Line #70 Main/YouWakeUpInARoom


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5	[[caption-width-right:350:"My God... they stole everything!"]]
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10
11	->''"You wake up locked in a deserted jail cell, completely alone. There is nothing at all in your cell, useful or otherwise."''
12	-->-- ''Webcomic/{{Jailbreak}}''
13
14	A specific type of OntologicalMystery (which covers this trope in passing). There is also a sub-genre of gaming, the RoomEscapeGame, that virtually always starts with this trope.
15
16	A character wakes up in a setting that's unfamiliar to them. They don't know how they got there, who brought them, or for what reason. Frequently, getting out is not so simple as simply walking out the door.
17
18	Sometimes the character, or characters, will have [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no memory of prior events]] whatsoever, although this is not a necessary component. In more extreme examples, the character may not exactly know even [[IdentityAmnesia who they are]].
19
20	If the piece begins InMediasRes and the character wakes up in a room, and the '''audience''' has no idea where they are or what has gone before (or the character has only limited knowledge, possibly having been [[WhatDidIDoLastNight drunk the night before]], or something [[TapOnTheHead bad happened to him]], or he's in an alternate reality that [[WorldGoneMad only the audience]] seems to pick up on) that may be sufficient to meet this trope.
21
22	If a character was seen in action and then passes out only to wake up safe but in an unfamiliar place, that's WakingUpElsewhere. Compare GoodMorningCrono, AbandonedHospitalAwakening, and WakingUpAtTheMorgue. For extra points, may overlap with WhiteVoidRoom. For an outdoor version see YouWakeUpOnABeach.
23	----
24	!!Examples:
25
26	[[foldercontrol]]
27
28	[[folder:Advertising]]
29	* "Advertising/VictoryByComputer": ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} is investigating a strange house when she gets struck by red solar radiation, falling into a trap door. When she wakes up, she finds herself trapped in a strange unfamiliar room which she cannot break out of by sheer brute force because her powers are nullified.
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
33	* ''Manga/{{Gantz}}'': Upon their deaths, the main characters are sent to a mysterious room; the room is obviously located in Tokyo, but cannot be accessed unless you are called there by Gantz.
34	* ''Anime/{{Noir}}'': Kirika woke up one day with no memory of who she was in an empty house that despite having photographs of her with a man and a woman who were presumably her parents, had no actual parents in sight. She found with her a pocketwatch, school ID with her name on it and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick a gun]] and killed a bunch of {{Mooks}} who showed up to harass her shortly thereafter. The rest of the series deals with her trying to discover her identity.
35	* ''Anime/{{Dangaioh}}'': The four ESP'ers are all suddenly find themselves in service to Dr. Tarsan without knowing who they are/were, or how they got there.
36	* ''Literature/PsychicDetectiveYakumo'': In the "Locked Room" arc, [[spoiler: when Takaoka-sensei (in the original novels & Ritsu version) / Yuuichi (in the Suzuka version) ''thinks'' he killed Yuri after hitting her a little too hard, he hides her body in the basement. Turns out she wasn't dead after all. Until she died trying to get ''out'' of the room.]]
37	* ''Anime/{{Tamagotchi}}'': Episode 27a opens with Mametchi being surprised when he wakes up in an unfamiliar laboratory room with a Tamagotchi in it that looks like him. Mametchi later learns he and his friends were sent back in time and that he's in a past version of Tamagotchi Town.
38	* ''Anime/DeathParade'': Upon their deaths, humans emerge from an elevator into a mysterious bar with no memory of how they got there. A couple episodes start with a character simply waking up at the bar instead.
39	* ''Manga/GreenBox'': The manga starts with Sena waking up in the titular green room.
40	[[/folder]]
41
42	[[folder:Asian Animation]]
43	* ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'': Weslie is with the other goats in the Magic Train at the end of ''Flying Island: The Sky Adventure'' episode 1. An incident there causes him to wake up at the beginning of the next episode in the house of Aunt Bowie, who had noticed him and taken him to her place to take care of him.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Comic Books]]
47	* ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk'': Parodied in one issue, when Amadeus Cho solves a logic puzzle involving this trope by replying that if there is "nothing in the room" then he is not in the room either.
