History Main / OverrideCommand

* In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', Admiral Kirk uses a prefix code (which is unique for each ship) to force the Reliant to lower its shields after it seriously damages the Enterprise in a surprise attack. It works, but only because Khan didn't know that feature existed. They state it wouldn't work if Khan had changed the passcode after stealing the ship.
** And the [[spoiler:"Make Ship Asplode"]] command from ''Star Trek III: The Search For Spock''.

* In the ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' remake, this is the key to the Cylons' CurbstompBattle of the entire Colonial Fleet in the opening stages of the war. One of the Sixes seduced Gaius Baltar, posing as a defense contractor, and convinced him to allow her access to the latest hardware being installed in the Fleet, ostensibly to give her an edge in bidding for the next contract. In reality, she inserted a backdoor that would allow the Cylons to remotely shut down any Colonial ships with the hardware installed. Since almost the entire fleet had been refitted with said hardware, the Cylons went through the Colonial Fleet like a chainsaw through tapioca.

* As expected of a KenAkamatsu Manga, [[MadScientist Hakase]] in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' built [[RobotGirl Chachamaru]] with her override function applied by adding moderate pressure to her right breast plate. Take from that what you will.
** Presuming the override only works when she's in diagnostic mode (the one time we've seen it used), this isn't either a security risk or too bad a choice. Easy target if you need that, and nothing there you'd normally be testing. And I've just realized there's no way to avoid double meanings here.
* In ''SpacePirateMito'', the mailsuits used by the main character and the BigBad have a glitch that's activated by hitting a sensor on the back. Once activated, the glitch short-circuits the suit, paralyzing the user.

* In ''TheInvisibles'', the antagonists know the override command to [[spoiler:the human brain]].

* Nagato and Asakura from ''TheMelancholyOfHaruhiSuzumiya'' know the override codes [[RealityWarper to reality.]] In the Light Novels the code they use is shown.

* In the ''{{Firefly}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Forward}}'', the Alliance has hardwired override commands installed on all their ships in case of subversion. Only Operatives and very high-ranking military commanders and officials know these codes. Unfortunately for them, many of these people were in the same room with a mind-reading psychic at one point....

* In the "GOFOTRON" arc of ''SluggyFreelance'', it becomes a sort of running gag that Riff overrides automated systems by tearing wires out with the phrase, "''Everything'' has a manual override." This tends to have some unexpected consequences, from disabling the ship to indirectly causing the destruction of the entire universe.

* ''FinalFantasyVIII'' has Selphie override several computers -- one a "manual override" (in a ButtonMashing minigame) and one a legit override in order to prevent a missile launch. (The password is EDEA, the name of the Sorceress dictator who's running the base.)

-->''Franchise/JurassicPark'' (the novel)

* Those electronic signs you see at the side of the road sometimes? The default password is commonly DOTS.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', Private finds the override code for the ship in the first one.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'', Kyle gets into a restricted website by rerouting the encryptions. And he does this just by pressing a bunch of random buttons on the keyboard.
* In ''CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'', Flint tries to stop the out-of-control FLDSMDFR (a food replicator which has grown into an EldritchAbomination) by uploading the Kill Code into it. Unfortunately, he ends up with the wrong file and has to resort to other methods...

* In ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', Admiral Kirk uses a prefix code (which is unique for each ship) to force the Reliant to lower its shields after it seriously damages the Enterprise in a surprise attack. It works.

** The example from ''Wrath of Khan'' shows up again in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', being used to shut down the shields of a captain who was waging a one-man war on the Cardassians. It was given to the Cardassians to stop him, but even without shields (however briefly) he still won.

* In SonicBattle, Professor Gerald has installed one of these in Emerl the robot, but it must be activated before it goes definitively berserk. [[spoiler:They aren't able to issue the command the second time.]]

* In one episode of StargateAtlantis Doctor Keller and Ronon are attempting to reclaim the Daedalus from the Wraith. Keller lists all the different systems they need to override and asks Ronon if he knows how to do all that. He proceeds to start shooting at the control crystals randomly.

*** One must wonder if the same commands would work on [[spoiler:Church, given more recent developments.]]

** Actually most of the time it's much easier: put a jumper on the pins marked "CLR_CMOS", wait a second, done.

* In ''{{Madagascar}}'', Private finds the override code for the ship in the first one.

** In the business, we call it, "Removing the CMOS battery, waiting for it to forget the BIOS password, and then having our way with it."

* In ''Film/DemolitionMan'', the Simon Phoenix is in a phone-booth-slash-computer-terminal when the police catch up with him. He sees that one of the cops is standing close to a wall and tries to activate the anti-graffiti system (metal rods that come out of the wall and use high voltage to clear the wall of ink). The computer senses the presence of the cop and refuses to run the system, but he promptly overrides the safety feature with [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish the password "7777777" (seriously)]], electrocuting the cop.
** To be fair, the password has some other characters in it so it's more like '777.77-7777-7_7777'. (Assuming that those characters aren't part of a shown pattern to aid in typing in the code.)
*** Earlier in the movie, the same baddie escapes confinement by voicing the passcode to the cuffs that were restraining him (which was probably part of [[spoiler: the programming he received while in cryostasis]]).
**** It should be noted that the person who programmed him with this information is also pretty much the designer of their society and technology, so he purposely made things easy for Phoenix.

* In the ''ComicBook/CivilWar'' storyline, when Spider-Man turns against the pro-registration camp, Iron Man uses an OverrideCommand to shut down Spidey's armour (which he designed), [[GenreBlind calling Spidey out]] on not realising that he would have won. Subverted when Spider-Man reveals that he ''[[GenreSavvy did]]'' [[GenreSavvy realise that]], and installed an [[IAmNotLeftHanded override override]].

* UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} and similar operating systems have "sudo" (which temporarily elevates your privileges for one command) and "su" (which elevates them until you undo it).[[hottip:*:su stands for SuperUser, which is the Unix equivalent to what Windows more prosaically calls an administrator account.]] This is useful because you can accidentally run malicious or otherwise damaging programs, but as long as your privileges aren't elevated at the time, then the potential damage is limited.

* In the ''MarvelCivilWar'' storyline, when Spider-Man turns against the pro-registration camp, Iron Man uses an OverrideCommand to shut down Spidey's armour (which he designed), [[GenreBlind calling Spidey out]] on not realising that he would have won. Subverted when Spider-Man reveals that he ''[[GenreSavvy did]]'' [[GenreSavvy realise that]], and installed an [[IAmNotLeftHanded override override]].