Escape pod

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For other uses of the term, see Escape pod (disambiguation).

An escape pod is a capsule or craft used to escape an emergency, usually only big enough for one person. 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:

[edit] Non-fiction

The B-58 Hustler, F-111 Aardvark and B-1A bomber all used enclosed escape crew capsules 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. (The sinking of the Kursk in 2000 makes this doubtful).

[edit] Fictional uses

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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. The pod in Air Force One is based on the Command Module of the Apollo spacecraft.

NOTE: Despite at least two movies featuring Air Force One with an escape pod, the aircraft does not officially carry an escape capsule. However, this cannot be refuted since the exact specifications of the aircraft are classified.

Allegiance

Person that is piloting a ship ejects in an ecape pod upon destruction.

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 ship's lifeboat Narcissus. The pod, with Ripley and Jones the cat, is recovered some 57 years later, at the start of Aliens.

At the beginning of Alien³, the hibernating bodies of Ripley, Hicks, 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.

EVE Online online game:

All ships in EVE Online carry one-man capsules that essentially are the ship's cockpit for the hard-wired pilots. These capsules are automatically ejected upon hull breach, functioning as escape pods complete with built-in life support and faster-than-light propulsion.

Halo: Combat Evolved video game:

At the beginning of the game, the protagonist, "Master Chief", abandons the Pillar of Autumn warship and lands on the Halo in an escape pod, which are referred to as Lifeboats and Lifepods.

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 crash landed, Joanna has to find the pod and activate a distress beacon, before rescuing the President from his captors.

Planetfall interactive fiction game:

Not long after the beginning of the game, the Feinstein explodes and the player has to enter an escape pod before it does. When the Feinstein explodes, the escape pod lands on a nearby planet, and the player has to rest in the safety webbing so that he/she can survive the landing.

Serenity film:

During the Alliance-Reaver space battle, the Alliance Operative abandons his crumbling warship in a bridge escape pod.

Spaceballs film:

Spaceball One's secret weapon is its ability to transform into Mega Maid, a colossal cleaning lady holding a gigantic vacuum cleaner, with a head like that of the Statue of Liberty, and escape pods in the spikes of the crown.

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.

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 film series:

In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, General Grievous abandons his Trade Federation cruiser 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.

Star Wars Galaxies online game:

All multiplayer ships have an escape pod which can be used by passengers and the pilot to escape from the ship. The player lands on the last planet they set foot upon.

Stargate SG-1 science fiction series:

Goa'uld ships are equipped with sarcophagus like escape pods designed for a single occupant. Anubis' mothership also possessed an escape pod capable of hyperspace travel.

Starship Troopers film:

As the ship Rodger Young is destroyed above Planet P, Carmen and Zander evacuate in one of the ship's escape pods; however, their pod lands deep underground, inside a bug cave.

In Solaris (1972) by Tarkovskij the astronaut Kris Kelvin tries to red rid of the ghostlike incarnation of his former wife by locking her in a space pod and firing her out into space.

System Shock computer game series:

In System Shock the player can attempt to depart Citadel station in an escape pod 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 Rickenbackers escape pods. At the end of the game, SHODAN is seen possessing the body of one of the survivors that managed to get into a Von Braun escape pod.