History Main / RemoteVitalsMonitoring

** In a fit of cabin fever, Jim Lovell removes his biomed sensors stating "I'm sick and tired of the entire Western World knowing how my kidneys are functioning!" After the Flight Surgeon has a scare that Jim's heart has stopped, but he's clearly still talking on the radio, Haise and Schweikart also pull off their biomed sensors.
** During the initial disaster, while the astronauts are calling out all the warnings and alarms that are going off and Houston is trying to make sense of the readings they're getting, the flight surgeon notes the crew's heart rates are skyrocketing.

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. Captain Chakotay demands to be put through to the SpaceMarines sent to rescue Captain Janeway, only to be told that they're not receiving telemetering [[EverybodysDeadDave from any spacesuit outside the Voyager's hull.]] Fortunately Janeway and the few survivors of her rescue team have already entered the airlock.

* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with.]] Mission Commander Dave Bowman leaves the ''Discovery One'' spacecraft to rescue Frank Poole, which leaves only the three researchers in SuspendedAnimation aboard the interplanetary ship, plus the [[AIIsACrapshoot HAL-9000 computer]]. Each of the three "sleepers" has six vital functions monitored as real-time waveform graphs. Suddenly, an alarm sounds "Malfunction" as these waveforms blip from green to yellow. The alarm intensifies to "Critical" as, one by one, the waveforms turn red. The alarm then goes silent as all the vital signs are flatline: "Life Function Terminated." This is eventually revealed to be [[MoralEventHorizon HAL murdering the reasearchers]].

* ''Film/BlackPantherWakandaForever'': When the dive team is sent down to investigate the vibranium detector, their EKGs are being monitored from the central control room of their station. The woman on the team starts panicking when her partner disappears, causing her EKG reading to become erratic, and when both are killed, their EKG monitors turn red.
* ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'': As Captain Janek watches the camera feeds from the crews' environmental suits at his bridge station, [=EKGs=] can be seen at the lower left of each feed. This is contrasted with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot David]], who chooses to wear an environmental suit even though he's an android but whose EKG is nonfunctional.

* ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': [[PlayingWithATrope Played with.]] Mission Commander Dave Bowman leaves the ''Discovery One'' spacecraft to rescue Frank Poole, which leaves only the three researchers in SuspendedAnimation aboard the interplanetary ship, plus the [[AIIsACrapshoot HAL-9000 computer]]. Each of the three "sleepers" has six vital functions monitored as real-time waveform graphs. Suddenly, an alarm sounds "Malfunction" as these waveforms blip from green to yellow. The alarm intensifies to "Critical" as, one by one, the waveforms turn red. The alarm then goes silent as all the vital signs are flatline: "Life Function Terminated." This is eventually revealed to be [[MoralEventHorizon HAL murdering the reasearchers]].
* ''Film/{{Legion|1998}}'': The BoxedCrook soldiers are told they'll be wearing black box data recorders to evaluate their combat performance. "If you perform well, you'll get an honorable discharge." Turns out [[TestedOnHumans they're being set up as test subject opponents]] for a SuperSoldier, so their superiors have a different reason for monitoring them.

* In ''ComicBook/{{Lazarus}}'', Forever's bionic implants include ones that allow her support team to monitor her biosigns and remote control them to provide drug treatments.

* In ''WesternAnimation/DeadSpaceDownfall,'' we see the monitoring station for the [=RIGs=] attached to the ''Ishimura'''s crew. As they get torn apart by the [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Necromorphs]], the crewmembers' pictures turn from cyan to red, and play a flatline sound.

* In ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', the Colonial Marines' APC features a station where all of the Marines' camera feeds are kept up with as well as some of their vitals, with Lt. Gorman acting as MissionControl. When the xenomorphs attack in the base of the atmospheric processor, Crowe and Frost are the first two deaths, with the camera lingering on their vital sign monitors as the readings flatline. Later, after the Marines are rescued, Hudson looks at the station and sees that Apone and Dietrich's vitals are still active but weak, but Ripley says it's because they're being cocooned like the colonists, and they can't be saved.
* In ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', as Captain Janek watches the camera feeds from the crews' environmental suits at his bridge station, [=EKGs=] can be seen at the lower left of each feed. This is contrasted with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot David]], who chooses to wear an environmental suit even though he's an android but whose EKG is nonfunctional.

