Line #29 Main/AutomobilesAreAlien


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11	->''The loudcages stood lifeless between pools of shattered clear-stone. Beneath their twisted muzzles were dried pools of the juice longpaws fed them\
12	The loudcages were bleeding''
13	-->-- ''Literature/{{Survivor\|Dogs}}s: Darkness Falls''
14
15	Most humans can interact with and use cars without issue. However, to animals, aliens, other non-humans, and time-travelers, cars are another story. To them, cars are not simple contraptions meant to transport people. They're huge, hulking masses of metal with eerily glowing lights that are constantly running by at high speeds. Oftentimes, characters don't understand that vehicles are objects and believe them to be alive. In {{xenofiction}}, cars are distinctly "other" and are amongst the biggest threats to characters. [[FridgeLogic Nevermind the fact]] that aliens capable of interstellar travel really should understand the concept of vehicular transportation.
16
17	Automobiles as hazardous also appear in human-centric works, even if the [[SentientVehicle car itself is not alive]]. It depends on who is driving the car, the size of the person, the size of the ''car'', and whether the person has experience with automobiles.
18
19	Compare to HumansAreCthulhu. Sub-trope to HumansThroughAlienEyes. Often overlaps with SinisterCar.
20	----
21	!!Examples:
22
23	[[foldercontrol]]
24
25	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
26	* In ''Anime/BakuganBattlePlanet'', Drago thinks the bus eats people. Dan corrects him.
27	* In the very first issue of ''Manga/DragonBall'', Goku mistakes Bulma's car as a monster.
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Books]]
31	* Bowzar the Barkbarian, a one-shot villain of ''ComicBook/CaptainCarrotAndHisAmazingZooCrew'', was transported from a Bronze Age world to the modern day. He establishes his threat level by mistaking a car for a horrible monster and its driver for a swallowed victim, and wrecks it with a single mighty blow. He's surprised when the driver runs for his life instead of showering him with thanks.
32	* Creator/MarvelComics' early pre-[[Comicbook/FantasticFour Fantastic Four]] mystic character Dr. Droom (renamed Dr. Druid in the Bronze Age to avoid confusion with a certain [[Comicbook/DoctorDoom other doctor)]] once thwarted an alien invasion by driving a giant crane with a wrecking ball over to an alien spacecraft and whacking it a few times with the ball, while telepathically communicating with the aliens to make them think the crane itself was a typical Earthling. It spooked them badly enough that they took off back into space.
33	[[/folder]]
34
35	[[folder:Fan Works]]
36	* The cats in ''Fanfic/WarriorsTheDayTheClansDied'' come across a car crash but don't fully understand it. They think that the wrecked automobile is "dead" and that the "monster" ate a human.
37	* In ''Fanfic/WarriorsRewrite'', Clan cats call cars "monsters", as in canon. Firepaw knows them as "cars" due to his life as a kittypet. Cars don't scare him on default, but he's nervous about the highway that marks the border between [=ThunderClan=] and [=ShadowClan=].
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
41	* The first time that Chrysta the fairy from ''WesternAnimation/FernGullyTheLastRainforest'' set eyes on the Leveler, she termed it a "monster." Considering that this machine has two chainsaw pincers at the ends of two robotic arms, and also houses a complete lumber mill on caterpillar treads, the Leveler is definitely one monster vehicle. Further, the fairies of Ferngully have never before seen a machine of any kind, and even consider humans to be extinct.
42	* While most motor vehicles in Disney's ''WesternAnimation/OliverAndCompany'' are routine traffic, and while Fagan's scooter-cum-shopping cart is laughable, the villain's matte black sedan is portrayed as ominous, like a V-8 version of Darth Vader. When this villain pursues his fleeing quarry into the subway tunnels with this car, it heightens this effect.
43	* The young furlings of ''WesternAnimation/OnceUponAForest'' are warned about "yellow dragons" by some friendly birds. These yellow dragons have ravaged the birds' home ground, and felled their trees, creating cursed ground over which they refuse to fly. The furlings must cross this terrain, and are nearly killed by the yellow dragons, which are construction vehicles clearing the ground for a new structure.
44	[[/folder]]
45
46	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
47	* In ''Film/TheAdventuresOfMiloAndOtis'', when Milo sees a train for the first time, he has no idea what it is, and the narrator states that Milo "kept his eye out for those noisy animals".
48	* Similar to ''Duel'' is ''Film/TheCar'' where a rural town in Utah is terrorized by a mysterious black sedan (really a heavily-modified Lincoln Continental) that appears out of nowhere and runs people over. Like the ''Duel'' truck, it has a very intimidating appearance and the dark tinted windows makes it impossible to see the driver. [[spoiler:[[DemonicPossession Because there is]] [[SentientVehicle no driver!]]]]
49	* ''Film/{{Duel}}'' is about an ordinary man who is being followed by a large truck whose [[TheFaceless mostly unseen]] driver appears intent on killing him for unknown reasons. The truck's grungy appearance and massive size, and the fact that the driver is [[TheFaceless barely visible]] and never makes his intentions clear, give it the sense of it being an MechanicalAbomination.
