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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/EventHorizon https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/vfpegqe.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Let's hope the crew is brighter than the room.]]
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One thing that we know for certain about the future and of alien species waiting for us out in the universe: None of them have discovered the usefulness of adequate lighting. And in some cases, humans have forgotten it.

As the {{Cyberpunk}} movement took tropes from the gritty American detective/crime novels of the 1930s, so did films and TV shows take inspiration from the FilmNoir of the same period (or based on it). Featuring darkness except for critically placed light, and often a single source of it for the entire scene, the look is dramatic. Unfortunately, in a serious case of FridgeLogic, it's pretty dumb when you think about it. Large open offices maintained in darkness except for the single desk lamps of the workers. Entrance ways and throne rooms in complete darkness but for the single row of spotlights down the middle. Looks cool, but you never see one of those deskbound workers getting up and running into the wastebasket because their vision is screwed up going from their light source into the surrounding darkness.

On alien ships, this is seen frequently to show how "alien" they are. Because aliens don't, you know, need to see anything. Or they see in a spectrum of light invisible to humans. Or they evolved from something nocturnal, making human-level illumination painfully bright to them.

There is a certain ''practical'' aspect to this: nothing hides cheaply-made sets and props better than poor lighting.

Another explanation is that energy-efficient lightbulbs have become much more popular in the future. As to why that efficiency doesn't translate to maintaining usable brightness, don't expect an answer.

Commonly known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_noir Tech Noir.]]

Compare CityNoir, CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain, UnnaturallyBlueLighting and UsedFuture. In video games, can lead to "WhoForgotTheLights".

