History Main / SealedGoodInACan

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', James, the Lone Wanderer's father is a variation of this. After the death of his wife in childbirth, he abandoned his work on Project Purity for nineteen years to raise his child in the safety of Vault 101, making him a BigGood who chose to seal ''himself'' in a Can.

* ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mummies_Alive! Mummies Alive]]'' had a royal prince and his four guards. When all five are slaughtered by the minions of the EvilChancellor, the four guards are mummified and enchanted so that when the prince is reborn, they may awake to protect them. This is particularly important since the [[BigBad Sealed Evil in a Can]] has already been released.

* Robert Jordan's ''Literature/WheelOfTime'' series has the Horn of Valere, which can summon the greatest heroes of the setting's history to kick righteous amounts of ass.

-->-- '''[[spoiler:Master Chief]]''', ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}''.

* ''Anime/YuGiOh'': Pharaoh Atem sealed himself along with the BigBad so he would be around to defeat the Big Bad ''again'' when he was inevitably unsealed in the future.

* [[{{Pokemon}} Pokémon]] can become this in their Poké Balls, especially if their Trainer [[NightmareFuel deposits them indefinitely into the Pokémon Storage System]].[[hottip:*:And yes, according to Jessie's Ekans in the episode "Island of the Giant Pokémon": "Pokémon do bad things because '''master bad. Pokémon not bad."''']]

* Likewise, the finale of ''HalfLife'' seals [[spoiler: Gordon Freeman]] in a can, to be reheated and served in the sequel.
** And at the end of Half-Life 2, he is resealed until Episode 1. Then things get weird, and Episode 3 has yet to come along and explain it all.

* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' has sealed cans of good who seem to think they are Sealed Cans of Evil. They grant Mario new paper-based abilities. Supposedly they're being magically forced to be evil, but they get around it by being really creative with "evil".
** Actually, according to [[AllMythsAreTrue Ingame Myths]] the black boxes are actually [[spoiler: the four heroes of a thousand years ago who sealed the [[SealedEvilinacan Shadow Queen]] and were sealed as well. Because it is an evil curse, they may have to 'contractually' act evil, but really want to help Mario seal the [[BigBad Shadow Queen]].]]

*** Ninjaman, Ninjor's ''Series/NinjaSentaiKakuranger'' counterpart, was like this as well. To the point where he's resealed after [[NoodleIncident pissed off the gods he aids]] and isn't released until the KaizokuSentaiGokaiger team comes knocking, looking to obtain the Kakuranger's Greater Power.

*** The Klaxxi serve [[EldrichtAbomination Eldricht Abominations]] which want to enslave everything. They are more like [[SealedEvilInACan sealed evil in a can]] which the player unseals because they are working together with Eldricht Abomination worshippers to overthrow an evil empress which got possessed by another Eldricht Abomination, but one they hate.

** Javik in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' was another such Prothean put into stasis on Eden Prime, with the VI "Vendetta" sacrificing the other survivors to maintain his pod. It [[FromBadToWorse got even worse]] as the damage caused by the Collectors meant that the revival procedure could only be activated ''manually'', causing him to wait over 50,000 years before Shepard awoke him. By then, the latest Reaper invasion was already well underway.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', an eccentric Volus billionaire is spending his fortune excavating a planet of ruins for "lost beings of light" who are intended to fight "machine devils from beyond the stars." Considering the nature of the ME universe, and the fact that one such planetary description in Mass Effect turns out to be [[ChekhovsGun highly relevant]] in Mass Effect 2, this may be more important than it seems.
** Turns out it wasn't. However the third does have Javik, a Prothean that was sealed to help rebuild the Prothean Empire once the Reapers had departed. Things didn't go quite as planned so he joins up with Shepard.
** The Mass Effect universe features cyclical destruction of advanced species by alien invaders, which the main characters are attempting to stop. Liara T'soni tries a curious version of this trope. She seals [[spoiler: Glyph, a virtual intelligence program originally seen in the [=LotSB=] DLC]] in many, many long-term data storage devices. She fills these with the combined technological data, scientific learning, history, and cultural notes of all of the galaxy's current crop of technologically advanced sapient species. She includes dozens of programs to help anyone who finds these cans interpret the contents. She then seeds untold numbers of worlds with developing species with them. In one possible ending of VideoGame/MassEffect3, [[spoiler: the current group of advanced species, including humanity, are completely exterminated. Her plan works, and the next group of species advance too quickly to be destroyed by the cyclical predation of [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]]]]. They do not need to fear the Reapers.
** "They fought a terrible war, so we wouldn't have to." [[spoiler: Stargazer]]

[[folder:Comics]]
* Let's not forget CaptainAmerica, frozen in 1944 and thawed out again in... well, whenever the current continuity says (roughly 12 years from whenever you're reading).
** As per the 2010 ''{{Spiderman}}'' annual, Captain America was thawed out five years ago from that date.
* And also Primus, god of the ''{{Transformers}}'', who sealed himself away at the core of Cybertron itself in order to also seal off his opposite number, Unicron. He was also present in the Unicron Trilogy, but he was created in the comics.