* In ''Film/JurassicWorld'', a team of ACU soldiers goes into the park to hunt down the ''I. rex'', with the park personnel monitoring them from the central command station. Along with a camera feed, each team member is represented by a digital picture and an EKG. When the ''I. rex'' attacks, the team leader's EKG flatlines after he's crushed, and other members flatline as they're killed.
* In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', when the ''Kelvin''[='s=] captain leaves the ship to meet with Nero on the ''Narada'', his vitals are kept up with on a screen on the bridge, the officer watching it noting that his heartbeat is elevated. The vital readout changes to "TERMINATED" in bright red immediately after Nero kills the captain.
* [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]] in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey''. Mission Commander Dave Bowman leaves the ''Discovery One'' spacecraft to rescue Frank Poole, which leaves only the three researchers in SuspendedAnimation aboard the interplanetary ship, plus the [[AIIsACrapshoot HAL-9000 computer]]. Each of the three "sleepers" has six vital functions monitored as real-time waveform graphs. Suddenly, an alarm sounds "Malfunction" as these waveforms blip from green to yellow. The alarm intensifies to "Critical" as, one by one, the waveforms turn red. The alarm then goes silent as all the vital signs are flatline: "Life Function Terminated." This is eventually revealed to be [[MoralEventHorizon HAL murdering the reasearchers]].
* In the 1998 BMovie ''Film/{{Legion|1998}}'' (basically ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' InSpace), the BoxedCrook soldiers are told they'll be wearing black box data recorders to evaluate their combat performance. "If you perform well, you'll get an honorable discharge." Turns out [[TestedOnHumans they're being set up as test subject opponents]] for a SuperSoldier, so their superiors have a different reason for monitoring them.

* ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'': During his break-in into the Fowl manor, BoxedCrook Mulch Diggums is fitted with an iris-cam (basically a high-tech contact lens) that allows Foaly to monitor Mulch's vision and vital signs (and more importantly, track him down if he attempts to escape). After his job is done, Mulch digs into a rabbit burrow, starts shaking around and yelling that there's a cave-in, and puts the cam on the rabbit's eye before it dies to fake his death. Foaly notices "Mulch's" heart rate hitting that of a rabbit right after the iris-cam is transferred, and in the second book, he and Holly start investigating the possibility that Mulch survived.
* This sets up the plot of ''Literature/TheMartian''. Mark Watney is struck by debris during a storm which had forced the Mars expedition to leave early. His fellow astronauts detect a suit decompression accompanied by a loss of telemetry, causing them to think he's either dead or soon will be (they've no time to search as they have to liftoff at once). Turns out the debris destroyed his biomonitor and impaled Watney, but the blood sealed the breach in his spacesuit long enough for Watney to wake up and fix the damage.

* An episode of ''Series/BarneyMiller'' has an experimental stress monitor being tested at the precinct. Dietrich wears it while on assignment. At one point, the readings start displaying erratic numbers followed by a {{Flatline}}. Everyone fears the worst until Dietrich returns to the station. It turns out he had encountered a woman with a fire hose which ended up shorting out the sensors.

* At the start of each round of ''VideoGame/{{Phasmophobia}}'', the players begin in their van. In addition to any gear the team brought with them, there's a readout showing the sanity of all the players (the nearest thing to HP, since it decides if the ghost will initiate a hunt, and getting caught's a OneHitKill) and a monitor showing a feed from any cameras on the map, including [[POVCam player mounted headcams]]. If there's more than one player in the game, they can basically stay safe in the van and serve as a VoiceWithAnInternetConnection, freeing the rest to carry crucifixes and other gear to protect themselves.
* When the squad is all together in ''VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'', the NPC members health, location, and current task is displayed on the lower left of the player's HUD. Green means full health, and as they take damage, their icons change to yellow, then orange, and finally red when they're incapacitated. You can revive them if you can get to them though.

