Trust Password: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

'''Bill and Ted''': ''Whoa.'' |''[[Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure|Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure]]''}}

* In ''[[12 Monkeys]]'', Cole can't figure out if he's actually from the future or if he's just crazy. He figures it out when {{spoiler|he tells Kathryn to make a phone call for him to a phone he knows will be monitored in the future. Kathryn leaves the message Cole had been told about in the future, which confirms he's from the future.}}

* From ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'':

'''James Bond''': Well, I'm glad we got that out of the way. }}

* ''[[Big]]'' has the most complicated example, with a fast sort of song and dance routine.

* Subverted in ''[[17 Again]]''. Mike tells his best friend Ned several incriminating details that only he could know while being attacked, but Ned justifies how the weird, soaking wet man in his house could get access to all the information he gives.

'''Ned''': [[Google|Googleable]]! <br />

'''Mike''': You helped me cheat on a math test, but I got caught. <br />

* In the last two ''[[Harry Potter]]'' books, the Ministry of Magic suggests people set up a [[Trust Password]] with their loved ones so as to identify someone disguised with Polyjuice Potion. It's generally treated as a joke in ''Half Blood Prince'', but becomes deadly serious in ''Deathly Hallows''. (Not only are circumstances more serious, but people have figured out that it's best to make the Q&A spontaneous.)

* In ''[[Silverwing (novel)|Firewing]]'', when Griffin finally meets his father Shade, he doesn't believe it's him (due to the many illusions of the underworld). He first asks him about Shade's past adventures, but Shade gets the answers wrong because the stories Griffin believes are exaggerations of the true events. Griffin then asks him what his name would have been, would he have been female.

"But your mother had her heart set on Celeste, so Celeste it was going to be." }}

** (Not an exact quote, just the best that I could type from memory.)

** "She told me to warn you. She said two words: {{spoiler|'''[[Arc Words|BAD WOLF]]'''}}. Well, what does it mean?"

** And from the series six premiere:

'''The Doctor:''' My life in your hands. Amelia Pond. }}

* In ''[[Lost]]'''s "The Constant," 2004-Daniel tells Desmond to tell 1996-Daniel that {{spoiler|he knows about Eloise, and give him some important numbers for an experiment. This proves to Daniel that Desmond is traveling in time and has spoken to a future version of Daniel.}}

** Also in the same incident, O'Neill convinces Lieutenant Hammond the team know him in the future by telling him he watched the first moon landing two weeks ago from his father's bedside after a heart attack.

** In another episode, the team finds a crystal skull inside a chamber filled with radiation and their attempt to examine it results in Daniel being made invisible and immaterial. The rest of the cast has no idea what happened to him until it is revealed that Daniel's grandfather Nick (who had once seen a similar skull and was living in a mental institution) can see him. Jack is skeptical, but is convinced by this exchange:

'''Jack:''' ...Daniel? }}

** In ''[[Stargate: Continuum]]'', the trope is subverted twice: O'Neill refuses to believe the alternate timeline SG-1 (partly because what Daniel tries to use--his son's accidental death--didn't happen in the alternate timeline), while Landry cuts them off as they are about to do this by telling them he believes them (having previously seen the tapes of their interrogations).

* In the ''[[Charmed]]'' episode "That 70's Episode", Prue and Piper convince their past selves to trust them by opening a trick drawer in a cabinet.

* In the ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "The End", Dean is sent to the future and proves his identity to Future!Dean by telling a story that only he would know:

* In an episode of ''[[Buck Rogers in The 25th Century]]'', Buck hijacks a Draconian fighter and must prove to another pilot that he's from Earth. The pilot is someone Buck had previously been stranded in the desert with and had shared stories of the past. In this case, Buck proved who he was by giving a description of OJ Simpson. Since Buck had left Earth in 1987, he had no idea that OJ turned out to be a double murderer and since the show was filmed prior to this, neither did the writers.

* And in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', this classic exchange. Makes even more sense when you realize the above ''[[X-Men (film)|X-Men]]'' "You're a dick" line was also penned by Joss Whedon.

'''Cordelia:''' It's him. }}

** In another episode, Xander does the [[Peanuts|Snoopy Dance]] to prove he's Xander for Willow.

* In one episode of ''[[Bones]]'', a boy is kidnapped. Booth asks the dad what password he can use so the boy will trust him during the rescue. (It's Paladin, and the rescue scene is [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]] and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heartwarming]].)

** And the appropriateness of this trust password for Agent Booth, a Roman Catholic FBI agent, is lampshaded by his boss:

* An episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]'' had Worf visited by a Klingon who first claims to be an advisor, and then later admits that he is Worf's now-grown son Alexander, traveling back in time to urge current!Alexander into becoming a warrior. To prove his identity, Worf asks future!Alexander to repeat his mother's last words. He gives a detailed account.

* In ''[[The West Wing]]'', the word "Sagittarius" is used to denote that person knows about Jed Bartlet's MS.