History Main / DataDriveMacGuffin

** ''Film/RogueOne'': Jyn Erso leads a team of rebel infiltrators to obtain a data file from a tower full of data drives on Scarif. She recognizes the filename "Stardust" as her father's nickname for her, and succeeds in absconding it, then transmitting its contents to her rebel allies orbiting the planet.

* A side mission in ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'' tasks the player with obtaining a disk in an obsolete format[[labelnote:*]]either a 3.5 inch floppy or a zip disk[[/labenote]] along with a companion disk drive, in order to [[spoiler:reconstitute Eliza Cassan's original, self-aware personality and memories.]] Unfortunately for the player, agents from [[spoiler:Picus]] are also searching for the disk, and are prepared to go to any lengths to keep the information on it from getting out.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'''s Episodes are focused on Gordon and Alyx retrieving information from the failing Combine Citadel and escorting it to White Forest. They begin ''Episode One'' just meters away from the Citadel, whose dark energy core is about to cause a chain reaction, threatening to delete City 17 with it. Gordon and Alyx not only manage to delay the reaction but also store information gathered by Judith Mossman and intercepted by the Combine in Alyx's multi-tool. Such information is so important that they get chased by the Combine all across the city. ''Episode Two'' has them ultimately reach White Forest, allowing Magnusson and Kleiner to decipher the contents of the multi-tool [[spoiler:which turns out to include the location of the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel containing technology that could turn the tide of the conflict between humanity and the Combine]].

* In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademiaWorldHeroesMission'', Humarise is after a suitcase Rody accidentally grabs during a mix-up, but neither he nor Deku are able to figure out why. But after fighting Beros for the last time, the heroes discover a secret compartment in the bottom of the suitcase that contains a puzzle. When solved, the puzzle reveals a data drive acting as [[spoiler:a permanent shutdown key for all of the Trigger Bombs that Humarise has placed throughout the world.]]

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': A cell phone instead of a data drive, but same function: in "[[Recap/SherlockS02E01AScandalInBelgravia A Scandal in Belgravia]]", high-class prostitute Irene Adler has a huge amount of blackmail material and photographed secret information from millionaires and government officials of all over the world in her cell phone, and she went the extra mile to destroy the original copies of said secrets and [[SelfDestructingSecurity modified her phone so it will explode if anybody tries to hack it or open it without her password]] (a fact she immediately tells Mycroft Holmes when [[SimpleSolutionWontWork he says he could just destroy the phone and remove her leverage]]). Unsurprisingly, spy agencies from all over the world are willing to do anything to get their hands on the phone, with MI-5 (Mycroft) and the CIA being the two most active in the episode.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'''s Episodes are focused on Gordon and Alyx retrieving information from the failing Combine Citadel and escorting it to White Forest. They begin ''Episode One'' just meters away from the Citadel, whose dark energy core is about to cause a chain reaction, threatening to delete City 17 with it. Gordon and Alyx not only manage to delay the reaction, but also store information gathered by Judith Mossman and intercepted by the Combine in Alyx's multi-tool. Such information is so important that they get chased by the Combine all across the city. ''Episode Two'' has them ultimately reach White Forest, allowing Magnusson and Kleiner to decipher the contents of the multi-tool [[spoiler:which turns out to include the location of the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel containing technology that could turn the tide of the conflict between humanity and the Combine]].

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2 Episode 1'' and ''Episode 2'' are focused on Gordon and Alyx retrieving information from the failing Combine citadel in a USB-like drive and escorting it to the rebel base in White Forest. They begin ''Episode 1'' just meters away from the falling citadel, whose nuclear core is about to cause a chain reaction, threatening to delete City 17 with it. Gordon and Alyx not only manage to delay the reaction but also store information gathered by Judith Mossman in Alyx's USB-like drive. Such information is so important, they begin to be chased by the Combine all across the city; this chase also includes encounters with zombies and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs zombines]]. By the end of ''Episode 1'', [[spoiler:they manage to escape from City 17 just as the citadel's reactor caused the chain reaction that led to the disappearance of City 17]]. The beginning of ''Episode 2'' has them transferring the data to the rebels' base in White Forest when they start to be chased by the Combine. [[spoiler:Both of them eventually manage to reach White Forest, only for the combine to send an entire assault wave. After said wave is fended off, Magnusson and Kleiner begin deciphering the contents of Alyx's drive]].

