History Main / DestructiveTeleportation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'': In one episode Jimmy shows off flawed duplication device. It can make a perfect duplicate of anything, but has the side effect of making the original fade away, so it effectively is just a less useful teleporter. Jimmy's evil clone steals the device and modifies it to make a evil copy of the whole earth while the original is destroyed.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is most likely the TropeCodifier: they work by disassembling an object (or person) into energy, shooting it some distance away, and reassembling that object at the new location. It consists of the following parts:

* One episode of ''WebVideo/GameTheory'' theorizes that [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Pokeballs]] actually work this way.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

** ''Faster than Starlight'' has Twilight Sparkle discover that teleportation is, in fact, specifically designed to trick people into not realizing that it works this way, as ordinary teleportation has a slight time travel component to cover for the fact that the duplicate is created before the original is destroyed. When she confronts Princess Celestia about it, [[spoiler:she discovers that Princess Celestia has gone insane and sees this as a ''bonus'', as it means that the version of herself who [[IDidWhatIHadToDo Did What She Had To Do]] was dead, and the present version of herself is blameless]].
** [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/269332/blink Blink]] has Twilight discover that teleportation operates in this way, and feels incredible guilt over subjecting herself, her friends, and her loved ones to it, but decides in the end that just because their originals are no more, it doesn't mean that she (or the present iterations of her loved ones) are any less real.
** [[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/273539/dying-to-get-there Dying to Get There]] parodies this trope, as a newspaper falsely claims that Twilight's teleportation functions in this manner, leading Twilight's friends to believe that Twilight kills herself (and them!) every time she teleports. Twilight spends the whole story going around town explaining to everyone that her teleportation doesn't actually work that way, giving examples (taken from past events on the show) of why it isn't possible that it works like this and how ridiculous the whole idea is, and growing increasingly frustrated that no one else seemed to realize that it made no sense. [[spoiler: Except for Applejack, who realized it was ridiculous not because of the physics of the situation, but because she didn't believe that Twilight would ever use a spell that worked that way.]]
* ''WebVideo/FreemansMind:'' Gordon Freeman briefly wonders if the teleporters in the Lambda Complex work this way, and if he's really himself or Gordon #6, but dismisses the thought because he still needs to continue; any sacrifices involved would be towards "the greater Gordon".
-->''I can't think of a cause I believe in more than that.''

[[folder:Films]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': This trope is an important twist in one episode of the series, so much so that even the episode name itself is a spoiler. [[spoiler:In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]", the Doctor is brought to an empty castle via teleporter. After he's fatally wounded, he uses his body's energy to create a fresh copy of himself from the pattern stored in the teleporter while he, the "original", burns up and turns to dust. The episode then indicates he's been going through copies of himself like this for ''at least two billion years'' -- and the episode that follows actually reveals the actual length of time to have been ''four and a half billion years''. Averts one aspect of the trope - that the copy doesn't realize he's a copy -- by indicating that, after a period of amnesia, a meme encountered by the Doctor triggers memories from all the previous trials.]]
* ''Series/DarkMatter2015'' has something similar called "Transfer Transit", although it differs from most portrayals in that the "original" remains intact and inside a stasis pod and simply receives the memories of the clone once its "visit" to the destination is over.
* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': The episode "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S7E8ThinkLikeADinosaur Think Like a Dinosaur]]" is based on the novelette of the same name (see Literature) and uses the same plot. The "dinos" then demand that the human operator "balance the equation" lest they cut Earth off from their technology, which is desperately needed by the polluted planet (the operator's wife died because her lungs rejected the polluted air).

-->'''Gav:''' "The Gav". I'm my own species now.

* Enforced InUniverse in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'', when Morty asks for a device that allows him to save his place in real life the way a video game allows a playable character to. Rick complies, but doesn’t let him in on the full story of the mechanics. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Morty doesn’t reset every time he uses the device: he’s just jumping to an AlternateUniverse, where another Morty already happened to be. ''That'' Morty is then promptly obliterated, [[KillAndReplace allowing the universe-hopping Morty to settle in, none the wiser.]]]] Rick even lampshades this as a plot line of ''Film/ThePrestige'', another example of this trope.

