Crazy Prepared: Difference between revisions

→‎Fan Works: added example
(removed duplicate entry for "winds of war and remembrance")
(→‎Fan Works: added example)
 
(40 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 2:
{{quote|'''Random Cop #1:''' Someone call the Avengers or somethin'--
'''Random Cop #2:''' -- And tell 'em what? A '''polite robot''' just walked into the U.N.?
'''Random Cop #3:''' ''(into radio)'' -- got a 4-3-7- at the U.N. --|''[[X-Men|Uncanny X-Men]] #366'' (The [[Marvel Universe]]: sooner or later, you get used to it.)}}
|''[[X-Men|Uncanny X-Men]] #366''}}
 
Simply put, a character is prepared for a highly unlikely scenario. Nobody else [[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?|thought it would happen]]. Only it ''does'' happen, and said character was prepared for it. He may even remind his friend[s] that [[I Warned You]].
Line 13 ⟶ 14:
 
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Sent up in an ad campaign for Smirnoff Ice, in which the host has a very conspicuous preparation for (with the exception of one drunk driving device) extremely unlikely events, such as a giant tennis ball catapult in case of giant dogs and a surprisingly dinky trident in case a kraken surfaces from the swimming pool.
* One of Mastercard's "Priceless" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V70bLAPevMc commercials] featuring [[MacGyver]] (yes, starring Richard Dean Anderson) shows him buying all the little things he uses well ahead of time.
Line 19 ⟶ 20:
* In [http://youtu.be/9lJy86vQSXc this Vodafone Omnitel] commercial, the main character must smuggle the title product across some kind of checkpoint. Ducking into a car-wash, she changes clothes and removes a [[Latex Perfection|very lifelike mask]] to reveal a completely different look. Qualifies because the mask is a duplicate of her ''normal appearance'', and the curly-haired blonde underneath it is a disguise-by-makeover.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXWZ3uAEKsw This woman] could easily be part of the Batfamily. Everything the public servant tries, she's ready...
* From 2000; Batman becomes even more Crazy Prepared after Alfred instals [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD_imcfd76Y&ab_channel=RetropolisChannel the Onstar system] into the Batmobile.
 
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
 
== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' has the sacred martial art, Hokuto Shinken, which apparently comes with a specific technique for violently countering any attack as well as inducing [[Karmic Death]] in any manner of villain (for example, if you garrotte people to death because you're evil, the right combination of pressure points will cause you to decapitate yourself with it). In an interesting example of characterization involving this trope, the later volumes see the main character relying less on cute special techniques to kill random Mooks and being content to merely punch them into pudding (unleashing your hidden brute strength is another of the style's techniques...)
* ''[[Mazinger Z]]'': In one episode, an enemy was unceasingly shooting missiles at the Hover Pilder to preventing Kouji from docking with Mazinger. Kouji pressed a button, and his vehicle let go a trail of smoke to make the enemy believing he had been shot down and having him stopping to shoot as he docked.
Line 28 ⟶ 29:
* In [[Elfen Lied]], Bando spends every day picking up trash from the beach so it can't be used as a weapon against him.
* We are told that ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler]]'' keeps multiple flavors of jam packets in his pockets. Nagi also mentions that when a master asks for gum, any properly trained butler will have EVERY possible flavor on hand... just in case.
* Yuuko the Dimension Witch of ''[[xxxHolic×××HOLiC]]'' and ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' sees all that is to be and has the proper equipment for it...[[Equivalent Exchange|if you can meet her price]].
* In an episode of ''[[Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z]]'', Miss Keane has a counter on hand for any bizarre excuse the girls come up with to leave class, thinking they're trying to cut class. These excuses include a hip ulcer, having to go into space, and attending a wedding of mole people. She also calls the [[Title Drop|President of the USA]], and is [[Berserk Button|nearly]] able to charm Mojo out of a rampage.
* Mayuri Kurotsuchi of ''[[Bleach]]'' invoked this trope in his fight with Szayel Aporo Granz, revealing a crazy number of preparations. To whit, he:
Line 73 ⟶ 74:
* In ''[[Combattler V]]'', an episode involves the villain kidnapping the team's super scientist. He then exploits Professor Yotsuya's drinking problem to make him drink some wine with truth serum in it. Luckily, the professor had a capsule with an antidote hidden in his teeth.
* In an episode of ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' set on a space station where conventional firearms are forbidden due to safety concerns, Gene Starwind for some reason has paintball bullets for his gun which he uses to disable the visual sensors of a <s>[[Powered Armor]]</s> ''[[Mini-Mecha]]''.
:''[[Fridge Brilliance]]!'' That tactic would work pretty well on damn near anyone, making them a sensible alternative. He probably replaced all his ammo the instant he learned about that policy - the instant you take guns off the table, you're catnip to the next [[Axe Crazy|psycho with an axe]] ''who will know for certain that you're not armed'', let alone over-funded pirates with Mini Mecha.
 
''[[Fridge Brilliance]]!'' That tactic would work pretty well on damn near anyone, making them a sensible alternative. He probably replaced all his ammo the instant he learned about that policy - the instant you take guns off the table, you're catnip to the next [[Axe Crazy|psycho with an axe]] ''who will know for certain that you're not armed'', let alone over-funded pirates with Mini Mecha.
* Ah [[Trickster|Blue]] from ''[[Pokémon Special]]''. When exactly did she think to [[Victoria's Secret Compartment|stuff her shirt with Pokeballs]] and pretend her Ditto is her arm before her actual battles? She screwed her opponents ''good''. She also always takes careful notes on everything she does, which backfires on her when Silver steals them to figure out where the final battle would take place despite the fact she didn't want him anywhere near it.
** Giovanni also shows shades of this as he always brings a Mewtwo [[Restraining Bolt]] on him just in case the Pokemon unexpectedly shows up to try to kill him.
** The Team Rocket trio in the Best Wishes arc of the ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime. As a result of them [[Took a Level in Badass|taking a level in Badass]], rather than being blasted off again by Ash and Co. (especially Pikachu), they now blast themselves off with jetpacks before the heroes can even deliver the finishing blow on them.
* Armbrust from ''[[Kiddy Grade]]'' never traveled without his metal case. The case (called the Black Box) has extradimensionalextra-dimensional powers and can shapeshift, enabling him to transport things, people, anything the situation may demand, and he always seems to show up just when he's needed. The case is also bulletproof, and can repair damage at the press of a button.
* When Reiko, one of the [[Gate Keepers]] whose power of illusion is activated through her piano playing, ran away with the Gate Robot, Invaders suddenly attack! It's a good thing the [[Gate Keepers]]' secret agency A.E.G.I.S. just so happened to have a secret weapon for the Gate Robot: [[GR 05 V]], which was essentially a giant piano.
* Crocodile in ''[[One Piece]]''.
Line 84:
** There was also his plan with the bomb in Alabasta. He engineered it so that even if the cannoneers are defeated, {{spoiler|the bomb was rigged with a timer}}. And when forced to fight with his hook, he has a poisoned backup hook underneath that hook. And if that hook is broken, he can eject a knife in its place.
* How does one defeat a phoenix, a being who's immortal, in ''[[High School DxD]]''? Simple; have a Longinus that doubles your power every 10 seconds, have a cross and holy water in handy, a skill that enhances the effects of anything you desire, and [[Power At a Price|sacrifice your arm to turn it into a dragon]] just so you don't get burned by the effects of the cross and the holy water. Oh and as a backup, have two bottles of holy water in handy. This is what Issei did to {{spoiler|finish off [[Jerkass|Raiser]]}}.
* High school girl Yukari of ''[[Girls und Panzer]]'' keeps it all in [[Hammerspace]]. Her pockets are flat and she has no backpack, but out come all sorts of useful things including a folding spade, a lantern, insulating wrap for inside one of her schoolmates' boots, a thermos filled with hot chocolate, scissors, sewing kit, bandages, [[Batman|batarang]] ... Well, no; we haven't '''seen''' a batarang '''so far'''....
 
== Batman/Batfamily ==
'''Comics:'''
* [[Batman]] apparently spends most of his time devising contingency plans to use in the event that he has to fight a given individual, to the point that it's widely said that Batman can [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|beat anyone or anything "if he's prepared"]]. For example, he carries {{spoiler|a chunk of Kryptonite}} on his utility belt at all times, "just in case". He also prepares himself to an <s>almost</s> unhealthy extent, regularly injecting himself with antitoxins in the off chance a poison wielding villain might attack him, and training most of his day. There are some thing you just can't ever see coming, like [[Deadlands|zombie Abraham Lincoln]] [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|armed with an assault rifle]].
* Dick Grayson ([[Nightwing]]/the first [[Robin]]) is also highly prepared. In the first volume of the threepart series 'Trinity' a villain by the name of Swashbuckler steals Nightwings mask. Which Grayson promptly has destroyed via an explosive charge set for voice activation. The command phrase was only "Autodestruct."
* Batman has attempted to be prepared in case of the inevitable superhero [[Face Heel Turn]], most notably in two infamous incidents. In the "Tower of Babel" arc of the Justice League comic, it was mainly confined to the League. The second was shortly after [[Identity Crisis]] where Batman decided to secretly tab '''every''' superhero/metahuman on Earth he could, so he built the Brother Eye program to monitor them. Both blew up in his face horribly (Ra's found and used the files and Brother Eye was hijacked by Max Lord and, later, [[Lex Luthor|Alexander Luthor]]).
** That being said, while they did indeed blow up in his face, they did so by incapacitating every member of the league, who all needed to be saved by the backup plans to THE BACKUP PLANS! Yes, indeed; Batman is so prepared, he even prepared for his contingency plans to get stolen.
* In ''JLA: Year One'', {{spoiler|Martian Manhunter}} also had files on every superhero he knew of, including weaknesses and secret identities. They were again swiped and used by the bad guys.
* Tim Drake, Robin III, is similarly prepared. In his own comic, while fighting another vigilante, they fall through the roof into a bowling alley, with Tim landing on an enormous display bowling ball. He stands up, and uses his feet to start rolling it toward his opponent, thinking, "Believe it or not, I actually trained for this. I told Bruce it was stupid at the time. We'll have a good laugh when I get back home."
* Tim recently{{when}} defeated Lady Shiva. Lady Shiva who's like the best Assassin in the world, and aside from Bronze Tiger and Richard Dragon, probably the best martial artist in the world. You wanna know how? {{spoiler|He had poisoned some complimentary chocolates from the hotel she was staying at, ''before she wrote the letter challenging him''. The poison was a paralytic triggered by an increased heart rate. Like in a fight. Against Robin.}}
* In one issue of ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'', the new team goes on a camping trip to get to know each other better. Around the campfire they start a game of "truth or dare," and Superboy promptly dares Robin to remove his domino mask. He does.... revealing another domino mask underneath. He admits that he had put the extra mask on before they left, figuring that this game would come up.
{{quote|'''Arrowette:''' You were toilet trained at six months, weren't you...}}
* In an issue of ''Gotham Adventures'', a criminal "artist" named Kim escapes from Arkham and begins leaving clues at crime scenes in a manner reminiscent of the Riddler. Riddler is furious that someone is stealing his gimmick and tracks Kim down himself. As they fight, Riddler asks what all the "clues" were supposed to mean. Kim reveals that they were actually references to an art film by a foreign director, and he was merely making an artistic statement. Riddler rants about how that is completely pointless, as ''nobody'' will ''ever'' understand such a reference, and the ''point'' of leaving clues is to give your opponent a fighting chance. Whereupon Batman shows up and reveals that he understood the clues just fine. When asked why he would watch random films and memorize the biographical information of their directors, Batman replied "In case I had to."
** Really, Kim won this argument - Batman had memorized the pertinent info, but had never seen the film. The final panel is him having learned a life lesson to stop and smell the roses, sitting in the Batcave watching what amounts to a Kurosawa film on the Batcomputer.
** In one issue of JLA, the Martian Manhunter has shifted into a Japanese woman using the name Hino Rei. Batman recognises J'onn instantly, and mentions that "the name is a giveaway". Yes, Batman knows enough about [[Sailor Moon]] to spot the name of Sailor Mars. Amusingly, this is because the author got pranked; he asked a friend for a Japanese woman's name that would translate out to 'Poet of Mars', thus establishing Batman's linguistics genius; instead his friend deliberately gave him the secret ID of Sailor Mars, and so the author inadvertently established Batman's otaku cred.
* Batman's crazy preparation is shown to an extreme in the ''[[Grant Morrisons Batman|Batman: RIP]]'' storyline, in which we find that {{spoiler|in case of [[Mind Rape|psychological attack]], he has created a backup personality known as "The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh". Said personality might actually ''be'' crazy, making this a literal example.}} This is not, however, not the first time he's done something like this. In a Gotham Knights story, Bruce uses a contingency plan that involves [[Memory Gambit|hypnotizing himself]] to essentially strip the Batman part of his identity and leave only the Bruce Wayne part, in case someone found out and he needed to take extra measures to convince them (and others) otherwise.
* In Batman #666, it was shown that in a possible [[Bad Future]], {{spoiler|Damian Wayne}} would become Batman. However, since he knows he's not as skilled as his predecessors, he makes up for it by ''booby-trapping every major building in Gotham'' in case he has to fight there.
* Rather infamously in JLA 59 Batman engineered the defeat of Polaris to end with the JLA victorious, Superman's healing accelerated by the hole in the ozone layer and ''himself standing on a teleportation disk he had hidden in the arctic for just such an occasion''. Appropriately he ends the comic with the words "always plan ahead".
* In an issue of Superman/Batman, it is revealed that Batman carries around a lead-lined mirror ''just in case'' Superman ever turns evil and Batman can't avoid his heat vision. Because, you know, that situation comes up so often. (although, considering the rate at which it happens in Superman/Batman, it may actually come up quite a lot...)
* During the Hush arc of Batman, it is revealed that if he is ever knocked unconscious, his helmet will release tear gas on anyone brave enough to reach for his mask, as well as his suit tasering anyone stupid enough to touch him. The taser shows up in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight]]''.
* Lampshaded by Jaime Reyes, the [[Blue Beetle]], in one of his teamups with Batman. An enemy has just ambushed them by essentially spawning an arctic blizzard ramped [[Up to Eleven]] above them, causing them to get buried in a few meters of snow. After Beetle breaks out and stops the blizzard by scaring off their attacker...
{{quote|'''Blue Beetle:''' Batman! Hold on! I'll find you and get you out! Can you break out the Bat-Snowblower or something?
''(minor explosion)''
''(Batman digs his way out of the hole caused by the explosion)''
'''Blue Beetle:''' ''(in awe)'' Please don't tell me you actually have a Bat-Snowblower...
'''Batman:''' Heating flare capable of melting through ice in a hurry. You'd be surprised what you pack after going up against Mr. Freeze enough times. }}
* Further demonstrated in a recent{{when}} issue of Superman/Batman where the world is under the control of Gorilla Grodd except for Batman. Batman's arm is robotic and Superman is gone in space because the atmosphere has Kryptonite in it. By the end of some long convoluted that proves enough how Crazy Prepared Batman is, it turns out that it was just a simulation of that potential scenario just in case and Batman reveals to Alfred that he does these all the time.
* There was an [[Elseworlds]] comic called ''JSA: The Liberty Files'' which had an alternate reality version of Batman, Hour Man, and Mid-Nite on a train in their civilian identities. They were simply eating dinner when they were suddenly attacked by a villain. Batman, as Bruce Wayne, opens his jacket and throws two grenades. One of the heroes remarks, "You brought grenades to dinner?" to which Bruce replied, "I needed them, didn't I?".
* In [[The Dark Knight Strikes Again]], Batman is well prepared for Superman coming to pay him a visit. He has The Atom place small charges all over Supes, after which Green Arrow shoots him with a Kryptonite arrow, all before Batman then hands his ass to him with Green K gloves. And then for the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], Superman tells the Bat he only came to talk, to which Batman replies, 'We're done talking. Get out of my cave.'
* In one issue of Gotham Adventures, Harley Quinn writes a trashy romance novel that controls the mind of whoever reads it. Tim and Barbara were controlled while Bruce wasn't. Why? He wore leather gloves while reading it.
* Batman [[Does Not Like Guns]], but he still takes his proteges to the firing range. When asked why, Batman explained that it's useful to know as much about guns as possible even if he doesn't use them.
* In one Brave and the Bold comic, Batman reveals that he keeps a one-way one-shot handheld teleporter preset to the vicinity of a black hole in his utility belt. Just in case.
 
