History Main / TechnologicalPacifist

* ''BatmanBeyond'': Derek Powers secretly uses Wayne Corp to develop weapons, conventional and biological, and then sells them to [[{{Ruritania}} Kaznia]].

* In ''BatmanBegins'', William Earle takes over Wayne Enterprises after Thomas Wayne's death. The second sign that Earle is an unscrupulous jerk is when it's mentioned that he's expanded Wayne Enterprises into heavy arms manufacturing. (The first sign is when we hear that he's taking the company public.)

* ''GundamSEEDAstray'' has main character Lowe Guele, a mechanic who insist that [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] are not by nature evil, but get used that way by evil people[[hottip:*:Or, alternately, [[IncrediblyLamePun "Gundams don't kill people, villains kill people".]]]]. During the final showdown with original BigBad Rondo Ghina Sahaku, Lowe even says that he can hear Rondo's MS crying about being used as an instrument of destruction.

* ''[[Film/IronMan Iron Man]]'': When the film starts, Tony Stark is the devil-may-care CEO of Stark Industries, a major military contractor, and proud of the weapons he makes. After being held in captivity, however, and seeing his weapons in the hands of terrorists, he has a moral crisis and announces that Stark's weapons manufacturing division will be shut down until he can develop full accountability for who's using them. What he doesn't know is that it's his second in command who's been double-dealing, and this develops into the movie's principal conflict. Tony also has no qualms in deploying the heavily armed Iron Man suit against said terrorists. However, remember that he doesn't seem to mind America using his weapons, he just doesn't want the terrorists using them.

* One of the running gags in the ''{{Discworld}}'' series is Leonard De Quirm's tunnel vision regarding his scientific creations: he's usually baffled (and occasionally horrified) when people suggest that his devices have (rather obvious) combat applications other than than their designed purpose. For example, in ''Jingo'', he's dismayed at Nobby's suggestion that the drill that allows his mini-sub to latch on to passing ships could be used to sink them instead with very little extra effort. Later, he finds that when he's sketching an enlarged submarine, his hand seems to, of its own accord, add weapons...

*** Which is why Lord Vetinari, having a much more accurate view of human nature, has Leonard more-or-less permanently imprisoned. Not that he notices.

* The episode "Blind as a Bat" of ''[[WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman: The Animated Series]]'' marked Bruce Wayne's first, last, and only time developing anything for the military. After the troubles that stemmed from that, Bruce declared that Wayne Corp would never develop weapons again. This came up in several later episodes, but most notably in the ''Batman/Superman'' {{crossover}} event "World's Finest", when Lex Luthor and Bruce work together on a tech project developing robotic spider drones. Lex tries to sell Bruce on military applications, but Bruce forcefully and authoritatively shuts him down.

* Somewhat subverted in ''{{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!''. When Kaiba took over his Father's company, he changed it from a military manufacturer to a gaming company. However, the games he makes have been at times sadistic. And, of course, ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney.

* In [=~Danger!! Death Ray~=], the inventor of the titular Death Ray insists that it be used only for ''peaceful'' purposes. (A peaceful death ray. You heard right.)

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--> '''Professor Sumdac''' of TransformersAnimated, ''The Headmaster''

* The episode "Blind as a Bat" of ''[[BatmanTheAnimatedSeries Batman: The Animated Series]]'' marked Bruce Wayne's first, last, and only time developing anything for the military. After the troubles that stemmed from that, Bruce declared that Wayne Corp would never develop weapons again. This came up in several later episodes, but most notably in the ''Batman/Superman'' {{crossover}} event "World's Finest", when Lex Luthor and Bruce work together on a tech project developing robotic spider drones. Lex tries to sell Bruce on military applications, but Bruce forcefully and authoritatively shuts him down.
* [[SdrawkcabName Sumdac Systems]] from ''TransformersAnimated'', as the quote from the top of the page shows. However, they do produce a police robot that appears to wield quite dangerous weaponry, and Sumdac himself built the Dinobots (though to be fair, Megatron was pulling the strings on that one; he never meant for them to ''[[DinosaursAreDragons breathe fire]]''). To drive the point home, when the company is taken over by a CorruptCorporateExecutive, one of the first things he does is hire a villain from a previous episode (who tried to blow up the city, no less) so that he can make military robots for him.

