History Main / YouAllMeetInACell

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', it seems that ''no-one'' actually knows how the protagonist ended up in that cell. The guards comment that the cell is ''always'' supposed to be empty (as it contains a secret escape route into the Imperial City sewers), while the protagonist actually has to ask how they got there. Given the Emperor having visions of your arrival, it's heavily implied [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive that some divine interference is the cause.]]

* ''TheSuffering'' opens with the main character being checked into his cell on death row at Abbot Penitentiary. Then an earthquake hits, and hideous monsters emerge from the woodwork and start killing people.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind 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 ''{{Pirate 101}}'' the player starts off in a cell aboard an Armada ship for one of five crimes which is used to determine the player's [[CharacterClassSystem character class]]. They meet and rescue their first companion here.

* Five characters wake up in the title building of Creator/WilliamSleator's ''[[terature/HouseOfStairs'', which appears to have no way out.

This is kind of like YouAllMeetInAnInn, except instead of the players beginning in a inn, they start off in some form of captivity for no apparent reason. The characters must then escape imprisonment, and find out why.

* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' begins with YouAllMeetInAnInn and quickly switches to this, as two of the main charas begin quite the brawl.

* The heroes of ''Literature/TheHourBeforeMorning'' are cellmates on the starship taking them to execution.

** Module ''Escape from Zanzer's Dungeon'' starts with the characters in jail, kidnapped to be slave workers in a underground salt mine. The module is designed for new players and avoids the standard YouAllMeetInAnInn opening.

** The trope gets [[ParodiedTrope parodied]] as well since the cell doesn't actually hold the party up; a dimwitted beastman comes in and immediatly gets pulled into freeing the party. Best variant being Angela who flaunts her... [[MaleGaze female assets]].

* A variation of this is played out in the first half of chapter 2 of ''Webcomic/MonsterSoup''. It starts with [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-1/ Bo the zombie sitting alone with Chickpea the (zombie) squirrel]] near a pier. Eventually, [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-2-taxicab-confession/ Amanita the gypsy/,medium]], [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-6-boo/ Jacklynn the ghost]], [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-9-the-stagecoach-has-arrive/ Luke the vampire]], and [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-14-welcome/ Pepper the werewplf]] show up. They actually meet where they will embark on the boat that will take them to the prison, not a cell, but they are clearly [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-17-hello-sol/ not]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-18-one-rule/ really]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-19-wtf/ free]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-21-a-challenge/ to]] [[http://monstersoupcomic.com/page/chapter-2-page-22-whoosh/ leave]].

* A number of characters meet up within a prison in ''Literature/VoidDomain''. Unlike most, does not happen in the introduction chapters, rather, it happens all the way down in book four.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' is an unusual case where you start a ''level'' in prison, rather than the game itself. [[spoiler: Your team is digitalized into a computer and put in its prison after an accident involving "[[{{Disney/LiloAndStitch}} a small, fluffy alien]]". The events of this level is to escape the computer with the help of a friendly program, also a prisoner, who joins the party]].

* The original cast of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (with one exception, introduced later) were all prisoners being transported to a penal colony on Cygnus Alpha.

* Most ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games start off with this. As the protagonist is always a FeaturelessProtagonist (or rather Choose Your Own Age, Face, Gender, etc) whose actions and personality are entirely up to you and with the Elder Scroll games being so open-ended, your character's origins have to be open-ended, too. Your character might be a thieving murdering bastard who got caught, or they might be a paragon of righteousness who was wrongfully imprisoned, or they might not even know themselves. It also serves a symbolic function: once you're released/escaped from the prison you are free to do as you please, both in-character and in gameplay.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIDaggerfall 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.
*** Though ''Daggerfall'' also provides a biography that explains exactly ''why'' the Emperor trusted you with the mission that led to the shipwreck. To not be ''overly'' determinative, it has many, many variations depending on class and other choices during character creation.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', it seems that ''no-one'' actually knows how the protagonist ended up in that cell. The guards comment that the cell is ''always'' supposed to be empty, while the protagonist actually has to ask how they got there. Given the Emperor having visions of your arrival, it's heavily implied [[TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive that some divine interference is the cause.]]
** To the surprise of none, you begin your adventures in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' as a prisoner...and you're on your way to be executed after being mistaken for a rebel. [[spoiler: But don't worry about that, as you get saved by the BigBad showing up and [[NiceJobFixingItVillain trying to kill you.]] ]]
** The popular "Live Another Life" GameMod for ''Skyrim'' also starts you off in another cell, where you can choose to start the game as any number of roles and in a number of places... or you can just opt to break out of the cell with no real explanation as to why you're locked up in an abandoned, ghost-filled ruin in the first place, with the whole thing placing a huge lampshade on the situation.
** ''TheElderScrollsOnline'' starts off, once again, in a cell. This time, however, the cell is not in the mortal realm, but in the [[BloodyBowelsofHell torture realm]] of [[EldritchLocation Coldharbor]], the domain of [[TheCorrupter Molag Bal]], [[DimensionLord Daedric Prince]] of domination and enslavement. [[spoiler:Oh, and did we mention that, technically, you're [[YourSoulIsMine dead]]?]]

