Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

30-Second Blackout

 30-Second Blackout
type
FeatureClass
 30-Second Blackout
label
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout
page
ThirtySecondBlackout
 30-Second Blackout
comment
A piece of Applied Phlebotinum goes awry or an EMP is triggered. It could be an accident, or by design. In any case, the whole city, or possibly even the entire surrounding region, goes dark.
About 30 seconds later, the power comes back on and everything is back to normal. Of course, this isn't very realistic. As was evidenced by the Northeastern U.S. Blackout of 2003, when a blackout of that magnitude occurs it takes hours or days simply to restart all the systems, even if no elements of the power generation or distribution infrastructure were actually physically damaged. While brown-outs may be brief, they generally only affect a small area, and anything that actually disrupts power generation or transportation will take significantly longer. It takes several hours just to get three generating stations running, then there's synchronizing with other generating islands, and slowly switching in load being careful that you don't overload the generation you have and accidentally cause another system collapse.note For example, when a refrigerator starts up after a blackout, it immediately runs its compressor at full power until it's at the proper temperature. So when the power comes back, every refrigerator in the area is running its compressor at once, which is a much higher load than usual. In real life, it can easily take more than a day to restart an electricity grid after the initial blackout.
Advertisement:propertag.cmd.push(function() { proper_display('tvtropes_mobile_ad_1'); })Contrast Power Outage Plot.
Examples:
 30-Second Blackout
fetched
2022-12-12T19:43:58Z
 30-Second Blackout
parsed
2022-12-12T19:43:58Z
 30-Second Blackout
processingComment
Dropped link to EMP: Not an Item - FEATURE
 30-Second Blackout
processingComment
Dropped link to HilarityEnsues: Not an Item - FEATURE
 30-Second Blackout
processingComment
Dropped link to NegimaMagisterNegiMagi: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
 30-Second Blackout
processingUnknown
Negima! Magister Negi Magi (Manga)
 30-Second Blackout
isPartOf
DBTropes
 30-Second Blackout / int_234b21a7
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_234b21a7
comment
In the original The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Klaatu has a small demonstration where he deliberately, briefly shuts down all power except hospitals and planes.
 30-Second Blackout / int_234b21a7
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_234b21a7
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_234b21a7
 30-Second Blackout / int_26541dd6
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_26541dd6
comment
In Ex Machina, Caleb gets temporarily locked in his room when the main power goes out one night, and shortly after comes back on. These short, unexplained power failures continue happening, sometimes during Caleb's sessions with Ava. It turns out that Ava is causing the outages herself, and is using them to talk to Caleb without Nathan watching them.
 30-Second Blackout / int_26541dd6
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_26541dd6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Ex Machina
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_26541dd6
 30-Second Blackout / int_3e5de40b
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_3e5de40b
comment
Scrubs had it, with Doctor Kelso encouraging everyone to stay calm because the emergency generator will kick in. Kelso is relieved when the lights come back on, because he had no idea if there was such a generator. This is a Justified Trope, since this is not "power coming back" but rather the delay before the emergency generators start. This can take anywhere from immediately to few minutes.
 30-Second Blackout / int_3e5de40b
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_3e5de40b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Scrubs
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_3e5de40b
 30-Second Blackout / int_44fe781e
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_44fe781e
comment
Justified in one episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion. In order to defeat an Angel, all of Japan was deliberately blacked out so the electricity could power a mecha-sized beam rifle. It takes a whole day (near literal 24 hours) just to set that up, and that was blindingly fast. The series doesn't say how long it took to restore the national power grid back to its usual status, but by the next episode everything is normal.
In a later episode, though, a blackout shuts down Tokyo-3 for around the length of the episode with the power in the city only fully coming back by nighttime. Turns out it was a planned shutdown.
 30-Second Blackout / int_44fe781e
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_44fe781e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Neon Genesis Evangelion
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_44fe781e
 30-Second Blackout / int_49a87cb3
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_49a87cb3
comment
Final Fantasy VII has a moment like this when a giant Mako Cannon is fired; the entire Midgar is slowly blacked out as the power is sucked into the cannon. We don't really see whether or not the power comes back on right afterwards, but Midgar certainly isn't blacked out in any subsequent scenes.
