History Main / ComputerEqualsMonitor

The trope originates with early personal computers. Systems such as the Platform/CommodorePET, the UsefulNotes/TRS80 models III and 4, and the UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh really were a case of the monitor also housing all of the vital computing components as well. However, the "all-in-one" desktop computer is no longer in the majority of computer usage by any stretch of the imagination (popularity of Creator/{{Apple}}'s [=iMac=] series aside), and anyone that requires a computer capable of doing heavy processing work (be it film editing and rendering, gaming, or just some serious number crunching) is unlikely to choose them over the now more commonplace monitor and computer tower setup.

** There's one story where thieves broke into a computer lab and stole the monitors and keyboards... but not the tower cases. Although that one might have been out of familiarity with UsefulNotes/Commodore64, which had the computer and keyboard in the same unit.

The trope originates with early personal computers. Systems such as the UsefulNotes/CommodorePET, the UsefulNotes/TRS80 models III and 4, and the UsefulNotes/AppleMacintosh really were a case of the monitor also housing all of the vital computing components as well. However, the "all-in-one" desktop computer is no longer in the majority of computer usage by any stretch of the imagination (popularity of Creator/{{Apple}}'s [=iMac=] series aside), and anyone that requires a computer capable of doing heavy processing work (be it film editing and rendering, gaming, or just some serious number crunching) is unlikely to choose them over the now more commonplace monitor and computer tower setup.

Compare ComputerEqualsTapedrive. See Also ScreensAreCameras and ShootTheTelevision.

* {{VideoGame/Inscryption}} near the end [[spoiler: this is subverted, when it's revealed ripping off P03's monitor head didn't stop his file uploading.]]

* VideoGame/Inscryption near the end [[spoiler: this is subverted, when it's revealed ripping off P03's monitor head didn't stop his file uploading.]]

MM** Miles also manages to create Edgar by spilling champagne on the keyboard.

** Averted in an easily-missed way earlier on, while Max is forcing his way into a steelworks owned by the BigBad, which is doubling as a narcotics lab. At one point you have to release an employee who'd been shoved in a holding cell for some reason so he could unlock a door for you. The monitor of the computer terminal into which your new friend had to enter the access code would break if it took a stray bullet when you disposed of the mooks at the security station, but the NPC still manages to open the door, with an extra line of dialogue {{handwav|e}}ing his ability to operate the machine blind.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]

* Averted by Creator/DeanKoontz in ''Midnight''. A kid is portrayed as a computer geek. When he has a chance to merge with his computer, he takes off the casing of the tower, and merges with both the tower ''and'' the monitor in horrifying fashion.
* [[ExploitedTrope Exploited]] in ''Literature/TheMysteriousBenedictSociety and the Prisoner's Dilemma''. Mr. Curtain's Ten Men destroy a bunch of expensive monitors in order to convince government agents that they have destroyed the Whisperer, which was captured from their employer by Mr. Benedict. The actual computers are buried deep underground, but because the government agents don't actually know how the Whisperer works, it's enough to convince them.
* Averted and lampshaded in ''Literature/{{Zodiac|1988}}''. The baddies trash a computer by busting both the monitor and the processor... which tips off the protagonist that they aren't the dumb thugs he'd assumed, else they'd be content with just breaking the former.

* At the start of ''LightNovel/ThatTimeIGotReincarnatedAsASlime'', as protagonist Satoru is dying, he begs his co-worker Tamura to destroy his hard drive before his family can [[PornStash see its contents]]. Tamura complies by throwing the tower ''and'' monitor into a bathtub full of water.

* Discussed in ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors''. Lotus and Junpei have a conversation about how a caveman would think that a monitor was the whole computer; this ties into the game's theme of passing information between two seemingly unconnected things. The setup that sparked this discussion, meanwhile, was a monitor that wasn't plugged into anything but a power outlet, but could run computer functions just fine, which initially confused Junpei until Lotus revealed that it's wirelessly connected to a nearby computer.