History Main / CapturedSuperEntity

->'''Keller:''' And you didn't think that the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?\\

-->-- ''Film/{{Transformers}}''

* The [[LiveActionAdaptation live-action]] ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' movie has the U.S. government in possession of a frozen Megatron and [[MacGuffin The All-Spark]]. All modern technology supposedly came from decades of reverse-engineering the former. Even cars, which were some 20 years before they found Megatron. Though they might have been talking about the more ''advanced'' cars.

* While not the ''entire'' god, the villains in ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' want the Shishigami's head. It's still alive even after it gets blown off, though. This is an issue because it is also the god of death. The body remains alive. It wants its head back. Apply preschool arithmetic here.
* [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the original ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' movie. With all the capturing of ghosts, when they encounter an actual god, you expect them to capture it and contain it like all the ghosts. But all they end up being able to do is close the portal that is giving it access to our universe. Played straight with Vigo in the second, but he's a human sorcerer rather than an extradimensional being. In the game which follows that, they keep Vigo in the station, powerless to do anything other than ask people to bring him a child.
* The premise of ''Film/{{Super 8}}'' is that one of those escapes.

** Rival secret organization Skywatch uncovered Shockwave, the Dinobots, Soundwave, and his cassette warriors from Mount St. Helens in the 80s. They attempted to use them combat drones against the other Cybertronians and Machination, but the plan ultimately failed when all the robots were freed from Skywatch's mind control.
** In the original G1 [[ComicBook/TheTransformersMarvel Marvel Comics]] version, Megatron once got stuck in gun mode and picked up by a small time hood, who went around using him as a BFG. When he woke up, Megatron was not pleased.
*** When the guy stood up to Megatron, though, Megatron was so impressed by the guy's moxie he let him live.

** In the third book of ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'', the goddess Artemis is captured by the forces of Kronos and forced by Atlas to hold up the sky. How the Titans managed to capture her is [[RiddleForTheAges currently unknown]].

** That, and in story, you've proven yourself to be a pure heart who will not use them for evil. The Pokémon themselves are sometimes noted as "seem to trust you".

* The central idea behind TabletopGame/{{Pokethulhu}}. Like in Pokémon, you capture and train monsters. Unlike Pokémon, they're all soul-eating [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] with horrifying and/or reality-bending powers.

May be caused by SupernaturalSealing. If the entity is forced to obey commands, this becomes OlympusMons. If the entity is a PowerSource, it may be PoweredByAForsakenChild. If the focus is obtaining profit from a substance generated by the entity, it's MonsterOrganTrafficking. If the focus is on simple containment of the entity or its power, you wind up with SealedEvilInACan or SealedGoodInACan.

* Sort of a RunningGag between [[PhysicalGoddess Xadhoom]] and the Evronians (who exterminated her people) in ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures''. No matter if they succeed or fail, [[HilarityEnsues Hilarity Always Ensues]]:

