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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.
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** 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
* 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:Applied Phlebotinum]]
▲[[Category:No "Off" Button]]
[[Category:Examples Need Sorting]]
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