History Main / PlanarShockWave

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'': Strong Bad enjoys (causing) these, enough that he considers "coolest explosion I ever saw that had one of those blast-wavy Saturn rings around it that've become so popular lately." as an entire category of the best explosions he's ever seen/caused.

* Some anti-aircraft missiles work kind of like this. Instead of simply exploding, the missile's warhead will propel an expanding ring of flying rods that can cut an airplane in half. Read more [[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous-rod_warhead here.]]

* In ''Webcomic/DarthsAndDroids'', which loosely follows the plot of the ''Star Wars'' 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.

Possibly a subtrope of TwoDSpace. See also ExplosionsInSpace for other ways media gets explosions in vacuum wrong.

** The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novel ''Literature/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, as it was literally seconds away from firing on Yavin IV when it was destroyed. This can also be used to explain the ring produced by the Death Star II in ''Film/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.

Possibly a subtrope of {{Two-D Space}}. See also ExplosionsInSpace for other ways media gets explosions in vacuum wrong.

!!Examples

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* The destruction of [[spoiler:the black hole]] at the end of ''Diebuster'' spawns a small, rainbow-colored one that promptly twists into an infinity sign before fading away.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* Possibly the earliest example of a planar shockwave is the self destruction of the Nostromo in ''Film/{{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.

* The Special Editions of the original ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy do 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) Planar Shockwave. However, the first Death Star exploded vertically, and the second Death Star wasn't completely built yet.
*** ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' 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. It is worth noting however that Jango used the charges specifically to blow apart the asteroids they were flying through, making the fact that he happened to have these charges [[ContrivedCoincidence very fortunate indeed]].
*** A planar shockwave has advantages: the 'blast' effect of a spherical explosion goes down with the square of the radius (4 Pi r[[superscript: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.
*** [[AllThereInTheManual According to Wookieepedia]], the shields on anything smaller than a capital ship would be unable to defend against these charges, supporting this idea that the planar shockwave is in order to produce a much more powerful blast.
** The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novel ''Literature/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, as it was literally seconds away from firing on Yavin IV when it was destroyed.
*** This can also be used to explain the ring produced by the Death Star II in ''Film/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.
* ''Film/{{Stargate}}'' features one when Ra's ship blows up.
** This might be acceptable given the shape of the ship. ''Might''.
*** Actually, a better explanation would be the fact that it was sitting on a platform, surrounded by a ring of the as-yet-unnamed material the Stargates were made of, something that was explicitly stated would enhance the blast.
*** In fact, there are two ''examples'' from the same explosion. In the immediate detonation a streak of light appears across the screen which is ''exactly'' horizontal, despite being seen from two different perspectives (from space, where it doesn't align with either the ship or the planet, and from the ground where it aligns with the horizon). After this explosion has been witnessed by the cast, a ''second'' effect shows a more traditional Planar Shockwave, this time in the plane of Ra's ship.

* ''Film/WingCommander''

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* Though averted in ''Series/StargateSG1'' in favor of the usual (equally unlikely) space fireballs, ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' used a planar shockwave when the Asuran homeworld explodes.
** Not to mention EVERY exploding wraith ship. Bonus points for [[OldSchoolDogfight making nearby ships explode too]].

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* Shows up in the explosion of Zebes in the ending to ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid''.

[[AC:WebComics]]

* In ''Webcomic/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.

[[AC:WebOriginal]]
* [[WebAnimation/HomestarRunner Strong Bad]] enjoys (causing) these, enough that he considers "coolest explosion I ever saw that had one of those blast-wavy Saturn rings around it that've become so popular lately." as an entire category of the best explosions he's ever seen/caused.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

[[AC:RealLife]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', the main weapon of Megatanks is a vertical planar shockwave.

*** A planar shockwave has advantages: the 'blast' effect of a spherical explosion goes down with the square or the radius (4 Pi r[[superscript: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.

** We also see Zebes exploding in the same way, but with cooler visuals, in the Adventure mode of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros. Melee''.

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

* In ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}: Cataclysm'', the good guys' {{BFG}} creates one of those upon impact. Also used for explosions of the largest class of spaceships. Explosions have spherical effects, however, regardless of the visual.

* 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.

