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Two-Keyed Lock: Difference between revisions
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{{trope|wppage=Two-man rule}}
Sometimes one man can't be trusted so certain locks require two, or more, people to unlock, simultaneously. Maybe it's the keys to the world's destruction, or the kingdom's treasure, but whatever it is it's so important you know it must be good... or really bad. Hence the '''Two-Keyed Lock'''.
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A variation seen in video games, especially ones with co-op play, is a [[Stock Video Game Puzzle|stock puzzle]] that requires two characters to activate triggers in different places at the same time to complete an objective.
[[The Other Wiki]] calls this a [[Two-man rule]].
{{examples}}
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Goldion Crusher in ''[[GaoGaiGar]]''.
* In episode 13 of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', an Angel infiltrates NERV's computer system and Gendo tries to be [[Genre Savvy]].
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* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]'', [[Big Bad| Saiou]] obtains the controls to a [[Doomsday Device]] which requires two keys to use. Before he can use them, however, his original, benevolent personality takes over. Knowing that his control is diminishing, he gives one of the keys to [[The Hero|Judai]] and the other to [[The Rival|Edo Phoenix]], pleading with both [[No Matter How Much I Beg| ''never'' to give them back]]. As he predicted, his evil side returns soon after, and for the rest of the arc, his plan focuses on getting them back.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* The lab where the extremist samples were kept in ''[[Iron Man]]: Extremis''. This was a key plot point.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* ''[[Terminator]] 2'', to access the vault where the arm and chip were kept.
* ''[[WarGames]]'', to control a nuclear launch. One officer gets held at gunpoint for refusing to turn his key when ordered, {{spoiler|even though it was just a drill}}. That inspires NORAD to turn over launch control to an AI and leads to [[A.I. Is a Crapshoot|the main plot of the movie]].
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* The ''[[Lost in Space]]'' movie required two keys to activate the hyperdrive.
* The movie ''[[Crimson Tide]]''. Two keys needed to unlock the missile launch controls. The XO refuses the Captain's orders to unlock the controls because they lost communications before the launch order was confirmed as protocol demands. Mutiny ensues.
** One might notice that this is
** The Captain was in fact acting on legitimate launch orders and the XO was refusing those orders due to the possibility they had received orders to cancel the launch. The real villains of the film were the (unseen) President and Secretary of Defense, who issued nuclear launch orders with the intention of rescinding them if the situation changed. There are no take-backs in thermonuclear warfare.
* The [[James Bond]] film ''[[GoldenEye]]'' had this for the titular weapon as well. {{spoiler|Interestingly, this was replicated in the secret underground base as well.}}
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* In ''The First Great Train Robbery'', the safes holding the gold need a total of four keys to be opened.
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* The safe deposit vault that [[Artemis Fowl]] burgles in ''The Opal Deception''.
* An escape hatch in ''[[Thursday Next]]: First Among Sequels'' has two handles which need to be turned simultaneously.{{spoiler|In a touching [[Redemption Equals Death]], Evil Thursday chooses to help Thursday escape, knowing that she herself has no way out.}}
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* In ''[[Neuromancer]]'', the artificial intelligence Wintermute can only be freed from its programming constraints if one person speaks a password into a particular compter terminal just as another one breaks through the software defenses.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==▼
▲== Live-Action TV ==
* One can actually see this decay in ''[[Star Trek]]''. In the days of the original series, it takes codes from 3 senior officers to activate the auto-destruct sequence. In the Next-Gen days, it only takes 2 senior officers (and their hand-prints); it also takes both of them to stop the auto-destruct. By the time of Voyager, they fully avert the trope: the ship can be destroyed at the sole command of the captain. Whether this is a ''good'' idea...
** The Xindi [[Earthshattering Kaboom|planet killer]] required access codes from any three of the five members of the Council in order to fire. This would've been a useful feature {{spoiler|when three (and eventually four) of the Xindi races back out of the plan to destroy Earth. Unfortunately, the reptilians had ways around the codes.}}
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* In the ''[[Andromeda]]'' pilot episodes, Dylan gives four people he barely knows positions on his ships - because, apparently, one person cannot launch the Nova Bombs.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* ''[[Metroid Prime|Metroid Prime 3: Corruption]]'' has you do this with a GF trooper in order to activate an elevator. {{spoiler|The "trooper" in question is the shape-shifting foe Gandrayda.}}
* Oddly enough, only two "puzzles" in ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' need Leon and Ashley to do this.
