Break Out the Museum Piece: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Cutting-edge technology is usually superior to the older stuff. But sometimes heroes can't use the latest equipment: it may have been destroyed, stolen, confiscated, or rendered inoperable by the enemy's [[Applied Phlebotinum]] or the [[Alien Space Bats]]. So what do they do? They take the older stuff out of storage and make do with it. Strangely enough, the ancient devices still seem [[Ragnarok Proofing|to work just fine.]]

 

May lead to [[Chekhov's Gun]] or [[Chekhov's Exhibit]], if said museum piece has been noted earlier in the plot. See also [[Rock Beats Laser]] and [[Older Is Better]]. Can sometimes be connected to [[Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better]].

{{examples}}

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* The entire premise of ''[[Uchuu Senkan Yamato]]'' (''[[Star Blazers]]''), although the ''Yamato'' has been extensively retrofitted with state-of-the-art weaponry (including the [[Wave Motion Gun]]) and the engines have been replaced so it can complete its mission [[In Space|IN SPACE!]] Only the hull and superstructure are preserved from the original.

** There was also the episode "Speak Like a Child" where Faye receives an old Beta VCR tape that might contain clues to her past, so Spike and Jet scour the solar system looking for a working Beta VCR.

** Towards the end of the movie a number of museum piece aircraft are brought out. Some of the designs don't exist yet and some are museum pieces in the present day. Unlike usual, many of them are in... less than ideal working condition. Thankfully the pilots all had parachutes.

** In ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' the Tallgeese is the first military mobile suit ever made, but it was never used because it was so overpowered that it killed all the test pilots. When the Gundams appear and start ripping OZ's new models limb from limb, a student of [[The Rival|Zechs Merquise]]'s suggests using the Tallgeese specifically ''because'' it's overpowered, meaning it might match the Gundams. It's [[Lampshaded]] in the anime when a soldier comments he didn't know Zechs flew "antiques".

*** This can happen mainly because the military is still using the weakened version of Tallgeese, the Leo (weakened so pilots don't get killed by the G-Force at full throttle) as its main battle weapon. It is only a museum piece because it is the first prototype, too powerful to pilot and see combat, not because it is super old. It fits more in the [[Super Prototype]] trope.

* In ''[[Macross 7]]'', Millia is shown to have kept her old Valkyrie from the original Macross series over the years and breaks it out to assist when City 7 is cut off from the fleet (and reinforcements for awhile). However it's interestingly subverted. Millia can pilot it well enough to fight off the more advanced machines of the day, but when Gamlin who's only piloted more powerful modern Nightmare's tries to use it he's quickly shot down because he pushed it too hard.

* To a lesser extent, the Shen-Hu from ''[[Code Geass]]''. It's not that old (being the precursor to the Guren Mk-II, itself roughly a year old), but like the ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' example the machine was so insanely overpowered that nobody could use it. When Li Xingke takes it into battle, the only change made is the addition of a [[Mecha Expansion Pack|flight unit]].

'''Ben:''' Uh, let's not worry about little things like that. }}

* In ''[[Gunbuster]]'', the humans decide to reactivate the obsolete ''Excelion'' for one final mission, go on a suicide run into the middle of the space monster fleet and detonate a black hole bomb.

* The entire origin of ''[[Booster Gold]]''. All the devices he uses to be a superhero were stolen from a 25th Century museum, and he uses a time machine stored in the museum to get to the 20th Century where they would then be beyond state of the art. (Though at least originally, they were actually from his future too: 30th Century Legion of Super-Heroes devices that had gone back to the 20th century with Superman, and thus wound up in the museum.)

* Narrowly averted in "Lady d'Olphine", an episode of the French-Belgian comic ''[[Benoit Brisefer]]'': mobsters engaged in a turf war with a rival gang in the fictional country of Monte San Sone vainly try to talk a museum curator into selling them a [[WW 2]]-vintage howitzer.

* The ''[[Batman]]'' [[Elseworld]] story ''Dark Knight Dynasty'' showcased Brenna "Batwoman" Wayne's incredibly advanced 25th century power armour, before destroying its power cells so she had to swap it for a bat-costume that was just a costume.

