History Main / ContinuousDecompression

However, sometimes this trope is justified. If the enclosed space is relatively large while the hole is comparatively small, but ''not'' small for the average person, it can take hours until all the air rushes out while maintaining the Hollywood standard of heavy rushing winds. This can also be the case if pressurization is being maintained by continuously blowing in ''more'' air, which also happens to cover the lack of hypoxia since the pressure will remain the same in this case.

*** Possibly justified in Aliens. The Sulaco's bay is enormous compared to the opening.

However, sometimes this trope is justified. If the enclosed space is relatively large while the hole is comparatively small, but ''not'' small for the average person, it can take hours until all the air rushes out. This can also be the case if pressurization is being maintained by continuously blowing in ''more'' air, which also happens to cover the lack of hypoxia since the pressure will remain the same in this case.

However, sometimes this trope is justified. If the enclosed space is relatively large while the hole is comparatively small, it can take hours until all the air rushes out. This can also be the case if pressurization is being maintained by continuously blowing in ''more'' air, which also happens to cover the lack of hypoxia since the pressure will remain the same in this case.

* In ''Videogame/MassEffect'', the Codex discusses this. There's no continuous wind from a decompression. Instead, there's two general sizes of hull breach: one that is small enough that the crew can easily get to a pressurized compartment, or one so large that everyone in the compartment will be dead within moments.

[[folder: Puppet Shows]]

* Averted in episode 7 of ''WesternAnimation/StarComTheUSSpaceForce''. Slim and several [=StarCom=] trainees cut a hole through the hull of a Shadow Force craft: the air stops rushing out after a few seconds.

* [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_11 Soyuz 11]], which sustained a leak after detaching its orbital module while preparing for re-entry, had a version of it. The breach was small enough to avoid ExplosiveDecompression, but it quickly rendered the cosmonauts unconscious due to hypoxia within a few seconds, and they were dead by the time the craft landed. To date, the three crew members -- Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov, and Viktor Patsayev -- are the only humans to have died in space.

* "Kinetic Missiles" use Depleted Uranium "warheads" to kill the crew inside tanks, by the simple impact of the warhead passing through the tank; these are tested by putting farm animals inside the tank, which get sucked out through the hole, due to the continuous decompression created by the high-speed projectile passing through it.

* ''VideoGame/TheCallistoProtocol'' plays it straight in several scenes where seemingly endless amounts of air violently blow people around despite it being obvious that it should have run out within a few seconds.

-->--'''Website/TheGrandListOfOverusedScienceFictionCliches'''

* "Kinetic Missiles" use Depleted Uranium "warheads" to kill the crew inside tanks, by the simple impact of the warhead passing through the tank; these are tested by putting farm-animals inside the tank, which get sucked out through the hole, due to the continuous decompression created by the high-speed projectile passing through it.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' has it fairly realistically [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-01-27 here]], where an accident blows a 300-meter hole in the side of Credomar, a cylindrical station measuring 6 kilometers by 60. It's pointed out that it will take a while to empty the can completely, but it does need to be patched a soon as possible.

* ''Literature/{{Airport}}'': The book the film was based on. While the decompression is unrealistically explosive and violent, the decompression itself tapers off as the pilot rushes back to the cockpit to get the plane down to where the atmosphere is breathable.

* ''Literature/{{Airport}}: The book the film was based on. While the decompression is unrealistically explosive and violent, the decompression itself tapers off as the pilot rushes back to the cockpit to get the plane down to where the atmosphere is breathable.

* In the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Prometheus", [[spoiler:Jack uses this to [[ThrownOutTheAirlock kill Col. Simmons]]]].

* Averted in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', where explosive decompression actually behaves like it should.