 30-Second Blackout / int_49a87cb3
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_49a87cb3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_49a87cb3
 30-Second Blackout / int_4e866cb9
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_4e866cb9
comment
At the 2013 Royal Rumble, CM Punk, having won his last two title defenses due to interference from The Shield, was given an ultimatum not to have them interfere with his match with The Rock or else he would be stripped of the title. The Shield interfered anyway under cover of darkness by shutting out the lights and powerbombing the Rock into the announce table. Initially, the threat to vacate the title was made good on, but the Rock instead ordered the match to be restarted and he easily won the title.
 30-Second Blackout / int_4e866cb9
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_4e866cb9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Royal Rumble (Wrestling)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_4e866cb9
 30-Second Blackout / int_55f6018c
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_55f6018c
comment
The protagonist and his zombie-killing team suffer through one of these in Juan of the Dead, while cornered by a swarm of undead. It's done as a Tempting Fate / You Just Had to Say It gag, but even so, possibly a justified trope considering the movie is set in Havana, a city which does not have the world's most robust electrical grid.
 30-Second Blackout / int_55f6018c
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_55f6018c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Juan of the Dead
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_55f6018c
 30-Second Blackout / int_58bcf32e
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_58bcf32e
comment
Crusade's Excalibur vessel has about a minute of blackout after using main guns at full power. See also Fate/stay night.
 30-Second Blackout / int_58bcf32e
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_58bcf32e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Crusade
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_58bcf32e
 30-Second Blackout / int_5dc24695
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_5dc24695
comment
The film Déjà Vu (2006) has one whenever anything is sent into the wormhole.
 30-Second Blackout / int_5dc24695
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_5dc24695
featureConfidence
1.0
 Déjà Vu (2006)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_5dc24695
 30-Second Blackout / int_70814599
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_70814599
comment
Stargate SG-1 had a similar subversion to Evangelion, but with 80% of the United States blacked out to power a cloaking device so that the Ori ship didn't destroy the SGC and take over Earth. In an alternate universe.
The difference from a normal blackout is that the President warned the population to prepare.
Possible example from the teaser of "Avenger 2.0" when Felger's experimental plasma weapon shorts out and knocks out the base's electricity. After the titles, power's back. However, we don't know how much time passed between the teaser and act one. It's also possible all the weapon did was trip the main breakers, but that would make it a case of Artistic License - Electrical Construction: only the breaker the weapon was attached to should have tripped.
 30-Second Blackout / int_70814599
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_70814599
featureConfidence
1.0
 Stargate SG-1
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_70814599
 30-Second Blackout / int_72a1ac51
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_72a1ac51
comment
In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, there's an optional sidequest composed of several sub-missions preparing for a big casino heist, Ocean's Eleven style. One of these missions involves planting remote controlled sticky bombs on the generators of the dam that powers the game's Las Vegas analogue, so they can be detonated and blackout the whole city during the heist. When it happens, the power stays off for a few minutes requiring the player to venture back upstairs and blow the casino's back-up generators. Despite this, the city has power about a minute later.
 30-Second Blackout / int_72a1ac51
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_72a1ac51
featureConfidence
1.0
 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Video Game)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_72a1ac51
 30-Second Blackout / int_75c31694
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_75c31694
comment
In The A-Team episode "When You Comin' Back, Range Rider?", B.A. messes with the electricity in the V.A. hospital so Face can sneak Murdock out a window without setting off the alarm. The whole thing is only supposed to last ten minutes, and what we see lasts even less time than that. Then the lights come back on and everything is normal.
 30-Second Blackout / int_75c31694
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_75c31694
featureConfidence
1.0
 The A-Team
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_75c31694
 30-Second Blackout / int_876cd173
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_876cd173
comment
Watch_Dogs has the Blackout hack, which disables every electric device in the vicinity for about fifteen seconds. Despite showers of open sparks from streetlights and so on, everything flickers back to life, unharmed, when ctOS restores the power. You can also achieve the same effect by destroying a street-level transfer box.
