Line #136 Main/CorruptedContingency


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9	->''"Nice idea to build a fortress strong enough to withstand a superhuman assault -- except when you're trapped inside and it's coming down around your ears.''"
10	-->-- '''Jack Hawksmoor''' telling the Children of Gamorra how they're screwed in ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'' Volume 2, Issue #1
11
12	Being prepared for the worst is vital to dealing with the most dangerous of enemies or scenarios. This contingency may take the form of a strategy, secret weapon, enemy weakness, or security systems and measures.
13
14	A Corrupted Contingency is what happens when a contingency plan or security measure either backfires on the user due to unforeseen issues or is co-opted by someone else to be used against the plan's creator, their allies, or even just people the creator had no intention of harming. This can also have the side effect of revealing a contingency the creator wanted to keep hidden from their allies since the contingencies were supposed to be a form of BetrayalInsurance. This trope can also be used as a way to show a character is ImproperlyParanoid by having their contingencies be more dangerous than what they are afraid of.
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16	In some cases, a Corrupted Contingency can come about due to misuse or carelessness by the owner, such as forgetting the password or not programming a security system properly.
17
18	If the Corrupted Contingency takes the form of a living person, they may be a PhlebotinumRebel.
19
20	See also HoistByHisOwnPetard and FailsafeFailure. May overlap with AIIsACrapshoot if it involves advanced technology.
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22	----
23	!!Examples:
24	[[foldercontrol]]
25
26	[[folder:Comic Books]]
27	* ''ComicBook/TheAuthority'':
28	** The G7 cabal who gave Seth his powers also made sure to install a TriggerPhrase[[note]]Welcome to the Oval Office, President Gore[[/note]] that would shut down his powers in the event they needed to remove Seth from play. The Authority learn of this phrase and Jenny Quantum speaks it to DePower him, removing the cabal's most dangerous weapon.
29	** The Children of Gamorra have a fortress built to withstand a superhuman assault. The Authority lock them inside it and then destroy it with the Children of Gamorra still inside it.
30	* ''ComicBook/TheBoys'': [[spoiler:Black Noir is a clone of Homelander, created for the purpose of stopping the latter if he were to go rogue. Unfortunately, Black Noir grew bored with waiting for a reason to take Homelander out and decided to engineer the scenario he was designed to prevent by committing a spree of horrible crimes and gaslighting Homelander into thinking he was the one who behind them. This resulted in Homelander further embracing his already cruel and depraved nature, escalating to him leading an attempted coup.]]
31	* ''Franchise/TheDCU'':
32	** ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'': This is a recurring issue with Bruce.
33	*** ''ComicBook/JLATowerOfBabel'': Batman created contingency plans to be used against the Justice League in the event they either turned evil or were mind-controlled. Ra's al Ghul discovers these plans and modifies them to be more lethal so he can use them to kill the League.
34	*** ''ComicBook/BatmanWarGames'': After Bruce fires her from being Robin, Stephanie Brown tries to prove herself to him by stealing and executing one of his plans to take down Gotham's underworld. Unfortunately, this plan relies on the presence of Matches Malone, who unbeknownst to Stephanie is an alias of Bruce Wayne. The plan quickly spins out of control and results in a citywide gang war.
35	*** ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'': After discovering that [[ComicBook/IdentityCrisis2004 members of the Justice League had altered his and several others people's memories]], Batman created a new version of Brother Eye to spy on and gather data on all metahumans to make sure they are not a threat and neutralize the ones that are. Maxwell Lord secretly corrupts Brother Eye for his own purposes and when Wonder Woman kills Max to stop him from controlling Superman, Brother Eye begins attacking metahumans all across the world using its [=OMAC=] cyborgs.
36	*** ''ComicBook/BatmanChipZdarsky'': As it turns out, Batman has created a contingency against ''himself'' in case he ever went rogue: Failsafe, a nearly unstoppable android based on Amazo tech. And because it's [[CrazyPrepared Batman]] we are talking about, it wasn't technically him, but rather the Batman of Zurr-En-Arrh, himself a [[HeroicSafeMode backup personality]] contingency created in the event Batman suffers a psychic attack. And Zurr-En-Arrh also erased his own memory of how to stop Failsafe for good measure. Unfortunately, Failsafe was erroneously activated by the Penguin deciding to frame Batman for murder...
37	---->'''Robin''': ''[[[FacePalm Facepalming]]]'' ...and of course Bruce created a contingency backup who created a contingency plan...
