History Main / BlindJump

The limitation for a lot of forms of FasterThanLightTravel is the need to make calculations before discarding relativity in order to make the trip safely. Either you need a very precise idea of where you are and where you're going, or you need to plot a course around inconvenient obstructions like stars, either way the jump can't be rushed.

However there will inevitably come a time when such safety measures are impossible. TheEmpire's space fleet is closing in or the DoomsdayDevice is SuckingInLines, and if the CoolShip doesn't [[HyperspeedEscape move]] '' now'' it's doomed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch'', Stitch faces recapture after stealing a police cruiser ("Yeah, he took the red one.") so [[HyperspeedEscape he activates the hyperdrive]]. The ship's computer tells him this would be a ''bad'' idea because navigation is disabled. He doesn't care. Fortunately, his jump took him to a habitable planet that just happened to be a [[InsignificantLittleBluePlanet mosquito preserve]], which severely limited what the Grand Councilwoman could do in terms of recapturing him. Unfortunately, he landed on an island, and he can't swim. It was a very near thing. He almost landed in the water itself.

* In the ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise, it's stated (see the quote above) that ships must perform precise calculations before jumping to light speed, but there are exceptions.
** ''Film/ANewHope'': Han Solo has the ''Milennium Falcon'' make an emergency jump to escape a Star Destroyer when her DeflectorShields start to collapse.

*** [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] later on in the movie where he manually pulls out of lightspeed much later than is safe to get past Starkiller Base's shields, effectively pulling a Blind Landing.

** ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' does it with Hyperspace Skipping: thanks to the Hyperspace Tracking that debuted in ''Film/TheLastJedi'', to escape some TIE Fighters Poe Dameron has to make multiple blind jumps to random locations. He pulls it off, but arrives at the Resistance base with the Falcon on fire.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the [[Franchise/StarTrekExpandedUniverse novel]] "Vendetta" the ''Enterprise'' is chasing Delcara's Planet Killer so they can retrieve Captain Picard at a very high warp speed. And the crew is ferverently hoping they don't hit a planet or even an astroid because if they did ships could spend the next millenium searching for [[LudicrousGibs all the pieces]] of the ''Enterprise'' and still not find them all.

** ''Literature/XWingSeries'': Gavin Darklighter once escaped from a Star Destroyer ambush this way, making a 15 second blind hyperspace jump. Even though it was better than getting shot down or taken prisoner by the Imperials, as Gavin puts it such jumps are, "about as stupid as making fat jokes around a Hutt, and nearly always as fatal" so he counts it as the longest 15 seconds of his life. Gavin makes his way to the Halanit system about out of fuel, but the colonists there are happy to supply him with more.

*** ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'': When Golan Trevize instructs the computer to travel to Sayshell, he's surprised to learn that it is capable of plotting out a course involving twenty-eight {{Hyperspace|OrSubspace}} jumps. He's uncomfortable with committing to it because he'd be unable to fine-tune the calculations after each jump.[[note]]It's mentioned in a conversation that he ''could'' try to plot a course of '''one'' jump (due to how the engines work, the universe is treated as a single place during the jump that can be reentered at any desired location), but custom dictates performing multiple jumps, with checks after every one, due to perceived accuracy issues.[[/note]] It's InUniverse TechnologyMarchesOn; Trevize is using a new, much more powerful computer that is no longer subject to the limitations of older technology. He is even more surprised when he finds out that the ship only made 23 jumps instead - the computer was powerful enough to optimize out five jumps in the brief fractions of seconds it spent in realspace between the jumps.

*** ''Literature/FoundationsEdge'': When Golan Trevize instructs the computer to travel to Sayshell, he's surprised to learn that it is capable of plotting out a course involving twenty-eight {{Hyperspace|OrSubspace}} jumps. He's uncomfortable with committing to it because he'd be unable to fine-tune the calculations after each jump. It's InUniverse TechnologyMarchesOn; Trevize is using a new, much more powerful computer that is no longer subject to the limitations of older technology. He is even more surprised when he finds out that the ship only made 23 jumps instead - the computer was powerful enough to optimize out five jumps in the brief fractions of seconds it spent in realspace between the jumps.