48	* ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'':
49	** ''ComicBook/TheStrangeRevengeOfLenaLuthor'': When ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} is preparing to guest-star in a talk show, one member of a gang crook mixes up Kryptonite dust with her makeup to put her to sleep. When Kara comes around, she is imprisoned in an unfamiliar room. The only exits are two metal doors, both leading into death traps.
50	--->'''Narration:''' In moments, unconsciousness claims her...But for how long, she doesn't know... She knows only she awakens in a dark and unfamiliar place, to a gruff voice speaking to her from a pinpoint of light."
51	** ''ComicBook/ThePhantomZone'': When Charlie Kweskill wakes up from a nightmare, he finds himself in a room inside S.T.A.R. Laboratories, with no memory of how or why he got there.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Fan Works]]
55	* ''Fanfic/GodHelpTheOutcasts'': This is how the fic starts, with Susan waking up, her head spinning, in a cell in the Monster Containment Facility.
56	* ''Fanfic/RainbowInTheDark'' starts with the main character, Brownie, waking up in a train going to Ponyville.
57	* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria: Project Horizons'': Chapter 11: [[spoiler: Blackjack after being hauled out of a slaver camp half dead and emotionality worn out from making a Sadistic Choice passes out in a mine-cart... Only to wake up in a room next to a strange stallion named Prist who then explains that she was found unconscious and alone in the rain, a week prior, she has no idea how she got miles away from the slaver camp or what happened to her friends along the way.]]
58	* This happens to the main character of ''Fanfic/NewStars'' twice: first when he's teleported from the ''Star Wars'' galaxy to the ''Orville's'' (waking up in a mostly-empty storage room), then (after the Krill attack) when he wakes up in the Sick Bay of the ''Orville''. The second time, he wonders if he should start keeping track of the number of times he wakes up in a strange room.
59	* The first chapter of ''Fanfic/{{Composure}}'' starts out like this when Princess Celestia wakes up in a hospital bed injured, unable to perform magic, and amnesic. Her last memory is of Princess Luna in her room...
60	* The first chapter of ''Fanfic/AsylumDaemonOfDecay'' starts out this way, with Twilight in a straitjacket, no less.
61	* Happens to Shadowfax in [[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/119688/1/you-obey/the-interrogation You Obey.]]
62	* ''Fanfic/RemnantAndRuneterraATaleOfTwoWorlds'': Amber and Soraka wake up in chains after being ambushed by [[spoiler: Jhin]].
63	* The prologue of ''Fanfic/{{Opalescent}}'' has Opal coming to her senses from being sick with the Sillies, finding herself sitting on the sickbed in the Medical Bay with no clue as to how she got there.
64	[[/folder]]
65
66	[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
67	* In ''Film/{{Circle}}'', fifty people wake up in a pitch black room featuring only a chess-like floor circled around a device in the center. It turns out that not only will someone die every two minutes, but the people in the room are voting who dies next by manipulating a mechanism on the floor.
68	* In ''Film/{{Cube}}'', its sequel ''Film/Cube2Hypercube'', and its prequel ''Film/CubeZero'', all the victims of the cube wake up in a cube-shaped room with no memory of how they got there.
69	* The teleplay ''Film/TheCube'' (unrelated to the above series) where a man awakes in a solid white room with people coming in and out doing various wacky things, but he cannot get anyone to tell him where he is or why he's there, he's only told that somewhere on the wall is a hidden door made just for him.
70	* ''Film/DarkCity1998'' begins with John Murdoch waking up in a hotel room, where he was lying naked in a bathtub. He doesn't know why there is a dead prostitute nearby, and can't even recall his own name.
71	* In ''Film/DrJekyllAndMrHyde1973'', after partying all night as Hyde, Jekyll wakes up as himself locked in a cell, and convinces the police they have the wrong man.
72	* ''Film/FriendOfTheWorld'' begins with its protagonist waking up in a room full of corpses.
73	* Occurs in both ''Film/TheHangover'' and its sequel.
74	* ''Film/{{Memento}}'': This happens to the protagonist every morning due to his retrograde amnesia, waking up in a strange room.
75	* ''Film/{{Oldboy 2003}}'': Oh Dae-su is kidnapped at the start of the film and awakes in what appears to be a sealed hotel room. Fifteen years later, he wakes up to find himself outside.
