Force Field Door: Difference between revisions

← Older edit

Force Field Door (view source)

Revision as of 15:37, 24 May 2022

644 bytes added , 1 year ago

→‎Tabletop RPG

VisualWikitext

Agiletek

Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users

1,534

edits

Revision as of 07:29, 7 May 2014 (view source) Dai-Guard (talk \| contribs) m (update links) ← Older edit		Latest revision as of 15:37, 24 May 2022 (view source) Agiletek (talk \| contribs) (→‎Tabletop RPG)
(6 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 8: Aside from [[Rule of Cool]], the advantage of such a setup is usually that it is immune to physical attack, or that it can contain [[Starfish Aliens]] that could [[Intangible Man\|phase]] or [[Shapeshifting\|shape-shift]] their way through ordinary doors. Of course, the flaw in this immaterial marvel is it usually requires an outside energy source, or can be interfered with by using powerful ECM or MCM.<ref>([[Anti-Magic\|Magic Counter Measures)]]</ref>. So the hero can traipse past these obstacles by pulling the proverbial plug on it. Worse is when the outside energy source is on the ''outside'' of the Force Field Door, making disabling it as easy as beating up some guards and blowing it up.<ref>(Which may actually be a challenge if guarded by [[Elite Mooks]] or the like)</ref>. Or blowing a hole in the wall on the side, whichever is easiest. For some reason, the jailers rarely use physical doors outside the field (or wrapped in the field) as a backup in case of power failure. If the force field door is on every side of a room, then it's like a [[Force Field Cage]], which redirects to this trope. [[Force Field Door/Trope Co\|This item]] is available for purchase thanks to [[Trope Co]]®. {{examples}}▼ ▲{{examples}} == [[Film]] == * ''[[Monsters vs. Aliens]]'': Gallaxhar puts Ginormica in a force field cage... which she then tears apart ''with her bare hands!'' ** Makes sense, as she is full of [[Unobtainium]], which is more powerful than anything Gallaxhar has. * ''Nightlife'', a 1980s vampire TV movie starring Mirriam D'abo and Ben Cross, featured a doctor jury rigging a prison cell for a vampire by hanging ultraviolet lamps above the only doorway into a room, as well as on the ceiling a few feet down the hall in either direction. If the vampire crossed the beam, he burst into flames. See it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzwD3uLGbwg#t=0m25s here]. * ''[[Star Wars]]'' had several, most notably the barrier that forces [[Obi Wan]] and Darth Maul to wait momentarily before their battle. Just about every large starship in ''[[Star Wars]]'' has some part of the hull, usually a hangar, that's open to the vacuum of space. How do crew members breath and not get sucked out into the void? Force fields. Line 35: Whoever designed the brig must have suffered from some kind of acute practicality syndrome, because the Ancients ''really are'' that self-confident. Case in point, a force field is the only thing holding the ''air inside Atlantis'' when it's in space. Atlantis also has one built into its Stargate, serving [[Portal Slam\|the same function]] as the Iris on Earth's Stargate. ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' once featured an interesting ~~variant -- a~~variant—a prison cell that used the ''force of gravity'' as its "[[Force Field Door]]". The cell was a long corridor with a dead end hooked up to an [[Artificial Gravity]] generator. When this was turned on, the end of the corridor became the floor of a deep pit, thus preventing escape for anyone inside (and ensuring a painful landing for an unprepared prisoner). When turned off, the "pit" became a corridor again, and guards could walk in or out. The resulting perspective shifts allowed for nice little [[Camera Tricks]]. The flaw was the same as that of any [[Force Field Door]]: [[No Gravity for You\|cut the power]], and the prisoner can simply walk out. *** They should have built the cell as a pit, and used the artificial gravity generator to get in and out. Or a ladder. * One ''[[Star Trek: The ~~Next Generation\|Star Trek the~~ Next Generation]]'' episode "We'll Always Have Paris" had the bar variant in Dr. Manheim's lab. Cell doors in ''[[Star Trek: The ~~Next Generation\|Star Trek the~~ Next Generation]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine\|Deep Space Nine]]'' were energy fields. * [[Shape Shifter\|Odo]] from ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'' had to be held in a room surrounded entirely with force fields, to keep him from escaping in his liquid form. Add ''[[Star Trek: The ~~Original Series\|Star Trek the~~ Original Series]]'', e.g. "Assignment Earth". ''[[Star Trek: ~~Voyager\|Star Trek~~ Voyager]]'' (in general a frequent offender with this trope) actually had an episode in which ''Voyager'' was temporarily converted into a [[Prison Ship]], transporting a large