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Dead Man's Switch

980 statements
190 feature instances
98 referencing feature instances

Dead Man's Switch	type	FeatureClass
Dead Man's Switch	label	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch	page	DeadMansSwitch
Dead Man's Switch	comment	A backup plan in case of untimely death or incapacitation, used as a threat to protect the holder. If that person dies or fails to issue some form of communication within a set period of time, the plan goes into action automatically, making it in the interests of the threatening party to not harm that person. Provided, of course, that the threatening party knows about it. A common plot involving this trope is the switch is put in danger of being accidentally set off by somebody who had no way to know about it, or something in the system itself breaking causing it to reject attempts to turn it off. A more common twist that is beginning to appear is that of the hero simply cutting off the hand or arm, thereby removing the threat entirely. If an entire government or culture has a Dead Man's Switch, it usually sets off a Doomsday Device. The Trope Namer is a device installed on train locomotives and heavy equipment that shut down the equipment if the operator dies, falls asleep, or otherwise loses control of the machine. Oddly enough, though, you don't see it really used on trains in fiction... or cars for that matter. The real-life counterpart to the threat aspect of this trope is a fail-deadly system. A Super-Trope to Load-Bearing Boss, which usually applies to video games. See also Defeat Equals Explosion when the dead man switch is part of the holder. This can be a Sub-Trope of My Death Is Just the Beginning, if the plan is big enough. It's also a subtrope to The Dead Guy Did It. In some cases, the holder may trigger it deliberately to invoke Taking You with Me. May overlap with Death-Activated Superpower and Thanatos Gambit. Compare Betrayal Insurance. As this is a Death Trope, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware!
Dead Man's Switch	fetched	2024-04-12T07:01:25Z
Dead Man's Switch	parsed	2024-04-12T07:01:25Z
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to BigBad: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to DeadFootLeadFoot: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to GainaxEnding: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to GoodBadBugs: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to GottaKillEmAll: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to HealingFactor: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to HeroUnit: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to InsaneAdmiral: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to LogicBomb: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to LoveInterest: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to MilitaryCoup: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to Mordor: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to PatrollingMook: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to QuirkyMinibossSquad: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to Subverted: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to TheCorruption: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to TheDogsOfWar: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to TheDragon: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to TruthSerums: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingComment	Dropped link to VillainTeamUp: Not an Item - FEATURE
Dead Man's Switch	processingUnknown	TheDogsOfWar
Dead Man's Switch	processingUnknown	LoveInterest
Dead Man's Switch	isPartOf	DBTropes
Dead Man's Switch / int_1377df	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_1377df	comment	Terminator 2: Judgment Day: Inventor Miles Dyson makes a Heroic Sacrifice by standing between the escaping heroes and a pursuing SWAT team, hand-holding a heavy piece of wreckage over a detonator switch as his last labored breaths flutter from his bullet-riddled body. It also shows that he doesn't really want to kill them, as he warns them to get out.
Dead Man's Switch / int_1377df	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_1377df	featureConfidence	1.0
Terminator 2: Judgment Day	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_1377df
Dead Man's Switch / int_14f75384	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_14f75384	comment	Different Seasons: In Apt Pupil, Todd Bowden, while blackmailing Kurt Dussander, claims he left a letter (exposing Dussander) with a friend, to be opened and read in the event of his own death. Then when Dussander turns the tables and blackmails Todd, he claims that he left a complete account of Todd's actions in a bank deposit box, to be opened and read on the event of Dussander's death. They're both bluffing.
Dead Man's Switch / int_14f75384	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_14f75384	featureConfidence	1.0
Different Seasons	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_14f75384
Dead Man's Switch / int_1b08d2b8	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_1b08d2b8	comment	The Transformers Megaseries: Grimlock sets one up in Transformers Spotlight: Shockwave before the Dynobots go to fight Shockwave. Once they all get put into stasis lock, the ship fires on a nearby volcano, burying all six combatants.
Dead Man's Switch / int_1b08d2b8	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_1b08d2b8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Transformers Megaseries (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_1b08d2b8
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bda896e	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bda896e	comment	In Revelation Space, Dan Silveste claims to have an antimatter bomb concealed in his tooth that will destroy everything within a kilometer if he dies or if his demands are not met. He's not bluffing, and he uses it during an entirely different situation as a suicide bomb.
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bda896e	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bda896e	featureConfidence	1.0
Revelation Space	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_1bda896e
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bf2a7a8	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bf2a7a8	comment	A legal variant in Hitman (1998). A Yakuza/war criminal type boasts he is protected by a "Revenge Fund" that will activate if he is killed, which promises a phenomenally large reward to the one who tracks down his killer. True to form, the entire city's Underworld wakes up at the promise of money when he is actually murdered.
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bf2a7a8	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_1bf2a7a8	featureConfidence	1.0
Hitman (1998)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_1bf2a7a8
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c2cf038	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c2cf038	comment	In Ragtime, when Coalhouse and his allies take over the Morgan Library and rig it with explosives, it's mentioned that Mother's Younger Brother has the detonator set up so that it will be triggered if he (Younger Brother) is shot. (This being the early 1900s, this just means that he's sitting in such a position that he'll fall on it if he dies.)
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c2cf038	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c2cf038	featureConfidence	1.0
Ragtime	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_1c2cf038
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c631084	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c631084	comment	In Invisible, Inc., guards are equipped with heart monitors which raise the alarm when the individual is killed.
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c631084	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_1c631084	featureConfidence	1.0
Invisible, Inc. (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_1c631084
Dead Man's Switch / int_2172e43f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_2172e43f	comment	In Batman: Arkham Knight, some of the Arkham Knight's soldiers exploit Batman's Thou Shalt Not Kill methods by wearing suicide vests programmed to explode and kill the wearer should they fall unconscious, and making damn sure Batman knows it, thus protecting themselves from being on the wrong end of a Bat-beatdown. Being that the Arkham Knight is Jason Todd, who wants Batman to throw his code against killing to the winds, this is quite intentional.
Dead Man's Switch / int_2172e43f	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_2172e43f	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman: Arkham Knight (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_2172e43f
Dead Man's Switch / int_22147342	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_22147342	comment	The Season 5 finale of Arrow has one of these as a major plot point. As part of his final gambit against Oliver, Prometheus kidnaps all his loved ones and drags them to Lian Yu, which he's rigged with enough explosives to completely destroy it, set to go off if he dies. As such, his plan to either kill Oliver in combat or goad Oliver into killing him (thus proving that Oliver's as big a monster as him) is guaranteed to kill Oliver either way. Prometheus later further goads him by threatening that either Oliver kills him to set the bombs off so his son William lives, or he doesn't and he snaps the boy's neck, killing him. Oliver takes a third option by only incapacitating Prometheus to save William, but Prometheus just kills himself, ending the season on a massive cliffhanger as the entire island explodes.
Dead Man's Switch / int_22147342	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_22147342	featureConfidence	1.0
Arrow	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_22147342
Dead Man's Switch / int_2247a14a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_2247a14a	comment	The entire village of Caer Dallben is protected by a magical version of this in The Chronicles of Prydain. Played with in that no one knows the "switch" even exists until an attack is attempted in the final book, since the village's protector, Dallben the enchanter, had mostly concealed the full extent of his powers up to that point in the story.
Dead Man's Switch / int_2247a14a	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_2247a14a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Chronicles of Prydain	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_2247a14a
Dead Man's Switch / int_226f6b3f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_226f6b3f	comment	In the Haven episode "Chosen", Mara turns Duke Crocker into a "Trouble Bomb" and warns that he will activate if she is either killed or not allowed to return to her home dimension by the end of the day. Charlotte tries to get around this and end her threat by merging Mara back with Audrey Parker, with Audrey in control, but to everyone's horror, this apparently counts as killing her and Duke "detonates".
Dead Man's Switch / int_226f6b3f	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_226f6b3f	featureConfidence	1.0
Haven	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_226f6b3f
Dead Man's Switch / int_22fa3992	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_22fa3992	comment	The Expanse: An accidental version in "Godspeed". The detonator on a bomb gets damaged, and the only way to stop it going off it to keep pressing the reset button. Unfortunately, this means that someone has to stay behind until it's time for the bomb to go off, as the reset time isn't long enough to push the button and get to a safe distance. In the following episode "Home", the bomb ends up being used this way for real, as Miller has to carry it right into the middle of the protomolecule which could easily assimilate him if his spacesuit got punctured. This leads to some tense moments when Miller almost doesn't hit the reset button in time.
Dead Man's Switch / int_22fa3992	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_22fa3992	featureConfidence	1.0
The Expanse	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_22fa3992
Dead Man's Switch / int_231df7d2	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_231df7d2	comment	In V (1983), Nathan Bates forces the Visitors to declare Los Angeles an open city with himself in charge, by revealing that his death will trigger the release of storage tanks of the Red Dust toxin that his company manufactures. He's bluffing as the toxin is fatal to humans (in the long term) as well as aliens.
Dead Man's Switch / int_231df7d2	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_231df7d2	featureConfidence	1.0
V (1983)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_231df7d2
Dead Man's Switch / int_247422c7	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_247422c7	comment	Honor Harrington: There's a double version of this in Honor Among Enemies; a terrorist has taken over an entire planet, and when Honor tries to liberate it, he reveals that he has bombs planted under major population centres, which he can detonate himself, and will be detonated if she tries to take him out with an orbital strike; he uses this to bargain for safe passage out of the system. When he leaves the planet's orbit, he'll be out of range and can't set them off any more - so he insists on having Honor as a hostage until he can meet a waiting ship. Honor agrees, but brings her own dead man switch; a charge on the outside of their shuttle that will detonate if she doesn't enter a code at regular intervals. Unknown to the terrorist, she has another plan; her "switch" is concealing her old-fashioned gun, undetectable by common modern technology, and when they're out of range she uses it to kill the terrorist.
Dead Man's Switch / int_247422c7	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_247422c7	featureConfidence	1.0
Honor Harrington	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_247422c7
Dead Man's Switch / int_25d87dd3	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_25d87dd3	comment	Batman: Hush: Hush stops Poison Ivy from attacking him by saying his vitals are hooked up to a herbicide bomb.
Dead Man's Switch / int_25d87dd3	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_25d87dd3	featureConfidence	1.0
Batman: Hush	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_25d87dd3
Dead Man's Switch / int_25f39000	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_25f39000	comment	In Between Planets, to prevent the ship Little David from being captured by the Federation, it has a bomb attached to a Dead Man Switch, to which Don Harvey is assigned as his battle station.
Dead Man's Switch / int_25f39000	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_25f39000	featureConfidence	1.0
Between Planets	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_25f39000
Dead Man's Switch / int_26674ed5	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_26674ed5	comment	Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: The Patriots are holding Olga's child hostage, and if Raiden ends up dying before completing the mission, they'll kill her too. They claim that Rose is in the same dilemma, but given the circumstances of that ending, nobody's can really be sure if that's actually the case. Inverted in the case of the nuclear strike; the President needs to both be alive and input his code of his own free will (meaning no coercion or drugs or the like) in order to activate it, and if he fails to willingly reconfirm every hour, if his vital signs don't line up right or if he gets killed, the launch sequence will be nullified (specifically, launch authority will shift to the Vice President, ending the nuclear threat because he's not among the bad guys' hostages). It sadly doesn't stop Dead Cell from preparing a purified hydrogen bomb once Ocelot assassinates the President, though.
Dead Man's Switch / int_26674ed5	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_26674ed5	featureConfidence	1.0
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_26674ed5
Dead Man's Switch / int_28a11000	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_28a11000	comment	Horizon Forbidden West: It's revealed that Ted Faro put a deadman switch on his reactor, so that if any of the other survivors he dragged with him ever killed him, they'd shortly after die too. By the time of the game, the reactor is still going strong because Faro managed to survive as a hideously mutated immortal blob, clinging to the reactor. When the Ceo (who had worshiped Faro as a god until that moment) see it, he orders it destroyed, which promptly causes the reactor to melt down.
