History Main / TheBigBoard

* In ''Film/WarGames'' the huge Big Boards help us to understand what is going on. It also provides some NightmareFuel (can you say Global Thermonuclear War?). In addition it provides some RealityIsUnrealistic, as the real NORAD does not have huge Big Boards.

* In ''Series/{{Castle}}'', the police use a whiteboard (or, on big cases, a pair of whiteboards) to keep track of the information for that week's case. It's also revealed that Castle uses a more hi-tech version to plot out his mystery novels. Beckett has one in her house for the unsolved murder case of her mother.

* ''Film/Contact'': Both as a child and as a professional astronomer, Jodie Foster's astronomer character relies on sticking pins into maps to keep track of locations in the universe she has made radio contact with.

** ''Back to the Future'' parts ''[[Film/BackToTheFuture I]]'' and ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII III]]'' also have dioramas to show how Marty will get, well, back to the future. They're insanely detailed, which doesn't stop Doc apologizing that the scale isn't quite right, and he didn't have time to paint them.

* [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/ISS_Flight_Control_Room_2006.jpg Mission Control at NASA]] and its [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/arkhip/5573244041/ Russian counterpart]] may be THE archtypal RealLife example. And one of the few that's at ''least'' as cool as most fictional examples. It is not a stretch to say that when people think of the Big Board concept, it's NASA, and not NORAD, that they're thinking of.

* A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK2RMyHF0lc sketch]] from ''Paul Merton: The Series'' has a gang planning a bank robbery this way, and as the plan drifts further from its origins they keep producing implausibly specific models to add to the map to illustrate their points.

* ''Film/SinkTheBismarck'' features a plotting table in the British Admiralty headquarters showing the locations of friendly and enemy warships and convoys. Major warships are even represented by small models.

* ''Film/SinkTheBismarck''. The Admiralty Operations Division has the plotting table version. At the end of the movie after the Bismarck is sunk, Captain Shepard [[BattleTrophy removes the model representing the Bismarck from the table and pockets it.]]

* Big Boards appear often in ''[[LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars Banner of the Stars]]''. The Abh Admiralty use a particularly big one to monitor strategic fleet movements.

* In ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', [[SpacePolice Nova Corps]] uses a huge holographic board for strategics.

** In ''Small Favor,'' he figures out a hit squad of [[spoiler: Summer Court Faeries]] have been using loophole abuse to track him via [[spoiler: a silver talisman presented to him as a gift in an earlier novel]]. To confuse them, he MacGyvers [[spoiler: the talisman]]'s location to be projected at random times and places via this board and the help of his cat, Mister. By the time he actually takes it out again, the hit squad chasing him is ignoring [[spoiler: the talisman]]'s location entirely.

* Creator/IsaacAsimov's "Literature/LetsGetTogether": Lynn taking a moment to look at a current world map on his wall is used by the narrative to explain the [[FailedFutreForecast division of the world powers and their influence]], describing how it used to be white for "Us" and red for "Them", but the colours had faded/changed to be a mild green against a light pink. Their [[BalanceOfPower stalemate]] is emphasized by telling the audience that the last exchange of territory was Formosa and East Germany some eighty years ago.

** In "[[{{Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS3E5Homecoming}} Homecoming]]", Buffy is trying to compete with Cordelia for the title of Prom Queen (Or something like that), and makes a chart of the competition's strengths and weaknesses. [[spoiler: In the end, [[DarkHorseVictory the two other girls win]], much to the chagrin of Buffy and Cordelia.]]

* In both VideoGame/{{Enigmatis}} games the detective has one of these. In ''The Ghosts of Maple Creek'', one wall of the main character's hotel room contains scribbles and arrowed circles connecting various facets of the case. When you find enough evidence on a particular point and stick it up on the wall, the game opens up a new point to investigate. ''The Mists of Ravenwood'' has an old tool board which serves a similar purpose.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[-Don't be fooled. They are actually just playing ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}: TheBoardGame''.-] ]]

** The Fort Knox model from ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' when the titular villain explains his plan to his financial backers. Bond is actually hiding underneath the model (which lifts up from a retracting floor) while Goldfinger is explaining the plan.

** The Silicon Valley model in ''Film/AViewToAKill''.

** The Fort Knox model from ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}'' when the titular villain explains his plan to his financial backers.
** The ''Film/JamesBond'' movie ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'' used a model map to show off Willard Whyte's empire. It also happened to come in handy when searching for the BigBad [[spoiler:when the actual Whyte sees there's an oil rig off Baja California that he knows he doesn't own.]]