History Main / OntologicalMystery

* ''Manga/ThePromisedNeverland'' starts in a peaceful orphanage that the children are only allowed to leave when they are sent to their "foster family" -- [[PeopleFarm i.e sent to be killed and eaten by monsters.]] The protagonists learn the truth about what their orphanage really is and they do have access to books and scientific knowledge, but they have no idea what those demons are, what happened to humanity, or what awaits them if they manage to escape.

* The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Bowl-Shaped World]] arc in ''[[Comicbook/{{Nexus}} Nexus]]'' sees Nexus, Judah, and the [[Comicbook/TheBadger Badger]] trapped in a strange extra-dimensional realm they don't understand, trying to figure out how to escape.

* ''Film/{{Cube}}'', its sequel ''Film/Cube2Hypercube'', and its prequel ''Film/CubeZero''. A group of people of differing backgrounds and skill sets wake up in cubical rooms which connect to other cubical rooms (all of the rooms together forming a giant, you guessed it, cube). There are deathtraps. Have fun!

* ''Film/{{Mindhunters}}'' The characters know ''why'' they're on a secluded island: an FBI profiler training exercise. It doesn't take long before they're cut off from the outside world and it turns out that there's a killer amongst them who starts murdering them one by one.

** [[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear "White Bear"]], Victoria Skillane wakes up with amnesia in a room she does not recognise. She then starts to experience terrifying encounters in what appears to be some kind of strange post-apocalyptic world and an apocalypse she has missed. She later finds out that [[spoiler: she is and has for an unknown amount of time been trapped in a creative method of punishment for crimes she committed before having her memory repeatedly wiped, with members of the public being invited to watch her be tortured and then paraded through the streets every day]].

* Both ''Series/{{Buffy|the Vampire Slayer}}'' and ''Series/{{Angel}}'' did this in one episode each: "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS6E8TabulaRasa Tabula Rasa]]" for ''Buffy'' and "[[Recap/AngelS04E06SpinTheBottle Spin the Bottle]]" for Angel. In both cases, a spell intended to affect memories went wrong and resulted in the entire main cast [[LaserGuidedAmnesia losing their memories]]. In "Tabula Rasa", they got complete IdentityAmnesia. In "Spin the Bottle", they got IdentityAmnesia removing all memories since their teenage years. In both cases, there were many logical but amusingly wrong deductions made about what was going on before they managed to undo the spell.
** "Spin the Bottle" was particularly hilarious given that the dour, contemplative Angel was once the hard-drinking thug Liam. Oh, and he doesn't remember he's a vampire.
* ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'': "Cuffed" opens with Castle and Beckett handcuffed together in a locked room with no memory of how they got there.
* In 1969 Creator/{{NBC}} aired ''Film/TheCube'', an hour long teleplay about a man trapped in a cube, wondering what was real and what wasn't. It was written and directed by Creator/JimHenson, [[PlayingAgainstType of all people]], [[http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3907143513685066286&q=source%3A012548278483389840673&hl=en# in a very un-Muppety not-played-for-laughs kind of way.]]

%%* ''Day Break''

* ''Series/{{Life on Mars|2006}}'' has Sam Tyler... who is less concerned with investigating the world than he is with trying to adjust to it. He actually rather likes his new world. In fact, [[spoiler: after [[RedPillBluePill weighing his options]] when he leaves, [[IChooseToStay he commits suicide to return.]] ]]
** ''Life on Mars'''s sequel, ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'': Modern day detective Alex Drake is transported to a strange new 1981 world when she is shot. Using her psychological training, she must examine if she is in her own mind, undergone time travel, etc. in order to return to her daughter back home. [[note]]The writers knew what the world was from the start, so the ending didn't fall into a ''Series/{{Lost}}'' trap of not being able to tie up loose ends. Clues are even in ''Life on Mars''.[[/note]] The mystery is examined [[TimeDilation from]] [[EpiphanicPrison every]] [[PsychologicalTormentZone angle]].

