History Main / EinsteinSue

->''"...but more important things are going on, like how our government, with all their scientific technology discovers that the alien ships are using our own satellites against us, sending out a signal that will eventually run out and probably mean an attack. Oh wait, no sorry, this was figured out by one cable repairman whose job is to make sure that your {{HBO}} is coming in clear. {{FBI}}, TV maintenance, they're both pretty similar."''

* David Levinson in ''IndependenceDay'', despite the huge array of government scientists working on the alien spaceship issue, he's the only one, seeming in the world who notices the signal they're sending through Earth's satellites. Justified in that his father points out that he was a top MIT graduate and had the skills and opportunity to work in just about any government think tank, but chose instead to work for the cable company for reasons that are never really explained.
* ''IAmLegend'' with the character Robert Neville(Will Smith). Despite the fact that the world's best scientists were working to find a cure for the disease that changes humanity into mutants and they failed it just seems highly unbelievable that one man managed to find and make a cure when the world's best minds tried and failed.
** To be fair, most of the other scientists working on it are assumed to have been killed, while he worked on it with no progress for years.
*** That, and he was one of those scientists, and had all the data that the other scientists had gathered before they died.

* Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's {{Foundation}} series.
** That's dubious. Even the first short story says he has others who he is working with, and ''Prelude to Foundation'' details his carrer as basically the leader of a research group.

* If not the TropeMaker, then certainly the TropeCodifier is [[DoctorWho the Doctor.]] The man's job description is to wander around time and space, find himself in planetwide chaos, know off the top of his head what's wrong, and save the world without the higher ups knowing the wiser. (Unless the higherups are behind the whole thing, [[AuthorTract in which case the Doctor takes some time to yell at them a bit,]] ''then'' save the world.) Justified as he has just under a millennium of experience under his belt, technology that outclasses anyone else in the galaxy at any given time, and is a bit too close to "complete nutjob" for the average person to stomach.

* Hari Seldon in Isaac Asimov's [[Foundation]] series.

Compare TheJorEl, TheCassandra, OnlySaneMan. Related to TheOnlyOne.

* David Levinson in ''IndependenceDay'', despite the huge array of government scientists working on the alien spaceship issue, he's the only one, seeming in the world who notices the signal they're sending through Earth's satellites.

* ''TheCore''
** Must have been a different movie. Every character is an actual, accredited expert in their field, each with several degrees, save the hacker, which is justified as you can't really get a degree in HollywoodHacking.

** To be fair, most of the other scientists working on it are assumed to have been killed, while he worked on it with no progress for years.

There's a crisis underway! The AlienInvasion is imminent, there's a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 50 foot tall monster]] ready to attack [[ThrowAwayCountry Tuvalu]], a huge cache of nuclear missiles may be [[ANuclearError launched needlessly]], a [[ThePlague humanity-destroying virus]] is about to be released on the unsuspecting public, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the President's daughter has strep throat]]!! No matter, there's a huge team of scientists working on it. The entire world's best efforts are focused on the problem, and -- wait, that one guy at the hot dog stand in Des Moines has the solution! Never mind how grossly unqualified he is, how totally unconnected he is to the situation, he knows exactly what's going on, [[CassandraTruth if only he could get them to believe him]]. It seems in a big world full of know nothing experts, he is TheOneGuyWithABrain.

** That's because the aliens were only using the commercial comsats and not interfering with the military channels. When an alien warfleet is hanging over Earth, nobody ''cares'' if the cable TV reception is bad... except maybe one obsessed chief engineer at the cable TV company.

* Intentionally created and deconstructed in ''UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'' with Erika, the GreatDetective and Witch of Truth. Randomly floats onto Rokkenjima and then brilliantly solves the fifth arc's murders [[spoiler:with the wrong solution, not that it stopped her]], but said powers of deduction come at least partially from a mind that's become completely unhinged.

*** Again, more reasonable in the book version; Defense and State departments were dealing with the fact that their bosses had gone up in nuclear fire, and the Pentagon watch center was missing its seniormost officer due to his having been in a traffic accident. The only two other department head actually free to work the case during the critical time period was the National Security Advisor, who was a political incompetent. So its not so much 'Jack is the smartest guy in the government' as it was 'Jack's the only guy actually at his desk right now'.

* "I'm legend" with the character Robert Neville(Will Smith). despite the fact that the world's best scientists were working to find a cure for the disease that changes humanity into mutants and they failed it just seems highly unbelievable that one man managed to find and make a cure when the world's best minds tried and failed.

Compare TheJorEl, TheCassandra, OnlySaneMan.

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->''...but more important things are going on, like how our government, with all their scientific technology discovers that the alien ships are using our own satellites against us, sending out a signal that will eventually run out and probably mean an attack. Oh wait, no sorry, this was figured out by one cable repairman whose job is to make sure that your HBO is coming in clear. FBI, TV maintenance, they're both pretty similar.''

** Must have been a different movie. Every character is an actual, accredited expert in their field, save the hacker (geophysics, nuclear physics, etc.), which is justified as you can't really get a degree in HollywoodHacking.

There's a crisis underway! The AlienInvasion is imminent, there's a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 50 foot tall monster]] ready to attack [[ThrowAwayCountry Tuvalu]], a huge cache of nuclear missiles may be [[ANuclearError launched needlessly]], a [[ThePlague humanity-destroying virus]] is about to be released on the unsuspecting public, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the President's daughter has strep throat]]!! No matter, there's a huge team of scientists working on it. The entire world's best efforts are focused on the problem, and -- wait, that one guy at the hot dog stand in Des Moines has the solution! Never mind how grossly unqualified he is, how totally unconnected he is to the situation, he knows exactly what's going on, [[CassandraTruth if only he could get them to believe him]]. It seems in a big world full of know nothing experts, he is the one guy with a brain.

'''Examples''':
!![[AC:{{film}}]]

!![[AC:{{Literature}}]]

!![[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* [[TheWesley Wesley Crusher]] in several episodes of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' is frequently the only one who notices some blaringly obvious but important bit of information.

There's a crisis underway! The AlienInvasion is imminent, there's a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 50 foot tall monster]] ready to atack [[ThrowAwayCountry Tuvalu]], a huge cache of nuclear missiles may be [[ANuclearError launched needlessly]], a [[ThePlague humanity-destroying virus]] is about to be released on the unsuspecting public, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking the President's daughter has strep throat]]!! No matter, there's a huge team of scientists working on it. The entire world's best efforts are focused on the problem, and -- wait, that one guy at the hot dog stand in Des Moines has the solution! Never mind how grossly unqualified he is, how totally unconnected he is to the situation, he knows exactly what's going on, [[CassandraTruth if only he could get them to believe him]]. It seems in a big world full of know nothing experts, he is the one guy with a brain.

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