* In the 1998 BMovie ''Legion'' (basically ''Film/TheDirtyDozen'' InSpace), the BoxedCrook soldiers are told they'll be wearing black box data recorders to evaluate their combat performance. "If you perform well, you'll get an honorable discharge." Turns out [[TestedOnHumans they're being set up as test subject opponents]] for a SuperSoldier, so their superiors have a different reason for monitoring them.

One prominent way that this is done is through a station where the vitals of each team member are prominently displayed, usually accompanied by a camera feed from one or more of them. This allows the person monitoring the station and other relevant people to track the health of the team and, if needed, order them to withdraw should their lifesigns start going awry. This station is usually located either in the crew's HomeBase or its AwesomePersonnelCarrier, and the team's MissionControl is often in charge of it.

Note that this trope is specifically for monitoring someone's signals through scientific (or at least sci-fi) means. Monitoring through fantastical means (such as a HiveMind or other PsychicLink, or sensing a disturbance in the BackgroundMagicField) would be covered by MySignificanceSenseIsTingling.

* When the squad is all together in ‘’VideoGame/StarWarsRepublicCommando'', the NPC members health, location, and current task is displayed on the lower left of the player’s HUD. Green means full health, and as they take damage, their icons change to yellow, then orange, and finally red when they’re incapacitated. You can revive them if you can get to them though.

* ''Series/Batwoman2019. One of the many features of the multi-million dollar Batsuit. In "The Rabbit Hole", Luke Fox at MissionControl realises Kate Kane's vitals have stopped and remotely-activates a built-in defibrillator to start her heart again.

* This sets up the plot of ''Literature/TheMartian''. Mark Watney is struck by debris during a storm which had forced the Mars expedition to leave early. His fellow astronauts detect a suit decompression accompanied by a loss of telemetry, causing them to think he's either dead or soon will be (they've no time to search as they have to liftoff at once). Turns out the debris impaled Watney and destroyed his transmitter, yet also plugged the wound so his spacesuit integrity remained mostly intact giving Watney time to wake up and fix the damage.

* This sets up the plot of ''Literature/TheMartian''. Mark Watney's vitals flatline when he's struck by debris during the duststorm which forced the Mars expedition to leave early. As a result everyone assumes he's dead and leave him behind on Mars rather than abort the liftoff. Turns out they flatlined because the debris impaled Watney and destroyed his sensor, yet also plugged the wound so his spacesuit integrity was mostly intact.

* ''Literature/TheMartian'': Mark Watney's vitals on Mars flatline, which leads Mission Control back on Earth to assume that he's dead. Turns out they flatlined because a piece of debris destroyed his sensor.

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. Captain Chakotay demands to be put through to the SpaceMarines sent to rescue Captain Janeway, only to be told that they're not receiving telemetering [[EverybodysDeadDave from any spacesuit outside the Voyager's hull.]]

->*''Hudson looks at the vitals monitors in the APC''*\\

* ''they start arguing about the rescue''*\\

* ''VideoGame/AmongUs'': Both the Office in the Polus map and Medical in the Airship map feature a Vitals station; living players have a green graph which reads "OK" and shows their EKG, dead players' graphs are in red and show a flatline, and for players that died in previous rounds, their graphs read "D/C" and have no graph at all. Players can use this to check if any other players have been killed, with decisions to call emergency meetings sometimes coming from what's shown.

* In the Polus map in ''VideoGame/AmongUs'', the Office features a Vitals station; living players have a green graph which reads "OK" and shows their EKG, dead players' graphs are in red and show a flatline, and for players that died in previous rounds, their graphs read "D/C" and have no graph at all. Players can use this to check if any other players have been killed, with decisions to call emergency meetings sometimes coming from what's shown.

* In ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'', as Captain Janek watches the camera feeds from the crews' environmental suits at his bridge station, EKGs can be seen at the lower left of each feed. This is contrasted with [[RidiculouslyHumanRobot David]], who chooses to wear an environmental suit even though he's an android but whose EKG is nonfunctional.

