History Main / TractorBeam

%%ZCE * Various alien species have this technology in ''Franchise/Ben10'', one such example being the Highbreed from ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''.

** Dr. Brainstorm uses one to capture Calvin and Hobbes in one episode of ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries''.

* In ''Fanfic/TheManyWorldsInterpretation'', [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Penny]] finds herself stranded in space owing to Sheldon Cooper letting his excitement get the better of him and stealing a {{Steampunk}} spacecraft he doesn't know how to pilot. Penny rages with frustration at being close enough to see the International Space Station, only to be told it doesn't have a tractor beam installed to haul them to safety. She heatedly points out that "every freaking spacecraft in every freaking show you guys watch" has a freaking tractor beam installed as standard.

%%ZCE * The ''[=ZARYa=]'' in the Soviet film ''Film/MoscowCassiopeia'' has a "force field" that appears to act this way. It's only mentioned, though, as the target is beyond its range at that point.
%%ZCE * ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' has one of these, too (called a "magnetic beam" in the film).

* In ''Film/TwinkleTwinkleLittleStar'' (a ''Star Wars'' spoof made by Creator/ShawBrothers) Cheri Chung's character gets sucked into one of these beams by a FlyingSaucer.

* Used in the first ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' novel called ''Invasion'', where an alien starship pulls an Earth cruiser in for a closer look. Since the starship's DeflectorShield is masking it from human radar systems, the cruise's captain has no idea why the ship is suddenly moving forward despite the retro-rockets firing.
%ZCE * One of the functions of effectors in [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novels.

* Creator/RudyardKipling, in the [[OlderThanTelevision 1912]] short story "As Easy as ABC", featured an effect referred to as a "flying loop," which Creator/JohnBrunner called the first-ever use of the tractor-beam concept. When a woman tried to commit suicide to make a political point, the "loop" yanked the knife out of her hand:
-->She threw out her right arm with a knife in it. Before the blade could be returned to her throat or her bosom it was twitched from her grip, sparked as it flew out of the shadow of the ship above, and fell flashing in the sunshine at the foot of the Statue fifty yards away. The outflung arm was arrested, rigid as a bar for an instant, till the releasing circuit permitted her to bring it slowly to her side.

* A possible UrExample is [[Creator/JulesVerne Jules (and Michel) Verne's]] ''The Meteor Hunt'' (AKA ''The Chase of the Golden Meteor''), written in 1901 and published in 1908, where such a beam is used to bring the titular meteor down to Earth. Michel Verne is apparently [[UrExample the inventor of the whole concept]], because his father's original draft didn't feature any tractor beams and Jules apparently abandoned the novel (which featured a huge gold asteroid and the chaotic attemps of a colorful bunch of various crooks to profit from it) for the lack of way to bring it to Earth. Michel, when reediting the novel for publication seven years later, introduced the tractor beam as a probable mean to do it, and made its inventor, [[AbsentMindedProfessor an excentric scientist Zephirin Xirdal]], the novel's true protagonist.
%%ZCE * Featured regularly, along with their opposite, Pressor Beams, in Creator/EEDocSmith's ''Literature/{{Skylark|Series}}'' and ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' novel series, which may well have [[TropeMaker originated the term]]. Also "tractor shears", which are planes of force capable of breaking a tractor beam.

** In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' there's a book with scenes on an asteroid too small to have much gravity. There's ArtificialGravity on a base, but otherwise characters use special boots with tractor beams in them to move about. They can also be used to climb vertical surfaces ''in'' gravity, but with difficulty - they're very heavy.
* Lois [=McMaster=] Bujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' features tractor beams at military scale, including on starships, but also in civilian use at smaller scale - 'hand tractors' are used for cargo manipulation, and 'medical hand tractors' are used for delicate surgical work - ideal for battlefield medicine as they're fundamentally sterile, never physically touching the patient.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Races with the technology for ArtificialGravity (such as the Minbari and Centauri) have this capability. Races that don't and use CentrifugalGravity instead (such as humans and the Narn) have to use more conventional towing cables. [[spoiler:Presumably the humans and Narn get it as well after the [[TheFederation Interstellar Alliance]] is formed and artificial gravity technology is shared, although only the Minbari and Centauri are still shown using it in Season 5.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E9TheEmptyChild "The Empty Child"]]/[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E10TheDoctorDances "The Doctor Dances"]]: Captain Jack Harkness' ship has one, which he first uses to rescue Rose, after she lost her grip on the barrage balloon she'd been dangling from, and later to remove a German bomb that was going to fall on our heroes.
** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E9TheSatanPit "The Satan Pit"]] reveals the TARDIS has one, which the Doctor uses to tow the rocket ship free of the gravitational pull of the UnrealisticBlackHole.

