History Main / OminousMultipleScreens

* ''SluggyFreelance'': Hereti-Corp holds its shadow-faced meetings in one, often lampshaded, e.g. "Why is this room so dark and ominous when there are so many bright glowing screens?"

* [[Creator/MontyOum Monty Oum's]] standard work setup involved a huge number of screens, at which he seemed to be both watching inspiration material and [[{{Workaholic}}working on multiple things at once]].

* The [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Obsidian Shrine]] in ''{{Mai-HiME}}'' has a bunch of monitors attached to a central console.

* In ''DigimonAdventure02,'' Ken's fortress had a dozen or so screens posed at different angles in front of his chair. Often, they were all showing the same thing from different angles.

* In {{The Stanley Parable}}, [[spoiler:there is a large room with screens on the surrounding walls, monitoring Stanley's co-workers (if they were around)]].

* The 2013 version of ''Theatre/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' has a humorous version in the Department of the Future, which has five screens set up for the Chocolate Television demonstration. When Mike Teavee zaps himself into {{Cyberspace}} via the transporter, he not only appears on different screens, but manages to jump from one to another at will as the others try to find a way to get him out.

* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' uses this in its intro sequence. The Villains stand in front of a wall covered in monitors showing news broadcasts and scenes from the old PC intro. In the end they all synchronize into a big screen showing the hand grasping Earth.

* It's been said that President LyndonJohnson has a special TV with three screens made so that he could watch all of the major news networks at once. It only played the sound from one screen at a time, though.
** His contemporary, ElvisPresley, just bought three ordinary televisions and sat them next to each other.

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* In the opening cinematic of the PS port of ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' the BigBad and his [[TheDragon Dragon]] is shown looking at a bank of monitors.

* In the second season of the horror anthology ''Film/TheHunger'', narrator Julian Priest, a MadArtist who inhabits an old prison, can monitor the comings and goings of others in his domain via the security system with its many television monitors. Some of the opening and closing sequences feature him using the screens to illustrate his points. It's worth nothing that Julian is played by DavidBowie, whose first major dramatic role was as Thomas Jerome Newton in ''TheManWhoFellToEarth'' (see Film above), so this might be an ActorAllusion.

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* ''{{Gormenghast}}'': Villain Steerpike has a hidden chamber where he watches all comings and goings in the castle -- except instead of TV screens, it's all down through hidden mirrors and periscopes.

* ''DarkAngel'' a character watched many screens, and combined this with some form of ESP-type ability he referred to as heuristics to predict the future.

* ''JFilm/esusChristSuperstar'' (2000): There is this in Caiaphas' room. Well, the room and the priests themselves are ominous enough even without the screens.

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''{{Gormenghast}}'': Villain Steerpike has a hidden chamber where he watches all comings and goings in the castle -- except instead of TV screens, it's all down through hidden mirrors and periscopes.
* In ''[[{{Nightside}} Hell To Pay]]'', Jeremiah Griffon has a wall of TV screens in his conference room, playing non-stop world news and financial reports. Probably a ShoutOut to Ozymandius, except that Jeremiah admits they're mostly for effect: he's a centuries-old immortal and nothing on the news is likely to surprise him, but the display [[GenreSavvy intimidates potential business rivals]] by making him appear brilliant and informed.
* The second book in the Alosha series, Shaktra, is a fantasy example of this, with [[spoiler:[[IAmLegion a group of hive-minded alien races]] attempting to recruit the Earth races via the Internet.]] Eerily glowing screens ensue, used to intense atmospheric effect.
* In ''The Gap Sequence'', [[BigBad Holt Fasner's]] mother [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic Norna]] is a bed-ridden invalid who spends all day watching Every.Single.News.Channel from human space and collating all the information therein. Her near-omniscience is one of the secrets of her son's immense power.
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* Any NASA movie :
** ''{{Apollo13}}''
** ''Film/{{Armageddon}}''
** ''SpaceCowboys''
* ''TheMatrixReloaded'': The Architect's chamber is filled wall-to-wall with screens, showing Neo. The implication is they are [[spoiler:other Ones from earlier instances of the Matrix]]. It was also used for surveillance so he could see anywhere in the Matrix at any given time, be it past or near future, which actually made sense. Often the screens would work together to form a bigger image.
** This is [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowed]] in the first film in the scene where the Agents interrogate Neo; the view shows multiple screens showing Neo in the interrogation room, then zooms in on one screen which becomes the actual scene itself as the Agents walk in. This effect is used and reversed multiple times in the Neo/Architect sequence.

* ''TheWitchesOfEastwick'': Darryl Van Horn has a bank of TV screens, apparently just for the hell of it. One woman isn't enough for him, why should he settle for one screen?

* ''HotFuzz''. The head of the Neighbourhood Watch Association has an office (in the police station) with multiple monitors from CCTV cameras all over the village.
* ''WarGames'' has the terrifying climax of JOSHUA 'playing' thermonuclear war over and over again on multiple screens, just to ram home how utterly screwed the human race is if he ever actually launches the nukes.
* ''JesusChristSuperstar'' (2000): There is this in Caiaphas' room. Well, the room and the priests themselves are ominous enough even without the screens.
* ''{{The Man Who Fell to Earth}}'': Thomas Jerome Newton, being an AlienAmongUs, can tell what is going on in the wider scheme of things by watching many televisions. In fact, these screens only become ominous as they distract him from paying attention to those around him, and the many streams of information overwhelm him at least once.

* ''{{Exalted}}'': The central control room of the Realm Defense Grid. Supposedly the system can look at anywhere in Creation, and in the Infernal splatbook, the use of Blasphemy charms[[hottip:*:Super powers granted by the lords of hells.]] is guaranteed to make the user appear in their screen.

* Gendo Ikari in ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' uses a lot of screens that mostly show the same picture (note especially the first episode). Actually, NERV in general seems to be outfitted with these redundant displays all over the place. Heck, they aren't even the ''villains''; they just like feeling oppressive.

* In ''VForVendetta'', the head honcho (Adam Susan in the comics, Adam Sutler in the film) of [[strike:the British Nazi Party]] Norsefire has a very [[CargoShip errr... interesting relationship]] with his OminousMultipleScreens.