* The ''Star Trek''/''Franchise/XMen'' crossover novel ''Planet X'' features the ''Enterprise''-E being attacked by an alien ship powerful enough to bring the ''Enterprise'' shields down by 88% with one shot. With no way to engage this enemy ship in a straight battle, the crew and the visiting X-Men are forced to have Nightcrawler attempt a blind jump onto the enemy ship as his abilities will allow him to bypass the ship’s shields, studying the readings the ''Enterprise'' has already taken of the ship to allow him to teleport to a suitably deserted part of the enemy vessel.

** They actually repeat this in the finale [[spoiler:but take it further. Faced with the knowledge that when they finish their final lap in the Lost Light the ship will be stripped for parts, they will all go their separate ways and Megatron, who had long undergone a HeelFaceTurn at this point and was considered a friend and member of the crew, would be [[UncertainDoom either incarcerated or executed]] for his war crimes, the crew decide to replicate the accident that started their journey, except instead of sending their duplicates to a random part of space they would be transported to a random ''alternate universe''. The final issue begins depicting the crew reuniting at Ratchet's funeral, [[AndTheAdventureContinues and finishes with the duplicates begining their voyage in a universe they know nothing about...]] ]]

However there is one last chance: a Blind Jump, the DangerousForbiddenTechnique of celestial navigation. Skip the calculations, hit the button and pray. It may be a MillionToOneChance you'll survive the trip, but [[GodzillaThreshold if you stay you're dead anyway]], right?

* The Leap Rail Shells in ''Anime/LostUniverse'' open a small warp portal, taking everything inside the blast into hyperspace. At one point, the crew of the ''Swordbreaker'' fire several shells and fly into the explosion as a way of quickly getting away from the ''Gorun Nova''. It works, but the ship is severely damaged.

** ''Literature/UnchartedStars''. To escape pursuit by Jacks (space pirates), the MainCharacters must make a hyperspace jump using untested coordinates from a [[{{Precursors}} Forerunner]] artifact that they hope will take them where they want to go.

* In most versions of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', the mid-range teleport spell Dimension Door can damage you if you accidentally teleport into a solid object, or trap you between dimensions. There's a variety of mishaps for the longer-range Teleport spell, most of which involve teleporting into "thematically similar" places. (For instance, if you try to teleport into a tower you're not very familiar with, you might teleport into ''another'' tower, which could be ''very far'' from where you wanted to go. Or you could explode.)

* The CoolShip in ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' had the 'Starburst Drive', a sort of space-folding jump drive which was always blind, with no way to choose a destination AND even a small jump invalidates all previous navigation points. Fortunately there were other means of getting around if it wasn't crucial to leave quickly.

** In ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars]]'', Han Solo has the ''Milennium Falcon'' make an emergency jump to escape a Star Destroyer when her DeflectorShields start to collapse.

* Averted in ''Series/DarkMatter''. Even when the alternative is death by missile, Two absolutely refuses to risk a blind jump. They settle for some evasive maneuvers to buy enough time to calculate a proper jump, which is a close call.

* In ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'', espers with teleportation based powers often need to make extremely complex calculations to make sure their teleports go off without a hitch. Kuroko mentions offhand that she has to calculate movement through eleven dimensions in order to safely teleport. Another teleporter finds out the hard way why blind jumps are dangerous when she messes up a calculation and part of her body gets fused with a wall.

*** "Literature/{{The General|Foundation}}": Devers tries to escape from General Riose's fleet after escaping from their forward base by making hyperspace jumps without proper planning. He explains the danger to Ducem Barr. It isn't very risky, as the most likely destination if you vaguely target empty space is empty space... but since they don't know ''where'' they've ended up, it takes quite some time poring over starcharts until they can pinpoint their location.

** ''Nemesis'': A blind jump isn't dangerous because in this version of FTLTravel, in an emergency, any obstacles are harmlessly pushed aside.

** ''Literature/XWingSeries'': Gavin Darklighter once escaped from a Star Destroyer ambush this way, making a 15 second blind hyperspace jump. Even though it was better than getting shot down or taken prisoner by the Imperials, as Gavin puts it such jumps are, "about as stupid as making fat jokes around a Hutt, and nearly always as fatal." He makes his way to the Halanit system about out of fuel, but the colonists there are happy to supply him with more.

** ''Literature/XWingSeries'': Gavin Darklighter once escaped from a Star Destroyer trap this way, unfortunately highlighting a lesser-known danger of the whole process: now he has no clue where he is, and he's low on fuel.