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon "Fugitive of the Judoon"]]: The Doctor's TARDIS is caught in one, called by name, from the Judoon ship before she can take off, and subsequently hauled aboard their ship.

** The Flax, a tractor net designed to capture ships for destruction and salvage by pirates.

* A joke on ''Series/MockTheWeek'' by Hugh Dennis, for a Scenes We'd Like To See: Unlikely Things to Hear in a Sci-Fi Show, went: "There's something in the tractor beam! Ed?" This was in reference to Creator/EdByrne, who in the week that ''Videogame/GrandTheftAutoV'' came out had been playing ''VideGgame/FarmingSimulator'' instead.

* Task Force Games

** ''TabletopGame/StarFleetBattles'' is based on the Franchise/StarTrek universe and most starships have tractor beams as standard equipment. In addition to grabbing enemy ships for the usual purposes (e.g. towing), they can be used in combat as well. Above the simulator room doors at Star Fleet Academy is written "Use your tractors, [[PrecisionFStrike Dammit!]]"

*** The {{O|urOrcsAreDifferent}}rks have a number of weapons based on tractor beam technology such as the Lifta-Droppa (giant nuclear-powered tractor beams often mounted on their HumongousMecha for anti-tank duty – as well as anti-infantry, by dropping the tank onto the infantry) and the [[AntiAir anti-aircraft]] Traktor Kannon used to grab hold of enemy aircraft and smash them into the ground, much to the amusement of the crew.

** In ''TabletopGame/BattlefleetGothic'' the Ork Fleet has the Grunt Assault Ship. A more sophisticated version of the [[RammingAlwaysWorks Brute Ram Ship]], the Grunt incorporates a massive traktor field reactor that not only increase the damage done when it rams into an enemy but also allows it to stick to the enemy vessel so that the mobs of Ork Boyz it carries can perform a more effective [[BoardingParty boarding action]]. On the downside, the poorly distributed mass of the ship considerably reduces its manoeuvrability.

%%ZCE * The Excursion Funnels from ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''.
* The ''Jetman'' games (''Lunar'' for the ZX Spectrum, and ''Solar'' on the NES) made heavy use of a tractor beam for carrying ship parts and fuel.
%%ZCE * Gravity guns:
%%** The gravity gun from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''.
%%** The gun thingy from ''VideoGame/{{Elebits}}''.
%%** Also, the grabber in ''VideoGame/Doom3: Resurrection of Evil''.
* ''Thrust'' is an old computer game where you pilot a spacecraft through tunnels to pick up an object with your tractor beam and pull it out again.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', a golden tractor beam is used by the 'ghosts' to abduct cows (and the unfortunate Romani).
* Crypto's flying saucer in ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' has the Abducto Beam, which you can use to pick up tanks, smash them against buildings, drain them of their energy, and fling them out to sea; or you can use it to, you know, abduct people.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Starscape}}'' your fighter ships have a tractor beam used to suck in minerals from recently exploded asteroids.
* The main charater of ''VideoGame/RocketRobotOnWheels'' has a small, personalized tractor beam he uses to pick things up and throw them.
* Tractor Beams in ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' can be mounted in nearly any large turret socket in the game. They're especially effective when mounted on rotating defense satellites orbiting planets, where they can grab attacking ships and smash them into the planet's surface. The game's AI for some species actually takes advantage of this.
* Frigates and Cruisers in ''VideoGame/GratuitousSpaceBattles'' can be mounted with (blue) Tractor Beams, slowing the pesky-deadly fighters down to the point where slow tracking beams and missiles can kill them.
%%ZCE * They appear in the ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' series, along with their opposites, Repulsor Beams.
%%ZCE * One of the gadgets in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando''. It only works on objects with a special marking.
* The final Bowser level of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy'' has tractor beams that pull you from one planet to the next, but a Launch Star is actually used to get from the second-to-last planet to the one you fight Bowser himself on.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'', tractor beams are produced by large doors (which can only be opened by smashing meteorites into it) leading to the planet you fight Bowser on at the end of all three Bowser levels.
* The War Blimp boss in ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'' has a "Meteor Tractor Beam", it makes meteors rain on you shortly after it is fired.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' add on ''Mothership Zeta'' has the player abducted using a energy beam.