* In the first arc of [[James Robinson]] 's ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'' series, "Sins of the Father", Jack Knight loses the cosmic rod that his father gave him, and has to rely on his father's much older gravity rod.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|Star Trek III the Search For Spock]]'', The 30 year old Enterprise whips the Young Whippersnapper Excelsior, thanks in part to Scotty.

* In ''[[Battlefield Earth (film)|Battlefield Earth]]'', U.S. military equipment stored in an underground base for 1,000 years is put into action to defeat the alien Psychlos.

* ''[[Independence Day]]'':

** Also, there's this newfangled device Eddie seems never to have heard of called a "watch."

* In the first ''[[Iron Man (film)|Iron Man]]'' movie, Stane steals Tony's Arc Reactor, power source for his suit and life support machine. As a result, Tony has to go into battle with the original, less powerful model. Bonus points for Pepper putting it in a glass case like an actual museum piece.

* In the Russian crime movie ''[[Brother 2]]'' the protagonists visit a gun runner who practices digging WWII-era weaponry from old battlefields and repairing it to working condition. In a later scene, they shoot some gangers with a WWI-era Maxim heavy machine gun.

* In ''[[Threads]]'', an antique traction engine is seen being used for farming after a [[The Deadliest Mushroom|nuclear war]] has left most of the world without mechanised agriculture.

* ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]''. While Morpheus and Trinity are fleeing after the Keymaker, Morpheus grabs a katana from a display of antique weapons and uses it to fight the albino ghost twins.

* ''[[Battleship (film)|Battleship]]'' sees USS ''Missouri'' taken back into action.

 

 

* [[H. G. Wells]]' ''[[The Time Machine]]'' (1895). While exploring a far future museum, the Time Traveller discovers that most of the items are useless. However, he breaks a lever off a machine for use as a club and finds a box of matches and a lump of camphor that he uses to make fire and light.

* In one of the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|ST:TOS]]'' ''[[Lost Years]]'' novels, ''A Flag Full Of Stars'' desk-bound post-series/pre-TMP Kirk uses the refitted Space Shuttle Enterprise to aid new 1701 CO Will Decker, commanding the in-the-midst-of-refit starship.

** Bonus points for having the ''Yorktown'' refit with the bridge of the original ''Enterprise'' for the museum. Also, Scotty made sure not to make the same mistake as in the third film. This time, he routed all the controls through a 24th-century shuttle computer, which worked just fine. Unfortunately, the Romulans have upgraded their sensors within the last century and spot him pretty quickly.

* Every [[Dirk Pitt]] novel ever made has one of these in it. In one, it's a old Ford Trimotor. In another, an old steam paddle boat saving the president. In another, its an old French legion fort.The list just goes on.

* From the ''[[Posleen War Series]]'' series of novels by [[John Ringo]]:

** Museum ships like old battleships are reactivated and upgraded to fight the invading alien Posleen. A [[WW 2]] cruiser, the USS ''Des Moines'', is brought back into service and upgraded with Galactic Federation tech to help secure the Panama Canal region in ''Yellow Eyes''

** The population of Britain (and various other European countries) apparently do quite well against the zombies, despite the lack of privately owned guns. Instead, they hole up in old castles and use the medieval weaponry in them. The quiet, middle-aged, academic type interviewed in the book is carrying a ''two-handed sword''.

** Other examples show up in the book. Grenades and flechette rounds do little to stop the zombies... but a modified trenching tool for up-close wetwork does wonders.

* In ''[[Hyperion]]'' one of the characters owns a gun that's been in her family for generations and gets described as ancient. Eventually it becomes apparent that while the gun is very old from the character's point of view it's actually a very advanced piece of technology.

* In ''[[The Salvation War]]'' museums and private collections across America are looted of any exhibits that are able to be returned to service. Particularly aircraft and armored vehicles. This is actually ''[[Real Life]]'' since provisions to do just that are included in national mobilization plans.

* ''Court Martial'' by [[Sven Hassel]]. Tiny and Porta find an ancient 104mm field piece hidden in a Russian barn and decide to shoot it off. At that moment the [[State Sec|NKVD]] decide to attack in motorised sledges, and a couple get blown up before the barn burns down around them.

