History Main / TailorMadePrison

* Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed of Sixteeth Century Hungary allegedly tortured and killed hundreds of young girls over several years. Upon being convicted, she was placed under house arrest for the rest of her life, where she was immured in her bedroom with only a small opening to provide her with food. She died after living this way for four years.

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'': Belonging to a species that was subjected to an experiment GoneHorriblyWrong, Aval received the power to conjure cages made out of absolutely anything at will. These only exist as long as he keeps focusing, and require a knowledge of the captive's strengths and weaknesses rather than automatically disabling their abilities.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': In "Sonic Breakout", Sonic lets himself get captured in order to break a comic artist out of Robotnik's newly constructed prison, but he overestimated Robotnik's stupidity. Point of fact, Robotnik had built an entire specialized wing of the prison just for Sonic, meticulously designed to counter every one of his abilities and activate upon seeing his blue fur. [[spoiler:Sonic still escapes in the end by duping the system's color-trigger with a poster of himself taped to Grounder's back, which causes the security system to attack Grounder and Scratch, leaving him to get away]].

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/XMen1 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magneto_plastic_prison.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"You know this plastic prison of theirs won't hold [[Characters/XMenFilmSeriesMagneto me]] forever, Charles."]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'' is a game all about this trope. The main character, The Stranger, is attempting to break out of his custom super-prison made of several large zones floating in orbit above the planet below, and to do so he has to defeat the Jailer of each zone, who are the best warriors the planet has to offer, [[spoiler:including the one who put him in the prison to begin with]]. The "tailor-made" aspect of the trope becomes very poignant when it's revealed that [[spoiler:The Stranger is a WalkingWasteland who could render miles of land desolate simply by going for a run -- ironically, the only place in the world that would not waste away was within his own tailor-made prison]].

* Countess Elizabeth Báthory de Ecsed of Sixteeth Century Hungary (aka "The Blood Countess") was a brutal serial killer who tortured and killed hundreds of young girls over several years. Scholars say there may have been as many as 650 victims, but evidence was only found for 80 of them. When caught, her accomplices were executed or sentenced to life in prison, but she was never tried for any crimes due to her noble status. Instead, she was placed under house arrest for the rest of her life, where she was immured in her bedroom with only a small opening to provide her with food. She died after living this way for four years.

* The Labyrinth was build by Daedalus to be a prison for the [[ALoadOfBull Minotaur]].
* In Myth/NorseMythology, the god Loki can shape-shift his way out of any kind of fetters, talk his way out of any kind of incrimination, and seemingly almost by reflex think up plots to bring down the invincible. So the gods turn his sons into wolves ripping each other's guts out and tie him up with said guts, entomb him in an isolated cave beneath the world, and place a snake over his head that constantly drips venom into his eyes to keep him distracted. He is sprung by his children on the eve of Ragnarok. His monstrous children that is - not his humanoid children, whose intestines bind him.

* ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' gives us Avak. Belonging to a species that was subjected to an experiment GoneHorriblyWrong, he received the power to conjure cages made out of absolutely anything at will. These only exist as long as he keeps focusing, though.

* There is the famous Man in the Iron Mask. He was held in various prisons throughout France in the late 17th and early 18th century, but was force to always wear an Iron Mask and the man's identity was kept hidden from all the guards. It was often theorized that the Man identity was so confidential as the man was a secret brother of King Louis XIV to prevent any SuccessionCrisis. Other theories was that it was an Italian diplomat, so the identity was hidden to avoid a major diplomatic incident.

* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' had the Diclonii in underground research facilities, for lack of a better term, trapped in meters thick full body casings much like Iron Maidens, being fed through IV tubes, with a perimeter marking that no one was allowed in lest their hands get to them. The only reason that any of them got out is because either a) someone stupidly dropped a PEN inside of the circle or b) they were let out to take care of the Diclonius released in a)
* Lab 5 in ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' combines this with a sort of "Area 51" kind of place. It is guarded by living suits of armor containing the souls of serial killers believed by the public to have been executed, as well as fierce chimeras. One prisoner in all versions is the MadBomber Zolf Kimblee who has his hands in "minature stocks" which prevent him from using his powers. In the first anime, the homonculus Greed was imprisoned there for about two centuries until a fortuitous explosion frees him. At this point, the lab takes on CardboardPrison qualities, as he proceeds to free the other prisoners. It was custom-designed to hold alchemists, not [[NighInvulnerable Homunculi]], after all.
* In ''Manga/KenichiTheMightiestDisciple'', the defeated and captured members of Yami (an organization of villainous martial arts masters) are sent into one of the series of so-called "Big Locks" - massively built prisons designed specifically to keep the Yami members inside for good. But it's later revealed that this trope is subverted. The prisoners are fully capable of just walking out of the prison. The only reason they stay there is because of their pride as martial artists, which dictates that they must obey the winner's orders.

* ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'': [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Team Rocket]] has a long history of locking [[ShockAndAwe Pikachu]] in cages made of glass, plastic, rubber or other non-conductive material. Sometimes he can break out on his own, though usually he needs help from the others.
* In ''Anime/SonicX'', when Sonic is [[ClearMyName arrested]] for a crime, he's put in a cell that's underwater because they know he [[SuperDrowningSkills can't swim]]. Only Chris and his butler Mr. Tanaka get him out, Dressed like they're the [[ShoutOut stars]] of Radio/TheGreenHornet.
* The [[EldritchAbomination Kishin]] Asura in ''Manga/SoulEater'' was trapped [[spoiler:in a bag made out of his own skin.]] Even then, Shinigami-sama has to use most of his power to keep him trapped, which binds him to Death City.

* Pretty much any cell ComicBook/{{Diabolik}} and his accomplice Eva Kant are put into is made specifically to keep them in and prevent the currently free one from breaking the other out. The fact they ''still'' can break each other out [[OvershadowedByAwesome is more a testament to Diabolik and Eva's skills than the prisons being easy to break out from]].

** Carl Draper, at times The Master Jailer, or Deathtrap, was originally the architect of a tailor-made prison for Superman's convicted criminal enemies, who could not be kept in in a standard prison. The prisoner's own powers were used to keep each other locked up. This fell apart when Draper got mad that no one -not even Comicbook/LanaLang, who he was obsessed with- acknowledged his work, and he became a threat to Superman - ironically the only person who gave him credit for his work and skill- and even Comicbook/{{Supergirl}}.

** In ''ComicBook/HelOnEarth'', Comicbook/LexLuthor is the only prisoner in a prison that he designed himself. He built the prison when Superman challenged him to create a prison that even he couldn't break out of.
** Also of note is the way ComicBook/SuperboyPrime has been confined over the years. When [[Franchise/TheFlash The Flashes]] drew him into the Speed Force, he was kept in a place with only red sunlight until he was able to build a set of armor that converted it into yellow sunlight. When ''Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis'' ended, the Guardians Of The Universe locked him in a special Sciencell inside a red Sun Eater, which was itself guarded at all times by fifty [[Franchise/GreenLantern Green Lanterns]]. Then after he was rescued by the Sinestro Corp and landed in the future, he was sent back to Earth Prime. This was maybe the most hellish prison of all, since he got what he wanted and was sent home, only to find his parents knew everything he'd done and he was hated and unloved by everyone, unable to get back to the comic book world - not that he wanted to. When he finally ''did'' get drawn back, he tried to kill Conner Kent and ended up imprisoned in the Source Wall for his trouble.
** During the ''Comicbook/NewKrypton'' arc, Lex Luthor designed all kind of tailor-made prisons for Kryptonians.

* Despite being an infamous CardboardPrison, Arkham Asylum is actually partially built on being a tailor made prison for the psychos of Gotham. For example, the crazed serial killer Zsasz is permanently restrained due to his AxCrazy psyche, Poison Ivy is kept in a glass prison with no space for her to control plants to break herself out, and Mr. Freeze is given a modified meat locker for his cold body. Not that any of these ever stop the more unpredictable criminals like ComicBook/TheJoker from breaking out at will more easily than the power specific villains.
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': Reed Richards once tried to end the threat of Doctor Doom for good by trapping ''both'' of them in a Tailor-Made Prison; this being the only way he could be sure Doom would never escape. The team discovered Reed's sacrificial plan in time to rescue him, but Doom got out too. Note that Reed only trapped Doom inside of that prison because he didn't think ''Hell'' would be secure enough, and he was right. Doom ''has'' been known [[EscapedFromHell to escape from Hell.]]
* There was a period where Comicbook/WarMachine was able to [[TheAssimilator assimilate any technology into his body]]. After being arrested, he was imprisoned in a special cell made entirely of plastic and ceramics so that he couldn't interface with any nearby metal or technology.
* One version of containment for an incarcerated Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} has him held in a giant cube of ruby quartz, the only substance immune to his optic blasts and from which the containing lens of his visor is made. This is a precaution in case the massive ruby quartz headpiece comes loose.

