| 1 | [[quoteright:350:[[Film/{{Gravity}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/in_space_no_one_can_hear_your_brand.jpg]]]] |
| 2 | |
| 3 | ->''"In space, no one can hear you scream."'' |
| 4 | -->-- '''Tagline''' for ''Film/{{Alien}}'' |
| 5 | |
| 6 | There are a number of challenges associated with surviving in outer space: the current human need for oxygen, water, food, waste management, heating, as well as [[NoGravityForYou space's lack of gravity]], [[QuieterThanSilence being unable to hear what is going on outside]], and other issues all make space life a difficult proposition. Any CasualInterstellarTravel drive requires an hour to "warm up" and is the most fragile thing on the ship. A single pebble travelling sufficiently quickly could kill you, or at least destroy one of those important life-support systems; these systems are either very-high-maintenance or require the use of an AI to keep everything under control. If you were to send a DistressCall, the nearest help would be a week away. And the interior of your spacecraft is designed to look as cold, clunky, mechanical, and minimalistic as possible -- it might as well be a [[ShinyLookingSpaceships flashy]] HauntedHouse. |
| 7 | |
| 8 | And that's when things are working ''correctly''. |
| 9 | |
| 10 | Now throw in a [[AIIsACrapshoot malevolent or malfunctioning AI]] that controls all of the above, or [[TrappedWithMonsterPlot hostile aliens]] that you have never seen before trying to [[FaceFullOfAlienWingWong use you for breeding]]. But you can't go outside without taking on even more risks, such as getting a puncture in your space suit or the doors locking. [[EverybodysDeadDave Everyone but you has died]], and realistically your problems [[ASpaceMarineIsYou cannot be solved by simply shooting them]]. |
| 11 | |
| 12 | There aren't any other sentient beings within years of your location, but it doesn't matter since [[Film/{{Alien}} In Space Nobody Can Hear You Scream]]. Perhaps you can start an ApocalypticLog so that when people do arrive, they know what you've been through and how to prevent the situation from happening again -- it also allows you to talk to, and fill your days with, something, which might help prevent you from [[GoMadFromTheIsolation going mad from the isolation]]. Still, you will likely consider your slow, lonely death by maybe starvation, maybe suffocation, but probably not suicide as you [[ICannotSelfTerminate don't even have the implements to end it all]]. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | '''''[[SpaceMadness You're alone, in the cold depths of space, without hope of even seeing another human or your home before you die.]] [[NothingIsScarier You may not know if you die,]] [[TheNothingAfterDeath because space already looks like oblivion.]]''''' |
| 15 | |
| 16 | For story purposes (especially in the past when hard sci-fi wasn't prevalent based on [[ScienceMarchesOn lack of knowledge]]) [[SpaceIsAnOcean the deep sea works just as well]], since it has similar conditions for survival and similarly severe risks for going outside. In some ways it is worse, given how any people that could help are no more than a few miles away, but usually cannot be contacted. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | SubTrope of SciFiHorror. Compare EerieArcticResearchStation and EldritchOceanAbyss for more terrestrial counterparts. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Functions by means of EnclosedSpace and the ClosedCircle. If the isolated people are instead focusing on their insignificance or the deep vastness of an unknowable universe, it's a CosmicHorrorStory -- the two can overlap. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | !!Examples: |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Anime and Manga]] |
| 28 | * ''Manga/DrStone'': A variation. At the time of the [[TakenForGranite petrification of the entire human race]], there were six astronauts on the International Space Station. After the event, [[ButWhatAboutTheAstronauts they are all that remains of humanity]], and have to figure out how to get back to Earth on their own, and eventually make sure humanity continues beyond their lifetimes. |
| 29 | * Partway through the original ''Anime/GallForce'', [[spoiler:Luffy]] gives up [[OneGenderRace her]] chance at getting back on the ship before it warps away, leaving her to drift endlessly through space. [[spoiler:Subverted in a later entry in the series, where it's revealed her suit has a [[HumanPopsicle stasis]] feature; quite some time later, she's found by another ship, brought aboard, and awakened.]] |
| 30 | * ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency'': [[spoiler:In the final battle, Kars is launched into space by a volcanic eruption. His attempt to return to Earth by venting air from his body backfires when the moisture in the air freezes solid and he drifts even further away from Earth. Even worse, his immortal UltimateLifeForm body can survive even in the vacuum of space. After an indeterminate amount of time drifting alone in space, Kars' mind can't take it anymore and he simply stops thinking.]] |
