ocarina of Time' that was sealed in the Bottom of the Well.
** ''[[The Legend of Zelda
** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda
* In ''[[
* In ''[[
* Orochi, from ''[[The King of Fighters]] '97''.
* The Dark One of SRMTHFG has nothing on the Profound Darkness in ''[[Phantasy Star IV]]''; the Precursors sealed it with an entire ''solar system''.
* Diablo and his brothers Baal and Mephisto, in the ''[[Diablo]]'' series from Blizzard, are imprisoned in "soulstones" after being unleashed on Earth when a rebellion kicks them out of Hell. [[Retcon
* Illidan Stormrage in ''[[
** In a continuation of this universe, a majority of raid bosses in World of Warcraft are sealed evils. The quests to kill them generally go something like ''Go beat up these mildly bad dudes who have this Big Ancient Evil imprisoned, so that you can kill him too.'' One wonders why the player doesn't just say ''But, they're doing a fine job keeping him imprisoned! What happens if I manage to kill them but the Big Ancient Evil kills me?'' A variation goes ''Go beat up these mildly bad dudes who are trying to unseal this Big Ancient Evil before they succeed, then kill the half-unsealed form of the Big Ancient Evil,'' which makes a little more sense.
** ''Warcraft''{{'}}s universe also has the [[Cosmic Horror|Old Gods]], very similar to Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, sealed beneath the world and waiting to be freed. For the longest time, it was a total mystery why the god-esque Titans didn't just kill them all, considering they'd managed to off one. Recently{{when}} it was revealed that the Old Gods are parasites who have bonded with the planet of Azeroth so that killing them will cause untold damage to it. And yet, the players continue killing them for loot...
** The fourth expansion to ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' (Cataclysm) involves the unleashing of Deathwing, the Earth Dragon who was slowly driven insane by the Old Gods and imprisoned in Deepholme, the elemental plane of earth. His emergence not only blows up parts of the world, but also opens up the elemental planes, which are full of Sealed Evil in a Can, including the elementals themselves (locked up because they were tearing the world apart with their wars)
** Maybe Illidan wasn't evil, but he did kill people with a handwave who tried to stop him from corrupting a lake with the Well's water.
* Coincidentally, ''[[
{{quote|
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', your character could be considered this, seeing as he was frozen via cryogenics and could, according to the whims of the player, become a villain on the same level as the [[Anti Christ]]; on the other hand, the [[Sealed Good in a Can]] might apply should the player take the opposite path.
* The main storyline of ''[[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind]]'' focuses around preventing Dagoth Ur, a godlike being imprisoned for 3500 years, from fully regaining his sealed powers. (Though he wasn't imprisoned but passed out.)
** Likewise, in its followup, ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]]'', the player must prevent Mehrunes Dagon, lord of the titular realm, from unleashing his forces upon the world. Dagon isn't really sealed IN anything so much as he is kept OUT. In this case, the world is the Can Sealed Against Evil.
* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim]]'', the Sealed Evil in a Can is Alduin. And he isn't unsealed by someone playing around with something they know nothing about, but was an inevitability since his sealing involved him being cast adrift outside of time. A prophecy describes the events that must transpire before he would end up back in linear time again.
* Dracula's castle in the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series is eventually sealed this way after the Dark Lord's death. It's sealed inside the total solar eclipse of 1999. In the solar eclipse of 2035, it sucks in everyone present at the shrine where the sealing took place.
** Dracula, and Castlevania itself, were also sealed in the underworld throughout most of the series, both of them reappearing on Earth only once every hundred years. But Dracula found so many ways to circumvent that rule that it became more of a "sealed evil in a sieve".
* In the Expansion Pack of ''[[
** Well they don't actually die, destroying their physical form returns them to their home plane, in his case it frees his avatar back into the abyss to be reabsorbed by the real one.
** Kangaxx the demi-lich is another example. He dies very permanently after underestimating you, however.
* Doctor Robotnik/Eggman of the ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' series has unsealed so many evils from their cans in attempts to achieve world domination, that you wonder why he doesn't just go back to trying to take over the world in the old-fashioned way: i.e. by imprisoning all the animals in robots ([[Sealed Good in
** He thankfully did, just replace "animals" with "[[Starfish Alien
** In a case entirely unrelated to Eggman (and despite how people are [[Fanon Discontinuity|trying so goddamn hard to forget about the sucky game connected to it]]), [[Sonic the Hedgehog (2006
** Shadow made [[Sonic Adventure 2
** ''[[
* In ''[[Paper Mario:
** On the other hand, {{spoiler|she recognizes Mario's strength and offers him to work for her. The player is given a Yes or No choice, while the former leads to an instant [[Nonstandard Game Over]].}}
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
* In ''[[
* The Shadow Demons in ''[[
* In the ''[[Halo (
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' has an entire species of them, the [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Spiritomb]]. Sure, sealing [[
** Spiritomb could actually be [[Sealed Army in
* {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination|The Reapers]]}} in ''[[
** The DLC "The Arrival" reveals that {{spoiler|the Reapers}} left themselves another way in. A special mass relay at the edge of the galaxy that can access any other relay anywhere.