Dead Man's Switch / int_28a11000	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_28a11000	featureConfidence	1.0
Horizon Forbidden West (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_28a11000
Dead Man's Switch / int_29130f8b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_29130f8b	comment	The first campaign of Shadowrun Returns is called Dead Man's Switch, for good reason: The plot starts when the victim of a serial killer contacts the player through one of these.
Dead Man's Switch / int_29130f8b	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_29130f8b	featureConfidence	1.0
Shadowrun Returns / Videogame	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_29130f8b
Dead Man's Switch / int_2a8943c0	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_2a8943c0	comment	Miraculous Ladybug: In "Startrain", Max's mom, a train conductor, shows off the actual dead man's switch when the class takes a fieldtrip on her train. She's shown holding it later, even using her nose to check for emails on her smartwatch to avoid releasing it. It becomes the akumatized object when her anxiety over potentially being rejected from the astronaut program gets the better of her.
Dead Man's Switch / int_2a8943c0	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_2a8943c0	featureConfidence	1.0
Miraculous Ladybug	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_2a8943c0
Dead Man's Switch / int_2c77736e	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_2c77736e	comment	A character negotiating with pirates in Invasion of Kzarch tries to use a deadman's switch and bombs to ensure his safety. The pirates simply toss him out of the gunboat and shoot him.
Dead Man's Switch / int_2c77736e	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_2c77736e	featureConfidence	1.0
InvasionOfKzarch	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_2c77736e
Dead Man's Switch / int_3003c853	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_3003c853	comment	In Last Sentinel (2023) someone activating the Doomsday Device has to hold down a pressure switch before entering the activation code. Which leads to Fridge Logic in a scene where someone is entering the code and the others can't rush him because he's holding down the switch, except it shouldn't set off the bomb yet because he hasn't finished entering the code.
Dead Man's Switch / int_3003c853	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_3003c853	featureConfidence	1.0
Last Sentinel (2023)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_3003c853
Dead Man's Switch / int_310607c9	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_310607c9	comment	Lovelace has one of these in the second season of Wolf 359. If her heart stops or speeds up too much, a bomb on board her shuttle detonates, taking the Hephaestus with it. During "Who's There", she takes shrapnel to the stomach, resulting in heart failure on the operating table. While Hilbert manages to get her heart going again, the bomb still explodes, leaving Eiffel — who was in the shuttle at the time — stranded in deep space in a broken vessel for 180 days.
Dead Man's Switch / int_310607c9	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_310607c9	featureConfidence	1.0
Wolf 359 (Podcast)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_310607c9
Dead Man's Switch / int_31a48eed	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_31a48eed	comment	The Outer Limits (1995): In "Dead Man's Switch", after an alien fleet is detected approaching Earth, a Doomsday Device is prepared by linking every nuclear, chemical and biological weapon in existence. Five people are placed in five bunkers around the world. When an alarm sounds, they have 30 seconds to hit a dead man's switch to disarm it. If none of the five do so in time, the doomsday device will detonate. In "Final Exam", Seth Todtman has his 50-megaton cold fusion device rigged up so that it will detonate if his heart stops.
Dead Man's Switch / int_31a48eed	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_31a48eed	featureConfidence	1.0
The Outer Limits (1995)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_31a48eed
Dead Man's Switch / int_336a5711	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_336a5711	comment	Appears in the series 2 finale of Luther, where the villain holds a dead man's trigger attached to a suicide vest, and walks around London, untouchable. Averted when Luther convinces him to disable it under the ruse of a game and has him shot. At the end of the episode, Luther gets a female gangster who was blackmailing him to back down by saying that if anything happens to him or the woman he's protecting, a certain sociopath of his acquaintance will do something very nasty in response.
Dead Man's Switch / int_336a5711	featureApplicability	-1.0
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Luther	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_336a5711
Dead Man's Switch / int_33dd1d90	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_33dd1d90	comment	In Half-Life 2, whenever a Civil Protection Officer is killed, his radio emits a loud audible screech, followed by a female voice giving information on the location and officer's status, and ordering other nearby officers to respond.
Dead Man's Switch / int_33dd1d90	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_33dd1d90	featureConfidence	1.0
Half-Life 2 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_33dd1d90
Dead Man's Switch / int_34caa86d	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_34caa86d	comment	Motive: In "The Dead Hand", a woman wearing an explosive vest takes over the squadroom and hold Angie hostage. The bomb is linked to dead man's switch consisting of a heart rate monitor: if her heart stops, the bomb goes off.
Dead Man's Switch / int_34caa86d	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_34caa86d	featureConfidence	1.0
Motive	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_34caa86d
Dead Man's Switch / int_3626dc6d	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_3626dc6d	comment	Nikita: Percy has one set whereby, should he die, it will send a message to the Guardians of all of the black boxes to release all of the information on the boxes to the public. The boxes are hard drives containing all of the illicit operations of the United States government for a long time. Should that information be released, it would tip the balance of world power. Because of this, Team Nikita is currently working on plan Gotta Kill 'Em All before launching an assault on Division HQ. Percy later uses another variation of the same system. If he dies, his henchman Roan will receive the signal to immediately start a nuclear meltdown in the middle of Washington DC. As a second layer of protection, if Percy does not phone Roan by a certain time, Roan will also start the meltdown since it will mean that Percy has been captured.
Dead Man's Switch / int_3626dc6d	featureApplicability	1.0
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Nikita	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_3626dc6d
Dead Man's Switch / int_3692a9bd	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_3692a9bd	comment	Genocide Man: Each of the Genocide Agents does their work with a backpack-sized bioweapon lab that's programmed to release an extraordinarily virulent plague if the equipment is stolen or the Agent is killed. One Agent's suicide took 250 000 people with him and evacuated Washington State because diving into fresh concrete wasn't quite enough to stop it. Joey doesn't have one anymore, however, because he kept setting it off on purpose for a quick laugh and got hundreds of thousands of people killed in the process.
Dead Man's Switch / int_3692a9bd	featureApplicability	1.0
Dead Man's Switch / int_3692a9bd	featureConfidence	1.0
Genocide Man (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_3692a9bd
Dead Man's Switch / int_383c39a5	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_383c39a5	comment	With This Ring: A Reach ambassador attempts to blackmail Paul into leaving a world under her control, by wiring every incubation facility on the planet with detonators, and placing several dozen possible triggers, so if he tries to brand or assimilate or otherwise Mind Control her, or just kill her, the bombs will go off and kill every infant on the planet. He merges with the Ophidian and uses her power to move all the infants into subspace simultaneously; the explosives are triggered by this, but the children are already safe.
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With This Ring (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_383c39a5
Dead Man's Switch / int_38ce5997	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_38ce5997	comment	The Boys (2019): In the season one finale, Billy Butcher puts Madelyn Stillwell (who has a Parental Substitute relationship with superhero Homelander) in an explosive vest set off by a radio detonator that will explode when he releases it. Unfortunately, his hostage proves useless because Homelander murders her instead. Butcher then sets off the detonator, but Homelander saves him as a Cruel Mercy.
Dead Man's Switch / int_38ce5997	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Boys (2019)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_38ce5997
Dead Man's Switch / int_39c20861	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_39c20861	comment	Highlander: In the third season two-part finale, Kalas got his hands on a CD-ROM disk that contained information on every known Immortal and Watcher. He has it rigged up to his computer so that if he does not return in a certain amount of time, the information on the disk will be sent to the media, telling the entire world about Immortals. An episode from the last season had a man wearing a bomb vest that was wired to his heart rate so it would go off if he was killed. The female bounty hunter Immortal pursuing him got around it by shooting him in the head so his heart wouldn't stop right away, allowing her a few seconds to tackle him out the window and into the water below.
Dead Man's Switch / int_39c20861	featureApplicability	1.0
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Highlander	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_39c20861
Dead Man's Switch / int_3f13a30c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_3f13a30c	comment	British missile submarines had (and may still have) the "bolt-from-the-blue" procedure, in case Britain is destroyed by a surprise nuclear attack. This is referenced in the VX episode of Spooks: when each new Prime Minister enters office, he or she writes letters to the captains of the four Vanguard-class submarines, which are placed unopened in the safe (once the PM leaves, the letters are destroyed unread.) If the submarines lose contact with London, they perform a considerable number of checks (including checking whether they can still pick up the Today radio programme on longwave). Once they are convinced that Britain is no longer there, they open the safe. There appear to be (according to the Peter Hennessey book The Secret State, the source for this) four things that can be in there: Go to Australia, if it's still there. Put yourself under American command, if the US is still there. Nuke Moscow or whoever actually launched the attack. Use your own judgment.
Dead Man's Switch / int_3f13a30c	featureApplicability	1.0
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Spooks	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_3f13a30c
Dead Man's Switch / int_4141af74	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4141af74	comment	Uryuu Minene uses one of these in Future Diary when she holds up a school, derailing an attempt to snipe her because it's attached to a bomb.
Dead Man's Switch / int_4141af74	featureApplicability	1.0
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Future Diary (Manga)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_4141af74
Dead Man's Switch / int_41b0198a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_41b0198a	comment	The Dresden Files: Mavra in Dead Beat had one set up in one of the books. She had evidence that Murphy had killed people (they were Renfields) and that Mavra was going to send that evidence to the cops. In Mavra's words, "I won't kill her. I'll unmake her." Dresden quickly comes to the idea of killing Mavra. Seconds later, Mavra tells him that, unless she says otherwise, the evidence will still be sent. So if she dies, there's no one to rescind the order. Fortunately, at the end of the book, Dresden makes up for it by threatening Mavra in an incredibly ballsy and spectacular way. Every wizard is potentially one of these. When a wizard is dying they can unleash a Death Curse that will seriously mess up its target. The scope of the effect varies by the power of the wizard. Some Death Curses will just strip the killer of all their magical power (potentially lethal to another wizard or magical being) while others might destroy a few city blocks or an island. In the Side Jobs short story "The Warrior", the villain holds one of Michael Carpenter's daughters hostage with detcord (i.e., explosive dynamite-like cord) wrapped around her, with his hand on a dead-man's switch. If the villain dies OR Harry gets too close or uses too much magic (he is a Walking Techbane), it detonates.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_42ffb88e	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_42ffb88e	comment	SCP Foundation: The SCP-712 ("The Impossible Colors") apparatus has a fail-secure system installed in it. If the researcher viewing the Fictional Color is incapacitated and releases pressure on a thumb switch, their view of the color will be blocked by a light-absorbing panel.
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SCP Foundation (Website)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_42ffb88e
Dead Man's Switch / int_4530c0ae	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4530c0ae	comment	This backfires in Podkayne of Mars. Podkayne's brother Clark has got hold of a minature atomic bomb. He sets the bomb to explode so their kidnappers will get killed if their escape attempt fails. It succeeds, but he forgets to defuse the bomb in the excitement, and when it goes off his sister is still within the blast zone.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_468bebb0	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_468bebb0	comment	In a slightly different example, Havelock Vetinari of Discworld fame installed multiple Gambit Roulette Dead Man Switches in the city of Ankh-Morpork which are neither magical nor mechanical, but political in nature, thus ensuring that a Discworld with him will be much better than a Discworld without him. However, he is also slowly taking the time to set up a proper police force and bureaucracy for the city, making sure that after he's gone, the city will still thrive.
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Discworld	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_468bebb0
Dead Man's Switch / int_49a0a477	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_49a0a477	comment	Raven from Snow Crash is very large, very deadly, and has poor impulse control, but the reason why almost everyone gives him a wide berth is that if you were to somehow kill him, allegedly a trigger attached to his brain would set off the (very real) nuclear warhead attached to the sidecar of his motorcycle. No one wants to risk it.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_49a87cb3	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_49a87cb3	comment	In Final Fantasy VII, the Final Attack materia is a linking materia to set up a spell or action when the character is killed. Linking either Revive or Phoenix to it pretty much guarantees immortality, as long as you have a way to keep your MP up (MP Absorb + Knights of the Round or Master Summon is a good idea). The number of uses is limited by the materia's level (at most 5), though.
