History Main / BurnerPhones

* ''Everyone'' in ''Series/BurnNotice'' uses burners constantly.[[note]]Ironically, the name of the show actually has nothing to do with burners--it refers to a notice sent to intelligence agencies stating that an operative has gone rogue and is not to be trusted.[[/note]] It's probably impossible to identify a single episode in the seven-season show that ''doesn't'' have at least one shot of someone throwing away a cell phone. {{Justified|Trope}} in that almost all the main characters are spies, or were spies, or were trained by spies, or just spend way too much time around spies.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Several phones are snapped in half and otherwise disposed of to cover up criminal activity over the course of the series. Saul has a whole ''drawer'' full of different cell phones. In Season 2, Walt manages to deflect Skyler's suspicions about him having a second cell phone. That is, until Walt is being sedated for cancer surgery, Skyler asks him about his cell phone, and Walt says, "Which one?" This leads to Skyler finding the burner phone and unspooling Walt's entire web of lies.

* In ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'', Matt Murdock gives a burner phone to Claire Temple so she can keep in touch with him, and uses one himself. Before finding out the truth about him, Foggy teases him about calling girls on it.

See also CuttingTheElectronicLeash.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Several phones are snapped in half and otherwise disposed of to cover up criminal activity over the course of the series. Saul has a whole ''drawer'' full of different cell phones. In Season 2, Walter manages to deflect Skyler's suspicions about him having a second cell phone. That is, until Walter is being sedated for cancer surgery in the finale, Skyler asks him about his cell phone, and Walter says, "Which one?" This leads to Skyler finding the burner phone and unspooling Walter's entire web of lies.

* In ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'', Matt Murdock gives a burner phone to Claire so she can keep in touch with him, and uses one himself. Before finding out the truth about him, Foggy teases him about calling girls on it.

* In Marvel's ''Series/{{Daredevil 2015}}'' series on Netflix, Matt gives a burner phone to Claire so she can keep in touch with him, and uses one himself. Foggy teases him about calling girls on it.

This is TruthInTelevision, as Cellphone Surveillance is used by law enforcement agencies to monitor the movements of people from their mobile phones.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': In "Recap/HomestarRunnerIKilledPomPom", when Homestar thinks he's guilty of murder and tries to set up an alibi for himself, he hangs around the King Of Town's castle and talks on a "cell phone". The phone is actually a piece of cardboard with a screen and keypad drawn on it--and it has "BURNER" written across the screen.

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Exaggerated in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode where a "nectar" dealer gives Leela and Amy the number to her disposable cell phone in case they change their minds about her product. Then a minute later they call it, before she even leaves the room, and the dealer tosses the phone into a wastebasket immediately after.

* The people trafficking sidequest in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' involves finding burner phones which belonged to Maurice Vega, the guy who tried to assassinate Aiden (and killed his niece by mistake) [[spoiler:because his wife was being held hostage]].

* Burners become crucial to ''Series/TheWire'''s wiretapping cases from the second week onwards. Much of the series revolves around a surveillance and countersurveillance arms race between police and drug dealers.

* The "clone phones" from ''Series/OrphanBlack''. Sarah is surprised to see that Beth has two phones but quickly learns that the pink one is only for calling the other clones, Alison and Cosima. At the start of season 2, she's hacked by [[spoiler:Rachel Duncan]] and has to take other people's phones, so Felix gets new green phones for the clone club to use. Then in season 3 he replaces those with blue phones, just in case.

* In Marvel's ''Series/{{Daredevil}}'' series on Netflix, Matt gives a burner phone to Claire so she can keep in touch with him, and uses one himself. Foggy teases him about calling girls on it.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': This is PlayedForLaughs when Lamar, a [[StupidCrooks dumb crook]], makes a call on his personal cell phone to demand a ransom after having kidnapped a rival gang member. Franklyn quickly grabs the phone away from Lamar and throws it out of the car window.

This can also be PlayedForDrama when an innocent or naive character fails to use a burner, after which a more GenreSavvy character snatches the phone away from his ear and hurriedly tosses it out the nearest window.

