History Main / BorrowedBiometricBypass

'''Lister:''' Hey, cheer up... or I'll beat you to death with the wet end.\\

* Subverted in ''{{District 9}}''. Since the alien weaponry can only be used by an alien hand, various attempts are made to use severed arms to fire the guns. That doesn't work, though, since the arms need to be ''alive''.

* In {{Doom}} The Movie, Sarge takes the severed arm of a dead scientist and places the palm on an access scanner to obtain the {{BFG}}.

* Used by [[ActingForTwo one of]] ArnoldSchwarzenegger's characters in ''TheSixthDay''. He cuts off the thumb of a character (along with some other things) and then uses it to both start up a truck, and get into high security areas in the [[strike:library]] cloning facility.

* Averted in ''{{Predator}}: Concrete Jungle'', where scanners require a scientist to unlock. It's unknown if the predator could just rip off the heads since he is strong enough to simply drag them to the scanners and ram them in hard enough to kill them while opening the door.

Once upon a time, infiltrating a base was pretty easy: just knock the guards out, take the keys, and get in. Fortunately, modern high-tech facilities, or in {{the Future}} have more cunning devices, and can identify the guards by unique biological features, such as handprints or retinal scans. These cunning devices are reliable, efficient, and not prone to believing just anyone who happens to be [[DressingAsTheEnemy wearing the right uniform]]. Great, huh?

* In ''{{Back to the Future}} Part II'' we see a brief glimpse of a news article in 2015 that says "Thumb Bandits Strike Again". Since all monetary transactions in that future are done by thumb scanners, criminals would start to steal victims' thumbs.

* In both the book and the film of ''{{Angels and Demons}}'', a CERN scientist's eye is cut out to fool a retina scanner.

* In the DanBrown novel ''{{Angels and Demons}}'', physicist Leonardo Vetra gets his eye cut out to get past a retinal scan.

* Something similar in {{Lois McMaster Bujold}}'s ''[[VorkosiganSaga Mirror Dance]]'', although here's it's a code-key embedded in a ring, not a biometric. Sounds squick-free? No, because the ring in question is apparently ''riveted to the owner's finger bone'' and quite impossible to remove...

* ''{{Shadowrun}}''. This is noted in ''The Neo-Anarchists' Guide to Real Life'' as a way to fool biometric security devices (such as doors and credsticks). Unfortunately the devices' designers have figured this out and altered the devices to check and see if the body part being used is still alive and attached to a body.

* ''VideoGame/{{Dead Space 2}}'' makes you use whole bodies... or at least chunks of them.

* In ''MinorityReport'', the protagonist's wife used his eye to enter the [[spoiler: prison where he's being kept. The eyes are actually his own leftover eyes after he gets a new pair of eyes to hide his identity]]. This invokes a FridgeLogic issue as of why his eyes have not been revoked access [[spoiler:after he is captured and put in prison]].

* In ''NationalTreasure'', Gates uses Chase's thumbprint he acquired to infiltrate the vault storing the Declaration of Independence.

* In ''[[IsaacAsimov Robots and Empire]]'', two villains disagree on how best to perform their mission. One has a gun. The other's thumb is needed to work the required equipment. The armed one states that if he'll blow off the other's head off, the thumb will be quite intact.

-->"Give this to Dr. Gilligan."
-->"What is it?"

* The husband of Ilsa Pucci from HumanTarget was killed for his eye, so his lawyer could get into a biometrically-sealed vault to steal his identity.

->'''Kryten:''' Logically, sir, there is only one way you could possibly have opened that door. I feel quite nauseous. --Where is it?\\

'''Kryten''' (horrified): Oh, sir, ''you've got it in your '''jacket!!'''''\\

* Used in one of the ''ArtemisFowl'' books, although they later reattach the finger via magic.

* Simon Phoenix in ''DemolitionMan'' gets through a door locked with a retina scanner by removing the authorized man's eye. Surprisingly having a pen jammed into it (to hold it with) doesn't seem to obscure the retina at all.

