Epic Hail

"Sharp and quiet, lads. They'll likely try to come by stealth, so be ready for the signal."
 "What is the signal?" wondered Brocmael aloud.

"You'll know it when you hear it," answered Scarlet, "for you've never heard the like in your whole sweet life entire."
—from Tuck, by Stephen R Lawhead

This is where someone, often a protagonist or group of them, sends a dramatic signal to a powerful ally. The purpose of the message is usually to ask for assistance or send a warning in desperate circumstances. The act of sending the message is often dramatized through problems with the person or device used to signal, thereby necessitating last minute repairs or improvisation. Epic Hails usually occur prior to a Final Battle, semi-apocalyptic situation, or (if the ally is traitorous) a Big Bad Friend reveal.

Somewhat less often, an Epic Hail is used by the villains. When this happens, it's almost always an Evil Overlord who wants to signal his armies to attack and can't be satisfied with a messenger on horseback.

See the related Gondor Calls for Aid for the trope of calling for aid in general. If successful, can result in The Cavalry coming over the hill to the rescue. Often serves as the conclusion of a Bring News Back plot (where instead of trying to run all the way themselves, the goal of the news-bearers is to reach and activate the Epic Hail).

This trope has nothing to do with the weather condition. Or with Soviet salvo launcher name. Or the type of fail. Usually.

Examples of Epic Hail include:

Anime and Manga

  • Happens thrice or so in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, first with a broadcast to the scattered settlements to tell them of the Brigade's plight on the surface, a few episodes later with Nia to keep those who responded to the first Epic Hail from needlessly sacrificing themselves, and once again near the end from the Brigade to any galaxy in hearing distance.
  • Happens in Full Metal Panic! when Sousuke signals to Mithril that he is alive by spelling out the words with gasoline and lighting it just as Mithril's satellite passes over head. He then uses the grass fire he created as cover.
  • Vandread does this epicly in the second-to-last episode in the second season. They send a message to both warring planets of Tarrak and Mejale, and not just via a video message either, but also by demonstrating the eponymous Combining Mecha, the Vandreads. This is very important due to the message of unity between the two planets as Vandreads are made up from both planets' technology (albeit heavily modified by the Paexis Pragma). Not too long after, several elite squads from both planets defied their planets' order to standby and reinforces the Nirvana fleet followed by the most epic act of drawing the first blood by a Tarrakian wizened elder warrior.

Comic Books

  • The Bat Signal.
  • At the climax of Earth X, moments before Black Bolt is torn apart by the Celestials, he uses his cosmically-powered voice to call across the universe for the one being who can fight them: Galactus.
  • The Avengers: AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!
  • Jimmy Olsen's signal watch.
    • Though people usually just shout for Superman to come get them. One issue of Green Arrow features Ollie dramatically yelling "CLARK!" into air in order to get him to rescue his son Connor who had just been shot while they were out in the middle of the ocean.

Film

  • Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings supplies one of the best examples in the lighting of the Beacons of Gondor to signal the Rohirrim.
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. "Hoist the colours!"
  • Bumblebee shining the signal light to call the Autobots in the live-action Transformers movie.
  • Pretty much the ending to Serenity, where Mal sends a signal across the entirety of the Alliance that lays out the events that happened on Miranda.
  • The Rock. Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) has to prove he accomplished the mission on Alcatraz (and that he's still alive) with a set of green flares, to prevent being vaporized by the thermite airstrike sent as a failsafe. Problem is, he's currently busy dying from a nasty poison, and the antidote has complications of its own.
  • The Axe Gang uses one of these in Kung Fu Hustle.
  • Happens near the end of the film Virus when the Russian ship explodes after the survivors escaped in the makeshift rocketsled. The fireball is big enough to be seen by an approaching rescue ship amidst a hurricane.
  • Parodied in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy: Ron blows on a conch shell, then proclaims loudly "NEWS TEAM, ASSEMBLE!", only to discover his cohorts are right behind him.

Literature

  • The Dark Tower: Roland's horn.
  • In JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings: The warning beacons in the White Mountains being lit as warning to Southern Gondor. Gondor requests Rohan's help through the formal delivery of the Red Arrow.
    • Boromir's horn-splitting call at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, which we later learn was heard by Faramir on the other side of Gondor.
    • Even more epic is the Horn-call of Buckland. The mostly peaceful hobbits, who have no military, are able to jump up and organize in the middle of the night under the guidance of the returned hobbits, to defeat an army of Saruman's men in the Battle of Bywater, which is the turning point of the occupation of the Shire.
    • And even more epic is Eärendil sailing to Valinor to plead for the Valar to come to Middle-earth and aid the Free Peoples in their fight against Morgoth, at the end of Quenta Silmarillion. Oddly, the actual hail we get is from them to him:

"Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked-for that cometh at unawares, the longed-for that cometh beyond hope!"