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Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_49a87cb3
Dead Man's Switch / int_49ad83ee	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_49ad83ee	comment	World of Warcraft: When adventurers kill the corrupted Titan Watcher Loken, he utters in his dying breath, "My death... heralds the end of this world." Loken was tasked by the Pantheon to imprison the Old God Yogg-Saron, and an "Algalon fail-safe" mechanism put in place to trigger if Loken met his demise. Unfortunately, the Titans didn't factor in the possibility of Loken's corruption by the whispers of the Old God that he was imprisoning. Hence, in the Ulduar raid instance, adventurers must "convince" Algalon that all is normal. Subsequently, in Icecrown Citadel, the spirit of Uther the Lightbringer warns Lady Jaina/Lady Sylvanas and adventurers that there must always be a Lich King, and that if the Lich King was destroyed without a successor, resulting in loss of control over the Scourge, the undead would overrun Azeroth like locusts.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_4b114f07	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4b114f07	comment	In Spawn (1997), CIA director Jason Wynn, who Spawn wants dead for sending him to Hell, has a device installed near his heart that, if his heart ever stops, will send a signal out to an automated system designed to release a devastating virus all over the Earth. Oddly, even the "normal" members of the CIA are shown thinking that this was a good idea. ("Now, no one will dare kill you, sir!) It apparently never occurs to anyone to think about what would happen if the guy gets into a car crash, has a heart attack, or is assassinated by somebody who doesn't know about the top-secret weapon. When informed about this, Spawn manages to use his magic to remove and deactivate the device.
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Spawn (1997)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_4b114f07
Dead Man's Switch / int_4b5d3174	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4b5d3174	comment	Mastermind: Strategist for Hire: Izuku has two separate dead man's switches set up to release murder plans for the top 50 Pro Heroes if he is captured or killed. One is a program written by La Brava, the other is that Giran has a copy of said plans with instructions to release them if anything happens to him.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_4c095a1f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4c095a1f	comment	In The Transformers, Starscream gains control of the Combaticons by adjusting them so that only Starscream can recharge them. Thus, if they betray or abandon him, they will doom themselves. Eventually, they manage to disable that feature, gaining their freedom.
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The Transformers	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_4c095a1f
Dead Man's Switch / int_4c213722	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4c213722	comment	Splinter Cell: This trope is the crux of the plot of Pandora Tomorrow; the Big Bad radios certain people once a day to give them the code phrase "Pandora Tomorrow" to delay his plan to strike America by a day, requiring the player and their allies to remove the smallpox-carrying bombs that would be the first strike before the player can take out the bad guy. In a meta-sense, this sort of thinking is also why they specifically capture him rather than just assassinate him like they did with the big bad of the first game, Lambert specifically claiming that dead leaders tend to be "stubborn ghosts". The prologue mission in Double Agent has a similar situation, where the commander of the facility you're infiltrating, once he realizes what's going on, ignites a flare and threatens to drop it into a vat of gasoline. Where it kind of falls flat is that if you shoot him or get spotted by him, he drops it and blows the place up, but if you sneak up and grab him... it still falls through the catwalk and into the gas, but doesn't ignite it for some reason.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_4ce969a9	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4ce969a9	comment	In Marathon, if a player has his fusion pistol charged when he is killed, it will discharge its blast, possibly killing from beyond the grave.
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Marathon (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_4ce969a9
Dead Man's Switch / int_4d5b6107	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4d5b6107	comment	In The Usual Suspects, Kobayashi lets the protagonists know that if he dies under suspicious circumstances, his boss Keyser SÃ¶ze will immediately know who did it and take revenge on them and their families.
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The Usual Suspects	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_4d5b6107
Dead Man's Switch / int_4e24af24	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4e24af24	comment	In an episode of S.W.A.T. (1975), the boss of a bunch of crooks tries to escape by wiring himself to a bomb, with the switch in his hand. He demands and gets a truck, which he tries to escape in, driving one-handed. Naturally, something gets in his way, and he has to put both hands on the wheel — releasing the switch. Boom.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_4f14e537	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4f14e537	comment	The New Adventures of Invader Zim: As revealed in Season 2 Episode 13, Norlock had one in place, namely an urn containing a Nightmare Weaver magically compelled to go after anyone who was near him at the time of his death, sealed up with a mystic time lock only he could reset; with his death at the climax of Season 1, there was no one to stop it from being released.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_4ff41a9c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_4ff41a9c	comment	In Origins, a Mass Effect/Star Wars/Borderlands/Halo Massive Multiplayer Crossover, clones of Athena are wired with such a device combined with Hollywood Acid to avoid Transformation Horror courtesy Parasite Zombies.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_50bcf7a6	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_50bcf7a6	comment	Homestuck: If Snowman dies, the entire Alternian universe goes down with her. Initially it stops Spades Slick from even risking hitting her, but after Doc Scratch forces his hand he goes through with it.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_5375bd65	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5375bd65	comment	The prequel comics for Injustice: Gods Among Us reveal that Metropolis was destroyed by a nuclear bomb that was set off by a dead man switch in Lois Lane, who Superman killed by taking her into space, because he was under the effect of a Kryptonite-induced fear toxin that made him hallucinate that she was Doomsday. And to make matters worse, she was also pregnant with his child. The mastermind of this horror was none other than the Joker, who did all of this because he was bored with losing to Batman all the time and wanted to "liven things up a bit". This is the catalyst for the Start of Darkness for this universe's Superman, who brutally murders Joker in vengeance and then goes on to set up a dictatorial One World Government so that nothing like this can ever happen again.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_53a73ca0	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_53a73ca0	comment	Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In "Hunt for Ziro", Ziro the Hutt reveals that he has a holodiary filled with incriminating evidence against the Five Hutt Families, information that will be transmitted to the Republic should he face an untimely end. He later breaks out of jail with help from his ex-girlfriend Sy Snootles to recover the diary and move it to a safer location, but unfortunately for Ziro Snootles is on Jabba's payroll and very pissed off that Ziro abandoned her in the past, murdering Ziro and turning the diary over to Jabba once she gets her hands on it.
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Star Wars: The Clone Wars	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_53a73ca0
Dead Man's Switch / int_58602f09	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_58602f09	comment	In Point Break (1991), Bodhi tells Johnny Utah that if doesn't meet with another robber at a certain place, that robber will kill Utah's girlfriend.
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Point Break (1991)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_58602f09
Dead Man's Switch / int_5875892f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5875892f	comment	In the first part of the Start Again series, The Count of Monte Crisco, Haru blackmails the Black Mask into taking her into the Metaverse and not to kill Wakaba Isshiki or she will tell the public that he, Goro Akechi, is really Masayosho Shido's bastard son and has been killing on his behalfnote Ironically, Akechi hasn't joined Shido at that point of time, and Haru's action prevented him from joining outright, and the news will be released if anything happens to her. It works, and Haru permits Makoto to keep the information in case the Black Mask goes after her. Makoto later uses the information to get the Black Mask to help save Haru when she gets overwhelmed in Kamoshida's Palace.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_58a0656c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_58a0656c	comment	Pagers return in PAYDAY 3, and are a bit more merciful — failing to answer in time will count as two answered pagers, and answering too many will trigger a search under normal circumstances, only raising the alarm if a search is already active.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_59151283	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_59151283	comment	Metal Gear: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty: The Patriots are holding Olga's child hostage, and if Raiden ends up dying before completing the mission, they'll kill her too. They claim that Rose is in the same dilemma, but given the circumstances of that ending, nobody's can really be sure if that's actually the case. Inverted in the case of the nuclear strike; the President needs to both be alive and input his code of his own free will (meaning no coercion or drugs or the like) in order to activate it, and if he fails to willingly reconfirm every hour, if his vital signs don't line up right or if he gets killed, the launch sequence will be nullified (specifically, launch authority will shift to the Vice President, ending the nuclear threat because he's not among the bad guys' hostages). It sadly doesn't stop Dead Cell from preparing a purified hydrogen bomb once Ocelot assassinates the President, though. The various members of the Quirky Miniboss Squad in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater appear to have switches that blow up their bodies upon their deaths, presumably to prevent Snake or other enemies from capturing them alive or acquiring any intelligence from their remains, with Snake also believing that they're fully prepared to die. The Fear's and The Fury's switches also come close to being a Taking You with Me, as the former results in shooting out dozens of poisoned crossbow bolts, while the latter turns into a giant human-faced fireball that chases Snake down. In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the eponymous Peace Walker is this for the US government; a mobile nuclear launch platform with a top-of-the-line AI capable of launching on its own initiative if the chain of command is out of touch. The main villain, Hot Coldman, takes advantage of this by programming Peace Walker to launch a nuclear attack mere seconds before he dies of his wounds, leaving everyone else unable to stop it in any way other than destroying the mech itself.
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Metal Gear (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_59151283
Dead Man's Switch / int_59da62aa	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_59da62aa	comment	In Fallout: New Vegas: Dead Money, the death of any one character will cause a timed detonation of the others' bomb collars, including yours, except inside the casino, where it can only trigger yours while you're on the same floor as them. At the end, once you kill Elijah or he traps himself in the vault, it also triggers your detonation timer, and you only have about a minute to escape the basement before your head explodes.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_5a077317	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5a077317	comment	Sons of Anarchy: A variant with drug kingpin Damon Pope who, to ensure his own survival, has arranged a kill contract to be activated in the event of his death, offering a huge reward to whoever assassinates his killers. Jax gets around it by framing Clay Morrow for Pope's murder.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_5c897f4a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5c897f4a	comment	Schlock Mercenary: The ridiculously massive and powerful Eldritch Abominations known as Paa'nuri do this with entire stars. They use gravity control to grab a massive planet and throw it at something, while forcefully increasing its density until it initiates fusion and becomes a star. So now there's a planet-sized flaming projectile flying at whatever the Paa'nuri doesn't like. If the Paa'nuri is killed, the gravity knot at the center of the new star unravels, and since the star isn't massive enough to sustain fusion naturally, it explodes. Shielded warships can handle a supernova without too much trouble (or just escape), but since these fights happen in heavily populated systems, the defenders are left trying to evacuate entire planets before the blast wave reaches them.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_5d44346b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5d44346b	comment	In Campione!, Erica blackmails Liliana about the erotic novels she secretly writes. Erica memorized them and inserted their contents in her will, so Liliana can't kill her to keep it secret.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_5db577ba	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5db577ba	comment	The grenade version is also used during the opening robbery in The Dark Knight, when customers in the bank being robbed are forced to hold grenades with the pins taken out. They're actually smoke grenades, judging by the one given to the bank manager — it's a bluff, or possibly the Joker's idea of a prank.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_5e150650	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_5e150650	comment	Exalted: The Scarlet Empress ensured that the most ambitious of her children would not only not kill his siblings, but would be forced to be their protectors, by decreeing that he would be executed if they should die under any circumstances. The Guild, the worldwide alliance of merchants largely made up of mortal humans, also has a favoured tactic of protecting themselves against gods and Exalted by setting up disasters to be enacted if they should die.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_60156176	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_60156176	comment	Vorkosigan Saga: In Cryoburn, a doctor who discovers a deadly secret about the cryo-preservation company he works for goes to outsiders for help, and is instructed to secure a copy of his information with a lawyer or a bank, to be released in the event that he dies or disappears or gets frozen. When the doctor gets caught by the company and dosed with Truth Serum, his savvy questioners get him to reveal where it is; however, he also reveals that two of the outsiders he talked to had taken copies of his information and made their own arrangements, giving the doctor's dead man switch some redundancy. And since the Corrupt Corporate Executives had, in the meantime, turned one of them into a Human Popsicle and killed the other one Deader than Dead... Mark's brilliant business meeting in Mirror Dance. He had a valuable piece of merchandise — in this case, a code-ring worth billions of dollars, still on the original owner's hand — attached to a charge, while he held the dead-man switch and negotiated with the man's business rival/half-brother.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_62769375	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_62769375	comment	Lethal Weapon (1987): During the hostage exchange, Murtaugh takes a grenade from his pocket, removes the pin and says he'll blow them all up if his daughter isn't released first. It's a smoke grenade.
