History Main / SlowElectricity

* ''{{Constantine}}'': When the title character and Angela Dodson are talking on the street, the streetlights begin to turn off (with clunking sounds) - first far away, then approaching them.
** In this case, it's due to supernatural force killing the light, rather than electrical failure- but the look is quite similar.

** Granted, they are in the Matrix. Who's to say the machines didn't program the lights like that?

* ''TheMatrix Reloaded'': After the power station is destroyed (and later when Trinity turns off the power again), the blackout spreads slowly through the affected area. Watch it on {{YouTube}}, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dApsYUqYA4 starting at 5:00 and again at 8:10]].
* ''TheMatrix Revolutions''. Inside the Oracle's apartment building, the overhead lights go off (with clunking sounds) as a warning of Agent Smith's approach. It's on [=YouTube=] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nHJS1ZB1LA at about 0:15]].

* [[ShockAndAwe Misaka Mikoto]] of ToAruMajutsuNoIndex and [[ToaruKagakuNoRailgun Railgun]] fights Touma a lot, and each time he is able to swing his [[AntiMagic right arm]] in the direction of the attack and block it entirely.

* The lights turning on one row at a time in the ''MenInBlack'' post-credits [[DVDBonusContent music video]].

* {{Doctor Who}}, Series 6, The Rebel Flesh, opening scene

[[AC:VideoGames],

* [[ShockAndAwe Misaka Mikoto]] of ToAruMajutsuNoIndex and [[ToaruKagakuNoRailgun Railgun]] fights Touma a lot, and each time he is able to swing his [[AntiMagic arm]] in the direction of the attack.

[[AC:VideoGames]]

* The first ''{{Unreal}}'' has you fighting slow monters known as "brutes" for the first two levels, which are only really dangerous if you don't move. Later on you're merrily coming back from a hit-the-button mission, walking in a corridor, and suddenly the lights start to go out one by one. When the final one dies, [[spoiler:the game presents you with the ''real'' enemy - fast, hard to kill and quite dangerous - while you can't see a thing]]. Lots of crazed shooting at shadows usually ensues.

* The first ''{{Unreal}}'' has you figting slow monters known as "brutes" for the first two levels, which are only really dangerous if you don't move. Later on you're merrily coming back from a hit-the-button mission, walking in a corridor, and suddenly the lights start to go out one by one. When the final one dies, [[spoiler:the game presents you with the ''real'' enemy - while you can't see a thing]]. Lots of crazed shooting at shadows usually ensues.

* Aversion on DirkGently's HolisticDetectiveAgency when Dirk walks down the street and the street lights go out as he passes them. Turns out there's a reason for that.

Also note that although ELECTRICITY moves very quickly, ELECTRONS in a circuit move abysmally slow even in conductors.

A not-too-unbelievable explanation for at least some cases of this is where the affected systems are being cut off from power at different times. A power surge before a power loss that leads to failure of electronic devices could be expected to cause failure at different times, despite ultimately causing total failure. Similarly, returning power won't make electronic devices all reboot simultaneously -- your incandescent bulbs and old school diode radios might come back on immediately but your fancy plasma [=TVs=] won't be on for a few seconds. And then there's the complication of things like uninterruptible power supplies and large filter capacitors retaining a charge (ever unplug a power block from the wall only to have it's LED dim slowly?).

*** Alternating current has zero average movement, as the electrons still move at the speed of molasses, but going back and forth 60 times per second (for house current). This is why AC ammeters first need to transform the power into DC.

** Perhaps Hard Light is more viscous than normal light, and thus flows less quickly?
* In the movie ''My Science Project'', the protagonists outrun the flow of electricity through high tension power lines, with the idea of cutting off juice to the [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum alien space drive]] that was plugged into a regular human wall socket by blowing the power lines leading into town. in a Pontiac GTO. The car is modified, yes, but not ''that'' modified. Hardly the only example of DidNotDoTheResearch in the film, but still a fun movie in a "check your brain at the door" way.
* At the end of ''Addams Family Values'', the electricity moving in the mass of wires flows so slowly that Pubert is able to crawl into the room and short-circuit the wiring, [[spoiler:saving his family from the electric chairs and electrocuting Debbie, who has thrown the switch]]. And is somehow visible through the cable insulation.

-> ''The electrician pulled the lever, and the current, slowly at first but growing faster and faster, started crawling down the wires.''
->-- '''Russian joke, popular among physics students'''

If you're turning on lights in a warehouse, it is absolutely mandatory for rows of lights to come on this way, each with a loud "clunk" noise. The same rule applies to light towers in stadiums. [[TruthInTelevision (Note that at least some stadium lights actually do produce a "clunk" sound, very similar if not identical to the TV/Film sound effect.)]] Frequently [[JustifiedTrope justifiable]] in that such lights are not controlled by a master switch, but by individual circuit breakers or contactors (which can be quite noisy). However, this will be done even when someone is shown throwing a single switch, or after a power outage. It's done because it's [[RuleOfDrama dramatic]], not because there's a plausible explanation. On the other hand, different types of devices may have different boot cycles, and it is common for some equipment to have power sequencers that ensure particular order or staggered startup for arrays of similar devices that draw high startup current, such as banks of fluorescent lights.

