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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I remember that sound! That's a bad sound!"''|'''[[Sigourney Weaver|Gwen]]''', ''[[
The phrase "
In a [[Rescue]] show, or any film with an emergency service like the fire department, there is a variant of the alert that can be called the '''Emergency Squad Scramble.''' where the heroes are at their base and the dispatch call sounds. Suddenly the base explodes with activity as the klaxons sound and the dispatcher comes over the PA system with the essential information. Meanwhile, the rescue heroes move quickly, often [[To the Batpole|going down sliding poles]] to the garage, calmly to suit up and board their vehicles with utter professionalism. Then with the vehicles' rotating lights flashing and sirens sounding, the production's theme music plays the heroes go full speed to the emergency.
This variant also occurs with fighter squadrons before or during a [[Fighter Launching Sequence]] . This often includes a running variant of the [[Power Walk]] that can be called the '''Scramble Run''' where the pilots, are seen sprinting to their fighters in full flight gear.
Now, keep in mind, this is not to be confused with ''[[Command
Understand? Good. Let's move out.
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{{examples}}
==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===
* The ''[[Macross]]'' franchise (and presumably ''[[Robotech]]''), play this more realistically, with General Quarters and condition levels rather than the klaxon and red light.
* Happens several times in the anime ''[[
* Occurs in ''[[Bleach]]'' anime episode #24 when intruders are detected in the Soul Society.
* Angel signature confirmed, [[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Type Blue!]]
* [[Gundam]]'s various [[Cool Ship
{{quote|
=== [[Film]] ===
* ''[[Doctor Strangelove]]'' was based on a serious [[Cold War]] thriller novel by Peter George entitled... ''Red Alert''.
* In the film ''[[Our Man Flint]]'', after Lloyd Cramden learns that Flint is alive he calls a "Purple Alert".
* ''[[
* ''[[The Final Countdown]]'' featured two onboard the USS ''Nimitz'' aircraft carrier, though the second one was a bit more subdued as it was more of a preparation montage for the subsequent [[Fighter Launching Sequence]].
* Happens twice in the film ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]''.
** The Mayor of Halloween Town orders the alarms sounded when Jack Skellington disappears (a siren in the form of a stone cat with its tail being turned by a mummy).
** When Jack causes chaos by giving out dangerous toys on Christmas Eve, the militaries of the world mobilize to stop him, complete with air raid siren.
* ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' - "Red alert! Red alert! Andy is coming upstairs!"
** ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 2''
{{quote|
'''Sergeant''': Sir, yes, sir! Red alert! All civilians fall in position now! }}
* ''[[
** Justified in that they set up shot in an old, abandoned, apparently-still-functional, yet remarkably cheap firehouse. The confused look on everyone's face for about
* ''[[Master and Commander]]'' had a scene where a young officer, suspecting the enemy ship is nearby in the fog and about to attack, calls "Beat to quarters!" We see the Napoleonic War version of a ship going into Red Alert and the officer's decision proves most prudent as the ship is fired upon and the crew is ready for battle.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''[[Star Wars]]'', of course, had to get in on the action, though the original trilogy didn't.
** In [[The Thrawn Trilogy]], Pellaeon explains to [[Magnificent Bastard|Grand Admiral Thrawn]] that the wing commander of the scout ships is fairly certain he eluded pursuit, but that he ordered the sentry ships to yellow alert anyway. Thrawn opines that if they were from the [[La Résistance|Rebellion]] (as he [[Insistent Terminology|insists]] on calling [[The Alliance|the New Republic]]), the ships didn't lose their pursuers. Pellaeon asks if they should go to red, to which Thrawn remarks "There's time."
** A novel in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] has Han trying to fly a horribly-built Selonian ship. Nearly all the lights on the control panel are green, but that's not good - for Selonians, red is positive, green is disaster.
* In the book ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]'', the noise of the sirens going off when areas become contaminated is so loud that it they have to ask someone to turn it down so they can communicate. This tends to highlight the fact that the base systems were not tested properly. This is a major [[Real Life]] problem, if a system is not designed correctly.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* The name of this trope comes from the
** Yellow Alert - When the ship is approaching a potentially dangerous situation.
** Double Red Alert - Extreme and immediate danger, e.g. a bomb on board is about to explode.
** Blue Alert - The ship is about to enter planetary atmosphere (on ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]'') or about to use its cloaking device (on ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Deep Space Nine]]''). or is experiencing a life support failure (on ''[[Star Trek:
** Grey Alert - The ship is running out of fuel and is rationing power to a bare minimum (AKA Condition Grey)
** Tactical Alert - The same as
*** When Reed wanted to create a new emergency protocol that would improve on Tactical Alert, Trip dubs it "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Reed Alert]]".