** Throughout the series, [[SummonMagic summoning]] [[OurDemonsAreDifferent lesser Daedra]] qualifies. Lesser Daedra are the technically immortal inhabitants of Oblivion, the infinite VoidBetweenTheWorlds of Mundus (the mortal plane) and Aetherius (the realm of magic). The most poweful of the lesser Daedra are fully sapient while possessing greater than usual physical and/or magical abilities which qualify as "Super" compared to most mortal denizens of Tamriel. Conjuration magic allows these beings to be summoned to Mundus and temporarily bound to mortal masters. If their physical form is slain in Mundus, their spirits simply return to Oblivion to reform.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'': The Blood Elves are holding a [[EnergyBeings Naaru]] captive within Silvermoon City; this is how they have harnessed the power of the Holy Light and made their own Paladins. (They also had Paladins in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', but that's different.) This source of power is abandoned in Patch 2.4 [[spoiler:and replaced with the resurrected Sunwell]]. Intriguingly, the [[EnergyBeings Naaru]] never seemed to care much, leading to [[EpilepticTrees theories]] that it was all a {{plan}} to "[[GoodFeelsGood corrupt]]" the Blood Elves with Holy Light. [[spoiler:With patch 2.4, it turned out that it was after all. An example of IKnewIt.]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' has TheEmpire doing this to a race of beings called [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Espers]]. They actually succeed in slaughtering most of their entire race.
** But only after said race of beings cripple the Empire.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' also has JENOVA being exploited by the Shinra Corporation for super-soldier experiments (although technically she was captured by the Cetra centuries before).
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': The ancient Allagan Empire imprisoned the Elder Primal Bahamut inside the artificial moon Dalamud, which was a giant solar reactor that used Bahamut as its catalyst. It ended about as well as one would expect. First, the reactor suffered a power surge which ended the Third Umbral Era and whipped out the Allagan civilization. Then at the end of the Seventh Umbral Era the Garlean Empire undertook [[ColonyDrop Operation Meteor]], in an attempt to use Dalamud to put an end to the Primal Summoning arts of Eorzea. When Dalamud entered the atmosphere Bahamut was released and his ensuing rampage served as the WorldWreckingWave that reshaped the world for the transition from version 1.0 to the Realm Reborn rerelease.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'', a villain captures Celestrians (the equivalent of angels) and uses their abilities to benefit his kingdom.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', the Blood Elves are holding a [[EnergyBeings Naaru]] captive within Silvermoon City; this is how they have harnessed the power of the Holy Light and made their own Paladins. (They also had Paladins in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'', but that's different.) This source of power is abandoned in Patch 2.4 [[spoiler:and replaced with the resurrected Sunwell]]. Intriguingly, the [[EnergyBeings Naaru]] never seemed to care much, leading to [[EpilepticTrees theories]] that it was all a {{plan}} to "[[GoodFeelsGood corrupt]]" the Blood Elves with Holy Light. [[spoiler:With patch 2.4, it turned out that it was after all. An example of IKnewIt.]]

** Billionaire Henry van Statten keeps a captured Dalek in his underground bunker in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]]. It ends just about like you'd expect: ''badly''.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]]: Imprisoned deep inside Krop Tor is the Beast, an extremely powerful and evil being which claims to be Satan.
** The Time Lords' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E13Doomsday Genesis Ark]]. It's a big box, full of Daleks. Enough said.

** In "Josh", Josh Butler, a super-entity of indeterminate origin and nature, is taken into custody by the US government.
** In "The Beholder", Kyra, whose species lives on a different plane of existence, is briefly trapped in a magnetic field by Dwight Bordon, an UsefulNotes/{{MI6}} agent on attachment to the UsefulNotes/{{NSA}}.

* In ''Series/StargateSG1'', SG-1 found an advanced human named Khalek who demonstrated telekinetic and telepathic abilities in the episode "Prototype". He's a HalfHumanHybrid created by BigBad Anubis, with all of his "father's" memories, to the point that it's 95% of the way to having the EvilOverlord himself on your base. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong.[[note]]Daniel Jackson, the character who normally wants to find a peaceful solution to any problem, immediately upon discovering what Khalek is, says "kill him." Having more in-depth knowledge of Anubis than anyone else in the universe, Daniel knows exactly what could go wrong.[[/note]] The SGC at first attempted to study him, and for security restrained him in a chair over an electrified floor in an isolated room whose only exit was through a Tok'ra one-way forcefield, on a dopamine inhibitor to restrain his powers with it set up to dump a massive dose into his system if he were to try anything funny. It didn't work. He telekinetically pinched the dopamine tube by effectively melting it with his mind, and then he yanked the guards through the forcefield onto the electrified floor. The electrified floor was shut down from outside by Colonel Mitchell to make it safe to step in the doorway to shoot at him, but he never got any shots off - just got shoved into the wall. From that point on Khalek basically just went through the SGC to the Stargate, weaponless, telekinetically deflecting all the bullets that were fired at him and shoving all the guards into walls, knocking them out (or worse). In the end, he reached the Stargate, dialed home, and walked through triumphant... Only to have his home's dialing defenses dial back, resulting in him stepping back into the SGC, befuddled. Seconds later, he was being shot at from two different angles, and failed to block one of the two sets of bullets, resulting in his demise.
** There was also the water [[spoiler:microorganisms]] in the fourth-season episode "Watergate".
** Stargate members attempt (they usually just stick at this, and not permanently contain) multiple super powerful creatures and entities. More notable among others, [[spoiler:Adria, Adria in Baal's body, Baal[[MesACrowd (s)]]]] and [[spoiler:Daniel]] as a Prior.
* This was the essential plot of the {{Pilot}} of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "Encounter at Farpoint". Here, the Enterprise is sent to investigate a mysterious base offered by a population who obviously do not have the engineering skill to build it, and where anything you want seems to mysteriously appear. It turns out that the base is actually a giant creature enslaved by the population, and its mate arrives to retaliate. Fortunately, the Enterprise figures out the situation and frees the creature to resolve the crisis.

