MacGyvering: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
[[File:xkcd_444_-_Macgyver_Gets_Lazy_8988.png|link=Xkcd (Webcomic)|frame|[[MacGyver]] [[Doesn't Like Guns|Gets Lazy]]]]
 
{{quote|''"With what?" Spencer asks. "Don't tell me you know how to make a bomb with a stick of chewing gum." Wow, the first ever MacGyver joke was actually in the first ever episode of ''MacGyver''. That's actually kind of impressive.''|'''[[The Agony Booth (Website)|The Agony Booth]] [http://www.agonybooth.com/agonizer/MacGyver/Pilot.aspx?Page=4 recap]''' of the first ever episode of ''[[MacGyver]]''}}
 
{{quote|''TONY STARK was able to build [[Powered Armour|this]] ''in a cave''... with ''a box of scraps!''|'''Obadiah Stane''', ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]''}}
 
A character saves the day by making a gadget out of [[It May Help You Onon Your Quest|unlikely things]], such as creating a bomb out of chewing gum, dental floss, [[Duct Tape for Everything|duct tape]], and a match. If he isn't already using the dictionary to provide the fuse, the character would realize he's a bricoleur and what he's doing is bricolage.
 
The characters that do this may be [[Technical Pacifist|Technical Pacifists]] or [[Mr. Fixit]]. [[The Professor]] often seems to have the right tools on hand at the right time, as well.
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Note that the gadget has to be based on more science than simply, "Hey, I could kill someone with this random object." Look for those under [[Improvised Weapon]]. May involve [[Noodle Implements]].
 
Compare [[Homemade Inventions]]. Related to [[Duct Tape for Everything]]. See [[Locking MacGyver in Thethe Store Cupboard]] for situations in which this is used to escape confinement. [[Merit Badges for Everything]] is when MacGyvering is institutionalized and parodied at the same time.
 
{{examples}}
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** At the end of ''Gundam 00'' season 1, {{spoiler|Setsuna F Seiei disappears after his Gundam Exia is all but destroyed...and he reappears 4 years later having Badass repaired the Gundam by himself with scraps replacing armour, a large cape covering a missing arm and a glowing red eye on the missing side of its face}} earning it the [[Fan Nickname]] {{spoiler|Termin-Exia or Exia-Two-face}}
*** This is somewhat subverted in that it took 4 years for Setsuna to show himself and in this case, it was less of a case of [[MacGyvering]] and more of a case of scrounging for parts that he needed. The replacement Camera eye was probably dug out of a Tieran while a lot of the missing pieces of armor may attribute to him breaking them down for spare parts. This is less of a case of [[MacGyvering]] and more of a case of replacing a broken car tire with a sturdier but smaller tire.
* Yusei from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds|Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's]]'', in episode 88, disarmed a high tech battle royal collar with a nail.
* Shogetsu from [[Hatenkou Yuugi|Dazzle]] got a can of mackerel for lunch... but no can opener. So, with a few tools he got from the school's kitchen and science lab and the graphite from a pencil, he made a welding torch in the hopes that it would open the can. It did, but sadly, [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/hatenkou_yuugi/v10/c000.1/52.html it also burned the mackerel.] Oh, and Rahzel and Fay both had can openers.
 
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* [[Lex Luthor]], on the other hand, ''has'' been known to build a teleporter out out of stuff lying around his cell. During his appearance in the short-lived ''The Joker'' comic, he improvised a jetpack out of a couple of bottles of pop and some paint flakes.
** Spectacular jailbreaks based on his [[MacGyvering]] skills were a huge part of [[Pre Crisis]] [[Mad Scientist]] Luthor's character. One story has him consider that it has reached the point where his guards won't allow him to have ''anything'' other than a pad of paper and a pen. He knows perfectly well how to turn to the ink, metal, plastic, wood pulp, and glue into a high explosive to blast his way out... but he would never ''do'' that, because then they wouldn't let him have a pen and paper any more.
* Mocked, inevitably, in [[Mad Magazine|Mad's]] spoof of [[MacGyver]]. MacGyver remarks the [[Locking MacGyver in Thethe Store Cupboard|the room the bad guys have locked him in]] has nothing he can use to escape, to which the woman with him points out that the room is full of explosives. He complains about the indignity of having to actually use explosives as explosives instead of improvising.
* ''[[Tintin (Comic Book)]]'' tends to resort to this after being kidnapped by the villain-of-the-week. Interestingly, while they're still ingenious a lot of his inventions are surprisingly plausible.
* ''[[Batman]]'', of course, has pulled this off several times, usually on those rare instances where he is without his utility belt.
 