'''Live Action:'''
* This was done to ''ridiculous'' extents in the '60s Adam West ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'', where, instead of being simply prepared, Batman had an inane gadget for every situation. This came to a ridiculous head in ''[[Batman: The Movie]]'', where Batman is attacked by a shark while hanging from a helicopter, but thankfully, the ''helicopter'' has a canister of ''shark repellent bat-spray''. The shot of the cabin reveals the helicopter also has barracuda, whale and manta ray repellent sprays.
{{quote|'''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Music Meister]]:''' ''Even without shark repellent/ he's tougher than he seems...''}}
** In an episode where Batman and Robin are saved by a seal, using a live fish Batman had in his utility belt. Robin asks "Where did you get a live fish?" Batman says " The true crimefighter always carries everything he needs in his utility belt, Robin"
** Alphabet Soup Bat Container.
** To survive an attack by Mr. Freeze, in one episode he and Robin have on their Bat Thermal Underwear!
** To counter the situation of [[Bruce Wayne Held Hostage]], he carries around dehydrated Batsuit tablets, so that he can turn into Batman given a glass of water.
** When The Joker tried to hypnotize the Dynamic Duo using his hypnosis box, it doesn't work. Robin informs the Joker they had taken their Bat-Anti-Hypnosis Pills from the Bat-Pill Dispenser on their Bat-Utility Belts!
** Parodied in a DC/Wildstorm crossover miniseries [http://superdickery.com/index.php?view=article&catid=36%3Astupor-powers-index&id=746%3Abat-female-villain-repellent&option=com_content&Itemid=24#content here.] The members of [[Planetary]] are fighting various [[Alternate Universe]] incarnations of Batman, and at one point the Adam West version uses a can of "BAT-FEMALE-VILLAIN-REPELLENT" on Jakita Wagner.
** This was parodied in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' where Krusty was a guest-villain in an old rerun of Batman. Krusty's plan was to spin Batman and Robin on a carousel so rapidly that they would apparently "blush themselves to death". Fortunately, Batman happened to have a can of Carousel Reversal Spray with him.
{{quote|'''Krusty:''' Uh, what don't you have in that belt?!
'''Batman:''' Patience! For harlequin hoodlums like yourself! }}
** In one episode where bars of a window high above the ground needed to be welded, Batman told not to throw away the door due to pedestrian safety. He then uses a bat-hanger to hang those bars.
** He also had all-purpose bat-swatter in case of an insect attack.
* In the otherwise forgettable ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' movie, Batman and Robin run into Mr Freeze for the first time and slip on his ice. They then reveal that they had ice skates hidden in their boots despite there being no possible reason for them to ever install/use them before Mr Freeze who they didn't know about before he showed up.
* In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight]]'', [[The Joker]] was often [[Up to Eleven|even better prepared than Batman himself.]] It helps that he's both a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and an unapologetic [[Complete Monster]].
 
'''Animation:'''
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' - Robin is crazy prepared and this is lampshaded by Kid Flash when Robin has his utility belt while wearing civilian garb.
{{quote|'''Kid Flash:''' You have your utility belt?!
'''Robin:''' Never leave home without it! First thing Batman taught me.
'''Kid Flash:''' Yeah, right after never go to the bathroom without it. }}
* The series finale of ''[[The Batman]]'' has a rather odd case where this comes in handy. Aliens have stolen the powers of Justice League of America members, and the methods to defeat them are used by ''the superheroes they were originally planned for''.
* Before that, ''[[The Batman]]'' episode "Seconds" starred someone-totally-not-the-Clock-King-or-Chronos who could rewind time and relive a battle every time he loses, correcting any mistakes—the equivalent of emulator-[[Save Scumming]]. This power allowed him to fight Batman ''to a draw''.
* Despite Batman [[Memetic Badass|having his own category on this page,]] a lot of his preparations in the comics and various adaptations are ''not'' "crazy" preparations, but are reasonable and logical precautions inspired by events that have already occured. However, in the episode ''This Little Piggy'' of season one of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' he and [[Zatanna]] go the [[Greek Mythology|Greek Underworld]] to interrogate Medusa about the current whereabouts of Circe. In the DVD audio commentary the producers explained that they felt it was perfectly natural for Batman to carry ''exactly'' two pennies in his utility belt, ''just in case'' he had to cross the River Styx.
* Taken to [[Crazy Awesome]] levels while [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode "Black Out". When the shapeshifter Inque hitches a ride to the Batcave ''incognito'' by blending in with the paint, the computers detect the weight imbalance of a lone shapeshifter on a vehicle which has to weigh many tons. She shows herself, so Bruce quickly dons a large hat and sunglasses to hide himself (a [[Continuity Nod]]; it was the original Gray Ghost uniform). Inque is eager to find out where she is exactly, so she tries to escape through the access tunnel. The following ensues:
{{quote|'''Terry''': She's trying to escape! ''(Bruce pushes a button, steel doors close over the tunnel.)''
'''Bruce''': It pays to be prepared.
'''Inque''': Somebody's got a secret. ''(She tries to pull the door off.)''
'''Terry''': She's getting through! ''(Bruce pushes another button, door becomes electrified.)'' Man. You really are prepared.
'''Bruce''': ''(Cue Inque slithering up to the ceiling.)'' She won't get through that way either, there's a foot of solid steel up there. }}
* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' gives us this conversation:
{{quote|'''[[Blue Beetle|Jaime]]:''' OK OK, here's one. Poison Ivy has used her [[Mind Control]] spores on Superman to pit him against Batman. Oh, and Batman has no kryptonite. Who wins?
'''Paco:''' Easy: Superman.
'''Jaime:''' Wrong, Batman, by using his kryptonite.
'''Paco:''' You just said he had no kryptonite.
'''Jaime:''' Trick question. Batman ''always'' has kryptonite. }}
* This is also a [[Shout-Out]]—the very situation actually came up in ''[[The Batman]]''. He ''didn't'' have kryptonite at the time, but started keeping it after this incident, with Supes' blessing. Also, this exact scenario came up the one time he ''didn't'' have kryptonite he did have a back up plan: he tricks Superman into punching into the power cables for '''all of metropolis'''. And then snaps him out of mind control by {{spoiler|dropping Lois Lane out a window, so that his subconcious desire to protect her will break through Ivy-spores}}.
{{quote|You can stun Superman. It just takes ''a lot'' of electricity. }}
** This is also a [[Shout-Out]] the Hush story arc, when Poison Ivy does just that to Supes in an elaborate [[Xanatos Gambit]] of Hush's to corner Bruce into trusting him.
** There's a fantastic example in the first season finale, where it appears that he has planned for the specific situation of {{spoiler|"forced to [[Enemy Mine|team up with the Joker]] and use back-up vehicle"}} by {{spoiler|including a [[Big Red Button]] in that vehicle that would spray knock-out gas into the passenger seat, knowing that Joker wouldn't be able to resist pushing it}}. Thinking about that for a second makes you realize this is one of a very, very few scenarios in which that would come in handy.
*** ...There are a LOT of TV normals who would start pushing buttons the second they're in the Bat-Mobile. Given that Batman saves random idiots, not a bad idea to weed out the biggest idiots.
** Joker himself shows tendencies of this. When Batman put him in handcuffs, he revealed that he was wearing fake, detachable hands (as well as having a number of other objects up his sleeve).
* Some episodes of ''The'' ''[[Superfriends]]'' carry the versatility of Batman's utility belt to ridiculous extremes. If every episode is to be believed, his utility belt holds a Bat Glue Ray, a Bat Invisibility Ray, and a Bat-Belt Mouse Compartment.
 
'''Video Games:'''
* [[Batman]] does it again in the new game, ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'':
** {{spoiler|It is revealed early-ish in the game that Batman has secretly built a ''second Batcave on Arkham Island'' just in case, after he found an extensive cave as a side effect of saving a convict from committing suicide.}} This is in canon with the comics. He has several smaller "satellite" Batcaves all throughout Gotham City, including a sub-basement underneath the Wayne Foundation building, an abandoned underground subway station, and the aforementioned.
** Batman decided that just in case he would be hanging people from random points in Arkham, he should bring in a large amount of rope to do so.
** He also has an apparently infinite supply of Batarangs at his disposal as well.
** He does it again just before trekking into {{spoiler|Killer Croc's lair.}} Just before he enters it proper, he takes the time to spray some explosive gel on a seemingly random spot on the sewer floor for no apparent reason. It turns out to be {{spoiler|how Batman defeats Killer Croc by blowing up the floor and sending Croc into a deep pit.}}
** After taking down Bane, Bats and Gordon walk outside and start talking about the events going on at Arkham while Bats fiddles with his arm computer for a moment on something we don't see. In the middle of the conversation, Bane explodes out and grabs Bats and lifts him up to have this exchange:
{{quote|'''Bane:''' I will ''break you'' Batman!
'''Batman:''' No, Bane. This time, I break you. *the Batmobile drives through and takes Bane with it into the water* }}
** The Riddler also shows signs of Crazy Prepared: He spread out not only his own personal trophies around Arkham, but he also spray painted hard to find question marks that can only be seen by Batman's cowl, he set interview tapes around Arkham, and he made riddles for every area in Arkham. He did all that just on the off chance that Batman might have to spend a lot of time at Arkham (though he might have been privy to the Joker's plan, which would indicate extreme resourcefulness on relatively short notice).
* With Arkham City, Batman (and a few other characters even) gets to continue showing off how prepared he is for any and every situation under the sun. The best part? The game is designed so the player themselves gets to instigate most of the preparations this time around!
** Right off the get go, Bruce Wayne is captured by Arkham City guards and incarcerated, Bruce convinces a guard to attack him and snaps his radio off and quickly steals the SD chip before getting processed into the prison. When he changes to Batman, he slips the SD chip into his Sequencer and taps into the guards radio transmissions, ensuring he'll know about their movements ahead of time well into the rest of the game.
** Riddler again gets to show he's even more crazy prepared then Batman, by hiding trophies and riddles in places he shouldn't even have access too, or know exist!
*** The Riddler also had the foresight to plan ahead for Catwoman teaming up with Bats, strewing trophies and riddles around Arkham City for her as well.
 