** General Quarters, bringing this full circle.
** There was also a rarely used "Condition Green" which was a distress code to alert the receiver that the landing party had been captured. Given how often it happened, you'd think it would get heard more often.
** Also famously parodied in ''MAD Magazine'':
{{quote|
'''Kirk:''' Paging General Alert! Paging General Alert!
'''Spock:''' This is no time for joking around, Captain. We have a major disaster here!
'''Kirk:''' Is that so? Then have Major Disaster report to the bridge - '''at once!''' }}
** In Star Trek (or at least the later series), however, the use of low lighting is somewhat justified, as it means that all the little light-up buttons on the control panels show up better, and means that the light won't reflect off the glass surfaces.
* Played straight on ''[[Babylon 5]]'', though notably, while the alarms are sounding loudly throughout the station, warning the station's occupants to seek shelter and the pilots and security guards to prepare for battle, the command center itself is devoid of the alarms and lights. This is to help the command crew avoid any distractions or hindrances to communication, particularly since they're the ones who ''start'' the alarm to begin with.
** Worth noting, how the command crew reacts to the
* Averted and then played straight in the first and second seasons of ''[[
* Famously parodied on ''[[
{{quote|
(Some time later)
'''Rimmer:''' Step up to Red Alert.
'''Kryten:''' Sir, are you absolutely sure? [[Crowning Moment of Funny|It does mean changing the bulb!]] }}
** Also:
{{quote|
'''Lister:''' What's a Purple Alert?
'''Holly:''' Well, it's worse than a Blue Alert, but better than a Red Alert. Kind of a Mauve Alert... }}
** Not to mention the first example kicked off with an exchange highlighting how pointless it was in their circumstances:
{{quote|
'''Lister:''' Why? There's no one to alert, we're all here.
'''Rimmer:''' I would just feel better if we were all on our toes because we were all aware this is a blue alert situation.
'''Lister:''' We all are on our toes... ''(and so on)'' }}
*** And who could forget:
{{quote|
'''Cat''': Forget red! Let's go all the way up to Brown Alert!
'''Kryten''': There's no such ''thing'' as Brown Alert, sir!
'''Cat''': You won't be sayin' that in a minute! And don't say I didn't alert you! }}
* Speaking of which, in the first season of the revived ''[[
{{quote|
** UNIT in particular has been shown to have a penchant for red, employing "Red Alert", "Code Red Sontaran", and "''Ultimate'' Red Alert'' in season 4.
** The TARDIS has what could be considered a type of Red Alert, the cloister bell, which rings to signify a galactic disaster. I.e the end of the universe.
* The French-Canadian TV show ''"Dans une galaxie près de chez vous'' poked fun at this numerous times, with such alerts has "Yellow Alert with suspenders and brown socks" "Purple alert with a ketchup stain" etc... One episode reveals that the ship's crew carries a binder explaining the meaning of each and every alert.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' avoided
** The "Unscheduled Offworld Activation" alert does use spinning red lights and sirens, though.
* Pretty much every season of [[
* The new ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' has the marvelous three-troper:
{{quote|
** The series prided itself on being more like a real ship, with accurate (or at least believable) use of jargon, than other sci-fi series. Note: three vital pieces of information into three short sentences; even if it wasn't accurate it would probably still be a very efficient system. (In addition, it's actually an ''aversion'' of [[Defcon Five]]
** The original 1970's series had this happen regularly too, whenever the Cylons attacked.
* From a review of the ''[[Blake's
{{quote|
* At around the same time, ''[[
* Briefly featured in the short-lived alien invasion show ''[[Threshold]]'', when the heroes have reason to believe their secret base has been compromised: in addition to the flashing red lights (no klaxon), every regular ceiling light in the building is extinguished and replaced by ''strobes'' for no apparent reason.