 30-Second Blackout / int_876cd173
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_876cd173
featureConfidence
1.0
 Watch_Dogs (Video Game)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_876cd173
 30-Second Blackout / int_89f4bc45
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_89f4bc45
comment
This was commonplace whenever The Undertaker decided to interfere in a match. The lights will go out and, after his trademark deathknell and the lights turning back on, he would be standing in the ring, typically behind an opponent.
 30-Second Blackout / int_89f4bc45
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_89f4bc45
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Undertaker (Wrestling)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_89f4bc45
 30-Second Blackout / int_8d81bb26
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_8d81bb26
comment
NCIS averted it when an attack on part of the Washington, D.C. grid system took at least a day and a half to resolve, which caused a lot of problems, both serious and mundane, for the team.
 30-Second Blackout / int_8d81bb26
featureApplicability
-1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_8d81bb26
featureConfidence
1.0
 NCIS
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_8d81bb26
 30-Second Blackout / int_9a7088bc
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_9a7088bc
comment
In the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Bread and Circuses," Scotty uses the Enterprise to disrupt the Roman capital's power grid for a few seconds. Naturally, the blackout happens just as Kirk's about to be executed on live television.
 30-Second Blackout / int_9a7088bc
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_9a7088bc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: The Original Series
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_9a7088bc
 30-Second Blackout / int_a4a6b86a
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_a4a6b86a
comment
Possibly justified in Code Geass by the Gefjun Disturber, a device that retards the natural superconductive properties of Sakuradite. As soon as the Disturber is deactivated, anything it was affecting starts right back up.
 30-Second Blackout / int_a4a6b86a
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_a4a6b86a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Code Geass
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_a4a6b86a
 30-Second Blackout / int_a6492af2
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_a6492af2
comment
The Stand goes into detail about the enormous undertaking it would be just to get the power running in Boulder. It takes weeks of work from dozens of people to get everything running again. Especially since they initially didn't account for all the appliances left running when people died of Captain Trips. The grid was promptly overloaded on the first try, causing everything to go down again.
 30-Second Blackout / int_a6492af2
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_a6492af2
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Stand
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_a6492af2
 30-Second Blackout / int_bf471bbe
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_bf471bbe
comment
This happens in Men in Black II when Jack Jeebs' illegal deneuralyzer has a power surge while trying to restore K's memories.
 30-Second Blackout / int_bf471bbe
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_bf471bbe
featureConfidence
1.0
 Men in Black II
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_bf471bbe
 30-Second Blackout / int_c03ad363
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_c03ad363
comment
An alien power generator's activation causes one in The Last Mimzy.
 30-Second Blackout / int_c03ad363
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_c03ad363
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Last Mimzy
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_c03ad363
 30-Second Blackout / int_c3c1f1d2
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_c3c1f1d2
comment
The Matrix Revolutions has Neo & Trinity shutting down a power station so Neo can get to The Architect without the building exploding, but they can only shut the power down for less than 6 minutes.
 30-Second Blackout / int_c3c1f1d2
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_c3c1f1d2
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Matrix Revolutions
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_c3c1f1d2
 30-Second Blackout / int_c8c98634
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_c8c98634
comment
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3:
If power demand exceeds power supply, all base defenses and superweapons shut down and all production times are doubled. Power can usually be restored in twenty seconds by producing another generator.
An infiltrator getting into a generator shorts out the entire supply for a while.
 30-Second Blackout / int_c8c98634
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_c8c98634
featureConfidence
1.0
 Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 (Video Game)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_c8c98634
 30-Second Blackout / int_c9ff23dd
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_c9ff23dd
comment
In The Cape episode "Goggles & Hicks", the titular assassins use an EMP-like device to shut off the power to the entire city for several minutes, so that they could not be tracked by the Cape's ally Orwell. When the device is turned off, the power is miraculously restored. No consequences are mentioned.
 30-Second Blackout / int_c9ff23dd
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_c9ff23dd
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Cape
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_c9ff23dd
 30-Second Blackout / int_cac1f772
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_cac1f772
comment
In the CSI episode "Dead Air", a news anchor is killed during a 20-second blackout. It turns out the killer caused the blackout by using a cellphone-controlled bomb to take out a transformer so he could kill the victim in the time it took for the backup generators to come online.
