History Main / HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace

** When ''Andromeda'' lost her original crew [[spoiler:during the first encounter with the Magog]], it took her years (if not decades) to get back to Commonwealth space by making {{blind jump}}s without an organic pilot.

** Series canon states that the very act of choosing a Slipstream path by an organic being makes their choice the correct one (kind of like the "Observer Effect" fallacy sometimes used to link Quantum Mechanics to pseudoscience), explaining why organics are so "good" at it and [=AIs=] can't do it.

** ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'': The space between the Crystal Spheres is called the Phlogiston. While not as disturbing as other examples on this page, it's still dangerous. Besides some nasty creatures living in "The Flow", the multicolored "matter" that pervades it is extremely inflammable. Even a candle will cause a small fireball; any form of fire magic is extremely unadvised there. It as also some weird effects on living beings, like putting asphyxiating creatures into a coma rather than dying. Some travelers have tried using this property to spare resources while cruising the Phlogiston's currents, but there's no guarantee that the subjects would wake up.

*** Other wormholes aren't as safe to use. The Bajoran wormhole is noteworthy because it's the only stable wormhole known to exist: the entrance and exit will never change position. In one episode of ''TNG'', two Ferengi who hoped to cash in on a wormhole to the delta quadrant learned this the hard way when the wormhole collapsed and left them stranded.

** With the introduction of [[TheMultiverse parallel worlds]] in ''Shadowbringers'', there is also the [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds Interdimensional Rift]], a dark vacuum between the Source and its reflections. [[spoiler:When the Crystal Exarch tried to summon the PlayerCharacter from the Source to the First, he failed the first several times, his spell locking onto their companions and pulling their souls over, leaving their bodies in the Source comatose. Once the player is finally successfully summoned, though, the game quickly justifies a means by which they can travel freely between the parallel worlds. The Exarch, himself, intended to take the power of the [[EldritchAbomination Lightwardens]] after the player absorbs them, then go into the Rift to die so that all of the released Light aether wouldn't unbalance things on the First or any other shard, but the ArcVillain of the expansion thwarted that plan. The endgame story revolves around efforts to safely transport the player's companions' souls back to their bodies in the Source, with the danger coming from the fact that such a feat had never been attempted before, so there was no telling what could happen. Thankfully, the attempt to bring the companions' souls back to their homeworld succeeds, and Y'shtola dedicates herself in the endgame story of ''Endwalker'' to researching another means of safely traversing between parallel worlds.]]

* In ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross''[=/=]the first arc of ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'', there is "space fold" technology. The invading Zentraedi armies have little trouble using it, but when humanity first attempted to use it to get the SDF-1 out of harm's way, it didn't quite go to plan: the energy field that enveloped the SDF-1 during the fold also cut out an island underneath the ship and took it into space with it, the SDF-1 wound up in orbit around Pluto instead of the moon, and the space fold device didn't return to normal space with the SDF-1, forcing the ship to take the long route back to Earth.

* ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'': W-Corp runs what are known as warp trains, which can travel to any destination within 10 minutes. However in one instance, it begins to malfunction, and the train never seems to reach its destination. The people riding never feel hunger or thirst, and after several weeks of being stuck on the train, people start committing suicide...except they can't die. People continue to go insane, mutilating themselves and others just to feel something over 2000 years until they're just throbbing piles of flesh. [[spoiler:It's then revealed that the train was never malfunctioning at all, and works exactly as intended. The train travels for 2000 some odd years in another dimension and arrives at its destination 10 seconds later in their original dimension. A cleanup crew puts these mutilated bodies back into their seats, their memories of the events are wiped, and their bodies are restored to normal, none the wiser of the millenium of anguish they just went through. This happens every single time. Rich people pay enormous costs to be put in stasis for these trips so they don't have to live through this hell.]]

* Star Trek usually plays subspace as safe, but there are some ways in which it can go really really wrong. The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' fanfic [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/27084541/chapters/66133225 Something Wicked This Way Comes]] shows the aftermath of a ship that used an AnotherDimension to get back home -problems began with cases of space sickness, suicides, and only went downhill from there. By the time the ship returns to normal space, there's only corpses (and an EldritchAbomination from the hell dimension) aboard, which is what the Enterprise team finds and has to deal with. The Hyperspace itself is described:
-->“This is a video recording taken from the Observation decks”. The screen changed. Now they were looking at what the Wanderer crew had seen in their last days. No one, not even Spock, could handle more than a quick glimpse of that view (Kirk had, after a couple of minutes spent staring at the recording back on the Wanderer, spent the next few minutes being violently sick )– a swirling, multicolored mist was how Uhura would later explain it to Christine Chapel, but it was more than that, something for which even she couldn’t find the right words. It was made of light. Light that could think. Could blend in dizzying, nauseating mixes. It was a living thing, that mist, or so it seemed. “If they had to look at that thing 24/7, I don’t think we need to look at any other motives for suicide.” Mc Coy muttered.
* Warpspace in ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'' is re-imagined as basically a LighterAndSofter version of [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 the Warp]]. It's a mind-shattering dimension of pure Chaos Energy and (according to Maledict) [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the "template" or "blueprint" of the universe itself]]. It also happens to be the birthplace of [[EldritchAbomination Lovecraftian horrors]] like Dark Tails [[spoiler:and the [[SealedEvilInACan Can]] of the [[AbusivePrecursors Forerunners]]]]. However, Demon-made FTL technology has advanced and become so ubiquitous across the universe that it's typically safe to travel. If anything goes wrong, though...

* Despite being uninhabited, hyperspace in ''Fanfic/TheConversionBureauConquerTheStars'' is very freaky on several levels. To the naked eye, it's a black void completely devoid of light. Radar gives constant false readings of things that accelerate ''way'' too fast and occasionally pass through the ships. Thaumic sensors go completely berserk. LIDAR... [[NoodleIncident forget about LIDAR]]. It's also full of hydrogen, enough to transmit a sound that exists in frequencies beyond normal hearing. The only time that someone managed to translate it into something audible, [[BrownNote all those who heard it committed suicide and several more were murdered by the one person who didn't]]. It's standard protocol for ships to have no contact with anything outside the ship during transit. The only good thing is that [[MundaneUtility the hydrogen can be scooped as fuel]].
* Discussed but ultimately averted in ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'', in which the inside of a warp bubble created by an AlcubierreDrive is actually kind of boring to look at. Jeb finds this vaguely anticlimatic. Although they ''do'' have the issue mentioned in the Real Life section below, with [[SphereOfDestruction a huge wave of energetic particles being launched away from the ship at lightspeed]] every time they turn it off, which the Kerbin Space Agency learned the hard way when they [[PlutoIsExpendable accidentally obliterated a dwarf planet.]] [[spoiler:And they're not above playing this fact up for subtle GunboatDiplomacy when they make FirstContact.]]
* In ''Fanfic/OutOfTheDark'', the Federation is using an alternate FTL travel domain called phase space. It's a set of multiple layers, each faster than the other, full of storms, reefs, flocks of some local wildlife, is extremely unpleasant for organics when transiting from layer to layer... and yet it's still preferable to the traditional ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' method. At least phase space doesn't have sapient superentities actively trying to gobble you up.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', [[spoiler:Hiro and Baymax enter what can only be described as hyperspace in attempt to rescue a stranded pilot -- it's both beautiful and haunting all at once.]]
* In ''Anime/Interstella5555'', Hyperspace is a very funky and psychedelic place with big shiny objects that can heavily damage your ship. And, during the protagonists' return trip, it's where the BigBad attacks them as an {{Energy Being|s}}.