| 31 | * In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', this happens to Trowa after Quatre accidentally blows up his mobile suit. He floats around in space for some time, but evidently gets rescued. It has a ''profound'' effect on him, causing him to go into a state of TraumaInducedAmnesia and have flashbacks of cold and darkness. |
| 32 | * Late into ''Manga/UQHolder'', [[spoiler:Karin is blasted into space as she tanks a spell meant for her comrades, sending her hurtling into the depths of space for 45 years. Since she's effectively completely immortal, she can't die and naturally being alone for that long really starts to get to her mentally, then she spots a sun that she's moving toward.... Luckily the protagonist Touta arrives to save her and she's spared the horror of being burned alive for a very long period of time]]. |
| 33 | [[/folder]] |
| 34 | |
| 35 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 36 | * ''ComicBook/PaperinikNewAdventures'' issue #19 "Absolute Zero" certainly dabbles in the genre. Urk, Lyla and Paperinik travel to the rings of Saturn to investigate the disappearance of two astronauts, finding that their ship was abducted by an ''enormous'' alien starship. While exploring, they find that the ship is completely empty, save for a mysterious "Guardian" who stalks them throughout the dark corridoors. [[spoiler:It turns out that the ship belonged to Xerbian refugees who sought to warn Earth of the [[TheEmpire Evronian Empire]], but were intercepted and the crew abducted. The Guardian suffered the A.I. equivelant of a mental breakdown and had been trying to replace the crew he failed to protect, starting with the astronauts]]. The imagery of the issue includes empty hallways, rows of cryogenic pods and two solitary pods containing unconscious astronauts. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Films -- Animation]] |
| 40 | * {{Implied|Trope}} in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'' as the fate of Experiment 626: he's to be taken by prison transport to a barren asteroid and abandoned there. Perhaps the authorities forbid capital punishment, or the condemned is too indestructible to be executed. It's still marooning on a cold, lonely rock in the void of space. |
| 41 | * The ''Anime/{{Memories}}'' segment "Magnetic Rose" shows this as Heinz's final fate when he is ejected into space while his ship and crew explode and his partner Miguel [[spoiler:stays inside the ship to be brainwashed by the insane A.I. to think that he is Carlos]]. |
| 42 | [[/folder]] |
| 43 | |
| 44 | [[folder:Films -- Live-Action]] |
| 45 | * ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'': Millions of miles away from any help, two men and three frozen crewmates, and an artificial intelligence that is nowadays one of the Trope Codifiers for AIIsACrapshoot. |
| 46 | * ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'': The whole franchise is about people stuck in a ClosedCircle, courtesy of being far away in space with little to no chance of people coming to the rescue ''at all'' (and if they do, it will take them weeks to ''months'' to get to you), with the titular hostile species lurking in the dark and dreary corners of the ship or the planet, trying to get you. |
| 47 | * ''Film/EventHorizon'': A rescue mission in deep space runs into a ship that is not only vile in terms of following NoOSHACompliance, but also because it's become a literal demon from Hell as a result of coming back from [[HyperspaceIsAScaryPlace a dimension that should not be]]. |
| 48 | * ''{{Film/Gravity}}'': The fact that it happens on Earth's orbit matters little -- there is no way to contact anybody, there is very little air, there are very few options to escape, the roaming debris going at hundreds of miles per hour destroys everything that gets in the way, and sanity begins to slip under such stressful conditions. It's probably a quick death if you get hit with that debris, but it's in no way merciful. |
| 49 | * Downplayed and discussed in ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'': Dr. Nikolai Romilly in one scene reveals to Cooper that he has no love whatsoever for being inside of the ''Endurance'' and the fact that a few inches of aluminum and titanium are all that is keeping him away from the endless, airless void of space and there's no sounds except for those of the life-support machinery doesn't helps him sleep. [[spoiler:When he has to spend several years on his lonesome inside of the ship because of TimeDilation, the fact he spent most of it [[HumanPopsicle in cryo]] or focused on doing scientific work only ''barely'' kept him from GoingMadFromTheIsolation.]] |