* The premise behind the [[Choose Your Own Adventure]] book ''[[The Last Battledroid]]'' is that the galaxy is at peace, few standing armies are left, and the only thing that can stop the [[Big Bad]] is the single remaining Samurai-class battledroid currently residing in the museum. A nice touch is that you have to roll for its stats at the start, to see how badly the droid has deteriorated over the centuries.

* The eponymous corps of Joel Rosenberg's ''[http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/joel-rosenberg/not-for-glory.htm Metsada Mercenary Corps]'' series are forbidden by convention from using military technology more advanced than the enemies they've been hired to fight (thus, they use spears and shields against a Bronze Age culture, muskets against a 17th century level culture, etc.). The protagonist's uncle in ''Not For Glory'', the third book in the series, is renowned for his skill at using the limited equipment he sneaks past the shrewd inspectors to the maximum advantage. Against the Bronze Age opponents mentioned, {{spoiler|he jury-rigs hang-gliders out of the tents he is permitted to bring, giving his forces aerial superiority}}.

* Happens in ''[[The Railway Series]]'' during the story "Old Faithful". Sir Handel is having to do everything because Peter Sam is having some minor repairs done. Then he gets derailed, leaving him unsuitable for any more pulling that day. They have no choice but to use Skarloey, who had been retired to a side shed when Sir Handel and Peter Sam arrived, to pull the afternoon train. Skarloey is old and decrepit, but he gets the job done regardless [[Determinator|even after a spring in the front of his frame breaks]]. Afterwards he is sent off to be overhauled and comes back good as new, and has gained Sir Handel's respect.

* Stewart Cowley's ''Terran Trade Authority'' universe features this trope in the Laguna Wars in ''Great Space Battles''. The centrally controlled human battlefleet is vulnerable to the Lagunans' control-systems disorientation weapon and the manual backup systems are grossly suboptimal, so the mothball fleet of a previous era - actually ''designed'' for independent manual control - is hauled out of retirement. In the last-ditch defence of Earth against a powerful enemy fleet, the disorientation device is destroyed and the modern ships win the day, but when they push into enemy territory they find that the ultimate strategic victory has already been won by the museum fleet.

 

** The officials actually insisted on installing a computer network on the ''Galactica'' in order for it to be used as an interactive museum. Adama refused, claiming that no network will be installed as long as he's in command.

* In ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', Hiro believed that obtaining the sword of his childhood hero would allow him to control his powers. After going to the museum to steal it, they find out it's a replica, and have to steal the real one from the collector who has it.

* In ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'', there is a special revolver, made by Samuel Colt himself in the 19th century, that can kill anything with one shot. It's obviously an antique.

* Alluded to in ''[[Farscape]]'': D'Argo's Qualta Blade was used by his grandfather to repel invaders after they ran out of modern weaponry.

* ''[[Dad's Army|Dads Army]]'' had an early episode in which the platoon go to the museum with the intention of taking weaponry, but do not succeed. The museum's caretaker who is trying to stop them, however, makes good use of the pieces inside to stop them entering.

* Used frequently in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', at least partially because [[Guns Are Worthless]] - and probably partially for the same nerfing reasons as [[Family-Friendly Firearms]].

* Hodgins and Wendell did this on ''[[Bones]]'' (with a healthy dose of [[MacGyvering]]) when they were trapped by a blizzard without power, and they had to solve the case quickly because the murderer might be contagious. The clearest example was when Hodgins actually managed to vaporize some of the metal shrapnel and analyze it. Justified because they work IN a museum.

* The characters in ''[[NCIS]]'' had to do this during a power outage. Instead of digital cameras they used Gibbs's Polaroids, which they put up on a cork board, searched through boxes of fingerprints by hand and dug out an antique hand-cranked mimeograph to make copies.

* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''The Seeds of Death'', the Ice Warriors have hijacked the T-MAT teleportation grid, which is on the Moon. Luckily for our heroes, the crackpot who runs a space museum has been secretly maintaining a rocket...

** In "Vincent and the Doctor", the Doctor digs around the TARDIS for a species-scanner that was apparently given to him as a childhood present by his godmother.