76	* ''Film/{{Pandorum}}''... in a hypersleep capsule.
77	* This is the modus operandi of the Jigsaw Killer in the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' series. Nearly every victim of his is tranquilized and then wakes up in a room. The punishment for failure, when it's not an immediate death, is usually turning said room into a SealedRoomInTheMiddleOfNowhere.
78	* In ''Film/{{Unknown 2006}}'', the entire cast wakes up with amnesia and locked in a warehouse.
79	* ''Film/{{Chariot}}''. Seven passengers wake up on an airliner flying high above the United States. The door to the cockpit is locked and no-one responds when they knock on it. No-one has any idea how they got there, but it has something to do with an Operation Chariot, designed to protect crucial people in the event of a nuclear attack on the United States.
80	* ''Film/ResidentEvil2002'' has the protagonist Alice waking up in a shower stall, with no memory of who she is. It's not until the [[Film/ResidentEvilTheFinalChapter final movie]] that TheReveal comes as to why she doesn't.
81	* ''Film/TheBookOfRevelation'': After he's injected with something by three cloaked people, Daniel wakes up in a strange room chained to the floor, with no notion how he got there. He never learns his location, though it appears to be near the water from the sounds nearby. Before long he has more to worry about as his three captors start raping and tormenting him.
82	* ''Film/SoulMates2023'': Jason and Allison wake up in a bedroom in an AbandonedWarehouse with no idea who the other person is or who would want to kidnap either of them.
83	[[/folder]]
84
85	[[folder:Literature]]
86	* Creator/FredricBrown's "Knock" begins:
87	-->There is a sweet little horror story that is only two sentences long:\
88	"The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock at the door..."
89	** Brown then subverts the trope by telling a story that ''ends'' that way, and isn't horrible at all. [[spoiler:The knock signals the arrival of the last ''woman'' on Earth.]]
90	* Creator/RogerZelazny's ''Literature/NinePrincesInAmber'' (which spawned two entire five-novel series) begins this way. The first-person narrator doesn't even know his own name when he wakes up in, well, a hospital room.
91	* In ''Literature/ASnowballInHell'' by Creator/ChristopherBrookmyre, Darren [[AssholeVictim "The Daddy"]] [=McDade=] wakes up in a hotel room he doesn't recognize. Things... don't end well for him.
92	* ''The Tightrope Men'' was written by SpyFiction writer Desmond Bagley as a deliberate evocation of this trope -- a man wakes up in a hotel room in Norway with a confused memory and a completely different face. Bagley decided to take the most terrifying situation he could think of, and then write a book explaining it. [[spoiler:The protagonist has been abducted, brainwashed and altered through plastic surgery, then put in the place of a kidnapped scientist in order to create a few days confusion so the kidnappers can get away with their prize.]]
93	* Eri of ''Literature/AfterDark'' wakes up in a bed on the TV side. She has no idea how she got there, and neither does the viewer.
94	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' In 'The Familiar', Jake wakes up in a room, his bedroom, only it's a futuristic bedroom, and he's ten years older, with no idea what happened in between.
95	%% * The young adult series that begins with ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'' begins essentially this way.
96	* James P. Hogan's "The Multiplex Man" starts with the protagonist waking up in a hotel room with ID that doesn't match his identity, a suitcase full of guns, and the weird conviction that the familiar face in the mirror SHOULDN'T be familiar.
97	* "Time & Time Again" by H. Beam Piper - Allan Hartley wakes up in his childhood bedroom from thirty years before... wearing his childhood body. He takes it rather well.
98	* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': Tezzeret gets this treatment at the beginning of ''Literature/TestOfMetal'' when he finds himself NakedOnArrival in an empty cave with his etherium arm ripped off.
