History Main / BlackSite

* ''Film/SonicTheHedgehog2'': In TheStinger, a GUN agent tells Commander Walters that they, while erasing Robotnik from their database, came across a nearly-forgotten, 50-year-old file that contained coordinates to a secret government research facility. The scene then cuts to inside that lab, where the "project" [[SequelHook awakens]].

* ''Anime/UsagichanDeCue'': The Public Welfare Board has been quietly rounding up merged beings, and using them for hideous, Nazi-like experiments. One poor squirrel-girl is seen being stripped of clothing, then shocked repeatedly with a cattle prod. Once the Director learns that merged beings can influence people with telepathy, he orders the merged beings to be wiped out completely. The Director even delivers his most feared "admonisher" by helicopter to slay the last ones: Koshka and Mimika. Very likely, poor Benten Chou would've been next.

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'', the various bases belonging to the Air Watch, Ankh-Morpork's nearest thing to an Air Force, where all manner of flight research goes on as well as unorthodox operational flying. It doesn't help that Air Witches with a ''wicked'' sense of humour will drop hints about ''[[Area51 Area Fifty-Seven]]'' and what may be going on there. Just for a laugh.

A top secret facility belonging to TheGovernment, [[GovernmentConspiracy Government Conspiracies]], groups associated with the government, or [[NGOSuperpower NGO Superpowers]]. What goes on in this facility is highly classified, and if its existence is known to the public, those activities will often be the subject of much rumor, speculation, and [[ConspiracyKitchenSink conspiracy theories.]] Officials will either insist the facility is a mundane warehouse or office or they will deny that such a facility exists. The Black Site might be for bioweapons or chemical warfare research, a place for banned experiments, or an off-the-books prison and interrogation center (this is illegal because if there'sno record of a prisoner being held there, it's easy for them to "[[DeadlyEuphemism disappear]]").

A top secret facility belonging to TheGovernment, [[GovernmentConspiracy Government Conspiracies]], groups associated with the government, or [[NGOSuperpower NGO Superpowers]]. What goes on in this facility is highly classified, and if its existence is known to the public, those activities will often be the subject of much rumor, speculation, and [[ConspiracyKitchenSink conspiracy theories.]]

While this trope frequently overlaps with ElaborateUndergroundBase, a Black Site might be concealed merely by being remote. This was particularly common for UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era media, as both the US and the USSR have/had perfect locations for isolated facilities. In American settings, sparsely-populated deserts such as those in Nevada and neighboring states are a popular choice. Meanwhile, Russian settings give you all the vast wastes of Siberia to play with. The occasional East Asian story could take advantage too, using the Gobi Desert, Tibet, or Inner Mongolia. In Israel, you have the Negev to set up your top-secret government research projects in. Alternately, if your setting doesn’t allow such extreme isolation, the facility can just be behind so much security that even if the public knew it was there, they'd never be able to get close enough to see it. Often times the site will not appear on any maps, and be airbrushed out of satellite and aerial photography, although they'll just as often be in the center of a strictly enforced no-fly zone, preventing aerial photographs from ever coming into being in the first place.

* The plot of the UK miniseries/''Series/{{Masterpiece}}'' episode ''Series/{{Sleepers}}'' kicks off when the KGB rediscovers an abandoned black site/program where agents [[DeepCoverAgent were trained to pretend to be British citizens and sent to blend in]], to be activated at some point in the future. By the time this happens 25 years later, the two agents involved have gone thoroughly native and don't want to be activated or recalled.

In any case, most variations also function as a secret army base or a headquarters for [[NoSuchAgency some secret organization]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}}'' shorts "Mater's Tall Tales", one short features Mater rescuing his alien pal Ma-Tor from an Area 51 Expy.

A top secret facility belonging to TheGovernment, [[GovernmentConspiracy Government Conspiracies]], groups associated with the government, or [[NGOSuperpower NGO Superpowers]]. What goes on in this facility is highly classified, and if its existence is known to the public, those activities will often be the subject of much rumor, speculation, and UsefulNotes/ConspiracyTheories.

** Area 51 implies there are other numbered "Areas" in the Nevada desert along these lines, and indeed there are. There are at least 28 confirmed areas as part of the Nevada Test Site[[note]]They're numbered 1 to 30 -- they skipped 13 because ThirteenIsUnlucky, and 28 ended up decommissioned, split up, and merged into other areas[[/note]], which were initially allocated for nuclear testing. Then the government realized that they didn't need ''nearly'' that much space for that, and they repurposed most of them for things like bombing ranges and boring non-[[SecretGovernmentWarehouse secret government warehouses]] for stuff like ration stockpiles, surplus service weapons, and archived paperwork. The only remotely intriguing one of these "Areas" is Area 19, which contains a high-voltage power line that ends in the middle of the desert, far from the nearest building, which people are convinced must be hiding ''something''. That said, if the numbered areas end at 30, the existence of Area 51 implies that there are another twenty-odd super-secret Areas -- about which we know so little that [[ExtraStrengthMasquerade there aren't even any rumors or conspiracy theories about them]].