* In ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Reunion]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/{{X}} X3: Terran Conflict]]'', tractor beams are a player-usable weapon, used mainly for towing ships and moving stations around. In a symptom of those games' [[ArtisticLicenseEconomics broken economy]], the factories that create them sometimes disappear before the player can buy one, forcing one to build a factory for an item the player only ever needs one of.
%%ZCE * The player's ship in ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' has one for grabbing items, and plants, and animals.
%%ZCE * There is a tractor spell in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''. It's used to pull dead players' corpses only, thought (still useful to pull them out of monster reach before resurecting them).
* The ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' series has gravity tethers, which can move massive amounts of rock into orbit. The player also has a smaller version in the form of the Kinesis module
%%ZCE * ''VideoGame/TachyonTheFringe'' has a Tractor Wave item that you can add to your fighter provided it has a slot for it. Unfortunately its short range and forward-facing targeting makes it something of a UselessUsefulSpell.
* Present in the first two games in the ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity'' series, and possible but unused in the third. If one ship tractors another, the least massive ship is the one that gets pulled along. A larger ship can even use the tractor beam to prevent a smaller one from entering hyperspace. Mechanically, they're created by putting a negative number into the "impact" field[[note]]i.e. the kinetic "kick" imparted to the subject of a weapon strike[[/note]] of a [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beam]]. There are also (equally unused but possible in the third) repulsion beams, who mechanically are simply beams with a positive number in the impact field but (like tractor beams) doing zero damage.
* A staple of ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'' is Tractor Beam, a non-elemental spell which lifts enemies and then drops them for damage.

* ''VideoGame/WingCommander'':
** In ''[[VideoGame/WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga Wing Commander II]]'', one mission has the player flying a Broadsword, using its tractor beam to retrieve a data pod.
** At the end of ''[[VideoGame/WingCommanderTheKilrathiSaga Wing Commander III]]'', Blair's crippled fighter is retrieved by a Kilrathi Dreadnought that uses a tractor beam to draw it in.
** In ''VideoGame/WingCommanderPrivateer'', loot sometimes drops from destroyed ships, which can be picked up with a tractor beam if mounted, then sold at the next station.
* ''VideoGame/StarRuler'' features two versions of the tractor beam; one which will pull objects towards the ship (or station), and another which will push objects away from the ship. The devices are largely pointless, though it's always entertaining to use them to catapult an enemy's defense station out of orbit. Micromanaging a station with a repulsion tractor beam allows players to assist their ships when leaving the system, effectively giving them a big push; very useful with [[PlanetSpaceship very large]] ships that are very heavy or have weak engines.
* The player's ship in ''{{VideoGame/Zigfrak}}'' has an electromagnetic tractor beam for the purpose of collecting loot and materials in space.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'', given its [[Franchise/StarTrek source material]], allows science bridge officers to learn a skill to use the ship's tractor beam in combat. It's a heavy speed debuff, though unless the target ship is already very slow it doesn't stop the target entirely. The Borg and the Tholians use this to deadly effect. There are also two other player-based Tractor Beams - Tractor Beam Repulsors, which ''push away'' enemies, and a [=DOFF=] skill that inverts the Repulsors, pulling them ''toward'' you.
* The first two ''VideoGame/StarTrekStarfleetCommand'' games use tractor beams as a passive defense against incoming missiles. If a tractor beam is set to missile intercept mode, it captures the nearest enemy missile and holds it in place relative to the ship until one of three things happen: the beam's power runs out and the missile continues on its course, the missile's fuel runs out and it disappears, the missile is destroyed by one of your point-defense phasers. They can also be used to keep enemy or friendly ships in place for a time. However, in the first game, a tractor beam cannot be rotated, which means the positioning can be a bit of a crapshoot. To counter a tractor beam, the enemy can change their tractor beams to "push".