* ''ComicBook/{{Invincible}}'' featured the Superman-esque villain Conquest beaten into a coma, then sealed in a 400-ton block of solid steel kept in an unmanned facility seven miles below ground, with motion sensors designed to collapse the entire compound if he so much as twitched. [[FingerPokeOfDoom He escaped in a single page.]]
* One of the Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}}'s recurring rogues is The Key, who in recent years can count among his powers the ability to open any door or lock. He's escaped everything from interdimensional prisons to being imprisoned within an infinitely-branching mental prison created by the ComicBook/MartianManhunter. At one point, he decided to try and trick Batman into killing him so he could impress the hero by escaping from ''death itself.'' Ultimately, [[BatmanGambit Batman neutralized him by claiming that the only thing that would impress him is a prison the Key couldn't escape from]], prompting the villain to voluntarily enter Arkham Asylum and instruct everyone on exactly how to imprison him for good, one step at a time.
* Also from ''Franchise/{{Justice League|of America}}'', the Queen of Fables was an EvilSorceress who had formerly been trapped in a book of fairy tales, and could reshape reality to her whims using the same tales and other imaginative fantasy, turning Manhattan into an enchanted forest and cursing Wonder Woman with a thousand-year slumber. Wonder Woman recovered, however, and did away with the Queen by trapping her in a very different book, the U.S. Tax Code, where she'd never find anything to use as a weapon.
* During ''ComicBook/{{Knightfall}}'', The Corrosive Man was sealed away in a special room that constantly sprayed him with material that suppressed his acidic abilities. He ended up covering his hand long enough to allow him to use his powers and escaped.
* In the MarvelUniverse, the only way to imprison The Absorbing Man, a supervillain whose body becomes any form of matter he touches, at one time was to put him in a cardboard box and put it in a prison cell since he would otherwise become the materials of the cell (like stone and steel) and smash his way out. Unfortunately, there was eventually a water leak that dripped on the box, allowing him to change into water, move to the cell floor, change into stone and break free.

** The multiple-series comic arc ''ComicBook/{{Vector}}'' focuses on a Jedi named Celeste Morne who lived 4,000 years before the films. The arc ends 130 years ''after'' the films. Morne survives the first nearly-4,000 years thanks to the Tailor-Made Prison of Lord Dreypa, which works as basically an indestructible Bag-of-Holding version of this trope. How does she get out? She's released 18 years before the original trilogy. Who's the idiot who releases her? [[spoiler:Darth Vader]]. Another one figures in the ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' comic series (where Vector begins), but this time it's used only as suspended animation to hold an old woman for a month or so to keep her from dying. [[spoiler:It also keeps her from stopping the BigBad from ripping a nice schism in the Jedi Order, in a XanatosGambit planned out by said BigBad. She gets released eventually and dies within thirty minutes.]]

* In the Crimson Dawn arc of the X-Men comics, Psylocke is forced to concentrate all her telepathic power on the Shadow King (an extremely powerful and malevolent psychic entity which feeds on the hatred of humanity) in order to keep him permanently trapped in the Astral Plane.
* Some time later, after the Shadow King escapes and comes looking for vengeance, Psylocke ends up trapping him inside a mutant that eats psychic energy. Because she'd already lobotomized said mutant, there's no way for the Shadow King to get out again.
* During the ''Fall of the Mutants'' storyline, the Comicbook/XMen were fighting a monster known as the Adversary, and the only way to defeat him was to sacrifice their lives and souls to seal away into the form of two stone tablets. Needless to say, even Roma sees this as only a temporary set-back for the villain and once the smoke clears, [[ComicBookDeath resurrects the X-Men so that they can get on with their lives while Adversary takes his time out.]]

** Though if [[AxeCrazy Arcee]] is to be believed, it's actually rather pleasant.
* In ''ComicBook/TheTriganEmpire'', The Worst Man On The Planet aka The Prisoner Of Zerss (we never learn his actual name), is kept in a cell on top of a tall pole surrounded by walls on an island in a "monster-infested sea". A henchman blackmails Peric, the {{Omnidisciplinary Scientist}} who designed the place to show him how to escape. There's an AirVentPassageway right under the rug in the middle of the cell.

** An especially good example is 42, a prison in the Negative Zone built by the pro-reg side during the Marvel ComicBook/CivilWar. Not only is it nearly impossible for the villains inside to escape, but even if they do, they're still in ''the Negative Zone'' with no easy way home.

** Genetically-altered Super-villains get sent to the Big House, an complex where everyone inside is shrunk by Pym Particles, and where even the strongest can be stopped by the pointer finger of a normal-sized SHIELD guard.

* ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'': Kandrakar's prison, the Tower of Mists, traps its occupants by forming the cells according to one's flaws, as shown by the two known examples: Cedric, a [[VoluntaryShapeShifting shape-shifter]] [[ConsummateLiar who can lie extremely well]] and [[WickedCultured is extremely cultured]] is [[ShapeShifterModeLock locked in his (fake) human form]] and surrounded by books that contain only fiction and lies ([[ActuallyPrettyFunny he liked it]], and when he got a visitor he started saying BlatantLies to keep up with the joke), and the power-hungry Phobos, who had drained the magic of an entire world and tried to steal his sister's immense power, was tied up to tendrils that constantly drain his magic.
* In ''ComicBook/WynonnaEarp'', Black Rock is TheAlcatraz built to house paranormal criminals. Each cell is specfically designed around the inmate it holds. Immortal cannibal Boone Helm is held in restraints that shackle his arms to the ceiling and his feet to the floor, has a mask affixed over his face, and is kept in a permanently sedated state.

* Alchemilla asylum is an interesting case in ''Fanfic/{{Bird}}'', as it is not expressly a prison, and even among the violent patients, most are voluntary residents. There is a lot of specialized equipment left over from the early days of the parahuman initiative- in which Alchemilla was considered as an alternative to [[TheAlcatraz The Birdcage]], but many low and medium security patients do not actually require heavily specialized containment procedures or equipment. That is, until the story moves down into the bowles of the asylum and the high and specialized security wings...

* ''FanFic/EscapeFromTheMoon'': [[spoiler:Doa's lunar station was designed as one for her.]]

** Book 1 mentions the Raft, SHIELD's new specially designed super-max for heavyweight superhumans, on a couple of occasions, comparing it to a purpose-built Azkaban (minus the Dementors) before revealing it in the sequel. It has specially designed cells for current inmates [[FlyingBrick Count Nefaria]], the Abomination, the Leader, the Absorbing Man, the Juggernaut. They also have special cells prepared for [[MagnificentBastard Lucius Malfoy]], [[EvilGenius Arnim]] [[BrainUploading Zola]], [[SuperSoldier Baron Zemo]], and - in case he pulls another FaceHeelTurn - ComicBook/{{Magneto}}. There's also one for ComicBook/TheHulk, at Bruce's own request, just in case. It also ends up temporarily holding Sabretooth and the Winter Guard. While the latter very quickly escape, it was part of a BatmanGambit by Nick Fury.
** [[spoiler:Demonreach]] functions as this, as in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', with Doctor Strange mentioning that it was built by him and Merlin with notes cribbed from [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Agamotto's]] original design for [[{{ComicBook/Shazam}} the Rock of Eternity]].
** As it turns out, Yggdrasil was a ''very'' carefully designed one for Surtur a.k.a. [[spoiler:the original Dark Phoenix]] by the Alliance of Realms (the Nine Realms minus Helheim/Niflheim and Muspelheim, Surtur's own realm), reaching across multiple dimensions. It's also specifically designed to function as an energy siphon to drain power off him and enhance a champion (originally, Frey, the First King of Asgard) to take him on and stall him for long enough to lock him away, with the bearer of that power, now known as the Odinforce, taking the role of Chief Warden. Due to the nature of its construction, there are only two ways in or out: one is through Niflheim/Helheim, which as [[TheUnderworld a Realm of the Dead]] siphons life and power off spirits in particular - something Surtur, an EnergyBeing, is particularly vulnerable to. The other, the only real flaw in the entire prison, is through a relatively small crack in Nidavaellir, which is covered by the Seal of Muspelheim. Despite numerous escape attempts, and Surtur's most powerful servants, the Great Captains, remaining at large, it's held for over a million years. Unfortunately, the events of Book 1 lead to the Seal being cracked, and a lot of Book 2 is spent trying to prevent it from cracking further (or at least, not until everyone's prepared to deal with the consequences).

* In ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'' fic ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'', [[EvilTwin Satan Girl]] is shackled and locked up in a prison cube. The walls are made of inertron and her shackles contain traces of Kryptonite.