| 50 | * ''Film/{{Moon}}'': The protagonist is stuck on the far side of the Moon all by himself, with very little communication with the world and the claustrophobia starting to drive him loopy... this is before finding out just how horrifying the CorruptCorporateExecutive cabal he works for truly is (without going into spoilers, suffice to say he's more expendable that he expected to be). |
| 51 | * Dr. "Bones" [=McCoy=] has a healthy fear of this, as he mentions in the beginning of ''Film/StarTrek2009''. He goes on a lengthy diatribe of how dangerous it is to fly around in spaceships like shuttles and what may happen if they malfunction, how alien diseases are horrifying and how space in general is a collection of {{Death World}}s with an equally dangerous nothing in between them. |
| 52 | -->'''Leonard "Bones" [=McCoy=] (to Kirk):''' Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait'll you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles, see if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding. Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence. |
| 53 | * ''Film/{{Pandorum}}'': A crewman awaking from suspended animation to find the ship he's on in dire straits, and trying to puzzle out exactly what the hell happened. [[spoiler:Bonus points for occurring on a spaceship ''that landed in the ocean and sank'', making it an example of both types.]] |
| 54 | * ''Film/DeepBlueSea'': A character mentions early in the film that "living underwater is like living in space, you don't get many mistakes." The bulk of the film involves genetically-engineered super-intelligent sharks systematically flooding the mostly-submerged research lab with the intent to damage the fences enough to escape, while chowing down on any of the humans they come across. |
| 55 | * ''Film/RogueOne'': {{Discussed|Trope}} and played for a bit of BlackComedy. Jyn and Bodhi discuss the ramifications of the shield gate on Scarif being unexpectedly closed if they're caught: |
| 56 | --> '''Bodhi:''' Then they shut the gate, and we're all annihilated in the cold, dark vacuum of space. |
| 57 | --> '''K-2SO:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Not me. I can survive in space.]] |
| 58 | * ''Film/TheMartian'' might take place on the surface of Mars rather than in space per se, but it still has all the trappings of this trope. NASA astronaut Mark Watney is marooned {{Robinsonade}}-style on a barren planet without a breathable atmosphere, one sufficiently serious equipment failure away from dying in a variety of unpleasant ways and with a very limited supply of food and other consumables. A rescue mission would take many, many months to reach him even if the rest of his crew and MissionControl didn't think he was dead, and [[TheRadioDiesFirst the outpost's communications were irreparably trashed during the same accident that got him into this mess]] so he can't send a distress call. Oh, and [[TheAloner he has nobody to talk to but his diary]]. Though unlike other examples, he [[TheAntiNihilist takes his troubles in stride]], and is ready to [[ScienceHero science the shit out of his problems]]. |
| 59 | * 1989 saw a surprising number of movies that were basically this but underwater -- kind of an inversion of the SpaceIsAnOcean trope. ''Film/TheAbyss'' is the best-remembered, and probably the best in general, of the bunch, but there was also ''Film/DeepStarSix'', ''Film/LordsOfTheDeep'', and ''Film/Leviathan1989''. |
| 60 | * At the beginning of ''Film/AvengersEndgame'', Tony Stark and Nebula are on the Benatar, Starlord's spaceship, following [[ReducedToDust the Snap]] when it breaks down and runs out of fuel, leaving them stranded light years away from a civilized star system. After they run out of food, Tony records a message, saying his goodbyes, though he mentions the possibility that since they're floating so far from Earth that the message may never be heard by anyone else. Luckily, Captain Marvel manages to find the Benatar and brings them back to Earth. |
| 61 | [[/folder]] |
| 62 | |
| 63 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 64 | * The Creator/MichaelMoorcock sci-fi novel about escaping from a lunatic dying Earth, ''The Black Corridor'', uses this trope repeatedly, in the isolation felt by a crew-member on the escape ship who is doing his twenty-five year solo stint at flying the ship, attending to emergencies, and seeing nobody dies in suspended animation. This gives him time to brood and go quietly insane. |
| 65 | * Tom Godwin: |
| 66 | ** The short story "Literature/TheColdEquations" and its various adaptations could count as this: they are about a pilot of a small spacecraft with limited capabilities facing a difficult decision to space a human stowaway whose presence endangers his mission. The different adaptations feature somewhat different endings. |
| 67 | ** In "Literature/TheNothingEquation", a scientist named Green is left alone in a one-man observation bubble that has had catastrophic effects on his predecessors. Over time, he becomes paranoid as the realization weighs on him that it's just him in a relatively thin-skinned pod miles from anywhere with the "nothing" of space all around. |