* The Galaga flagship (a.k.a. Boss Galaga) from ''{{VideoGame/Galaga}}'' occasionally stops in mid-flight to emit a tractor beam in order to capture your ship.
* In ''Gaplus'', your ship can emit a tractor beam that can capture aliens and use them to increase your firepower.
%%ZCE * The ZIG shuttle in ''VideoGame/ZeroWing'' has this to capture enemies, then toss them forward, Kirby-style.
* ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis 4'': Wild Dog, in previous games, has outfitted his gun-arm with flamethrower and rocket launcher attachments, but in ''4'' he employs a tractor beam for the final phase of his fight, throwing all manners of cargo containers at you. [[MissionControl Elizabeth]] is surprised that an actual tractor beam exists. [[spoiler:When defeated, the tractor beam malfunctions and pulls in the cargo towards him, crushing him under it...although he survives.]]
* ''[[VideoGame/XCom X-COM: Interceptor]]'' has a ship mountable tractor beam. Using it disables the energy weapons, but not the missiles. Of course the effort of the ship trying to fight loose would damage both ships: the intended use of the device is to disable the enemy ship (using the specially-built EMP lasers), then use the tractor beam to grab it and high-tail it out of the area before the other ships could retaliate. In practice, disabling a ship makes it unable to do anything for the rest of the combat sequence, and it's automatically retrieved if you complete the mission anyway, so you never ''need'' to mount a tractor beam at all. They could also be mounted to stations, which would slow attacking alien ships for weapon turrets and defending fighters.
* [[NeverMessWithGranny Iva]]'s Energy ability in ''VideoGame/{{Battlerite}}''. In addition to [[WeaponsThatSuck pulling in enemies]], it also nullifies any attacks from the front.
* ''VideoGame/StarControlII'': The Chmmr Avatar has a tractor beam as a special ability. Very useful against slow ships, less so against fast ones, and draining the battery quite fast.
* ''VideoGame/IronHelix'': The ''Indiana'' is able to latch onto the ''Obrian'' using its tractor beam, which keeps it in tow as the ''Obrian'' heads towards Calliope.
* Grappler-archetype ships in ''VideoGame/RingRunnerFlightOfTheSages'' can mount tractor beams, which were originally used by AsteroidMiners to grab rocks, but are now being used by you to grab opponents and pull them close enough for your ship's melee abilities.
* ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand'' and ''AI War 2'' pack their share in various vessels. Some simply to keep the enemy in place, Deathgrip vessels which do bonus damage to tractored enemies, ''big'' vessels like the Black Widow Golem that can pick up an entire armada and drag them around, and in one case Tackle Drones fired by frigates, which will zoom across the system, pick a few vessels up and bumrush them to the edge of the system where the gravity well ends; the latter can be bad news for the caught if there's a Tritium Sniper or other infinite range vessel slowly killing them. Notably, they work through wormholes; it's perfectly possible to tractor a whole bunch of ships and kidnap them into your home territory where you can wreck them easier, and the AI will sometimes do the same to you.
* In ''VideoGame/CryingSuns'', Nano Drones emit a tractor beam which prevents their current target from moving away. Since Nano Drones also have an ability that prevents adjacent squadrons from attacking them, this allows them to lock down an enemy squadron where it can’t do any harm.

* The Ultharians from ''VideoGame/CthulhuSavesTheWorld'' use a tractor beam to [[AliensStealCattle pull cattle up to their spaceship]]. A defector aboard this ship can use this beam get your party inside as well.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' features Tenno and Corpus {{dropship}}s, which can pull in cargo using what looks like a powerful electromagnets. The Tenno landing craft demonstrate its use at the end of [[EscortMission Hijack missions]], while Corpus Condors are seen using them to carry Ambulas units to Frohd Bek's spaceship.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' series has the Grapple Beam, a GrapplingHookPistol in tractor beam form.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'': As nuclear weapons no longer exist in this timeline, SovietSuperscience focused on magnetism in addition to their usual electrical weapons.
** The Hammer Tank's Leech Beam secondary ability pulls away bits and pieces of vehicle and building armor, slowly repairing the tank (and has better range than its main gun). A vehicle that dies under the effect gives the tank a secondary weapon based on the killed vehicle (i.e. AntiAir, AntiInfantry, AntiArmor...).
** The Apocalypse tank is now even better at killing enemy tanks thanks to its Magnetic Harpoon, which drags vehicles towards its front-mounted grinders (and can drag ships towards the shore to kill them). Heavy vehicles and buildings drag the tank towards themselves instead, but the effect is much the same as the grinders do more damage per second than the guns. However, only one magnetic harpoon can affect a target at a time.
** The Magnetic Satellite is a support power that drags vehicles into orbit, starting with light vehicles all the way up to Apocalypse Tanks and battleships. If the player takes the Orbital Drop power as well, those same vehicles are sent crashing down.
* In the ''VideoGame/EverybodyEditsUniverse'' website background, a FlyingSaucer uses a Tractor Beam to carry a duck.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'', [[spoiler:if you follow the Blue Gem's hidden sidequest to the very end, your character gets sucked up into the sky by one and abducted by aliens comprised entirely of dogs. Turns out they're here to save humanity from the incoming Old God as Earth is doomed]]. Unsurprisingly, this ends your run as a Game Over.