* In the crossover fanfic ''FanFic/TheLegendOfRuby'' there is one introduced in an early chapter, built out of solid iron, since in the story proper metalbending has not been discovered. Sadly, it still doesn't quite seem to hold [[spoiler:Roman Torchwick]] but then again, he does have help from the outside.
* ''FanFic/QueenOfAllOni'': When [[EvilSorcerer Lung]] captures [[VillainProtagonist Jade]]'s astral form, he seals her inside a glass sphere that can't be broken from the inside, and rings it with industrial-strength lights, denying her any shadows to [[CastingAShadow work with]]. (They also make handy [[ColdBloodedTorture torture devices]].)
** There's also the cage Jade has prepared for if they ever capture a hero — held upside down by a chain, feet handcuffed together, wrapped in a straightjacket, neck tied to the floor to restrict any remaining movement.
* Chapter 8 of FanFic/VengeanceOfTheStar reveals that Twilight herself set one up in the abandoned Diamond Dog mines, run by Starlight Glimmer. Said prison has various collars for certain criminals, as well as five separate levels for them depending on their crimes. Not only are the prisoners stripped of their Cuties Marks, but hey are also shackled with limiter collars (which keeps non-pony criminals in line as well). The prison itself is also practically inescapable, and trying to flee is a death sentence for Black Collars (who are on the death penalty anyway), as the Dazzlings who patrol the moat are allowed to eat the black collars if they ever try to. Any other color prisoners are immediately hypnotized by their songs and sent back to the prison. Past the moat is an entire forest full of plunder vines that will capture and ensnare prisoners (or rather anyone not wearing Royal Guard Armor) the moment they get too close, draining their magic and leaving them easy to capture when the guards make their rounds. Being a pegasus (or any flying creature) makes no difference since there are spiked clouds in the prison's airspace that are enchanted to gravitate towards prisoners, ensnaring them before shocking them into unconsciousness.

* In ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/210268/what-costs-nothing What Costs Nothing,]]'' it's revealed that the metal of Lord Tirek's cage in Tartarus is made of blessed iron. As Tirek is [[OurDemonsAreDifferent a demon]], [[HolyBurnsEvil he can't so much as touch the bars without being badly burned]].

* ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'': Tai Lung's prison Chor Ghom was built specifically to hold him and no other prisoners. Built into a mountain, it consisted of multiple levels with the bottom level holding the evil snow leopard with some sort of acupuncture needles paralyzing him and his front paws held by iron chains fastened to massive boulders hanging over the chasm. The upper layers included pulley elevators, ballistae, [[RocksFallEveryoneDies dynamite tied to huge stalactites]], and 1000 rhino guards (several hundred of them archers). He got out by using a ''fallen feather'' to pick the lock on his restraints - a feather from a duck sent there [[SelfFulfillingProphecy specifically to make sure that Tai Lung didn't escape]]. He then uses everything that was used to imprison him to pull off an elaborate escape.
* ''WesternAnimation/LegendsOfOzDorothysReturn''- When he captures the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion, [[BigBad the Jester]] places them in individualized containment that would be the worst for them to experience. Scarecrow is on a spinning wheel surrounded by magical flames that flare up at whim. The Tin Man is in a clear box filled to the top with water so that he would continue to rust. And the Lion is in a cage the tends to shrink and sqeeze him whenever the Jester feels like it.

* In ''Film/{{Glass}}'', The Overseer and the Horde are placed in rooms designed to counter their abilities. The Overseer's room is outfitted with high-pressure [[KryptoniteFactor water]] hoses designed to subdue him. The Horde's room is outfitted with bright lights that can trigger a [[SPlitPersonality different personality]], preventing them from using the Beast's strength to escape. [[SubvertedTrope Mr. Glass just gets drugged into a coma since his powers are to be fragile]].

** Likewise, Ahmanet in the [[{{Film/TheMummy2017}} 2017 reboot]] is also sealed alive in a sarcophagus and submerged in a pit full of mercury to weaken her magical powers. Subverted later in the movie. [[spoiler:The folks at Prodigium are able to restrain the mummy pretty well, even though they had to improvise a prison based on the little information they had about her beforehand.]]
* In the movie ''Film/RunawayTrain'', Alaska's Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison has had only four escapes in its history, three of them by Manny, the protagonist of the movie. The deputy warden gets so fed up with him that he orders the door to Manny's cell be welded shut, at least until a judge decides this represents Cruel and Unusual Punishment and he's put back into the general population. He rather quickly escapes again.
* In ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs'' Dr. Lecter's home for most of the movie is his cell in a Baltimore insane asylum. It is a standard cell with one exception: Instead of having a fourth wall of bars it has a thick sheet of plexiglass to prevent him from reaching through the cell at orderlies. The extradiegetic reason for the plexiglass is the filmmakers not wanting to film through bars, as long closeups are a key part of the visual style. In the novel Lecter's cell has regular bars but also has a nylon net to serve the same purpose as the plexiglass.

* In ''Film/SuicideSquad2016'', Harley's cell is a cage ''within'' a cage, the obvious intent to limit her reach and protect anyone outside of it. (She's clearly modeled after the far-more insane version in the New 52.)
* In ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', General Zod, Ursa, and Non are trapped in a sheet of glass that's impervious to everything except a nuclear explosion.
** That sheet of glass is a literal window into the Phantom Zone, which is actually a hellish dimension which the people of Krypton uses as a prison.

** ''Film/XMen1'': At the end, Magneto is locked in a cell made entirely of plastic. He got out in ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', thanks to Mystique giving one of his guards an "iron supplement," actually at least half a pound of the stuff, in liquid form. In real life, this would have given him iron poisoning, but he didn't survive long enough to find that out.

** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Played with. The concrete cell under the Pentagon was not built specifically for Magneto, but simply constructed that way because steel was being rationed at the time. It still holds him quite well, though. And other aspects of the prison are specifically for Magneto, such as the plastic guns issued to the guards to prevent him from controlling them.

* Downplayed in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''. Visser Three (by then, [[spoiler:promoted to Visser One]]) is tried and imprisoned in a special "Yeerk box", built by the Andalites that lets him hear and speak, and then he's shipped off to a special max-security prison until he dies. The 'downplayed' comes from the fact that he's a sentient slug that can barely move under its own power and is deaf and blind. The reason he's imprisoned now is that he led the Yeerks trying to take over the human race.
** Also, David. He was trapped in rat form (by being kept in a space too small for him to resume human form, thus unable to change back before ModeLock set in) and kept on a rocky island with not much life on it for being willing and able to destroy the Animorphs and any hope for the world with a few words to the Yeerks and repeatedly trying to kill them. Books later, Crayak and the Drode give him a chance at revenge at Rachel, but when Rachel ignores Crayak's offers for super strength, Crayak and the Drode leave. Rachel catches David and David pleads to be killed, as being put back on the island would be a fate worse than death. It is left unclear at the end whether Rachel killed him or sent him back to the island.

* ''Literature/{{Circleverse}}'': ''Literature/TheWillOfTheEmpress'' has Sandry kidnapped by a man who intends to force her into marriage. He locks her in a prison [[JustForPun made for tailors]], that is, one that will hamstring her thread-based magic. It's described as "unraveling" whenever she tries using it. Fortunately, her link with her foster siblings is made up of all their magics, so she's still able to use it and get them to free her.

* The Creator/GordonRDickson short story "Danger--Human!" had the aliens construct an escape-proof cell, consisting of metal physical enclosures, an impenetrable force field, constant armed surveillance, and access only for carefully monitored brief periods to provide food and water, to study a human they'd abducted to try and find out why humans kept conquering the galaxy. Didn't work.

** ''The Indestructible Man'', a Literature/PastDoctorAdventures novel by Simon Messingham. The eponymous character's EvilCounterpart, Captain Taylor (an expy of [[Series/CaptainScarletandthemysterons Captain Black]]) is immersed in a (now-solidified) ball of reinforced liquid concrete, sealed in titanium, and placed in the centre of OCEAN FLOOR -- an underwater habitat on the bottom of the ocean constructed for this sole purpose, monitored by sensors, a small team of guards and automated {{Sentry Gun}}s. For years there's never been a flicker of brainwave activity until the events of the novel. Taylor then casually melts his way out of the concrete, slaughters all the guards and sails off in a submarine that happened to be docked.

