Line #10 Main/PlotDrivenBreakdown


1	%%%
2	%%
3	%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!
4	%%
5	%%%
6	->'''The Doctor:''' Clicking towards oblivion. How long, K9?\
7	'''K9:''' Insufficient data.\
8	'''The Doctor:''' Yeah, you never fucking know the answer when it's important.
9	-->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMQ7X3wauRQ blooper]] from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E6TheArmageddonFactor The Armageddon Factor]]"
10
11	%% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab.
12
13	Sometimes things just break down purely for plot development.
14
15	It seems that even the most prepared of heroes can have their sword shatter, axle break, fuel run out, energy pack go flat or engine overheat, regardless of how well they prepared for the journey or the top-grade equipment they bought. Or a bridge or section of the cave roof will collapse at a convenient time with no apparent reason. When this inexplicable breakdown causes plot development, the item can be said to have suffered a Plot-Driven Breakdown.
16
17	Plot-Driven Breakdowns occur when a breakdown:
18	* occurs at a crucial time
19	* occurs for no discernable (in-universe) reason
20	* causes plot development (e.g. so that two antagonistic characters end up stranded together for a whole episode, or the hero has to find another, more creative way to defeat an enemy)
21
22	Often the equipment in question is something the hero depends on (e.g. a PlotCoupon, spiritual enhancement, TheProfessor's invention). Having the equipment fail is therefore an obvious way of developing the plot, forcing the hero to TakeAThirdOption, reassess his chances or get more creative. It's a way of avoiding the predictable "Hero defeats enemy with his favourite weapon" conflict resolution. However, when the writers fail to provide reasonable justification for the failure, the audience's WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief is broken.
23
24	This trope also implies the inverse notion; vital equipment will not fail or break unless it would complicate the plot.
25
26	See also TemptingFate ("____ will save us!" Turns out it won't...). See MyCarHatesMe for when this trope is applied to [[TheAllegedCar cars]] or CellphonesAreUseless for cell phone examples.
27
28	The video game equivalent is called the BrokenBridge. Compare PhlebotinumBreakdown.
29
30	----
31	!!Examples:
32
33	[[foldercontrol]]
34
35	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
36	* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
37	** Jean's maneuver gear malfunctions while he's attempting to escape two Titans in Episode 12. He immediately notes [[LampshadeHanging the timing of it]].
38	** In Episode 24, Eren is unable to [[spoiler:transform]] after finding out that [[spoiler:Annie is the Female Titan, despite her shifting right in front of him]]. It takes Mikasa, Armin, and Jean (only Mikasa and Armin in the manga) to help him find his resolve and [[spoiler:shift himself]].
39	* In ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', Ichigo's Hollow Mask is said to stay on for 11 seconds (give or take how temperamental the mask is), but tends to run out just before he can finish off his opponent in the battles he loses. In the battles he wins, it stays on indefinitely after the battle is over.
40	* In ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' [[FusionDance Fusions]] will crap out ''right'' when it's really needed. Gotenks' fusion makes sense - being powered by two half-Saiyan kids, they let their power get to their heads, so they're screw around and try to act cool and when it's absolutely needed, they'll break back down to normal. The fight between [[spoiler:Super Saiyan Blue Vegito and Merged Zamasu]] is infamously frustrating as [[spoiler:Goku and Vegeta is given a one-hour mandate, they get the upper hand on the fused god... and they ended up using so much power that the fusion crapped out]].
41	* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
42	** In mecha anime ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', Trowa's BFG arsenal on his Gundam tended to run out of ammunition at some point in a major engagement. Which is probably one of the more reasonable examples, considering his battle tactics are pretty much "stand in one spot and ''shoot everything''".
43	*** It's actually VERY reasonable once you realize that in about a year of nearly non-stop fighting, he only runs out of bullets about 3 times (including the movie), and each time usually after a period of intense fighting.
44	** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamMSIGLOO'', with its unusual focus on realism, this happens several times to giant war machines. Even more justified as the machines in question are usually experimental prototypes undergoing testing, so it makes some sense that they would have some flaws. In Episode 2, a destroyed Zaku's arm gets lodged in the [[TankGoodness Hidolfr's]] tracks, immobilizing it. In Episode 5, a Ball suffers a weapon malfunction at a critical moment, leading to the pilot getting taken prisoner rather than winning the battle.
