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| 2 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 4 | %% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions58 |
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| 7 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/time_tourists2_full.png]] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | ->'''Rose:''' I want [Queen Victoria] to say "We are not amused." I bet you five quid I can make her say it.\ |
| 10 | '''The Doctor:''' Well, if I gambled on that, it would be an abuse of my privilege as a traveller in time.\ |
| 11 | '''Rose:''' Ten quid.\ |
| 12 | '''The Doctor:''' Done. |
| 13 | -->-- ''Series/DoctorWho'', "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E2ToothAndClaw Tooth and Claw]]" |
| 14 | |
| 15 | Time is money. |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Therefore, if you control time, you control money. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | The easiest and most popular way of using TimeTravel for mercantile purposes is the CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit, but there are a lot of other ways. |
| 20 | * You can make a time tour agency. |
| 21 | * You can trade through time. |
| 22 | * You can use your [[TimelineAlteringMacGuffin knowledge of the future]] to make money in the past. Example: go to the future and find out what horse is going to win, what stock is going to rise, what lottery number is going to be picked, etc. Note that you can have only the information; you don't have to actually time-travel. It still counts if somebody else (like a descendant who wants to make sure their family is rich) uses time travel to pass the info back to you, or if your knowledge of the future comes via PsychicPowers. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | Beware of TimePolice, though. And note that the ButterflyOfDoom and the TimelineAlteringMacGuffin both existed because of this trope. Most common in series with CasualTimeTravel. |
| 25 | ---- |
| 26 | !!Examples: |
| 27 | |
| 28 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 29 | |
| 30 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 31 | * Nobita in ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' manages to screw this up via an inversion: He gets ahold of some candy from the future, which is the greatest candy he's ever eaten, but the RidiculousFutureInflation that will occur between the present and the candy's time period bankrupts his family. Good thing the series runs on NegativeContinuity. |
| 32 | * In the backstory of ''Manga/MissKobayashisDragonMaid'', Shouta's father used precognition to plagiarize works of fiction (implied to be something by Tolkien) in order to gain funding for his magic research. |
| 33 | * One of the first ways the protagonists of ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' try to use [[OurTimeMachineIsDifferent D-Mail]] for personal benefit is by sending winning lottery numbers to their past selves. In the altered timeline, the winning lottery numbers are all correct... except for the number 18, which is now 1''9''. This is one of the first hints that [[ButterflyOfDoom changing the past will cause other parts of the world to change]]. |
| 34 | * Kirie from ''Manga/UQHolder'' uses her SaveScumming powers to make a fortune on the stock market. |
| 35 | [[/folder]] |
| 36 | |
| 37 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 38 | * One issue of ''ComicBook/BackToTheFuture'' shows that Doc Brown financed his activities in the future by taking the [=DeLorean=] back to 1938 to buy several copies of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_Comics_1 Action Comics #1]], then selling a couple of them to an auction house in 2015 for $2.5 million, allowing him to afford a discounted hover-conversion for the [=DeLorean=]. |
| 39 | * The basic premise of ''ComicBook/BoosterGold'', in which a man from the future uses gadgets from his time and his knowledge of the past to become a superhero and make money through endorsements (and other less ethical means). |
| 40 | * In ''ComicBook/TheFlash'', Barry Allen's EvilCounterpart Professor Zoom is addicted to abusing the Speed Force's time travel capabilities to benefit himself and punish those he doesn't like, often in [[EvilIsPetty astoundingly petty]] ways. For example, he not only [[MurderTheHypotenuse murders his crush's husband]] before they were married, but also erases ''every man she had ever dated'' from the timeline. |
| 41 | * ''ComicBook/MegaManArchieComics'' issue #53 reveals [[spoiler:Xander Payne, having been sent back in time after smacking the ResetButton at the end of ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogMegaManWorldsUnite'', used his knowledge of stocks, lotteries and gambling to found the X Foundation and establish the [[VideoGame/MegaMan6 Mr. X]] persona.]] |
| 42 | * In ''ComicBook/{{Thorgal}}'' in the independent episode "Three Ancients of the Realm of Aran", the three old men, rulers of the country, often defy a brave candidate to go through a perilous way in order to find a huge treasure, that they could keep. Along the way they are to take a potion that makes them travel to the past, where they meet the three men then in their twenties. They then explain they use fools arriving from the future with a phial containing the Water of the Dawn of Times, in order to increase their own riches, and they kill the now useless fool. Thorgal breaks the cycle by pouring the water on the ground. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 46 | * ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'': |
| 47 | ** Calvin initially plans on using his time machine to swipe something from the future and patent it, but he accidentally travels through the time stream in the wrong direction and ends up in the Jurassic era. Undeterred, he decides to take pictures of real dinosaurs and sell them in the present instead. His parents, however, [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane just see pictures of toys]]. |
| 48 | ** When Calvin has to write a paper at 6:30 and doesn't feel like doing it, he travels two hours into the future to pick up the completed paper... except there ''isn't'' a paper at 8:30 because he went into the future two hours prior instead of writing it. The 6:30 and 8:30 Calvins place the blame on 7:30 Calvin and go see ''him'', but he's no closer to writing it (and when 6:30 threatens to punch him, 7:30 points out 8:30 is going to feel it too). Fortunately, the 6:30 and 8:30 Hobbeses write the paper for him: an account of that evening's adventures, narrated by Hobbes. Calvin gripes about the resulting paper making him look like a lunatic in front of the class, but it ''does'' get him an A+. |
