History Main / TractorBeam

** ''Series/UltramanEighty'' has the FlyingSaucer-based monster which uses a beam on it's side to port it's occupants in and out. It can also target planes and tanks for self-defense, and be converted into an energy rope when battling Ultraman 80.

** ''Series/UltramanTaiga'', besides bringing back a Galactron who assimilates another human, also introduces a new monster, Gorothunder, who can fire a yellow beam from it's ''navel''.

* In ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'', the villain's plan is to aim the tractor beam at the moon to redirect its orbit causing a global ice age, eliminating summer vacations and forcing kids to study indoors making test scores go up.

%%ZCE ** [[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.
%%ZCE ** [[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.

%%ZCE ** [[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.

[[quoteright:350:[[http://www.lab-initio.com/index.html https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tractorbeam1_1395.jpg]]]]

** The Borg, recurring villains for TNG, ''[[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Deep Space Nine]]'', and ''[[Series/StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', use tractor beams as a weapon in combat, using their beam weapons to hammer a ship's shields into submission before locking them in place with the tractor beam so they can be easily boarded or blown apart at leisure.

** The Apocalypse tank is now even better at killing enemy tanks thanks to its Magnetic Harpoon, which drags vehicles towards its front-mounted grinders. 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.

* In the trippy sci-fi musical ''Toomorrow'', a huge, yellow beam is used as a method of bringing someone aboard a spacecraft hovering over London. It's slow enough the [[HumanDisguise human-faking alien]] antagonist checks his watch as he is drawn up into the ship.

* ''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.

%%[[folder:Films — Animation]]
%%* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': BigBad Syndrome has one built into his gauntlets that allows him to immobilize its targets and throw them around. HilarityEnsues whenever he does this while MilkingTheGiantCow.
%%[[/folder]]

%%ZCE * ''Series/BabylonFive'': Races with the technology for ArtificialGravity (such as the Minbari and Centauri) have this capability as well. Races that don't and use CentrifugalGravity instead (such as humans and the Narn) have to use more conventional towing cables.

* ''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.

%%ZCE * The Big Bad Wolf's breath in Activision's ''VideoGame/{{Oink}}'' works like this when it touches one of your Literature/{{three little pigs}}.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]

%%[[folder:Film — Animated]]

[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]

[[folder:Pinball]]

%%ZCE * The Big Bad Wolf's breath in Activision's ''{{VideoGame/Oink}}'' works like this when it touches one of your Literature/{{three little pigs}}.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

*** At the beginning, the ''Devastator'' pulls Princess Leia's ship, the ''Tantive IV'', into its docking bay with one.

%%ZCE * ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Modern Homeworld technology includes one not dissimilar to [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Syndrome's]] that can immobilize its target. Peridot had one in her [[ArtificialLimbs limb enhancers]] that she uses on Pearl in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E21CatchAndRelease "Catch and Release"]], and Aquamarine has a ''very'' powerful one in the form of a wand that she uses repeatedly throughout [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E23AreYouMyDad "Are You My Dad?"]]/[[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E24IAmMyMom "I Am My Mom"]].

%%ZCE * ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': BigBad Syndrome has one built into his gauntlets that allows him to immobilize its targets and throw them around. HilarityEnsues whenever he does this while MilkingTheGiantCow.

%ZCE *** At the beginning, the ''Devastator'' pulls Princess Leia's ship, the ''Tantive IV'', into its docking bay with one.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': 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.

[[folder:Film — Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': BigBad Syndrome has one built into his gauntlets that allows him to immobilize its targets and throw them around. HilarityEnsues whenever he does this while MilkingTheGiantCow.
[[/folder]]

* Shows up in at least three occasions in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'':
** Used early on by Yondu to [[AlienAbduction abduct little Peter]] and again later when saving him and Gamora from freezing to death in space.
** Nebula's Necrocraft has one which she uses to collect the orb with after blowing Gamora's ship apart.
* 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.
* ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' has one of these, too (called a "magnetic beam" in the film).

*** At the beginning, the ''Devastator'' pulls Princess Leia's ship, the ''Tantive IV'', into its docking bay with one.
*** Later on, 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.
** ''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.

* One of the functions of effectors in [[Creator/IainBanks Iain M. Banks]]'s [[Literature/TheCulture Culture]] novels.

* Mentioned and used several times in Creator/AlanDeanFoster's ''Literature/HumanxCommonwealth'' SpaceOpera series.

* Used as a weapon in the ''Literature/McCade'' series by William C Deitz, where the main character is struck by one while in space. Then some sneaky git kicks it into reverse and turns him into 'one big bruise'.
* 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.
* 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.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': Races with the technology for ArtificialGravity (such as the Minbari and Centauri) have this capability as well. Races that don't and use CentrifugalGravity instead (such as humans and the Narn) have to use more conventional towing cables.
* The ''Searcher'' has one on ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury,'' a bright green beam with a distinctive sound effect.

** [[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.

** Also, Moya has a "docking web", which is usually used to help damaged ships aboard. Much to Pilot's confusion, Crichton ends up calling it a tractor beam in an early episode.

[[folder:Radio]]
* 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.
[[/folder]]

** ''TabletopGame/{{Starfire}}'' likewise has tractor and presser beams. These not only pull (or push) enemy starships around, they also make it easier for your weapons to lock on to a tractored target, and can tear small fighters to pieces. They can be countered by installing a Shearing Plane on a starship, which negates ''all'' tractor and presser beams attempting to lock on to it.

