History Main / DramaticSpaceDrifting

* ''Anime/OutlawStar'' sort of does this in the episode "Cats and Girls and Spaceships" though a flower was used instead of a human.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' had this, though it wasn't after a battle.

* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' had Lee floating through space after the destruction of the Blackbird, watching ''Galactica'' and ''Pegasus'' tear two Cylon basestars to pieces. Ron Moore got the idea from the story of Ensign George Gay, the only survivor of his squadron who watched the climax of the Battle of Midway while floating in the Pacific.

** During the episode "Objects in Space" in which [[spoiler:Jubal Early is spaced and left to die]]. Played for comedic value at the end of the episode, where even Jubal recognizes he is performing some excellent DramaticSpaceDrifting.
--->'''Early'':' Well, here I am.
** Also in the Firefly episode "Bushwhacked" when ''Serenity'' encounters a derelict ship and then a dead body smacks into the cockpit windshield, startling Wash ([[JumpScare and the audience]]).

* ''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/Space1999''. In the episode "War Games", Commander Koenig ejects from his Eagle just before it is destroyed and is left floating helplessly in space, though he [[FaceDeathWithDignity does eventually come to terms with the destruction of Moonbase Alpha and his own impending demise]]. Luckily [[spoiler:it all turns out to be an illusion]].

* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' does this pretty often, but one of the standouts is in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'', "The Best of Both Worlds", part II, where we see an incredible amount of debris after the battle with the Borg at Wolf 359 - nearly forty Federations ships all blasted to pieces, amounting to ''11,000'' deaths. Of course, many would have preferred [[OffscreenMomentOfAwesome actually seeing the battle]].
** Which we did, in ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'''s pilot.
** In "The Next Phase", Geordi and Ro fight a Romulan who's in phase with them, but out of phase with normal matter, thus all of them having intangibility. The Romulan attacks the pair, but is sent flying through the bulkhead and out into space, where we see him quickly drift out into space, motionless.

[[caption-width-right:349:[[[[https://youtu.be/JQK4UG4FSkU Nothing to do now but count the stars.]]]]

[[quoteright:349:[[https://youtu.be/JQK4UG4FSkU https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spacedrift_3526.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:349:Nothing to do now but count the stars.]]

* 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.

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

* ''WesternAnimation/DeadSpaceDownfall'' ends with [[spoiler: Vincent's]] body floating through space, as the series theme song "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" plays.

* One scene occurs in the starting area, Quarantine Zone, from ''VideoGame/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2021'', where a long dead Nova Corps member would be floating among debris during Milano's venture into the area where entire area was covered by forcefield and goo to prevent debris from affecting interstellar trouble after a massive battle.

* In Issue 8 from Volume 5 of ''ComicBook/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'', [[spoiler: frozen dead bodies of Nova Corps were shown in a panel after the Universal Church of Truth mind controlled them into removing their helmets and exposing them to vacuum]].

* ''Film/JupiterAscending:'' [[BondVillainStupidity When Caine is spaced by Titus Abrasax for 'betraying' him]] [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim instead of just being killed outright]] - [[BondVillainStupidity but not before explaining to Caine the entirety of his]] EvilPlan. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain it works out exactly as you'd expect for Titus.]]

** ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar:'' When the Guardians arrive at the location of the [[spoiler:Asgardian]] distress call, they find nothing but debris and bodies floating in space. [[spoiler:Thor is among them, but still alive.]]

--->'''Early:''' Well, here I am.

* One scene occurs in the starting area, Quarantine Zone, from ''VideoGame/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2021'', where a long death Nova Corps member would be floating among debris during Milano's venture into the area where entire area was covered by forcefield and goo to prevent debris from affecting interstellar trouble after a massive battle.

* ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'' has several examples during its many battles. The most common usage is by showing corpses drifting ''inside'' the wreckage of depressurized ships, often trailing blood behind them.

* ''Webcomic/CrimsonDark''
* ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'' in ''Idiots In Space'' - "I didn't see any flailing if you didn't."

* [[WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty Betty]] during a side story of ''Webcomic/PowerpuffGirlsDoujinshi''.
* ''Webcomic/SamAndFuzzy'': [[http://samandfuzzy.com/1315 "Skull panda is invulnerable to the cold vacuum of space"]] ([[spoiler:The vacuum was cold]]).

** ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' opens with Tony Stark recording a final message for Pepper Potts, since the ''Milano'' has suffered engine failure and is running out of food, water and oxygen, leaving them drifting through deep space. [[spoiler:Captain Marvel finds them and single-handedly tows the ship to Earth.]]

** In "[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E2RisingMalevolence Rising]] ''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E2RisingMalevolence Malevolence]]"'', after fighting off a squad of battle droids trying to breach their escape pod, Plo Koon and his men float outside in space, exhausted and low on oxygen until Ahsoka senses them and rescues them.

** In the first Malevolence arc episode, after fighting off a squad of battle droids trying to breach their escape pod, Plo Koon and his men float outside in space, exhausted and low on oxygen until Ahsoka senses them and rescues them.

** Someone else makes the mistake of crouching down while on the outside of a spacecraft, losing the grip on his StickyShoes. Fortunately he has the presence of mind to remember there's an incline behind him, shoves his foot backwards and regains his grip.

[[quoteright:349:[[http://www.kellysears.com/Video/TheDrift https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spacedrift_3526.jpg]]]]

So you're watching a good old SpaceOpera or your favourite CyberPunk TV series. There's been a grand battle and within all the excitement, you forget that in an intergalactic space war so big there must have been at least a few casualties. It is of course, the writers' jobs to remind of this eventually so as to add to the drama whilst slowing the pace a little.

* 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.