 30-Second Blackout / int_cac1f772
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_cac1f772
featureConfidence
1.0
 CSI
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_cac1f772
 30-Second Blackout / int_d9be958a
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_d9be958a
comment
Lex Luthor's experiments in Superman Returns.
 30-Second Blackout / int_d9be958a
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_d9be958a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Superman Returns
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_d9be958a
 30-Second Blackout / int_dee37309
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_dee37309
comment
In the Heights averts this; when the power goes out during the characters' stay at a night club, it takes them the rest of the night to find their way back home, a lot of the perishable food goes bad, and once it goes out at the end of the first act, we never see it come back, leaving it uncertain how long it took before they eventually got it returned. They even have a song about it.
 30-Second Blackout / int_dee37309
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_dee37309
featureConfidence
1.0
 In the Heights (Theatre)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_dee37309
 30-Second Blackout / int_e1cea38
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_e1cea38
comment
Possible example from the teaser of "Avenger 2.0" when Felger's experimental plasma weapon shorts out and knocks out the base's electricity. After the titles, power's back. However, we don't know how much time passed between the teaser and act one. It's also possible all the weapon did was trip the main breakers, but that would make it a case of Artistic License - Electrical Construction: only the breaker the weapon was attached to should have tripped.
 30-Second Blackout / int_e1cea38
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_e1cea38
featureConfidence
1.0
 Artistic License – Engineering
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_e1cea38
 30-Second Blackout / int_e580b3d0
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_e580b3d0
comment
SCP: Secret Laboratory has SCP-079's Blackout ability, which is unlocked upon reaching Tier 2 and turns out the lights in a room for 15 seconds. 079 is initially limited to blacking out a single room, but the cap is raised to two and four rooms at Tier 3 and Tier 4, respectively.
 30-Second Blackout / int_e580b3d0
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_e580b3d0
featureConfidence
1.0
 SCP: Secret Laboratory (Video Game)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_e580b3d0
 30-Second Blackout / int_e6488c2e
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_e6488c2e
comment
This sets off the plot of Yesterday, in which a 12-second worldwide blackout occurs that causes the existence of The Beatles, as well as several other pop culture icons, to be erased entirely from the minds of everyone on Earth except for Jack, the protagonist.
 30-Second Blackout / int_e6488c2e
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_e6488c2e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Yesterday (2019)
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_e6488c2e
 30-Second Blackout / int_e7e37776
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_e7e37776
comment
In the Firefly episode "Out of Gas", Serenity suffers a brief power outage during Simon's birthday party. Shortly after the power comes back on, the engine suffers a catastrophic failure, and the ship is left crippled and on fire.
 30-Second Blackout / int_e7e37776
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_e7e37776
featureConfidence
1.0
 Firefly
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_e7e37776
 30-Second Blackout / int_e951212
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_e951212
comment
In Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues, the electricity in Rogers High is knocked out just long enough for a select group of students to be impaled by snake-like apparitions. The power comes back on immediately afterwards. The implication is that the entire event was supernatural in nature.
 30-Second Blackout / int_e951212
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_e951212
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues / Role Play
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_e951212
 30-Second Blackout / int_ff9ab17f
type
30-Second Blackout
 30-Second Blackout / int_ff9ab17f
comment
Star Trek: The Next Generation suffers one of these aboard the Enterprise when the computer drains power to create Moriarty, a powerful computer-generated character, on the Holodeck.
 30-Second Blackout / int_ff9ab17f
featureApplicability
1.0
 30-Second Blackout / int_ff9ab17f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: The Next Generation
hasFeature
30-Second Blackout / int_ff9ab17f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 30-Second Blackout
processingCategory2
Thunderbolts and Lightning
 A Shot in the Dark / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Ex Machina / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Juan of the Dead / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Men in Black II / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Ocean's Eleven / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Yesterday (2019) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Clue / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Doctor Who: 11 Doctors 11 Stories / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Glass Mask (Manga) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues / Role Play / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Class Trials Season 7 (Roleplay) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Crusade / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Les Revenants / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Paranoia (Tabletop Game) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Final Fantasy VII (Video Game) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Shantae and the Seven Sirens (Video Game) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Watch_Dogs (Video Game) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 Harry101UK (Web Animation) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout
 The Nutters (Web Video) / int_4f788f6a
type
30-Second Blackout