| 49 | [[/folder]] |
| 50 | |
| 51 | [[folder:Fan Fiction]] |
| 52 | * In Creator/AAPessimal's ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''/''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' crossover ''Fanfic/TheManyWorldsInterpretation'', Johanna Smith-Rhodes finds herself dislocated in time by seven days. After pausing to swear at Sheldon Cooper for inflicting this on her, she remembers a conversation with a gambling-inclined friend about the vagaries of horse-racing and how it would be nice to know in advance which thirty-to-one shot will win a race. Johanna has a good memory for trivia and lays several bets, considering that coming out of this a few thousand dollars ahead would be nice. Unfortunately, the universe readjusts itself absolutely completely; on returning to her correct timeline, Lord Downey presents her with a large bill for costs she has incurred to the Guild of Assassins. Which sums to... |
| 53 | * In ''Fanfic/HarryPotterAndTheMethodsOfRationality'', Harry Potter experiments with a way to exploit the StableTimeLoop to quickly find the answers to certain problems. The result? ''[[SubvertedTrope DO NOT MESS WITH TIME.]]'' |
| 54 | * A minor example of this in the ''Film/Titanic1997'' fic "[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8448413/1/Our-Future-is-Now Our Future is Now]]", where Jack, Fabrizio and Tommy were time-travellers. After they create a new timeline where ''Titanic'' gets to America, when Rose decides to go to the future with Jack, Jack decides to give Cal and Ruth a 'consolation prize' by advising Cal to get everything out of the stock market before October 1929 and recommends a suitable company Ruth can invest her remaining money in to recoup her recent losses. |
| 55 | [[/folder]] |
| 56 | |
| 57 | [[folder:Film -- Animated]] |
| 58 | * At the end of ''Anime/BatmanNinja'', it's revealed that Catwoman sold the vase from Sengoku Era Japan which Gorilla Grodd had been using as a trash can for his banana peels to an antique store in Gotham for a nice sum. |
| 59 | [[/folder]] |
| 60 | |
| 61 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 62 | * Discussed in ''Film/AustinPowers'' when Number 2 suggests that, rather than going back in time to threaten the world with nukes, that Dr. Evil use his knowledge of the future to [[CutLexLuthorACheck make money in the stock market]]. |
| 63 | --> '''Number 2:''' We could make trillions.\ |
| 64 | '''Dr. Evil:''' Why make trillions when you can make... Billions? |
| 65 | * ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'' has the old 2015 Biff borrow the time machine for this, giving his 1955 self an almanac with sports scores in the past (although Marty had actually bought the almanac for himself). The funny thing about the almanac is that in Part I, Doc Brown told Marty he was going to learn the winners of the next 25 World Series, [[{{Hypocrite}} then objected strongly to Marty buying the sports almanac]] in Part II. However, it's implied that he had no intention of profit for the former and just wanted the Fun part. |
| 66 | * Although not the main focus of the film, the protagonist of ''Film/{{Frequency}}'' drops a hint to his perennially unlucky friend to invest in Yahoo when the company gets created. The epilogue shows that he did just that. |
| 67 | * ''Film/GroundhogDay'': Phil uses his knowledge gained from the GroundhogDayLoop to just walk up to an armored car and steal a bag of money at the exact moment neither guard will be looking. This is done more for the thrill of it than anything else, because he won't have time to spend much of the money before the next iteration of the loop. |
| 68 | * The ending of ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'' reveals that [[spoiler:Lou, who [[IChooseToStay chose to stay]] in 1986, became immensely wealthy using his knowledge of the future to get an early lead on the tech boom, founding the search engine "[[Website/{{Google}} Lougle]]". He also became the frontman of Music/MotleyCrue (now called "Motley Lüe") along the way. SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome in the second film, however, where Lougle is now falling apart because Lou, having run out of ideas to steal from the original timeline, is now running the company into the ground with his terrible business decisions (among them moving the company's HQ to [[ItsAlwaysMardiGrasInNewOrleans New Orleans' French Quarter]] so he could get drunk and party).]] Earlier in the film, Lou also ''tries'' this by betting on the AFC Championship game, only for the ButterflyOfDoom to kick in with disastrous results. |
| 69 | * In ''Film/{{Paycheck}}'', [[spoiler: Michael uses his machine to see the next day's winning lottery numbers, giving him and the girl a HappilyEverAfter even after he destroys the machine]]. This is also the BigBad's plan, only on a much bigger scale. |
| 70 | * ''Film/{{Primer}}''. Abe and Aaron never got around to publicizing their time machine, because they were too busy using hourly time travel to make money day-trading stocks. |
| 71 | * ''Film/ASoundOfThunder'' has a tour agency that takes its clients to the past to shoot dinosaurs. |
| 72 | * ''Film/ThrillSeekers'' featured an agency which used time travel for tourists who wanted to witness various disasters from the past, such as the Titanic and Hindenburg. The plot kicks off when a journalist notices the same man in photographic records of these events set decades apart but looking exactly the same, and subsequently steals his technology to avert upcoming disasters. |
| 73 | * ''Film/TimeCop'': |
| 74 | ** In the first scene, criminals make money by going back to the 19th century and robbing a carriage full of gold... with laser-aimed machine guns. |
| 75 | ** And the baddies' second scheme is to coerce someone into going back to the Great Depression and buy stock. |
| 76 | ** It's a major plot point that this is all you ''can'' do with time travel. Trying to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong ''always'' causes a massive TemporalParadox, so the only things you can do with time travel are archeology (which ''also'' has a high risk of TemporalParadox) and illegal money-making schemes, thus [[TimePolice the Time Cops]]. |
