History Main / LudicrousSpeed

* Parodied in the ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor'' episode "Operation: S.A.T.U.R.N." after one of Numbuh Three's Rainbow Monkeys is grabbed by an unseen cosmic being and the team pursues in their CoolSpaceship:

* In the live-action film ''Film/InspectorGadget'', the Gadgetmobile states he has only two speeds: "'Fast' and 'Whoo! What was that?'"

* ''Film/ConquestOfSpace'' (1955). When the spaceship accelerates towards Mars, the entire crew pull {{Narm}}ish facial expressions due to the tremendous velocity. This was an obligatory trope for any space exploration movie of the time (though it goes back to the silent movie ''Film/FrauImMond'') to show the crushing pressures of liftoff from the Earth's gravity.

--> [[MadnessMantra It's longer than you think! It's longer than you think!]]
** In ''Danse Macabre'', King relates an apocryphal story about Creator/HarlanEllison, which he heard at various fantasy/sci-fi conventions. The story goes that [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]] had a pre-production conference of Big Name Science Fiction Writers prior to shooting on ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''. The purpose of the conference was to toss around ideas for a mission that would be big enough to fly the Starship ''Enterprise'' from the cathode tube to the Silver Screen….and BIG was the word that the exec in charge of the conference kept emphasizing. One writer suggested that the ''Enterprise'' might be sucked into a black hole (the Disney people [[Film/TheBlackHole scoffed that idea up about three months later]]). The Paramount exec didn’t think that was big enough. Another suggested that Kirk, Spock, and company might discover a pulsar that was in fact a living organism. Still not big enough, the writer was admonished; the writers were again reminded that they should think BIG. According to the tale, Ellison sat silent, doing a slow burn…only with Harlan, a slow burn lasts only about five seconds. Finally, he spoke up. “The ''Enterprise'',” he said, “goes through an interstellar warp, the great-granddaddy of all interstellar warps. It’s transported over a googol of light-years in the space of seconds and comes out at a huge gray wall. The wall marks the edge of the entire universe. Scotty rigs full-charge ion blasters which breach the wall so they can see what’s beyond the edge of everything. Peering through at them, bathed in an incredible white light, is the face of God Himself.” A brief period of silence followed this. Then the exec said, “It’s not big enough. Didn’t I just tell you guys to think really BIG?” In response, Ellison is supposed to have flipped the guy the bird (the [[Main/PenName Cordwainer Bird]], one assumes) and walked out.

* In the Franchise/StarWarsLegends, the sight of hyperspace is said to cause some people to go insane. Oddly, Lord Vader finds it calming. Nil Spaar, the BigBad of the ''Literature/BlackFleetCrisis'' trilogy, is [[FateWorseThanDeath ejected in an escape pod while still in hyperspace]].

** In ''Danse Macabre'', King relates an apocryphal story about Creator/HarlanEllison, which he heard at various fantasy/sci-fi conventions. The story goes that [[Creator/{{Paramount}} Paramount Pictures]] had a pre-production conference of Big Name Science Fiction Writers prior to shooting on ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''. The purpose of the conference was to toss around ideas for a mission that would be big enough to fly the Starship ''Enterprise'' from the cathode tube to the Silver Screen….and BIG was the word that the exec in charge of the conference kept emphasizing. One writer suggested that the ''Enterprise'' might be sucked into a black hole (the Disney people [[Film/TheBlackHole scoffed that idea up about three months later]]). The Paramount exec didn’t think that was big enough. Another suggested that Kirk, Spock, and company might discover a pulsar that was in fact a living organism. Still not big enough, the writer was admonished; the writers were again reminded that they should think BIG. According to the tale, Ellison sat silent, doing a slow burn…only with Harlan, a slow burn lasts only about five seconds. Finally, he spoke up. “The ''Enterprise'',” he said, “goes through an interstellar warp, the great-granddaddy of all interstellar warps. It’s transported over a googol of light-years in the space of seconds and comes out at a huge gray wall. The wall marks the edge of the entire universe. Scotty rigs full-charge ion blasters which breach the wall so they can see what’s beyond the edge of everything. Peering through at them, bathed in an incredible white light, is the face of God Himself.” A brief period of silence followed this. Then the exec said, “It’s not big enough. Didn’t I just tell you guys to think really BIG?” In response, Ellison is supposed to have flipped the guy the bird (the [[Main/PenName Cordwainer Bird]], one assumes) and walked out.