** Also done in the ''Series/TwentyFourJapan'' where mercenaries raid a blacksite secretly managed by the National Police Agency Security Bureau used to detain [[FarEastAsianTerrorists Victor Hayashi, who was supposedly dead in the Madereba Federation]].
* The majority of the [=SHIELD=] facilities in Marvel's ''Series/AgentsOfShield'' have touches of this, to the point that the majority of the cast aren't allowed to know their locations ''while visiting them on official business''.
** Their nemesis HYDRA seems to use the same idea - except they have their demonic symbol on the walls of the offices.
* The Post Office in ''Series/TheBlacklist'' is a black site occupied by the FBI's Reddington Taskforce who work in tandem with their informant Raymond Reddington, an international criminal who sold government secrets. The Post Office is underground and anyone out of the taskforce is required to be blindfolded before entering. However, this doesn't stop it from being breached by Anslo Garrick.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Finding the location of Star One (a base containing the MasterComputer which controls the Federation) is the StoryArc for Season Two. It's so secret that anyone who could possibly know it's location has either been killed or brainwashed into forgetting it. This backfires badly because when things start going wrong with Star One, even the people running the Federation don't know where it is!
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' and its spinoffs:
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "The Doctor Dances"]]: Limehouse Green Station in London, the place where the "bomb" fell, is sealed off by the army.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E7TheIdiotsLantern "The Idiot's Lantern"]]: The Wire is stealing peoples' faces through their TV sets from Magpie's shop. The police, not wanting to cause a panic with the coronation leaving them deprived of needed officers for a full investigation (and Torchwood breathing down their necks), abduct the victims, putting bags over their heads to hide their faceless faces, and store them in a black site. This is first made clear when the Doctor and Rose, upon arriving in the area, spot one such faceless victim being taken away by the police. They chase down the police car on their scooter, but the police officer, realizing he's being followed, radios ahead "Operation Market Stall! Go go go!" so by the time the Doctor and Rose make it to the black site entrance, they find only the disguised entrance (plainclothes cops pretending to sweep market stalls).
--->'''The Doctor:''' Lost them! How’d they get away from us?\\
'''Rose:''' I'm surprised they didn’t turn back and arrest you for reckless driving! [[UniversalDriversLicense Have you actually passed your test?]]\\
'''The Doctor:''' [[TheMenInBlack Men in black]]? Vanishing police cars? This is Churchill’s England, not Stalin’s Russia!
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E12ArmyOfGhosts "Army of Ghosts"]] reveals that [[LandmarkingTheHiddenBase One Canada Square]] in Canary Wharf houses the Torchwood Institute's secret headquarters, Torchwood One.
*** Torchwood One is also implied to have been located at a different Black Site prior to One Canada Square's construction, but this location is never revealed.

** The Black Archive, UNIT's "[[SecretGovernmentWarehouse depository of everything that shouldn't exist on Earth but does anyway]]", appeared first in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' episode [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS2E11E12EnemyOfTheBane "Enemy of the Bane"]] as a rather difficult-to-miss, advanced-looking military base within sight of at least one road, but by the time it appeared on ''Doctor Who'' proper, in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], it had been relocated to under the Tower of London. Ironically, [[LandmarkingTheHiddenBase Landmarking the Black Site]] is actually a ''less'' obvious hiding place.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]] gives us the [=UNIT=] facilities housing the Osterhagen Project, [[spoiler:a SelfDestructSequence for ''[[EarthShatteringKaboom the Earth]]'']]. It's really no wonder they wanted to keep them secret.
** [[Recap/TheSarahJaneAdventuresS4E5E6DeathOfTheDoctor "Death of the Doctor"]]:
*** UNIT Base 5, visibly located on top of Mount Snowdon (the highest mountain in Wales and the focal point of a national park, no less), is also incredibly eye-grabbing. [=UNIT=] Black Sites in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures'' seem to have a problem with this.
*** [=UNIT=] Moonbase, which manages to evade prying eyes by being [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin on the Moon]].

* In ''Series/{{Intelligence 2014}}'', CYBERCOM has a secret black site prison where they imprison the BigBad due to his ties with the American government.

