History Main / CantStopTheSignal

* This is how ''Film/PartsTheClonusHorror'' ends; the RetiredBadass IntrepidReporter Jake Noble is murdered, but manages to get a tape exposing the Clonus project to the media.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

A character [[BrokenMasquerade breaks]] TheMasquerade by sending the details they have uncovered to the press -- often to multiple publications at once. Usually happens at the end of a work.

* PromisingYoungWoman: After she's murdered during her quest for vengeance, it turns out Cassie did this as a Xanatos Gambit. A couple of months later, she sent her final message to Jordan to tell him that she was murdered by Al with all the evidence of where and when it happened, which leads to the police finding the body. To get justice for Nina, Cassie set up the video of Nina's rape to be sent around to everyone on Al's wedding guest list, meaning that he could no longer deny he'd raped her and that everybody knew.

** Morgans does it again at the end of the Wano Country arc, when he publishes the aftermath of the Onigashima War: [[spoiler:[[WorldsStrongestMan Kaido of the Four Emperors]], [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable defeated by Straw Hat Luffy]], who has now taken his position (along with a new picture for Luffy's wanted poster, showing him transformed into the Sun God Nika, while refusing to remove the "[[SecretLegacy D.]]" from his name)]] He gets the information from [[RefugeInAudacity tapping on the World Government fleet]] stationed outside of Wano Country at the time, whose transmition was cut off after they were attacked by the Big Mom Pirates.

* The World Government of ''Manga/OnePiece'' puts the planned execution of [[spoiler:Portgas D. Ace]] on [[OceanPunk the equivalent of television]] and keeps it going even as the event is attacked by the Whitebeard Pirates. Sengoku, the leader of the Marines, orders the signal to be cut so people won't find out that [[spoiler:they made a deal with some of the pirates to kill Whitebeard for him]]. Then it turns out Buggy grabbed one of the cameras for the sake of showing off to bolster his reputation, and he keeps it rolling throughout the battle, most importantly [[spoiler:Whitebeard shouting out that One Piece exists]].

* One episode of ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'' has the duo attempting to recover every copy of an old porn tape Panty made that's ruining her upcoming movie career. They eventually succeed and Stocking is given the last copy, with Panty figuring she can't do any harm with it. However, when Stocking learns Panty had all her scenes from the film cut, she puts the video on the 'net as revenge.
* Episode 22 of ''Anime/KiddyGrade'' has Chevalier, who hijacked the ''[[CoolStarship Deucalion]]'' in the previous episode, broadcast all the illicit background dealings and incriminating evidence of corruption by the [[BlueBlood Nouvlesse]] to every single news channel in the galaxy as well as the ship's true purpose: to disable the [[PortalNetwork warp gates]] with a [[EverythingIsOnline quantum virus]] then warp out of the galaxy, leaving the commoners to their fate of dying off as trade and planetary economies collapse while planets under {{terraform}}ing will [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill revert back to inhospitable, killing their entire population]] who can't relocate since the warp gates are kaput. Needless to say, the commoners [[ZeroPercentApprovalRating didn't take it well]].

* The World Government of ''Manga/OnePiece'' puts the planned execution of [[spoiler:Portgas D. Ace]] on [[OceanPunk the equivalent of television]] and keeps it going even as the event is attacked by the Whitebeard Pirates. Sengoku, the leader of the Marines, orders the signal to be cut so people won't find out that [[spoiler:they made a deal with some of the pirates to kill Whitebeard for him]]. Then it turns out Buggy grabbed one of the cameras for the sake of showing off to bolster his reputation, and he keeps it rolling throughout the battle, most importantly [[spoiler:Whitebeard shouting out that One Piece exists]].

* ''Film/GreenZone'' -- Paul Greengrass likes this one.