99	* {{Deconstructed}} in the ''Website/TurkeyCityLexicon'' under the name "White Room Syndrome". According to the Lexicon, to begin a story with "She awoke in a white room" is "a clear and common sign of the failure of the author's imagination." Not only is it a cliché, it's likely [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a barely coded description]] of the writer's own ideas slowly coming together while staring at a featureless blank piece of paper.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
103	* ''Series/TheFortyFourHundred'': In the fourth season episode "No Exit" Tom Baldwin, Diana Skouris, Meghan Doyle, Marco Pacella, Brady and P.J. wake up to find themselves locked into the NTAC offices in Seattle where they work joined by Tom's son Kyle and oldest nephew Shawn Farrell, Diana's adopted daughter Maia, as well as Jordan Collier and Isabelle Tyler. They have to fight the building itself as it turns on them, cooperate, figure out why they're there and find a way out.
104	* Episode eight from ''Series/BigMouth2022'' starts with Changho waking up to find himself wrapped in a straitjacket with his mouth gagged in a WhiteVoidRoom.
105	* ''Series/BlackMirror'': In "[[Recap/BlackMirrorWhiteBear White Bear]]", Victoria wakes up in the living room of a house, with a calendar, a TV set to a mysterious image, some pills, a headache, and no idea how she got there.
106	* Booth and Brennan wake up buried underground inside a car in ''{{Series/Bones}}'' “Aliens in the Spaceship”.
107	* ''Series/{{Castle\|2009}}'': The season 4 episode "Cuffed" opens with Beckett and the titular writer handcuffed together in a sealed room, with no memory of how they got there.
108	* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': "[[Recap/CriminalMindsS2E22Legacy Legacy]]" features an [=UnSub=] who kidnaps transients, knocks them out and throws them into an abandoned factory, where they wake up and are forced to find their own way out.
109	* ''Series/{{CSI}}'': One episode opens with Catherine waking up in a seedy motel room dressed only in a negligee and having no memory of how she got there. Figuring she'd been roofied and having no idea if she'd had sex, been raped, or what, she performs a makeshift sexual assault kit on herself with a tampon, which she passes to Greg to process for DNA while only telling him it's part of his proficiency exam.
110	* ''Series/DarkMatter2015'': This is how the series begins. A group of apparently mismatched people emerge from cryotanks on a spaceship with no memories of who they are or why they are on the ship. They figure who they are and what they were doing by the end of the first episode ([[spoiler:although one character later learns he's actually impersonating the person everyone thinks he is]]); and spend the bulk of the first season trying to figure out who erased their memories and why, finally learning it in the season finale.
111	* ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' plays with this trope in "Needs", in which the Actives wake up in their sleeping chambers with their original personalities before they were mind-wiped, but with no memory of how they came to be there.
112	* The first scene of ''Series/TheGoodPlace'' is of Eleanor's eyes snapping open, seeing herself in a room she doesn't recognize, and the words "Welcome! Everything is fine!" on the wall across from her. Then Michael comes in, and tells her [[DeadToBeginWith she's dead and in the afterlife]].
113	* ''Series/TheHardyBoysNancyDrewMysteries'' has "Sole Survivor", where Joe Hardy wakes up in a hospital room with no clue where he is or how he got there, only to find out that he's not only been in a coma for a year, but that his father and brother are dead. Of course, [[spoiler: Frank and Fenton are very much alive, and the whole thing is a MindScrew to get Joe to reveal information on a defection attempt.]]
114	* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': "The Murdoch Trap" opens with Murdoch unconscious in what proves to be a cage. He comes to hearing the voice of Julia repeatedly saying, "I forgive you, William," and he sees a mannequin that looks like Julia in a black dress hanging by the neck outside his cage. There's also a phone with a placard that threatens death if used and a film projector with a similar placard that says, "Turn Me On".
115	* The captives in ''Series/PersonsUnknown'' wake up in hotel rooms with little clue how they got there or why.
116	* The surreal drama series ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' begins with this trope: spy Patrick [=Mc=]Goohan wakes up in The Village with a headache not knowing why he has been transported there from London, nor why he is now only Number Six, and realises how difficult it is to escape.
117	* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E18Allegiance Allegiance]]" has this, but with a twist. We see Picard wake up in a strange room, while his double walks around on the ship.
118	%%* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': Classic episodes "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S5E30StopoverInAQuietTown Stopover in a Quiet Town]]" and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S3E14FiveCharactersInSearchOfAnExit Five Characters in Search of an Exit]]".
