History Main / DownTheRabbitHole

* ''Literature/AliceInWonderland''. TropeNamer and probably the TropeMaker. Alice goes literally Down the Rabbit Hole (and finds herself [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever stuck in odd places]]).

* The [[ConceptAlbum concept album]] Music/TheLambLiesDownOnBroadway by {{Music/Genesis}} begins with the protagonist, Rael, being chased by a [[AdvancingWallOfDoom "wall of death"]] that drops into Times Square. As the wall passes over him, he blacks out, and later re-awakens in a surreal world [[BeneathTheEarth beneath]] New York City.

* The {{Music/Bastille}} song "Doom Days" features the line "We're gonna rabbit hole down". This is a metaphor for the partying lifestyle the singer falls into to distract him from the problems in the world.

* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'': The penultimate mission of the campaign of [=MW3=] borrows its name from this trope. In the mission, Yuri, Price and Team Metal are tasked with retrieving the Russian President and his daughter from a diamond mine in Siberia Price, Yuri, and the President evac safely, while [[spoiler:[[HeroicSacrifice Delta stay behind to cover them]], [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse except for Frost, who is inexplicably absent]]]].

* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'': The penultimate mission of the campaign of [=MW3=] borrows its name from this trope. In the mission, Yuri, Price and Team Metal are tasked with retrieving the Russian President and his daughter from a diamond mine in Siberia Price, Yuri, and the President evac safely, while [[HeroicSacrifice Delta stay behind to cover them]], [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse except for Frost, who is inexplicably absent]].

* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' is the 2nd to the last mission of the campaign of [=MW3=]. where the player rescues the Russian President from the Gold mine and at the end 2 protagonists are left to face the bad guy and earlier due to the collapse kills Delta Force.

This has been {{evolving|Trope}} through various adaptations of the story: Literature/{{Alice|InWonderland}} goes literally down a rabbit hole (and finds herself [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever stuck in odd places]]), while [[Anime/SpiritedAway Chihiro]] and Literature/{{Coraline}} both cross over through comparable tunnels. [[Manga/InuYasha Kagome]] tumbles down a dirty old well. [[Film/{{Labyrinth}} Sarah]] gets trapped in an oubliette which is but a part of the long confined path that is the Labyrinth itself, and then you have Music/DavidBowie crooning about the Underground. [[Film/PansLabyrinth Ofelia]] experiences this phenomenon the most; she meets the Faun at the bottom of a pit at the end of (another) labyrinth, crawls through the mud under a tree, and encounters the Pale Man beneath a bedroom floor. In one very distinct version, [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Dorothy]] doesn't go through a hole-- she's dropped into Oz ''by a tornado'' (which one could view as a free-standing hole due to its "hollow" structure).

* ''Anime/InuYasha'' has elements of this, crossed with TimeTravel. The third episode is even titled "Down the Rabbit Hole and Back Again."
* From ''Anime/SpiritedAway'', Chihiro crosses over through comparable tunnels.
* ''Manga/MiyukiChanInWonderland'' IS ''Alice'' with even more sexual symbolism.

* In ''Anime/MyNeighborTotoro'', Mei first meets Totoro after following a small white rabbit-like creature through a tunnel.

* ''Manga/OuranHighSchoolHostClub'' has an episode that parodies ''Alice in Wonderland''.
* ''[[VideoGame/HarukanaruTokiNoNakaDe Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou]]'' starts off a bit like ''Manga/InuYasha'', with the main character carried through an old well by the [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Dragon-God]] into a [[TrappedInAnotherWorld world]] that looks like a version of [[JidaiGeki ancient Kyoto]] with the addition of [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever random monsters]], TheFourGods and [[{{UsefulNotes/Onmyodo}} various forms]] [[HermeticMagic of magic]].

* ''[[ComicBook/DisneyKingdoms Figment]]'' has the young Dreamfinder and Figment falling into the imaginary realm through an unstable dimensional portal created by his Mesmonic Convertor device.

* This is the title of chapter 81 of ''FanFic/MyFamilyAndOtherEquestrians''. In it, Blade Star visits Discord's home turf, complete with Blade Star seeing a RuleSixtyThree version of himself.

* ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'': Sarah gets trapped in an oubliette which is but a part of the long confined path that is the Labyrinth itself, and then you have Music/DavidBowie crooning about the "Underground"...