* ''{{Series/Tracker}}'' "Into the Breach" turns into this. Cole goes into the facility on his own to retrieve a captured Vardian fugitive, but gets captured himself. It doesn't work at first, because heat being is used to weaken the Vardian while Cole thrives on heat and energy. But when they turn to cold, Cole is caught and about to be dissected before the fugitive interrupts and frees him. The fugitive is mortally wounded during the escape, and Cole makes the collection of his life force painless in return for helping him escape.
* One of the many plots in ''Series/TheXFiles''. Often the Government's Men in Black will hold aliens or various Monsters of the Week captive, but sometimes if Mulder and Scully managed to get them, they would end up in mental institutions or hospitals.
** Mutant serial killer in "Squeeze" is institutionalized. The episode ends as Tooms is sitting on his bed staring at the small opening in the door. However, in this case the authorities refused to acknowledge he was supernatural and he was released in the sequel episode "Tooms".
** Episode "Fire" ends with its pyrokinetic villain being hospitalized and guarded. He is bound because he's extremely dangerous. He is confined to a hyperbaric chamber until he can be tried on murder charges.
** In episode "Eve", the government imprisoned various women called Eve. They were female [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] created in top-secret project. They showed psychotic and murderous tendencies.
** "Soft Light": Banton's power to suck people into his shadow was created in a FreakLabAccident. In the end, Banton is held in a government's science centre with sensors attached to his head and flashing light is casting shadows on a photoelectric panel. He visibly suffers.
** In "Talitha Cumi", Jeremiah Smith is a healer who is captured but Mulder helps him to break free because he wants him to heal his mother.
* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' episode "Death in Chains": King Sisyphus takes Celesta (Hades' sister and the goddess of death) prisoner so she can't take him to the Underworld.
** In a crossover episode with ''Series/HerculesTheLegendaryJourneys'', Prometheus is bound in the mountains which means the gods can take back his gifts to humankind. Fire fades, which bites, but then people start to lose the ability to heal themselves or care for the sick and injured so the heroes must take action quick.

[[folder:{{Mythology}} and {{Folklore}}]]

* In both ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' and appendices of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' the Numenorian King Ar-Pharazon does this to none other than Sauron. Turns out a [[SubvertedTrope subversion]], since Sauron [[ISurrenderSuckers allowed himself to be captured]] to corrupt and destroy his enemies from within.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has several of these, up to a man (''probably'' a man, anyway) who claims to be ''God''. Although their method of "capturing" him essentially consists of them knowing that he'll be back to a certain location more often than not and not worrying too much that he can get out of his cell whenever it takes his fancy. They also the Hindu god Kumbhakarna (he's dormant in a floating palace/battle station and the Foundation really only just keeps people from finding out) and some sort of deer-god that could destroy the world with ease that is kept contained with a phony ritual that the Foundation came up with to make it ''[[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve think]]'' they know how to contain it. They also have the Babylonian god Ashur contained by tricking him into thinking he is in the past and among fellow gods, which is possible because he is very gullible.

** As we learn in Chapter 34 of ''The Girl Who Could Knock Out the Hulk'', [[spoiler: this is how Doom and Reed have been powering their {{Cosmic Retcon}}s. They capture a god and drain their power in order to use it to trigger the timeline's reboot.]]

* In ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', you can do this with the [[https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Wither_cage Wither cage]], a construction designed to imprison the Wither. The Wither is an enormously-destructive EnemyToAllLivingThings, capable of breaking blocks through contact or by shooting explosive skulls, but this makes it useful for automatic harvesting (e.g. destroying trees in tree farms to gather wood).

