History Main / TrackingChip

* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', [[TheHero Neo]] is [[IncrediblyLamePun bugged]] with a tracking bug. It is removed by [[ActionGirl Trinity]].

* {{Subverted}} in the ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode "[[Recap/CastleS3E9CloseEncountersOfTheMurderousKind Close Encounters of the Murderous Kind]]". Castle is convinced that, given the victim died by ExplosiveDecompression, she was the victim of an AlienAbduction gone wrong, and so a metal fragment stuck up her nose must be an alien implant. Lanie, the ME, puts the kibosh on this: it turns out to be a calcification from a sinus infection that only ''looked'' like metal on the x-ray.

* In ''Film/TwelveMonkeys'', the main character is told that he has a tracking chip in his teeth. [[TheToothHurts He removes his teeth]], but is tracked down anyway by another time traveler who's rather surprised his teeth are missing, implying that some other method is used.

[[quoteright:240:[[Film/NeverLetMeGo https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/259811cb2f7c25e3f925004d18d04cc0.jpg]]]]

* In ''Film/NeverLetMeGo'', the students have microchips implanted in their wrists.

[[folder:Films]]
* ''Film/CasinoRoyale2006'': After Bond runs off and does his usual RogueAgent thing, SIS implants a GPS tracker in his arm to keep track of him. Unfortunately when Bond is captured later on, the villains are smart enough to cut it out.
* ''Film/DemolitionMan'': As part of Doctor Cocteau's master plan, almost everyone in San Angeles had an organic microchip implanted in them. Sensors around the city can determine the exact location of any of them at any time. The Scraps clearly don't have chips implanted, or Cocteau's forces would have hunted them down before the movie started. Simon Phoenix is also noted as not having a chip.
* In ''Film/NeverLetMeGo'', the students have microchips implanted in their wrists.
* In ''Film/TheMatrix'', [[TheHero Neo]] is [[IncrediblyLamePun bugged]] with a tracking bug. It is removed by [[ActionGirl Trinity]].
* In ''Film/TotalRecall1990'', Quaid has been implanted with a tracking chip in his head which he manages to find out about and remove before the bad guys can reach him.
* In ''Film/MissionImpossibleII'', the good guys put a chip in Ethan's head, which transmits his location to a satellite. They tell him, "This chip is completely untraceable." Which kind of defeats the purpose, when you think about it.

* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': ''Indominus rex'' has been implanted with one. Unfortunately ItCanThink, remembers the device being planted, and tears it out. [[FridgeLogic How an animal, no matter how intelligent, would realize the connection between the device and the humans being able to track it]] (despite never being out of its compound) is not mentioned.
* ''Film/SpyKids2IslandOfLostDreams'': Carmen and Juni have dental implants containing tracking chips that somehow don't use electricity and so are the only devices they have that continue working on the island where no electronics work. They take the implants out and destroy them because they realize that they are being used to lure their parents into a trap. It doesn't work because Juni had a similar tracking device in his necklace given to him by Grandpa they didn't know about.

* ''Film/MissionImpossibleFallout'':
** Ethan Hunt is trying to locate a RogueAgent at a charity rave, but he has the code of the RFID tag he's using for identification and uses it to track him down. He then takes his place, but unfortunately a team of assassins is out to kill the same man, and now Ethan is wearing his tag...
** The IMF team are forced to break RogueAgent Solomon Lane from his prison convoy. He's been implanted with a TrackingChip that they first block, then remove and place on a drone copter which is then flown off elsewhere. [[spoiler:Turns out they simultaneously planted their own TrackingChip in Solomon Lane, so they can reacquire him if he escapes, which he does.]]
** Ethan Hunt is running across London after the villain who is wearing a TrackingChip with Benji guiding him. Unfortunately Ethan has to run up onto the roof of St Paul's Cathedral to escape some people chasing ''him'', but Benji doesn't realise this because his map isn't set on 3D. HilarityEnsues as Benji gives directions that don't match with reality.

* ''Film/BlackWidow2021''. When Yelena Belova is sprayed with the antidote to her MindControl, the first thing she does is slice open her thigh and remove the implanted tracking chip.

* In the ''Literature/MaximumRide'' series, [[spoiler:Max realizes that she has a microchip implanted in her arm, and that this means the lab she came from will always be able to track her. She tries to get it out herself and later has it surgically removed.]]
* In ''Literature/TheHungerGames'', all the tributes going into the Games are implanted with a tracker so that the Capitol knows where they are in the arena at all times.
* ''Great Crystal'' series by Vladislav Krapivin had a world with ComputerizedJudicialSystem using "bio-indexes", set early on and irremovable as they saturate the whole body -- it started as a convenience, and in two generations or so ended up in outlawing anyone who remains index-less. Naturally, when a boy with otherwise inconsequential [[HealingHands healing talent]] accidentally purged himself of this thing, the bureaucracy [[RevealingCoverUp overreacts]] and HilarityEnsues.
* Played with in ''Literature/{{Genome}}'': most people have identification chips implanted into them, but rather than sending digital activation codes, the chips connect directly to the user's blood circulation system, look for a freshly produced leucocyte and transmit the genetic markers unique to the user to the authentication system.