* In ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', the "Stargate" sequence after making contact with the Jovian monolith. The montage is interspersed with quick cuts of the astronaut's various horrifying facial contortions, just to drive the point home. When the sequence is done and the astronaut is in the "hotel", his face is covered in wrinkles, and he looks as if he's going insane. In the [[AllThereInTheManual novel]], the latter effect is explained as the result of Dave being kept in a kind of "alien zoo" until he falls asleep, and then they run his memories backwards while transforming him into the Starchild. It's only in the movie that he goes through the process of aging a couple of decades every time the camera pans around to show him looking at an older version of himself in the next room, then becoming that older self when in the next shot. (Yes, it's just as surreal as it sounds.) If anyone was being weird in the movie, it was Kubrick.
* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBuckarooBanzaiAcrossThe8thDimension'', The Oscillation Overthruster allows vehicles to pass through solid matter, through a [[AcidTripDimension bizarre dimension filled with weird creatures]]. One of the first scientists to experiment with it ends up with his head phased into a wall, and gets possessed by an 8th-dimensional nasty, turning him into the [[BigBad main villain of the film]].
* Disney's (!) ''Film/TheBlackHole'' features a scene in which using a black hole to travel at right angles to reality sends the characters into Hell. Literally.
* In ''Film/EventHorizon'', the experimental hyperdrive on the eponymous ship takes it to [[spoiler:a dimension of "pure chaos and evil"]], according to one of the people who winds up spending a short while there. What's worse, [[spoiler:''something'' comes back to ''our'' world as the [[EldritchStarship ship]] itself]]. It's a recurring joke among some ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' fans that ''Event Horizon'' is a prequel (one of the film's writers [[WordOfGod even stating]] ''40K'' as a main influence for the film helps a lot), while other fans point to [[spoiler:Weir]] as an unnamed [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Cenobite]]. At any rate, there's certainly a lot of similarity to both.
* In ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'', both the wormhole and [[spoiler:the interior of the black hole]] are incredibly freaky. Both places cause the spaceship's internal electronics to go haywire, and both render the ship's maneuvering thrusters completely useless due to both places ''not being physical space.'' [[spoiler:The black hole has the Tesseract, a three-dimensional construct at the center that manages to represent all instants of time for a given location ''simultaneously''.]]
* In ''Film/LostInSpace'', hyperspace travel requires a stable conduit or passage to keep ships on-route, it's impossible to determine where you're going to come out. [[{{Foreshadowing}} "There's a lot of space to get lost in out there".]] The reason the Robinson family went to space was to help supervise construction of a route to Alpha Centauri, via Hypergates, which would provide that route. But terrorists sabotage the mission and send their craft hurtling into the sun, forcing the crew to use the hyperdrive to the other side of the galaxy.

** In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', [[LoveableRogue Han Solo]] invokes this trope by explaining to [[FarmBoy Luke Skywalker]] why it's impossible to just blast into hyperspace and avoid Imperial ships: it's too dangerous due to the risk of accidentally hitting something or going off course. See the [[Quotes/HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Quotes]] page. As described in Literature, however, the dangers are more mundane and along the lines of "Planets and stars are still in the way, and traveling fast enough to cross the galaxy in hours means that you can easily smash into one and vaporize".

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTensei'':

* Hyperspace in ''Series/BabylonFive'', while less scary than most hyperspaces in this entry, is still rather nasty. It has random currents that can throw you off course rather quickly if you have a navigational failure, no landmarks to navigate by other than the artificial beacons placed by the various races, and there's even some rumors about things living in it. [[spoiler:They're true, and though some of them are just annoying, there are ''lots'' of things that are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil far from nice]].]] And then there's the eponymous ''Thirdspace'', a deeper level of which almost nothing is known because the only known attempt to access it (one device, opened twice) created a portal to the territory of an extremely powerful (enough to scare the Vorlons) and aggressive race that instantly attacks through it. Other less nasty but still dangerous problems include freak storms and vortexes that are capable of altering the currents and eddies and throwing ships off course, something that can normally prove fatal. Also, if you try to open a jump point within an already active gate, this will result in a very large explosion.\\\
Hyperspace is in actuality a shadow of Realspace. Gravity wells from normal space create the vortices in Hyperspace, and the drift effect is due to the galaxy being constantly in motion. Hyperspace compresses the space-time continuum so everything is exaggerated while travelling through it. Hyperspace beacons constantly need to be readjusted and hyperspace lanes tend to change over the years. Another unnatural effect of Hyperspace is that it boosts the telepathic abilities of any telepath. Travel beyond the galaxy is said to be the hardest thing any one race can accomplish, and only the ancient First Ones have travelled beyond the galactic rim.\\\
The First Ones have learned to use hyperspace rather well, with the Vorlons folding a pocket of hyperspace in on itself to hide a frigging enormous armada! The Shadows are even worse, being completely at home in the chaotic hyperspace. They never get lost and don't even need to open jump gates, simply phasing between hyperspace and normal space. In essence, the Shadows are true {{Eldritch Abomination}}s who have made hyperspace their plaything.\\\
And in the ExpandedUniverse there's the Starshards; weapons from a long-ago war, made up of small pieces of neutronium that literally tear hyperspace apart as they travel through it, leaving a trail of realspace behind it like a comet's tail while at the same time warping the eddies in front of it.

[[caption-width-right:320:"[[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory There's no earthly way of knowing... which direction we are going...]]"]]

* In the Primary Phase of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', Ford Prefect describes going into hyperspace as "unpleasantly like being drunk". He and Arthur Dent are aboard a Vogon ship, and as it goes into hyperspace:
-->'''Arthur:''' Ugh...I'll never be cruel to a gin and tonic again!

* While not used for space travel, Porté sorcery in the RPG ''TabletopGame/SeventhSea'' involves tearing a bleeding hole in reality, stepping through into an hyperspace-like dimension, and tearing open another hole to get back. No-one knows what this dimension is like, because Porté sorcerers keep their eyes closed while inside it. Within this dimension, voices try to persuade or trick the sorcerer into opening their eyes. It's assumed that the sorcerers who never came back made the mistake of opening their eyes. It's not at all related that the country where most Porté sorcerers live also has [[spoiler:ghosts without eyes or hands that appear in its mirrors]]. No, surely not. In later supplemental material, it is revealed that [[spoiler:nearly all magic in the world of Theah weakens a barrier in a shadowy world that keeps an army of eldritch abominations at bay, and that every use of Porté magic to rip a hole in reality also rips a corresponding hole in the barrier.]]
* Given a nod in ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'', where the Kearny-Fuchida jump drive is occasionally poorly looked upon. This is, of course, thanks to a long track record of damn near epic foul-ups that have happened. Time-lost ships, ships that have emerged with massive holes that look like they've been bitten, ships emerging without crew, ships that jumped too close to another ship and were fused, ships where the same happened and the still-living crew were found literally embedded in the bulkheads, and some ships just plain disappearing. Never mind the fact that the [[ChurchMilitant Word of Blake]] apparently figured out a way to keep a ship in hyperspace so their recruits have a more [[EverythingTryingToKillYou interesting]] environment to learn in. And it has already been established that looking out a porthole during a jump is just plain stupid...

* The Hedge in ''TabletopGame/ChangelingTheLost'' can serve as a means of more expedient travel between long distances, provided one is willing to enter an ever-shifting maze and brave the dangers therein. True to the warped logic of [[TheFairFolk its owners]], the time it takes to get somewhere depends more on [[TravelingAtTheSpeedOfPlot what happens along the way]] than on actual distance, meaning that getting from Miami to Tucson might require more time (and bloodshed) than from Miami to London. In the Infinite Macabre setting, it's made explicit that yes, the Hedge can be used for interstellar travel, though the base time for navigation is longer. Oh, and getting a ship back out requires finding a portal that said ship can fit through, which is implied to be a rare occurance.
* Creator/{{Modiphius|Entertainment}}' ''TabletopGame/ColdAndDark'' is, for a horror game, a bit of a surprising majority aversion of this. Despite some weirdness (Visible color switching to greyscale, shadows taking a couple seconds to fade), ghostline jumps don't carry any odd risks in and of themselves beyond the usual risks in scifi works. Repeated jumps in a short time, however, increase the risk for Void Psychosis Syndrome.
* Swedish RPG ''TabletopGame/CoriolisTheThirdHorizon'' plays it straight twice over. While on the surface it inverts it in the same manner as ''Fading Suns'', it turns out that just because the Portals are the less dangerous route doesn't mean they're automatically ''safer''. In fact, Portal jumps require the crew to be in hypersleep as whatever makes the Portals work isn't exactly compatible with human perception or biology. The book makes it clear that, if the jump doesn't kill you outright, you'll need a new character as your old one will now be too crazy and maimed to be playable.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'', the Hunting Grounds (the astral plane or the afterlife) double as hyperspace; the one and only human starship designed by Dr. Hellstromme used it for interstellar travel. If you are thinking Warhammer 40K or Event Horizon, you are right. The ship, unlike the Event Horizon, did have some form of Gellar field, but shabby and inefficient, which makes a trip aboard it terrible but survivable. Except for [[spoiler:the poor sod sacrificed to activate the demon-powered warp drive.]]