** In ''Danse Macabre'', King relates an apocryphal story about Creator/HarlanEllison, which he heard at various fantasy/sci-fi conventions. The story goes that [[Creator/Paramount Paramount Pictures]] had a pre-production conference of Big Name Science Fiction Writers prior to shooting on ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture''. The purpose of the conference was to toss around ideas for a mission that would be big enough to fly the Starship ''Enterprise'' from the cathode tube to the Silver Screen….and BIG was the word that the exec in charge of the conference kept emphasizing. One writer suggested that the ''Enterprise'' might be sucked into a black hole (the Disney people [[Film/TheBlackHole scoffed that idea up about three months later]]). The Paramount exec didn’t think that was big enough. Another suggested that Kirk, Spock, and company might discover a pulsar that was in fact a living organism. Still not big enough, the writer was admonished; the writers were again reminded that they should think BIG. According to the tale, Ellison sat silent, doing a slow burn…only with Harlan, a slow burn lasts only about five seconds. Finally, he spoke up. “The ''Enterprise'',” he said, “goes through an interstellar warp, the great-granddaddy of all interstellar warps. It’s transported over a googol of light-years in the space of seconds and comes out at a huge gray wall. The wall marks the edge of the entire universe. Scotty rigs full-charge ion blasters which breach the wall so they can see what’s beyond the edge of everything. Peering through at them, bathed in an incredible white light, is the face of God Himself.” A brief period of silence followed this. Then the exec said, “It’s not big enough. Didn’t I just tell you guys to think really BIG?” In response, Ellison is supposed to have flipped the guy the bird (the [[Main/PenName Cordwainer Bird]], one assumes) and walked out.

* A ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' storage accident created a zone in one of their bases with topological twisting so severe it created relativistic effects. An unknown person is walking out of the affected area at what appears to be imperceptibly slow speed -- but he's ''blue-shifted'', meaning he's moving at a decent fraction of the speed of light. [[EarthShatteringKaboom When he emerges from the zone moving at that speed]] ...

* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' is the {{Trope Namer|s}}, but is actually a subversion: the only harm that really comes out of it is ''Spaceball One'' overshooting Lone Starr by a minimum of several hours in non-Ludicrous Speed travel time, Dark Helmet taking some AmusingInjuries from crashing into a bridge console when ''Spaceball One'' decelerates, and everyone being granted a few minutes to gather themselves after the experience.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' uses hyperspace "jumps" in this way. A mammal is only supposed to be able to handle 50 jumps at a time. This crew, being what it is, goes for 700. We see their faces getting cartoonishly warped as they're screaming. Groot seems unaffected... until after they arrive, he pukes candidly and suddenly, like a baby would.

A cousin of SpaceMadness and HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace. Taking DrivenToMadness to its literal extreme. Can overlap with GoMadFromTheRevelation if the person discovers something mindbreaking about the universe.

* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' is the TropeNamer, but is actually a subversion: the only harm that really comes out of it is ''Spaceball One'' overshooting Lone Starr by a minimum of several hours in non-Ludicrous Speed travel time, Dark Helmet taking some AmusingInjuries from crashing into a bridge console when ''Spaceball One'' decelerates, and everyone being granted a few minutes to gather themselves after the experience.

Then there's Ludicrous Speed. This is speed so fast that it breaks your brain, curves your spine, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking divides by zero]], and is in every way [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm inconceivable]]. After traveling at such velocities, a person is just never the same. It's the BrownNote of movement.

* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeagueUnlimited'', the Flash, as mentioned above in Comic Books, manages this in what may be one of the [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome coolest moments in DCAU history]]. To quote the man himself:

There's driving a car, then there's supersonic, then there's [[FastAsLightning lightspeed]], then there's FasterThanLightTravel.

* In the live-action film ''Film/InspectorGadget'', the Gadgetmobile states he has only two speeds: "'Fast' and '[[UpToEleven Whoo! What was that?]]'"

* At the end of the WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife episode "Crusin", the captain makes the cruiseship travel at its top speed setting that reads, "Wow! Dat's fast!".

* VideoGame/CTGP7: DownplayedExample: Setting the cc modifier to 9999cc causes this to happen. [[ArtificialStupidity This even happens to the computers, too!]] The downplayed part? [[spoiler:[[AmusingInjuries Nothing bad happens to the racers]]; when they fall off, they get rescued by Lakitu and continue the race at the closest respawn point.]]