 
== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
* In ''[[My Stupid Reality (Fanfic)|My Stupid Reality]]'' [[Death Note (Manga)|Light]] modifies a cheap laptop to work better with pieces ripped out of L's refrigerator.
** [[Truth in Television|Somewhat grounded in reality,]] believe it or not; the heat-exchanger from a fridge would be powerful enough to counteract a hell of a lot of overclocking.
 
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== [[Film]] ==
* [[Angelina Jolie]]'s rocket launcher in ''[[Salt]]'', built from a swivel chair and cleaning chemicals.
* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' example below is satirized (with so many other Star Trek tropes) in ''[[Galaxy Quest (Film)|Galaxy Quest]]''; with Tim Allen's Kirk-like character fighting a giant rock monster in a barren rocky valley and one of his crew-members suggesting over the communicator "Look around...can you fashion some kind of rudimentary lathe?" He's met with Tim Allen's character screaming, "A ''lathe''? Get off the line, Guy!"
* ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'': Tony Stark creates a revolutionary way of generating huge amounts of power and a bulletproof power suit whilst captured by terrorists and only some scrap weapons parts at his disposal.
* ''[[Half Baked]]'' had some fun with this:
{{quote| '''Thurgood Jenkins:''' The MacGyver Smoker is a very handy guy to have around, especially when it comes to reefer.<br />
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* ''[[Mallrats]]'': Silent Bob is said to have a knack for this kind of thing.
{{quote| '''Jay:''' He won the science fair in eighth grade by turning his mom's vibrator into a CD player usin' some chicken wire an' shit. Motherfucker's like [[MacGyver]]. No, motherfucker's better then [[MacGyver]]!}}
* This trope is invoked in ''[[Zack and Miri Make Aa Porno]]:'' "You give me a two popsicle sticks and a rubber band and I'll find a way to fuck it, like a filthy [[MacGyver]]!"
* Common in the ''[[Tremors]]'' films and series, whenever they run out of ammo and need to improvise defenses against the latest Graboid life-cycle stage or [[Monster of the Week]].
* In ''[[Cast Away]]'', Chuck finds himself stranded on a remote island with several Fed Ex packages full of stuff that initially looks worthless in his current setting, like a taffeta party dress (used for a fishing net), a pair of ice skates (which make handy axeheads when tied to a stick) and lots of videocassettes (whose videotape innards can be woven into some handy rope).
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Second only to the trope namer in fame would be ''[[The A-Team (TV)|The A-Team]]'' who would consistently be imprisoned by villains who would inexplicably lock the 'Team in a warehouse (or other location) full of enough PVC piping, broken-down all-terrain vehicles, used engine parts, and potentially-explosive material to ensure that they could (after an [[A-Team Montage]]) build a makeshift tank, equip themselves with heavy artillery (usually consisting of the aforementioned PVC piping and explosive chemicals), stockpile massive amounts of ammunition, and still have enough material left over to escape from captivity via a very large, door-breaking (if not violently building-destroying) explosion.
* The Doctor in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' does not carry a gun (though he has used them on occasion), and often cooks up homebrew supertech. In the episode "The Time Monster", he built a "time flow analogue" out of cups, spoons, a pie pan, and other objects found in a small house.
** In "Time Crash" the Tenth Doctor lampshades this based on the fact that the Fifth Doctor never used a sonic screwdriver. "Like, 'Hey, I'm the Doctor. I can save the universe with a kettle and some string. And look at me, I'm wearing a vegetable.'"
* Sam on ''[[Quantum Leap]]'' had MacGyver moments, but only when he used his brain to make a gadget to save the day. Thus, a successful MacGyverist is different from a hero who is simply smart.
* In the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series]]'' episode "Arena", Kirk manages to build a primitive ''cannon'' out of bamboo, sulfur, and other ingredients for gunpowder he tripped over while stranded on a uninhabited asteroid. Partly justified by the fact that the asteroid was set up by powerful aliens so the combatants could fashion their own weapons, but still, a ''cannon''... (The Chinese used similar mortars out of bamboo or ceramics centuries before Europeans made cannons out of metal.)
** Busted by Mythbusters in their [[MacGyver]] episode.
*** One [[Expanded Universe]] novel mentioned that that episode was turned into a training exercise that was considered hellishly difficult, and that 90% of the people who tried Kirk's approach ended up blowing themselves up when the cannon misfired. Riker's solution was to use the makeshift cannon as a giant mine, and clubbed the Gorn with a rock while it was disoriented from the blast.
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{{quote| '''Spock''': I am endeavouring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic memory circuit using stone knives and bearskins.}}
