History Main / AstronomicZoom

* ''Film/JohnCarter'' opens with space, followed by a zoom-in to Mars (or Barsoom, as the characters call it) to set up the main plot. [[Creator/PixarRegulars Andrew Stanton]] seems to love this trope (see Western Animation below).

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

* Creator/TerryPratchett often writes these out in his ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels.

* The entire concept of the picture books ''Zoom'' and ''Re-Zoom'' by Istvan Banyai.

[[quoteright:261:Film/PowersOfTen http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/powers_of_ten_astronomic_zoom.png]]]]

[[quoteright:261:[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fKBhvDjuy0 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/powers_of_ten_astronomic_zoom.png]]]]

* ''The Mind's Eye'' does this in its first segment, starting with what is implied to the the Big Bang, panning through a set of galaxies until locking onto the Milky Way in the center, then zooming all the way to Earth, rounding past the Moon as the music builds up.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Not quite cosmic, but in a similar vein to the aforementioned Guinness commercial: In the FirstComics adaptation of ''Creator/MichaelMoorcock's [[Literature/TheElricSaga Elric: The Sailor on the Seas of Fate]]'' there is a scene in which Elric and the captain of the ship that sails the eponymous seas are having a discussion in his cabin. On a nearby table is a glass globe containing a model ship, on which the viewpoint zooms in and through a porthole to reveal Elric and the captain still engaged in their discussion.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

* Done twice in ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet''.
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', which instead starts out underwater and panning up to the surface revealing a prehistoric landscape. In fact, the film was originally going to have its opening credits be shown in outer space (a concept that later resurfaced in ''Rock A Doodle'', mentioned below), slowly moving toward a newly-formed Earth, and centering on its surface as it gradually changes from a volcanic landscape of the Precambrian era, to an endless ocean of the Paleozoic era, and finally a prehistoric swamp of the Mesozoic era, but this was changed to the final version as mentioned earlier because the writers thought it looked too much like the first part of the ''Rite of Spring'' segment from ''Fantasia'', again mentioned above.

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' began the episodes [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E1Rose "Rose"]], [[Recap/DoctorWho2005CSTheChristmasInvasion "The Christmas Invasion"]], [[Recap/DoctorWho2006CSTheRunawayBride "The Runaway Bride"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E1TheEleventhHour "The Eleventh Hour"]] this way.
** And in the first three cases, it was the ''same'' zoom, reused.

[[folder: Fan Works]]

[[folder:Film]]
* Most famously employed, more for an instructional effect than a dramatic one, in the classic educational films ''[[http://sunshine.chpc.utah.edu/labs/cosmic_zoom/cosmic_zoom2.swf Cosmic Zoom]]'' (1968), ''Film/PowersOfTen'' (1977) and the IMAX "Cosmic Voyage" (1996). Webcomic/{{Xkcd}} parodied the film (and indirectly, the trope) [[http://xkcd.com/271/ here]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' began the episodes "Rose", "The Christmas Invasion", "The Runaway Bride" and "The Eleventh Hour" this way.
* The ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' episode "Three Days of Snow" has a zoom out from Ted and Barney to a view of a huge nor'easter bearing down on the east coast.
* ''Drive'' would often start a scene high enough to show the entire USA (complete with superimposed map labels), then close in on our current location. It would also sometimes back up into the sky a bit and refocus on another team's location hundreds of kilometers away, to establish the distance.

* Veteran [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball football]] show ''Match of the Day'' does this to introduce a game, zooming in from "geostationary orbit over Britain" to "Goodyear Blimp cruising over the stadium in question" in a second or so.

* One episode of the physics-documentary series ''Curiosity'' took this to the absolute limit, zooming in on a cup of coffee right down to the subatomic level, and then zooming out again until the entire universe was revealed.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' uses this in the opening episode of season 5. The Atlantis team have infiltrated the Michael facility where the kidnapped Teyla will soon be taken to deliver her baby, but a boobytrap triggers and it collapses on top of them. We zoom out from the wreckage all the way into space past planets, stars, and nebulas, until we arrive at Michael's cruiser hovering in orbit over a planet several systems away.
* The last episode of ''Series/{{Cosmos}}'', "Unafraid of the Dark", zooms out from Earth during Sagan's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot Pale Blue Dot]] speech until it reaches the place where the photograph was taken from, the edge of the solar system.

