History Main / EverythingIsOnline

* Taken to ridiculous extremes in the UsefulNotes/SegaCD game ''VideoGame/{{Panic}}'', where a computer virus infects the World Central Network, and ''every machine in the world'', including vending machines, vehicles, elevators, and countless other objects, starts [[PhlebotinumBreakdown going haywire in indescribably bizarre ways]]. This makes substantially more sense than the rest of the game.

* In ''Film/ShortCircuit 2'', Johnny 5 replaces his shoulder-mounted laser with a radio that can hack things. He uses it to shut down cars by triggering their burglar alarms and pilot remote-controlled model airplanes. However, in the last few minutes of the movie, when the villain is escaping in a boat, Johnny 5 tries to use it on the boat, but [[PhlebotinumBreakdown it doesn't work]] because ''it is not radio-controlled.''

* ''ComicBook/AgeOfUltron:'' Played for horror in the ''Avengers Assemble'' tie-in issue; Starktech artificial limbs are connected to the Wifi, so when Ultron starts the end of the world, this includes hijacking people via prosthetic limbs, which is how Black Widow ends up [[EyeScream losing an eye]].

* ''Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines'' is an example of the evil computer version — in this case, Skynet. Many of the electronic things it spreads through, like cash registers, aren't even supposed to be online, so the Terminator infects stuff with remote-control {{Nanomachines}}. [[FridgeLogic How these nanomachines are able to do things like operate the [mechanical] gearshift, pedals and steering wheels of cars is an exercise best not dwelled upon.]]

** Many mobile games, most notably GachaGames, mandate a connection to a central server to play, in order to validate your super-super-rare gacha pulls and to enforce game updates and removal of content (e.g. due to expiring licenses for collaboration content). Not only does this mean that loss of online connection will prevent you from playing the game, but [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames once the game's servers close down, the game is gone for good]]. This is one of the more major criticisms that older gamers who grew up in a time before non-multiplayer video games needed online connections have with mobile gaming; you can play your favorite SNES games 50 years from now, but many gacha games can't even make it 10 years before having the plug pulled.

** Many mobile games, most notably GachaGames, mandate a connection to a central server to play, in order to validate your super-super-rare gacha pulls and to enforce game updates and removal of content (e.g. due to expiring licenses for collaboration content). Not only does this mean that loss of online connection will prevent you from playing the game, but [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames once the game's servers close down, the game is gone for good]]. This is one of the more major criticisms that older gamers who grew up in a time before non-multiplayer video games needed online connections have with mobile gaming; you can play your favorite SNES games 100 years from now, but many gacha games can't even make it 10 years before having the plug pulled.

** Many mobile games, most notably GachaGames, mandate a connection to a central server to play, in order to validate your super-super-rare gacha pulls and to enforce game updates and removal of content (e.g. due to expiring licenses for collaboration content). Not only does this mean that loss of online connection will prevent you from playing the game, but [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames once the game's servers close down, the game is gone for good]]. This is one of the more major criticisms that older gamers who grew up in a time before non-multiplayer video games needed online connections have with mobile gaming.

* ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'': If Bruce Wayne needs anything, ever, somehow the Batcomputer can ''always'' find it, and on the very rare occasions it can't if Bats asks her nicely enough [[ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} Barbara Gordon]] can.
* ''ComicBook/Champions2016'': In Issue #17, [[spoiler:the second Vivian]] is able to take control of subway trains by hacking into their control systems through the internet.
* ''ComicBook/MsMarvel2016'': Doc.X is a sapient computer virus whose main schtick is its ability to download itself into anything and everything. In addition to computers, tablets, phones and the like, it can enter and control cars and construction equipment -- some do have built-in computers, but these never control their actual moving parts -- and [[spoiler:even human brains]].

* On ''Series/{{Caprica}}'', Zoe Greystone creates an online AI avatar of herself and several other people not by copying their psyche, but by relying on information online such as medical records, security footage, etc.
** Noteworthy is the fact that Caprica in itself is neither our planet nor our present time, but it's a nice metaphor/warning/criticism of our reliance on technology and its possible consequences.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS11E4TreehouseOfHorrorX Treehouse of Horror X]]" Homer's workstation falling victim to the MillenniumBug causes ''everything'' to rebel, including pacemakers, electric shavers, and ''cartons of milk''.

* Parodied in a Halloween episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. Homer's workstation falling victim to the MillenniumBug causes ''everything'' to rebel, including pacemakers, electric shavers, and ''cartons of milk''.