* In a ''SpaceCases'' episode, the two-dimensional shockwave of two exploding Spung battlecruisers (due to double DeadlyDodging) destroys the third one.

* Used {{egregious}}ly in the ''Film/WingCommander'' theatrical release, in which a character fails to [[OutrunTheFireball outrun a shockwave]] which is half the height of her fighter craft. Despite being the squadron commander, the idea of glancing behind her and pulling up never occurs to her.

** Probably justified in this case. The game takes place on Earth's surface, where gravity allows planar shockwaves to actually happen.

* ''VideoGame/WingCommander Prophecy'' uses an upgraded graphics engine compared to previous games, and is the first game in the series to use 3D acceleration. Among the new visuals is a planar shockwave effect that randomly occurs when a fighter craft explodes. The orientation of the effect appears to be random.

*** In fact, there are two ''examples'' from the same explosion. In the immediate detonation a streak of light appears across the screen which is ''exactly'' horizontal, despite being see from two different perspectives (from space, where it doesn't align with either the ship or the planet, and from the ground where it aligns with the horizon). After this explosion has been witnessed by the cast, a ''second'' effect shows a more traditional Planar Shockwave, this time in the plane of Ra's ship.

* In ''Anime/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.

* ''Star Wars: RogueSquadron'' and its sequels feature these whenever a starfighter explodes in mid-air.
* Shows up in the explosion of Zebes in the ending to ''Super {{Metroid}}''.

** The [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]] novel ''Literature/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.

*** ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' 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.

**** [[AllThereInTheManual According to Wookieepedia]], the shields on anything smaller than a capital ship would be unable to defend against these charges, supporting this idea that the planar shockwave is in order to produce a much more powerful blast.

*** In fact, there are two ''examples'' from the same explosion. In the immediate detonation a streak of light appears across the screen which is ''exactly'' horizontal, despite being see from two different perspectives (from space, where it doesn't align with either the ship or the plant, and from the ground where it aligns with the horizon). After this explosion has been witnessed by the cast, a ''second'' effect shows a more traditional Planar Shockwave, this time in the plane of Ra's ship.

*** In fact, there are two ''examples'' from the same explosion. In the immediate detonation a streak of light appears across the screen which is ''exactly'' horizontal, despite being see from two different perspectives (from space, where is doesn't align with either the ship or the plant, and from the ground where it aligns with the horizon). After this explosion has been witnessed by the cast, a ''second'' effect shows a more traditional Planar Shockwave, this time in the plane of Ra's ship.

Perhaps this is done because the expected near-spherical explosions don't feel as big, or because a two-dimensional shockwave resembles that of powerful explosions on earth. In theory, it ''could'' be {{Hand Wave}}d by being an effect of the method of ArtificialGravity, or some kind of rotating generator exploding, or plasma trapped by some great magnetic field... but it usually just gets a pass due to being an [[RuleOfCool awesome]] visual.[[note]]It should be said that a shockwave is something produced by the force of the explosion pushing air away from the epicenter of the explosion. Since [[CaptainObvious there is no air in space]], it is theoretically impossible for a shockwave to propagate in a vacuum.[[/note]]

Perhaps this is done because the expected near-spherical explosions don't feel as big, or because a two-dimensional shockwave resembles that of powerful explosions on earth. In theory, it ''could'' be {{Hand Wave}}d by being an effect of the method of ArtificialGravity, or some kind of rotating generator exploding, or plasma trapped by some great magnetic field... but it usually just gets a pass due to being an [[RuleOfCool awesome]] visual.

* The Special Editions of the original ''Franchise/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.

Perhaps this is done because the expected near-spherical explosion don't feel as big, or because a two-dimensional shockwave resembles that of powerful explosions on earth. In theory, it ''could'' be {{Hand Wave}}d by being an effect of the method of ArtificialGravity, or some kind of rotating generator exploding, or plasma trapped by some great magnetic field... but it usually just gets a pass due to being an [[RuleOfCool awesome]] visual.

* Visual planar shockwaves result from a number of different types of explosions in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', though in most cases the actual force of the explosion radiates in all directions. Probably the most commonly seen is the death animation of Romulan warbirds. They get sucked into their own drive singularity, which then explodes in a green planar shockwave as it decays.