Now Do It Again Backwards: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Kim:''' The alien said that if I recreate the conditions of the accident and fly into the timestream, there's a chance I might be able to get back into my reality.<br />

'''Paris:''' Might?<br />

 

Come on in. Sit down. Aw, there's no need to be nervous. We all know how it is out there. Sometimes things get out of hand. Now, you just tell me all about it. I've heard it all before. Maybe you flew your spaceship through a wormhole while your engine was leaking, and you ended up in a parallel universe. Perhaps you are a gang of super heroes and you've had a bit of a whoopsie with some [[Applied Phlebotinum]], some [[Green Rocks]], and [[Noodle Implements|a liquid lunch]]. Maybe you fell back through time or ended up in an alternate dimension, or perhaps you just got zapped by some [[Negative Space Wedgie|weird space anomaly.]]

A subtrope of the [[Reset Button]]. Sometimes you can even deal with magical or even [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|memory]] issues in much the same way-- by repeating the spell (or blow to the head) backwards.

 

{{examples}}

 

 

== Film ==

* ''[[The Incredible Mr. Limpet]]". The method Admiral Spewter suggests to turn Henry Limpet back into a human being.

* ''Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man'' (1943). Dr. Frankenstein's journal explains that the practically immortal monster can be killed by attaching him to the machine that gave him life and "changing the poles" (AKA [[Reverse Polarity|reversing the polarity]]).

 

== Live Action TV ==

* An episode of the kids TV show ''[[Space Cases]]'' featured Harlan Band (and the console that could inform the crew of the lethal radiation leak) becoming invisible after getting zapped by a discharge from the Christa's engine core (which only happened because he spilled juice on it). The obvious solution was to have him stand in the same place, have the ship's android pour ''more'' juice on the engine core, and, of course, [[Reverse the Polarity]] of the neutron flow.

* Annoyingly enough, the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode "1969" (one of its most Trekish episodes ever, along with such gems as "Emancipation" and "Brief Candle"). Slightly subverted as they return to the future, not to the point in time from which they departed, and Cassandra has to send them back in time from there.

** Also done in "Ripple Effect" where to return the dozens of alternate SG-1's to their home dimensions, they repeat the event that started the whole mess, and send them back through the gate in reverse order of when they arrived.

** Also pops up in an episode of Atlantis, "The Daedalus Variations", where in order to get back to their own reality, Sheppard and the team have to fly the alternate reality Daedalus back through all the other parallel realities encountered during the episode in reverse order.

** Subverted in an early episode where the crew plans to use reverse thrust to get out of an alternate dimension (since they were going forward when they punctured the other reality) but are told that they will completely destroy the dimensional barrier if they try to back out. They have to go forward instead and count on the extra dimensional being charged with repairing the rift to guide them through safely.

* Subverted in an episode of ''[[Boy Meets World]]''. An accident with a microwave oven throws Corey back to the 1950s, and a Wise Old Man tells him that to get back, he just needs to recreate the circumstances of the accident. There's just one problem, as Corey points out: there were no microwave ovens in the 1950s. Luckily for Corey, it was [[All Just a Dream]].

** Actually there were. The first commericial microwave oven was manufactured in 1947, and a home version went on sale in 1955.

* The [[That One Level|infamous]] plasma corridor in [[R-Type]] 3.

* Averted in the computer game ''Out Of Order''. Playing the theme of The Town backwards renders it harmless, and reveals the hypnotic subliminal messages hidden within, but doesn't counteract the effect. To do that our hero has to swap out the hypno-tunes for his Three Frank Harlons album.

* In the fourth chapter of ''[[Tales of Monkey Island]]'', Guybrush has to follow a set of steps to prepare a Voodoo recipe called the "Feast of the senses", to feed La Esponja Grande and make it grow. In the next episode he has to follow similar steps but backwards to make the Esponja shrink, as Lechuck had stolen it and was using to steal the Voodoo energies of the Crossroads.

* [[That One Level|Cold Hard Crash]] from [[Crash Bandicoot 2 Cortex Strikes Back]] takes this concept [[Up to Eleven]] to the point of almost cruelty. To get [[One Hundred Percent Completion|100% completion]] of the game Crash must break every box in the current level he is in and collect a gem that only appears when he does so. To get all the boxes in this level you have to play through the first half without dying to activate and reach the death course, a difficult, checkpoint-free path covered in crusher traps and nitro mines, almost entirely on [[Slippy-Slidey Ice World|slippery ice]]. When you reach the end of the death course, you need to activate a switch and do the course BACKWARDS to get the new crate the switch spawns at the beginning of the level, at which point you take the platform back to the main level and complete it

 

* ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' TOS episode "The Invisible Monster'': Dr. Quest plans to destroy the title creature by reversing the process by which it was created.

* ''[[Space Ghost]]'' episode "Clutches of Creature King": Space Ghost is sent into the past by a "time warp caused by the cross of an energy force with a neutron ionizer". He reverses the process to return to the future.

* ''[[Totally Spies]]'' episode "WOOHPersize Me!": Master Mario's music has a mind control effect on people who listen to it. To remove the control you just have them listen to the music played backwards.

** There's a similar thing in Lilo and Stitch The Series.

* An episode of Duck Tales has the Nephews run Scrooge's business for a day, only their products tank and bankrupt Scrooge. However, the nephews find out that children aren't allowed to run a company, so everything that happens has to be undone, which gets all of Scrooge's money back.

* In an episode of ''[[Peter Pan and The Pirates]]'', Michael plays a piece of music that accidentally summons a female viking who can enslave people with her singing. Michael figures out that to get rid of her, he has to play the song backwards.