50	* Like in [[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy the book]], Ford Prefect from ''Film/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy2005'' chose his name because [[MistookTheDominantLifeform he thought cars were the dominant species on Earth]]. Here we see he first met Arthur when Arthur had to push him out of the way of a car he was trying to shake hands with.
51	* Discussed/invoked in the nature documentary ''Hornets: A Sting in the Tale'' -- as a hornet's nest is demolished by a digger, the narrator describes the machine as an "iron dinosaur" immune to stinging.
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Literature]]
55	* In P. D. Eastman's children's book ''Are You My Mother?'', a baby bird encounters an excavator, which it calls a "snort" after the sound it makes. At first the bird mistakes the machine for its mother, but later it believes it to be a dangerous monster.
56	* ''Literature/TheColdMoons'':
57	** The badgers refer to helicopters as scentless trained "birds". They think that a ladder is its tongue and that it eats humans.
58	** The badgers refer to a train as a "serpent" that eats humans.
59	* ''Dragonlinks'' by Paul Collins is mostly set in a fantasy world, but has a sequence in which a wizard is temporarily transported to our world or one like it. He arrives in the vicinity of a busy motorway, and interprets the cars as some kind of monstrous creature and the lane markings as the equivalent of the protective markings around a summoning circle, preventing them from taking off in all directions.
60	* The moles of ''Literature/{{Duncton Wood}}'' fear 'screaming owls' that kill moles trying to cross what human readers can identify as a road.
61	* Princess Katerina from ''Literature/{{Enchantment}}'' is teleported into the modern day from 9th century Ukraine. When she encounters an automobile for the first time she is absolutely terrified of it, being convinced that it's a monster sent by Literature/BabaYaga.
62	* As a puppy, ''Literature/{{Fluke}}'' is initially terrified of cars.
63	* In ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxyTrilogy'', Ford Prefect thought that cars were the dominant earth life form while he was researching Earth. He also chose his human name off of the common British car, the Ford Prefect.
64	* In the first light novel of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', Satanic Coupler creates a locomotive and updates it by reading the memory of its passengers. Because of the TeamPet Iggy believing that trains are monstrous things, it adopts a wild monster-machine look with stag beetle's jaws and thorns.
65	* ''Literature/{{Nightside}}'': In London's titular EldritchLocation, some of the cabs are predatory car-shaped entities that devour the unwary, with imitation "drivers" like anglerfish lures.
66	* Automobiles get treated this way in ''Literature/{{Pollyanna}}'' especially after one cripples the title character right before the third act.
67	* Bears in ''Literature/SeekerBears'' call cars "firebeasts". They realize that flatfaces are swallowed inside them and that they "sleep" near flatface dens, however much else evades them. Firebeasts are simply terrifying adversaries that are known to seriously injure or kill bears. Blackpaths (highways) are also unpleasant smelling and scary to cross.
68	* The poem ''[[https://www.rose-hulman.edu/~williams/poem/Favpoem/html/southbound.htm Southbound on the Freeway]]'' by Mary Swenson has an alien regarding cars as lifeforms.
69	* Pufftail from ''Literature/Stray1987'' is a cat who refers to cars as "engines of murder", though he also knows the human name for them. His first major interaction with cars was when the drunk son-in-law of his owners threw him out of a car, injuring his leg. His brother Bootsie [[spoiler:didn't survive being thrown out]], and Pufftail saw [[spoiler:his dead body get mangled by cars]].
70	* In ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'', many of the characters were pet dogs and thus realize there's nothing ''inherently'' scary about "loudcages"; they're seen as generally tame "creatures" that longpaws keep as pets to travel places. However, the loudcages the dogs come across in the forest are ferocious and fearsome.
71	* ''Literature/VarjakPaw'': Being a sheltered inside cat, Varjak has never seen a car. When he must go outdoors and look for a dog (who he hears are large and frightening), he mistakes a car for a dog. Varjak believes them to be monstrous creatures who won't listen to him, no matter what he does, and who want nothing more than to kill him. It isn't until his friend Ginger explains cars to him that he realizes they're relatively harmless and non-living.
72	* Cats in ''Literature/WarriorCats'' refer to cars as "monsters". Cats try to stay away from highways, or "Thunderpaths" as they call them, however they must use them to pass through territories or go to the High Stone rocks. Quite a few characters end up hit by cars and either killed or [[CareerEndingInjury disabled]]. Not only are the cars frightening, but the general atmosphere of the highway is unnerving to cats due to its disgusting smell and unnatural texture.
73	* ''Literature/WatershipDown'':
74	** Motor vehicles are called "hrududu," by rabbits, an {{onomatopoeia}} of their engine noise. Though most of the nomad rabbits are fearful of these things, and debate whether or not they're living creatures, Bigwig dares to sit on the centerline of a road while a passenger car passes by. "See? It's not interested," he remarks.
75	** The traveling rabbits think that a train is a divine being after one provides an unwitting BigDamnHeroes. However the Efrafan rabbits live closer to trains and realize that they're just larger versions of "hrududu".