| 77 | * In ''Film/TheTimeTravelersWife2009'', Henry and Clare are having money problems, and their relationship is starting to crack. So, he uses his ability to find out the winning lottery numbers and get the $500,000 first prize. Clare is initially appalled at his misuse of his ability, but he points out that his ability is, for the most part, a curse, so why not get something good out of it? |
| 78 | [[/folder]] |
| 79 | |
| 80 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 81 | * Deconstructed in ''Literature/ElevenTwentyTwoSixtyThree'': the protagonist funds his attempts to fix the past by betting on sports, but gets the attention of bookmarkers who try to beat his secret out of him. His mentor, in addition to the sports-betting thing, ran a diner incredibly cheaply by buying all his meat in 1958 and selling it in the twenty-first century. |
| 82 | * In one of Creator/HarryHarrison's ''Literature/BillTheGalacticHero'' novels, the titular hero ends up traveling through time to an alternate past where Nazis have occupied New York. One of them captures Bill and his partner and asks them who they are. When Bill explains that they're from the future, the Nazi starts demanding lottery numbers, despite Bill explaining that they're from thousands of years in the future and, thus, have no idea what "lottery" even is. |
| 83 | * In the 1952 Creator/IsaacAsimov short story "Button, Button", [[spoiler: a scientist brings a piece of parchment with the valuable, genuine signature of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_Gwinnett Button Gwinnett]] to the present day...that is, a piece of ''new'' parchment with the valuable, genuine, ''very fresh'' signature of Button Gwinnett]]. |
| 84 | * Creator/SpiderRobinson's ''Literature/CallahansCrosstimeSaloon'' story "Have You Heard The One...?" A time traveler from the future arrives, offering to sell miraculous devices for all the pennies in the bar. He plans to bury the pennies in the present and dig them up again in his own time, where copper is extremely valuable due to resource depletion. He does it this way so the Time Cops don't realize he arranged for their finding through time travel (which is illegal in the future). |
| 85 | * The entire point of ''Literature/TheCompanyNovels'' is to find ways to make time travel profitable, such as salvaging artifacts at that particular time period and having them be rediscovered in the 24th century. |
| 86 | * ''Literature/ConradsTimeMachine'' by Creator/LeoFrankowski uses this in multiple forms. First of all, the characters start out planning to use their new scientific discoveries for things like railroad tunnelling rather than time travel; and they do have many non-time-travel uses for the technology that is also useful for making a time machine. At one point, during the process of figuring out how to invent a really workable means of time travel, they seriously consider using time travel to steal from a bank vault, and get as far as figuring out the plan for how to do this. Fortunately, Jim Hasenpfeffer points out that it would make more sense just to use stock tips from future newspapers, and the characters get the money they need that way. And then, about halfway through the book, the characters are whisked away to a fabulously wealthy {{Utopia}} island paradise which was built by their own future selves, in which all of this wealth was generated by the practical applications of time travel. |
| 87 | * Subverted in ''Cretaceous Sea'' by Will Hubbell: A wealthy venture-capitalist discovers an alien time machine that takes him back to the Cretaceous Era. He immediately starts planning to make money off it. Subverted when it turns out the alien base is actually an observatory, constructed at the perfect place and time to record the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and ended the Mesozoic. |
| 88 | * In ''Literature/GoodOmens'', Agnes Nutter left her descendants a book of prophesies that, when interpreted, gave them enough information about the future to be able to earn their living from her suggested investments. For instance, one prophesy was "Do not buy Betamacks." |
| 89 | * In a 1952 short-short story called "The Good Provider", a BunglingInventor invents a time machine, but believes it's a failure. Oh, it takes him back in time all right, but only ''exactly'' twenty years.[[note]]Since the story is set in 1952, "twenty years ago" is 1932, the worst depths of the Great Depression.[[/note]] It always lands him in the same place, right in front of the town butcher shop, and he stays for exactly twenty minutes before coming back to the present. He sees no practical use for it. His wife, however, realizes that twenty years ago, meat and other foodstuffs were a lot cheaper... |
| 90 | * In ''Literature/TheGreenFuturesOfTycho'', Tycho becomes hugely rich by paradoxically selling off future copies of his own time machine. |
| 91 | * In ''Literature/TheImpossibleStairwell'', Etsugoya wins a bet with information obtained from his future self (although he is not aware of this at the time). Later he and Tsubakihara briefly [[DiscussedTrope discuss]] the ethics of doing this. |
| 92 | * ''Literature/JohnnyMaxwellTrilogy'' |
| 93 | ** In ''Johnny And The Bomb'', when Kirsty thinks that she and Johnny have traveled to the future, the first thing she wants to do is to find out what horses have won so she and Johnny can become rich. |
| 94 | ** After Wobbler has been trapped in the 1940s, he uses his knowledge of upcoming trends in the fast food industry to open his own chain of hamburger restaurants and become a millionaire. |
| 95 | ** Whenever Mrs. Tachyon comes into any cash, she time-travels to the date on the coin or note to get the most value from the money. |
| 96 | * In ''The King's Wishes'' by Creator/RobertSheckley, a couple running an electrical appliance store have a few of those stolen. Turns out it was a genie from the past who got a job at the royal palace [[{{Nepotism}} solely through having influential relatives]], and, when the queen demanded spells to clean her clothes or cool her chambers, he found the spells to be too complex and could do nothing but [[MugglesDoItBetter steal some tech from our time]]. At first, they try to banish him (doesn't work because a genie is immune to all spells except from his own country, which they don't know). Then, they sabotage the devices and refuse to do maintenance on the ones already taken. So the genie attempts to start trading. At first, they are afraid it will cause a TemporalParadox, but change their mind after the genie says [[spoiler: "Don't worry, I'm from {{Atlantis}}. A couple of years and nothing will remain of it '''or''' your tech"]]. Then they decide to trade as much as possible. |