If it's a computer, it's vulnerable. '''No further questions.'''

A [[TheCracker Cracker]] or PlayfulHacker can cause unlimited harm/mischief in the TV world because any computer, or any device with a CPU as a component — or even with a few strands of copper wire in it — is connected to the Internet and thus becomes easily accessible and subvertible to the character's hacking skill. Everything from NORAD to [[HackTheTrafficLights traffic lights]] to the engine computer in your SUV can be tampered with and shut down from a laptop in a room thousands of miles away. This openly defies the fact that in ''neither'' case are said computers actually ''online'' in a way that is reachable by someone on a modem.

Here, ''everything'' is online. There are no closed systems that aren't connected to the internet at large, and any machine can be plugged into or have its electronics easily screwed with from afar. All you need is a wireless connection and some illegal programs - and voila, you're in.

This being said, writers were probably just getting a bit ahead of themselves, as this {{Cyberpunk}} trope is increasingly becoming TruthInTelevision. As ubiquitous internet connectivity becomes essential for almost any electronic gadget or device, everything from cars [[note]]which are now being marketed at the Consumer Electronics Expo[[/note]] to military networks will become increasingly hackable via the internet. Even without an explicit internet connection, many devices have [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_star varying types]] of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluetooth wireless functionality,]] which to a [[WorthyOpponent skilled adversary]] are as good as an internet connection.

* ''Anime/SummerWars''. Everything is connected to the online community of OZ up to and including major governments, large corporations, and traffic control. It is essentially the entire Internet routed through a single UI platform. So when an account-stealing AI gets released into OZ...

* Subverted in the season 2 finale of ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': [[BigBad Moriarty]] disables security at three major locations in London... using a phone app. According to him, all that is nothing more than a sales pitch to the highest bidder for said app -- or rather, the code for the app. He even mentions casually hacking into any nuclear missile silo he chooses. However, this ends up being an elaborate bluff, as the app in question is simply something that sends a text to security people at the locations he 'breaks into', who have already been paid off. The "code" was a trick for the benefit of the Holmes brothers, and it works. Both Sherlock and Mycroft are convinced it's real. Moriarty was amused in Mycroft's case, but very disappointed that Sherlock also fell for it.

* ''Series/{{Vagabond|2019}}'': Lily the assassin tries to kill Dae-gu by somehow hacking into his car's computer system, while Dal-gu is on the road, and remotely disabling the brakes.

** The premise of ''Anime/MegaManNTWarrior'', the anime version of the above game series, is naturally founded upon this trope as well. The first episode demonstrates this by showing that a ''kitchen oven'' is connected to the internet, and its self-cleaning devices are regulated through it.

* Played straight in ''VideoGame/{{MindJack}}'' where due to advances in cybernetics by the huge corporations nearly everything and everyone is online.

* Part of the host segments running through the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode featuring ''Film/TheStarfighters'' deals with Crow T. Robot being unable ''to'' get on the Internet, only succeeding at the end of the episode.

** However in the previous ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'' games, averting this was the whole reason for Third Echelon's existence: Sam Fisher is only sent in to infiltrate the facilities that ''can't'' be breached by electronic means. One mission in ''Chaos Theory'' has Grim try to hack a bank's network, only to discover that they unplug their hard drives every night before sending Sam in.
--->"Crazy world we live in where physical intrusion is less of a threat than electronic intrusion."

* In ''VideoGame/{{Cyberpunk 2077}}'', a combination of this and a world where just about everyone has swapped out some of their standard body parts for cybernetic equivalents means that a skilled netrunner can easily turn off people's eyes, or make them put a gun to their heads and pull the trigger.

* The Creator/SandraBullock movie ''Film/{{The Net|1995}}'' (1995) is entirely built around this trope. It was made when the Internet was just becoming mainstream in America and explores the frightening possibilities of this new technology. The plot involves a computer programmer being targeted by shadowy forces who hack her personal records to ruin her life. Scene after scene is intended to show how pervasive and powerful the Internet is becoming.
* In ''Film/ShortCircuit2'', Johnny 5 replaced his shoulder-mounted laser with a radio that can hack things. He uses it to shut down cars by triggering their burglar alarms and pilot remote-controlled model airplanes. However, in the last few minutes of the movie where the villain is escaping in a boat, Johnny 5 tries to use it on the boat, but [[PhlebotinumBreakdown it doesn't work]] because ''it is not radio-controlled.''