History Main / MobySchtick

* Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Literature/{{Railsea}}'' deliberately incorporates elements of ''Moby-Dick'', but ON LAND... WITH TRAINS... IN THE FAR FUTURE... WITH MOLE MONSTERS! Specifically, about one-third of the plot concerns Captain [[SignificantAnagram Abacat Naphi]]’s hunt for the gigantic white (pale yellow) mole, Mocker-Jack, that bit off her arm at the elbow (since replaced with a cybernetic limb). Exaggerated by the setting, though: where Naphi comes from, every respectable moler captain is expected to have an animal nemesis that’s maimed them once and which they consider a symbol of something greater. In Naphi’s case, Mocker-Jack literally means everything to her, [[spoiler:and her arm is still there — the “prosthetic” is just a high-tech gauntlet. She only pretends to have lost it so that others will respect her obsession.]]

* Creator/ChinaMieville's ''Literature/{{Railsea}}'' deliberately incorporates elements of ''Moby-Dick'', but ON LAND... WITH TRAINS... IN THE FAR FUTURE... WITH MOLE MONSTERS!

* The original ''ComicBook/TheTransformers'' comic did a WholePlotReference to ''Literature/MobyDick'' at one point. The Transformer in question, a fellow named Longtooth, was on a quest for The Matrix (it had gone missing, see) which had taken him and his team to an ocean planet, where a large cybernetic whale, the last of its kind, bit his leg off, and then he went kind of mad and tried hunting it down. [[spoiler:He finally incapacitated the beast but was talked out of finishing it off by his teammate.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs'', Rudy the giant albino baryonyx plays the Moby Dick role to Buck the Weasel's Captain Ahab. In flashback, Rudy's humped back is seen looming up from a fogbank to menace Buck, who wields a stick in lieu of a harpoon.

** The episode "Möbius Dick" gave this trope a SpaceWhale [[IncrediblyLamePun twist]]. It lampshades this trope, as the SpaceWhale Leela becomes obsessed with hunting [[spoiler:feeds on obsession, so it naturally [[GenreSavvy antagonizes ship captains]]. Leela eventually overwhelms the whale's will with a bigger obsession than revenge: finishing her delivery!]]
** In the episode "The Day The Earth Stood Stupid", the Giant Brain [[TrappedInTVLand traps Fry and Leela]] into the book itself, where Ahab mistakes the Brain for Moby.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': It's mentioned several times that ''Literature/MobyDick'' has been Agent Scully's favourite book since she was a little girl. Her father with whom she was close used to read to her from it. His nickname for her was Starbuck, and likewise she called him Ahab. Scully's dog is named after the harpooninst Queequeg. In "Quagmire", she compares Mulder and his life warped by personal vengeance to Ahab:

** The episode "The Doomsday Machine" also had this element with Commodore Decker's obsessive pursuit of the titular (almost indestructible) weapon.
** And in the episode "Obsession", Captain Kirk himself is developing an, well, [[TitleDrop obsession]] with killing a deadly cloud creature he has encountered once before during his first assignment on a starship. However, this version of the story has the crew getting all the evidence needed to convince them that creature has to be stopped immediately and do everything they can to help Kirk.
* The ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' episode "Bliss" has an alien humanoid with a SeadogBeard in constant battle with a MasterOfIllusion bioelectric lifeform, that even when he and ''Voyager'' escape from it goes back for one more try to destroy it. The Doctor even likens the alien to being Captain Ahab.

* ''VideoGame/{{CivilizationBeyondEarth}}'' has an early-to-mid-game quest that appears the first time you encounter a [[SandWorm Siege Worm]] after landing. The description of the quest is from a survivor of a worm attack who has indeed lost their leg to it and now hunts it down in the hopes of killing it in revenge.

* ''VideoGame/{{CivilizationBeyondEarth}}'' has an early-to-mid-game quest that appears the first time you encounter a ''SandWorm/{{Siege Worm}}'' after landing. The description of the quest is from a survivor of a worm attack who has indeed lost their leg to it and now hunts it down in the hopes of killing it in revenge.

* ''VideoGame/{{CivilizationBeyondEarth}}'' has an early-to-mid-game quest that appears the first time you encounter a ''SandWorm/{{Siege Worm}} after landing. The description of the quest is from a survivor of a worm attack who has indeed lost their leg to it and now hunts it down in the hopes of killing it in revenge.