!! Examples

* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%B6nssonligan Jönssonligan]]'': one of the movies revolves around a chip containing governmental city development plans.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': A cell phone instead of a data drive, but same function: in ''[[Recap/SherlockS02E01AScandalInBelgravia A Scandal in Belgravia]]'', high-class prostitute Irene Adler has a huge amount of blackmail material and photographed secret information from millionaires and government officials of all over the world in her cell phone, and she went the extra mile to destroy the original copies of said secrets and [[SelfDestructingSecurity modified her phone so it will explode if anybody tries to hack it or open it without her password]] (a fact she immediately tells Mycroft Holmes when [[SimpleSolutionWontWork he says he could just destroy the phone and remove her leverage]]). Unsurprisingly, spy agencies from all over the world are willing to do anything to get their hands on the phone, with MI-5 (Mycroft) and the CIA being the two most active in the episode.

* ''{{VideoGame/Deponia}}'': Along with [[LivingMacGuffin Goal herself]], her [[NeuroVault brain implant]] is key to the plot, as it contains the Ascension Codes into Elysium. [[BigBad The Organon]], on the other hand, wants to take them, so they can erase her memory about life on Deponia.

* ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle:'' A flash drive with valuable data is what causes [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Solid Snake]] and [[VideoGame/SplinterCell Sam Fisher]] to fight one another. Sam is trying to prevent Snake from getting his hands on the flash drive while Snake is trying to take it from him.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': In the premiere episode [[Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E1E2Rebirth "Rebirth"]], enforcers working for [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Derek Powers]] kill Warren [=McGuinnis=] and pursue his son Terry to recover a disk with information about Powers' nerve-gas project. These events, along with Terry's discovery of Bruce Wayne's identity as the original Batman, lead to Terry [[LegacyCharacter becoming the new Batman]] with Bruce [[MissionControl assisting him]] and taking steps to regain control of his company from Powers.

** In "[[Recap/SouthParkS10E8MakeLoveNotWarcraft Make Love, Not Warcraft]]", the programmers of VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft agree to help the boys take down the griefer by giving them [[InfinityPlusOneSword the Sword of a Thousand Truths]], an old removed very powerful sword stored on a locked-up flash drive.

* By the third season ''Anime/TheMysteriousCitiesOfGold'', the medallions Esteban and Zia wear turn out to be this, as inserting them into each of the cities of gold downloads a huge volume of data into them until they're removed. Collecting all the information from the cities turns out to be the goal by the final season, meant to [[spoiler: build the final city to [[CometOfDoom stop an incoming meteorite from destroying Earth.]]. ]]

* In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademiaWorldHeroesMission'', Humarise is after a suitcase Rody accidentally grabs during a mix-up, but neither he nor Deku is able to figure out why. But after fighting Beros for the last time, the heroes discover a secret compartment in the bottom of the suitcase that contains a puzzle. When solved, the puzzle reveals a data drive acting as [[spoiler:a permanent shutdown key for all of the Trigger Bombs that Humarise has placed throughout the world.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'': In the premiere episode [[Recap/BatmanBeyondS1E1E2Rebirth "Rebirth"]], enforcers working for [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Derek Powers]] kill Warren [=McGuinnis=] and pursue his son Terry to recover a disk with information about Powers's nerve-gas project. These events, along with Terry's discovery of Bruce Wayne's identity as the original Batman, lead to Terry [[LegacyCharacter becoming the new Batman]] with Bruce [[MissionControl assisting him]] and taking steps to regain control of his company from Powers.

** ''Film/ANewHope'': The Rebel Alliance has stolen data tapes containing the complete plans for the Empire's new superweapon, the Death Star. For the first two-thirds of the plot, the heroes' goal is to get those stolen plans to the Rebel headquarters, so the Alliance can analyze them and find the Death Star's weak point--and the Empire will do anything to get those plans back.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': In the episode [[Recap/CriminalMindsS11E9InternalAffairs Internal Affairs]] Hotch is told that a DEA agent might be working for the local drug cartels. The only proof is on the agent's flash drive, which he keeps closely guarded. [[spoiler:The agent is killed, and his assistant reveals the agent was not working for the cartels and was skeptical of Hotch and his team. The flash drive does reveal the real traitor]].

