History Main / DisintegrationChamber

* ''Film/OurManFlint'': On the Galaxy organization's IslandBase, there's a device called an electro-fragmentizer which will instantly destroy any object that enters it while it's activated. The Galaxy organization tries to get rid of Derek Flint by throwing him into it. The device ends up destroying Flint's multi-function lighter and several Galaxy agents.

* In Kate Wilhelm's [[NewWaveScienceFiction hallucinatory 1968 short story]] "The Planners", the protagonist (a scientist doing research on artificially enhancing the intelligence of various apes and monkeys, even as his marriage fails) daydreams about [[MadScientist forcibly cross-breeding chimpanzees with the members of a committee of animal welfare activists]], with the resulting offspring sorted, some "into a disintegration room, others out into the world".

* In ''Series/{{Foundation|2021}}'' (the television adaptation of Asimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries''), the Galactic Emperor is [[ThreeFacesOfAdam a trio of clones]], each at a different stage of the original Emperor's life; upon the arrival of a new baby clone the eldest clone Emperor [[DeadlyEuphemism undergoes "ascension"]], stepping into a beam of light which reduces him to a few ashes in an instant.
* In the ''Series/LoisAndClark'' episode "Battleground Earth" Clark/Kal-El is sentenced to have his "body be disintegrated and your molecules scattered over countless distant galaxies". He is then put into an open cage-like structure. In a somewhat unusual version of the trope, the disintegration is explicitly shown to be slow (and apparently rather painful), and the process is also (fortunately) reversible, at least up to a fairly advanced stage of the procedure.

** In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon "A Taste of Armageddon"]], [[ForeverWar two warring planets have been fighting a war for 500 years]]. [[AMillionIsAStatistic To avoid totally destroying their civilization, the way is fought entirely virtually, by computers]]. Those whose deaths have been "registered" in the computers have 24 hours to report to the "disintegration machines".
** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E13AngelOne "Angel One"]] has a variant, in which victims are executed by disintegration out in the open rather than in some kind of closed chamber--simply placed between two pillars and then subjected to a "swift and painless" death.
** Played with in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E12ChosenRealm "Chosen Realm"]]. Captain Archer tricks a group of religious fanatics who have seized ''Enterprise'' into thinking that the transporter is a "disintegration device" used for capital punishment. He then "sacrifices" himself by being "disintegrated", so that he can work unhindered to take his ship back.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' the suicide booths seem to have this as the default option, though when Fry accidentally selects "slow and painful" a bunch of crude automated weapons pop out and attempt to kill him.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|1987}}'' episode "Enter The Fly", Krang throws Baxter Stockman into a disintegrator unit because he has no use for him. In a ShoutOut to ''Film/{{The Fly|1986}}'', the unit malfunctions, [[TeleporterAccident merging Stockman with a housefly that had accidentally entered the chamber with him and turning him into a mutant.]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]", the Doctor is sentenced to disintegration by the Time Lords. In the event, the execution is rigged so he survives.

* In Fonda Lee's science fiction novel ''Exo'' the aliens who have colonized Earth execute rebels or "terrorists" in an "atomizer". There's a "burst of blinding white light" and the condemned simply "wink out of existence without fanfare", with only a few particles of ash left over. This is done in public, in a translucent chamber, after rumors spread that some of those put to death in previous executions weren't really dead--after all, [[NeverFoundTheBody there isn't a body left after such an execution to put on display or to turn over to next of kin]].
* The short story "Freedom of the Skies" by Edsel Newton in the December 1929 issue of ''[[https://archive.org/stream/aws_1929_12/aws_1929_12_djvu.txt Air Wonder Stories]]'' features a "disintegration room", although it uses disintegration '''''gas''''' rather than the more usual "rays".

[[folder:Audio Drama]]

* An accidental version in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' when Jon gets trapped inside an [[{{Technobabble}} intrinsic field substractor chamber]], unaware that the chamber was about to be activated for an experiment and can't be opened until it's finished (one of the scientists stammers out that it's a safety feature). Jon's colleagues are ForcedToWatch helplessly as he is slowly disintegrated (although he reforms bit by bit over the next few months until he's the superhero/PhysicalGod Dr. Manhattan). An intentional version occurs later on, when BigBad [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] lures Dr. Manhattan into one. [[spoiler:This was a less-than-brilliant plan, as Dr. Manhattan himself points out seconds later, saying "The intrinsic field subtractor didn't kill Jon Osterman, what made you think it would kill ''me''?"]]