| 97 | * In the ComicBook/Superman novel ''Literature/LastSonOfKrypton'', [[BigBad the Master]] is planning to make a fortune by using a time-displacer to bring future versions of habitable planets into the present and sell them to settlers. Then in a hundred years or so, the time-traveled copies of those planets will disappear... |
| 98 | ** That's not the worst of the Master's time-travel-related scheming, though. He also wants to grab every black hole along the border between the Sagittarius Arm and the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy and throw them millennia into the future. Without those black holes to hold the Arm to the rest of the Galaxy, it will become a mini-Galaxy of its own -- and the Master will be in a perfect position to raise an army and conquer the entire Arm. |
| 99 | * In the YA novel ''Literature/LocksmithsCloset'', Lock and Gary use a time portal to: (1) Hide five quarters under the porch. (2) Go to the future, get the quarters and bring them back to the present. (3) Take the quarters from the future and hide them next to the "original" quarters. (4) Repeat this process until they have 5,120 quarters, then call it a day. Unfortunately, they forgot to do (5): [[spoiler:Come up with a plausible, parent-satisfying explanation for why they both have $640 in quarters stashed under the bed.]] |
| 100 | * In the novel ''Literature/TheManWhoFoldedHimself'', the protagonist uses his time-travel belt to get rich, but gets bored with money and decides to mostly use time-travel for sightseeing and [[spoiler:screwing himself]]. |
| 101 | * In ''Mastodonia'' by Clifford Simak, the protagonists decide to make some money off their time-travel capability by running hunting safaris into the distant past. Of course, the first place... er, ''time''... that most hunters want to go to is the Age of Dinosaurs. |
| 102 | * ''Literature/TheMessengerSeries'': In the past, one messenger allowed themselves to be exploited for money, using their powers as a successful medium. When Favour found out, she was stripped of her abilities. |
| 103 | * ''Literature/NightWatchSeries'' rather abruptly ventures into this territory in the later books. At first the general assumption is that both Night and Day Watches finance their operations through front companies in the human world, with the Night Watch [[TheFettered feeling the obligation]] to rely on "wholesome" pursuits like making dairy products and therefore being generally more strained for cash than their EvilCounterpart. And then, in "Sixth Watch" it is suddenly revealed that they have pretty much unlimited funds obtained by farseers playing stock market. Granted, it does play in the overarching theme of [[MirroringFactions blurring the border]] between Light Ones and Dark Ones. |
| 104 | * H. L. Gold's story [[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31892/31892-h/31892-h.htm "The Old Die Rich"]] is built around the CompoundInterestTimeTravelGambit, but with an unpleasant twist for the travellers. |
| 105 | * In Creator/TomHolt's ''Overtime'', one firm guarantees investors a profit by sending their money back in time to invest in ''the Crusades!'' (It's complicated.) |
| 106 | * In the science fiction novella ''The Plagiarist'', a time-traveller supports herself by passing off science fiction stories from other authors (stories that wouldn't be published in the original timeline for decades) as her own writing. |
| 107 | * ''Literature/ThePsychologyOfTimeTravel'': The reporter Zach Callaghan previously published an exposé about time travellers using their unique situation to minimize their income tax. However, there are regulations in place to try and keep things like information leaks and the importation of cross-time materials from enriching individual time travellers. |
| 108 | * ''Literature/{{Replay}}'': |
| 109 | ** The protagonist has a heart attack at 43, and wakes up in the body of his 18-year-old self. He uses his knowledge of the future to get rich, but gets bored with it. |
| 110 | ** The protagonist meets a young woman who also found herself looping through time in much the same way (essentially a 20-plus year long GroundhogDayLoop). During one loop, she went to film school, became a movie producer and recruited Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/GeorgeLucas to collaborate on a science-fiction blockbuster called "Starsea" in 1976, one year before they created ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'' respectively. Starsea ends up becoming the most successful movie of all time, and she becomes a power player in Hollywood. The protagonist identifies himself as a fellow time-traveler when he meets her by mentioning some of her possible future projects; he asked if she would be producing ''Film/ANewHope'', advised that ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' may be a bit redundant after "Starsea" (which covered similar themes), but ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial'' should be fine, as well as ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', but [[TakeThat she should talk to Spielberg about that first sequel]]. Years later, she takes another unusual gamble by hiring Rob Reiner (years before he became a filmmaker) to direct a comedy about [[Film/WhenHarryMetSally a mis-timed mismatched couple]]. |
| 111 | * In ''Rivers of Time'' by L. Sprague de Camp, Reginald Rivers and his partner the Rajah use an experimental time machine to run hunting safaris and scientific expeditions into various past time periods. |
| 112 | * In ''Literature/ASoundOfThunder'' by Creator/RayBradbury, Travis' agency runs safaris into the past for big game hunters, who pay handsomely for the privilege. They take great care to ensure their clients only kill dinosaurs that were going to die anyway (in this case, a tree falling over it) and otherwise don't affect the present, but this ''is'' the story that named the ButterflyOfDoom... |
| 113 | * The ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series, where TimeTravel is an integral and recurring aspect of the story's universe, has time tourists, and at one point we even see a group capturing footage of the ''actual'' Battle of Waterloo for a historical documentary. |
