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Added example(s) and organize all Jack Finney examples into a single block
* Mid-20th-century SF author Jack Finney used this at least three times:
** In one of his stories, the main character sends people into the past who wanted to "emigrate" there. They would get themselves in photos -- usually around the edges of group photos, for some reason -- to let him know they'd arrived safely. [[spoiler: A Javert-like cop discovers what the protagonist is doing, and is about to stop him, so the protagonist sends him back in time. The protagonist later finds an old photo with the cop in it, looking very angry.]]
** In "The Love Letter", a man in the present day sends out an unaddressed letter complaining of his loneliness, and then a few days later finds a hidden compartment in his antique desk containing a letter from a lonely Victorian woman who received a strange, unmarked letter and wished she knew who to reply to. He writes another unaddressed letter, and again finds a hidden compartment in his desk that contains a letter from the Victorian woman. He realizes that there's one last unopened compartment, and writes to the lady explaining that this will be their last exchange and he wishes for something to remember her by. When he opens the last compartment, [[spoiler:he finds a photograph of her, and nothing else. Some time later, it occurs to him that there is one more place she could send him a message -- and the story ends with him in a cemetery, reading the PublicSecretMessage engraved on her headstone]].
** In "The Third Level," an ordinary guy tells how he discovered that Grand Central Station has a third level, which allows you to travel back in time to the late 1800s. He gets some vintage money and tries to find the third level again, planning to stay in the past, but never does. Then a friend of his disappears. That night the narrator is looking through his stamp collection (most of which are on unopened, empty envelopes) and finds one he never saw before. [[spoiler:This one isn't empty, either -- it contains a letter from his friend, telling how he ''did'' find the third level.]]
** In one of his stories, the main character sends people into the past who wanted to "emigrate" there. They would get themselves in photos -- usually around the edges of group photos, for some reason -- to let him know they'd arrived safely. [[spoiler: A Javert-like cop discovers what the protagonist is doing, and is about to stop him, so the protagonist sends him back in time. The protagonist later finds an old photo with the cop in it, looking very angry.]]
** In "The Love Letter", a man in the present day sends out an unaddressed letter complaining of his loneliness, and then a few days later finds a hidden compartment in his antique desk containing a letter from a lonely Victorian woman who received a strange, unmarked letter and wished she knew who to reply to. He writes another unaddressed letter, and again finds a hidden compartment in his desk that contains a letter from the Victorian woman. He realizes that there's one last unopened compartment, and writes to the lady explaining that this will be their last exchange and he wishes for something to remember her by. When he opens the last compartment, [[spoiler:he finds a photograph of her, and nothing else. Some time later, it occurs to him that there is one more place she could send him a message -- and the story ends with him in a cemetery, reading the PublicSecretMessage engraved on her headstone]].
** In "The Third Level," an ordinary guy tells how he discovered that Grand Central Station has a third level, which allows you to travel back in time to the late 1800s. He gets some vintage money and tries to find the third level again, planning to stay in the past, but never does. Then a friend of his disappears. That night the narrator is looking through his stamp collection (most of which are on unopened, empty envelopes) and finds one he never saw before. [[spoiler:This one isn't empty, either -- it contains a letter from his friend, telling how he ''did'' find the third level.]]
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* Jack Finney wrote a story in which the main character sent people into the past who wanted to "emigrate" there. They would get themselves in photos -- usually around the edges of group photos, for some reason -- to let him know they'd arrived safely. [[spoiler: A Javert-like cop discovers what the protagonist is doing, and is about to stop him, so the protagonist sends him back in time. The protagonist later finds an old photo with the cop in it, looking very angry.]]
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* In "The Love Letter" by Jack Finney, a man in the present day sends out an unaddressed letter complaining of his loneliness, and then a few days later finds a hidden compartment in his antique desk containing a letter from a lonely Victorian woman who received a strange, unmarked letter and wished she knew who to reply to. He writes another unaddressed letter, and again finds a hidden compartment in his desk that contains a letter from the Victorian woman. He realizes that there's one last unopened compartment, and writes to the lady explaining that this will be their last exchange and he wishes for something to remember her by. When he opens the last compartment, [[spoiler:he finds a photograph of her, and nothing else. Some time later, it occurs to him that there is one more place she could send him a message -- and the story ends with him in a cemetery, reading the PublicSecretMessage engraved on her headstone]].
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* ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'': The season five episode "Reunion" has three instances of this. After Alix escapes into time in order to safeguard the Bunny Miraculous, she hides a letter and photos of her adventures behind a painting for her father to find in the present day. Then Ladybug hides a letter for Alix, asking her to look up something two hundred years into the future. Finally, Alix goes into the past and leaves the reply under a statue in the museum, so Ladybug can make use of it.
