History Main / CantTakeAnythingWithYou

* ''Series/Bodies2023'' employs this method of time travel, with no particular explanation, setting up the initial mystery when the bodies of people who've been shot in the head show up in different times with no bullets for pathologists to extract, and [[spoiler:much to Iris Maplewood's dismay, as her futuristic mobility aid is left behind when she travels.]]

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' is probably the most famous example of the "arrives naked" version. However, the titular killer robots are able to travel back in time because they're covered in living tissue. Presumably, the liquid metal that more advanced models use is able to mimic living tissue closely enough to work.[[note]]According to the DVD commentary, the three reasons discussed amongst the writers were that, along with the T-1000 being covered in living tissue which he shed upon arrival and '[[MST3KMantra it's just a movie; who cares?]]'[[/note]] Averted in [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines the third movie]], where the T-X has an energy weapon built under her liquid metal exterior, and in [[Film/TerminatorDarkFate]], where the human time traveler Grace was augmented with future armor, strength-enhancing artificial muscles, and computing hardware implanted inside her body.

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' is probably the most famous example of the "arrives naked" version. However, the titular killer robots are able to travel back in time because they're covered in living tissue. Presumably, the liquid metal that more advanced models use is able to mimic living tissue closely enough to work.[[note]]According to the DVD commentary, the three reasons discussed amongst the writers were that, along with the T-1000 being covered in living tissue which he shed upon arrival and '[[MST3KMantra it's just a movie; who cares?]]'[[/note]] Averted in [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines the third movie]], where the T-X has an energy weapon built under her liquid metal exterior.

* [[spoiler:Chao Lingshen]] of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' solves this by improvising with what she has in the current timeline. She still ends up being a genius inventor.

* In ''Literature/StrikeTheBlood'', [[KidFromTheFuture Reina]] arrives in the present naked and has to steal clothes. She could bring her magic spear with her because she can create and dismiss it with her powers. When she returns to her time, she vanishes and her [[EmptyPilesOfClothing stolen outfit falls to the ground]]. She arrives in her home naked and quickly puts on a bathrobe.

* The original ComicBook/WarMachine armor was destroyed in this manner after Rhodey was caught in a "time-quake" while traveling back to the present from UsefulNotes/WorldWar2-era Germany.
* ''ComicBook/OldManLogan2016'': after wandering around Battleworld in ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'', Old Man Logan wakes up in the cosmically restored 616 universe... completely naked.
* ComicBook/FantasticFour1961: The FF travel to ancient Egypt to retrieve some herbs that, somehow, can restore people's vision, in hopes of helping Alicia Masters with it. They get them, but lost them during the time travel.

* ''Film/{{Tenet}}''. Inverted with inversion (naturally). Objects can be sent back in time, including messages to people in the past, but not people.
* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' is probably the most famous example of the "arrives naked" version. However, the titular killer robots are able to travel back in time because they're covered in living tissue. Presumably, the liquid metal that more advanced models use is able to mimic living tissue closely enough to work.[[note]]According to the DVD commentary, the three reasons discussed amongst the writers were that, along with the T-1000 being covered in living tissue which he shed upon arrival and '[[MST3KMantra it's just a movie; who cares?]]'[[/note]] Averted in [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines the third movie]], where the T-X has an energy weapon built under her liquid metal exterior.

* ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'' is an example that's due to limitations of the technology. However, it seems like objects ''can'' pass through so long as they're inside one's body - James Cole is always NakedOnArrival after time travel, but at different points in the film he deliberately brings a spider specimen to the future by swallowing it, and accidentally brings a bullet with him to the present by being shot in the leg in the middle of World War I.
* In the movie ''Film/{{Timeline}}'', the time travelers deliberately do not to bring anything modern back because they don't want to pollute the timeline. [[spoiler:Except for one bloody idiot, whose insistence on bringing along a few grenades screws everyone when he accidentally blows up the transfer point.]] In the original book, they bring [[TranslatorMicrobes translator earpieces]] along, but no other modern technology.

* Non-time-travel example in ''Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks:'' The protagonists travel to the magical ([[MediumBlending and animated]]) Isle of Naboombu to retrieve the Star of Astoroth. Upon returning to the normal world, Mr. Browne unwraps his handkerchief just in time to see it flicker and vanish, as apparently it cannot leave the island.[[note]]Which yes, means that the 20 or so minutes that they spent there was kind of a waste of time plot-wise, though it had humor and CharacterDevelopment.[[/note]]

