History Main / IslandHelpMessage

[[folder:Films - Animation]]

[[folder:Films - Live-Action]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' episode "Whatever Happened to Della Duck?", Della, trapped on the Moon, writes a lenthy SOS message in scrap, but it gets destroyed by the Moon Mite. She has just enough scrap left to turn the surviving "S" into a "$", which she thinks should get Uncle Scrooge's attention.

[[folder:Film]]

* In ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', the survivors form the word "HELLO" from sheets and curtains on the field next to their hideout. [[RuleOfSymbolism We see it first before they finish the O.]] They get rescued by Finns.
* Done again in ''Film/TwentyEightWeeksLater'' where we see American forces pressure-washing off a message on a roof which read "Alive in here!". They probably weren't.
* Creator/DickVanDyke creates one out of coconuts when he gets to the island in ''Film/LtRobinCrusoeUSN''. Problem is, by the end (when he really needs it), the coconuts have been covered in sand, and he is being chased by the irate islanders... Fortunately the pilot in the plane overhead rightly assumes him to be a non-native specifically because he is clearing coconuts spelling "HELP" in the sand with a palm branch.

%%* ''Film/CastAway''.
* A variation in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. In the "Must there be a Superman?" montage, a family is shown sheltering on the roof of their house surrounded by rising floodwaters. Painted on the roof is a large "S" logo. Needless to say, Superman answers the call.

* In the first ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic'' story arc, Sousuke creates a large fire spelling 'A67 ALIVE' as Mithril's satellite is passing over the area so that his allies know that Angel (Kaname), Urzu 6 (Kurz), and Urzu 7 (Sousuke) are alive after being cut off from the extraction team. Tessa responds by sending Sousuke the Arbalest, which enables them to save themselves.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', Alex first builds a Statue of Liberty, but it burns down ([[Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968 "You maniac!"]]), and later, "HELP," [[SignsOfDisrepair but the branches from P fall]], forming "HELL."

* ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'': Linda goes for a flying lesson in the "[[Recap/BobsBurgerS4E3Seaplane Seaplane!]]" episode and it turns out that the instructor likes to fake an emergency landing near a remote island then seduce his female students with a picnic of wine and cheese that just so happens to have. After the seaplane floats off, Linda makes a help message out of the wine bottles that he left from his previous visits.

* ''Film/YogiBearAndTheMagicalFlightOfTheSpruceGoose'': Dread Baron and Mumbly write it at the island where the heroes meet them.

[[folder: Advertising]]

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

* In one novel of ''Anime/ReadOrDie'', Yomiko gets trapped on a desert island. There is a picture of her on the beach with her rescue message. "Send Books!"
** Of course, as a PaperMaster, given enough reading material she could probably make herself a way off the island.

[[folder: Comics ]]

* Played for laughs in a ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' cartoon, where the message says "HELF" and the passing pilot consequently decides it's a false alarm.
* In one Creator/CarlBarks one page Scrooge [=McDuck=] strip had Scrooge stranded on an small island, and "Help" spelled out on piece of paper hanging on a clothesline. When help doesn't arrive, he replaces the letters with money, and suddenly, a armada of all sorts of boats (including a kayak and a submarine amongst others) appear around the island.
* Played for laughs in the ''ComicBook/MonicasGang'' story "Sand, Sea and Surprises" where Monica and Jimmy Five get stranded on what they think is a deserted island. At one point, while Monica looks for food, Jimmy Five decides to write a message on the sand with a few twigs... and ends up forming a Monica caricature.
-->'''Monica:''' You were going to write "help"!
-->'''Jimmy Five:''' ''Wight''! But then I thought... [[LampshadeHanging Anybody can]] ''[[LampshadeHanging wwite]]'' [[LampshadeHanging "help"!]]
* One ''ComicStrip/{{Foxtrot}}'' arc has Roger take Peter and Jason on a HorribleCampingTrip / MachoDisasterExpedition. When he tells them to build a fire pit, he tells them they're doing it wrong, as the stones are in an S shape. The next bird's eye view panel shows they've written "SEND PIZZA".

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]
* ''Series/DoctorWho''. While stranded at the start of the Twentieth Century, Yaz, Dan, and Professor Jericho leave one around the Great Wall of China for Karvanista who along with the Lupari fleet is protecting Earth in 2021. Karvanista sees the message but it only annoys him, as he doesn't have a time machine so what's he supposed to do about it?

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' - the episode "SOS," appropriately enough, Bernard gets frustrated that the other survivors have apparently given up and accepted their fate so he decides to build one of these signs. [[spoiler: Bernard abandons the sign after his wife Rose reveals that being on the island has cured her terminal cancer, and if they leave she'll die within months.]]
* Played with on ''Series/{{Friends}}''. The gang is trapped at a rest stop somewhere in upstate New York and Joey writes "help" in sticks on the snow. Only he spells it "pleh" so the guys in the planes can read it.

