History Main / CorruptedContingency

-->-- '''Jack Hawksmoor''' (telling the Children of Gamorra how they're screwed), ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' Volume 2, Issue #1

*** ''ComicBook/BatmanChipZdarsky'': As it turns out, Batman has created a contingency against ''himself'' in case he ever went rogue: Failsafe, a nearly unstoppable android based on Amazo tech. And because it's [[CrazyPrepared Batman]] we are talking about, it wasn't technically him, but rather the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh, himself a [[HeroicSafeMode backup personality]] contingency created for when Batman suffers a psychic attack. And Zurr-En-Arrh also erased his own memory of how to stop Failsafe for good measure. Unfortunately, Failsafe was erronously activated by the Penguin deciding to frame Batman for murder...

*** ''ComicBook/BatmanChipZdarsky'': As it turns out, Batman has created a contingency against ''himself'' in case he ever went rogue: Failsafe, a nearly unstoppable android. And because it's [[CrazyPrepared Batman]] we are talking about, it wasn't technically him, but rather the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh, himself a [[HeroicSafeMode backup personality]] contingency created for when Batman suffers a psychic attack. And Zurr-En-Arrh also erased his own memory of how to stop Failsafe for good measure. Unfortunately, Failsafe was erronously activated by the Penguin deciding to frame Batman for murder...

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'': [[spoiler:Matt Engarde]] paid [[ProfessionalKiller Shelly de Killer]] to assassinate Juan Corrida, secretly filming the murder as BetrayalInsurance. Unfortunately for the culprit, this action winds up bringing about the very outcome he was trying to avoid -- [[spoiler:de Killer is a man who values trust between himself and his clients, and when he learns that Engarde has betrayed him, he terminates their relationship, confesses to everything, and declares Engarde his next target, leading to Engarde pleading guilty just to save himself]].

* ''VideoGame/Hitman3'': The targets in the first level are Carl Ingram and Marcus Stuyvesant who are holed up in a massive skyscraper in Dubai. In the event of a security alert, they are to be evacuated by helicopter; if the helicopter becomes useless due to the pilot being incapacitated or dead, the two men will instead parachute off the building to safety. Should the player decide to make the assassination as subtle and as [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident seemingly accidental as possible]], they can [[ChuteSabotage sabotage the parachutes]] well in advance, ''deliberately'' trigger a security alert, and then sit back and watch as Ingram and Stuyvesant unwittingly fling themselves to their deaths.

** In theory, the Precrime system should make it impossible for anyone to even consider a murder without being detected by the Precogs, making it the ultimate contingency in law enforcement. [[spoiler:The film's ultimate twist is that Lamar Burgess exploited a loophole in the system to get away with murdering Anne Lively, the mother of one of the Precogs who wanted her daughter back and could potentially bring the program down by revealing damning information about the program's origins. First, Burgess hired an assassin to kill her, resulting in the crime being instantly predicted and the killer being arrested. Then, as soon as Lively was safe, Lamar dressed up in the hitman's mask and clothes, and drowned her in the nearby lake exactly as the assassin would have. The Precogs predicted this as well, but because the incident looked virtually identical to the already-averted murder, the Precrime technician assumed that the Precogs were just having nightmares about past visions -- a common occurrence called an "echo" -- and disregarded the vision.]]

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3: Citadel'': [[spoiler:While Cerebus had Shepard's body in custody, they created a clone of them to serve as a source of emergency transplant organs. The clone breaks out with the help of a disgruntled Cerberus operator and teams up with Section 8 mercenaries to KillAndReplace the real Shepard.]]

* Franchise/TheDCU:

** ''ComicBook/Supergirl2011'': The Sanctuary is programmed to eradicate any clones of her. Unfortunately, Sanctuary's A.I. doesn't discriminate between clones and doppelgangers from other universes, or even cares if these clones/doppelgangers mean Kara no harm. When Kara's Earth-2 counterpart Power Girl takes Kara to the fortress for medical attention in issue #19, the Sanctuary's A.I assumes Power Girl is a clone and tries to kill her, prompting the two Kryptonians to fight it together.

* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'': [[spoiler:Matt Engarde]] paid [[ProfessionalKiller Shelly de Killer]] to assassinate Juan Corrida, secretly filming the murder as BetrayalInsurance. Unfortunately for the culprit, this action winds up bringing about the very outcome it was supposed to avoid -- [[spoiler:de Killer is a man who values trust between himself and his clients, and when he learns hear that Engarde had betrayed him, he terminates their relationship, confesses to everything, and declares Engarde his next target, leading to Matt pleading guilty just to save himself]].

