History Main / SwirlyEnergyThingy

Enter it and something weird will happen. Often it's a boring old [[OurWormholesAreDifferent wormhole]] -- it'll drop you [[FTLTravel somewhere else in the universe]]... whether you wanted to go there or not -- but like any good NegativeSpaceWedgie, it can also trigger a wide range of weird phenomena. The most common variant is that it'll [[TimeTravel send you through time]] as well.

Despite the similar images the names might conjure, this is unrelated to TimeyWimeyBall (although a Swirly Energy Thingy might very well have Timey Wimey effects). The trope name is an example of BuffySpeak.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. In "Breakdown", the Liberator enters a ForbiddenZone against the advice of their MasterComputer, which shuts down all automatic systems in a futile attempt to stop them. They discover why it's forbidden on encountering a swirling 'gravitational vortex' (not a black hole as they encounter one of those in another episode). Fortunately AcePilot Jenna is able to manually pilot the Liberator [[DoNotTouchTheFunnelCloud right through the middle]].

** The Mandragora Helix is intended to be this, despite suffering from a case of SpecialEffectFailure. The TARDIS is sucked in when it flies too close, and [[spoiler:a malevolent force is hidden deep inside]]. The mandragora helix itself appears as a swirling vortex in space.
*** Due to {{special effects failure}}, it appears as a swirling vortex of water with polystyrene beads in it.

* Black hole accretion disks. Lots of swirly. Lots of energy. Lots of thingy.

** The Mandragora Helix is intended to be this, despite suffering from a case of SpecialEffectFailure. The TARDIS is sucked in when it flies too close, and [[a malevolent force is hidden deep inside]].

* ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone'': The Spirals. Aside from being decorative, they can also temporarily trap a pinball, which is helpful for making some of the shots.

** The Mandragora Helix is intended to be this, despite suffering from a case of SpecialEffectFailure.

** Taken [[UpToEleven up to eleventybillion]] by quasars. They have so much swirly, energy, ''and'' thingy in such a small area that they appear to be point sources (like stars, hence the original acronym QSR or quasi-stellar radio source). The accretion disk in this case is typically about the size of the solar system around a black hole billions of times more massive than the Sun, but has the brightness and energy output of a ''galaxy''. Oh, and about a Sun's worth of stuff falls in each year to fuel it. If it happens to be pointed ''directly'' at us, it looks even more ludicrously bright, and gets called a "Blazar".

* ''Literature/ZeusIsDeadAMonstrouslyInconvenientAdventure'': When the Ninjas Templar manage to get the [[SealedEvilInACan cans containing]] [[spoiler:the Titans]] opened, their release involves coming out of the resulting Swirly Energy Thingy.

%%* ''Series/BabylonFive'' used these in jump gates and jump points.

* ''WebVideo/TheTimeGuys'': Timmy falls into one of these in the pilot [[WhatAnIdiot when he leaves the Time... Car in mid-transit]].

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1540518988074270000
%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.

%%* ''Manga/{{Uzumaki}}'' - Won't you come into the spiral??? %%Zero-context example

* The Speed Force of ''ComicBook/TheFlash'' fame, an energy field from which all speedsters draw their power, is described as one of these.
* The pre-ComicBook/{{Crisis|on Infinite Earths}} ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'' story "Superman's Secret Afterlife!" had the hero being caught by a LifeEnergy sucking creature called a Helix in space, that looked like a miniature galaxy. It trapped him in [[LotusEaterMachine an illusion of his possible future life]] (with a little help from the PhantomZone Villains). Superman destroys it, appropriately enough, by spinning it towards a nova.