* Early on in ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' the main character, Yuri, is placed in the Imperial City's prison. The person in the cell next to him is a man named Raven, [[spoiler: later revealed to be Schwann, a captain of the Imperial Knights]]. He helps Yuri escape, and several hours of gameplay later he becomes your last party member.

The theme in {{RPG}}s and writing is that imprisonment is instant motivation ("get out of here"), and that they can work out the details of why later. It also gives reason why [[RagtagBunchOfMisfits people who wouldn't normally like each other]] are [[TeethClenchedTeamwork pulling together]]. Similar to a ClosedCircle, and a common way to [[HowToGatherCharacters Gather Characters]].

* Most ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' games start off with this. As the protagonist is always a FeaturelessProtagonist (or rather Choose Your Own Age, Face, Gender, etc) whose actions and personality are entirely up to you and with the Elder Scroll games being so open-ended, your character's origins have to be open-ended, too. Your character might be a thieving murdering bastard who got caught, or they might be a paragon of righteousness who was wrongfully imprisoned, or they might not even know themselves.

** If a police precinct is considered a cell, a later scene sees Matt Murdock, Karen Page, Foggy Nelson, Trish Walker, Colleen Wing, Claire Temple, Luke Cage, and Misty Knight all meet in the 29th Precinct to discuss the Hand.

* Variation: one of the adventures in the Main/TabletopGame ''TabletopGame/HeroQuest'' involves the player characters waking up inside a cell with all their equipment and items (and somehow, the spellcasters' spells) stolen from them. With the flavor text saying the characters managed to pick the lock with a rat bone, the goal is to find their stolen paraphernalia, then the exit. Played with in that by this point the characters had already been traveling together for several adventures, and that the capture which put them there took place [[YouCantFightFate as an unavoidable fate]] [[DownerEnding at the end of the previous quest]]. Another adventure involves breaking into a prison to free a valiant knight who is one of the emperor's most trusted and powerful followers, then escape with him.

* Martin and Gonff meet this way in Brian Jacques' ''[[{{Redwall}} Mossflower]]''.

* The 3rd party TabletopGame/PathFinder adventure "Way of the Wicked" starts this way. The [=PCs=] are all convicted felons, usually sentenced to die. (It's an evil-aligned adventure.)

* The intro to the first DarkSun game, ''Dark Sun: Shattered Lands'' states that the sorcerer-king of Draj [[AllCrimesAreEqual ordered all prisoners to fight as gladiators]], and this is how the heroes ended in the arena together. It is [[ProtagonistWithoutAPast never explained]] what their crimes were and if they knew each other before.

* ''MysticArk'' plays with this. Every characters are trapped in some sort of wooden figurines inside an abanddoned mansion. Characters never interact with each other up until you free and put them into your team. [[HeroicMime Even then...]]

* In ''RecordOfLodossWar'', the team meets Woodchuck the thief in prison after they're arrested.

* The protagonists of ''TheQuantumThief'' meet in the Archon Prison.

* Alec and Seregil in ''{{Nightrunner}}''.

* 'The premise of ''Series/TheTwilightZone'' episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit": An Army major wakes up to find himself trapped inside in a large metal cylinder, along with a hobo, a ballet dancer, a bagpiper, and a clown. None of them have any memory of who they are or how they got there.

* ''TheLoneGunmen'': While Langly and Frohike were business rivals (they sold bootleg cable), the Gunmen 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.

* In ''VideoGame/BaldursGate 2'', finding out why you were imprisoned and experimented upon by the BigBad is actually a major part of the plot.

* In ''{{Sonic the Comic}}'', Captain Plunder escapes from prison only to discover that his whole pirate crew are now locked in after attempting to break the captain out by a different route. He starts building a new crew from then, starting by recruiting his former cellmate Simpson the Cat.

* The original cast of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (with one exception, introduced later) were all prisoners on a prison ship heading toward a penal colony on Cygnus Alpha.

* The original cast of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (with one exception, introduced later) were all prisoners on a prison ship, Moya.