* The "Rite of Spring" sequence in ''Disney/{{Fantasia}}'' opens with an AstronomicZoom from distant space to a primordial Earth. It's easily the most well-animated example on this list.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' has a zoom-in on Earth in the first episode, as well as a few in later episodes (such as "Zim Eats Waffles").
* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short ''The Mouse-merized Cat'' starts with a view of Planet Earth and slowly zooms in on a mousehole in a cheese shop, where a mouse greets the audience with "I thought you'd never get here."

* Pixar's ''WesternAnimation/WallE'' starts with multiple cuts of outer space before eventually focusing in on a highly polluted Earth, thus establishing not only setting but story.
* Done twice in ''WesternAnimation/HappyFeet''.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' liked to use this, sometimes to indicate the distance between Earth and some other planet/nebula/{{God}}/whatever, and once to show the universe being sucked into a featureless void.
* Parodied on ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', where it's revealed that all of existence (or at least the ''Family Guy'' universe, anyway) is just a speck on a lamp in Creator/AdamWest's bedroom.
* ''WesternAnimation/RockADoodle'' has possibly the most ludicrous example, going from orbit to the main character's uvula in a rather short period of time.
* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheLandBeforeTime'', which instead starts out underwater and panning up to the surface revealing a prehistoric landscape. In fact, the film was originally going to have its opening credits be shown in outer space (a concept that later resurfaced in ''Rock A Doodle'', as mentioned above), slowly moving toward a newly-formed Earth, and centering on its surface as it gradually changes from a volcanic landscape of the Precambrian era, to an endless ocean of the Paleozoic era, and finally a prehistoric swamp of the Mesozoic era, but this was changed to the final version as mentioned earlier because the writers thought it looked too much like the first part of the ''Rite of Spring'' segment from ''Fantasia'', again mentioned above.
* Happens in the ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' episode "The Real You". When Finn puts on a pair of mind-enhancing glasses, the camera zooms in on his cells, then to molecules, and atoms, and it transitions from there to galaxies, then the solar system, zooming past the sun to Ooo, and zooming back in on Finn, as a way to establish just how much the glasses let him understand ''everything''. When the glasses are removed later in the episode, the zoom is reversed. Oh, and the shot of the planet from space is ''[[FreezeFrameBonus interesting]]''.
* ''The Mind's Eye'' does this in its first segment, starting with what is implied to the the Big Bang, panning through a set of galaxies until locking onto the Milky Way in the center, then zooming all the way to Earth, rounding past the Moon as the music builds up.

* Most famously employed, more for an instructional effect than a dramatic one, in the classic educational films ''[[http://sunshine.chpc.utah.edu/labs/cosmic_zoom/cosmic_zoom2.swf Cosmic Zoom]]'' (1968), ''[[http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22powers+of+ten%22 Powers of Ten]] (1977)'' and the IMAX "Cosmic Voyage" (1996). Webcomic/{{Xkcd}} parodied the film (and indirectly, the trope) [[http://xkcd.com/271/ here]].

Subtrope of EpicTrackingShot.

[[quoteright:261:[[Film/PowersOfTen http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/powers_of_ten_astronomic_zoom.png]]]]

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** So does ''Film/Ted''.

* The many Website/YouTube videos involving zoom out to display comparative planetary and stellar body sizes. They form an unusual case because they often have to use side pans in conjunction with a pan out in order to fit things in e.g.[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LUQVzerseI&feature=related]].

* Veteran [[TheBeautifulGame football]] show ''Match of the Day'' does this to introduce a game, zooming in from "geostationary orbit over Britain" to "Goodyear Blimp cruising over the stadium in question" in a second or so.

* Done in the opening and closing of ''Film/BurnAfterReading'', giving the sense of an omniscient viewer, in this case, the CIA....which is funny when you think about it, as by the end of the movie [[spoiler: they really had no idea what the hell just happened]].

An Establishing Shot that includes a wild planet-scale or even galaxy-scale zoom -- for example, showing Earth from space and then zooming in through the atmosphere to a single room/street, or zooming through galaxies to Earth.

It is extremely common in documentaries about space, often zooming from the scale of entire galaxies being pixels big, until reach the scale of measly people. In a historical context - in films before the mid 2000's, when [[{{GOOGLE}} Google Earth]] became available, seeing this sort of zoom was a real novelty.

* The entire intro shot of ''WesternAnimation/MrBugGoesToTown'' uses this majestically, zooming out from a God's eye view of Earth, into the skylines of UsefulNotes/NewYork, all the way down to the measly inches high houses of the bugs.