** In ''[[
* The Grotesqueries in ''[[Drakengard]]'', with a [[The World Is Always Doomed|twist]]. Also, no one knows the Sealed Evil in a Can exists except possibly the [[Big Bad]]. They're concerned about some other thing that comes out when those seals are broken.
* In ''[[Guild Wars]]'', Palawa Joko suffers this fate. Then there's Abaddon and everyone else locked in the Realm of Torment, including {{spoiler|the Titans from the first game}}. Ultimately, in an attempt to stop Varesh Ossa from opening a gate to the Realm of Torment, you have to let Palawa Joko out of his prison.
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** In a minor twist, in ''Shadows of Darkness'', [[Eldritch Abomination|Avoozl]], the Dark One, wasn't quite sealed properly, and the surrounding countryside has suffered for it. Even as the two antagonists (one new, one old) try to release it, it is only through their actions that it can be put away for good.
** ''Dragon Fire'' has a twist of its own - there is a villain working behind the scenes and trying to unleash the Dragon of Doom, but by this point in the series, the hero (under extenuating circumstances) has become strong enough at this point to just ''kill'' the thing.
* ''[[King's Quest IV]]'' had Pandora's Box show up. Opening it killed Rosella. There was also that infamous lamp in ''[[King's Quest V]]''. The [[Fan Sequel]] ''[[The Silver Lining (
* ''[[A Mess O' Trouble]]'' (an excellent Mac WorldBuilder shareware [[Adventure Game]]) has two godlike creatures trapped inside time dilation bubbles in some ruins. You know from local historians (and abominations lying around in the ruins) that their civilization was practically constructed by a good creature and then fooled into nearly destroying itself by a bad creature. One is a beautiful [[Energy Beings|Energy Being]], the other a dull-looking lizard man. [[Light Is Not Good|Guess which is which?]]
* Most ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' games feature a Sealed Evil in a can.
** ''[[Final Fantasy III]]'' gives us the Cloud of Darkness, the living essence of the power of the Dark (as opposed to the Light of the heroes' world.) The game implies that Xande's machinations allowed it to take form, but it would have remained sealed away in the Dark World had it not been for him opening a portal leading straight into it. The {{spoiler|Dark Warriors imply that they fought the Cloud}} 1,000 years ago, when it was Light surrounding Darkness, and got it Canned within the Dark World. Xande was nothing but a can-opener.
** Zemus in ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'', who, despite being sealed in {{spoiler|the Lunarian Moon}} was still able to influence events in the world in an almost successful attempt to effectively kill all humans. Notably, he is never ''released'' from his can; you raid it.
** ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'''s previous generation of heroes, the Braves of Dawn, used the power of the Crystals to seal away Exdeath, who then surreptitiously began to drain the power of the Crystals (either personally or through manipulation.) Additionally, the player learns that, prior to Exdeath, the sorcerer Enuo was the first to harness the power of the Void, and waged war with it until he and all his [[Cosmic Horror|obscenely powerful demons]] were thrown into the Dimensional Rift. The [[Updated Rerelease|Advance version]] expands upon this by letting the player explore Enuo's prison and vanquish him for good.
** Also in ''[[Final Fantasy V]]'' there once was a tree in the Great Forest of Moore used to seal up evil spirits. Eventually, the power of those spirits gave the tree sapience, power, and a whole lot of evil. That tree became Exdeath; a prime example of sealing so much evil away that the can ''itself'' turns evil.
** The Warring Triad of ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', who started the War of the Magi, sealed themselves away after realizing the destruction they had wrought upon the world, and the Espers hid them away in their own underground kingdom. Then Kefka came and released them, destroying the balance of magic and devastating the world. It also released Humbaba, Deathgaze, and the eight dragons who are released during the apocalypse.
** Jenova of ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' is a basic example of the trope. In the sequel movie ''Advent Children'', what's left of her is stored in a literal can.
** In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', Laguna Loire tricks evil sorceress Adel into walking into a specially-prepared technological "tomb" in which he is able to seal her considerable powers. Then he launches it into space and spends the next seventeen years making regular trips to monitor the seal. Predictably enough, catastrophe eventually lets her loose again, but by that point Laguna's son is well-equipped to kill her off for good.
** Shuyin of ''[[Final Fantasy X-2]]'' is a special case. In one sense, he is still sealed within the Den of Woe, but in another sense he is free to wander around within the body of first {{spoiler|Nooj}}, then {{spoiler|Baralai}}. Also, while his goal is indeed to break free of his prison and destroy the world, this is because he's a [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds]], not an [[Ultimate Evil]].
** In ''[[Final Fantasy XII]]'', all the Espers, as well as several other bosses.
** The Tonberry enemies in the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series also appear to be like this. Despite their [[Not So Harmless|goofy appearance]], their Grudge attacks suggest that they're like vessels for all the malice and wrath of slain monsters.