* {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': magical rituals can be performed by anyone, and magical ''summoning'' rituals can be particularly bad if they summon ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. However, the likelihood of a ritual working is inversely proportional to the number of times it is attempted: the more people try to summon a devil, the less likely it is for the devil to show up, to the point that you can reduce the chance to zero if you disseminate the information enough. Thus, the White Council's standard practice when they find a particularly bad ritual spell is to tell ''everyone'' about it by publishing a book, almost immediately invalidating the ritual.[[note]]This is, on occasion, a bad thing, however, as detailed by Thomas in the short story ''Backup''[[/note]] They were also responsible for sharing Dr. Van Helsing's research on vampires in the form of Bram Stoker's Dracula, to allow ordinary mortals to fight back against and almost completely destroy the Black Court of vampires, aka the ones that were complete monsters with no moral compass or desire to remain hidden.

Compare and contrast the villainous counterpart, DoNotAdjustYourSet. See also InformationWantsToBeFree, YouCannotKillAnIdea, IrrevocableMessage, and IMadeCopies.

* A {{subver|tedTrope}}sion in Creator/MilestoneComics' ''Comicbook/{{Hardware}}''. This is the first thing the protagonist tries, anonymously sending the media all the evidence he's gathered on Alva's wrongdoing. And the media pointedly ignores it.

* {{Subverted|Trope}} in the British mini-series ''For the Greater Good''. A politician's secretary leaks a Cabinet document to a newspaper, but not only do their lawyers advise them not to use it because they could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, they actually send the papers back to the Cabinet office. The whistleblower is justly infuriated because this risks exposing her. She then has to try and find a sympathetic politician who can raise the matter in Parliament, allowing the press to legally comment on it.

* The World Government of ''Manga/OnePiece'' puts the planned execution of [[spoiler:Portgas D. Ace]] on [[OceanPunk the equivalent of television]] and keeps it going even as the event is attacked by the Whitebeard Pirates. Sengoku, the leader of the Marines, orders the signal to be cut so people won't find out [[spoiler:they made a deal with some of the pirates to kill Whitebeard for him.]] Then it turns out Buggy grabbed one of the cameras for the sake of showing off to bolster his reputation, and he keeps it rolling throughout the battle, most importantly [[spoiler:Whitebeard shouting out that One Piece exists.]]
* ''Manga/DontMeddleWithMyDaughter'': Athena retired from being a superheroine, after suffering years of sexual harassment from her enemies; including one incident where [[spoiler: [[RapeAsBackstory she was gang raped]]]]. Her friend, Hanna, used her connections as commander of N.U.D.E.[[note]]"Next Ultimate Defense Exports"[[/note]] to cover it up and silence any witnesses. But things are different in her daughter's day and age, thanks to the prevalence of the internet and social media. Athena fears [[DefiledForever what could happen to Clara's reputation]] as a heroine if she were to suffer the same humiliation she endured, especially if anyone were to broadcast it. So she comes out of retirement to keep it from happening.
* In ''Anime/ValvraveTheLiberator'', the [[spoiler:remaining]] Module 77 kids use it to expose the Magius to the world by [[spoiler:showing the Dorssian Fuhrer's immortality.]] DoubleSubverted: [[spoiler:Cain destroys the terminal, but ARUS President Anderson exposes them anyway. A global upheaval and hunt for the Magius erupts as a result.]]

* A subversion in Creator/MilestoneComics' ''Comicbook/{{Hardware}}''. This is the first thing the protagonist tries, anonymously sending the media all the evidence he's gathered on Alva's wrongdoing. And the media pointedly ignores it.

-->'''Mr. Universe:''' Mal. Guy killed me, Mal. He killed me with a sword. How weird is that? I got a short span here. They destroyed my equipment, but I have a backup unit. Bottom of the complex. Right over the generator. Hard to get to. I know they missed it. They [[TropeNamer can't stop the signal]], Mal. They can never stop the signal.