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Lethal Weapon (1987)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_62769375
Dead Man's Switch / int_630755ab	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_630755ab	comment	In the Codex Alera series, the High Lord Kalare has one of these. If he dies, he has magically set the Great Fury Kalarus to destroy his entire city, killing tens of thousands of people. One of the plot threads in Captain's Fury is centered around it, ending with the switch being intentionally set off early to end Kalare's rebellion.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_670d9298	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_670d9298	comment	The Hijacking mission in Target Terror has the pilot held hostage by a terrorist with a Dead Man Switch that will trigger a bomb if you kill him. Shoot the remote to disable it. The painful thing of this is that the hijacking mission is the last mission in the game to complete and it's supposed to be the hardest where the terrorist holding the pilot hostage is supposed to be the boss.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_6819fb9f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6819fb9f	comment	In the final mission of Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, Kutkin radios his Mooks every two minutes. If you kill any of them before taking him down, he will trigger the nuclear meltdown.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_68b8bdfe	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_68b8bdfe	comment	X-COM: UFO Defense: Soldiers can prime a grenade or a bundle of TNT to explode when they collapse. Fallen "Cyberdisk" units have a habit of blowing up (and taking out entire buildings with them). It requires some effort to kill them in such a way that they won't explode and thus leave Cyberdisc remnants for research.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_694ab80	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_694ab80	comment	In the Batman Beyond episode "Final Cut", the last surviving member of the Society of Assassins blackmails Batman into protecting him from the villain who has wiped out the rest of the League by hiding a bomb in Gotham City, programmed to go off if he does not enter the proper code every twelve hours. It doesn't do him much good.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_69977d0c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_69977d0c	comment	In Silent Scope, if you miss the final bullet or hit the Big Bad anywhere other than the head, he detonates the bomb and kills the President.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_6a7e6314	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6a7e6314	comment	An unintentional version in Thor: Ragnarok: Odin's death triggers the release of his rebellious daughter Hela from the prison he sealed her up in many eons ago, freeing her to conquer Asgard.
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Thor: Ragnarok	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_6a7e6314
Dead Man's Switch / int_6ac55ec7	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6ac55ec7	comment	Dungeons & Dragons: The spell contingency is built for this trope. A wizard can set their death as the trigger for pretty much any spell they have in their collection... to the point that the Forgotten Realms have a special kind of The Undead, Blazing Bones, that is created when someone protected by death-contingency is killed by fire while casting a spell. AD&D2 dragon magic of Forgotten Realms includes a death matrix spell. When a dragon "loaded" with it dies, it initiates a massive explosion loaded with scales, bones and dragonbreath. It's permanent and not dispellable. D&D3.5 Complete Scoundrel introduces "Fatal Flame" — if the target dies before the spell expires, a mini-fireball explodes immediately, with the power dependent on Hit Dice. Still 3.5, Spell Compendium includes the 5th-level "Death Throes" spell, which makes the caster explodes violently if he is killed. It's more powerful than "Fatal Flame", in fact much powerful than most damaging spells (since it has no level cap), but with the drawback that it can only be cast on the caster (and makes resurrection a lot harder when you've blown the body to bits).
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Dungeons & Dragons (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_6ac55ec7
Dead Man's Switch / int_6af83614	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6af83614	comment	A Thing of Vikings: Mildew warns Mac Bethad that if the latter kills the former, letters will be dispatched to Stoick explaining everything they did. It took over a year, but Mac Bethad's people managed to locate those letters, destroy them, and kill the people who had possession of those letters. Except they missed one. Mildew told Peader and presumably most of the others that he'll send them letters every four months. Taskill managed to trace these to Peader and the other possessors of the incrimating letters. However, he told Fraser that he'll contact him yearly. Without a letter to Fraser to trace, he escaped the fate of Mildew's other contacts. The incriminating letter Mildew gave him is still intact. Overall the plan is decent but nearly fails because no one actually likes Mildew all that much. The remaining letter winds up gathering dust in a tavern keeper's papers while he decides what to do about it... until it is seized by Berk as part of entirely unrelated fraud charges. It reaches Stoick and alerts him to Mac Bethad's treachery merely hours after Hiccup's retinue leave to talk to Mac Bethad about his spies.
Dead Man's Switch / int_6af83614	featureApplicability	1.0
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A Thing of Vikings (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_6af83614
Dead Man's Switch / int_6e1d5f36	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6e1d5f36	comment	Farscape: near the end of the series, John walked into enemy territory to negotiate wearing a portable nuke with Dead Man Switches "from every culture on my ship and a few cultures I haven't heard of," that would activate if his heart stopped, sped up, or if he got "too hot, too cold, too happy, too sad, thirsty, hungry, bored..." The "too happy" was actually true, he had to tell his girlfriend not to stand too close to him because then the nuke would start beeping faster as his heartbeat sped up.
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Farscape	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_6e1d5f36
Dead Man's Switch / int_6edca17b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6edca17b	comment	The premise of Crimson Tide basically deals with this possibility on a government-wide level (see Real Life examples below).
Dead Man's Switch / int_6edca17b	featureApplicability	1.0
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Crimson Tide	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_6edca17b
Dead Man's Switch / int_6f734712	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_6f734712	comment	Smallville: In "Resurrection", Garrett straps a kryptonite bomb to his chest with his finger on the trigger and holds a hospital hostage. A deputy sniper kills him and his finger comes off the trigger, but Clark Kent manages to wrap the bomb in a lead apron and rush it away at super speed before it explodes.
Dead Man's Switch / int_6f734712	featureApplicability	1.0
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Smallville	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_6f734712
Dead Man's Switch / int_7284235a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7284235a	comment	In the Side Jobs short story "The Warrior", the villain holds one of Michael Carpenter's daughters hostage with detcord (i.e., explosive dynamite-like cord) wrapped around her, with his hand on a dead-man's switch. If the villain dies OR Harry gets too close or uses too much magic (he is a Walking Techbane), it detonates.
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Side Jobs	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7284235a
Dead Man's Switch / int_73383fee	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_73383fee	comment	Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc: Junko invokes this to pressure the remaining survivors into succumbing to despair and hide in the school forever.
Dead Man's Switch / int_73383fee	featureApplicability	1.0
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Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (Visual Novel)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_73383fee
Dead Man's Switch / int_75149ccd	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_75149ccd	comment	In the X-Wing Series novel Mercy Kill, a rather literal version is pulled by the Wraiths. They're currently besieged in an old observatory, with rescue inbound, but their leader has been killed. The Wraiths are unable to take the body along, but they also can't let the enemy know any of their identities, even of the deceased. The body is partially disguised, placed upright, and left out in the open for the enemy to find, while the Wraiths escape. Soon enough, Mooks find the body, but a single curious tap tips it over... triggering the pressure-sensitive explosives underneath, blowing up the entire installation.
Dead Man's Switch / int_75149ccd	featureApplicability	1.0
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X-Wing Series	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_75149ccd
Dead Man's Switch / int_76e7de99	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_76e7de99	comment	AD&D2 dragon magic of Forgotten Realms includes a death matrix spell. When a dragon "loaded" with it dies, it initiates a massive explosion loaded with scales, bones and dragonbreath. It's permanent and not dispellable.
Dead Man's Switch / int_76e7de99	featureApplicability	1.0
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Forgotten Realms (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_76e7de99
Dead Man's Switch / int_77fa1f5d	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_77fa1f5d	comment	In one issue of Global Frequency, a group of terrorists are wearing suicide vests that will go off if they die, killing their hostages. They're also planning to poison themselves if their demands are not met. Subverted in that the head terrorist was just planning to push the button as soon as he felt the first spasm of poison. Once the Frequency agents hear this, they just blow away the leader's hand.
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Global Frequency (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_77fa1f5d
Dead Man's Switch / int_791e7b7f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_791e7b7f	comment	In Zootopia, a proper train dead man's switch is shown when Nick and Judy find Doug's night howler lab, in an abandoned subway car. During the escape scene, Nick is shown having to apply constant pressure on the switch and deliver even more when Judy tells him to accelerate, which puts said character into the Non-Action Guy role in order to keep the escape going.
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Zootopia	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_791e7b7f
Dead Man's Switch / int_7981ca33	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7981ca33	comment	WarGames: At the end, WOPR attempts to extract the silo launch codes itself. General Berenger asks why they don't simply shut WOPR down, but the techs answer that the system would interpret this to mean that NORAD has been destroyed and initiate an automatic "counter-strike" against the USSR.
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WarGames	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7981ca33
Dead Man's Switch / int_7c07df33	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7c07df33	comment	Billion Dollar Brain: Midwinter's men catch up with Anya just as she's picked up the Styrofoam case holding the eggs that have been filled with a deadly virus. She just raises the case and threatens to smash them if they try to detain her.
Dead Man's Switch / int_7c07df33	featureApplicability	1.0
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Billion Dollar Brain	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7c07df33
Dead Man's Switch / int_7c19a801	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7c19a801	comment	The Rebel Flagship in FTL: Faster Than Light has an AI that will take over take over the ship if all its crew gets killed, repairing its systems.
Dead Man's Switch / int_7c19a801	featureApplicability	1.0
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FTL: Faster Than Light (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7c19a801
Dead Man's Switch / int_7cf5a07	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7cf5a07	comment	The Flash (2014): In the Christmas Episode "Running to Stand Still", Captain Cold claims to have built one into his cold gun. It's left ambiguous whether he really has, but he's certainly Crazy-Prepared enough to do so, and Barry decides not to call his bluff.
Dead Man's Switch / int_7cf5a07	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Flash (2014)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7cf5a07
Dead Man's Switch / int_7d8c61a2	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7d8c61a2	comment	Star Wars: The Old Republic: After Keeper disobeys the Dark Council one too many times, they threaten him with execution. Keeper, who has been a part of Imperial Intelligence for many years and is privy to most, if not all, of the Empire's dirty little secrets, implied that certain documents would be released in the event of his death. The Dark Council was forced to grant Keeper early retirement.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7d8c61a2
Dead Man's Switch / int_7d8f1ed5	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7d8f1ed5	comment	The Heartstrikers: Bixby wraps the unconscious Katya in enough explosives to level a city block, then holds a deadman switch to make sure the heroes can't kill him. They cut off his hand and Julius holds down the switch himself. But that proves to be its own problem, so Bob, the clan Seer, walks up and casually pulls a seemingly random wire, disabling the bombs.
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The Heartstrikers	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7d8f1ed5
Dead Man's Switch / int_7ddbc888	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7ddbc888	comment	In Eureka Seven, Colonel Dewey pulls a literal Dead Man Switch upon his suicide, in which a collar that Eureka had been wearing through out the series forces her to become a second Control Cluster which will cause the end of reality as we know it. This from the guy whose stated aim was to save the world. He rationalizes minutes before that the Scub has irreversibly tainted the world, and thus it is better off not existing.
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Eureka SeveN	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7ddbc888
Dead Man's Switch / int_7e88ac08	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7e88ac08	comment	The Equalizer is protecting the ex-wife of a Corrupt Corporate Executive, whom McCall discovers has hired a man to kill her. McCall arranges for his Friend on the Force to put information in the police database that he is also a contract killer, then explains to the executive that if his ex dies of any cause, even natural ones, McCall will kill him.
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The Equalizer	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7e88ac08
Dead Man's Switch / int_7f8a38b6	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_7f8a38b6	comment	The Mobile Suit Gundam Wing sequel manga Frozen Teardrop has a particularly extreme version of this: the Perfect Peace Plan, in Relena Peacecraft's death would cause the Nanomachines secretly administered to Martian colonists to form blood clots and kill an estimated three billion people. Relena had to be put in cryogenic stasis until such a time as a solution could be devised.
