Planar Shockwave: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Huge explosions in space turn into fireballs surrounded by unexplained rings of fire/plasma that expand usually on the relative horizontal or vertical plane, often racing just past the camera. Used to make big [[Stuff Blowing Up|kabooms]] appear more powerful, and when spheroid shockwaves just won't do.

Very commonly used in space-based video games, as it is a relatively "cheap" and easily produced effect.

 

 

Note: a spherical shockwave that is relatively transparent would look like a planar shockwave viewed from a perpendicular angle; done that way it is not this trope.

* Possibly the earliest example of a planar shockwave is the self destruction of the Nostromo in ''[[Alien]]'' (1979). From Ripley's POV, it first forms a horizontal multicolored line and then an orange sphere appears behind/inside it. A few seconds later a horizontal shockwave of material hits her ship.

* ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]'', when the Klingon moon of Praxis explodes in a double shockwave ring. The effect is occasionally called a Praxis Shockwave after this prominent example. The shockwave actually gains plot significance here when it hits the starship Excelsior, since it makes the Federation aware of what happened. Most other examples feature the rings mostly for eye candy.

** Partially justified with the Death Stars. The trench dividing the two hemispheres is weaker than the rest of the shell, which would cause a (if somewhat smaller) [[Planar Shockwave]]. However, the first Death Star exploded vertically, and the second Death Star wasn't completely built yet.

*** ''Star Wars: Attack of the Clones'' takes it one step further, with the shock bombs dropped from Jango Fett's ship: The resulting explosion is focused into a thin disk shape that seems to simply cut through the surrounding asteroids. Which given that space is three-dimensional makes them extremely ineffective weapons that only work because Obi-Wan seems not to be aware of that fact.

** The [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|Expanded Universe]] novel ''[[Death Star]]'' explains the ring produced by Alderaan as the realspace shadow of a hyperspace ripple, produced as a side effect of the Death Star's superlaser being fully charged when fired. Presumably this is also the case when the Death Star itself explodes.

*** This can also be used to explain the ring produced by the Death Star II in ''[[Return of the Jedi]]''. According to EU materials, the second Death Star could recharge much faster than the original, so it was likely charged to full power when it blew up.

** This might be acceptable given the shape of the ship. ''Might''.

*** Actually, a better explanation would be the fact that it was sitting on a platform, surrounded by a ring of the as-yet-unnamed material the Stargates were made of, something that was explicitly stated would enhance the blast.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Not to mention EVERY exploding wraith ship. Bonus points for [[Old School Dogfighting|making nearby ships explode too]].

* In a ''[[Space Cases]]'' episode, the two-dimensional shockwave of two exploding Spung battlecruisers (due to double [[Deadly Dodging]]) destroys the third one.

* Because stars involved rotate at high speeds, collapsars (a form of hypernova) tend to form hourglass-and-ring shapes.

* Other supernovae look like this because the brightest ejecta forms a thin shell. You can barely see the part that's coming straight at us, but the edges (where our view is tangent to it) look very bright. [[wikipedia:SN 1987A|SN 1987A]] is a good example of this.

* As mentioned above, large nuclear explosions can look [http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/Images/massive-nuclear-explosion.jpg something like this]. However, it's just cloudlike condensation as the invisible spherical-ish shockwave passes through layers of the atmosphere where pressure and water content are right. Depending on conditions, this can produce [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8adFNycaanI/RiXsoHQ3d8I/AAAAAAAAAFs/FJv_0fHjPG4/s400/Bravo%2Bfireball.bmp multiple stacked rings].

* There are also fireworks that have this sort of effect.

 

* ''Star Wars: [[Rogue Squadron]]'' and its sequels feature these whenever a starfighter explodes in mid-air.

* Shows up in the explosion of Zebes in the ending to ''Super [[Metroid]]''.

* Tactical battles use these in ''[[Sword of the Stars]]''.

** They are actually ''weaponized'' by Chakkars/Chakrams, where the planar shockwave is used to [[Armor-Piercing Attack|slice through armor.]]

* While most explosions in the ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' series will just be the usual yellow-orange-red atmospheric looking fireballs, the very most awesome ships and weapons exploding will make planer and ring shockwaves in pretty colors.

** Also seen on the splash screen of EV:Nova.

** ''[[San Francisco Rush]]'' series too, where [[Every Car Is a Pinto]] and [[Made of Explodium]], exploding violently with spherical fireballs in crashes.

* ''[[[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]] Wing Commander Prophecy'' uses an upgraded graphics engine compared to previous games, and is the first game in the series to use 3D acceleration. Among the new visuals is a planar shockwave effect that randomly occurs when a fighter craft explodes. The orientation of the effect appears to be random.

* The Stinkowing in ''[[Stinkoman 20 X 6]]'' causes a few when it explodes.