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-->As well as the danger of [[ForWantOfANail tangentially altering the timeline in some way]], it relies on your messages being undisturbed for decades and subsequently found at the correct time. [[LampshadeHanging This is harder than it might seem]].
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-->As well as the danger of [[ForWantOfANail [[ButterflyOfDoom tangentially altering the timeline in some way]], it relies on your messages being undisturbed for decades and subsequently found at the correct time. [[LampshadeHanging This is harder than it might seem]].
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* An episode of the revival ''Series/QuantumLeap2022'' series had Ben write a letter intended to warn a woman (who herself was a recurring character and a SecretKeeper of Ben's) of her husband's impending death from a treatable heart defect as he had leaped out before he could tell her directly. [[spoiler:It works, but then he dies soon after in a car wreck.]]
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* ''Film/{{Frequency}}'':
** The father sends his wallet (with the killer's fingerprints on it) to his son 30 years later by way of hiding it in a very out-of-the-way spot in the family house (which the adult son still lives in, even though his mother has moved to an apartment).
** At another point [[spoiler:after the ham radio has been destroyed, severing their ability to communicate right when the father was struggling for his life,]] the father communicates with the son by burning a message into the oak table both of them are using.
** The father sends his wallet (with the killer's fingerprints on it) to his son 30 years later by way of hiding it in a very out-of-the-way spot in the family house (which the adult son still lives in, even though his mother has moved to an apartment).
** At another point [[spoiler:after the ham radio has been destroyed, severing their ability to communicate right when the father was struggling for his life,]] the father communicates with the son by burning a message into the oak table both of them are using.
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* ''Film/{{Frequency}}'':
''Film/{{Frequency}}'': A police officer uses an old ham radio in his home to talk to his father using the same radio 30 years ago, allowing them to change events in the mean time.
** The officer enlists his father to stop a killer before he murders [[spoiler:their own mother and wife]]. The fathersends fails in his wallet (with first attempt, but after hearing that the killer touched his father's wallet, he figures that the killer's fingerprints prints are on it) it, and instructs the father to his son 30 years later by way of hiding it hide the wallet in a very out-of-the-way spot in the family house (which home, where the adult son still lives in, even though his mother has moved to an apartment).
finds it.
**At another point [[spoiler:after After the ham radio has been is destroyed, severing their ability to communicate right when the father was struggling for his life,]] the father communicates with the son one more time by burning a message into the oak table both of them are using.
** The officer enlists his father to stop a killer before he murders [[spoiler:their own mother and wife]]. The father
**
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* [[TropeNamer David Xanatos]], from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', makes his fortune via this trope. After he's zapped back 1020 years in time by the Phoenix Gate, he leaves a package in the care of the Illuminati, to be delivered to his younger self 1000 years in the future (1975). The package contains three coins (worth thousands of dollars by the time the younger Xanatos receives them and uses them for his first investments, but near worthless for their era) and a letter with instructions on how to invest the money; and a lengthy letter to be delivered twenty years after ''that'' (1995, one week before the beginning of the episode) that details what he will have to do to ensure that he is sent to the past to send the coins and the letter in the first place. And he even makes a crack about being a "[[SelfMadeMan self-made man]]". [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent]]. Amusingly, of everyone who used the Phoenix Gate, he is the only one who got exactly what he wanted out of the experience - everyone else either failed to achieve what they attempted to do or laid the grounds for their own destruction, including the heroes.
** His father didn't think very highly of it though. As a wedding present, he gives David a penny, saying it's not worth much now, but in a thousand years it might be worth more. Made all better by the fact that Xanatos dragged him along just to [[WellDoneSonGuy just prove to him]] that he really was a self-made man. So he didn't quite get what he fully wanted.
** His father didn't think very highly of it though. As a wedding present, he gives David a penny, saying it's not worth much now, but in a thousand years it might be worth more. Made all better by the fact that Xanatos dragged him along just to [[WellDoneSonGuy just prove to him]] that he really was a self-made man. So he didn't quite get what he fully wanted.
