History Main / SabotageToDiscredit

* ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'' sees the Dean of Unseen University accept a higher-paying job as Archchancellor of Brazeneck University, which Ridcully views as a personal betrayal. Not helping is the fact that the new university has built a High'''er''' Energy Magic Building (to avoid confusion with UU's High Energy Magic Building), poaching a UU student to build a more efficient version of UU's thinking engine Hex, Pex (it runs on chickens instead of ants. How's it more efficient? Well, they get fresh eggs out of it...). Ponder Stibbons, head of the HEMB and Hex's builder seems remarkably blasé about the entire thing, up until the end when [[spoiler:Brazeneck is under attack from a giant chicken. Ponder reveals to Ridcully that he knew there was a good chance this would happen, but chose to say nothing.]]

* In ''Film/Cars2'', the BigBad is purposefully making Allinol dangerous to discredit green energy in general.

* The final missions of ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' revolve around [[spoiler:Hugh Darrow's]] attempt to sabotage human augmentations worldwide and show how [[CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul dangerous they can be]] by [[spoiler:hijacking the TheIlluminati's plan to mass distribute biochips designed to seesntially lobotimize augmented individuals and reworking their killswitch signal to work as a global ''HatePlague'' instead]]. Depending on your decision, this message can be delivered as intended, or twisted towards the opposite, but no matter what you choose, [[VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided the sequel]] reveals that he [[TheBadGuyWins very much succeeded]].

* A variation (directed to one specific use rather than the device in general) appears in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne", Hugo Strange learns Batman's secret identity with his memory-reading machine. When he tries to [[AuctionOfEvil sell the secret]] to some of Batman's other enemies, Batman switches the tape that reveals his identity for one that shows Strange telling his henchmen about his plan to auction off a fake tape for which "those fools will pay a fortune". Enraged, the other villains refuse to listen to Strange even when he tries to tell them Batman's identity free of charge.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne", Hugo Strange learns Batman's secret identity with his memory-reading machine. When he tries to [[AuctionOfEvil sell the secret]] to some of Batman's other enemies, Batman switches the tape that reveals his identity for one that shows Strange telling his henchmen about his plan to auction off a fake tape for which "those fools will pay a fortune". Enraged, the other villains refuse to listen to Strange even when he tries to tell them Batman's identity free of charge.

* In the sequel to the 1996 remake of ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor'', [[EnemyWithout the villain]] steals some of the protagonist's formula and adds plant food to it (which, for some reason, causes the hamsters in the demonstration to grow to [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant size]] and attack the audience) so he can sell it instead.

* The final missions of ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' revolve around [[spoiler:Hugh Darrow's]] attempt to sabotage human augmentations worldwide and show how [[CyberneticsWillEatYourSoul dangerous they can be]]. Depending on your decision, this message can be delivered as intended, or twisted towards the opposite.

* In the ''Literature/WizBiz'' series, Wiz provides a spell that repels magical creatures for the common people to protect themselves. However, an unknown person alters it into a spell called demon_debug that kills magical creatures, which the people, tired of living in fear, happily turn on anything that moves, including friendly and innocent creatures. In order to stop it, Wiz and the other programmers send out a swarm of demons that turn into harmless but extremely obnoxious creatures upon exposure to the demon_debug. They blame the problem on the poor quality of demon_debug, and convince everyone to stick to official spells from then on.

* On ''Series/LoisAndClark'', Lex Luthor sabotages the pipes running under Metropolis to make the city swelter in the middle of winter, to make it appear that Superman's activities are heating up the city. When Superman leaves town Lex turns down the heat.

* ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse: In the story "Zio Paperone e gli occhiali a effetti speciali", Scrooge begins selling AugmentedReality glasses which put "skins" over the real world. Scrooge's competitor Rockerduck has his hackers sabotage the glasses's software, causing horrifying monsters to appear in the virtual reality. This backfires however, as the glasses subsequently become greatly popular with kids who think monsters are awesome.

* In ''The Flying Elephant'' by [[Literature/ErastFandorin Boris Akunin]], von Theofels sabotages the heavy bomber "Ilya Muromets" while it is being shown to the Tsar, thus successfully preventing its use by Russia in WorldWarI.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': In "Madison Country Club", Miss Brooks sabotages what she believes is Mr. Conklins attempt to mock the teachers' relative poverty in front of a snobbish rich women. [[spoiler: It really was an attempt to play poor and convince a GrandDame to fund a renovation of his office.]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* According to some sources, UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison sabotaged many of UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla's experiments.
[[/folder]]

* Done for nobler purposes in ''Racso and the Rats of NIMH'', the sequel to ''Literature/Mrs FrisbyAndTheRatsOfNIMH''. The construction of a dam threatens the lives (or at least the displacement) of the rats of Thorn Valley and is also cited as threatening Mrs. Frisby and the farm she lives near. [[spoiler:The rats concoct an elaborate scheme to sabotage the dam to get both public support against the dam and convince the builders that a new one is too costly.]]

* Invoked in the film version of ''SgtBilko'', when two of Bilko's men bluff the Major into thinking the hover tank works. The major takes out the "fire control and super elevator board", to try to sabotage the tank, the demonstration, and his rival. However, Bilko has already rigged the demonstration, so when the major protests that the demonstration was a sham, and tries to prove it, all he manages to prove is that he himself sabotaged the tank.

* Done for nobler purposes in ''Racso and the Rats of NIMH'', the sequel to ''{{Literature/Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH}}''. The construction of a dam threatens the lives (or at least the displacement) of the rats of Thorn Valley and is also cited as threatening Mrs. Frisby and the farm she lives near. [[spoiler:The rats concoct an elaborate scheme to sabotage the dam to get both public support against the dam and convince the builders that a new one is too costly.]]

* According to some sources, ThomasEdison sabotaged many of NikolaTesla's experiments.

* In ''Echoes of Honor'', part of the ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' series, an Admiral attempts to sabotage the introduction of a new LAC Carrier warship design by unfairly setting the simulation parameters to stack the deck against the officers trialing the new weapons systems.