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[[caption-width-right:300:[[CowboyBebop The Bebop]] has seen better days... ]]

Some SpeculativeFictionSeries focus on a CoolStarship or two that's [[ShinyLookingSpaceships shiny and new]] and full of all the latest AppliedPhlebotinum. The shows are all about idealistic and well-funded explorers or warriors, boldly going where angels fear to tread.

Shows on the other end of the SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty treat the future as a place where real people live, and where spaceships look dirty, dingy, and used, like heavy equipment that one might find at a lonely truck stop in the middle of the night right now. The ships are old junk heaps run on a shoestring by hard-bitten characters on the edge, seemingly held together with two pieces of string, chewing gum, and the will of the Holy Spirit -- the SF equivalent of the struggling ''film noir'' private eye, in other words. This is the UsedFuture, and it's home to renegades, regular working stiffs, and anyone on the "cynical" end of the SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism.

Sometimes, there will be ShinyLookingSpaceships alongside dingier ones; usually these new, shiny ships will belong to the [[TheEmpire Galactic Military]] which has access to constantly churning shipyards and the newest heights of technology while the heroes must survive on surplus gear and homegrown repairs. These ShinyLookingSpaceships, however, can denote that the crew piloting these uber-ships is formed of [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy completely green recruits]] with no real combat experience, often led by a [[TheNiedermeyer pompous noble]], while the battered ships are piloted by grizzled veterans who can fly circles around them.

The original ''StarWars'' popularised the concept (although arguably ''Moon Zero Two'' (1969), ''Silent Running'' (1972), and ''DarkStar'' (1974) led the way.) For contrast, the prequels, set in a more civilized time, are correspondingly shinier. (''Star Wars'' is a rare example on the "idealism" end of the above mentioned scale.)

Interestingly, portraying this in CG effects is actually more difficult, but sometimes the audience won't accept things [[DirtForcefield not looking dirty enough]]. Which can be ironic because spaceship exteriors are actually perpetually shiny in real life (due to the scarcity of dirt, grime and oxidizing agents in space)--unless they have to endure high-velocity atmospheric reentry.

Contrast ShinyLookingSpaceships, CrystalSpiresAndTogas.

Usually a [[MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness Hard Science Fiction]] trope.
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!!Examples

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[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* The only ships that appear pristine in the ''CowboyBebop'' world are, cynically, those belonging to the bad guys. The ''Bebop'', as well as the characters' personal ships, are all rendered with realistic levels of rust, grime and plenty of wing dings from their daily usages.
* The vehicle in ''OutlawStar'' deteriorates gradually from [[ShinyLookingSpaceships Shiny Looking Spaceship]] to UsedFuture, mainly because the characters do so much traveling in it.
* ''{{Patlabor}}'', with giant robots replacing spaceships.
* ''{{Planetes}}'' focuses entirely on the blue collar workers whose job it is to clean up space junk that endangers flights.

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[[folder: Comic Books ]]

* Graphic novel example: anything drawn by Jean Girard, aka Moebius, will usually incorporate elements of both Used Future and ShinyLookingSpaceships.

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[[folder: Film ]]

* After ''StarWars'', the Nostromo in Ridley Scott's ''{{Alien}}'' set the benchmark for all UsedFuture depictions to come. This extends to the occupation of the protagonists--they're ''truck drivers'', hardly a glamorous job.
* ''BladeRunner''
* The Terry Gilliam film ''Brazil'' takes place in a highly-stylized Used Future -- and, while we're at it, more or less a {{Crapsack World}} that simultaneously resembles {{Twenty Minutes Into The Future}} ("sometime in the 20th century") and Diesel . Everything is so used in this future, in fact, that it rarely functions properly, including but not limited to the entire bureaucracy-based system of government.
* The real world in ''TheMatrix'', where humans have astounding technology but (having lost the RobotWar) must scrounge a living in a cramped, dirty underground city among {{Absurdly Spacious Sewer}}s and caves.
* ''{{Outland}}'' This underrated 1981 film depicts a mining "colony" on Io that is as dirty, cramped, overcrowded and "used" as the crummiest oil-rig of today. The hero and the leading lady are middle-aged, unattractive (by movie standards) and cynical. The bad guys are not aliens or galactic emperors, but drug-dealers, corrupt cops and venal businessmen. The weapons are shotguns and rifles. It takes a year for spaceships to travel from Earth to Io.
** ThisTroper doesn't think that [[JamesBond Connery]], SeanConnery can ever be termed "unattractive." Otherwise, yes.
* In ''TheAmericanAstronaut'', the space is pretty much dominated by roughnecks and manual laborers.