* Parodied in ''[[
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'' plays with this trope and [[
* ''[[Half Life
* In ''[[Star Trek Armada]] II'', alerts contain a different approach, Green alert is
* The ''[[Crusader:
* Used reasonably in the ''[[Escape Velocity]]'' series: a warning alarm sounds when a hostile vessel turns its attention on you - and then promptly shuts up, letting you frag the baddies and/or get the heck out of Dodge as appropriate. (If you have an [[Enemy
* The ''[[Evil Genius (
** This gets annoying really fast, especially at Yellow Alert. All you want is for your minions to walk around armed, in case enemy soldiers show up. So why do you have to keep listening to that annoying klaxon? Editing a game file could probably solve that issue, unless this was intentional so that your minions ''don't'' walk around armed.
* ''[[Bosconian]]'' features a "CONDITION" indicator. If it's "GREEN", that means no enemies are attacking, but it will eventually change to "YELLOW" ("Alert! Alert!"), and you will have to destroy one of the hexagon-like space stations to get it back to "GREEN". Condition "RED!!" (as it appears in-game) only appears if you take too long to complete a stage. During this time, the enemies attack relentlessly, making more likely for you to lose a life.
* In ''[[Halo]] 3'', when a Scarab is about to explode, a submarine klaxon type sound is heard.
* ''[[
* Played straight in ''[[Metroid Prime|Metroid Prime 3: Corruption,]]'' as the ''GFS Olympus'' goes into "Condition Red" during the Space Pirate attack at the beginning of the game.
* In the ''[[Disgaea]]'' series, the arrival of a crew of pirates in the Item World is preceded by the sound of klaxons and the screen flashing red a few times.
* Announcing boss fights with a loud siren and a screen-wide warning is a hallmark of the ''[[
* Armor Games' [[Web Game]] ''In3structotank'' during the introductory sequence. As Dirk Danger is drinking coffee a light descends from above and starts flashing red, causing him to do a [[Spit Take]].
* ''[[
* In ''[[
===
* When the tennis player from the [http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p2 Death Volley arc] in ''[[
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* In a ''[[Harvey Birdman, Attorney
* [[Transformers|Red Alert!]] [[Memetic Mutation|WOO WOO WOO WOO!]]
* ''Sev Trek: Puss in Boots'' (the Australian CGI spoof of [[Star Trek:
* In ''[[Metalocalypse]]'', the Tribunal calls a "Purple Alert" when Nathan Explosion is elected governor of Florida. It's ''extremely'' irritating.
* ''[[The Herculoids]]'' episode "Prisoners of the Bubblemen". After Dorno frees Zandor and Tarra, the enemy leader orders "Sound the alarm" and a tower starts a lighthouse-like rotating red light at its top, with a whooping siren accompaniment.
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** In both "Arctic Splashdown" and "The Robot Spy" there are "scramble alerts" at Air Force bases, with jets taking off. In "The Robot Spy" the Duty Officer actually says he's going to call a "Red Scramble" and pushes a [[Big Red Button]] with the label "Red Alert".
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Britain's version of
** That was replaced by 'UK Threat Level' about... ooh, about ''five years ago''. We had to replace all the signs. It's been at 'Heightened' since its inception.
* [[Truth in Television]]: The United States Department of Homeland Security Terror Alert Level, which is on {{color|yellow|yellow}} by default. There are two lower levels ({{color|blue|Blue}} and {{color|green|Green}}), but they have never been called. {{color|orange|Orange Alert}} has been called a few times, but {{color|red|Red Alert}} has only been called once, after some idiot terrorists tried to sneak liquid explosives onboard airplanes coming in from England and have caused problems for millions of air
** Shortly after the terror alert system was first created, Jay Leno did a bit on ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' spoofing it. The final mock colour alert was "White with a black dot," which meant "Terrorists are impersonating Jay Leno."
** The system was also spoofed by Stephen Colbert in the opening on one episode of ''[[The Colbert Report]]''. Colbert reported that the alert level had been raised to brown, because "somebody spilled coffee on the chart."
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** Also mocked by comedian [[Ron White]]. He says if it were up to him, there would be two levels of alert: "Go find a helmet", and "Put on the damm helmet".
* Some real-life fire alarms sound like red alert klaxons.
* HMNB Devonport, in Plymouth, UK, tests the Nuclear Accident Siren every Monday morning at 1130. This is a massive, WWII-esque 'The bombers are coming!' alarm that can be heard about a mile away in parts of the city and is a little unnerving if you haven't heard it before or aren't expecting it.