119	* ''Series/TheXFiles'': In the beginning of "[[Recap/TheXFilesS04E23Demons Demons]]", Mulder wakes up in an unfamiliar hotel room with somebody else's blood on his shirt.
120	* ''Series/Severance2022'' begins with newly severed hire Helly R on a table in a conference room. It's later revealed that all severed employees first gain consciousness on that table.
121	[[/folder]]
122
123	[[folder:Music]]
124	* Music/LindseyStirling's "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inb8MMZ-QmA Song of the Caged Bird]]" video features this -- in the beginning, Lindsey gets up off the floor of a small, dirty room with no apparent knowledge of where she is or how to get out. She comforts herself by playing the violin and lighting candles.
125	[[/folder]]
126
127	%%[[folder:New Media]]
128	%%* Happens to Shelton and Eddie in ''Roleplay/DarwinsSoldiers'' story ''Nietzsche's Soldiers''.
129	%%[[/folder]]
130
131	%%[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
132	%%* A fairly common way to begin a theatre-style [[{{LARP}} Live Action Role Playing Game]].
133	%%[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Video Games]]
136	* In ''VideoGame/DragonsWake'' the player character is a young dragon. In the first level you hatch from your egg in a cave with no knowledge of how you got there.
137	%%* ''VideoGame/YouFindYourselfInARoom'' by 2DArray, where this phrase is reiterated during many prompts.
138	* ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', where the "room" is a big, spooky mansion.
139	-->'''Ego:''' How did I get here? I remember...nothing.
140	* Both ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' games begin this way, although in completely different rooms.
141	** You actually transverse through old chambers in the beginning of Portal 2, so pretty much you end up in the same room in both games.
142	* ''VideoGame/SilentHill4: [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin The Room]]''
143	* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' begins with the player character waking up in a small deserted cavern, after a short cutscene that does nothing to explain who he is or how he got there.
144	* ''VideoGame/TheNeverhood''. Very literally applied, as [[spoiler:Klayman was created only a few minutes prior to the game's beginning and still asleep when the player takes control]].
145	* ''VideoGame/TwelveThirteen''.
146	* ''VideoGame/{{Zork}}'' is "you are in front of a small white house." with no reason as to how you got there. The explanation for the starting locations for later Infocom games makes a lot more sense. Except perhaps for Beyond Zork.
147	* ''VideoGame/TheWhiteChamber'' has the main character wake up inside of a coffin on a spacestation with no memory of why she's there or why the space station is completely empty and covered in blood, rust, and limbs.
148	* [[Creator/ObsidianEntertainment Obsidian/Black Isle]] loves this trope:
149	** ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', which begins in a morgue no less.
150	** The second ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic''. As a ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/PlanescapeTorment'', one of the first rooms you visit after waking up is a morgue.
151	** ''[[VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2 Neverwinter Nights II: Mask of the Betrayer]]''
152	** ''VideoGame/AlphaProtocol''
153	%%* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'', also in a morgue in the SNES version.
154	* ''VideoGame/{{Galerians}}'' opens as the main character wakes up in a hospital isolation ward, StrappedToAnOperatingTable.
155	%%* ''VideoGame/ADarkRoom'', naturally.
156	* The VideoGame/GoldBox game ''Curse of the Azure Bonds'' opens with the party waking up in a room at an inn, along with unusual tattoos.
157	* The flash game ''VideoGame/MonsterBasement'' has the players character wake up in a CreepyBasement, only able to remember running downstairs after hearing his friend screaming. He (and the player) only figure out what exactly is going on (namely that [[spoiler:your kidnapper is a human who was infected with some disease that makes him crave the flesh of monsters and you and your friend are monsters he abducted for meals]]) as you poke around and find things in the basement.
158	%%* ''VideoGame/{{Antichamber}}'' pretty much starts this way.
159	* ''VideoGame/EdnaAndHarveyTheBreakout'' starts with Edna waking up in a padded cell, having lost her memory. [[spoiler:And it's not the first time this has happened to her, either.]]
160	* ''VideoGame/SilentHills'' starts with the player waking up in the middle of a dark, creepy and, seemingly empty room with just a door.
161	* ''VideoGame/DontEscape'' has the player character waking up in a room as homage to the typical RoomEscapeGame. The third game does this too, with the player waking up in a ship's airlock and with no idea why they're about to be ejected.