* ''Film/EdgeOfDarkness2010'' sees Elle Craven's whistleblowing video sent to the press by her father, [[spoiler:who knows he's dying of thalium poisoning courtesy of her employers.]]
* A very different version of this particular trope: two people in the {{Film/Apocalypse}} film series movie ''Revelation'' who have taken the MarkOfTheBeast try to stop the anti-Day Of Wonders virus program from uploading by pulling out the disk from the computer and even shooting the computer it's uploading on, all to no avail as it miraculously continues to boot up. Unfortunately, this plan [[YouCantThwartStageOne only delays the Day Of Wonders program from being released worldwide]], as it shows up in full use in the following movie ''Tribulation''.
* The climax of ''[[Film/TheNet1995 The Net]]''.

* Smith from ''Film/ShootEmUp'' does this because [[GenreSavvy he's aware of how this goes in movies]] -- see the page quote. Unfortunately, it's an AvertedTrope--the villains have too much power and keep the news from getting out. [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge Which is all right for Smith...]]

* ''Film/TheShawshankRedemption'' has a small-town variation on this. As he escapes and takes all of the secret kickback money out of false bank accounts, Andy drops a package of hard proof of the warden's crimes into the outgoing mail. That gets sent to the local newspaper; in the next scene, the front page article indicting the prison warden is shown on the Warden's desk, just as the cops are trying to beat down his office door.

-->'''Higgins:''' Hey, Turner! How do you know they'll print it? ''How do you know...''

* The U.S version of ''Film/StateOfPlay'' ends with a credits montage of Cal and Della's story on Point Corp going to print.

* In the final act of ''Film/RogueOne'', [[spoiler:Jyn Erso and her companions travel to an Imperial base on the planet Scarif in order to steal the Death Star schematics and relay them to the Rebel fleet above. All of her companions except Cassian die in the ensuing battle, but during the conflict Jyn reaches a computer on the top of the Citadel Tower and transmits the schematics to the Rebel flagship. Once receiving the blueprints, the Rebels copy the data and rush to get as far away from the planet as possible, with the Empire in close pursuit. Jyn and Cassian are eventually killed by the Death Star's superlaser firing on its own base as a failed last resort.]]
* At the end of ''[[Literature/{{VALIS}} Radio Free Albemuth]]'' [[spoiler:as a political prisoner, the main character hears over a radio that the resistance-song has been released, justifying his sacrifice in getting it to the public.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgdE-qPv6kw The final words]] in ''Film/DeadlineUSA'' (1952), one of Creator/HumphreyBogart's finest later films. He's speaking to a gangster he's about to bring down in the final issue of his paper just before it's bought out and closed down.
--> That's the press, baby. The press! And there's nothing you can do about it. ''Nothing!''

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's short story "Literature/TheDeadPast". A man discovers the secret of chronoscopy (a machine that can view the past), which has been placed under government control. He releases the information to several publicity outlets so it will become public, then learns ''why'' the government suppressed it. It can look at any place at any sufficiently recent time... which means there is no privacy, since there are no limitations on how ''close'' to the present it can look. The government knew about this before (it was their motivation for their draconian rules, the intent being to keep it out of the public's hands and unused), but once the protagonists invent a cheap and simple way to duplicate the technology and spread it widely, everyone can look at anyone at any time. The government even admits that their own agents have used it for indiscreet purposes.
* Creator/FrankHerbert's short story "Committee Of The Whole". A man uses the broadcast of a U.S. Senate hearing to describe a cheap, easily-built laser that could cut the Earth in half like a ripe tomato. He then spends several pages trying to justify distributing information that could allow any madman to destroy the planet. He later admits he had distributed the information far and wide earlier.
* Literature/TheGapCycle Stephen R. Donalson uses this in the climax, giving humanity its best defense against the Amnion.

* The old InteractiveFiction adaptation of/sequel to ''Literature/{{Fahrenheit451}}'' ended with Montag publicly broadcasting the contents of a lot of the banned books.
* Robert Harris' ''Literature/{{Fatherland}}'' ends with an [[BolivianArmyEnding ambiguous]] use of this; what we see is what the main character hopes / believes is happening, not necessarily what is. [[Film/{{Fatherland}} The film of the book]] plays it straight.
* In Greg Iles' ''The Footprints of God'', the main character exposed the AI project he's working on after he recovered from a coma.

