History Main / BottleEpisode

* After ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' flew over budget, ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' had to tighten its belt pretty hard. Consequently, a lot of the film takes place on the Enterprise bridge set, and since Khan's ship is a stolen Starfleet ship, they could move the furniture a bit to turn it into the Reliant's bridge set.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' was made with fewer resources and in a shorter period of time compared to most other Zelda games (which typically suffer ScheduleSlip). The development team accomplished this by recycling the engine and many assets from ''Ocarina of Time''. This tactic was repeated with ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOracleGames Oracle of Ages and Seasons]]'' (by reusing the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaLinksAwakening Link's Awakening]]'' set), ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSpiritTracks'' (by reusing the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaPhantomHourglass Phantom Hourglass]]'' set), and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTriForceHeroes'' (by reusing the ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' set); and in each case it was done to aim the greater resources at bigger installments (''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]'', ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'', respectively).
* In the latter half of ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'', since you are replaying the same levels/bosses as the first half, the level structure is just reversed, with Dante having to kill most of the bosses that Nero fought in the first half.

* ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' revolves around Sonic and his friends being caught in a simplistic white world, reliving memories of past games and going through their levels, one for each game.
* ''VideoGame/ThisIsTheOnlyLevel'' revolves around escaping the same room over and over, with different variations each time.

* The original ''[[VideoGame/EarthwormJim Earthworm Jim's]]'' secret level, Who Turned Out the Lights, is an entire level that the player may never stumble upon. How could the time and effort needed to make such a level be justifiable? Easy. It consists of the player running around in the dark with the only new graphics being spotlights, doors, a silhouetted Jim, menacing orange enemy eyes, superimposed [[ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes regular]] and [[EyePop AWOO-GA]] eyes for Jim, and ''giant'' menacing orange eyes. The level's music didn't even need composing, as it's the [[PublicDomainSoundtrack public domain]] Maple Leaf Rag. The level is fun and interesting and even has items hidden in hard-to-reach sections and a memorable setpiece (the aforementioned giant eyes).
* The final level of ''[[VideoGame/SilentHill1 Silent Hill]]'' (titled "Nowhere") consists entirely of reused rooms and assets from earlier sections of the game. [[spoiler:Most notably, Nowhere closely resembles the hospital. However, some rooms are also taken from other areas, such as the school, the town center, and the antique shop.]]

* Many EnvironmentalNarrativeGames are made by small indie developers with limited staff and budgets, and hence meet many of the conditions for this trope:
** ''VideoGame/DearEsther'', the TropeCodifier, started the trend: set on a single, small island; no onscreen characters besides the PlayerCharacter; a much shorter runtime than a typical video game (1-2 hours).
** ''VideoGame/GoneHome'': set in a single house; no onscreen characters besides the PlayerCharacter; short runtime (2-3 hours).
* ''[[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man (Game Gear)]]'' simply reuses content from the 2nd, 4th, and 5th NES games of the series.
* With the exception of Zain and Geemel, ''VideoGame/MegaManXtreme'' simply reuses levels and bosses from X1 and X2.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' has R-06, which has only three characters (Raiden, Sam, and Wolf), one background, and two cutscenes.

* ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Champions]]'' reuses and edits art assets from ''Puyo Puyo Quest'' and ''Puyo Puyo Tetris'', its voice clips from ''Quest'', and most of its soundtrack from games as far back as ''Fever'' 1. As for the content, it's one of the rare Puyo games without any story or anything resembling a cutscene, and most of the game is just battling with AI or local/online multiplayer. It is meant to to cater to the competitive crowd, or just lovers of ''Puyo Puyo'''s gameplay in general.
* ''VideoGame/Halo3ODST'' reuses many assets from ''VideoGame/Halo3'', with even many of the internal environmental assets further reused (many of the levels take place in the exact same section of New Mombasa in which you found the StoryBreadcrumbs triggering them in the HubLevel). The plot also focuses on a relatively small-scale battle compared to the big events that Master Chief is a part of.
* The BonusEpisode of ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeBeforeTheStorm'', "Farewell", is set in just one location (the Price household), features just Chloe and Max for most of the episode, and is much shorter than a standard episode.
** Similarly, the bonus episode of ''VideoGame/LifeIsStrangeTrueColors'', "Wavelengths", is set in just one location (the record store in Haven Springs, though it does evolve during the seasons) and features only Steph and [[spoiler:Mikey North, with voice-only cameos from Chloe Price and Rachel Amber]].
* Some ''Franchise/AceAttorney'' cases feature few to no new sets or characters.
** ''Turnabout Beginnings'', the fourth case of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Trials And Tribulations]]'', is the only case in the original trilogy apart from the first cases to lack an investigation segment. There are only two new characters apart from the victim- the defendant and the judge(who later shows up in court for the first half of the final trial).
** ''Turnabout Storyteller'', the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'' also only has a trial phase, and features two new witnesses apart from the defendant.
** ''[[VisualNovel/TheGreatAceAttorney The Adventure of the Unbreakable Speckled Band]]'' takes place entirely within three rooms (consisting of two rather similar-looking cabins and the mostly empty hallway that connects them) and has no trial segment, since it takes place during the sea voyage from Japan to Great Britain.
* ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'': As a result of exorbitant development costs for ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar'', Creator/CreativeAssembly went bankrupt and was acquired by Creator/{{Sega}}, who pressured them to come out with a rushed reskin of the game. That reskin ended up becoming ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'', which as a result further refined mechanics of the previous game, becoming a fan favorite of the franchise.
* ''The Empty Chamber'' is a LockedRoomMystery which takes place entirely in the room itself.