45	* Inversion: In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', when Naruto is fighting Gaara he tries to summon toads early on in battle, he gets Gamakichi and Gamatatsu (who are small, although better than the tadpoles he was summoning earlier) while trying to get Gamabunta ([[{{Kaiju}} who's a 100 meters tall]]), but succeeds in summoning Gamabunta once it becomes absolutely necessary (despite the last time requiring him to use his SuperpoweredEvilSide).
46	* ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'': In an Orange Islands episode, Ash accidentally breaks Snorlax's Pokéball. It's lampshaded how dumb that is. The good news is that there is a Pokémon Center. Bad news it's on the other side of a mountain, which means that Ash and his friends have to carry the sleeping giant up a mountain to get there. HilarityEnsues.
47	* In ''Anime/SailorMoon R'''s FillerArc, Usagi's Moon Tiara Magic craps out during a monster fight, requiring the other Sailor Guardians to save the day. When it happens again, leading to her being BroughtDownToNormal, Usagi and Luna both realize it's because her IJustWantToBeNormal mindset has caused it.
48	* In ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', Simon is unable to pilot Gurren Lagann properly in episode 9, dealing with the ''huge'' impact of [[spoiler:His blood brother Kamina's tragic demise]]. His mech is powered by Spiral Energy, which is generated through determination- but Simon is a complete wreck, causing him to get so upset in battle he loses control of Gurren Lagann to the point he ''pukes''. Which generates Spiral Energy out of Lagann's mouth in way similar to puke. This worsens to the point Lagann by itself refuses to listen to him. Until Simon overcomes his grief in a blockbuster manner several episodes later and returns with a vengeance.
49	* This is usually the reason that TeenGenius Susumu's experiments fail on ''Anime/WandabaStyle''. The very first and the third are for the "no discernible reason" variety, but the others are generally due to outside interference (a fight between his pilots damages the ship, a character falls from ATwinkleInTheSky onto the electric grid, etc.). The last part of the episode is spent trying to find a way to fix the problem and not die in the process.
50	[[/folder]]
51
52	[[folder:Comic Books]]
53	* ''ComicBook/{{Empowered}}'': In the case of Empowered's super suit, it is easier to list the times when the [[ClothesMakeTheSuperman Hypermembrane]] ''does'' work correctly. A justified example. Emp has a theory that the suit's reliability is tied to her self-confidence. The times the suit works are usually when she's pissed off or determined.
54	* ''ComicBook/TheRocketeer'': Hughes asks Peevy if anyone has thought of checking the fuel level on the rocket pack. Minutes later, Cliff runs out of fuel in mid-flight. There is exactly enough time for Hughes to get into a plane, catch up with him, and grab him before he hits the ground.
55	* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': Possibly the {{Trope Maker\|s}} are Spider-Man's Web-Shooters, which can be guaranteed to run out of fluid whenever it's vitally needed to catch the villain (or run away, depending on the situation), forcing Spidey to either improvise or (as was the case with the Green Goblin a lot) let the bad guy get away. Even when he finally wised up and started keeping spare fluid packs in his suit, that didn't stop the fluid from running out (and having to be changed) at the worst possible time. It's {{lampshade\|Hanging}}d. A lot. As a side note, the recent movies and the several alternate continuities avert this by having the webbing be organic...except in [[Film/SpiderMan2 the second movie]], where a crisis of confidence shorts out his powers.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Fan Works]]
59	* ''Fanfic/TheBabysittingFiasco'': An akuma fight goes on for so long that by the time it's ended, Marinette realizes she won't be able to babysit Alya and Nino's younger siblings for them. But her cell phone's battery has run down and she can't contact her! Good thing she happens to spot Alya's mother and can ask her for help, blissfully unaware that Marlena ''did not know'' that Alya had been [[TakingAdvantageOfGenerosity making Marinette babysit for her]] all the time...
60	* ''Fanfic/TheBoltChronicles'': In "The Mall", Bolt's normally keen sense of smell is fully compromised because of a bad head cold. He is thus of minimal use in helping to find the lost Mittens.