* From the ''Franchise/{{Goosebumps}}'' media franchise:
** In one of the three short stories ("Don't Make Me Laugh") in the ''Literature/GoosebumpsHauntedLibrary'' collection, two boys are kidnapped by aliens and threatened with being sent to a "disintegration room" if they can't make the aliens laugh.
** In one of the '' Literature/GiveYourselfGoosebumps'' "choose-your-own-adventure" books, ''Literature/TickTockYoureDead'', the protagonist goes into the future, where [[AmbiguousGender they]] end up in a school where a teacher punishes students, [[SadistTeacher even for getting the wrong answer]], by putting them into a cupboard called the "frammilizer" that makes them disappear.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E1ArcOfInfinity Arc of Infinity]]" the Doctor is sentenced to disintegration by the Time Lords. In the event, the execution is rigged so he survives.

* In ''Series/Foundation2021'' (the television adaptation of Asimov's ''Literature/FoundationSeries'') the Galactic Emperor is [[ThreeFacesOfAdam a trio of clones]], each at a different stage of the original Emperor's life; upon the arrival of a new baby clone the eldest clone Emperor [[DeadlyEuphemism undergoes "ascension"]], stepping into a beam of light which reduces him to a few ashes in an instant.

* In the ''Series/Space1999'' episode "Mission of the Darians" the surviving inhabitants of a [[GenerationShips giant spaceship]] that suffered a catastrophic reactor malfunction centuries ago use a disintegration chamber to eliminate "mutants".
* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon "A Taste of Armageddon"]], [[ForeverWar two warring planets have been fighting a war for 500 years]]. [[AMillionIsAStatistic To avoid totally destroying their civilization, the way is fought entirely virtually, by computers]]. Those whose deaths have been "registered" in the computers have 24 hours to report to the "disintegration machines".
* The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E13AngelOne "Angel One"]] has a variant, in which victims are executed by disintegration out in the open rather than in some kind of closed chamber--simply placed between two pillars and then subjected to a "swift and painless" death.
* Played with in the ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS03E12ChosenRealm "Chosen Realm"]]. Captain Archer tricks a group of religious fanatics who have seized ''Enterprise'' into thinking that the transporter is a "disintegration device" used for capital punishment. He then "sacrifices" himself by being "disintegrated", so that he can work unhindered to take his ship back.

* ''TabletopGame/AdvancedDungeonsAndDragons2ndEdition'': From the Tome of Magic, the Disintegration Chamber is a cubical magic item that can be as large as a room 10 feet on a side. When any kind of matter is put inside the chamber and the activation button is pushed, the matter is destroyed. One of these can be used to execute creatures.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' episode "Enter The Fly", Krang throws Baxter Stockman into a disintegrator unit because he has no use for him. In a ShoutOut to ''Film/TheFly1986'', the unit malfunctions, [[TeleporterAccident merging Stockman with a housefly that had accidentally entered the chamber with him and turning him into a mutant.]]

* A number of real-life scientific apparatuses (used in fields from chemistry to nuclear physics) are actually referred to as "disintegration chambers". Needless to say, none of them much resemble any of the science fiction examples listed here. Some U.S. government facilities do have actual "disintegrator rooms". [[spoiler:These are the rooms in U.S. Embassies where they keep the "disintegrator", which is a gizmo used to mechanically shred and then incinerate classified documents.]] There's also a [[StageMagician magic trick]] called a "Disintegration Chamber", in which a red plastic ball (seemingly) disintegrates into thin air; that also doesn't really have anything to do with this trope (although there the name may well have been inspired by the science fiction concept).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' episode "Enter The Fly", Krang throws Baxter Stockman into a disintegrator unit because he has no use for him. It malfunctions, [[TeleporterAccident merging Stockman with a housefly that had accidentally entered the chamber with him and turning him into a mutant.]]