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[[folder: Literature ]]

* ''TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy'': Arthur is taken aback by the squalor of the Vogon ship, and notes that the much shinier Heart of Gold is more in line with what he expects of a space ship -- of course, the Heart of Gold is only clean because it's so new that it still has the protective film on.
* Before anything listed, Robert Heinlein had already led the way with {{Used Future}}s in many books. Here are several books and stories.
** ''The Man that Sold the Moon'', 1951
** ''Citizen of the Galaxy'', 1957
** ''Farnham's Freehold'', 1965
** ''The Moon is a Harsh Mistress'', 1966
** ''I Will Fear No Evil'', 1970
** Even ''The Rolling Stones'', 1952 (Which inspired Tribbles)
* Long before Heinlein, E. M. Forster had written a science fiction short story called ''The Machine Stops'' about a future civilization that has grown dependent upon automation. (When the titular machine deteriorates and dies, so does the civilization.) The story itself was published in ''1909'', making this OlderThanRadio.
* The ''Revelation Space'' universe from Alastair Reynolds. The first ship described is about 3-4 kilometers long and has ''5 people'' running it. Vast swathes of it are described as "flooded with coolant...others were infested with rogue janitor-rats...patrolled by defence drogues which had gone berserk...filled with toxic gas, or vacuum, or too much high-rad." Amazingly, ''it gets worse''.
** A few stories take place during the earlier "Belle Epoch" age when everything was shiny, back when the Rust Belt around Yellowstone was known as the Glitter Belt. Then a nanotech virus called [[BodyHorror The Melding Plague]] arrived and ruined everything.
*Everything Peter Watts ever wrote. ''Everything''. Well, no, that's not strictly true; some of his stories are set in futures [[AfterTheEnd so used they've fallen apart]]; but the rest of them are [[JustBeforeTheEnd just severely used]]. The [[strike:shining gem]] rusted pipe of this trope is, of course, the RiftersTrilogy, particularly Lenie Clarke's cross-country tour-o-death in ''Maelstrom''.
* Philip K. Dick's ''DoAndroidsDreamOfElectricSheep'' has "kipple" - the junk and litter of society generated en masse, and as one character believes, slowing taking over through "kippleisation" of the world.

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[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* Almost all the ships in ''{{Andromeda}}'', except the Andromeda Ascendant herself, which was a time-shifted relic of a bygone era of cleanliness. The series is really about injecting old-fashioned heroics into the UsedFuture.
* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' went so far as to prominently feature a station that had acquired UsedFuture levels of grime ''before it opened''.
** Not to mention homeless people and illegal drugs.
* ''BattlestarGalactica'', both versions. The Galactica is even called "The Old Bucket" by its crew.
** The Battlestar Pegasus is included in the series pretty much just to show how a Battlestar actually fit for battle is supposed to look like.
**Both are averted in that they are set [[spoiler:150,000 years ago]]
* In the ''{{CSI}}'' episode about ''Star Trek'' fans -- all right, ''Astral Quest'' fans -- the sample clip of the proposed {{Darker And Edgier}} revival of the old scifi program has a definite {{Used Future}} look to the set, costumes, and characters.
* The new ''DoctorWho'', although it's soft sci fi. In "The Long Game", the worn look is actually the point. Averted by the shiny Mars base in "The Waters of Mars", though that makes sense, since it's a fairly recent outpost with a tiny population.
* ''{{Firefly}}'', though there is a deliberate contrast between the ShinyLookingSpaceships of the Alliance and the used, battered craft on the border regions, as well as the SpaceWestern design of the outer planets compared with the CrystalSpiresAndTogas look of the Central planets.
* ''RedDwarf''. It got much softer as time went on, due to the remaining crew members moving into the more luxurious officer's sleeping quarters (At least while still on Red Dwarf).
* Many non-Federation ''StarTrek'' vessels. [[UnfortunateImplications Aliens are filthy]], apparently.
** And the Federation itself seems to be this way in the leaked materials of ''StarTrekXI''. Then again, this is even before Kirk was captain. They just got tidier as time went on.
** Not as simple as it sounds-a better way to put it would be that minor races that lack the Federation's technology and resources are filthy. The interiors of Romulan, Cardassian, Dominion, Ferengi, Hirogen, Vulcans, etc are all quite clean, and neither the Borg nor the Klingons care.

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[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