* In Literature/AncillaryJustice, Breq's plan for revenge against [[TheEmperor Anaander Mianaai]] is to reveal his secret actions to ''herself'', leaving her unable to deny the [[SplitPersonality split]] in the HiveMind that composes her. This succeeds, plunging the Anaander Mianaai into civil war against the other parts of herself.
* Villainous example at the climax of ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance''. The humans win the Battle Of Narak, crushing the [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Voidbringers]]. But it's already too late. The Voidbringers have had time to release a magical signal that will transform all the parshmen into Voidbringers, and there are parshmen ''everywhere''. The enemy may have lost twenty or thirty thousand Voidbringers at Narak, but he'll soon have twenty or thirty ''million'' to replace them.
* In the first book of the [[Literature/TheNexusSeries Nexus trilogy]] the protagonist Kade and his friends have invented Nexus 5 - a way to cheaply and efficienty boost one's mind and body by injecting nanomachines and running software on them. This has the potential of having ''enormous'' consequences for the whole of humanity - in both good and bad ways. Concerned that humanity might choose the bad over the good if given Nexus and left to its own devices, and suddenly finding themselves on the run from a number of conservative government entities who want to shut down the "outbreak" before it starts, the protagonists spend most of the first book closely guarding the source code to their creation. At the end [[spoiler:Kade finally realises humanity deserves to choose its own path, and releases the source code on the Internet. The NSA ''almost'' looks like it's about to end it... but there's always ''someone'' who's continuing the chain, resulting in the code ultimately spreading far and wide and changing the balance of power forever.]]

** ''A Clean Kill In Tokyo''. Rain finds himself up against this problem with the MacGuffin, a computer disk with a list of Japanese officials involved in corruption. Due to the nature of the Japanese media, no-one will touch such a potentially divisive story, so Rain gives the disk to a US journalist who can publish the story overseas, allowing the Japanese media to comment on it. Unfortunately the journalist is then murdered, putting them back to square one.
** ''The Detachment''. Rain discovers a GovernmentConspiracy to launch a FalseFlagOperation in the United States and asks his friend in the CIA why he can't just leak it to the newspapers. He points out that the New York Times has changed a lot since the Watergate days, and that they sat on a story of illegal domestic surveillance until after the election. So when they finally uncover undeniable proof of the conspiracy, they release it on Wikileaks instead.
* Invoked in ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'': magical rituals can be performed by anyone, and magical ''summoning'' rituals can be particularly bad if they summon ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow. However, the likelihood of a ritual working is inversely proportional to the number of times it is attempted: the more people try to summon a devil, the less likely it is for the devil to show up, to the point that you can reduce the chance to zero if you disseminate the information enough. So the White Council's standard practice when they find a particularly bad ritual spell is to tell ''everyone'' about it by publishing a book, almost immediately invalidating the ritual[[note]]This is, on occasion, a bad thing, however, as detailed by Thomas in the short story ''Backup''[[/note]]. They were also responsible for sharing Dr. Van Helsing's research on vampires in the form of Bram Stoker's Dracula, to allow ordinary mortals to fight back against and almost completely destroy the Black Court of vampires, aka the ones that were complete monsters with no moral compass or desire to remain hidden.

* Averted, barely, in ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' only because Duncan uses the Quickening to fry Paris' power grid -- and the computer holding the disk which holds information about Immortals and Watchers. Sure was lucky that the BigBad of the season who had been using the that disk in an attempt to blackmail Duncan chose the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower as the site of their showdown, providing a convenient antenna to transmit the lightning from the Quickening.[[note]]Convenient, but in-character; the villain in question had a massive flair for the theatrical and saw the highest point in Paris as the ideal place to enact his vengeance against Duncan.[[/note]]

* Played with in the second season of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}''. Whoever said the unstoppable signal had to speak the truth?