 
== [[Comic ComicsBooks]] ==
* Almost ubiquitous in the [[Marvel Universe]]: sooner or later, you get used to it.
* In a Swedish comic book series for children called "Bamse", there is an character who's a turtle called "Skalman" which translates to "Shellman", he can fit anything except for a few exceptions into his shell. Think "deus ex machina armory".
* [[Grant Morrison]], during his run on ''[[JLA]]'', introduced Prometheus, a deliberately designed anti-Batman who decided to destroy "the forces of justice" after watching a cop gun down his bank-robber parents. In addition to possessing a helmet that allows him to hardwire his brain to duplicate everything another person knows, including how they move and speak, allowing him to [[The Worf Effect|defeat Batman in hand-to-hand combat]], he also has plans worked out to disable every single member of the JLA, including the ones who just joined in the previous issue. He is only vanquished when {{spoiler|he fails to predict that Catwoman would have snuck onboard the Watchtower to rob the trophy room. Since he didn't plan for her, she takes him out with a surprise [[Groin Attack|whip crack to the soft bits]]}}. He has since undergone varying levels of [[Badass Decay]] in later appearances.
Line 188 ⟶ 96:
** As revealed in the newest Wolverine issue, Cyclops apparently has own set of such protocols. Apparently he has multiple plans for each member, although the only one shown so far are the ones for Wolverine.
* ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'', a comic about [[Tabletop Games]] players / characters, features an extremely cunning player, Brian: When the party is kidnapped and stripped of possessions, he reveals that his character had had "spellbooks" tattooed on the other characters' backs. ''Not only that'', every morning he swallowed a ring of teleportation and every evening he "recovered" it. "It's all there on the character sheet!" Although most of his preparations were on a signed, dated and notarized sheet inside a sealed envelope, so the GM couldn't accuse him of making it up on the fly.
** In case he gets his hands on a Wish Spell, Brian also has a pages-long carefully written run-on sentence in his briefcase which is designed to grant his character true immortality. He has even had the document reviewed by an actual paralegal. BA and his fellow Gamemasters cannot find a flaw in the wish, but Brian's PC becoming immortal means that a previously restrained god has the right to destroy him. EVEN''Even THENthen'' this only triggers a clause that undoes the effects of the wish and gives Brian 25,000 gp.
** Brian's mage at one point had a custom-made magic helmet that was enchanted to be invisible and designed to project a constant illusion on the inner visor of what the wearer would normally be seeing if not for the helmet being in place. Aside from acting like a magic VR heads-up display, this means that the character is immune to all gaze attacks because he is not technically making eye contact with the attacker. This came up when the party was ambushed by a medusa and seemed to work until B.A. thought to ask [[Fridge Logic|how Brian's character could see the illusionary image if the helmet were invisible]]. Cue [[Flipping the Table]].
** Brian also plays characters that are relatives of each other, and Brian has concocted a carefully documented series of contingencies to insure that each succeeding character gets the carefully detailed journals of all his predecessors. The result? Brian's current character always knows everything all of his previous characters knew.
Line 210 ⟶ 118:
''(E pulls a stake out of his [[Badass Longcoat]])''
'''Constantine:''' Blimey. }}
* Comic strip example: When [[Dilbert]]'s boss uses a ray on him that makes a unicorn horn grow out of his head, the Garbageman offers to fix Dilbert with his cell normalizer and a sample of Dilbert's "pre-unicorn" DNA. When Dilbert asks why the Garbageman has a sample of his DNA, he replies "It's for exactly this kind of situation".
* While not at the same level of crazy as Batman, [[Green Arrow]] definitely counts. The guy's got a trick arrow for any situation: boxing glove arrows, fire extinguisher arrows, net arrows, ''geiger counter'' arrows...
* In ''[[Gold Digger (Comic Book)|Gold Digger]]'' by Fred Perry, archmage Theodore Diggers faces off against his father, who has become an evil undead abomination. He dodges one of his father's spells by teleporting behind him, where he's most vulnerable. Unfortunately he runs into the invisible time-delayed exploding fireball his father had put there just in case. Then again, if you look carefully, you can see him casting it a few panels before he teleports...Lich King is just [[Genre Savvy]]. And knows how Theodore thinks.
Line 225 ⟶ 132:
{{quote|'''Soldier''': I thought we confiscated his camera!
'''Jimmy Olsen''': A good reporter is ''always'' prepared! I have a dozen spares! (''[[Blinded by the Light|blinds the soldiers with the camera's flash and escapes]]'') }}
* The Junior Woodchucks of ''[[The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck|Uncle Scrooge]]'' fame have a medal ready for "Speed reading, ancient languages division, subsection Lydian" to award immediately after completing the feat. When asked, they comment that they are ALWAYS''always'' prepared.
* In ''[[All Fall Down]]'', IQ Squared proves to be this, for programming {{spoiler|AIQ Squared, an AI version of himself}} in the event that he ever lost his super-level genius.
 
=== Batman/Batfamily ===
* [[Batman]] apparently spends most of his time devising contingency plans to use in the event that he has to fight a given individual, to the point that it's widely said that Batman can [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|beat anyone or anything "if he's prepared"]]. For example, he carries {{spoiler|a chunk of Kryptonite}} on his utility belt at all times, "just in case". He also prepares himself to an <s>almost</s> unhealthy extent, regularly injecting himself with antitoxins in the off chance a poison wielding villain might attack him, and training most of his day. There are some thing you just can't ever see coming, like [[Deadlands|zombie Abraham Lincoln]] [[Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny|armed with an assault rifle]].
* Dick Grayson ([[Nightwing]]/the first [[Robin]]) is also highly prepared. In the first volume of the threepart series 'Trinity' a villain by the name of Swashbuckler steals Nightwings mask. Which Grayson promptly has destroyed via an explosive charge set for voice activation. The command phrase was only "Autodestruct."
* Batman has attempted to be prepared in case of the inevitable superhero [[Face Heel Turn]], most notably in two infamous incidents. In the "Tower of Babel" arc of the Justice League comic, it was mainly confined to the League. The second was shortly after [[Identity Crisis]] where Batman decided to secretly tab '''every''' superhero/metahuman on Earth he could, so he built the Brother Eye program to monitor them. Both blew up in his face horribly (Ra's found and used the files and Brother Eye was hijacked by Max Lord and, later, [[Lex Luthor|Alexander Luthor]]).
** That being said, while they did indeed blow up in his face, they did so by incapacitating every member of the league, who all needed to be saved by the backup plans to THE BACKUP PLANS! Yes, indeed; Batman is so prepared, he even prepared for his contingency plans to get stolen.
* In ''JLA: Year One'', {{spoiler|Martian Manhunter}} also had files on every superhero he knew of, including weaknesses and secret identities. They were again swiped and used by the bad guys.
* Tim Drake, Robin III, is similarly prepared. In his own comic, while fighting another vigilante, they fall through the roof into a bowling alley, with Tim landing on an enormous display bowling ball. He stands up, and uses his feet to start rolling it toward his opponent, thinking, "Believe it or not, I actually trained for this. I told Bruce it was stupid at the time. We'll have a good laugh when I get back home."
* Tim recently{{when}} defeated Lady Shiva. Lady Shiva who's like the best Assassin in the world, and aside from Bronze Tiger and Richard Dragon, probably the best martial artist in the world. You wanna know how? {{spoiler|He had poisoned some complimentary chocolates from the hotel she was staying at, ''before she wrote the letter challenging him''. The poison was a paralytic triggered by an increased heart rate. Like in a fight. Against Robin.}}
* In one issue of ''[[Young Justice (comics)|Young Justice]]'', the new team goes on a camping trip to get to know each other better. Around the campfire they start a game of "truth or dare," and Superboy promptly dares Robin to remove his domino mask. He does.... revealing another domino mask underneath. He admits that he had put the extra mask on before they left, figuring that this game would come up.
{{quote|'''Arrowette:''' You were toilet trained at six months, weren't you...}}
* In an issue of ''Gotham Adventures'', a criminal "artist" named Kim escapes from Arkham and begins leaving clues at crime scenes in a manner reminiscent of the Riddler. Riddler is furious that someone is stealing his gimmick and tracks Kim down himself. As they fight, Riddler asks what all the "clues" were supposed to mean. Kim reveals that they were actually references to an art film by a foreign director, and he was merely making an artistic statement. Riddler rants about how that is completely pointless, as ''nobody'' will ''ever'' understand such a reference, and the ''point'' of leaving clues is to give your opponent a fighting chance. Whereupon Batman shows up and reveals that he understood the clues just fine. When asked why he would watch random films and memorize the biographical information of their directors, Batman replied "In case I had to."
** Really, Kim won this argument - Batman had memorized the pertinent info, but had never seen the film. The final panel is him having learned a life lesson to stop and smell the roses, sitting in the Batcave watching what amounts to a Kurosawa film on the Batcomputer.
** In one issue of JLA, the Martian Manhunter has shifted into a Japanese woman using the name Hino Rei. Batman recognises J'onn instantly, and mentions that "the name is a giveaway". Yes, Batman knows enough about [[Sailor Moon]] to spot the name of Sailor Mars. Amusingly, this is because the author got pranked; he asked a friend for a Japanese woman's name that would translate out to 'Poet of Mars', thus establishing Batman's linguistics genius; instead his friend deliberately gave him the secret ID of Sailor Mars, and so the author inadvertently established Batman's otaku cred.
* Batman's crazy preparation is shown to an extreme in the ''[[Grant Morrisons Batman|Batman: RIP]]'' storyline, in which we find that {{spoiler|in case of [[Mind Rape|psychological attack]], he has created a backup personality known as "The Batman of Zur-En-Arrh". Said personality might actually ''be'' crazy, making this a literal example.}} This is not, however, not the first time he's done something like this. In a Gotham Knights story, Bruce uses a contingency plan that involves [[Memory Gambit|hypnotizing himself]] to essentially strip the Batman part of his identity and leave only the Bruce Wayne part, in case someone found out and he needed to take extra measures to convince them (and others) otherwise.
* In Batman #666, it was shown that in a possible [[Bad Future]], {{spoiler|Damian Wayne}} would become Batman. However, since he knows he's not as skilled as his predecessors, he makes up for it by ''booby-trapping every major building in Gotham'' in case he has to fight there.
* Rather infamously in JLA 59 Batman engineered the defeat of Polaris to end with the JLA victorious, Superman's healing accelerated by the hole in the ozone layer and ''himself standing on a teleportation disk he had hidden in the arctic for just such an occasion''. Appropriately he ends the comic with the words "always plan ahead".
* In an issue of Superman/Batman, it is revealed that Batman carries around a lead-lined mirror ''just in case'' Superman ever turns evil and Batman can't avoid his heat vision. Because, you know, that situation comes up so often. (although, considering the rate at which it happens in Superman/Batman, it may actually come up quite a lot...)
* During the Hush arc of Batman, it is revealed that if he is ever knocked unconscious, his helmet will release tear gas on anyone brave enough to reach for his mask, as well as his suit tasering anyone stupid enough to touch him. The taser shows up in ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight]]''.
* Lampshaded by Jaime Reyes, the [[Blue Beetle]], in one of his teamups with Batman. An enemy has just ambushed them by essentially spawning an arctic blizzard ramped [[Up to Eleven]] above them, causing them to get buried in a few meters of snow. After Beetle breaks out and stops the blizzard by scaring off their attacker...
{{quote|'''Blue Beetle:''' Batman! Hold on! I'll find you and get you out! Can you break out the Bat-Snowblower or something?
''(minor explosion)''
''(Batman digs his way out of the hole caused by the explosion)''
'''Blue Beetle:''' ''(in awe)'' Please don't tell me you actually have a Bat-Snowblower...
'''Batman:''' Heating flare capable of melting through ice in a hurry. You'd be surprised what you pack after going up against Mr. Freeze enough times. }}
* Further demonstrated in a recent{{when}} issue of Superman/Batman where the world is under the control of Gorilla Grodd except for Batman. Batman's arm is robotic and Superman is gone in space because the atmosphere has Kryptonite in it. By the end of some long convoluted that proves enough how Crazy Prepared Batman is, it turns out that it was just a simulation of that potential scenario just in case and Batman reveals to Alfred that he does these all the time.
* There was an [[Elseworlds]] comic called ''JSA: The Liberty Files'' which had an alternate reality version of Batman, Hour Man, and Mid-Nite on a train in their civilian identities. They were simply eating dinner when they were suddenly attacked by a villain. Batman, as Bruce Wayne, opens his jacket and throws two grenades. One of the heroes remarks, "You brought grenades to dinner?" to which Bruce replied, "I needed them, didn't I?".
* In [[The Dark Knight Strikes Again]], Batman is well prepared for Superman coming to pay him a visit. He has The Atom place small charges all over Supes, after which Green Arrow shoots him with a Kryptonite arrow, all before Batman then hands his ass to him with Green K gloves. And then for the [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]], Superman tells the Bat he only came to talk, to which Batman replies, 'We're done talking. Get out of my cave.'
* In one issue of Gotham Adventures, Harley Quinn writes a trashy romance novel that controls the mind of whoever reads it. Tim and Barbara were controlled while Bruce wasn't. Why? He wore leather gloves while reading it.
* Batman [[Does Not Like Guns]], but he still takes his proteges to the firing range. When asked why, Batman explained that it's useful to know as much about guns as possible even if he doesn't use them.
* In one Brave and the Bold comic, Batman reveals that he keeps a one-way one-shot handheld teleporter preset to the vicinity of a black hole in his utility belt. Just in case.
 