* In ''[[Persona 3]]'', the "sealed evil" is {{spoiler|Nyx, a [[Cosmic Horror]] and [[Anthropomorphic Personification]] of death}}
** In ''Persona 3: FES'', we find out that {{spoiler|said main character has become [[Barrier Maiden|the seal]].}} And it's in place not to seal Nyx from attacking Earth. It's for sealing ''Earth'' from {{spoiler|summoning Nyx itself}}.
* The Snow Queen Mask in ''[[Persona (
* ''[[Kirby]] Squeak Squad'' plays with this one a little. What started as a hunt for stolen strawberry shortcake leads to Dedede getting smacked down on false suspicions, Kirby chasing all over the world to get his snack back from the titular menace {{spoiler|only for the chest allegedly supposed to hold the shortcake stolen away by [[The Rival|Meta Knight]], and when HE gets smacked down, the Squeaks grab the chest and let loose [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Dark Nebula]]. For such a simple protagonist the plot for these can get quite complex, especially given Meta Knight grabbed the chest away just to prevent [[Big Bad|Dark Nebula]] from being released.}} The best part is that through all of this, you get the feeling that Kirby is still being motivated only to retrieve the cake.
** Possibly the only case in the Kirby series where opening the can isn't a case of [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] takes place in the Meta Knightmare Ultra mode of ''Kirby Super Star Ultra'' where Meta Knight questions NOVA, a mechanical, wish granting comet, about an extremely powerful warrior who was safely sealed away because of how powerful he was. Immediately after this [[Badass|he orders NOVA to break the seal on this extremely powerful evil just so he can kick its ass.]]
** Interesting in that it's never made clear what he was sealed in. He just kinda... appears.
* ''[[Tomba]]'' has the titular main character being given the task of sealing away seven Evil Pigs (eight including "The Real Evil Pig" [[Man Behind the Man|who is their leader behind the scenes]]) in color-coordinated "Evil Pig Bags".
* ''[[Turok (
* Dhaos, the villain of ''[[
* ''[[
** The Japan only sequel has a similar deal, except its cosmic horror, Vanargand, was sealed on the frickin' MOON.
* The world of ''[[
** Somewhat unique in that the point of the game is to reactivate the seal, not simply to grind yourself to the point where you can just kill the damn thing (because doing so is impossible, at least by the terms of the game world).
* ''[[
** Genealogy of the Holy War wins "strangest method of resurrecting", with 2 half siblings being [[Aliens Made Them Do It|brainwashed in order to breed a vassal]] for the dark god they are descended from.
* ''[[
** As of the latest update {{spoiler|there are now "Demonic Fortresses" which are a bit like the pits, but the pits have been replaced with ''[[Physical Hell|hell itself]]'', which you simply reach by digging far enough, implying ''most of the physical structure of the planet'' is a caverns made of an unmineable, indestructible, impossibly heavy [[Unobtainium]] who's exits are blocked by another [[Unobtanium]] which is very valuable, light, and hard. And every Demonic Fortress contains a hole straight to Hell, blocked by a [[Schmuck Bait|masterwork sword]] made of the latter type of [[Unobtainium]].}}
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Metroid]] Prime: Hunters'', "the ultimate power" broadcast in a telepathic message throughout the galaxy is actually {{spoiler|the sealed evil Gorea, originally a [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere|Giant Space Flea]] run amok and the presumed source of the message.}} This is one of the few cases where the good (the Alimbics) weren't strong enough to kill the evil, just entangle its energy with theirs in the Seal Sphere and hide it in a pocket dimension. {{spoiler|You arrive at the Seal Sphere only to see the other Hunters pounding away at it like idiots. They break it open, then stare as the core of the Seal Sphere (the Alimbics' energies) is snatched by Gorea, who proceeds to impale all of them with tentacles from the Sphere and steal their energies (weapons). You, of course, saw this coming, or at least you WOULD if you've scanned at least 25% of the Alimbic lore hanging around the place... Anyway, this leaves you to clean up the mess (kick Gorea's ass).}}
** The titular creature from the first ''[[Metroid Prime]]'' game was sealed within he impact crater. In the original version, the Space Pirates managed to free it by digging under the seal, although it later escaped from them and returned to the crater, and you have to open the seal to fight it. In the European release/Player's Choise version, it was never released.
* ''[[Legend of Kyrandia]] III: Malcolm's Revenge'' has the player ''play as'' a Sealed Evil in a Can, who is rather dismayed to discover that being unsealed ''does not'' include getting his awesome magical powers of doom back, leaving him running around with no powers in a fantasy kingdom where pretty much everyone hates his guts.
* Averted and parodied in ''[[Septerra Core]]''. The game's intro movie and backstory tell about a great battle in which Marduk (the world's [[Crystal Dragon Jesus]]) defeated Gemma (the local [[Satan]] equivalent). In most [[RPG
* Gig from ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]'' starts the game as an example of this... and in a subversion of this trope, unless you actively [[Deal
* ''[[Phantom Brave]]'' features an example as the main antagonist, the demon Sulfur. Rather than the usual thousands of years of imprisonment though Sulfur is capable of coming back every thirty years, and even during his imprisonment is capable of extending enough influence into the world to wreak havoc.