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Mobile Suit Gundam Wing	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_7f8a38b6
Dead Man's Switch / int_817acecf	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_817acecf	comment	In Fables, a plucky reporter investigating Fabletown (actually, he's under the impression they're vampires) has a system set up that if he's killed, all the information he's gathered about Fabletown will be released to the press. The Fables have to arrange an elaborate blackmail/con to convince him to defuse the threat. And then Bluebeard kills him anyway.
Dead Man's Switch / int_817acecf	featureApplicability	1.0
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Fables (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_817acecf
Dead Man's Switch / int_8197ebd8	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8197ebd8	comment	In General Protection Fault, Nega-Ki faces off against Ki's group as they're raiding the palace, telling them that she has a dead man's switch to flood the hallway with poison gas. Ki tells her counterpart that she's willing to die to save Nick, but questions whether her counterpart is willing to die to fulfill Nega-Nick's evil plans. Nega-Ki backs down, but moments later, soldiers arrive to capture Ki's group.
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General Protection Fault (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8197ebd8
Dead Man's Switch / int_81bdb552	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_81bdb552	comment	In Machete Kills, Mendez has the missile programed to launch if his heart stops, preventing Machete from killing him. Voz eventually kills him, but keeps his heart functioning in a jar.
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Machete Kills	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_81bdb552
Dead Man's Switch / int_83892b47	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_83892b47	comment	Mavra in Dead Beat had one set up in one of the books. She had evidence that Murphy had killed people (they were Renfields) and that Mavra was going to send that evidence to the cops. In Mavra's words, "I won't kill her. I'll unmake her." Dresden quickly comes to the idea of killing Mavra. Seconds later, Mavra tells him that, unless she says otherwise, the evidence will still be sent. So if she dies, there's no one to rescind the order. Fortunately, at the end of the book, Dresden makes up for it by threatening Mavra in an incredibly ballsy and spectacular way.
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Dead Beat	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_83892b47
Dead Man's Switch / int_85b855e2	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_85b855e2	comment	In The Thrawn Trilogy, Talon Karrde defeats an enemy's attempt to steal his ship by holding down a switch on the control board and bluffing that it's a dead-man's switch controlling the ship's self-destruct mechanism. The switch actually just turns on the ship's headlights.
Dead Man's Switch / int_85b855e2	featureApplicability	1.0
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The Thrawn Trilogy	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_85b855e2
Dead Man's Switch / int_86814e56	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_86814e56	comment	Final Fantasy VI has the Optional Boss at the top of the Fanatic's Tower. If you manage to survive the incredibly lengthy staircase gauntlet (with no save points), and beat the boss, he'll cast Ultima before dying, killing the party. Fortunately, it was the game that introduced the Auto-Life spell to the series, which is the only way to win without excessive grinding or taking forever to drain the boss's MP to zero. He's far from the only one, too; the game has many bosses and Elite Mooks that have some kind of desperation attack they'll perform right before they die, in an attempt to take someone with him.
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Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_86814e56
Dead Man's Switch / int_86b52b7b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_86b52b7b	comment	In I, Robot, Dr. Alfred Lanning left behind instructions for Del Spooner, in the event of his death. His suicide near the beginning of the film sets in motion Del's investigation.
Dead Man's Switch / int_86b52b7b	featureApplicability	1.0
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I, Robot	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_86b52b7b
Dead Man's Switch / int_86c3beca	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_86c3beca	comment	As seen above, in Girl Genius, a member of the disorganized swarm of assassins attempting to kill reluctant tyrant Klaus Wulfenbach carries one of these, although it proves less effective than he'd hoped.
Dead Man's Switch / int_86c3beca	featureApplicability	1.0
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Girl Genius (Webcomic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_86c3beca
Dead Man's Switch / int_8aa7c509	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8aa7c509	comment	In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, Queen Moon's deal with Queen Eclipsa essentially turns Toffee into a living Dead Man's Switch. When he dies, she fulfills her side of their Magically-Binding Contract and is freed from her Crystal Prison, and dealing with the fall-out from her release takes up much of the plot of the rest of season 3.
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Star vs. the Forces of Evil	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8aa7c509
Dead Man's Switch / int_8ba4613a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8ba4613a	comment	Death Note: Rem lets Light know that if Misa dies unnaturally, she'll assume Light did it and kill him. L was able to safely reveal his identity to Light in private once L made it clear that, if he were to die soon after, other people would be able to use it as evidence that Light (the prime suspect) was the murderer. Watari maintains a computer link to the orphanage he runs, and reports in at regular intervals. When Rem kills both him and L, at the proper time the computer reports "L is dead". This is a cue for the man currently operating the orphanage to send out L's successors, Near and Mello, to continue the Kira investigation.
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Death Note (Manga)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8ba4613a
Dead Man's Switch / int_8bd3842a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8bd3842a	comment	Hitman: An early mission in Hitman: Contracts has you targeting a man in possession of nuclear explosives who is also the target of a SWAT Team; shortly after they storm the ship he's holed up in, he activates one of these to force them to comply with his demands. In Hitman (2016), the plot of the Patient Zero campaign starts with one of these. The first mission is a routine contract, murdering the founder and second-in-command of an Apocalypse Cult. However, the founder's death trigger's a dead man's switch that sends orders to all the cult's operatives throughout the world to begin a global bioterrorism plot to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, resulting in the following three missions to foil said plot.
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Hitman (Franchise)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8bd3842a
Dead Man's Switch / int_8ce9b2ba	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8ce9b2ba	comment	This trope is the crux of the plot of Pandora Tomorrow; the Big Bad radios certain people once a day to give them the code phrase "Pandora Tomorrow" to delay his plan to strike America by a day, requiring the player and their allies to remove the smallpox-carrying bombs that would be the first strike before the player can take out the bad guy. In a meta-sense, this sort of thinking is also why they specifically capture him rather than just assassinate him like they did with the big bad of the first game, Lambert specifically claiming that dead leaders tend to be "stubborn ghosts".
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Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8ce9b2ba
Dead Man's Switch / int_8d670920	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8d670920	comment	Lock Up: In the climax, Frank Leone takes the evil Warden Drumgoole hostage and throws him into the reactivated electric chair in the prison's defunct death row section. Then he ties his hands to the switch, so he can make his speech about all the bad things the Warden did to the guards while they're unable to shoot him. Frank was bluffing. The chair was never active.
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Lock Up	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8d670920
Dead Man's Switch / int_8d817ccb	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8d817ccb	comment	In Lost, the mercenary Keamy, the man who killed Ben's daughter Alex, has one of these connected to his heart, set to trigger a large explosive in the event of his death. Ben Linus doesn't care.
Dead Man's Switch / int_8d817ccb	featureApplicability	1.0
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Lost	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8d817ccb
Dead Man's Switch / int_8df5521b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8df5521b	comment	Superman: In one Villain Team-Up between Lex Luthor and Brainiac to take on Superman, Lex gave Brainiac an upgrade, but arranged it so Brainiac will automatically shut down every few hours unless Lex is around to turn him back on. Lex explains this is to ensure Brainiac doesn't betray or abandon him. Eventually, Brainiac hypnotizes Lex into removing that feature. In The Death of Clark Kent, after Kenny Braverman dies, a mechanism is set off that tries to kill Jimmy Olsen and (if possible) Superman along with him.
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Superman (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8df5521b
Dead Man's Switch / int_8dfbdff2	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8dfbdff2	comment	Law & Order: The accidental activation of a fictional website similar to "You Were Left Behind" (see "Real Life" below), notifying those Left Behind that the Rapture has occurred, was the event that triggered the discovery of the body in the episode "Rapture".
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Law & Order	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8dfbdff2
Dead Man's Switch / int_8e8086c3	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_8e8086c3	comment	In Goldfinger, a captured James Bond bluffs that his death or vanishing will just activate another agent who will share Bond's knowledge of Goldfinger's "Operation Grand Slam" plan, presumably one that would assume 007's loss to be the direct result of Goldfinger himself. While Goldfinger at first (and correctly) concludes that Bond only knows the name of the plan, Bond convinces him that that is a chance he can't take. Goldfinger thus decides to keep Bond alive so that MI6 still believes him on top of things and won't send another agent who has Bond's knowledge and is at liberty.
Dead Man's Switch / int_8e8086c3	featureApplicability	1.0
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Goldfinger	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_8e8086c3
Dead Man's Switch / int_90b916ba	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_90b916ba	comment	In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Fear of Victory", when confronted by Batman in the stadium rafters, Scarecrow holds a vial of potent fear toxin over the side. If Batman attacks in any way, he will drop the vial and drive the entire audience below into a violent, panic-induced frenzy. Robin is able to catch the vial afer Scarecrow drops it.
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Batman: The Animated Series	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_90b916ba
Dead Man's Switch / int_929a00a1	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_929a00a1	comment	Haigha: As a precaution against Izuku being a potential Manchurian Agent, all of the staff members at U.A. are given devices that monitor their vitals. This comes in handy during the USJ, when three signals are simultaneously cut off by the invaders. Afterwards, they decide to keep the system in place, contemplating making it standard gear.
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Haigha (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_929a00a1
Dead Man's Switch / int_969fb090	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_969fb090	comment	Blindspot: In "Any Wounded Thief", the heroes confront a corrupt general and find him in a building full of chemical weapons. He reveals he's wired the place with explosives, and warns that if his thumb comes off the detonator, the building will blow, releasing a multitude of deadly gases into the air that will likely wipe out the city. Jane manages to get close enough to simply snatch the detonator away, put her own thumb over the button lightning fast, beat up the general, then disassemble the detonator.
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Blindspot	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_969fb090
Dead Man's Switch / int_97a70962	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_97a70962	comment	The Professionals: In "Old Dog with New Tricks", a nurse is taken hostage by a lunatic armed with a hand grenade with the pin removed. Bodie and Doyle make a reckless bid to free her because the longer he holds down the safety lever, the more cramped his hand will get. In "Lawson's Last Stand", the eponymous Colonel Lawson is holding up a cannister of nerve gas, strapped to a hand grenade with the pin wired to an overhead pole. He's standing out in the middle of a field wearing rear view mirrors so he can see if someone sneaks up on him, and has trained himself to hold up the weight of the cannister for one hour, by which time he wants his demands met or he'll drop it and kill millions.
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The Professionals	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_97a70962
Dead Man's Switch / int_982fa89f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_982fa89f	comment	In Robin Hood: The Sheriff of Nottingham has stated that if he dies an unnatural death, the entire county of Nottingham will be effectively destroyed by Prince John's forces. Recently, the system was accidentally activated when the Sheriff went sleepwalking and it was only shut down just in time.
Dead Man's Switch / int_982fa89f	featureApplicability	1.0
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Robin Hood	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_982fa89f
Dead Man's Switch / int_989c429a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_989c429a	comment	In Saw III, Jigsaw has his heart rate monitor hooked up to a device that will kill Lynn if he flatlines, which he eventually does when her husband Jeff kills him. This example of the trope has a twist in that it's not about preventing somebody from killing him, but coercing them into keeping him alive (despite John's late-stage cancer) for as long as possible.
Dead Man's Switch / int_989c429a	featureApplicability	1.0
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Saw III	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_989c429a
Dead Man's Switch / int_998cbda3	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_998cbda3	comment	Daredevil (2015): Leland Owlsley and Madame Gao conspire to have Wilson Fisk's girlfriend Vanessa poisoned in an attempt to get Fisk to focus on his crime business. When Fisk finds out and confronts Owlsley, Owlsley reveals that he has a switch: he's stashed away Carl Hoffman, one of the corrupt cops on Fisk's payroll. Owlsley checks in with him once every 24 hours and if Owlsley doesn't show, Hoffman will go to the FBI and rat on Fisk. The enraged Fisk kills Owlsley by throwing him down an elevator shaft, then sends the other corrupt cops in his pocket to search for Hoffman.