* ''Film/TheBlackHole'' is one of several films that features a ''funnel-shaped'', rather than flat, accretion disc around the event horizon.[[labelnote:*]]You won't actually see anything funnel-shaped if you look at a black hole, as the "funnel" doesn't point anywhere in three-dimensional space. A black hole looks like a sphere. (Though you can, in a sense, see the "dimpling" of space by the distortion of the starlight near the edge of the hole... [[MindScrew auuuuggggh forget it]], just [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole look at the picture in Wikipedia.]]) Once you pass through the black hole's event horizon, space and time swap places. The all-crushing singularity at the center of the black hole, which was previously "down," is now "the future." Specifically, ''your'' future. The only way to avoid the singularity now is to start going backward in time. Black holes may thus be considered the end of the universe that has got here a little early.[[/labelnote]]
%%* ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2005}}'' had this trope to a T, complete with surprise special effect of re-rolling your stats/DNA for you. %%Zero-context example.
* Much of ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' takes place in a system around a black hole that has 25 times the mass of the supermassive black hole in the center of our galaxy, or 100,000,000 times the mass of our sun. And it is spinning at 99.8% the speed of light. It is also surrounded by an accretion disk of gas and rocks that form a huge ring of glowing hot material, but because of how the incredible gravity bends light it looks like it has two rings at a 90 degree angle. It's probably the weirdest looking portrayal of a black hole ever, while also being the most scientifically accurate.
* The ''Film/{{Star Trek|2009}}'' film shows the evil Romulan mining ship traveling through time by way of a giant swirling lightning storm in space. Bonus swirling vortex when the planet Vulcan is absorbed by a black hole bomb in the planet core.

%%* The time warp in ''Film/TheFinalCountdown'' looks like this.

%%* The "time rip" in Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/TheLangoliers'' is this.
%%* IT (orig. 'ES'), the first [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien super-intelligence]] encountered in ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' and provider of the protagonists' {{immortality inducer}}s, has been known to manifest in a form like this especially early in the series.
* In ''[[Literature/ZeusIsDead Zeus Is Dead: A Monstrously Inconvenient Adventure]]'', when the Ninjas Templar manage to get the [[SealedEvilInACan cans containing]] [[spoiler: the Titans]] opened, their release involves coming out of the resulting Swirly Energy Thingy.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'' used these in jump gates and jump points.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' is another big fan of this trope. Most notably, the Time Vortex through which the TARDIS travels, first featured in the 70s title sequence, and reborn in the new series for both the titles and occasionally within the series itself.
* The first two seasons of ''{{Series/Eureka}}'' have this calling it the "Artifact" which may or may not have been the thing that caused both the Big Bang AND intelligence...
* A major plot point right through ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. In fact, one of these kicked off the plot in the first place. Farscape wormholes usually just send you through space, but can do time as well. John has the distinction of being pretty much the only person who can predict when and where they will open, which paints a huge target on his back.
* As the [[Quotes/SwirlyEnergyThingy quotes page]] suggests, ''Series/RedDwarf'' encounters quite a few of these. Among them are a "time hole" (which goes into a dimension where time runs backward), a "white hole" (which ''spits out'' everything that a black hole pulls in), and a dimensional portal.
** Cat tends to call them out directly by trope name.
-->'''Cat:''' I hate to get all technical but, ''all hands on deck! Swirly thing alert!!!''
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', in particular, used this visual effect for the wormhole that the primary plot centered around.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''.
** The episode "Real Life" had a tornado InSpace draw a shuttle into an EldritchLocation before AcePilot Tom Paris could figure a way out. And yes, [[FollowTheLeader this episode did air a year after]] ''Film/{{Twister}}''...
** In "Twisted", Voyager becomes an EldritchLocation after passing through an UnknownPhenomenon similar in appearance to this trope. [[{{Bizarrchitecture}} All the cabins and decks become mixed up]] yet the episode ends without any damage to the ship [[EveryoneLives or crew]], or [[RiddleForTheAges even an explanation about what happened]].

* The Molecular Mixmaster from ''Pinball/DrDude''.
* The Spirals in ''Pinball/TheTwilightZone''. Aside from being decorative, they can also temporarily trap a pinball, which is helpful for making some of the shots.

* ''Roleplay/DestroyTheGodmodder'': At one point, one of these spit out a giant golden [[Franchise/StarWars TIE Fighter]] that was a boss.
** The origins of various other summons.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Warp rifts, areas where [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace the Warp]] and realspace overlap (or, equivalently, [[NegativeSpaceWedgie where Hell itself has spewed into reality]]), tend to take the form of spiraling whirlpools of luridly colored... something.
** The most notable is the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Eye of Terror]], and it's roughly the size of a small spiral galaxy. Although the Eye of Terror is the largest and most notorious, there are others: the Maelstrom, the Maw, the Storm of the Emperor's Wrath, the Screaming Vortex... you get the idea.

