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{{quote|''"After the Earth was used up, we found a new solar system and hundreds of new Earths were terraformed and colonized [...] Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies. A ship would bring you work. A gun would help you keep it."''|'''Shepherd Book''', ''[[Firefly]]''}}
 
Some [[Speculative Fiction Series]] focus on a [[Cool Starship]] or two that's [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships|shiny and new]] and full of all the latest [[Applied Phlebotinum]]. The shows are all about idealistic and well-funded explorers or warriors, boldly going where angels fear to tread.
 
Shows on the other end of the [[Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty]] treat the future as a place where real people live, and where [[Stanley Steamer Spaceship|spaceships look dirty, dingy, and used, like heavy equipment that one might find at a lonely truck stop in the middle of the night right now]]. The ships are old junk heaps run on a shoestring by hard-bitten characters on the edge, seemingly held together with two pieces of string, chewing gum, and the will of the Holy Spirit -- the SF equivalent of the struggling [[Film Noir]] private eye, in other words. This is the [[Used Future]], and it's home to renegades, regular working stiffs, and anyone on the "cynical" end of the [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]. Think of it as [[Diesel Punk]] {{smallcaps|[[In Space]]!}}
 
Sometimes, there will be [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]] alongside dingier ones; usually these new, [[Ascetic Aesthetic|ascetic and shiny ships]] will belong to the [[The Empire|Galactic Military]] which has access to constantly churning shipyards and the newest heights of technology while the heroes must survive on surplus gear and homegrown repairs. These [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]], however, can denote that the crew piloting these über-ships is formed of [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy|completely green recruits]] with no real combat experience, often led by a [[The Neidermeyer|pompous noble]], while the battered ships are piloted by grizzled veterans who can fly circles around them.
 
The original ''[[Star Wars]]'' [[Trope Codifier|popularised the concept]] (although arguably ''Moon Zero Two'' (1969), ''[[Silent Running]]'' (1972), and ''[[Dark Star]]'' (1974) [[Trope Maker|led the way]].) For contrast, the prequels, set in a more civilized time, [[Crystal Spires and Togas|are correspondingly shinier]]. (''Star Wars'' is a rare example on the "idealism" end of the above-mentioned scale.)
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Actually justified, if ships use a layered-ablative-standoff-armor setup like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whipple_shield Whipple Shield] which takes advantage of the tendency of small objects moving at comically-high speeds to shatter on impact, and lets the first armor layer shatter the junk (which makes a very tidy hole through the outer layer), and the second layer absorbs the (much less dangerous) spray of components without having any holes in it. This would have a scarred and pitted look after a while, and if the ship's owner didn't have money to replace sections of the shield as necessary, it could be this trope to a T.
 
Contrast [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]], [[Crystal Spires and Togas]].
 
See Also: [[Scavenger World]]
 
Usually a [[Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness|Hard Science Fiction]] trope.
{{examples|Examples}}
 
