History Main / PlanarShockWave

[[quoteright:200:[[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathstarshockwave.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:200:[[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner "So popular lately."]]]]

* ''{{Armageddon}}'' has one when the nuclear ordnance exploded inside the asteroid.

* An apparent example occurs when [[spoiler:Jupiter]] explodes in ''TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'', but it is made clear that it is actually the visible edge of a spherical shockwave when it [[OutrunTheFireball catches up to the heroes' ship]].
* The orbital laser station (the ZEUS) in ''FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'' explodes like this at the end of the movie.
* A rare earth-based example occurs in ''TheTransporter'' when the main character's house is blown up by the bad guys. Seriously.

* A recent supernovae picture also serves as a good example of a planar explosion. This one is particularly death-starish. [[http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/5818422030_a1920a17b0_z.jpg Supernova 1987A]]

Huge explosions in space turn into fireballs surrounded by unexplained rings of fire/plasma that expand usually on the relative horizontal or vertical plane, often racing just past the camera. Used to make big [[StuffBlowingUp kabooms]] appear more powerful, and when spheroid shockwaves just won't do.

** ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' plays this straight however as most spaceships in the game blow up like this. This is especially apparent when [[spoiler: Andross head]] explodes at the end of the game exactly like the Death Star did in Star Wars, complete with ship's outrunning the fireball.

* In ''DarthsAndDroids'', which loosely follows the plot of the ''StarWars'' movies, the shockwave bombs from AttackOfTheClones make their [[http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0294.html appearance]]. One player explains that they might work like that because of the inverse square law - by concentrating the force into a ring, more damage is done by the ring. In effect, Jango is sacrificing accuracy for power.

* The shockwave ring from the first Death Star's destruction is carried over into the parody of the scene in ''PowerpuffGirls''.

** ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures'' plays this straight however as most spaceship's in the game blow up like this. This is especially apparent when [[spoiler: Andross head]] explodes at the end of the game exactly like the Death Star did in Star Wars, complete with ship's outrunning the fireball.

* In ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'', if something is struck by the Arc-en-ciel, a spaceship weapon that distorts time and space to vaporize a target, it will produce these after it gets destroyed.

* The Special Editions of the original ''StarWars'' trilogy does this three times: once for each Death Star (vertical and horizontal rings, respectively) and once when Alderaan is destroyed. They weren't in the original versions.
** Partially justified with the Death Stars. The trench dividing the two hemispheres is weaker than the rest of the shell, which would cause a (if somewhat smaller) PlanarShockwave. However, the first Death Star exploded vertically, and the second Death Star wasn't completely built yet.
*** ''Star Wars: Attack of the Clones'' takes it one step further, with the shock bombs dropped from Jango Fett's ship: The resulting explosion is focused into a thin disk shape that seems to simply cut through the surrounding asteroids. Which given that space is three-dimensional makes them extremely ineffective weapons that only work because Obi-Wan seems not to be aware of that fact.
*** A planar shockwave has advantages: the 'blast' effect of a spherical explosion goes down with the square or the radius (4 Pi r^2). If focused into a planar one, 'blast' goes down with the radius (2Pi r). So if you can aim the shockwave, the mine has a much larger effective range.

*** This can also be used to explain the ring produced by the Death Star II in ''ReturnOfTheJedi''. According to EU materials, the second Death Star could recharge much faster than the original, so it was likely charged to full power when it blew up.

* In the Xbox version of ''CrimsonSkies'' (''High Road to Revenge''), this happens when you blow up zeppelins (despite being filled with helium).

* In the Xbox version of ''CrimsonSkies'' (''High Road to Revenge''), this happens when you blow up zeppelins (despite being filled with helium).

** We also see it exploding in the same way, but with cooler visuals, in the Adventure mode of VideoGame/SuperSmashBros. Melee.
* Tactical battles use these in ''SwordOfTheStars''.
** They are actually ''weaponized'' by Chakkars/Chakrams, where the planar shockwave is used to [[ArmorPiercingAttack slice through armor.]]

* Heavy bombs and capital ship explosions in ''{{Freespace}}'' and its sequel. The "randomly oriented" part is only when 3D shockwaves are enabled in the updated [=FreeSpace=] 2 Open engine. In the original games they were always oriented so you saw the "ring" head-on. In the first game in the series, the shockwaves even looked spherical. The explosion effect, however, is spherical.

* ''StarTrekArmada'', ''Starfleet Command'' and their respective sequels make frequent use of them. In ''Starfleet Command'', the same planar shockwave effect is used for every ship above the fighter class.

* While most explosions in the ''EscapeVelocity'' series will just be the usual yellow-orange-red atmospheric looking fireballs, the very most awesome ships and weapons exploding will make planer and ring shockwaves in pretty colors.

** ''SanFranciscoRush'' series too, where EveryCarIsAPinto and MadeOfExplodium, exploding violently with spherical fireballs in crashes.

* In ''SeriousSam'', rockets, grenades, cannonballs and ''laser beams'' send {{Planar Shockwave}}s of various sizes along the surface they explode on.