Whether the transporter is truly a form of destructive transportation or not is a ContinuitySnarl. Some sources claim the transported object is the original object from the start, whereas other pieces of evidence--such as James Kirk and William Riker accidentally creating duplicates of themselves out of whole cloth--show the transported object can be freely assembled from nothing, like the replicators. This aspect of it has been referenced in other shows, such as ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'' and ''Series/BreakingBad''. There's also plenty more BodyHorror implicit in just how rather scarily dangerous transporters can be, if some part of the process were to be [[TeleporterAccident interrupted]].

Sometimes this is the main focus of a story, and the morality of teleporting in this manner is examined for the sake of drama (or, potentially, comedy). Might result in CloningBlues when a character finds out that the original "them" is dead. Characters might refuse to teleport because they don't think of themselves as an ExpendableClone.

* In the ''WebOriginal/{{Mortasheen}}'' universe, [[KnightTemplar Wreathe]] uses portal technology, which preserves the teleported person intact but is incredibly inefficient. Meanwhile Mortasheen utilizes teleportation that makes a twin of the user somewhere else and destroys the original. Mortasheen being [[CrapsackWorld what it is]], no one there is bothered by this and the twin is considered and treated as the original. Wreathe, however, is revolted.

* Canadian animator John Weldon's terrifying short, ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUXKUcsvhQc To Be]]'': In it, a scientist is demonstrating his new "Murdering Twinmaker"-style teleporter. The heroine claims that the machine is immoral, and to assure her that there's no need to worry, he agrees to delay the "murdering" part of the machine by a few minutes. The original and the clone come out and meet each other, they play a game of chess, and then each fights tooth and nail to push the other into the machine. She just grabs one of them and helps the other scientist push him in as he kicks and screams and begs for his life. They end up shutting him in with his arm slammed in the door and nuking him, causing his arm to visibly disintegrate. [[StunnedSilence Then it gets quiet.]] The surviving scientist realizes the immorality of such a device and walks away, but the heroine feels guilty and decides that she has to atone for what she did, and enters the machine. [[spoiler: The machine works as intended, creating a copy and the original heroine is destroyed. The remaining heroine, retaining all the original's memories, [[IgnoredEpiphany declares herself a "guilt-free copy" absolved of all wrongdoing]]]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': This trope is an important twist in one episode of the series, so much so that even the episode name itself is a spoiler. [[spoiler:In "Heaven Sent", the Doctor is brought to an empty castle via teleporter. After he's fatally wounded, he uses his body's energy to create a fresh copy of himself from the pattern stored in the teleporter while he, the "original", burns up and turns to dust. The episode then indicates he's been going through copies of himself like this for ''at least two billion years'' - and the episode that follows actually reveals the actual length of time to have been ''four and a half billion years''. Averts one aspect of the trope - that the copy doesn't realize he's a copy - by indicating that, after a period of amnesia, a meme encountered by the Doctor triggers memories from all the previous trials.]]
* ''Series/DarkMatter'' has something similar called "Transfer Transit", although it differs from most portrayals in that the "original" remains intact and inside a stasis pod and simply receives the memories of the clone once its "visit" to the destination is over.
* An episode of ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'' is based on the novelette "Think Like a Dinosaur" (see Literature) and uses the same plot. The "dinos" then demand that the human operator "balance the equation" lest they cut Earth off from their technology, which is desperately needed by the polluted planet (the operator's wife died because her lungs rejected the polluted air).

[[folder:Web Video]]

* [[WordOfGod According to Greg Farshtey]], the teleportation utilized by Makuta in ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' works in this manner, as it involves dissolving the target's substance and reconstituting it at the intended destination.

* ''Machinima/FreemansMind:'' Gordon Freeman briefly wonders if the teleporters in the Lambda Complex work this way, and if he's really himself or Gordon #6, but dismisses the thought because he still needs to continue; any sacrifices involved would be towards "the greater Gordon".

[[/folder]]

* Invoked in ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}'': the BrainUploading technology actually just makes a digital ''copy'' of the user without affecting their original body. Some of the people in the underwater lab, desperate to escape [[spoiler:the destroyed Earth]], develop a quasi-religious theory of "Continuity": that if they kill themselves immediately after their brain is scanned, they truly ''become'' machines instead of just making copies.

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'': The Bodyswap skill is a weaponized, magical version of this trope. It makes your body ''violently'' explode into a shower of gore, then it uses the target enemy or corpse to recreate your own body, while also creating another explosion if you targeted a corpse. For all intents and purposes, it's a movement skill.