== Anime & Manga ==
* [[Vandread]] mostly has [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]], but a notable example of this trope occurs when the crew visits a space station filled with refugees from the Harvest.
* While we are mostly given a worm's-eye-view of the [[VOTOMS]] universe, this does apply, when the fact that a century-long galaxy-wide conflict has just ended.
* The only ships that appear pristine in the ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' world are, cynically, those belonging to the bad guys. The ''Bebop'', as well as the characters' personal ships, are all rendered with realistic levels of rust, grime and plenty of wingdings from daily usage.
** Not to mention Jet's Hammerhead is just a futuristic tow-truck and Spike's much-prided ''Swordfish'' is some sort of out-of-date ([[Invincible Classic Car|classic?]]) personalized space race car so neither of them are meant to be shot at. The ''Bebop'' itself is converted fishing trawler with an excusably large outer deck.
* The vehicle in ''[[Outlaw Star]]'' deteriorates gradually from [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships|Shiny Looking Spaceship]] to [[Used Future]], mainly because the characters do so much traveling in it.
* ''[[Patlabor]]'', with giant robots replacing spaceships.
* ''[[Planetes]]'' focuses entirely on the blue collar workers whose job it is to clean up space junk that endangers flights.
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== Comicbooks ==
* Graphic novel example: anything drawn by Jean Girard, aka [[Moebius]], will usually incorporate elements of both Used Future and [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]].
* ''[[Ignition City]]'' by [[Warren Ellis]]. The titular city is a spaceport constructed from rusted spaceships that has a lot of expies of classic sci-fi heroes as its residents.
* In ''Fear Agent'' it is hard to keep your ship and jetpack shiny when you are the last survivor of monster-hunting group from Texas with alcohol problems.
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* The ''Nostromo'' in Ridley Scott's ''[[Alien]]'' set the benchmark for all [[Used Future]] depictions to come. This extends to the occupation of the protagonists--they're ''truck drivers'', hardly a glamorous job.
** It's worth noting that Scott [[Word of God|specifically cites]] the used future look of ''Star Wars'' as the major influence for the look of ''Alien'', so [[George Lucas]] really is the granddaddy of this trope.
* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' is the [[Trope Codifier]]. Decorators just overdid their aversion of [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]] with [[Cyberpunk With a Chance of Rain|cloudy, polluted skies]], graffiti everywhere and trash blowing in the wind.
* The Terry Gilliam film ''[[Brazil (Film)|Brazil]]'' takes place in a highly-stylized Used Future -- and, while we're at it, more or less a [[Crapsack World]] that simultaneously resembles [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] ("sometime in the 20th century") and [[Diesel Punk]]. Everything is so used in this future, in fact, that it rarely functions properly, including but not limited to the entire bureaucracy-based system of government.
* The real world in ''[[The Matrix]]'', where humans have astounding technology but (having lost the [[Robot War]]) must scrounge a living in a cramped, dirty underground city among [[Absurdly Spacious Sewer|Absurdly Spacious Sewers]] and caves.
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* Given the genre it's parodying, it's probably not surprising that this trope gets a [[Lampshade]] hung on it in ''[[Spaceballs (Film)|Spaceballs]]''.
{{quote| '''Dark Helmet''': Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!}}
* While the ''Discovery'' itself is [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships|bright and clean]] in ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey (Film)|2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', in the sequel ''[[Two Thousand Ten|2010]]'' it's decidedly less so, with dust having collected on it thanks to hanging in orbit around Io for 9 years without any humans to maintain it. The ''Alexi Leonov'' doesn't look particularly shiny, either.
** It's interesting to note that the Leonov is brand new-- it was build specifically to recover Discovery after contact was lost. Then again, it's also designed to survive aerobraking.
* Every future sequence in the ''[[The Terminator|Terminator]]'' franchise, with ''Salvation'' being an entire movie of this. Of course, it helps that the future the movies feature is [[After the End|set after a major nuclear holocaust]].
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* ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'', both versions. The ''Galactica'' is even called "The Old Bucket" by its crew.
** The Battlestar ''Pegasus'' is included in the series pretty much just to show how a Battlestar actually fit for battle is supposed to look like.
** Just to rub in how much more advanced the Cylons are, once we get episodes set inside a Basestar in the second season we find out they're tastefully and futuristically decorated with curved, minimalist passageways with lights set in square sconces, [[Unusual User Interface|flowing streams of water serving as user interfaces]], bands of [[Cyber Cyclops|cyclopic red]], [[Matrix Raining Code]] holograms in the bridge, and ''Victorian furniture''.<ref>And that's ignoring the gooey [[Living Ship]] hanger bays and [[Instant Oracle, Just Add Water]] main computer</ref>
* In the ''[[CSI]]'' episode about ''Star Trek'' fans -- all right, ''Astro Quest'' fans -- the sample clip of the proposed [[Darker and Edgier]] revival of the old sci-fi program has a definite [[Used Future]] look to the set, costumes, and characters.