76	* ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motor_Bus "The Motor Bus"]]'' is a parodic Edwardian poem in mixed English and Latin that describes busses as terrifying and horrible monsters invading Oxford and ends with a prayer to God to deliver the citizens from motor busses.
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
80	* In one episode of ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the entire cast mentally reverts to their teenage selves. In most cases, this undoes some character development and makes them a lot dumber. In Angel's case, as a centuries-old vampire, it reverts him to his pre-vampire self. When he ventures outside, he sees cars and is convinced that the world is populated by howling demons moving impossibly fast.
81	* ''Series/{{Cosmos}}'': There's one prt in which we zoom on Earth from an alien perspective and stop when cars can be discerned. They're considered as possible lifeforms, humans being suggested to be symbiotes required by them to start moving.
82	* Several Traveling Matt segments on ''Series/FraggleRock'' are built around this. He calls them "shiny creatures", attempts to speak their language by beeping, and mistakes a drive-in theater for a ritual where they all close their eyes (power off their headlights) and [[ItMakesSenseInContext share dreams]].
83	* Played with in ''Series/IThinkYouShouldLeaveWithTimRobinson'', where the aliens don't understand the concept of cars, but only because their culture is based entirely on motorcycles and biker culture, so they think cars are just two motorcycles next to each other with a tiny house in the middle.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Video Games]]
87	* The wizard's companion in ''VideoGame/NiNoKuni'' describes trains as massive metal dragons which belch smoke, that people ride in, in the other world.
88	[[/folder]]
89
90	[[folder:Webcomics]]
91	* ''Webcomic/DinosaurComics'': [[http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=2587 This strip]] makes the argument that cars are monstrous to humans, as well.
92	-->'''T. rex:''' "Driving" is a cool game to play because it requires you to focus on it LITERALLY EVERY SECOND YOU'RE PLAYING, and even though a tiny mistake can kill you instantly, the game is so incredibly boring it can ACTUALLY LULL YOU INTO SLEEP. [...]\
93	'''Velociraptor:''' I don't want to play your game. It sounds monstrous.\
94	'''T. rex:''' TOO LATE WE ALREADY DESIGNED MODERN CITIES AROUND IT!
95	* In ''[[Webcomic/TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob,]]'' when the [[FishOutOfTemporalWater time-displaced]] ninjas flee after almost being struck by a car, Moé says, "It was... horrible! Like some kind of unnatural... horseless carriage! We would never build such a monstrosity in Japan!"
96	[[/folder]]
97
98	[[folder:Web Videos]]
99	* In ''WebVideo/TheGamersHumansAndHouseholds'', a bunch of fantasy heroes playing the eponymous TabletopRPG set in RealLife are utterly perplexed and terrified by cars, which appear to them as metal monstrosities that swallow people whole.
100	[[/folder]]
101
102	[[folder:Web Original]]
103	* One CreepyPasta involves a [[HauntedTechnology haunted pickup truck]] going through a drivethrough and kidnapping the narrator's co-worker by opening its window and snatching her up with CreepyLongArms.
104	[[/folder]]
105
106	[[folder:Western Animation]]
107	* To a {{Woodland Creature\|s}}, highway crossing is a big deal. Cars are quite scary to them. Several animals in ''WesternAnimation/TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'' are killed by cars, including one couple who give up crossing partway due to their fear.
108	* ''WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts'': The WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} short ''Motor Mania' has Goofy (as Mr. Walker) being targeted by predatory drivers while crossing the intersection. One scene even has Goofy being chased up a streetlamp by cars that bark like dogs.
109	* Automobiles in ''WesternAnimation/ToadPatrol'' are referred to as "Rumble-Crushers" by the young toads after one of them was almost squashed by a car. He was close enough to note that they "rumble." An elder notes "That is a very good name for them."
110	* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' are usually seen as this in most of the media, first Autobots when they meet humans and before humanity adopt them as allies, and seen straight with Decepticons, not just becoming enemies of Autobots and in general mankind, some of the robots had taken cars and other vehicles as their alternate form.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Trollhunters}}'': When [[spoiler:Gunmar, Dictatious and two soldiers reach the surface world]], they mistake an incoming car for a "surface beast" and one of the soldiers tries to slay it, [[CarFu he gets hit]] and [[AnArmAndALeg loses an arm]].
112	* In a Creator/NationalFilmBoardOfCanada production titled ''WesternAnimation/WhatOnEarth'', the vehicles are misidentified by Martian scientists as civilized organisms in a highly structured society. It's Empirical Theory that's PlayedForLaughs.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Real Life]]
116	* A phobia of driving cars is called "vehophobia".
117	* [[ThoseWilyCoyotes Coyotes]] in North America have discovered that motor vehicles can't move laterally very well. When coyote hunters pursue them, coyotes run onto a roadway and play Roger-Dodge-'Em with the traffic. Hunters are too smart to risk being squished by drivers, and their pursuit dogs no longer regard vehicles as dangerous. Zoologists have found coyotes teach their pups this anti-pursuit trick.
118	[[/folder]]

Context Main / AutomobilesAreAlien