History Main / RunningTheBlockade

* The [[UsefulNotes/YugoslavWars Siege of Sarajevo]] lasted nearly four years as the city was surrounded and cut off from the rest of the world by Bosnian Serb forces. The UN had control of Sarajevo's airport as a neutral zone to allow humanitarian aid to get into the city, which gave the besieged Bosnian Army and Sarajevo civilians their only way to get supplies and people in and out of the city for those four years. At first, it was with nighttime runners who would cross the runway in darkness at risk of being run over by planes or being spotted by UN troops; later on, the Sarajevo Tunnel (also known as the Tunnel of Hope) was dug underneath the airport's runway and its exits hidden within houses to facilitate transit to Bosnian-controlled territory outside Sarajevo.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E05WingsOfTheMaster Wings of the Master]]", the Empire has established a blockade around the planet Ibaar, whose people are being starved into submission. The Rebels attempt to break through the blockade in order to deliver supplies to the starving people, but they fail in their first attempt and take heavy losses before finally retreating. Thankfully, the Rebels manage to get their hands on a new prototype B-wing class starfighter colloquially known as a "Blockade Buster". With the help of the B-wing and its [[ConvergingStreamWeapon main cannon]], the Rebels are able to smash the blockade by destroying one of the Imperial light cruisers, opening a gap for the ''Ghost'' to break through and deliver the supplies to the planet's surface.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In the episode "[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS2E05WingsOfTheMaster Wings of the Master]]", the Rebels try to break through the Imperial blockade of the planet Ibaar, whose people are being starved into submission, but they fail in their first attempt and take heavy losses before finally retreating. Thankfully, the Rebels manage to get their hands on a new prototype B-wing class starfighter colloquially known as a "Blockade Buster". With the help of the B-wing and its [[ConvergingStreamWeapon main cannon]], the Rebels are able to smash the blockade by destroying one of the Imperial light cruisers, opening a gap for the ''Ghost'' to break through and deliver the supplies to the planet's surface.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' uses the B-Wing Starfighter as a blockade ''buster'', thanks to a ConvergingStreamWeapon that can take down a cruiser.

* In ''Film/ThirteenDays'', after President Kennedy institutes a "[[InsistentTerminology quarantine]]"[[note]]A ''Blockade'' would be an act of war.[[/note]] around Cuba, the Soviets, not really knowing what to do, decide to send their freighters through anyway. At least one of them slips past the US Navy at some point before being spotted again.
* ''Film/TwoThousandTenTheYearWeMakeContact'' is set against a backdrop of rising US/Soviet tensions which take a dive when a Soviet ship tries to run a US blockade and is destroyed by missile fire.
* ''Film/MadMax2TheRoadWarrior'' has Max try to drive through the siege/blockade around the oil refinery but is intercepted and almost killed. At the end of the movie he tries again, driving the fuel tanker.
* In ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'' Rhett Butler starts the Civil War as a gallant hero running goods into the Confederacy. Later, as shortages bite and prices rise, he is looked on less favorably.[[/folder]]

* In the book and movie ''Film/GoneWithTheWind'', Rhett Butler spends most of UsefulNotes/{{the American Civil War}} running the US Navy's blockade, delivering supplies from Europe and elsewhere to the Confederates.

* In the backstory to ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', lowborn smuggler Davos Seaworth manages to sneak past a Targaryen naval blockade of the besieged castle Storm's End under the cover of night and deliver a load of turnips and onions to the castle's starving defenders, earning him a knighthood from the grateful Lord Stannis Baratheon. The highborn lords and nights disparagingly call him "the Onion Knight" to mock his humble origins; Ser Davos takes the onion as his sigil so that he and his descendants will never forget them.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': Episode "Cardassian Struggle", mission [[OperationBlank "Operation Gamma"]] has the PlayerCharacter having to break past Jem'Hadar lines at Deep Space 9 and go through the wormhole to contact the Dominion government [[ItMakesSenseInContext and get the time-shifted Jem'Hadar to stand down]]. You're assisted by a diversionary attack.
* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIV'', the British navy sets up a blockade around the pirate stronghold of Nassau. Edward Kenway, Charles Vane and Jack Rackham manage to escape by loading Rackham's ship with explosives and blasting a gap in the blockade.
* ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'': The strategically inclined players of EVE Online are known to block off systems in order to seize control over territory. There exists a particular class of Industrial ships (used to haul goods) called Blockade Runners to bypass or otherwise break through perilous security, and all four factions have two such models of their respective lines. One has [[FragileSpeedster next to no tank but exceptional agility]] and can equip the exclusive [[InvisibilityCloak Covert Ops cloak]], while the other is a much tankier and slower brick.
* In ''VideoGame/RebelGalaxy'', various parties including system militia will sometimes blockade space stations, which drives up the local prices of nearly every commodity. There are also missions and bounties available for running the blockade or breaking the siege.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JayceAndTheWheeledWarriors'' episode "Blockade Runners", the titular heroes come to the rescue when the evil Monster Minds place a blockade around planet Baz as part of an invasion scheme.

* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, blockade runners became essential to the South's survival after the Union blockaded them. Some became quite noted for it, such as the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Syren SS Syren,]]'' which successfully penetrated the blockade 33 times. Their actual contribution to the war was limited since the blockade runners quickly discovered that smuggling imported luxury items for wealthy plantation owners was far more profitable than smuggling weapons and other military supplies for the war effort. Laudanum, a medicinal tincture made of opium, was partiularly valuable as it was in widespread use in the 19th Century and many people were heavily addicted to it.

** Germans used warships (especially submarines), their own freighters, and captured freighters under false flags, to run blockades. In cases where PoorCommunicationKills, some of these caprured freighters were sunk by German U-boats who mistook them for Allied freighters. Britain also ran through German blockade to obtain Swedish steel products needed for its war industry, to the point of developing a class of small high speed vessels for that purpose.

[[caption-width-right:350:A poster depicting Jews returning to Israel despite British blockades, a.k.a. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliyah_Bet Aliyah B]]. The word at the top and on the boat is Ha'apala (הַעְפָּלָה, "Ascension") and the two words at the bottom are חַיִּים ויְצִירָה "Life & Structure"]]

** {{Averted}} in ''Film/StarWarsANewHope''. While the Corellian corvette used by Princess Leia to transport the stolen Death Star plans in the film's opening moments is known to fans and in some supplementary material as a "Rebel blockade runner" (canonically known as the CR90 corvette), this is an InformedAttribute. There is nothing in the film to suggest that it was ever used to run blockades, and the model's capabilities as established in various ExpandedUniverse materials make it poorly-suited for such a role, with a relatively slow Class 2 hyperdrive, light armament, and no stealth capabilities to speak of. Other Expanded Universe games, especially VideoGame/StarWarsEmpireAtWar, depict the model as the Rebels' main anti-starfighter ship.

* During UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar, blockade runners became essential to the South's survival after the Union blockaded them. Some became quite noted for it, such as the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Syren SS Syren]]'', which successfully penetrated the blockade 33 times. Their actual contribution to the war was limited since the blockade runners quickly discovered that smuggling imported luxury items for wealthy plantation owners was far more profitable than smuggling weapons and other military supplies for the war effort. Laudanum, a medicinal tincture made of opium, was partiularly valuable as it was in widespread use in the 19th Century and many people were heavily addicted to it.