Cut the Juice: Difference between revisions

{{quote|"''Sometimes it’s easier if you just turn off the power.''"|'''Chloe''', ''[[Smallville (TV)|Smallville]]''}}

[[File:cit_hayate_the_combat_butler_-_shameless_hinagiku_plug.jpg|link=Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|right]]

* ''[[Spider-Man (Filmfilm)|Spider-Man]] 2'' uses it twice. The first time it works; the second time subverts it, as the ongoing fusion that had previously required power had become self-sustaining.

* In ''[[Two2010: Thousand Ten theThe Year We Make Contact]]'', the salvage team sent to retrieve HAL take the precaution of installing a wire-cutting device on his power cord, just in case HAL tried to kill them as well. {{spoiler|It is not used. When they consider activating it at the climax of the plot, Dr. Chandra reveals that he disabled it because he felt it would be unfair on HAL and he didn't believe it would be necessary. On the latter point, he is proved correct.}}

* In ''[[OceansOcean's Eleven|Ocean's 13]]'', Danny Ocean proposes doing this to disable the Bank Casino's ultra high-tech player monitoring system. "Why don't we just kill the power?" Roman Nagel scoffs at the idea. "That could work... failing that, you could just kick the plug out of the socket." They figure out that they could shut it down temporarily, if only they could get a magnetron into the control room. So they get a magnetron into the control room.

* In ''[[Die Hard (Film)|Die Hard]]'', the FBI cuts all power to the building (and a big chunk of the surrounding area) during the hostage situation. {{spoiler|This is exactly what the [[Big Bad]] has been relying on to deactivate the otherwise insurmountable final lock on the vault.}}

* Right before Sonia's badass-looking giant robot can smash the main characters in the second season of ''[[Hayate the Combat Butler (Manga)|Hayate the Combat Butler]]'', it suddenly freezes. Cut to a puzzled Hinagiku standing next to an oversized outlet holding an equally oversized plug. Unfortunately, {{spoiler|Yukiji has gotten taken over by evil spirits who power the same robot with just their evil spirit-ness.}}

* In ''[[DragonballDragon Ball]]'', Goku has been completely unable to defeat the robotic Sgt. Metallic, even after blowing Metallic's head off. He seems indestructable until he suddenly stops moving. Turns out his batteries died. Goku shrugs it off and continues to the next floor of Muscle Tower.

* ''[[The Naked Gun (Film)|The Naked Gun]] 2½'' features a nuclear bomb that is defused only when Frank Drebin, deciding to flee with three seconds to spare, accidentally trips over the cord.

* ''[[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]''

** ''[[Goldfinger (Film)|Goldfinger]]'' uses this as a subversion of the classic bomb plot. The bomb expert that arrives to stop the atomic device does so by merely hitting a switch. (You'd better believe that it stopped at [[James Bond|0:07]].) The counter was originally going to stop at 0:03 - Connery has a line of dialogue to that effect immediately after the shutdown - but for obvious reasons, they changed it in the edit.

** In ''[[Goldeneye (Film)|Goldeneye]]'', Boris, having been "spiked" by Natalya to prevent him from disconnecting his computer from hers, rips apart his computer to break the connection. Considering the fact that he could have just shut off the computer, or, even easier, turned off the internet connection (pull out the ethernet cord or shutdown a router), the apparently thousands of dollars of damage he inflicts on the computer is pretty retarded.

* In the ''[[GauntsGaunt's Ghosts]]'' novel ''The Guns of Tanith'', a squad of Ghosts are trying to figure out how to disable the force fields the enemy has wired into the city they are trying to take while in the main control room. The problem is solved by Major Kolea, who pulls one lever and shuts down the entire power grid.

* In one episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1 (TV)|Stargate SG-1]]'', the team infiltrates a Goa'uld ship with the intention of shutting down the [[Deflector Shields]]. Resident old guy Bra'tac states that they will have to descend many floors, defeat many warriors and security measures in order to get close to the shield generator... and O'Neill pops the pin on a couple of grenades and drops them down a shaft to the shield generator. "Hey look! Grenades."

* Gibbs in ''[[NCIS (TV)|NCIS]]'': A hacker is determined to hack the NCIS computers and McGee and Abby are just as determined to stop him. They are typing on the same keyboard once, and just as it seems as the hacker is going to win, the screens go black. They think that they managed to do it but when they all look to Gibbs, they see him holding the plug with a "duh" look on his face.<br />This could be a great example of "even when they get it right, they get it wrong." If the hacker's attacking the NCIS ''mainframe'', and Gibbs just unplugged a ''terminal''... In any case, Gibbs has the right idea, in that the best way to stop an intrusion into a system is to get the system off the network (by either pulling the cord or the ethernet cable). Indeed, many governments actually isolate computers with sensitive information from the internet ''for this exact reason''.