* ''[[Film/IronMan Iron Man]]'': When the film starts, Tony Stark is the devil-may-care CEO of Stark Industries, a major military contractor, and proud of the weapons he makes. After being held in captivity, however, and seeing his weapons in the hands of terrorists, he has a moral crisis and announces that Stark's weapons manufacturing division will be shut down until he can develop full accountability for who's using them. What he doesn't know is that it's his second in command who's been double-dealing, and this develops into the movie's principal conflict. Tony also has no qualms in deploying the heavily armed Iron Man suit against said terrorists.

* Subverted in AlanMoore's ''{{Watchmen}}''. Ozymandias suggests after analyzing media outlets that war is approaching and that his giant corporation invest accordingly. His assistants protest that the company has never invested in armaments or weapons dealing. He refutes that he was not speaking of weapons, but rather diapers, formula, and contraceptives because people have more sex and children around war time.

** After Stark Disassembled it seems Tony went full on with this Trope.

* Retconned via one of the many Batman Year One adventures that Bruce decides his company will no longer do weapons, after he fights many technological threats.

* ''[[Film/IronMan Iron Man]]'': When the film starts, Tony Stark is the devil-may-care CEO of Stark Industries, a major military contractor, and proud of the weapons he makes. After being held in captivity, however, and seeing his weapons in the hands of terrorists, he has a moral crisis and announces that Stark's weapons manufacturing division will be shut down until he can develop full accountability for who's using them. What he doesn't know is that it's his second in command who's been double-dealing, and this develops into the movie's principle conflict. Tony also has no qualms in deploying the heavily armed Iron Man suit against said terrorists.
* In ''BatmanBegins'', William Earle takes over Wayne Enterprises after Thomas Wayne's death. The second sign that Earle is an unscrupulous jerk is when it's mentioned that he expanded Wayne Enterprises into heavy arms manufacturing. (The first sign is when we hear that he's taking the company public.)
* The toy-making company in the film ''{{Film.Toys}}'' doesn't make "war toys" (toy weapons), until the owner dies and his brother, who is a former military officer, inherits it. (He has an evil plan to make toys into weapons to be controlled by [[IKnowMortalKombat kids playing a video game.]])

* ''[[Film/IronMan Iron Man]]'': The film starts with a subversion of this, as while Stark Industries produces weapons, its CEO, Tony Stark, manages to avoid being corrupt. However, when he gets back to the US after having been held in captivity for months, the second thing he does is shut down the weapons manufacturing division of his corporation, designed to help show his transformation into a better person. Partially justified in that he nearly got blown up by one of his own explosives, but still. His Second-in-Command, doesn't take well to this and seems intent on getting that part of the company back up and running when he takes over. Weirdly, no one in the movie seems to have noticed Tony's ''finish'' to the line where he says he's shutting down the weapons division "''until such time''" as they can implement full accountability. After a few brief protests to this effect, even Tony seems to have gone full TechnologicalPacifist.
** This troper saw it as him shutting it down until he finds out who's selling Stark Tech to terrorist, plus he's [[spoiler: the one who makes SHIELD's weapons in the comics]]
** It's also worth pointing out that the Iron Man armor (both original and new model) are armed to the teeth, and Tony's not afraid of using them either. He isn't so much opposed to weapons in general as to the careless distribution of them. In the comics, a major driving force is Tony being afraid of the Iron Man technology falling into the wrong hands, which is what looms in the movies as well, particularly the second one.

** [[YouFailEconomicsForever Why is taking a company public a bad thing?]]
*** Probably for plot-related reasons, esp. concerning some of the things Wayne Enterprises makes, and what public scrutiny might mean for that vis a vis the secrecy of Batman's identity.
*** I got more of the impression that Wayne Enterprises was run under the vision of Thomas Wayne to essentially make things better - stockholders generally only care about profit (and subsequent dividends and share prices) and not benevolence.

** It's probably a bad translation, being a foreign film. The Death Ray he demonstrates would be useful for a lot of purposes, such as mining.
*** Either way, ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' had a field day with the concept. In one sketch, Tom Servo builds his own peaceful death ray, but can't resist the temptation to use it on Crow as a prank. Crow even admits it was ActuallyPrettyFunny...up until his eyeballs burst into flame, that is.

* ''GundamSEEDAstray'' has main character Lowe Guele, a mechanic who insist that [[HumongousMecha mobile suits]] are not by nature evil, but get used that way by evil people[[hottip:*:Or, alternately, [[IncrediblyLamePun "Gundams don't kill people, villains kill people".]]. During the final showdown with original BigBad Rondo Ghina Sahaku, Lowe even says that he can hear Rondo's MS crying about being used as an instrument of destruction.