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* [[TropeNamer David Xanatos]], from ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'', makes his fortune via this trope. After he's zapped back 1020 years in time by the Phoenix Gate, he leaves a package in the care of the Illuminati, to be delivered to his younger self 1000 years in the future (1975). The package contains three coins a single coin (worth thousands of dollars by the time the younger Xanatos receives them it and uses them it for his first investments, but near worthless for their era) and a letter with instructions on how to invest the money; its era), and a lengthy letter to be delivered twenty years after ''that'' (1995, one week before the beginning of the episode) that details [[StableTimeLoop what he will have to do to ensure that he is sent to the past to send the coins coin and the letter in the first place. And he even makes a crack about being a "[[SelfMadeMan self-made man]]". [[MagnificentBastard Magnificent]]. Amusingly, of everyone who used the Phoenix Gate, he is the only one who got exactly what he wanted out of the experience - everyone else either failed to achieve what they attempted to do or laid the grounds for their own destruction, including the heroes.
** His father didn't think very highly of it though. As a wedding present, he gives David a penny, saying it's not worth much now, but in a thousand years it might be worth more. Made all better by the fact that Xanatos dragged him along just to [[WellDoneSonGuy just prove to him]] that he really was a self-made man. So he didn't quite get what he fully wanted.place]].
** His father didn't think very highly of it though. As a wedding present, he gives David a penny, saying it's not worth much now, but in a thousand years it might be worth more. Made all better by the fact that Xanatos dragged him along just to [[WellDoneSonGuy just prove to him]] that he really was a self-made man. So he didn't quite get what he fully wanted.
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* In the movie ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', as Bruce Willis' character prepares to travel from the future, he is given the telephone number of an answering machine whose tape was found in archaeological research; the whole end-of-the-world problem ensured the tape was not erased for reuse. Problem is, they don't tell him the details, so he expects someone "in the know" to answer...
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* In the movie ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', as Bruce Willis' character Cole prepares to travel from the future, he is given the telephone number of an answering machine whose tape was found in archaeological research; the whole end-of-the-world problem ensured the tape was not erased for reuse. Problem is, they don't tell him the details, so he expects someone "in the know" to answer...
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** Marty tries to do this in the [[Film/BackToTheFuture first film]], with a "Do Not Open Until 1985" letter talking about how Doc gets gunned down. Doc tears it up while proclaiming he can't let it influence the future. [[spoiler:He later tapes it back together and reads it.]]
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** Marty tries to do this in the [[Film/BackToTheFuture [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 first film]], with a "Do Not Open Until 1985" letter talking about how Doc gets gunned down. Doc tears it up while proclaiming he can't let it influence the future. [[spoiler:He later tapes it back together and reads it.]]
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* A variant in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny'' as it isn't the time travellers but the inhabitants of the past who create a time machine and puzzle to keep it hidden to specifically [[spoiler: make sure someone comes back in time from the future to ''only that point in time'']].
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"Not to be confused with" cleanup.
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Often, but not always, part of a StableTimeLoop. Inspired by, but not to be confused with [[Film/BackToTheFuture what Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale did]].
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Often, but not always, part of a StableTimeLoop. Inspired by, but not to be confused with [[Film/BackToTheFuture what Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale did]].
StableTimeLoop.
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* In the movie ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', as Bruce Willis' character prepares to travel from the future, he is given the telephone number of an answering machine whose tape was found in archaeological research; the whole end-of-the-world problem ensured the tape was not erased for reuse (say that ten times fast).
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* In the movie ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', as Bruce Willis' character prepares to travel from the future, he is given the telephone number of an answering machine whose tape was found in archaeological research; the whole end-of-the-world problem ensured the tape was not erased for reuse (say that ten times fast).reuse. Problem is, they don't tell him the details, so he expects someone "in the know" to answer...
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** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS39E5FluxChapterFiveSurvivorsOfTheFlux Survivors of the Flux]]". While stranded at the start of the Twentieth Century, Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho create a [[IslandHelpMessage message visible from orbit]] near the Great Wall of China for Karvanista, who along with the Lupari fleet is protecting Earth in 2021. Karvanista sees the message but it only annoys him, as he doesn't have a time machine so what's he supposed to do about it?
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* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud 2'', the diary and letters that Max is writing to his mother... [[spoiler:since Elena, like Monica, is from 100 years into the future, and was forced to return there while Max was still an infant]].
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* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud 2'', the diary and letters that Max is writing to his mother... [[spoiler:since Elena, like Monica, is ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame'' Marty once again does this in Episode 5 by [[spoiler:giving young Emmet Brown a newspaper from 100 years into the future, with instruction not to look at it until he receives the Key to the City (which the newspaper depicts). The subtle message being that Marty was stuck in the past and was forced needed Doc to return there while Max was still an infant]].go back and pick him up.]]
* In ''VideoGame/CriminalCaseTravelInTime'', the team does this while stranded in TheSixties by opening a trust fund account for their boss then leaving a distress message inside the vault for him to read in 2029. It works, but unfortunately, [[spoiler:the timeline had already been altered by the BigBad, turning 2029 into a BadFuture where he the boss holds no power]].
* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud 2'', the diary and letters that Max is writing to his mother... [[spoiler:since Elena, like Monica, is from 100 years into the future, and was forced to return there while Max was still an infant]].
* In ''VideoGame/DarkCloud 2'', the diary and letters that Max is writing to his mother... [[spoiler:since Elena, like Monica, is from 100 years into the future, and was forced to return there while Max was still an infant]].
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* In ''VideoGame/BackToTheFutureTheGame'' Marty once again does this in Episode 5 by [[spoiler:giving young Emmet Brown a newspaper from the future, with instruction not to look at it until he receives the Key to the City (which the newspaper depicts). The subtle message being that Marty was stuck in the past and needed Doc to go back and pick him up.]]
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* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'': [[spoiler:Septimus]] does this in ''Physik'' by hiding a letter in a book he knows will still be around in 500 years, and [[spoiler:Nicko and Snorri]] do this in ''Queste''.
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* One Franchise/StarTrek comic had Captain Kirk stranded in the distant past on an uninhabited alien planet. He spends the next several ''decades'' hauling rocks up to the top of a plateau (even carving a staircase to make the trips a bit easier) and arranging them in the shape of a Starfleet insignia big enough to be seen from space. Back in his own time, the ''Enterprise'' spots the insignia while scanning planets looking for Kirk, finds his skeletal remains, and is able to date them in order to travel back in time and retrieve him shortly after he'd been stranded to begin with.
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* One Franchise/StarTrek ''Franchise/StarTrek'' comic had Captain Kirk stranded in the distant past on an uninhabited alien planet. He spends the next several ''decades'' hauling rocks up to the top of a plateau (even carving a staircase to make the trips a bit easier) and arranging them in the shape of a Starfleet insignia big enough to be seen from space. Back in his own time, the ''Enterprise'' spots the insignia while scanning planets looking for Kirk, finds his skeletal remains, and is able to date them in order to travel back in time and retrieve him shortly after he'd been stranded to begin with.
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* In the fanfic "FanFic/{{Homecoming}}", Doc sends another cross-decade letter telling Marty about his plans and sending him some family documents it wouldn't do for a historian to find.
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* In the fanfic "FanFic/{{Homecoming}}", "Fanfic/{{Homecoming}}", Doc sends another cross-decade letter telling Marty about his plans and sending him some family documents it wouldn't do for a historian to find.
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* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fic ''[[FanFic/DontPanic Don't Panic!]]'', Penny, trapped in Middle-earth, thinks of writing forward in time to let her mother know she's alive. Elrond informs her that it would be impossible, since even with elvish magic, parchment will only last an Age or so.
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* In ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fic ''[[FanFic/DontPanic ''[[Fanfic/DontPanic Don't Panic!]]'', Penny, trapped in Middle-earth, thinks of writing forward in time to let her mother know she's alive. Elrond informs her that it would be impossible, since even with elvish magic, parchment will only last an Age or so.
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* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', Ford and Arthur do this by accident when trapped on prehistoric Earth. Arthur drops his towel during an earthquake, it gets fossilized in a lava flow, then thrown out into space when the planet is blown up by the Vogons ''two million years later'' and picked up by the Heart of Gold, where Zaphod interprets it as a message and comes to rescue them. The Heart of Gold is powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive, so things like this are par for the course.
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* In ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', Ford and Arthur do this by accident when trapped on prehistoric Earth. Arthur drops his towel during an earthquake, it gets fossilized in a lava flow, then thrown out into space when the planet is blown up by the Vogons ''two million years later'' and picked up by the Heart of Gold, where Zaphod interprets it as a message and comes to rescue them. The Heart of Gold is powered by the Infinite Improbability Drive, so things like this are par for the course.
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[[folder:Web Comics]]
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* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "The Big Bang Theory", Stewie and Brian head back in time to the life of Creator/LeonardoDaVinci in order to prevent his assassination, which due to a variety of reasons is [[ButterflyOfDoom the lynchpin]] that would cause [[TimeCrash all of spacetime to fall apart]]. When they ultimately fail, only for reality to remain intact, they deduce that Stewie -- a descendant to Da Vinci -- [[YouWillBeBeethoven is meant to take Da Vinci's place for the time being]], and so he sends Brian to their present-day home. It too remains intact before there's a knock on the door: a representative from The Vatican delivering a message from "Da Vinci himself", who did so with instructions it be on their current exact time and date. The message itself is delivered by Stewie a week since Brian left, revealing he [[HumanPopsicle placed himself in a cryogenic stasis device in their basement]], instructing Brian to dig him up.