** [[Mr. Fixit|Scotty]] [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|gets a shuttle to run on the energy from phaser weapons]] in "The Galileo Seven."
** ''[[Star Trek]]'' does it again in the ''[[Star Trek: theThe Next Generation]]'' episode "A Fistful of Datas". Worf, stranded in [[Phlebotinum Breakdown|an Old West simulation]], makes a forcefield out of telegraph parts and his communicator.
** And again in the ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' two-part episode "Demons/Terra Prime", when Trip picks a futuretech lock using his zipper and belt buckle.
** In-universe, Starfleet officers (engineers in particular) have this reputation. It's even lampshaded by a captured enemy who mocks them for having "one of those famed Starfleet engineers who can turn rocks into replicators."
*** The enemy said it in more of a [[Worthy Opponent]] tone. That said, redunkulously awesome engineering/Macguyvering/bullshit-invoking skills are sort of the humans' [[Planet of Hats|hat]].
* ''[[Babylon Five|Babylon 5]]'' has an episode where a character realizes Bullets + Steam = Gun. ([[Hollywood Science|No, not really...]])
* Mike Westen of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' does this constantly, either preparing at home or in the field. He has [[Green Lantern Ring|particular expertise with cell phones]]. His friends Fiona and Sam has also demonstrated some competence in this area. The narration provided by Michael often explains that this is part of his training as a spy since it is assumed that operatives will rarely have access to actual 'spy gear' and will have to improvise from readily available items.
* In an episode of ''[[CSI]]'', Gil Grissom's crime lab kit was stolen while he was up in the middle of nowhere alone investigating a murder. Instead of filling out a form with the local police or request a new one from the lab in Vegas, he uses items he buys at a home maintenance supply shop as a makeshift kit.
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* The British series ''[[Scrapheap Challenge]]'', known as ''[[Junkyard Wars]]'' in the US, had two teams compete to MacGyver together some sort of machine from parts found in the junkyard each episode.
* The USA series ''[[Royal Pains]]'' features the lead doctor utilizing "A bottle of vodka, a sharp knife, a plastic sandwich bag, a BIC pen, and some duct tape" to save the life of a hemophilliac who was bleeding internally. The girl helping him remarked [[Lampshade Hanging|"What are you, MacGyver?"]]
* The Professor on ''[[GilligansGilligan's Island]]'' could make a lot of things from the materials on the island, and jokes about the show made him able to make anything if he had enough coconuts.
** Except a boat.
*** It was even Lampshaded in Gary Larson's ''[[The Far Side]]''!
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'': nearly ''everything'' ever made by tinker gnomes, from ''[[Dragonlance]]'' setting (and spread in ''[[Spelljammer]]'' 'verse) qualifies.
* In ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'' a [[Mad Scientist|Genius]] can "kitbash" a Wonder together in hours, minutes, or even ''seconds'' if they're powerful or have bought the right merit.
* ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' is not devoid of this kind of stuff either, strangely enough. [[Our Orcs Are Different|Da orkz]] build a majority of their own inventions from random scraps of junk, including most of their firearms and vehicles. Ironically, due to the generic mindset of the whole race, most of their inventions work simply because they [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe|''think'' it will work]].
** Ork players have been known to construct vehicles using strategies ranging from "leftovers from other vehicles" to "grab all the spare parts, put them in a box, pour in glue, and stick wheels on whatever comes out".
** Although it's not like non-Ork players don't get in on the action either. Because of [[Crack is Cheaper|the price]] of the hobby, any 40k player (or indeed, wargamer) worth their salt will have a [[Name's the Same|bitz box]] wether they are Orks, Humans, Eldar, whatever. It is the most efficient way to go about doing things and anyone who has played for a long time will have closets full of hoarded spare parts that they can cobble together into just about anything.
* Played for laughs in an early ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' sourcebook, as a pair of very efficient (but prank-prone) technicians repaired a lance of 'Mechs with various pieces of machinery... that included a lard rendering tank, a truck that advertised processed chicken, and metal labeled for Spam cans. Most of the Mechwarriors were amused, but one went after the techs with a wrench.
* In the ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering]]'' novel ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering (Tabletop Game)/Test of Metal|Test of Metal]]'', Tezzeret performs an impromptu heart surgery on himself in a bare cave with no tools. Not even [[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|a box of scraps]]! It takes him less than ten minutes.
 