* Tactical battles in ''MasterOfOrion 3'' use these for capital ships.

* In ''TachyonTheFringe'', all spaceships go down with shockwave rings, more noticeable on large ships.

* In Neal Asher's books set in the Human Polity, there exist ''planar explosives'' which are allegedly the product of molecular engineering, which produce 2D blasts.

* Tactical battles in ''Master of Orion 3'' use these for capital ships.
* ''Star Trek: Armada'', ''Starfleet Command'' and their respective sequels make frequent use of them. In ''Starfleet Command'', the same planar shockwave effect is used for every ship above the fighter class.

* In ''Tachyon: the Fringe'', all spaceships go down with shockwave rings, more noticeable on large ships.

* Appears in an extreme long-distance panel in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', when the F'Sherl-Ganni (Gatekeepers) decide to deliberately detonate the ''t'okjith'' (trans: "very clever, but extremely dangerous thing"; a toroidal singularity trapped in the heart of a star) that was powering one of their ''buuthandi'' (trans: "very expensive thing"; sort of a DysonSphere made up of habitats slung on giant solar sails[[hottip:* :which is actually closer to Dyson's original concept than a solid shell]]) while under attack from Fleet Admiral Breya Andreyasn's forces, with their cheap wormgate-copy systems producing a ridiculous amount of missiles to force said fleet into the shockwave, with the intention of over-awing the "lesser species" by totally annihilating a multi-national fleet. [[spoiler: [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20020820.html The fleet escapes]].]] Justified by putting gravity-control devices out in the system's Kuiper Belt to ensure that when it ''does'' blow, rather than the star acting as a giant frag grenade, it rips the fabric of space/time a new one in one particular plane.

[[quoteright:200:[[StarWars http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/deathstarshockwave.jpg]]]]

** The shockwave seems to be forming an hourglass shape if viewed from the front, so it does expand at least partially accurately. But this is Armageddon, which has as much basis in real physics as the [[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} Stay Puff Marshmallow Man]].

[[AC:RealLife]]
* Because stars involved rotate at high speeds, collapsars (a form of hypernova) tend to form hourglass-and-ring shapes.
* Other supernovae look like this because the brightest ejecta forms a thin shell. You can barely see the part that's coming straight at us, but the edges (where our view is tangent to it) look very bright. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SN_1987A SN 1987A]] is a good example of this.
* A recent supernovae picture also serves as a good example of a planar explosion. This one is particularly death-starish. [[http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3111/5818422030_a1920a17b0_z.jpg Supernova 1987A]]
* As mentioned above, large nuclear explosions can look [[http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Science/Images/massive-nuclear-explosion.jpg something like this]]. However, it's just cloudlike condensation as the invisible spherical-ish shockwave passes through layers of the atmosphere where pressure and water content are right. Depending on conditions, this can produce [[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_8adFNycaanI/RiXsoHQ3d8I/AAAAAAAAAFs/FJv_0fHjPG4/s400/Bravo%2Bfireball.bmp multiple stacked rings]].
* In the 1950's, the Orion Project studied different ways of directing nuclear explosions. Certain configurations do produce planar outflows of plasma (consider a column of high-density gas in a vacuum. It can only expand towards the sides).
* There are also fireworks that have this sort of effect.
* Whenever a black hole eats a large enough star. The dying star, as it sinks below Roche's Limit and gets torn by the tidal forces, gets spread into a ring structure around the black hole, called an accretion disk. The often relativistic rotation of the hot electrically charged plasma in it creates huge magnetic fields and electric currents in the direction perpendicular to the disk's plane, ejecting all the matter in the black hole's polar region in two enormous relativistic jets, sometimes attended by the powerful bursts of gamma radiation. These "explosions" often continue for days until the whole star isn't consumed.

**** Double egregious considering Obi-Wan describes them as "sonic charges," accompanied by a blaster beam when they go off...
*** A planar shockwave has advantages: the 'blast' effect of a spherical explosion goes down with the square or the radius (4 Pi r^2). If focused into a planar one, 'blast' goes down with the radius (2Pi r). So if you can aim the shockwave, the mine has a much larger effective range.

** Not to mention EVERY exploding wraith ship. Bonus points for [[OldSchoolDogfighting making nearby ships explode too]].

** The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novel ''DeathStar'' explains the ring produced by Alderaan as the realspace shadow of a hyperspace ripple, produced as a side effect of the Death Star's superlaser being fully charged when fired. Presumably this is also the case when the Death Star itself explodes.

* The orbital laser station (the ZEUS) in ''FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithi''n explodes like this at the end of the movie.

* In ''RealLifeComics'', when [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/081024.html Tony's space station explodes]]. Given a LampshadeHanging in the following strip:

* In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Rainbow Brite once flies so fast that she causes a ''rainbow-striped'' planar shockwave.

* Possibly the earliest example of a planar shockwave is the self destruction of the Nostromo in ''{{Alien}}'' (1979). From Ripley's POV, it first forms a horizontal multicolored line and then an orange sphere appears behind/inside it. A few seconds later a horizontal shockwave of material hits her ship.