** Going astral or ethereal in the ''TabletopGame/TombOfHorrors'' is not advisable. At all. [[spoiler:It's an excellent way to get set upon and flayed alive by Type I-IV Demons]].
** In the ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' setting, the space between the Crystal Spheres is called the Phlogiston. While not as disturbing as other examples on this page, it's still dangerous. Besides some nasty creatures living in "The Flow", the multicolored "matter" that pervades it is extremely inflammable. Even a candle will cause a small fireball; any form of fire magic is extremely unadvised there. It as also some weird effects on living beings, like putting asphyxiating creatures into a coma rather than dying. Some travelers have tried using this property to spare resources while cruising the Phlogiston's currents, but there's no guarantee that the subjects would wake up.
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'', the [[PortalNetwork Pandora Gates]] created by the [=TITANs=] can be... unpredictable. Stable connections will sometimes spontaneously [[PortalCut shut down mid-transit]], objects and gatecrashers occasionally disappear and never come out the other side, and exposure to the gates themselves can cause [[SanitySlippage hallucinations and psychological side effects]]. And while according to transhumanity's understanding of their function, transit should be instantaneous, travelers sometimes report experiencing subjective hours or even days in a [[VoidBetweenTheWorlds black void]]. Some gatecrashers say they heard whispering in the darkness, some recount terrifying experiences of encountering monstrous presences, and an unlucky few even come out the other side of the gate as a gibbering heap, their sanity ripped away by the transport.

* The canal network in Heaven's Reach, one of the alternate ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' settings in ''Shards'', is a sufficiently nasty place that it contains TheFairFolk, who dwell in the crazy-world that is the Wyld in the core setting, and all ships come with anima circuits to keep them from meeting horrific and bizarre fates. While most of the heavily travelled routes have had the evil kicked out of them over the years, the routes that were forgotten after the Malfean War have not.
* The game ''TabletopGame/FadingSuns'' uses an inversion: hyperspace (what is between the Stargates) actually is the ''safe'' way. The real problem is that interstellar space (the traditional boundary is the orbit of system's Stargate) is filled with shapeless Cthulhoid monstrosities going by the lovely name of [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Void]] [[SpaceIsAnOcean Kraken]]. (Something about the star, at least for some part of the star's life cycle repels the Void Krakens. The size of this safe zone varies with each system.) Still, spaceships jumping through hyperspace need to be protected by special shields, because otherwise people experience a strongly addictive quasi-religious epiphany. And fun stuff: before the discovery of Sol System's gate, there were several [[HumanPopsicle sleeper ships]] sent out. One of them was referenced in canon. The rest... Well, the general assumption is [[FridgeHorror it's better not to think of what could have happened to the passengers]].
* Fasa's old ''TabletopGame/RenegadeLegion'' setting was an interesting example. Tachyon Space wasn't scary per se, but normal matter wasn't capable of coping with it. If a jump lasted too long, you'd melt into a puddle of base elements before exploding into a shower of tachyons.

* And the utterly forgotten 80's RPG ''TabletopGame/SpaceQuest'' had N-Space filled to the bursting with Voidsharks, "Temblons" (think kraken with tractor-beam tentacles) and other horrors that all seemed to find carbon based life a tasty treat.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'', interstellar travel relies on traveling through a dimension called the Drift. Technically the Drift isn't that bad, apart from a few native critters, being completely empty. The scary part is that every time someone uses the Drift, a chunk is torn out of another plane and added to the Drift. As a result, travelling through the drift now means your ship might run into fragments from every nasty plane there is, the most inhospitable parts of the good and neutral planes, or even hazards from the Material Plane itself.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'' different cultures have different customs and/or superstitions about it. Among them, Vilani dim their lights (from when having enough power to go into jump was an issue), Aslan clans light a sacramental candle, Vargr, as the [[ChaoticNeutral violent types]], beat up one of their crewmates chosen for the honor, and the Droyne use special coins. Jump space is not so much feared as it is weird. If a jump works wrong one could be misjumped to a random point, which could mean anywhere. If it works really wrong, one stays in jumpspace, and no one knows what happens. Technically, one only stays in Jumpspace for a few trillion (subjective) years. Long enough for protons, stable as they are, to decay and, 168 objective hours or so later, all that emerges is a flash of hard radiation.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' features the Paths of the Old Ones, a series of pocket dimension "hubs" connected to each other and to real-world gates by "tunnels" through the realm of magic. Since the Old Ones disappeared, the Paths have been tainted by Chaos. The tunnels are even worse, containing "reality bubbles" that travelers can be trapped in. These may vary from alternate timelines to a daemon's personal playroom. And if you take a wrong turn in the Paths, you may just end up in the Realms of Chaos. Or worse, what is heavily implied to be Warhammer 40K's Warp.

* Subverted hilariously in Qui Nguyen's play ''Fight Girl Battle World'', in which [[spoiler:the Human is told to brace for hyperspace, which then turns out to be funky hip-hop music. Everyone bobs their head in time. The human eventually catches on.]]

* In ''VideoGame/BatenKaitos'' the Trail of Souls that links [[{{Cloudcuckooland}} Mira]] to the rest of the world. The "wavey" black void is liable to get you lost forever in a monster filed dimension if you get lost, and it even freaks out characters who regularly travel it. Creator/MotoiSakuraba's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy2nfKHNqMM music]] sets the tune perfectly.

* The Shadow Shard in ''VideoGame/CityOfHeroes'' is like this, if only because almost all the monsters found in the place are DemonicSpiders. Of course, the landscape is trippy as hell, and that does a lot to turn it into one of the most unused zones in the game.
* Although not technically hyperspace, the plot of the ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' series revolves around teleporters that work by routing the teleported matter through another reality, which works well enough except for the tiny fact that the reality in question is literally Hell -- the demons eventually notice the unexpected entry and even less expected exits and come through the teleporters themselves. In ''VideoGame/Doom3'', it's specifically stated that the Martian civilization's use of this technology nearly drove them into extinction, and it took a HeroicSacrifice on the part of their entire species to send the demons back and close up the portals again before they could conquer the universe. And then humans came along and [[SealedEvilInACan Unsealed the Can]]. If the demonic invasion wasn't bad enough, even travelling through a portal to another place on Mars can cause paranoia and insanity. Makes sense, since the hyperspace tunnel appears to be a bloody vein-like tunnel, and you hear screaming as you move along it.

* Story design documents released from ''VideoGame/EarthAndBeyond'' after its servers were shut down revealed that protagonists of the game, The V'rix, originated from hyperspace. To the players they appeared as terrifying insectoid creatures and ships, but the design documents revealed that this was merely a perception that played on human's primal fears and not their actual forms. They were the guardians of The Ancient Gate System left behind by [[AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence The Ancients]] and showed up and started attacking humans (and documents revealed they would have ended up [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up the Earth]]) because of our improper use of The Ancient Gates.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'', a trip into hyperspace (or witch-space, as the game calls it) puts you at risk from ambush from Thargoids, who have a technology which allows them to lurk there. In some versions of the game you can force a hyperdrive failure by holding full pitch and roll while jumping, but you'd have to be either suicidal or very well armed to attempt it.

