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No "Off" Button: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Perhaps it's some sort of [[Doomsday Device]] or an [[Artifact of Doom]] maybe it runs on some sort of perpetual energy. Possibly there are actually two phlebotinum devices interacting with each other and destroying the world, but if you turn off one device the other one will grow strong enough to kill everyone on earth anyway. Perhaps it's a [[Clingy MacGuffin]] or [[Clingy Costume]] and it's draining your life force, but if you remove it you'll blow up. '''No "Off" Button''' is simply the reason a particular piece of dangerous [[Applied Phlebotinum]] can't be turned off or destroyed, such as it lacking an off button.
[[Failsafe Failure]] is closely related, and involves examples where there is an "off button" or other form of Override Command in place, but it doesn't work.
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', the Akimichi pepper pill puts your metabolism into overdrive, converting calories into tremendous power. But it keeps going even when your body has no fat left to use up. ▼
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Star Trek II: The
{{quote|'''David:''' It's the Genesis Wave! They're on a build-up to detonation! [snip]▼
'''Kirk:''' We'll beam aboard and stop it.▼
* ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''. ▼
{{quote|'''Morpheus:''' Son, turn that disc. [[Big Red Button|The switch.]] Throw it. In 24 hours, you must be 100 million miles out in space. [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|The Krell furnaces]]...chain reaction...they cannot be reversed. }}▼
*
* The [[Doomsday Device]] in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' will automatically detonate if anyone attempts to shut it off. ▼
** In this case, the designers of the device [[Justified Trope|built it like this intentionally]], and to them it made sense. It's meant as the ultimate, permanent deterrent to nuclear warfare; if there were any way to stop it once it's turned on, it wouldn't be able to carry out its function. It wouldn't have needed an off switch if not for a few miscommunications.▼
* In ''[[Highlander|Highlander 2: The Quickening]]'' the planetary shield couldn't be taken down even though blocking off the sunlight was killing the planet, the inability to do so being attributed to a lack of energy. In the end General Katana is killed in one of the shield's beams, and his Quickening provides the energy needed to take it down. At least, if one is being charitable, one can assume that's what was supposed to be happening there.▼
== [[Literature]] ==
* In [[Robert Sheckley]]'s short story ''The Laxian Key'', a pair of ne'er-do-wells find a machine that produces some substance in unlimited quantities but can only be turned off with the eponymous "Key". When the substance begins to flood their ship, they try to sell the machine to an alien race who feeds on said substance, but are almost blown to pieces by their navy. {{spoiler|It turns out, these aliens already bought several such devices, which completely ruined their homeworld, so they tell the heroes to come back with the "Laxian Key" and ask any price for it.}} ▼
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* Happens pretty much every week on ''[[Eureka]]''. A big piece of Tech is endangering the town, and Jack Carter asks something related to the easiest way to shut it off ("Why don't you just unplug it?"). Oh guess what, if you turn the device off, the town'll catch on fire, or something along those lines.
** This is a town where a boiler in the house is more likely to be a nuclear reactor, requiring a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics to fix.
* On one episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', there was a lightning wielding gauntlet that could only be destroyed through a specific ritual.
* On the various ''[[Star Trek]]'' incarnations, Holodecks have some kind of independent power source, so whenever they [[Holodeck Malfunction|go haywire and stop responding to commands]], they usually can't simply pull the plug.
* Happens a couple of times on ''[[Charmed]]'', such as when Billie put on [[Clingy MacGuffin|Hippolya's]] [[Clingy Costume|Belt]] and became a superheroine. The belt was killing her and the only way to remove it was through a specific spell found only in Magic School's library. ▼
* In a mundane version, once on ''[[The Simpsons]]'' when Homer decided to become an inventor: ▼
* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the body-swapping device didn't have an off-switch (or at least it was never discovered) so every time someone activated it, he had to destroy it.▼
== [[Music]] ==
* A certain [[Bawdy Song]] about a sex machine with a Bloody Great Wheel includes the ominous rhyme, "And now we come to the tragic bit, there was no way of stopping it".▼
== [[Radio]] ==
* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' radio series, there's a malfunctioning clone machine which keeps starting new clones when the previous clone is only partly done. Its operators can't turn it off because if they did, they'd be liable for murdering the clones that are in mid-cloning when the button got pushed.▼
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders]]'', the titular Mindbender only have a big ON/ON switch; throwing it seemingly does something (reverses the polarity?), but turning it off is impossible. Given that it's designed to induce stupidity, this is a perfectly sensible design choice. Fortunately, {{spoiler|it can be destroyed by the Skolarian Device.}}▼
== [[Western Animation]] ==
▲* In a mundane version, once on ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' when Homer decided to become an inventor:
{{quote|'''Homer:''' Now, here's my "Everything's O.K." alarm!
''Homer flips a switch the device, and it begins to emit a high pitched, incredibly loud beep. The rest of the Simpsons cover their ears as Homer speaks up.''
