History Main / YouAllMeetInACell

Can lead to the GreatEscape, BoxedCrook, or CondemnedContestant. May be used to justify a NoGearLevel. 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.

** 5e Adventure ''Out of the Abyss''. The players are slaves of the drow, trapped in a fort in the Underdark.

* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' and its first sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', both have a variation of this, where the protagonists wake up in an unfamiliar location and have to figure out why they're there and how to escape. Though in both games, some of the characters already knew each other prior to the events of the game.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSin2'' starts off with you and all your possible companions as prisoners aboard a ship bound for the penal colony of Fort Joy, where anyone capable of using Source magic is incarcerated. Your first order of business is to escape the island, and the party bands together for that express purpose.

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** 5e Adventure ''Out of the Abyss''. The players are slaves of the Drow.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rayman 2}}: The Great Escape'' begins with Globox freeing Rayman from a prison cell.

* Many times in the ''Franchise/{{SAW}}''-verse

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' provides a partial example: four of the five members of the titular group encounter each other when two of the group (Rocket and Groot) try to kidnap the third (Peter Quill) for a bounty on his head, while he in turn was fighting with the fourth (Gamora) over the Maguffin of the movie. Subsequently, all four are sent to the same prison, where they encounter their fifth member (Drax) and realize they need to work together to escape and accomplish their various objectives

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' is an unusual case where you start a ''level'' in prison, rather than the game itself. Just like the [[Film/{{Tron}} film it's referencing]], the "Space Paranoids" section starts with Sora, Donald, and Goofy digitized into a computer and put in its prison after an accident involving "[[{{Disney/LiloAndStitch}} a small, fluffy alien"]]. And just like the film, the title character is already in jail for opposing Master Control and teams up with the gang to break out.

*** The popular "Live Another Life" GameMod for ''Skyrim'' also starts you off in another cell, specifically an abandoned prison with its own small backstory, 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.

*** In this case, 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.]](Then again, the protagonist *does* know what the fine for [[spoiler:necrophilia]] is.)

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* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'': As a change from the previous two games (and the eventual third), which all begin with striking out from your DoomedHometown, Black Isle's [[VideoGame/FalloutVanBuren canceled game]] was going to start out with you in a prison cell, until something makes a hole in the wall.

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-->"YouAllMeetInAnInn -"
-->"Boring!"
-->"Okay, smart guy. You all meet in an inn ... and wake up the next morning in the county jail."

* ''{{Webcomic/Jailbreak}}'' starts off this way, not surprisingly. ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' does, too, though it's not obvious at first.

* ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'' starts with the protagonist waking up in a box in a mysterious facility, where she shortly meets Tom, who ''is'' in a cell.
* ''Roleplay/AGameOfGods'' starts off with the heroes trapped in a hotel.
* In ''WebVideo/TheMrMenMovie'', Mr. Nervous meets Mr. Impossible after Mr. Mean puts him in the same cell as Mr. Impossible. [[spoiler:Mr. Impossible, being Mr. Impossible, helps Mr. Nervous escape by walking through the wall with him.]]

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[[quoteright:350:[[Series/Blakes7 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meet_in_a_cell.png]]]]

[[quoteright:350:Series/Blakes7 https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/meet_in_a_cell.png]]]]

* Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS2E4TaskForceX Lawton and Flag meet in Death Row. Then they met the rest of the Suicide Squad at an Abandoned Warehouse. Lawton can believe he could do the job and leave. He is a BoxedCrook and for five years, anywhere he is, he would be in a cell.

* ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3''. You get your final party member while in a cell in Castle City Jad unless you chose Carlie to be third (in which case the fourth would-be party member will act as an NPC). Different in that you've already played long enough to beat the first boss before you end up in a cell.
** Interestingly, this trope gets mixed with YouAllMeetInAnInn within the same town, as every playable character except Carlie appears in that town for their own reasons at the start of the game, just in time for the beastmen to put the whole city on lockdown.
** The trope gets [[ParodiedTrope parodied]] as well since the cell doesn't actually hold the party up; a dimwitted beastman comes in and immediately gets pulled into freeing the party. Best variant being Angela who flaunts her... [[MaleGaze female assets]].

* After about an hour or so of Prologue, ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' has Protagonist Edward Kenway taken Prisoner and locked on a prison ship bound for Spain as part of the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet. He meets Adéwalé, a fellow prisoner and former slave, and together they break their bounds and use the approaching Hurricane to free a number of other prisoners, commander one of the smaller ships in the fleet and escape just before the Hurricane sinks the fleet. Adéwalé and the others become Edwards crew and the game opens up as they refit the stolen brig as a pirate ship that is used for the remainder of the game.

* Seems to be a trend for ''Webcomic/DubiousCompany'''s pirates. [[TheLeader Walter]] and [[TheBigGirl Tiren]] meet when she wakes up in his brig. They meet [[TheHeart Elly]] while breaking out of [[UnknownRival Barry]]'s brig. [[TheSmartGirl Sal]] introduces herself to Tiren in [[TheDragon Izor]]'s bastille. [[TheLancer Leeroy]] is introduced when he mistakes the pirates for Sal's captors, instead of her rescuers. They even meet the [[FiveBadBand Sues and Stus]] while breaking out of the bastille.

** 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 ''[[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.]](Then again, the protagonist *does* know what the fine for [[spoiler:necrophilia]] is.)

*** Continuing the trend, to the surprise of no one, your character is once again a prisoner. And this time, 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.

* The original cast of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' (with one exception, introduced later) were all prisoners being transported to a penal colony on Cygnus Alpha. Blake meets Vila and Jenna in the cell awaiting transport, and Avon and Gan on the prison spaceship [[DebutQueue in the following episode]].

** 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.]](Then again, your character *does* know what the fine for [[Spoiler: necrophilia]] is.)