* The ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' expansion ''Apocrypha'' added star systems that are only accessible by wormholes and full of strange, sentient and AlwaysChaoticEvil machines called the Sleepers. This turned out to be a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation: the players found these systems less scary than intended, mapped them, colonized them and deciphered the Sleeper A.I. to safely farm them. {{Canon}}ically, just warping and jumping through stargates are mentally traumatic experiences, to the point where ship crews are either permanently juicing anti-psychotic medication to keep them sane, or else are kept sedated when they're not actually needed for anything. A capsuleer's control pod does grant them immunity to this phenomenon, but considering that it tends to drive the user insane anyway, this could be considered a mixed blessing.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', fast-travel is accomplished via the Teleport and Return spells, which sends a person's body and aether through TheLifestream to an aetheryte. Travel via these spells, as well as between smaller shards making up an "aethernet" covering a short distance (such as within a city), is safe, but requires attuning to the destination aetheryte beforehand. There exists, however, another teleportation spell called "Flow", which allows one to enter and exit the Lifestream at any point in the physical world -- at least in theory. In practice, without aetherytes to serve as beacons, using "Flow" carries the risk of a person becoming lost in the Lifestream until their bodies and souls break down completely into aether. [[spoiler:Even in cases where people emerge from using Flow, they rarely ever do so unscathed: Thancred was rendered completely incapable of using magic after his time in the Lifestream, and Y'shtola - who only even came back thanks to Gridanian conjurers managing to find her and pull her out of the Lifestream - was rendered blind. While she can now see aether around her to compensate, doing so [[CastFromLifespan gradually reduces her remaining lifespan]]. There's also a more minor instance early in ''Endwalker'', where the player and a few allies teleport to a far-away land they've never been to before by way of a prototype aetheryte that can be attuned to other aetherytes, allowing individuals to teleport between them regardless of if they're attuned to the destination - or even capable of casting magic to teleport in the first place, in Thancred's case - but the end result is short-term but severe nausea (bad enough that the narration explicitly notes if the player character tried to talk to another member of the group, they would immediately re-familiarize themselves with what they last ate).]]

* The scariness of subspace in the ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'' series has less to do with subspace itself than the insinuation that using it for FTL travel will cause a horde of enraged StarfishAliens, who may or may not actually live in subspace, with NighInvulnerable spacecraft to come and wipe your species out for their "sin".

* The ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' universe's hyperspace is known as slipspace. In the early days of FTL travel, technicians sometimes had to repair the drives while in mid-jump, exposing themselves to the "slipstream" and risking injury, death, or even being [[RetGone completely erased from existence]] in the process. Even when the engine isn't operating, there's still a tendency for tools and technicians to turn up missing after a shift. Sometimes ships entering hyperspace will simply never reappear. Time dilation effects are present, which can cause unpredictable delays. It's also implied that slipspace travel has adverse effects on your health, thus the cryopods present on all UNSC vessels. Being ThrownOutTheAirlock simply kicks you back into realspace, though you do get bathed in radiation in the process. Opening a slipspace rift while in an atmosphere creates a massive {{EMP}} pulse and shockwave that can knock down a SpaceElevator. Trying to transition from realspace to slipspace when the slipspace drive isn't fully charged (at least on human ships) causes the ship to be blown into atomized bits, and even hitching a ride by following a larger ship through slipspace as the ''In Amber Clad'' does early in ''VideoGame/Halo2'' leaves it with several of its systems offline. Slipspace is significantly less scary for more advanced species like the Covenant and Forerunners, but even for them it can still be treacherous without the proper precautions.
* In the sequel (of disputed canonicity) to the RTS ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'', ''Homeworld: Cataclysm'', the central enemy came from Hyperspace. This was a little disturbing for everyone, as until then Hyperspace has been thought to be perfectly safe (assuming you had a safe way of getting in and out of it). The Naggarok, an alien exploration vessel using an experimental form of hyperdrive, essentially went 'too deep', or something similar, resulting in it picking up a passenger in the form of a sentient biomatter [[TheVirus virus]]. Although it's worth mentioning that this explanation for how The Beast came to enter our galaxy is explicitly guesswork based on fragmentary information; all we know for certain is that the Naggarok exited hyperspace covered in MeatMoss that had eaten most of the crew.\\\

* In ''VideoGame/ImmortalDefense'', ''you'' are the reason hyperspace is a scary place, since you're an immortal disembodied spirit with god powers, and you tend to tear apart fleets.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'' you and a few other characters have the opportunity to tear open the very fabric of reality and go Outside. While it makes for convenient travel by going from tear to tear, it is very much not safe, as Outside is the dwellingplace of the dead, some of whom are not nice people at all. [[spoiler:The climax of the game, after the Rend weave has been used to open a portal to Outside, involves going Outside to find the way to keep it out of the hands of the local Death God, which has the unfortunate side effect of trapping it in normal reality. The game was supposed to be a trilogy, but sadly went unfinished.]]
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the Mass Effect Relays are not entirely mapped out by the species of the galaxy, since they were supposedly designed by the Protheans [[spoiler:"supposedly," because they were actually created by the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]]]] who did not really leave any complete maps as to where they all go, and an explorer has no idea what is really on the other side. Used to be, when a new Mass Relay was discovered the Citadel Council would immediately send out an explorer team to leap to the other side and map out the Relay's destination. This came to a stop however when one exploration team discovered the [[InsectoidAliens rachni]]. The ensuing [[BugWar war]] lasted a century, which was only won when the Council employed the use of the [[ProudWarriorRace krogan]], which in turn lead to Krogan Rebellions. When the turians came across humanity tinkering with an unexplored Relay, it started a small war.[[note]]The First Contact War by the humans as the turians were the humans' first contact with an alien race, and the Relay 314 Incident by the turians who felt they were stopping the humans from doing something stupid; fortunately, the Citadel stepped in to stop it before things got serious.[[/note]] On top of hostile unknown races being at the other side of a Mass Relay, there is also a chance you could run into other nasty things, like black holes or massive fields of space-junk.\\\

* In ''VideoGame/RebelGalaxyOutlaw'', jump gates connect the solar systems of the Dodge Sector together. Unfortunately, prolonged use causes jump gates to become unstable and ultimately collapse, creating all sorts of nasty abnormalities (which has also led to a terrorist group rising up attacking any ships that use jump gates to prevent the potential destruction of the sector). You can travel through most jump gates safely, although it is never a comfortable experience. Attempting to use an unstable gate, however, can damage your ship and throw you into a completely different part of the Sector than you intended.

* In the first episode of ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxTheDevilsPlayhouse'', when Sam and Max first use the power of Teleportation (outside the tutorial flashback at the beginning), the two travel through a bizarre multicolored void where Max is a talking skeleton with a creepy voice.

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne'' has the Amala Network, a series of Magatsuhi-flowing veins that stretch over the Vortex World that can be traversed via Terminals. Occasionally, travel through the network can get one trapped inside of it; as a result, you'll find the network infested with demons trying to gorge on the Magatsuhi in the network. It is also dangerous for humans to stay in the network for too long, lest they be subjected to BodyHorror, or worse.
** The earlier ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiI'' had a very ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''-esque explanation for the sudden demonic invasion of Japan -- a blatant {{Expy}} of Creator/StephenHawking succeeded in inventing teleportation but it connected to the demon world, allowing demons to spill into Earth through his experimental terminals. He eventually fixed the system so [[WarpWhistle it was safe to use]], but not before it was too late to stop the invasion.

* The first warp zone in the original ''VideoGame/StarFox1'', the black hole, is kind of like the warp gates in the later ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', except you can choose where to go and it's a looping level. The second one, however, sends Fox into an alternate dimension filled with grinning moons, demonic paper airplanes, classical music, and giant slot machines. This would be a zany joke level if it weren't for the fact that General Pepper asks over the intercom where Fox and his team is, and the inability to complete the level. This implies that the entire Star Fox team is trapped in an alternative dimension, flying until they either run out of fuel or are shot out of the sky, while Corneria is obliterated by Andross and his army.
* Hyperspace in ''VideoGame/{{Starsector}}'' is relatively safe so long as you stick to the core worlds. Hyperspace storms can happen which damage ships and blow them off course, but that's the worst of it (aside from terrorists and pirates). Once you leave the core worlds, however, you start stumbling across other things. There's slipstreams that pull you in and drag you around, and sensor ghosts which are creepy and unexplained sensor anomalies, including long-abandoned ships that ''somehow'' perform independent manoeuvers, [[spoiler:Remnant]] fleets disguising themselves as ghosts, unknown contacts that swing around random points in hyperspace and flee upon approach, and large anomalies that fly off and leave a temporary slipstream behind them. Aside from your encounters with them (In which your crew express shock, fear and uncertainty), nobody so much as makes mention of whatever these things are.

