Distress Call: Difference between revisions

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'''Ripley:''' Human?

'''Dallas:''' Unknown.|'''''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'''''}}

This is a common [[Beginning Tropes|opening]] found in [[Speculative Fiction|Sci-Fi]], [[Horror]] and [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs|Scifi-Horror]]. This refers to the plot structure wherein the heroes are summoned to respond to a distress call, or occasionally, a non-emergency yet still foreboding request for assistance from an expedition. Equally often, the heroes are investigating the abrupt stoppage of all communications from the site.

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Compare: [[Harbinger of Impending Doom]], [[Doomed Expedition]], [[Bring News Back]], [[Action Survivor]], [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]].

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== [[Anime and Manga]] ==

* The segment "Magnetic Rose" in the compilation ''Memories'' has a distress signal, and to sum it up quickly (and neatly, one hopes) it's actually a trap, {{spoiler|designed by the space station's mad computer to lure male victims to fulfill "the ~~owners~~" fantasy of a [[Happily Ever After]] opera life she never got. Of course, the owner is dead and the mad computer thinks it's her.}}

* The segment "Magnetic Rose" in the compilation ''Memories'' has a distress signal, and to sum it up quickly (and neatly, one hopes) it's actually a trap, {{spoiler|designed by the space station's mad computer to lure male victims to fulfill the "owner"'s fantasy of a [[Happily Ever After]] opera life she never got. Of course, the owner is dead and the mad computer thinks it's her.}}

== [[Film]] ==

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* ''[[Return of the Living Dead]]'' has one of the brain-hungry zombies using the Fake Distress Call variant to order in some food: "Send more paramedics."

** The living characters also use this to a degree, as they ''don't'' admit they're under attack by zombies when they call for help, but by people who've gone murderously insane "like rabies, only it's a lot faster". They're not trying to lure in victims, they just know the emergency responders will never believe the truth.

* [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|The Kobayashi Maru]] scenario from ''[[Star Trek II: The ~~Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the~~ Wrath of Khan]]'' (and subsequent incarnations of ''[[Star Trek]]'') kicks off with ''Enterprise'' receiving a distress call from the ship of that name (which may be a Fake Distress Call—at least in the original movie it's not clear if the {{spoiler|simulated mission is a response to a real (simulated) ship or a (simulated) Klingon ploy}}).

* [[Unwinnable Training Simulation|The ''Kobayashi Maru'']] scenario from ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]'' (and subsequent incarnations of ''[[Star Trek]]'') kicks off with ''Enterprise'' receiving a distress call from the ship of that name (which may be a Fake Distress Call—at least in the original movie it's not clear if the {{spoiler|simulated mission is a response to a real (simulated) ship or a (simulated) Klingon ploy}}).

** As well as featuring the ''Kobayashi Maru'', the new [[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]] movie has the plot kicked off by a distress call to Starfleet from the planet Vulcan.

* ''[[Sunshine (film)|Sunshine]]'' (2007). A distress signal from the original ''Icarus'' causes the ''Icarus II'' to go off the mission.

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* Every once in a while, the plot of an episode of ''[[Farscape]]'' was kicked off by this.

* ''[[Firefly]]'': "They're hurting us...get me out"

** Let's not forget the episode Bushwhacked. The entire episode is classic example.

** Let's not forget the episode "Bushwhacked". The entire episode is classic example.

*** The "Crybaby" is ''Serenity'''s very own invocation of this trope - a disposable can of junk designed to send out a fake distress call if the crew need to create a diversion.

** And Out of Gas, though the heroes were the ones sending the signal.

** And "Out of Gas", though the heroes were the ones sending the signal.

* Varied in the pilot episode of ''[[Lost]]'': while it does not draw the Losties to the island, the distress call alerts them that another group has landed on the island and met with a terrible fate, not to mention that the call has been playing for sixteen years, but no one seems to have responded to it.

* Used in the first two seasons of ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' as a combination [[Couch Gag]] and recap.

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== [[Music]] ==

* [http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/bnewman/songs/lyrics/S-O-S.txt This] song by Ben Newman, for an example of a fake distress call.

* [http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/01/bnewman/songs/lyrics/S-O-S.txt This song] by Ben Newman, for an example of a fake distress call.

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* Used in multiple editions of ''[[Traveller]]'', and its advertising, the distress call, "This is Free Trader Beowulf, calling anyone... Mayday, Mayday..." has become iconic.

* For a low-tech variant, player characters in the original ''D&D'' adventure ''I6: [[Ravenloft]]'' find two versions of a letter from the burgomaster of Barovia: {{spoiler|a genuine Warning Beacon urging everyone to stay away from the vampire-besieged town, and a Fake Distress Call forged by Strahd von Zarovich to attract adventurers he can use in a [[Xanatos Gambit]]}}.

* Used in ''Warhammer ~~40k~~'', and a number of the spin-off games. One particular example from one of the novels: in ''Desert Warriors'', a regiment of Imperial Guard is sent to a far-flung world to investigate the "mortis-cry" of an [[Subspace Ansible|astropath]], which amounted to "Help, I'm dying!". {{spoiler|Because [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]], where weird things happen, they arrive ''before'' the signal is sent. The book's epilogue makes it clear that the distress signal they were sent to investigate is their own}}

* Used in ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', and a number of the spin-off games. One particular example from one of the novels: in ''Desert Warriors'', a regiment of Imperial Guard is sent to a far-flung world to investigate the "mortis-cry" of an [[Subspace Ansible|astropath]], which amounted to "Help, I'm dying!". {{spoiler|Because [[Hyperspace Is a Scary Place]], where weird things happen, they arrive ''before'' the signal is sent. The book's epilogue makes it clear that the distress signal they were sent to investigate is their own}}

== [[Video Games]] ==

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*** That the player doesn't see until the end. Isaac watches it again and again on the way there. Kendra even asks how many more times he'll watch it. {{spoiler|It's just the marker making him forget in order to use him. That's how Kendra knows what's at the end when you're planetside.}}

* In ''[[Escape Velocity]]'', the fake distress call is a trap used by [[Space Pirates]].

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the ~~Past|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He~~ Past]]'' opens with a telepathic Distress Call from Princess Zelda to a sleeping Link. She also sends him another one later in the game, when she's captured a second time.

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past]]'' opens with a telepathic Distress Call from Princess Zelda to a sleeping Link. She also sends him another one later in the game, when she's captured a second time.

* About half of the star systems in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' greet you with beeping distress beacons, one of the more prominent is a fake and is a lure for a Geth ambush. Only a few are received on time to provide any aid.

** Also crops up in {{spoiler|Jacob}}'s loyalty mission in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. The strange thing is, the beacon activated 10 years after the ship disappeared...