| 68 | * This happens briefly to Gully Foyle at the beginning of ''Literature/TheStarsMyDestination''. The trauma of the experience is pivotal to his character development and his main motivation for the rest of the book. |
| 69 | * An entire chapter of ''Literature/HowToSurviveAHorrorMovie'' is devoted to teaching the reader how to survive the more common tropes of the genre if trapped in one. |
| 70 | -->''"This isn't science fiction. Strange new worlds aren't inhabited by talking monkeys or technologically gifted, sexy utopian women. They're cold, dark rocks harboring terrible secrets -- secrets that gobble your crew up one by one."'' |
| 71 | * Unlike the original live-action series, the first ''Literature/RedDwarf'' novel plays the trope harrowingly straight when Lister first awakens from [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep]] to find out he's the {{trope namer|s}} for EverybodysDeadDave: Loneliness, SurvivorGuilt and a side helping of existential angst send him into a long HeroicBSOD that is not the least bit PlayedForLaughs. |
| 72 | * Creator/JohnRingo touches on this briefly at the end of ''[[Literature/TroyRising The Hot Gate]]''. The humans and [[Main/ScaryDogmaticAliens Rangora]] have just trashed each other's capital ships, and left thousands of survivors floating around in space, many of them in either space suits or escape pods, both of which have very limited air. And there are so many of them, that the rescue efforts won't get to many of them before that limited air supply is exhausted. So even though the news services can communicate with these people, they often do not because the people are panicking as they realize they will die floating in space all alone before they can be rescued. |
| 73 | * A major plot element in ''Literature/ThebeAndTheAngryRedEye''. After a ship with a crew of seven is severely damaged in a space disaster, the only survivors are Thomas, the protagonist, and a tomato plant he adopts as a CompanionCube. Much of the story centers on Thomas coping with his [[TheAloner terrible loneliness]] and trying to avoid SanitySlippage. |
| 74 | [[/folder]] |
| 75 | |
| 76 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 77 | * ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': In the episode "[[Recap/FireflyE08OutOfGas Out of Gas]]", the titular gas is oxygen, and running low (with a ship that is dead in the water) means sitting around waiting for a slow and painful death or, in a degree of scary that is hard to argue whether is lesser or higher, risking whoever finds you decides murdering you is more profitable (or more ''fun'') than saving your life. |
| 78 | * ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' had a couple of episodes where Seven of Nine and/or the Doctor were the only crew members immune to the NegativeSpaceWedgie of the Week, and thus had to command the ship by themselves for long periods of time when the rest of the crew hibernated in stasis pods and/or were under the mental control of aliens. |
| 79 | * Subverted in ''Series/RedDwarf'': |
| 80 | ** Defied by Holly in [[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonITheEnd the first episode]]. Recognizing that Lister will probably suffer this eventually, being the SoleSurvivor of an EverybodysDeadDave scenario and trapped, alone, on a spacecraft the size of a small city and a million light-years away from the nearest human, Holly uses the ship's hard-light technology to recreate Lister's 'best friend' aboard the ship (i.e., the person he interacted with the most) -- his insufferable boss, Rimmer. While free of the isolation, Lister isn't much in the mood to celebrate. |
| 81 | --->'''Lister:''' Holly, why Rimmer's hologram? Why'd you have to bring Rimmer's hologram back? He was the most unpopular man on board this ship. I mean, he even had to organise his own surprise birthday parties!\ |
| 82 | '''Holly:''' Who should I have brought back, then?\ |
| 83 | '''Lister:''' Anyone! Chen, Petersen! I mean, even [[ThoseWackyNazis Hermann Göring]] would've been more than a laugh than Rimmer! I mean, OK, he was a drug-crazed transvestite, but at least we could've gone dancing! |
| 84 | ** At one point, Lister's main reaction at looking out of the cabin porthole into the awesome and terrifying infinity of Deep Space is how bloody arse-achingly dull and boring it all gets after a while... |
| 85 | * ''Series/TheExpanse'' uses this on the very first scene of the series, with Julie Mao waking up in a ship that is marooned in space, with failing power, communications that may or may not be working right, and eerily empty. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that the reason why it's empty and losing power is because the protomolecule has eaten the whole crew and is syphoning juice from the reactor.]] |