* The new ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'', although it's extremely soft sci-fi. In "The Long Game", the worn look is actually the point. Averted by the shiny Mars base in "The Waters of Mars", though that makes sense, since it's a fairly recent outpost with a tiny population.
** The TARDIS is practically the embodiment of this trope. It's a clapped out old relic locked into one appearance, the last of a model which was junked by its creators centuries ago, and which is in places held together with paper clips and hope. Nevertheless, it still manages to be the most powerful ship in the universe.
*** Inside, maybe. On the outside it remains as pristine as the shiniest of [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]], except for the time it got graffitied. {{spoiler|And that was really done by Rose Tyler using the time vortex anyway}}. Maybe the time vortex cleans off any dirt.
* ''[[Firefly]]'', though there is a deliberate contrast between the [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]] of the Alliance and the used, battered craft on the border regions, as well as the [[Space Western]] design of the outer planets compared with the [[Crystal Spires and Togas]] look of the central planets.
** Even Lampshaded in the episode "Heart of Gold", where the rich guy who runs the world is deliberately keeping the world rustic so he can "play cowboy."
* Used in the shortlived ''[[Homeboys in Outer Space]]''.
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** It doesn't look like it looked much better even before the infection. It's all rugged-edged metal and screeching doors, hence the developers calling it "an oil rig [[Recycled in Space|in space]]".
* The ''[[Doom]]'' games makes use of this. This is especially noticeable in Doom 3's 'mars city' The well maintained sections look pretty rough, the seldom used sections are dilapidated, then [[It Got Worse|the forces of hell turn up...]]
* ''[[Eve Online]]'' the MMORPG features the Minmatar Republic, a race of former slaves who's ships are often mocked for being "Flying Junkyards", and the Minmatar pilots often iterate their sacred adage "In Rust We Trust". The trope is avoided in the game by ships belonging to the other factions, most notably and appropriately those of the Amarr Empire, the Minmatar's former enslavers, who's ships are covered in [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships|pristine gold plating]].
* ''[[Freelancer]]'' has this in spades. The lawful factions mostly have [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships]] (with the exception of Bretonia, whose ships are dingy brown and ugly as sin), while the pirates have to get around in filthy junk heaps. The starter ship, the Starflier, is a heap of rubbish whose one advantage is its manoeuvrability, bases are often simply carved out of asteroids, most of the bars on space stations look like dingy, seedy dives, and the Leeds system is so filthy and polluted that it has smog clouds. Smog clouds ''in space.''
** Ironically the best ship the player can have is a powerful custom pirate ship.
* ''[[Gears of War]]'' pretty much runs rampant with this, especially the "used" part. Anywhere outside of Jacinto, and even a lot of places inside of it, are battered, damaged, run-down, and barely functional.
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* ''[[Infinity the Quest For Earth]]'' has the [[Star Fold]] Confederacy, who are essentially a breakaway faction of industrialists and super-capitalists who don't care about the aesthetics of their ships.
* The ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' series as of the second game takes place in a [[Crapsack World]] [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]].
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' both averts and plays the trope straight. [[The Federation|The Council]] (including humanity) invariably have [[Shiny -Looking Spaceships|shiny looking spaceships and space stations]]. However, as you begin to explore the galaxy, visit remote colonies and the lawless Terminus Systems, this trope comes further and further into play. The difference between the Citadel ([[Crystal Spires and Togas|the capital of the Citadel Council]]) and Omega ([[Wretched Hive|the "capital" of the Terminus]]) is quite striking.
* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] ''[[Pokémon Colosseum (Video Game)|Pokémon Colosseum]]'' features Pyrite Town, a dirty, patchwork city full of thugs that uses banged up versions of the technology found in the game.
* ''[[Sins of a Solar Empire]]'' makes some use of this trope for many of the TEC's craft, understandable given that the bulk of them are repurposed civilian vessels. They by and large go for the utilitarian look, but aren't all wrecked up. They do feel a lot like this trope compared to the Vasari, or especially the Advent, where ''everything'' is shiny, ironic because they're the rebel-like faction.
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