History Main / OminousMultipleScreens

* Toward the end of the short film ''Rings'' (which bridges between the first and second american [[Film/TheRing Ring]] films), when Jake Pierce reaches his seventh day after watching the cursed video tape, he panics and tries to play the tape across a bank of TVs in an electronics store, only to get caught and thrown out by a security guard who happens to be in the same Ring group as Jake.

* The Control Room in ''Pinball/JurassicPark'' is this.
* Seen in the "Ruiner" table of ''VideoGame/RuinerPinball''

* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': The Mother Brain boss fights with three screens that heal her every round. You can actually target them and take them out, but it makes her go berserk and nearly impossible to defeat. The trick is to leave one screen alone and kill the other two, which reduces the healing but leaves her beatable.

* The control centres of space agencies around the world, like [[https://rmglennon.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dscn0917.jpg the one at NASA's JPL,]] while hopefully not ominous, certainly do qualify, with usually one or multiple large screens taking up an entire wall and rows of consoles.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'': Eejee's chamber in the ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' comics.

* ''VideoGame/ArmedAndDelirious'': The Great Rabbit's surveillance monitors in his office, which he uses to keep tabs on Granny's movements. Some puzzles have to be solved by sabotaging security cameras as well.

* ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'': When you finally find [[SelfDemonstrating/GLaDOS]]' at the endgame, her mainframe is surrounded by a cluster of monitors showing a sped-up slideshow of dozens of random images. Some of the monitors change to a [[TimedMission timer]] [[spoiler: when she starts filling the room with neurotoxin.]]

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS4E13TheIInTeam}} The I In Team]]", a scene of Buffy and Riley making love moves to one of Professor Walsh [[SinisterSurveillance watching them on a bank of screens]]. Becomes a CrowningMomentOfAwesome at the end of the episode when Buffy uses those same screens to threaten Walsh after The UriahGambit fails to kill her.

* Averted in ''InspectorGadget'' - although Doctor Claw is the kind of villain to sit in his lair and say sinister things while watching his minions by video, making him perfect for this trope, he pointedly has just one screen.

* [[http://www.barco.com/~/media/Images/References/2013/Belgacom/Barco_Belgacom_videowall_20121220-48%20jpg.jpg?mh=900&mw=900 Network Operations Centers]], whether for large telecoms or datacenters, are the ultimate expression of this concept. Most have dozens, and possibly over a hundred, different large screens plastered over every single inch wall space, with desks having dozens more. They show everything from individual machine consoles to network traffic flow, call volumes and destinations, potential intrusion alerts, power issues, HVAC status, to trending of any of a hundred different metrics. Small [=NOCs=] will have less than a dozen people in them; large ones up to a hundred.

* The control centres of space agencies around the world, like [[https://rmglennon.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/dscn0917.jpg the one at NASA's JPL]], while hopefully not ominous, certainly do qualify, with usually one or multiple large screens taking up an entire wall and rows of consoles.

* {{Superman}}: In a goody-two-shoes version of this trope, Supe has been shown to have a room that resembles an empty missile silo filled from top to bottom with screens showing every news report from around the world at once. Justified since Supes actually has the ability to watch all the screens at the same time, so he can go out and help when necessary.

* In Season 3 Episode 3, of ''{{Series/Warehouse 13}}'', [[spoiler:Love Sick]] an ex-worker for computer store "Tiger Electronics" broke through the system and communicated with the workers and customers, [[spoiler:unknowingly infecting them with the computer virus he used to gain access to unknowing user's webcams, via [[http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Judah_Loew_ben_Belazel%27s_Amulet Judah Loew ben Belazel's Amulet]].]]

* ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'': In ''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.

-->'''Creator/TerryGilliam: You try to see the faces on the screens in front of you, but the real faces and voices are down there and you have these tiny voices in your ear. To me that's the world we live in, the way we communicate these days, through technical devices that pretend to be about communication but may not be.

-->'''Creator/PeterGilliam: You try to see the faces on the screens in front of you, but the real faces and voices are down there and you have these tiny voices in your ear. To me that's the world we live in, the way we communicate these days, through technical devices that pretend to be about communication but may not be.

* ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'': Quite common for the Combine. Unfortunately, since the engine can only render from one camera at a time, they always end up showing the same thing. They all show the same thing, but by God are they determined to show whatever the hell it is. The standard monitor is made up of three screens! And then there's the consoles themselves to consider... Of course, once you hit The Citadel, they [[UpToEleven crank it up to 11]].

* ''{{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[[note]]Super powers granted by the lords of hells.[[/note]] is guaranteed to make the user appear in their screen.

* The [[ElaborateUndergroundBase Obsidian Shrine]] in ''Anime/MaiHime'' has a bunch of monitors attached to a central console.

* Played with in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Inside of Thymilph's Ganmen, he has multiple monitors. One of them is [[MaleGaze a close-up of Yoko's breasts]].
* Spike never confronts the bounty in the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode "Brain Scratch" directly. Instead, he only manages to find a trap room full of [=TVs=], and succumbs to some kind of ultrasound attack after a face on those [=TVs=] monologues at him for a bit. Luckily, Jet and Ed have already discovered where the villain was broadcasting from, and manage to stop him before he can finish Spike off.
* The GagSeries ''Anime/NegimaSecondSeason'' uses this often.
* ''Manga/ChronoCrusade'': In the manga, Aion kills [[spoiler:Pandaemonium]], who then [[BodySurf searches for another host]]. He believes there's nobody left to host her, but several large screens pop up along the walls of the room they're in to show who she plans to take over next--[[spoiler:Rosette Christopher]].

* ''Manga/DeathNote''. The control room in L's HQ has these along one wall. [[spoiler: You don't get much more ominous than every screen in the HackerCave informing you that your systems have been completely wiped.]] Near's HQ one-ups L's by having ''three'' walls covered with [=TVs=].

* ''Anime/MekakucityActors'': When Hibiya uses his powers to find the BigBad's lair, the first thing he notes is "a wall of TV screens". [[spoiler:They're implied to represent the multiple time loops experienced by the cast]].

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. We get the ominous sense of Ozymandias' superhuman intelligence: he ''can'' pay attention to all those screens at once. Ozymandias claims to see oncoming war from the vibes he picks up from the images -- so the pictures take on a second dark significance.

* Eejee's chamber in the ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' comics.

* ''Film/{{Serenity}}'': Mr.Universe's control room. Although the number of screens is toned down and really just to show how random Mr.Universe is.
* A comedic version occurs in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII''. In the 2015 segment, Marty's son comes home from school and watches a half dozen TV channels at one time. Then it turns serious when they all begin flashing messages that announce that Marty was fired.
* ''Film/BabylonAD''. In the apartment in New York there was a setting that showed what was likely hundreds of channels at once. Though that seemed to simply be a menu setting, as it was possible to single one out.
* ''Film/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.
* ''Film/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.
* ''Film/JesusChristSuperstar'' (2000): There is this in Caiaphas' room. Well, the room and the priests themselves are ominous enough even without the screens.
* ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'': 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.
* The control room of the Facility in ''Film/TheCabinInTheWoods''. Becomes NightmareFuel when the monsters get loose, and the individual screens show people dying in horribly varied ways.
* There's one set up at the Nuclear Disarmament Summit from ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation''
* Shredder is introduced watching these in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990''.
* Zeke in ''Film/{{Sliver}}'' owns a surveillance room with numerous video monitors which he uses to spy on tenants of an exclusive New York residential building.
* The villain Ozymandias in ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' is shown in his lair viewing a wall filled floor to ceiling with television screens, each showing a different image, in order to demonstrate his ability to pay attention to each one simultaneously.

* 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.

