History Main / WelcomeToTheBigCity

* Happens to Altar Boy when he first arrives in ''Comicbook/AstroCity''. Fortunately for him, the Crossbreed are there to ''gently persuade'' the pickpocket to return his wallet.

* Happens to Altar Boy when he first arrives in ''Comicbook/AstroCity''. It also leads to his first encounter with superheroes when the Crossbreed stop the pickpocket.

* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'': Princess Giselle is magically transported from her idyllic Fairytale world to the middle of New York City, still in her poofy white princess dress. Almost immediately a hobo steals her tiara. We then get an extended scene of Giselle being pushed around, yelled at and freaking out at the terror of NYC rush hour.

* ''Film/DorianGray2009'' has Dorian arrive at the London main station and confronted with children trying to steal from him and women offering their services to him right away.

* Flik in ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''. He doesn't get mugged or attacked (it's hardly as if he had anything on him), but he does get mocked by a couple of street performers and pushed around by passerbys.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Robots}}'', almost as soon as Rodney steps off the train, Creator/RobinWilliams tries to con him and a shifty robot [[CoatFullOfContraband tries to sell him a watch]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'', the first people Hercules meets in Thebes are a crazy person ranting about the world ending, and a [[CoatFullOfContraband shady guy who opens his cape full of sundials.]] Thebes is kind of obviously a stand-in for New York in this movie.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy Hopps is all excited for her first day on the job with the Zootopia Police Department. Then she gets stuck with parking duty, and finds [[DaChief Chief Bogo]] doesn't think much of her as a "diversity hire". ''Then'' she has an encounter with [[ConArtist Nick Wilde]], who not only hustles her but reads her like a book and [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids punches a big hole in her dreams and ambitions]].

* ''Film/ThePictureOfDorianGray'' (the 2010 movie) has Dorian arrive at the London main station and confronted with children trying to steal from him and women offering their services to him right away.
* In ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse2007'', "Come Together" is used as a song about this when Jojo first arrives in New York. Nothing bad actually happens to him, but he's obviously traumatized.

* The BatmanColdOpen of ''Film/Batman1989'' establishes Gotham City as a WretchedHive by showing a hapless tourist family getting accosted by beggars, prostitutes, and finally, a pair of armed robbers.
* In ''Film/CrocodileDundee'', our title character is mugged pretty soon after he gets to the big city, but the mugger's switchblade is no match for Dundee's bowie knife.
* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', Luke is established to be a somewhat naive farmhand with no "street smarts" yet. His first time in Mos Eisley's "WretchedHive of scum and villainy" almost gets him killed by a pair of goons in the cantina who were looking for an easy mark to pick on. Too bad they didn't know Luke had a retired Jedi Knight along with him.
* In the 1984 film ''Film/{{Tightrope}}'', Creator/ClintEastwood's character tells of how he fell in love with New Orleans from the moment he first arrived carrying all his belongings in a suitcase. His LoveInterest asks if he ever reconsidered this. He says, "Yes, when I looked down and saw my suitcase was missing."
* ''Film/{{Enchanted}}'': Princess Giselle is magically transported from her idyllic Fairytale world to the middle of New York City, still in her poofy white princess dress. Almost immediately a hobo steals her tiara. We then get an extended scene of Giselle being pushed around, yelled at and freaking out at the terror of NYC rush hour.
* ''Film/{{Bill}}'': As Bill walks through London for the first time, people are coughing and vomiting from plague, a brutal stabbing takes place in an alley just behind him and a thief swipes his luggage.

If they're used to getting up with the sun, they'll have their sleep rudely disturbed by rowdy nightclubbers, obnoxious neighbors, construction work, subway trains or all of the above.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E5DancinHomer Dancin' Homer]]", the first thing Homer sees when coming to Capital City is an old lady being robbed on the sidewalk. The slow the car down to gawk at it like it's a landmark.

->''"You know where you are? You in the jungle, baby! YOU GONNA DIE!"''
-->-- '''Music/GunsNRoses''', "Welcome to the Jungle"

* In ''Film/AcrossTheUniverse'', "Come Together" is used as a song about this when Jojo first arrives in New York. Nothing bad actually happens to him, but he's obviously traumatized.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', Luke is established to be a somewhat naive farmhand with no "street smarts" yet. His first time in Mos Eisley almost gets him killed by a pair of goons in the cantina who were looking for an easy mark to pick on. Too bad they didn't know Luke had a retired Jedi Knight along with him.

* In the 1984 film ''Tightrope'', Creator/ClintEastwood's character tells of how he fell in love with New Orleans from the moment he first arrived carrying all his belongings in a suitcase. His LoveInterest asks if he ever reconsidered this. He says, "Yes, when I looked down and saw my suitcase was missing."

* In ''Film/{{Bill}}'', Shakespeare gets picked clean by thieves and pickpockets as soon as arrives: mostly without him noticing as he gapes open mouthed at the wonders of London.