* In the final case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'', the culprit [[spoiler:Matt Engarde]] paid [[ProfessionalKiller Shelly de Killer]] to assassinate Juan Corrida, but also secretly filmed him doing so as BetrayalInsurance. Unfortunately for the culprit, this action winds up bringing about the very outcome it was supposed to avoid- [[spoiler:de Killer is a man who values trust between himself and his clients, so to hear that Engarde had betrayed him in such a manner is enough for him to terminate their relationship, confess to everything, and declare Engarde his next target, leading to Matt pleading guilty just to get away from him]].

A SubTrope of HoistByHisOwnPetard and FailsafeFailure. May overlap with AIIsACrapshoot if it involves advanced technology.

* ''VideoGame/OddworldSoulstorm'': In the abandoned mines of Sorrow Valley, Abe finds a number of sick Mudokons. Although neither he or the sick guys know what the sickness is, the victims' random experimentation gives Abe the clues needed to craft an antidote. Later in the game Abe finds out that the sickness is caused by [[spoiler: the beloved beverage [[MayContainEvil Soulstorm Brew]], which causes cardiovascular failure if not regularly consumed. While this feature is intended to prevent escaped Mudokons from finding other settlements and spreading the word of their enslavement, by specifically striking the Mudokons hiding in Sorrow Valley, it gives Abe the knowledge on how to cure the effects of the Brew once and for all.]]

* ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': According to ExpandedUniverse materials, Order 66 was programmed into the clone troopers by their Kaminoan creators under the belief it was only an emergency measure in case individual Jedi went rogue. Unknown to all but [[BigBad Palpatine]] and his fellow Sith, however, the programming was ultimately meant to set the clones to massacre ''all'' the Jedi in one fell swoop -- though Palpatine did meticulously set up the Jedi to look like traitors to cover up the nefarious motives behind it.

* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': The Bondsmagi have a meditative technique to escape torture by retreating into their own minds, but the ArcVillain Falconer is reduced to a vegetative state when he uses it in the first book. In the third book, this is revealed to have been due to [[spoiler:his own mother magically sabotaging him, having decided he's too dangerous a SuperSupremacist to keep around.]]

* ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'': "The Human Factor" deals with the AI security system of a top-secret research facility going haywire and attacking its creator.

A SubTrope of HoistByHisOwnPetard and FailsafeFailure. May crossover with AIIsACrapshoot if it involves advanced technology.

SubTrope of HoistByTheirOwnPetard and FailsafeFailure. May crossover with AIIsACrapshoot if it involves advanced technology.

* ''Series/HannahMontana'': The b-plot of "My Best Friend's Boyfriend" has Rico installing new security measures in his concession stand after a pair of glasses are stolen. The measures don't prevent any further burglaries by the "robber", which turns out to have simply been a raccoon, and only succeed in causing bodily harm to [[ButtMonkey Jackson]] and inconveniencing Rico's customers due to the many levels of security needed to go through just to get their order.

* ''VideoGame/Hitman3'': The targets in the first level are Carl Ingram and Marcus Stuyvesant who are holed up in a massive skyscraper in Dubai. In the event of a security alert, they are to be evacuated by helicopter; if the helicopter becomes useless due to the pilot being incapacitated or dead, the two men will instead parachute off the building to safety. Should the player decide to make the assassination as subtle and as [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident seemingly accidental as possible]], they can sabotage the parachutes well in advance, ''deliberately'' trigger a security alert, and then sit back and watch as Ingram and Stuyvesant unwittingly fling themselves to their deaths.

* ''VideoGame/OddworldSoulstorm'': In the abandoned mines of Sorrow Valley, Abe finds a number of sick Mudokons. Although neither he or the sick guys know what the sickness is, the victim's random experimentation gives Abe the clues needed to craft an antidote. Later in the game Abe finds out that the sickness is caused by [[spoiler: the beloved beverage [[MayContainEvil Soulstorm Brew]], which causes cardiovascular failure if not regularly consumed. While this feature is intended to prevent escaped Mudokons from finding other settlements and spreading the word of their enslavement, by specifically striking the Mudokons hiding in Sorrow Valley, it gives Abe the knowledge on how to cure the effects of the Brew once and for all.]]

** [[spoiler:A similar thing occurred with HEPHAESTUS as explained in ''The Frozen Wilds'' and ''[[VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest Forbidden West]]''; it was designed as the subfunction that would build and control the machines necessary for terraforming the world on a minute scale. However, when it became sentient, HEPHAESTUS decided to build bigger and stronger machines, resulting in [[EliteMooks Hunter-killers]] and [[KillerGorilla Fireclaws]].]]