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Daredevil (2015)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_998cbda3
Dead Man's Switch / int_9a67b688	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_9a67b688	comment	In Case Closed, Conan employs a Dead Man Switch on a tape recorder to keep Vermouth from killing him after his plan to capture her goes south and he's captured instead. If the recorder is disconnected or he dies, her boss's ringtone and all conversation captured will be sent straight to the police.
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Case Closed (Manga)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_9a67b688
Dead Man's Switch / int_9d6b72cb	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_9d6b72cb	comment	The Soldier. The Heroes "R" Us have to seize an ICBM base. When they reach the launch control room, one of the airmen there holds down a Big Red Button on an extendable cable before answering the door. When they burst into the room, our heroes have to grab and hold down the airman's hand before knocking him out, so he won't release the button and set off an alarm.
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The Soldier	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_9d6b72cb
Dead Man's Switch / int_9e2f90f4	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_9e2f90f4	comment	One Piece: In the Egghead Island arc, when Stella Vegapunk dies due to the actions of both Saint Saturn and Kizaru, his fading heartbeat triggers a computer system that will broadcast the World Government's secrets to the world. However, there is a delay of 10 minutes to allow the people to prepare visual Transponder Snails for the broadcast, leading a race against time between the Five Elder Stars and the Straw Hats.
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One Piece (Manga)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_9e2f90f4
Dead Man's Switch / int_9f89a5f0	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_9f89a5f0	comment	The Aftermath ability in PokÃ©mon (called Detonate in Japan) does damage to the opponent equal to one-quarter its max HP when the PokÃ©mon bearing the ability is knocked out. The Destiny Bond attack has a similar effect except that it KOs the opponent when the user is defeated if they don't switch out.
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PokÃ©mon (Franchise)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_9f89a5f0
Dead Man's Switch / int_a0219faa	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a0219faa	comment	Star Trek: New Frontier: The Redeemers place a special virus in their priests' blood. Should that priest be slain by anything other than natural causes, the virus goes airborne and obliterates all life on the planet it's on. In Dark Allies, they place a priest on a random world to blackmail the Excalibur into helping them fight the Black Mass...thus using a Dead Man Switch as a Dead Man Switch. In Double Helix, the Big Bad knows the circumstances between Calhoun and his Dragon,note Basically, Calhoun brings the guy's operation down around him and nearly kills him before the Big Bad rescued him but he also makes it abundantly clear that they're both on the same team now. (Calhoun is deep undercover again.) Thus, he tells them that should one of them die, he'll immediately assume the other did it and kill him.
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Star Trek: New Frontier	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a0219faa
Dead Man's Switch / int_a1354807	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a1354807	comment	An early mission in Hitman: Contracts has you targeting a man in possession of nuclear explosives who is also the target of a SWAT Team; shortly after they storm the ship he's holed up in, he activates one of these to force them to comply with his demands.
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Hitman: Contracts (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a1354807
Dead Man's Switch / int_a346e791	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a346e791	comment	In one episode of NUMB3RS, a federal fugitive who is essentially cornered takes refuge in a garbage dump full of explosive materials (It Makes Sense in Context) and activates a flare, knowing that if he is killed and it falls, the entire dump will blow up. Fortunately, Reeves is able to talk him down before anyone gets hurt.
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NUMB3RS	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a346e791
Dead Man's Switch / int_a4420d22	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a4420d22	comment	Brock Samson uses this as a security measure in The Venture Bros. when he has surgery to remove H.E.L.P.er's head, stuck in his chest like giant annoying shrapnel after the explosive finale of season 3. He nonchalantly pulls the pin on a frag grenade, and sticks it in H.E.L.P.er's mouth. He didn't trust his Argentinian Back-Alley Doctor.
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The Venture Bros.	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a4420d22
Dead Man's Switch / int_a446c11f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a446c11f	comment	Wrong is Right. A Middle Eastern dictator threatens to set off a couple of suitcase nukes in New York if his demands aren't met. At one stage the US President is desperate enough to consider nuking the dictator's entire country, but it's pointed out that the bombs could have been set to detonate if they don't receive a signal.
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Wrong is Right	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a446c11f
Dead Man's Switch / int_a4a6b86a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a4a6b86a	comment	In Code Geass, during his final standoff with Suzaku at the end of season one, Lelouch/Zero straps a bomb to himself that he claims will detonate if his heart stops. The writers admitted that it was added when they realized that otherwise, his opponent would have just shot him. When the cliffhanger is picked up next season, Suzaku tackles him to the ground and removes the bomb.
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Code Geass	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a4a6b86a
Dead Man's Switch / int_a53b989f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a53b989f	comment	The Great Ace Detective: Mael Stronghart had a back-up plan in case he was killed by Klint van Zieks. Namely, the autopsy report of Genshin Asogi getting sent to Herlock Sholmes, revealing that Genshin didn't die by the Professor's hound as reported but rather in a duel to the death.
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The Great Ace Detective (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a53b989f
Dead Man's Switch / int_a81325d3	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a81325d3	comment	Final Fantasy: The "Auto-" spells and effect materia in various Final Fantasy games and inspired series work much the same way as Contingency in Dungeons and Dragons (useful when the Dead Man's Trigger is set to bring the operator Back from the Dead). Final Fantasy VI has the Optional Boss at the top of the Fanatic's Tower. If you manage to survive the incredibly lengthy staircase gauntlet (with no save points), and beat the boss, he'll cast Ultima before dying, killing the party. Fortunately, it was the game that introduced the Auto-Life spell to the series, which is the only way to win without excessive grinding or taking forever to drain the boss's MP to zero. He's far from the only one, too; the game has many bosses and Elite Mooks that have some kind of desperation attack they'll perform right before they die, in an attempt to take someone with him. In Final Fantasy VII, the Final Attack materia is a linking materia to set up a spell or action when the character is killed. Linking either Revive or Phoenix to it pretty much guarantees immortality, as long as you have a way to keep your MP up (MP Absorb + Knights of the Round or Master Summon is a good idea). The number of uses is limited by the materia's level (at most 5), though.
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Final Fantasy (Franchise)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a81325d3
Dead Man's Switch / int_a825da3e	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a825da3e	comment	In Magic: The Gathering, several cards give benefits to you or harm other players upon their removal from play. The most successful of these is Standstill, a card whose switch is a spell being cast. An entire deck archetype was built around it.
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Magic: The Gathering (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a825da3e
Dead Man's Switch / int_a896e651	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a896e651	comment	In Against a Dark Background, the Big Bad claims to have rigged his Dead Man's Switch to a whole network of bombs rigged destroy most of the critical infrastructure in the star system in which the novel is set, plunging it into (yet another) post-apocalyptic dark age. The heroine is unimpressed, and messily kills him anyway. (The ending is ambiguous about whether he was lying to try to keep her from trying that.)
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Against a Dark Background	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a896e651
Dead Man's Switch / int_a92653e1	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a92653e1	comment	The Executioner: When Mack Bolan takes on the San Francisco mafia, The Dragon insists that the soldiers of every underboss are brought under his direct control to deal with The Dreaded 'Bastard in Black'. He then smugly waits for Bolan to kill his boss so he'll have control of the entire city. Next thing The Dragon knows, his irate boss is on the telephone saying that Bolan strode into his house, killed all his soldiers and left him alive (as Bolan is running his own Batman Gambit). The boss declares that he's put out a sealed contract on The Dragon — if he dies by Bolan's hand, The Dragon also dies. Not knowing who, or even how many, killers might have the contract, The Dragon has no choice but to get serious about stopping Bolan. In "Bloodsport", Bolan is posing as a corrupt army sergeant selling guns to terrorists, and uses the grenade trick (a tactic used by the same terrorists he's dealing with) to get them to put their guns away and talk business.
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The Executioner	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a92653e1
Dead Man's Switch / int_a949e666	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_a949e666	comment	Elysium: To get a ride up to Elysium, Max holds a grenade with the pin removed to his head which holds the information Kruger's employer has sent him to retrieve. Kruger pretends to fold and coaxes him on board the Raven...where he has Frey and her daughter prisoner, so if the grenade detonates Max kills them as well. Then when they've almost reached the space station, Kruger and his men try to grab the grenade and things don't go well after that.
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Elysium	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_a949e666
Dead Man's Switch / int_afc86b0a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_afc86b0a	comment	Valentine threatens Peter with something like this in Ender's Game.
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Ender's Game	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_afc86b0a
Dead Man's Switch / int_b057f95b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b057f95b	comment	In The Death of Clark Kent, after Kenny Braverman dies, a mechanism is set off that tries to kill Jimmy Olsen and (if possible) Superman along with him.
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The Death of Clark Kent (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b057f95b
Dead Man's Switch / int_b0bf1335	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b0bf1335	comment	Black Crab: Soldiers catch Caroline Edh after she's stolen the weaponized virus from the laboratory, only to reveal she's taped the two vials to a hand grenade and is holding down the safety lever. The admiral tries to persuade her to hand them over, but she works her way to a ledge above the sea and jumps off, detonating the grenade in mid-air to destroy the virus.
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Black Crab	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b0bf1335
Dead Man's Switch / int_b3c4094e	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b3c4094e	comment	In Captain America (1979), the superhero fights a villain trucking a Neutron Bomb for a terrorist plot by not only attacking the driver, but bending an exhaust pipe so it vents into the trailer to subdue any guards of the bomb. Unfortunately, when Cap investigates inside, he finds out that the main villain was in there, is near death from his attack and he has a Dead Man Switch that would detonate the bomb if the villain's heart stops. Thus, Cap and his Mission Control superior have to frantically apply first aid to prevent the detonation.
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Captain America (1979)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b3c4094e
Dead Man's Switch / int_b40c60f6	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b40c60f6	comment	G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel): The first issue of G.I. Joe Special Missions features a terrorist group who've hijacked an airplane; one terrorist wears an explosive vest with a dead man switch set to go off if he releases the trigger. He gets zapped with a taser, causing all of his muscles to contract while incapacitating him.
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G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (Marvel) (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b40c60f6
Dead Man's Switch / int_b50cc7e6	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b50cc7e6	comment	The Incredible Hulk: When Bruce Banner starts working for S.H.I.E.L.D., he first sets up one of these in case they decide to just kill him to neutralize the threat presented by the Hulk. Prior to his initial meeting with Maria Hill, he steals highly classified information — implied to be damning enough to bring down the whole organization if released — and gives it to a contact (who turns out to be Daredevil) along with instructions to release it if Banner doesn't check in with him on a regular basis.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_b5f2ea65	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b5f2ea65	comment	In The Fate of Paul Twister, Amber tells a problematic duke that she's arranged one that will bring the wrath of the king down on his head if anything happens to her. It's left unclear as to whether or not this is a bluff, but he backs down.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_b61bbe0a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b61bbe0a	comment	An episode of Modern Family references the actual switch on trains when a mystery novel author with a focus on realism is frustrated by how all of his attempts to figure out how an engineer can cross a train unseen to commit murder are dashed by having the switch described to him.
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Modern Family	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b61bbe0a
Dead Man's Switch / int_b6ae9932	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b6ae9932	comment	The prologue mission in Double Agent has a similar situation, where the commander of the facility you're infiltrating, once he realizes what's going on, ignites a flare and threatens to drop it into a vat of gasoline. Where it kind of falls flat is that if you shoot him or get spotted by him, he drops it and blows the place up, but if you sneak up and grab him... it still falls through the catwalk and into the gas, but doesn't ignite it for some reason.
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Splinter Cell: Double Agent (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b6ae9932
Dead Man's Switch / int_b6c9037f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b6c9037f	comment	The Magnus Archives: According to Elias, if he is killed, everyone that works for the Institute will die, too. Melanie doesn't buy it for a second, and repeatedly tries to kill him.
