First he sent him to space and now he’s hitting him with a rocket? Gru must really hate this guy.
When an object or character gets launched way high up into the sky, there's a high chance it'll cut to a shot of the Earth with the launched subject flying/floating above it. Bonus points if a satellite just so happens to be flying past. This is almost always followed by the subject falling back to the planet with gravity taking effect — oftentimes letting them land/crash in the exact same place they were sent flying from. Sometimes though, the orbit-sent object is sent so far up that it remains stuck in orbit, even if the laws of gravity suggest that it should eventually return.
Primarily used as a short and comedic visual gag that follows after an over-the-top circumstance (via an explosion, Megaton Punch, or a really bouncy surface), especially if the one launched is a non-superhuman living person who can't logically survive the whole ordeal (whether the launch forces or lack of oxygen). Occasionally though, this trope can be played more seriously in regards to stories like science fiction and/or superhero media, where the launch into orbit is given more narrative weight — whether by a superhero getting into this circumstance by a powerful foe launching them away, or someone superhuman with no flight being subject to the whims of the orbit with no way to free themselves.
A Twinkle in the Sky shot will occasionally lead directly to this. Not to be confused with Orbital Shot, when the camera orbits around someone or something, which might have nothing to do with space most of the time.
Sister Trope to Standardized Space Views, which merely establishes that a scene takes place in space. Compare Dramatic Space Drifting.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, Quetzalcoatl jumps into low orbit to deliver the mother of all Diving Kicks with her Noble Phantasm, Xiuhcoatl, in an effort to stall Tiamat's advance. The anime accompanies this sequence with a shot of her soaring above Earth's atmosphere for a moment before coming back down like the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The manga ends on a Crucified Hero Shot of Eva-01 still orbiting Earth after Shinji and Rei changed history to erase the Second Impact and give Shinji and the rest of the cast a happy ending.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Battle Tendency ends with Kars being launched out into space thanks to the Stone of Ajay pushing him into the atmosphere (with a little lucky help from Joseph's severed arm distracting Kars long enough that he's pushed out of Earth's orbit). Kars tries to use his new morphing abilities to return to Earth. But the holes in his body freeze up when he tries to use air to push himself and with no way to steer, he's left drifting away from Earth. The final shot is his body having turned to stone while the narration tells us he went mad and now wishes for death as he and his threat float away from Earth forever.
- Photon: The Idiot Adventures: Chapter 6 has Ma Gene Aqua's giant robot awaken, rise from its grave, and go rocketing toward the sea. It dives into the water, locates the Aho Furnace, and grasps a central pillar. The robot then rockets upward, out of the sea and into the upper atmosphere, pulling miles of pillar behind it. Aboard the robot, villain Papacharino Nanadan wonders aloud how high the robot has to go before the Aho Furnace is accessible. At that time, the robot is shown flying above an orbiting satellite.
- Saint Seiya: In the conclusion to the battle between Draco Shiryu and Capricorn Shura in the anime, Shiryu uses a suicidal attack that launches both of them into space. From the outside, it looks like a mint green Eastern dragon is rising above the Earth and towards the stars. A shot of the Earth and the moon is shown as the dragon flies into orbit.
- SPY×FAMILY: In the episode "The Mommy Friendship Scheme", Yor Forger, a highly trained assassin posing as a normal housewife and mother, is invited by one of the Eden Academy mothers to join their volleyball team. Despite attempting to restrain herself, her assassin-honed superhuman strength proves too much to control. When she spikes the ball during a match, it rockets clean through the gymnasium ceiling and disappears into the sky with a twinkle. The scene then briefly cuts to a comedic shot of the ball exiting Earth's orbit, while her bewildered teammates stare in stunned silence.
Comic Books
- Fantastic Four (2018): In issue #14 of this volume, Johnny Storm flames on and is shown flying near the atmosphere of Earth, as he gazes longingly into space and remembers the reason why he volunteered for the team's first mission in the first place. In the sequence of panels, he puts out his flames near the circumference of the Earth, as the Sun casts its rays in the distance.
- Godzilla: Skate or Die: In the final issue, Godzilla defeats Varan by hurling him into the sky and then blasting him with atomic breath, propelling Varan all the way into outer space, ending with a shot of Varan now drifting in Earth's low orbit.
- Thor defeats Loki in Journey into Mystery on two different occasions by throwing his hammer so hard that we see it carrying Loki out of Earth's atmosphere, through space, and into Asgard.
- The Uncanny X-Men issue 171: When Rogue encounters the former Ms. Marvel for the first time since their fateful meeting in San Francisco, Carol punches Rogue right through the roof of Xavier's mansion. The next panel shows her floating somewhere near the moon.
Films — Animation
- Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion: The ultimate demise of Demonix in giant form follows a Megaton Punch from Getafix's Improvised Golem controlled by Obelix, which sends the villain high in the sky. We then see a shot of him drifting into orbit, where he collides against an asteroid and falls back to Earth, right on the pirates' ship.
