History Main / AbandonedLaboratory

** ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', the official remake of ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'', reimagines Area 7 (the Omega Metroid territory) as the laboratory where the Metroid species was created.

** ''VideoGame/AM2R'', the fan-remake of ''VideoGame/Metroid2ReturnOfSamus'', has the G.F.S. Thoth: a ship used as a mobile research station by the federation scientists who went to [=SR388=]. By the time you arrive the lights are out, the place is trashed, and everyone's dead, and it's not long before you run into what's responsible...

* This is common in the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' games, with the earliest example being Tourian in the [[VideoGame/{{Metroid1}} first game]]. Tourian would appear again in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'', the latter of which is a remake of the first game; both of these later games make clear that the reason Tourian is abandoned is that the Metroids escaped and killed off the Space Pirates.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' takes place pretty much entirely on one of these; B.S.L, a large space station full of various creatures from across the galaxy.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' takes place in a station quite similar to the one from Fusion, used as a laboratory for researching biological weapons. In fact, it appears to be the predecessor to the secret research carried out on the B.S.L station.
** Both games have their own "sectors", which also [[HailfirePeaks combine this setting with other settings:]]
*** Sector 1 of ''Fusion'' is a recreation the Metroids' homeworld, [[UndergroundLevel and is a pretty straightforward cave area.]] Sector 2 is a [[JungleJapes tropical area.]] Sector 3 is [[ShiftingSandLand half desert]] and [[LethalLavaLand half lava.]] Sector 4 is [[UnderTheSea aquatic.]] Sector 5 is [[SlippySlideyIceWorld frozen over]], and Sector 6 is [[BlackoutBasement dark and nocturnal.]]
*** The station in ''Other M'' has three main areas: [[JungleJapes tropical]], [[LethalLavaLand firey]] and [[SlippySlideyIceWorld icy.]]
** Every game in the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' features at least one, usually belonging to the Space Pirates at some point. ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' also featured a few that belonged to the [[TheFederation Galactic Federation]] and the Elysians, while ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'' features two such labs that once belonged to the Alimbics.

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is utterly in ''love'' with this: almost every game has at least one.

** Actually evoked by the "Dead Factory" in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'', where it was a fully functional disposal facility and research center that was disguised as an abandoned water treatment center as a cover to keep a big fence around the place and keep both civilians and officials ''out''. A file found in the place even outlines what they do with trespassers who want to explore the creepy "abandoned" lab: they're either shot or [[FateWorseThanDeath captured and used as guinea pigs]]. Of course, by the time Jill and Carlos get there, it's abandoned for real. By the living, at least.

* The ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' series is utterly in ''love'' with this: almost every game has at least one. The Underground Laboratory, first explored in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'', appears in three games and ''possibly'' ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil0'' as well[[note]]Its appearance in that game created a PlotHole as to its location and, with no concrete proof it's the same facility, fans are divided on whether it is or a similar facility elsewhere[[/note]].

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E2TheGhostMonument "The Ghost Monument"]], the Doctor and company find one in the underground tunnels. [[spoiler:It was where the weapons that devastated the planet were created.]]
* ''Series/TheSilentSea'': The Balhae Station moon base was abandoned five years ago after a radiation leak killed almost everyone there. The astronauts who return there five years later quickly learn that the radiation leak story was a cover-up.
[[/folder]]

** Pictured above is the chimera lab from ''VideoGame/Mother3'', it's only mildly creepy at first... then the [[OneHitKill ultimate]] chimera gets loose.

* This is common in the ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' games, with the earliest example being Tourian in the [[VideoGame/{{Metroid1}} first game]]. Tourian would appear again in ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' and ''VideoGame/MetroidZeroMission'', the latter of which is a remake of the first game; both of these later games make clear that the reason Tourian is abandoned is that the Metroids escaped and killed off the Space Pirates.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'' takes place in a station quite similar to the one from Fusion, used as a laboratory for researching biological weapons. In fact, it appears to be the predecessor to the secret research carried on the B.S.L station.

* Lab Discovera, TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon of ''VideoGame/KirbyAndTheForgottenLand''. [[spoiler: It's home to the BigBad Fecto Forgo, an evil alien who was sealed away in a tube and abandoned by the people who previously lived in this world.]]