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The Magnus Archives (Podcast)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b6c9037f
Dead Man's Switch / int_b7a0add0	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b7a0add0	comment	Blown Away: The cop Jimmy Dove sneaks up on Mad Bomber Ryan Gaerity and puts a gun to his head, but Gaerity then shows his finger is resting on a radio detonator. Dove tells him to go ahead and blow them both up, but Gaerity says the bomb is actually at the concert where Dove's wife is. Gaerity then tricks Dove into stepping on a pressure detonator which holds him in place while he activates the real detonator, because he was actually lying about the first one.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_b8c3cc30	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b8c3cc30	comment	Young Justice (2010): The villains have captured several heroes during an attack on Mount Justice, and Blue Beetle is trying to stop them, when Aqualad threatens to detonate a bomb powerful enough to destroy the entire mountain, and says he will disarm it only if Beetle surrenders. Beetle is tough enough to survive it, but stands down to not risk killing the other heroes, much to the protest of his Scarab, who doesn't care about them and is convinced that it's a bluff. The Scarab briefly takes control and attacks Aqualad, causing his finger to come off the switch... and nothing happens, as it really was a bluff.
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Young Justice (2010)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_b8c3cc30
Dead Man's Switch / int_b994ae50	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b994ae50	comment	In Analyze This, mobster Paul Vitti declares that he wants to get out of the Mafia, and he knows some of his fellows Dons might have issue with this, so he's written down "a few things" about every other mob boss and put the documents in safe hands in case somebody decides to do him in.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_b9cdc91d	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_b9cdc91d	comment	At the end of Dredd, Ma-Ma tries to use one of these to get Dredd and Anderson to back off. It's hooked to her wrist, monitors her heartbeat and will set off all the explosives she's stashed on her floor — of which there are enough to level the upper stories of the megastructure. Dredd shoots her in the stomach without immediately killing her, notes that they are a kilometer above ground, and asks her if the signal is strong enough to get through 200 levels of concrete before throwing her off the balcony. As it turns out, it's not, denying her posthumous retribution.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_ba07853c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ba07853c	comment	In Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the eponymous Peace Walker is this for the US government; a mobile nuclear launch platform with a top-of-the-line AI capable of launching on its own initiative if the chain of command is out of touch. The main villain, Hot Coldman, takes advantage of this by programming Peace Walker to launch a nuclear attack mere seconds before he dies of his wounds, leaving everyone else unable to stop it in any way other than destroying the mech itself.
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Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_ba07853c
Dead Man's Switch / int_ba366aa8	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ba366aa8	comment	Syphon Filter: In the first game, killing Girdeux with explosives will set off the virus bomb. In the second, shooting Morgan before the bombs are defused will blow up the expo center.
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Syphon Filter (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_ba366aa8
Dead Man's Switch / int_baa0410d	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_baa0410d	comment	Speed: Howard Payne has a bomb wired to a Dead Man Switch, so that if he is killed, his finger releases the switch and it goes off. He does this while taking the Love Interest hostage, since last time he tried this he was the victim of Shoot the Hostage. The main trigger for the bomb is also a Dead Man Switch, activated if the bus drops below 50. The bus also has a second Dead Man Switch in that the bomb will be triggered if anyone tries to get off, and with a plethora of news crews filming and a secret camera installed on the bus, Payne will know if someone tries. In essence, he's installed two switches, one that will blow if his instructions are disobeyed while he's alive, and one if the same happens when he's dead.
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Speed	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_baa0410d
Dead Man's Switch / int_baa97a52	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_baa97a52	comment	Tenet. Andrei Sator has a device that constantly measures his pulse. If it ever stops, an email will be sent that reveals the location of The Algorithm, ensuring that it will be found and used in the future. However Sator is Secretly Dying, so the intent is not to deter his death but to take the rest of the world with him.
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Tenet	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_baa97a52
Dead Man's Switch / int_bac5b195	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_bac5b195	comment	In The Firm, when Mitch assures the mob that their secrets are safe, he also issues a veiled threat by letting them know that he knows all their dealings (purely to better serve them as their attorney, of course) and that he's made copies. But don't worry, he is bound to respect attorney-client confidentiality for as long as he lives — emphasis on lives.
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The Firm	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_bac5b195
Dead Man's Switch / int_bcadd7cb	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_bcadd7cb	comment	Warhammer 40,000: Due to the highly dangerous nature of the game's magicians (psykers), they are all shipped off to Terra where most of them are psychically fed to the Emperor and a few are trained to use their abilities for the Imperium. The places they're held at on their planets usually come equipped with a Dead Man Switch: If anything goes wrong, all the held psykers are instantly gassed. Considering what kind of trouble several hundred untrained and unsanctioned psykers can be, either on their own or as fodder for another entity, this can be considered justified. Also, the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer recommends shooting any psyker seen without his "honor guard" of three other guardsmen (whose main purpose also entails shooting him if he happens to show signs of unusual behavior — like having a tentacle grow out of his chest). Let's not forget the Penal Troopers, who are convicted criminals given one last chance to serve The Emperor. They get to charge the enemy wearing explosive collars, with a commissar holding the detonator. If the bomb doesn't go off, they are absolved of sin and free to go. Of course, they are also standing in front of a hostile army, unarmed. The new Space Wolves Hero Unit, Lukas The Trickster, has one of his hearts (ripped out by a Dark Eldar pirate, he survived) replaced with a stasis bomb — if he's ever killed, everyone around him (probably including his killer) will be trapped in stasis for eternity with his laughter.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_bf42e29d	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_bf42e29d	comment	In Hitman (2016), the plot of the Patient Zero campaign starts with one of these. The first mission is a routine contract, murdering the founder and second-in-command of an Apocalypse Cult. However, the founder's death trigger's a dead man's switch that sends orders to all the cult's operatives throughout the world to begin a global bioterrorism plot to bring about The End of the World as We Know It, resulting in the following three missions to foil said plot.
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Hitman (2016) (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_bf42e29d
Dead Man's Switch / int_c0540e21	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c0540e21	comment	In The Powers of Harmony, Ophiuchus has a variant of one of these. Namely, as the subconscious of Horizon, he can break the barrier over the Gate of Tartarus whenever he wants. Such a thing will obviously kill him, but he uses it as an ultimatum to control Blair and the other Echoes.
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The Powers of Harmony / Fan Fic	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_c0540e21
Dead Man's Switch / int_c07ba914	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c07ba914	comment	In The Punisher: Suicide Run, when The Punisher finds himself in a trap set up by various criminal elements, Frank plants explosives on the bottom floor of the skyscraper they're meeting in. When the trap is eventually sprung he tells his enemies that he has his finger on a dead man's switch, and is ready to blow them all away. He then proceeds to start shooting, and there's nothing that the criminals can do to stop him.
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The Punisher: Suicide Run (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_c07ba914
Dead Man's Switch / int_c231405b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c231405b	comment	The Punisher (2004) has a variation where Frank Castle forces John Saint to hold down the pressure plate of an anti-personnel mine one-handed. Even though John's a fit man, he can only do this for so long before his Sound-Only Death.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_c2cdb82b	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c2cdb82b	comment	The Enemy Papers: In The Tomorrow Testament, an alien whose scheme has been uncovered asks those confronting him what would prevent him from killing them all right away. The answer is that a big fleet moves to bombard his planet, and if they are dead, no one will be able to cancel the current order in time. There would be some repercussions, a lot of turmoil... but this will happen after the fact.
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The Enemy Papers	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_c2cdb82b
Dead Man's Switch / int_c4282b71	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c4282b71	comment	My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: In "The Crystal Empire - Part 1", King Sombra's Establishing Character Moment in Celestia's flashback involves a magical equivalent: after she and Luna banished him, his backup curse warped the Crystal Empire through time until his return, thus rendering their victory pyrrhic at best. The threat in "Princess Twilight Sparkle - Part 1/Part 2" turns out to be a failed attempt at this. Back when Discord was first defeated by Celestia and Luna, he spread seeds that would grow into vines that would destroy Equestria, just seconds before being turned to stone. However, they didn't do so for another 1,000 years, well after not just his second attempt at conquering the land, but also after his later Heelâ€“Face Turn. Given that he's Discord, he doesn't explain this until after the day has been saved.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_c43df4d8	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c43df4d8	comment	Doctor Who: In "The Sound of Drums", reporter Vivien Rook sets a video message to automatically be sent to Torchwood if she dies confronting Harold Saxon, which Jack receives via his Vortex manipulator later.
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Doctor Who	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_c43df4d8
Dead Man's Switch / int_c6f7e804	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c6f7e804	comment	Blake's 7: In "Deliverance", the Liberator is hijacked by a man desperate to get medical supplies to his father. When it looks like he's going to collapse from fatigue and his injuries, he rigs his Ray Gun so it will fire automatically if he loses consciousness. This is exactly what happens, but fortunately Blake shouts a warning and Cally rolls away in time. In "Rescue", our heroes kill a villain and inherit his Elaborate Underground Base, only to find in the next episode that he'd set a nuclear implosion device to detonate if he hadn't sent a signal every 48 hours. No-one knows how long it's been ticking down either. And they can't get through the door to the hanger deck to escape.
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Blake's 7	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_c6f7e804
Dead Man's Switch / int_c8c98634	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_c8c98634	comment	Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3: After President Ackerman goes rogue and activates the intercontinental laser targeting the USSR in Rushmore Roosevelt's head, he announces that there's a system tied to his heart that is set to fire the laser if his heart stops beating, meaning you can't just target his limo to end the level (as it will fire when the limo reaches the firebase controlling the laser). It also leads to a Kaizo Trap if a clever player think to use a Cryocopter to freeze the limo in place: the AI regularly spawns fighter jets precisely to prevent this, and as the jets position themselves over the limo it's entirely possible for a jet to die and the wreckage to fall squarely on the limo, destroying it and failing the level.
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Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Video Game)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_c8c98634
Dead Man's Switch / int_cae652c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_cae652c	comment	In Hunter Ã— Hunter Netero turned out to be wired to a "Miniature Rose" bomb that detonates when his heart stops in case he'd lose to Meruem.
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Hunter Ã— Hunter (Manga)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_cae652c
Dead Man's Switch / int_ccf875f7	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ccf875f7	comment	Criminal Minds: One episode has an unsub's henchman storm the police station wearing a suicide bomber vest with a dead man's switch so she can deliver the unsub's message. They deal with it by having JJ clamp down on her hand immediately after she's shot so she doesn't have time to release.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_cf3e7a82	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_cf3e7a82	comment	In a Superman Which Way game book, Lex Luthor uses one of these. He informs Superman that his computer equipment would shoot a deadly laser at Metropolis if it detected any physical injury inflicted on Luthor.
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Superman (Franchise)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_cf3e7a82
Dead Man's Switch / int_d23e6c9a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d23e6c9a	comment	In Amazing Fantasy, the Prowler holds Mount Lady hostage by planting a bomb in her neck while holding a detonator with a dead man's switch. All Might rescues Mount Lady by using his Super-Speed to snatch the detonator and bind it with duct tape before the release could trigger. He then throws the detonator into the next prefecture, far out of the effective range to signal the detonation.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_d3c4a6ce	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d3c4a6ce	comment	In Trials of Mana, Belladonna places a Choker of Death on Hawkeye's Love Interest Jessica. If Belladonna dies, the Choker of Death will kill Jessica in return, leaving Hawkeye unable to just gut the witch like he wants. It apparently also works in reverse, as Belladonna has the choker removed before she attempts to sacrifice Jessica to the Firestone.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_d47fbd8f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d47fbd8f	comment	X-Factor (2006): Taylor and Arcade plant bombs across Mutant Town and rig them to detonate when Taylor's heart stops beating. After their initial plans to kill X-Factor fail, Taylor resorts to poisoning himself, detonating the bombs and destroying Mutant Town.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_d57c12d4	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d57c12d4	comment	Dark Times: When Jedi Master Kai Hudorra tries to bluff Darth Vader with a thermal detonator set as one of these, Vader simply keeps it pressed with The Force, 'sabers the guy up, and then blows the place anyway just for the heck of it.
