History Main / TheRadioDiesFirst

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'' both subvert this, where the heroes have unrestricted contact with MissionControl for the whole game. [[TropesAreTools Unsurprisingly]] a common heard complaint about both these games is with the constant ability to radio for help, support, or an extraction, the games lose a lot of what made the series scary.

* ''Series/The100'': Upon landing on earth, the dropship's radio breaks because of the crash. As a result, the 100 cannot communicate with MissionControl on the Ark, with the wristbands each member possesses being the only sign that they are still alive.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. As the CommLinks used by Blake's rebels are also their teleport bracelets they get lost, confiscated or smashed whenever a TeleportationRescue would resolve the plot too quickly.

A form of PlotDrivenBreakdown. Compare CutPhoneLines, which serve a similar narrative purpose, but are ''always'' sabotage. See LostInTransmission, where a working connection line is suddenly cut off. Related to PoorCommunicationKills, because the best way to have a plot get complex for the protagonists is to take out the communication.

Compare CutPhoneLines, which serve a similar narrative purpose, but are ''always'' sabotage. See LostInTransmission, where a working connection line is suddenly cut off. Related to PoorCommunicationKills, because the best way to have a plot get complex for the protagonists is to take out the communication.

* ''Spaceship Medic'' by Creator/HarryHarrison. The meteor that kills off all the spaceship's officers [[YouAreInCommandNow except the protagonist]] also destroys the radio. Not only can't they send out a DistressCall, the medic who is now TheCaptain can't draw on the expertise of planetside experts in skills like astrogation that the dead officers handled.

* Narrowly averted on the UsefulNotes/RMSTitanic. The day before the sinking, the wireless set broke down. Operators Phillips and Bride had orders from the Marconi Company to not carry out repairs at sea and to use the weaker backup set until they made it to New York. However, they took it upon themselves to fix it. Had they used the backup wireless, it's unlikely they would have been able to get the distress signal out.

* In ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', the natives sabotage the policeman's plane, cutting out his communication with the mainland.

* In the prequel ''Film/TheThing2011'', the leader of the expedition orders radio silence so no-one will blab about having found a FlyingSaucer. By the time things start going wrong, the same storm which disrupts Willow's communications is approaching (though sabotage is also a possibility, as the alien has had time to take human form).

* Once the yacht runs aground in ''Film/2010'', the protagonists are unable to transmit or receive anything on the radio. It is implied that this is a property of the island.

* ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}'''s extremely finicky video communicators.

* An issue of ''ComicBook/{{The Maze Agency}}'' uses the sabotage variant, smashing the radio and then blowing up the boat to strand the characters on an isolated island.

* Happens briefly in one of the ''{{Biggles}}'' books, and just to ratchet up the dramatic tension even more Biggles himself hears but does not see a plane crash and explode while separated from his comrades. [[spoiler: Turns out that the SkyPirate fighter that was attacking their slow and unwieldy transport plane crashed and burned instead after Ginger [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill emptied an entire drum-magazine into it from ten yards away]] in a fit of rage, but not before it shot a hole in their R/T set.]]

* One of the various things that went wrong with Operation Market Garden in WorldWarII was that the radios broke for the soldiers in Arnhem when they landed. This was particularly important as they were unable to secure the supply drop zones and were unable to inform anyone of this problem.

* In ''Film/TheWickerMan'', the natives sabotage the policeman's plane, cutting out his communication with the mainland.

* The bomber's radio is damaged in ''Film/DrStrangelove'', meaning it can't be recalled.

* In "Fate Is The Hunter" the airplane's radio failed as part of a series of cascading failures that led to its disasterous crash landing. Oddly, the same thing happened on a test flight although they had none of the other problems. They found [[spoiler: that the problems on the first flight had caused the captain's coffee to spill and seep into the electronics. This knocked out the radio and caused a false alarm in a good engine]]

* ''Film/FantasticVoyage'': It's the vital ''laser'' that is sabotaged, and the only source for parts to fix it is the radio.

* When a Canadian airliner ran out of fuel over Manitoba and had to glide to a safe landing, one of the systems they lost was the radio. The electronics on board were power by generators run by the engines. No engines, no electricity.