* Robot #1 in ''Webcomic/TheEasyBreather'' uses a tractor beam to pull Ant Woman into its cargo hold.

* ''{{Webcomic/xkcd}}'' gives the tractor beam trope some thought in [[https://xkcd.com/2579/ this comic]].

* The animated show ''WesternAnimation/GalaxyHigh'' once showed a VisualPun: a beam with a farm tractor at the end.
%%* Tractor Beam abduction is spoofed to heck and back in the Pixar short film ''[[WesternAnimation/PixarShorts Lifted]]''.

* Called "Gravity Cranes" in ''Manga/CannonGodExaxxion''. Explained as an application of ArtificialGravity technology, the series gets a lot of mileage out of the different uses they have. For instance, using them in reverse to crush things or shoot holes in buildings with blasts of pure, concentrated gravity.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: At one point, Diana gets pulled right out of her plane, leaving Etta to scramble for the pilot's seat, by an otherworldly queen wanting help saving her husband.

** In ''Wing Commander II'', one mission has the player flying a Broadsword, using its tractor beam to retrieve a data pod.
** ''VideoGame/WingCommanderPrivateer'' some times drops loot from destroyed ships, which can be picked up with a tractor beam if mounted, then sold at the next station.
** Blair's crippled fighter, at the end of ''Wing Commander III'', is retrieved by a Kilrathi Dreadnought that uses a tractor beam to draw it in.

* ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': As nuclear weapons no longer exist in this timeline, SovietSuperscience focused on magnetism in addition to their usual electrical weapons.

* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'' [[spoiler:if you follow the Blue Gem's hidden sidequest to the very end, your character gets sucked up into the sky by one and abducted by aliens comprised entirely of dogs. Turns out they're here to save humanity from the incoming Old God as Earth is doomed.]] Unsurprisingly, this ends your run as a Game Over.

[[caption-width-right:349: A little too literal, do you think?]]

%%* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014'':
%%ZCE ** Used early on by Yondu to [[AlienAbduction abduct little Peter]] and again later when saving him and Gamora from freezing to death in space.
%%ZCE ** Nebula's Necrocraft has one which she uses to collect the orb with after blowing Gamora's ship apart.

* In ''Film/ANewHope'', the ''Millennium Falcon'' is tractored into one of the Death Star's landing bays. The heroes have to deactivate the tractor beam before they can escape.
%%ZCE ** ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'': At the end of the movie, Vader's Super Star Destroyer is about to grab the ''Millennium Falcon'' with one when the ''Falcon's'' hyperdrive finally starts working.

[[folder:Films — Animation]]

[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
* In ''Film/AustinPowersInGoldmember'', both Goldmember and Dr. Evil came up with designs for a tractor beam to allow them to pull in an asteroid down to Earth. Dr. Evil calls his "Preparation H" (a reference to a popular OTC drug for treating hemorrhoids), as Preparations A-G were unsuccessful.
** The project itself is called the Alan Parsons Project after the head researcher. Scott mentions that it's the name of a band, but Dr. Evil doesn't get the reference.
* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}'' has the team invent portable tractor beams that only work on ghosts, anything material gets [[DestructiveSavior burned and/or irradiated]]. Also, be careful not to cross the streams.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'' universe:
** ''Film/ANewHope'':
*** The ''Millennium Falcon'' is tractored into one of the Death Star's landing bays. The heroes have to deactivate the tractor beam before they can escape.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: At one point Diana gets pulled right out of her plane, leaving Etta to scramble for the pilot's seat, by an otherworldly queen wanting help saving her husband.

* Examples from [[Fanfic/Swing123AndGarfieldodiesCalvinverse the Calvinverse]]:

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': [[BigBad Syndrome]] has "zero point energy gauntlets" that allow him to immobilize his enemies and move or throw them around as he pleases. HilarityEnsues when he accidentally flings Mr. Incredible far off into the distance while carelessly [[MilkingTheGiantCow gesturing]] during his EvilGloating.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsTheSiegeOfLothal "The Siege of Lothal"]], the ''Ghost'' is nearly caught in an Imperial tractor beam after [[spoiler:Darth Vader realizes that Ahsoka Tano is aboard the ship, but Hera manages to outmaneuver [[spoiler:Vader]] and gets ''him'' caught in the beam instead, to Admiral Konstantine's [[OhCrap horror]]. The Admiral adapts quickly though...by scapegoating the tractor beam operator.