| 86 | * ''Series/BlackMirror'': The ultimate fate of [[spoiler:Robert Daly]] in "[[Recap/BlackMirrorUSSCallister USS Callister]]" -- [[spoiler:his mind is trapped in the game, unable to exit with all the controls disabled, in an inert spaceship cockpit floating through the infinite darkness of the deleted game, with nothing to do but rant and flail impotently at the controls. Given an offhand comment implying that time doesn't flow the same way in-game as it does in the real world, Daly might be stuck like that forever. Honestly, [[AssholeVictim serves him right]] for how he treated those sentient game characters.]] |
| 87 | -->''Exit game. EXIT GAME! [[VillainousBreakdown FUCK, EXIT GAME!]] [[MadnessMantra EXIT FUCKING GAME, EXIT FUCKING GAME, EXIT FUCKING GAME, EXIT FUCKING GAME...]]'' |
| 88 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'': The episode "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E7TheLonely The Lonely]]" is about a man stranded on an asteroid somewhere far from settled space, placed there to serve out a life sentence alone. A passing cargo hauler takes pity on him and leaves him with a female android, whose company he initially rejects before coming to accept it. [[spoiler:At the end, his sentence is commuted, but the ship that came to pick him up [[ColdEquation can't take both him and the android]], and he refuses to leave his only lifeline behind. The captain of the ship, with ''great'' reluctance (it's implied he's seen this before), shoots the android in the head, revealing "her" wiring, and tells the man, "All you're leaving behind is loneliness."]] |
| 89 | [[/folder]] |
| 90 | |
| 91 | [[folder:Music]] |
| 92 | * The repeated line about ''Space is dark/And it's so endless/When you're lost it's so relentless'' from one of Creator/MichaelMoorcock's books was later set to music by space-rockers Music/{{Hawkwind}}, who also mined Moorcock's book for another bleak song on the same theme, "The Golden Void" (''Golden Void/Speaks to me/Denying my reality/Lose my body, lose my mind/Solar wind, I flow like wine...'') |
| 93 | * Music/BraveSaintSaturn's Saturn 5 Trilogy is about a spaceship that gets stuck in a geosynchronous orbit with the dark side of Saturn's moon Titan, leaving the crew trapped in the darkness of the planet's shadow for three years. Many of the lyrics are about the loneliness of space, especially ''Space Robot Five''. |
| 94 | * Music/{{Spruke}}'s "[[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/85084207/music-to-die-alone-in-space-to/description Music to Die Alone in Space to]]" is an electronic album designed to make the listener feel like they are an astronaut dying alone in space, complete with snippets of personalised voice overs and "Earth songs" through static set to slow, minor-key electronic and synth music. Tracks include "Adrift", "Void" and "Asphyxiation". |
| 95 | * Music/DavidBowie's "Music/SpaceOddity" is an ApocalypticLog in the form of an exchange between [[MissionControl Ground Control]] and the astronaut Major Tom. The first portion is quite magnificent, but then Major Tom [[ThatWasTheLastEntry gives an ominous farewell right before his communication cuts out]], and the song fades into a cacophonic LastNoteNightmare as we're left [[NothingIsScarier wondering just what happened to the poor guy]]. |
| 96 | * The Music/ButtholeSurfers song "The Last Astronaut" is an astronaut reciting what he sees to Ground Control, set to discordant music. Where it falls into this trope is [[spoiler:when the astronaut realizes something horrific - implied to be nuclear war - has just annihilated humanity, leaving him trapped in orbit with no one to contact and no way to get home]]. |
| 97 | -->"Hello? My God! Is there anyone there? My God... all of them, huh?" |
| 98 | * Defied in the Music/IronMaiden song "Satellite 15... The Final Frontier", where the protagonist is an astronaut who is about to die alone in space, but elects to FaceDeathWithDignity, reflecting that even if his story must end like this, he has no regrets. |
| 99 | [[/folder]] |
| 100 | |
| 101 | [[folder:Tabletop Games]] |
| 102 | * ''Franchise/{{Alien}} the Roleplaying Game'' obviously falls into this, especially in "cinematic mode", where life is cheap and the characters are expected to be alone with the beast. |
| 103 | * ''TabletopGame/DarkHeresy'' is built to facilitate this type of story, following Interrogators of the Imperial Inquisition in the ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' universe. It really hammers home what a miserable place the Imperium is, on a level that the main game, with its focus on simple battles, cannot. |
| 104 | * ''TabletopGame/MothershipRPG'' by Tuesday Knight Games, follows a party of high strung teamsters, marines, scientists, and androids at the edge of space, with rules that expect your characters to be high stress and running out of oxygen. The module Dead Planet especially leaves your characters stranded with little hope of rescue in a system which disables hyperdrive, [[CosmicHorrorStory among other things]]. |