* VideoGame/LostKingdoms had [[spoiler:the God of Destruction card]]. It went crazy in the first game but by the second, it's a humble servant to the throne (and it [[SwordOfPlotAdvancement unlocks the castle too]]).

* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', Father uses a philosopher's stone of over 50 million souls to imprison what he claims to be a god within his body. This gives him alchemical knowledge far beyond that of any individual human, allowing him to do such things as manipulate the weather and create nuclear fusion in the palm of his hand.

May be caused by SupernaturalSealing. If the entity is forced to obey commands, this becomes OlympusMons. If the entity is a PowerSource, it may be PoweredByAForsakenChild. If the focus is obtaining profit from a substance generated by the entity, it's MainliningTheMonster. If the focus is on simple containment of the entity or its power, you wind up with SealedEvilInACan or SealedGoodInACan.

* In the excellent short story ''Literature/AColderWar'' by Creator/CharlesStross, the Soviet Union has rudimentary control over at least four shoggoths, enough to use them as weapons of war in Afghanistan. They also have [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]] (or K-Thulu, as it's referred to here) sealed up in a bunker with the exit facing towards Western Europe. As in ''Literature/TheCallOfCthulhu'' the eponymous godlike superentity is not imprisoned by any means--[[DontWakeTheSleeper only sleeping]]. [[spoiler:When the Soviets get nervous about US activity and poke him hard enough to wake him up, they hope he'll obliterate NATO. Instead K-Thulu consumes indiscriminately, murdering the world and bringing about arguably the darkest ending in the entire Mythos.]]

* In the excellent short story "A Colder War" by Creator/CharlesStross, the Soviet Union does this to friggin' ''[[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Cthulhu]]''. It doesn't end well.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' has several of these, up to a man (''probably'' a man, anyway) who claims to be ''God''. Although their method of "capturing" him essentially consists of them knowing that he'll be back to a certain location more often than not and not worrying too much that he can get out of his cell whenever it takes his fancy. They also the Hindu god Kumbhakarna (he's dormant in a floating palace/battle station and the Foundation really only just keeps people from finding out) and some sort of deer-god that could destroy the world with ease that is kept contained with a phony ritual that the Foundation came up with to make it ''[[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve think]]'' they know how to contain it.

* This trope was the kickstart of the plot of ''ComicBook/TheSandman'' after a Ritual Magic society captured Dream of the Endless and held him for years. Of course, they were trying [[DeathTakesAHoliday to get his sister, Death]]. Keeping him captured caused all sorts of horrible havoc to dreams and sleeping patterns; imagine what would have happened if they ''had'' [[FateWorseThanDeath captured Death]].

** The webcomic ''Webcomic/MrMonster'' has [[https://danbooru.donmai.us/pools/15637 an enigmatic bounty hunter]] raid a church where scientists created an artificial angel. The terrified girl sees him raise his gun and then shoot her [[spoiler:chains off]].

* This happens with the [[GenieInABottle genies]] of [[OurGeniesAreDifferent Arabic mythology]]. Djinn were essentially free ethereal spirits with magical talents summoned and bound to an object, such as a bottle or an oil lamp, and had to (if they were in a good mood) serve whomever was currently in possession of the object or summoned them via said object.
** The part you're supposed to be impressed about, however, lies less in the fact that the hero (for certain loose definitions of hero) comes into the possession of such an object, but rather that there was a human sorcerer powerful enough to force and bind one of these proto-Angels into servitude.

* The Omnitrix in the ''Fanfic/ThereWasOnceAnAvengerFromKrypton'' series contains inside it a Celestial, one of the beings responsible for the creation of the entire multiverse that serves as the power source for the device.

->'''Keller''': And you didn't think that the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?\\
'''Tom Banachek''': Until these events we had no credible threats to national security.\\
'''Keller''': Well, you got one now!
-->-- ''{{Film/Transformers}}'' (2007)

* In the ''[[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries Star Trek]]''[=/=]''Comicbook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' crossover from [=IDW=] and Creator/DCComics, [[TheConstant Vandal Savage]] is TheEmperor of a ''very'' powerful version of [[TheEmpire The Terran Empire]]. How did he do it? ''He captured Q''!

