History Main / DeadDrop

The obvious risk is that someone can (inadvertently or otherwise) find the message. In fiction, if the protagonist happens to find a dead drop that isn't meant for them, the party that set up the drop will often try to do one of two things: [[JoinOrDie Welcome them into the fold]] or [[HeKnowsTooMuch try to eliminate them]].

[[folder:Fan Fiction]

* ''Film/{{Accident}}''. The client pays off the crew of {{professional killer}}s by leaving a packet of money in the backseat on an unlocked car in a multilevel garage, with the bay number sent to him by text.

* ''Series/TheEqualizer''. In one episode, an innocent bystander is mistaken for the next link in a courier line of spies. A package was dropped off to the doorman of his apartment (the real courier). When someone turns up to murder the doorman and steal the package, he hastily scribbled an address on it to make it look like normal mail. Unfortunately the killer was not fooled and stole the package, assuming that the address was for the next link in the chain which he was trying to shut down.
* At the start of the third season of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' the resistance are receiving information from a source inside the Cylon government leaving information inside a filing cabinet and a flipping a nearby dog bowl over to indicate a delivery has been made. Tyrol, who collects the information, doesn't know who's making the deliveries and explains that it's safer for everyone that way. The audience quickly learns that it's Gaeta, President Baltar's aide, who's been making the drops. Once the Cylon occupation has been dealt with Gaeta reveals he was the source by describing the drop method in front of Tyrol, information that saves him from being executed as one of LesCollaborateurs.

* ''Series/CowboyBebop''. Spike reveals that he's NotQuiteDead to his former friend Ana, and asks her to find out if his former enemy Vicious also knows he's alive. It's too dangerous for them to meet again, so in a later episode Spike makes contact with a sushi vendor working as Ana's cut-out with: [[SpySpeak "I hear the sake on Mars is only good when it rains."]] The vendor hands him chopsticks with the paper wrapper bearing a message: VICIOUS KNOWS.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. Radical privacy group Vigilance are understandably paranoid about government surveillance, so this is one of the techiques they use to operate below the radar in a world where BigBrotherIsWatchingYou for real. In "Mors praematura", Reese and Finch find an apparently empty lockup with a message written on the wall in infrared paint. Unfortunately it's also rigged with gasoline sprayers and an igniter, to [[FieryCoverup burn the evidence]] and [[BoobyTrap anyone else who comes poking around]].

The obvious risk is that someone can (inadvertently or otherwise) find the message. In fiction, if the protagonist happens to find a dead drop that isn't meant for him, the party that set up the drop will often try to do one of two things: [[JoinOrDie Welcome him into the fold]] or [[HeKnowsTooMuch try to eliminate him]].

* In ''Film/{{Hackers}}'', after the hackers get evidence on the [[PennyShaving Salami Slicing]] plot by the Big Bad, the FBI arrest them and start hauling them away to the local branch office. As they pass, Crash Override tosses the disk into a trash bin near the exit. As they are being putting into the police cars, he sees Cereal Killer standing with a group of onlookers. Crash starts yelling, "They're trashing our rights!. They're trashing the flow of data! Hack The Planet!" Cereal yells back, "Hack The Planet!" and later finds the disk, and takes it to be exposed.

* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': Butler has a FriendInTheBlackMarket who drops off purchases this way. It's mentioned to be far more convenient than trying to find some secret place to meet up.
-->Butler's friend even accepted credit cards, eliminating the need for the macho stand-off that typically accompanied black market transactions.

* At the start of the third season of ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'' the resistance are receiving information this way from a source inside the Cylon government. Information is left inside a filing cabinet and a nearby dog bowl is flipped over to indicate a delivery has been made. Tyrol, who collects the information, doesn't know who's making the deliveries and explains that it's safer for everyone that way. The audience quickly learns that it's Gaeta, President Baltar's aide, who's been making the drops. Once the Cylon occupation has been dealt with Gaeta reveals he was the source by describing the drop method in front of Tyrol, information that saves him from being executed as one of LesCollaborateurs.
* The spies in ''Series/TheAmericans'' often use these; one mark is a yellow chalk line on a mail box.

* In the ''[[VideoGame/{{Infamous}} inFAMOUS]]'' games, dead drops are used as a source of background information not normally available to help the player understand the full scope of various situations.

* The ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' series has the Team (and sometimes, their Justice League mentors) use dead drops when they're operating under plausible deniability ops to insert teams or their gear when they can't do things overtly.

A "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_drop dead drop]]" is one option. The gist of it is that there is a location, typically HiddenInPlainSight, where one person can leave a message (or money, or just about anything that can fit in the container), then leave. Later on, someone else goes to the location and retrieves whatever was left at the drop. This allows for information or items to be exchanged without public interaction between the participants, which helps with PlausibleDeniability: If the people in question never publicly (or even privately) associate, it's harder to prove any sort of connection between them.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. Radical privacy group Vigilance are understandably paranoid about government surveillance, so these are one of serveral techiques they use to operate below the radar in a world where BigBrotherIsWatchingYou for real. Reese and Finch find one of their dead drops in a lockup

* In the Creator/FritzLang spy movie ''Ministry of Fear'' (1944), the Allied plans for the invasion of occupied Europe have been microfilmed by Nazi spies and hidden in a cake being raffled at a village fair. The next chain in the spy ring was supposed to 'win' the cake and take it with him, but by a fluke the protagonist gets it instead, setting off the plot. There's a BrickJoke at the end of the movie when the protagonist reacts in alarm when his LoveInterest starts discussing their wedding preparations, which of course would include a cake...

* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': Butler has FriendInTheBlackMarket who drops off purchases this way. It's mentioned to be far more convenient than trying to find some secret place to meet up.