* Henry in ''Literature/TheTimeTravelersWife'', who has a disease that causes him to spontaneously time travel. He cannot bring anything that is not part of him, like clothes, money or even dental implants.
* In ''Literature/ThePendragonAdventure'', the Travelers never bring anything from one territory to another, in fear of destabilizing the territories. [[spoiler:Later subverted by Saint Dane, who gleefully mixes the territories and increases the technological level of the Earth territories as part of his increasingly complex GambitRoulette. Bobby eventually gets fed up and brings in technology from different territories in order to defeat Saint Dane's schemes. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero This does not end well.]]]]
* ''Literature/DoomsdayBook'' and ''Literature/ToSayNothingOfTheDog'', by Creator/ConnieWillis use the reversed version: time travelers can bring things from the future to the past, but not the other way round. [[spoiler:...except for things that would have been destroyed shortly anyway.]]
** And, of course, a cat, because [[spoiler:the cat was going to drown anyway. Except it wasn't, and the net allowing it to go through was a BatmanGambit by time itself to cause a cathedral to be rebuilt in a certain spot hundreds of years later, apparently.]]
* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'', it's physically impossible for time travelers to take anything with them that doesn't belong in the destination time. Thus, a character who's changed his clothes while back in time will return to the future naked, it's a good idea to eat when you get back because the food you ate then stays there, et cetera. This is not, in fact, always true -- one of the time travelers brought his armor with him -- but it's a [[LiesToChildren very useful lie]]. The issue seems to be one of [[TimTaylorTechnology available power]] and the fact that sending him back is a bit of a rush-job:
--> '''Lu-Tze''', explaining to a baffled and annoyed [[spoiler:Sam Vimes]]: "We don't have a damn great thunderstorm and we don't have enough stored time. It's going to be hard enough making sure you don't come out a thousand feet in the air."
* In Creator/SpiderRobinson's ''Literature/TimePressure'', the time traveler arrives naked (except for her computer headband thing) and ''bald'' because of the limitations of the time machine. Time travel in some of the author's other books has similar limitations, such as an inability to bring living and nonliving things at the same time.
* In Creator/AlastairReynolds' novel ''Century Rain'' a force-field prevents travelers to the alternate-1950s earth from bringing through any complex technology at all - a big problem since it opens underground. They manage to get a jackhammer through by disassembling it and reassembling it on the other side, and running a hose through the field to an air compressor.
* The first ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' novel has this, not when time-travelling, but when teleporting. The characters worry about whether it includes things like intestinal flora.

* A similar version happens in Creator/VernorVinge's ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep''. All sorts of amazing technology works when you're in the outer parts of the Milky Way galaxy, but as you travel inwards they will begin to fail in order of most advanced, as well as faster than light engines working less and less efficiently until failing entirely as well. Eventually, as you get close to the center, even higher brain functions begin to fail.
* ''Literature/TheCompanyNovels'' by Kage Baker use the reversed version: time travel is only possible into the past, and things of the past can't be carried back to the present (their future). The Company gets around this using a very, very elaborate WriteBackToTheFuture system.

* Normally averted in ''Literature/TimeWarpTrio,'' but PlayedStraight in the cavemen book. The boys have the idea of bringing a whole bunch of stuff with them so that they would seem like gods to the people in the past, and apparently ''The Book'' decides that this trope was in effect if you're gonna be a twerp about it. Sam keeps his NerdGlasses, Fred has his baseball cap and Joe has a straw--other than that, they're naked and empty-handed.
* Subverted in Robert Charles Wilson's ''Literature/TheChronoliths'', where people don't travel in time, but a future leader sends back giant monuments to his victories from the future. These monuments are also extremely destructive weapons ("city killers") when they arrive.

* In Literature/{{Dinoverse}} no one can take ''anything'' with them. Including their bodies. Instead the bodies of these intrepid time travelers fall into comas and their ''minds'' go back and possess the bodies of large, complex vertebrates - as the series' title suggests, everyone who time travels in the series ends up in a dinosaur. When they get to go home, each character again can't take anything with them, although in one case when a human and an allied dinosaur died in the same instant at the same place having the same kind of self-sacrificial goal, ''both'' their minds ended up [[SharingABody sharing the human's body]]. Sadly, [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot this is never fully explored]].

* Played with in the ''Literature/TimeScout'' series- if it can be carried through a portal into the past or future, then it can travel through time, ''unless'' it already existed somewhere else at the destination time period. If that's the case, then the transported item or person simply ceases to exist (sending people on a free "holiday" to a date after their birth is a popular murder method with organised crime). [[FridgeLogic Presumably the gold, jewels and other artefacts successfully brought Uptime were/would have been wholly disintegrated in the mean time]].
* In the ''[[Literature/TimeMachineSeries Time Machine]]'' gamebook series, the rules of time travel specifically prohibit the player from leaving behind any item from a future epoch, and breaking the rule can supposedly result in being trapped in a time loop.
* Originally in ''Literature/TimeRiders'', the team had to be underwater while time travelling to avoid taking a chunk of the concrete floor with them to the past, as well as... in their underwear. Rashim's method seems to avoid that, but they still can't bring anything modern.
* Inverted in the ''Literature/DinosaurCove'' book series. The kids can bring technology with them, like the Fossil Finder, but can't bring anything from the past back to modern times. A Ginkgo leaf one of them tries to bring back crumbles to dust.
* ''Literature/TheNeverendingStory'': A non-time travel example. Bastian cannot leave Fantastica with anything the Childlike Empress gave him or that he received in Fantastica. This means his clothes fell off him and he changed from the Oriental Prince look to his normal look as both were given to him by the Childlike Empress.

