History Main / SnowyScreenOfDeath

** This also how Seth's death is handled in the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 port.

* When Snake is killed in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' the game's video fades to static.

* Averted in ''Manga/DragonBall'': the camera of the news crew remains intact, showing us that they vanished without a trace and left their clothes behind, one of the first clues heralding the arrival of the arc's villain.

* Perhaps the climax of ''VideoGame/{{EarthBound}}'''s {{final boss}} counts. There's no in-story feed, but the whole thing is such a [[BreakingTheFourthWall fourth-wall-breaking]] {{mindscrew}} that the static, snow, and final cutout has a similar effect. Also, the static is blood red.

** Auditory example in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': "Imperial troops have entered the base, Imperial troops have entered--" *kshhzzt*
*** Also from ESB, a three-dimensional example: the bridge of one of the Star Destroyers is taken out by an asteroid strike while Darth Vader (aboard the flagship) is hosting a video conference. The miniature hologram of the stricken ship's captain flickers and fades out.

* One of the [[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing novels]] had a scene where a security expert was tracking a target by which cams he shot out. Also, X-Wings and other fighters in various media have a tendency to get interrupted in mid-transition by something (up to and including the fighter) blowing up.
** Tycho Celchu was at the Imperial academy calling his family on Alderaan for his birthday when the transmission suddenly dissolved into static then went out completely. He later found out it was because the [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet had been completely destroyed]], which marked the end of his Imperial service.

How do you know that your perimeter walls have been breached or that TheSquad of bodycam-equipped {{SpaceMarine}}s you've sent into the alien monster's hive have met a messy end? The screens that were giving you a visual feed have gone full of static and the audio is just white noise, meaning that the cameras and microphones have been disabled or shredded, just like their wearers. For maximum effect, a wall of monitor screens will go snowy one by one, until the entire bank of screens is filled with static. As a bonus, CyberGreen text may indicate "Offline / No signal" for each screen.

How do you know that your perimeter walls have been breached or that the bodycam-equipped soldiers you've sent into the alien creature's hive have met a messy end? The screens that were giving you a visual feed have gone full of static and the audio is just white noise, meaning that the cameras and microphones have been disabled or shredded, like their wearers. For maximum effect, a wall of monitor screens will go snowy one by one, until the entire bank of screens is filled with static. As a bonus, CyberGreen text may indicate "Offline" for each screen.

How do you know that a perimeter has been breached or that the bodycam-equipped soldiers you've sent in the alien hive have met a messy end? The screens that were giving you a visual feed have gone full of static, meaning that the cameras have been disabled or shredded, like their wearers. For maximum effect, a wall of monitor screens will go snowy one by one, until the entire bank of screens is filled with static.

* Averted in ''Manga/{{Dragonball}}'': The camera of the news crew remains intact, showing us that they vanished without a trace and left their clothes behind, one of the first clues heralding the arrival of the arc's villain.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** In "The Stolen Earth" when Harriet Jones is [[HeroicSacrifice killed by the Daleks]] her feed turns to static. Justified in that there was a psychic link driving the video-conference.
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E3Orphan55 "Orphan 55"]] as the Dregs go on a rampage through the resort, the monitors in the security room are shown going snowy one by one. The last monitor shows a crowd of people crammed onto a teleport platform which isn't working. When that screen goes out, it's obvious what's happened to them.

** Season two episode, ''And Now For A Word'': A brief battle takes place outside the station. Twice, stray shots from the battle strike exterior cameras, producing this trope. A much-less catastrophic instance, meant more to drive the point the station was receiving collateral damage.
** Season two finale, ''The Fall Of Night'': A minor character had spent the entire season trying to find the ship that caused the death of his commander. The last shot of the season is the gun camera footage, indicating that [[CuriosityKilledTheCast he found it.]]

* In the 2009 BBC adaptation of ''Series/{{The Day of the Triffids|2009}}'', the flash of light that blinds most of mankind also causes a loss of TV signal, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ_W9b9E0DA TV technicians watch with rising alarm as all the screens go full of static]].
* In ''Series/FallingSkies'' a digital form of snow is shown during the title screen. An artist's rendition of a digital video stream getting weaker, (and being picked up with more errors) and then finally cutting out. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za7jajL-fGw]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** In ''Echoes'', you see this happening on the visual log at the ''G.F.S. Tyr''.

[[folder:Live-Action Television]]

* ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}'': The little girl communicating with a SnowyScreenOfDeath lets us know that All Is Not Well. "They're ''heee-ere''..."

* ''Film/TheRing''. Even the Dreamworks logo before the film starts suffers from it.
* Used as part of Beck's PreAssKickingOneLiner in ''Film/TheRundown''. He demands through a security camera that [[BigBad Hatcher]] and his entire army surrender, which all makes them simply point and laugh (with Hatcher holding down the intercom so Beck can hear their laughter). Beck just coldly says "Wrong answer" and the footage goes to static.

How do you know that a perimeter has been breached or that the soldiers you've sent in the alien hive have met a messy end? The screens that were giving you a visual feed have gone full of static, meaning that the cameras have been disabled or shredded, like their wearers.

* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'': The TV coverage of the military's takeover of Neo-Tokyo.

* In the intro of ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 4'', Kazuya is beating up a bunch of Mishima Commandos with camera attachments, while his father, Heihachi, watches incredolously from a chopper viewscreen (and with good reason, considering that he last saw his son when he threw him into a friggin' volcano, minutes before eruption). After using the camera on the last goon to declare his intention to 'Take it all back', Kazuya smashes his fist through the camera (and presumably the guy's head), causing the screen in Heihachi's helicopter to turn to static.

* In ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "The Stolen Earth", when Harriet Jones is [[HeroicSacrifice killed by the Daleks]] her feed turns to static. Justified in that there was a psychic link driving the video-conference.

* ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'': when General Ross's soldiers try to take on the Abomination.
* ''Film/IronMan'' has this occur a few times. First when the door to Tony and Yinsen's workshop in the 10 Rings' base is rigged with a bomb. Just as somebody opens it looking for the two, the bomb detonates and takes out one of their remote cameras. We then see the screen for that camera show static, and the boss dispatches more men. Another instance plays this with Obidiah's suit: after Tony rips out a critical piece, static accompanies the HUD shutting down.

See also CameraAbuse for cases where the camera is visibly hit or shaken and WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties for cases where somebody cuts off the camera signal. Related to InsecurityCamera, in which malfunctioning cameras are ignored. Often goes together with DeathByTransceiver.

--->'''Robin:''' That's it--all four are dead. ''(horrified look from Artemis)'' I mean the cameras!]] I'm sure the others are OK.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010''. A variation occurs during a mass breakout at Belle Reve--the monitors go all snowy because a villain with SuperStrength rips a SentryGun off its pedestal and throws it through the wall into the control room with the monitors!