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "Disintegration Chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. Also known as a "Disintegration Booth", "Disintegration Machine", or "Disintegration Room", and various other terms. Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a [[SlidingScale/MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness soft science fiction]] trope, often found in SpaceOpera and ComicBooks.

* The ''ComicBook/GoBots'' comic book features the "[=GoBot=] De-Materializer" (which was one of the features of the "[=GoBot=] Command Center" playset), which is shown explictly being used to "disintegrate" enemy robots. [[spoiler: Although it turns out it's really a time machine.]]

* Creator/ArthurConanDoyle's Literature/ProfessorChallenger short story "The Disintegration Machine" from January 1929 features an apparatus resembling an electric chair[[note]]As the narrator puts it "The nearest approach to that apparatus which I have ever seen was the electrocution chair at Sing Sing"[[/note]] which causes an object--or a person--sitting in it to simply vanish. Somewhat unusually for such devices, the "disintegration machine" in Doyle's story can re-integrate a person who has been disintegrated, bringing them back into existence without any harm.[[note]]Although in one case the machine's inventor deliberately brings someone back without his hair.[[/note]] The machine is nonetheless explicitly treated as a weapon, which could potentially disintegrate a battleship, or bring about "the whole Thames valley being swept clean, and not one man, woman, or child left of all these teeming millions", and is being marketed as such by its inventor to the world's great powers. (In such applications, the apparatus would probably wind up more resembling a DisintegratorRay than a "chamber".) At the end of the story Professor Challenger [[spoiler: disintegrates the machine's inventor--who is the only one who knows the secret of the device's construction--without bothering to re-integrate him.]] The apparent TropeMaker for the trope (though probably not its codifier, given the ways in which Doyle's machine differs from later portrayals).

* In the ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987'' episode "Enter The Fly", Krang throws Baxter Stockman into a disintegrator unit because he has no use for him. It malfunctions, merging Stockman with a housefly that had accidentally entered the chamber with him and turning him into a mutant.

A science fiction trope in which people are executed by being sent to a "Disintegration Chamber"--some kind of little room or machine in which they are zapped into nonexistence. Also known as a "Disintegration Booth", "Disintegration Machine", or "Disintegration Room", and various other terms. Exactly how such a process works is rarely if ever actually explained; this is something of a soft science fiction SpaceOpera and ComicBook trope.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 2nd Edition AD&D supplement Tome of Magic. The Disintegration Chamber is a cubical magic item that can be as large as a room 10 feet on a side. When any kind of matter is put inside the chamber and the activation button is pushed, the matter is destroyed. One of these can be used to execute creatures.

->'''Spock:''' An entrance, Captain, but no exit. They go in, but they do not come out.
->'''Kirk:''' A disintegration machine.

* ComicBook/DoctorDoom has these in his castle in Latveria, which he uses to execute anyone who violates Doom's law or irritates their liege. A throwaway line mentions these actually replaced the iron maiden that formerly did the same job for Doom's predecessors.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': In the RashomonStyle episode, whoever the Plokavians will find guilty of blowing up their ship (or failing that, ''the whole crew'') will be executed by "dispersion" in a cage-like structure. [[spoiler:Stark confesses to destroying the ship because [[NegateYourOwnSacrifice his spiritual powers give him a chance of surviving dispersion]].]]

-->-- ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', [[Recap/StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon "A Taste of Armageddon"]]

[[folder:Film]]

* An accidental version in ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' when John gets trapped inside an [[{{Technobabble}} intrinsic field substractor chamber]], unaware that the chamber was about to be activated for an experiment and can't be opened until it's finished (one of the scientists stammers out that it's a safety feature). John's colleagues are ForcedToWatch helplessly as he is slowly disintegrated (although he reforms bit by bit over the next few months until he's the superhero/PhysicalGod Dr. Manhattan). An intentional version occurs later on, when BigBad [[spoiler:Ozymandias]] lures Dr. Manhattan into one. [[spoiler:This was a less-than-brilliant plan, as Dr. Manhattan himself points out seconds later, saying "The intrinsic field subtractor didn't kill John Osterman, what made you think it would kill ''me''?"]]