* Parodied in ''[[Makai Kingdom]]'' as Zetta seals himself in a book after he destroys his own netherworld. [[Hilarity Ensues]] as he tries to get his body back.
* All games in the ''[[
* In the [[Infocom]] text game ''Enchanter'', your job is to defeat the evil enchanter Krill ''without'' disturbing the Cosmic Horror that's sealed below his castle. The tie-in novel by Robin Bailey takes the tack that your character accidentally did release the thing, and now it's up to the book's protagonist to stop it.
*
* ''[[Marathon
* In ''[[Pathways
* Speaking of Bungie, the main plot of ''[[Myth]]: The Fallen Lords'' is this, and it's reanimating corpses and whatnot. After you all but lose the war, you manage to kill it.
** A more literal example is The Watcher, a powerful Lich who was imprisoned in a cave by a charm on his hand that would turn him to stone if he tried to leave. [[Life or Limb Decision|Ultimately, he chose to cut that hand off.]] He finally met his doom when an arrow was fashioned from the bone of the hand that was left behind and turned him to stone after striking him.
** They also smashed his stone form into rubble [[Deader Than Dead|just to be sure]].
* In ''[[Dead Space (
* The hook and most the line of ''[[Arcanum]]''{{'}}s plot involved the player character being a [[Chosen One]] prophecied to defeat a [[Big Bad]], last known to be sealed in a can. Later it's revealed that many evils are sealed in that can, and by the time you finally wormhole your way inside, {{spoiler|the [[Big Bad]] has done a [[Heel Face Turn]] long ago, after having been overshadowed by an [[Evil Overlord]] you must defeat instead.}}
* {{spoiler|Maverick Zero}} of ''[[Mega Man X]]'', with [[The Virus]] originally coming from him. {{spoiler|He spends the rest of his life/lives [[The Atoner|atoning for it]].}}
** The "can" in question is in itself a Sealed Evil, {{spoiler|although, ''becoming a hero'', this was obviously subverted}}.
* ''[[
* ''[[Dark Forces Saga|Jedi Academy]]'': The sealed evil takes the form of an ancient Sith Lord, whom the game's big bad is naturally trying to resurrect, thinking she will be rewarded. The Sith Lord has other ideas.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* In what is possibly the worst-sealed can ''ever'', ''[[Pac-Man]]''. He kills the ghost, sealing it in the little box in the center of the screen. Three minutes later, it escapes again, and poor Pac must kill it over again. Perhaps he'd have better luck if he gave his little ghostbox a lid.
* Well before the start of the ''[[Geneforge]]'' series, the Shapers discovered a startling new [[Psycho Serum|technology]] that could imbue ordinary humans with incredible magical powers. When they discovered some of the side effects involved (such as [[Suicidal Overconfidence]], a violent temper, and in extreme cases, outright [[Body Horror]]), rather than take any steps to destroy this technology, they simply abandoned the remote island outpost where it was discovered, and declared it off limits under penalty of death. Fast forward a few hundred years: A band of explorers from across the seas happens upon the abandoned outpost and all its forbidden goods. [[It Got Worse|Things go downhill from there.]]
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* ''[[Dragon Quest V]]'' has Bjorn the Behemoose.
** ''[[Dragon Quest VIII]]'' has Rhapthorne, with ''two'' cans: the scepter of Trodain to hold his soul, and {{spoiler|the statue of the Goddess on Neos}} to hold his body.
* In ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'', {{spoiler|the literal Sealed-Evil-In-A-Box}}.
* In ''[[Romancing
* Orochi in ''[[Okami]]'' is a definite example of this trope.
* [[Big Bad]] of ''[[Super Robot Wars|Super Robot Wars K]]'', Lu Cobol was defeated by the [[Precursors|Crusian]]. They decide to hid Lu Cobol's fragments in planets across galaxy. 2,000 years has pass and now [[Energy Beings|bodiless]] Lu Cobol seek to reform itself, by [[Earthshattering Kaboom|destroy whatever planet]] that hold its fragments.
* In ''[[Phantasy Star]] 1'', ''2'', -and- ''3'', you find the big bad end boss Dark Force/Dark Falz/Dark Phallus (depending on translation) in a literal Pandora's Box in the final dungeon.
* ''[[Earth 2150|Earth 2160]]'' has the traditional sealed-ancient-evil-alien-race-beneath-the-surface-of-Mars for the first half of the game. Then some Dutch nerd learns to control them, and it all ends badly(-er).
* Lavos in ''[[
** A subversion, Lavos was an alien that burrowed into the earth and then unleashes the apocalypse many ages later as part of its natural life cycle. Essentially, it seals itself in the final can and breaks out when it wants. The villains of the game attempt to awaken him to harvest his power, with the apocalypse being a byproduct of this.
* In the [[
* The {{spoiler|Firstborn}} in ''[[Clive
* In ''[[Prototype (
* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines]]'' features a memorable
* The Dark Star from ''[[
** In ''[[Mario
* Rudy the Clown in ''[[
** Similarly, possibly the entirety of the Golden Pyramid in ''[[
* The demons in ''[[Doom (
* Heinrich I, in ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]''. Doubly so, given {{spoiler|what he does to Blavatsky}}...
