History Main / MagneticPlotDevice

* In the ''Film/TransformersFilmSeries'', the Allspark takes on this role. In the first ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' film it was an object that both Autobot and Decepticon wanted and would cause unpredictable things to happen around it (mostly creating mini-robots from nearby mechanical devices). ''Film/TransformersRevengeOfTheFallen'' used leftover fragments of the Allspark to cause more chaos, the big one being that it downloads a Cybertronian database into Sam's head. While Sam says IJustWantToBeNormal, TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive and this is the only reason why he is involved with the events of the movie at all. Supplementary Material suggests that the [=AllSpark=] was attracted to Earth because of the Solar Harvester, and that the [[spoiler: meeting between Sentinel Prime and Megatron, both of whom get sidelined]] in DOTM was to take place on Earth also because of Earth's previous history with the Cybertronians.

* ''Franchise/MassEffect'': the first game starts with Shepard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient artifact, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy.

* The shattered Four Souls gem in ''Manga/InuYasha''. At least in the beginning, Inu-Yasha and Kagome are trying to collect the scattered shards of it... and running into a lot of [[BigBad monsters]] and [[MonsterOfTheWeek assorted beasties]] who are also trying to collect the shards.

[[folder:Films - Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys'': The Love Crater Meteorite, which crashed into Los Angeles a year prior to the events of the film and formed a huge crater. Marmalade's actions in the disaster's aftermath put him in the spotlight, leading to him being given the Good Samaritan Award and setting the events of the film in motion. More importantly, [[spoiler:it's an energy source unlike anything on Earth, and Marmalade creates a plan to steal it to use in his own crimes and set up the Bad Guys -- who had no interest in the meteorite prior -- to take the fall for him]].

[[folder:Films - Live Action]]

* The chance of a quiet sane life for a Comicbook/{{Witchblade}} wielder is zero. It [[MacGuffin attracts unfriendly attention as a powerful artifact]] and possibly [[Comicbook/{{Witchblade}} itself]] tend to choose ladies already with predisposition to be {{Weirdness Magnet}}s.

* The [[ComicBook/TheSandman Endless]]:

* One of the many variations of Comicbook/{{Supergirl}} (written by Creator/PeterDavid) had her move to a small town. Naturally, crazed super villains followed. This was partly explained by a mystical river that ran underneath the town, it attracted oddness like deer to a salt lick.

** ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'' makes the connection between the Orb, Aether and Tesseract.

--> The cloak is the [[IncrediblyLamePun ultimate]] {{railroading}} [[NarrativeDevices device]]. You could give the Cloakmaster Cycle one book, three books, six books or nine books, but you would still end up with the end of the adventure being set on The Spelljammer and Teldin's cloak trying to turn him into its next Captain.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': the first game starts with Shepard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient artifact, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[folder:Films]]

* The Starbrand of ''ComicBook/TheNewUniverse'' is a WeirdnessMagnet and a weirdness ''generator'' all in one, it's the MetaOrigin of [[DifferentlyPoweredIndividual Paranormals]]... And it [[ArtifactOfDoom blows up cities]] if you mishandle it.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect'': the first game starts with Shephard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient artifact, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy. Specifically, [[spoiler: Shephard is tasked to retrieve the Prothean probe because of his previous distinguished service that attracted interest from the galactic council. Shephard has become a candidate for becoming a Spectre, a special secret agent above the council laws; furthermore, he or she would be the first human spectre, thus strengthening human ambitions to get a seat in the council, which is dominated by other species. The retrieving mission is also a test to evaluate his or her skill. However, things escalate when a mysterious giant ship attacks the site and steals the probe. The ship, named Sovereign, is one of the Reapers, ancient artificial lifeforms beyond comprehension that cyclically "harvest" all spacefaring races, assimilating them and destroying galactic civilizations. The Protheans were harvested 50,000 years ago by the Reapers themselves, and when Shephard briefly touches the probe, the vision is a warning about the imminent return of the Reapers and the havoc they will wreak. Sovereign is only a vanguard, trying to open a galactic portal to bring in the entire fleet of Reapers which is lurking outside the galaxy, but Shephard manages to destroy it in the final battle of Mass Effect 1 and delay the harvest cycle. In Mass Effect 2 another lurking Reaper, Harbinger, sends a race of raiders called the Collectors to try to assassinate Shephard, now perceived as a serious threat to the Reapers' goals, and gather human colonist to assimilate their biomass to create a new Reaper. While the assassination attempt apparently succeeds, an outlaw covert organization, called Cerberus, manages to retrieve Shephard's body and revive him or her, because Cerberus' mysterious leader, the Illusive Man, believes he is the key for defeating the Reapers. Shephards then manages to stop the Collectors, avert Harbinger's plan and delay once more the start of the cycle. In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers' entire fleet finally arrives. They, obviously, try to target Shephard with all they can, since he or she is the greatest menace to their invasion. And he or she, obviously, is now regarded as the greatest hero of mankind, thus leading the resistance against the Reapers and trying to tie up all the galaxy species into a massive collective effort to defeat them.]]

