History Main / ThisPageWillSelfDestruct

* In October 2018, one of Creator/{{Banksy}}'s paintings (''Girl with Balloon'') was put up for auction at Sotheby's in London, and sold for £1,042,000. Banksy had built a shredder into the bottom edge of the frame without telling anyone, and as soon as the final gavel came down, the device activated and the canvas began sliding down into the blades. It broke down partway through, leaving half the canvas intact and the rest hanging in strips from the frame. The buyer went through with the sale, and the work has since been retitled ''Love Is in the Bin''.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles1'' (by video). Mr. Incredible is in a rush to find a pencil to write down what it says about his next mission before it self-destructs (although he didn't know about the self-destruction at the time, only that the recording would be important and "will not be repeated"), and then it explodes in his trophy room after helpfully informing him of this and giving up the contact number. He opens the door to escape the smoke, setting the fire sprinklers off and causing the rest of his family to yell at him from different rooms.

** A video player built into a disposable camera

** A reel-to-reel tape recorder and projector hidden in a hollowed-out book

** A microcassette recorder

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' (by video). Mr. Incredible is in a rush to find a pencil to write down what it says about his next mission before it self-destructs (although he didn't know about the self-destruction at the time, only that the recording would be important and "will not be repeated"), and then it explodes in his trophy room after helpfully informing him of this and giving up the contact number. He opens the door to escape the smoke, setting the fire sprinklers off and causing the rest of his family to yell at him from different rooms.

** The now-defunct social media site Turtleseed was built around this feature, with the auto-delete interval adjustable but never allowed to be turned off. The idea was to have posts naturally "wash away", in a manner likened to messages written on beach sand, so that users don't have their old social media posts dredged up for nefarious purposes, as well as to avoid leaving a long-term social footprint and focus on present interactions and expressions.

* The season 2 finale of ''Series/{{Castle}}'', '"A Deadly Game", features a simulated spy game that involves a secret message delivered by self-destructing pen.

* Every movie in the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'' follow the TV show in this manner, each one using a different method to deliver the briefing:

** A player hidden inside an obsolete pay phone, which only self-destructs [[PercussiveMaintenance after Ethan thumps it]] as a self-parodying MythologyGag

* [[TropeNamer Of course]], this was the way every MissionBriefing for the original ''Series/MissionImpossible'' was done. While in parodies the message often destroys itself with a large and lethally dangerous explosion, in the actual series the destruction was harmless and the most the audience sees is the tape suddenly start to smoke slightly; there weren't even any flames, and Phelps usually just dumps the ruined and still-smoking tape in a rubbish bin or something equivalent. Sometimes they tried to get creative on exactly how the item self-destructed. This show is pretty much the UrExample of this trope. That being said, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the early episodes didn't have this trope yet]]. The tape ended with "Please dispose of this message in the usual manner", upon which the recipient (Briggs first season, Phelps later) threw all the documents into a conveniently placed incinerator or used other means to destroy the tape. Acid was used at least once, and vinyl records were used a couple of times (one that would decompose after being taken out of its airtight bag, another that was played on a phonograph rigged to scratch it and render it unplayable after it was done).

* All six movies in the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'' follow the TV show in this manner, each one using a different method to deliver the briefing:

* Then there was one of Galileo's books, which was once printed in parchment and highly soluble ink, so if you were caught reading it you could just throw it at some river and nobody could prove anything. Presumably other heretical books would've gotten the same distribution.

* In October 2018, one of Creator/{{Banksy}}'s paintings (''Girl with Balloon'') was put up for auction at Sotheby's in London, and sold for £1,042,000. Banksy had built a shredder into the bottom edge of the frame, and as soon as the final gavel came down, the device activated and the canvas began sliding down into the blades. It broke down partway through, leaving half the canvas intact and the rest hanging in strips from the frame. The buyer went through with the sale, and the work has since been retitled ''Love Is in the Bin''.

* In October 2018, one of Creator/{{Banksy}}'s paintings was put up for auction at Sotheby's in London, and sold for £1.04 million. Of course, no one told anyone that there was an automatic paper shredder inside the frame, activating itself right after the sale....

** A pair of VR sunglasses, delivered to Ethan Hunt via rocket launcher

** [[MythologyGag A vinyl record]] played on a turntable with a built-in projector ([[spoiler:actually a trap set by the BigBad, which releases sleeping gas to knock Ethan out]])

* [[TropeNamer Of course]], this was the way every MissionBriefing for the original ''Series/MissionImpossible'' was done. While in parodies the message often destroys itself with a large and lethally dangerous explosion, in the actual series the destruction was harmless and the most the audience sees is the tape suddenly start to smoke slightly; there weren't even any flames, and Phelps usually just dumps the ruined and still-smoking tape in a rubbish bin or something equivalent. Sometimes they tried to get creative on exactly how the item self destructed. This show is pretty much the UrExample of this trope. That being said, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the early episodes didn't have this trope yet]]. The tape ended with "Please dispose of this message in the usual manner", upon which the addressee (Briggs first season, Phelps later) threw all the documents into a conveniently placed incinerator or used other means to destroy the tape. Acid was used at least once, and vinyl records were used a couple of times (one that would decompose after being taken out of its airtight bag, another one played on a phonograph rigged to scratch the record and render it unplayable after it was done).