** "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1963S2E17TheProbe The Probe]]", the last episode of the original series. A group of plane crash survivors find themselves in a mysterious closed environment full of lab equipment, stalked by a grotesque monster, with no idea how they got there or how to get out. It turns out that [[spoiler:they were brought aboard an alien space probe, the monster is a huge, mutated microbe, and they're released when they manage to communicate with the aliens]].

* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': "Tabula Rasa" begins with a confused, amnesiac Rodney [=McKay=] coming to in his lab to discover he's tied to the table he's sitting at, with a tablet in front of him displaying a picture of Teyla and the message "FIND THIS WOMAN". When he gets out of the lab, he discovers a situation where Atlantis' military personnel, led by Major Lorne, are rounding up the civilians, with repeated escapes. The fact that ''everyone'' seems to be having memory problems only makes [=McKay's=] quest to try and figure out what is going on that much harder.
%%* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' had several episodes based on or employing this subgenre:
%%** The original pilot, "The Cage"
%%** "The Empath"
%%** "The Mark of Gideon"

** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E5RememberMe Remember Me]]": The crew of the ''Enterprise'' is disappearing one by one, with no one but Beverly Crusher remembering that they ever existed. She has to figure out what's happening to them and whether she's even on the real ''Enterprise''.
** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E14Clues Clues]]": The ''Enterprise'' crew is revived by Data after having been rendered unconscious by a NegativeSpaceWedgie. It quickly becomes apparent that they were unconscious much longer than they had thought, that Worf has somehow sustained a major injury, ship's records have been tampered with, and that [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness Data is desperately trying to cover up]] whatever happened during the lost time.
** "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E14Conundrum Conundrum]]": The characters' memories are erased and they are left with no contact with the outside world. They need to figure out the purpose of the ship, their roles on it, and the validity of their apparent mission to destroy a planet. Their only initial clues are their positions on the bridge and the design of the ship.

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E79FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]": An Army major, a ballerina, a hobo, a clown, and a bagpiper wake up in a cylindrical grey room, with no memory of their lives before that moment, and a deafeningly loud, gonglike noise occasionally makes the room shake wildly. All make guesses about where they are and why. Limbo, a dream, space, and hell itself are mentioned. Where and what they are is revealed -and turns out to be entirely unexpected.

* ''Film/{{Circle}}'': Fifty people regain consciousness in a dark room, arranged in a circle around a strange-looking mechanism that kills one of them every two minutes. The subjects range in age from single digits to near-centenarian, and not one of them knows how they got where they are. They quickly figure out the premise, however--not only must one of their number die every 120 seconds, but they are the ones who determine who gets whacked next. Zany--err, paranoid hijinks ensue.

* ''Film/DarkCity'': The protagonist wakes up with EasyAmnesia and {{Telekinesis}} in a city with no exits and where day never dawns. Oh, and there's a dead hooker in the other room.

* ''Film/GroundhogDay'' is less interested in why the loops started or ended and more interested in how its protagonist responds to it. The commentary notes the story is about him changing from 'a prisoner of the time and place to the master of the time and place'.

* ''Literature/SixWakes'': Six clones wake up on a space ship in deep space, next to their original bodies, with only their memories up to the point when they got on the space ship. They have to figure out who murdered them and what has beocme of the mission they signed up for.

* This style is one of the [[OlderThanNES oldest computer games:]] ''[[http://www.freearcade.com/Zplet.jav/Advent.html Adventure,]]'' originally copyright 19'''73'''; ''[[http://www.freearcade.com/Treasure.jav/Treasure.html Adventures in 4 dimensions,]]'' originally copyright 1979, updated in the early 90's; and ''[[http://www.freearcade.com/Zplet.jav/Count.html The Count]]'' which was originally written for the UsefulNotes/TRS80, which was only sold from 1977 to 1981.

* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'' follows a girl named Tulip, who finds herself trapped on a bizarre train full of puzzles and {{pocket dimension}}s, trying to find her way home with the help of a robot named One-One. By the start of the pilot episode, she'd already been stuck there for a week, with no idea how she got there or why there are glowing numbers on her hand.