History Main / DestructionEqualsOffSwitch

* Averted in TheIncredibles; in fact, it's the ''Omnidroid itself'' seeking to destroy its remote control, so it cannot be controlled by anyone else, and it's up to the Incredibles to try keep it safe until they can figure out how to operate it.

* Averted in the ''VideoGame/NoOneLivesForever'' series. Shooting cameras sets off the alarm.
** Same with ''AlphaProtocol''.
* ''Franchise/DeadSpace''

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''WesternAnimation/Archer'' often tries this on armored doors. With only one exception it results in Brett getting shot. The other exception resulted in Cherryl's brother getting shot, but that's because Bret was miles away.

* ''WesternAnimation/Archer'' Archer often tries this on armored doors. With only one exception it results in Brett getting shot. The other exception resulted in Cherryl's brother getting shot, but that's because Bret was miles away.

* A very common example - maybe a full subtrope? - is automatic doors controlled by some sort of scanner or keypad box on the wall. Shooting the control box will ''always'' make the door open. Unless it's a door you want closed in the face of an advancing enemy, in which case shooting it makes it lock shut. SeenItAMillionTimes.

* Averted in ''StarWars''. When Luke and Leia are being pursued by Stormtroopers on the Death Star, Luke shuts a blast door and destroys the console ''specifically'' to make it harder for them to open the door again. Unfortunately the controls for the bridge they needed were on the same panel...

** Played straight in ''The Phantom Menace'' where the destruction of the droid control ship causes the entire army of battle droids to shut off, and even fall apart.

* Averted in the DoctorWho story, ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E5TheSeedsOfDeath The Seeds of Death]]'', an Ice Warrior pulls a bunch of levers on a (very simple) control panel, and then shoots it, so it'd melt and nobody could change the setting. However as the system is otherwise undamaged, the Doctor is able to rewire a new setting.

* In ''GhostTrick'', a power failure [[spoiler: caused when the electric chair that was being set up to execute Detective Jowd malfunctioned and exploded]] opened the doors of all the cells in the prison, setting the prisoners free. This is Handwaved a few moments later, as you're told it's a security measure.
** In all fairness, [[spoiler: none of the prisoners were dangerous in any way.]]

** The Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima disasters are all fine examples of this - at Chernobyl, the containment was blown open by a steam explosion, leading to a massive release of radiation. At Fukushima, the earthquake itself damaged portions of the containment and the reactors, and it and the tsunami led to destruction of the cooling systems - which then led to corium overheating and melting through its containments. In Three Mile Island, that the containment was ''not'' completely destroyed in the accident was what prevented it from becoming a disaster on the level of Chernobyl or Fukushima. Another example, involving a radiation therapy device, is the Goiana incident, where salvage workers opened a containment on a radiation therapy device, leading to far more and far worse exposures than had the device been ''left alone.''

* Used at the end of the ''Manga/ToAruKagakuNoRailgun'' anime, where [[spoiler: Ruiko Saten smashes the consoles controlling the Big Bad's psychic-power-limiting device, thus allowing her friends to use their powers and defeat the villain.]]

* As seen in CuttingTheKnot, ''{{Stargate}}'' characters frequently disable things, or otherwise get literally alien devices to do exactly what they want, by shooting random control crystals.

* Security cameras suffered badly from this trope in both ''SystemShock'' games. Blowing them up ''reduced'' the security of a level, rather than set off the alarm.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', in which Raven and Terra are arguing whether to destroy a control panel in order to shut off a device that's going to destroy the tower if they don't stop it. It ends up getting destroyed... which makes the device go faster.

Not to be confused with InventionalWisdom, where a literal switch brings about destruction of idiotic proportions.

* ''{{The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest}}'' has a particularly egregious case in the final episode. When the crew use Questworld to track down a reality warping demon, it takes over the system, leaving Johnny trapped. His father saves him by taking an axe to the laptop. Never mind that based on everything established about Questworld so far, a stunt like that could potentially kill anyone connected.
* ''DannyPhantom'' believed in this trope during the ChristmasSpecial. In that episode, the Ghost Writer had used his keyboard to put a spell on Danny to teach him AnAesop and Danny destroyed the keyboard hoping it'd break the spell. In return the Ghost Writer told him the only two ways to end the spell would be somebody writing "the end" on the keyboard, which was no longer an option (NiceJobBreakingItHero, indeed), or Danny learning the aesop.

** Same in SpiritualSuccessor ''BioShock'', but come on: the system were made in the Fifties. Electronics in Rapture appear to run off of an electrified gel that runs through tiny pipes instead of actual electricity going through wires. Basically, they're what Descartes thought our nervous system was.

* Hilariously averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'' - Batgirl sabotages the doomsday device, the countdown stops...

* Subverted on ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh GX}}'': Kenzan catches Saiou's {{Brainwashed}} minion after he has used a laptop to fire a missile from a KillSat, so he figures the best way to fix things is to destroy the laptop. It's not until after he's done so that someone tells him he's in fact ''destroyed the Off Switch''. Did we mention Saiou is DangerouslyGenreSavvy?
* Something similar happened at the end of the Virtual Nightmare arc of ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}'' -- by destroying the console, Marik unintentionally destroyed the off switch.

* The Real Adventures Of Johnny Quest has a particularly egregious case in the final episode. When the crew use Questworld to track down a reality warping demon, it takes over the system, leaving Johnny trapped. His father saves him by taking an axe to the laptop. Never mind that based on everything established about Questworld so far, a stunt like that could potentially kill anyone connected.

* Averted in ''WarGames'': when [[AIIsACrapshoot Joshua]] is trying to determine the codes to launch America's nuclear missiles by itself, General Beringer asks why they don't just unplug the computer. McKittrick explains to him, and the audience, that the system would interpret a shutdown as the destruction of NORAD, and would carry out the last instructions, i.e., launch.