162	* The Japanese flash game ''VideoGame/TerminalHouse'' does this in its first two games (of four). The first adds a little backstory to it, with the main character having spent an unknown amount of time trying to break out, with no success before the player takes control.
163	%%* ''VideoGame/TheWitness'': You start in a metal tube which leads up onto a patio, via a small cave.
164	* ''VideoGame/NaissanceE'' has a short intro that shows the nameless character falling into an almost-featureless white room. You then take control and start moving into a very weird world, of which you know nothing at all.
165	* ''Videogame/TheRoomMobileGame'': As [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the title implies]], you find yourself in a room. With lots of puzzles to keep you company.
166	* ''VideoGame/AmnesiaAMachineForPigs'' begins with Mandus waking up in a room not remembering more than his name, and that his children need him, which he immediately sets off to search for. The backstory is unveiled through StoryBreadcrumbs in shape of journal entries, which are scattered around the building.
167	* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' begins with Link awakening inside a [[spoiler: resurrection chamber]], with only the strange machine he lay in and a mysterious tablet computer. The way out is locked; however, Link can just use the tablet to unlock the door. Of course, as standard for this trope, Link has LaserGuidedAmnesia and possibly IdentityAmnesia to boot. [[spoiler:Since Link had to be left in the shrine for a hundred years to recover from near-fatal injuries and overexertion, the door was locked from the inside for his benefit.]]
168	* ''VideoGame/{{Imscared}}'' starts the player off in a room with a door that requires a human heart to open, along with a bloodstained closet and a ladder leading downwards. No explanation or plot is given.
169	* ''Videogame/TheLastGuardian'' begins this way, with the protagonist waking up unexpectedly in a cavernous room, beside a giant beast chained to the floor. Much of the game's storyline revolves around how both the boy and the beast got there in the first place.
170	* The Dark Brotherhood questline for "VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim" begins in this manner. The Dovahkiin is kidnapped and locked in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, where they are taunted by Astrid, the leader of the Dark Brotherhood.
171	* ''VideoGame/VoyageInspiredByJulesVerne'' begins with Michel Ardan, the PlayerCharacter, waking up in a space shuttle bound for the moon, with the only other two people with him dead.
172	* ''VideoGame/{{Dark Souls}}'' has the [[TheChosenOne Chosen]] [[PlayerCharacter Undead]], awake in a rotting prison cell with (presumably) no knowledge of why they are there or why they are Hollowing. The game's [[TheAllConcealingI narrator]], however, does know: the Kingdom of Lordran gathers up the Undead - who are branded with the [[RestrainingBolt Darksign]] - and sends them north to the Undead Asylum [[note]]Actually called the "Undead Institute" in the original text[[/note]] where they await the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt end of the world]].
173	* You Wake Up In A Train Tunnel at the beginning of ''VideoGame/DarkFall : Lost Souls'', and initially have no clue where it is. Then when your character does recognize the location, he has no clue (save possibly the bottle of vodka he's carrying) why he'd ''ever'' have come back to a place he loathes.
174	* The beginning of ''VideoGame/OneShot'' starts off like this, with the KidHero Niko waking up in a dark room. In fact, [[spoiler: it was even mentioned in the prophecy of the world Niko and [[AGodIsYou you]] are supposed to save. [[BookEnds You return to the room near the ending(s).]] ]]
175	* ''VideoGame/YourToy'' begins with your character waking up in a bathroom stall.
176	* ''VideoGame/DiscoElysium'' starts off this way, with the PlayerCharacter awaking in a trashed hostel room, surrounded by empty booze bottles, stripped to their socks and underpants, with a killer hangover and complete blackout amnesia. Amongst the first "quests" presented to the player is getting a look at yourself in the mirror, and getting dressed (which involves trying to get your tie down from the loft ventilator). It isn't until you manage to stagger out into the hall that you find out you're a detective with the local police force from a fellow guest, then you discover that you were investigating a murder, and things just sort of escalate from there...
177	* In ''VideoGame/{{Trace}}'' you wake up in a bathroom, and it's locked. It serves as a warm-up of sorts, as ''Trace'' is a RoomEscapeGame.
