Jetrell Fo said:

Ryan McAvoy said:

Here is a good one...

A cliche that has become very boring and overused of late is the "Mastermind villain allows themselves to be trapped inside a glass cell that they planned to escape from all along" cliche. The three most recent examples that I can think of are...

The Avengers 2012
Skyfall 2012
Star Trek Into Darkness 2013

...and they were copying the ridiculous success of 2008's 'The Dark Knight'. But surely Christopher Nolan couldn't be the first? 2003's 'X2' had the glass prison and the plan to escape but that's not the same as allowing yourself to be captured as part of your evil game of chess. Those pesky Greeks used an equine variant of this idea some 3 millenia ago but it was still not the same cliche that was used by Heath Ledger's Joker.

Any earlier examples than 2008? (There must be)

I'm guessing just by what you typed that variations on the theme are okay or are you specifically speaking about glass (no metal bars) cells only?

Just discussing general influences on the TDK cliche but so far can't think of one example of a pre Dark Knight film using the exact plot device that is used for The Joker. The glass cell isn't strictly nessasary to the cliche, it just seems to be very popular due to it looking great on film. The Joker isn't in glass cell as such (It's a room surrounded on all sides by windows), it's more the 'getting yourself caught as part of your nefarious masterplan angle' that I'd like to hear early examples of. Surely in the hundred years of cinema Nolan can't be the first to have thought of it? (He is a clever dude but still).