History Main / DramaticSpaceDrifting

* [[spoiler:The haunting ending of]] Creator/SatoshiKon's "Magnetic Rose," the first short in ''Creator/KatsuhiroOtomo's Anime/{{Memories}}'' compilation.

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* The 1960s science fictional "Moon Period" in ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' is quite justifiably called a DorkAge, but it did give Chester Gould a chance to do some spectacular artwork that he couldn't have done otherwise. The scene where a murderer tosses a body out of the space coupe and leaves it drifting in the black sky is pretty chilling.

[[folder:Radio]]
* ''Radio/JourneyIntoSpace'': In ''The Red Planet'', Mitch almost drifts off into space but he is rescued by Jet and Lemmy.
[[/folder]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': Every episode in the first season opens with Gary [[InMediasRes in medias res]] floating among the wreckage of a battle as his spacesuit's oxygen slowly runs out, with each episode's opening showing the next minute until his oxygen depletes. The reason for how he ends up like this is ultimately shown in [[Recap/FinalSpaceS1E10Chapter10 the season finale.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace'': Every episode in the first season opens with Gary [[InMediasRes in medias res]] floating among the wreckage of a battle as his spacesuit's oxygen slowly runs out, with each episode's opening showing the next minute. The reason for how he ends up like this is ultimately shown in [[Recap/FinalSpaceS1E10Chapter10 the season finale.]]

** [[IncrediblyLamePun So he'd be playing the blues now?]]

* The ending of ''Film/DarkStar''. Completely PlayedForLaughs, especially given [[SoundtrackDissonance the music playing at the time]].
* ''Film/EnemyMine'' begins with a closeup of a dead pilot amidst the wreckage of his fighter during the battle.

* The rock monster in ''Film/GalaxyQuest''.

* A quick flash during the opening space battle above Coruscant in ''Franchise/StarWars Episode III: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', when the Clone fighters escorting Anakin and Obi Wan are blown up.
* A deliberate version in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' when an unarmed Captain Picard is facing a Borg drone while EVA on the hull of the Enterprise. Picard releases his magnetic boots so he floats away over the Borg's head. It's downplayed though as he's able to grab onto something further on and regain his footing. However several other drones play the trope straight during the same scene; for instance when a drone is advancing towards one character he shoots a conduit, releasing a cloud of gas that blasts the drone into space.
* ''Film/StarTrek2009'' shows us how one ends up with dramatic space drifting when it depicts a person hurtling out of a breach in the hull of the ''Kelvin''. Played straight when USS Enterprise warps into Vulcan's orbit and finds the fleet that arrived shortly before has been massacred.
* ''Film/{{Alien}}'' - [[spoiler:Kane's dead body]] is shot from an airlock as if out of a cannon.
* Parodied in ''Film/SpyHard'', where General Rancor is launched into space aboard his rocket, and then floats around until he slams into an Apollo-type spacecraft, prompting a voiceover of "Houston, we have a problem".
* The plot of ''Film/{{Gravity}}'' is about two such characters, knocked free after their space shuttle is destroyed by a cloud of space debris. The question is then, how do you get back to Earth?
** There's also a few drifting corpses in some of the early scenes, some of whom aren't even wearing spacesuits.
** Also [[spoiler: the ultimate fate of Matt Kowalski]].
* An early example: George Pal's 1955 film ''Conquest of Space'' has a crew member who is attached to a rope and hanging of the side of the ship after shards from an asteroid puncture his suit. The rest of the crew quickly become unnerved by having the body dangling off the side so the commander eventually decides to release him.

* [[spoiler: Hugo Drax]] in ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', after being ejected by Bond with the classic [[PreMortemOneLiner quip]] "Take a giant step for mankind."
* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar:'' When the Guardians arrive at the location of the distress call, they find the debris and the bodies of the people [[spoiler:of Asgard]] floating in space, [[spoiler:one of them being Thor, who has survived]].
In ''Film/AvengersEndGame'', after Tony Stark and Nebula fly off Titan, the planet where Thanos beat them, Spiderman, Drax, Mantis, Quill, and Dr. Strange, the Milano suffers engine failure, and they float in interplanetary space for several days until Tony collapses from having run out of food and water. [[spoiler: They are saved by Captain Marvel, who received their distress signal, and brought them to earth.]]

Common in ScienceFiction, this is when a spaceship blows up in a battle and relatively important characters are visible drifting through the debris, usually with all body parts intact. This is a trope based mostly in aesthetics rather than adherence to scientific fact, though a lot of modern depictions manage to accurately portray the effects of decompression on human beings (namely that a person does not explode nor freeze, instead suffocating in vacuum). Characters are usually dead, thus emphasizing the tragic consequences of the battle at a human level, but there are occasions in which characters are still alive and such occasions can either have the same effect or achieve a more comedic one.