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* The IDSE appears to be this in ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]'', preparing tools for interactions with places that may not exist in case they do and any of the tools, such as a Dimensional Anchor, are necessary.
* ''[[Shinji and Warhammer40K|Shinji and Warhammer 40 K]]'': [[God-Emperor|Emperor]] Shinji knows what you're planning even before he's met you. He also knows the odds of anything (''whatsoever'') occurring that could potentially derail his saving of humanity, and has already prepared at least four different methods, each, to deal with it. In fact, the only thing he doesn't know is... [[You Can't Fight Fate|why him]]?
* ''[[Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality]]'' depicts Harry as (trying to be) one. The brief appearance of Mad-Eye Moody manages to upgrade his canon use of this trope. Apparently that magic eye of his that he has constantly scanning in every direction doesn't actually need to move—it provides perfect 360 degree vision no matter where it's pointed. He moves it around so that people ''think'' he needs to.
* The [[Wise Prince|protagonist]] in ''[[Dragon Age: The Crown of Thorns]]'' managed to {{spoiler|get everyone of the main cast out of Ostagar alive, along with the treaties, because he prepared for the possibility of Loghain not charging when he was supposed to.}} Granted, he'd {{spoiler|had a discussion with the man earlier, when they both traded deep observations of one another.}} And this is just one of the many examples.
* In ''[[Progress]]'', the Cake family is insured against acts of goddesses... Whichwhich comes in handy when Pinkie Pie accidentally freaks out Princess Luna, and she trashes part of the place. TheySince they live with Pinkie Pie, getting an extremely comprehensive insurance policy probably seems like a sensible precaution. Of course, 'extremely comprehensive' policies may not cover against 'Acts of Goddesses'...
* In ''[[Oh God, Not Again]]'', {{spoiler|when Pettigrew is caught, Luna pulls out a animagus-proof jar that her father had her carry around in case she ever ran across an illegal animagus she wanted to capture}}. Even [[Crazy Awesome|Harry]] is surprised by this.
* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'', where the Warblers are frequently unfazed by various situations, and instead focus more on [[Refuge in Audacity|recording Kurt and Blaine because they have a huge betting pool on those two]]. David's [[Chekhov's Skill|habit of writing everything down]] {{spoiler|lets him figure out that Blaine has a stalker,}} at which the Warblers promptly tell the staff and set up a [[Hero Secret Service]]. In [[Wham! Episode|the nineteenth chapter]], said [[Chekhov's Gag|secret service]] {{spoiler|possibly keeps Blaine ''alive'' when the stalker tries to kidnap him, as Wes and David [[Go Through Me|force him to kidnap THEM''them'' as well]] if he doesn't want them to call 911.}} Meanwhile, [[Chekhov's Gun|one of their many tracking devices]] ends up recording it.
* This little gem from ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120430181817/http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7471458/1/The_First_Guardian The First Guardian]'':
{{quote|Ichigo snorted, "I have a silver cross and several rolls of duct tape under my bed, a box in a location only I know about in case an Ichigo Kurosaki from the future deems sending me a message necessary, I carry picklocks in all of my shoes, I secretly own a car I keep parked on the other side of town, I had Kisuke make fake European passports for the both of us, I own a condo in Tokyo that I bought while disguised as a foreign woman by the name of 'Falsa', I bought the warehouse my sister's bodyguards use as base so that I could legally build a separate room large enough to fit a Gundam, just in case I do get a Gundam."}}
* In ''[[A Tale of Two Rustbuckets]]'', the Colonial Fleet is stated to have contingency plans for numerous situations, including such things as the return of the Lords of Kobol, or a revolt by the Junior Pyramid League. Adama implements their first contact plan when he encounters ''Destiny''.
* Jaune Arc in the ''[[RWBY]]/[[The Gamer]]'' crossover fic ''[[The Games We Play (RWBY fanfic)|The Games We Play]]''. The unlimited capacity of his [[Bag of Holding|inventory]] allows him to keep handy all manner of "just in case" equipment, including a [[Kitchen Sink Included|kitchen sink]] and [[World's Smallest Violin|a literally microscopic violin]] just so he can use them as the punchlines for jokes.
* Harry in the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' fic ''[[Modest, Too]]'' by "Luan Mao" has, after defeating Voldemort didn't turn into his [[Happily Ever After]], taken to accumulating all manner of supplies and equipment in a never-full pouch, just in case they might come handy -- which they do several times in the story starting with the situtation in which he's found himself at its start.
{{quote|You might wonder why I had a one-way portkey to the stage of a 24-hour gay nightclub in Monaco. My answer: you'll never know when you'll find a use for one.}}
 
== Films -- Animation[[Film]] ==
* Rourke from the Disney film ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'' is described as "never being surprised". This would include having folding fighter planes to use against the heroes. Atlantians who manage to improbably restart ancient flying machines to create an aerial fighting force to pursue the plunderers are also featured. Fighter planes on an ''underground'' mission, no less. Fighter planes on an underground, ''underwater'' mission. That prepared-ness can be attributed to Whitmore, the Atlantis expedition's eccentric financer, who provided said expedition with: one truly titanic submarine (equipped with torpedo turrets, fighter subpods, and four escape subs), an enormous drill-on-wheels, the above folding fighter planes, an inflate-in-a-moment escape balloon, etc etc.
* [[Four-Star Badass|General W.R. Monger]] from ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]''.
{{quote|'''Monger''' ''(After their plane got blasted down by a huge alien fireball)'': This is why I ''always'' wear a parachute, lieutenant.}}
* ''[[Saw]]'': Jigsaw is getting close to being the personification of this trope, to the point where if there is another film, he's going to make the goddamned Batman look like a rank amateur. Despite the slight handicap of suffering from being in the final stages of an inoperable brain tumor in the first three films and the slightly more serious affliction of being dead in the following ones, he is ''still'' able to mastermind the abductions of dozens of people, the creation of ridiculously elaborate traps, training of real and fake apprentices and apparently being able to predict every single action and consequence of all these machinations nearly flawlessly.
 
 
== Films -- Live Action ==
* [[Saw|Jigsaw]] is getting close to being the personification of this trope, to the point where if there is another film, he's going to make the goddamned Batman look like a rank amateur. Despite the slight handicap of suffering from being in the final stages of an inoperable brain tumor in the first three films and the slightly more serious affliction of being dead in the following ones, he is STILL able to mastermind the abductions of dozens of people, the creation of ridiculously elaborate traps, training of real and fake apprentices and apparently being able to predict every single action and consequence of all these machinations nearly flawlessly.
* In ''[[Kick-Ass (film)|Kick-Ass]]'', [[Training from Hell|the]] introductory [[Bulletproof Vest|scene]] [[Heroic Sociopath|for]] [[Mad Artist|Big]] [[Anti-Hero|Daddy]] [[Good Is Not Nice|and]] [[Tyke Bomb|Hit]] [[Cute Bruiser|Girl]] shows us just how Crazy Prepared the two of them are. The scene was just [[Crazy Awesome]] enough to be made into one of the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LUfFTvrWB4&NR=1 trailers], ''by itself.''
* Burt Gummer from the ''[[Tremors]]'' movie series maintains an enormous collection of firearms and survival gear for any contingency, even ''before'' giant, subterranean killer worms invade his town. One exchange in ''[[Tremors]] 3'' sums up his existence well:
Line 260 ⟶ 197:
* [[Mary Poppins]]' bottomless bag contains apparently everything... and more. (Under)played for laughs, but this behavior would still fit the trope.
* ''[[Spy Kids]]'': The watch does everything... except tell time.
* Jerry Fletcher (Mel Gibson) from the movie ''[[Conspiracy Theory (film)|Conspiracy Theory]]''. It's his Crazy Preparedness that actually saves him and the girl when the "Them" ''really'' come to his apartment to get him.
* Her earlier experiences made Sarah Connor vigilant and just a little paranoid. ''[[Terminator]] II'' also shows that it made her crazy prepared. She pulls into a friend's place on the Mexican border and tells him she needs her "things". This turns out to be a years-buried cache of [[Wall of Weapons|weapons]] including a [[More Dakka|freaking minigun]]. It's even alluded to that she spent John's childhood arming him with [[Chekhov's Skill|Chekhov's skills]].
** In [[wikipedia:Terminator 3|Terminator 3]], the "supposed" resting place of Sarah Connor is yet another small weapons cache, complete with bullet-proof coffin.
** In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', it is revealed that when she and John move into a new house, every single time that they move, she has every piece of furniture lined with kevlar and the walls are hollowed out and stack with guns, in addition to cases of guns under ever bed.
* ''[[The Goonies]]''. Data with all his [[Homemade Inventions]] is Crazy Prepared for the circumstances of the story's adventure. Trapped in the darkness? Super-bright flashlights on his belt. Bad guy getting too close? Pneumatic boxing glove [[Hammerspace|hiding in his jacket]]. Bad guys in hot pursuit? His shoes produce [[Oil Slick]]s. Falling down a hole? His [[Grappling Hook Pistol|"Pinchers of Peril"]] keep him from going splat. Plus more. Now only if they all [[Bungling Inventor|worked flawlessly]]...
* The ''[[Men in Black (film)|Men in Black]]'' have not only a gadget and weapon for everything (rocket car, neuralizer, injection that turns you into a fishman, fishing pole that is actually a gun, etc.) but multiple caches of them hidden throughout New York in random apartments and businesses. Several buildings are actually spaceships, which are a result of a cover-up or placed intentionally, but are nonetheless useful. This trope was played with more in the animated series than the films. In the second film, Agent K neuralized himself to protect the [[MacGuffin]] of the film (before retiring and being neuralized again), but left clues in case he needed to find it.
Line 271 ⟶ 208:
* ''[[Back to The Future]] Part II'': Doc has prepared for monetary needs in any year with an attache case containing money from several time periods.
* From ''[[The Transporter]]'', you have the transporter. When he breaks the rules and {{spoiler|looks in the package}}, the bad guys {{spoiler|blow up his house}}. That turned out to not be the problem you might think, because he and {{spoiler|the devoid-of-personality love interest}} end up in a tunnel under his house with access to the ocean. Can't get back out of the tunnel? No problem, because he happens to have scuba gear down there. For two people. Even though he's been a loner for years.
* ''[[Casshern]]'' had a slightly amusing sequence in which the {{spoiler|Shinzo Ningen (mutants) rise up from the body parts in a pool that was being used to create a new medical miracle}} in an "unexpected" turn of events. The amusing part comes in when {{spoiler|soldiers burst through the door to gun them down}} and shout something like "Code 27!" Apparently, government forces of the future already have a code specifically designated for {{spoiler|zombie/mutants rising up from medical experiments gone wrong, and it's as early as 27 in the code book.}}
* To a degree, The Man in Black from ''[[The Princess Bride (film)|The Princess Bride]]''. Besides being a skilled swordsman, wrestler, and strategic thinker, he just "happens" to have spent the last few years building up an immunity to a particular poison, a vial of which he just "happens" to carry around with him should the occasion arise when he must engage in a battle of wits...
* The title character from ''[[Behind the Mask|Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon]]'' spends most of the movie showing how he has prepared for his one night of slaughtering horny teenagers.
Line 282 ⟶ 219:
** Have to drive back through the caltrops you dropped earlier? No worries - your tires are self-inflating!
* [[Mr. Brooks]]' secret cache of passports and disguises are a whole extra level of Crazy Preparedness on top of his already intimidatingly meticulous methods.
* In the otherwise forgettable ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' movie, Batman and Robin run into Mr Freeze for the first time and slip on his ice. They then reveal that they had ice skates hidden in their boots despite there being no possible reason for them to ever install/use them before Mr Freeze who they didn't know about before he showed up.
* In ''[[The Dark Knight Saga|The Dark Knight]]'', [[The Joker]] was often [[Up to Eleven|even better prepared than Batman himself.]] It helps that he's both a [[Magnificent Bastard]] and an unapologetic [[Complete Monster]].
 