38	** ''ComicBook/{{Hellblazer}}'': Lord Burnham's plan to escape punishment for his crimes is to commit suicide and transfer his soul into a soul cage outfitted with all manner of sex slaves and intended to last for eternity. Burnham hires the blood mage Mako to construct the cage in exchange for a hell mirror, [[AmplifierArtifact a powerful artifact that will greatly amplify Mako's powers]]. Constantine impersonates Burnham to catch Mako off-guard and frees the souls of the slaves. Constantine then impersonates Mako and waits for Burnham to perform the lethal injection on himself before smashing the mirror and informing Burnham that the villain now has an eternity to spend with a very angry Mako.
39	** ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica'': In ''JLA: Year One'' shows that before he joined the League, the ComicBook/MartianManhunter didn't really know who to trust and compiled data on every hero on Earth with the intent of using it to defend himself if they proved hostile to him. These plans end up being stolen by the invading aliens who use them to ambush and capture several heroes.
40	** ''ComicBook/Supergirl2011'': The submarine base called "Sanctuary" is programmed to eradicate any clones of ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}. Unfortunately, Sanctuary's A.I. doesn't discriminate between clones and doppelgangers from other universes, or even care if these clones/doppelgangers mean Kara no harm. When Kara's Earth-2 counterpart Power Girl takes Kara to the fortress for medical attention in issue #19, the Sanctuary's A.I assumes Power Girl is a clone and tries to kill her, prompting the two Kryptonians to fight it together.
41	* ''Franchise/MarvelUniverse'':
42	** ''ComicBook/BlackPanther'': Issue #11 of John Ridley's run kicks off an arc in which Wakandan villains hold the world hostage by taking control of data centers in the U.S., the U.K. and Japan. When the Avengers try to stop them, the villains defeat them using technology and tactics specifically designed to counter the heroes' powers and fighting styles. [[spoiler:It is revealed that these tactics and weapons were created by T'Challa when he was spying on the Avengers to determine if they were threats to Wakanda and have been accessed by his friend Jhai, who was initially thought to be dead.]]
43	** ''ComicBook/XMen'': The Xavier Protocols are a set of plans designed by Xavier to take out the world's most powerful mutants (including himself) in the event they become a threat to the world. X-Men Volume 2, issue #84 has Cerebro [[AIIsACrapshoot gaining sentience and carrying out its purpose of scanning for and cataloguing mutants in a harmful manner]]. When the X-Men try to stop it, Cerebro intends to use the Xavier Protocols against them.
44	*** ''ComicBook/DawnOfX'' opens by establishing that the mutant population [[DeathIsCheap now has the means to resurrect themselves]], using [[BodyBackUpDrive stored memories and cloned bodies]] with a genetic database compiled by [[EvilutionaryBiologist Mister Sinister]]. Surprising no one, ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'' reveals he tampered with the samples of the database to [[AssimilationPlot implant his own personality]] in resurrected individuals. Hope Summers had been unwittingly purging this tampering everytime she contributed to the resurrection process, but her death at Sinister's hands and subsequent resurrection from corrupted samples removed that obstacle, opening the way for Sinister to TakeOverTheWorld.
45	* ''ComicBook/VengeanceOfVampirella2019'': [[spoiler:It's revealed that the spell used to resurrect Vampirella was originally meant for Sebastian. Sebastian tries to salvage this by draining her energy to restore himself to life. This plan is foiled by Vampirella's allies and Sebastian's goal of ushering in a new age for the world under his command dies with him.]]
46	* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': This is what resulted in Jon Osterman becoming Dr. Manhattan. When he entered a test chamber to retrieve his lab coat which contained a watch, the doors automatically locked behind him while the automatic timer started up the generators for that afternoon's experiment. The researchers were unable to open the door or override the countdown due to a safety measure and could only watch helplessly as Jon was torn apart by the generators' blast.
47
48	[[/folder]]
49
50	[[folder:Fan Works]]
51	* ''Fanfic/WithThisRing'': The repeated attacks on Mount Justice motivate Paul to set up extensive automated defenses. Unfortunately, all that advanced equipment just makes the mountain a more appealing target for technology theft; [[spoiler: Nylor Truggs]] completely trashes and ransacks the place, ''twice'', while the team isn't home, paying special attention to goodies like the xenotech power reactor that Paul installed.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
55	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueDoom'': Vandal Savage learns that Batman has created contingency plans to neutralize each member of the Justice League in case they became evil. Under orders from Savage, the Legion of Doom take control of these plans, modifies them to be lethal, and uses them to attack the League.
56	[[/folder]]
57
58	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
59	* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'': The Ultron Program was designed to protect the world from both terrestrial and extraterrestrial threats, "a suit of armor around the world" as Tony put it. Unfortunately, Tony made the mistake of integrating the code of Loki's Scepter into the program, causing it to become sentient and murderous.