* An early example: George Pal's 1955 film ''Film/ConquestOfSpace'' has a crew member who is attached to a string and hanging of the side of the ship after shards from an asteroid puncture his suit. The rest of the crew quickly become unnerved by having the body dangling off the side so the commander eventually decides to release him.

* A deliberate version in ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'' when an unarmed Captain Picard is facing a Borg drone while EVA on the hull of the Enterprise. Picard releases his magnetic boots so he floats away over the Borg's head. It's downplayed though as he's able to grab onto something further on and regain his footing.

* In [[RebelLeader Rogue Leader]], an ''ComicBook/XWingSeries'' comic, it was shown that a week after the Battle of Endor, the sanctuary moon's skies are still crowded with ships and bodies (and pieces of both). Some pilots, including Wedge, signed up for salvage duty, because [[DueToTheDead even Imperials deserved a proper funeral]].

* ''Series/ForAllMankind''. In "Bent Bird", Apollo 25 is sent up to replace a damaged computer on Apollo 24. Unfortunately when the computer is replaced it executes the last command it was given and fires off the main booster, while Apollo 25 is still tethered to it. Its commander Molly Cobb is forced to [[CutTheSafetyRope release the tether]] to save her ship, leaving her adrift in space. Fellow astronaut Tracey Stevens is able to find her again despite Molly orbiting through the night side of the Earth [[TenSecondFlashlight when her flashlight goes out]]. Unlike some other fictional examples, orbital mechanics and fuel are important factors; Apollo 25 doesn't have the fuel to do the intercept and is at first ordered to return to Earth instead, only for Tracey to [[YouAreInCommandNow exercise her command authority now Molly is off the ship.]]

* ''Series/ForAllMankind''. In "Bent Bird", Apollo 25 is sent up to replace a damaged computer on Apollo 24. Unfortunately when the computer is replaced it executes the last command it was given and fires off the main booster, while Apollo 25 is still tethered to it. Its commander Molly Cobb is forced to [[CutTheSafetyRope release the tether]] to save her ship, leaving her adrift in space. Fellow astronaut Tracey Stevens is able to find her again despite Molly orbiting through the night side of the Earth [[TenSecondFlashlight when her flashlight goes out]]. Unlike some other fictional examples, orbital mechanics and fuel are important factors; Apollo 25 doesn't have the fuel to do the intercept and is at first ordered to return to Earth instead, only for Tracey to [[YouAreInCommandNow exercise her command authority now Molly is off the ship.]]

* ''Series/ForAllMankind''. In "Bent Bird", Apollo 25 is sent up to replace a damaged computer on Apollo 24. Unfortunately when the computer is replaced it executes the last command it was given and fires off the main booster, while Apollo 25 is still tethered to it. Its commander Molly Cobb is forced to [[CutTheSafetyLine release the tether]] to save her ship, leaving her adrift in space. Fellow astronaut Tracey Stevens is able to find her again despite Molly orbiting through the night side of the Earth [[TenSecondFlashlight when her flashlight goes out]]. Unlike some other fictional examples, orbital mechanics and fuel are important factors; Apollo 25 doesn't have the fuel to do the intercept and is at first ordered to return to Earth instead, only for Tracey to [[YouAreInCommandNow exercise her command authority now Molly is off the ship.]]

** In ''Creator/{{Komarr}}'' a precise analysis of the trajectory of drifting debris is used to help determine the cause of a space accident.

* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' often features this, usually with a character's battered mecha, although the pilot's often still alive inside. An episode of ''Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam'' begins with the body of a soldier from the One Year War having drifted out somewhere around Saturn. Early episodes showed the drifting corpse of Kamille's mother.

* ''Anime/GallForce'' had many scenes, particularly in the introductory battle scene when the ship's hull breach would [[ThrownOutOfAirlock have the crews sucked out into space]] or an occasional corpse in a sealed-off area, but the most iconic being [[spoiler: the aftermath of Luffy's HeroicSacrifice where she was left drifting in space]].

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes''

* A quick flash during the opening space battle above Coruscant in ''Film/StarWars Episode III: Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', when the Clone fighters escorting Anakin and Obi Wan are blown up.

* WesternAnimation/LoveDeathAndRobots''. In "Helping Hand", an astronaut is adrift in space, so she removes her glove and [[LawOfInverseRecoil throws it in the opposite direction]] to propel herself back towards her spaceship. Her hand [[SpaceIsCold freezes up in less than a minute]], so when she misses her chance to grab the spaceship [[LifeOrLimbDecision she breaks off the frozen arm]] and throws it away as well.

See also ThrownOutTheAirlock.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

* The 1960s science fictional "Moon Period" in ''ComicStrip/DickTracy'' is quite justifably called a DorkAge, but it did give Chester Gould a chance to do some spectacular artwork that he couldn't have done otherwise. The scene where a murderer tosses a body out of the space coupe and leaves it drifting in the black sky is pretty chilling.