  • In James Swallow's Warhammer 40,000 Blood Angels novel Deus Encarmine, Rafen is deeply troubled by the events and goes to speak with his dead mentor, Koris. He finds his vox, with its command codes, not yet disabled. Using it, Rafen sends a message to their headquarters, detailing all that has happened.
  • The Dark Mark of Harry Potter is a more sinister example of this. It is generally used to call the Death Eaters (who, keep in mind, are a group of murderous racists) together, and does so by causing a tattoo on their forearms to burn. An alternate version acts as a giant, floating, glowing, signpost which they use to mark the sites of their atrocities. Also, it looks rather unpleasant (being a putrid skull with a snake for a tongue).
  • In Myth Conception Skeeve wanted to use enemy signal tower to tell the enemy he defeated their company, as they ran too quickly to do it themselves. While his advisors try to remember flag code, he realises there's a simple way to do it. Burning the whole tower is clear enough "signal".
  • In Robert Heinlein's juvenile novel Have Space Suit, Will Travel a dramatic and agonizing sequence details Kip's attempt to set the intergalactic distress beacon to alert the All-Powerful Beneficent Aliens to the Wormfaces' actions on Earth. This involved going out in a winter storm. On Pluto.
  • In The Dresden Files book White Night, Harry has to get a telepathic message to Elaine in a hurry. The resulting magic takes a lot out of him but definitely qualifies, as it is enough to temporarily drown out the despair inflicted by the White Court vampire who is gradually killing her.

Harry: "Elaine Lilian Mallory!" I called, and in my head, my voice rumbled like thunder. "I am Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden, and I bid thee hear me! Hear my voice, Elaine!"

Live Action TV

  • Partially in the Firefly episode "The Message", when they call the baddies on not calling the station.
  • In Babylon 5, a ship sent on a rescue gets its communications down and its engines damaged, but the allied ship doesn't know which way to go. So he shoots in the direction of the jump point, despite the fact that he's spinning out of control.
    • The extremely brutal Earth-Minbari war started right when two ships of each of the races met for the first time. Identyfing the unknown vessel as a warship, the Minbari wanted to greet them with an Epic Hail that all fellow warriors would deserve. Apparently it was so epic that the humans completely freaked out and almost shot the Minbari ship into oblivion befor turning around and getting the hell away as fast as possible. Unfortunately the ship was transporting the Minbaris Emperor-Pope, whose death caused the Minbari to start killing all humans.
  • With the exception of series 2, every series of Doctor Who RTD era has involved an Epic Hail in the finale (all examples spoilered for obvious reasons):
    • Series 1: Rose Tyler signals herself by scattering the words "Bad Wolf" across all of space and time.
    • Series 3: The Master has hypnotized the human population on Earth using Archangel communication software. Martha Jones has spent the last year spreading the word (in this case, Doctor). At the proper moment, everyone thinks "Doctor!" and the Epic Prayer restores the Doctor's strength, allowing him to battle the Master.
    • Series 4: Sarah Jane, the Torchwood team and Harriet Jones all band together with their respective technologies to contact the Doctor.
    • The 2009 Specials: The Time Lords send an Epic Hail to the Master, first with a four-beat rhythm transmitted through the Time Vortex into his mind, and then by hurling a White-Point Star diamond to Earth, where it plummets from the sky in a trail of fire.
    • And with the first episode of the Eleventh Doctor in series 5 the tradition continues: all digital displays on Planet Earth turn to 000000 to indicate the presence of Prisoner Zero.
      • Not quite as big as the other examples, but in "Let's Kill Hitler", Amy and Rory create a giant crop circle spelling out 'Doctor' to get his attention. He then lampshades this with a deadpan "Really?"
  • In the finale of Ultraman Tiga, Tiga has been defeated by Gatanazoa and sent to the bottom of the sea. However, the children of Earth call out Tiga's name all at once, sending their inner light to him, not only bringing Tiga back to life but transforming him into Glitter Tiga, who proceeds to own Gatanazoa.
    • Happened again in Ultraman Dyna's movie when Queen Monera kills Dyna by sucking out his energy. A kid with a Tiga figure has everyone give their light to summon Tiga to revive Dyna. Once more, butt kicking ensues.
  • On Game of Thrones, when Robb decides to rally the Stark bannermen and march south, the show depicts dozens of messenger ravens flying from Winterfell in all directions.
  • On the MythBusters Mac Guyver special, Adam and Jamie had to improvise one of these using parts acquired from an abandoned campsite. Though the campsite was set up so that the guys would have the materials to build a potato cannon, they ended up building a giant kite instead. It still worked.

