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A Light in the Distance: Difference between revisions
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...But, what's this? There's a light in the distance. Our heroes may have found shelter from that dreadful storm or, at least, a place to rest before resuming the journey. Yes, it seems that one of the ways to show the audience that characters have [[Hope Spot|a glimmer of hope in an otherwise gloomy situation]] is to have something light the way, literally.
This is caused at least partly by the fact that, celestial bodies aside, light-producing objects are rare in nature--particularly those producing steady light, visible over a distance. So any light visible at night, or in a storm, is a sign of humans (or, in [[Speculative Fiction]], any intelligent beings) and civilization.
Of course, the source of this light [[Light Is Not Good|frequently turns out to be bad]], and possibly worse than whatever our heroes were seeking shelter from. This particular wrinkle dates back at least to [[Ghost Lights]] and will-o'-the-wisps from folklore.
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Rocky Horror Picture Show]]:'' [[Ear Worm|"There's a light, over at the Frankenstein Place."]]
* ''[[Monty Python and
* In ''[[Barbie]] and the Diamond Castle,'' the heroines are lost in a forest and out of food and water. Just then, Liana notices smoke coming from just beyond the trees, leading them to an [[The Final Temptation|isolated mansion]].
* The very beginning of ''[[The Iron Giant]]'': A fisherman and his boat are caught in a horrible storm, and he's searching for the lighthouse to find his way out. He thinks he's found it upon seeing a light in the distance, but that assumption quickly fades away when the light turns and reveals itself to be two lights--like eyes. Then the boat crashes into the title character.
* Threepio seeing the Jawa sandcrawler in the distance in the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' movie.
* [[Finding Nemo|"It's so...pretty!"]]
** To clarify--these are fish, much deeper in the ocean than they really ought to be, and the light in the darkness is an angler fish. Sometimes light ''really'' isn't good.
* "And we lights the city ... not just for him, but for all of 'em that're still out there. 'Cause we knows ... there'll come a night, when they sees the distant light ... and they'll be comin' home." (''[[Mad Max]] Beyond Thunderdome'', final words.)
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== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''[[The Hobbit]]'', Bilbo and the dwarves get lost upon leaving the path in Mirkwood. Every time they see the lights of the elves, they head towards them; usually the lights disperse before the heroes can reach them. (This was probably intended as a [[Shout-Out]] to the will-o-the-wisp folklore.) When they eventually reach one of the lights, the elves capture and imprison them (which is still better than being lost in Mirkwood).
** Similarly, in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]: The Two Towers'', Frodo, Sam and Gollum see will-o-the-wisps in the Dead Marshes, and it is stated that they might be caused by the lingering spirits of the dead.
*** It's implied however that these are not real spirits of the dead, but evil spirits summoned by Sauron to guard this border of his realm, luring travellers to their doom. The undead in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' generally seem to have nothing to do with the actual people who died, with the exception of the ghosts of Dunharg.
* ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'': Upon first entering Narnia, Lucy sees a light in the distance, which she finds to be a gas lamp post. In the middle of a forest. It is at tis lamppost that Lucy meets Mr. Tumnus. Its presence is explained in ''The Magician's Nephew''.
* ''[[Harry Potter/Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban|Harry Potter]]'' introduces a hinkypunk, a creature that uses the light in the distance gimmick to lead travelers into its clutches.
* In the second Bahzell novel the titular hero and his companions are stuck out in a huge storm not far from shelter, but it's so bad that they have no idea where to go. However Wencit of Rum arrives to save them, and Bahzell, cynical [[Deadpan Snarker]] that he is cracks wise about the timely arrival.
* At one point in ''[[Jules Verne|The Mysterious Island]]'', the castaways have built a small ship and some of them sail to another island some two hundred miles away. On the way back, a squall blows them off course, but then they see a powerful light (visible at twenty miles) on the shore of their island that guides them home. They're rather disconcerted to learn, later, that their friends on the island '''didn't''' make that light. At least, not any friends they '''knew'''....
* Not a light, but close, in Mann's ''The Magic Mountain'', the protagonist Hans Castorp has gotten lost skiing during a storm. He spots a distant house off in the snow, heads to it hoping to find people and warmth, only to discover it's just an old storage shed he'd noticed earlier that morning.
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