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Tractor Beam: Difference between revisions
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[[File:TractorBeam.jpg|frame|link=http://www.lab-initio.com/index.html]]
Classic [[Applied Phlebotinum]] found on many, many space ships in fiction. At the press of a button, a beam of light comes out of the ship and sucks in anything in its reach. Occasionally used to move things already on the ship, too. The Tractor Beam thus allows space travellers to capture enemy ships, travel to the surface of planets, and [[Aliens Steal Cattle|steal the farmer's cows]].▼
▲Classic [[Applied Phlebotinum]] found on many, many space ships in fiction. At the press of a button, a beam of light comes out of the ship and sucks in anything in its reach. Occasionally used to move things already on the ship, too. The '''Tractor Beam''' thus allows space travellers to capture enemy ships, travel to the surface of planets, and [[Aliens Steal Cattle|steal the farmer's cows]].
Many stories with [[Alien Abduction|Alien Abductions]] use this as the means of abduction--a small tractor beam just big enough to pull one human. Of course, that kind tends to run in reverse as well.▼
▲Many stories with [[Alien Abduction
Not to be confused with [[Weapons That Suck]].
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== Live Action TV ==
* Used as a large scale, multipurpose tool in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' series. Except on ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'', where grappling-cables are used instead.
* ''[[
* ''[[
** Also, Moya has a "docking web," which is usually used to help damaged ships aboard. Much to Pilot's confusion, Crichton ends up calling it a tractor beam in an early episode.
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* ''[[Star Wars]]'' universe.
** It's what pulls the Millennium Falcon into the Death Star in ''[[Star Wars|A New Hope]]''. [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Tractor_beam Tractor beams] and ways to get out of them appear regularly in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]].
** In [[The Thrawn Trilogy]], Luke got out of one by dropping a hastily reprogrammed proton torpedo, letting it get drawn up by the tractor beam to destroy its projector, and doing something unorthodox with his engines at the same time. Later in the trilogy he's caught again and escapes by making an empty freighter explode into a cloud of highly reflective particles, breaking the lock despite the operator's best efforts. Thrawn did not [[You Have Failed Me...|kill that operator]], since he made a novel effort, and instead tasked him to find out how to counter that kind of trick. And evidentally he did; it doesn't work in the [[Hand of Thrawn]] duology.
** The [[X Wing Series]] makes it clear that if a ship tractors something with a larger mass, the ship is pulled towards that mass instead of the other way around. In ''Wraith Squadron'', Wedge uses this to move a ship without giving off drive emissions.
* The 1977 ''Star Wars'' [[Parody]] short ''[[Hardware Wars]]'' has one, of course -- and like the page image, it involves an actual tractor.
* ''[[
* In ''[[Austin Powers]]: Goldmember'', both Goldmember and Dr. Evil came up with designs for a tractor beam to allow them to pull in an asteroid down to Earth. Dr. Evil calls his "Preparation H", as Preparations A-G were unsuccessful.
** The project itself is called the Alan Parsons Project after the head researcher. Scott mentions that it's the name of a band, but Dr. Evil doesn't get the reference.
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* One of the functions of effectors in [[Iain M Banks|Iain M. Banks']] ''[[The Culture|Culture]]'' novels.
* [[Rudyard Kipling]], in the [[Older Than Television|1912]] short story ''As Easy as ABC'', featured an effect referred to as a "flying loop." When a woman tried to commit suicide to make a political point, the "loop" yanked the knife out of her hand:
{{quote|
** [[John Brunner]] stated he believed this to be the first-ever use of the tractor beam concept.
* Mentioned and used several times in [[Alan Dean Foster]]'s ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' [[Space Opera]] series.
* Used as a weapon in the ''McCade'' series by William C Deitz, where the main character is struck by one while in space. Then some sneaky git kicks it into reverse and turns him into 'one big bruise'.
* Featured regularly, along with their opposite, Pressor Beams, in [[
* Lois McMaster Bujold's ''[[Vorkosigan Saga]]'' features tractor beams at military scale, including on starships, but also in civilian use at smaller scale - 'hand tractors' are used for cargo manipulation, and 'medical hand tractors' are used for delicate surgical work - ideal for battlefield medicine as they're fundamentally sterile, never physically touching the patient.
* David Weber's ''[[
* Vital in cargo handling and rescue operations in James White's ''[[Sector General]]'' series. One weapon system consists of using a tractor beam and a pressor beam on the same target.
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* [[They Might Be Giants]]: "The Bee of the Bird of the Moth":
{{quote|
Of the hypnotizing tractor beam presenting a production... }}
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** The gun thingy from ''Elebits''.
** Also, the grabber in ''[[Doom|Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil]]''.
** And the Kinesis module in ''[[Dead Space (
* ''Thrust'', the truly ancient computer game where you piloted a spacecraft through tunnels to pick up an object with your tractor beam and pulled it out again.
* Crops up in ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: Majora's Mask'', of all places - a golden tractor beam is used by the 'ghosts' to abduct cows (and the unfortunate Romani).
* Crypto's flying saucer in ''[[Destroy All Humans!]]'' has the Abducto Beam, which you can use to pick up tanks, smash them against buildings, drain them of their energy, and fling them out to sea; or you can use it to, you know, [[Captain Obvious|abduct people]].
* ''[[Freelancer]]'' has a "tractor beam" that pulls in any nearby items. It actually ''[[Teleporters and Transporters|teleports]]'' them into your cargo hold. No explanation is offered why its still called a tractor beam.
* In ''Starscape'' your fighter ships have a tractor beam used to suck in minerals from recently exploded asteroids.
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* They appear in the ''[[Space Empires]]'' series, along with their opposites, Repulsor Beams.
* One of the gadgets in ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]: [[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|Going Commando]]''. It only works on objects with a special marking.
* The final Bowser level of ''[[
** In ''[[
* The War Blimp boss in ''[[Heavy Weapon]]'' has a "Meteor Tractor Beam", it makes meteors rain on you shortly after it is fired.
* The ''[[Fallout 3]]'' add on ''mothership zeta'' has the player abducted using a energy beam.
* ''[[Beyond Good
* In ''[[X (
** Interestingly, tractor beams are programmed to be incapable of locking onto non-player-owned objects. This is mainly to prevent the obvious exploit where the player drags enemy vessels into stationary objects like asteroids. The "Super Tractorbeam" mod disables the restriction and allows tractor beams to pick up ''anything''. Your pitiful freighter can become a weapon of mass destruction when you tether an asteroid behind it and start mashing ships and stations with it.
* The player's ship in ''[[Spore]]'' has one for grabbing items, and plants, and animals.
* There is a tractor spell in [[Final Fantasy XI]]. It's used to pull dead players' corpses only, thought (still usefull to pull them out of monster reach before resurecting them).
* The [[Dead Space (
* The Tractor Beam spell in the ''[[Tales
== Web Comics ==
* One of the functions of gravitic technology in ''[[
* Robot #1 in ''[[The Easy Breather]]'' uses a tractor beam to [http://easybreather.comicgenesis.com/d/20080919.html pull Ant Woman into its cargo hold].
* [[Wikipedia
== Western Animation ==
* The animated show ''[[
*
* Spoofed in just about every alien abduction episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
* In ''[[Recess]]: School's Out'', the villain's plan is to aim the tractor beam at the moon to redirect its orbit causing a global ice age, eliminating summer vacations and forcing kids to study indoors making test scores go up.
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[[Category:Tropes in Space]]
[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:
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