| 114 | * In the short story "Literature/TimeAndTimeAgain" by Creator/HBeamPiper, the [[PeggySue 43-year-old Allan Hartley's mind is sent back in time to his 13-year-old self's body in 1945]]. He intends to alter history by having his father Blake elected U.S. President in 1960 and thereby prevent the outbreak of WorldWarThree. Allan plans to raise primary capital for his father's campaigns by placing bets on [[UsefulNotes/HorseRacing the winners of the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes]] and by using his knowledge of future developments in chemistry to establish a company that will overshadow IG Farben. |
| 115 | * In ''Time Safari'' by David Drake, Henry Vickers works for an Israeli company that has invented a time machine. To fund their experiments, the company hires out the time machine for hunting safaris into the distant past. |
| 116 | * Many people try this in ''Literature/TimeScout''. Usually they try to smuggle artwork to the present, or gamble downtime. And time tourism is booming. |
| 117 | * In Robert Heinlein's ''Literature/ToSailBeyondTheSunset'', Lazarus Long travels back in time and warns his parents of the imminent 1930s stock market crash. This information makes his parents and their descendants extremely rich. |
| 118 | * In ''Literature/UpTheLine'', by Creator/RobertSilverberg, most of the major characters work for the Time Service. The protagonist and several other characters are Couriers, who take parties of tourists to sightsee historical events. One use for the hefty fees charged to the tourists is financing scholarly research via time travel. |
| 119 | * In ''[[http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/08/wikihistory Wikihistory]]'', [="SneakyPete"=] changes history by getting Hitler admitted to Vienna's Academy of Fine Arts, and brings back some genuine Hitler paintings to sell. He forgot that the paint on these supposedly 200-year old paintings wasn't completely dry yet... |
| 120 | [[/folder]] |
| 121 | |
| 122 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 123 | * ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Conversed in a flashback between Jimmy and Mike in the finale. While discussing where would they go if they have a time machine, Jimmy lies he would go back in time to invest in Berkshire Hathaway and come back as a billionaire. Mike (who says he would stop his past self from becoming a dirty cop) is disappointed as he knows full well that Jimmy is bullshitting. |
| 124 | * ''Series/{{Blackadder}} [[Recap/BlackadderSS3BlackadderBackAndForth Back & Forth]]'' involves an unscrupulous man with a time machine. By the end he's King, his buddy is PM, he's married to the hottest woman in history, he has 98% approval, and had disbanded parliament. |
| 125 | * In the ''Series/ChildrensHospital'' episode where Dr. Maestro traveled back to the 40s, he made sure to write down a LongList of businesses that would become famous in the ensuing years. Unfortunately, the plan isn't ''that'' well thought through, so he winds up locking it in a desk and eagerly reading it in the present day. |
| 126 | %%* Attempted in the series ''Series/CrimeTraveller'' where it is foiled by the TimeyWimeyBall. |
| 127 | * ''Series/DoctorWho'': |
| 128 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS17E2CityOfDeath City of Death]]": The MonsterOfTheWeek is splintered throughout time. His Renaissance persona makes Leonardo da Vinci whip up 6 more copies of the Mona Lisa with the intent of having his 20th-century persona steal the one in the Louvre and then sell off all seven and make a huge profit. |
| 129 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame The Long Game]]": Adam Mitchell, a TeenGenius who joined the Doctor and Rose on their travels at the end of the previous episode, tries to make money out of information about future technological developments. This could cause major disruptions to the timeline if it led to advances being made centuries ahead of their time, so the Doctor sends Adam home and tells him he is no longer welcome in the TARDIS. |
| 130 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion School Reunion]]": It was just plain weird how the schoolteacher the Doctor replaced won the lottery -- she didn't even play. The winning ticket was pushed under her door at midnight. |
| 131 | ** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E7TheUnicornAndTheWasp The Unicorn and the Wasp]]", when Donna accidentally mentions Literature/MissMarple and ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' to Creator/AgathaChristie years before she wrote them, and then adds, "Tell you what, copyright, Donna Noble, okay?" |
| 132 | ** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]": It's implied the Doctor did this with the lottery ticket [[spoiler:which he gave to Donna]]. And he got the coin to buy the ticket from the bride's dead father in the past, so that he could get her a wedding present. |
| 133 | ** The Eleventh Doctor increasingly likes to get rid of minor interfering characters by arranging for them to win the lottery, even on planets where ''there is no lottery''. |
| 134 | * In ''Series/EarlyEdition'', Gary supports himself by using tomorrow's newspaper to bet on the ponies. Gary only did that in the first episode and quickly realized that the money didn't bring him happiness. Afterwards, he was always against using the paper for personal gain. |
| 135 | * In ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', the Season 1 finale involves a time-travel paradox that, when resolved, leaves Carter and Henry the only people who remember it. In the second season premiere, Carter points to out Henry that they now know all the sports results for the next four years, as well as what movies will be good. |
| 136 | * In ''Series/FamilyMatters'', Carl gives his past self information on the stock market and in the present day becomes fabulously wealthy. However in this time he and his wife never had kids, Carl has been just money hungry, and just before they go back to fix it his wife wanted a divorce. |
| 137 | %%* Attempted in the early seasons of ''Series/GoodnightSweetheart'' but due to StatusQuoIsGod it doesn't work. A later attempt is more successful. |
| 138 | * A variation occurs in ''Series/GoodOmens2019''. Agnes Nutter uses her extremely accurate prophecies to direct her descendants in the '80s to invest in [[Platform/AppleMacintosh "Master Jobbes machine" for "an Apple that cannot be eaten"]]. |
| 139 | * In ''Series/LifeOnMars2006'', Sam participates in sweepstakes for the 1973 Grand National. He uses his knowledge to make sure he can profit from Red Rum's win. |