** Episode 2: A Martian ship is about to grab the ''Canterbury's'' life pod and Holden thinks that the people who destroyed their ship are coming to finish them off so he sends a broad-spectrum message accusing Mars of destroying the ''Canterbury''. It causes riots to break out throughout the Belt. [[spoiler: Subverted immediately afterwards because Holden turns out to be completely wrong; the whole thing was a FalseFlagOperation, and finding out who was really responsible takes them the rest of Season 1.]]
** Episode 5: A flashback shows a Belter protest earlier that was brutally taken down by the UNN, destroying an entire station inhabited not only by protesting miners but their children as well. After numerous offers to surrender were ignored one of the protest leaders sent a transmission showing his oxygen-deprived daughter and explaining that they were just trying to improve their kids' lives, which cuts off as the station is destroyed. Apparently it was so effective that the assault's leader defected to the OPA.
* {{Defied}} in ''Series/{{V 1983}}''. IntrepidReporter Mike Donovan gets proof on video that the Visitors aren't friendly HumanAliens who come in peace, but mice-swallowing reptilians planning to TakeOverTheWorld. He gets the tape to the broadcast studio, and just as they're about to tell the world, all the stations cut out for a 'special announcement' that the Visitors have taken 'temporary' control of the media for our own good. In the follow-up series, LaResistance rip off a Visitor's face on live television. The Visitors claim it's a fake and show the 'real' broadcast the next day with the same audience managed at gunpoint to applaud on cue.
* Subverted in the British mini-series ''For The Greater Good''. A politician's secretary leaks a Cabinet document to a newspaper, but not only do their lawyers advise them not to use it because they could be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act, they actually send the papers back to the Cabinet office. The whistleblower is justly infuriated because this risks exposing her. She then has to try and find a sympathetic politician who can raise the matter in Parliament, allowing the press to legally comment on it.

* In ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'', Legasov's suicide two years after the titular disaster and the tapes he recorded spark an investigation into the events, finally forcing the Soviet government to reveal exactly what happened and the scale of the disaster. In Legasov's case, he was already dying from radiation exposure and has been made a virtual {{Unperson}} by the KGB, so this may also count as a ThanatosGambit.

* This is what drives one of ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'''s branches, the Revolution/Matt Horner missions. [[spoiler:They manage to bring the truth to the Dominion's civilians, thus starting a revolution]].
* Post-''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' lore includes [[CoolOldLady Wynne]]'s use of this trope; she uses a magical broadcasting device in one of the [[MutantDraftBoard Circles of Magi]] to get out the word that [[spoiler: it is possible to reverse the Rite of Tranquility and restore a mage who has been rendered both unable to cast spells and effectively lobotomized.]]
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', this is the Refuse ending. The galaxy is being swarmed by a techno-horror HordeOfAlienLocusts led by [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] that destroy every advanced civilization in a cyclical manner. The PlayerCharacter has the option to obliterate or rewire them, but all of the possible choices involve great sacrifice and loss. Or the PlayerCharacter can simply refuse to accept any of their choices - and then the bad guys win, all technologically advanced life is destroyed, but not before one of the TrueCompanions executes her plan to FlingALightIntoTheFuture. She does so not on a single planet, but on many planets that harbor intelligent (or potentially intelligent) life, with smart programs to aid decryption by any who find it and incredible volumes of data that would propel a society almost instantly to a space-faring one. This ensures the next invasion is the last one.

* ''Webcomic/SamAndFuzzy'' has Sam do this to expose vampires to the world as the first step of his plan to strip The Comittee of their power by exposing the various supernatural species living in The Underground. Normally, the Committees enforcers, the Erasers, checks all forms of media and censor or filter out security breaks, but there is a treshold beyond which even they cant cover up the truth. In the vampires case, Sam managed to reveal their existance to dozens of national news crews at once, making it impossible to shut down all of them, as the level of blackout required would just prove that someone is trying to cover things up.

* ''Film/{{Edge of Darkness|2010}}'' sees Elle Craven's whistleblowing video sent to the press by her father, [[spoiler:who knows he's dying of thalium poisoning courtesy of her employers.]]