* In ''[[
* Malefor, aka The Dark Master from ''[[Spyro the Dragon|The Legend of Spyro]]'' series. {{spoiler|He was born as a purple dragon, like Spyro, some countless generations ago. He was taught how to master the elements, but kept gaining more power, resulting in the Elders banishing him to exile. He took on the title of The Dark Master, where his malice was so great that it split the Earth, creating the Mountain of Malefor, also known as the Well of Souls, where he was imprisoned. In ''A New Beginning'', he sends out Cynder to open the convexity portal to free his soul, which she succeeds in, though Spyro frees Cynder from his control, causing the portal to implode. In ''The Eternal Night'', Gaul uses the lunar eclipse of the celestial moons (that causes non-stop darkness for a short while) to seemingly resurrect Malefor. But it's revealed by Malefor in ''Dawn of the Dragon'' that this was merely all a ruse to get the real one to free him to the Well of Souls to do so, who was it? [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|Poor Spyro]].}}
** Also, the Destroyer counts, as its sole purpose for existing is to destroy the world but it slept below a volcano until Malefor awakened it to destroy the world. A rare case of one Sealed Evil In A Can freeing another.
* In the ''[[
** The player characters in ''Undefined Fantastic Object'' think that the incident is releasing one of these, however Byakuren is [[The Messiah|very much]] a [[Sealed Good in
** From the perspective of the Buddhists, the Taoists in ''Ten Desires'' are this, what with that whole religious war thing. As usual for ''Touhou'' [[Good All Along|they aren't evil]], but neither are they particularly good.
* seems to be the case with the {{spoiler|Kingdom of Sorrow}} in ''[[Klonoa]]'' 2: Lunatea's Veil. {{spoiler|As it turns out, it was sealed away because no one wanted to remember sorrow, and the King of Sorrow tried to undo the seal so everyone could remember sorrow.}}
* The ''[[Devil May Cry]]'' series. Every. Single. Installment. ...except the fourth. That one just needed to be awakened rather than unsealed.
* The draconic Old Gods of the Tevinter Imperium in ''[[Dragon Age
* In ''[[
* ''[[Arcanum:
* Akron, the [[Final Boss]] of ''[[Epic Battle Fantasy]]'' ''3''. He notes in his [[Boss Banter]] that he has been defeated and sealed away countless times through time
* [[Greed]]{{spoiler|,the content of the Golden Chest}} from ''[[Dubloon]]''.
* ''[[Shivers]]'' has the Ixupi, ancient soul-sucking [[Mayincatec]] demons who were sealed into pots with talismans. Millenia later, an itinerant archaeologist digs them up and puts them in a museum. Then two kids sneak in the museum and break them open.
* ''[[Return to Krondor]]'' presents the Dark God as this. The Dark God does not get released, but the ending makes it clear that the person trying to unseal it has not given up.
* Daglathor in ''[[Warriors of Might and Magic]]'' is sealed inside a dungeon in the heart of a mountain. And the mechanism to avoid his eventual escape is found... [[Fridge Logic|inside his prison.]]
** ''[[Might and Magic]] VII'' has a rather simplistic sealing liable to be done by the player characters: the medusa crawling around in the sub-level of an abandoned mine have developed an immunity to magic. As a class promotion quest, you get sent to sabotage the elevator to ''keep'' them down there.
* The demon in ''[[Phantasmagoria]]''.
* A significant portion of the plot of ''[[Brave Fencer Musashi]]'' revolves around this. The first major quest in the game involves Musashi being sent to collect Lumina, the legendary greatsword used to defeat the Wizard of Darkness; a significant portion of the rest of the game revolves around Musashi questing to recover the elemental Scrolls in order to power Lumina up enough to take out the Thirstquencher Empire. {{spoiler|Unfortunately, it turns out the voice which set Musashi on this quest in the first place, a voice originating from Lumina itself, was actually the Wizard of Darkness himself, not destroyed but sealed within the sword. Guess what the only things holding him back are? If you guessed "the five Scrolls and the Crest Guardians they're connected to," you win the kewpie doll.}}
* ''[[Fate/stay
* ''[[Lightning Legend Daigo no Daibouken]]'' has Dragless, a legendary and all-powerful Demon King who rampaged through the Kingdom of Japone 450 years before the story's proper, destroying everything on his way. He ultimately was defeated and sealed away in the deepest ends of Mt. Ohsore by the young hero Taikei Raioh, but by the start of the game he has finally freed himself, and it's now up to the descendant of Taikei, Daigo, to defeat him for good.
* Played with in ''[[Dragon Age]]''. {{spoiler|The Darkspawn seek out the seven ancient dragon gods buried within the earth, and when they find and awaken one it becomes the Archdemon and leads them in a massive invasion of the surface world - but the sealed gods were not necessarily evil until tainted by the darkspawn, making them more like [[Sealed Badass in
* In ''[[Dragon Age II]]'' Hawke can fight several powerful demons that were sealed away in and around Kirkwall. The "Legacy" [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] revolves around the Hawke family's connection to an ancient Sealed Evil In A Can {{spoiler|Corypheus one of the original Tevinter Magisters who brought the Darkspawn Taint to Thedas}} whose subconscious efforts to free itself have brought danger to Hawke's doorstep.