-->-- ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}''

** ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'' actually made a plot point about how busy they were being related to an apartment building that attracted supernatural energy. This building was specifically designed well before the 'Busters were around to eventually serve as a dimensional portal to bring in Gozer the Gozerian, an ancient god not seen for the last 7,000 odd years.

* ''VideoGame/{{BaldursGate}}'': why do bloodthirsty warriors, powerful wizards, creepy vampires, braineating aliens, demons, dragons and god knows what else all come to the protagonist? Well, because he/she is [[spoiler:the child of the vanquished god of murder, Bhaal, and thus he/she has divine blood in his/her veins and a powerful taint in his/her soul, attracting people who want to exploit him/her for their own goals or kill him/her to counter a possible menace to their plans... or they simply want to challenge the ability of a demigod for fun.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{MassEffect}}'': the first game starts with Shephard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient artifact, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy. Specifically, [[spoiler: Shephard is tasked to retrieve the Prothean probe because of his previous distinguished service that attracted interest from the galactic council. Shephard has become a candidate for becoming a Spectre, a special secret agent above the council laws; furthermore, he or she would be the first human spectre, thus strengthening human ambitions to get a seat in the council, which is dominated by other species. The retrieving mission is also a test to evaluate his or her skill. However, things escalate when a mysterious giant ship attacks the site and steals the probe. The ship, named Sovereign, is one of the Reapers, ancient artificial lifeforms beyond comprehension that cyclically "harvest" all spacefaring races, assimilating them and destroying galactic civilizations. The Protheans were harvested 50,000 years ago by the Reapers themselves, and when Shephard briefly touches the probe, the vision is a warning about the imminent return of the Reapers and the havoc they will wreak. Sovereign is only a vanguard, trying to open a galactic portal to bring in the entire fleet of Reapers which is lurking outside the galaxy, but Shephard manages to destroy it in the final battle of Mass Effect 1 and delay the harvest cycle. In Mass Effect 2 another lurking Reaper, Harbinger, sends a race of raiders called the Collectors to try to assassinate Shephard, now perceived as a serious threat to the Reapers' goals, and gather human colonist to assimilate their biomass to create a new Reaper. While the assassination attempt apparently succeeds, an outlaw covert organization, called Cerberus, manages to retrieve Shephard's body and revive him or her, because Cerberus' mysterious leader, the Illusive Man, believes he is the key for defeating the Reapers. Shephards then manages to stop the Collectors, avert Harbinger's plan and delay once more the start of the cycle. In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers' entire fleet finally arrives. They, obviously, try to target Shephard with all they can, since he or she is the greatest menace to their invasion. And he or she, obviously, is now regarded as the greatest hero of mankind, thus leading the resistance against the Reapers and trying to tie up all the galaxy species into a massive collective effort to defeat them.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Ben 10}}'', as soon as Ben gets the Omnitrix a lot of aliens show up specifically to take it from him.

*** Even besides its tendencies to malfunction, the holodeck allowed for almost any story to be told. FilmNoir, sure. SherlockHolmes, why not? The WildWest, yippi-ki-yay!

* The Kryptonian Scout Ship in the ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'' proved to be a significant factor in introducing various Superman elements. In ''Film/ManOfSteel'' it took the place of Superman's traditional Fortress of Solitude, being an ancient exploration vessel that crashed on Earth 20,000 years ago and was covered in ice. The ship was still operational, and Clark was able to use his OrphansPlotTrinket to access the ship and receive information from an AI of his father Jor-El. The ship was commandeered by Zod and subsequently crashed in Metropolis during the climax. In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', the ship was being studied and Lex Luthor accessed the database and supertech in order to create Doomsday to defeat Superman. In ''Film/JusticeLeague'', the ship was used again modifying the same process that created Doomsday in order to resurrect Superman.

*** Even besides its tendencies to malfunction, the holodeck allowed for almost any story to be told. FilmNoir, sure. SherlockHolmes, why not? The WildWest, yippe ki yah.

** ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'' actually made a plot point about how busy they were being related to an apartment building that attracted supernatural energy. This building was specifically designed as a dimensional portal to bring in Gozer the Gozerian, an ancient god not seen for the last 7,000 odd years.
** The river of slime in ''Film/GhostbustersII'' also filled this role.

