What Do You Mean It's Phlebotinum?: Difference between revisions

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== [[Film]] ==
== [[Film]] ==
* In ''[[Back to The Future]]'', the "Mr. Fusion" attachment causes ''everything'' to become this — you can run your car on used coffee grounds and banana peels, and throw away that useless plutonium.
* In ''[[Back to The Future]] Part II'' and ''III'', the [[wikia:c:backtothefuture:Mr. Fusion|Mr. Fusion]] Home Energy Reactor attached to the car causes ''everything'' to become this — you can run a 1.21 GW electric appliance on used coffee grounds and banana peels, and throw away that useless plutonium.
** Only when it's in flight mode, and only when it's traveling through time. It needs gasoline for a trip to the corner drugstore. Presumably the Mr. Fusion isn't compatible with the engine.
** Only when it's traveling through time, as Mr. Fusion powers only the time travel circuits. As explained in ''Part III''', it still needs gasoline to drive or fly.
** Which is a bit of [[Fridge Logic]], because apparently, in the future, people have 'hover conversions' of their older cars to make the car fly through the air solely by electricity that Mr. Fusion generate for free...but for some reason leave their internal combustion engines intact to drive the cars down the streets. Perhaps gasoline is also free, but wouldn't it be rather difficult to make the wheels tilt like that ''and'' keep the gasoline-powered engine and transmission hooked up, instead of just stripping out all that and attaching electric motors to each wheel? (And removing the engine would create a better place to put Mr. Fusion than sticking out of the back of the car.)
** Which is a bit of [[Fridge Logic]], because apparently, in the future, people have 'hover conversions' of their older cars to make the car fly through the air. Somehow nobody invented electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf in that timeline.
** Alternately, Mr. Fusion just powered the time circuits, and the hover ability somehow worked off the gasoline engine, especially when we see the smooth transitions between driving and flying. Although this seems to be even an odder premise.
* In ''[[The Cat from Outer Space]]'', the title character is looking for a few kilograms of a common (from his point of view) but unknown (to humans) substance to fix his spacecraft. Cue [[The Reveal]]:
* In ''[[The Cat from Outer Space]]'', the title character is looking for a few kilograms of a common (from his point of view) but unknown (to humans) substance to fix his spacecraft. Cue [[The Reveal]]:
{{quote|'''Frank:''' Wait, that's ''gold''.}}
{{quote|'''Frank:''' Wait, that's ''gold''.}}
* In ''[[Monsters, Inc.]].'', the monster civilization gets all its energy from... the screams of children. {{spoiler|And the laughs, which are far more powerful.}}
* In ''[[Monsters, Inc.]].'', the monster civilization gets all its energy from... the screams of children. {{spoiler|And the laughs, which are far more powerful.}}
* In ''[[My Favorite Martian (film)|My Favorite Martian]]'', the eponymous Martian's spaceship has broken down, and is now missing a critical engine part. Much agonizing ensues as the Martian despairs of creating a new one... until he bothers explaining what it does. It's an alternator. He's then able to repair his ship simply by ripping an alternator out of a car and plugging it in.
* In ''[[My Favorite Martian (film)|My Favorite Martian]]'', the eponymous Martian's spaceship has broken down, and is now missing a critical engine part. Much agonizing ensues as the Martian despairs of creating a new one... until he bothers explaining what it does. It's an alternator. He's then able to repair his ship simply by ripping an alternator out of a car and plugging it in.
* In the Carl Reiner movie ''Spirit of '76'', a time machine sets off for 1776, but runs out of the fuel tetrahydrozeline, and ends up in bicentennial year 1976 instead; fortunately, they learn that tetrahydrozeline is the active ingredient in Visine eyedrops.
* In the Carl Reiner movie ''Spirit of '76'', a time machine sets off for 1776, but runs out of the fuel tetrahydrozeline, and ends up in bicentennial year 1976 instead; fortunately, they learn that tetrahydrozeline is the active ingredient in Visine eyedrops.



== [[Literature]] ==
== [[Literature]] ==