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', Rudy the giant albino baryonyx plays the Moby Dick role to Buck the Weasel's Captain Ahab. In flashback, Rudy's humped back is seen looming up from a fogbank to menace Buck, who wields a stick in lieu of a harpoon.

* ''ComicBook/{{Legion of Super-Heroes}}'': Early on, Lightning Lad had his arm destroyed by an ill-timed attack on a SpaceWhale, and became obsessed with revenge upon it. He got better.

* Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society had this trope InSpace with ''Ishmael''. Ishmael being a refugee from an ecologically-devastated Earth travelling on the mining ship MV Pequod.

* Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society had this trope InSpace with ''Ishmael'', with Ishmael being a refugee from an ecologically-devastated Earth travelling on the mining ship MV Pequod.

* Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society had this trope InSpace with ''Ishmael'', with Ishmael being a refugee from a devastated Earth travelling on the spaceship MV Pequod.

* In ''The Bedford Incident'' an American captain becomes obsessed with confronting a Soviet sub in American waters [[spoiler: leading to mutual destruction]]. In the novel the sub is nicknamed "Moby Dick". When it was made into a movie the name was changed.

* Australian theatre company Dead Puppet Society had this trope InSpace with ''Ishmael''.

* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Misato Katsuragi's obsession with destroying the Angels at any cost, courtesy of being the SoleSurvivor of being at ground zero of Second Impact. [[DeconstructorFleet Like many other things in this series]], it becomes deconstructed when the cost looks too damn high and Misato [[BrokenBird doesn't knows what to do with herself]], and that is before finding out how much of an UnwittingPawn she is to the AncientConspiracy that ''caused'' Second Impact. ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' gives her an additional degree of AdaptationalVillainy when she forms [[RenegadeSplinterFaction WILLE]] and [[NotSoDifferent becomes almost as heartless as Gendo]] as a result.

* In the section of ''VideoGame/DoctorWhoWorldsInTime'' set on [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E2TheBeastBelow Starship UK]], there's a plot line involving an alien captain learning of the Star Whale and coming to hunt it; an early attempt causes him to lose a leg, which only makes him more determined.
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIVBlackFlag'' you can get an achievement/trophy for successfully harpooning a white sperm whale.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Eridan's proper introduction in ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'' begins with him harpooning down a giant flying white whale lusus. Additionally, he uses his signature weapon, which is a harpoon gun rifle called Ahab's Crosshairs.

* ''Film/TheLastDinosaur'': a grizzled, hard-living, hard-loving oil tycoon hunts the last TyrannosaurusRex.

* Buttercup goes on an obsessive search for the legendary crawdad One Claw [=McCraw=] in the ''WeaternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|2016}}'' episode "Clawdad".
* Creator/HannaBarbera had a peculiar take on ''Moby-Dick'' in 1967, turning the beast into the heroic protector of two boys who were lost at sea in a raft.

* ''Radio/BleakExpectation'' parodies it with Captain Ahab Grimpunch, who has sworn vengeance on Moby ''Delicious'', a sea bass he blames for the loss of his arm. As it turns out, Moby isn't even responsible - he and crew-mates were once sunk (in a parody of Quinn from ''Film/{{Jaws}}''), and while they were stuck in the water, one of his crew mistook Ahab's arm for a sea bass and ate it. Eventually, Ahab's obsession with revenge (and lunch) gets him killed.

* In one issue of the ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'' comic, one ingridient for the Brain's world-domination formula can only be found on the teeth of whales. Brain hears about a tiny white whale called Moby Dinky and decides to study it to build a ship based on it, thinking that other whales won't mind a smaller one approaching them. [[spoiler: It turns out Dinky is actually a submarine built by Brain's rival Snowball, for exactly the same reasons.]]

* ''Film/GodzillaVsMegaguirus'': After Kiriko Tsujimori's superior officer dies in the prologue (saving her from falling debris during a Godzilla rampage), she goes full Ahab on Godzilla, becoming the leader of the "G-Graspers" special anti-Godzilla force and [[GodzillaThreshold having the bright idea]] of authorizing the creation of a ''black hole launcher'' to try to get rid of Godzilla once and for all (non-spoilers: [[ImplacableMan it doesn't]] [[TheCatCameBack works]]). The titular [[MonsterOfTheWeek contending Kaiju of the film]] appears in Japan as a direct result of the cannon's test fire, and at one point she even rides on Godzilla's back like Ahab to tag him with a tracker dart.