* In ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'', the humans and the Zuul use a specific dimension called "nodespace" to allow their ships to ignore the rules of physics. Unfortunately, nodespace is inhabited by EnergyBeings known as "specters", who do ''not'' appreciate the intrusion and will occasionally cross over into real space and eat the population of one of your colonies to display their displeasure. The Zuul are especially at risk because of their manner of accessing nodespace: for an analogy, the spectres' annoyance at humanity would be like if you were sitting at home and someone came streaking through your living room, entering your back door and leaving through your front door -- the Zuul would be the guy who entered your living room by drilling his way through the walls with a pneumatic drill, and exiting by drilling through the wall at the opposite end. [[{{Metaphorgotten}} In the nude.]]\\\
In addition, looking directly into Node Space turns out to have really bad psychological side effects, and after a few unfortunate murder-suicides all human ships now shut all external views of their ships while performing node jumps. WordOfGod [[http://www.kerberos-productions.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17929&view=unread#p279177 has said that Zuul find node travel]] ''delicious and deeply comforting'', like ''burrowing into live flesh''. The one and only time a Liir tried to enter nodespace on a human vessel, the second it felt the psychic emanations from nodespace it tore open the ship from the inside to avoid going through. Thankfully everyone onboard was fully suited.
** According to ''The Deacon's Tale'' book by Arinn Dembo, traveling through the Hiver [[PortalNetwork gates]] is ''extremely'' painful to a human and can even be fatal. Presumably, this applies to any species without an exoskeleton. There's a reason the races tend to stick to their method of interstellar travel.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'' universe has the Twisting Nether, a realm that connects every world to one another. To those who know how to use its powers, it can act as a doorway between worlds. In its natural state it is the opposite of worlds, with mutable laws of physics defined by each individual and little sense of reason. Recently, however, it has become a major haven for the [[TheLegionsOfHell Burning Legion]], who use it to punch holes into new worlds or intercept travelers passing through it.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein|2009}}'' has The Black Sun Dimension, which is basically a small-ish pocket Universe being kept from collapsing by a source of unlimited power at its center, The Black Sun. The Veil is a barrier between our universe and the Black Sun dimension, through which Black Sun energy occasionally leaks in the form of energy pools. Oh, did we mention that the energy has the property of horrifically... ''altering'' whoever comes into contact with it, unless they use a precisely harmonized portal? There's even a sort of fauna, native to the Veil: the Geist, a species of monstrous insects that exist out-of-phase with our dimensions and can only be interacted with in the Veil... Unless you're really stupid and attract their attention, at which point all bets are off.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Xenosaga}}'', the UMN, source of faster than light travel and communications, is also the source of the nightmarish creatures known as the Gnosis. This turns out to be because [[spoiler:[[DreamLand it is actually humanity's collective unconscious]].]]
* The ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' has a mild example in its PortalNetwork. The gate pairs have a way of (from the younger races' perspective) randomly shifting around due to meddling {{Precursors}}. This sometimes causes colonies of one race to be disconnected from friendly territory and end up connected to that of enemies.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Whither}}'' the space between worlds is crawling with worms. Then again, the worms are an important part of the multiversal ecosystem, eating the dead or rotting worlds. Then again, they're non-sapient and will eat anything, including travellers.

* The Infinite Corridor in ''WesternAnimation/Castlevania2017'' is a magical tunnel that enables travel to several different worlds. We see during a flashback/dream sequence, a character from 15th-Century Europe manages to glimpse universes with spaceships, giant mechas, advanced Mayan societies and etc. However, the corridor is very fickle and it opens portals to these distant worlds at random, making very easy for them to be lost. During Season 3, one of the characters' quest is to find the corridor so they can reunite with their loved one who got lost inside it and [[spoiler:it's revealed that a Dracula-worshiping cult is trying to open a portal to Hell so they can bring the vampire lord back to life]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Mobiüs Dick", Leela's obsession with a fourth-dimensional SpaceWhale causes the Planet Express ship and its crew to be pulled into the fourth dimension (after Leela makes Amy harpoon the whale). Much MindScrew ensues:

* The Web in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', is a bizarre and disturbing level of Cyber Space that acts as a counterpart to the organized Net. There are no apparent separate systems in the Web, it is simply a continuous flow of energy and data, resulting in constant hurricane looking storms. It can only be accessed by portals and is filled with strange monsters, not to mention exposure to the Web or its creatures [[TheCorruption is corrupting]] without protection. Nobody knows much about the place or how it works, but everyone in the Net fears it. It is the chaotic opposite of the Net and most believe that the Web would destroy the Net if a portal between the two realms was left open too long. In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler:Megabyte gets dragged into it by the Web Creature and when [[CameBackWrong he comes back out]] he's been twisted into an insane borderline EldritchAbomination who can mimic other sprites.]]
* At one point in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' this is applied, not to hyperspace, but to wormhole travel. During a fight a shield is damaged that protects part of a starship from the crazier aspects of wormhole travel, meaning everyone in proximity experiences a mindbending acid trip that, according to the characters, lasted "a thousand lifetimes".
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': The episode "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E14SB129KarateChoppers SB-129]]" has the white void where Squidward is all...'''alone.'''

* Kup of the ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', a giant mechanical war veteran, is still given "the shivers" by hyperspace (known to the Autobots as "The Void").
* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', the dimension Nightcrawler teleports through is shown to be a [[FireAndBrimstoneHell hell-like place]] with lots of lava and monstrous red velociraptors dwell.... Despite all this Nightcrawler comments it was "Not a place I'd vacation, but still wild". Of course, ''then'' the beasties got out...

** The ''Voyager'' episode "Threshold" almost treated Warp 10 like this, but the actual results were mind-boggling from a logical, biological, and narrative standpoint.

** In ''ComicBook/TheTransformersIDW'' "Infestation 2" crossover arc, ''[[OhCrap they get loose]]'' and are every bit as horrible as they sound. And are apparently the inspiration for the Franchise/CthulhuMythos. It doesn't seem especially clear that the creatures from this IDW megacrossover are the same as the ones from the much earlier ''Anime/TransformersCybertron'' based story, but Wiki/TFWiki seems to be sure about it.

*** Quantum jumping later turns out to have another big danger; if a malfunction occurs and your ship's computer tells the quantum engines to take the ship to two places at once they solve the error by [[spoiler: creating a ''second'' ship, literally duplicating the ship in every single way as it was when the jump was made. This is not inherently dangerous unless the two ships approach each other. If ''that'' happens, it creates a spatial paradox and one ship will start to overwrite the other.]]

* Warpspace in ''Fanfic/SonicXDarkChaos'' is re-imagined as basically a LighterAndSofter version of [[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 the Warp]]. It's a mind-shattering dimension of pure Chaos Energy and (according to Maledict) [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the "template" or "blueprint" of the universe itself]]. It also happens to be the birthplace of [[EldritchAbomination Lovecraftian horrors]] like Dark Tails [[spoiler: and the [[SealedEvilInACan Can]] of the [[AbusivePrecursors Forerunners]]]]. However, Demon-made FTL technology has advanced and become so ubiquitous across the universe that it's typically safe to travel. If anything goes wrong, though...
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' has [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles the Nevernever]], a very large and very strange dimension made of almost pure Magic, which is many dozens of times larger than Earth. The most ''normal'' parts of it, which are closest to Earth, are the Kingdoms of Faerie, where time, space, and the laws of physics are more flexible than they are on Earth - you can step in, walk five steps, and step out thousands of miles away. Or, you can spend an hour in there, and come out a century later. Oh, and its inhabited by all sorts of creatures which physiologically sometimes have only a passing relationship to the Laws of Physics, while Faerie is ruled by the Sidhe, a subspecies of humanity which was altered by hundreds of millennia of normal time (and who knows how long of relative time) living there to not merely channel magic but be one with it. And what makes it even worse is that reality is much more suggestible there, meaning that [[RealityWarper beings of sufficient power can bend time and space to their will]], which results in a WorldGoneMad when Harry and [[spoiler: Maddie]] throw down in part of the Nevernever in the sequel.