[[folder:Films]]

* The title character of the ''AustinPowers'' series was cryogenically preserved and revived in response to similar efforts by his [[SealedEvilInACan evil counterpart]], Dr. Evil.
* In ''{{Dogma}}'', keeping God on life support in the real world so She could not return to heaven and blink things back to normal could be seen as Sealed Good in a Can, in this case a more direct borrowing of SealedEvilInACan by the dark side.
* The White Queen in ''MirrorMask''.
* In TheGarbagePailKidsMovie, the titular Kids are trapped inside an outer space garbage can that lands on earth, and are discovered by an antiques store owner. He does his best to keep them in the can, but they always manage to find a way out. Much like the Animaniacs example below, the Kids aren't necessarily good, but they aren't evil either. A more apt definition would probably be Sealed Jerkass in a Can.
* In ''TheGamers: Dorkness Rising'' the... adventurers... players... whatever you may call them are officially on a mission to regain a cursed artifact for the High Priest of the local goddess of LawfulGood, Therin. [[spoiler:Said High Priest is shown to have a powerful artifact of LawfulGood, which is later to be revealed the prison of Therin. The party destroys the prison, freeing the goddess and are rewarded by her afterward.]]
* The icy Breath of Valkur in ''Kull the Conqueror'' had to be retrieved from the far north, to counter the fiery evil BigBad.
* ''{{Mulan}}'': According to his backstory, Mushu the dragon was actually turned into an incense burner inside the Fa family altar as punishment by the Fa family ancestors for his laziness. But when Mulan decided to run off disguised as a male soldier, the Fa family ancestors decided to change him back so he can keep his mistress out of trouble.
* Sentinel Prime in ''[[TransformersFilmSeries Transformers: The Dark of the Moon]].'' He's been rusting away in the Ark since he crashed on the moon in TheSixties. [[spoiler: It later turns out that he was actually a SealedEvilInACan, as he defected to the Decepticons before leaving Cybertron. After revealing this to his former comrades, he joins Megatron with a plan to enslave all humanity as a workforce to rebuild Cybertron.]]
* Series/UltramanDyna in the film, ''Film/UltramanSaga'', prior to (and during) the climactic battle between Franchise/UltramenZero and [[Series/UltramanCosmos Cosmos]] against ''[[BigBad Giganto Zetton]]''
* ''Film/TheSorcerersApprentice'' features two examples. Balthazar Blake was trapped alongside [[DragonInChief Maxim Horvath]] in an urn for ten years. At the same time, Veronica Gorloisen willingly absorbed [[BigBad Morgana]]'s spirit into her body so that Balthazar could trap both into the Grimhold. This also is an example of SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan.

* In Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' novel ''Bloodhype'', the Tar-Aiym Guardian, Peot, was charged with containing and finding a way to destroy the Vom, a planet-scouring EldritchAbomination. Half a million years later, Peot is dormant and must be awakened in order to counter the Vom's renewed threat. Flinx turns out to be the key to accomplishing this.

* Robert Jordan's ''WheelOfTime'' series has the Horn of Valere, which can summon the greatest heroes of the setting's history to kick righteous amounts of ass.

* In ''IDreamOfJeannie'', Jeannie was sealed in a bottle for 2,000 years by the Blue Djinn as punishment for refusing to marry him.
* In ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'', the progenitor of the Tokra, Egeria, was almost literally sealed in a can (a symbiont containment vessel) by her Goa'uld enemies. Egeria fared less well than usual -- the humans who eventually found her were unable to tell her from any other queen Goa'uld and basically tortured her to death. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Uhh... "Sorry"?]]
* Zordon in ''PowerRangers''. Technically he was in a "time warp" and broadcasting his face into a tube, but they freed the man by making him ''actually'' trapped in the tube. To make matters worse, the poor guy was kidnapped as soon as he was "released", and when he was rescued, he promptly had to commit a HeroicSacrifice to [[DeusExMachina save the day]]. Shoulda stuck with the time warp.

*** Ninjaman, Ninjor's ''NinjaSentaiKakuranger'' counterpart, was like this as well. To the point where he's resealed after [[NoodleIncident pissed off the gods he aids]] and isn't released until the KaizokuSentaiGokaiger team comes knocking, looking to obtain the Kakuranger's Greater Power.
* Kai in ''{{Lexx}}'' starts and ends many episodes frozen in a stasis chamber, showing up to save the other characters in the nick of time. You know, because he's dead.
* ''TheOuterLimits'' episode 'Sarcophagus' had an archeological dig find an alien in a tomb. Upon awakening, the friendly being was quite happy to find that humanity had come a long way from the cavemen that had attacked him on sight, forcing him to seal himself up to recover from his injuries. [[spoiler: When there is a cave-in, the alien allows the two who had befriended him to seal themselves up, keeping them alive until they are finally rescued.]]
* In ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[spoiler: the Doctor becomes one at the end of "The Pandorica Opens". The legends surrounding the box make it sound like a Sealed Evil, but the whole myth is a trap set up by his enemies, who are all under the mistaken impression that ''he's'' the one behind the universe-ending threat of the season. He gets out of it pretty quickly, but by that point said threat has already come true.]]