Mythology

  • Dragons of Hungarian Folklore will often use their mace for this purpose. Whenever they wish to announce their arrival, they will throw it from several miles distance to knock open the gates of their own castle. Anyone strong enough can throw the mace back at them from the same distance to challenge them to a duel. Some adaptations will usually skim over this detail, while others will make it the hero's Crowning Moment of Awesome.

Video Games

  • In Master of Orion 2, the intro culminates in one of these.
  • In Mother 3, Wess sends Flint's dog Boney to fetch Duster when faced with an otherwise insurmountable obstacle, as evidenced here.
  • Siren: "Mrs. Takato! Help! Mrs. Takato!" Loud enough that Prof. Takeuchi hears from the water tower across town.
  • In Left 4 Dead 2, the Dark Carnival campaign ends with the players signalling the rescue helicopter with a pyrotechnics-heavy rock concert at an abandoned stage.
    • In one of the DLC campaigns for Left 4 Dead, the Survivors attempt this at a lighthouse, but fail.
  • In Ouendan and to a lesser extent Elite Beat Agents, most of the levels begin with a desperate scream for help, which summon the titular characters.
  • Modern Warfare 2 imitates the scene from The Rock above when you stand atop the ruins of the White House to call off a massive airstrike on Washington.
  • In Riven, the sequel to Myst, you signal Atrus by opening a fissure into outer space.
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, after you slay your first dragon, the Greybeards call you up to their mountaintop temple by demonstrating the power of The Voice: even from tens of miles away it packs enough force to be accompanied by deafening thunder!

Web Comics

Web Original

  • Red vs. Blue - Washington sneaks into a base, and tells Church "Wait for my signal." He runs into the base without telling Church what the signal is. Suddenly a gigantic chain of explosions occurs in the distance.

Western Animation

  • In Mulan, the Huns scale the Great Wall of China. The leader, Shan Yu, confronts a sentry, silently daring him to light the fire basin that would begin the signal relay informing the Emperor of the invasion. He does, of course, and very dramatically:

Guard: Now all of China knows you're here!
(Shan Yu snaps the Emperor's flag from its post, burning it in the signal fire)
Shan-Yu: Perfect.

  • Thundercats and ThunderCats (2011) - THUNDER! THUNDER! THUNDERCATS, HO!
  • In The Rescuers Down Under, after Cody is kidnapped, the audience follows the radio signals as they travel mouse-to-mose from Australia to New York City to summon help from the Rescue Aid Society.
  • In One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita use the "Twilight Bark" as a last ditch effort to locate their missing puppies. To humans, it's just wild, sudden barking that causes other dogs within earshot to follow suit (and remember, dogs have really good hearing).
  • The third Futurama film, Bender's Game, parodied the Lord of the Rings example given above by combining the two, with archers firing arrows from hilltop to hilltop to hilltop.

Real Life

  • The lantern signal from the Old North Church in Boston, warning would-be Yankee rebels to the whereabouts of British troops, is certainly one of the more dramatic 'hails' in history.
  • In Ancient Greece, the hero Pheidippides is credited with running a total of 240 km to ask for aid from Sparta prior to the Battle of Marathon (Sparta refused on the grounds that there was a holy festival taking place). Then he fought at Marathon, and ran an additional 40 km to notify Athens: "Nenikikamen!" (We are victorious), thus also qualifying this event as Bring News Back..
    • A parallel of this can be found in Transformers Animated occurs when Blurr runs across the galaxy to reach Cybertron and inform the Autobots that there is a traitor in their ranks. Unfortunately, the guy he reports to actually is said traitor. It doesn't end well.
  • Hadrian's Wall, the edge of the Roman empire, located on mainland Britain had a series of keeps complete with troops and smaller look-outs along the complete stretch. If one section of the wall was attacked they would set alight a fire, the next guy along would then set his fire alight until it reached one of the keeps. Then the garrisoned troops would rush to the defense. Probably Tolkien's inspiration for the above examples.
    • What about the beacon message that alerted Britain to the would-be invasion of the Spanish Armada? There were beacons all along the south coast.
  • China has had a similar system since antiquity (being able to make Epic Hails was one of the reasons the Great Wall got built)--in fact, one regime got invaded because the king was having too much fun raising false alarms and the troops refused to mobilize when a real emergency hit.
  • In Scotland and other parts of Northern Europe, there is a tradition of sending out the Fiery Cross, a charred, sometimes bloody piece of wood, in cases of emergency. (No, it has nothing to do with that other burning cross.)
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