* Residents of the midwestern United States are no doubt intimately familiar with [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH5ZjMWN_zw&NR=1 tornado sirens], which are designed to emit an amazingly loud wailing sound when a [[Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud|tornado]] is spotted nearby, warning everybody to seek shelter immediately.
** Although all it usually does is either prompt people to run outside and see the funnel cloud or to sit inside and turn the TV to the local news to see how close it is.
** Military installations will often use a similar system, which include the added convenience of a distinctive alarm reserved for incoming enemy attack.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Code Red]]'' had a really dramatic Emergency Squad Scramble with a large firehouse crew and fleet, including the Fire Chief in his own car, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zIuMyW5ZS0&feature=related as shown here.]
* ''London's Burning'' usually featured a similar but lower-key scene centered on one or two fire engines.
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* ''S.W.A.T.'' The opening credits started with the team responding to an alert over their radio by gearing up and boarding their police van. As seen [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Iwp1d7eKbA here].
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* The [[Tabletop RPG]] ''[[Shadowrun]]'' supplement "Neo-Anarchists' Guide to Real Life'' mentioned how exciting it was to watch a DocWagon Crisis Response Team respond to a crisis "Code Blue" alert.
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* [[Fireman Sam|"All present and correct, sir!" "Right, let's go!"]]
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* A variation on this trope occurs in hospital emergency departments, in which an ambulance crew can radio a hospital dispatcher for "medical control" - asking a hospital-based doctor for instructions on how to manage a critically ill/injured patient while en route. The dispatcher's radio will emit a loud, harsh buzz/honk sound, audible throughout the triage area, when such a call is placed. If the call warrants assembling a resuscitation team, the dispatcher will then issue an overhead page to the rest of the department, indicating what the emergency is (adult or pediatric, medical or trauma) and how long before it arrives.
** It is also worth note that most hospitals DO have a "code red." It is used in case of fire. (other common codes are blue, in case of cardiac arrest; ADAM, in case of missing persons; triage, in case of a large amount of incoming emergency patients; and some sort of bomb threat code.)
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** The tones have another purpose besides an audible alert. Each department in an area will have distinct two-tone alerts that are used to un-squelch pagers and radios, so as to not hear the radio all day unless a call comes in. Firefighters and EMS workers can tell who is being dispatched just by recognizing the tones.
=== [[Literature]] ===
* In the ''[[Star Wars Expanded Universe]]'' novel ''[[Hand of Thrawn|Specter of the Past]]'', we are treated to two separate chapters starting with the battle alarm going off at an unfair moment for [[Badass Normal|Wedge Antilles]]: the first time in the middle of dessert, the second in the middle of the night. (His commander was feeling hunchy, though, and so Rogue Squadron were already sleeping in their ships...)
=== [[Live Action Television]] ===
* The voice of SID: [[UFO|''Red--Alert--Red--Alert--U-F-O--U-F-O.]] One of the most direct Battle of Britain homages on this page, not surprising given that Gerry Anderson spent his National Service in the RAF.
** Moonbase called them too. SHADO Control once called a "Maximum Security Alert - Condition Red".
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* ''[[Wing Commander (
** In particular, the [[Fighter Launching Sequence]] in the first ''Wing Commander'' game is accompanied by a
* [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Starlancer]]'' carries on the tradition, with a short cutscene of fighter crews running along the corridor while a red light flashes. One can only assume the Squadron Leader's briefings have a tendency to overrun.
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* Benjamin Glee thinks [http://intragalacticcomic.com/2008/10/13/004-travel-advice/ strafing] is the best way to show you're focused, even if there isn't a
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[
=== [[Real Life]] ===
* Most uses of this trope can be traced to the real-life Battle of Britain, the first time that radar technology allowed defending fighters enough warning to wait on the ground rather than running constant standing patrols. The [
* This practice still goes on today in [[NATO]], where it's called Quick Reaction Alert or QRA for short. The British used it for their V-bombers (which were bombed up), where you possibly had as little as five minutes before nukes started landing, the instruction being take off and head for the "start line" .
** The far more common version of this, on a nearly daily basis during the [[Cold War]] and about monthly now involves fighter jets (usually two) being scrambled to intercept and escort away Soviet/Russian "Bear" bombers who have entered NATO-monitored airspace to test reaction times- i.e. for the fun of it.
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[[Category:Paint the Index Red]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:
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