History Main / SilentRunningMode

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Anime/CaptainHarlock: Arcadia of My Youth'' features an episode running largely on SubStory tropes. Captain Harlock's starship has to hide from the Illumidas on a planet covered by a corrosive ocean. The ''Arcadia'' is strong enough to resist immersion, but the enemy ships aren't (two of them explode after trying). The acid is also scrambling all method of detection except for sonar; hence the crew has to stay silent to avoid being located or be attacked by depth charges from the remaining enemy ship.
%%** ''Anime/MartianSuccessorNadesico'' has its own "Balance/Enemy Below" episode that reference both the original and the remake ''Film/TheEnemyBelow''. It was also a bit silly.

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* One of the few contemporary ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}'' stories "The Silent Strike", has a combined SBS and SAS team adopting gas-electric hybrid snowmobiles; using the petrol engine for the approach, and the electric engine for a surprise attack when the target is expecting them to be infiltrating slowly on foot.

* In ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'', your spaceship does ''not'' have this feature, which is a problem, since [[spoiler:the anglerfish of Dark Bramble are blind but have very keen hearing, and fully three of them are blocking the route to a story-critical location. The solution then is to simply not engage your ship's thrusters when near the monsters, relying on inertia to let you slowly drift past them, right in front of their gaping jaws. This is exactly as nerve-wracking as it sounds even in normal circumstances, and it makes getting the GoldenEnding particularly excruciating, since it's a TimedMission.]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* Possible, but rarely used in the ''Videogame/MechWarrior'' series. Mechs could shut down completely to remove themselves from electronic detection. This wouldn't make you invisible, but a good observation point could let you set up an ambush. ''Mechwarrior 4'' and ''Living Legends'' also allows players to flip their EnemyDetectingRadar from "Active" to "Passive"; passive mechs are very difficult to detect, but lose almost all of their radar range and cannot establish missile locks. The effects of passive radar can be stacked with a friendly Angel ECM bubble in ''Living Legends'', rendering a mech completely invisible to all forms of radar. ''Living Legends'' also has Stealth Armor, unique to the "Anubis" StealthExpert mech, which grants it a tiny radar signature ''and'' full-powered standard radar, at the cost of sealing up the mech's coolant ports, making it vulnerable to OverHeating with reckless weapon use.

Sometimes the only way to survive against the enemy's ships is to be stealthy. In this situation, the ship and crew tries to be as quiet as possible, knowing that the slightest sound and/or energy reading could be picked up by the enemy's sensors and draw their fire. This often involves deactivating all non-essential systems on the ship for awhile.

This trope is almost invariably featured in a SubStory. This trope has also been RecycledInSpace, and many a CoolStarship has been called upon to do submarine-style silent running. Often this depends on the unrealistic conviction that [[SpaceIsNoisy there is sound in space]], but it could be denoted as [[StealthInSpace minimizing heat discharge or something similar to prevent detection by sensors]]. Not to be confused with the film ''Film/SilentRunning''.

* Given that Creator/GlenCook's ''Passage at Arms'' is basically a [[RecycledINSPACE Sci-Fi retelling]] of ''Film/DasBoot'', it's not surprising at all that it has this trope up the wazoo. Cook even invents a special spaceship type for this, a so-called "climber", that "climbs" into the higher levels of hyperspace inaccessible to other types of ships. In his typical ShownTheirWork fashion he amply lampshades that the main problem for such ships is overheating.

** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" is a virtual [[RecycledInSpace remake]] of the 1957 film ''Film/TheEnemyBelow''.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''[[Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan The Wrath of Khan]]'' uses the nebula as a variant. Its radiation scrambles the sensors of both ships.
** Also ''[[Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry The Undiscovered Country]]'' which has a Klingon Bird of Prey that can fire while cloaked -- Uhura even says, "If she's here, she's rigged for silent running."
%%* "Hide and seek" in ''Film/TheLastStarfighter''.

