History Main / PhoneTraceRace

** In "Mr. Monk and the Missing Granny," though the police set up a wiretap when the guys who kidnapped Julie Parlo's grandmother, the kidnappers apparently know about the 45 second trace rule and hang up partway through.

* ''Juggernaut''. The police are shown racing to where the call from the bomber is coming from, only to find a bunch of public phones wired together.

* The Federal Marshals tracing Richard Kimble's call in ''Film/TheFugitive''. A subversion because Kimble wanted them to trace the call to the real killer's house.

* ''Film/{{Hopscotch}}'': "Follett couldn't pinpoint his own backside in broad daylight!" A subversion, in that Kendig wanted the Feds to stop by and destroy his former boss' summer home.

As digital computers became more powerful, a switch basically was a mainframe computer with a bunch on phone lines plugged into it instead of a bunch of racks connected by mechanical relays. As a result, tracing a call means nothing more than going to the console, entering the phone number and asking who is connected to it. Eventually with the development of SS7 switches, it got to be sophisticated enough you could get it yourself in real time for a few dollars extra through Caller ID.

* ''Franchise/{{Dragnet}}'' and ''Series/{{Adam-12}}'' have both used this on occasion to find victims, such as potential suicide cases who've called somewher and got disconnected.

* ''{{Dragnet}}'' and ''{{Adam-12}}'' have both used this on occasion to find victims, such as potential suicide cases who've called somewher and got disconnected.

** In "Beyond the Sea", the investigative ream prepares to trace a call because they expect that a convict on a DeathRow who claims is a psychic and might help them save two teenagers from torture and death. They think he's phony and that the kidnapper is his accomplice. They suppose he will call ''him'', instead, however, he calls Mulder's mobile phone. It's never explained how he got to know Mulder's number.

* Played straight in a number of episodes of ''TheXFiles''.
** "Pusher" comes to mind, where Mulder and Scully try numerous times to trace Modell's call, but cannot. The "countdown" aspect is even more sinister in this case, because in one instance, Modell induces a heart attack in the lead detective and hangs up seconds before the call is traced.

* {{Lost}} had an episode in which Kate called the police from a phone booth, with a clock set to remind her of the seconds she had before they could track her.

* On "Redacted" on ''TheMentalist'', the team acquired a dead man's cell phone, which one of their suspects was calling. They said it would take two minutes to triangulate the call. Patrick Jane took the phone, named a location and issued an ultimatum, then hung up. When everyone looked at him askance, he said that it would just be easier to bring the suspect to them. He was right.
* Still played perfectly straight on ''Series/TheFollowing'', despite the show's airing in 2013 and apparently being set in the present day.

-->'''Malory''': Guess how many pygmies died to build this table. I'll give you a hint: six.

* The non-fiction book ''The Cuckoo's Egg'' has a fairly detailed account of what it took to trace an international data call in the late Eighties. The author, Clifford Stoll, set up a honeytrap to try keep a hacker on-line long enough to trace.
** This would later become unnecessary, as phone companies and government agencies were able to perform something called a "lock-in trace," which kept the line from hanging up until the trace was complete.

* Seen quite often on ''Series/TwentyFour''. However, this show often averts it from the norm by them being able to get at least a partial trace even if they weren't able to narrow down the exact the location before the disconnect.

* ''BatmanArkhamCity'' has Batman using the bat-computer to trace the phone calls he gets from [[SerialKiller Victor Zsasz]]. Bonus points since the missions actually involve racing as well - Batman has to race across the city to another public payphone each time in order to prevent Zsasz from killing a random person. Zsasz is actually careful enough to never stay on the phone long enough each time to be traced, either, but Batman can build up enough detail from his repeated calls to eventually find his lair.

* In the ''NCISLosAngeles'' episode "Burned", the team attempt to trace a cell phone call to Callan. The guy on the other end is good enough to cut the call off when they triangulate it to within a block of his location.

* Certainly seen at least once on ''Series/TwentyFour'', probably much more often

[[quoteright:327:[[BlackChristmas http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/phonetrace_1382.png]]]]

* Among the better known [[HorrorFilms horror flicks]] to use the TheCallsAreComingFromInsideTheHouse twist, the original ''BlackChristmas'' features quite a lot of effort on the part of the police force trying to get [[AxCrazy the lunatic killer]] who likes obscene phone calls to stay on the line so they can get a trace.

* In ''The Seekers'', a drug dealer is mocking the bounty hunter company of the title, who picked up his slip after the dealer jumped bail. The dealer goes on about how the company will never catch him, because no one else ever has. But one day the leader of the Seekers opens his phone bill and finds an ad for a new service -Caller ID. The next time the dealer calls, it takes about a minute for the number to pop up. Of course, [[PhoneBooth it's never that easy.]]

As technology marches on, this trope has morphed into tracing the computer connection, but the essence remains the same. Is often a source of DidNotDoTheResearch, since (unless the work is set in the 1960s or earlier) the phone company can use their computer records tell the cops what numbers called a given phone, and when, even months after the call.

* In ''TheBourneSupremacy'', Jason Bourne speaks to Pamela Landy on the phone, and hangs up before they can trace his location. However, what he says before hanging up makes them realize he's directly in the area.

* ''HawaiiFiveO'' (remake): Is done by a drug ring holding schoolchildren hostage.

* In ''{{Sneakers}}'', the heroes set up this elaborate multi-hub "fence" between their call location and the NSA before calling the government agency in order to negotiate for the {{MacGuffin}}. In the space of three minutes the NSA trackers are almost at their door, but they manage to disconnect before they are discovered... or so they think.

* ''{{Film/Hopscotch}}'': "Follett couldn't pinpoint his own backside in broad daylight!" A subversion, in that Kendig wanted the Feds to stop by and destroy his former boss' summer home.
* Set up in ''{{Film/Red}}'': Cooper is encouraged by the tracer to keep Frank Moses on the line, prompting Cooper to string out the conversation. [[spoiler:Frank was calling from Cooper's house and had made the call specifically to allow a complete trace to reveal that fact to Cooper]].

* Certainly seen at least once on ''TwentyFour'', probably much more often

* The ''{{Archer}}'' episode "El Secuestro" has ISIS trying to keep Pam's kidnappers on the phone long enough to trace the call (and usually failing, due to Archer or Malory's tactics). The two minutes needed to trace the call is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Gillette, who says Malory cut money from the tracing program to pay for her new conference table.
-->'''Malory''': Guess how many pygmies died to build this table. I'll give you a hint: six.

* In the ''MissionImpossible'' movie, Ethan stays on the line just long enough for his call to get traced to London, just as planned. Down to the ''second'', even.
* Used in ''{{Goldeneye}}'' to figure out where [[spoiler: Trevalyen's]] base is located.

* Memorably happens at [[BookEnds the beginning and end of]] ''TheMatrix''. In the opening, Trinity stays on the line too long and is chased by Agents for her troubles. [[spoiler: At the end, the trace program freezes midway through its run as Neo exerts his [[TheChosenOne powers over the Matrix]]]].