== Gamebooks[[Literature]] ==
* The ''[[Grail Quest]]'' series of gamebooks would give players the option to acquire seemingly ridiculous items, such as mechanical aardvarks and devices for communicating with crickets (not insects in general, you understand, but ''solely'' crickets). In any given book, most of these items would be useless but one or two would increase your chances of success significantly. The trick was figuring out ''which.''
 
 
== Literature ==
* Valentinian bodyguard of the title character in [[Belisarius Series]]. He is never found without a knife although he thinks knife fighting the stupidest way to fight. When assigned as combat trainer to a prince he includes on the spot weaponization of mundane tools to the list of skills as even a prince might end up without a sword.
* Darkly parodied in [[Tom Clancy]]'s ''Executive Orders'': After the U.S. is attacked by a Japanese terrorist, President Ryan happens upon the contingency plan to attack Japan. He orders it destroyed. The narration notes they're just going to file it away.
Line 308 ⟶ 243:
** [[Truth in Television]] (or literature in this case): an essay in the 28 July 1934 issue of ''The New Yorker'' was entitled "Melancholy Notes on a Cablegram Code Book" and it mentions a bunch of these sorts of code groups in a commercial (non-secret) code. Such as LYADI, meaning "Arrived here with decks swept, boats and funnels carried away, cargo shifted, having encountered a hurricane." Or EWIXI, "Very few cases of cholera are now reported". As the essay's author mentions, some of them are just a little too disturbingly detailed.
* The protagonist of [[H.P. Lovecraft]]'s ''[[The Shunned House]]'' suspects that he has discovered a vampire, but knows better than to rely on a wooden stake and hammer, instead bringing a pair of flamethrowers and a ''[[Energy Weapon|Crookes tube]]'', "in case it proved intangible and opposable only by vigorously destructive ether radiations". [[Wrong Genre Savvy|This being a Lovecraft story]], it turns out neither of these are appropriate weapons for what's actually going on.
* [[Terry Pratchett]] used this in various ''[[Discworld]]'' books:
* [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld/The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents|The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents]]''. Due to Malicia's [[Genre Savvy|awareness]] of the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]], she carries an adventuring bag with such items as a grapnel, a rope ladder, laxative for surviving on a coconut diet on a deserted island, and cotton-wool for blocking the vents of a giant underwater mechanical squid. She lives several hundred miles inland. These come in handy repeatedly, though not for their intended purposes.
** ''[[The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents]]''. Due to Malicia's [[Genre Savvy|awareness]] of the [[Theory of Narrative Causality]], she carries an adventuring bag with such items as a grapnel, a rope ladder, laxative for surviving on a coconut diet on a deserted island, and cotton-wool for blocking the vents of a giant underwater mechanical squid. She lives several hundred miles inland. These come in handy repeatedly, though not for their intended purposes.
** That's because Malicia is [[Wrong Genre Savvy]].
*** That's because Malicia is [[Wrong Genre Savvy]].
** Vorbis, antagonist of ''[[Discworld/Small Gods|Small Gods]]'', had a very weird form of planning which was described as such: "You had to have a mind like Vorbis's to plan your retaliation ''before your attack.''" In other words, he planned an assault on Ephebe (with resultant tragic losses) only after starting an even more elaborate means to get back at them ''first''.
** Vorbis, antagonist of ''[[Small Gods]]'', had a very weird form of planning which was described as such: "You had to have a mind like Vorbis's to plan your retaliation ''before your attack.''" In other words, he planned an assault on Ephebe (with resultant tragic losses) only after starting an even more elaborate means to get back at them ''first''.
** Mr Teatime, an assassin in ''[[Discworld/Hogfather|Hogfather]]'', made a hobby of working out ways to kill anthropomorphic personifications, such as the Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy or even Death. This came in very handy in his next contract.
** Mr Teatime, an assassin in ''[[Hogfather]]'', made a hobby of working out ways to kill anthropomorphic personifications, such as the Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy or even Death. This came in very handy in his next contract.
** Vetinari, the [[Dangerously Genre Savvy]] Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, knows that when a ruler is overthrown the overthrowers tend to lock the ruler away in the deepest, dankest cell of his palace's dungeons. Hence, Vetinari ensured that while the deepest, dankest cell's door has a heavy-duty lock on the outside, all of the deadbolts and bars are on the ''inside''. He also has the key hidden behind a brick in the cell wall so escape can be performed at leisure. Training the local sentient rats to run errands didn't hurt either. Yes, the Patrician arranged for his jail cell to have ''room service''.
** The Lancrastian Army Knife contains ''everything'' a soldier in the field could need. The trope is played with, as it's explained that if it had contained ''absolutely'' everything a soldier might need, it would have been too big and heavy to carry around, so most of the suggested items (such as a "small tool for winning ontological arguments") had to be left out.
** Commander Vimes has liberally booby-trapped his home and all non-direct entrances to his office, knowing that various individuals would be contacting the Assassin's Guild about removing him from office. The effectiveness of these precautions )(and his increasing importance in Ankh-Morpork's political landscape) has resulted in the Guild refusing to take any more contracts out on him. These days, the Guild uses him as a training objective for know-it-all students: all the trainee needs to do is get a glimpse of him without getting caught by a trap. So far, nobody has succeeded.
** Deconstructed in the first part of ''[[Pyramids]]'', when we see Teppic [[Lock and Load Montage|gearing up for his Assassin exam]]. He ends up with so many items concealed about his person that, as soon as he tries taking a step, he falls over from their weight.
* The Tucker family in the online serial novel ''[[The Saga of Tuck]]'': Preparations for yearly extended camping trips included vaccinations for several diseases never known to occur in the area they would be hiking through and annual Red Cross first aid re-certification. They carried in their packs: morphine ampules, radios with solar-powered chargers, night vision gear, and enough food and water for more than twice as long as their intended trip. They also trained in unarmed combat, knife fighting (the lead character, Tuck, was known to carry several {{spoiler|especially when dressed as his female alter ego Valerie}}, and firearm training that included several types of pistol and rifle and 'spin tests' to ensure they could shoot accurately while disoriented. From comments made elsewhere, this is apparently a fair reflection of how author Ellen Hayes and her family really are. [[Word of God]] from the author, Ellen Hayes:
{{quote|Nightvision gear was too expensive to justify so they don't have any, they only carry two days extra of food on a seven day trip, I found solar battery chargers on the 'Net before I wrote that, and the immunizations were during the "every year before school" visit most of us had (taken, of course, to the survivalist extreme that the family does). As for me being that way... "Shut up." (A local trope, meaning "You are right but for lame ego-saving purposes I don't wish to admit this out loud.")}}
Line 353 ⟶ 290:
**When the child Emperor Gregor is moved to Vorkosigan House, Imp-sec clears every thing that might obstruct field of fire from the building and makes sure all residence sleep in rooms that are not near windows.
**ImpSec in general, considers security [[Serious Business]].
* From the original ''[[Winnie-the-Pooh]]'', where the Silly Old Bear ate too much at Rabbit's house and got stuck in the door trying to leave - Rabbit was ''certainly'' lucky he had the foresight to build a back door on his burrow, something he mentions he rarely used otherwise.
 
== [[Live -Action TV]] ==
* This was done to ''ridiculous'' extents in the '60s Adam West ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' - the [[Trope Codifier]] - where, instead of being simply prepared, Batman had an inane gadget for every situation. This came to a ridiculous head in ''[[Batman: The Movie]]'', where Batman is attacked by a shark while hanging from a helicopter, but thankfully, the ''helicopter'' has a canister of ''shark repellent bat-spray''. The shot of the cabin reveals the helicopter also has barracuda, whale and manta ray repellent sprays.
{{quote|'''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Music Meister]]:''' ''Even without shark repellent/ he's tougher than he seems...''}}
** In an episode where Batman and Robin are saved by a seal, using a live fish Batman had in his utility belt. Robin asks "Where did you get a live fish?" Batman says " The true crimefighter always carries everything he needs in his utility belt, Robin"
** Alphabet Soup Bat Container.
** To survive an attack by Mr. Freeze, in one episode he and Robin have on their Bat Thermal Underwear!
** To counter the situation of [[Bruce Wayne Held Hostage]], he carries around dehydrated Batsuit tablets, so that he can turn into Batman given a glass of water.
** When The Joker tried to hypnotize the Dynamic Duo using his hypnosis box, it doesn't work. Robin informs the Joker they had taken their Bat-Anti-Hypnosis Pills from the Bat-Pill Dispenser on their Bat-Utility Belts!
** Parodied in a DC/Wildstorm crossover miniseries [https://web.archive.org/web/20120503060703/http://superdickery.com/index.php?view=article&catid=36%3Astupor-powers-index&id=746%3Abat-female-villain-repellent&option=com_content&Itemid=24#content here.] The members of [[Planetary]] are fighting various [[Alternate Universe]] incarnations of Batman, and at one point the Adam West version uses a can of "BAT-FEMALE-VILLAIN-REPELLENT" on Jakita Wagner.
** This was parodied in an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'' where Krusty was a guest-villain in an old rerun of Batman. Krusty's plan was to spin Batman and Robin on a carousel so rapidly that they would apparently "blush themselves to death". Fortunately, Batman happened to have a can of Carousel Reversal Spray with him.
{{quote|'''Krusty:''' Uh, what don't you have in that belt?!
'''Batman:''' Patience! For harlequin hoodlums like yourself! }}
** In one episode where bars of a window high above the ground needed to be welded, Batman told not to throw away the door due to pedestrian safety. He then uses a bat-hanger to hang those bars.
** He also had all-purpose bat-swatter in case of an insect attack.
* In an episode of ''[[Blackadder]]'', Captain Blackadder is in prison, having been sentenced to death for disobeying orders. Baldrick smuggles in an escape kit so that Captain can use them to break out. Rather than a chisel and a hammer which would be needed to commit the break out, Baldrick packs a wooden duck (as a disguise in case of being caught near a lake), a pencil (to drop Baldrick a postcard), a small trumpet (in case he has to win the favor of a small child) and a Robin Hood costume (in case he arrives at a French peasant village having a costume party).
* The [[Mission: Impossible (TV series)|Impossible Mission Force]] team had a plan, a backup plan, a backup plan for the backup plan, and sometimes one more backup plan for good measure. Even when a mission went wrong, it went right.
* During a Halloween [[All Just a Dream|dream episode]] of [[Silver Spoons]], [[The Hero|Ricky]], [[The Lancer|Alphonse]], and some [[The Smart Guy|nerdy kid they hung around with]] were in a haunted house. They get locked in a room and the only door has no doorknob. The nerd walks up to the door, reaches in his backpack and [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|pulls out a spare one]], remarking, "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|And you guys always make fun of me for carrying around a spare doorknob!"]]
* During the third season of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', Jack Bristow is a model of preparedness in the episode, "[http://www.twiztv.com/cgi-bin/transcript.cgi?episode=http://dmca.free.fr/scripts/alias/season3/alias-308.htm Breaking Point]." As part of a rescue attempt, he accesses a secret personal storage facility containing firearms, medical supplies, money, flak jackets, and other things typical of a well-stocked arsenal. While not out of character, it is the first time this resource has been revealed, and it increases the viewer's understanding of just how exceptionally cautious Jack can be. Michael Vaughn comments, "The fact that you're letting me see this place means... it's not your only one, is it?" Jack responds dryly, "You're smarter than you look."
* The ''[[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|Battlestar Galactica]]'' remake: A somewhat mild case, but one wonders why exactly Admiral Bill Adama stores the interrogation drug from hell on the ''Galactica'' and seems quite familiar with its use... you know, just in case you recapture and need to intimidate and torture Gaius Baltar in the most imaginative and surreal way possible. Similarly, the survival of the people who would eventually form Sam Anders' resistance on post-nuclear Caprica was hand-waved by stating that the resistance was largely Sam's team mates- athletes conducting high altitude training in the mountains- plus a bunch of survivalist types, whom you'd expect to be Crazy Prepared.
** Given the timing of the Baltar interrogation episode, the interrogation drug could have been obtained from the supplies onboard the ''Pegasus'' before the latter ship was lost. Admiral Cain is ''just'' the sort of psycho to keep some of that crap around.
** His last mission was intelligence / spying and all very hush, hush.
Line 440 ⟶ 391:
{{quote|'''Scorpius''': Foresight... and preparation.}}
** John even calls him on his insane ability to survive.
{{quote|'''John''': Kryptonite, silver bullet, [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)|Buffy]]? What's it going to take to keep you in the grave.? }}
* During an episode of ''[[Friends]]'', half the characters are trapped in Rachel's room for most of the night without any food. A later episode shows that Joey had planted a box of food and games in that room in case it ever happened again. That box also included ''condoms'' because, as he put it:
{{quote|'''Joey:''' We don't know how long we're gonna be in here. We may have to repopulate the earth.
Line 491 ⟶ 442:
'''Michael:''' That's Boy Scouts. }}
 
== [[New Media]] ==
* One J.R. Mooneyham has a rather [http://jmooneyham.com/ eclectic web site], containing things ranging from supposedly autobiographical stories of his supercar racing days, through survivalist essays and advice for living cheap, all the way to a detailed speculative timeline of world history/prehistory/future history and a [[Science Fiction]] novel starring the author's alter ego. There are certainly examples of Crazy Prepared, both in the fiction and the non-fiction. For instance, see the [http://www.jrmooneyham.com/orgstt.html#sectionap insanely detailed description] of the extensive security measures of a fictional research lab.
* Legendary Usenet poster 'Gharlane of Eddore' (not to be confused with [[Lensman|the other Gharlane]]) once wrote a post detailing his design for "Standard Generic Monster Load", bullets intended to let you be prepared for almost any conceivable supernatural emergency:
{{quote|'''Gharlane:''' Silver bullet; hex-scored jacketed hollow-point filled with a gel made of Holy Water, wolfsbane, garlic, fugutoxin and curare, laced with dimethyl sulfoxide to provide tractor-solvent Spreading Factor. Traditionalists can also cut crosses in the bases of the bullets, and have them blessed by a priest. .44 magnum 240-grain load over the standard Elmer Keith hunting load, 24 grains of IMR 2400. (The manual says 21.8 grains is maximum, so don't use the 24-grain load if you have a cheap revolver.) These work reliably on Vampires, Werewolves, the generic Undead, and Evil Human Minions like Renfield, with sublime indifference.}}
 
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* When [[Dilbert]]'s boss uses a ray on him that makes a unicorn horn grow out of his head, the Garbageman offers to fix Dilbert with his cell normalizer and a sample of Dilbert's "pre-unicorn" DNA. When Dilbert asks why the Garbageman has a sample of his DNA, he replies, "It's for exactly this kind of situation".
 
