History Main / CantTakeAnythingWithYou

* In a short story titled "The Business, As Usual" by Creator/MackReynolds, a future person who knows how time travel works takes advantage of a time traveller who doesn't.

* Normally averted in ''Literature/TimeWarpTrio''. However, when they go back to the time of the cavemen with the intention of bringing back modern tech, they're left with nothing but their glasses, hat, and a straw.
** This is because they tried to take too much back. Also, another book mentions trying to take too much knowledge from the future to the present can be bad.

* JackKirbysFantasticFour: The FF travel to ancient Egypt to retrieve some herbs that, somehow, can restore people's vision, in hopes of helping Alicia Masters with it. They get them, but lost them during the time travel.

* The original Comicbook/WarMachine armor was destroyed in this manner after Rhodey was caught in a "time-quake" while traveling back to the present from UsefulNotes/WorldWar2-era Germany.

* A non-TimeTravel version in the series ''Series/Forever''. Whenever protagonist Doctor Henry Morgan dies, his body vanishes and reappears naked in the nearest body of water, with his clothes apparently vanishing along with any blood he left at the scene. The first time we see him reappear, Henry is immediately arrested for indecent exposure, and it's implied that this happens a lot.
* In the pilot episode of ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', the human resistance gets around this by sending an engineer back to the 1960s, where he builds a plasma rifle and time machine and stashes them in a bank vault. However, it's played straight later in the episode, when [[spoiler:Sarah, John, and Cameron send themselves forward to 2007 and wind up naked on a '''very''' busy highway. Double {{Main/Squick}} points for this one, considering that Sarah is John's mom.]]

* Inverted in the ''{{Literature/Dinosaur Cove}}'' book series. The kids can bring technology with them, like the Fossil Finder, but can't bring anything from the past back to modern times. A Ginkgo leaf one of them tries to bring back crumbles to dust.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Discworld/NightWatch'', it's physically impossible for time travelers to take anything with them that doesn't belong in the destination time. Thus, a character who's changed his clothes while back in time will return to the future naked, it's a good idea to eat when you get back because the food you ate then stays there, et cetera. This is not, in fact, always true -- one of the time travelers brought his armor with him -- but it's a [[LiesToChildren very useful lie]]. The issue seems to be one of [[TimTaylorTechnology available power]] and the fact that sending him back is a bit of a rush-job:

[[folder: Web Comics]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} "They don't leave much to the imagination."]]\\
[[WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}} "Actually, on a robot, they sort of do."]]]]

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' games, you can only trade first gen Pokemon with attacks that debuted in RBY when you get the time machine trader to work. Likewise, any moves that are exclusive in ''Gold and Silver'' cannot be in a Pokemon's move set if you are trading it to ''Red and Blue''

* In ''VideoGame/DukeNukem'' Zero Hour, when traveling back in time to the Wild West, it's implied that Duke arrives in the buff. Invoking ''Film/TheTerminator'', Duke asks the local for his clothes, boots, and horse before deciding he doesn't need the horse.

See also AlienNonInterferenceClause.

The reasons for this vary. Sometimes the time travelers simply want to avoid changing the timeline too much, and they realize that, say, [[GivingRadioToTheRomans leaving a modern gun behind in the middle ages]] could [[TimelineAlteringMacGuffin create all sorts of problems]]. Other times it's due to a limitation of the AppliedPhlebotinum used to travel through time. In the latter case, the time traveler often [[NakedOnArrival arrives naked]] and has to find clothing somewhere. In other cases, the time travel may simply have been a surprise and they weren't prepared.

->'''Dr. Silberman:''' Why didn't you bring any weapons, something more advanced? Don't you have, uh... ray guns? Show me a piece of future technology.
->'''Reese:''' You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism.
->'''Dr. Silberman:''' Why?
->'''Reese:''' I didn't build the fucking thing!

* In the pilot episode of ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', the human resistance gets around this by sending an engineer back to the 1960s, where he builds a plasma rifle and time machine and stashes them in a bank vault.
** However, it's played straight later in the episode, when [[spoiler:Sarah, John, and Cameron send themselves forward to 2007 and wind up naked on a '''very''' busy highway. Double {{Main/Squick}} points for this one, considering that Sarah is John's mom.]]

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}} book ''Discworld/NightWatch'', it's physically impossible for time travelers to take anything with them that doesn't belong in the destination time. Thus, a character who's changed his clothes while back in time will return to the future naked, it's a good idea to eat when you get back because the food you ate then stays there, et cetera. (This is not, in fact, always true -- one of the time travelers brought his armor with him -- but it's a [[LiesToChildren very useful lie]]. The question seems to be one of [[TimTaylorTechnology power source]].)

* In ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver'' games, you can only trade first gen Pokemon with attacks that debuted in RBY when you get the time machine trader to work.

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' is probably the most famous example of the "arrives naked" version. However, the titular killer robots are able to travel back in time because they're covered in living tissue. Presumably, the liquid metal that more advanced models use is able to mimic living tissue closely enough to work.[[note]]According to the DVD commentary, the three reasons discussed amongst the writers were that, along with the T-1000 being covered in living tissue which he shedded upon arrival and '[[MST3KMantra it's just a movie, who cares?]]'[[/note]]

Sometimes the inverse is seen, where it's not possible to take anything from the past back to the future. (Sometimes this is justified by the claim that, for the object, the future doesn't exist yet.) Since it's otherwise not much of a dramatic limitation, this version usually only comes up in stories where a time-traveler is trying to save something (or some''one'') from being destroyed in the past. [[IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] the only saying "You can't take it with you", referring to when you die.

* The Styx Time Gate in the ''StarOcean'' series prevents anyone from taking modern technology (or indeed, anything more than clothes) into the past. It's never explained why this is the case, or what happens if you try.

* ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'': Like ''Portal'', certain purple-tinted shields will prevent you from taking puzzle objects outside the bounds of the puzzle (or in specific areas within some puzzles). [[spoiler:To get some of the star sigils, figuring out how to get some puzzle objects outside the bounds of the puzzle become critical, and requires finding creative solutions]].
* ''VideoGame/TheTuringTest'': The entrance to each chamber has a scanner that prevents you from taking items to the next puzzle.