61	* ''Fanfic/MarinettesWeekOff'' has Nino's DJ equipment break down right before he's supposed to provide the music for the school dance. While he improvises by using his phone, he doesn't have the right equipment to broadcast it across the whole gym... and soon ''that'' dies as well, leaving them without any music at all.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
65	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon\|2010}}'' movie, [[spoiler:Toothless' prosthetic tail fin is burnt off by a fireball he and Hiccup are flying away from near the film's end, setting up the crash landing and DisneyDeath]].
66	* In ''WesternAnimation/{{TMNT}}'', Leonardo suffers one of these in his rooftop fight with Raphael. Being the Turtle with the most ''technical'' skill, one would think he'd know better than to leave his katana locked in Raphael's sai - a weapon designed to ''trap'' and ''break'' swords. And upon the inevitable break, one would expect him to have a better reaction than to stare numbly at the snapped-off handles until Raph kicks him to the ground. This is probably because the key problem of the film (unity among the Turtles) would have been made ''worse'' if Leonardo had won the fight. Raphael is not the sort to be [[DefeatMeansFriendship humbled]] by defeat and may have estranged himself.
67	[[/folder]]
68
69	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
70	* This happens all the time to any source of light in ''Film/DarknessFalls''.
71	* Subverted in ''Film/DoubleIndemnity'', when Walter and Phyllis are unable to start their getaway car the first few times they turn the key. But then the engine turns over, they get away, and the temporary malfunction never affects the plot.
72	* In ''Film/ItHappenedOneNight'', the hero's car breaks down, just as he was to reach his {{Love Interest\|s}} and resolve their ThirdActMisunderstanding.
73	* Jordy shooting a cherry bomb at Jason's bike in ''Film/MysteryTeam''.
74	* In ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'', the transporter malfunction that kills Science Officer Sonak. It was initially thought that Creator/LeonardNimoy would [[IAmNotSpock not be reprising his role as Spock]], but when he agreed to return, Sonak had to be removed. The malfunction was only foreshadowed by prior scenes it in which characters had pointed out that the Enterprise had just undergone a major refit and wasn't ready for launch. (Plus, Nimoy had already agreed to return before they even started filming, so there was no need to "remove" a character who hadn't even existed on-screen yet; they could just as easily have killed off a random redshirt, or dropped both Sonak and the transporter scene entirely.)
75	* ''Franchise/StarWars'': In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', the Millennium Falcon's HYPER Drive systems refuse to work for nearly the whole film which means they can't easily escape the Imperial Fleet like everyone else, leading to their eventual capture, which requires Luke to divert from his training early to save them leading to his defeat by Vader and Han's capture by Fett. Basically if it had worked there wouldn't be any danger in the film at all past the quarter point. The initial failure is justified by Han's shoestring and glue approach to ship maintenance, plus having to evacuate Hoth in the middle of repairs. After leaving Cloud City, the next failure is due to Imperial sabotage.
76	* ''Film/TopGun'': During the climactic dogfight, the aircraft carrier's catapult breaks down without warning, preventing the launch of any more planes to assist the heroes, and forcing Maverick to overcome his traumatic fears. Made especially bad by fact that they have redundant systems in reality for exactly this reason.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Literature]]
80	!!!By Author:
81	* The [[GrapplingHookPistol Maghook grappling guns]], from Creator/MatthewReilly's books. After being reliable in the first couple of books, in ''Scarecrow'', TheBigGuy (so to speak) finally comes across a situation where the Maghook happens to be out of propellant, and thinks "Come on! That never happens with TheHero." And then in the next paragraph, TheHero has ''his'' Maghook run out of propellant.
82
83	!!!By Title:
84	* ''Literature/AdrianMole'': This happens many times in the books, almost as a throwaway gag, as part of Adrian's lousy stinking bad luck. Notable examples are:
85	** In ''Secret Diary'', the coach breaks down on a highly chaotic school trip to the British Museum.
86	** In ''Wilderness Years'', one cause of Adrian's chronic unpunctuality is the exhaust pipe falling off the bus.
87	** In Adrian's book ''Lo! The Flat Hills of my Homeland'', Jake running out of petrol while attempting to commit suicide by gassing himself in his car.