* The ''Series/RedDwarf'' episode "[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIIStasisLeak Stasis Leak]]" had an inversion where the crew could take things to the past fine, but couldn't bring anything back with them. (A bar of soap used to try it out crumbled to dust; the implication was that -- at least using the stasis leak method -- anything brought Xty years into the future instantly aged Xty years.) When Rimmer says he wants to bring his past self back, the Cat agrees for once. (Rimmer takes a few moments to figure this out.)

* A non-TimeTravel version in the series ''Series/Forever2014''. Whenever protagonist Doctor Henry Morgan dies, his body vanishes and reappears naked in the nearest body of water, with his clothes apparently vanishing along with any blood he left at the scene. The first time we see him reappear, Henry is immediately arrested for indecent exposure, and it's implied that this happens a lot.

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': A variation in "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S4E4InAnotherLife In Another Life]]" as it involves travel to an AlternateUniverse rather than TimeTravel. When the various alternate versions of Mason Stark are transported to the Eigenphase Industries CEO Mason's universe by the Quantum Mirror, they arrive naked.
* Played with in ''Series/TheAdventuresOfBriscoCountyJr'' episode "Bye Bly", when a woman from the distant future arrives naked because long-distance time travel is safer without clothes or jewelry. It's not a strict rule and her mission is to return the Orbs to her time, but she departs as naked as she arrived.
* ''Series/Bodies2023'' employs this method of time travel, with no particular explanation, setting up the initial mystery when the bodies of people who've been shot in the head show up in different times with no bullets for pathologists to extract, and [[spoiler:much to Iris Maplewood's dismay, as her futuristic mobility aid is left behind when she travels.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' probably qualifies for this; you literally can't take ''anything'' with you that isn't made immune to fluctuations in the time-stream, and this also applies to any creature (including yourself) that isn't insulated against the time-stream. While convenient in some ways [[spoiler: (you can leave yourself the key to a door in one spot, rewind, and then go do something else before going back to reclaim it)]] it's also rather awkward in others [[spoiler: even if it is rather amusing the first few times, to watch a regular key go skipping backwards just because you walked in the wrong direction.]]
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'': You can't even take your ''body'' with you when time travelling. In order to go to another time, one has to have the ability to separate the heart from the body. Of course, if you have another body waiting for you at your destination, you can always inhabit that vessel when you get there...

* The cardinal rules of time travel in ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'', besides not interacting with anyone not from one's own time, is not taking any important items or leaving any items in different time periods. Stealing bolt cutters from the 3000s to use in the 2000s is OK, though. Just don't leave them there.
** Even the temporal terrorist [[spoiler: [[MadScientist Elliot Sinclair]]]] adheres to this rule, although for pragmatic reasons rather than a desire to preserve history (which would run counter to his goals): his three robots are all designed to [[CyanidePill self-destruct]] in the event they are disabled and presumably captured. For the most part, however, this rule is adhered to only as a matter of coincidence and is frequently ''[[AvertedTrope ignored]]'', especially in the second game.
* Invoked by in the main scenario of ''VideoGame/HalfMinuteHero''. If you decide to replay a level, you can't equip any items that you've earned from later levels (the Time Goddess will tell you that doing so would create a TemporalParadox). If you attempt to equip an item that's been struck out in the equipment menu, you'll start the level with [[NoGearLevel nothing in that equipment slot]].
* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem Zero Hour'', when traveling back in time to the Wild West, it's implied that Duke arrives in the buff. Invoking ''Film/{{Terminator 2|Judgment Day}}'', Duke asks the local for his clothes, boots, and horse before deciding he doesn't need the horse.

* ''VideoGame/{{Superliminal}}'': Like in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', certain barriers will prevent you from taking puzzle objects outside the bounds of the puzzle (or in specific areas within some puzzles).
* ''VideoGame/Pathologic2'' has a non-time-travel example. Artemy is warned before entering [[spoiler:Mother Boddho's innards]] that "anything [he] clings to will fall from his hands there", including clothes, weapons, and medicine. The point of his journey is to retreat into the Kin's primal mindset, which includes trusting that [[EarthMother Boddho]] will provide for all his needs. The fact that Artemy can bring only one thing- [[spoiler:her panacea blood]]- back from this sequence further emphasizes its surrealism.
* In ''VideoGame/PortalReloaded'', you can bring cubes from the future to the present, but you can't bring present cubes to the future. If you try, the cube disintegrates.

* Done oddly in the ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' episode "[[Recap/StevenUniverseS1E22StevenAndTheStevens Steven and the Stevens]]"--Steven is riding his scooter when he accidentally time travels a few minutes into the past; for some reason, his scooter and helmet get left behind, but none of his other clothes or possessions.
* Lampshaded and subverted on ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' in the ''Big Boogie Adventure'' movie. Billy asks his time-traveling future self if he's naked because it's impossible for clothes to time-travel, but Future Billy replies that he was actually going naked willingly because he liked to feel the breeze on him.

* ''Series/Bodies2023'' employs this method of time travel, [[spoiler: much to Iris Maplewood's dismay, as her futuristic mobility aid is left behind.]]