== Pro[[Professional Wrestling]] ==
* Jushin Thunder Lyger revealed that he has Sting-like face paint under his mask, which came in handy when The Great Muta pulled his mask off.
* ''Someone'' has to keep putting all those tables, ladders and other weapons under the ring should they be needed...
Line 505 ⟶ 458:
* [[Rey Mysterio, Jr.]] occasionally wears a second mask to counter being unmasked.
 
== [[Puppet Shows]] ==
 
== Puppet Shows ==
* An old Ernie and Bert sketch on ''[[Sesame Street]]'' has Ernie heading off to take a bath with a flashlight (in case the power goes out), an umbrella (in case it starts to rain in the bathroom), and a bowling ball (in case somebody wanders by and asks to borrow one). Bert, naturally, states that this is the most ridiculous thing he's ever heard...until all that stuff starts happening.
** A ''Sesame Street'' parody sketch on ''[[Mad TV]]'' features Big Bird getting the bird flu and causing the deaths of many Sesame Street residents, which leads the human characters to decide to kill him. One douses him with gasoline and then asks for a lighter. One of the kids suddenly [[Pyromaniac|produces his]], causing the asker to look quite surprised.
* In ''[[Mr. Meaty]]'', Josh and Parker are attacked by an alien who's trying to implant them with eggs. When they're cornered by the counter, Josh starts looking for a weapon to fight back with. A glass case mounted on the wall containing a net with the words "IN CASE OF ALIEN ATTACK" written on it causes Josh to remark, "Okay, that's WAY too convenient."
 
== [[Recorded and Stand Up Comedy]] ==
* [[John Pinette]] had a standup routine where he explained that he knows how to say "Feed me, I'm starving" in twenty-six languages. Twenty-seven if you count Ancient Hieroglyphs, just in case he gets sent into the past—he wants his bases covered!
* [[Eddie Izzard]] lampshades this in regard to [[James Bond]] and his ridiculous gadgets from Q; he envisions a situation where Mr. Bond is about to be attacked by sharks and goes to pull out his handy breathing apparatus, but finds he has nothing on hand but a pair of jam trousers. (Strangely enough, {{spoiler|the sharks see this and decide to go away.}})
 
== Stand-up[[Tabletop ComedyGames]] ==
=== Gamebooks ===
* Jon Pinette has a standup routine where he explains that he knows how to say "Feed me I'm starving" in 26 languages. 27 if you count Ancient Hieroglyphs, just in case he gets sent into the past—he wants his bases covered!
* The ''[[Grail Quest]]'' series of gamebooks would give players the option to acquire seemingly ridiculous items, such as mechanical aardvarks and devices for communicating with crickets (not insects in general, you understand, but ''solely'' crickets). In any given book, most of these items would be useless but one or two would increase your chances of success significantly. The trick was figuring out ''which.''
* Eddie Izzard lampshades this in regard to James Bond and his ridiculous gadgets from Q; he envisions a situation where Mr. Bond is about to be attacked by sharks and goes to pull out his handy breathing apparatus, but finds he has nothing on hand but a pair of jam trousers. (Strangely enough, {{spoiler|the sharks see this and decide to go away.}})
 
 
=== Tabletop GamesRPG ===
* ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' veterans will often remember taking ten-foot-long poles with them, just in case they ran into a trap where the switch is ten feet away. Mean-spirited [[Game Master|DMs]] would make the switch eleven feet away, which would lead to players pointing out that their arm added an extra foot. So the next switch would be twelve feet away, naturally.
** Spoofed in game designer Greg Costikyan's novel ''[[Another Day Another Dungeon]]'', in which one of the main characters explicitly takes a collapsible eleven-foot pole into dungeons for precisely this reason. One wonders if his world's GM started making twelve-foot traps in response. The sourcebook ''Dungeonscape'' adds a 12&nbsp;ft collapsible pole.
Line 544 ⟶ 498:
** Sidereal Exalted possess a power that lets them determine which of multiple options will most effectively fulfill their goals. Among other things, it could be used to know what the best choice of equipment before going on a mission is, even if they don't realise why at the time.
 
== Theater[[Theatre]] ==
* Brian Le Petit (principal clown) in [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s ''[[Mystere]]'' is crazy prepared for pulling any prank you could think to pull on unsuspecting [[Real Life]] audience members, such as {{spoiler|fake tickets, a blonde lady's wig, confetti, a lacy bra, and several buckets of popcorn.}} If that does not count, we later find he has quick access to {{spoiler|a gun to shoot the Red Bird he's fighting with, a chainsaw to "open" the crate he's lost the key to, and a can of air freshener when he decides to pull Moha-Samedi's extended finger.}} As a bonus, he's not one of the characters in the story, but a [[Screwy Squirrel]] who somehow got into the theater, so there's even less ''sensible'' explanation for where he's finding/why he's carrying some of these things.
 
== [[Toys]] ==
* Makuta Teridax from ''[[Bionicle]]''. According to his fellow Makuta, he was so over-prepared that he had back-up plans for his breakfast.
 
== [[Video Games]] ==
* At the last dungeon of every game, by default, Link is Crazy Prepared for any obstacle it may have due to having spent the journey of each of ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]'' games collecting various useful items and supplies.
* ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2's'' extensive panoply of weapons (specifically, in the fan-made v1.13) means you have the ability to outfit your mercs with the tools they need for any battlefield situation (multiple enemies at mid-range, close-range combat, enemies holed up in a building, ''tanks''...). Limited carry weight of your mercs makes this a bit more difficult, but it's easy to compartmentalize.
Line 583 ⟶ 539:
** Only this plethora of stuff will likely put you over the weight limit, meaning you can't run from the pack of [[Demonic Spiders|mutant dogs, and worse,]] chasing you down. Not only do you need to know what you may need but how much of it you can afford to carry.
* {{spoiler|Cynthia Weaver}} in ''[[Alan Wake]]'', with a little more emphasis on the "crazy" part. The enemies in the game are made of darkness, so she always carries around a light of some sort, even in the middle of the day. She left behind supply caches of ammo and light-emitting objects like flares just in case an author got pulled into Cauldron Lake and the [[Eldritch Abomination|Dark Presence]] forced them to [[Rewriting Reality|write it free]]; the caches are even marked with special light-sensitive ink that can only be seen by someone who was touched by the Dark Presence. None of this, however, compares to {{spoiler|the Well-Lit Room. The name is actually a bit of an understatement; there are lightbulbs everywhere and absolutely no shadows inside. The room is connected to a decommissioned power plant, so there's no need to find a power source. Cynthia even knows what bulbs need to be changed when, right down their manufacturer and serial number.}}
* In the [[Fighting Game]] ''[[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]]'', at least one of [[Doctor Doom]]'s basic attacks and one of his hyperHyper combosCombos involve attacking the opponent with machinery he previously hid on the battle site. As fights in this game can take place anywhere from an ordinary city street to the [[X-Men]]'s private training room to the extradimensional home of [[The Mighty Thor|the Norse Gods]], this demonstrates an impressive degree of preparedness on his part.
** Rocket Raccoon gives one huge "B*tch, please" to Doom in [[Marvel vs. Capcom 3]].- Hidden gigantic bear traps, remote-activated sinkholes, swinging log traps, and an air-strike just waiting for him to give the order while a helicopter assures he remains at a safe distance.
* [[BlazBlue|Hazama]]/[[Troll|Terumi]] [[Ax Crazy|Yuuki]] has proved to us that hundreds and hundreds of [[Groundhog Day Loop|time loops]], and an [[Evil Genius]] without like in its own universe, combined with an undying desire to throw the world into an abyss of despair, simply for the fact that [[For the Evulz|"misery is interesting"]], can lead up to you taking a lot of precautions just to face him. And it may still not work 100% anyway. [[Oh Crap]].
* Mr. House, from ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]'', was not only aware that nuclear Armageddon was on the way but also made extensive preparation for his own and Vegas' survival during and after the fact. Though his projection of the date the war would break out was off - ''by less than a day'' - he saved a sizable chunk of Las Vegas from becoming blasted and irradiated wreckage (unlike, for example, Washington DC or Pittsburg in the same setting), and emerged two hundred years later to wall it off and claim it as his own territory from the tribes that had overtaken it in his absence. Without that ''one setback'', it's very likely he would have ruled completely unchallenged for a long, long time. As they say, the House always wins.
* Your character in [[The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|Morrowind]] and [[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion|Oblivion]] can be an example of this, if done right. While nearly all of these examples can be replicated with spells, hoarding potions is a great way to survive. Low on health or magicka? Chug some potions. Diseased? Chug potions. Water breathing? There's a potion for that. Need to be more liked by people? Potion for that. Need help in a fight? Slight twist here: there's a scroll for that. Need someone to start the fight instead of you? Again, scroll. Need to carry more loot? Potions and scrolls can help. And this isn't even bringing enchantments into play...
* {{spoiler|[[Big Bad|Darkrai]]}} from the second ''[[Pokémon Mystery Dungeon]]'' game. {{spoiler|He had a total of ''five backup plans'' to try and kill the heroes. First, he tried to convince the heroes to "[[Driven to Suicide|disappear]]". When that didn't work, he tricked a [[Physical God]] into trying to kill them. When that failed, he lured them to his lair and finish them. When they arrived, he trapped the hero in a nightmare where their partner joined Darkrai due to crossing the [[Despair Event Horizon]]. When they freed themselves, he summons an army of [[Mooks]] to help him kill them. When he and his minions are beaten, he reveals he'd already prepared a dimensional portal to escape through! The only thing he wasn't prepared for was the previously mentioned [[Physical God]] showing up and blasting the portal as he tried to escape.}}.
* Whoever was responsible for the packing list for the expedition in ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]: [[Strange Journey]]'' was clearly a master of this mindset. There are several cases where the crew encounter something completely unexpected, only for the ship's AI Arthur to say that they've got tech for that. Perhaps most notably, {{spoiler|the [[Hate Plague|mental parasites]]}} in Sector Delphinus are countered by repurposing {{spoiler|a ''mind control device''}}. Most of the crew consider the fact that they even had this to be [[Paranoia Fuel]].
* At the beginning of [[Sonic Chronicles]], Eggman was so prepared for the epic battle that he even anticipated his own defeat. According to what he says, this was the only reason he survived.
* The final boss of [[Portal 2]] is a colossal idiot who ends up almost causing the lab to self-destruct through neglect and incompetence. So after the fight, the player probably wouldn't have expected {{spoiler|him to rig the stalemate button, which the player would certainly go for next. with explosives in case he lost the fight. Not only that, but he specifically leaves it out of his "Four Part Plan" speech detailing everything he's done to fix every flaw evident in [[GLaDOS]]' fight from the first game.}}
Line 595 ⟶ 551:
* Merveille from ''[[Solatorobo]]''. {{spoiler|She "let" the ''intentionally'' "defective" Red escape with the Dahak - which she created ''specifically'' to protect him - seemingly as a backup plan or some form of insurance against Baion.}}
* Daniel Clarke from [[Call of Duty]]: Black Ops. {{spoiler|Has not one but TWO well-stocked armories, a fully mapped-out rooftop escape route (complete with mattresses stacked in a balcony in the event one would need to jump down), as well as explosives rigged into his laboratory that he detonates when Spetsnaz forces attempt to retrieve his research.}}
* [[Batman]] does it again in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]'':
** {{spoiler|It is revealed early-ish in the game that Batman has secretly built a ''second Batcave on Arkham Island'' just in case, after he found an extensive cave as a side effect of saving a convict from committing suicide.}} This is in canon with the comics. He has several smaller "satellite" Batcaves all throughout Gotham City, including a sub-basement underneath the Wayne Foundation building, an abandoned underground subway station, and the aforementioned.
** Batman decided that just in case he would be hanging people from random points in Arkham, he should bring in a large amount of rope to do so.
** He also has an apparently infinite supply of Batarangs at his disposal as well.
** He does it again just before trekking into {{spoiler|Killer Croc's lair.}} Just before he enters it proper, he takes the time to spray some explosive gel on a seemingly random spot on the sewer floor for no apparent reason. It turns out to be {{spoiler|how Batman defeats Killer Croc by blowing up the floor and sending Croc into a deep pit.}}
** After taking down Bane, Bats and Gordon walk outside and start talking about the events going on at Arkham while Bats fiddles with his arm computer for a moment on something we don't see. In the middle of the conversation, Bane explodes out and grabs Bats and lifts him up to have this exchange:
{{quote|'''Bane:''' I will ''break you'' Batman!
'''Batman:''' No, Bane. This time, I break you. *the Batmobile drives through and takes Bane with it into the water* }}
** The Riddler also shows signs of Crazy Prepared: He spread out not only his own personal trophies around Arkham, but he also spray painted hard to find question marks that can only be seen by Batman's cowl, he set interview tapes around Arkham, and he made riddles for every area in Arkham. He did all that just on the off chance that Batman might have to spend a lot of time at Arkham (though he might have been privy to the Joker's plan, which would indicate extreme resourcefulness on relatively short notice).
* With ''[[Arkham City]]'', Batman (and a few other characters even) gets to continue showing off how prepared he is for any and every situation under the sun. The best part? The game is designed so the player themselves gets to instigate most of the preparations this time around!
** Right off the get go, Bruce Wayne is captured by Arkham City guards and incarcerated, Bruce convinces a guard to attack him and snaps his radio off and quickly steals the SD chip before getting processed into the prison. When he changes to Batman, he slips the SD chip into his Sequencer and taps into the guards radio transmissions, ensuring he'll know about their movements ahead of time well into the rest of the game.
** Riddler again gets to show he's even more crazy prepared then Batman, by hiding trophies and riddles in places he shouldn't even have access too, or know exist!
*** The Riddler also had the foresight to plan ahead for Catwoman teaming up with Bats, strewing trophies and riddles around Arkham City for her as well.
 
== [[Web Animation]] ==
 
== Web Animation ==
* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': Simmons has a supply of food stored in his attic in case of zombies, he won't tell Grif what he'll do after the food runs out in case Grif becomes a zombie. Grif's plan is run to Alaska in the hope that any pursuing zombies freeze to death. Sarge however has ''thirty-seven'' zombie plans. 36 include using Grif to distract zombies. For the 37th plan he willingly becomes a zombie just to kill and eat Grif.
** Tex shows herself to be this in Episode 18 and 19 of Revelations.
** Sarge also has numerous plans in the event Simmons tries to turn traitor. All of them begin with killing Grif.
* In ''[[Helluva Boss]]'' Blitzo's desk has alarms for [[Must Have Caffeine| More Coffee]], [[Bring My Brown Pants| Soiled My Pants]], Horny Client, Deranged Client, Client Giving Birth, Ghost, and [[Abhorrent Admirer| Stolas]]. Of course, the series takes place in Hell, where those could all be legitimate concerns.
 
== [[Web Comics]] ==
 
== Web Comics ==
* Mikayla of ''[[Thespiphobia]]'', on several occasions.
{{quote|''Tito'': Rats. Rats, Mikayla.
Line 637 ⟶ 605:
'''Mechaniac repairman''': Sure! A town run by the Heterodynes, attacked on a regular basis for ''hundreds of years?'' Gas weapons are ''easy''! If we have to, we can launch ''entire buildings'' at attackers! }}
* When the leads of ''[[Weregeek]]'' [http://www.weregeek.com/2008/11/03/ are trapped in a house surrounded by zombies], Abbie orders everyone around in the fashion to most effectively avert zombie movie tropes while patching herself up. When the lead asks her how she even knows all this, [[Big Guy|Dustin]] says [[Genre Savvy|she's watched a lot of zombie movies]] while Abbie herself declares she's been training for this her whole life.
* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' takes a new path to crazy [https://web.archive.org/web/20131030132740/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020408\%5C]. Let's not forget, that the path to crazy takes a dangerous detour towards ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20120106172900/http://www.sluggy.com/daily.php?date=020417 sane]''.
* In the world of ''[[Digger]]'', [http://www.diggercomic.com/?p=534 preparedness is practically an instinct to a wombat].
* Gill may be only eight, but [https://web.archive.org/web/20160806071913/http://www.gillcomic.com/?p=376 he knows what's up].
Line 655 ⟶ 623:
"Check the glove compartment." }}
** On the next page, the villain diverts the heat seeking missile with a molotov cocktail he happened to be carrying.
* {{spoiler|Vlademyre Hynner}} from ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140218141836/http://mortifer.smackjeeves.com/ Mortifer]'' has this in spades, to go along with his genius IQ. Best exemplified on [http://mortifer.smackjeeves.com/comics/892080/chap36page25/ this] page, complete with [[Lampshade Hanging]] (Warning: Spoilers!).
* In ''[[Spacetrawler]]'', Growp tries to kill Emily in her sleep, only to find there's a decoy in her bed. Emily had set this decoy up even though she could not have possibly known beforehand that Growp was coming for her.
* In ''[[Crimson Dark]]'', Sarah, former controller of Espenson Station, is able to quickly take over the station's computer systems when Whisper, the other resident computer genius, disables the anti-wireless jamming in Sarah's cell. It turns out that Sarah leaves back doors in every computer system that she ever works with, because you never know when an employer will try to screw you over.
Line 665 ⟶ 633:
'''Moon Minion''': And it was particularly clever of him to set its triggerphrase as "look at me, I'm Rocket Hat," spoken in a girly falsetto }}
 
== [[Web Original]] ==
 
== Web Original ==
* Michael Swaim of ''[[Agents of Cracked]]''. In one episode, he explains how he has knives, thousands of them, hidden everywhere. He pulls two knives out of his pockets, another from his slushee cup, and when he asks a government agent to check his pocket, there's a knife there.
* Kathleen Martin in ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' v3 has spent years doing everything possible to prepare herself for the game just in case she's thrown in it, leading her to have many advantages in the game including survival techniques, knowledge of hand to hand combat, and skill in firearms. Some say the handler takes it too far and makes her rather overpowered, as her only ''disadvantages'' are that she's paranoid and nobody likes her. Though, there are signs indicating that she is a ''parody'' of this character type, especially since her handler has already created one such parody ([[Dead Star Walking|Josh Goodman]]).
Line 683 ⟶ 650:
'''Santa Christ''': Ho ho, of course I do! (He pulls a piece of toast out of his robe) I'm Santa Christ!}}
 
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Green Arrow has shades of this in later episodes of [[Justice League Unlimited]]. In ''To Another Shore'', he gets trapped in ice and we next see him getting out with (''Waiiiit'' for it...) an arrow with a buzz saw on the head.
{{quote|'''Green Arrow''': And Black Canary said a Buzz-Saw Arrow was self-indulgent...}}
Line 764 ⟶ 731:
* In an episode of ''[[Superfriends]]'', [[Lex Luthor]] and [[Darkseid]] team up. They manage to capture Superman, Wonder Woman, Firestorm, and El Dorado, then drain their powers into Luthor. Luthor suddenly declares that since he has all their powers, he's more powerful than Darkseid and will be taking over. Darkseid surrenders and Luthor sits in Darkseid's throne... which promptly sprays him with kryptonite dust, defeating him since he has Superman's powers.
* In the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' episode "Cold Slither", a guy tries to pull off Cobra Commander's mask, but it electrocutes him.
* ''[[DuckTales]]'': This trope is part of what makes General Lunaris so dangerous to Earth. He scouted out the planet before he decided to invade it (so that he would know what threats he would face), and made sure to collect Della's rocket plans when she was stranded on the moon so he could build his own rocket fleet. He managed to destroy Scrooge McDuck's greatest weapons, and made sure to target Scrooge's family in order to crush his spirit. Scrooge eventually realizes that there's no plan that he can come up with that Lunaris can't counter, so he decides to enlist Glomgold's help instead. And when his plan to make the Earth fear the moon is destabilized, he decides that if the Earth won't live in fear in the moon, they'll die in fear of it instead, and prepares to destroy Earth.
* ''[[Young Justice (animation)|Young Justice]]'' has Robin, lampshaded by Kid Flash when he spots him wearing his utility belt with his civilian garb.
{{quote|'''Kid Flash:''' You have your utility belt?!
'''Robin:''' Never leave home without it! First thing Batman taught me.
'''Kid Flash:''' Yeah, right after never go to the bathroom without it. }}
* ''[[The Batman]]'':
** The episode "Seconds" starred someone-totally-not-the-Clock-King-or-Chronos who could rewind time and relive a battle every time he loses, correcting any mistakes—the equivalent of emulator-[[Save Scumming]]. This power allowed him to fight Batman ''to a draw''.
** The series finale of has a rather odd case where this comes in handy. Aliens have stolen the powers of Justice League of America members, and the methods to defeat them are used by ''the superheroes they were originally planned for''.
* Despite Batman [[Memetic Badass|having his own category on this page]], a lot of his preparations in the comics and various adaptations are ''not'' "crazy" preparations, but are reasonable and logical precautions inspired by events that have already occured. However, in the episode ''This Little Piggy'' of season one of ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'', he and [[Zatanna]] go the [[Greek Mythology|Greek Underworld]] to interrogate Medusa about the current whereabouts of Circe. In the DVD audio commentary the producers explained that they felt it was perfectly natural for Batman to carry ''exactly'' two pennies in his utility belt, ''just in case'' he had to cross the River Styx.
* Taken to [[Crazy Awesome]] levels while [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' episode "Black Out". When the shapeshifter Inque hitches a ride to the Batcave ''incognito'' by blending in with the paint, the computers detect the weight imbalance of a lone shapeshifter on a vehicle which has to weigh many tons. She shows herself, so Bruce quickly dons a large hat and sunglasses to hide himself (a [[Continuity Nod]]; it was the original Gray Ghost uniform). Inque is eager to find out where she is exactly, so she tries to escape through the access tunnel. The following ensues:
{{quote|'''Terry''': She's trying to escape! ''(Bruce pushes a button, steel doors close over the tunnel.)''
'''Bruce''': It pays to be prepared.
'''Inque''': Somebody's got a secret. ''(She tries to pull the door off.)''
'''Terry''': She's getting through! ''(Bruce pushes another button, door becomes electrified.)'' Man. You really are prepared.
'''Bruce''': ''(Cue Inque slithering up to the ceiling.)'' She won't get through that way either, there's a foot of solid steel up there. }}
* ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' gives us this conversation:
{{quote|'''[[Blue Beetle|Jaime]]:''' OK OK, here's one. Poison Ivy has used her [[Mind Control]] spores on Superman to pit him against Batman. Oh, and Batman has no kryptonite. Who wins?
'''Paco:''' Easy: Superman.
'''Jaime:''' Wrong, Batman, by using his kryptonite.
'''Paco:''' You just said he had no kryptonite.
'''Jaime:''' Trick question. Batman ''always'' has kryptonite. }}
* This is also a [[Shout-Out]]—the very situation actually came up in ''[[The Batman]]''. He ''didn't'' have kryptonite at the time, but started keeping it after this incident, with Supes' blessing. Also, this exact scenario came up the one time he ''didn't'' have kryptonite he did have a back up plan: he tricks Superman into punching into the power cables for '''all of metropolis'''. And then snaps him out of mind control by {{spoiler|dropping Lois Lane out a window, so that his subconcious desire to protect her will break through Ivy-spores}}.
{{quote|You can stun Superman. It just takes ''a lot'' of electricity. }}
** This is also a [[Shout-Out]] the Hush story arc, when Poison Ivy does just that to Supes in an elaborate [[Xanatos Gambit]] of Hush's to corner Bruce into trusting him.
** There's a fantastic example in the first season finale, where it appears that he has planned for the specific situation of {{spoiler|"forced to [[Enemy Mine|team up with the Joker]] and use back-up vehicle"}} by {{spoiler|including a [[Big Red Button]] in that vehicle that would spray knock-out gas into the passenger seat, knowing that Joker wouldn't be able to resist pushing it}}. Thinking about that for a second makes you realize this is one of a very, very few scenarios in which that would come in handy.
*** ...There are a LOT of TV normals who would start pushing buttons the second they're in the Bat-Mobile. Given that Batman saves random idiots, not a bad idea to weed out the biggest idiots.
** Joker himself shows tendencies of this. When Batman put him in handcuffs, he revealed that he was wearing fake, detachable hands (as well as having a number of other objects up his sleeve).
* Some episodes of ''The'' ''[[Superfriends]]'' carry the versatility of Batman's utility belt to ridiculous extremes. If every episode is to be believed, his utility belt holds a Bat Glue Ray, a Bat Invisibility Ray, and a Bat-Belt Mouse Compartment.
* Downplayed with [[Great White Hunter|Safari Joe]] from [[ThunderCats (1985 series)|the 1985 ''ThunderCats'']]. At first it seems he fits this Trope to a T, analyzing the weaknesses and abilities of the team before going after them. However, when he tried to use his equipment to analyze Lion-O, the computer malfunctioned due to interference from the Sword of Omens, and Safari Joe decided such a challenge would be his greatest hunt of his career. It was not - charging into battle blind resulted in him being defeated, humiliated, and revealed as a liar and [[Dirty Coward]], putting a karmic end to his career.
* ''[[Totally Spies]]''; Whenever Jerry needs the trio, a trapdoor opens, causing them to fall down a chute that deposits them in his office. Somehow, he has managed to install these devices ''anywhere'' in Beverly Hills where they could possibly be.
** In addition, the gadgets he gives them before each mission show uncanny foresight on his point, as no matter how scant his available information is, the gear ''always'' proves useful.
 