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2 Episode 1'' and ''Episode 2'' are focused on Gordon and Alyx retrieving information from the failing Combine citadel in a USB-like drive and escorting it to the rebel base in White Forest. They begin ''Episode 1'' just meters away from the falling citadel, whose nuclear core is about to cause a chain reaction, threatening to delete City 17 with it. Gordon and Alyx not only manage to delay the reaction but also store information gathered by Judith Mossman in Alyx's USB-like drive. Such information was so important, they began to be chased by the Combine all across the city; this chase also included encounters with zombies and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs zombines]]. By the end of ''Episode 1'', [[spoiler:they manage to escape from City 17 just as the citadel's reactor caused the chain reaction that led to the disappearance of City 17]]. The beginning of ''Episode 2'' had them transferring the data to the rebels' base in White Forest when they started to be chased by the Combine. [[spoiler:Both of them eventually manage to reach White Forest, only for the combine to send an entire assault wave. After said wave is fended off, Magnusson and Kleiner began deciphering the contents of Alyx's drive]].

Note that the key distinction of the trope is that the device must contain valuable information, and said content must be either shown, alluded or mentioned in-story. Just having a device, but no useful data on it, doesn't count, as that would mean that all the effort to obtain such a device would render AllForNothing. It also doesn't count in those cases when the data and its uploading happen without the middleware, which is the focus of the trope.

In relatively modern works the storage device is typically a USB flash drive or portable external hard drive, but [[TechnologyMarchesOn the exact terminology and device can vary based on the circumstances]].

* In ''Anime/MyHeroAcademiaWorldHeroesMission'', Humarise is after a suitcase Rody accidentally grab during a mix up, but neither he nor Deku is able to figure out why. But after fighting Beros for the last time, the heroes discover a secret compartment in the bottom of the suitcase that contains a puzzle. When solved, the puzzle reveals a data drive acting as [[spoiler:a permanent shutdown key for all of the Trigger Bombs that Humarise has placed throughout the world.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CloudyWithAChanceOfMeatballs'': When the [[FunWithAcronyms FLDSMDFR]] [[AiIsACrapshoot goes haywire]] and destroys the town, Flint has a kill code on a flash drive that can power it down. He travels with his friends in order to reach its center, which proves to be difficult, until Flint loses the kill code. He has his dad send him a backup, and although [[TechnologicallyBlindElders he struggles a bit]], he's able to send it to him. However, Flint's dad sends him the wrong thing, so it doesn't work. Flint ends up destroying the FLDSMDFR by using his [[ChekhovsGun Spray-On Shoes]] to clog it up, and that's what ends up saving the day.

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': Miles goes to a lab where he met Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. He gives Miles a flash drive which can be used to shut down a dimension opening machine. Peter Parker, Peter B. Parker, Aunt May, Penny Parker, and everyone else besides Miles himself have such frequent experience with important flash drives that it's become commonly known as a "goober".

* ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'': Manhattan has been converted into a giant penal colony--and Air Force One crashes there. Not only has the US President gone missing, but also the tape he was carrying with information on the construction of a practical nuclear fusion power source, since he'd been en route to a global peace conference before the crash. The badass criminal Snake Plissken is forcibly recruited to retrieve both the President and the tape, in time for the conference. [[spoiler:Snake does succeed in retrieving them both, but deems the President failed his SecretTestOfCharacter. So Snake deliberately hands the wrong tape back to the President: the President embarrasses himself by playing "Bandstand Boogie" for the peace conference, while Snake destroys the info about nuclear fusion.]]

* The ActionPrologue of ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' has Bond and Eve on a mission to recover an encrypted hard drive containing the identifies of every undercover NATO agent. They ''fail''; the bad guys get away with the data, and Bond ends up missing, presumed dead.

* ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'': In the film's second act, Casey Ryback tries to disrupt the BigBad's plans by stealing the CD that contains his KillSat's firing codes. The subsequent action sequence kills a number of the villain's goons and probably bought some time before the villain executes his plan to destroy Washington, D.C., but the bad guys manage to get back the CD, making Casey's efforts [[YouCantThwartStageOne mostly useless]].