* ''VideoGame/{{MassEffect}}'': the first game starts with Shephard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient artifact, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy. Specifically, [[spoiler: Shephard is tasked to retrieve the Prothean probe because of his previous distinguished service that attracted interest from the galactic council. Shephard has become a candidate for becoming a Spectre, a special secret agent above the council laws; furthermore, he or she would be the first human spectre, thus strengthening human ambitions to get a seat in the council, which is dominated by other species. The retrieving mission is thus also a test to evaluate how he or she performs. However, things escalate when a mysterious giant ship attacks the site and steals the probe. The ship, named Sovereign, is one of the Reapers, ancient artificial lifeforms beyond comprehension that cyclically "harvest" all spacefaring races, assimilating them and destroying galactic civilizations. The Protheans were harvested 50,000 years ago by the Reapers themselves, and when Shephard briefly touches the probe, the vision is a warning about the imminent return of the Reapers. Sovereign is only a vanguard, trying to open a galactic portal to bring in the entire Reapers fleet which is lurking outside the galaxy, but Shephard manages to destroy it in the final battle of Mass Effect and delay the harvest cycle. In Mass Effect 2 another lurking Reaper, Harbinger, sends a race of raiders called the Collectors to try to assassinate Shephard, now perceived as a serious threat to the Reapers' goals, and gather human colonist to assimilate their biomass to create a new Reaper. While the assassination attempt apparently succeeds, an outlaw covert organization, called Cerberus, manages to retrieve Shephard's body and revive him or her, because Cerberus' mysterious leader, the Illusive Man, believes he is the key for defeating the Reapers. Shephards then manages to stop the Collectors, avert Harbinger's plan and delay once more the start of the cycle. In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers' entire fleet finally arrives. They, obviously, try to target Shephard with all they can, since he or she is the greatest menace to their invasion. And he or she, obviously, is now regarded as the greatest hero of manking, thus leading the resistance against the Reapers and trying to tie up all the galaxy species into a massive collective effort to defeat them.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{MassEffect}}'': the first game starts with Shephard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient artifact, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy. Specifically, [[spoiler: Shephard is tasked to retrieve the Prothean probe because of his previous distinguished service that attracted interest from the galactic council. Shephard has become a candidate for becoming a Spectre, a special secret agent above the citadel laws; specifically, he or she would be the first human spectre, thus strengthening human ambitions to get a seat in the council, which is dominated by other species. The retrieving mission is thus also a test to evaluate how he or she performs. However, things escalate when a mysterious giant ship attacks the site and steals the probe. The ship, named Sovereign, is one of the Reapers, ancient artificial lifeforms beyond comprehension that cyclically "harvest" all spacefaring races, assimilating them and destroying galactic civilizations. The Protheans were harvested 50,000 years ago by the Reapers themselves, and when Shephard briefly touches the probe, the vision is a warning about the imminent return of the Reapers. Sovereign is only a vanguard, trying to open a galactic portal to bring in the entire Reapers fleet which is lurking outside the galaxy, but Shephard manages to destroy it in the final battle of Mass Effect and delay the harvest cycle. In Mass Effect 2 another lurking Reaper, Harbinger, sends a race of raiders called the Collectors to try to assassinate Shephard, now perceived as a serious threat to the Reapers' goals, and gather human colonist to assimilate their biomass to create a new Reaper. While the assassination attempt apparently succeeds, an outlaw covert organization, called Cerberus, manages to retrieve Shephard's body and revive him or her, because Cerberus' mysterious leader, the Illusive Man, believes he is the key for defeating the Reapers. Shephards then manages to stop the Collectors, avert Harbinger's plan and delay once more the start of the cycle. In Mass Effect 3, the Reapers' entire fleet finally arrives. They, obviously, try to target Shephard with all they can, since he or she is the greatest menace to their invasion. And he or she, obviously, is now regarded as the greatest hero of manking, thus leading the resistance against the Reapers and trying to tie up all the galaxy species into a massive collective effort to defeat them.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{MassEffect}}'': the first game starts with Shephard, a distinguished human veteran, enter in contact with an ancient relic of a long dead alien race. By touching the ancient probe, he or she creates a mental connection with the device and gets a vision of war and destruction. The motivations behind this vision set in motion the events that lead to the conclusive final battle and establish the premises of the following games, including being the target of the ultimate enemy that triggered everything and mankind's greatest hero tasked to lead the war against said enemy.

* In ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Stand users apparently attract other Stand users. How or why this happens is never explained.