* The Zyurangers in ''KyoryuSentaiZyuranger'' were put in suspended animation rooms in an underground temple, to make sure they would still be alive and ready to fight Bandora if someone released her.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', Melody accidentally traps herself in a mirror while fleeing from the BigBad's (literal) dragon, and keeps herself hidden inside, effectively becoming sealed good in a mirror. Until she's coaxed out by the singing of the main characters, of course.

* The Spark Dolls from ''Series/UltramanGinga'' are the sealed forms of the previous [[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultra Heroes]], the Monsters suffered a [[SealedEvilInACan similar fate]].

* [[UltramanDyna Ultraman Dyna]] in the film, ''[[UltramanSaga Ultraman Saga]]'', prior to (and during) the climactic battle between Ultramen Zero and [[UltramanCosmos Cosmos]] against ''[[TheBigBad Giganto Zetton]]''

* The Spark Dolls from Series/UltramanGinga are the sealed forms of the previous [[Franchise/UltraSeries Ultra Heroes]], the Monsters suffered a [[SealedEvilInACan similar fate]].

* In ''MassEffect'', an eccentric Volus billionaire is spending his fortune excavating a planet of ruins for "lost beings of light" who are intended to fight "machine devils from beyond the stars." Considering the nature of the ME universe, and the fact that one such planetary description in Mass Effect turns out to be [[ChekhovsGun highly relevant]] in Mass Effect 2, this may be more important than it seems.

** The Mass Effect universe features cyclical destruction of advanced species by alien invaders, which the main characters are attempting to stop. Liara T'soni tries a curious version of this trope. She seals [[spoiler: Glyph, a virtual intelligence program originally seen in the LotSB DLC]] in many, many long-term data storage devices. She fills these with the combined technological data, scientific learning, history, and cultural notes of all of the galaxy's current crop of technologically advanced sapient species. She includes dozens of programs to help anyone who finds these cans interpret the contents. She then seeds untold numbers of worlds with developing species with them. In one possible ending of VideoGame/MassEffect3, [[spoiler: the current group of advanced species, including humanity, are completely exterminated. Her plan works, and the next group of species advance too quickly to be destroyed by the cyclical predation of [[EldritchAbomination eldritch abominations]]]]. They do not need to fear the Reapers.

* Prince Mythos from ''PrincessTutu'' does not literally seal himself, but shatters his heart and seals the pieces in order to seal the Monster Raven. As Princess Tutu returns his heart shards and emotions, the seal on the Raven gets correspondingly weaker.

* In ''JourneyToTheWest'', Monkey was first birthed from a giant stone egg. After gaining power and immortal indestructibility, he caused such trouble in Heaven that the Buddha sealed him under a mountain. Just five hundred years later, he was freed by Kuan Yin (Avalokiteshvara, the boddhisatva of compassion turned Chinese Goddess) after he promised to reform and help the monk Tripitaka/Xaunzang retrieve the Diamond Sutra from far in the West. This legend has been adapted many times in many ways, including Milo Manara's [[DownerEnding dark]] ''The Young Ape'', the rather {{Bishounen}} ''{{Saiyuki}}'', and Stephen Chow's ''A Chinese Odyssey'' films.

* In ''BarbieAndTheDiamondCastle'', Melody accidentally traps herself in a mirror while fleeing from the BigBad's (literal) dragon, and keeps herself hidden inside, effectively becoming sealed good in a mirror. Until she's coaxed out by the singing of the main characters, of course.

* In AlanDeanFoster's ''HumanxCommonwealth'' novel ''Bloodhype'', the Tar-Aiym Guardian, Peot, was charged with containing and finding a way to destroy the Vom, a planet-scouring EldritchAbomination. Half a million years later, Peot is dormant and must be awakened in order to counter the Vom's renewed threat. Flinx turns out to be the key to accomplishing this.

-> ''"Wake me, if you need me."''

[[caption-width-right:200:'''[[LargeHam Phenomenal, Cosmic Power]]!''' [---...[[BlessedWithSuck itty-bitty]][[AndIMustScream living space.]]---] ]]

[[caption-width-right:200:'''[[LargeHam Phenomenal, Cosmic Power]]!''' [---...[[BlessedWithSuck Itty-Bitty]] [[AndIMustScream living space.]]---] ]]

[[caption-width-right:200:'''[[LargeHam Phenomenal, Cosmic Power]]!''' [---...[[AndIMustScream Itty-bitty living space.]]---] ]]