* ''Literature/GenocidalOrgan'': A unit of special forces ambush some soldiers in order to cut out their identity chips and gain access through a checkpoint. They then remove the chips because they're infiltrating a high-security area next, and the soldiers they killed wouldn't have access.
* ''Literature/BruceCovillesBookOf Aliens II'': Scientists implant these in a bear in ''Hunters''. And it's heavily implied that the human kid they find, who's recently suffered from an AlienAbduction, has one implanted by the aliens.

* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' most people store their personal data in cloud servers accessed by placing a quarter-sized "Toggle" on a smartglass surface. For just 50 credits a Toggle can be implanted in your palm.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Crimestrikers}}'' has the Bio Beacon, a device surgically implanted in each team member's brainstem. It also functions as an InUniverse LifeMeter, monitoring the health of each agent as well as their location.

* In Podcast/EdictZeroFis, the Remote Mission Oversight System (RMOS) includes implants to track the location, status, and vitals of agents in the field. A similar system is used with patients in Harlan Hills Sanitarium.

* In the ''Series/{{CSI Miami}}'' episode "Legal", a victim was identified by the ID/credit chip she'd had implanted in her arm so she could go to nightclubs without a purse.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E7TheLongGame "The Long Game"]], set in the year 200,000, all humans have a chip implanted in them to enable their brains to work as computers. It also allows the MonsterOfTheWeek to read their mind.
* In ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', The Company kidnaps evolved humans and injects them with tracking devices ("bagging and tagging").

* ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'': In "A New Life", Daniel and Beth give Father, the leader of their religious community, their newborn son William for an hour so that he can perform a private blessing. When William is returned to them, they find that he has a strange mark on the back of his neck that was not there before. Daniel later learns that Father is an alien and the mark was created by a tracking chip being implanted in William's neck.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. Team Machine goes to the morgue to examine the body of former NSA agent Alicia Corwin, and finds there's a post-mortem cut on her shoulder where something was removed; a tracking chip implanted by a private intelligence agency.

* ''Series/Titans2018''. When Dick Grayson is told that Batman implanted a subdermal tracker on him without his knowledge, he cuts it out with a surgical scalpel. In a later episode, Jason Todd states that Dick has a second tracker "where you'll never find it." Hank and Dawn both go [[TooMuchInformation "Eew!"]]
* In ''Series/TheXFiles'' third season episode "The Blessing Way", Scully discovers a computer chip implanted in her neck. In later episodes, she tries to find out what it does.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation implants these in many of its captive anomalies, particularly those which have a history of escape attempts.

* In [[Series/CrazyExGirlfriend Crazy Ex-Girlfriend]], [[spoiler:it is revealed that Paula has implanted GPS trackers in the shoulders of Rebecca, Valencia, Trent and probably most of the other characters. However, limited battery life somewhat limits their usefulness.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" (S5 E20), after Bart skips school, Principal Skinner tries to track him using a chip system they tried to implement. He then bemoans the fact that the only kids who volunteered to be chipped were the [[HollywoodNerd studious nerds]], who don't need to be tracked.

* ''Film/ProjectItohGenocidalOrgan'': A unit of special forces ambush some soldiers in order to cut out their identity chips and gain access through a checkpoint. They then remove the chips because they're infiltrating a high-security area next, and the soldiers they killed wouldn't have access.

* PlayedWith in ''Literature/{{Genome}}'': most people have identification chips implanted into them, but rather than sending digital activation codes, the chips connect directly to the user's blood circulation system, look for a freshly produced leucocyte and transmit the genetic markers unique to the user to the authentication system.

* In ''Literature/TheGirlFromTheMiraclesDistrict'', before sending Robin to work with Nikita, Irena implants him with two tracking chips - one high-tech, one magical - so that she can keep an eye on him, and, by extension, Nikita. This being pretty par for the course for Irena, Nikita quickly has both of them located and cut out.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019''. Kate Kane captures one of Alice's men and holds him prisoner, but [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique he nearly dies in her custody]] so she has to let him go, but [[TrickAndFollowPloy not before implanting him with a subdermal chip]]. She uses this to track down Alice and capture her, only to get LuredIntoATrap later on because [[PlayAlongPrisoner Alice knew the chip was there]].

* ''Series/TheBoys2019''

** In "The Bloody Doors Off", Starlight finds herself in increasing danger from Vought Industries and Stormfront in particular, so has Frenchie cut the tracking chip out of her. Given that she too has NighInvulnerable skin this requires a diamond-tipped jewelers saw, and leads to her boyfriend Hughie getting [[BloodSplatteredInnocents splattered with blood]]. [[RunningGag Again.]]