** In the short story [[Literature/SideJobs "Love Hurts"]], the villain lovingly describes the cage for Dresden - or rather, for his best friend, to provoke her into attacking. It's covered in spikes so that he can't fall asleep, inside a half-bowl so he must stand in his own waste, and there's a rack with three needle-nosed spears on it outside so any passing evildoer can participate.
** [[spoiler:Demonreach]] is revealed to be this in ''Literature/ColdDays'', with Dresden having unwittingly become the Warden in ''Literature/TurnCoat'' - he thought that it was just an ordinary, if horrifyingly powerful and creepy, GeniusLoci powered by a very strong dark Ley Line. As it turns out, it's the ultimate super-max for dark gods and immortals, with each inmate getting their own CrystalPrison, and it was built in both space ''and'' time (and, [[TheSmartGuy Bob]] - who's initially stumped by it and has to have it dumbed down significantly to get it, before dumbing it down further for Harry - implies, several dimensions beyond that), its defenses are so strong that once Harry works them out, he's pretty confident (but not totally certain) that he can take ''Mab'' while on the island, with a physical embodiment of it being theoretically capable of imprisoning her. Oh, and if it's ever broken open, it'll trigger 'the Banefire', an explosion that would apparently take out approximately half of the Mid-Western United States. This is {{Justified}}: it's a prison so hard that ''six'' borderline {{Physical God}}s are in ''minimum security'', with seven apparently infinite tunnels full of dark gods and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* ''Literature/{{Fablehaven}}'' has several examples of this. One of the most unique examples is Olloch the Glutton--he isn't trapped anywhere, he's just TakenForGranite… until [[SealedEvilInACan someone feeds him]].
* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': Zarracka has a custom-made cell to negate her ice powers. It has successfully held her for ten years [[spoiler:and she never escapes from it. Her jailer, Daniar, was so paranoid about her breaking free while she was gone, that she took the [[AnIcePerson Ice Person]] with her to another country and she escaped from a weaker cell.]]
* In ''The Black Prism'', the first book of ''Literature/TheLightBringerTrilogy'', Gavin Guile creates a [[HardLight blue luxin]] prison with a [[PowerNullifier hellstone]] floor. It's designed to hold a Prism, such as his brother. [[spoiler:There's more cells beyond the first, each with the same design.]] Notably enough the difficulty of creating the prison is made explicit and the immense cost of the power nullifying hellstone is pointed out [[spoiler:offering an early hint that the prison's designer wasn't exactly sane.]]
* In ''Suldrun's Garden'' (the first book of the ''Literature/{{Lyonesse}}'' trilogy) by Creator/JackVance, Aillas is lowered into an Oubliette ("a bell-shaped cell fourteen feet in diameter and seventy feet underground") for impregnating King Casmir's daughter and left to die. Aillas finds a dozen skeletons sitting around the oubliette, with a note scrawled on the wall welcoming him to their "council." Just before he figures a way out, he starts to hear them talking to him. Taking months, he constructs a ladder from the bones of the previous occupants, and escapes.

* ''Literature/SoonIWillBeInvincible'':
** Deconstructed with Baron Ether, whom Dr. Impossible seeks advice from. His arch-nemesis The Mechanist has trapped him in a house designed specifically to hold him, but it does little to prevent others from breaking in to see him.

* ''Literature/StarShardsChronicles'': IN ''Shattered Sky'', Dillon Cole has the power to see patterns and create order from chaos. No ordinary prison could hold him--locks would spontaneously unlock themselves in his presence, guards would bow to his whim, and he could easily tap into the resonant frequency of a wall to tear it apart. The millionaire genius Elon Tessic manages to design a specialized prison that won't be affected by his powers. Naturally, Dillon, being a protagonist, manages to escape anyway.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Spore, in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', is harmless in the vacuum of space. It needs air to spread and bare skin to [[TheVirus infect]]; being stored in a sealed room in a deep pit on an airless asteroid, with plenty of warnings outside of the door, is ideal. The Ithorians didn't kill it because of their dedication to pacifism. Unfortunately, in the three hundred years since the outbreak was contained they started letting people mine the asteroids, even ''that'' asteroid. Partly this was out of the knowledge that if they said what Spore was, TheEmpire or others would [[EvilIsNotAToy try to use it]], whereas if they just warned people away, it would just make treasure hunters more determined.
* Digitised personalities run in virtual environments in Creator/RichardKMorgan's ''Literature/TakeshiKovacs'' series are effectively immortal if their environment is not sophisticated enough to include death or the possibility of suicide. Someone running in a simple, low-power simulator could remain there for a very long time indeed, made worse by the fact that simulations run faster than normal time. [[AndIMustScream Few hundred years of boredom sound like fun?]]

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'' the gang is plagued by a sadistic ghost named Pavayne who feeds other dead souls to hell in exchange for not going there himself. He tries to do this to Spike (a ghost at the time) but they stop him by corporealising him. Since they cant kill him, since that would put them back to square one, Angel [[SealedEvilInACan has him]] [[AndIMustScream locked in a box in the basement of Wolfram & Hart]]. [[WhatTheHellHero A coffin like box with a small window in which he can live "forever"]].

* In ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', Angel is essentially a tailor-made prison for his evil side Angelus.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E12ThePandoricaOpens "The Pandorica Opens"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E13TheBigBang "The Big Bang"]], [[spoiler:one of these is constructed for the Doctor by a huge number of his enemies working together, to stop him from destroying the universe. The Doctor, through timeline wonkiness, literally ''lets himself out'' (as in, an Eleventh Doctor on the outside releases the one on the inside, albeit by proxy).]]
** The Eleventh Doctor gets stuck in another one during the opening of [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E2DayOfTheMoon "Day of the Moon"]]. It's assembled around him (while he's chained and straitjacketed) from bricks of dwarf-star matter and is completely impregnable. This time, however, [[spoiler:it's part of his plan to get himself and his friends away from their enemies' eyes and ears — he's been sitting next to the cloaked TARDIS the whole time.]]

* In ''Series/{{The Flash|2014}}'', Team Flash starts putting criminal metahumans into the Pipeline, the non-functional tunnel of the particle accelerator. Each cell is configured by Cisco to contain a specific type of metahuman (even though visually they're identical). For example, the cell of Kyle Nimbus (the Mist) is hermetically sealed, meaning he can't escape even through a tiny crack. Shawna Baez (Peek-a-Boo) is a teleporter, but her ability requires that she see her destination. So, her cell is entirely opaque from the inside. Later on, Cisco's expertise is used to design the special metahuman wing of Iron Heights Penitentiary, although later they upgrade the wing with a PowerNullifier, so any cell will do.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E22TheSentence The Sentence]]" featured a mental version of these. People would serve out their sentences within a day of real time, but would in their minds experience their entire captivity in a prison like this.

** Lilith et.al. merely get out of the general Hell at the end of season two, and Dean goes there and is not considered a particular escape risk at the end of three, but season four revolves around keeping TheDevil in his, referred to as The Cage and locked with six hundred seals. And season five winds up being about putting him back in it--this time with his brother Michael, Sam, and Sam's half brother Adam. Sam gets out half a season later, but only with the help of [[DidWeJustHaveTeaWithCthulhu Death]].
** From season 6 onwards there's Purgatory, which in this setting is the holding tank for non-human souls, apparently including vampires, however that works. It later turns out [[spoiler:to have originally been built to contain the Leviathan, a race of horrible unkillable shape-shifting black slime things God didn't know how to unmake and was worried would "consume the rest of creation."]]

* ''Series/TheUmbrellaAcademy'' has [[spoiler: a soundproof cell underneath the Academy meant to hold [[ApocalypseMaiden Vanya]].]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero It fails]]. [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Very badly]].

*** And, of course, the demi-god/lich Vecna, whose complicated escape was engineered [[spoiler:[[TheChessmaster well before he was ever imprisoned]] and allowed to him to obtain true godhood and invade Sigil simultaneously, nearly [[OmnicidalManiac toppling the D&D cosmology entirely]].]] The particulars of his escape are sometimes considered the canon reason for the changes in 3rd Edition.

*** ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' ups the ante with the high-level spell ''binding'', which [[{{Troperiffic}} throws in a number of relevant tropes]]: the caster can make the binding ritual more reliable by having additional casters as assistants, and the effect comes in six different flavours, including physically binding the target to one location, [[KingInTheMountain sending it into a decades-long sleep]], permanently banishing it to a separate plane of existence, or [[SealedEvilInACan sealing it inside some small object]].

*** 5th Edition goes even further with the Maze spell. Powerful, boss level monsters are capable of ignoring most powerful disabling spells with their "Legendary Resistances," which lets them automatically succeed saving throws when they fail. The Maze spell seems to be custom designed to get around that limitation, as Maze does not give the enemy a saving throw and it requires an intelligence check, rather than a saving throw, to escape.
** The ''Pathfinder'' adventure path ''Legacy of Fire'' introduces a [[{{Golem}} construct]] called the ''tophet'' that's essentially an ''ambulatory'' Tailor-Made Prison. They're often commanded to convey prisoners [[KillItWithFire out into the desert at noon]]...or [[OxygenMeter underwater]]. (And that's just the ones that don't have nasty enchantments built right in.)