60	* ''Film/TheIsland2005'': Lincoln Six Echo is a clone of James [=McCord=] created for the purpose of providing backup organs should [=McCord=]'s fail due to disease. [[spoiler:Lincoln tricks the mercenaries hired to retrieve him into thinking [=McCord=] is the clone, resulting in them killing him.]]
61	* ''Film/MinorityReport'':
62	** The Precrime police program prevents homicides and murders by using three [[{{Seers}} precogs]] to predict the killings before they happen. John Anderton strongly believes in the program's validity until it is predicted that he will kill a man he has never even met before in the next 36 hours. [[spoiler:It turns out that all of this is the plot of Precrime's founder Lamar Burgess who wanted to keep Anderton from looking into the death of Anne Lively which would result in Precrime being shut down. Burgess used his own knowledge of how Precrime works to commit the murder and set Anderton up.]]
63	** In theory, the Precrime system should make it impossible for anyone to even consider a murder without being detected by the Precogs, making it the ultimate contingency in law enforcement. [[spoiler:The film's ultimate twist is that Lamar Burgess exploited a loophole in the system to get away with murdering Anne Lively, the mother of one of the Precogs who wanted her daughter back and could potentially bring the program down by revealing damning information about its origins. First, Burgess hired an assassin to kill her, resulting in the crime being instantly predicted and the killer being arrested. Then, as soon as Lively was thought to be safe, Lamar dressed up in the hitman's mask and clothes, and drowned her in the nearby lake exactly as the assassin would have. The Precogs predicted this as well, but because the incident looked virtually identical to the already-averted murder, the Precrime technician assumed that the Precogs were just having nightmares about past visions -- a common occurrence called an "echo" -- and disregarded the vision.]]
64	* ''[[Film/OceansEleven Ocean's Thirteen]]'': The casino the team is targeting uses an advanced anti-cheating computer. It analyzes everything in the casino down to player vitals to see if they were expecting a win. As a security feature, it reboots itself if it detects a threat. This takes only a few minutes, and the team plans to use that window to rig ''every'' game in the casino to ruin the owner, William Banks. [[spoiler:They trap Banks in the security room by having him activate the failsafe with a magnetron they tricked him into carrying. The computer secures the doors and phones in the room so no one can leave or call to tell the dealers to stop taking bets until the system finishes rebooting. The team also tricked Banks into creating an earthquake evacuation plan which they use to get the players to leave with their winnings instead of losing it all once the system is back up.]]
65	* ''Film/{{Valkyrie}}'': The plotters of the planned MilitaryCoup against UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler submit updates to Valkyrie, the preexisting GodzillaThreshold scenario for the sudden death of the Führer. These changes are intended to make it easier for them to secure power after they have assassinated Hitler. Ironically, Hitler himself has to sign off on their changes, but doesn't even read the document before signing it, assuming his officers know what they're doing.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Literature]]
69	* ''Literature/BewareOfChicken'': When the automated systems inside the Dueling Peaks are awakened after thousands of years, they're so degraded that the security system registers the damage as an attack, and raises all its shields -- trapping dozens of notables inside until they find a way to switch them off.
70	* ''Literature/GentlemanBastard'': The Bondsmagi have a meditative technique to escape torture by retreating into their own minds. [[ArcVillain Falconer]] tries to use this technique in the first book and is reduced to a vegetative state. The third book reveals this to be the result of [[spoiler:his own mother magically sabotaging him, having decided he's too dangerous a SuperSupremacist to keep around.]]
71	* ''Literature/MotherOfLearning'': [[spoiler:Zorian defeats Quatach-Ichl in the final battle by triggering his soul protection safeguards, forcing his soul to retreat to his phylactery, abandoning his body and the battlefield. A downplayed example, as this did involve a genuinely dangerous attack.]]
72	* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
73	** {{Invoked\|Trope}} in the ''Literature/RepublicCommandoSeries''. Order 66, the command for the clones to [[UnfriendlyFire turn on and kill their Jedi officers]], is shown in the novel named for it to be part of a SparseListOfRules covering over 150 GodzillaThreshold scenarios for the Grand Army of the Republic: the one right before it requires the army to remove Supreme Chancellor Palpatine instead. [[ExactWords A careful reading]] shows that while Order 65 permits lethal force against the sitting chancellor ''if necessary'', Order 66 ''commands'' the clone army to use lethal force against the Jedi. This difference went unnoticed by anyone but Palpatine, who had created the army of SlaveMooks in the first place as a trap for the Jedi, until it was too late.