* In Season 3 Episode 3, of ''{{Series/Warehouse 13}}'', [[spoiler:Love Sick]] an ex-worker for computer store "Tiger Electronics" broke through the system and communicated with the workers and customers, [[spoiler:unknowingly infecting them with the computer virus he used to gain access to unknowing user's webcams, via [[http://warehouse13.wikia.com/wiki/Judah_Loew_ben_Belazel%27s_Amulet Judah Loew ben Belazel's Amulet]].]]
* ''{{Series/Dollhouse}}'' either plays this straight or [[MindScrew shows us a mind in a weird way]] when [[spoiler:Victor joins Mindlink]].
* A non-ominous example: the Muppet control room on ''Series/TheJimHensonHour'' consisted of hundreds and hundreds of TV screens. This made sense, as the idea was that Kermit the Frog assembled the show by tuning into every television feed in the universe and picking the best stuff. This being the Muppets, characters could also get flung out of screens and into the control room itself.
* ''Series/{{V|2009}}'' (2009): Maggie gets past the Visitors' lower-tech for-show surveillance room and into their real one. Lotsa screens.

* 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 Music/DavidBowie, whose first major dramatic role was as Thomas Jerome Newton in ''Film/TheManWhoFellToEarth'' (see Film above), so this might be an ActorAllusion.

* In both the book and the TV series of ''{{H2G2}}'', when the Vogon Constructor Fleet arrives to announce to the people of Earth that their planet is, regrettably, scheduled for demolition, Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz hijacks every TV set, radio, telephone, computer screen, et c, to relay the message.

* The WABAC Machine in ''Pinball/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkleAndFriends'' has a screen for each of its game modes.

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'': The Dark City has one landmark that stands out: a tall building topped with a cluster of warped television screens of various sizes. Strangely, nothing is actually displayed on the screens at any time, and the building itself is only important because some important scenes just happen to occur around it. Additionally, DIZ has computers that control the virtual Twilight Town. Roxas seems to enjoy destroying those.

* Players in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' can purchase [[http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Image:Tech_Control_Aux-Monitor-Bank-1.jpg monitor banks]] and [[http://paragonwiki.com/wiki/Image:Tech_Control_Aux-Mega-Monitor-1.jpg mega monitors]] for their hero/villain lairs.
* ''VideoGame/SagaFrontier'': Genocide Heart, [[spoiler:the last boss of [=T260G's=] quest]], is a supercomputer who fights in a room full of display screens. These screens act as its LifeMeter: as it is damaged, more screens fizzle out and show static.
** During Red's quest, you fight a boss in front of a bank of screens displaying an IdolSinger (who is actually [[spoiler:a Black X operative]]). The screens change what they display each round, and the party is hit with different effects depending what's on the screens.
* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline'': During the first phase of the Vol Opt (or its Ultimate mode evolution, Vol opt ver.2) Boss battle, the supercomputer's visage is displayed on, and moves between, the multiple monitors encircling the chamber while he throws various electrical attacks at the player characters. While his face is visible on screen, attacks against the monitors break them and deal damage to him. By the end of the phase, all the screens are broken, either through damage or the explosions that occur after defeating him.

* Shows up in the endgame of ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'', specifically if you side with [[TheChessmaster House]] or become the WildCard. After installing the override chip in Hoover Dam, all the computer screens with have either House or Yes Man's image upon them.

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

* In an episode of the ''WesternAnimation/XMen'' animated series, Mojo comes to take the heroes to his dimension by appearing in multiple TV screens while Scott and Jean are at the mall. Eventually, his assistant Spiral would go from the same image on all screens to one life-sized image spread across them... and step out into reality.

* Shredder is introduced watchong these in ''Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1990''.

* The villain Ozymandias in ''Film/{{Watchmen}} is shown in his lair viewing a wall filled floor to ceiling with television screens, each showing a different image, in order to demonstrate his ability to pay attention to each one simultaneously.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. In "The I in Team" a scene of Buffy and Riley making love moves to one of Professor Walsh [[SinisterSurveillance watching them on a bank of screens]]. Becomes a CrowningMomentOfAwesome at the end of the episode when Buffy uses those same screens to threaten Walsh after The UriahGambit fails to kill her.

* ''ChronoCrusade'': In the manga, Aion kills [[spoiler:Pandaemonium]], who then [[BodySurf searches for another host]]. He believes there's nobody left to host her, but several large screens pop up along the walls of the room they're in to show who she plans to take over next--[[spoiler:Rosette Christopher]].