* In ''TabletopGame/WarhammerFantasy'':
** The Great Vortex of Ulthuan is an immense tornado-like phenomena that acts as a sort of magic sink -- It safely siphons away the wild magic that flows from the planet's poles, preventing [[OurDemonsAreDifferent daemons]] [[CosmicKeystone from invading the mortal plane en-masse]]. At its base is a location called the Isle of the Dead, where the Vortex's creator, [[TheArchmage Caledor Dragontamer]], [[AndIMustScream remains suspended in an agonizing half-life,]] [[BarrierMaiden endlessly chanting the spell that keeps it stable]].

* Makuta's floating swirl of Franchise/{{Lego}} parts and some other stuff in the early ''Toys/{{Bionicle}}'' on-line clips. Fans tend to call it "the Void", but that's most likely a misinterpretation of one of his lines. In fact, it's never cleared ''what'' it is, and it isn't represented in subsequent media. Could be where he kept his spare parts... That last part [[WordOfGod has later been confirmed]] to be canon. When shifting into the small form he kept while facing the Toa, Makuta placed the rest of his mass into the swirly cloud as a way of dealing with ShapeshifterBaggage. It helped him avoid the problem he had faced some years before, where he had to absorb mass and energy from things around him after having disguised as a smaller character for some time. This energy absorption [[http://biosector01.com/wiki/images/e/ec/LoMN_Great_Cataclysm.PNG also took the form a Swirly Energy Thingy]].

* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'' and its expansions actually showed Imperial ships jumping in and out of the warp, whose jump rifts look like the ships were being ''pulled'' in by giant lightning tentacles. Which, [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace knowing the nature of the Warp]], is entirely possible to be what was actually happening.
* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', a certain quest leads the player to encounter a [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Wretched Abyss]], a swirling, purple-ringed hole in space. This turns out to be [[spoiler:a manifestation of [[EldritchAbomination Hermaeus Mora]], the Daedric Prince of the Unknown]]. Any [[OurDemonsAreDifferent daedric]] summon uses a portal that manifests as a Swirly Energy Thingy. Also, the portal to [[spoiler:Sovngarde located in Skuldafn]] is also a Swirly Energy Thingy, as is the portal to [[spoiler:the Soul Cairn, the realm where all souls trapped in Black Soul Gems go after being used up,]] in ''Dawnguard''.
* The wormholes in ''VideoGame/EveOnline'' are the inverse of this, being understated translucent spheres in space that go 'blib' when you go through them. Irritatingly, this is quite possibly what a real wormhole might look like, i.e., boring.
* The Jump Holes in ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' (essentially natural [[CoolGate Jump Gates]]) appear as swirling, red-and-blue SpaceClouds with white specks.
* The superportal from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2''
* Can be found in ''VideoGame/LandflixOdyssey''. They will pull Larry in if he is close enough.
* In ''VideoGame/MysteryOfMortlakeMansion'', these are located behind each PortalDoor, allowing travel between the real-world mansion and the "shadowy" version.
* ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'': What's [[spoiler:ultimately found at the Eye of the Universe. With nowhere else to go--time to jump in, eh?]]
* Used for the box art of ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIII'', probably used to represent the demonic World Gate.
* The [[UnrealisticBlackHole Gravitational Singularity]] looks this way on most ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'' servers, especially the sixth stage present on /tg/station and derivatives.
* The [[FasterThanLightTravel jump points]] in the later installments of the ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' series are depicted, in video {{cutscene}}s, as opening into these, then reversing the effect after the ship has passed into {{hyperspace}}.
* The space anomalies from {{VideoGame/Starbound}} are represented by this.
* The plot of ''VideoGame/DissidiaFinalFantasyOperaOmnia'' is about the opening of "Torsions" in the artificial world created by the gods of ''Dissidia NT'', dark swirling masses which spawn monsters and destabilize the world's fabric. It's also where new characters appear from; they fall into the other end of the Torsion in their home world.
* The Void from ''VideoGame/SilentHillDownpour'' is a bizarre vortex of swirling red light that actively pursues the player through the Silent Hill Otherworld, sucking in everything that comes near. When you get too close to it, time slows down, everything distorts and Murphy's body begins to flake apart. Nobody has a clue what it is or why it exists and nothing like it has ever been seen in Silent Hill before. [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] described it as "some wibbly-wobbly black hole with red bits, like something that got lost on its way to the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' visual effects department.
* The wells from ''VideoGame/SunlessSkies'', this universe's equivalent to [[UnrealisticBlackHole black holes]]. Besides terrorising your crew, they've been known to host cults, serve as prisons for [[EldritchAbomination are-nots and other undesirables]], or [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking grant wishes.]]