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [http://www.zombiehunters.org Zombie Squad] is a disaster preparedness organization that uses the [[Zombie Apocalypse]] concept as a metaphor for the importance of preparing for a natural disaster, on the precept that if one is prepared for the total collapse of civil order due to an invasion of the living dead, one is prepared for ''anything''. People being prepared for a zombie invasion is completely justified, since no rational human being could scrape together a plan of action while being chased by the ravenous undead, and thought experiments like this can help people think on the fly for when real unplanned trouble starts. [http://failblog.org/2011/06/12/epic-fail-photos-probably-bad-news-legitimate-concerns-fail/ Leicester City Council] could learn a lot from them.
* The Centers for Disease Control, a part of the U.S. government, just{{when}} launched a [https://web.archive.org/web/20150414061425/http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp zombie preparedness campaign].
Line 772 ⟶ 770:
* This is sort of [[Truth in Television]]: the U.S. government does in fact pay people to come up with plans for any possibility—global flooding, alien invasion, etc. One of their contingency plans addresses the possibility of an attempted takeover of the United States of America by the ''[[Girl Scouts Are Evil|Girl Scouts]]''. Seriously... how would ''you'' plan to convince an army to start firing on elementary school girls, even ones that are undeniably murderous?
* All modern militaries will do this (perhaps not for the most extreme examples, but still). Well into the 20th Century the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom maintained plans for war between Canada and the U.S., the U.K. and the U.S., or the U.K. and Canada against the U.S., even when the actual possibility of anyone actually considering such a war seemed stupid. On the other hand, the Pacific War in World War II largely proceeded in accordance with plans the U.S. had in place since the 1920s for just such a situation. To a large extent, these are the results of training courses in various military command colleges, since the best way to teach officers how to draw up plans is to have them draw up plans. Once you have the plans, well, it doesn't cost anything to hang on to them, and you never know; even if the specific event is ludicrously impossible, there might be aspects to it that turn out to be useful. Also, the plans for the U.S. going to war with Canada most likely weren't done so much because they anticipated it, but to make the more seriously-made plans (those involving Germany and Japan) less controversial.
** Before the Sino-Japanese war the only real reason to have the plan for fighting Japan was,"We're now the two biggest fleets in the Pacific so it makes [[Fridge Logic|a vague sort of sense]] that we will duke it out sometime". However the plan(War Plan Orange) existed for a long time when America and Japan had nothing against each other but more or less petty human tensions whose negotiation the Emperor and President could have assigned to diplomats they were respectively irritated at. When America ended up with a real war with Japan, it was easy enough to dust off War Plan Orange, and add submarines and aircraft to the programming.
** It is also worth pointing out that the US HAD gone to war with Canada (or, rather, some bits under the rule of the British Empire that would BECOME Canada later on) in 1812, and each burnt the other's capital to the ground. Due mostly to a failure to plan, prepare, and consider who and what was really on the opposite side, the US failed in the invasion, and the US itself was subsequently invaded by British regulars who did surprisingly well (including burning down Washington, D.C. and occupying New Orleans). However, Admiral Sir David Milne wrote to a correspondent in 1817 that should the US declare war again, the British couldn't afford to even try to defend Canada.
* While researching for ''[[World War Z]]'', Max Brooks consulted with a great number people in various areas of emergency planning, and to his surprise nearly all of them had in mind at least some type of zombie contingency plan (even if not official). More in the "Literature" section above.
* As referenced in [[wikipedia:United States Color-coded War Plans|the Scottish wiki]], the [[wikipedia:War Plan Red|plan to invade Canada]] evolved during a time when Canada was still part of the British Empire. It was feared that a successful conquest of the British Empire would require an occupation of Canada to prevent an invasion by a [[Imperial Germany|hostile military force]].
* There are training exercises involving an assault by ''ghosts.'' The purpose is to encourage out-of-the-box thinking and to teach command initiative in a surprise situation where no one has any idea what to do by the book.
* One example of the "alien invasion" preparations was shown on a Discovery Channel special. One federally-issued emergency services manual includes directions on how firemen and paramedics should respond to [[Nightmare Fuel|a flying saucer crashing into a kindergarten]]. The manual also apparently warns about [[Mind Rape|psychic assault]], [[I Love Nuclear Power|radioactive materials]], etc.
* However, NASA has ''not'' created a plan for dealing with the impact of a large meteor, which even they have admitted is relatively likely (compared to other entries on the list).
* Freeman Dyson's son has however been in contact with people in NASA that keep the knowledge on [https://web.archive.org/web/20100529014413/http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3c2.html#orion Orion] systems around. Turns out a project he was working on compiling interviews and data from the now mostly dead scientists had over 2,000 pages of documents purchased by NASA just in case. Project Orion was a project to use [[Rocket Jump|nuclear bombs, several per second, to propel a space craft]]. In theory, the ideal ship is a hemisphere-and-a-half mile in radius with six feet of solid steel. It's considered our only real hope in taking out a killer meteor or hostile alien spacecraft. Nuclear ''bombs'', plural. Carl Sagan noted it to be the best possible use for our current stockpiles of weapons.
* An [http://everything2.com/?node_id=865883 extended discussion] on what to do if you went back in time and had to prove your identity to your past self was held on E2, and the consensus was to, at that very moment, think of a password. Your future self will then tell you it, since he is from the future, and probably remembers that day people from the future showed up. That only works if time travel runs as a [[Stable Time Loop]]. Otherwise the appearance of your time traveling future self changes history; any password you think up after he appears is not part of his own past.
* The motto of the Boy Scouts of America, as well as several other Scouting organizations (up to [[Not So Different|and including]] [[In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You|U.S.S.R. Pioneers]]), is "Be prepared."—derived from the original British Organisation's motto. The founder of the Scouting movement, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, was once asked "Be prepared for ''what''?" His reply was "Why, for any old thing." Hence, many troops will occasionally have the odd scout that is prepared for ''anything''. Ran out of lighter fluid for the camp stove? Don't worry, this guy brought another lighter. Did a boy break his arm while playing on the rocks? Don't worry, this guy ''happens'' to have splints and gauze in his day pack.
* Norway has recently{{when}} taken this to heart with the 2006-2008 construction of the '''[[wikipedia:Doomsday vault|Svalbard Global Seed Vault]]''', which stores seeds of various plants in the event of a major regional or worldwide catastrophe.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100625151807/http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=memelist.html%3Fm%3D2%23686 The moon as a backup drive for human civilization].
* There's a book out there that details how to deal with a robot uprising, with information from experts in robot technology.
Line 795 ⟶ 793:
* Also seen in places in the Canadian and Alaskan Arctic. It's not unusual to see someone heading out of a community for a quick fishing trip to a lake 45 minutes away with their all-terrain vehicle loaded down with a rifle or shotgun, or both (in case of bears), a tent, extra fuel, food, a satellite emergency beacon, change of clothes, GPS... and this is going to a place with no trees and terrain flat enough that ''you can still see the community'' from whence you came. Although, in the Northwest Territories you're expected to be at least a little Crazy Prepared. To the point where if you aer stuck without gas a "reasonable" distance from a community, you have to cover the costs of emergency services to save your lazy self. "Reasonable" distance can be a couple of hours drive. Also in these regions, a storm can blow up from nowhere and keep you pinned down for days at a time. You'd BETTER be prepared to tough it out wherever you happen to be.
* Catholic priests are trained to be prepared for anything that happens during Mass. There are guidelines on every eventuality, from what to do in case of gunfire to what to do in the event of an insect plopping itself into the Precious Blood. Probably a consequence of [[Seen It All]]. Also probably in part because priests are expressly forbidden to pause a Mass once it's progressed past a certain point for ''any'' reason until it's over. It makes perfect sense to give them some idea of what to do should case of events like the above occur.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131105073618/http://www.survivalstraps.com/ These]. Hey, you never know when a couple dozen feet of rope will come in handy!
* Most American states now have "shall-issue concealed carry" laws, allowing ordinary people to get a license to carry a concealed handgun. Every day there are thousands of regular folks in the U.S. walking around in grocery stores and shopping malls with loaded guns, just in case.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wP6yjmEOfvg This guy] taught himself how to play his favourite piano piece with only two fingers, should he ever lose any in an accident. Doubles as a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].
* During Q&A after a book reading, [[The Name of the Wind|Patrick Rothfuss]] was asked about his views on circumcision. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131022105713/http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2010/04/concerning-circumcision.html It just so happened] that he had an article he'd written years ago as a university journalist on that very subject handy. He read it and it was epic.
* The SAS: In a former SAS trooper's autobiography, he mentions their training to assault a grounded 747. One of the men jokingly suggests they run across the top and rappel into the cockpit. They do it. Just in case they're ever forced to.
* Philopoemon, Strategos of the Achaean League, was famous for always being prepared with several diffrent plans in case of war. One legend tells that when he went out with his friends, instead of trying to enjoy their company, he just tried to figure out how to use the forest they visited for terriorial advantage in case of war and then he asked his friends what they thought of his plans. His paranoid behavior came in use when Nabis, King of Sparta, decleared war on the Achaean League and the Roman Republic. Philopoemon fought the Spartans with the help of the Romans and defeated them in less in a year. Niccolo Machiavelli talks in his book ''[[The Prince]]'' about how the wise ruler should always be prepared for war, and he should take after Philopoemon as a example.
Line 809 ⟶ 807:
**It makes sense if things really go [[After the Endl|belly up]] and you find yourself [[Disaster Scavengers|on the lam]] to have hidden pockets and other similar things. There is an old tradition of travelers in lawless regions(sometimes meaning practically everywhere)having creative ways to store valueables.
* President Dilma Rousseff from Brazil is making plans for the country's airports... for ''2041''.
* Much to the amusement of anime fans, Japan in 2011 [https://web.archive.org/web/20130519084758/http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/cities/in-case-of-catastrophe-japan-unveils-tokyo-backup-city/1174 unveiled plans to construct a back-up city for Tokyo] in case the capital is destroyed.
* Japan in general tends to be astonishingly well-prepared for the possibility of a natural disaster. In the 2011 Tohoku earthquake (the 5th largest earthquake ever recorded), ''not a single'' Shinkansen passenger bullet train derailed, despite several of them going nearly ''300km/h'' when the earthquake hit. Elevators all over the country were also connected to an earthquake warning system and automatically returned to their ground floors seconds before the earthquake reached them. All these structures were made to deal with such a massive earthquake just in case one hit. (For those wondering, the devastation seen all over the media mainly came from the tsunami, because sadly, there's just not much one can do about cities being suddenly submerged under a 3-story-tall wall of water.) In the aftermath, [[The Colbert Report|Stephen Colbert]] wryly observed that the earthquake caused less chaos in Tokyo than the Lakers winning a game causes in Los Angeles. And evidently, the Japanese are still not complacent with all this, as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Abc_LfNRNpE one company has since unveiled a design that builds a gigantic hovercraft into the foundation so that it can hover safely an inch above the ground during an earthquake].
* Much of [[wikipedia:Alex Roy|Alexander Roy]] and Dave Maher's preparation for their infamous 31-hour drive from New York City to Santa Monica pier involved all kinds of contingency plans as well as their standard kit of police radar and radio scanners. As well as a night vision camera so they could drive without lights, gyro-stabilised binoculars, and a chase plane piloted by friends, they even packed books on tornadoes in the glovebox and a weather radar so they could claim in the event they were pulled over that they were tornado chasers and their BMW M5 with ''six'' antennae sticking out of it was a storm chasing vehicle.
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Absurdity Ascendant]]
[[Category:MadnessCombat Tropes]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Gambit Index]]
[[Category:Madness Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Dirt]]
[[Category:Combat Tropes]]
[[Category:Suspiciously Convenient Index]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:Crazy Prepared]]