History Main / YouAllMeetInACell

-->--'''''ZeroPunctuation''''' on '''''[[{{Oblivion}} The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'''''

** In ''TheElderScrolls: Arena'', your character is in prison because you had incurred the displeasure of the BigBad.
** ''In TheElderScrolls II: Daggerfall'', your character suffered a shipwreck and found him/herself washed up in a cave that connected to a dungeon. Not technically a prisoner, but it amounts to the same thing.
** In ''TheElderScrolls III: Morrowind'' you start as a prisoner aboard an imperial ship, you are about to be released. The first spoken words in the game are the daedra Azura speaking to you in a dream, saying: "They have taken you from the Imperial City's prison".
** In ''TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion'', you're just someone who apparently nobody recognizes in a prison cell for no reason ever revealed. It's implied you were teleported there by a god. {{Lampshaded}} when one of your first dialogue options is, effectively, "Why am I in prison?" (implying that not even the character knows how he/she got there), to which the response can best be paraphrased as "[[TheyJustDidntCare Who knows]]? [[AWizardDidIt Maybe it was the work of the Gods?]]"
** To the surprise of none, you will begin your adventures in ''{{Skyrim}}'' as a prisoner...[[ItGotWorse and you're on your way to be executed.]]

* ''Arx Fatalis'' starts the player off in a cell in a goblin fortress with no knowledge of who you are or why you're there.

* TheBreakfastClub has a high school variant where a group of students meeting in a detention and becoming friends who otherwise would never have come together.

* ''{{Farscape}}'': the main characters of all meet on a prison ship. They then make off with said prison ship and run around the galaxy.

* The original cast of ''[[BlakesSeven Blake's Seven]]'' (with one exception, introduced later) were all prisoners on a prison ship.

** To the surprise of none, you will begin your adventures in ''{{Skyrim}}'' as a prisoner.

* In ''SaGaFrontier'', Emelia begins her story in Vault, a supermax prison, wrongfully accused of her fiance's murder. She breaks out accompanied by Anne and Lisa. (Ironically, in anyone else's story, Anne would help you break ''into'' Vault during the Rune Quest.)

* The main characters of ''OBrotherWhereArtThou'' meet in a [[WorkingOnTheChainGang chain]] [[AmericanPrisons gang]].

* The BreakfastClub has a high school variant where a group of students meeting in a detention and becoming friends who otherwise would never have come together.

* ''Game/{{Unreal}}'' begins with the player's character regaining consciousness after the ship, which was transporting him/her to a prison planet, crashes on Na Pali, killing (almost) every other passenger and conveniently enabling the player's escape.

* ''The Dirty Dozen'' are all in prison for various crimes, that's why they are picked for the suicide mission, it's their only hope to avoid a long prison term or death sentence. They don't meet there but we meet them there as the commander offers each one the mission.

* ''[[{{TroperWorks/AGameOfGods}} A Game Of Gods]]'' starts off with the heroes trapped in a hotel.

Can lead to BoxedCrook or CondemnedContestant. In TabletopGames, YouAllMeetInACell usually goes poorly, as the characters have no reason to stick together once they escape their confinement, and often don't. At least when YouAllMeetInAnInn, any character who isn't inclined to join up with the group will leave ''immediately'', instead of one or two sessions in.

[[AC: AnimeAndManga]]

[[AC: {{Film}}]]
* The ''{{Cube}}'' series has a variant, in the form of "You all meet [[OntologicalMystery for no known reason]] in a [[MalevolentArchitecture shifting death trap]]"
* ''DownByLaw'' starts with Tom Waits' character being arrested. The other main characters soon end up in the same cell.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:{{Live Action TV}}]]

* Likewise, the main characters of ''{{Farscape}}'' all meet on a Prison ship. Except they then make off with said prison ship and run around the galaxy. It was also partly based off of ''Blake's Seven''.
* While Langly and Frohike were business rivals (they sold bootleg cable), the LoneGunmen only solidified into a unit once they found themselves in the custody of Baltimore PD for their failed attempt to expose a conspiracy to test a mind-control drug on the unsuspecting public.