 
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* In ''[[Fallout]] 3'', you can do things like make a gauntlet out of a monster's arm and a medical brace, make a nail-launching rifle out of a steam gauge assembly and a pressure cooker, or make a ''[[Flaming Sword]]'' out of ''motorcycle parts and a lawnmower blade''.
** Also, by combining a leaf blower with a vacuum cleaner, you can build a cannon that launches anything you put in, from tin cans to teddy bears. or a [http://pt.xfire.com/video/42dbe/ toaster]
* In [[Fallout: New Vegas]], when faced with a broken world item (fuse box, food processor...), you can either: go hunt for parts or use a high repair skill to fix it. Special mention for the food processor at Camp Mac Carran, which you can fix with a repair skill of 80 by using a paper clip, a swiss army knife and other stuff.
** Even that example is outdone by the Jury Rigging perk, which enables you to, among other things: repair a [[Power Fist]] with [[Joke Item|boxing gloves]], repair an [[Techno Babble|Inversal Proton Axe]] with a pool cue, and fix an [[Techno Babble|Atomic Tri-Calence Radii Accentuator]] with a pair of sunglasses.
* The Infocom game ''[[Leather Goddesses of Phobos (Video Game)|Leather Goddesses of Phobos]]'' revolves around [[MacGyvering]] a machine to prevent the titular aliens from turning the population of Earth into their sex slaves out of, among other things, a pair of cotton balls, a blender, and a small white mouse.
* "Gadgeteer" class in ''[[Wizardry (Video Game)|Wizardry]] 8'' is all about this trope.
* This is Doc Hawkins' trick in ''[[MDK]] 2''. "[[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|I've created]] ''[[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|toast]]''! Delicious!"
* This is the superpower that fans have inferred Nitori of ''[[Touhou]]'' to have. She lives in a [[Medieval Stasis]] world, but has access to books from the real world, and is nevertheless capable of producing working machines of the modern age (or even better than modern equipment, as with her stealth suit) without access to an industrial base, education system, or any kind of energy source (until the end of the tenth game, at least). Western fans even directly state MacGyver to be her personal hero/romantic fantasy.
* In ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'', a character makes a bomb out of charcoal, "jellyfish juice" and gum base.
* In ''[[Jagged Alliance]] 2'' you can make some gadgets out of random items you find. For example: duct tape and a steel tube can be used to make a barrel extender for your rifle, which increases its range (though it's prone to get fired ''off'' since it's only held on with duct tape), or combining a game system, an x-ray tube, and a couple other things to make an x-ray scanner (reports of massive doses of x-ray radiation when in use are "unconfirmed").