- Despicable Me: A case that overlaps with a plot-relevant Standardized Space View; early on, a minion drinks an anti-gravity potion and soon drifts higher and higher into the sky, later shown high above Earth's atmosphere when Gru's rocket flies to the moon — the minion getting nearly hit by the rocket passing close by.
Films — Live-Action
- Hercules (1983) has the titular hero throw a bear (that has mortally wounded his father a moment ago) so far into outer space it becomes a constellation.
- At the end of the sequel to The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber, a football filled with flubber gas is seen floating in orbit among some satellites.
- Santa Claus: The Movie: Big Bad B.Z. eats candy canes infused with stardust (the magical substance that enables Santa's reindeer to fly) to escape police custody. It works too well, as the last shot of the movie is him floating away from Earth and out to deep space.
- Suburban Commando: When super-strong Human Alien warrior Shep Ramsey is challenged by a group of kids to try skateboarding, the board slips from under him and he lands on his back, prompting laughter and mockery from the kids. Angrily, he throws the board skyward with such force that it disappears from view. Some time later, as the two Bounty Hunters pursuing him are approaching Earth, they detect what turns out to be the skateboard flying through space, and look at one another in momentary confusion.
- Underdog: In the climax of the movie after burying a timed bomb and making his escape, Underdog overshoots his flying and drifts all the way to low Earth orbit before crashing back down — catching the attention of an astronaut working a satellite nearby.
Astronaut: Houston, we have a beagle.
Literature
- Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator: In the first chapter, “Mr Wonka goes too far”, Mr Wonka sends the Elevator up very high, in order to come down to crash through the factory roof at high speed. He goes higher and higher, and even Charlie gets nervous at the sight of the whole continent of North America far below. Mr Wonka says he must concentrate, otherwise they will go too high; and just then, Grandma Josephine yanks him away from the controls. The Elevator tips sideways into orbit, and the grandparents float out of their bed, as they no longer are under the Earth’s gravity; and so begins the plot of the Elevator going into space.
Live-Action TV
- On Home Improvement, there is a Tool Time segment
dedicated to golf. They've set up a golf simulator to use, the device of which reads how fast and at what angle the club hits the dummy ball, then translates it into a course for the virtual ball on the screen to take. Tim has overclocked a practice club to hit the ball with the equivalent of a bullet. The image on the screen changes from the golf course to the virtual ball flying through space, and then to the surface of the moon as the virtual ball lands.
Radio
- The Goon Show: In "The Case of the Missing CD Plates", Bluebottle idly wonders what it would be like to be a man-made "sallatite" in orbit above the Earth. A moment later, the bomb he is unknowingly carrying detonates, and he finds out.
Video Games
- Henry Stickmin Series: In the Executive/Betrayed route of Completing the Mission, the cybernetically-enhanced Right Hand Man attempts to finish off a cybernetic-enhanced Henry with a large energy sphere. If Henry chooses to use the baseball bat, he bats away the sphere with enough force to send it outta sight — the scene cutting to a shot of the world that the energy sphere orbits around, soon re-entering orbit... to crash right into Henry.
Fail Screen: Homerun?
- JumpStart 1st Grade: The bookshelf story "The Ball That Megan Threw" is about a girl throwing a baseball so hard that it disappears into the sky. The story ends with the narrator speculating that the ball went to outer space, which is accompanied by an illustration of the ball flying past an astronaut.
- Mario Party 2: The ending for the Bowser board has Bowser challenge the board winner to grab him by the tail and spin him like in Super Mario 64, only to turn metal to prevent his opponent from doing much. Once given the star power to do so, the board winner effortlessly swings Metal Bowser around before sending them flying around the globe — Bowser getting knocked out after a harsh landing.
- Mist Train Girls: Tianjin's Special Skill in her Burning Creative Spirit form is "Shuidi Shichuanquan", where she unleashes a series of blows on a test dummy before roundhouse kicking it into orbit. There's a brief shot of the dummy floating in low-earth orbit before falling back to the planet, crashing into one of Tianjin's designated foes.
- Pokémon: The move Seismic Toss, particularly in Sun and Moon onward, depicts the opponent subject to the move as being thrown high up past the sky with the earth in view below before crashing straight down.
- The magician in Rayman Legends gets their vehicle stuck in the final story level of each world, and is then hit with a charged attack that throws them into space and lands in a crater on another planet (where they get poked by pitchforks)
- Super Paper Mario: In Chapter 7, upon jumping on an enlarged bouncy cloud Cyrrus, he bounces your Player Character waaaay past the necessary height needed to progress, sending them up far above the planet, flailing about as they slowly drift above before falling all the way back down.