Contrast CrystalSpiresAndTogas, ShiningCity, as well as EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture.
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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell'', particularly [[Anime/GhostInTheShell1995 the film]]. Although there are daytime scenes, they're usually cloudy and dim, and the majority of the action is set at night or in darkened buildings.
%%(PCE)* ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' seems to take place almost entirely during night. %%How does the futurism and darkness apply? This entry is much closer to AlwaysNight.
%%(PCE)* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' often uses this trope during episodes related to the series' MythArc, as many buildings are darkened to fit the mood of the Myth Arc; especially during the GrandFinale.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
%%(ZCE)* ''ComicBook/{{Elephantmen}}''.
* The ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' SpinOff ''ComicBook/TheSimpingDetective'', which follows undercover judge Jack Point. The setting is still Mega City One, but Jack is a HardBoiledDetective, complete with trenchcoat and fedora, mixed with clownsuit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Renaissance}}'', a French CGI film about a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, cops search for a woman and her [[spoiler:immortality-granting]] MacGuffin. Aside from having a classic ''noir'' plotline at first, the film is composed almost entirely of pure black and pure white.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* The ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' movies.
** The ''Nostromo'' in ''Film/{{Alien}}'' is a downplayed example; areas like the crew quarters and the sickbay (easily identified by being mostly white) are brightly lit, and only the cargo hold and the engineering, spaces that are normally unoccupied, stay dark. The ship's bridge is fairly dark, but that's a necessary concession to the pilot's need to be able to see out of the windows during takeoff and landing.
** As for ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', the colony on LV-426 is shot to hell, everyone was dead, and much of the place had been blown up with 'seismic survey charges'; the brief scene taking place before everything goes to hell is noticeably brighter, though still on the dim side of tolerable because [[MegaCorp Weyland-Yutani]] isn't the type of corporation to spend more than the bare minimum on the working environment for frontline staff.
** ''Film/Alien3'': The entire setting. The surface of the penal planet is cold and dark, even when the sun shines, and the prison itself has black shadows everywhere. The look of the film has more in common with old German black-and-white films than with the preceding ''Alien'' franchise.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' eventually went noir when the movies started rolling out. Sometime between "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS7E24AllGoodThings All Good Things...]]" and ''[[Film/StarTrekGenerations Generations]]'', someone apparently busted out half the lights on the Enterprise-D. The real-life explanation is that the E-D sets were not built to a high enough standard to look real on film using normal light. ''Generations'' used dim lighting to hide flaws in the sets. However, when a more high-tech ship was introduced in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', the plot dictated that the ship be under permanent Red Alert, making the sets even ''darker''.
%%(PCE)* Creator/EnkiBilal seems to love this:
%%(PCE)** ''Film/{{Immortal}}'', though a little more brightly lit than normal, still has all the fedora-wearing detectives, corrupt politicians, dingy cities and cool bars that are the norm for a Noir movie.
%%(PCE)** ''Bunker Palace Hotel'' and ''Tykho Moon'' have a similar Noir-ish feel.
%%(PCE)** ''Bilal'' is better known as a graphic novel artist, at least in Europe, and his favourite colouring tool appears to be charcoal.
%%(ZCE)* The French film ''Film/{{Alphaville}}'' (1965), making this OlderThanYouThink.
%%(ZCE)* Before that, of course, there's ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' (1927), which actually predates noir, and was an influence on it.
* ''Film/BladeRunner'', the movie that first meshed Film Noir aesthetics and CyberPunk themes. And did it so [[UnbuiltTrope before]] CyberPunk was [[TropeCodifier Codified]]. And by extension, ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis'' and ''Manga/SilentMobius,'' two anime series that took visual inspiration from ''Blade Runner.''
%%(PCE)* ''Film/TheTerminator'' which even had a night club called "Tech Noir". %%Debating axing this example entirely, as the original Terminator movie doesn't even takep lace in the future.
* Terry Gilliam's dystopian SciFi movie ''Film/{{Brazil}}''. Though this one is justified by the background, because given how inept Central Services[[note]]the red-tape bound bureaucracy that provides heating, cooling, water, power, and pretty much everything else[[/note]] is, it's not surprising that everything not deemed ''utterly essential'' is permanently in a state of brownout.
%%* ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening.'
* The setting of ''Film/RepoTheGeneticOpera'', aside from a handful of places mostly entered by the obscenely wealthy, takes the words 'grim and gritty' to their logical extreme.
%%(ZCE)* ''Film/{{Gattaca}}'' isn't set very far in the future, nor are there any aliens to be seen, but the aesthetic is purest SF noir.
%%(ZCE)* The aptly named ''Film/DarkCity''.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'' has some dimly-lit settings, such as the Emperor's throne room and the interior of the ''Millennium Falcon''. By contrast, Imperial Star Destroyers are much more brightly lit. Princess Leia's corvette splits the difference by having both brightly lit sections and dimly lit industrial sections, such as the corridor she hides from long enough to give [=R2D2=] the [[MacGuffin stolen Death Star schematics.]]
%%(ZCE)* ''Film/PitchBlack'' is hard-boiled fiction, with themes not unlike Film/BladeRunner or "Literature/TheSilenceOfTheLambs ''[[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace IN SPACE!]]''".
* All interiors in ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', be it on the ship or elsewhere, are poorly lit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Brawne Lamia's story in Dan Simmons' ''Literature/{{Hyperion}}'' is told in the style of a noir detective. Of course, (1), Lamia ''is'' a [[PrivateDetective PI]], and (2) her homeworld of Lusus ''is'' a WretchedHive.
%%(ZCE)* ''Literature/AlteredCarbon''. Pretty much all of it.
* The aptly titled novel ''[[CyberPunk NOIR]]'' by Creator/KWJeter, where a guy named [=McNihil=] is a retired [[PrivateDetective PI]] and had his eyes surgically altered to see the world in shades of grey, like noir films of the 30s.
* ''Literature/TheWindupGirl'' combines this trope with Biopunk to wonderful effect. Although it is often sunny in 23rd century Thailand, there is little electricity, so every building is dimly lit and grungy.
* ''[[Literature/PrimeSuspectsACloneDetectiveMystery Prime Suspects: A Clone Detective Mystery]]'' is a dark, rainy, sleazy setting full of corruption as well as FantasticRacism. It's also very dark because that's how it is on this planet.
%%(ZCE)* ''Literature/AgentG'' by Creator/CTPhipps is a combination of thriller and cyberpunk with the protagonists being cold blooded assassins with morally ambiguous motivations against even worse megacorporations as well as mercenaries. Much is made of the BlackAndGrayMorality of the setting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' is usually bright and colorful, but it uses dim lighting for effect throughout the franchise:
** Klingon and Romulan ships in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' were just as brightly colored inside as their Federation counterparts. Ever since the films, though, they seem to prefer seeing crewmates as dim, sinister-looking silhouettes.
** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': The episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E15YesterdaysEnterprise Yesterday's Enterprise]]" features an alternate timeline where the Federation is at war with the Klingons. [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/File:Enterprise-d_bridge_alternate.jpg The bridge]] is very dimly lit. Interestingly, the DarkerAndEdgier alternate timeline has an opposite effect on [[GoodGuyBar Ten Forward]]: instead of being the usual mood-lit recreational area, it's a banal mess hall with white fluorescent lighting.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
*** The station is already darker than a standard starship, but flashbacks to the ship's time in Cardassian control reveal that it used to be even darker, both owing to the Cardassians' discomfort with bright lights and to make it more ominous.
*** Everything is dimmer in the MirrorUniverse. In the conference room particularly, there is patchy lighting over everyone's faces, just like the venetian-blind-obscured lighting in much of FilmNoir.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'':
*** This tends to be done in ''Voyager'''s meeting room whenever the situation is supposed to be serious. The lights on the Bridge also dim whenever the ship goes on RedAlert.
*** In "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]", one of the signs that the ''Voyager'' crew is having the worst year ever is the ship looks broken and the lighting is dim.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' continues the noir lighting for the overall DarkerAndEdgier tone of the series.
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' is also rather dimly-lit. Initially, this is because the main characters are travelling onboard ''La Sirena'', a private speed freighter hired by Picard to operate outside of Starfleet. However, after he rejoins Starfleet, their vessels turn out to be just as dark on the inside.
* This trope is the rule, rather than the exception, on ''Series/{{Farscape}}''.
** One episode answered the question of "why is Moya so damn dark?": aliens have FAR better vision than us little (but still "''superior!''") humans. Also, Moya is a living ship. It makes some sense that she'd want to conserve energy for other, more critical things, despite anything Pilot might tell her to do. In fact, the goal of the villain in "Crackers Don't Matter" is precisely to ''generate more light'', sapping energy from the other vital system. At the height of his power, Moya is brighter than the ''Enterprise-D'' on an August afternoon.
* ''Series/StargateUniverse'': For some reason, interiors of Destiny are very dark. Justified in-universe because Destiny is always running on the stray edge of being out of power, is falling apart at the joints and hasn't had living-people maintenance of any kind in a million years. The fact that it has working lights at all is a minor miracle and considering that in many cases they were lacking power and parts for life support and basic functions, it's easy to justify leaving the lights down low and not repairing them all.
* In ''{{Series/Firefly}}'', the interior of ''Serenity'' is always depicted as fairly dark to contrast with the bright florescent lighting and CreepyCleanliness of Alliance ships.
* ''Series/TheExpanse'' features this, Justified generally as a mix of exterior shots of space and powered down ships. Capital ships, such as the ''UNN Agatha King'' and the ''MCRN Donnager'' are very brightly lit, though still avoiding the EverythingIsAnIpodInTheFuture aesthetic with very practical interior designs (as you know, you'd expect from an actual RealLife fleet with resource constraints).
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' takes some inspiration from ''Film/{{Alien}}'' in some parts of the ship. While the sleeping quarters are usually well lit, any time the crew end up in the corridors or the cargo bays, the scenery is very industrial and poorly lit, as is the case when they end up aboard other vessels.
[[/folder]]