* In ''[[WebAnimation/SockSeries Advent of Sock]]'', Sock creates a [[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/354717257731145729/781959482451165184/Sans_titre_1.png purple vortex]] within their owner's fridge, though it's never shown if the vortex leads anywhere.

* Inter-dimensional portals in ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'' tend to look, in George's words, "it's big and shiny and looks like what an extra-dimensional portal should".
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Nioi has a marble sized ball which creates a dimensional portal which has this general appearance but the shape of a doorway.
* In ''Webcomic/SlightlyDamned'', the portals to Medius in Heaven were ''black'' swirly energy thingies.
* Where two or more {{Ley Line}}s meet in ''Webcomic/ElfBlood'', they will push up against each other to form an Eyrie which is a valuable magical resource.

* Regarding the Swirly Thingy over Norway, self-admitted MadScientist Tony Flaansas of ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'' pointed out that it could also be a villain trying to hypnotize Norway. When asked if he had tried to hypnotize Norway, his response was "Of course not, that's silly. I tried to blow it up, but my missile failed."

* Timmy falls into one of these in the pilot of ''WebVideo/TheTimeGuys'' [[WhatAnIdiot when he leaves the Time... Car in mid-transit]].

* The Ghosts of Christmas in ''WesternAnimation/BarbieInAChristmasCarol'' travel through time and space with {{palette swap}}ped versions of a vortex.
* When Megatron destabilizes history in the second season finale of ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'', a huge time-swirl starts spreading out into space with Earth at its center.
* Doc Terror's "Neutron Vortex" from the ''WesternAnimation/{{Centurions}}'' episode "To Dare Dominion."
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "[[Recap/FuturamaS3E19RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell that Ends Well]]", the Planet Express crew is sucked into the past by a Time Rift, a sort of red whirlpool in space caused by the interaction of radiation from a supernova and an exploding microwave oven.
* If their [[LargeAndInCharge stature]] didn't give it away, you could pin ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'''s Princesses Luna and Celestia as powerful from their manes and tails being composed not of hair but of a nebula and an aurora respectively.
** In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyEquestriaGirlsFriendshipGames'', the dimensional rifts generated by Twilight's magic-collecting pendant take the form of a circular portal surrounded by a blue halo, purple energy spirals and a pink ring, constantly shifting and making sinister electric noises.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'' two-part episode "[[Recap/TransformersG1DinoBotIsland Dinobot Island]]" featured various swirly energy time vortexes dropping historical animals, people, and objects into the present day.
* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': The Void.
* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'' episode "Balloonenstein," where resident MadScientist Dr. Weird creates a massive swirling vortex for...well, no reason whatsoever. The vortex later manifests over Carl's swimming pool, and Carl and Frylock are sucked into it and end up in an alternate universe for a week. Frylock is fine, but Carl's hands have grown to an enormous size (each hand is about the size of his own body). The vortex appears for a [[RuleOfThree third time]] at the end of the episode for a convenient DeusExMachina.

## China - 1988 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhVv8eqrRfI
## Russia - 2006 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG-3S2WKP6Y
## Norway - 2009 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3z8DlNZKag
## Australia - 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3ijxQL6SPg
## Israel - 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVE_wwgvf38