* In ''{{Spaceballs}}'', Lone Starr knocks out a guard and uses his hand to get into the self-destruct device chamber.
* In ''DieAnotherDay'', JamesBond and Jinx get past a hand scanner by severing the arm of a recently killed henchman and pressing it against the scanner.
** In ''NeverSayNeverAgain'', the remake of ''{{Thunderball}}'' (both starring SeanConnery as Bond), a bad guy had an eye transplant to get past a retinal scanner protecting some nuclear weapons.

-->-- ''RedDwarf'', "The Inquisitor"

* In ''RedDwarf'' (Inquisitor), Lister and Kryten get [[RetGone replaced]] by another Lister and Kryten, who subsequently get killed (and blown up). Lister uses other-Lister's severed hand to open a door, leading to the exchange quoted above.

* Threatened by the Heroes (Well, [[AntiHero sort of]]) to escape the cells of a prison ship in the second episode of ''Series/BlakesSeven''.

* In ''RedDwarf'' (Inquisitor), Lister and Kryten get [[RetGone replaced]] by another Lister and Kryten, who subsequently get killed (and blown up). Lister uses other Lister's severed hand to open a door, leading to the exchange quoted above.

* In [[IsaacAsimov Robots and Empire]], two villains disagree on how best to perform their mission. One has a gun. The other's thumb is needed to work the required equipment. The armed one states that if he'll blow off the other's head off, the thumb will be quite intact.

* In ''{{Doomsday}}'', a dying infected man armed armed with an axe uses this method to break into the building sheltering [[spoiler: the UK's Prime Minister]].

* In ''{{Penumbra}}: Black Plague'' you get past several security scanners like this, using blood to enter the kitchen, then a hand and head to enter the library. Interestingly, one door that leads to the cryogenic freezer has a hand scanner that when you try to scan the hand you have already procured at this point, tells you that the person whom this hand belongs to is in critical condition and will not accept it.

* ''Xenogears'' has an even more cold-blooded example (yes, it's possible): [[spoiler:When Bart's enemy Shakan learns that the "Fatima Jasper" needed to unlock the Fatima Treasure is in fact the brilliant blue-green eyes possessed by members of the royal bloodline, he exhumes the bodies of Margie's parents and plucks out their eyeballs.]] It's kind of hard to call this KickTheDog, since this character [[CompleteMonster can't walk two feet without punting a puppy]]. But that doesn't mean it's not incredibly satisfying to beat the shit out of him in the BossBattle.

* ''{{Torchwood}}'', "End of Days" with Capt. Jack. He's not killed ''for'' it but it's revealed after Owen kills him that they need his retinal scan to okay the use of the Rift Manipulator, so they hold his corpse up to the scanner. [[{{Immortality}} Like always]], Jack gets better.

** In ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'', Jack and Gwen use non-invasive methods to get the biometric data from their target... the assassin chasing them, however, is a little more pressed for time. Bonus points for needing [[spoiler:both a hand and an eye]]. As with Jack above, the tissue in question is immortal and thus still counts as alive, ripped off or not.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''MetalGearSolid 2'': it's stated up front that the retinal scans can detect dead eyes, so the player has to drag the struggling guard to the scanner.

** Played straight in MetalGearSolid 4, Old Snake had to take a dead soldier's gun. Since the gun only reacts to the soldier's nanomachines, Snake had to bleed the soldier's out over the gun so he can use it.

* {{Dead Space 2}} makes you use whole bodies... or at least chunks of them.

* ''{{Torchwood}}'', "End of Days" with Capt. Jack. He's not killed ''for'' it but it's revealed after Owen kills him that they need his retinal scan to okay the use of the Rift Manipulator, so they hold his corpse up to the scanner. [[{{Immortality}} Like always]], [[IGotBetter Jack gets better]].

Note that this is not about bypassing biometric scanners in in general. This is about the ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin bloody]]'' way to get around them.

* Unusual example in SherlockHolmesInTheTwentySecondCentury, rather than cutting them off the thieves cloned thumbs and eyes to fool scanners.