88	** In ''Cappuccino Years'', Adrian's [[CellphonesAreUseless mobile phone fails him]] just as he calls home to discover that his young son William is awake at 1am and roaming the house, and his father is asleep or dead.
89	* Arthur's sword[[note]]the one he'd drawn from the stone and anvil to become King. Merlin took him to get Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake later, while in another version, Morgan le Fay had stolen Excalibur and replaced it with a copy, and given Excalibur to his opponent just before their duel[[/note]] when he fought Pellinor.
90	* ''Literature/TheFamousFive'':
91	** In ''Five on a Treasure Island'', Dick gets hit by a splinter of wood when the Five try to smash in an underground door with an axe. Because of this nasty and bloody injury, he and Anne go above ground, which is fortunate, because they are then safe when the villains turn up, and trap George and Julian underground.
92	** In ''Five Get into Trouble'', Dick gets a puncture on his bicycle; while he is alone in the wood to sort it out, he is kidnapped by the villains who mistake him for Richard Kent.
93	** The opening line of ''Five Go Down to the Sea'' is "Blow! I've got a puncture!" from Dick, serving no purpose but to add to the drama of the Five hurrying to the station on a hot day.
94	* In Creator/EEDocSmith's ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series, the enemy spaceship Kim Kinnison has stolen and is making his way home in suffers an abrupt failure of its usually-reliable Bergenholm stardrive, causing the ship to drop from several thousand times the speed of light to sublight immediately... and causing his pursuers to overshoot and lose track of him for a while. His engineer patches it up, but from there on, it's a "long series of hops" with the unit failing over and over again and Kinnison hoping he can get to a repair base before it quits for good [[spoiler:(he does)]].
95	* ''Literature/TressOfTheEmeraldSea'': The "seas" of Lumar are composed of aether spores that rain down from the twelve moons, rendered fluid by gusts of air from vents on the buried surface. Naturally, this means that when the air gusts cut out, the spores settle down again and ships are locked into place. There are several times over the course of the book where a stilling happens right when there is some deadly peril coming at Tress's ship.
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
99	* In the ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' episode "Act of Contrition", a recon drone kills 13 pilots when its restraints come off seemingly on their own. The crew do note that the equipment is extremely old and worn down. It's some tragic TruthInTelevision, as this exact same incident had happened in reality with missiles being shuffled to their aircraft on aircraft carriers falling to the deck and going kablooie. The Master at Arms even says "I know it's hard to hear, but we were lucky. If that had been a ''missile...''"
100	** In season four a group of Cylon rebels make a deal with the team of humans searching for the route to Earth. They agree to return to the Colonial fleet together and stress how key it is that they [[FasterThanLightTravel jump]] back at the same time or ''Galactica'' will immediately shoot the Cylons' Basestar down. Naturally this is when the jump drive on the humans' ship fails, and when the Basestar reaches the fleet their communication systems ''also'' fail so Athena and Starbuck can't tell ''Galactica'' not to fire on them. They're spared only because Colonel Tigh has a hunch and orders a weapons hold, right before the systems start working again.
101	* ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'': In the horse-riding episode, Hyacinth desperately wants to enter the bedroom to take care of her dreadful appearance before her guests arrive; but she cannot open the bedroom door. This matter is neither explained nor resolved.
102	* Axl's car breakdown in ''Series/TheMiddle'''s "Vacation Days" sets him for a climactic chat with his mother on the way home. Justified by Axl not being the kind of person who would be expected to regularly maintain his car, as his father points out.
103	* ''Series/RedDwarf'' uses this trope regularly and unashamedly, seeing as the show relies more on character interaction than plot development.
104	* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', if Clark is being snuck up on and is about to be attacked in such a way as to expose his invulnerability to a regular character that doesn't know his secret, you can count on a coincidental chunk of Kryptonite popping up to make him vulnerable, or he didn't have his powers anyway. This could be more easily averted if the writers understood how Clark's super-hearing actually works and had him playing possum to protect his secret.
105	* The Stargate breaking down was, of course, the basis for some of the most memorable episodes of ''Series/StargateSG1'' and ''Series/StargateAtlantis''.
106	* The Transporter from ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Whenever they need to make a hasty retreat or get stuff to the surface immediately, there's always "too much atmospheric interference".