* Discussed but ultimately averted in ''Fanfic/TheNextFrontier'', in which the inside of a warp bubble created by an AlcubierreDrive is actually kind of boring to look at. Jeb finds this vaguely anticlimatic. Although they ''do'' have the issue mentioned in the Real Life section below, with [[SphereOfDestruction a huge wave of energetic particles being launched away from the ship at lightspeed]] every time they turn it off, which the Kerbin Space Agency learned the hard way when they [[PlutoIsExpendable accidentally obliterated a dwarf planet.]] [[spoiler: And they're not above playing this fact up for subtle GunboatDiplomacy when they make FirstContact.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'', [[spoiler: Hiro and Baymax enter what can only be described as hyperspace in attempt to rescue a stranded pilot -- it's both beautiful and haunting all at once.]]

* In ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'', both the wormhole and [[spoiler: the interior of the black hole]] are incredibly freaky. Both places cause the spaceship's internal electronics to go haywire, and both render the ship's maneuvering thrusters completely useless due to both places ''not being physical space.'' [[spoiler: The black hole has the Tesseract, a three-dimensional construct at the center that manages to represent all instants of time for a given location ''simultaneously''.]]

* Hyperspace in ''Series/BabylonFive'', while less scary than most hyperspaces in this entry, is still rather nasty. It has random currents that can throw you off course rather quickly if you have a navigational failure, no landmarks to navigate by other than the artificial beacons placed by the various races, and there's even some rumors about things living in it. ([[spoiler:They're true, and though some of them are just annoying, there are ''lots'' of things that are [[AlwaysChaoticEvil far from nice]].]]) And then there's the eponymous ''Thirdspace'', a deeper level of which almost nothing is known because the only known attempt to access it (one device, opened twice) created a portal to the territory of an extremely powerful (enough to scare the Vorlons) and aggressive race that instantly attacks through it. Other less nasty but still dangerous problems include freak storms and vortexes that are capable of altering the currents and eddies and throwing ships off course, something that can normally prove fatal. Also, if you try to open a jump point within an already active gate, this will result in a very large explosion.\\\

** Wormholes are treacherous and difficult to navigate, and cause all sorts of tricky problems with time and space and turning into liquid when you don't quite understand them, and are inhabited by bizarre and dangerous creatures- ranging from gigantic phase-shifting serpents to sentient "Pathfinders" of dubious morality. On the other hand, one episode dealt with the dangers of Starburst, which is a short-range emergency FTL technology that works by temporarily slipping into another dimension and coming out pretty quickly. Somehow, the ship Moya gets stuck and splayed out in other dimensions -- one of which causes mind-splitting noise, another which causes visual pain, and a third which causes elation and euphoria, in addition to the normal one -- and has to be reassembled by moving all four ships in unison through the dimension while avoiding the interdimensional gatekeeper monster... thing. [[spoiler: Luckily the Gatekeeper turned out to be friendly and helped them escape.]] The problem with that particular starburst involved Moya's pregnancy cumulated with other labor complications. As of some time after [[spoiler:Talyn's birth]], it is still said him starbursting would be dangerous. [[spoiler:He does it even before properly learning to fly, though.]]

** In ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' Hyperspace works in such a way that you can't judge speed or direction in it, and you pass unidentifiable cloud structures and points of light while travelling in it. You can also hear some truly bizarre sounds in it, possibly coming from the Thargoids (mentioned above). Oh, and whatever you do, ''don't look behind you''. [[spoiler: And in case you think it's all just atmospheric, the Thargoids can still yank you out mid-jump.]]

* ''VideoGame/LibraryOfRuina'': W-Corp runs what are known as warp trains, which can travel to any destination within 10 minutes. However in one instance, it begins to malfunction, and the train never seems to reach its destination. The people riding never feel hunger or thirst, and after several weeks of being stuck on the train, people start committing suicide...except they can't die. People continue to go insane, mutilating themselves and others just to feel something over 2000 years until they're just throbbing piles of flesh. [[spoiler: It's then revealed that the train was never malfunctioning at all, and works exactly as intended. The train travels for 2000 some odd years in another dimension and arrives at its destination 10 seconds later in their original dimension. A cleanup crew puts these mutilated bodies back into their seats, their memories of the events are wiped, and their bodies are restored to normal, none the wiser of the millenium of anguish they just went through. This happens every single time. Rich people pay enormous costs to be put in stasis for these trips so they don't have to live through this hell.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Loom}}'' you and a few other characters have the opportunity to tear open the very fabric of reality and go Outside. While it makes for convenient travel by going from tear to tear, it is very much not safe, as Outside is the dwellingplace of the dead, some of whom are not nice people at all. [[spoiler: The climax of the game, after the Rend weave has been used to open a portal to Outside, involves going Outside to find the way to keep it out of the hands of the local Death God, which has the unfortunate side effect of trapping it in normal reality. The game was supposed to be a trilogy, but sadly went unfinished.]]
* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', the Mass Effect Relays are not entirely mapped out by the species of the galaxy, since they were supposedly designed by the Protheans ([[spoiler: "supposedly" because they were actually created by the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]]]]) who did not really leave any complete maps as to where they all go, and an explorer has no idea what is really on the other side. Used to be, when a new Mass Relay was discovered the Citadel Council would immediately send out an explorer team to leap to the other side and map out the Relay's destination. This came to a stop however when one exploration team discovered the [[InsectoidAliens rachni]]. The ensuing [[BugWar war]] lasted a century, which was only won when the Council employed the use of the [[ProudWarriorRace krogan]], which in turn lead to Krogan Rebellions. When the turians came across humanity tinkering with an unexplored Relay, it started a small war.[[note]]The First Contact War by the humans as the turians were the humans' first contact with an alien race, and the Relay 314 Incident by the turians who felt they were stopping the humans from doing something stupid; fortunately, the Citadel stepped in to stop it before things got serious.[[/note]] On top of hostile unknown races being at the other side of a Mass Relay, there is also a chance you could run into other nasty things, like black holes or massive fields of space-junk.\\\
Actually an inversion; using the relays by themselves is perfectly safe. Using the FTL drives on the ship is perfectly safe (provided you remembered to discharge the static buildup so it doesn't fry everyone on board). The real dangers come from the ''other'' people using these technologies, such as the aforementioned rachni or the [[spoiler: Reapers]]. The sole exception is the Omega relay, which has a reputation of being a one-way trip. Locals presume it's because it points at the galactic core which is full of black holes that pilots can easily get caught. Though really [[spoiler:the Relay was sabotaged to send any ship without the appropriate software into a killing field.]]

* Hyperspace in ''VideoGame/{{Starsector}}'' is relatively safe so long as you stick to the core worlds. Hyperspace storms can happen which damage ships and blow them off course, but that's the worst of it (aside from terrorists and pirates). Once you leave the core worlds, however, you start stumbling across other things. There's slipstreams that pull you in and drag you around, and sensor ghosts which are creepy and unexplained sensor anomalies, including long-abandoned ships that ''somehow'' perform independent manoeuvers, [[spoiler: Remnant]] fleets disguising themselves as ghosts, unknown contacts that swing around random points in hyperspace and flee upon approach, and large anomalies that fly off and leave a temporary slipstream behind them. Aside from your encounters with them (In which your crew express shock, fear and uncertainty), nobody so much as makes mention of whatever these things are.

** The Shroud draws clear inspiration from ''Warhammer 40K''[='=]s Warp, though no strong ties with FTL is implied. Jump Drive technology, on the other hand, can be obtained by studying the remains of the Dimensional Horror, a very powerful space monster found inside a black hole, described as only partially existing in our universe. [[spoiler: However, even just researching Jump Drives, or in particular, Psi Jump Drives, puts the entire galaxy at risk of invasion by The Unbidden.]] Psi Jump drive technology can make the connection more overt; one way to discover it is for your explorers to be rather surprised when an alien ship of unknown design flies by in what they had previously thought was a purely mental realm.

* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': Faster-than-light travel involves jumping between solar systems' gravity wells. Miscalculating the jump can result in colliding with the star whose system you're targeting, bouncing off of real space until you eventually re-embed, being stranded in hyperspace, or being liberated into negative hyperspace. There's also the side effect (in non-Soia-Liron organisms, such as humans) of [[FTLTravelSickness bad dreams and nausea]] after a jump. The risk inherent in each jump tends to vary depending on the system you're jumping into -- dense celestial bodies have deep, "steep" gravity wells, which are very difficult to jump into safely without overshooting and diving right into the central body. In the comic, [[https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider129.html an Umiak force seems to deliberately attempt a deep jump into the Leido system]], whose primary is a white dwarf; [[https://well-of-souls.com/outsider/outsider130.html Talon can't believe they'd be dumb enough to try something that risky]].

* ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'': In a [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]-based comic series, the inside of a character's BagOfHolding exists in an infinite void haunted by titanic {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, but when you need to hide a baby, [[https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2014/04/16/the-dungeon-mistress-part-four you need to hide a baby]].

* The Web in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'', is a bizarre and disturbing level of Cyber Space that acts as a counterpart to the organized Net. There are no apparent separate systems in the Web, it is simply a continuous flow of energy and data, resulting in constant hurricane looking storms. It can only be accessed by portals and is filled with strange monsters, not to mention exposure to the Web or its creatures [[TheCorruption is corrupting]] without protection. Nobody knows much about the place or how it works, but everyone in the Net fears it. It is the chaotic opposite of the Net and most believe that the Web would destroy the Net if a portal between the two realms was left open too long. In the Season 3 finale, [[spoiler: Megabyte gets dragged into it by the Web Creature and when [[CameBackWrong he comes back out]] he's been twisted into an insane borderline EldritchAbomination who can mimic other sprites.]]

** In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', [[LoveableRogue Han Solo]] invokes this trope by explaining to [[FarmBoy Luke Skywalker]] why it's impossible to just blast into hyperspace and avoid Imperial ships: it's too dangerous due to the risk of accidentally hitting something or going off course. See the [[Quotes/HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Quotes]] page. As described in Literature, however, the dangers are more mundane and along the lines of "Planets and stars are still in the way, and traveling fast enough to cross the galaxy in hours means that you can easily smash into one and vaporize."

Die slowly."''

-->“This is a video recording taken from the Observation decks.”The screen changed. Now they were looking at what the Wanderer crew had seen in their last days. No one, not even Spock, could handle more than a quick glimpse of that view (Kirk had, after a couple of minutes spent staring at the recording back on the Wanderer, spent the next few minutes being violently sick )– a swirling, multicolored mist was how Uhura would later explain it to Christine Chapel, but it was more than that, something for which even she couldn’t find the right words. It was made of light. Light that could think. Could blend in dizzying, nauseating mixes. It was a living thing, that mist, or so it seemed.“If they had to look at that thing 24/7, I don’t think we need to look at any other motives for suicide.” Mc Coy muttered.

* In ''Film/LostInSpace'', hyperspace travel requires a stable conduit or passage to keep ships on-route, it's impossible to determine where you're going to come out. [[{{Foreshadowing}} "There's a lot of space to get lost in out there."]] The reason the Robinson family went to space was to help supervise construction of a route to Alpha Centauri, via Hypergates, which would provide that route. But terrorists sabotage the mission and send their craft hurtling into the sun, forcing the crew to use the hyperdrive to the other side of the galaxy.

* In the Primary Phase of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy1978'', Ford Prefect describes going into hyperspace as "unpleasantly like being drunk." He and Arthur Dent are aboard a Vogon ship, and as it goes into hyperspace:

** The Tau, due to lacking a strong Warp presence, don't have psykers, and thus no analogues for the Imperial Astropaths and Navigators. This leaves them with very limited access to the Warp, and next to no way to explore its nature and applications. Despite having advanced technology otherwise, the Tau are very primitive when it comes to psychic and warp-based technology, including their FTL drives. The Tau are restricted to the "shallows" of the Warp, "skimming" it instead of immersing their vessels any "deeper" (apparently SpaceIsAnOcean metaphors are plentiful when describing the Warp, but metaphors are the only effective method of describing a realm of illogical thought). While this means painfully slow FTL travel, even by the standards of the setting, it's a much safer and more reliable method of travel, although it still has its dangers. Unfortunately this also means that the Tau have less understanding about the ''dangers'' of the Warp than just about every other faction too, and even less understanding about the forces in it. Supposedly, they tried to duplicate the Imperium's Warp technology, but eventually decided "Screw this. Too many tentacles."

* ''VideoGame/TheBreach'' refers to this as "the Yellow." It's full of yellow fog, nasty monsters, and strange glowing glyphs, and it's [[PlaceBeyondTime apparently beyond time as well]]. The inhabitants are quite welcoming, but they tend to become [[AxeCrazy enraged]] at people who refuse to [[YouWillBeAssimilated join them]].

* At one point in ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' this is applied, not to hyperspace, but to wormhole travel. During a fight a shield is damaged that protects part of a starship from the crazier aspects of wormhole travel, meaning everyone in proximity experiences a mindbending acid trip that, according to the characters, lasted "a thousand lifetimes."

* In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', the dimension Nightcrawler teleports through is shown to be a [[FireAndBrimstoneHell hell-like place]] with lots of lava and monstrous red velociraptors dwell.... Despite all this Nightcrawler comments it was "Not a place I'd vacation, but still wild." Of course, ''then'' the beasties got out...

** The CanonDiscontinuity ''Voyager'' episode "Threshold" almost treated Warp 10 like this, but the actual results were mind-boggling from a logical, biological, and narrative standpoint.

** In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', [[LoveableRogue Han Solo]] invokes this trope by explaining to [[FarmBoy Luke Skywalker]] why it's impossible to just blast into hyperspace and avoid Imperial ships: it's too dangerous due to the risk of accidentally hitting something or going off course. See the [[Quotes/HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Quotes]] page. As described in Literature below, however, the dangers are more mundane and along the lines of "Planets and stars are still in the way, and traveling fast enough to cross the galaxy in hours means that you can easily smash into one and vaporize."

* ''VideoGame/WildArms1'': It's not entirely clear where you go if you use your hammer on a teleporter and it malfunctions but it's called [[BonusLevelOfHell The Abyss]] and it's a very hard BonusDungeon filled with BonusBoss.

* ''LightNovel/CrestOfTheStars'' has a peculiar form of hyperspace which is completely two-dimensional, except for a bubble the ships and missiles generate to travel in. Losing power and having that bubble vanish results in a particularly horrible death; people aren't compatible with two-dimensional topography.

* In ''LightNovel/OthersidePicnic'' interstitial space is a space between the normal world and the Otherside that, depending on the entrance used, the user will have to pass through for some time before arriving at their destination, and it can be a pretty unpleasant place. The abnormal floors in the elevator Sorawo and Toriko used to cross over are an example. Another time, the two ended up being sent there while dealing with the Ninja Cats.

* In ''Film/EventHorizon'', the experimental hyperdrive on the eponymous ship takes it to [[spoiler:a dimension of "pure chaos and evil"]], according to one of the people who winds up spending a short while there. What's worse, [[spoiler:''something'' comes back to ''our'' world as the [[EldritchStarship ship]] itself]]. It's a recurring joke among some ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' fans that ''Event Horizon'' is a prequel (one of the film's writers [[WordOfGod even stating]] ''40K'' as a main influence for the film helps a lot), while other fans point to [[spoiler:Weir]] as an unnamed [[Franchise/{{Hellraiser}} Cenobite]]. At any rate, there's certainly a lot of similarity to both.

* In the Primary Phase of ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', Ford Prefect describes going into hyperspace as "unpleasantly like being drunk." He and Arthur Dent are aboard a Vogon ship, and as it goes into hyperspace:

** Even staying out of the Warp doesn't mean escaping this trope. Sometimes, a [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Warpspace/realspace overlap]] (known as a Warp Storm or Warp Rift) is generated that can swallow planets, star systems, or even entire sectors of space: the largest, the Eye of Terror, is roughly the size and shape of a dwarf spiral galaxy, meaning it's ''thousands of light years'' in diameter. It's never a good idea to be on any planet caught anywhere near one of these. While the exact effects [[GreenRocks vary on a case-by-case basis]], the gist of it is that the rules of physics [[RealityIsOutToLunch take an extended vacation]], creating a lovely little WorldOfChaos in which denizens of the Warp can freely manifest, leaving them with plenty of time for -- to quote many VideoGame/DwarfFortress players -- [[UnusualEuphemism Fun]]. As luck would have it, warp storms sometimes have beneficial effects as well. At one point the Imperium of Man found a Stone-Age alien species on an uncharted world, and as per normal procedure tasked forces to exterminate them. A warp storm blew up and rendered the star system off limits for about 6,000 years. Then the storm dissipated and the Imperium tried again, only to discover that in the interim the aliens in question, the previously mentioned Tau, had become a spacefaring culture more technologically advanced than the Imperium and fended off the incursion quite handily.