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* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "The Big Bang Theory", Stewie and Brian head back in time to the life of Creator/LeonardoDaVinci in order to prevent his assassination, which due to a variety of reasons is [[ButterflyOfDoom the lynchpin]] that would cause [[TimeCrash all of spacetime to fall apart]]. When they ultimately fail, only for reality to remain intact, they deduce that Stewie -- a descendant to Da Vinci -- [[YouWillBeBeethoven is meant to take Da Vinci's place for the time being]], and so he sends Brian to their present-day home. It too remains intact before there's a knock on the door: a representative from The Vatican delivering a message from "Da Vinci himself", who did so with instructions it be on their current exact time and date. The message itself is delivered by -- written a week after Brian left -- has Stewie a week since Brian left, revealing he explain that [[HumanPopsicle he placed himself in a cryogenic stasis device in their basement]], instructing Brian to dig him up.
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* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "The Big Bang Theory", Stewie and Brian head back in time to the life of Creator/LeonardoDaVinci in order to prevent his assassination, which due to a variety of reasons is [[ButterflyOfDoom the lynchpin]] that would cause [[TimeCrash all of spacetime to fall apart]]. When they ultimately fail, only for reality to remain intact, they deduce that Stewie is meant to take Da Vinci's place for the time being, and so he sends Brian to their present-day home. It too remains intact before there's a knock on the door: a representative from The Vatican delivering a message from "Da Vinci himself", who did so with instructions it be on their current exact time and date. The message itself is delivered by Stewie a week since Brian left, revealing he [[HumanPopsicle placed himself in a cryogenic stasis device in their basement]], instructing Brian to dig him up.
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* In the ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' episode "The Big Bang Theory", Stewie and Brian head back in time to the life of Creator/LeonardoDaVinci in order to prevent his assassination, which due to a variety of reasons is [[ButterflyOfDoom the lynchpin]] that would cause [[TimeCrash all of spacetime to fall apart]]. When they ultimately fail, only for reality to remain intact, they deduce that Stewie -- a descendant to Da Vinci -- [[YouWillBeBeethoven is meant to take Da Vinci's place for the time being, being]], and so he sends Brian to their present-day home. It too remains intact before there's a knock on the door: a representative from The Vatican delivering a message from "Da Vinci himself", who did so with instructions it be on their current exact time and date. The message itself is delivered by Stewie a week since Brian left, revealing he [[HumanPopsicle placed himself in a cryogenic stasis device in their basement]], instructing Brian to dig him up.
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collapsing duplicate example
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* In Connie Willis' time travel books, the historians use so much space in the classifieds trying to communicate with each other and the future that you begin to wonder if ''any'' classified ads are "real".
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** In Connie Willis' time travel books, the historians use so much space in the classifieds trying to communicate with each other and the future that you begin to wonder if ''any'' classified ads are "real".
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* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' has one episode where Jay, Kay, and Elle needed to stop a giant radioactive alien bug from reaching and destroying Phoenix in two hours, but in the present time it was way too big to take down so Jay and Kay travel back in time to the Wild West era when the alien was just an easily breakable egg hidden in an AbandonedMine. Unfortunately they got captured by the back-then BoomTown sheriff and thrown into jail, berift of their normal advances weapons (even if they weren't afraid of messing up the timeline by intoducing future alien tech for civilians to witness) and time travel in the series operates under SanDimasTime rules so they can't go back in time and try again. Kay's solution is to bury a small machine into the dirt floor of their jail cell, which emerges by itself at a preset time back in the present day of the now-GhostTown where only Elle is around to see the message of "follow us back in time -- we need help."
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* ''WesternAnimation/MenInBlackTheSeries'' has one episode where Jay, Kay, and Elle needed to stop a giant radioactive alien bug from reaching and destroying Phoenix in two hours, but in the present time it was way too big to take down so Jay and Kay travel back in time to the Wild West era when the alien was just an easily breakable egg hidden in an AbandonedMine. Unfortunately they got captured by the back-then BoomTown sheriff and thrown into jail, berift of their normal advances advanced weapons (even if they weren't afraid of messing up the timeline by intoducing future alien tech for civilians to witness) and time travel in the series operates under SanDimasTime rules so they can't go back in time and try again. Kay's solution is to bury a small machine into the dirt floor of their jail cell, which emerges by itself at a preset time back in the present day of the now-GhostTown where only Elle is around to see the message of "follow us back in time -- we need help."