178	* ''VideoGame/MurderInTheAlps'': ''Forgotten Memento'' begins with Anna Myers waking up in a dark cell with no memory of how she got there. The rest of the chapter is spent with Anna gradually remembering through flashbacks the events of the past few days leading to her capture as well as trying to make sense of her surroundings before she's able to make an escape attempt.
179	[[/folder]]
180
181	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
182	%%* The following games by [=ClockUp=]:
183	%%** ''Euphoria''
184	%%** ''Room No. 9''
185	* Happens at least twice to [[TheChewToy Rosa]] in ''VisualNovel/UminekoWhenTheyCry''. The first time is in the second arc's [[ColdBloodedTorture tea party]]. The second time occurs in the fourth arc, in what is [[MindScrew implied-ish?]] to be a DreamSequence Maria had.
186	** Happens to [[spoiler:[[TheAllConcealingI somebody]] (actually Battler)]] early on in the sixth arc.
187	* All three ''VisualNovel/ZeroEscape'' games open this way:
188	** ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' starts with your character waking up in the cabin of a large passenger ship. Of the nine characters involved, however, only one has amnesia and it isn't yours. In fact, Junpei only needs a few minutes to get his bearings before the player sees exactly [[HowWeGotHere how he was abducted from his apartment.]]
189	** The sequel, ''VisualNovel/VirtuesLastReward'', starts out similarly, with the protagonist waking up in what appears to be an elevator with no idea how he got there -- and with a total stranger who happens to know his name.
190	** To finish the trilogy, ''VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' also starts off with people waking up in some sort of cell, unaware of how they got there.
191	[[/folder]]
192
193	[[folder:WebAnimation]]
194	* ''WebAnimation/FlipnoteWarrior'': When the story starts, Mome Kugou wakes up in an open bedroom in an alien world she doesn't recognize. It turns out to be a dream, though [[OrWasItADream it felt nostalgic]] for her.
195	* ''WebAnimation/LoveOfTheSn'': The first episode opens with Charger Block waking up from the S*n's LotusEaterMachine and violently flying out of his chair.
196	[[/folder]]
197
198	[[folder:Webcomics]]
199	%%* In ''Webcomic/AwfulHospital'', it's a hospital room.
200	* ''Webcomic/ABeginnersGuideToTheEndOfTheUniverse'' begins with the protagonist waking up in an apartment building floating in a white void.
201	* ''WebComic/BloodIsMine'' starts with the protagonist waking up wearing a bloodied nurse uniform in a hospital room.
202	* In an example without the room, Willow of ''Webcomic/{{Earthsong}}'' wakes up under a purple willow/wiple tree with no idea whatsoever of what's going on.[[labelnote:*]]She's named after the tree, incidentally, it's not that apropos.[[/labelnote]] This is echoed in a later wake-up, though she quickly remembers and the audience knows.
203	* ''Webcomic/FeastForAKing'': The comic begins with somebody waking up with no memories on a platform suspended over a massive pit of man-eating aliens called Worms. They're also shackled at the hands and feet, and being pursued by several strange Worms almost immediately.
204	%%* In ''ComicStrip/{{Fleep}}'', the "room" is a phone booth encased in concrete.
205	* ''Webcomic/{{Furrocious}}'' starts with the main character waking up in a a gray room with a large door.
206	* ''Webcomic/HeroesOfThantopolis'' Cyrus wakes up in a castle, with no memory but his name.
207	* [[Webcomic/{{Morphe}} morphE]] begins with 8 people waking up inside crates being moved in the back of a truck. No one knows how they got there and when they are released they are [[InvoluntaryBattleToTheDeath pit against one another in combat.]]
208	%%* ''Webcomic/MSPaintAdventures'' likes this trope. ''Webcomic/{{Jailbreak}}'' fits the definition perfectly, ''Webcomic/ProblemSleuth'' plays around with it, and ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' begins in a similar manner (three times).
209	* ''{{Webcomic/Oceanfalls}}'': "You wake up in an unfamiliar place."
210	* ''Webcomic/{{Unity}}'' begins its first story with the protagonist waking up in a hospital room [[IdentityAmnesia with no memories.]]