| 140 | * Lampshaded/subverted on ''Series/{{Lost}}'', in which Hurley goes back to the '70s and attempts to rewrite (or rather, write in the first place) ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' when he goes back in time -- not to make money, but to improve it, because "Ewoks sucked, dude." He apparently has every intention of sending it to George Lucas. Sawyer references this in a later episode when he and Juliet are being kicked off the island. He says they'll buy a ton of Microsoft stock and bet on the Dallas Cowboys for Super Bowl XII in 1978, so that they'll be set for life. |
| 141 | * One recurring plot in ''Series/ElMinisterioDelTiempo'' is people using the time doors to explore the past or the future for their own profit. Season 2's main antagonist, Darrow Ltd., is all about this, going to the past to buy or steal important cultural masterpieces and then sell them in the present - even if, for example, doing that would remove that cultural masterpiece's worth from the timeline. |
| 142 | * In ''Series/OdysseyFive'', five astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle ''Odyssey'' are sent back in time by a SufficientlyAdvancedAlien to prevent Earth's destruction that they have just witnessed. After the MentalTimeTravel, two of the crewmembers refuse to spend the next several years trying to figure out what will happen. One of them, a cynical geneticist named Kurt Mendel, decides to use his knowledge of the future to make some money and live it up. He bets all his savings on the outcome of a close football game, whose result depends on a single field goal kick that almost missed in the previous timeline. To Kurt's surprise, the kicker misses this time. He finds out that his unusually large bet has caused more people to bet on the game. When the kicker found out, the pressure caused him to miss. Despite losing all his money Kurt is overjoyed, because this proves that the future ''can'' be changed. |
| 143 | * ''Series/TheOrville'': In the 29th century, artifact dealers go back in time to steal famous vehicles. To prevent the timeline from being altered, they only steal vehicles that were originally destroyed. |
| 144 | * In ''Series/RedDwarf'', the crew's future selves abuse the Time Drive's power to indulge in the luxuries of the past. This also meant hobnobbing and currying favors with the worst that humanity had to offer, such as the Hitlers. The present-day crew is so disgusted by what they have become that they engage in a hopeless battle against their future selves' greatly upgraded ship. |
| 145 | * ''Franchise/{{Stargate|Verse}}'': |
| 146 | ** ''Series/StargateSG1'': |
| 147 | *** Done as a BrickJoke in "[[Recap/StargateSG1S2E211969 1969]]". After being returned to the eponymous year, Jack borrows some money from his commanding officer's younger self, promising to pay him back with interest. When the team returns home, said commanding officer tells Jack with a grin that Jack owes him $539.50, with compound interest. |
| 148 | *** "[[Recap/StargateSG1S8E19MoebiusPart1 Moebius, Part 1]]/[[Recap/StargateSG1S8E20MoebiusPart2 Part 2]]" involves SG-1 traveling back to 3000 B.C. to retrieve a [[PowerCrystal ZPM]]. Additionally, when Daniel suggests this at the beginning of the episode, Jack complains that he wouldn't let him use their time machine to go back and watch [[EveryYearTheyFizzleOut the Cubs win the 1908 World Series]]. |
| 149 | ** In the ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' episode "[[Recap/StargateAtlantisS04E20TheLastMan The Last Man]]", Sheppard tries to do this; while he's temporarily in the future, he asks hologram-Rodney if he remembers any Super Bowl winners from the 25 years after Sheppard left and before Rodney made the hologram. Unfortunately for him, Rodney "never was much of a sports fan"... |
| 150 | %%*** Also, Rodney is Canadian. |
| 151 | * ''Franchise/StarTrek'': |
| 152 | ** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E9AMatterOfTime A Matter of Time]]" concerns a traveler from the 26th century who came back to see what the 24th century was like... except he's really from the 22nd century and has stolen the TimeMachine he's using, so that he can steal futuristic technology and bring it to the past (his present), where he would "invent" it. |
| 153 | ** The ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' book "Legends of the Ferengi" has a brief summary of what happens when an [[HonestJohnsDealership underhanded]] ProudMerchantRace [[GambitPileup discovers]] TimeTravel. (Eventually, a Ferengi named Twim decides to put a stop to the lunacy, does... ''[[NoodleIncident something]]''... with a time machine, and when the dust clears, Twim is Grand Nagus and the penalty for TimeTravel is death.) |
| 154 | --->17822 was a ''very'' interesting year on Ferenginar. In that year alone, over twenty thousand Grand Nagi held office; the Ferengi Financial Exchange crashed 3152 times, while setting 12322 record highs; there were 41098 civil wars; an unknown number of Ferengi-incited interstellar wars (estimates are in the millions); and the Ferengi sun went nova at least once a week.\ |
| 155 | In other words, 17822 was the year Ferenginar discovered time travel. |
| 156 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S2E10AMostUnusualCamera A Most Unusual Camera]]" involves a camera that can take pictures of the future (you take a picture, but when it develops it, shows the subject five minutes in the future). The people in the episode go to the racetrack and take pictures of the tote board, which would show the winners and who they should bet on. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 160 | * Well, parallel universe travel, but ''Podcast/TwilightHistories'' specializes in providing actions to alternate worlds. Also in the episode “May His Kah Endure Forever” [[spoiler: the pharaoh is a traveler from another universe who has come to carve out an empire of his own in Egypt]]. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 164 | * In the Time Travel based RTS game ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'' this is known as 'Retconomy'. One of the playable species creates harvesters by morphing one of their basic units. These basic units can be built and paid for in the future and then sent into the past where they become harvesters and begin gathering resources. The end result is that the player will have gathered more resources in a shorter amount of... er... time than a player that had not used time travel. |