| 105 | * In ''TabletopGame/{{Starfinder}}'', getting abandoned in space with no hope of rescue can cause your body to reanimate as a Marooned One, an undead bent of causing as much anguish as possible by getting other space travelers marooned like they were. |
| 106 | * ''TabletopGame/StarsWithoutNumber'' can be used for this sort of scenario, with Xeno Terror Beast on the list of creatures in the bestiary. |
| 107 | * ''Those Dark Places'' by Osprey Games leans harder into the industrial horror aspects. The threat is not a scary monster, but the simple fact that overstressed contractors working long hours in extremely dangerous conditions are quite likely to snap. |
| 108 | [[/folder]] |
| 109 | |
| 110 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 111 | * ''[[VideoGame/ChzoMythos 7 Days a Skeptic]]'' - the game has you stranded in a TenLittleMurderVictims scenario, and there's nowhere to run to because you're on a space station. |
| 112 | * The title ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' says it all. The player gets stranded on a vast but abandoned and barely functioning space station, trying to stay alive with hostile androids and a killer xenomorph roaming around. |
| 113 | * ''VideoGame/AxiomVerge'' is an other-dimensional version, with many of the H.R. Giger-esque art styles, haunting music, and a deliberate homage to lots of ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'''s style and gameplay. |
| 114 | * A key part of the horror of the ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' series is that, aside from a voice in his helmet, Isaac is utterly alone against various nightmarish monstrosities, in a situation with no chance of escape or rescue. This is particularly pronounced when you enter the vacuum of space - SpaceIsNoisy is ''strongly'' averted, leaving you drifting inches from disaster, reliant solely on your eyes to see any threats. |
| 115 | * ''VideoGame/TheBreach'': The game apparently takes inspiration from every space horror franchise from ''Film/EventHorizon'' to ''TabletopGame/SpaceHulk'', so naturally it takes place on a derelict space ship whose crew are either dead, zombified, or fused with insectoid lifeforms. And as the game progresses the ship starts merging with the alternate dimension responsible for everything. |
| 116 | * ''VideoGame/{{Dispatcher}}'' is a ''very'' indie-jank first-person maze game by a single Eastern European developer, in which you're a crew member trying to escape a grid-based maze spaceship while avoiding a giant frog mutant and zombies. |
| 117 | * The third ''VideoGame/DontEscape'' game takes place on a spaceship whose crew have all been horribly murdered save the protagonist, who starts the game about to be [[ThrownOutTheAirlock jettisoned out the airlock]]. [[spoiler:Since he murdered them while possessed by a sentient crystal, it was trying to kill him before he could solve the mystery and warn the incoming rescue ship.]] Unlike most examples, the ship actually seems quite pleasant to live in. |
| 118 | * Unlike the more gung-ho and action-oriented look and feel of [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} other games in the series]], ''VideoGame/Doom3'' takes a page out of the book of space isolation horror with its grimmer, darker atmosphere and slower pace. |
| 119 | * ''VideoGame/{{Duskers}}'' is set in a DerelictGraveyard universe where you are apparently the last person left alive, and must explore the crumbling, monster-infested derelicts to learn what happened to humanity -- and scavenge the supplies to survive. Like many other genre examples, the interface and the nature of the threats are evocative of the first ''Film/{{Alien}}'' movie. |
| 120 | * The ''VideoGame/{{Ghostship}}'' series are Platform/{{Steam}} indie FirstPersonShooter SurvivalHorror games set on an abandoned ghostship that has been taken over by insect aliens and zombies. They're mostly known for being highly non-linear with you being able to explore the entire ship from the start of the game, and for being incredibly janky due to being made by a single self-taught programmer as a passion project. |
| 121 | * The first game of the ''VideoGame/{{Lifeline}}'' series has Taylor getting stranded alone in a barren planet and asking you for help in trying to survive. [[spoiler:But as they explore the planet, they discover that they're not alone...]] |
| 122 | * Deliberately, the entire ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' franchise is an example of this trope. The developers of the first game stated that it was their intention to make the player feel trapped and alone in a very hostile and alien world. The visuals and audio work to built the atmosphere of isolation. One of the series' main villains, Ridley, was even named as a ShoutOut to Creator/RidleyScott, who popularized this subgenre with ''Film/{{Alien}}''. |