* ''TabletopGame/LegendOfTheFiveRings'' has the Tomb of Iuchiban, built when the Bloodspeaker was captured and turned out to be unkillable. The tomb encircles him with multiple levels of mundane and magical wards, and surrounds those with a DeathCourse of traps - not to keep him in, but to kill any of his followers trying to free him.

** And of course there's the persistent rumour that Sigil itself is a tailor made prison. For the Lady of Pain. Yup, the absolute supernatural ruler of the City of Doors is unable to leave.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'': The C'Tan, being ancient evil gods that have only recently woken up, tended to get hit with this trope. [[FromBadToWorse Strictly past tense at this point.]]
** [[GrimReaper The Nightbringer]] was trapped in a two-part dimensional prison with his star-eating ship of the same name. [[spoiler:Uriel Ventris prevented the ship from being freed, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but not the entity itself.]]]]

** This has been downplayed after the 5th edition retcon, as Necrons revolted and enslaved the C'tan. They now keep the C'tan in Tesseract Labyrinths, which are basically [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} pokeballs]] made by ''Series/DoctorWho''. However, said labyrinths are not totally reliable, and there is also the problem of what happens if multiple shards of the same C'tan merge together. Namely, a pissed off star god who is very upset with its former slaves...

* Toys/{{Bionicle}} gives us Avak. Belonging to a species that was subjected to an experiment GoneHorriblyWrong, he received the power to conjure cages made out of absolutely anything at will. These only exist as long as he keeps focusing, though.

* In ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'', the Caladonian authorities have a special jail cell that was custom-built by one of Arcanum's finest engineers to imprison J.T. Morgan, the world's greatest lock-picker.
* The ExpansionPack to ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal Throne of Bhaal]]'', adds one of these in the form of Watcher's Keep. It's a huge, elaborate prison, full of traps, puzzles, and even dips a little into alternate planes of existence. All to keep its prisoner safely under lock and key for all eternity. Said prisoner is none other than [[spoiler:Demogorgan, Prince of Demons!]]
* Killer Croc in ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' is kept in the deepest, darkest depths of Arkham, where the guards occasionally drop down some food for him and try to forget he even exists. This is because physically, Croc is the most dangerous inmate, and his [[IAmAHumanitarian feeding habits]] make him even worse.

* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock 2}}'''s Persephone prison has solitary confinement cells and the prison itself is suspended over a deep underwater trench.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'' games have [[spoiler:the Vault]], designed to hold [[spoiler:the Destroyer in 1 and the Warrior in 2]]. There's also the custom Eridium device used on [[spoiler:Angel]].

* The Allied victory in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2: Yuri's Revenge'' has Yuri Prime being captured, escorted by mind-shielded guards, and put in a special capsule where he would be unable to use his powers. NightmareFuel for anyone who is claustrophobic. It's literally like a hyper-advanced coffin, with Dentist equipment near his head.
--> '''General Carville''': He won't be able to mind-control a fly.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Deltarune}}'', Queen captures the Delta Warriors and Noelle and puts them in holding cells that incorporate their search history, since she's the personification of the Library's main computer. Fortunately, thanks to [[BigDamnHeroes Lancer popping out of Kris' "pants hole" and]] [[ItMakesSenseInContext ordering a thousand shovels for the room,]] Kris is able to escape and free the rest of the gang.
* Baal of the ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}}'' universe was imprisoned in a soulstone along with his two brothers. His, however, cracked and in order to contain him it was driven into the mind of the mage Tal Rasha, who would engage in an eternal Battle of Wills with the Prime Evil. On top of that, Tal Rasha was chained both literally and magically inside a very tightly sealed tomb, [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles among several, several other identical on the outside tombs]] in the middle of a killer desert. It didn't end well. On the other hand, it was apparently the only prison of the three that wasn't subverted from within by the Prime Evils- sucks to be Tal Rasha, but it ''did'' keep Baal trapped until Diablo showed up to break him out.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', the Grey Wardens constructed a fortress in the Vinmark Mountains that serves as a prison for numerous demons, but mostly to hold [[spoiler:[[BigBad Corypheus]], one of the first darkspawn]]. Notably, the magical seals on the prison must be occasionally renewed with BloodMagic from an untainted Mage, requiring them to use apostates outside of the Circle. Malcolm Hawke is revealed to have been the last mage to do so, having been forcibly coerced by the Warden unless he wanted anything [[ShameIfSomethingHappened bad to happen]] to [[IHaveYourWife Leandra]], who was pregnant with Hawke at the time. The ''Legacy DLC'' revolves around Hawke (and possibly their sibling) travelling to the prison to find out why the Carta are so determined to use their blood to break the seals and get into that prison.

* Adel, the tyrant sorceress and former ruler of Esthar in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'', is imprisoned in a stasis capsule suspended in orbit above the planet, and her powers are suppressed by an antimagic field so powerful that radio communication on the planet's surface is next to impossible.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': The [[FallenAngel Esper Ultima]] is sealed in Giruvegan's Great Crystal, behind a maze of force fields and teleporters, for [[spoiler:leading the Espers' rebellion against the [[JerkassGods Occuria]].]]

** [[spoiler:In essence, both the player character and the Hollow Knight are prisons to contain the Radiance. The Pale King created all of the [[EmptyShell Vessels]] specifically to house the Radiance, since her corruption of people's minds and wills wouldn't have an effect on a creature that lacked both. Out of the thousands of Vessels created, the Hollow Knight was the only one deemed "empty" enough to house the Radiance. This turned out to be a mistake, as the Hollow Knight DID end up having a will and was taken over by the Radiance, becoming a LeakingCanOfEvil.]]

** The eponymous creature in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' was trapped in the impact crater by a forcefield erected by the Chozo. In the American localization of the game, Space Pirates accidentally free it by digging under the forcefield and take it to be studied, although it escapes and returns to its lair. This was RetConned in the European localization and the English version of Metroid Prime Trilogy where it never got out. Samus has to collect the artifacts needed to open a passage into the crater and kill it.
* The BigBad of ''[[VideoGame/{{Mother3}} Mother 3]]'' [[spoiler:VideoGame/{{Earthbound}} Porky Minch]] has lived for thousands of years, and is both immortal and immobile. By his request, Dr. Andonuts created him an Absolutely Safe Capsule, to keep himself safe after his mecha breaks down. The catch is, being ''absolutely'' safe, there's no way out of the capsule, making it the only way to remove him from the fight permanently.

** The so-called Trap Books featured prominently in the game also might count. They work like Linking Books; however, due to a slight alteration, they link to a non-space between universes where a person can end up trapped forever, unable to move or interact with anything, their only view of the outside world being the panel they touched, and only if the book is open. A Trap Book only holds one, however, and if another person touches the panel while the book is occupied, the two switch places.
** After the {{retcon}} in ''VideoGame/MystIVRevelation'', the Trap Books seen in ''Myst'' and ''Riven'' are explained to simply link to Prison Ages - worlds where, as described above, there are no Linking Books leading back.

* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' inverts this, as the Velvet Room, an EldritchLocation which changes into a locale tailor-made for its current guest, becomes a prison for ''P5''[='=]s Protagonist.

** Furthermore, Ravel implies [[spoiler:that Sigil is the tailor-made prison of the Lady of Pain. The reason Ravel invaded the city with an army of devils was apparently an attempt to ''free'' her.]]

* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'': An entire world is turned into a massive prison, originally built to house one single prisoner: [[spoiler:the prison's own warden]].

* At the end of the story mode of ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' [[spoiler:Injustice!Superman is brought to the normal DC universe where they lock him up in a cell illuminated with lamps that simulate a red sun, nullifying his powers]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'' is a game all about this trope. The main character, The Stranger, is attempting to break out of his custom super-prison made of several large zones floating in orbit above the planet below, and to do so he has to defeat the Jailer of each zone, who are the best warriors the planet has to offer, [[spoiler:including the one who put him in the prison to begin with.]] The "tailor-made" aspect of the trope becomes very poignant when its revealed that [[spoiler:The Stranger is a WalkingWasteland who could render miles of land desolate simply by going for a run--ironically, the only place in the world that would not waste away was within his own tailor-made prison.]]