* Frank Herbert's short story "Committee Of The Whole". A man uses the broadcast of a U.S. Senate hearing to describe a cheap, easily-built laser that could cut the Earth in half like a ripe tomato. He then spends several pages trying to justify distributing information that could allow any madman to destroy the planet. He later admits he had distributed the information far and wide earlier.

Compare and contrast the villainous counterpart, DoNotAdjustYourSet. See also InformationWantsToBeFree, YouCannotKillAnIdea and IrrevocableMessage.

* In ''TabletopGame/Battletech'', this is how the Helm Memory Core was distributed to the Inner Sphere. The Gray Death Legion mercenaries, rightfully not trusting [=ComStar=] in the matter, instead distributed copies of the library core to a large number of free traders, as well as certain specific people (such as Duke Hassid Ricol, who had aided them in the defense of the core); which ensured that, in spite of [=ComStar=]'s efforts to destroy the core, they ultimately failed at eradicating it, which allowed for the long-standing [[LostTechnology decline of technology]] in the Inner Sphere to be reversed.

* ''Manga/DontMeddleWithMyDaughter'': Athena retired from being a superheroine, after suffering years of sexual harassment from her enemies; including one incident where [[spoiler: [[RapeAsBackstory she was gang raped]]]]. Her friend, Hanna, used her connections as commander of N.U.D.E.[[note]]"Next Ultimate Defense Exports"[[/note]] to cover it up and silenced any witnesses. But things are different in her daughter's day and age, thanks to the prevalence of the internet and social media. Athena fears [[DefiledForever what could happen to Clara's reputation]] as a heroine if she were to suffer the same humiliation she endured, especially if anyone were to broadcast it. So she comes out of retirement to keep it from happening.

* ''Manga/UchiNoMusumeNiTeODasuNa'': Athena retired from being a superheroine, after suffering years of sexual harassment from her enemies; including one incident where [[spoiler: [[RapeAsBackstory she was gang raped]]]]. Her friend, Hanna, used her connections as commander of N.U.D.E.[[note]]"Next Ultimate Defense Exports"[[/note]] to cover it up and silenced any witnesses. But things are different in her daughter's day and age, thanks to the prevalence of the internet and social media. Athena fears [[DefiledForever what could happen to Clara's reputation]] as a heroine if she were to suffer the same humiliation she endured, especially if anyone were to broadcast it. So she comes out of retirement to keep it from happening.

* In the final act of ''Film/RogueOne'', [[spoiler:Jyn Erso and her companions travel to an Imperial base on the planet Scarif in order to steal the Death Star schematics and relay them to the Rebel fleet above. All of her companions except Cassian die in the ensuing battle, but during the conflict Jyn reaches a computer on the top of the Citadel Tower and transmits the schematics to the Rebel flagship. Once receiving the blueprints, the Rebels copy the data and rush to get as far away from the planet as possible, with the Empire in close pursuit. Jyn and Cassian are eventually killed by the Death Star's turbolaser firing on its own base as a failed last resort.]]

* {{Defied}} in ''Series/{{V 1983}}''. IntrepidReporter Mike Donovan gets proof on video that the Visitors aren't friendly HumanAliens who come in peace, but mice-swallowing reptilians planning to TakeOverTheWorld. He gets the tape to the broadcast studio, and just as they're about to tell the world, all the stations cut out for a 'special announcement' that the Visitors have taken 'temporary' control of the media for our own good. In the follow-up series, LaResistance rip off a Visitor's face on live television. The Visitors claim it's a fake and show the 'real' broadcast the next day.

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', when the crew finds out about the [[MegaCorp Wormgate Corporation]]'s AncientConspiracy to suppress the [[TeleportersAndTransporters teraport]] drive, [[MadScientist Kevyn]] turns the invention open-source and submits the schematics to literally ''everybody''. He ends up sparking a galaxy-wide revolution, as practically ''everybody'' who had been prevented from fighting each other due to the Wormgate Network can suddenly go shoot each other whenever they want. Or, to put it in perspective for him:

* At the end of ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'', Charlie gives her story to the one major publication she can trust not to be controlled by the government... ''Rolling Stone Magazine''.