* Parodied in ''[[Leisure Suit Larry]]: Love For Sail''. When you try to combine random objects, the announcers says something along the lines of, "Larry, sometimes you try to mix two things together, but what do you always get? An ass".
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* Fotbar Laboratory in ''[[Choro Q]] HG 4'' allows you to make powerful parts out of spoon, wrist strap, piece of cloth, paper bag, and others. The strongest chassis of the game is happened to be made of eraser.
* [[Professor Layton]] has a habit of this:
** At the end of ''[[Professor Layton and Thethe Curious Village]]'', {{spoiler|the titular character manages to build a functioning glider from some poles, drapes, and other junk. Not only could it carry three people, but he was able to thwart the villain's own sinister flying contraption with it.}}
** That's nothing - in ''[[Professor Layton and The Eternal Diva]]'', {{spoiler|Layton manages to produce a functioning helicopter out of a bunch of odds and ends in a shack on a deserted island. As above, it carries three people. And somehow works.}}
** Not to be outdone, ''[[Professor Layton and Thethe Unwound Future]]'' has the good professor create a working {{spoiler|''machine gun'' out of some spare slot machine parts. He's under heavy gunfire, but when a bullet knocks the parts loose, he's only one quick puzzle away from sending the [[Mooks]] running with their tails between their legs.}}
* In ''[[Dead Rising 2]]'', Chuck can make a weapon out of every last thing he finds. These range from simple (Nails + Baseball Bat = Baseball Bat With Nails Through It) to creative (Knifes + Boxing Gloves = [[Wolverine Claws]]) to really weird (Chainsaws + Paddle = Double Ended Polearm With Chainsaws at both ends) to just plain crazy (Gas Can + Super Soaker = ''Flamethrower.'')
** Actually, that last one is pretty realistic
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* Most of the challenges in ''Return to Mysterious Island'' and its sequel are this trope.
* Technologist in ''[[Arcanum]]'' can assemble explosives, chemicals, guns and various mechanical devices from random junk. This includes a device which can ''resurrect dead'' and is made from a capacitor, snake venom and three different herbs.
* ''[[Dark Chronicle (Video Game)Cloud|Dark Chronicle]]'' has the protagonist, Max, who is able to come up with ideas and create things out off photos he takes: trash can, belt, pipe, streetlight, hospital skeleton, tree, iron maiden, etc. Also, there's even more bizarre case where he can synthesize element out of bread to upgrade his weapon.
* In ''[[Dead Space 2 (Video Game)|Dead Space 2]]'' the protagonist, Isaac, builds a plasma cutter (the main weapon of the series) out of a flashlight and a surgical laser.
 
