Escape Pod: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

A lifeboat... '''[[Space Is an Ocean|IN SPACE]]'''.

 

Sometimes called a [[Life Pod]], it is a nearly universal trope in [[Space Opera]], and a tried and true part of the [[Standard Sci-Fi Fleet]]. When your [[Cool Starship]]'s [[Faster-Than-Light Travel|Faster Than Light Drive]] is about to suffer a critical [[Phlebotinum Overload]], or [[Space Pirates]] are [[Attack Its Weak Point|targeting your exhaust port]] with [[Frickin' Laser Beams]], it's time to head for the Escape Pods, and take your chances drifting on the [[Space Is an Ocean|endless ocean of space]] in a tiny, fragile shell with no weapons, rudimentary engines, and in [[Locked in a Room|cramped quarters with people you may not like]].

 

 

 

 

 

In [[Real Life]], the [[Space Station|International Space Station]] always has two Soyuz spacecraft docked that can act as "escape pods" in case of emergency (these are also the same ships used to carry crew and supplies to the ISS in the first place). Rockets carrying astronauts also have an eject system that can separate the crew module from the rest of the rocket in case something goes wrong during launch. However, [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|as commonly portrayed in science fiction]], the use of escape pods does not always make sense. As writer and game designer Jim Cambias put it,

 

Actually, I realize perfectly well the purpose of life pods: it lets sf writers tell [[Space Is an Ocean|lifeboat stories]] [[Recycled in Space|in space]]. }}

 

 

{{examples}}

== Advertising ==

* When Volkswagen's New Beetle first appeared, with its compact, rounded, mildly Science Fiction-y shape, it was advertised with billboards that called it an "Escape Pod."

 

== Film -- Animated ==

* ''[[WALL-E]]'' had a scene featuring an escape pod that, for some inexplicable reason, had ''its own [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]''. The film's post-scriptum animation shows that ([[Fridge Logic|potentially explosive!]]) escape pods can also be used as makeshift shelters, and an escape pod plays a role in the related short ''BURN-E''.

 

== Film -- Live Action ==

* ''[[A New Hope|Star Wars: A New Hope]]''

** The movie opens with [[Robot Buddy|C3PO and R2D2]] fleeing Princess Leia's captured ship in an escape pod along with the blueprints detailing [[Attack Its Weak Point|the Death Star's weak spot]]; Imperial gunners nearly [[Sink the Life Boats|blow them out of the sky]] before they note there are no actual lifesigns on board the pod. (The fact that they'd shoot down a pod with people on board, but not an empty one, tells the audience something about the Empire...) The robots' escape sets all the events of the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy in motion.

** When the Millenium Falcon is captured by the Death Star, an Imperial officer reports to Darth Vader that the ship's log says that the crew abandoned ship after leaving Mos Eisley and several escape pods are missing. This was a ruse to make the Imperials think the protagonists were no longer on board.

* In ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]],'' the Enterprise is trapped in the past, and the evil Borg are taking over the ship. Picard reluctantly agrees to destroy the ship to stop the Borg, and, aside from himself and Data, the entire crew flies down to Earth in escape pods with instructions to "stay out of history's way." The crisis is soon averted, and everyone returns to the ship... presumably using [[Teleporters and Transporters]], since it would be odd if the tiny pods could have taken off and made it back to orbit again themselves. Whether scattering future technology across the entire planet in the form of escape pods is a good idea when you're trying to keep history from changing is also never addressed.

*** Actually, if the pods were capable of getting back into space on their own, that would serve to tie up the potential loose end of having said little ships scattered all over the planet: Just launch them on auto pilot and have them self-destruct or plow into the nearest star or moon. If not, they probably had other gameplans for disposing of them, given that Starfleet has been shown to do its best to prevent interferences with the timeline, including having an entire agency devoted to preventing and repairing timeline damage.

*** I'm pretty sure that they could have just used the transporters to lock on to all the escape pods and beamed them back after the crisis was averted.