When spies or criminals need to communicate while performing illegal activities, they often take the precaution of using cheap, pre-paid cellphones, commonly refereed to as "burners". This allows them to quickly dispose of said burner in the event that law enforcement or other criminals uses it to track them.

Some ConsummateProfessional criminals even go as far as to completely destroy their burners to make sure it can't be used to locate them.

This can also be PlayedForDrama when an innocent or naive character fails to use a burner, only for a more GenreSavvy character to snatch the phone away from their ear and hurriedly toss it out the nearest window.

This is TruthInTelevision as Cellphone Surveillance is used by law enforcement agencies to monitor the movements of people from their mobile phones.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'', we see Jason Bourne buy a prepaid cell phone, which he then smuggles into the pocket of a journalist he wants to communicate with. While the agents observing Bourne and the journalist are perfectly prepared beforehand to surveil the journalist's own phone, this new phone comes completely out of the blue from their perspective, and thus it takes them a while until they are able to track it down and to eavesdrop.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Several phones are snapped in half and otherwise disposed of to cover up criminal activity over the course of the series. Saul has a whole ''draw'' full of different cell phones. In Season 2 Walter manages to deflect Skyler's suspicions about him having a second cell phone. That is, until he's being sedated for cancer surgery in the finale, Skyler asks him about his cell phone, and he says "Which one?" This leads to Skyler finding the burner phone and unspooling Walter's entire web of lies.
* ''Everyone'' in ''Series/BurnNotice'' uses burners constantly[[note]]Ironically, the name of the show actually has nothing to do with burners--it refers to a notice sent to intelligence agencies stating that an operative has gone rogue and is not to be trusted.[[/note]]. It's probably impossible to identify a single episode in the seven-season show that ''doesn't'' have at least one shot of someone throwing away a cell phone. {{Justified|Trope}} in that almost all the main characters are spies, or were spies, or were trained by spies, or just spend way too much time around spies.
* In Marvel's ''{{Series/Daredevil}}'' series on Netflix, Matt gives a burner phone to Claire so she can keep in touch with him, and uses one himself. Foggy teases him about calling girls on it.
* Adam has these usually on ''{{Series/Forever}}'', though rather than law enforcement, it was more likely a way to keep Henry guessing about his identity.
* The "clone phones" from ''Series/OrphanBlack''. Sarah is surprised to see that Beth has two phones but quickly learns that the pink one is only for calling the other clones, Alison and Cosima. At the start of season 2, she's hacked by [[spoiler: Rachel Duncan]] and has to take other people's phones, so Felix gets new green phones for the clone club to use. Then in season 3 he replaces those with blue phones, just in case.
* Burners become crucial to ''Series/TheWire'''s wiretapping cases from the second week onwards. Much of the series revolves around a surveillance and countersurveillance arms race between police and drug dealers.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'': This is PlayedForLaughs when Lamar, a [[StupidCrooks dumb crook]], makes a call on his personal cell phone to demand a ransom after having kidnapped a rival gang member. Franklyn quickly grabs the phone away from him and throws it out of the car window.
* The people trafficking sidequest in ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' involves finding burner phones which belonged to Maurice Vega, the guy who tried to assassinate Aiden (and killed his niece by mistake) [[spoiler: because his wife was being held hostage.]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* Exaggerated in a ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode where a "nectar" dealer gives Leela and Amy the number to her disposable cell phone in case they change their mind about her product. Then a minute later they call it, before she even left the room, and she tosses the phone in a wastebasket immediately after.

When spies or criminals need to communicate while performing illegal activities, they often take the precaution of using cheap, pre-paid cellphones, commonly refered to as "burners". This allows them to quickly dispose of said burner in the event that law enforcement or other criminals uses it to track them.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'': Several phones are snapped in half and otherwise disposed of to cover up criminal activity over the course of the series. In Season 2 Walter manages to deflect Skyler's suspicions about him having a second cell phone. That is, until he's being sedated for cancer surgery in the finale, Skyler asks him about his cell phone, and he says "Which one?" This leads to Skyler finding the burner phone and unspooling Walter's entire web of lies.

* Burners become crucial to Series/TheWire's wiretapping cases from the second week onwards. Much of the series revolves around a surveillance and countersurveillance arms race between police and drug dealers.