--> Professor Sumdac of TransformersAnimated, ''The Headmaster''

* In {{Portal}}, the founder of Aperture Technologies got his start creating ''shower curtains'' for the military. When he came upon the idea for the portals he apparently thought their primary purpose would be as shower curtains. Or so [[UnreliableExpositor the only known sources say]].

* Wallace Luthor, Lex's grandfather, was a Technological Pacifist during World War I. He was persuaded to contribute to the war effort, and became convinced that the collapse of his company in the Wall Street Crash was his punishment.

* ''[[Film/IronMan Iron Man]]'': The film starts with a subversion of this, as while Stark Industries produces weapons, its CEO, Tony Stark, manages to avoid being corrupt. However, when he gets back to the US after having been held in captivity for months, the second thing he does is shut down the weapons manufacturing division of his corporation, designed to help show his transformation into a better person. Partially justified in that he nearly got blown up by one of his own explosives, but still. His Second-in-Command, who's a CorruptCorporateExecutive and already trying to kill Tony, doesn't take well to this and seems intent on getting that part of the company back up and running when he takes over. Weirdly, no one in the movie seems to have noticed Tony's ''finish'' to the line where he says he's shutting down the weapons division "''until such time''" as they can implement full accountability. After a few brief protests to this effect, even Tony seems to have gone full TechnologicalPacifist.

* The toy-making company in the film ''{{Toys}}'' doesn't make "war toys" (toy weapons), until the owner dies and his brother, who is a former military officer, inherits it. (He has an evil plan to make toys into weapons to be controlled by [[IKnowMortalKombat kids playing a video game.]])
* Similarly, the main character's father in ''Small Soldiers'' (who owns a toy store) doesn't sell violent toys. When the dad's away though, the son decides to sell a couple, little realizing that these violent toys [[AIIsACrapshoot have artificial intelligence]] ...
* Sort-of example: [[TomWaits The mad scientist]] in MysteryMen makes weapons, yes, but everything is completely [[NonlethalWarfare nonlethal]]. [[AbnormalAmmo Surreally]] [[DepletedPhlebotinumShells so]].
** "See now, this is why mad scientists are generally less desirable than your common or garden variety scientist."

* Subverted in AlanMoore's ''{{Watchmen}}''. The KnightTemplar BigBad suggests after analyzing media outlets that war is approaching and that his giant corporation invest accordingly. His assistants protest that the company has never invested in armaments or weapons dealing. The antagonist refutes that he was not speaking of weapons, but rather diapers, formula, and contraceptives because people have more sex and children around war time.

* In {{Portal}}, the founder of Aperture Technologies got his start creating ''shower curtains'' for the military. When he came upon the idea for the portals he apparently thought their primary purpose would be as shower curtains.

** It's also worth pointing out that the Iron Man armor (both original and new model) are armed to the teeth, and Tony's not afraid of using them either. He isn't so much opposed to weapons in general as to the careless distribution of them. In the comics, a major driving force is Tony being afraid of the Iron Man technology falling into the wrong hands, which is what looms in the movie as well.

*** Would making, say, a catapult be a way around it? It takes more than one man to operate, and will likely kill more than one other man. The most obvious way around it is, of course, making a weapon that can only be wielded by women.

** They will however produce Biotic Amps that can give a user to ''kill people with their mind'' as well as omi-tools that can be used to ''shut down people's brains''.

* The mutant Jericho, at Whateley Academy in the WhateleyUniverse. He's working on power armor. But his power armor is for medics and [=EMTs=] to wear so they can help people in the middle of wars or superhero fights.
** Jericho himself, however, is a CombatMedic and has a {{BFG}} which he seems to have little compunction about using, as long as he's not shooting innocents.

**** This is probably a reference to the invention of dynamite for mining purposes, when it was used for military purposes the inventor was horrified in the same way.

* Somewhat subverted in {{Yu-Gi-Oh}}!. When Kaiba took over his Father's company, he changed it from a military manufacturer to a gaming company. However, the games he makes have been at times sadistic. And, of course, ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney.
** At times sadistic? This is the guy who spent ten million (I think) yen to make a gratuitous THEME PARK of death designed specifically for a guy who beat him in a trading card game.
** The anime Virtual World {{Filler}} arc has the villain Nesbitt, an arms designer who holds a grudge against Kaiba for having dismantled the weapons department of Kaibacorp on taking over.