Web Animation
- At the end of raxdflipnote's "BROMBUS VS LANDLORD", the defeat of Landlord is shown with a combination of the Sent Into Orbit Shot and Twinkle in the Sky. (Twinkle in space?)
- Happy Tree Friends:
- In "From Hero to Eternity", Lumpy is sent into space, blasting past Earth's orbit like a rocket, after Splendid blows up his truck.
- In "Blast From the Past", Lumpy accidentally launches Cuddles so high from a seesaw that the poor rabbit leaves Earth's stratosphere, freezes solid in space, and gets shattered to bits by a passing satellite. Fortunately, it is undone by Sniffles' Time Travel shenanigans.
- The third episode of PUNCH PUNCH FOREVER! has Mama dropkick Shirisaku Nabe into outer space to the point of the latter colliding with an astronautnote and this all follows Mama piledriving Nabe through the earth.
- Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City: In "Adventures in Berrysitting", Honeydew Sorbet becomes so hyperactive at one point that she somehow launches into the air, with a brief shot of her laughing in space. After Strawberry's Confession Cam segment, Honeydew Sorbet lands back on the ground and leaves a visible crater upon impact, seemingly just to confirm that she actually launched herself into space.
- Strong Bad Email: In "Winter Pool", Pom Pom tries to rescue Strong Bad from sinking into a pool of gelatin dessert, but bounces off and flies away. At the end of the e-mail, Strong Bad remarks that it's been three days and Pom Pom still hasn't landed. We then cut to a shot of Pom Pom drifting past a space station.
- Team Service Announcement: #31: Juggling ends with the BLU Medic getting launched into orbit with a Twinkle in the Sky. Later, while the credits are rolling, he can be seen in space, still alive due to being Ubered, and next to an astronaut Heavy... and then he gets hit by an asteroid.
Webcomics
- Gunnerkrigg Court: At the end of Chapter 67, the Mad God Loup throws Jones into space to prevent her from interfering with his plans for Annie. Being immortal, unflappable, and very old, Jones just waits patiently with folded arms until she de-orbits six months later.
Web Video
- The thumbnail for How Ridiculous's video on launching an anvil with an explosion depicts said anvil being launched so high it's far above the clouds with the curve of the globe being in view.
Western Animation
- Arthur: In "Binky the Art Critic", Arthur and Buster consider what would happen if they tell Binky that they don't want to do the art project that he's insisting they do on a supposedly improperly hung abstract piece. In the show's typical Imagine Spot fashion, the two of them are shown flying up into space while screaming. Buster comments that he didn't think Binky would throw them that far, while Arthur points out an incoming satellite, which they both narrowly avoid.
- In the first two-parter of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Graviton deals with Iron Man by relinquishing gravity's effect on him. The show cuts from him moving up out of frame straight to him "falling" away from a fully-visible Earth well out of the atmosphere.
- Ben 10: Omniverse: In "Special Delivery", a flashback from 5 years ago shows Ben (as Way Big) throw Mr. Baumann’s truck at Dr. Amino’s giant mutant mosquito, sending the truck into space. In the present, Ben (as Humongousaur) throws Sunder’s hovercraft into space, and it hits the truck and sends it falling back to Earth, eventually crashing on Mr. Baumann’s house like a meteor and destroying his home.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In "Hex Games", Francis tries going down the very big ramp and ends up going so fast that he gets launched into space. It becomes a Brick Joke at the end of the episode when he ends up falling from the sky and crashing into Vicky.
- The Magic School Bus: In "Out of This World", Ralphie jokingly claims that a meteor passing in front of the bus is actually a fly ball he hit at recess last week, right before it burns up on reentry.
"That ball's still going..."
- Phineas and Ferb:
- In both the first episode and the musical version, Phineas and Ferb's rollercoaster ends up going into space and there's a brief shot of them and the Earth before they come back down. The musical version adds a brief interaction with their alien friend Meep.
- In "Candace Disconnected", Candace gets marooned on Easter Island due to an app on her phone that Phineas and Ferb made for her, with her soon brought back home via Perry entering coordinates into Doofenshmirtz's Pick 'Em Up-inator. As the rocket helmet of the inator carries her away, with Candace freaking out all the while, it carries her so high up that the whole planet is in view.
- Regular Show: In Country Club, the country club manager tries to turned the Park's golf card into a toliet with a weird machine and launch it into space. Mordicai and Rigby push him through the machine during the fight, which loads him onto a rocket and out into orbit. The last of him we see is him yelling a Big "NO!" as the rocket breaks apart in orbit and sends him floating away from Earth.
- Robot Chicken: The "Monkeys in Outer Space" sketch shows several chimps floating around Earth's orbit as a result of the failed space launches.
- The Simpsons: In-Universe. Bart shows Lisa a comic book of his favorite superhero, Radioactive Man, in which the hero punches the villain so hard it sends him into the sun, then says "Hot enough for you?"
