Spinning Out of Here

In fantasy and science fiction works, teleportation (in some sort of form) frequently appears as a common form of travel. Often, the person teleporting will trigger the teleportation by spinning in place. Alternatively, the entry into teleportation may not involve rotation, but the actual travel spins the traveler.

While a reason may sometimes be given for the spinning, it often occurs primarily because it looks (or sounds) cool or because spinning signals to the viewer that something is going to happen, thus avoiding catching the viewer off guard.

This is a sub-trope of Everything's Better with Spinning.

If the teleportation device itself spins (as opposed to the people spinning within the device), it's When Things Spin, Science Happens. The tropes are similar in that in both cases, the spinning occurs either to invoke Rule of Cool or to avoid confusing the audience.

Note that this trope can apply to all forms of magical transportation; teleportation is just its most common form.

Examples of Spinning Out of Here include:

Film

In Mortal Kombat Annihilation, Queen Sindel literally dances in a circle to teleport.
In The Mummy Returns, Imhotep starts spinning and then turns into a whirlwind to travel.
Superman spins as he travels underground to rescue Lex Luthor in Superman The Movie.

Literature

In Harry Potter, Apparition is triggered by spinning in place. Travel by Floo sends the traveler spinning to their destination.
- In the movie, transit by Portkey is depicted with the passengers whirling around the Portkey.
Merlin in The Once and Future King always spins around before he disappears in a cloud of smoke.
- In the Disney adaptation of The Sword in the Stone, Merlin spins as he arrives places.
In Robert Sheckley's Prospector's Special, portals look like tiny whirlwinds.

Video Games

In MOTHER the teleport spell is executed by having the character move around while accelerating rapidly before zooming off; because colliding with anything stops the teleport, the better the player is at moving in a small circle, the more places he can teleport from. Mother 2/EarthBound had two teleport spells, one of which worked the same as the first game and the other automatically making the party move in a tight spiral for much easier use.
- Also in EarthBound, both the Star Master and Camera Man enter/exit the screen by spinning.
In Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel, you activate teleport pads by spinning on them.
In Dead or Alive, Kasumi has this as one of her winning animations, accompanied with some pretty Cherry Blossoms.
Teleport pads in first-generation Pokémon games spin you.
- Travel to the Union Rooms in Diamond and Pearl also spins you.
- Using an Escape Rope to get out of caves or the Teleport or Dig attacks outside of battle makes the character spin quickly.
Several of the earlier Final Fantasy games show teleportation this way.
Jade has a move in Mortal Kombat: Deception and Armageddon called Vanishing Winds where she spins around a cloud of green smoke and reappears behind her opponent. Both Kitana and Khameleon borrow this move in Armageddon.
- In Mortal Kombat 9, Rain's intro pose actually inverts this. A wind storm blows in, with Rain's figure quickly forming out of it and gearing up for battle.
Occurs when you're teleported out a completed dungeon in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.
Star Roads spin you in Super Mario World.
Tekken's Yoshimitsu possesses a special in his Indian mediation stance allowing him to spin so fast (while sitting down) that he instantly warps on the other side of his opponent.
In Bomberman Tournament, each Karabon has its own special ability that can help Bomberman when exploring (some are passive, others need to be activated manually). Pommy (your first ally and a Captain Ersatz of Kirby and Pikachu) has the ability to transport Bomberman to any (major) town he's previously visited. Using this power causes Bomberman to spin rapidly before he's launched into the sky and lands in his intended destination.
This is how I. M. Meen escapes after you defeat him.
Parodied in Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume's Bonus Dungeon, where one of your characters starts spinning rapidly out of excitement and flies off. Some NPCs tell him to wait for them and follow him in a similar manner, except for the last one, who just asks The Hero if he excepted him to fly off spinning and walks away.

Western Animation

In Code Lyoko, the teens rotate in the scanners before being transported to Lyoko.
In the Regular Show episode "Dizzy", when the characters spin around until they fall over, they are sent to a bizarre otherworld.
The Tasmanian Devil is probably the Trope Codifier for non-teleportation methods, spinning itself into a whirlwind to travel.