'''Homer:''' This will sound every three seconds, unless something isn't okay!
'''Marge:''' Turn it off, Homer!
'''Homer:''' It can't be turned off! ''[alarm fizzles out]'' But it, uh, does break easily.
** Another ''Simpsons'' example; in the episode where a shady dealer sells Springfield a monorail, and it ends up going out of control, cutting the power is suggested, but the monorail is run completely on solar power... the monorail stops only when an eclipse happens... and then when the eclipse ends, the monorail keeps right on going.
▲* In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series)|The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy]]'' radio series, there's a malfunctioning clone machine which keeps starting new clones when the previous clone is only partly done. Its operators can't turn it off because if they did, they'd be liable for murdering the clones that are in mid-cloning when the button got pushed.
▲* Happens a couple of times on ''[[Charmed]]'', such as when Billie put on [[Clingy MacGuffin|Hippolya's]] [[Clingy Costume|Belt]] and became a superheroine. The belt was killing her and the only way to remove it was through a specific spell found only in Magic School's library.
▲* In ''[[Naruto]]'', the Akimichi pepper pill puts your metabolism into overdrive, converting calories into tremendous power. But it keeps going even when your body has no fat left to use up.
▲* ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'', David Marcus helped build the Genesis Device.
▲{{quote|'''David:''' It's the Genesis Wave! They're on a build-up to detonation! [snip]
▲'''Kirk:''' We'll beam aboard and stop it.
▲'''David:''' You can't. }}
▲* ''[[Forbidden Planet]]''.
▲{{quote|'''Morpheus:''' Son, turn that disc. [[Big Red Button|The switch.]] Throw it. In 24 hours, you must be 100 million miles out in space. [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|The Krell furnaces]]...chain reaction...they cannot be reversed. }}
▲* Obviously this applies to any kind of doomsday device, since turning it off would defeat its purpose.
▲* Also applies to the [[Cold War|U.S. and Soviet]] supercomputers in the film ''Colossus: The Forbin Project''.
▲* In [[Robert Sheckley]]'s short story ''The Laxian Key'', a pair of ne'er-do-wells find a machine that produces some substance in unlimited quantities but can only be turned off with the eponymous "Key". When the substance begins to flood their ship, they try to sell the machine to an alien race who feeds on said substance, but are almost blown to pieces by their navy. {{spoiler|It turns out, these aliens already bought several such devices, which completely ruined their homeworld, so they tell the heroes to come back with the "Laxian Key" and ask any price for it.}}
* Certain devices that rely on chemical reactions obviously can't be easily shut down once the reaction starts, unless you have control over the access to the reactants themselves, such as some types of rockets and missiles (IIRC, more of a fundamental quality of solid-fuel rockets). ▼
* An episode of ''[[Taz-Mania]]'' guest-starred Marvin the Martian who sets up a device to destroy the Earth rigging it, so once it's activated, even he can't shut it off. After turning it on, he realizes he's made a slight miscalculation:
{{quote|'''Marvin:''' In 10 minutes it will all be over for you pitiful Earthlings. My ship will be here to pick me up in approximately one hour so.... Uh oh.
▲* In ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' and ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', the body-swapping device didn't have an off-switch (or at least it was never discovered) so every time someone activated it, he had to destroy it.
== [[Real Life]] ==
▲* The [[Doomsday Device]] in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'' will automatically detonate if anyone attempts to shut it off.
▲* Certain devices that rely on chemical reactions obviously can't be easily shut down once the reaction starts, unless you have control over the access to the reactants themselves, such as some types of rockets and missiles (IIRC,{{verify}} more of a fundamental quality of solid-fuel rockets).
▲** In this case, the designers of the device [[Justified Trope|built it like this intentionally]], and to them it made sense. It's meant as the ultimate, permanent deterrent to nuclear warfare; if there were any way to stop it once it's turned on, it wouldn't be able to carry out its function. It wouldn't have needed an off switch if not for a few miscommunications.
▲* A certain [[Bawdy Song]] about a sex machine with a Bloody Great Wheel includes the ominous rhyme, "And now we come to the tragic bit, there was no way of stopping it".
▲* In ''[[Highlander|Highlander 2: The Quickening]]'' the planetary shield couldn't be taken down even though blocking off the sunlight was killing the planet, the inability to do so being attributed to a lack of energy. In the end General Katana is killed in one of the shield's beams, and his Quickening provides the energy needed to take it down. At least, if one is being charitable, one can assume that's what was supposed to be happening there.
▲* In ''[[Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders]]'', the titular Mindbender only have a big ON/ON switch; throwing it seemingly does something (reverses the polarity?), but turning it off is impossible. Given that it's designed to induce stupidity, this is a perfectly sensible design choice. Fortunately, {{spoiler|it can be destroyed by the Skolarian Device.}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Applied Phlebotinum]]
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