Sensor Suspense: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
'''Frost:''' Where, man? I don't see shit.
▲{{quote|'''Hudson:''' I got signals. I got readings, in front and behind. <br />
'''
'''Hudson:''' Look, I'm telling ya, there's somethin' movin' and it ain't us! Tracker's off scale, man. They're all around us, man. Jesus!
|''[[Aliens]]''}}
▲'''Hudson:''' Look, I'm telling ya, there's somethin' movin' and it ain't us! Tracker's off scale, man. They're all around us, man. Jesus!|''[[Aliens]]''}}
Sometimes, the only way to keep track of objects is through crude sensors or motion-tracking devices. Such devices generally don't do much more than show some blips while making bleeping noises. Yet, this can sometimes amplify the tension of a scene, especially if the actual visual appearance of the objects being tracked is unknown. The closer the enemies get, the more rapid the beeping gets, until it becomes a maddeningly nerve-shredding screech that more often than not causes heroes to snap at ''just'' that wrong moment before the monsters burst through and pulls him under.
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A more recent usage of this trope is to have ''lots'' of blips on the radar display, or to have a really big blip appear, as a precursor to something really bad happening. Alternatively, the blips might suddenly disappear, which is even worse for the heroes.
Naturally, this trope has some overlap with [[Bombers
=== Captain! The radar shows multiple incoming examples! ===▼
== [[Anime]]
* ''[[Gundam]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross|Macross: Do You Remember Love]]''
* ''[[Macross Frontier]]''
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Abyss]]''. In the opening scene a U.S. Navy submarine is tracking an unknown underwater object by sonar. The sonar blip is projected on a screen, showing the object maneuvering near the sub.
** Sonar does not work that way, naturally. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120504203623/http://www.naval-technology.com/contractor_images/rheinmetall-simulation/5-sonar-senario-trainer.jpg Click here] for an example of what a sonar operator is actually looking at, or watch ''[[Hunt for Red October]]''... not surprisingly, since it's a movie based on a [[Tom Clancy]] movie, they went to great pains to make sure the sonar panel was accurate to real life.
* ''[[Alien]]''
** ''[[Alien
* ''[[Close Encounters of the Third Kind]]'' has the air traffic control scene, where the aircraft (and possible UFOs) are represented not by blips as such, but by basic text and graphics on radar-like screens.
** This is [[Truth in Television]], as that scene was filmed at Los Angeles ARTCC with actual controllers and radar displays. Modern ATC radar (especially at regional centers even in 1977) uses computer generated data to display targets.
* ''[[Das Boot]]'' inverts this trope to great effect, as the sonar pings bouncing off the boat are being used to showcase how the Allied navy is hunting them.
* Colossus: The Forbin Project does this with great tension as the supercomputers launch a nuclear exchange between the US and USSR, all the top heads can do watch the radar and hope the machines will intercept the nukes.
* Done in ''[[Dr. Strangelove]]'', when the missiles are approaching the nuclear bomber.
* ''[[Fail Safe]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[
{{quote|
* This is done on the ''[[Godzilla (
* ''[[Predator]] II''
* ''[[Reign of Fire]]'' uses this to show the parachute squad's fight with the dragon, and it then creatively uses it to show you what happens when you don't deploy your parachute on time.
* In ''[[The Thing
* Parodied in ''[[Tremors]] 2''. The protagonists have rigged up seismic sensors to tell them when the subterranean graboids are approaching. While they're at their base of operations, the sensors start going off as if a huge one is headed right for them...until they look out the window and realize it's instead Burt and his oversized, overarmed military truck.
* Used as [[Book Ends]] in ''[[Top Gun]]''. In both cases the [[Just Plane Wrong|MiG-28s]] are flying close enough together that the F-14s' radar reads them as half the number of planes that are actually in the formation.
* In ''[[Independence Day]]'', as a clear [[Shout
== [[Live Action Television]] ==
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' -- "We've got multiple DRADIS contacts!"
* ''[[
** "Earthshock": The expedition base camp has a scanner that shows life-signs moving around in the cave system the expedition is exploring. Over the course of the episode we get dots suddenly disappearing (expedition members being killed), a dot that fades in and out (the thing that's killing them, which is alien enough to confuse the scanner), and dots suddenly appearing (the Doctor and friends arriving, just in time to be accused of the murders).
** The dragon hunt in "Dragonfire", a flagrant ''[[Alien (
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* [[Warhammer
** ''[[Ciaphas Cain]]''
** ''[[Space Hulk]]'' has this as a game mechanic, being heavily inspired by the Alien series. Genestealers initially appear to the Space Marine player only as scanner "blips", each of which can conceal a variable number of the aliens. The number is only revealed when within sight of a Marine.
*** ''Alien Assault'' is a computer game adaptation of [[Space Hulk]]'s rules with an Aliens-esque setting, and also uses the scanner blips.
== [[Theater]] ==
* ''[[Return to
== [[Video Games]] ==
* Any modern combat flight simulator when an enemy locks onto your fighter. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38eDBGxbfA8&feature=related example] Averted in any tank simulator, since tanks mostly have no way of detecting incoming fire.
* ''[[Alien Swarm]]''
* ''[[Command
* ''[[Command
* ''[[DEFCON]]''
* ''[[Defender]]''
* ''[[Fatal Frame]]''
* ''[[Free Space]]'' -- "Multiple incoming jump signatures, hostile configuration!"
* ''[[Half-Life 2
* ''[[Halo: Combat Evolved]]'' uses this in the level "Keyes". As the [[Player Character|Master Chief]] proceeds through a [[Swamps Are Evil|fetid swamp]] and into an underground Forerunner facility, he occasionally gets unknown motion tracker blips that disappear at the range of the sensor. Finally, after finding [[Apocalyptic Log|Pvt. Jenkin's mission recorder]], a whole huge mass of unknown contacts begin to smash at the other side of a nearby door...
** Later in the same level, you meet up with a squad of marines and fight the Flood in the swamp. If you get seperated you may soon find that the last green blip disappears from your sensor.
* ''[[
* ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''
* ''[[Silent Hill]]''
* ''[[
* ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' allows you to consult the sensor display in the tactical screen to keep track of BVR enemies, but you need upgrades to actually give orders from it. Somehow.
* ''[[X-COM]]'' series allow motion detectors. A good way to avoid becoming [[Cannon Fodder]] when facing alien weapons, but since you don't know whether the blip is from alien or civilian and on which floor, dealing with the results can be... interesting.
* In ''[[Mech Commander]] 2'' certain active enemy units are shown as blips when out of your vision range but within sensor range. Sensors do not differentiate between individual types of units, only showing Vehicles, 'Mechs and Generic. The game does alert you to 'Mechs powering up in a rather melodramatic voice.
* ''[[Marathon
* In ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', the planet-scanning minigame gains shades of
* Several ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'' games, such as ''[[Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne]]'' and ''[[Strange Journey]]'', show a color-coded enemy sensor that does nothing but build anticipation: blue means everything's fine, and attacks will be rare. Yellow means there's a threat around. Red stands for "attack imminent." Sometimes the sensor will stay red for a while, especially in areas where ''one'' bad call or ''one'' bad turn at the RNG during a random battle can mean a game over, turning players into bundles of nerves.
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[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]
[[Category:Horror Tropes]]
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