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Dark Times (Comic Book)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_d57c12d4
Dead Man's Switch / int_d77313a2	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d77313a2	comment	In Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past, the Dursleys are prosecuted for their abuse of Harry — but their solicitor is clever enough to blackmail the Ministry with documents held by third parties, containing signed depositions regarding their interactions with Harry, to be mailed to Muggle publications if the prosecution goes ahead. The Ministry is annoyed, but agrees to drop the charges in exchange for avoiding a breach of the Statute of Secrecy.
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Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past / Fan Fic	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_d77313a2
Dead Man's Switch / int_d7c4626a	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d7c4626a	comment	The Sandman (1989): One story in the Endless Nights book has a version of this combined with He Knows Too Much. An archaeologist called out on a seemingly ordinary dig discovers it's not so ordinary. When The Men in Black finally come in and try to close down the site, the archaeologist reveals that a bot will email a detailed account of the dig to multiple online news sources unless she checks it every 24 hours. They let her go.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_d8ba9a46	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d8ba9a46	comment	Dr. Strangelove and the whole Soviet "Dead Hand" protocol. The big irony in this movie was that the Soviets hadn't got around to actually telling the world when General Ripper ordered his bombers to attack.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_d9358526	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_d9358526	comment	In Leviathan Wakes, Naomi remotely programs the bomb Miller was carrying into the heart of Eros Station to blow up if its trigger was released for more than 5 seconds, ensuring it would still go off in case Miller was incapacitated.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_dab32c2	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_dab32c2	comment	The first four Robot Masters you fight in Mega Man 7 were activated by a Dead Man Switch a couple months after Dr. Wily was sent to prison at the end of the last game.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_dd51115f	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_dd51115f	comment	In Forever Evil (2013), villainous speedster Johnny Quick attacks Captain Cold and relieves him of his trademark gun, taunting Snart by twirling it in front of him. An annoyed Cold voices a codephrase, which sets the gun off and freezes Quick's leg at the thigh.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_dfc32ea9	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_dfc32ea9	comment	A plot point in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, about the hijacking of a New York City Subway train for ransom. The police are wondering how the criminals intend to get away, and suggest they might try jumping off while the train is moving. The dead-man's handle is explained; however the criminals rig up a construction that holds down the lever for them.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_e4732abc	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_e4732abc	comment	In the pilot episode of Stargate Atlantis, the hero kills a Wraith Queen. As she dies, she tells him she and her underlings were not the only Wraith, but just the caretakers for other Wraith, and that when she dies, it will awaken all the Wraith. Once it happens, they see the pods holding the Wraith begin to come alive, and they discover that not only the Wraith on the planet, but all the Wraith in the galaxy had been awakened early from their periodical hibernation.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_e4d580cc	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_e4d580cc	comment	In Mission: Impossible (Infogrames), if any of the mooks on the train alert MAX to Ethan's presence, she will immediately detonate the bombs, taking him with her.
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Mission: Impossible (1996)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_e4d580cc
Dead Man's Switch / int_e6267766	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_e6267766	comment	Star Wars Legends: In The Thrawn Trilogy, Talon Karrde defeats an enemy's attempt to steal his ship by holding down a switch on the control board and bluffing that it's a dead-man's switch controlling the ship's self-destruct mechanism. The switch actually just turns on the ship's headlights. In The Hand of Thrawn, it's established that Thrawn had a clone in his secret base who would be released a period of time without Thrawn's intervention. Although, given the period of time that passes... he obviously didn't put a great deal of thought into the delay. In the X-Wing Series novel Mercy Kill, a rather literal version is pulled by the Wraiths. They're currently besieged in an old observatory, with rescue inbound, but their leader has been killed. The Wraiths are unable to take the body along, but they also can't let the enemy know any of their identities, even of the deceased. The body is partially disguised, placed upright, and left out in the open for the enemy to find, while the Wraiths escape. Soon enough, Mooks find the body, but a single curious tap tips it over... triggering the pressure-sensitive explosives underneath, blowing up the entire installation.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_e6b8dcc3	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_e6b8dcc3	comment	In Ronin (1998), Stellan SkarsgÃ¥rd's character does this when "negotiating" over the case. He has to call by a certain time, or the Russian's girlfriend will be shot by a sniper. The Russian elects to let her die.
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Ronin (1998)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_e6b8dcc3
Dead Man's Switch / int_e8cbe564	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_e8cbe564	comment	In The Hand of Thrawn, it's established that Thrawn had a clone in his secret base who would be released a period of time without Thrawn's intervention. Although, given the period of time that passes... he obviously didn't put a great deal of thought into the delay.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_ea169cc4	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ea169cc4	comment	The Unabridged Memoirs of Darth Plagueis the Wise: Plagueis and Dooku both claim to have one ready to expose the other's corrupt dealings, in case of an assassination. Dooku's is eventually revealed to be a hologram recording wherein he confesses to his crimes and implicates Plagueis in them which Plagueis finds and replaces with a forged copy, featuring Zam Wesell impersonating Dooku and "confessing" to being Darth Sidious.
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The Unabridged Memoirs of Darth Plagueis the Wise (Fanfic)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_ea169cc4
Dead Man's Switch / int_ebcccd7c	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ebcccd7c	comment	In the Millennium Series, counselor Bjurman rapes Lisbeth. Lisbeth secretly videotaped the event, and sets the video to be spread to authorities, if Lisbeth dies or gets captured.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_ee8e63ed	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ee8e63ed	comment	Earthsearch. Before going into cryonic suspension on Challenger, Grand Emperor Thorden tells the Angel computers running the ship that he's brought his well-armed Killer Robot Fagor on board, and if he suffers a Cryonics Failure it will activate and destroy them. Unfortunately the Angels think he's bluffing, because Who Would Be Stupid Enough? to make a robot that can self-activate its weapon system? They turn off Thorden's life support and when the robot can no longer pick up his heartbeat, it proceeds to rampage through the ship looking for those responsible.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_ef076a36	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_ef076a36	comment	Star Trek: Voyager: In "Scorpion", Voyager forms an Enemy Mine alliance with the Borg, who grant them passage across their territory in exchange for a weapon against Species 8472. To prevent the Borg from simply assimilating everyone, all information on the weapon is downloaded into their Emergency Medical Hologram, who promises to delete his own program at the first sign of trouble. "Well, maybe not the first sign..."
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Dead Man's Switch / int_f4313238	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_f4313238	comment	In the Ender's Shadow series, Bean and Petra are concerned that the Mad Scientist Volescu had one set up for after his capture, possibly triggering a virus to fundamentally change the human race. In a more heart-warming example, Sister Carlotta has a note prepared to be sent to Bean that will automatically be sent to him if she doesn't check in for a period of time. Considering that he only receives it after her death, he realizes that Carlotta cared enough for him to do something every day of her life.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_f4e799ee	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_f4e799ee	comment	In the two-part season one finale of Burn Notice, Michael plants various C4 charges around a nightclub owned by a heroin dealer and uses a detonator with a Dead Man Switch to force the dealer into giving him the information he needs to rescue Sam.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_f74b5f80	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_f74b5f80	comment	Babylon 5: Lennier saves the day by programming the White Star's computer to immediately leave the area (Z'ha'dum) if he doesn't touch a control every few minutes. Sure enough, a Shadow device starts screwing with everyone's mind, and the White Star is able to escape because he stops touching the control while under the influence. In an earlier episode, a villain was threatening to blow up a station using one. The explosives were removed before the switch was released. After gaining control of Edgars Industries, Garibaldi fires the Board of Directors and warns them that any further assassination attempts will trigger large bounties on each of their heads. In fact, the bounties will be triggered even if Garibaldi or his wife suffer accidental deaths, such as falling down the stairs, just for good measure.
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Dead Man's Switch / int_f913059	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_f913059	comment	In The Big Heat, Mrs. Duncan's arranged to have her husband's confession/suicide note sent to the press in the event of her death. The Mafia is more than happy to pay her off, but someone with a grudge against the mob boss then murders her so the document will be released.
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The Big Heat	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_f913059
Dead Man's Switch / int_fe08cb30	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_fe08cb30	comment	The Punisher (2017): Used three separate times. The first is by David Lieberman, who rigs his base with cameras that will send their feed directly to multiple news outlets if he doesn't input a code and complete a retinal scan every three hours — he does this so that if he is murdered, either by Frank or the various government agencies that are after him, the details of his death will be made public. The second is by Lewis Wilson, who uses a more traditional setup with an explosive vest when he attempts to assassinate Senator Stan Ori and takes Karen Page hostage. The third is by Lieberman again, using a modified version of his first setup, to blackmail the villains by making their actions public if they do not comply with his and Frank's demands. However, this one turns out to be a trick, as he had already given Homeland Security all of the information by the time Rawlins and Russo found out about the switch. He keeps the charade up to give him and Frank some leverage over the bad guys, who had taken his family hostage.
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The Punisher (2017)	hasFeature	Dead Man's Switch / int_fe08cb30
Dead Man's Switch / int_fe5f9efb	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dead Man's Switch / int_fe5f9efb	comment	In the final Quatermass series, the eponymous British scientist is not happy about his planned Moonbase being used to launch nuclear missiles for a proposed Dead Man deterrence strategy — the idea being that if an aggressor nuked Britain, missiles would launch from the Moon and wipe out the attacker three days later.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Dead Man's Switch	processingCategory2	Action/Adventure Tropes
Dead Man's Switch	processingCategory2	Death Tropes
Eureka SeveN / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Green Manor (Comic Book) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
No Hero (Comic Book) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Death of Clark Kent (Comic Book) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Losers (Comic Book) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Punisher: Suicide Run (Comic Book) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Sensational She-Hulk (Comic Book) / int_4147af76	type	Dead Man's Switch
Embers / Fan Fic / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Mass Foundations / Fan Fic / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
A Thing of Vikings (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Cyberpunk: Fatherhood (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Darth Vader: Hero of Naboo (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Embers (Vathara) (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Greg Veder Vs The World (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Haigha (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Heroes of the New World (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Hunters of Justice (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard? (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Kyon: Big Damn Hero (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Security! (Worm) (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Star Wars Paranormalities Trilogy (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Earth Bet Vermintide (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Gray Jedi Series (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Great Ace Detective (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Unabridged Memoirs of Darth Plagueis the Wise (Fanfic) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Analyze This / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Captain America (1979) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dredd / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Goldfinger / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Last Sentinel (2023) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Lethal Weapon (1987) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Lock Up / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Oldboy (2003) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Saw III / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Skyscraper / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Spawn (1997) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Speed / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Spider-Man: No Way Home / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Tenet / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Terminator 2: Judgment Day / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Big Heat / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Firm / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The French Dispatch / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Lost Boys / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Punisher (2004) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Usual Suspects / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
WarGames / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Wrong is Right / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
G.I. Joe (Franchise) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Quatermass (Franchise) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Generation P / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Horus Heresy / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Of Cinder and Bone / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Rollerskater / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Ruled Britannia / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Side Jobs / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Cinder Spires / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The History of the Galaxy / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Institute / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Thrawn Trilogy / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Worldwar / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
DeadmansSwitch	sameAs	Dead Man's Switch
Future Diary (Manga) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Wolf 359 (Podcast) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Class Trials Side Trials (Roleplay) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Scary News out of Tokyo-3 (Roleplay) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Babylon Berlin / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Day Break (2006) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Motive / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
S.W.A.T. (1975) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Boys (2019) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Professionals / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Trigger Point / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Watchmen (2019) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Forgotten Realms (Tabletop Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Shadowrun (Tabletop Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Crush Crush (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Death end re;Quest 2 (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Dragon Ball Legends (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Helldivers (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Hitman: Contracts (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Invisible, Inc. (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Median XL (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Space Station 13 (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Splinter Cell (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (Video Game) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Shadowrun Returns / Videogame / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Process of Elimination (Visual Novel) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
The Great Ace Attorney (Visual Novel) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Virtue's Last Reward (Visual Novel) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Operation: Turnabout (Web Animation) / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Batman Beyond / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch
Zootopia / int_b8198b96	type	Dead Man's Switch

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