%%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1652118836082292300
%%Please don't change or remove without starting a new thread.

[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/{{SOMA}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/soma1.png]]]]

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' features a laboratory room. Although one wonders if it was ever actually used as such (then again Clover claims that it was in one of the random conversations you can get in the room).

* All the ''VideoGame/BioShock'' games have them, given the sheer setting (an UnderwaterCity in the 50s and a [[FloatingContinent Floating city]] in the late 19th century) implies there will be anachronistic science - and along with making the locations possible, the scientists also created the mutagenics that give both the player character and the enemies powers and some scary biomechanical mooks such as the Big Daddy and the Handyman.
* The UAC levels in ''VideoGame/Doom64'' have this aesthetic compared to the techbase levels in the earlier ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' games. The color palettes are darker, the lighting is dim if not absent, and computers are either barely functioning or completely dark.

* Split Mushroom's stage in ''VideoGame/MegaManX4'' is described as this.

* Gadgetron Facility on planet Barlow in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' has been abandoned by Gadgetron after MegaCorp has driven it out of business. Since then it has been overrun by local tribesmen as well as Gadgetron Hounds of Cuddly Death, Gadgetron-designed pets that have gone feral. You can also find there a scientist that froze himself with his invention (which you need to progress through the game).

* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind'' has Kagrenac's Workshop and Kagrenac's Library, located within two different [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Dwemer]] ruins around the [[{{Mordor}} Red Mountain]] volcano. Kagrenac was the Dwemer master crafter who devised a means to tap into the [[CosmicKeystone Heart of Lorkhan]], the still-beating heart of the [[GodIsDead "dead" creator god]]. [[RiddleForTheAges Whatever he did]], it caused the entire Dwemer race to blink out of existence in a single instance all across Tamriel. Given that the game takes place some 4000 years after these events, these ruins aren't full of any nasties that Kagrenac created...but are populated by BigBad [[PhysicalGod Dagoth]] [[EldritchAbomination Ur]]'s twisted ash creatures. You'll need to visit each if you are completing the main quest via the "[[TakeAThirdOption backpath]]" method in order to acquire Kagrenac's notes.
* In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', Aloy explores a few of those in her quest to find out who she is and what happened to the Old Ones' civilization. The titular Zero Dawn facility is the largest and most impressive example, but also the most dangerous because a small army of Eclipse fanatics followed her in after she gained access. Most of the other Old World labs really are abandoned and devoid of life (except for some rats), and have been for almost a thousand years.

* ''VideoGame/SixAMAtTheChumBucket'': The Chum Bucket serves as this, though it is more of a robotics lab than the chemistry ones this trope normally entails.

* One of these plays a significant role in ''Film/{{Us}}''. For a given value of "abandoned."
* The PCL in ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', a genetics lab experimenting on Pokémon, left abandoned after Mewtwo wrecked the place when he escaped.

[[quoteright:241:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1chimera_2469.png]]
[-[[caption-width-right:241: The experiment ForScience has [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone horribly wrong]], the EldritchAbomination has escaped its [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong perfectly safe]] ContainmentField and is now [[SurvivalHorror picking us off one by one.]] Needless to say, it went FromBadToWorse.[[note]]Top to bottom: ''VideoGame/Mother3, VideoGame/BioShock1, VideoGame/MetroidFusion''.[[/note]]]]-]

* The {{Ur|Example}}-FirstPersonShooter ''VideoGame/TheColony'' is set in an abandoned scientific outpost.

* All the ''Videogame/BioShock'' games have them, given the sheer setting (an UnderwaterCity in the 50s and a [[FloatingContinent Floating city]] in the late 19th century) implies there will be anachronistic science - and along with making the locations possible, the scientists also created the mutagenics that give both the player character and the enemies powers and some scary biomechanical mooks such as the Big Daddy and the Handyman.

* The True Lab from ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'', is not technically abandoned ([[spoiler: Alphys still goes there from time to time]]) but is still worn down, dark and dirty and has been left unused for a long time, and is full of [[spoiler: creepy-looking machines, logs about Alphys' experiments with Determination, and the Amalgamates, the terrifying (but [[TheGrotesque largely harmless]]) results of those experiments]].

