History Main / NeuroVault

* In "[[TheLaundrySeries The Jennifer Morgue]]", Bob Howard has the briefing for the next stage of his mission implanted this way. Unfortunately the circumstances change halfway through the book, so thanks to this trope Bob is forced to endure an InfoDump that's no longer relevant.

* TheLaundrySeries. In "The Jennifer Morgue" Bob Howard has the next stage of his MissionBriefing implanted this way. Unfortunately by the time it activates the information has already become obsolete, but he's forced to [[ItWontTurnOff endure the entire briefing anyway]].

* TheLaundrySeries. In "The Jennifer Morgue" Bob Howard has the next stage of his MissionBriefing implanted this way. Unfortunately by the time it activates the information has already become obsolete, but he's forced to endure the entire briefing anyway.

* From ''[[JackChalker Midnight at the Well of Souls]]'': Vardia Diplo 1261 is, for the most part, a human cassette reel -- a NeuroVault with legs. A message is encoded in her head, to be shuttled to another planet's embassy, where the vault is unlocked, and she's basically written over with the base "Diplo program".

* The whole premise of ''{{Chuck}}'' - the Intersect is an incredibly comprehensive espionage database so important it can't be trusted to a computer ([[FridgeLogic or, apparently, spread among many computers]]) so it's uploaded to the mind of a master-spy. Unless it should accidentally be uploaded into that master-spy's college roommate...

* ''CodeLyoko'': Franz Hopper hid the "keys to Lyoko" that XANA would need to escape inside himself and Aelita.

* The ''distrans'' of the ''{{Dune}}'' universe is used to encode messages in the voices of bats and birds. It can be used on humans, but it is frowned upon. So naturally both the protagonists and antagonists make use of human distrans.

* A literal case in ''Film/{{Elysium}}''. After Greg Carlyle uploads [[the reboot code to the space station of the same name]] to an implant in his brain, encrypts the program, and smashes the computer it came from, several of the characters are feverishly after that code when the protagonist Max steals it from Carlyle, [[spoiler: so that the people on Earth can be allowed to go to the station]]. But the encryption software kills whoever holds the item after transfer, and once it's modified at the end, Max dies.

* A literal case in [[Elysium]]. After Greg Carlyle uploads [[the reboot code to the space station of the same name]] to an implant in his brain, encrypts the program, and smashes the computer it came from, several of the characters are feverishly after that code when the protagonist Max steals it from Carlyle, [[spoiler: so that the people on Earth can be allowed to go to the station]]. But the encryption software kills whoever holds the item after transfer, and once it's modified at the end, Max dies.

* The ''distrans'' of the ''{{Dune}}'' universe is used to encode messages in the voices of bats and birds. It can be used on humans, but it is frowned upon.

* This is pretty much the entire premise of ''One of Us'' by Michael Marshall Smith. The main character makes his living storing memories that others want to get rid of temporarily -- for instance, a businessman about to screw over his partner hands over a memory of a moral lesson from his father. (Permanently destroying a memory screws up TheForce.) Unfortunately for him, someone figures out that this can work as LaserGuidedAmnesia for the giver, and that the BigBad only wants to kill anyone who ''remembers'' a particular secret.

* ''DarkAngel''

* In ''{{Fringe}}'', William Bell removed pieces of [[spoiler:Walter]]'s brain and put them into other people's brains in order to prevent information about [[spoiler:how to get to the other universe]] from falling into the wrong hands.

* In ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'' we discover that at the end of the previous movie, Spock placed his soul in Doctor [=McCoy=] just before his HeroicSacrifice.

Compare the various amnesia tropes, such as CriminalAmnesiac and EasyAmnesia. See also NeuralImplanting, another method this can be done.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Redcloak appears convinced the paladins of the Sapphire Guard had pulled this, though he appears to have been wrong. Redcloak himself has his own NeuroVault with [[spoiler: the divine part of the ritual to 'control', really 'transfer control' of the Gate's position to his deity, imparted to him by the Red Mantle. It qualifies as it was never commited to paper.]] It's not that far of a stretch for him to expect opposing forces to use the same kind of trick. Torturing O'Chul for information was also [[DragonWithAnAgenda Redcloak]]'s excuse for staying in Azure City.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': Redcloak was convinced the paladins of the Sapphire Guard had pulled this, though he appears to have been wrong.
** He knew there was no NeuroVault. Torturing O'Chul for information was [[DragonWithAnAgenda Redcloak]]'s excuse for staying in Azure City.
*** Hell, Redcloak himself has his own NeuroVault with [[spoiler: the divine part of the ritual to 'control', really 'transfer control' of the Gate's position to his deity, imparted to him by the Red Mantle. It qualifies as it was never commited to paper.]] It's not that far of a stretch for him to expect opposing forces to use the same kind of trick.

* ''ForgottenRealms'' has its share of memory transfers, but specifically in ''Return af the Archwizards'' the wizard spy dropped lots of reconnaissance data (for all we know, it could be ''centuries'' worth of examining SealedEvilInACan while hiding inside the same can) to another guy, because he was dying and it was the only way to save priceless knowledge. [[spoiler:Carrier used this memory only as provoked "I just feel it must be so" insights, even after he understood what's going on (which still made him so valuable that dead wizard's boss could neither let him go nor kill him, nor even use outright [[BrainWashed mind control]]).]]

* The Whispered in ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic''.

* Index Librorum Prohibitorum from ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex''.

* O'Neill frequently gets his head packed full of deadly amounts of [[LostTechnology Lost Wisdom]] from [[{{Precursors}} The Ancients]], barely surviving long enough to get it extracted by the Asgard on ''{{Stargate SG-1}}''.

* ''JohnnyMnemonic'', loosely based on WilliamGibson's short story of the same name.
* ''TheManchurianCandidate''
* ''FlightOfTheNavigator'' was about a little boy that had all sorts of star charts from aliens temporarily stored in his brain, and was later picked up for retrieval when the alien robot accidentally lost its own copies.

* Sebastian Rook does this on himself in ''{{Cypher}}''.
* The entire mission of the ''{{Inception}}'' is to do exactly this, though instead of information, the goal is to implant an idea. As well, Browning suggests that Fischer Sr. may have done this to his son in the first dream layer.
* In the TotalRecall2012 remake, Quaid learns that he has [[spoiler: the global shutdown codes for the Synth army]] locked away in his head from his time as Hauser, and must get this back to the Resistance. [[spoiler: Though it is actually a tracking signal for Cohaagen to follow back to the resistance base.]]

* In ''MassEffect'', Matriarch Benezia does this to herself to avoid being completely [[MoreThanMindControl indoctrinated]]. It works long enough for her to give vital information to the protagonists, before the indoctrination reasserts itself.

* In Harper 2.0 of Andromeda Harper gets the largest library in the universe downloaded into his brain. This slowly begins to burn up his brain until he gets rid of it. It's used for a ContinuityNod later when trying to remember where he hid some of the data.