[[caption-width-right:349:[[VisualPun Why don't you put the whole episode in a bottle?]]]]

* ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'': As a result of exorbitant development costs for ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar'', Creator/CreativeAssembly went bankrupt and was acquired by Creator/{{Sega}}, who pressured them to come out with a rushed reskin of the game. That reskin ended up becoming ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'', which as a result further refined mechanics of the previous game, became a fan favorite of the franchise.

-->-- '''Abed Nadir''', ''Series/{{Community}}'', "Cooperative Calligraphy"

* ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'': As a result of exorbitant development costs for ''VideoGame/RomeTotalWar'', Creator/CreativeAssembly went bankrupt and was acquired by Creator/{{Sega}}, who pressured them to come out with a a reskin of the game. That reskin ended up becomingn''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'', which as a result further refined mechanics of the previous game, became a fan favorite of the franchise.

[[caption-width-right:349:Why don't you put the whole episode in a bottle?]]

* The three ''Film/{{Cube}}'' films (1997-2004) are set in a Rubix cube type maze, which is filmed pretty much in a box, sometimes with lighting changes. It has all the classic elements of a bottle episode: single location (which in this case is reused to portray different rooms/sections), heavy interpersonal conflict between the actors, and an artificially created sense of danger and claustrophobia.

* ''Film/{{The Garage|1980}}'' is about the meeting of a parking garage co-op that devolves into backstabbing, insults, and mutual recriminations after the board of the co-op reveals that four people will be losing their parking spaces. The whole movie takes place on the one floor of the museum where they're meeeting, almost all of that in a single room.
* The bulk of ''Film/GlengarryGlenRoss'' takes place in the confines of the office. This makes sense as it was derived from ''[[Theatre/GlengarryGlenRoss a play]]''.

* The Short film ''Film/JurassicWorldBattleAtBigRock'' takes place in and around a families RV on a campground in the Californian wilderness.
* ''Film/{{Locke}}'' starts with the titular character getting into his car, he doesn't get out of it for the duration of the film (the camera only leaves the car for the occasional exterior shot), and his is the only face we see on camera, the only other characters are only heard over the phone.

* ''Film/RattleTheCage'' takes place almost entirely in a single room, with only a brief peak to the street outside.

* The satirical World War II Prisoner of War film ''Film/Stalag17'' has the cast largely filmed within their barracks. Aside from making sense due to the characters being prisoners, the film was based upon a play.
* After ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' flew overbudget, ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' had to tighten its belt pretty hard. Consequently, a lot of the film takes place on the Enterprise bridge set, and since Khan's ship is a stolen Starfleet ship, they could move the furniture a bit to turn it into the Reliant's bridge set.

* ''Film/TheHumans'' is set in Bridget and Rich's apartment only over [[ThanksgivingEpisode Thanksgiving.]]

* ''Film/{{Fall}}'' only has [[MinimalistCast four main actors]] (one of which dies early on) and mostly takes place on the radio tower that Becky and Hunter get stuck on.

* ''Radio/CabinPressure'' had one in nearly every series, generally featuring the main cast's interactions for most of the episode with one or no guest stars; the first season finale "Fitton", second series' "Limerick" and the foruth series episode "Xinhou". "Limerick" is the purest example, as it features no guest cast, is told entirely in real time and never leaves the flight deck.

* The entirety of the play ''Theatre/NoExit'' takes place in one room, where the characters are condemned to remain for ever.
* Thornton Wilder's Theatre/OurTown is performed with minimal scenery and many of the props are pantomimed, with the stage manager filling such additional roles as the minister at the wedding, soda shop owner, local townsperson, etc.

A "bottle episode" is designed to take up as little money as possible.

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teen_titans_inside_bottle.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Why don't you put the whole episode in a bottle?]]

[[quoteright:349:[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teen_titans_inside_bottle.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/teen_titans_inside_bottle.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bottle_episode_7.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[LockedInARoom One shuttlepod]], [[MinimalistCast two characters]], and [[VisualPun a bottle]].]]

** ''Turnabout Beginnings'', the first case of ''[[VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney Trials And Tribulations]]'', is the only case in the original trilogy apart from the first cases to lack an investigation segment. There are only two new characters apart from the victim- the defendant and the judge(who later shows up in court for the first half of the final trial).

-->-- '''Abed Nadir''', ''Series/{{Community}}'', "Cooperative Calligraphy" ([[HypocriticalHumor the series's bottle episode]])

* ''Film/{{Fall}}'' only has [[MinimalistCast four main actors]] and mostly takes place on the radio tower that Becky and Hunter get stuck on.

* ''Film/{{Fall}}'' only has four actors and mostly takes place on a radio tower.

* ''Film/TheStandoffAtSparrowCreek'': Except for a couple of short flashbacks and the opening scene where Gannon shoots a deer in the woods and then goes back to his trailer, the whole film takes place either inside the warehouse the militia operates outside of or the grounds within a hundred feet of the loading dock.