* Done twice in ''Film/MasterAndCommander''. First, Captain Aubrey has his men tow a crippled HMS ''Surprise'' into the fog to avoid further bombardment by the French frigate, ''Acheron''. Then later when ''Acheron'' sneaks up on the Surprise again, Captain Aubrey uses a decoy to distract his opponents and keeps the lights of the stern at the Surprise well doused, all the while running a course east in order to bring the ship on ''Acheron'''s tail the very next morning.
* ''Film/BlueThunder'' had this as one of the features of the eponymous helicopter.
* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', the Batmobile has a stealth mode, which involves cutting to an all-electric engine and turning off all exterior lights, and instead navigating by some kind of sensor system. Despite being right in the middle of several cop cars on a two-lane highway, somehow nobody notices the gigantic all-terrain military vehicle slipping between them. To be fair, it was night and most of the streetlights were out, but still ...
* Done in ''Film/RunSilentRunDeep'' by both the crew of the USS ''Nerva'' and, later, by the Japanese submarine that was hunting them. This sets up a suspenseful sequence in which both the ''Nerva'' and the Japanese sub go quiet and even cut their engines, eventually drifting just past each other underwater.
* In ''The Enemy Below'' a German sub is playing a cat and mouse game with an American cruiser. At one point the hiding underwater is getting to the Germans and one goes nuts. The Captain puts on music and gets all of his men to sing, which can be heard by the cruiser on their hydrophones. The Americans think they've gone nuts, but the American captain sees what is happening.
* During a face-off with a Russian submarine in ''Film/CrimsonTide'', the USS Alabama -- running silent -- attempts to float its communications buoy and retrieve the rest of a disrupted message. The buoy rises slowly and silently as both crews wait for the other to make a move, and then the spool binds up, [[OhCrap sending a very audible screech through the water.]]
* ''Film/InventionForDestruction'': While attempting to sneak through the undersea tunnel into the VolcanoLair, the reconnaissance sub encounters [[SubmarinePirates the pirate submarine]] coming the other way. The commander orders the helmsman to cut all engines and allow the sub to sink to the bottom.

* ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy''. Karrde starts out ''Dark Force Rising'' hiding on an asteroid, watching the Empire take over Myrkr. He only gets caught because Thrawn knows Karrde is exactly the sort of person to do that—Thrawn specifically tells Captain Pellaeon ''not'' to initiate a focused scan of the asteroid, which would have revealed Karrde's ship but would also have tipped Karrde off and let him escape (similar to an active ping on a submarine). Karrde only escapes because his Force-sensitive copilot turned everything back on before Thrawn's Interdictor Cruisers finished generating a gravity well trap.
** There's a point in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' where our heroes, on the run from the Empire, set down on an airless rock, power down every system they can spare, and watch a Star Destroyer pass overhead.

* In Stephen Baxter's Literature/XeeleeSequence novel ''Exultant'', when an asteroid base goes into stealth mode, everyone around the base is quiet. One character points out that there's no reason for this, but another responds that it's purely psychological--being quiet helps everyone feel that they're being stealthy.
* ''Literature/WorldWarZ''. Attempted during a battle between two Chinese submarines. Underwater zombies mess it up.
* Given that Creator/GlenCook's ''Passage at Arms'' is basically a [[RecycledINSPACE Sci-Fi retelling]] of ''Film/DasBoot'', it's not surprising at all that it has this trope up the wazoo. Cook even invents a special spaceship type for this, a so-called "climber", that "climbs" into the higher levels of hyperspace inaccessible to other types of ships. In his typical ShownTheirWork fashion he amply lampshades that the main problem for such ships is overheating.

* In ''[[Literature/HorusHeresy Deliverance Lost]]'', the ''Avenger'' sneaks out of the Isstvan system by shutting down almost every system, leaving the crew cold and dark for days. It's not explicitly stated how it helps escape detection, but a reasonable assumption is that the ship is minimizing its electromagnetic signature.
* In ''Literature/ArkRoyal'', the titular ship engages in this tactic occasionally with mixed success. The first time, it helps that the fleet also uses drones to mimic the signatures of carriers to fool the enemy. However, the alien stealth systems are ''much'' more effective, although humans quickly figure out how to, at least, approximate their location by certain weak emissions.

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E14BalanceOfTerror Balance of Terror]]" is a virtual [[RecycledInSpace remake]] of the 1957 film ''Film/TheEnemyBelow''.
** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS6E13FaceOfTheEnemy Face of the Enemy]]" specifies that a Romulan ship's systems have to be perfectly balanced and calibrated in order for its cloaking device to work; this was exploited when a Federation sympathizer created an engine imbalance to "poke a hole" in the cloak and allow Enterprise to detect it.
** In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', the show's main CoolShip, the ''Defiant'', had a cloaking device. Since in the earlier seasons the BigBad Dominion had weaponry that could easily destroy Federation starships, the Defiant's only real defense upon being approached by a Jem'Hadar ship was to cloak, go to SilentRunningMode and pray they weren't noticed. The Jem'Hadar started scanning with a form of radiation that no Alpha Quadrant spacefaring power used; accordingly, the Romulan officer who was acting as trainer/consultant didn't know if the cloaking device would block it; it didn't. Presumably, the next generation of cloaking devices did. Add in that the cloak added in with the overpowered weapons, shields, and sensors made even "cloaked silent running" a difficulty because of the sheer power the Defiant requires for its size.

* ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' liked to do this all the time. Well, not literally ''all'' the time, because then they wouldn't get to draw attention to it, but that switch was flipped fairly often. One episode involved a group of criminals infiltrating a base in a helicopter (a normal one). They did this by shutting off the engine just before getting close, letting the inertia of the spinning rotor land them safely without making much noise. This actually tips Hawke about the identity of the criminals, as this trick was pioneered by him and his brother during UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar.

* A rare version from the Age of Sail. In the ''Series/HoratioHornblower'' TV series, Hornblower manages to sail his tiny cutter into the middle of the Spanish fleet in some fog. He tries to do some damage control by DressingAsTheEnemy and being very quiet. They sail under the French colours and wear remnants of French uniforms and clothes as French and Spanish are allies. It ''almost'' works. Unfortunately, on one of the Spanish ships, there is an officer who knew that ''La Reve'' was captured by the British.

* Possible, but rarely used in the ''Videogame/MechWarrior'' series. Mechs could shut down completely to remove themselves from electronic detection. This wouldn't make you invisible, but a good observation point could let you set up an ambush. ''Mechwarrior 4'' and ''Living Legends'' also allows players to flip their EnemyDetectingRadar from "Active" to "Passive"; passive mechs are very difficult to detect, but lose almost all of their radar range and cannot establish missile locks. The effects of passive radar can be stacked with a friendly Angel ECM bubble in ''Living Legends'', rendering a mech completely invisible to all forms of radar. ''Living Legends'' also has Stealth Armor, unique to the "Anubis" StealthExpert mech, which grants it a tiny radar signature ''and'' full-powered standard radar, at the cost of sealing up the mech's coolant ports, making it vulnerable to OverHeating with reckless weapon use.
* ''VideoGame/{{Starsiege}}'' has a more traditional variant. You can, for the most part, 'run silent' through a combination of switching your radar to passive detection and using heat/energy signature dampeners like the thermal diffuser. Using an InvisibilityCloak outright actually made this tactic ''more'' effective, not less, because one of the cloak's secondary effects reduces some of your emissions as well. Specific radar types actually encouraged running silent constantly, so as to remain as sneaky and hard to detect as possible. This was generally not necessary in singleplayer, but was incredibly effective in multiplayer.

* Included in the VideoGame/SilentHunterSeries, and frequently necessary for survival.
* All {{Stealth Based Mission}}s involve this in ''VideoGame/NexusTheJupiterIncident''.
** Ditto for ''VideoGame/StarTrekBridgeCommander''.
* ''VideoGame/ShatteredHorizon'' allows players to switch off the non-essential systems of their suits to avoid giving off light, showing up on radar, or being affected by EMP grenades. However, doing so disables the suit's thrusters, HUD, and audio simulation, so if you're spotted you're pretty much a sitting duck until you can get it switched back on.

* ''Videogame/EliteDangerous'' allows starships to enter silent running by closing all their heat radiators. The ship will quickly [[OverHeating begin to overheat]], requiring that most systems including the ''life support'' be shut down to keep heat output low. Low heat levels will ''significantly'' reduce your radar signature, though enemies within 300 meters can still pick you up. Smugglers often take the most extreme measures to remain hidden from police when docking, such as flying through the station airlock at max speed with every single system on their ship shut down in order to evade detection.
* ''Videogame/FromTheDepths'' has detection systems (like radar) for vessels which will massively improve their accuracy at the cost of lighting them up like a Christmas tree to sensors. Passive detection systems exist which can only pick up active sensors but have negligible emissions. Submarines in particular field mostly passive systems; you'll know there's one there, but your cannons won't be able to get a bead on it. Automated Control Blocks can disable and enable sensors on demand, so a fleeing ship can kill its sensors to reduce pursuer accuracy.
* In ''Videogame/{{Subnautica}}'', the Cyclops can be rigged for silent running to avoid detection from predators. Doing so also turns off the exterior floodlights and causes the interior lighting to turn red. The submarine is effectively invisible while Silent Running is active-predators won't notice the sub even if they swim straight into it! The trade-off is the Silent Running mode will drain the Cyclops' power ''extremely'' quickly, so it can only realistically be used for a short time.

%%* Ditto ''Series/BlueThunder'', the other show about a super-advanced helicopter.