** In "A Good Man Goes To War" he presents Amy and Rory with ''his'' cot for their baby, with its mobile still in perfect working order after a thousand years.

* In an episode of ''[[Primeval]]'', Professor Cutter takes a katana from a display stand and uses it against some prehistoric worms.

** The ''Miranda'' and ''Excelsior'' classes were actually in constant use for over 100 years, but the early models were usually mothballed after a while. But Starfleet kept building new ones with updated electronics and engines, so pulling the old ships out of retirement and bringing them up to modern standards was easy.

 

 

== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==

Curator: More budget cuts? }}

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* ''[[BattleTech]]'' plays with this. First, during the LosTech era, recovered ancient war machines may actually be ''superior'' to currently-produced models because they're still equipped with parts nobody knows how to make anymore. (This is what made finding old Star League caches such a big deal to everybody, to say nothing of {{spoiler|1=ComStar}} having secretly stashed away a whole ''army'' of old designs and waiting for the right moment to deploy them.) On the other hand, well-designed 'Mechs from that time can still give more 'modern' ones a run for their money, especially if the modern design uses a lighter but more vulnerable advanced ''engine''.

** Most of the ''really'' cool stuff is at least ten thousand years old, from [[Tank Goodness|Baneblades]] to [[Humongous Mecha|Titans]] to [[Battlefleet Gothic|miles-long battle cathedrals (IN SPACE!)]].

** Not to mention the fact that the Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Necrons are still using hardware from before the ancestors of humanity ever crawled out of the primordial soup.

 

* A theme in ''[[Red Alert 3 Paradox]]''. The Soviets have been forced to put some of their older vehicles back into service, while the entire Confederate faction consists of rusting vehicles stolen from a massive reserve dump in the Nevada desert. The twist is, of course, these museum pieces are the old units from Red Alert 1.

* In ''[[Battlestar Galactica Online]]'', the Cylon War Raider is just a First Cylon War-era Raider refitted to modern specs.

 

 

== Web Original ==

* In [[The Salvation War]], specifically, ''Armageddon'', most aircraft used in the war against hell are museum pieces which were long since retired. Tanks and other armoured units are also brought out of retirement and storage, a WWII Panzer showing up at one point.

 

 

** Of course, Rusty ends up being the sidekick.

* In the ''[[Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' movie, a working item (which cures [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]]) was in the museum, but it was put there to hide it in plain sight, because everyone believed it was broken beyond repair.

* A recurrent theme in ''[[Batman Beyond]]'':

** Terry's batsuit was technically a museum piece in the Batcave, though he said, "This suit may be old, but it's still cutting-edge." He uses other artifacts from Batman's crimefighting days in the series as well. (e.g. Nightwing's domino mask for ID obfuscation when the suit was unavailable, along with some old-style Batarangs.)

** In "Blackout", Bruce took the freeze ray out of his [[Superhero Trophy Shelf|little crime museum]] to stop Inque, and wore the old Gray Ghost hat and mask to keep his identity hidden. In her second appearance, Terry tried the same, but she broke it; later, Bruce took a huge [[Powered Armor]] suit out of retirement to go hand-to-hand with her in a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* In one episode of ''[[Captain Scarlet|Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet]]'', Captain Black was creating crop circles that render any digital systems (essentially, ''everything'') inoperable. Spectrum took out his base of operations with an old Lancaster Bomber, [[Chekhov's Gun|which had been introduced earlier in the episode]].

* In ''[[Extreme Ghostbusters]],'' the new crew tried the old proton packs against the [[Big Bad]] in the pilot episode and found them to be ineffective, forcing them to come up with a more powerful trap and proton guns. Even so, the old equipment still works, which makes it a suitable back-up.

 

== Other ==

== [[Real Life]] ==

* During WWII the [[wikipedia:Home Guard (United Kingdom)#Equipment and training|UK Home Guard]], also known as Dad's Army, was initially issued whatever they could scrounge, including [[Torches and Pitchforks|pitchforks, golf glubs]] and service rifles left over from the Boer War. (The regular army had first call on weapons left over from the First World War, though equipment started to trickle down as the supply situation improved.) Subverted in that many Home Guard personnel were farmhands, gamekeepers and other agricultural labourers, so shotguns and varmint rifles were plentiful.