** Worth noting that as soon as Kirk leaves the pod, he gets attacked by the local food chain. He might have been better off just staying in there. [[Hand Wave|It is also possible]] that the pod stopped trying to contact the base once Kirk left, since there would presumably be no point in calling rescue teams to an empty escape pod.

* At least two movies have [[Air Force One]] equipped with an escape pod. Although the exact details of the planes (there are two that we normally call "Air Force One") are classified, it is extremely unlikely that any of the real planes has one.

* ''[[Spaceballs]]'': Dark Helmet, President Skroob and Colonel Sandurz all have their escape pods stolen by other crew members (and, in one case, [[Everything's Worse with Bears|a bear]]) as ''Spaceball One'' self-destructs.

** As an extra bonus, the visual effect for each escape pod launching homages the iconic ''[[Star Wars]]'' example above.

 

== Literature ==

* Life Boats appear on a regular basis in [[Andre Norton]]'s science fiction stories (where they're sometimes referred to as an "LB"). Oddly, they're often used for purposes ''other'' than just escaping from a destroyed ship.

*** Murdoc Jern uses a life boat to make a stealth landing on the criminal planet Sororis and later return to his starship in orbit.

*** Murdoc and Eet take a life boat down to an unnamed planet in order to warn some Zacathan archeologists about a Jack (pirate) raid. They return to their starship in orbit with a wounded Zacathan they rescued.

* ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' has "bod pods", inflatable, single person, idiot proof life support modules for use by untrained personel in an emergency. Miles really dislikes them, because once you're stuffed inside one, you're stuck waiting helplessly for someone else to come rescue you.

* The ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy]]'' 'trilogy' covered the subject in this memorable exchange from ''The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe'', when the characters find themselves trapped aboard a spaceship on course to crash-dive into the heart of a sun:

'''Ford''': "Twice." }}

* Ships in [[Honor Harrington]] carry escape pods which can be used to escape a ship that has suffered damage. However they are generally only provided for crew stationed close to the hull of the ship since under most circumstances crew further inside will either not have time to evacuate at all (if the reactors explode) or will have time to make an orderly evacuation using the ship's auxiliary small craft.

 

* ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' had an episode in which rough-around-the-edges engineer Tucker and an alien [[Well, Excuse Me, Princess!]] were [[Locked in a Room|trapped in a cramped escape pod together]] after fleeing some evil aliens.

** The mirror Enterprise NX01 also had life pods, not that they did the crew much good when they were used (almost all were destroyed by an energy web that was trapping the ship to begin with).

** In numerous episodes, the smaller exploration craft ''Blue Midget'' and ''Starbug'' are used as escape pods when the ''Dwarf'' itself is in danger. Just to add to the confusion, it's implied in one episode that ''Starbug'' vessels have their own escape pods.

** Other episodes use the arrival of an escape pod as a plot point, where they usually contain an important character - except for the one that turned out be {{spoiler|[[Credits Gag|a smegging garbage pod]]}}.

* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' featured these on a number of occasions. Goa'uld escape pods look like ancient Egyptian sarcophagi... and are just as cramped. On one occasion, an escape pod was used by a character to get away from a murderous [[Big Bad]] who was pursuing him on a small ship; on another, two characters hid in escape pods without launching them to survive when their [[Explosive Decompression|ship's hull got punctured]].

* In ''[[Babylon 5]],'' Starfury cockpits can be ejected to serve as escape pods. The odds of being picked up aren't all that high. Other human and alien craft probably have similar mechanisms.

** It is mentioned that various warships carry escape pods, but it is very rare for a ship's crew to actually have a chance to use them in battle. Once a ship's [[Point Defenseless|defenses are penetrated]], it is not common to have them hammered into burning hulks within seconds, given the amounts of firepower that get thrown around in space combat.

* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' had Joel finally escape the Satellite of Love in a conveniently forgotten one of these. It was hidden in a box of hamdingers, and ''nobody'' likes hamdingers. It's name? The "[[Deus Ex Machina]]."