* The Aperture Science labs in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' probably fit this trope.

** Even more so in ''VideoGame/Portal2'' where [=GLaDOS=] is dead, it's [[AC:"nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine-nine"]] days later, and the science facility is run-down and overgrown by plants in some places. And then you find the ''original'' labs beneath the modern facility, which really [[TheCakeIsALie takes the cake.]] By the look of things, those were used in the 1950s and abandoned much later.

** ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'', the official remake of ''VideoGame/Metroid2ReturnOfSamus'', reimagines Area 7 (the Omega Metroid territory) as the laboratory where the Metroid species was created.

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' featured a laboratory room. Although one wonders if it was ever actually used as such (then again Clover claims that it was in one of the random conversations you can get in the room).

[[folder:Beat-'Em-Up]]

* The [[UrExample Ur]]-FirstPersonShooter ''VideoGame/TheColony'' is set in an abandoned scientific outpost.

[[folder:Film- Live Action]]

[[folder: Theatre]]

[-[[caption-width-right:241: The experiment ForScience has [[GoneHorriblyWrong gone horribly wrong]], the EldritchAbomination has escaped its [[WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong perfectly safe]] ContainmentField and is now [[SurvivalHorror picking us off one by one.]] Needless to say, it went FromBadToWorse.[[note]]Top to bottom: ''VideoGame/MOTHER3, VideoGame/BioShock1, VideoGame/MetroidFusion''.[[/note]]]]-]

[[folder:Adventure Game / Visual Novel]]

** ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' has Project Purity when you first come upon it as a heroic example, since it's where the player character's parents were trying to set up a water purification system.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', a sealed section of Vault 81 was used for virus experiments on Mole Rats, overseen by the Miss Nanny robot Curie, and they continued breeding in there after it was abandoned. In the quest "Hole in the Wall", a kid named Austin discovers the lab and gets infected, so you have to venture into the lair yourself to obtain the cure from Curie, who then becomes a companion.

* During ''{{VideoGame/Mass Effect 2}}'''s Jack's loyalty mission, you go to one [[spoiler: to blow it up, so she can forget her past]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}''
** In the fangame midquel ''[[VideoGame/CognitiveDissonance Mother: Cognitive Dissonance]]'', there is one that is used to craft Starmen [[spoiler: who are actually Martians]].
** Pictured above is the chimera lab from ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'', it's only mildly creepy at first...then the [[{{OnehitKO}} ultimate]] chimera gets loose.

[[folder: Wide-Open Sandbox]]

* Gadgetron Facility on planet Barlow in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando'' has been abandoned by Gadgetron after MegaCorp has driven it out of business. Since then it has been overrun by local tribesmen as well as Gadgetron Hound of Cuddly Death, Gadgetron-designed pet that has gone feral. You can also find there a scientist that froze himself with his invention (which you need to progress through the game).

* The spinoff film ''Film/ResidentEvil'' takes place in the Hive, one of these built in secret underneath Raccoon City.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pokemon}}'':
** ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and their remakes have the Pokemon Mansion, where the experiments to clone Mew to create Mewtwo took place (before it had GoneHorriblyRight), and which is now filled with assorted Fire and Poison-types and the scientists' logs of their experiments.
** ''VideoGame/PokemonColosseum'' has the Shadow Pokemon Lab, which has only recently been cleared out when you arrive.
** The Shadow Pokemon Lab returns in ''VideoGame/PokemonXDGaleOfDarkness'', though it's considerably less abandoned this time around, having been reclaimed by its former owners during the five years since Colosseum.

* The PCL in ''Film/PokemonDetectivePikachu'', a genetics lab experimenting on Pokemon, left abandoned after Mewtwo wrecked the place when he escaped.

** The second one is the lab OPTATIO in the wreckage of Verus, which is a highly advanced civilization from hundreds of years ago, doomed by their own technology malfunctioning and causing a huge explosion. Verus was so advanced that the explosion was caused by their computers overheating and malfunctioning in their attempt to connect into another dimension. Which happened '''500 years''' ''before the medieval-like era'' that the game is set in. And yet, despite the explosion, their robots not only survived, but also still actively the area to this day, although most of them malfunctioned and attacked everyone.