* In ''[[Earthbound (Video Game)|Earthbound]]'', the Monotoli building is guarded by a clumsy robot with a particularly unusual moveset. After the heroes survive its attacks for a while, a group of their friends burst in the room in a [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment... and flip the switch on the robot's back. Success!

* This is used again in ''[[Mother 3 (Video Game)|Mother 3]]''. Lucas, Boney, and Dr. Andonuts are being chased by the nigh-unbeatable Ultimate Chimera. As it pounces for its meal, Salsa runs in and hits the button on its back, effectively killing the power. The duck on its back flips it back on long after you've left, which should explain why it appears later on in the Empire Porky Building.

* ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'': "The controls are fused! I can't shut it down! He's going to FRY-- [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20100305 AND NO POWER ON EARTH CAN STOP IT!"]

** An episode that parodies ''[[Twenty Four24]]'' uses an amusing subversion. The bomb inside Hillary Clinton (don't ask) is set to explode once the 24 clock hit 1:00. Instead, the power goes out, leaving the timer flashing 12:00.

* In the ''[[Men in Black (Animationanimation)|Men in Black]]'' animated series, one episode featured an evil Time Traveler assassinating founding MIB agents, resulting in a [[Rubber Band History]] where the eponymous agency uses "unreliable" human technology. Agent J stops the antagonist from finding the location of his last victim by pulling the plug on the PC being used as a database.

* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]''

** Played straight in the 2003 ''[[TMNTTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' cartoon, where Serling stops a toy robot from killing the Turtles by removing its batteries.

* One episode of ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' has Harley Quinn sending Catwoman down a [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]]. When Batman turns up, Harley claims that he doesn't have enough time to beat her and save Catwoman. Cue the camera panning out slightly to show Batman standing right next to the master switch, which he promptly flips.

* Used in ''[[Xiaolin Showdown (Animation)|Xiaolin Showdown]]'', with one episode having Jack Spicer attack the heroes with a massive robot made of junk in a landfill site type area, except he had the thing plugged into the mains via an extension cord, so before a proper battle got underway, the thing just moved slightly forward, the plug came out and it immediately lost all power.

* ''[[Superman (Filmfilm)|Superman]] 3'': Subverted. Gus Gorman, geek-for-hire, has built a supercomputer with a self defense arsenal capable of taking down even Superman. As Superman crumbles under the computer's assault, the boss triumphantly congratulates him on building the machine that Kills Superman. Gorman has an ''[[Oh Crap]]'' (despite this not being the first time in the movie it was made clear to him that this was the goal) and tries to Cut the Juice (which somehow can be performed by removing a single ordinary screw with a single pocket screwdriver from a panel. Apparently giant knife-switches or ''[[Big Red Button|Big Red Buttons]]'' weren't dramatic enough, or at least wouldn't have given the boss time to realize his henchman wasn't all the way on board with this plan and try to keep him from disabling the computer before it can finish). This works for a few seconds. Then, although supposedly without power, the supercomputer restarts and creates its own reroutes straight to the nearest power lines. Gus shouts in horror, "It's feeding itself... it wants to LIVE!" It Got Worse.

* The novel version of ''[[Two Thousand and One2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. Bowman contemplates cutting HAL's powersupply, but since HAL also controls the ship's life support, Bowman realizes that he can't simply cut off the power. In addition to the fact that HAL is powered by a nuclear reactor.

** In ''[[Two2010: Thousand Ten theThe Year We Make Contact]],'' Floyd has the engineer Curnow install a device on HAL's main power supply to let them shut him down remotely, if he goes nuts again. Dr. Chandra knew that they'd do that, and disconnected it.

* The ''[[Star Trek: theThe Original Series (TV)|Star Trek the Original Series]]'' episode "The Ultimate Computer". The computer finds a way to draw power directly from the engines (that it controls) while killing the [[Red Shirt]] who tried it. In the end it took one of Kirk's patented [[Logic Bomb|Logic Bombs]] to do it.

* Deus, at the beginning of ''[[Xenogears (Video Game)|Xenogears]]''.

* In an episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'', "Marge vs. the Monorail", two guys discuss the speeding out of control monorail:

* ''[[Code Lyoko (Animation)|Code Lyoko]]''

* Not so much ''dramatically'' ignored, but comedically subverted in an episode of ''[[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants]]''. Realizing that Plankton's computer-wife is loading the Krabby Patty formula, Spongebob dives for an outlet to unplug her. He ends up unplugging the coffee maker instead.

* In a ''[[Super FriendsSuperfriends]]'' story, a team of scientists invent an artificially intelligent computer and it instantly turns evil. In a panic, the scientists immediately pull the plug on it and the situation seems resolved. Unfortunately, the robot then ''turns itself back on'', saying it has all the power it needs to operate, which means this is now a job for the superheroes to deal with.