107	** [[FromBadToWorse It gets worse:]] Remember the Enterprise's [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath "transporter malfunction"]] in ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''? They even used it as a way to conveniently [[DroppedABridgeOnHim "remove"]] the new Vulcan science officer who was supposed to replace Spock. Granted, everyone was naturally wanting to see Spock on the bridge again, and [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute any other Vulcan]] would most likely have been [[ReplacementScrappy unacceptable]]. But ''come on!'' Couldn't they have just [[PutOnABus reassigned]] the poor guy?
108	** ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'' was particularly bad at this, one episode (workforce part 2) had transporters and warp drive fail within minutes of each other, despite the sheer size of each system a single weapon hit is all that is required to take them offline.
109	** Sometimes, ''Franchise/StarTrek'' couldn't think up a reason for the transporter to not be working, or at least for the crew to not come down in a shuttlecraft. So half the time, it wasn't just that the transporters were down; the communicators wouldn't work either, or had been stolen.
110	** Also happens with the warp drive, or more commonly, the holodecks, the latter being lampshaded by O'Brien in one episode of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
111	* [=DeMilo=]'s whorehouse-on-wheels breaks down just as the heroes get to their destination in ''Series/TinMan''.
112	[[/folder]]
113
114	[[folder:Radio]]
115	* ''Radio/XMinusOne'''s "[[Recap/XMinusOneE037TheCChute The C-Chute]]": Mullen's suit radio breaks down as he enters the control room so that the other passengers don't know what happened to him and prepare themselves to attack the Kloros when the door to their cabin opens.
116	[[/folder]]
117
118	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
119	* ''TabletopGame/BigEyesSmallMouth'' has a similar system with the optional "Dramatic Ammunition Rules". This is coupled with an ability called OneBulletLeft, that gives you one last shot when the GM declares you're out of ammo.
120	* Similarly the FATE role-playing system. Almost any sort of breakdown, including guns running out of ammunition, only happens when it's dramatically useful. On the other hand, the [[LuckManipulationMechanic Fate Point]] economy means that the PLAYER may frequently suggest such breakdowns to the GM in order to get HeroPoints to spend elsewhere. There's also a specific stunt, [[OneBulletLeft One Shot Left]], that lets the player declare their gun is almost out of ammo in return for a bonus that guarantees the last shot will be plot-appropriately spectacular.
121	* In The ''Marvel Universe Roleplaying Game'', it suggests not keeping track of ammunition. Instead it suggests using this trope. So instead of saying "Well, Spidey you have five shots of web fluid left." you let it run out like when the villain is supposed to escape, or whatever.
122	[[/folder]]
123
124	[[folder:Video Games]]
125	* This affects Simon's phone light in ''VideoGame/CryOfFear'', where the battery [[InfiniteFlashlight lasts as long as he needs it to]] up until he reaches the subway for the first time, where the phone goes dead - right as Simon is about to enter [[BlackoutBasement the completely dark tunnels and hallways underneath the subway]], forcing him to navigate them via much less potent or portable road flares until he can eventually find a new battery, which once again lasts as long as he need it to [[spoiler:until a train crash [[BagOfSpilling robs Simon of his inventory]]]].
126	* Guess what happens if you try to ignore plot-heavy Cosmo Canyon in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''? Yep, your buggy breaks down.
127	* In ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'' you can expect to be unable to access the Hammer of Dawn whenever a boss fight breaks out. Except when you ''need'' the Hammer of Dawn to hurt it. Then there will be like ''six'' of them scattered around (despite the fact that you can't carry a second one, it never runs out of ammo in Campaign, and you can only play Co-Op with one other person).
128	* In the second half of one of the last Los Santos missions in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', you're given an old, poorly-maintained AK-47 to defend the car you're escaping in. About halfway through that sequence (right as the police manage to set up an effective road block) it irreparably jams.
129	* This is the plot behind most of the Survival levels in ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' - they present [[RevisedEnding hypothetical "What if?" situations]] for the crescendo events throughout the game, in which an event that must be triggered to clear/complete the path during the campaign doesn't go quite as expected (for example, in one map there is a bridge that must be lowered and crossed in the campaign, but it jams and fails to lower at all in the Survival version), leaving the survivors to simply fight until they're all dead.