* ''Film/TheCompanyOfWolves'' is about a girl's dream, with lots of fairytale references, as well as sexual symbolism.
* ''Film/ForbiddenZone'' parodies this, with the "rabbit hole" being a giant mouth and its associated digestive tract, which later "deposits" you in the sixth dimension.

* Both ''Film/{{Tron}}'' [[Film/TronLegacy films]] have this. Both involve a laser that zaps Kevin Flynn (original) and his son Sam (''Legacy'') into the "electronic world".
* ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'': Renton climbs inside the filthiest toilet of Edinburgh and swims under water. (Though this is all a drug hallucination)
* Lampshaded in Terry Gilliam's ''Film/{{Tideland}}'', when Jeliza Rose literally falls down a rabbit-hole. Nevertheless, the movie may be seen as a dark deconstruction of this plot -- the fantastic world Jeliza Rose delves into is actually only the product of her own imagination, combined with the madness of the grown-ups around her.
* The plot framework of ''Film/CirqueDuSoleilWorldsAway'', when a young woman (and a male circus performer she falls in LoveAtFirstSight with) are sucked into the Cirqish world.
* In ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', when Eggsy is chosen, he and Hart travel down a long elevator to the secret base. Suffice to say, everything's changed forever.
-->'''Eggsy:''' How deep does this fucking thing go?

* Literature/{{Coraline}} crosses over through comparable tunnels.

* Milo in Norman Juster's ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'' certainly undergoes this, for a male character.
* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz'', although Oz is fairly consistently stated to actually be in some remote region of Earth rather than AnotherDimension.

* In Patrick Senecal's macabre retelling of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', ''Literature/{{Aliss}}'', the subway is used to get to a parallel neighborhood called Daresbury. The subway can freely be used by anyone, not just the protagonist, to travel back and forth between Daresbury and the real world - except when the subway employees are on strike.
* In ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', Christine goes underground with the Phantom. Includes {{masquerade|Ball}}s, mirrors, and [[DramaticUnmask masks]]. Christine literally interprets her descent to the Opera's cellars as transition to a mystical underworld and describes the Phantom in terms reminiscent of TheFairFolk. In the book the Opera's cellars actually have other inhabitants almost as peculiar as the Phantom himself, almost composing a miniature world in themselves, though it's more mundane than it seems to her.
* In ''Laura and the Silver Wolf'', the heroine can enter Ice-Land through the white wall near her bed. Or any other completely white wall.
* The book ''Marco's Millions'' plays this trope straight by having two kids discover a gate to another world in their basement. Then, in typically William Sleator style, everything starts going down Creepy Crawly Lane. Both literally and figuratively.
** Be warned that within lie [[ArsonMurderandJaywalking singularities, sacrificial swings, and cardboard boxes]].
* In ''Literature/HalfWorld'' by Hiromi Goto, Melanie goes through a freeway tunnel into a strange other world.
* ''Literature/TheBookOfLostThings''.
* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has ''five'' children (three male, two female), most of whom with their parents in tow, undertaking a journey into TheWonderland that is the Wonka Factory, which is mostly an ElaborateUndergroundBase with many twisting corridors, and at least one long, dark, intimidating tunnel that they travel through by boat. Four of the children are pampered brats who just want more than they already have, and prove themselves unfit to progress further when they disobey their guide, give into their selfish vices, and are subjected to a variety of absurd disasters -- notably, Augustus Gloop is sucked into a pipe and briefly stuck in it, and Veruca Salt and her parents are tossed down a garbage chute by nut-sorting squirrels. They are returned to the real world sadder, wiser, and (in Violet's case) NotQuiteBackToNormal. Charlie Bucket, on the other hand, is a good, poverty-stricken child who ''needs'' a change of life -- and is rewarded for his virtue by becoming the heir to the place. In [[Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator the sequel]], he and Mr. Wonka effect an OrpheanRescue by travelling far beneath the Earth. Also, in [[Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory the 2013 stage musical adaptation]], Mike Teavee's mother Doris -- a StepfordSmiler {{Housewife}} who has affected her mannerisms in a desperate attempt to cope with her EnfantTerrible son -- is, for much of the tour, a frightened [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Person]] who just wants to come out of this place in one piece, but eventually finds herself affected by the InfectiousEnthusiasm of Willy Wonka and the Oompa-Loompas and [[spoiler: leaves the factory a '''much''' happier person than she was when she went in, thanks in part to her son getting...''reduced'' to a manageable state]].
* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'' is a rare variation centered on a male protagonist (or rather, ''two'' male protagonists, since the main hero takes half the book to muster enough courage to even leap down the rabbit hole)--a lonely kid, who has troubles at home and at school, seeks to escape reality in fantasy, has his wish granted, and returns after having learned his lesson, stronger and better adjusted than before.

