History Main / MessageinaBottle

* A side quest in ''VideoGame/OctopathTravelerII'' involves the party finding one addressed to "Ruby" and getting it to its destination. [[spoiler:Ruby turns out to be the mother of Emerald, Osvald's accomplice in their prison break, with the message itself being written by him just before his HeroicSacrifice.]]

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' has an episode of trope's name. The [[ProjectedMan holographic Doctor]] is the message and the bottle is an alien SubspaceAnsible network that's widespread enough to reach a Starfleet vessel on the very edge of Federation space.
** "Course: Oblivion" has the crew of the biomimetic copy of ''Voyager'' try to send one in the form of a probe to the real ''Voyager'' in the case that they don't survive their journey home to the Demon-class planet, but unfortunately it was destroyed upon launch.
** In "Eye of the Needle" Voyager makes contact with a Romulan scientist in the Alpha Quadrant, only to find they're communicating twenty years back in time. In order to avoid changing the timeline, he agrees to take their messages and pass them on to Starfleet twenty years later. But the crew knows from their records that the scientist will die four years before this happens, so they've no way of knowing if he made arrangements in case of his death, or even if the Romulan government would have allowed him to pass the information on.

* OlderThanRadio: The first ''verified'' user of this trope is Chunosuke Matsuyama, whose ship crashed on a Pacific island in 1784 while they were searching for buried treasure. Before they all starved to death, Matsuyama carved their story in wood and floated it in a bottle. His message took 151 years to wash ashore -- ironically in Hiraturemura, the Japanese town where Matsuyama was born.----

* The short story "A Saucer of Loneliness" by Creator/TheodoreSturgeon, which was adapted into an episode of the ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985''.

** * This trope serves the basis of [[http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/lgb.aspx the very first story he wrote]], at the tender age of seven. [[spoiler:It's ultimately subverted, with the whole thing being an elaborate practical joke. The prankster was at least kind enough to leave $25 to pay off the expenses of the rather unhappy treasure hunters' trip.]]

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* The German caricature ''ComicStrip/VaterUndSohn'' once has the father and son get stranded on a DesertedIsland. One of the first things the dad does is to write a bottled message to his son's ''headmaster'' to excuse him from school due to their incapacitation. The funny thing: The headmaster gets the message and sends one back, [[ObstructiveBureaucrat citing insufficient evidence to excuse his son]].
* ''ComicStrip/{{Conchy}}'' finds a bottle washed up with a message in it reading "IF FOUND WASHED ASHORE, PLEASE RETURN TO BOB!". Conchy returns it to the bottle, tosses it back in the ocean, and it floats with the UnsoundEffect of "Bob, Bob".

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* ''ComicStrip/ModestyBlaise'': In "The Big Mole", one of the nurses being held hostage writes a note for help, places it in a plastic bottle and tosses it out of the bathroom window into the river.
* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide:'' A castaway is writing up a note to put in his bottle, only for a coconut to fall from the [[FarSideIsland resident tree]] and smash the latter.

[[folder:{{Radio}}]]
* In the original ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' radio series, Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect are stranded on prehistoric Earth, and attempt to attract the attention of a passing spaceship by waving a towel at it. A volcano then erupts, covering the towel with lava. When the Earth is blown up six million years later, the now-fossilized towel gets launched into space and found by Zaphod Beeblebrox in the spaceship ''Heart Of Gold'', who travels back in time and rescues them. (Things like this tend to happen whenever you use the ''Heart Of Gold'''s "Infinite Improbability" drive.)
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** In "[[http://portsherry.com/comic/a-reply-maybe/ A reply, maybe?]]" a stranded man gets a MailerDaemon reply to his message in a bottle.

[[quoteright:197:[[Webcomic/SoYoureACartoonist https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/message_bottle.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:197:"NEED MORE BOTTLES"]]

* '''WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'': In "Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day", Piglet writes a help message during the flood and throws the bottle into the rising water. The note is later found by Christopher Robin, who sends out Owl to rescue him.

* A German boy [[http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_ODD_RUSSIA_LETTER_IN_A_BOTTLE?SITE=VASTR&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT tossed a bottle into the Baltic Sea]], and a Russian boy found it on a beach 24 years later.

* In ''[[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day]]'', Piglet writes a help message during the flood and throws the bottle into the rising water. The note is later found by Christopher Robin, who sends out Owl to rescue him.
* This is the impetus for all of the action in ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers''. Penny sends the message, which is found by the Rescue Aid Society.
* Not in a bottle, but attached to a lantern in this case, at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyANewGeneration'', [[TheHero Sunny Starscout]] and her father send a message of welcome to the other pony races from their home in Maretime Bay, hoping it would reach them. [[spoiler: It turns out that it reached a filly Izzy Moonbow (a unicorn), giving her the motivation to go to the town, kickstarting the events of the movie.]]

* ''Webcomic/GronkAMonstersStory'': Gronk writes one up and sends it in [[http://www.gronkcomic.com/2011/08/08192011/ this comic]].

* In ''Webcomic/{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://web.archive.org/web/20140209175417/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3093 Slick tries it.]] [[http://web.archive.org/web/20140209175417/http://sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3099 Monique mocks the desperation.]]

* Not in a bottle, but attached to a lantern in this case, at the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyANewGeneration'', [[TheHero Sunny Starscout]] and her father send a message of welcome to the other pony racesfrom their home in Maretime Bay, hoping it would reach them. [[spoiler: It turns out that it reached a filly Izzy Moonbow (a unicorn), giving her the motivation to go to the town, kickstarting the events of the movie.]]

* An episode of ''Manga/DetectiveConan'' had the Detective Boys find a message in a plastic bottle reading "SOS" washed toward the shore. The message was written recently by a woman who was near unconscious in a tide cave.

** In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooAndScrappyDoo'' episode "The Ransom of Scooby Chief", Scooby and Shaggy are bring held hostage in a warehouse and write a message in a bottle for help. However, when they throw it out the window, [[DidntThinkThisThrough they realize there's no water around]].

* A recent "Fred's Bed" strip in ''ComicBook/TheBeano'' involved Fred going back in time to answer a message he found in a bottle.

* On ''Series/GilligansIsland'' Mary Ann had a FakeBoyfriend on the mainland she pretended to communicate with in this way.

-->'''Player:''' "Coach Dante, this bottle has a note in it."
-->'''Dante:''' *cheerful* "Then ''THROW IT OUT!!''"

--> '''Daphne:''' What does it say?
--> '''Shaggy:''' No deposit -- no return.
--> '''Velma:''' Big help.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode "WesternAnimation/ChristmasWho", [=SpongeBob=] and friends send their letters to Santa Claus by putting them in bottles and having a machine shoot them up to the surface.

-->-- '''Music/ThePolice''', "Message in a Bottle"

* The page quote comes from the song "Message In a Bottle" by Music/ThePolice. It's used as a metaphor for reaching out for help in times of loneliness, and contains the moral that everyone feels this way at some point in time.

* You can send and receive messages in a bottle in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: Wild World''.
** You do this by writing a message, then putting the DS in a low-power state that leaves the wireless on and carrying it around with you. Should you happen to pass by another DS in the same state, you'll trade messages, an interesting approximation of the low odds of success inherent in actual bottle throwing (subject, of course, to the concentration of fellow gamers in your environment).

* In the ''WebAnimation/StrongBadEmail'' [[FarSideIsland island]], Homestar and Strong Bad are stuck on an island when a bottle washes ashore. It's advertising [[UsefulNotes/SuperBowl Super Bowl XIX]], which aired in 1985, 17 years prior.
--> '''Strong Bad:''' Great.