--->'''Tetazoo''': Agent Jameson! If you click "send" on that phone, you will spend the next 20 years in a concrete box.
* The plot of UK miniseries/''Series/MasterpieceTheatre'' episode ''Series/{{Sleepers}}'' kicks off when the KGB rediscovers an abandoned black site/program where agents [[DeepCoverAgent were trained to pretend to be British citizens and sent to blend in]], to be activated at some point in the future. By the time this happens 25 years later the two agents involved have gone thoroughly native and don't want to be activated or recalled.
* The climax of the ''Series/MurdochMysteries'' episode "The Annoying Red Planet" features a temporary Victorian-era black site outside of Toronto, where the U.S. government is secretly developing a secret military aircraft using highly advanced military technology... which is to say, [[{{Zeerust}} an airship]].
** Toward the end of the episode, the characters discuss better locations for hiding a BlackSite, including the [[Area51 deserts of the American Southwest]] and [[Series/{{Torchwood}} Wales]].
* One such site appears on ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', which the team is tasked with breaking into as part of a security exercise. It turns out to be part of a larger operation to expose a mole.

** In "Mors Praematura", we see one in action. The black-hooded inmates are kept in [[BirdCaged wire cages]], are moved from site to site every 72 hours, and are officially dead [[UnPerson so they don't exist]] and can be interrogated indefinitely.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': The OldDarkHouse belonging to the titular family in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' becomes one of these in the series' [[SettingUpdate setting-updated]] version, "[[Recap/SherlockS02E02TheHoundsOfBaskerville The Hounds of Baskerville]]", replacing the Victorian GothicHorror trappings of the original story with [[ConspiracyKitchenSink those of the more contemporary conspiracy and paranormal horror genre]]. Given that many British military installations were originally old manor houses, it's quite possible that Baskerville Hall ''literally'' became one of these.

* On ''Series/GoodEats'', Alton and a burly assistant named Clarence take an AudienceSurrogate to a secret location (at the request of his mother) to teach him how to cook breakfast for himself. There's even a Room101 which turns out to be a simulated grocery store, where they teach him how to shop for bacon.
* Sites like this turn up with some regularity on ''Series/TheXFiles''.
* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': In season 1, Will Simpson procures one in an old CDC facility that contains a hermetically sealed soundproof room for containing Kilgrave.
* In ''Series/TheEndgame'', international arms dealer Elena Federova is being held at Fort Totten, an FBI black site in New York.

* On ''Series/ResidentAlien'', General [=McAllister=] has a secret prison site where she is holding a number of individuals she thinks might either be aliens or connected to aliens. Among these is Dr. Ethan Stone, the Patience town doctor that was kidnapped instead of Harry Vanderspeigle after Max Hawthorne said that the alien is the "town doctor."
* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': The OldDarkHouse belonging to the titular family in ''Literature/TheHoundOfTheBaskervilles'' becomes one of these in the series' [[SettingUpdate setting-updated]] version, replacing the Victorian GothicHorror trappings of the original story with [[ConspiracyKitchenSink those of the more contemporary conspiracy and paranormal horror genre]]. Given that many British military installations were originally old manor houses, it's quite possible that Baskerville Hall ''literally'' became one of these.

* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' is set in "The Village", [[GildedCage the world's most pleasant secret prison]], where inmates (implied to be former intelligence operatives) are able to enjoy the luxuries and atmosphere of an affluent rural coastal village including fresh air, luxury accommodation, total freedom to wander about the Village and socialize as they please, a wide range of recreational and occupational activities, never having to pay for anything, lavish parties, the illusion of democracy, [[BreadEggsMilkSquick mandatory curfews]], [[BigBrotherIsWatching omnipresent 24-hour surveillance]], occasionally being {{brainwashed}}, [[MindRape psychologically abused]], or [[StrappedToAnOperatingTable experimented on against their will]], [[ClosedCircle and the knowledge that escape is impossible]] [[YankTheDogsChain and that any apparent success at escaping is just an elaborate ruse that the Powers-That-Be constructed solely to torment them]]. Exactly which government is running the Village, if any, [[RiddleForTheAges is never revealed]].

* Creator/GerryAnderson's sci-fi series ''Series/{{UFO}}'' has the headquarters for alien defense operations, [=SHADO=] Control, located beneath a film studio. These secret defenders thwart mysterious aliens covertly, so as not to alarm the public about an AlienInvasion. Of course, being produced in 1970, it's laughably {{Zeerust}} now.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation maintains a large number of these both to research and contain [=SCPs=]. The most prominent feature is a [[SelfDestructMechanism nuclear warhead to be detonated]] only in [[GodzillaThreshold the gravest of circumstances]], like an uncontainable breach (and they're nervous about using it on 682, [[AdaptiveAbility as that might make it invulnerable to nukes]]).

** Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio is often alleged to be a small black site where the wrecked flying saucer and alien corpses from [[RoswellThatEndsWell the Roswell crash]] were taken to be studied. The theory declined in favor of the popularity of Area51, but [[CriticalResearchFailure Area 51 didn't exist in 1947]].

** Hangar 18 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio is often alleged to be a small black site where the wrecked flying saucer and alien corpses from [[RoswellThatEndsWell the Roswell crash]] were taken to be studied. The theory declined in favor of the popularity of Area51, but Area 51 [[CriticalResearchFailure Area 51 didn't exist in 1947]].

* ''WesternAnimation/InsideJob'': Cognito Inc. is a secret organization pulling all the world conspiracies to ensure the theories conceived throughout the ages remain true.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* During ''ComicBook/CivilWar'', several of the ComicBook/{{Runaways}} and ComicBook/YoungAvengers were captured by ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} and taken to the Cube, a secret detention facility for extraterrestrials.

* ''[[Film/{{Godzilla2014}} Godzilla (2014)]]'': A black site is built on the site of the ruined nuclear power plant in the heart of the Janjira exclusion zone, to contain the cocooned [[{{Kaiju}} MUTO]]. The facility is heavily fortified despite surrounded on all sides by irradiated ruins that are off limits to the public (but thanks to [=MUTO=], the facility itself is not actually irradiated), but the hero manages to sneak in just in time to see [[CardboardPrison the containment]] [[OhCrap fail]].

* Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse:

* Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter's ''[[Literature/TheLongEarth The Long War]]'':

* The majority of the [=SHIELD=] facilities in Marvel's ''[[Series/AgentsOfSHIELD Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D]]'' have touches of this, to the point that the majority of the cast aren't allowed to know their locations ''while visiting them on official business''.

** There's also Rifleman Bank Station from the ''Missing Link'' [=DLC=], a remote detention/interrogation center owned by [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Belltower Associates]] which has ''[[UpToEleven a second, even more secret]]'' black site (used for [[spoiler:human experimentation by TheIlluminati]]) hidden inside it. And a computer display in the second black site hints at another site hidden near (or possible even ''[[LandmarkingTheHiddenBase inside]]'') Ayers Rock.

* The real life Raven Rock Mountain Complex (see Real Life below) appears as a major story location in ''[[VideoGame/{{Fallout3}} Fallout 3]]'' as [[spoiler:the headquarters of the Enclave. Fittingly, you're unconscious for the entirety of the journey to the facility and can't return to it after leaving]].

* The Shadow Temple from ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime''. [[AllThereInTheManual Hyrule Historia]] explains the temple was employed as a jail by the Sheikah, loyal guardians of the Royal Family of Hyrule, to interrogate and torture enemies, hence the blood-stained walls and floors as well as the torture instruments that can be found all over the area. Because of the dark stain on Hyrule's history that it represents, it is taboo for the Royal Family to speak of the place and its existence remains unknown to the population.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

While this trope frequently overlaps with ElaborateUndergroundBase, a Black Site might be concealed merely by being remote. This was particularly common for UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era media, as both the US and the USSR have/had perfect locations for isolated facilities. In American settings, sparsely-populated deserts such as those in Nevada and neighboring states are a popular choice. Meanwhile, Russian settings give you all the vast wastes of Siberia to play with. The occasional China story could take advantage too, using the Gobi Desert, Tibet, or Inner Mongolia. In Israel, you have the Negev to set up your top-secret government research projects in. Alternately, if your setting doesn’t allow such extreme isolation, the facility can just be behind so much security that even if the public knew it was there, they'd never be able to get close enough to see it. Often times the site will not appear on any maps, and be airbrushed out of satellite and aerial photography, although they'll just as often be in the center of a strictly enforced no-fly zone, preventing aerial photographs from ever coming into being in the first place.

Note that in RealLife, the existence and locations of Black Sites will often not be officially classified as secret, but all information about them beyond that ''will be''. This is why [[OpenSecret everyone and their dog knows about]] {{Area 51}} but details about the facility such as what it's for, what's inside it, what goes on there, who works there, and what it looks like from any vantage other than low earth orbit is still very much an [[StockUnsolvedMysteries Unsolved Mystery]].[[note]]Or at least it was, until being largely declassified in 2013 (see dedicated trope page for more info), but [[RuleOfCool that's not as cool]].[[/note]] However, even if the facility's existence isn't classified, that just means they legally ''can'' tell the public about it, not that they necessarily ''will''.

* Area 72 at Kings Island is themed after a top secret military base. However, due to the desperate need of volunteers to participate in the Orion Sequence, the base is open to the public.