211	* ''Webcomic/WhiteRooms'': The comic begins with Ed waking up in one of the rooms, not knowing anything about the place or how he got there.
212	[[/folder]]
213
214	[[folder:Web Games]]
215	* In both ''[[VideoGame/{{Bionicle}} Mata Nui Online Game]]''s, your character wakes up with no memories -- on a beach in the first, and in their own hut in the second. ''MNOG II'' explains that your temporal memory-loss is due to a storm, but the first game offers no explanation, as it's a direct continuation of the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance game ''Quest for the Toa'', which ended with a bolt of energy launching you into the sky and sending you slamming into the sand.
216	[[/folder]]
217
218	[[folder:Web Original]]
219	* ''{{Literature/Dream High School}}'' opens with this, though it's not stated as explicitly and you're on unfamiliar school grounds, not sure what to do and unaware that it's a dream.
220
221	* ''WebAnimation/InvestigationOfObjectNuclearity'': The series begins with Cracklin waking up in the empty corridor of an destroyed nuclear power plant without any of his memories.
222	* ''Roleplay/RubyQuest'': Not only a room, but what amounts to a coffin with a light switch. Breaking out of that reveals the rest of Ruby's room, and ''then'' the real mysteries start piling up.
223	* Basically the ENTIRE "you wake up in a room and have to get out" flash-based adventure game subgenre is nothing but this trope.
224	** ''[[http://www.fasco-csc.com/works/crimson/crimson_e.php Crimson Room]]''
225	** ''[[http://www.fasco-csc.com/works/viridian/index_e.php Viridian Room]]''
226	** ''[[http://www.fasco-csc.com/works/white/white_e.php White Chamber]]''
227	** ''VideoGame/MysteryOfTimeAndSpace''
228	** Any game with the [[http://jayisgames.com/tag/escape "escape" tag]] at Jay Is Games.
229	** Shmorky from WebAnimation/TheFlashTub made a parody called "The Stupid Room" where even the voice actress in it kept snickering at how ridiculous the premise is.
230	*** [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/flash-tub/tub-adventure.php Tub Adventure]] also began this way.
231	** Eli Piilonen's ''[[http://jayisgames.com/games/you-find-yourself-in-a-room/ You Find Yourself In A Room]]''
232	** The first ''Videogame/{{Submachine}}'', and to an extent the second one (even if it begins "I didn't wake up. And I do remember").
233	* The basic premise of Franchise/TheFearMythos story ''Ontological''.
234	* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvkjP6dqpfY The Dark Room]]'', an interactive Website/YouTube adventure with an [[TakeThatAudience abusive narrator]].
235	** As well as [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/918530/The_Dark_Room/ the video game]] based on it.
236	[[/folder]]
237
238	[[folder:Western Animation]]
239	* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'': In "Mystery Dungeon", Ice King wakes up in a dungeon with Tree Trunks, Shelby the Worm, NEPTR, and the Earl of Lemongrab, and their only way of escape is to make their way to the center. Turns out [[spoiler: Ice King kidnapped the others because [[PlotTailoredToTheParty he needed their skills]] to find the way to the lair of the Life-Giving Magus, in an attempt to bring the characters from his "Fionna and Cake" stories to life.]]
240	* ''WesternAnimation/TheHollow'' starts with the three protagonists waking up in a room with no idea how they got there or what their names are. The room's only exit is a air duct too high to reach and it has a strange typewriter in the middle of it.
241	* ''WesternAnimation/InfinityTrain'': In the [[Recap/InfinityTrainS1E1TheGridCar first episode]], protagonist Tulip is knocked out after boarding a mysterious train in the middle of nowhere, only to wake up in the daytime in a snowy landscape. She assumes she must have hallucinated the train... until she gets to a door and opens it to discover she was in one of the train's cars, now much larger than they were previously.
242	** This is what happens to all passengers. Book 2 reveals that between boarding the train and waking up in one of the cars, they have memory tapes made and are given numbers based on what the tapes show, before being sent away.
243	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'': The premise of Episode 161 is that the main four wake up locked in an escape room with no recollection of how they got there.
244	* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The episode Oblivio begins with the heroes waking up in an elevator with amnesia and no idea who they are.
245	[[/folder]]

Context Main / YouWakeUpInARoom