Escape pod
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An escape pod is a capsule or craft used to escape an emergency. An escape ship is larger, more complete craft also used for the same purpose. Escape pods are usually seen in science fiction, but have been used in real life to escape from supersonic aircraft.
Famous escape ships/pods include:
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Non-fiction
- The B-58 Hustler, F-111 Aardvark and B-1A bomber all used enclosed escape pods because they were intended to fly too high or too fast for safe use of conventional ejection seats.
- Some Soviet submarines like the Oscar or the Typhoon classes are rumored to have escape capsules for the crew.
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Fictional uses
- Air Force One film:
- In the movie, President Marshall (Harrison Ford) was taken by Secret Service to an escape pod inside Air Force One, but he launches it only as a decoy and remains hidden inside the plane.
- NOTE: Despite at least two movies featuring Air Force One with an escape pod, the aircraft does not have one in real life.
- Alien film series:
- At the end of the first film, Ellen Ripley attempts to kill the Alien by blowing up the Nostromo and escaping in the escape pod Narcissus. The pod, with Ripley and Jones the cat, is recovered some 57 years later, at the start of Aliens. The Narcissus was more than just an escape pod; it doubled as the Nostromo's command bridge.
- At the beginning of Alien³, the hibernating bodies of Ripley, Hicks and Newt, and Bishop, are automatically ejected to safety in an emergency escape vehicle, when aliens loose aboard the ship cause a fire. The vehicle crashlands on a nearby prison planet, killing Hicks and Newt.
- Escape from New York film:
- The President of the United States escapes Air Force One in an escape pod and lands inside the New York City prison.
- Halo: Combat Evolved video game:
- At the beginning of the game, the player's character "Master Chief", abandons the Pillar of Autumn warship and lands on the Halo in an escape pod.
- Serenity movie:
- During the Alliance-Reaver space battle, the Alliance Operative abandons his crumbling warship in a bridge escape pod.
- Star Trek science fiction series:
- In the pilot of Deep Space Nine, a flashback to the Battle of Wolf 359 depicts Commander Benjamin Sisko and Jake Sisko escaping the doomed USS Saratoga.
- In Star Trek: First Contact, Captain Picard decides to defeat the Borg that have assimilated the USS Enterprise in orbit of Earth, by self-destructing the ship: the crew escape beforehand by numerous small escape pods. The crew are ordered to land on an (in reality fictional) island in the northwest Pacific.
- In the Deep Space Nine episode "The Changing Face of Evil," during the Second Battle of Chin'toka, the crew of the USS Defiant used them to evacuate when their ship was completely disabled by a Breen power draining weapon.
- Star Wars movie series:
- In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, General Grievous abandons his Trade Federation crusier above Coruscant using an escape pod.
- Near the beginning of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO escape the Rebel Blockade Runner when it is captured by an Imperial Star Destroyer; Princess Leia directs them to deliver vital strategic information to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine, where the pod crashes, and the droids are first captured by Jawas and later bought by Luke Skywalker's uncle.
- In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker escapes the exploding Death Star in an Imperial shuttle. In this case, the shuttle was used as an "escape ship".
- System Shock computer game series:
- In System Shock the player can attempt to depart Citadel station after setting the self destruct sequence but SHODAN prevents the launch.
- In System Shock 2 the player launches himself into the body of The Many using one of the UNN Rickenbacker's escape pods.
- Perfect Dark video game:
- As one of the mission objectives in the level Air Force One - Anti-Terrorism, Joanna Dark has to escort the President of the United States to an escape pod. In the next mission, after the plane has crashed landed, Joanna has to find the pod and activate a distress beacon, before rescuing the President from his captors.
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