* The Antarans from ''[[
* The Dread Lords from ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] 2''. The Dread Lords had a pocket dimension which they had used as a base for their fleets. Their enemies, The Arnor, used this against them by sealing the last of their empire in the dimension. Later on, the Dregin found the lock to the Dread Lord prison. Thinking that is was an ancient weapon, they activate the device, allowing the Dread Lords to escape and wreak havoc across the galaxy. Upon seeing this, the Drengin realize their mistake and decide to [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here|leave the others for dead]].
* [[Eldritch Abomination|The Soulless Gods]] of ''[[Lusternia]]''. Originally a host of ''thousands'' of abominations, they're whittled down to a mere five before [[Precursors|The Elder Gods]] fled to the Void. Rendered [[Load
* In ''[[
* The entire [[
* Ogre, Jinpachi, and Azazel of the ''[[Tekken]]'' games.
* The demon of the first ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' game, and the Archfiend of ''Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword''.
* Seems to be somewhat of a recurring theme in the ''[[
** In ''[[Shining Force]]'', Darksol's evil plan is to unseal Dark Dragon.
** ''[[
** ''[[
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' features The Snarl, a monster formed from tangles in the fabric of reality, and sealed within the world itself.
** Also subverted with The Creature in the Darkness, who [[Big Bad|Xykon]] and [[The Dragon|Redcloak]] think ''should'' be evil and scary (and accordingly, they keep it locked in a box), but for the most part is just hungry and clueless, verging at times on [[Too Dumb to Live]].
* ''[[Charby the Vampirate]]'' had a big old [https://web.archive.org/web/20110402003452/http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/index.php?p=34610 can of evil], slightly subverted since it had originally been sealed by an amaturish effort to defeat it, only to [https://web.archive.org/web/20110402011617/http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/index.php?p=31150 reseal it with a tighter lid] later after it got loose. Of course we didn't learn that evil came in cans until after the fact.
* Subverted in ''[[
* In ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'', space villain Fructose Riboflavin gets turned into [[Pure Energy]] and stuffed into a ''battery''. He doesn't stay there for long, though.
* Mr Goh has rather a... [https://web.archive.org/web/20140511002202/http://www.wanderingpandacomics.com/mrgoh/comic.php?comic=37 literal...] approach to this trope.
* On sale in the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130831085951/http://nekothekitty.smackjeeves.com/comics/1361561/909-steamy/ Gift Shop of Death] in ''[[Neko the Kitty]]''.
* In ''[[
* Inverted in ''[[The Way of the Metagamer]]'': the evil is sealed within the Book, and does not escape... but the heroes are forced to follow it into the Book.
* The Axe of Prissan in ''[[Goblins]]'' acts as a prison for an immensely powerful demon lord, whose very existence threatened the mortal plane. The enchantments binding the prison will gradually break down if the axe is not used for good, or even faster if used for evil. As such, it has enchantments layered on it to ensure it will aid any paladin who encounters it and refresh the prison.
* Umbria/Zaedalkaah from ''[[Our Little Adventure]]'', who was [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|blindly released by the heroine.]]
* In ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Many, many things contained by the ''[[SCP Foundation]]''. One, [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-076 SCP-076-2], had the particularity of coming with his own (leaky) can, SCP-076-1, and the SCP (after many [[Pyrrhic Victory|Pyrrhic Victories]] keeping it ''in'' the can) eventually decided to try and work with him; predictably, it didn't end well.
** [http://scp-wiki.net/scp-231 SCP-231-7] ''is'' the can for... whatever [[The End of the World as We Know It|End of the World as We Know It]] entity it is that she carries. And the Foundation has to do some horrible stuff to keep it in there. Trust us, [[You Do NOT Want to Know]].
* ''[[Neopets]]'' now has its very own Sealed Evil In A Can, as of the end of the Return of Dr. Sloth plot event that happened January 29 - March 15, 2008. The comic is [http://www.neopets.com/space/ros/comic.phtml?chapter=1 here], and spoilers are here: {{spoiler|Dr. Frank Sloth is the sealed evil. The can is the Space Faerie's token. Roll your mouse over the very last panel of the last chapter, and you'll see the token, which was not destroyed in the explosion of the ship, floating through space. When it gets most of the way across the panel, a pair of red eyes glow from within...}}
* [
* Dagon, a world-threatening evil sorcerer from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'' started out as an [[Eldritch Abomination|primordial god]] trapped in a mystic prison until accidentally released by a human gangster. One [[Body Horror|body-warping soul-merge later]] and the gangster's mind is gone and Dagon is loose on the Earth to fulfill prophecy by destroying the planet.
* BEN of [[
* The [[Big Bad]] of the second year in ''[[The Questport Chronicles]]'' starts out as Sealed Evil in a Mirror.