| 123 | ** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' was even criticized by some fans for not having enough of this, and feeling too much like conventional SpaceOpera -- too many characters, too much easy travel, and just too wide a scope. |
| 124 | * ''[[VideoGame/NemesisDistress Nemesis: Distress]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/NemesisLockdown Nemesis: Lockdown]]'' are multiplayer video games based on the board game ''TabletopGame/{{Nemesis}}'', featuring a team of blue-collar space workers investigating a derelict spaceship which turns out to be overrun by a hostile alien predatory species. Besides surviving against the aliens and various ship malfunctions, the games also have a SocialDeductionGame element with each crew member having a secret agenda which may or may not conflict with their teammates' goals or survival. ''Lockdown'' is a top-down, more straight adaptation of the board game, while ''Distress'' is a first-person horror game with heavily influence from ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation''. |
| 125 | * In ''VideoGame/LiveALive'', the Far Future scenario takes place entirely on board a spaceship whose crew members are getting horribly killed one by one in various ways. |
| 126 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Observation}}'', you wake up a crippled space station at least 746 million miles away from home with no idea how you got there and where the rest of the crew has gone. |
| 127 | * You're forced to wander alone on the quiet levels of ''VideoGame/ThePersistence'' comforted only by the ambient groans of the dying shuttle and the company of murderous aberrations who will sneak behind you and beat you to death. |
| 128 | * ''VideoGame/{{Phantaruk}}'' is a stealth-focused SurvivalHorror game very reminiscent of ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' in which you wake up alone on an adrift clone-production ship and are pursued by a mutant creature called Phantaruk. |
| 129 | * ''VideoGame/{{Solarix}}'' is a Turkish-developed first person stealth horror game taking place on an abandoned mining colony and later the colony's interstellar spaceship; you've awakened from cryosleep to find almost everyone else has been killed by a deadly virus; the only survivors are murderous zombie-like "Anomaly" mutants and a few squads of desperate soldiers who shoot anyone else (namely you) on sight. |
| 130 | * ''VideoGame/SpiritsOfXanadu'' is a minimalist {{Retraux}} indie first-person SurvivalHorror game published by Creator/NightdiveStudios. Inspired by ''Film/{{Solaris}}'' and ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', you're an investigator investigating an adrift exploration ship whose crew has vanished. The scope of the game is relatively small (the ship is about the size of a rather large house), but the gameplay is highly polished. |
| 131 | * ''VideoGame/{{Subnautica}}'' leaves you stranded on an [[SingleBiomePlanet ocean planet]] full of large, terrifying sea monsters who want to eat you. |
| 132 | * ''VideoGame/{{Syndrome}}'' is an indie first-person SurvivalHorror game by Camel 101. It takes heavy influence from ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'', and ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'' and has you waking up with partial amnesia on a derelict spaceship overrun with killer cyborgs. |
| 133 | * ''VideoGame/SystemShock'': |
| 134 | ** The first game is an early FPS taking place on a space station taken over a murderous A.I., Shodan. |
| 135 | ** ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' is likely the TropeCodifier for the genre in the modern video game space, a semi-non-linear first-person SurvivalHorror game in which you wake up on a spaceship whose security systems have gone berserk and whose crew have all either been killed or transformed into murderous mutants. |
| 136 | [[/folder]] |
| 137 | |
| 138 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 139 | * {{Creepy Pasta}}s: |
| 140 | ** ''Lost Cosmonaut'' is about a woman who goes into space before Yuri Gagarin. She finds a "muttnik" capsule with half of a child's body orbiting it. When she threatens to tell, MissionControl blasts her into a higher orbit to starve or suffocate. |
| 141 | ** ''In From the Cold'' has the protagonist alone in a moon base after the other astronaut died in an airlock malfunction. [[spoiler:The dead astronaut tries to get back in...]] |
| 142 | ** One has an experimental [[FasterThanLightTravel FTL engine]] fail, and the crew goes insane, eventually dying until the automatic return kicks in. |