%%(ZCE)[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
%%(ZCE)* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', in which "grim darkness" doesn't just apply to the tone of the setting.
%%(ZCE)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': Sevastopol Station is a dark and dingy place born of disrepair. The station was already being decomissioned and there was only a small crew by the time the Xenomorph became a problem, the chaos of humans doing everything to try and survive the predatory alien on the prowl damaged a number of critical systems, and [[spoiler:Special Order 939 from Weyland-Yutani given to APOLLO, the station's main control computer,]] dictated to Sevastopol's androids that all tasks, including basic maintenance, are secondary to [[spoiler:guaranteeing the survival of the Xenomorph]].
* A lot of the environments in the ''Franchise/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'' games (and ''WesternAnimation/DarkFury'') have very high-contrast lighting, with lots of shadows. The lead character can see in the dark. The first game (''VideoGame/EscapeFromButcherBay'') takes place in the universe's toughest prison, and ''Dark Fury'' and ''VideoGame/AssaultOnDarkAthena'' on spaceships run by bounty-hunting mercenaries. You'd think it'd be in their best interest to keep the lights on.
%%(ZCE)* The 1997 ''VideoGame/BladeRunner'' videogame is set in the ''Film/BladeRunner'' universe, and in fact the very same city as the film. It's no wonder that it takes the aesthetic of its predecessor.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'':
** The Brotherhood of Nod have a fetish for using too few red lights in their bases.
** The GDI global stratospheric transports in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianTwilight Tiberium Twilight]]'', while not as dark as Nod's facilities earlier, are still not well lit.
* ''VideoGame/Doom3'': The Mars City UAC base on Mars is a dingy place from power oscillations and difficulties with maintenance, reinforced by several audio logs and e-mails from UAC workers complaining about the base's poor lighting. [[AllThereInTheManual Even the manual itself states that it's why every member of the security personnel has to carry a flashlight]]. Then the infernal outbreak begins, hellspawn trash the entire base, and [[WhoForgotTheLights light becomes practically nonexistent]] other than the player's InfiniteFlashlight and the fireballs of demons. It doesn't help that the lighting engine renders sharp black shadows in such a way that increasing the screen's brightness is no help at all.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1''
** The lights on the ''Normandy'' are kept very low. Between this and the bright orange computer screens, humanity has evidently conquered eyestrain. On a battleship this is potentially justified in that it makes instruments easier to see. The living sections of the ship do seem to be a lot brighter than the deck level.
** Inverted with Cerberus, whose stations and vessels actually have adequate lighting. Ironically, this was meant to make them [[CreepyCleanliness seem creepier, in a cold, sterile, medical sense]].
%%(ZCE)* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' uses this during cutscenes but looks normal during gameplay, making the swap between the two rather disconcerting.
* ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' (fittingly, considering the title) is a sci-fi game with several dimly lit levels, including the Skedar attack ship.
* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2: Octo Expansion'' has the Deepsea Metro, the most technologically advanced setting in the franchise thus far, but simultaneously the most dimly lit, moody setting in the franchise. The central station, for instance, only has a single row of lights hanging from the ceiling, none of which are bright enough to liven up the place, and some of which are broken, and the rest of the region is rarely brighter than that. Of course, considering it is based on, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin the deep sea]], it would make sense for everything to be murky.
[[/folder]]
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