 

 

== Video Games ==

* ''[[Allegiance]]'', a multiplayer [[Simulation Game|Space Sim]] / [[Real Time Strategy]] game from Microsoft, has escape pods fill an essential role in gameplay. Whenever a pilot's ship is destroyed, they are left at that spot in a small, slow, fragile, unarmed escape pod and must then make it to the nearest base or friendly ship before their oxygen runs out. If this pod is shot and destroyed by the enemy, the player is immediately respawned back at base, and can get a new ship and re-join the action; thus the enemy is discouraged from [[Sink the Life Boats|Sinking The Life Boats]], and getting shot down actually takes you out of the action for some time, without taking you out of the ''game''.

* ''[[Perfect Dark]]'' shows [[Air Force One]] with an escape pod (like a couple film examples above).

* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]''... Even though it's the first rocket to send a human into space, they designed it with an escape pod.

* In ''[[Nexus the Jupiter Incident]]'', any ship that is damaged beyond a certain point is considered lost, at which point it will start launching escape pods. If it is a ship from the player's fleet, then the percentage of escape pods that are collected determines if the player keeps the same experienced crew for the new ship. It is assumed that the captain always survives. If the ship is destroyed outright, then no escape pods are launched.

* Used several times in [[Space Quest]], being as the game's a send-up of sci-fi tropes. The first thing you have to go is get Roger the hell off the Arcada without getting vaped by the Sariens. Later, he steals ''their'' escape pod after setting the [[MacGuffin]] to blow. Second game has him stealing one to escape Vohaul's space station. A [[Have a Nice Death]] in the fifth one is him being expelled from Star Con Academy via escape pod.

* The mining ship 'Ishimura' in ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' has several, not that they helped, in fact one of them led to {{spoiler|an entire military ship being destroyed.}}

* ''[[Dead Space 2]]'': not content with {{spoiler|being fired on a rocket chair and falling though space}} Isaac later ejects himself from {{spoiler|The Ishimura}} and crashes back into the sprawl.

* [[Unreal]] and ''[[Unreal II: The Awakening|Unreal II the Awakening]]'' {{spoiler|feature escape pods in the ending sequences. The first is to escape from a planet of doom, the second is to escape a ship about to crash into a star.}}

* The "Vaus" from ''[[Arkanoid]]'' is an escape craft, though it has more mobility than your standard escape pod.

* ''[[Vega Strike]]'' has escape pods equipped with [[FTL]] drives, but with such a weak reactor and thrusters that running to a nearby base or ship is pain anyway. There are also Rescue missions where the player should collect with [[Tractor Beam]] a NPC pod asaulted by vengeful opponents and deliver the pilot to a nearby planet.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In his third appearance in ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]],'' the ever-resourceful villain [[Big Bad|Fructose Riboflavin]] makes surprisingly [http://bobadventures.comicgenesis.com/d/20091020.html effective use] of his escape pod after his prison break, until [[Gadgeteer Genius|Galatea]] is able to give it a powerful enough engine to serve as a tiny spaceship in its own right.

 

== Western Animation ==

* They showed up in ''[[Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers|Galaxy Rangers]]'' a couple times. Most notably, in "Phoenix" where Eliza puts her kids in one, has to go back for supplies (it had enough for two people, not three), and is attacked. [[Heroic Sacrifice|She orders it to blast off when she's attacked by one of the pirates]]. A second example is when the Rangers use one to evacuate from an exploding Crown base in "Queen's Gun."

 

== Real Life ==

* Two [[Reds with Rockets|Soyuz]] spacecraft (the same ships used to carry crew and supplies to the ISS in the first place) are always docked at the International Space Station and can function as escape pods in case of an emergency. Each one can hold three crew members. On two occasions, the crew took refuge in these ships when danger from space debris loomed. Originally NASA planned to build a dedicated escape vehicle capable of taking the whole crew, the X-38, but - predictably - [[Failure Is the Only Option|this was cancelled after early tests]].

* In the Apollo 13 incident, the Lunar Module essentially functioned as a makeshift escape pod for much of the flight.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Futuristic Tech Index]]

[[Category:Tropes in Space]]

[[Category:Escape Tropes]]

[[Category:Spacecraft]]