** ''Videogame/HalfLife1'' has a similar premise: Xen is a parallel dimension that looks as if bits of planet and atmosphere, as well as predatory xenofauna, were transported there at random. Teleporters need to pass their signal through a Xen relay in order to return their loads to normal space. The relay is initially (when the technology was first created) a big machine attached to a crystal on Xen, but is subsequently "compressed" all the way to nothing; ''Videogame/HalfLife2'' tells us that rag-tag Resistance teleporters simply swing around Xen like a dimensional sligshot, making teleportation cheaper and a bit safer.

* The ''Videogame/{{Warcraft}}'' universe has the Twisting Nether, a realm that connects every world to one another. To those who know how to use its powers, it can act as a doorway between worlds. In its natural state it is the opposite of worlds, with mutable laws of physics defined by each individual and little sense of reason. Recently, however, it has become a major haven for the [[TheLegionsOfHell Burning Legion]], who use it to punch holes into new worlds or intercept travelers passing through it.

* Music/{{Hawkwind}} also used this concept in their space rock; tracks like ''Space is Deep, Lighthouse'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK5wYYPnePM The Golden Void]]'' are about deep space and hyperspace travel. ''Lighthouse'' is the nexus, a navigation beacon, where ships come back into real space and get a bearing fix.

[[folder:Franchises]]
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/ANewHope'', [[LoveableRogue Han Solo]] invokes this trope by explaining to [[FarmBoy Luke Skywalker]] why it's impossible to just blast into hyperspace and avoid Imperial ships: it's too dangerous due to the risk of accidentally hitting something or going off course. See the [[Quotes/HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace Quotes]] page. As described in Literature below, however, the dangers are more mundane and along the lines of "Planets and stars are still in the way, and traveling fast enough to cross the galaxy in hours means that you can easily smash into one and vaporize."
** In the old ''[[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]]'' continuity, [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Hyperspace/Legends Hyperspace]] is rather less dangerous than some of the other examples, but there are risks. A ship in hyperspace doesn't properly exist in realspace, but the gravity wells of celestial objects generate "mass shadows" in hyperspace, that will rip a ship back into realspace. In the case of planets and asteroids that means appearing in realspace in time to safely change direction and go into hyperspace again; in the case of stars, black holes, and powered-up Imperial Interdictors it doesn't. That's why it's considered dangerous to stray out of established hyperspace routes, and mapping new ones is hazardous.
*** Going through a gravity well of sufficient size overloads your hyperdrive motivator (what you need to get in and out of hyperspace) and kicks you out of hyperspace; when you over load it, [[StuffBlowingUp it can explode]] possibly taking the ship with it, so there's actually a safety feature that kicks you out before you run the risk of exploding. That's how a fleet of ships got most of the way through a [[spoiler:system-wide interdiction field around Centerpoint station]] but still had to conduct repairs. One of the ships ended up damaged beyond repair because it tried to go a bit too long with the safety turned off.
*** It's also noted that getting ThrownOutTheAirlock is instantly fatal when in hyperspace, unlike in realspace when it might take a bit. In ''Literature/HanSoloAtStarsEnd'', [[spoiler:turncoat Torm]] is blown out an airlock into hyperspace. The victim's body is instantly and utterly destroyed.
*** ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'' goes into considerably more detail about this, when [[spoiler:Cronal has his ship disintegrate while in hyperspace... meaning there's no longer a hull separating him from it. This results in him being [[CruelAndUnusualDeath disintegrated on a subatomic level while fully conscious of every second of it]].]] The whole thing is described from the victim's perspective.
*** One novel describes "Hyper-rapture", a form of madness caused by staring at hyperspace for too long; because of this, starships usually have windows that go opaque while in hyperspace. Staring into hyperspace for an extended period of time, if it doesn't give you "hyper-rapture", is said to make most people increasingly uneasy. It doesn't look "right". ''Literature/DeathStar'' quietly underlines Darth Vader's evil/otherness/disconnect from humanity by noting that he ''likes'' staring into hyperspace, and doesn't feel the usual relief when his ship comes out into realspace again; similarly, ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'' has Cronal liking it. This is mentioned when one of the most evil villains in the ExpandedUniverse is given a FateWorseThanDeath: by being [[AndIMustScream locked in an escape pod and ejected into hyperspace]]. One escape pod has enough food and water to keep him alive for months, non-opaquing windows, and a ''very'' small area; he'd either go stir-crazy, get hyper-rapture, or survive those long enough to die from lack of supplies. Not to mention that rescue is literally impossible. Very, very bad indeed. As the person who inflicts this punishment on the villain puts it:
---->''"I don't know how long you will survive there. I do know that you will die there.\\
Die slowly."''
*** In the novelization for ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed II'', while the ship, The Salvation, is going through hyperspace, the Terror Walker tries to sabotage the ship's navicomp. While Starkiller battles it, he muses in terror that if the navicomp is deactivated mid-jump, the ship could either be blown to atoms or never return to realspace. Eventually, Starkiller defeats the Terror Walker by puncturing the ship's hull, causing the droid to be sucked out into hyperspace. Starkiller takes a moment to pity his foe, horrified by the thought of what it must be experiencing, even if it's a droid.
*** One comic shows that it's actually somehow possible to use hyperspace to go ''through'' a planet (though it's described as being more akin to essentially bypassing that section of space) but as the person who does so notes, it's '''really''' not recommended outside of extreme emergencies. Presumably has something to do with the fact that gravity wells can yank you out of hyperspace, so the result would be blasting out of hyperspeed within the planet's atmosphere (or worse, [[TeleFrag inside the planet itself]]) and blowing yourself to bits.
*** ''ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977'' introduced "otherspace", a dimension ''beyond'' hyperspace, a weird place with its own inhuman inhabitants; the effect is spoiled when said inhabitants are pretty much just big (read: Wookiee-sized) mean [[InsectoidAliens bugs]], who later turned out to have come from realspace to begin with.
** ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'':
*** [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS1E07GatheringForces "Gathering Forces"]] shows that a vessel without a functional hyperdrive cannot actually ''remain'' in hyperspace — when a hyperdrive-less shuttle detaches from its ship, it is shown immediately falling into normal space. The transition is fairly violent, and there's no guarantee you'll come out anywhere near somewhere inhabited, but it's better than the fate awaiting you in the old ''Legends'' continuity.
*** In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E13TheCall "The Call"]], the dangers of unprotected hyperspace travel are retconned by the existence of an entire species of {{Space Whale}}s that can and do regularly travel through hyperspace unprotected.
** ''[[Franchise/StarWarsTheHighRepublic The High Republic]]'': The main villains are a group called the Nihil, who can do strange things with hyperspace. They have the "Paths," unique jump calculations that allow them to dodge and weave through hyperspace, jumping in or out from normally impossible spots too close to a planet's gravity well or doing short skips of just a few kilometers. They cause "the Great Disaster" when a freighter nearly crashes into a Nihil ship ''in hyperspace'' and destroys itself trying to avoid them. An entire chapter of ''[[Literature/StarWarsLightOfTheJedi Light of the Jedi]]'' with hyperspace experts explains how completely ''impossible'' this is; every time someone enters hyperspace they are essentially creating AnotherDimension empty of everything except themselves, meaning there is absolutely nothing to ever collide with. What the Nihil are doing is entering and exiting those hyperspace lanes at odd angles, which lets them move in ways no one else can. The Supreme Chancellor shuts down hyperspace travel for a significant portion of the Outer Rim for an extended period because it's too dangerous when terrorists could crash any freighter and cause a multi-system disaster at any time.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': The episode "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E14SB129KarateChoppers SB-129]]" has the white void where Squidward is all...'''alone.'''

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': The episode "SB-129" has the white void where Squidward is all...'''alone.'''

* Music/VanDerGraafGenerator goes with the NothingIsScarier version in "Pioneers Over C.". A group of astronauts attempt to use FasterThanLightTravel to explore the cosmos, and when they finally break the light barrier, they enter infinite nothingness, losing all sense of time and awareness, unable to return to reality as we know it.