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

[edit] Fictional uses

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
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.
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.
The President of the United States escapes Air Force One in an escape pod and lands inside the New York City prison.
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 reffered to as Lifeboats and Lifepods.
During the Alliance-Reaver space battle, the Alliance Operative abandons his crumbling warship in a bridge escape pod.
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.
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.
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".
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 Rickenbacker's escape pods. At the end of the game, SHODAN is seen as possessing the body of one of the survivors that managed to get into an escape pod.
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.
Goa'uld ships are equipped with sarcophagus like escape pods designed for a single occupant. Anubis' mothership also possesed an escape pod capable of hyperspace travel.
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.
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.
In Spaceballs, the ship Spaceball One is able to undergo a Transformers: The Movie like transformation (when Unicron transforms), turning into the giant cleaning lady Mega Maid. This, looking like the Statue of Liberty, holds escape pods in the crown at the top.
Spoilers end here.

[edit] See also

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