* ''Literature/VirtualLight'': A variation. Instead of a hard drive, it uses a pair of VR glasses that hold the data on a MegaCorp's plans for VillainousGentrification of San Francisco. When Chevette Washington gets a hold of said glasses by happenstance, the assassins of said mega corp come looking for her.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2 Episode 1'' and ''Episode 2'' are focused on Gordon and Alyx retrieving information from the failing Combine citadel in an USB-like drive and escorting it to the rebel base in White Forest. They begin ''Episode 1'' just meters away from the falling citadel, whose nuclear core is about to cause a chain reaction, threatening to delete City 17 with it. Gordon and Alyx not only manage to delay the reaction, but also store information gathered by Judith Mossman in Alyx's USB-like drive. Such information was so important, they began to be chased by the Combine all across the city; this chase also including encounters with zombies and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs zombines]]. By the end of ''Episode 1'', [[spoiler:they manage to escape from City 17 just as the citadel's reactor caused the chain reaction that led to the disappearance of City 17]]. The beginning of ''Episode 2'' had them transferring the data to the rebels' base in White Forest when they started to be chased by the Combine. [[spoiler:Both of them eventually manage to reach White Forest, only for the combine to send an entire assault wave. After said wave is fend off, Magnusson and Kleiner began deciphering the contents of Alyx's drive]].

** ''VideoGame/UnrealI Mission Pack: Return to Na Pali'': During Prisoner 849's inspection of the UMS Prometheus, not only 849 stumbles upon the Data Cores, but also a transmission where [[spoiler:the UMS planned to dispose of her for [[HeKnowsTooMuch knowing too much]]]]. So she decides to [[spoiler:rebel against the UMS, fending off the invading waves after she transmits the cores, and finding an alternate way to escape from Na Pali]]. She also decides to keep recording her happenings during the whole ordeal in order [[FlingALightIntoTheFuture for anybody to learn the truth]] should she die at any point. By the end of the game, [[spoiler:849 successfully defeats the UMS Bodega Bay and escapes with the data]].

Oftentimes, it is scandalous or revealing information held by bla kmailers, which the device's recovery will prevent from being leaked. In this scenario, the story will often [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief ignore the blackmailer's ability to make copies of the data]], which will not be destroyed by simply reclaiming the physical storage medium. In some cases, the creator may HandWave this by [[CrazyPrepared protecting the device with encryption or DRM that prevents the copying of files]].

Oftentimes, it is scandalous or revealing information held by blackmailers, which the device's recovery will prevent from being leaked. In this scenario, the story will often [[WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief ignore the blackmailer's ability to make copies of the data]], which will not be destroyed by simply reclaiming the physical storage medium. In some cases, the creator may HandWave this by [[CrazyPrepared protecting the device with encryption or DRM that prevents the copying of files]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse'': Miles goes to a lab where he met Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. He gives Miles a flash drive which can be used to shut down a dimension opening machine.

** In ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkPostCovid'', Stan, Cartman, and Kyle retrieve a hard drive from Kenny's rectum. The drive shows what Kenny was doing immediately before his death.

* {{VideoGame/Deponia}}: Along with [[LivingMacGuffin Goal herself]], her [[BrainUploading brain implant]] is important, as it contains The Ascension Codes into Elysium. [[BigBad The Organon]] from the other hand wants to take them, so they can erase her memory about life on Deponia.

* In ''Film/ForceOfNatureTheDry2'', the reason why Aaron and Carmen -- Australian Federal Police officers who investigate financial crimes -- join the search for Alice Russell when she disappears on the corporate retreat in the wilderness is because Alice was acting as TheMole inside a company they are investigating, and had a flash drive containing the evidence they need to convict CorruprCorporateExecutive Daniel Bailey on her when she vanished.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E17ASimpleInvestigation A Simple Investigation]], a woman shows up on Deep Space Nine and looks for a particular character who had previously been killed. It turns out that [[spoiler:most of her memories were stored on an external storage device and removed from her brain to keep her safe from a telepath when she was spying on the Orion Syndicate]].

* ''WesternAnimation/SpidermanIntoTheSpiderVerse'': Miles goes to a lab where he met Peter Parker, aka Spiderman. He gives Miles a flash drive which can be used to shut down a dimension opening machine.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]

[[folder:Films - Live Action]]

* In ''Film/ForceOfNatureTheDry2'', the reason why Aaron and Carmen - Australian Federal Police officers who investigate financial crimes - join the search for Alice Russell when she disappears on the corporate retreat in the wilderness is because Alice was acting as TheMole inside a company they are investigating, and had a flash drive containing the evidence they need to convict CorruprCorporateExecutive Daniel Bailey on her when she vanished.