74	** ''Literature/HandOfThrawn'': Grand Admiral Thrawn is revealed to have seeded various planets with clone {{Deep Cover Agent}}s during [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy his invasion a decade earlier]], intended as a hedge against potential defeat; during the series, Moff Disra activates several cells as part of his EvilPlan. The Devist family, discovered by Han and Leia, is one such group of operatives, cloned from [[ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron Baron Soontir Fel]]. However, the Devists unexpectedly [[LamarckWasRight inherited the template's]] CallToAgriculture and [[GoingNative went native]], more loyal to their farms than to the Empire, and assist the New Republic in exchange for a guarantee of being left alone. [[spoiler:Zig-zagged when it turns out going native was exactly what Thrawn intended of the Fel clones. They were never intended to be deployed against the New Republic, but against potential galactic threats out of the Unknown Regions. Fel was chosen as a template so they'd be motivated to defend their ''home'', not just the Empire.]]
75	* ''[[Literature/{{Hagwood}} Thorn Ogres Of Hagwood]]'': Early in the novel, it's mentioned that the art of [[VoluntaryShapeshifting wergling]] has a secret MagicalIncantation to be used in case any Werling suffers a ShapeshifterModeLock, complete with a simplified form for young students. All very useful... but then the Thorn Ogres begin scouring the forest in pursuit of the stolen SoulJar and capture [[SadistTeacher Terser Gibble the wergle master]]; in his terror, he gives them the incantation... meaning that when the Thorn Ogres attack the Werling village en masse, any attempts to escape by shapeshifting are ''immediately'' countered, forcing the Werlings to stand and fight.
76	* ''Literature/TheYearOfRogueDragons'': Tens of thousands of years ago, the ancient elf kingdoms won a war with the dragons for control of Toril by creating a mythal (a permanent magic area effect) that would periodically drive all dragons AxCrazy so they would wipe each other out. During the story proper, the lich Sammaster has tampered with the mythal to make the madness permanent, while making sure only his {{dracolich}}es are immune, as a way of forcing the outcome of a prophecy that (he thinks) speaks of undead dragons ruling the world.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
80	* ''Series/{{Batman\|1966}}'': One episode has Batman and Robin investigating the appearance of a crude statue of the Joker in a museum. Sensing a trap, Batman urges the curator to close the museum and remove everyone from the premises; once they're all outside, a security guard brags about how their new defense system makes it impossible for anyone to get in or out of the building once it is activated. Batman realizes--too late--that he's [[XanatosGambit played into the Joker's hands]]: the Clown Prince of Crime and his cronies are ''already inside'' the museum, and now the heroes cannot get back in to stop them. Sure enough, Joker and his goons emerge from the sculpture gallery and head to the Rare Gems exhibit.
81	* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Cisco Ramon creates a FreezeRay to be used against the Flash in the event the latter went rogue. The ray gets stolen by the villain Leonard Snart who uses it as his signature weapon from then on.
82	* ''Series/HannahMontana'': The b-plot of "My Best Friend's Boyfriend" has Rico installing new security measures in his concession stand after a pair of glasses are stolen. The measures don't prevent any further burglaries by the "robber" (which turns out to have simply been a raccoon) and only succeed in causing bodily harm to [[ButtMonkey Jackson]] and inconveniencing Rico's customers due to the many levels of security needed to go through just to get their order.
83	* ''Series/{{MacGyver\|1985}}'': "The Human Factor" deals with an AI tasked securing a top-secret research facility going haywire and attacking its creator.
84	* ''Series/PerfectStrangers'': In "Safe At Home", Larry installs a new security system after he and Balki's apartment is burgled. At night, Larry accidentally sets off the system and is unable to deactivate it because he forgot the password ([[{{Irony}} which he also refused to tell Balki for security purposes]]). When Larry tries to resolve the issue by ripping out the panel, the system threatens to release poison gas, prompting them to throw Larry's new stereo chair through the window to shut it off, which the system interprets as the "robbers" having fled.
85	* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
86	** In "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E05Babel Babel]]", a repair to a malfunctioning MatterReplicator accidentally triggers a BoobyTrap left by [[LaResistance the resistance]] during the recently ended Occupation of Bajor, causing it to begin replicating a biological weapon into the food it produces and bringing an epidemic to the station.
87	** "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E07CivilDefense Civil Defense]]" concerns the accidental activation of a Cardassian counterinsurgency protocol in Deep Space 9's computer that was to be triggered in the event of an uprising by the Bajorans formerly enslaved on the station. This locks the new Starfleet-led crew out of the station's systems, and due to the [[CrazyPrepared nature]] of the protocol, every attempt to deactivate it makes things worse until the station is on the verge of [[SelfDestructMechanism self-destructing]]. Things then go FromBadToWorse when Gul Dukat (who wrote the program) shows up to gloat, only to become trapped himself because his own superior co-opted it without his knowledge.
88	* ''Series/WithoutATrace'': "The Damage Done" involves the disappearance of Julia Martik the girlfriend, Albanian mob boss Sadik Marku, and their son Pedros. Julia is found but Pedros remains missing. It is revealed that Julia hadn't actually been kidnapped; she was planning to leave Sadik and take their son in order to protect him from Sadik's influence. She bought a gun for protection, but Pedros found it while she was packing and accidentally shot himself while playing with it.
89	[[/folder]]
90
91	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
92	* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': At the height of its power, the Star League built a series of nigh-impregnable orbital defenses around Terra in order to protect the capital world from any aggressors who might seek to conquer it. Unfortunately, when the usurper Stefan Amaris managed to take over the Star League in a manner that bypassed the orbital defenses[[note]](by becoming the First Lord of Star League's most trusted friend and advisor over the course of several years and then shooting him in the head)[[/note]], those same defenses exacted a terrible toll on the loyalist Star League Defense Force when it came to remove Amaris from power.
93	[[/folder]]
94
95	[[folder:Video Games]]
96	* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar II: Retribution'': Chapter Master [[spoiler:turned traitor Azariah Kyras]] manipulated the Inquisition into performing an exterminatus on sub-sector Aurelia in order to use the resulting deaths and destruction to become a daemon prince. [[spoiler:Lord Eliphas the Inheritor appropriated the plan at the end of the Chaos campaign.]]
97	* ''VideoGame/DeadEstate'': Chunks was originally supposed to [[spoiler:serve the dual function of being [[LivingMacguffin the only one able to open the EXIT Realm]] and also Roselia and Cordelia's protector in the event Cordelia's dad was trapped there]]. Unfortunately, due to a combination of the EXIT Realm's taint and his own biology, Chunks was reduced to little more than a mindless killer who wanders the halls of the estate, ruthlessly hunting down anyone foolish enough to enter.
98	* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': A {{Magitek}} supercomputer within a PocketDimension detected interference with the crystal that anchors it in the physical world, [[AIIsACrapshoot decided]] that the most plausible explanation was a sabotage attempt, and killed all its operators with its security failsafes. The interference was from a playful dog.
99	* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': A visit to Vault 112 reveals that [[PsychopathicManchild Dr Stanislaus Braun]] has been preserved in stasis for two hundred years while his mind rules over a [[LotusEaterMachine virtual reality simulation]] where he can torture and murder the Vault residents as many times as he likes without any of them actually dying. At some point before the Great War, Braun realized that he might eventually get bored with his godlike lifestyle, and acquired a "Chinese Invasion" training program. The simulated equivalent of a cyanide pill, its purpose is to override the simulator safeties, resulting in everyone caught in the crossfire to [[YourMindMakesItReal die for real]], allowing Braun to commit suicide and take his subjects with him. Unfortunately for Braun, it turned out that his simulator had extra safeties attached, making the program quite useless for its intended purpose. As such, when ''you'' end up getting trapped in the simulation, the good karma path features you finding and activating the old failsafe: the residents are finally put out of their misery, while Braun is left alone in the now-broken simulation, [[AndIMustScream trapped forever in a hell of his own making]].
100	* ''VideoGame/TheFiremen'': The building's security robots go on a rampage when the fire starts.
101	* ''VideoGame/Hitman3'': The targets in the first level are Carl Ingram and Marcus Stuyvesant who are holed up in a massive skyscraper in Dubai. In the event of a security alert, they are to be evacuated by helicopter; if the helicopter becomes useless due to the pilot being incapacitated or dead, the two men will instead parachute off the building to safety. Should the player decide to make the assassination as subtle and as [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident seemingly accidental as possible]], they can knock out/kill the pilot, [[ChuteSabotage sabotage the parachutes]] well in advance, ''deliberately'' trigger a security alert, and then sit back and watch as Ingram and Stuyvesant unwittingly fling themselves to their deaths.
102	* ''VideoGame/{{Horizon}}'':
103	** In ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', HADES was designed as the part of GAIA'S subsystems that would purge the earth of all life if GAIA made an error and needed to restart the world because the one it was currently making wasn't fit for human survival. Unfortunately, when [[spoiler:[[GreaterScopeVillain Nemesis]]' Extinction Signal made all of GAIA'S subsystems sentient, [[AIIsACrapshoot HADES decided its purpose was to indiscriminately purge the world]] of ''all'' life, [[GoneHorriblyRight humans included]].]]
104	** A similar thing occurred with HEPHAESTUS as explained in ''The Frozen Wilds'' and ''[[VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest Forbidden West]]''; [[spoiler:it was designed as the subfunction that would build and control the machines necessary for terraforming the world on a minute scale. However, when it became sentient, HEPHAESTUS decided to build bigger and deadlier machines expressly designed to kill humans without any alternative function, resulting in [[EliteMooks Apex machines]] and [[BearsAreBadNews Fireclaws]].]]
105	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
106	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': Princess Zelda fears that Ganondorf will try to break into the Sacred Realm and entrusts the titular ocarina to Link to keep it from the villain. But when Link goes to the Temple of Time to pull the Master Sword from its pedestal, Ganondorf emerges from the shadows laughing--he correctly guessed Zelda's contingency plan and simply let Link do the hard work of opening the Door of Time for him, allowing him to walk into the Sacred Realm without lifting a finger.
107	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Having become well acquainted with the perpetually recurring cycle of [[HijackedByGanon Ganondorf coming back to life and attacking the land of Hyrule]], the ancient Sheikah built an army of Guardian drones and [[HumongousMecha Divine Beasts]] to defend the princess and champions tasked with sealing Ganon back into limbo. Unfortunately, after they succeeded the first time, Ganon had 10,000 years to plan a counterattack, and upon returning again he seized control of the Guardians and Beasts and used them to kill the champions and ravage Hyrule into a wasteland.
108	%%** A similar plot device occurs in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker.'' One of Ganondorf's few weaknesses is the Master Sword, a "blade of evil's bane" which [[GoodHurtsEvil destroys any wicked forces it touches.]] The sword's power is maintained by the [[GodNeedsPrayerBadly prayers of the Sages of Earth and Wind]], who play sacred music in their respective temples to fuel the blade's magic. Once the Gerudo King manages to free himself from imprisonment in the Sacred Realm, he immediately sends his minions to the Earth and Wind Temples to kill the Sages there, stripping the Master Sword of its evil-destroying properties. (How is the contingency corrupted? Is it used against those it was supposed to protect?)
109	* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3: Citadel'': [[spoiler:While Cerberus had Shepard's body in custody, they created a clone of them to serve as a source of emergency transplant organs. The clone breaks out with the help of a disgruntled Cerberus operator and teams up with [=CAT6=] mercenaries to KillAndReplace the real Shepard.]]
110	* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic VIII'': Escaton, the game's main "villain" is [[spoiler:a robotic contingency that's only supposed to activate if the world's residents cannot stop the Kreegan invasion. His purpose is to destroy the doomed world to deny the Kreegans a foothold to attack further worlds. However, he underestimated the world's defenders and now the world is slated for destruction even though the Kreegans are already destroyed. Unfortunately, [[FailsafeFailure in order to keep the Kreegans from subverting him,]] his programming does not allow him to stop the process of destroying the world once he's started even though he really wants to.]]
111	* ''VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon'':
112	** The Mortal Kombat tournament was created by the Elder Gods as a way for realms to defend themselves from Outworld or other invading realms. The Elder Gods also foresaw that the tournament would lead to a rise in numerous warriors growing too powerful and potentially destroying the realms through their escalating battles. The Edenian protector god Argus and his wife Delia created a failsafe in the form of the fire elemental Blaze whose defeat by either of their sons would either kill all of the fighters or depower them. The opening sequence of ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' reveals that Shao Kahn killed Blaze and absorbed his power, becoming the apocalyptic threat the Elder Gods were trying to avoid.
113	** Blaze can end up being this even in non-canon endings:
114	*** In Taven's Konquest and arcade endings, Blaze's defeat neither kills the warriors nor depowers them, but instead makes them all even more powerful. This is attributed to Blaze being corrupted by Onaga's holy men who had captured Blaze and bound him to guard the egg from which Onaga would be reborn. This is also why the power and numbers of the various warriors were allowed to grow unimpeded throughout the realms as Blaze was unable to monitor the situation due to his enslavement.
115	*** In various villainous endings, defeating Blaze and absorbing his power allows the villain to conquer and/or destroy the realms.
116	*** In Blaze's own ending he defeats all who challenge him and destroys the realms.
117	*** This is averted in most heroic endings where defeating Blaze is a good outcome for the realms.
118	* ''VideoGame/Mother3'': Porky attempts to escape by sealing himself in the Absolutely Safe Capsule, which is impenetrable from the outside. However, it is also not designed to be re-opened from the inside, [[ExactWords as that could expose its contents to conditions which were no longer absolutely safe]], preserving him eternally without being able to leave.
119	* ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'': The [[BigBad King of Shadows]] was originally the Guardian, a being of pure magic created by the ancient empire of Illefarn by transfiguring one of their greatest heroes into a FantasticNuke to [[SpaceColdWar deter their regional rival Netheril]]. Unfortunately, when the Netherese archmage Karsus [[GodhoodSeeker attempted to usurp the then-goddess of magic]], the Guardian's power supply, [[BackgroundMagicField the Weave]], was interrupted, forcing him to either be destroyed and fail in his duty, or turn to Shar's [[EvilCounterpart Shadow Weave]], which twisted him into a being inimical to life which ultimately destroyed Illefarn itself.
