History Main / BombersOnTheScreen

* ''Film/BattleOfBritain'' showed a command center where personnel (many of them female auxiliaries) had a giant map of Great Britain and the surrounding areas (coastal France, Norway, etc.) using croupier sticks to move counters representing friendly fighters and enemy bombers. Britain's dire situation is clearly illustrated partway into the film when this command center has part of the roof cave in due to a near miss, with the table getting smashed by fallen roof supports.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' had shots of this interspersed with action shots to drive home the scale of the aliens' attack across the world (and by "world" we mean the continental United States).

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[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/DrStrangelove'' shows the bombers of the 843rd Bomb Wing on TheBigBoard in TheWarRoom approaching their targets in Russia.

* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'' showed this from the Klingon perspective, with icons showing the USS ''Enterprise'' and the [[TheCavalry USS]] ''[[TheCavalry Excelsior]]'' during the final battle.
* ''Film/BattleOfBritain'' showed a command center where personnel (many of them female auxiliaries) had a giant map of Great Britain and the surrounding areas (coastal France, Norway, etc.) using croupier sticks to move counters representing friendly fighters and enemy bombers. Britain's dire situation is clearly illustrated partway into the film when this command center has part of the roof cave in due to a near miss, with the table getting smashed by fallen roof supports.
* In ''Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjayPart1'', during the bombing of District 13, President Coin and her staff watch the radar to know what's going on on the surface, while the bunker rocks from each missile hit.

* Used with a twist in [[Recap/StargateAtlantisS03E15TheGame an episode]] of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' -- the war is a computer simulation, designed to force peace between two countries.
* Speaking of Combat Information Centers, you'll see a lot of this in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' CIC, mixed with (usually not stock) footage of the actual battle. Bonus points for using both screen displays showing what the ship's sensors are picking up, AND a big table with models giving a low-tech picture.

* Very often used in documentaries about war, such as ''The World At War'' or ''Battlefield''.
* Used during the Dominion War arc in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', with Starfleet and Dominion insignia representing the ships.

* ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'' is built around this trope, being mainly inspired by ''Film/WarGames''.

* Used with a twist in an episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' -- the war is a computer simulation, designed to force peace between two countries.

* ''LightNovel/StarshipOperators'' has a lot of this, since (unlike most non-literature SpaceOpera) battles typically take place outside visual range.

* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}''Many a ship battle used a display screen to show the location of the ''Andromeda'' and other ships relative to it, though this usually came along with shots of those ships moving and firing.

* ''Series/{{Andromeda}}''Many a ship battle used a display screen to show the location of the ''Andromada'' and other ships relative to it, though this usully came along with shots of those ships moving and firing.

* Jack Ryan gets a little exposition with the help of a video situation board (complete with '80s graphics, which at least in terms of graphical quality is TruthInTelevision) in the movie version of ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober''.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' had shots of this interspersed with action shots.

* ''Anime/StarshipOperators'' has a lot of this, since (unlike most non-literature SpaceOpera) battles typically take place outside visual range.

See also: TheBigBoard, SensorSuspense.

* Played with in ''Webcomic/AirForceBlues'', where an AWACS controller offers a visiting fighter pilot the chance to see a [[{{Qurac}} Quraci]] MiG get in a dogfight with a Predator drone... and we see a shot of a very simplistic line rendering on the radar screen with all of the contacts being represented by dots with a short text description. To be fair, the AWACS controller never said it would ''look cool''.

* ''VideoGame/{{DEFCON}}'' is built around this trope, being mainly inspired by ''WarGames''.

* ''[[http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-551.htm Wargames 1983]]''

* In ''[[Film/TheHungerGamesMockingjay The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1]]'', during the bombing of District 13, President Coin and her staff watch the radar to know what's going on on the surface, while the bunker rocks from each missile hit.

* Speaking of Combat Information Centers, you'll see a lot of this in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' CIC, mixed with (usually not stock) footage of the actual battle. Bonus points for using both screen displays showing what the ship's sensors are picking up, AND a big table with models giving a low-tech picture.
* ''Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic'' * In cheaper, 1970s computer graphics, you saw the same in the [[Series/BattlestarGalacticaClassic Original Galactica's]] bridge.

[[AC: {{Film}}]]
* ''FailSafe'' (the original version, at least). StockFootage was also used.

* ''DrStrangelove'' shows the bombers of the 843rd Bomb Wing on TheBigBoard in TheWarRoom approaching their targets in Russia.

* Taken to the ultimate level in ''WarGames'' where thousands of nuclear missiles were shown on a giant map traveling across the world and exploding, not once but hundreds of times, as the WOPR computer displayed multiple strategies to try to "win" a nuclear war.
** Well, could you do better? Go on then, try ''[[http://www.everybody-dies.com DEFCON]]''.
** Or ''[[http://www.2flashgames.com/f/f-551.htm Wargames 1983]]''.

[[AC: LightNovel and {{Anime}}]]
* ''StarshipOperators'' has a lot of this, since (unlike most non-literature SpaceOpera) battles typically take place outside visual range.
** ''Franchise/StarTrek'' in particular since it also had the added advantage of avoiding SpecialEffectsFailure.

[[AC: {{Literature}}]]
* ''EndersGame'' had bombers on screen. Command School's simulators would simulate countless battles for which one would have to fight through using whatever "ships" supplied. However [[spoiler: the awesome reveal at the end shows that the "simulators" are actually representations of REAL ships and that Ender, by beating the simulators time and again, actually wiped out an alien race during an invasion that he was unknowingly in control of.]]


[[AC: LiveActionTelevision]]
* The second half of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' Season 2. StockFootage was not used.
* Used with a twist in an episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' - the war is a computer simulation, designed to force peace between two countries.
* Speaking of Combat Information Centers, you'll see a lot of this in ''[[Series/BattlestarGalacticaReimagined Battlestar Galactica]]'' CIC, mixed with (usually not stock) footage of the actual battle.
** Bonus points for using both screen displays showing what the ship's sensors are picking up, AND a big table with models giving a low-tech picture.
** In cheaper, 1970s computer graphics, you saw the same in the Original Galactica's bridge.

[[AC: VideoGames]]

[[AC: WebComics]]

* Used in ''{{Harpoon}}'', since it is representative of what you'd see in an real ship Combat Information Centre.
* ''{{DEFCON}}'' is built around this trope, being mainly inspired by ''WarGames''.

* Played with in ''AirForceBlues'', where an AWACS controller offers a visiting fighter pilot the chance to see a [[{{Qurac}} Quraci]] MiG get in a dogfight with a Predator drone... and we see a shot of a very simplistic line rendering on the radar screen with all of the contacts being represented by dots with a short text description. To be fair, the AWACS controller never said it would ''look cool''.

* Used with a twist in an episode of ''StargateAtlantis'' - the war is a computer simulation, designed to force peace between two countries.