* Inverted in ''Series/TheBigBangTheory''. After a break-in in their apartment, Sheldon decides that Pasadena is too dangerous, so he moves to Bozman, Montana, which he determines it's the safest city in America. (It's also where aliens first make contact, according to ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact''.) The moment he arrives, his bags are stolen. He immediately buys a ticket back to Pasadena.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS2E5DancinHomer Dancin' Homer]]", the first thing Homer sees when coming to Capital City is an old lady being robbed on the sidewalk.

%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions66

[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1_190.png]]]]

* This is essentially what happens with Lindsay arrives from Bozeman, Montana in ''Series/{{CSINY}}'''s, "Zoo York" in the sense of her plunging right into a gritty, dirty case involving a man found dead and mostly devoured in a tiger exhibit.

* In ''Disney/{{Hercules}}'', the first people Hercules meets in Thebes are a crazy person ranting about the world ending, and a [[CoatFullOfContraband shady guy who opens his cape full of sundials.]] Thebes is kind of obviously a stand-in for New York in this movie.
* In ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy Hopps is all excited for her first day on the job with the Zootopia Police Department. Then she gets stuck with parking duty, and finds [[DaChief Chief Bogo]] doesn't think much of her as a "diversity hire". ''Then'' she has an encounter with [[ConArtist Nick Wilde]], who not only hustles her but reads her like a book and [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids punches a big hole in her dreams and ambitions]].

** In ''Discworld/SoulMusic'', Imp Y Celyn moves from Llamedos to Ankh-Morpork, and tries some busking. As buskers do, he puts a few coins in his bowl as "seed money". The next time he looks down, they've gone.
** Carrot's arrival in Ankh in ''Discworld/GuardsGuards''; he doesn't get robbed himself, but he doesn't cope well with the idea that theft is ''legal'' (and that the Watch are probably closer to criminals than the Thieves' Guild are). Although he's so naive he doesn't ''notice'' the prostitution, even when he's [[NeedAHandOrAHandjob staying at]] [[MissKitty Mrs. Palm's]].
** In ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', Lu Tze says the first thing that happened to him in Ankh-Morpork was he learned "a valuable lesson in the ridiculousness of material things" when some people took it upon themselves to "welcome" him to the city in this way.

* This is essentially what happens with Lindsay arrives from Bozeman on ''Series/{{CSI NY}}'', in the sense of her plunging right into a gritty, dirty case involving a man found dead in a tiger exhibit.

* In ''Theatre/MySisterEileen'' and its musical version ''Theatre/WonderfulTown'', Ruth and Eileen are just handing over their first month's rent to [[{{Landlord}} Mr. Appopolous]] when a tremendous explosion is heard from underneath--it's blasting for a new subway. Appopolous tries to tell them that they'll get used to it, but the sisters say they want their money back. He tells them: "Listen--in New York you either live, A, over a subway, or, B, where they're building a subway, or C, you don't live in New York!" After he makes a bargain with them and leaves, Eileen tells Ruth that maybe they should have tried Cleveland first. They try to get some sleep on their all too stiff beds, but are repeatedly roused by impolite forms of city life, as well as further booms from below. It doesn't help that Ruth's bed is directly under the street lamp, with no window shade to block the light.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]

-->'''Joe's Letter''': "Dear mom, I made it to [[UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity New York]] safe and sou--\\
'''Mugger''': HEADS UP PIN-HEAD! ''[whack!]''\\
'''Joe''': Dear mom, I made it to New Yor--\\
'''Mugger #2''': HEADS UP PIN-HEAD! ''[whack!]''\\
'''Joe''': Dear mom--\\
'''Mugger #3''': HEADS UP PIN-HEAD!\\
'''Joe''': ...send money."

* Benton Fraser in the pilot movie of ''Series/DueSouth'', except that--as befits the general theme of the show--some of it ends up coming out right in the end (e.g., the panhandler he "loans" $100 to returns it at the end of the episode).

--> '''Cliff:''' Welcome to the big city.\\

* The first thing the title character in ''{{Series/Merlin 2008}}'' (who starts off as a teenager in this version) saw when he arrived at [[ShiningCity Camelot]] is the execution of a magic user, and he was born having magic.

[[folder:Theatre]]

* In one of the ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' games, [[KidHero Lan]] travels from Electopia (read: Japan) to Netopia (which is pretty obviously a stand-in for America), and gets robbed the moment he steps off the plane. Then he gets robbed again. Then he has to go to the ghetto and fight a ScaryBlackMan [[SoLongAndThanksForAllTheGear (using only the crappy chips he has left)]] to track down his stuff.

--> '''Chelsea:''' I've lived in New York City for three years and you wait 'til now to mug me?
* ''WebComic/{{Precocious}}'':

[[BigApplesauce New York City]] is a popular venue for this.

[[quoteright:349:[[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/simpsonspickpocket.png]]]]

!!As seen in: