Every Device Is a Swiss Army Knife

All devices have mass customization.

Remember the good old days when a phone was just for calling people? Remember when game consoles and handhelds were for precisely games? Not so anymore. In a more contemporary (and/or futuristic) setting where folks have high expectations in terms of technology, any device that doesn't have multiple functions beyond its initial one is better of being classed off as Crapola Tech even when it genuinely does work. The general logic of the "jack of all trades" convenience being superior to the specialized frequently plays a part in this. And on certain occasions, Spy Fiction will feature technology of this caliber, particularly in the form of weaponized vehicles. A common joke related to this is that the machine is so complicated, people can't figure out how to use it for its intended purpose. Most definitely Truth in Television.

See Do-Anything Robot for the humanoid example of this. Related to Everything Is Online. See also Super-Powered Robot Meter Maids. See Shoe Phone for when its primary function differs from the one you'd expect from its appearance. You might see a lot of Swiss Army Weapons and Swiss Army Guns in a setting which uses this trope extensively. Taken to the extreme it might result in a Green Lantern Ring. Contrast When All You Have Is a Hammer which is where a device is used in this way regardless of its actual flexibility.

Examples of Every Device Is a Swiss Army Knife include:

Film

• Played for Laughs with Randall Peltzer's inventions in Gremlins. Particularly the Bathroom Buddy.
• Our Man Flint. Flint's lighter has has 82 different functions...83, if you wish to light a cigar.

Literature

• A Stanislaw Lem short story about rival companies making more and more complex washing machines.
• Subverted in Larry Niven's short story "The Soft Weapon". Archeologists find a weapon from a precursor race that has multiple functions. The heroes eventually realize that this weapon is much too complicated for front-line troops, so it must be a spy's weapon. They then trick the villains into activating its Self-Destruct Mechanism.
• Obligatory Discworld example: the Lancrastian Army Knife in Carpe Jugulum, which has a number of strange and metaphysical features such as the Device for Ascerting the Truth of a Given Statement and the Attachment for Winning Ontological Arguments. There's probably a ^[1] in there somewhere as well...
  • A Swiss Army Knife with an alethiometer attachment sounds pretty useful, actually.
  • Its only weakness is that it needs a wheelbarrow to move around.

Live Action TV

• Doctor Who: The Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver. It can (of course) unlock anything but a deadlock and wooden structures, it can scan for nearly anything, and it can do all kinds of hacking with its psychic interface. It cannot, however, triplicate the flammability of port.
• "Globals" in Earth: Final Conflict were a spot-on prediction of smart phones from back in the mid-nineties. Looking at the way the characters use them (like pocket sized laptops), they could easily be iPhones or Droids. They even have a camera function.
• In the Star Trek universe, the deflector dish's role is to push particles and small objects out of the way so they don't collide with the ship at warp speed. Throughout Voyager, however, the deflector dish was somehow "reconfigured" to do just about anything, becoming a common Deus Ex Machina.
  • On a smaller nature was the Starfleet Tricorder, essentially an iPod that did anything the plot demanded. Except, oddly enough, be a communicator.
  • In addition to their use as lethal and nonlethal weapons, phasers can be used as cutting tools, incinerators, space heaters or hot plates (in conjunction with a convenient stone), or improvised explosives.
• James Mays Man Lab created the Swiss Army Bike, which is a normal, ridable bike that also has a squeegee for cleaning windows, a grindstone, a drill, a sprayer for creosote, and a blender.
• In MacGyver every device is a Swiss Army Knife, including of course, his swiss army knife. He is so hard on his knife that it must either be magical or he must go through them like tissue paper(and a good one costs dozens of dollars).

New Media

• Mentioned by name in #4 of Cracked's 6 Sci-Fi Movie Conventions (That Need to Die).

Tabletop Games

• In Traveller Intersteller Wars the Lightning class is a Cool Starship version of this, being able to be a trader, an explorer, and a privateer. It's chief disadvantage is it's low payload which keeps it from carrying cheap cargos in safe areas.
• According to GURPS Ultra-Tech a sonic probe can be used for cleaning, scanning, or lockpicking.

Video Games

• Omnitool in Mass Effect is a bracelet that acts as a set of tools for a ship mechanic, a lockpick, a number of scanners, a communicator/laptop and an EMP weapon capable of overloading enemy shields. It also assists with weapon maintenance/modification and can fabricate small components out of raw materials. The name says it all, really.
  • Even worse is omnigel. Everything is made of omnigel, and you can smear this 'gel' on everything to open it up.
• An almost literal example in Kingdom of Loathing is the Loathing Legion Knife. 20 functions, doing pretty much everything from increasing rollover adventures to replacing the untinkerer. The hardest part is remembering which part of the inventory it's supposed to be in.
• In Grim Fandango, Manny's scythe can and will be used for practically everything, from opening vaults to locking cupboards, to digging through litter boxes, to fighting.

Web Comics

• Axe Cop. His axe has dozens of functions (normal axe, axe-shooting gun, skateboard, guitar, etc.), and his mustache is a multifunction robot.

Western Animation

• One episode of Time Squad had Buck getting a brand-new laser gun with a myriad of functions...so many, in fact, that he couldn't figure out how to make it shoot lasers.
• Every device available to Inspector Gadget had this nature.
• Larry Niven adapted his short story "The Soft Weapon", mentioned above under "Literature" into an episode of Star Trek: The Animated Series entitled "The Slaver Weapon", which played out more or less the same.

Real Life

• You can now get a Swiss Army Knife with a USB thumb drive and LED light .
  • You can also get timepiece, thermometer, altimeter, and in the Presentation Master model is a bluetooth controller.
• Modern PCs in general.
  • The Kindle Fire can get a library of books so extensive St Thomas Aquinas would have been sorely tempted to kill to possess it. It also has the capacity thousands of songs (downloaded and streamed), videos and tv, games, and screensavers of all kinds for fifty dollars. As well as a tricky but definite internet connection. You can leave it on playing all night or have one showing a screensaver another playing music while you read from the same one (some screensaver aps only allow preselected tunes and need a second device for your own playlist).
• How often do you use your smartphone to call someone, as opposed to texting, surfing the web, taking pictures, listening to music, playing games, getting directions...?
• Apple achieved success with the iPhone and iPad by deliberately avoiding the worst aspects of this trope. Both iProducts defeated more powerful and versatile competitors by offering only the most popular functions out of the box and streamlining them to be as user friendly as possible rather than trying to 'open a whole new world of possibilities' like other companies' flagships.
• The Ice Ax is the meat and potatos of mountain climbers. It can be used to feel the depth and texture of the ground, to chop a grip in the ice, or to anchor a rope. It can even be used as a very handy weapon, assuming you have such a need: one noted hero in the Indian army used it in this way while storming a hill during the Indian-Pakistani wars.
• Paperclips. Those can be used for any of the surprisingly many chores for which an inch or so of bendable wire might be desired. Including even fastening papers together.
• Carabineers and keyrings. As long as there is a place to put them you can hook anything to anything making a multitool of your own. As many pocketknives and flashlights come with keychain devices you can hook them them together and while the same cannot yet be said of cell phones, laptops, I-pods, and E-readers yet you can usually find a wallet, pouch or bag with a place to put a carabineer into. Furthermore a sash of carabineers makes an ad-hoc shoulder strap.
  • The last use not only makes an geeky looking but very shiny array of bling but creates a very strong lanyard that can fit almost anything with a fastener and be almost as strong as a chain of equivalent mass. As well you can attach anything along the length and not just at the end. The main disadvantage is that nonlocking carabiners can come loose if the gate of a link is opened, and that carabiners can bite the skin if you are not careful. Still a chain of carabiners is a very flexible system and you can think up any idea your ingenuity will let you. I am certain all budding MacGyvers are thinking of ideas.
• Pen multitools are a new fashion. They might have such an array as a pen on one side, a stylus on the other, a ruler and level in between and so on.
• Survival cards. That is metal cards made into tools by various means, such as sharpening one side sharp like a knife, another like a saw, making a hollow hole to serve as a weak wrench, and marking denominations to make a ruler. These are compact and can fit in a wallet. Plus hoplophobic security guards might be less inclined to look askance then they would at a knife. The main disadvantage is they don't come with a hilt which means you have hold them with your fingers rather then grasping them.
• To go one better they now have carabineers that are also multitools. That means you can make the link to what is effectively a multi-multitool be a multitool in itself!
• The Scottish Belted Plaid is meant to serve as cloak, ad-hoc blanket, and cammies, and as well can be folded for extra pockets.
• The Muslim rug can among other things be a blanket, saddle cover, or bag. Famously it is used to pray on which makes sense as knees get sore. When well done it can be hung in one's hall as an artwork. As far as we know, no one really uses it as a magic aerial vehicle.
• Paracord bracelets. They have an attractively rough aesthetic that gives off a whiff of perhaps exaggerated masculinity. More important for this trope they contain a small knife, a compass, and can be undone to provide a rope.
• Rescue Tools are urban and roadside survival multitools. They are dominated by the triplet of windowbreaker and seatbelt cutter(for getting out of cars), and, often a flashlight. Other stuff is added on to the manufacturer's taste. One model of these is the Victorinox Rescue Tool which was built with the consultation of veteran emergency service personal.
• Leathermans are known for making multitools like a butterfly knife (I.E. a knife where the two sides of the hilt fold all the way back to form a sheath) but having a pliers instead of a knife as the primary tool. They are perhaps not as attractive as Victorinox pieces but they have a good rep of their own.
• These are a whole bunch of reasons to carry a pocketknife (and not just that it's kind of cool): See here.
  • There are even more not mentioned. The corkscrew is effectively a bayonet mount and can fit any modular tool made to mate with it. So far Victorinox has only made the mini-screwdriver with that in mind but there is a potential product line for that. Furthermore anyone with a bent toward smithcraft can make their own modular tools. A quicker and easier way to use the corkscrew is as a second fastener. It will hold basically anything that can be put on a keychain without slipping when closed and is easier to open when extended then a split-ring. The mini-screwdriver doubles as a seal allowing you to carry keys,etc, with the corkscrew extended if you prefer and this later method will allow you to lay a key snugly against the knife.
• Entrenching tools are some of the most massive multi-tools and have been from Roman times. Modern incarnations can be used as an ax as well as a pick, a saw, a whatever, depending on which components are used. Some come in modular form that can be unscrewed to use a different head, and/or have hollow hafts that can contain such things as a survival kit.
• For the matter of that, almost every device in use can trace back to a hard bludgeoning instrument (like a rock), a sharp point (like a shaped flint), a lever (like a stick), or fire (from some sort of fuel and igniter plus a container) or some combination thereof. Except perhaps clothing which is made with these things anyway.

1. ↑ which will, by the way, win an ontological argument in a pretty permanent way