[[AC:{{Tabletop RPG}}s]]
* ''Advanced DungeonsAndDragons'' module A4 ''In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords'', which starts out in, well, ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. Somewhat justified in that the previous module ended with the PC party being captured by the Slave Lords.

* This works great for Evil aligned adventuring parties, who may well be in the cell for a good reason...

[[AC: {{WebComic}}]]

* ''LastRes0rt'' -- it's about a bunch of criminals (and a few volunteers) on a reality show. Of course it's held in a prison!

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* RubyQuest starts with the protagonist waking up in a box in a mysterious facility, where she shortly meets Tom, who ''is'' in a cell.
* [[TroperWorks/AGameOfGods A Game Of Gods]] starts off with the heroes trapped in a hotel.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

** In TheElderScrolls ''Arena'', your character is in prison because you had incurred the displeasure of the BigBad.
** In TheElderScrolls II ''Daggerfall'', your character suffered a shipwreck and found him/herself washed up in a cave that connected to a dungeon. Not technically a prisoner, but it amounts to the same thing.
** In TheElderScrolls III ''Morrowind'' you start as a prisoner aboard an imperial ship, you are about to be released. The first spoken words in the game are the daedra Azura speaking to you in a dream, saying: "They have taken you from the Imperial City's prison".
** In TheElderScrolls IV ''Oblivion'', you're just someone who apparently nobody recognizes in a prison cell for no reason ever revealed. It's implied you were teleported there by a god.
*** {{Lampshaded}} when one of your first dialogue options is, effectively, "Why am I in prison?" (implying that not even the character knows how he/she got there), to which the response can best be paraphrased as "[[TheyJustDidntCare Who knows]]? [[AWizardDidIt Maybe it was the work of the Gods?]]"
** To the surprise of none, you will begin your adventures in ''{{Skyrim}}'' as a prisoner.

* Escaping the previous idea of striking out from your DoomedHometown, Black Isle's cancelled ''{{Fallout}} 3'' was going to start out with you held in a prison cell.
** Instead, in Bethesda's ''{{Fallout}} 3'', you start out in a vault where no one ever enters and no one ever leaves. Like a big city prison.

* ''{{Portal}}'' similarly opens with the PC being awakened from an Aperture Science Relaxation Vault.

* ''[[{{Myst}} Riven]]'''s gameplay begins with the player witnessing a struggle from withing a prison cell, after which the cell is opened.

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-->--'''''ZeroPunctuation''''' on '''''[[{{Oblivion}} TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion]]'''''

->In Oblivion, you start off in a dungeon in the imperial palace. You're never told what crime you committed, I guess you're supposed to fill in that blank for yourself so I chose to believe I was in there for shagging the emperors wife and daughter at the same time while playing a rock guitar solo on the [[DueToTheDead desecrated corpse]] [[GodIsDead of God]].\\
--''ZeroPunctuation'' review of ''TheElderScrolls IV: Oblivion''

* ''{{Riven}}'''s gameplay begins with the player witnessing a struggle from withing a prison cell, after which the cell is opened.

[[AC: {{Anime}}]]

[[AC: Film]]

* The main characters of ''OBrotherWhereArtThou'' meet in a [[AmericanPrisons chain gang]].

* Five characters wake up in the title building of [[Creator/WilliamSleator William Sleator's]] ''[[Literature/HouseOfStairs House of Stairs]]'', which appears to have no way out.

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* Five characters wake up in the title building of William Sleator's ''House of Stairs,'' which appears to have no way out.

** In the second game, the PCs are part of the Avernite armed forces - whether they banded up themselves, or were assigned to each other by the military is left to imagination. In the third game, the situation is similar - only this time, they're the back-up surface explorers acting on behalf of the Avernite government.

* ''{{Unreal}}'' (the original single-player version) begins with the player's character regaining consciousness after the ship, which was transporting him/her to a prison planet, crashes on Na Pali, killing (almost) every other passenger and conveniently enabling the player's escape.