* Othar Tryggvassen, GentlemanAdventurer!, of ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is introduced imprisoned in one of these in Castle Wulfenbach. He tries to get Agatha to release him from it, thinking her to be the MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter (she didn't do it, not wanting to be the easily [[UnwittingPawn duped minion]] that sets the insanely dangerous experiment free). [[AuthorAvatar "Professor Phil Foglio"]] is later found and [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20060726 inadvertently freed]] by a group seeking to rescue Agatha in Sturmhalten. He's '''singing''', "[[IncrediblyLamePun Oubliette, oubladaa, life goes on, yeah!]]". It was a pit filled with the bones of all those who pissed off the local Prince. The rescue party also ended up in another one but a comrade they'd been separated from earlier showed up through a secret door and let them out.
* In ''Webcomic/GrrlPower'' some of the supervillains from the "brawl" are shown in prison cells specifically designed to inhibit their powers. One who could create portals is put in a pressurized cell so that opening a portal would cause explosive decompression. While the violence-powered guy who started the whole thing is kept in solitary confinement with cute video games, My Little Pony posters, and a constant stream of marijuana smoke.

* The web novel ''{{Literature/Worm}}'' features The Birdcage, a prison designed to hold supervillians on life sentences. It is designed to counter a huge variety of superpowers through both active and passive measures, most of which are spectacularly lethal to those who attempt to escape. An escape is eventually effected with the aid of an individual on the outside who has the ability to create dimensional portals, but even that required cooperation from the prison's controllers.

* In the ''Literature/WhateleyUniverse'', there are a few of these for the really high-class super-powered individuals, from Roxbury C (around Boston) to the Thunder Mountain Penitentiary, which is specially prepared for [[FlyingBrick bricks]] and ragers. The biggest of all we've seen so far is the Arkham Research Consortiate's, at ''that'' [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Arkham]], where they don't just keep the most demented reality warpers [[HumanPopsicle on ice]], but a number of [[CosmicHorror eldritch abominations]] as well.

** The Boiling Rock, which includes firebenders, uses special "cooling cells" to imprison rowdy firebenders. The cells were so cold they couldn't muster up the heat to firebend. Zuko used his fire breathing to keep warm and remove the fastening bolts from the inside.
** Waterbenders were likewise kept suspended in metal cages far from the ground and water, as well as having hot, dry air pumped in. When they were given water, their arms and legs were fastened. Hama got out by learning to manipulate the blood in living beings.
** Earthbenders are imprisoned on an offshore metal rig. They eventually broke free by using the coal from the boiler room to earthbend. Later, Toph gets trapped in a steel cage, with her captors convinced that she can't escape because she can't bend metal. However, this just helped Toph to discover metalbending. Next time, she was locked up in a prison... made of wood. Thankfully, Katara was with her and she was able to collect enough sweat to waterbend blades that cut through the bars.

** Even airbenders can't escape the Fire Nation's obsession with tailor made prisons. When Aang was captured by General Zhao, he was bound hand and foot in taut chains to avoid him airbending. Though he could still blow with his mouth, he was trapped so completely Zhao threatened they would keep him imprisoned until he died to avoid the hassle of searching for the next Avatar. Good thing the [[MaskPower Blue Spirit]] came along!
** In third season of the sequel series ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', Zaheer and his gang of benders were kept in these by the White Lotus. [[DishingOutDirt Earthbender]] Ghazan was caged on a wooden platform in the middle of the ocean, [[MakingASplash waterbender]] Ming-Hua was suspended over a volcano, and [[PlayingWithFire firebender]] P'Li was kept deep underground in a glacier. Zaheer himself was a [[BadassNormal non-bender]] and was simply taken to a secluded location high on a mountain. Unfortunately for the White Lotus, [[spoiler:he [[EmpoweredBadassNormal develops the ability]] to [[BlowYouAway airbend]] following Harmonic Convergence. This gives him the edge he needs to escape, whereupon he sets out to free his teammates.]]
*** In Book Four, [[spoiler:[[SoleSurvivor the recaptured Zaheer]] gets a new and improved one. This time, it's in a large cavern inside a mountain. He is manacled hand and foot and chained to the ground, limiting his movements to a well-defined circle in the center, and the only way in or out is through a double set of massive, bulkhead-like sliding doors that require several metalbenders to lift or lower. He doesn't escape from this one.]]
* Probably the most dangerous villain in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' is Inque. She came closer to killing Terry than any other villain - even Blight - likely did, and he was ''never'' able to defeat her alone. She is [[WeaksauceWeakness vulnerable to severe cold]], however, so when he apprehended her that way, they figured the best way to hold her was to simply keep her frozen. And it might have held her for good if the guy in charge of watching her [[TooDumbToLive hadn't developed a weird crush on her]].
* Used against the heroes ''by'' the villain in ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'' - GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe with phasing powers Mira Nova was put in a cell that played loud noises to keep her from concentrating, TheBigGuy Booster was stuffed into a cell with bouncy sides so he couldn't break out, and RobotBuddy XR was manacled with all of his limbs extended to their limits. Backfired hilariously, as Booster considered the bouncy cell to be the ''funnest thing ever'' (its the ultimate bounce house), and XR saying Zurg was doing a better job than his chiropractor. Mira meanwhile comments that the alarms are "a little annoying", but hardly ''torture''. Zurg counters that the ''true'' torture is seeing her teammates being tortured in front of her, [[ForcedToWatch unable to do anything but watch]]. Mira looks at her teammates having the time of their lives, looks back at him and smirks.
* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/{{Freakazoid}}'' when Freak ends up not only revealing his weakness to Gutierrez, but also helps ''build the cage to trap him''. Freakazoid kicks himself for it while Gutierrez {{lampshade}}s it all.

** [[EvilTwin Lord Batman]] creates restraints to hold the League, which League Batman finds impossible to get out of, since his counterpart thought of every trick he would use to escape. He also had some extra precautions, like a shield over Superman's eyes to stop him using his heat vision. However, he only thought of everything ''Batman'' would do, and Flash tricks him into letting him out by faking a heart attack.
** Doomsday from ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' was imprisoned in one by Project Cadmus after Justice Lord {{Superman}} lobotomised him, as he was literally impossible to kill. He escapes from it with the help of a wronged minor villain, goes right back to getting his revenge on Superman, is encased in magma from a volcanic eruption, and banished to the Phantom Zone.

* In the TV series ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPandaLegendsOfAwesomeness'' episode 'Owl Be Back', there are two; an owl-shaped cage for Fenghuang, and a panda shaped one for Po when it's feared he's turning evil. It also lampshades the above example by stating Po "[[NeverSayDie obliterating]]" Tai Lung ''put the guards out of work'', and one in particular really holds a grudge toward Po about it.

** The treasure of Crystal Cove is actually [[spoiler:a TailorMadePrison for the Nibiru Entity. The device that trapped it was also its only connection to our world.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'': In "Sonic Breakout". Sonic lets himself get captured in order to break a comic artist out of Robotnik's newly constructed prison, but he overestimated Robotnik's stupidity. Point of fact, Robotnik had built an entire specialized wing of the prison just for Sonic, meticulously designed to counter every one of his abilities and activate upon seeing his blue fur. [[spoiler:Sonic still escapes in the end by duping the system's color-trigger with a poster of himself taped to Grounder's back, which causes the security system to attack Grounder and Scratch, leaving him to get away]].
* On ''WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan,'' ComicBook/NormanOsborn's company is hired to make these for all the new supervillains (which is ironic, since [[PlayingBothSides he was also involved in their creation]]). Sandman's was designed to use air pressure to keep him from escaping, while Rhino's released [[InstantSedation tranquilizer gas]] if he tried. Their escape was due to [[PsychoElectro Electro]] blowing the power to the whole prison.
** In "[[PrisonEpisode Opening Night]]" we see Rhino and [[PlayingWithFire Mark/Molten Man]] in a separate area of the prison. Presumably this means that Mark's cell is also designed specially, but we do not see how. (Not that it makes much difference, since [[PowerIncontinence he can't control his power]] anyway.)
* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', it's revealed that ComicBook/CaptainAmerica and the Red Skull have been stuck in what is one of these, "outside of time", since the ending days of WWII. When they get released, Skull gets back to his old shenanigans, and is such a hassle that Cap makes a HeroicSacrifice by dragging him back into the machine that sent them into the pocket dimension all over again.
** Dr Octopus was kept in a prison cell that were made to hold his tentacles.

** Superman in the DCAU has several point been held up in cells that had red sun light sent in to cancel out his powers. When [[spoiler:Hawkgirl betrayed the team in the Justice League]], each of the team was put in a personalized cell to counter their powers, as mentioned above.
** [[KillItWithFire Fire-based]] super villain Volcana got this treatment. Her cell was a hermetically sealed vacuum filled with fire-retardent gases, with the only source of oxygen being a face mask hooked up to a tube, which can be cut off if she gets any ideas.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', Professor X is called away to deal with a situation at the Tailor-Made Prison holding his brother (usually best known as the Juggernaut), whose security has been tampered with. Since the prisoner's supervillain name often gets prefixed with "the unstoppable" for very good reason, he's kept asleep in a liquid-filled tank without his helmet and ''still'' chained up just in case. Tension mounts when the safeguards need to be shut down and restarted properly, which allows him to start waking up...though in something of a subversion, while he does snap his chains without even trying hard, he's rendered unconscious again at just about the last moment before he can ''really'' start to move. (It turns out that the whole threat of Juggernaut getting loose was merely a distraction to get the Professor out of the way, allowing [[spoiler:a shapeshifted Mystique to infiltrate the school and acquire Cerebro's files on the X-Men]] without getting caught.)
* In ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'', the Plumbers planned on placing Vilgax in one of these. To prevent Vilgax from [[ManipulativeBastard manipulating anyone into helping him to escape]] the Plumbers were going to send him to an entirely automated prison complex with him as the sole inmate.
* The Electric Eel on ''WesternAnimation/{{Underdog}}'' was captured in a large glass jar, which neutralized his "electric shocking power."
* In ''[[SamuraiJack/TropesSeason5 Samurai Jack]]'', Lazarus-93 was kept in a prison drifting through outer space. There was an entire crew tasked solely with monitoring it and containing it if it ever broke loose, and onboard was a weapon designed specifically to kill Lazarus if things got out of hand. The prison-spaceship also has a LostWoods design in which anyone who wanders through the hallways will wind up in random areas of the ship, presumably as a means to keep an escaped Lazarus from emerging outside. This all goes awry when the ship impacts an asteroid--while the ship is physically unharmed from the collision, it sends the ship off course and onto Earth, upon which Lazarus breaks out and kills everyone else on board, requiring Jack and his new friend Ashi to defeat it.
* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'':

** When the Hive Five are hunting Kid Flash, Madame Rouge specifically instructs them to not feed him or speak to him, and to hold him in a "level 4 containment field" at all times. Unfortunately, this conversation happens ''[[YouAreTooLate after]]'' they've captured him and are keeping him in a regular cage, which he phased out of several times to grab food, having completely missed that he can phase through solid matter.

* Back in the 19th century the worst prisoners spared from death penalty were boxed in into tiny alcoves that were then bricked shut save for a window through which they were fed. In practice this was a far more cruel punishment than death, as it meant slowly wasting away from infections - apparently the builders thought that NobodyPoops. [[CruelAndUnusualDeath Or they didn't care]].

* Robert Maudsley, a British serial killer, was sent to prison in 1973. Whilst there he tortured and killed several people, allegedly cannibalising one, until in 1983 it was decided he was too dangerous for a normal cell. He now is kept for 23 hours a day in a glass cell where the bed is a concrete slab, the toilet and sink are bolted to the floor, and the only other thing he has is a chair and desk made from compressed cardboard. He is escorted for one hour a day to an empty yard to exercise under the supervision of six guards. The cell was made eight years before Silence of the Lambs used it for our other famous cannibal.

[[caption-width-right:350:"You know this plastic prison of theirs won't hold [[ComicBook/{{Magneto}} me]] forever, Charles."]]

A personal [[TheAlcatraz Alcatraz]] made with special precautions to stop this one person from escaping. If they have a [[StockSuperPowers super power]], then it likely incorporates either a PowerNullifier or mechanisms that are power-proof.

* As in the [[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender show]], the Fire Nation keeps imprisoned waterbenders in cages suspended off the ground, far away from water. And they are given only the bare minimum of food and water to survive.

* ''Videogame/HalfLifeAlyx:'' The gigantic floating Vault you see above you throughout most of the game is eventually known to be a prison of this sort. The sheer amount of measures taken, from merely advanced machinery for confinement, backup shield and antigravity generators in case of attack and failure of the ground-based facilities and even enslaved Vortigaunts (which the Combine cannot control and usually exterminate due to being part of the rebellion) just to siphon their Vortessence to power whatever utterly unconventional mechanisms the prison needs to function, indicate that whatever is inside is something the Combine are bowel-voidingly ''terrified'' of. The Rebellion is convinced it's Gordon Freeman... [[spoiler:it actually turns out to be ''[[HumanoidAbomination the G-Man]]'', who takes his imprisonment as nonchalantly as a man waiting for a doctor's appointment and thus leaves one wondering if even all that was enough]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/AllDogsGoToHeaven'', Anne-Marie ends up in what amounts to a gigantic birdcage suspended over an almost bottomless pit at one point.

* In ''Film/{{Labyrinth}}'', upon solving a KnightsAndKnaves style riddle, Sarah falls into a pit of hands, leading to an Oubliette.

** Also of note is the way SelfDemonstrating/SuperboyPrime has been confined over the years. When [[Franchise/TheFlash The Flashes]] drew him into the Speed Force, he was kept in a place with only red sunlight until he was able to build a set of armor that converted it into yellow sunlight. When ''Comicbook/InfiniteCrisis'' ended, the Guardians Of The Universe locked him in a special Sciencell inside a red Sun Eater, which was itself guarded at all times by fifty [[Franchise/GreenLantern Green Lanterns]]. Then after he was rescued by the Sinestro Corp and landed in the future, he was sent back to Earth Prime. This was maybe the most hellish prison of all, since he got what he wanted and was sent home, only to find his parents knew everything he'd done and he was hated and unloved by everyone, unable to get back to the comic book world - not that he wanted to. When he finally ''did'' get drawn back, he tried to kill Conner Kent and ended up imprisoned in the Source Wall for his trouble.

* Mag Mel from ''Anime/{{Bakugan}}'' got this treatment, both because he's a very powerful villain and because he [[spoiler: is the former BigBad, the power hungry Emperor Barodius, who in his quest for more power than he already had attempted to]] perform '''genocide''' [[spoiler:on the peaceful planet of Neathia]]. [[spoiler:Code Eve]] imprisoned him in armor [[MadeOfEvil created from his own evil]], sealed him in another dimension, ''and'' bound him to his own throne with magical webbing. Yeah, this guy was so evil he got ''an entire dimension'' turned into a prison and then had ''more'' levels of imprisonment put in place just for him. He eventually breaks free by absorbing energy from his PsychicLink with TheHero, which [[spoiler:Code Eve]] didn't know about when she put him in there.

** The multiple-series comic arc ''ComicBook/{{Vector}}'' focuses on a Jedi named Celeste Morne who lived 4,000 years before the films. The arc ends 130 years ''after'' the films. Morne survives the first nearly-4,000 years thanks to the Tailor-Made Prison of Lord Dreypa, which works as basically an indestructible Bag-of-Holding version of this trope. How does she get out? She's released 18 years before the original trilogy. Who's the idiot who releases her? [[spoiler:Darth Vader]]. Another one figures in the ''ComicBook/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' comic series (where Vector begins), but this time it's used only as suspended animation to hold an old woman for a month or so to keep her from dying. [[spoiler: It also keeps her from stopping the BigBad from ripping a nice schism in the Jedi Order, in a XanatosGambit planned out by said BigBad. She gets released eventually and dies within thirty minutes.]]

* ''FanFic/EscapeFromTheMoon'': [[spoiler: Doa's lunar station was designed as one for her.]]

** [[spoiler: Demonreach]] functions as this, as in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', with Doctor Strange mentioning that it was built by him and Merlin with notes cribbed from [[ComicBook/DoctorStrange Agamotto's]] original design for [[{{ComicBook/Shazam}} the Rock of Eternity]].
** As it turns out, Yggdrasil was a ''very'' carefully designed one for Surtur a.k.a. [[spoiler: the original Dark Phoenix]] by the Alliance of Realms (the Nine Realms minus Helheim/Niflheim and Muspelheim, Surtur's own realm), reaching across multiple dimensions. It's also specifically designed to function as an energy siphon to drain power off him and enhance a champion (originally, Frey, the First King of Asgard) to take him on and stall him for long enough to lock him away, with the bearer of that power, now known as the Odinforce, taking the role of Chief Warden. Due to the nature of its construction, there are only two ways in or out: one is through Niflheim/Helheim, which as [[TheUnderworld a Realm of the Dead]] siphons life and power off spirits in particular - something Surtur, an EnergyBeing, is particularly vulnerable to. The other, the only real flaw in the entire prison, is through a relatively small crack in Nidavaellir, which is covered by the Seal of Muspelheim. Despite numerous escape attempts, and Surtur's most powerful servants, the Great Captains, remaining at large, it's held for over a million years. Unfortunately, the events of Book 1 lead to the Seal being cracked, and a lot of Book 2 is spent trying to prevent it from cracking further (or at least, not until everyone's prepared to deal with the consequences).

** Likewise, Ahmanet in the [[{{Film/TheMummy2017}} 2017 reboot]] is also sealed alive in a sarcophagus and submerged in a pit full of mercury to weaken her magical powers.
*** Subverted later in the movie. [[spoiler: The folks at Prodigium are able to restrain the mummy pretty well, even though they had to improvise a prison based on the little information they had about her beforehand.]]

** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'': Subverted. The concrete cell under the Pentagon was not built specifically for Magneto, but simply constructed that way because steel was being rationed at the time. It still holds him quite well, though.
*** Though it is played straight with other aspects of the prison such as the plastic guns issued to the guards to prevent him from controlling them.

** [[spoiler: Demonreach]] is revealed to be this in ''Literature/ColdDays'', with Dresden having unwittingly become the Warden in ''Literature/TurnCoat'' - he thought that it was just an ordinary, if horrifyingly powerful and creepy, GeniusLoci powered by a very strong dark Ley Line. As it turns out, it's the ultimate super-max for dark gods and immortals, with each inmate getting their own CrystalPrison, and it was built in both space ''and'' time (and, [[TheSmartGuy Bob]] - who's initially stumped by it and has to have it dumbed down significantly to get it, before dumbing it down further for Harry - implies, several dimensions beyond that), its defenses are so strong that once Harry works them out, he's pretty confident (but not totally certain) that he can take ''Mab'' while on the island, with a physical embodiment of it being theoretically capable of imprisoning her. Oh, and if it's ever broken open, it'll trigger 'the Banefire', an explosion that would apparently take out approximately half of the Mid-Western United States. This is {{Justified}}: it's a prison so hard that ''six'' borderline {{Physical God}}s are in ''minimum security'', with seven apparently infinite tunnels full of dark gods and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* ''Literature/LegacyOfTheDragokin'': Zarracka has a custom-made cell to negate her ice powers. It has successfully held her for ten years [[spoiler: and she never escapes from it. Her jailer, Daniar, was so paranoid about her breaking free while she was gone, that she took the [[AnIcePerson Ice Person]] with her to another country and she escaped from a weaker cell.]]
* In ''The Black Prism'', the first book of ''Literature/TheLightBringerTrilogy'', Gavin Guile creates a [[HardLight blue luxin]] prison with a [[PowerNullifier hellstone]] floor. It's designed to hold a Prism, such as his brother. [[spoiler: There's more cells beyond the first, each with the same design.]] Notably enough the difficulty of creating the prison is made explicit and the immense cost of the power nullifying hellstone is pointed out [[spoiler: offering an early hint that the prison's designer wasn't exactly sane.]]

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': Finch locks Root up in a section of the library base where she'll have no access to any electronic devices, which [[TheCracker are her biggest strengths]]. She also ends up wearing an ankle monitor, and just in case she somehow ends up smuggling a device into her cell, [[CrazyPrepared Finch turned the entire thing into a Faraday cage]], so no signals would get in anyway. She ends up escaping rather easily anyway [[spoiler: with some assistance from the Machine]], which is ultimately revealed to be able to communicate with her in [[spoiler: high-pitched Morse code]], which the cell wouldn't be able to block out.

** From season 6 onwards there's Purgatory, which in this setting is the holding tank for non-human souls, apparently including vampires, however that works. It later turns out [[spoiler: to have originally been built to contain the Leviathan, a race of horrible unkillable shape-shifting black slime things God didn't know how to unmake and was worried would "consume the rest of creation."]]

*** There's Lord Soth of Dragonlance, who was released for just completely giving up on either escape or furthering any of his goals. This either made him too boring to keep around, or [[spoiler: made him the first to make the personal change required to be released. Ravenloft punishes the Dread Lords by forever denying them their evil obsessions. Giving up that obsession (briefly) could be considered redemptive.]] Or a Dragonlance author was annoyed that Ravenloft had usurped a character she wanted to use and let him out.
*** And, of course, the demi-god/lich Vecna, whose complicated escape was engineered [[spoiler: [[TheChessmaster well before he was ever imprisoned]] and allowed to him to obtain true godhood and invade Sigil simultaneously, nearly [[OmnicidalManiac toppling the D&D cosmology entirely]].]] The particulars of his escape are sometimes considered the canon reason for the changes in 3rd Edition.

** [[GrimReaper The Nightbringer]] was trapped in a two-part dimensional prison with his star-eating ship of the same name. [[spoiler: Uriel Ventris prevented the ship from being freed, [[NiceJobBreakingItHero but not the entity itself.]]]]

** However this has been downplayed after the 5th edition retcon, as Necrons revolted and enslaved the C'tan, they now use tesseract labyrinth which is basically a [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} pokeball]] made by ''Series/DoctorWho''.
** However said labyrinths are not totally reliable, and there is also the problem of what happens if multiple shards of the same C'tan merge together. Namely, a pissed off star god who is very upset with its former slaves...

* The ExpansionPack to ''VideoGame/BaldursGateII'', ''[[VideoGame/BaldursGateIIThroneOfBhaal Throne of Bhaal]]'', adds one of these in the form of Watcher's Keep. It's a huge, elaborate prison, full of traps, puzzles, and even dips a little into alternate planes of existence. All to keep its prisoner safely under lock and key for all eternity. Said prisoner is none other than [[spoiler: Demogorgan, Prince of Demons!]]

* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'', the Grey Wardens constructed a fortress in the Vinmark Mountains that serves as a prison for numerous demons, but mostly to hold [[spoiler: [[BigBad Corypheus]], one of the first darkspawn]]. Notably, the magical seals on the prison must be occasionally renewed with BloodMagic from an untainted Mage, requiring them to use apostates outside of the Circle. Malcolm Hawke is revealed to have been the last mage to do so, having been forcibly coerced by the Warden unless he wanted anything [[ShameIfSomethingHappened bad to happen]] to [[IHaveYourWife Leandra]], who was pregnant with Hawke at the time. The ''Legacy DLC'' revolves around Hawke (and possibly their sibling) travelling to the prison to find out why the Carta are so determined to use their blood to break the seals and get into that prison.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' has one of these for [[spoiler: Corvus]]. Guess what you're [[StupidityIsTheOnlyOption forced to do]]?

** The Black Egg Temple was made specifically to house the Hollow Knight. The door was hermetically sealed by [[spoiler:the Dreamers]], and your entire journey through the game takes place in order to find a way to open it. [[spoiler: After opening the door, you find a large room filled with massive Seals of Binding, all enveloping the Hollow Knight's prison. The prison itself is a relatively small room, filled with chains, all keeping the Hollow Knight bound and suspended above the ground. The Hollow Knight's armor even has big metal loops on the shoulders for the chains to go through.]]
** [[spoiler: In essence, both the player character and the Hollow Knight are prisons to contain the Radiance. The Pale King created all of the [[EmptyShell Vessels]] specifically to house the Radiance, since her corruption of people's minds and wills wouldn't have an effect on a creature that lacked both. Out of the thousands of Vessels created, the Hollow Knight was the only one deemed "empty" enough to house the Radiance. This turned out to be a mistake, as the Hollow Knight DID end up having a will and was taken over by the Radiance, becoming a LeakingCanOfEvil.]]
* As might be expected [[AndIMustScream based on the source material]], ''VideoGame/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'' heavily features this trope. [[BigBad AM]] keeps its five human prisoners trapped in specially-made cells that reinforce their own personal hells (Ellen, for example, is sealed inside an elevator car that's painted yellow, reflecting [[spoiler: her being raped by a man dressed in yellow inside an elevator]]). Later, AM expands the cells into full-on virtual reality simulations of the group's worst nightmares; players are tasked with choosing the right actions to overcome AM's traps and beat the insane computer at his own game.

* ''VideoGame/SaGaFrontier'': An entire world is turned into a massive prison, originally built to house one single prisoner: [[spoiler: the prison's own warden]].

* At the end of the story mode of ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' [[spoiler: Injustice!Superman is brought to the normal DC universe where they lock him up in a cell illuminated with lamps that simulate a red sun, nullifying his powers]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Furi}}'' is a game all about this trope. The main character, The Stranger, is attempting to break out of his custom super-prison made of several large zones floating in orbit above the planet below, and to do so he has to defeat the Jailer of each zone, who are the best warriors the planet has to offer, [[spoiler: including the one who put him in the prison to begin with.]] The "tailor-made" aspect of the trope becomes very poignant when its revealed that [[spoiler:The Stranger is a WalkingWasteland who could render miles of land desolate simply by going for a run--ironically, the only place in the world that would not waste away was within his own tailor-made prison.]]

** Superman in the DCAU has several point been held up in cells that had red sun light sent in to cancel out his powers. When [[spoiler: Hawkgirl betrayed the team in the Justice League]], each of the team was put in a personalized cell to counter their powers, as mentioned above.

* ''ComicBook/{{WITCH}}'': Kandrakar's prison, the Tower of Mists, traps its occupants by forming the cells according to one's flaws.