number of dangerous alien prisoners in a converted cargo bay. Of course, all the cells added to the bay had ~~[[Force Field Door\|~~Force Field Doors]]. Predictably, a [[Standard Starship Scuffle]] ensued, and, lo and behold, the very first victim of [[Subsystem Damage]] was the cargo bay's power... The [[Oh Crap]] expressions on the bridge crew's faces when they learned of this were priceless. "Oh, woe, if only there was some other way we could have locked up those prisoners!" ** ''[[Star Trek: ~~Enterprise\|Star Trek~~ Enterprise]]'', being set in the [[The Verse\|'verse's]] past, was the exception and had a good old-fashioned solid door for their brig, made out of some reinforced transparent material. It seemed to work just as well as the force-field doors on all the later ''Enterprises''... * In the ''[[Firefly]]'' episode The Train Job, in the intro, Mal is thrown through what is evidently a force-field window: it vanishes as he passes through it, before reappearing a moment later. Assuming it performs the actual function of a window (keeping outside air out, and inside air in), it's most certainly an example of this trope, but they're never seen again. == [[Tabletop RPG]] == * ''[[Dungeons ~~and~~& Dragons]]'' adventure S3 ''Expedition to the Barrier Peaks''. The spaceship's police headquarters had cells with 3 normal walls and one force field wall. ** D&D in general likes its magical force wall/cage effects. Depending on the edition, though, this can be justified in that those don't actually depend on an external power source and can be effectively indestructible if the exact right countermeasures aren't at hand, making permanent versions potentially actually superior to mundane physical barriers. * The adventure module ''Starfall'' for West End Games ''[[Star Wars]]'' RPG '''opens''' with the player characters being freed from their cell on a Star Destroyer by an attack on it killing power to the cell block which has no physical backup. Lucky for them, as they'd otherwise wind up going down with the ship. == [[Video Games]] == * These appear in ''[[Batman: Arkham Asylum]]''. * In ''[[Half-Life]] 2'' some of the obstacles included energy fields to which you needed to shut off the power to get past. Often by literally pulling out a (inexplicably large) wall plug. ** These fields also allow combine tropes (and trains)though while preventing Gordon and his rebel friends access. * In ''[[Metroid]]'', doors are, [[Metroid: Other M\|with one exception,]] surrounded by force fields. These are always [[Color Coded for Your Convenience]] and thus a [[Broken Bridge]] till you collect the right upgrade. ** The Prime series actually justifies the door-shields: the door were set up to separate distinct areas from each other. The doors are actually motion-activated, opening when a sufficiently large life-form approaches it, but to prevent the doors opening and closing ceaselessly for the indigenous life, the force-field was set up, which could only be deactivated by an energy weapon from a sufficiently advanced species. It wasn't so much to keep people in and out of certain areas (though that's inevitably what they do...to Samus), but rather to ''[[Mundane Utility\|prevent wear and tear]]'' from constantly opening and closing. Line 64 ⟶ 65: * In ''[[Superhero League of Hoboken]]'', Dr Entropy protects his first dastardly device behind a force field... but while the generator is placed on the inside, its power cord is plugged into an outlet on the outside, allowing the heroes to disable the field with one swift pull. * In the Perpetual Testing Initiative for ''[[Portal 2]]'', an alternate Cave Johnson learns the hard way why these things are bad on a [[Prison Ship]]. * It seems like every alien base in ''[[Subnautica]]'' has at least one doorway blocked by a forcefield, requiring you to find a "tablet" of the appropriate color to open it. * In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', on certain maps set in the underground city of Oranbega fallen heroes who choose to go to the hospital for revival will instead find themselves in a "jail" room whose cells are sealed with energy barriers that they must beat down in order to escape. == [[Web Comics]] == * ''[[Quentyn Quinn, Space Ranger]]'' (an [[In Space]]! spinoff from ''[[Tales of the Questor]]''): during an arc skewering ''[[Star Trek]]'', the main character is placed in a cell guarded by a force field and discovers he's been furnished with a replicator that can produce any food or drink he wishes. He fabricates a glass of water and [[No Waterproofing in the Future\|shorts out]] the door. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120619085807/http://www.rhjunior.com/QQSR/00030.html You can see it here]. == [[Real Life]] == Line 76 ⟶ 79: [[Category:Door Tropes]] [[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]] [[Category:~~Force Field Door~~{{PAGENAME}}]]