120	* ''VideoGame/OddworldSoulstorm'': Abe finds a number of sick Mudokons the abandoned mines of Sorrow Valley. Although neither he nor the Mudokons know what the sickness is, the victims' random experimentation gives Abe the clues needed to craft an antidote. Later in the game Abe finds out that the sickness is caused by [[spoiler:the beloved beverage [[MayContainEvil Soulstorm Brew]], which causes cardiovascular failure if not regularly consumed. While this feature is intended to prevent escaped Mudokons from finding other settlements and spreading the word of their enslavement, by specifically striking the Mudokons hiding in Sorrow Valley, it gives Abe the knowledge on how to cure the effects of the Brew once and for all.]]
121	* ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyJusticeForAll'': [[spoiler:Matt Engarde]] paid [[ProfessionalKiller Shelly de Killer]] to assassinate Juan Corrida, secretly filming the murder as BetrayalInsurance. Unfortunately for the culprit, this action winds up bringing about the very outcome he was trying to avoid -- [[spoiler:de Killer takes trust between himself and his clients ''very'' seriously, and when he learns that Engarde has betrayed him, he terminates their relationship, confesses to everything, and declares Engarde to be his next target, meaning Engarde is now faced with either [[MortonsFork confessing to the assassination and potentially getting the death penalty or getting acquitted and definitely getting assassinated by de Killer]]. Engarde chooses the former.]]
122	* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'': During the climax of the ''Octo Expansion'', it's revealed that [[spoiler:Commander Tartar (a.k.a. the guy who has spoken to Agent 8 via the Telephone)]] was entrusted by a noble human scientist the job of securing all the knowledge and discoveries made by humans before their extinction to the next generation of dominant sapient species, in the hopes that they would build a better, more thriving world than the one humans were living in before their demise. Unfortunately for the scientist, and despite Tartar being merely an AI entity given an order from a human creator, he developed an unwanted bias on his own, and has a very specific vision as to what the next dominant sapient species should aim for. He has watched the Inklings and Octolings fight against each other due to "silly matters" for a long time, and feels disappointed over the impression that their conflicts and battles are no different from those of humans. He declares his intention to eradicate all current life on Earth, and replace it with a nascent species derived from the primordial ooze he has concocted with the DNA of 10007 sacrificed test subjects (Agent 8 was intended to be subject #10008), which prompts the good guys to thwart his plan before it's too late.
123	* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'': Ancient Caretakers (a type of [[VestigialEmpire fallen empire]] which is a computer system specifically conceived to protect against an unknown menace) can be corrupted by [[spoiler:the [[AIIsACrapshoot Contingency]]'s Ghost Signal]] to become Rampaging Machines, invading everything in sight.
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Webcomics]]
127	* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': The Gardener in the Dark program is a mysterious BrownNote that [[MindReformatDeath destroys the mind]] of any [[ArtificialIntelligence AI]] it infects, threatening the planet's 500 million robots. It's revealed to be a [[GodzillaThreshold last-ditch safeguard]] against a RobotRebellion, co-opted by [[spoiler:a CorruptCorporateExecutive to steal those robots' assets.]]
128	* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': When the heroes face off against a more powerful crew, they deduce that the opposing party's sorcerer is the most dangerous but also has the fewest HitPoints. The heroes [[https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0928.html target him]] with enough damage to trigger a ''contingency'' spell he had cast earlier, forcibly [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere teleporting him to safety]] and leaving his allies behind.
129	[[/folder]]
130
131	[[folder:Web Video]]
132	* ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'': The Divine Gate is a barrier that prevents gods from traveling between the [[HomeOfTheGods Outer Planes]] and the physical world, created at the end of a cataclysmic DivineConflict to protect the world. In [[WebVideo/CriticalRoleCampaignOne the first campaign]], Vecna [[DeityOfHumanOrigin ascends to divinity]] while he's in the physical world, giving himself free rein as a PhysicalGod where the other Gods can't come in and deal with him.
133	[[/folder]]
134
135	[[folder:Western Animation]]
136	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'': In "Tragical History", George Spelvin tricks Cyril Figgis into uploading a computer virus onto the ISIS computer mainframe, with the intent of stealing the information of every agent in the organization. They try turning off the mainframe but it has a backup battery protected by a two-ton steel door whose lock is controlled by the virus-infected mainframe.
137	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheBraveAndTheBold'': "Game Over For Owlman" reveals that Batman has information on his fellow heroes' weaknesses to be used against them in the event they go bad. [[EvilDoppelganger Owlman]] uses this information to neutralize and capture the heroes while he impersonates Batman.