*** They can be used to grab an enemy ship and prevent it from launching a "wild weasel" shuttle. This allows the tractoring ship to fire seeking weapons such as plasma torpedoes and drones (missiles) into the tractored ship with no chance of missing. This tactic is known as the "Gorn Anchor" in honor of the race that uses it most often.
*** They can grab enemy drones and hold them for later disposal.
*** They can grab enemy shuttles and be used to "death drag" the shuttle to destruction by traveling at high speed.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Monsterpocalypse}}'' features a Martian faction, who use some relatively small flying saucers equipped with these, as well as one {{Kaiju}}-size one.
* ''TabletopGame/RoboRally'' has both tractor beams and pressor beams as enhancements that may be used in lieu of the default laser weapon.

* The [[MadScientist Baron Blade]] from ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' has invented one. Said Baron Blade has a bad case of RevengeBeforeReason and tries to use it to [[ColonyDrop drop the moon into the earth]].

* The Excursion Funnels from ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}''.

* Gravity guns:
** The gravity gun from ''VideoGame/HalfLife2''.
** The gun thingy from ''VideoGame/{{Elebits}}''.
** Also, the grabber in ''[[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil]]''.

* Crops up in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'', of all places - a golden tractor beam is used by the 'ghosts' to abduct cows (and the unfortunate Romani).

* ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' has a "tractor beam" that pulls in any nearby items. It actually ''{{teleport|ation}}s'' them into your cargo hold. No explanation is offered why its still called a tractor beam.

** It would make more sense to do that with ships, at planets that ''aren't yours''. Unfortunately the ships' ArtificialStupidity is not capable of this maneuver and the player's user interface is too clumsy to manually swing the target into the planet before the beam times out.
** Also a key part of the random encounter and Morrigi special unit "Colony Trap", first time someone attempts to colonize a trapped planet several drones launch and drag the fleet into the planet's gravity well with tractor beams.

* They appear in the ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'' series, along with their opposites, Repulsor Beams.
* One of the gadgets in ''VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando''. It only works on objects with a special marking.

** In ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' however, tractor beams are now 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.

** Interestingly, tractor beams are programmed to be incapable of locking onto non-player-owned objects. This is mainly to prevent the obvious exploit where the player drags enemy vessels into stationary objects like asteroids. The "Super [=Tractorbeam=]" mod disables the restriction and allows tractor beams to pick up ''anything''. Your pitiful freighter can become a weapon of mass destruction when you tether an asteroid behind it and start mashing ships and stations with it.
* The player's ship in ''VideoGame/{{Spore}}'' has one for grabbing items, and plants, and animals.
* There is a tractor spell in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI''. It's used to pull dead players' corpses only, thought (still usefull to pull them out of monster reach before resurecting them).

* ''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.

* Muppy has a skill in ''[[VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlRevis Mana Khemia]]'' which summons a flying saucer to attack with this.

* The Big Bad Wolf's breath in Activision's ''{{VideoGame/Oink}}'' works like this when it touches one of your Literature/{{three little pigs}}.

** In the game sequel ''Gaplus'', your ship can also emit a tractor beam that can capture aliens and use them to increase your firepower.
* The ZIG shuttle in ''VideoGame/ZeroWing'' has this to capture enemies, then toss them forward, Kirby-style.

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

* The Nomai in ''VideoGame/OuterWilds'' developed these and use them extensively, [[MundaneUtility mostly as elevators]] but also as an easy way to get around inside Brittle Hollow. Your species has reverse-engineered them and uses them as an easy way back into their spaceships.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/{{Dreamscape}}'': Eleenin can utilize a pillar of light like one.
[[/folder]]

* One of the functions of gravitic technology in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'' is to act like this, usually referred to putting a ship in a "tractor-bubble" or "tractor-lock".

* Various alien species have this technology in ''Franchise/Ben10'', one such example being the Highbreed from ''WesternAnimation/Ben10AlienForce''.
* The animated show ''WesternAnimation/GalaxyHigh'' once showed this with a VisualPun: a beam with a farm tractor at the end.

* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'': Modern Homeworld technology includes one not dissimilar to [[WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles Syndrome's]] that can immobilize its target. Peridot had one in her [[ArtificialLimbs limb enhancers]] that she uses on Pearl in [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E21CatchAndRelease "Catch and Release"]], and Aquamarine has a ''very'' powerful one in the form of a wand that she uses repeatedly throughout [[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E23AreYouMyDad "Are You My Dad?"]]/[[Recap/StevenUniverseS4E24IAmMyMom "I Am My Mom"]].

Not to be confused with WeaponsThatSuck, though the two may be considered distant cousins. See also MindOverMatter, another unrelated trope that nevertheless this one occasionally resembles.

** Sherman's invention in ''Fanfic/RetroChill'' [[AvertedTrope averts]] this, and Calvin gets really mad about it.

*** The [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Orks]] 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.

** And the Kinesis module in ''Franchise/DeadSpace''.
* ''Thrust'', the truly ancient computer game where you piloted a spacecraft through tunnels to pick up an object with your tractor beam and pulled it out again.

* Appears as a recurring non-elemental spell in the ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'', which lifts enemies and then drops them for damage.

* The Big Bad Wolf's breath in Activision's ''{{VideoGame/Oink}}'' works like this when it touches one of your [[Literature/ThreeLittlePigs three little pigs]].

* 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 FrickinLaserBeam. 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.

* The player's ship in {{VideoGame/Zigfrak}} has an electromagnetic tractor beam for the purpose of collecting loot and materials in space.

* The ''Searcher'' has one on ''Series/BuckRogersInTheTwentyFifthCentury''.

* ''Rocketship Voyager''. 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.