** It was a Swordfish which crippled the Bismark, Germany's great battleship.

** That was also very much how the German forces managed to surprise the Allies in the Battle of the Bulge, although in their case the couriers used motorcycles.

* Al Unser won the 1987 Indy 500 in an older car that had been sitting on a motor show display stand until shortly before the race.

* Some Taliban snipers in Afghanistan use British Lee-Enfield rifles (or locally manufactured copies), the design of which dates back to the 1890s. A basically similar weapon chambered for NATO-standard battle rifle ammunition was in use by the British Army in the same role until relatively recently.

* Long after vacuum tubes had become obsolete, Soviet warplanes deliberately kept on using them because tubes are resistant to both electromagnetic pulse effects as well as some of the more conventional ECM.

* Even with the introduction of solid-state (ie, transistor) amplifiers in the 1970s, many electric guitar players still use vacuum tube amps and 90% of all amps aimed at pro guitarists are made using tubes, with most solid state amps being either bass, digital or smaller practice amps. Guitar design has that beat though. The three most common guitars (and designs) are the Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster plus the Gibson Les Paul. The Stratocaster was designed in 1954 and is the newest, with the Les Paul being introduced in 1952 and the Telecaster in 1952 (but having been released under as the Broadcaster a year earlier). While they have all recieved some design updates, all of them are virtually unchanged from their original designs.

** Also, before they were able to develop their own defense industry, the Israelis relied on surplus tanks to build up their armored divisions. For example, they had been using heavily upgraded Sherman tanks in every armed conflict up to the Yom Kippur war, nearly ''thirty years'' after World War II ended. They were going up against state-of-the-art Soviet tanks like the T-55 ''and winning''. The Israelis essentially proved that with enough upgrades, an obsolete tank could easily go toe to toe with a more modern one.

* In the [[Korean War]], the North Koreans were using sea mines dating back to the Russo-Japanese War, supplied to them by the Soviets. Fifty years later they are still using them.

* In 1807 the Ottomans loaded some giant cannons that had been collecting dust since the fall of Constantinople and used them to repel a British attack on the Dardanelles. It worked.

* Quite a bit of obsolete-but-still-useful equipment tends to be stockpiled just in case it's ever needed again. Of note is the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan AFB outside of Tucson, Arizona, essentially one of the largest airplane boneyards in the world. They periodically dip into this stockpile of stored airframes to sell them to other countries, scrap them, or use them for parts for still-flying airframes (worth noting that some American planes, such as the C-130 and the B-52, have been flying since the 1950's). Some even get turned into remote-controlled drones for things like target practice.

* The [[North Korea|Korean People's Air Force]] has a small number of relatively modern fighter jets, including the MiG-29. They also operate many older airplanes. Including around thirty MiG-15s, as in the fighter jet they flew in the ''[[Korean War]]'', although their remaining MiG-15s are all trainers. Did we mention that they also have biplanes?

* The first operational SR-71 was retired to the National Museum of the United States Air Force in the 70's, only to be put back into service for 20 years and permanently retired in 1990.

* When British firefighters went on strike in 2002, the Army was called upon to provide cover. They made extensive used of "Green Goddess" fire engines, built in the 50s and mothballed in the late 60s. The law has now been changed so in a future strike, the Army would have access to the fire brigade's equipment, and the Green Goddesses have been sold to developing countries.

* During the Phillipine-American war, [[wikipedia:Colt M1892|the Colt M1892]] the standard pistol at the time proved ineffective against Moro tribesmen. The army briefly switch back to the Single Action Army, which proved far more effective.

* The Italian Air Force used the F-104 until 2004 in spite not only of the extreme age of the design (the airplane was first flew in 2004, with the Italian F-104S version being manufactured between 1964 and 1979) but of its tendence to crash. It helped it was actually ''faster'' than the more modern F-16 that had been considered to replace it in the 1980s...

** Also the old Carcano (dating back to 1891) and Garand rifles are still kept in the arsenals to be used by the reserve in case of war.

* Some vehicle museums keep ''all'' their display vehicle in working order.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Older Is Better]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]