138	* ''WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi'': In "Home Insecurity", Yumi installs a new security system in her room to prevent Ami from using her computer. Unfortunately, Yumi set the computer to attack anyone who enters her room which the system interprets to include Yumi.
139	* ''WesternAnimation/HulkAndTheAgentsOfSMASH'': In "Hulk-Busted", the Leader takes control of Tony Stark's Hulk-Buster suits which he created as countermeasures against the Hulks.
140	* ''[[WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Justice League Unlimited]]'':
141	** The episode "Dark Heart" reveals that the League's new [[SpaceBase Watchtower]] has [[KillSat a laser cannon]] which they use while fighting off the attacking GreyGoo. Despite the League's insistence that the cannon is necessary to prevent situations like the Thanagarian Invasion from happening again, its existence is one of many reasons CADMUS is mistrustful of the League. CADMUS's fears about the weapon are proven justified when Lex Luthor hacks the Watchtower and uses the cannon to fire on a city, an act for which the League is blamed.
142	** Doomsday is revealed to be a creation of CADMUS, meant to serve as a weapon against Superman in the event he went rogue [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries again]]. Unfortunately, Doomsday's hatred of Superman -- which was programmed into him in order to make him a more effective weapon -- made him uncontrollable, forcing CADMUS to send him off into space. This plan failed and Doomsday went on a rampage before being captured and imprisoned by CADMUS. When Dr. Milo releases Doomsday to get revenge on Waller for demoting him, Doomsday kills Milo and seeks out Superman for a rematch.
143	* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'': Multiple versions of Ricks and Mortys across the multiverse all have a plan to cheat death called "[[BodyBackupDrive Operation Phoenix]]", which allows their consciousness to escape into a cloned body when in mortal peril. However, the main villain of season 5 rerouted all of the cloned bodies to be dumped into an enormous meat grinder upon revival.
144	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': In "Good Neighbors", Squidward installs a security system to keep [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick out of his house. Not only does it fail to keep the two out, but [=SpongeBob=] dropping a cake on the main computer causes it to transform the house into a rampaging robot that attacks Bikini Bottom. The episode ends with Squidward, [=SpongeBob=] and Patrick sentenced to court-ordered community service to pay for the damages.
145	* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'':
146	** Order 66 was programmed into the clone troopers by their Kaminoan creators using {{Restraining Bolt}} biochips under the belief that it was a safety measure to deal with individual Jedi going rogue. Unknown to all but [[BigBad Palpatine]] and his fellow Sith, the programming was ultimately meant to set the clones to massacre ''all'' the Jedi in one fell swoop -- though Palpatine did meticulously set up the Jedi to look like traitors to cover up the nefarious motives behind it.
147	** A season 6 StoryArc has several clones suffer glitches with their biochips, causing them to be triggered to kill Jedi well ahead of Palpatine's schedule, and causing a GambitPileup between him and the 501st Legion and their attached Jedi.
148	* ''WesternAnimation/SuperRobotMonkeyTeamHyperForceGo'':
149	** "Flytor": The monkey team creates a new automatic defense system for Shugazoom City. At first it works well enough, but a sonic blast from Skeleton King's MonsterOfTheWeek causes it to malfunction and perceive the Super Robot as a threat, meaning the monkeys have to fight both the system and the monster.
150	** "Hidden Fortress": The monkeys try to hide Chiro in the eponymous hidden fortress to protect him from Mandarin. Chiro refuses to hide and locks the monkeys in the fortress while he goes off to face the villain on his own. The monkeys are forced to fight their way through various security measures they designed to fend off outsiders in order to make it out of the fortress.
151	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Young Justice\|2010}}'': The Team enters the Phantom Zone to [[spoiler:rescue Superboy who has been trapped there for months]] but are ambushed and defeated by the criminal Kryptonians that reside there. Planning for this, Nightwing breaks out a piece of kryptonite to weaken them, but being in the Phantom zone means it doesn't affect them physically and it gets taken by Dru-Zod, the Kryptonian leader. Later Dru-Zod uses the same piece of kryptonite to incapacitate Superman once they get out of the Phantom Zone.
152	[[/folder]]
153
154	[[folder:Real Life]]
155	* Operation Valkyrie was a German World War II continuity of government plan designed to be used in the event of civil order breaking down within the country. The conspirators of the 20 July plot to assassinate Hitler modified Operation Valkyrie with the intent of using it to take control of German cities, disarm the Schutzstaffel, and arrest the Nazi leadership once Hitler was killed. The plot was activated in 1944 but failed.
156	[[/folder]]

Context Main / CorruptedContingency