| 165 | * In ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', musician Albert Fink has made a bundle by taking advantage of a portal to the future in his studio to plagiarize songs. |
| 166 | * Agent 5, Gage Blackwood, is framed for stealing items from his mission time periods in ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject 2: Buried in Time'', and he enlists his past self to fix the problem. From the news articles, everyone is aware of what the dangers of time travel are about, and from how celebrated Gage was from his efforts in the previous game, his peers refuse to believe that Gage would ever do this for personal gain, he was only arrested because that's where the evidence pointed. [[spoiler: Turns out that he really was framed. His colleague Agent 3, Michelle Visard, tampered items in those mission time periods to spread time travel technology to an alien race, since she, having had to research several time periods of war, believed [[HumansAreBastards humans should not be trusted with time travel technology.]] Because the items she was modifying would not only coincide with Gage's mission locations, they were also to be sold in an auction at the Louvre in the present day, Agent 3 could get away with it without the Temporal Security Agency knowing. She almost succeeded, [[StableTimeLoop if not for future Gage's intervention in the first place]].]] |
| 167 | * ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'' has an interesting take on this. You can "fix" the lottery by simply doing the exact same thing as before. This works because the lottery numbers are fixed for a given save file, so you can buy a lotto ticket on the first day, >> to the last day to find the number, then go back in time. Once you've gone back in time, you can buy the next/last (see time paradox for explanation of that comment) winning number, >> to the third day, and by golly, you have the winning number. Rinse and Repeat until you max out the money. Or, more efficiently, just open one of the 100 rupee chests in Clock Town, deposit the money, rewind time, then open it again. |
| 168 | * In ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'', one of the seasonal league mechanics (which is now in the main game), involves this. You meet an explorer named Alva Valai who offers you a business proposal: She opens a PortalToThePast to an ancient temple that's been lost in today's history built 2000 years ago during its construction, kill some architects to determine what kind of treasure room gets made in there, repeat 11 more times until she can pinpoint the temple's location in the present, loot it, then reset the timeline of the temple and repeat. Another NPC mentions that Alva's fixation with looting this particular temple keeps her from wrecking havoc on the timeline. |
| 169 | * PlayedForDrama in ''VideoGame/QuantumBreak''. A time travel experiment gone wrong in 2016 sends Paul Serene to [[TimeCrash the End of Time]], but he manages to find another working time machine and escape back to 1999 (the earliest he can go by [[OurTimeTravelIsDifferent the game's time travel logic]]), where he founds Monarch Solutions with the aim of finding a way to stop the End. With his future knowledge, Paul makes financial investments that cause it to rapidly grow into a MegaCorp. A long series of whiteboards in the last level even shows his preparations year by year, whether they're financial (investing in [=YouTube=] and Twitter the moment they become available) or [[VillainWithGoodPublicity would provide good PR]] (having cleanup services ready when Deepwater Horizon explodes, helping Monarch employees during the subprime mortgage crisis). |
| 170 | %%* The trope is used very loosely in ''RampageThroughTime''. |
| 171 | * In ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' expansion pack ''Into the Future'', you can travel to the future and go to Oasis Landings' city hall to obtain knowledge of winning lottery numbers, and then travel back to the present to use that knowledge to obtain a large sum of Simoleons. Doing this is one of the steps necessary to have the Philanthropist statue made in your honor. |
| 172 | * ''VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime'': |
| 173 | ** This is BigBad Cyrille La Paradox's plan. By altering the past, including making false genealogical trees, he intends to establish his present organization as an NGOSuperpower, with himself being allegedly descended from royalty. |
| 174 | ** Cyrille's lackey, Grizz, has a similar usage of time travel: make elaborate cave paintings in the Ice Age, dig them up in the present, then sell them for an obscene fortune. |
| 175 | * ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2'' offers a variation. The Department of Dimensional Affairs within the [[MegaCorp Spirius Corporation]] are made up of those who possess the ability [[DimensionalTraveler to enter alternate universes]]. It's heavily implied they're using this power in order to predict and influence events in their own dimension. One of their agents, [[SmugSnake Doctor Rideaux]], is credited with several medical discoveries despite his young age, and in truth, he's stealing research that hasn't yet been done in his universe from other worlds. Although some people do find him shady, he gets away with it since the Department's role is to destroy these alternate universes, leaving no proof of his actions. |
| 176 | * The aliens in ''VideoGame/ZakMcKrackenAndTheAlienMindbenders'' have a machine aboard their [[TheMothership mothership]] that predicts winning lottery numbers. Once you get aboard, all your financial troubles are over. |
| 177 | [[/folder]] |
| 178 | |
| 179 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 180 | * In ''WebAnimation/SonicForHire'', the plot of Season 6 revolves around Sonic using the [[VideoGame/ChronoTrigger Epoch]] to go back in time to make himself rich and powerful, before escalading into other characters doing the same thing. Unfortunately, [[TimeyWimeyBall this ends up having a negative effect on the space-time continuum]]. |
| 181 | [[/folder]] |
| 182 | |
| 183 | [[folder:Webcomics]] |
| 184 | * Dave Strider of ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' uses his time travel powers to create several copies of himself from the future. They get dressed in various disguises and cooperate in a stock exchange, thus allowing Dave to make a killing. There is one downside, though: Dave always has to make sure he's [[StableTimeLoop going to be his future selves]], or else he will spawn an alternate timeline, and one of the rules of time travel in ''Homestuck'' is that alternate timelines, and everyone from them (even if they travel into the alpha timeline), are doomed to die. |