-->-- ''Series/{{Farscape}}''

%%* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'':

%%** Also, the grabber in ''[[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil]]''.

* ''Videogame/StarRuler'' features two versions of the tractor beam; one which will pull objects towards the ship (or station), and another which will push objects away from the ship. The devices are largely pointless, though it's always entertaining to use them to catapult an enemy's defense station out of orbit. Micromanaging a station with a repulsion tractor beam allows players to assist their ships when leaving the system, effectively giving them a big push; very useful with [[PlanetSpaceship very large]] ships that are very heavy or have weak engines.

* ''Videogame/AIWarFleetCommand'' and ''AI War 2'' pack their share in various vessels. Some simply to keep the enemy in place, Deathgrip vessels which do bonus damage to tractored enemies, ''big'' vessels like the Black Widow Golem that can pick up an entire armada and drag them around, and in one case Tackle Drones fired by frigates, which will zoom across the system, pick a few vessels up and bumrush them to the edge of the system where the gravity well ends; the latter can be bad news for the caught if there's a Tritium Sniper or other infinite range vessel slowly killing them. Notably, they work through wormholes; it's perfectly possible to tractor a whole bunch of ships and kidnap them into your home territory where you can wreck them easier, and the AI will sometimes do the same to you.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

'''Crichton:''' Graviton field, attracto ray, superglue. Whatever it is you yanked me aboard with.\\

* Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}n Greg Williams created an [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tractor_WikiWorld.png illustration]] discussing tractor beams (with a side helping of AliensStealCattle) in December 2007 as part of a series.

[[folder:Comic Strips]

%%ZCE * UpToEleven in TheEighties RadioDrama ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}} II''. The ''Challenger'' and its crew are drawn into a massive black hole, only to find it's an artificial construct littered with derelict spacecraft. This is ''Spaceguard Six'', used to defend Earth from potentially hostile aliens.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'': In [[Recap/StarWarsRebelsTheSiegeOfLothal "The Siege of Lothal"]], the ''Ghost'' is nearly caught in an Imperial tractor beam after [[spoiler:Darth Vader]] realizes that [[spoiler:Ahsoka Tano]] is aboard the ship, but Hera manages to outmaneuver [[spoiler:Vader]] and gets ''him'' caught in the beam instead, to Admiral Konstantine's [[OhCrap horror]].

[[caption-width-right:319: A little too literal, do you think?]]

[[caption-width-right:319:[[A little too literal, do you think?]]

* Attractor and pressor beams exist as superscience devices in ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: Ultra-Tech'' and ''Spaceships''. They're mainly construction tools but powerful ones can be used in combat.

%%ZCE * ''VideoGame/StarControlII'': The Chmmr Avatar has a tractor beam as a special ability.

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. The initial reaction of the crew to an [[OutsideContextProblem alien spacecraft]] 'switching on' a gravity well and focusing it like a beam on ''Voyager'' is ThisCannotBe This later gives B'Elanna Torres a EurekaMoment that the aliens might be able to do [[GravityMaster other things with such technology]], like fold space for FasterThanLightTravel
* In ''Fanfic/TheManyWorldsInterpretation'', [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Penny]] finds herself stranded in space owing to Sheldon Cooper letting his excitement get the better of him and stealing a {{Steampunk}} spacecraft he doesn't know how to pilot. Penny rages with frustration at being close enough to see the International Space Station, only to be told it doesn't have a tractor beam installed to haul them to safety. She heatedly points out that every freaking spacecraft in every freaking show you guys watch has a freaking tractor beam installed as standard.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': [[BigBad Syndrome]] has "zero point energy gauntlets" that allow him to immobilize his enemies and move or throw them around as he pleases. HilarityEnsues when he accidentally flings Mr. Incredible far off into the distance while carelessly gesturing during his EvilGloating.

%%ZCE * A possible UrExample is [[Creator/JulesVerne Jules (and Michel) Verne's]] ''The Meteor Hunt'', written in 1901 and published in 1908, where such a beam is used to bring the titular meteor down to Earth.

[[folder:Pinballs]]