* ''Series/GilligansIsland'' - Upon hearing a radio broadcast that a NASA capsule is crossing the south Pacific (presumably within eyeshot of their island), the castaways try writing "SOS" in burning logs to get their attention. [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption As usual]], Gilligan does something that angers the Skipper, and he chases Gilligan across the message, rolling the logs around and distorting the message. When the astronauts fly by, they see the message: "SOL", the name of the mission leader, and assume it's a "You're awesome!" message. Skipper punished Gilligan by making him write "SOS" a zillion times on a chalkboard until the Skipper felt he had enough.
* ''Series/HogansHeroes'' - In one episode Hogan tricks Klink into calling a nighttime fallout rollcall. After all are accounted for and the men are allowed to be at ease, Klink lets the [=POWs=] have a smoke. What Klink doesnt know is that the men are arranged in the form of an arrow, the glowing cigarettes showing an American bomber overhead the correct way to go for their target.
* ''Series/IDreamOfJeannie'' - In the pilot, spacecapsule wrecked astronaut Tony Nelson makes one, inadvertantly using Jeannies bottle as part of the last S.

* ''Series/{{Watchmen}}''. Adrian Veidt does a particularly nasty version of this trope by killing ''hundreds'' of his {{Expendable Clone}}s, using their bodies to spell out an appeal to be rescued on the surface of Europa that can be seen by a passing satellite.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Webcomics ]]

-->'''Message''': [[RougeAnglesOfSatin Help! There's a epic soresirer litch comming to take you're Gate!!1! Luv, Elan]]
-->'''Roy''': ...So, are you planning on...
-->'''Vaarsuvius''': There will be a proofing stage, yes.

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

-->'''Linda''': Sheesh, this island's seen a lot of emergency landings.

--> TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I, BENDER, BID YOU HELLO! YOU DON'T KNOW ME, THOUGH YOU MAY HAVE HEARD OF ME, BUT THAT'S NOT THE POINT. LONG STORY SHORT... I NEED HELF

* Parodied in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', when Brain and Binky are waiting to be picked up by their parents.
-->'''Brain:''' [[DiscussedTrope Binky, that only works for a plane, not a car.]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In the original ''Survival Kids'' game (the series that went on to become ''VideoGame/LostInBlue''), the way to get the quickest ending was to build one of these on the beach. You'd then get rescued. (It is, of course, a long ways from the Best Ending, which you need to unlock New Game Plus mode--in which your character rescues the other child on the island, befriends them, the two of you escape on a Lost Technology ship, and grow up to get married.)

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', Alex first builds a Statue of Liberty, but it burns down ([[Film/PlanetOfTheApes1968 "You maniac!"]]), and later, "HELP," but the branches from P fall, forming "HELL."

* During the Korean War arc of ''The Corps'' novels, shot down airman Pick Pickering tries to signal for rescue by tromping out PP in a rice paddy followed by whatever direction he's planning to travel that day every morning. This is noted by people looking at aerial recon photos, but before they can send a rescue party, he stumbles upon a column of NATO soldiers on the march and gets rescued by them.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' - the episode "SOS," appropriately enough. [[spoiler: The SOS sign was never completed. However, the discarded materials make a rather large sad smiley.]]

* ''Series/Watchmen''. Adrian Veidt does a particularly nasty version of this trope by killing ''hundreds'' of his {{Expendable Clone}}s, using their bodies to spell out an appeal to be rescued on the surface of Europa that can be seen by a passing satellite.

* ''Series/Watchmen''. Adrian Veidt does a particularly nasty version of this trope by killing ''hundreds'' of his ExpendableClones, using their bodies to spell out an SOS on the surface of Europa that can be seen by a passing satellite.

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' - the episode "SOS," appropriately enough.
** [[spoiler: The SOS sign was never completed. However, the discarded materials make a rather large sad smiley.]]

* In ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'', the trio write "SOS" on the beach of the DesertedIsland they are stranded on.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Madagascar}}'', Alex first builds a Statue of Liberty, but it burns down ([[Film/PlanetOfTheApes "You maniac!"]]), and later, "HELP," but the branches from P fall, forming "HELL."

* Played straight in Creator/JoeHaldeman's early ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_of_Judgment Planet of Judgment]]". When Captain Kirk's survey party is trapped on a planet without means of communication, they lay out a series of symbols once used by stranded airmen to communicate with the Enterprise.

* Averted in the 1985 Australian mini-series ''A Thousand Skies'' where the help message the crashed aviators write in the desert sand is a request for more cigarettes (as their crash made national headlines, anyone looking for them already knows they're in distress).

* A variation in ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice''. In the "Must there be a Superman?" montage, a family is shown sheltering on the roof of their house surrounded by rising floodwaters. Painted on the roof is a large Superman logo. Needless to say, Superman answers the call.

* Averted in the 1985 Australian mini-series ''A Thousand Skies'' where the help message the crashed aviators write in the desert sand is a [[CasualDangerDialogue request to drop more cigarettes]] (as their crash made national headlines, anyone looking for them already knows they're in distress).