* ''[[Phantasia]]'' has more than one of these, of varying degrees of world-destroying power.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Trigon in season four of ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', where his daughter Raven becomes his portal into the world, allowing him to turn every creature in the biosphere [[Taken for Granite|into stone]] and cover the planet in lava.
** Also, the dragon Malchior in an earlier episode qualifies, sealed in one of Raven's spellbooks.
* Most seasons of ''[[
** In other words, the devil you know is better than the one you don't.
* The singing, dancing frog who ruined a man's life in the [[
** This is based on the story of a real (not evil) horned lizard that was sealed in the cornerstone of a courthouse (long before they were on any endangered species list). 31 years later the stone was opened and the horned lizard was alive and lived on for almost a year afterward.
* ''[[Monster Allergy]]'' has this when it comes to trapping monsters.
* Wu-Ya from ''[[
** Likewise, Hannibal Roy Bean was trapped in the Yin-Yang world for nearly as long until Omi freed him unwittingly.
** And then there's Sibini, who was trapped in the Mosaic Scale until ''The Evil Within.''
* ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' has both Pariah Dark and the [[Psycho for Hire|future self]] of the titular character.
** Also the Fright Knight, released first by Danny himself (accidently), and later by Pariah Dark so that he could act as [[The Dragon]].
* The Dark One from ''[[Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!]]'', who is so large he requires an entire planet for a functioning seal.
** Please see the "Exaggerated" example for further details.
* ''[[Legion of Super
* Vilgax, from ''[[
** And in the same show, Ghostfreak is an odd example of evil that got sealed in a can ''accidentally'', his DNA sampled for the show's [[Clingy MacGuffin]] so that the wearer can turn into him, and the personalities of his species being encoded in their genes somehow. Eventually, he gets loose and becomes Ben's [[Enemy Without]].
* Aku in ''[[Samurai Jack]]''.
** The three servants of Seth.
* Hades, Greek God of the Underworld, in ''[[Justice League (
* The 13 Ghosts from the Chest of Demons in ''[[The 13 Ghosts of Scooby
* In the prequel episode of ''[[
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** For 4 million years, the ''Ark'' held the Decepticons and Autobots in stasis, under a volcano... until volcanic activity shook things up and woke up the evil Decepticons.
** In ''Cosmic Rust'', there's a [[Ghost Planet|dead planet]] with radio beacons warning travelers to stay away or die horribly. The Decepticons plunder it, and in the process, catch the metal-eating plague called Cosmic Rust.
*** [[The Starscream|Starscream]] shows signs of [[Tabletop RPG]] [[Genre Savvy]] in this episode: when confronted with [[Ancient Tomb|a sealed crypt]] with a curse warning on it, he proclaims that "a curse on the door means treasure behind the door" and breaks in. Unfortunately, he's in a Transformers cartoon, not a [[Dungeons
** In ''Return of Optimus Prime'', the [[Hate Plague]] spores were sealed ''inside a star'' after their last outbreak. Unfortunately, the star went nova.
** [[The Starscream|Starscream]] himself could be considered Sealed Evil in a Can in the episode ''Starscream's Ghost''; his ghost first appears after Octane tumbles into the Decepticon crypt and knocks over the ruins of Starscream's grave marker.
** ''[[
** Deconstructed in ''[[Transformers Prime]]''. {{spoiler|After Unicron's defeat by Primus, his body was cast away into the depths of space. His gravitational pull attracted matter over billions of years which coallessed into the Earth itself. Unicron's physical form is the Earth's core, but he can control the mineral deposits on the surface and create golems of himself, among other things.}}
* In ''[[Di
** On a side note the Megalith {{spoiler|happens to be keeping another evil sealed in another dimension.}}
* ''[[
** There's also the Mad Kat The Insane Jester, who was sealed in a jack in the box.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** The [[Sequel Series]] ''[[
* Taken literally with Barom Mordo in ''[[
* In an episode of ''[[Sonic
* Norm the Genie in ''[[The Fairly
* Valtor from ''[[
* The position of [[Evil Overlord|Phobos]] and several of his most powerful minions for most of the second season of ''[[WITCH (
* ''[[
* Chiros, the secondary antagonist of ''[[Kong:
* Some villains from ''[[The Smurfs (animation)|The Smurfs]]'', such as [[Religion of Evil| the Druids]], [[Mad Artist| Maestro]], [[Jerkass Genie| Genie Meanie]], and the [[Bad Samaritan| Swapping Well]]. Given his age and experience, Papa Smurf had battled and sealed some of them in the first place.
* ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic]]'' has The Mare in the Moon, a corrupted princess who reigned over the night, but [[Face Heel Turn|turned evil]] when she saw how little the night was appreciated. She refused to [[The Night That Never Ends|let the sun rise]], so her sister used the [[Cosmic Keystone|Elements of Harmony]] to banish her to the moon. But the [[Prophecies Are Always Right|legends state]] that on the longest day of the thousandth year, [[When the Planets Align|the stars will aid in her escape]]...
