History Main / ContinuousDecompression

* Justified in in ''{{Portal 2}}''. [[spoiler:When Chell opens a portal on the moon, there is a continuous decompression effect until the portal is shut. Spaceships and the like may have a limited volume of air, but this portal has to equalize the pressure of ''an entire planetary atmosphere''. Sucking away this much air takes [[{{Understatement}} lots]] of time.]]

* ''{{Goldfinger}}''. After the jet's window is shattered by a bullet, in both the book and film (who it happens to is reversed). Also, in the book, Bond deliberately caused it, supposedly having been inspired by a real-life event.

* Played straight in Portal 2, [[spoiler: where opening a Portal out into space results in the air in the facility getting sucked out along with a lot of debris, the player, and the last Boss. Fortunately there's a LOT of facility to provide air. The continuous windstorm doesn't stop until the player is dragged back inside and the Portal closed.]]
** And don't forget that one end of the portal is [[spoiler:inside a planet's atmosphere]], completely exposed to the outside environment. Sucking away this much air takes [[{{Understatement}} lots]] of time.

* When a plane is ripped opened in the third season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', air is continually sucked out of the plane until it crashes about ten minutes later.(probably due to the turbulence from the incredible windspeed outside the craft).

* Happens in the 1970s ''DoctorWho'' story "The Mutants".

However, sometimes this trope is justified. When a hole is created in a realistically sized space station (~1 mile diameter), it would take about 19 windy minutes to achieve equilibrium (With the remaining air and the windspeed both decreasing exponentially, of course). At least, if the builders [[FailsafeFailure failed to put in any airtight doors]] with which to seal the breached area.

* After Crow breaches the hull in the pre-movie segment of ''MysteryScienceTheater3000'' TheMovie, the entire room starts uncontrollably decompressing until Tom Servo is sucked into the hole - and is just wide enough to plug it up, as it so happens. Immediately after, Mike pulls him out and casually puts Crow's digging helmet over the hole.

* Played straight in Portal 2, [[spoiler: where opening a Portal out into space results in all the air in the facility getting sucked out along with a lot of debris, the player, and the last Boss. The continuous windstorm doesn't stop until the player is dragged back inside and the Portal closed.]]

* Played straight in Portal 2, [[spoiler" where opening a Portal out into space results in all the air in the facility getting sucked out along with a lot of debris, the player, and the last Boss. The continuous windstorm doesn't stop until the player is dragged back inside and the Portal closed.]]

* SnakesOnAPlane: When[[SamuelLJackson Agent Flynn]] shoots out a window, the compression is powerful enough to destroy part of the wall, and lasts long enough to suck every single snake out of the plane.

** Actually, there was a sequence with at least three blast doors covering over the entire facade that had blown out, with the turbulence noticeably decreasing as each one slammed home. The people inside the dome weren't able to move until most of the doors had slammed intoo place, and Quaid was lucky enough to have been already close to the last one.

* ''StarTrek'' is a big offender of this, especially in the modern series.
** But averted in an episode of ''StarTrekTNG'': when Geordi and Dr. Crusher depressurize a cargo bay to (a) put out a plasma fire and (b) get rid of some hazardous material, the wind lasted only a very short time. After that, the trick was repressurizing the bay before they passed out from anoxia.

* Particularly notable example: ''StarTrekNemesis'', when the Enterprise's bridge is blown open.

* ''{{Goldinger}}''. After the jet's window is shattered by a bullet, in both the book and film (who it happens to is reversed). Also, in the book, Bond deliberately caused it, supposedly having been inspired by a real-life event.

** Particularly notable example: ''StarTrekNemesis'', when the Enterprise's bridge is blown open.

* Averted in ''BattlestarGalactica'', where explosive decompression actually behaves like it should.
* During a DreamSequence in ''{{Apollo 13}}'', the door on the capsule opens during transit to the moon. The astronauts cling to the capsule against the wind for much longer than it would take to let all of the air out. (But then, it was a [[NightmareDreams nightmare]].)
* Happens in the 1970s ''DoctorWho'' story "The Mutants".
** And in an earlier ''Who'' story "The Moonbase", which also features the subtrope of characters struggling to seal the hole as the air rushes out. One fan actually [[ShownTheirWork did the calculations]] to see how long it should have actually taken for decompression to happen. The results were something on the order of a few seconds. The scene in the episode lasted much longer, obviously.
* ''{{Futurama}}'' was probably parodying Star Trek when they did this.
* When a plane is ripped opened in the third season of ''Series/{{Heroes}}'', air is continually sucked out of the plane until it crashes about ten minutes later.(probably due to the turbulence from the incredible windspeed outside the craft)
* A pressure dome on Mars breaks in ''Total Recall'' and the resulting storm is enough to pick people up and fling them through the hole. Even Arnold Schwarzenegger has to cling to a railing as if he was inside a tornado. But then, somehow, he gets up and runs out a door just before it closes. (Remember that this is the movie where people's eyes bug out of their heads after exposure to Mars' very thin atmosphere -- an effect that can be reversed with no harm done).

* The {{Gundam}} franchise uses this a lot. Sometimes it's justified (an Island 3 space colony holds around 1,600 '''cubic kilometers''' of air), and sometimes it's less so (''[[The08thMSTeam The 08th MS Team]]'' has a room in a ''Magellan''-class battleship decompressing for a ridiculous amount of time).
* After Crow breaches the hull in the pre-movie segment of MysteryScienceTheater3000 TheMovie, the entire room starts uncontrollably decompressing until Tom Servo is sucked into the hole - and is just wide enough to plug it up, as it so happens. Immediately after, Mike pulls him out and casually puts Crow's digging helmet over the hole.
* Opening an airlock in DeadSpace will cause a few seconds of windy turbulence ([[DidNotDoTheResearch That's not how airlocks work!]]) but later an entire deck has its atmosphere vented into space with a minimum of fuss.

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In (real) ExplosiveDecompression, if a pressure vessel's structure were to be compromised, all of the gas held inside would rush out until a state of equilibrium has been achieved (if this pressure vessel were in space, this would effectively mean all the gas would be blown out). Keep in mind that there's only 14psi between 1 atmosphere and vacuum. It would take a very large hole to produce actual explosive decompression. Consider an automobile tire at twice that pressure differential; if it gets a hole in it the air leaks out, it does not explosively decompress unless the structure of the tire fails completely (e.g. if it is overheated).

Not so in TV science fiction. If explosive decompression were to occur, a constant wind will appear and attempt to blow the entire contents out into space, and will only cease once the hole has been closed. This may even occur for several minutes even if in real life the hole is big enough to allow all air to escape in a matter of seconds. And of course, the wind will always be just strong enough to make people's clothes flutter but just weak enough not to actually blow them over -- unless they have the unfortunate chance of being the [[DisneyVillainDeath bad guy]] or a RedShirt, that is.

However, sometimes this trope is justified. When a hole is created in a realistically sized space station (~1 mile diameter) it would take about 19 windy minutes to achieve equilibrium (With the remaining air and the windspeed both decreasing exponentially, of course). At least if the builders [[FailsafeFailure failed to put in any airtight doors]] with which to seal the breached area.

However, sometimes this trope is justified. When a hole is created in a realistically sized space station (~1 mile diameter) it would take about 19 windy minutes to achieve equilibrium. (With the remaining air and the windspeed both decreasing exponentially, of course)