130	* This trope seems to happen in every ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' game. Samus' powerups always malfunction or disappear somewhere whenever she needs them. Typically, this happens offscreen between games. However, the first two ''VideoGame/{{Metroid Prime\|Trilogy}}'' games [[TasteOfPower start you off with some items]] but have you lose them early on, to a reactor explosion and some thieving Ing, respectively. ''[[VideoGame/MetroidOtherM Other M]]'' instead has you in possession of all your items but unable to use them for plot-related reasons -- not a malfunction, strictly speaking, but it serves the same purpose. ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' explains that you had your abilities, but they were all loaded into your old Power Suit, which had to be surgically removed. [[GrandTheftMe Then, the X Parasites took it over...]]
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
134	* In ''VisualNovel/DaughterForDessert'', the washing machine at the protagonist's diner breaks down, giving him the chance to impress his way into Kathy’s pants by fixing it.
135	* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyTrialsAndTribulations'', Phoenix bravely and perhaps stupidly attempts to cross a burning bridge to save Maya, only to have it collapse when he is half way across. He is sent plunging into an incredibly deadly river only to survive with little more than a head cold. But this accident ultimately leads to a major break in the case.
136	[[/folder]]
137
138	[[folder:Web Animation]]
139	* One [=RidiculousCake=] video features a [[NonHumanHumanoidHybrid fox/dolphin]] lady scuba-diving for fun, until her oxygen tank's regulator valve suddenly unlocks itself, releasing the pressurized air all at once. This happens for [[ExcusePlot no reason other than]] to have her [[InflatingBodyGag inflate like a giant 3-foot balloon]] and float on the surface like a life raft.
140	[[/folder]]
141
142	[[folder:Webcomics]]
143	* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', one breakdown of the TransformationRay Gun caused a NoodleIncident and two other breakdowns triggered an arc leading to a new main character being created.
144	[[/folder]]
145
146	[[folder:Western Animation]]
147	* [[WesternAnimation/Ben10 Ben Tennyson's]] Omnitrix [[WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce never works right]]. [[WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien Even when it's upgraded]]. Although it's implied that the Omnitrix/Ultimatrix is semi-sentient, and gives Ben unexpected transformations as a way of saying "Here, exercise your strategy instead of using the obvious solution". Though all too often it ends up giving him a transformation that ends up putting him in extra danger, instead, like giving him Rath when he's facing an opponent who can mind control cats, or during the Khyber story arc when the Omnitrix refused to transform into anything other than the aliens that Khyber's hound could actively counter with their natural predators.
148	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Captain N\|TheGameMaster}}''. It doesn't matter if he just left the palace and walked through the main gates, or if he's traveled to fourteen different worlds and then fought through 7 stages of deadly, monster-infested secret passages, his zapper/pad WILL run out of power the moment he has to fight Mother Brain. It didn't happen that much, but it was an easy out for the writers to force the heroes to retreat and fight another day.
149	* WesternAnimation/InspectorGadget is a walking example of this trope. He might define it better than Spider-Man does. Most of his Gadgets don't work well anyway. Although sometimes using the wrong gadget saves the day.
150	* ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'' has two characters need to deliver a warning before the villains can attack. Since this is the age of radio technology, this would be simple except the airship they hijack has had the radio ripped out, the town they fly it to doesn't have a strong enough transmitter, and no one on the other end picks up when they do get a radio strong enough.
151	* There's at least one scene (and probably two or more) in the Ruby-Spears production of the American ''WesternAnimation/{{Mega Man\|RubySpears}}'' cartoon, where Mega Man runs low on power in a critical situation.
152	* This trope is the reason Franchise/{{Scooby\|Doo}} and the gang ever got anything done. The Mystery Machine is prone to this; it's usually the reason the gang is stuck having to solve a mystery in some out of the way locations. In one episode of ''Mystery Inc'', they get stuck because ''someone stole the Mystery Machine's engine while they weren't looking''.
153	* ''WesternAnimation/WorkItOutWombats'': The conflict of "[[Recap/WorkItOutWombatsS1E33ParrandaHappyNewAcornYear The Treeborhood Parranda]]" kicks off when the Flapping Feathers' tour bus gets a flat tire on the way to the Treeborhood.
154	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PlotDrivenBreakdown