** The villain of the first two episodes of season two, Discord—the evil [[Anthropomorphic Personification|Spirit Of Disharmony]] who ruled Equestria as a land of chaos and suffering—was [[Taken for Granite|trapped in a stone prison]] over 1000 years ago by Princesses Celestia and Luna using the Elements Of Harmony. After they lost their link to the Elements Of Harmony, the seal keeping him imprisoned began to break, and finally a little bit of chaos happening right next to it ([[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|thanks to the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting in a fight]]) gave him the strength to escape and begin his reign of chaos and disharmony anew. {{spoiler|In the end, the Mane Cast put him back.}}
** "It's About Time" reveals that there're a bunch of these things sealed away in Tartarus that are guarded by Cerberus.
* In ''[[The Godzilla Power Hour]],'' the Cyclops was so invulnerable that even the [[Sufficiently Advanced]] aliens who discovered it couldn't destroy it, so they trapped it on an island behind an impenetrable force field. The sucker's so tough, even Godzilla doesn't successfully destroy it at the end, so the crew just ends up trapping it back behind its force field.
* Simon and Snarf in ''[[Trollz]]''; while the Magic of the Five was sufficient to release Snarf, Simon had to trick the girls into helping him, as he could only be freed by someone pure of heart helping him of their own free will.
* In ''[[
* The Red Sentients in ''[[Hot Wheels Battle Force 5]]''. They were sealed away in five seperate Battle Zones by [[The Starscream|Zemerick]] when he betrayed them. At the end of season 2, [[Big Bad|Krytus]] is freed by a traitor named Praxion (whom he promptly [[Rewarded
* In an episode of ''[[
* The snakes in ''[[Ninjago]]''.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Prisons.
* Yucca Mountain Repository is a giant storage facility for nuclear waste. As much of the waste has half-lives long enough to still be pretty dangerous after 10,000 years, a lot of research has been done into the subject of how to do Sealed Evil In A Can correctly. For instance, the stability of the landscape needs to be taken into consideration; in 10,000 years, this part of Nevada might not be a desert. With a higher water table, the waste could leak. Language is also an issue, as languages are dynamically changing (consider the difference between Old
** Finally, Yucca Mountain has been abandoned for these very reasons. Deciding that we don't know how to seal the evil away for long enough, the official decision has been to seal it away in containers designed to last only 100 years, and let our descendants worry about re-sealing it. We are now officially [[Neglectful Precursors]], unless it's [[Fridge Brilliance]]. A thing we have to reseal every hundred years is not going to be forgotten as easily. Like a story passed down from generation to generation, so long as it keeps getting told. Any disaster big enough to make us forget would be big enough that it probably wouldn't matter if the cache leaked.
* Napoleon on Elba; one theory is that they actually wanted to keep Napoleon close just in case they needed to [[Sealed Badass in a Can|call on his talents]] in the event of [[Evil Versus Evil|another potential world-conquerer starting trouble]]. He just didn't like being the pet general in a box and decided to retake France.
* Smallpox—live samples are kept in a couple places around the world.
** Two places, officially: The CDC in the United States, and its Russian cousin VECTOR. Some Russian scientist have supplied information that may indicate the existence of smallpox elsewhere, however, making this particular can possibly opened.
* The sarcophagus that currently entombs the exploded nuclear reactor at the Chernobyl power plant was built hastily and nobody intended it to be a long-term solution, so it quickly deteriorated and is presently in terrible shape. Yet it's still the only thing that separates the reactor structure, with all of its highly radioactive dust and materials, from the outside world.
** They are building a bigger and better can around it [[Real Soon Now]].
* Some say that [
** To be more specific, the Emperor had a scale model of (his) China built within his tomb. In place of water, historians wrote that the builders manufactured gallons upon gallons of mercury to be poured into the riverbeds and ocean, so that Shi Huangdi's sarcophagus, which was built as a dragonboat made out of copper, could sail around in for all eternity. That one can not enter the tomb without succumbing to deadly mercury vapors strongly supports the historians' accounts.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120307111514/http://www.semp.us/publications/biot_reader.php?BiotID=234 The Goiânia Accident]: In 1987, a medical imaging company in Brazil had relocated to a new office and had left behind one of their teletherapy machines. The building was demolished, but the machine was still intact. Years later, two scavengers broke into the site looking for scrap metal to sell. They found the machine and broke it open, releasing the highly radioactive Cesium-137 from its lead container. They mistook the glowing blue powder for carnival glitter; allowing their children to play with it and spreading it around their homes and farms for good luck. The symptoms of radiation sickness were misdiagnosed as food poisoning. In total, 249 people were contaminated, with 129 suffering internal contamination from ingesting radioactive material. Four people died from whole body irradiation.
* Any chronic health disorder that can be temporarily held at bay by medical treatment.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Cosmic Horror Tropes]]
[[Category:Magical Girl Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]
[[Category:Sealed Index in A Can]]
[[Category:This Index Has a Mind of Its Own]]
[[Category:This Index Is Cursed]]
[[Category:This Index Means Trouble]]
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Villains]]
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