** In the original G1 [[ComicBook/TheTransformers Marvel Comics]] version, Megatron once got stuck in gun mode and picked up by a small time hood, who went around using him as a BFG. When he woke up, Megatron was not pleased.

** In the first ''Transformers'' / ''GI Joe'' crossover from IDW and Devil's Due, Cobra had found and activated both the Autobots and Decepticons, which was used as the explanation for all their futuristic weaponry.

* In ''ComicBook/UltimateMarvel'', the Russian supersoldier program is based around reverse engineering a captured alien robot (the Vision).
* ''ComicBook/TheInvisibles'', as one of its many brought up and then forgotten "big ideas", has a being from another dimension made of "4-D energy" that bled through into our world when Oppenheimer first tested the atomic bomb. Said creature was then captured by the US government and dissected and experimented on at Area 51.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'', Sandalphon keeps the Archangel Michael Demiurgos prisoner, using him to create a race of superbeings. Our beloved protagonist isn't too happy about this.
* It's been [[RetCon "revealed"]] that not only was the alien AI that operated the Danger Room sentient, but that Professor X ''knew'' it was sentient but chose to essentially keep it prisoner to train the ComicBook/XMen. When it finally escaped (and made itself a robot body, calling itself "Danger"), it went on a rampage seeking revenge. (This was later eased off a little, to suggest that he didn't know Danger resented being used for training, but did realize she might go berserk if freed. They've since made up and Danger is an ally of the X-Men.)
* In ''Comicbook/{{Empowered}}'', there is the immortal, cosmically powerful being called The Caged Demonwolf, whom Empowered prevented from destroying the Earth by imprisoning it within "cosmic bondage gear." When her superhero team wouldn't store the now talking, enraged belt, Empowered was forced to hold on to it. Now, due to a sort of Stockholm Syndrome, The Caged Demonwolf has become both an advisor and friend, despite having an overly prurient interest in their sex lives.

** The first to capture her is actually Paperinik, who knows only that Xadhoom hates the Evronians, and thus they could be allies against their invasion of Earth, and that she was mistaken for an Evronian in their first encounter. Then the Evronians (who still don't know what Xadhoom can do) show up to kill both, Paperinik kicks their asses... [[PlayAlongPrisoner And Xadhoom promptly frees herself and says they'll be allies]]. Paperinik's face is priceless;

* The Chinese and Japanese governments in ''ComicBook/{{Irredeemable}}'' eventually reveal they have done this to a pair of extraterrestrial, time traveling, reality altering dimension hoppers. They can release them to take care of a returned Plutonian, but simply doing so will unleash a cloud of radiation that will kill one-third of the human race. They do so. [[spoiler:In a related matter, they are sure they can handle the Plutonian because they are his biological parents --([[BizarreAlienBiology sort of]]) -- and voluntarily remained trapped precisely in order to avoid the inevitable radiation fallout.]]
* It was revealed that the [[ComicBook/GreenLantern Guardians of the Universe]] have been holding [[spoiler:the First Lantern, Volthoom]], captive for billions of years. They used his power to create the Third Army, but he [[spoiler:got free and wiped out the Third Army]]. Now he's loose, with [[RealityWarper complete control]] over [[OhCrap just about everything]].
* One of the "Planetary" stories had the team tracking down a secret facility rumored to be up to who-knows-what shenanigans. They find a dusty old base left over from the 1960s, where the caretaker tells them the story of the creature at the bottom of a reinforced mineshaft. It's basically a variant of the Incredible Hulk origin, with the military taking weeks to subdue the monster, and spending years struggling to contain it. They still monitor its corpse, just in case three decades without food or water wasn't quite enough to properly kill it.
* Averted in one of ''[[ComicBook/RatMan1989 Rat-Man]]'' 's more surreal stories. It featured an evil comic book publisher who gave Rat-Man (the character and the series) an award as part of his plan to capture '''God''' (represented as a humongous hand over the horizon) and turn Him into another of his characters. In the end it was [[BatmanGambit all part of God's plan]] to trick the publisher into crossing over to the comic book world and let him meet his end at the hands of a forgotten comic book character. ItMakesSenseInContext, sort of.
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Artemis, goddess/ruler of the moon, ends up captured by an equal, Mars, god of war/king of mars, and has to be rescued by Diana and Etta.