 
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* Rick in [[Blur the Lines]] makes a fleshlight out of an empty can and some ground chuck (meat). [http://www.blur-the-lines.com/?p=45\]
* Parodied numerous times in [[Real Life Comics]] - among other things, Tony has made a [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/000302.html quantum space-time teleportation device] and a [http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/021017.html trans-dimensional portal device] out of random materials lying around.
* One instance of possible Mac Gyvering is found in the webcomic [[Ctrl +Alt +Del|Control-Alt-Delete]], where the main character, Ethan, makes a bipedal, sentient robot out of a single [[X Box|XBox]]. This robot then develops a taste for gaming and becomes another character in the comic.
* Subverted in [http://www.housepetscomic.com/2012/03/19/the-optimal-solution/ this] strip of ''[[Housepets]]''.
 
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* Grampy from the old ''[[Betty Boop]]'' cartoons usually did this. A prominent example comes from the 1937 cartoon "Christmas Comes But Once a Year", wherein Grampy MacGuyvers together several Christmas toys for a group of downtrodden orphans, using nothing more than common household items.
* Jenny 10 from ''[[Dex Hamilton Alien Entomologist]]'': "Last week I made a hadron collider from a broken hairdryer and a box of paperclips..."
* Played with on ''[[G.I. Joe: Renegades]]''. Being fugitives on the run, it's a given. Duke manages to diffuse a bomb with a wad of chewing gum, but Roadblock's attempts to jury-rig an engine-cable for the truck don't go as smoothly.
* Both subverted and played straight in ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename: Kids Next Door]]'': the KND's self-parodying [[Bamboo Technology]] equipment mostly consists of random objects, pieces of woood, and duct tape, fondly referred to as '2x4 Technology.'
* On ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]'', [[The Smart Guy|Rhinox]] often had to improvise with whatever spare parts were available to build new useful tech. [[Lampshaded]] in "Chain of Command":
{{quote| "Make a device to extract physical molecular structure from an alien probe? Man, I gotta be a miracle worker."}}
** And it worked, too!
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* In French, MacGyverish translates to ''[http://www.ginandtacos.com/?p=1069 débrouillard]''. [http://www.lesdebrouillards.qc.ca/ And we've got a magazine teaching the virtues of ''la débrouillardise'' to little Quebecers everywhere.] Be afraid, be very afraid... [[Canada, Eh?|Or not, as the case may be.]]
** French call that ''système D''. A convenient way to do things without any annoying organisation.
* In a similar vein, the Egyptians have a [[National Stereotypes|stereotype]] about themselves that they can always find a way to make what they need. As it turns out, this might be true of Arabs in general, judging by the jury-rigged weapons systems of Hamas and Hezbollah in the [[Useful Notes/Arab-Israeli Conflict|Arab Israeli Conflict]], and of the Libyan rebels in [[Useful Notes/Middle East Uprising 2011|their Civil War]].
* Cracked did an article on the subject, [http://www.cracked.com/article_16151_5-most-amazing-real-life-macgyver-moments.html here.]
* The website [http://www.thereifixedit.com There, I Fixed It] archives photos of some of the more amusing attempts at this. Some of them apparently do the job; they just ''look'' humorously thrown-together.
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* During the [[American Civil War]], the South was strapped for cash and couldn't stand a protracted naval blockade, especially with the North's greater resources for building ironcalds. Considering that the South's main resource was cotton, they strapped bales onto the decks of merchant ships and used them to absorb enemy fire. Thus, the [[wikipedia:Cotton-clad|Cotton-clad]] was born.
* Americans are known for coming up with crazy ideas that just happen to work like using human hair to soak up oil. At the Battle of Midway, the carrier ''Yorktown'' had been redeployed after improvised repairs were rushed after taking heavy damage at Coral Sea. The ''Yorktown'' was bombed by Zeroes, but the Damage Control units not only kept her afloat, but got her back up to speed, to the point that when the Japanese bombed her again, they thought they had sunk two carriers, rather than hitting the ''Yorktown'' twice. She did sink, but not before turning the tide of the battle by means of improvised repairs and sheer endurance.
** In [[The War Onon Terror|the Iraq War]], American soldiers, lacking suitable armor for their Humvees and trucks, created what came to be called "hillbilly armor" made from scrap metal, kevlar, bulletproof glass and even plywood. [http://www.lostiniraq.com/images/hillbilly-armor-315_640x480.jpg The result] looks like something out of ''[[Mad Max]]''.
* In the wake of the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, basically everyone and their uncle came up with an idea to either A) get the oil from the water, B) fix the gushing oil pipe or C) clean the oil off the poor helpless animals. Almost all these ideas (well, maybe not the "stop the gushing pipe" one) usually involved simple materials that could be found in either the average home, the average High School, or the average supermarket. And most of them either ''worked'' or ''would have worked'', although not on a Gulf-wide scale.
* The phrases "Yankee ingenuity" and "Kiwi ingenuity" refer to the tendencies of early colonists in, respectively, [[Hollywood New England|New England]] and [[Useful Notes/New Zealand|New Zealand]] to make do with whatever was available in order to perform the task at hand, such as using a pole saw to cut brush in the absence of a machete.