| 185 | * ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'' proposes [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=3579 an alternate version]] of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'' where Scrooge does this. |
| 186 | * ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': |
| 187 | ** In the "Instant Replay" arc, Kevyn uses stock market information from the future to get several million credits and hire the mercenary company that was going to kill captain Tagon. |
| 188 | ** At the end of the aforementioned arc Kevyn's future self buys [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-07-22 lottery tickets]] once he's done saving the galaxy, and [[spoiler: [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2010-07-07 bets on some rigged races]] which gets the mob angry at him]]. |
| 189 | * Doctor Cook from ''Webcomic/{{SSDD}}'' got on the [[MegaCorp Maytec]] board of directors after finding a PDA with stock quotes that fell through a time portal. In addition when he and the other "S.S.D.F." cast get stranded in the 21st century he starts a tech company (even Tessa admits to making a few quid via future knowledge). |
| 190 | %%* This is how Cassie Wells of ''Webcomic/TimesLikeThis'' funds many of her time travels, [[spoiler: and her time machine in the first place]]. |
| 191 | * Jin of ''Webcomic/WapsiSquare'' uses her memory of previous times through a GroundhogDayLoop to make a killing in stocks. |
| 192 | * ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'': A time machine is built that's powered by low-background lead, which is scarce enough that they only have enough for one round trip. After an explanation that the primary source of low-background lead is Roman shipwrecks Black Hat Guy suggests they [[https://xkcd.com/2321/ create some more]]. |
| 193 | [[/folder]] |
| 194 | |
| 195 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 196 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', Jimmy goes back in time to make his father invest in a successful business that he originally decided not to invest in. When Jimmy goes back to the present, he has everything he ever wanted, but his parents are cold and distant. One of early shorts had Jimmy trick his mother into letting him have a single cookie, then use a time travel remote to rewind time a few seconds to get the same cookie over and over again. |
| 197 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'', Stan goes back in time to the 70s and drops a "Best of the 1970s" cassette there. The Roger of the past finds it and becomes a wealthy songwriter by "[[PlagiarismInFiction writing]]" the songs on the tape. [[AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted He then loses it all]] thanks to heavy spending on parties and luxuries when disco goes out of style. |
| 198 | * An episode of the ''[[WesternAnimation/CaptainCavemanAndTheTeenAngels Captain Caveman]]'' segment of ''[[WesternAnimation/TheFlintstones The Flintstone Comedy Show]]'' sees this as the 20th century villain Futuro's plan: using a time machine to go back in time to Bedrock and steal random worthless stuff (a coat rack, benches, a cash register, etc.) and sell it in the present as valuable "antiques." |
| 199 | * In ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', Ulrich uses a Return to the Past to buy a winning lottery ticket for Yumi's family, so they won't have to relocate. This gets everyone mad at Ulrich because each Return to the Past makes Xana stronger. |
| 200 | * Louie's "GetRichQuickScheme" in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' involves using time travel to "find" lost historical treasures before they were lost. It's not stealing because, being lost, they didn't belong to anyone. While it seems like the setup for a StableTimeLoop, it actually sets up a "Timephoon" that brings people from each timeframe he visited into the present. |
| 201 | * David Xanatos of ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' created a StableTimeLoop where he had a coin from a thousand years ago sent to his younger self, which by then was worth enough to start his financial empire. |
| 202 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' two-parter "[[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E12WeirdWesternTales The Once and]] [[Recap/JusticeLeagueUnlimitedS1E13TimeWarped Future Thing]]", a supervillain named Chronos uses a time machine to steal numerous artifacts and monuments from the past, allowing him to become a wealthy and powerful crime lord when he returns home to Gotham City in the future. |
| 203 | * In the ''WesternAnimation/KimPossible'' "A Sitch In Time" mini-arc, Shego lays the groundwork for [[TakeOverTheWorld world domination]] by using time travel to make a fortune. |
| 204 | * In the ''ComicStrip/{{Popeye}}'' cartoon featuring "Brutus" instead of "Bluto", there was a story where Wimpy used a crystal ball to become wealthy through the stock market. |
| 205 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/RubySpearsSuperman'', Lex Luthor steals a machine that can see one hour into the future. He considers using it to bet on horses. |
| 206 | * A more sympathetic example appears in the ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' episode "[[Recap/SouthParkS8E7Goobacks Goobacks]]". The titular time travelers come from a BadFuture of poverty and unemployment. Thus, they travel back in time, work odd jobs, and set up bank accounts that will provide for the families they left behind. |
| 207 | * ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'' had YetAnotherChristmasCarol where Stroker stumbles into a lottery scam ring where the Ghost of Christmas Future relays winning lottery tickets to the Ghost of Christmas Past through the Ghost of Christmas Present as they teach people the meaning of Christmas. They attempt to assassinate Santa Claus when he started getting on their trail, which gets Stroker involved when he accidentally got their current lottery ticket. |
| 208 | * In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheTick'', people from the far future have set up a hotel in prehistoric times, using ''Australopithecus'' as staff. |
| 209 | [[/folder]] |
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