Can you point out some villains who have used a Dead Man's Switch?
July 3, 2013 11:26 AM Subscribe
Can you point out some villains who have used a Dead Man's Switch?
Hey Gang! I'm building a basic list of movie or pop-culture villains who have employed some variety of Dead Man's Switch in their dealings. Something like a bomb that will detonate if someone's hand leaves the trigger, or a release of information that will happen if a blackmailer doesn't check in somewhere -- anything of that variety, played out on any scale.
I'd love to know which villains come to mind for you!
Hey Gang! I'm building a basic list of movie or pop-culture villains who have employed some variety of Dead Man's Switch in their dealings. Something like a bomb that will detonate if someone's hand leaves the trigger, or a release of information that will happen if a blackmailer doesn't check in somewhere -- anything of that variety, played out on any scale.
I'd love to know which villains come to mind for you!
Best answer: Like almost every question of this type, TV Tropes has it covered.
posted by MuffinMan at 11:28 AM on July 3, 2013 [5 favorites]
posted by MuffinMan at 11:28 AM on July 3, 2013 [5 favorites]
Jigsaw in Saw...III? Had a switch built into his heart that would kill someone if he died.
posted by xingcat at 11:28 AM on July 3, 2013
posted by xingcat at 11:28 AM on July 3, 2013
Martin Keamy (I think that's his name, the scumbag mercenary leader) in LOST also had a switch hooked up to his heart.
posted by mkultra at 11:31 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by mkultra at 11:31 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Raven from Snow Crash has a nuke in his motorcycle's sidecar wired to go off in case his heart ever stops.
posted by Tom-B at 11:33 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Tom-B at 11:33 AM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
One missed by TV Tropes: Frank Herbert's The Dosadi Experiment has it used and described in detail.
posted by Lemurrhea at 11:57 AM on July 3, 2013
posted by Lemurrhea at 11:57 AM on July 3, 2013
Law & Order had an season 19 episode, "Rapture" (review and detailed recap here) in which a killer uses a service operated by Christian Eschatologists, the kind of thing where your emails get sent if the Rapture occurs, explaining to any left-behind members of your family (etc.) what happened. This is based on real services.
The site operators, also devout Christians expecting to be swept up by the hand of God, had a fairly vulnerable arrangement, though, and when one became infirm while the other was out of town (or something like that), neither could do the daily check-in, and the site executed its instructions as if the Rapture had taken the operators to heaven. The result was a murder confession being emailed out to family members, which set the plot in motion.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:07 PM on July 3, 2013 [2 favorites]
The site operators, also devout Christians expecting to be swept up by the hand of God, had a fairly vulnerable arrangement, though, and when one became infirm while the other was out of town (or something like that), neither could do the daily check-in, and the site executed its instructions as if the Rapture had taken the operators to heaven. The result was a murder confession being emailed out to family members, which set the plot in motion.
posted by Sunburnt at 12:07 PM on July 3, 2013 [2 favorites]
Max in The Losers (which is criminally under rated).
posted by biscotti at 1:02 PM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by biscotti at 1:02 PM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
Oh, and Ma-Ma in Dredd.
posted by biscotti at 1:03 PM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by biscotti at 1:03 PM on July 3, 2013 [1 favorite]
One of the variants is the "if person X doesn't hear from me in Y time, a bad thing will happen."
Example: In Point Break, Bodhi forces Johnny to join them for the final bank robbery by having someone else hold Johnny's girlfriend, Tyler, hostage.
"I hate this, Johnny. I really do. I hate violence. That is why I had Rosie do this, I could never do that man, I could never hold a knife to Tyler's throat, she was my woman, we shared time. But, Rosie, he's like a machine. He's got this gift of blankness. Once you set him in motion, he will not stop. So, when three o'clock comes, he will gut her like a pig, and try not to get any on his shoes and there is nothing I can do."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:06 PM on July 3, 2013
Example: In Point Break, Bodhi forces Johnny to join them for the final bank robbery by having someone else hold Johnny's girlfriend, Tyler, hostage.
"I hate this, Johnny. I really do. I hate violence. That is why I had Rosie do this, I could never do that man, I could never hold a knife to Tyler's throat, she was my woman, we shared time. But, Rosie, he's like a machine. He's got this gift of blankness. Once you set him in motion, he will not stop. So, when three o'clock comes, he will gut her like a pig, and try not to get any on his shoes and there is nothing I can do."
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:06 PM on July 3, 2013
This happened twice in the most recent version of the Starman comics (with the Infernal Dr. Pip and a spoilery villain in the "Grand Guignol" storyline), although in both cases it was spiteful revenge by a dying character rather than a self-protective measure.
posted by jackbishop at 3:00 PM on July 3, 2013
posted by jackbishop at 3:00 PM on July 3, 2013
TVtropes is missing The Mechanic. The ending of the movie is the dead Charles Bronson character blowing up the Jan Michael Vincent character with a dead man switch bomb.
posted by bukvich at 6:22 PM on July 3, 2013
posted by bukvich at 6:22 PM on July 3, 2013
I believe this was a plot point in 'The Taking of Pelham 123' (the 1974 original.) I haven't seen the remake.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 10:12 PM on July 3, 2013
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 10:12 PM on July 3, 2013
off the beaten track...The Long Watch, Heinlein short story, has Lt. Dahlquist (hero, not villain) set up a dead-man to a nuke in order to prevent a military coup d'etat.
posted by j_curiouser at 12:38 PM on July 5, 2013
posted by j_curiouser at 12:38 PM on July 5, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bitdamaged at 11:27 AM on July 3, 2013 [2 favorites]