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* The Thieves' Guild vault in [[Skyrim]] has one of these, with the keys being owned by the most powerful members of the guild. {{spoiler|No one realizes it's already been emptied by Guildmaster Mercer Frey, using a magical lockpick he stole from the goddess Nocturnal.}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==▼
▲== Web Comics ==
* Used [http://www.goblinscomic.com/d/20090103.html here] in ''[[Goblins]]: Life Through Their Eyes'', with a four-key system. {{spoiler|[[Cutting the Knot|A giant just smashes the door open for them]], because they REALLY don't have time for puzzles.}}
== [[Web Original]] ==▼
▲== Web Original ==
* In ''[[Freeman's Mind]]'', Gordon accidentally launches what he believes to be a missile (it's actually a satellite delivery rocket, but he hadn't been paying attention to the security guard who told him about it) and afterward mentions that he would have expected one of these instead of just the [[Big Red Button]] he pressed. Even for a satellite delivery rocket, and even considering he was resuming an aborted launch, yeah, you'd think the procedure would be at least a little more complex.
* In ''[[Axe Cop]]'' when they're visiting Magic World they have to insert two magic wands on the side of a gate at the same time to get in. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120717080046/http://axecop.com/index.php/acepisodes/read/episode_105/ Not that they get very far after that point].
* ''[[Atop the Fourth Wall]]'' uses the exact self-destruct code from Star Trek III in the [[Cold Open]] for his review of... the comic adaptation of Star Trek III in order to {{spoiler|prevent Lord Vyce from taking his ship back. Vyce manages to stop the sequence before the ship blows up.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
▲== Western Animation ==
* One of many many secure location tropes parodied in a ''[[Family Guy]]'' "found a new place to hide my porn" sequence.
* On ''[[The Simpsons]]'' two keys were required to be turned simultaneously to drop the "perfect 300 game" balloon at the bowling alley.
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* In ''[[Gargoyles]]'', when Halcyon Renard's second, fully-automated airship is sabotaged, he goes to the bridge to take it off a collision course, only to realize that two people are needed at two different consoles to perform emergency course corrections.
== [[Real Life]] ==▼
* [[Truth in Television]], this, especially in terms of US ICBM silos. The two key slots are far enough apart that one person can't turn both at the same time. Plus you'll need the launch codes, if they're not [[Broken Arrow (1996 film)|set to 00000000.]] (Yes, that actually happened: see [[wikipedia:Permissive Action Link|Permissive Action Link]]. Under the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy administration]], somebody decided to put PALs on the US nuclear arsenal to prevent unauthorized firing. SAC objected to this practice, fearing the possibility that the launch codes would not be available in time of need. So, SAC very quietly installed these devices, intended to ensure the safety of the free world, and very quietly set the combination on every single one of them to
▲== Real Life ==
▲* [[Truth in Television]], this, especially in terms of US ICBM silos. The two key slots are far enough apart that one person can't turn both at the same time. Plus you'll need the launch codes, if they're not [[Broken Arrow (1996 film)|set to 00000000.]] (Yes, that actually happened: [[wikipedia:Permissive Action Link|Permissive Action Link]]. Under the [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy administration]], somebody decided to put PALs on the US nuclear arsenal to prevent unauthorized firing. SAC objected to this practice, fearing the possibility that the launch codes would not be available in time of need. So, SAC very quietly installed these devices, intended to ensure the safety of the free world, and very quietly set the combination on every single one of them to [[Spaceballs|00000000]]. Very trusting people, SAC, although [[Vindicated by History|their trust appears to have been well-placed.]])
** The logic was that warheads mounted to missiles in either ground-based stations or in ballistic submarines are secure because of the two-man-rule interlocks, and PALs would risk a loss of readiness without significant security benefit. Actual (non-trivially-coded) PALs were (eventually) applied to small warheads - air-dropped bombs and ship/air-launched cruise missiles. Unlike ballistic missiles, these warheads can be stored or transported in a functional or semi-functional state, and thus can be used if lost or stolen. For these weapons, the two-man rule uses the PALs themselves - two officers must concur with the legitimacy of a nuclear launch order and release their portions of the PAL codes, or else the warheads cannot be armed.
* The Soviets had two launch keys and unlock codes held by the higher-ups (i.e. on shore) for their submarines. Now the case for US subs, but not always.
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