A not-too-unbelievable explanation for at least some cases of this is where the affected systems are being cut off from power at different times. A power surge before a power loss that leads to failure of electronic devices could be expected to cause failure at different times, despite ultimately causing total failure. Similarly, returning power won't make electronic devices all reboot simultaneously - your incandescent bulbs and old school diode radios might come back on immediately but your fancy plasma TVs won't be on for a few seconds. And then there's the complication of things like uninterruptible power supplies and large filter capacitors retaining a charge (ever unplug a power block from the wall only to have it's LED dim slowly?).

Also note that although ELECTRICITY moves very quickly, ELECTRONS in a circuit move abyssmally slow even in conductors.

Subtrope of YouFailPhysicsForever. Step-sister to SlowDoors. A product of RuleOfCool.

* ''{{Constantine}}''. When the title character and Angela Dodson are talking on the street, the streetlights begin to turn off (with clunking sounds) - first far away, then approaching them.

* ''TheDescent''. While a woman is in a hospital corridor, the lights go out at one end of the corridor and continue going out toward her, causing her to flee. This appears to be a hallucination sequence.
* ''IndianaJones and the Crystal Skull'' - Warehouse
* JurassicPark (first film) - When the [[BigRedButton main switch]] is turned back on, the hall lights do this
* ''TheMatrix Reloaded''. After the power station is destroyed (and later when Trinity turns off the power again), the blackout spreads slowly through the affected area. Watch it on [=YouTube=], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dApsYUqYA4 starting at 5:00 and again at 8:10]].

* ''OceansEleven'': When they use the EMP, there is the obligatory shot of the lights going out city block by city block.
** averted in the original version, when Josh Hoawrd blows up the powerline, the Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands, and Flamingo all go dark at once.

* At the end of ''Addams Family Values'', the electricity moving in the mass of wires flows so slowly that Pubert is able to crawl into the room and short-circuit the wiring, [[spoiler: saving his family from the electric chairs and electrocuting Debbie, who has thrown the switch]]. And is somehow visible through the cable insulation.
* The first ''[[{{Film/ResidentEvil}} Resident Evil]]'' film. When the Red Queen (and the power) are shut down and restarted in the first film, some areas and devices turn off (and light up again) at different times.
* In the new Sherlock Holmes movie starring Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law, there is a scene where Holmes is fighting a giant man in an abandoned warehouse with the aid of an electric cattle prod. At one point his opponent is hanging on to a pipe on the wall for support, and Holmes touches the far end of the pipe with the cattle prod. Although it moves quickly the movement of the electricity (well, the magic blue sparks showing where the electricity is) as it races down the pipe is clearly visible.

* ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' - In "Dual", when the lights go off in the Primatech medical facility's hallway. Possibly justifiable in that maybe [[spoiler:Sylar did it that way on purpose]].

* ''StarTrek'' - The console displays always came on/off this way. If there's a shipwide outage, expect an outside shot of windows lighting up this way. Usually, the last thing to come back is the engines. Also, the {{technobabble}}-laden ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' was ''always'' having something about to undergo a 'cascade failure,' but it was pretty much never like this.

* A puzzle in {{Myst}} begins this way when you flip on the lights in a certain underground chamber for the first time. (Understanding that it's electricity, and involves powerups, overloads, and breaker switches, is crucial to solving the puzzle.)
* Happens in ''Dark Fall: Lost Souls'' when you restore power to Dowerton Station. Could perhaps be justified, if one assumes the wiring is defunct and supernatural forces are actually operating the lights as well as [[spoiler: the television sets]].

[[AC:Literature]]
* Aversion on DirkGently's HolisticDetectiveAgency when Dirk walks down the street and the street lights go out as he passes them. Turns out there's a reason for that.

* In ProblemSleuth electricity takes ''several hundred years'' to get across [[spoiler:the fan cord]] in order to [[spoiler:turn on the fan]]. However, this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]], as, thanks to [[AWizardDidIt GPI]], [[spoiler:the fan cord now '''stretches across the entire length of the imaginary universe. Twice.''']] As the comic points out, electric current can only travel at the speed of light.

* What we think of as electricity is produced by, or at least related to, the motion of electrons. The electrons themselves have mass — very little, but some — so they cannot move at the speed of light. In fact, they move very slowly in wires, often on the order of several centimeters per hour. Current in a wire doesn't work by moving a single electron from point A to point B, however; it's more accurate to think of the electrons in the wire as many tightly-packed balls. If you push on one end, electrons at the other end will move almost immediately. How quickly? At the speed of the propagation of electric fields, which is at the speed of light.

<<|YouFailPhysicsForever|>>

* Perhaps justified given the genre, but [[FinalFantasyX dodging lightning]] by jumping out of the way seems {{egregious}} enough to be listed here.

If you're turning on lights in a warehouse, it is absolutely mandatory for rows of lights to come on this way, each with a loud "clunk" noise. The same rule applies to light towers in stadiums. [[TruthInTelevision (Note that at least some stadium lights actually do produce a "clunk" sound, very similar if not identical to the TV/Film sound effect.)]] Frequently [[JustifiedTrope justifiable]] in that such lights are not controlled by a master switch, but by individual circuit breakers or contactors (which can be quite noisy). However, this will be done even when someone is shown throwing a single switch, or after a power outage. It's done because it's [[RuleOfDrama dramatic]], not because there's a plausible explanation. On the other hand, different types of devices may have different boot cycles, and it is common for some equipment to have power sequencers that ensure particular order or staggered startup for arrays of similar devices that draw high startup current.