->*''Hudson looks at the vitals monitors in the APC''*
->'''Hudson:''' Hey...hey, look. The Sarge and Dietrich aren't dead, man. Their signs are real low but they ain't dead, man!
->'''Vasquez:''' Then we go back in there and get them!
->*''they start arguing about the rescue''*
->'''Ripley:''' You can't help them! You can't. Right now, they're being cocooned just like the others.

[[folder:Film - Animated]]

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

** In "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E2Flashback Flashback]]", Tuvok used one so the Doctor could get a complete encephalographic profile for him to try to treat his mental breakdown.
** Seven of Nine used one twice. In "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS6E26S7E1UnimatrixZero Unimatrix Zero (part 1)]]", it was so the Doctor could track her REM sleep and try to alleviate her nightmares about Unimatrix Zero. In "[[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E2Imperfection Imperfection]]", it was to track the performance of her malfunctioning cortical node.

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Indexes: StockVisualMetaphors, NarrativeDevices, {{Settings}}(?)

One prominent way that this is done is through a station where the vitals of each team member are prominently displayed, usually accompanied by a camera feed from one or more of them. This allows the person monitoring the station and other relevant people to track the health of the team and, if needed, order them to withdraw should their life signs start going awry. This station is usually located either in the crew's HomeBase or its AwesomePersonnelCarrier, and the team's MissionControl is often in charge of it.

* ''Series/{{Search}}'' has three field agents, Lockwood, Grover, and Bianco, conduct clandestine missions. Each agent has been issued an EverythingSensor that's about the size of a watch dial. Among its many features, this sensor can monitor the vital signs of the agent, which is one duty of Probe Control's BridgeBunnies. One weakness of this sensor is that if two or more sensors come close together, their signals will overlap, rendering their data unusable.

* In ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'', the Doctor has made use of the [[https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Neurocortical_monitor cortical monitor]] (affectionately referred to by SFDebris as a "neck thingie") on several occasions to track patient's vitals when they're not in Sickbay. Specific instances include:

* ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' featured a short story by "Azpiri" about a project that can transmit the conscious mind of an explorer into the body of another person, even one that died centuries ago. The explorer is sent into Galilee and awakens in the body of Jesus Christ, who shambles out of his grave. The science team for the project closely monitor the subject's vital signs, including his emotional state. The explorer can somehow transfer his consciousness to bystanders and ends up in the body of someone wracked with guilt and fear. This fellow flees the throng around Jesus and goes to hang himself. The project team anxiously await an opportunity to retrieve the explorer before Judas Iscariot ends his own life, presumably taking the explorer's life with him.

* In the Polus map in ''VideoGame/AmongUs'', the Office features a Vitals station; living players have a green graph which reads "OK" and shows their EKG, while dead players' graphs are in red and show a flatline. Players can use this to check if any other players have been killed, with decisions to call emergency meetings sometimes coming from what's shown.

One prominent way that this is done is through a station where the vitals of each team member are prominently displayed, usually accompanied by a camera feed from one or more of them. This allows the person monitoring the station and other relevant people to track the health of the team and, if needed, order them to withdraw should their lifesigns start going awry. This station is usually located either in the crew's HomeBase or its AwesomePersonnelCarrier, and the team's MissionControl is often in charge of it.

* ''Series/{{Search}}'' has three field agents, Lockwood, Grover and Bianco, conduct clandestine missions. Each agent has been issued an EverythingSensor that's about the size of a watch dial. Among its many features, this sensor can monitor the vital signs of the agent, which is one duty of Probe Control's BridgeBunnies. One weakness of this sensor is that if two or more sensors come close together, their signals will overlap, rendering their data unusable.

* ''Magazine/HeavyMetal'' featured a short story by "Azpiri" about a project that can transmit the conscious mind of an explorer into the body of another person, even one that died centuries ago. The explorer is sent into Galilee, and awakens in the body of Jesus Christ, who shambles out of his grave. The science team for the project closely monitor the subject's vital signs, including his emotional state. The explorer can somehow transfer his consciousness to bystanders, and ends up in the body of someone wracked with guilt and fear. This fellow flees the throng around Jesus, and goes to hang himself. The project team anxiously await an opportunity to retrieve the explorer before Judas Iscariot ends his own life, presumably taking the explorer's life with him.