* The Creator/{{Sid and Marty Krofft|Productions}} series ''Series/{{Lidsville}}'' involves the main character Mark (played by Butch Patrick of Series/TheMunsters fame) falling down a giant magician's top hat (which is only seen during the ExpositoryThemeTune).

* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk1977'' has an episode entitled "Alice in Disco Land." A little girl named Alice from David's past is now a young woman with drug issues. In one of her spaced out moments, she keeps asking, "Where's the white rabbit?" David is shown in flashback reading ''Alice in Wonderland'' to her.

* ''VideoGame/{{Athena}}'' has this more or less as an ExcusePlot. The Japanese arcade flyer advertised the game as being about "Athena's Wonder Land," and the intro to the UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame even shows her falling down some sort of hole.
* ''VideoGame/AliceInTheCountryOfHearts'' has the White Rabbit Peter kidnapping Alice and forcibly throwing her through the rabbit hole. She ends up stuck in Wonderland.
%% * ''VideoGame/FarCry3'' takes on this trope with a rather sinister tone.
* Like the ''Tron'' films above, ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' does the same with the protagonists getting forcibly uploaded. But also given a {{Deconstruction}} as the antagonists found the rabbit hole before the protagonists and are using it to wreak havoc in the electronic "wonderland"

* ''Webcomic/{{Snarlbear}}'': Daisy reaches the Rainbow Dimension through a strangely colorful alley.
* Nadia from ''Webcomic/{{Kukuburi}}'' is a bit older than your average Alice, but still loves the opportunity to get away from her boring life. Until He interferes...
* An [[InvertedTrope inverted]] example in ''Webcomic/HeroOhHero'': [[spoiler:Tobi]] enters a mysterious temple while chasing [[spoiler:the artifact thief]], which transports her ''into'' the real world as a [[RefugeeFromTVLand Refugee From]] RPGMechanicsVerse.

* [[http://www.girls-underground.com This site]] is all about this trope. It calls it "Girls Underground". Also features a number of examples.

* ''Literature/MirrorWorld'' starts with a teenager named Vita accidentally falling into another dimension populated by strange humanoid monsters who are constantly at odds with each other. The rest of the story is about her coping with her new surroundings, all while trying to figure out how or if she should escape to her home world, and attempting to stop a war from starting.

* In ''Jamie and the Magic Torch'', a young child named Jamie waits until he is tucked up in bed with the lights out, then uses his eponymous enchanted flashlight to open a wormhole in the floor. This grants him access to Cuckoo Land, a world full of nonsensical people and situations and where his companion, a dog named "Wordsworth", can talk.

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** The same applies with Helena as with Anna in ''Film/{{Paperhouse}}''. Helena is in essence, the [[AGodAmI creator]] of her world. Compare with Jareth's god-like qualities in ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''. Also note that both Helena and Jareth juggle, thus inverting the power dynamic. Helena is also a classic CircusBrat, which makes this a brilliant mix of tropes, especially when compared with the already established CircusOfFear trope, which brings the wonderland to ''you''.

** Includes the drawing element, also found in ''Film/MirrorMask''. The girl [[ReclusiveArtist draws]], and thus [[AGodAmI creates]], the world herself, thus implying that she ''can'' affect the world around her.

* ''Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz''.
** Interestingly, Oz is at least once stated to actually be in some remote region of Earth rather than AnotherDimension, although this may have just been speculation on the part of the characters who wouldn't have necessarily been familiar with the concept.

* In Creator/NeilGaiman's ''Literature/{{Neverwhere}}'', the main character becomes invisible to those around him, and has to travel around in London Below to find a way home. If there's a definitive UrbanFantasy DistaffCounterpart to Down the Rabbit Hole, ''Neverwhere'' is it.

* ''Series/TheIncredibleHulk'' has an episode entitled "Alice in Disco Land." A little girl named Alice from David's past is now a young woman with drug issues. In one of her spaced out moments, she keeps asking, "Where's the white rabbit?" David is shown in flashback reading ''Alice in Wonderland'' to her.