| 143 | ** In ''Thaw,'' sometime in the distant future, a man wakes up from his cryonic suspension onboard a spaceship, only to find himself [[CryonicsFailure only partially dethawed and trapped in his capsule, which seems to have failed]]. Then, he notices that the ship is on emergency lighting, and even that seems to be failing. THEN he notices that the other capsules in the room have also failed and either contains decayed corpses or blood splatters like someone bashed their heads open from the inside. Realizing that some sort of disaster has befallen the ship, he suddenly notices that they are still in orbit around Earth, having never left... except this Earth has a giant glacier of a new ice age covering most of the northern hemisphere, and no signs of human cities anywhere... |
| 144 | ** In ''I Was an Astronaut and I Experienced Something Terrifying,'' the narrator has someone knock on the door of his capsule. He and his copilot are the only living things within several million miles... |
| 145 | *** In some versions, "It" masquerades as his copilot, who begs him not to open the airlock. |
| 146 | ** In ''The Lonely Stars,'' the protagonist and his space station is thrown back 1500 years in time by a NegativeSpaceWedgie. The story ends just as he begins to succumb to SpaceMadness. |
| 147 | * ''Podcast/TheMagnusArchives'' features the crew of the Daedalus Space Station, described in episodes 57, 106, and 135. The expedition was funded to put the three man crew through a series of psychological tests about fear and isolation while in space, only for supernatural occurrences to begin to occur. Carter Chilcott spent between 3-6 months utterly without human contact, while Jan Kilbride had an encounter with some vast ''thing'' during a space walk. As for Manuela Dominguez, [[spoiler:she was experimenting on a secret fourth crewmember, using a mixture of science and the occult to create the focus for a Ritual known as the Dark Sun, to blot out all light from existence]]. |
| 148 | * ''Podcast/Wolf359'' has "Mayday", a BottleEpisode where Eiffel gets launched into space in Lovelace's ship. The ship sustained heavy damage in the explosion that launched him away from the Hephaestus, leaving the engines completely non-functional as he drifts off into space, with only radio static and hallucinations of his crewmates for company. [[spoiler:He keeps himself alive by repeatedly cryogenically freezing himself and using his one functional engine to turn slightly every 72 hours, which would get him close enough to the Hermes-station to radio them for help. It's not until months into his trip that he realizes that [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome it would take him about 6000 years to get close enough to the Hermes]], at which point his cryo-pod breaks down due to lack of water. Fortunately, his final radio broadcast gets picked up by the Urania, and he gets rescued by [=SI5=] and returned to the Hephaestus.]] |
| 149 | [[/folder]] |
| 150 | |
| 151 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 152 | * ''WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots'': |
| 153 | ** In "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsBeyondTheAquilaRift Beyond the Aquila Rift]]", Thom is trapped in a monster's colony somewhere far away in space. Since he's beyond where anybody travels, he has no hope of rescue and can only choose to accept the fantasy provided by "Greta". |
| 154 | ** In "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsHelpingHand Helping Hand]]", gets stuck drifting in space with no propulsion and damaged oxygen tanks which will run out before help can arrive. |
| 155 | ** In "[[Recap/LoveDeathAndRobotsTheVeryPulseOfTheMachine The Very Pulse of the Machine]]", Kivelson is AlmostOutOfOxygen on Io, with no way to call for help before her air runs out. She seems to slowly start going insane, though it's ambiguous how much is the MushroomSamba and how much is real. |
| 156 | [[/folder]] |
| 157 | |
| 158 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 159 | * The astronauts on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_13 Apollo 13]] discovered midway to the moon that a malfunction had occurred, requiring them to return to Earth immediately, through a terrifyingly narrow re-entry window. If the re-entry attempt had gone wrong, the astronauts would have been either burned alive or stranded in space. |
| 160 | * Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov almost met a sticky end during the first-ever spacewalk. His suit ballooned and became rigid, making any movement almost impossible. His body started to rise to alarming temperatures, flooding his suit with sweat up to his knees. After several minutes outside the capsule, he attempted to re-enter the detachable airlock. He found that he could only enter headfirst by pulling his suit's umbilical cord. Alexei became stuck sideways in the process and was forced to partially decompress his suit to fully enter the airlock (risking the bends). A suicide pill was built into his suit, in case he failed to make it back inside the spacecraft. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
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