* All six movies in the ''Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries'' follow the TV show in using this. [[Film/MissionImpossible The first movie]] has a regular film tape[[note]]In a slight subversion from the way it's now expected to play out, the film tape itself burns quickly and soundlessly, just creating some smoke, that the spy then conceals by lighting a cigarette[[/note]], [[Film/MissionImpossibleII the second movie]] has self-destructing VR Ray-bans and [[Film/MissionImpossibleIII the third]] has a camera with a player inside. The [[Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol fourth movie]] uses a self-parodying MythologyGag: the fancy touchscreen with the mission description is hidden in an obsolete Moscow payphone, and doesn't explode on the first try [[PercussiveMaintenance until Ethan thumps it]]. The [[Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation fifth movie]] is a [[MythologyGag vinyl disk and record player]], [[spoiler:which is also a trap set up by the BigBad. The "smoke" is sleeping gas that knocks out Ethan while he's locked in a soundproof booth.]] The [[Film/MissionImpossibleFallOut sixth movie]] has a tape recorder which can only be played by a sample of Hunt's blood, and once it self-destructs, Hunt is lucky enough to turn the thing off as it harmlessly turns into smoke.

* [[TropeNamer Of course]], this was the way every MissionBriefing for the original ''Series/MissionImpossible'' was done. While in parodies the message often destroys itself with a large and lethally dangerous explosion, in the actual series the destruction was harmless and the most the audience sees is the tape suddenly start to smoke slightly; there weren't even any flames, and Phelps usually just dumps the ruined and still-smoking tape in a rubbish bin or something equivalent. Sometimes they tried to get creative on exactly how the item self destructed. This show is pretty much the UrExample of this trope. That being said, [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness the early episodes didn't have this trope yet]]. The tape ended with "Please dispose of this message in the usual manner", upon which the addressee (Briggs first season, Phelps later) threw all the documents into a conveniently placed incinerator or used other means to destroy the tape. Acid was used at least once. On other occasions, the message was delivered on a vinyl record in a sealed plastic bag, and would destruct a minute after the seal was broken.
* In the 1980s ''Series/MissionImpossible'', they took the variety (and fun) out of the destruction. Jim would find what looked like a prototype portable DVD player, scan his thumbprint to open it, then enter a code on a keypad to retrieve and slot the disc. After playing it and hearing the warning, he would close the lid and walk away. The player and disc would slag themselves in a mini-explosion, with wisps of smoke leaking out of the case.

* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Trouble with Trillions", where the FBI agent is informed "This film will self destruct... if improperly stored". The message was hidden in a photo booth [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish where the password is "cheese"]], so spoofed again when Apu and Manjula walk in seconds later and we learn exactly why this trope exists in the first place.

** The now-defunct social media site Turtleseed was built around this feature, with the auto-delete interval adjustable but never allowed to be turned off. The idea was to have posts naturally "wash away", in a manner likened to messages written on beach sand, so that users don't have their old social media posts dredged up for nefarious purposes, as well as to avoid leaving a long-term social footprint and focus on present interactions.

* Snapchat is an app that works like this. Texts, videos, and pictures sent by the app are deleted ten seconds after they are read, popularizing the trend of adding message self-destruct to messenger apps. Whether this is actually secure and really keeps messages safe is a very controversial issue, but at least it prevents others from seeing your old messages simply by looking over your shoulder. This feature has since been replicated on some other messenger services as well.

** The now-defunct social media site Turtleseed was built around this feature, with the auto-delete interval adjustable but never allowed to be turned off. The idea was to have posts naturally "wash away", similar to messages written on beach sand, so that users don't have their old social media posts dredged up for nefarious purposes, as well as to avoid leaving a long-term social footprint and focus on present interactions.

** The now-defunct social media site Turtleseed was built around this feature, with the auto-delete interval adjustable but never allowed to be turned off. The idea was to have posts naturally "wash away" so that users don't have their old social media posts dredged up for nefarious purposes, as well as to avoid leaving a long-term social footprint and focus on present interactions.

** The now-defunct social media site Turtleseed was built around this feature, with no option to make posts permanent. The idea was to have posts naturally "wash away" so that users don't have their old social media posts dredged up for nefarious purposes, as well as to avoid leaving a long-term social footprint and focus on present interactions.

* The decentralized social networking service Mastodon has a post auto-delete feature that allows the user to set their posts to self-delete after a set period of time, with the shortest interval being 2 weeks and the longest being 1 year. They can set conditions to exempt posts from auto-deleting if they meet optional user-defined conditions such as bookmarking their own posts or their posts meeting a threshold of favorites from other users.

* The decentralized social networking service Mastodon has a post auto-delete feature that allows the user to set their posts to self-delete after a set period of time. They can set conditions to exempt posts from auto-deleting if they meet optional user-defined conditions such as bookmarking their own posts or their posts meeting a threshold of favorites from other users.

* Snapchat is an app that works like this. Texts, videos, and pictures sent by the app are deleted ten seconds after they are read, popularizing the trend of adding message self-destruct to messenger apps. Whether this is actually secure and really keeps messages safe is a very controversial issue, but at least it prevents others from seeing your old messages simply by looking over your shoulder.