* There are heavy allusions to this in the ''Series/{{CSINY}}'' episode entitled 'Down The Rabbit Hole,' which involves going into the world of ''VideoGame/SecondLife''. There's even a white rabbit showing up as a guide when Mac enters the game to search for the killer-slash-avatar stealer.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': In "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E156TheBewitchinPool The Bewitchin' Pool]]", Sport and Jeb Sharewood are able to enter Aunt T's realm [[PortalPool through a portal in their swimming pool]] which can't be seen by their parents Gil and Gloria. In the past, other children have been able to travel there through chimneys or by going through doors.
* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': In "The World Next Door", Barney Schlessinger finds a doorway to an AlternateUniverse [[RetroUniverse with an early 20th Century level of technology]]. In this universe, he is an extremely wealthy and world famous inventor whose creations can be found in every home. The alternate Barney uses the same doorway to travel to our universe, which he likes because of the peace and quiet that it affords him. The two Barneys [[EquivalentExchange switch places]] as each is envious of the other's life.

** The same applies with Helena as with Anna in ''Paperhouse''. Helena is in essence, the [[AGodAmI creator]] of her world. Compare with Jareth's god-like qualities in ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}''. Also note that both Helena and Jareth juggle, thus inverting the power dynamic. Helena is also a classic CircusBrat, which makes this a brilliant mix of tropes, especially when compared with the already established CircusOfFear trope, which brings the wonderland to ''you''.

* Although we don't follow her there, Carol Anne's sojourn on the Other Side in ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'' may qualify, particularly as she doesn't seem to remember much of what happened to her. Plus, the way her closet tried to drag her back again matches the "rabbit hole" imagery ... if it's a ''carnivorous'' rabbit with an extradimensional esophagus, that is.

* ''VideoGame/HeartNoKuniNoAlice'' has the White Rabbit Peter kidnapping Alice and forcibly throwing her through the rabbit hole. She ends up stuck in Wonderland.

* [[{{FrancoBelgianComics}} Franco-Belgian Comic]] {{ComicBooks/Philemon}} does this frequently since [[spoiler:each entrance to Le Monde des Lettres can only be used once]].

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* There were heavy allusions to this in the ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'' episode titled 'Down The Rabbit Hole'. In that case, it was a variation involving going into the world of ''VideoGame/SecondLife''. There's even a white rabbit showing up as a guide when Mac enters the game to search for the killer-slash-avatar stealer.

* ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' is the 2nd to the last mission of the campaign of MW3. where the player rescues the Russian President from the Gold mine and at the end 2 protagonists are left to face the bad guy and earlier due to the collapse kills Delta Force.

* "White Rabbit" (not a cover of the above Jefferson Airplane song) by Egypt Central also starts off with references to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', including "falling down the hole". In this case, it's a subversion, as it's revealed partway through the song to be a metaphor for being manipulated into obedience by the [[ManipulativeBastard "white rabbit"]].\

* "White Rabbit" (not a cover of the above Jefferson Airplane song) by Egypt Central also starts off with references to ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'', including "falling down the hole". In this case, it's a subversion, as it's revealed partway through the song to be a metaphor for being manipulated into obedience by the [[ManipulativeBastard "white rabbit"]].

So you've got yourself a little story about a more than ordinary [[KidHero young girl]](though male examples do exist) who's [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor not fully satisfied]] with the [[RealLife status quo]]. Perhaps she yearns for a place where the GrassIsGreener, her parents dote on her every whim, or [[ChangelingFantasy she's a princess]]. She either visits or [[TrappedInAnotherWorld finds herself trapped]] in some sort of AlternateUniverse (potentially a DarkWorld) where [[{{Muppet}} bizarre]] [[PeopleInRubberSuits creatures]] and TheFairFolk are common inhabitants. The heroine will often encounter [[AndYouWereThere various parallels]] between this strange place and her former reality. She may face any number of ThresholdGuardians and undergo trials through which she [[AnAesop learns a lesson]] about [[ComingOfAgeStory herself or her place in the world]]. There will be enough strange goings on to make you wonder if [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs the creators were on something]], so expect NightmareFuel from even the more lighthearted variants. By the time she makes it home, many viewers will [[SchrodingersButterfly wonder]] if it was AllJustADream.

* ''Film/{{Alice}}'' by Creator/JanSvankmajer is a most [[WhatDoYouMeanItWasntMadeOnDrugs deranged and incomprehensible]] adaptation with its stop-motion animation and mostly silent script.