* ''VideoGame/BigRigsOverTheRoadRacing'' has an infamous [[ObviousBeta unintentional example]]. Want to drive a big rig at relativistic speeds? You can do that. Just hold down the reverse key for 10 minutes or so. And then release it to watch the rig come to a stop that causes Newton's First Law to blow its brains out with a shotgun.

* ''Film/RatRace'': Two of the racers for the $2,000,000, Vera Baker and her daughter Merrill Jennings, end up losing their car in the desert and stumble across a press gathering where a team of scientists are attempting to break the land speed record with a newly designed type of Rocket Car. Vera and Merrill manage to steal the vehicle and activate it, blasting off through the desert fast enough to keep up with a visibly speeding bullet next to them. When the car runs out of jet fuel and begins to slow down, the women shakily get out of the vehicle, dazed and disturbed enough to be mistaken for inmates of an insane asylum out on a field trip.

** And, of course, there's the Improbability Drive, which has unusual effects on its ship's passengers ("Ford, you're turning into a penguin. Stop it."). Though it might be more accurate to call it pure ludicrousness that gives you Ludicrous Speed as a side effect.

* In the past, people used to believe all sorts of yet-to-be-reached speeds would have dangerous and potentially fatal effects, including people a century ago thinking that travel by high-speed locomotive would leave the passengers unable to breathe. By high-speed, we mean 40 KPH (25 MPH), at which speed the pressures would suck all the air out. At 48 KPH (30 MPH) they believed people would be sucked bodily out of the windows. The fear was apparently based less on the speed itself than the belief that air pressure would drop because of it.

->''"No, no, no, light speed is too slow! We're gonna have to go right to...'' '''''[[TropeNamers Ludicrous Speed]]!'''''"

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film]]

* The Creator/IsaacAsimov short story "Escape," where the robot brains working on hyperspace travel discover that hyperspace travel causes humans to die ([[BackFromTheDead They Get Better]] though), which causes their ThreeLawsCompliant brains to go haywire (Consolidated Robots's Brain renders itself into junk, while the US Robotics' one has more personality and develops a mischievous sense of humor). The two characters we see taking the hyperspace jump actually go to {{Heaven}} and {{Hell}} respectively (somewhat Creator/GilbertAndSullivan-influenced places, due to AuthorAppeal).

* In [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/2003-06-11 this]] ''[[Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal SMBC]]'', it is revealed what ''actually'' happens to you when you go faster than the speed of light. Turns out it's [[SubvertedTrope not so bad]]:

* The ''WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation'' review of Tom Clancy's ''VideoGame/{{HAWX}}'' mentions that the selection of military air-crafts mainly boils down to the exact design of the expensive, military ass you'll have to stare at all day, and possibly a slight promotion from 'ludicrously fast' to 'there is [[ImpactSilhouette a mosquito-shaped hole in my teeth]]'.

-->'''Barf:''' ...What the ''hell'' was that?!\\

'''Barf:''' They've gone to ''plaid!''

* ''Conquest of Space'' (1955). When the spaceship accelerates towards Mars, the entire crew pull {{Narm}}ish facial expressions due to the tremendous velocity. This was an obligatory trope for any space exploration movie of the time (though it goes back to the silent movie ''Film/FrauImMond'') to show the crushing pressures of liftoff from the Earth's gravity.

* Also from WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, the WesternAnimation/RoadRunner. With a burst of speed, he can vanish over the horizon in a fraction of a second, cause paved roadways to ripple like water, uproot utility poles with his slipstream, and basically defy the laws of physics. [[CatchPhrase (Of course, he never studied law.)]]
* Furthermore from WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, or more specifically [[WesternAnimation/{{Tazmania}} Taz-Mania]], there's The Kiwi, a tiny, yellow, wingless bird that makes the WesternAnimation/RoadRunner look motionless, it has often been shown to warp space-time itself when running, essentially crossing wormholes when accelerating enough, and at least once [[RealityWarper it's slipstream dragged reality itself]], making for one of the craziest [[FadeToBlack blackout gags]] one could imagine.

* WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieCandaceAgainstTheUniverse: When on a spaceship that accelerates to twice the speed of light, reality is unmade for Phineas and the others. This takes the form of being reduced to storyboards, temp dialogue being inserted for Buford, and ultimately, [[CreatorCameo Dan and Swampy]] pitching the whole sequence.