* {{Warhammer 40000}} takes this trope and runs away with it. Not only has everything used and abused to destruction and beyond, your average heavy war machine is a ''ten-thousand-year-old'' mobile cathedral to battle complete with robotic cherubim, mad priests, enormous tomes and flying skulls, and the Tech-Priests (who have a monopoly on technology, manufacturing and innovation in the Imperium) believe that all knowledge already exists and they should search for its fragments in the form of STC devices, rather than coming up with anything on their own.
** All of the Orks technology and machinery consists of metal plates, gears and what-have-you haphazardly bolted and welded together. Sometimes Grots (space goblins) are involved in the machinery workings; that is, they are a part of the machine.
*** The fact that Orks can only commandeer Imperial vehicles is a testiment to the truth: Imperium is the least technologically advanced race ever.
** Averted by the Eldar, whose equipment and armour are always shiny, and to some extent the Tau - both races definitely ''[[TheAestheticsOfTechnology look]]'' more "high-tech" than the Imperium, but only the Eldar actually are.
***The Tau, in fact, where specifically designed to be an aversion of this trope, in reaction to it's near-ubiquity within the Warhammer 40,000 universe, while still retaining a strongly technological aesthetic, in contrast with the [[InSpace Elves-in-Space]] Eldar.
*** The Imperium may have lost more technology than the Tau ever had, but due to the progressive nature of the Tau, and the fact that they actually know how their technology ''works'', they are indeed more advanced in technology than the Imperium. And since they are only a few millenia old, it is all quite new.
**** Eh, no. The tau have nothing to match the Imperium's warp drives, void shields, power armor or any of those relic technologies. The problem is that the Imperium can't mass produce any of it.
*** Meanwhile, the Necrons are impossibly ancient and their technology is ridiculously advanced, bordering on magic. Their aesthetic is decidedly creepy, given that they're essentially an army of [[{{Terminator}} T-1000s]] in the service of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s. Of course, while it is built to last, that doesn't mean it always does.
***It's worth saying that calling anything the Imperium of Man has "low tech" is like calling the Death Star a "dinky little gunship". The Imperium--indeed every aforementioned WH40K race, including the Tau--are absurdly advanced compared to modern society, to the point of ubiquitous {{Magitek}} even amongst the lower rungs of society. Some worlds are feral now, but generally by our standards they're SufficientlyAdvancedAliens to a man, even the Imperium. Unless you know of some society that can build starships as big as cities, with weapons that can sear continents off a planet, in which case please inform the media!
*''Battletech'' also plays this trope straight, especially in the beginning. With the technology for most high tech weaponry lost, the best weapons are also the oldest. And in most cases they have been used all the time. Of course, this was only a plot device to rediscover better technology later on, and to introduce stronger units into the game.
*{{Traveller}} has both. There are [[CoolShip CoolShips]] which are for instance private yachts or large ships of, The [[SpaceNavy Imperial Navy]] or a Megacorporation. And then there are [[UsedFuture Used Ships]] which are meat and potatoes jobs like Free Traders, the IISS or the Sworld Worlder's [[SpacePolice Confederation Patrol]].

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

* ''EveOnline'' the MMORPG features the Minmatar Republic, a race of former slaves who's ships are often mocked for being "Flying Junkyards", and the Minmatar pilots often iterate their sacred adage "In Rust We Trust". The trope is avoided in the game by ships belonging to the other factions, most notably and appropriately those of the Amarr Empire, the Minmatar's former enslavers, who's ships are covered in [[ShinyLookingSpaceships pristine gold plating]].
* ''{{Freelancer}}'' has this in spades. The lawful factions mostly have ShinyLookingSpaceships (with the exception of Bretonia, whose ships are dingy brown and ugly as sin), while the pirates have to get around in filthy junk heaps. The starter ship, the Starflier, is a heap of rubbish whose one advantage is its manoeuvrability, bases are often simply carved out of asteroids, most of the bars on space stations look like dingy, seedy dives, and the Leeds system is so filthy and polluted that it has smog clouds. Smog clouds ''in space.''
** Ironically the best ship the player can have is a powerful custom pirate ship.
* ''GearsOfWar'' pretty much runs rampant with this, especially the "used" part. Anywhere outside of Jacinto, and even a lot of places inside of it, are battered, damaged, run-down, and barely functional.
** Although it should be noted that most of their earth was {{KillSat}}ed by the own government, to attempt to slow down their enemies and rob them of any spoils. Those places also tend not to be inhabited by the only remaining formal government's citizens.
**From the bits seen in Jacinto that were actually in somewhat decent if disheveled shape and the backstory provided in bonus materials it's learned that these locations were at one time exceptionally pretty and opulant but after ninety seven years of total war on a planetary scale first between various human nations and then against the locust shortly after what upkeep there has been where it's been had was obviously only aimed at maintaining function. Scrubbing away the grimeor mowing the grass just isn't as high a priority as fending off the hulking xenocidal alien monsters.
*This is basically the [[PlanetOfHats Hat]] of the Quarians from ''MassEffect''.
** It's stated that they easily could make something as shiny as all the other species have, but nobody'll give them the raw materials needed what with the whole [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters Geth]] thing hanging over their heads.
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture ''{{Pokemon}} Colosseum'' features Pyrite Town, a dirty, patchwork city full of thugs that uses banged up versions of the technology found in the game.
* The Terrans from ''{{Starcraft}}'', sometimes portrayed as a futuristic version of the DeepSouth.
*''{{Wing Commander}}'', especially Privateer. Not quite so much with Prophecy.
*InfinityTheQuestForEarth has the StarFold Confederacy, who are essentially a breakaway faction of industrialists and super-capitalists who don't care about the aesthetics of their ships.
*SinsofaSolarEmpire makes use of this trope for many of the TEC's craft, understandable given that the bulk of them are repurposed civilian vessels. They begin to looke a bit neater when the stronger, purpose-built craft are introduced, but still maintain a very mechanical, utilitarian aesthetic.

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[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* ''TitanAE'', focusing as it does on the refugee remnants of humanity AfterTheEnd of an EarthShatteringKaboom.
* ''{{WALL-E}}'' pretty much embodies this trope, especially when WALL-E is compared to the sleek, shiny, futuristic EVE.
* ''{{Futurama}}'' if taken as its own universe rather than pure parody presents a very lived-in future where things do go wrong and break down.

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