* ''Anime/CaptainHarlock: Arcadia of My Youth'' features an episode running largely on SubStory tropes. Captain Harlock's starship has to hide from the Illumidas on a planet covered by a corrosive ocean. The ''Arcadia'' is strong enough to resist immersion, but the enemy ships aren't (two of them explode after trying). The acid is also scrambling all method of detection except for sonar; hence the crew has to stay silent to avoid being located or be attacked by deep charges from the remaining enemy ship.

[[folder:Comics]]

** The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Balance of Terror." A virtual [[RecycledInSpace remake]] of the 1957 film ''Film/TheEnemyBelow''.
** The ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Face of the Enemy" specifies that a Romulan ship's systems have to be perfectly balanced and calibrated in order for its cloaking device to work; this was exploited when a Federation sympathiser created an engine imbalance to "poke a hole" in the cloak and allow Enterprise to detect it.

** In the pilot episode, the characters had to do this against the Alliance to keep from getting boarded and searched as they do some illegal salvage -- unfortunately for our heroes, their residual heat signature is still detected so they have to escape by throwing out a decoy.

* One of the few contemporary ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}'' stories "The Silent Strike", has a combined SBS and SAS team using gas-electric hybrid snowmobiles, using the petrol engine for the approach, and the electric engine for a surprise attack when the target is expecting them to be infiltrating slowly on foot.

* One of the few contemporary ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}'' stories "The Silent Strike", has a combined SBS and SAS team using gas-electric hybrid snowmobiles, using the petrol engine for the approach, and the electric for a surprise attack when the target is expecting them to be infiltrating on foot.

* ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy''. Kaarde starts out ''Dark Force Rising'' hiding on an asteroid, watching the Empire take over Myrkr. He only gets caught because Thrawn knows Kaarde is exactly the sort of person to do that, and he only escapes because his Force-sensitive copilot turned everything back on before Thrawn's Interdictor Cruisers finished generating a gravity well trap.

** Thrawn specifically tells Captain Pellaeon ''not'' to initiate a focused scan of the asteroid, which would have revealed Kaarde's ship but would also have tipped Kaarde off and let him escape (similar to an active ping on a submarine).

--->'''Michelle Henke:''' All things considered, Her Grace's plan may not have been the single rashest, most foolhardy, do-or-die, all-or-nothing throw of the dice in the history of the Royal Manticoran �- or Grayson -� Navy. If it wasn't, however, I have so far failed to find the plan that ''was''.
** Later, the [[spoiler:Mesan Alignment]] develops ships that use a new type of propulsion that is completely invisible to gravitic sensors, the so-called Spider drive (it uses incredibly powerful {{Tractor Beam}}s to pull itself towards the [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]] wall (which is everywhere). These new types of ships are, essentially, this 'verse's equivalent of submarines. Slow and fragile (no impeller wedges or [[DeflectorShield sidewalls]]), but hidden and capable of dealing great destruction without advance warning. The [[spoiler:Mesans]] also make sure the ship is as invisible to non-gravitic sensors as possible.

* In ''Film/BatmanBegins'', the Batmobile has a stealth mode. Despite being right in the middle of several cop cars on a two-lane highway, somehow nobody notices the gigantic all-terrain military vehicle. To be fair, it was night and most of the streetlights were out, but still ...

* In ''Videogame/{{Subnautica}}'', the Cyclops can be rigged for silent running to avoid detection from predators. Doing so also turns off the exterior floodlights and causes the interior lighting to turn red. The submarine is effectively invisible while Silent Running is active-predators won't notice the sub even if they swim straight into it!

** Later in the movie, the ''Dallas'' successfully locates the ''Red October'' despite her silent propulsion and is tailing her in her baffles (a sonar blind spot) when she pulls a sharp turn called a "Crazy Ivan" to see if anything's behind her. Mancuso immediately orders "All stop, quick quiet!"

* The ''Normandy'' of ''Franchise/MassEffect'' can briefly use one of these. Stealth in ''Mass Effect'' consists of trapping EM radiation in heatsinks, making it invisible to detection systems. The duration of silent running is limited to how much energy the sinks can store; if they exceed capacity, they will discharge into the ship itself, cooking the crew.

** This becomes a minor plot point in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. During Legion's loyalty mission, Legion informs Joker to engage the stealth systems of the Normandy SR-2 and approach a Geth space station. Joker brings up the fact that the ship is still ''visible'' despite the stealth system and they could look out windows and still see the Normandy. Legion responds that Geth (being a race of sentient AI) do not use windows on their vessels, as they're a structural weakness, relying entirely on detection systems.