Red Skies in fiction

Cafe Society
1

For some reason I’ve always found red skies to be particularly unsettling. I would even go so far as to say I might have a phobia of it. Whenever I’m playing a video game or watching a sci-fi show or something that involves a red sky, I freak out on an instinctual level a little bit.

I think the first encounter I had with a blood-red sky was the video game Doom for the PC. Not all the levels had red skies and not all levels even had a sky at all that you could see (many of them were indoors completely), but I remember at least one level that had a deep blood red sky that always frightened me as a kid.

So do you have any examples of red skies in fiction? Pictures are appreciated but descriptions are great too.

If I ever woke up and saw the sky blood-red like in that photo I linked, I would probably start sobbing like a baby and maybe even go insane. <_<

2

Star Trek had some. Vulcan in some shots for example. The sky on the Guardian of Forever’s planet was reddish.

The sky of Mars in Robinson Crusoe on Mars was red, black or orange depending on the time of day as I recall.

The sky and sun in Mistborn is red, filtered through the ash.

3

Back in the 1980s, DC Comics revamped their universe with a series called “Crisis on Infinite Earths.” One characteristic of the whole series was that the impending crisis turned the sky red. A number of issues of their regular titles were billed as “Crisis” tie-in issues, and in some cases, there was no connection to the ongoing “Crisis” storyline except that the sky was red.

4

That’s planet M-113 from TOS “The Man Trap,” not the Guardian planet. You’ll note McCoy isn’t crazed by a cordrazine overdose. The Enterprise crew appears to visit the Guardian planet at night; the sky is a dark purple: http://www.celestialbunker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Forever.jpg

The animated series episode “Yesteryear” showed it in daylight, but it still wasn’t a red sky: http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20061201034404/memoryalpha/en/images/e/ef/Guardian_of_Forever,_2269.jpg

Tycho IV in TOS “Obsession” has a reddish sky, http://i.stack.imgur.com/fLm2d.jpg, as did Excalbia in TOS “The Savage Curtain” (check out those draped boulders!), http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081212051934/memoryalpha/en/images/0/02/Excalbia_surface.jpg and http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081213174531/memoryalpha/en/images/thumb/d/d9/Excalbia_departure.jpg/185px-Excalbia_departure.jpg, and the Founders’ homeworld on DS9: http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20041031174249/memoryalpha/en/images/d/d6/NewFoundersHomeworldSurface.jpg. And Vulcan, of course, as noted above. In all of ST, I’m sure there were others.

The Gettysburg poster included a brilliant red sunset; the movie was based on Michael Shaara’s novel The Killer Angels: http://www.impawards.com/1993/posters/gettysburg.jpg. October Sky was similarly fictionalized: http://www.impawards.com/1999/posters/october_sky.jpg.

5

The book and subsequent movie Red Sky at Morning use it as a sign of impending bad things about to happen.

6

In the MMORG Everquest,, a zone where the sky turned red usually meant that a special event, possibly involving a Sony employee playing a character, was in progress.

7

That reminds me of how in City of Heroes the sky turned red during zombie invasions.

8

During the Cataclysm expansion in World of Warcraft a blood-red sky meant you were about to be toasted by the black dragon Deathwing. The first time it happened to your character you got an achievement: “Stood in the Fire”. Oh, and you died a fiery death, but in that game death is only a temporary inconvenience.

9

Japanese feudal steampunk dystopia “Stormdancer” has red skies - very prominently part of the setting and plotline.

I’ll second Mistborn officially, but the overall FEEL to me for Mistborn was more of nearly permanent cloudy grey ashen skies rather than red skies.

In video games, several of the planets in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 have red/purplish/orangeish skies.

10

Seems like they did something similar with an alien invasion, too…but I quit playing that game several years ago, and may be confusing two (or more) events.

11

I believe the Doctor’s Gallifrey had red skies.

12

The Doctor and other Time Lords have described it in dialogue as a “burnt-orange sky” which, I suppose, is a sort of reddish color.

13

It was greenish yellow not red for Rikti invasions as I recall.

14

The reason for the red sky in Doom 1 is that it’s supposed to take place on Mars (and I’m sure because it also looked hellish!)

Not quite a red sky, more orange, but here’s how the squid fight was originally shot for Disney’s 20,000 Leagues. Doesn’t make it disturbing so much as, ah, shitty! Compared to the second ‘raging storm at night’ version anyway…

15

Out of curiosity what kind of atmosphere would result in the sky being red instead of blue? Would it still be breathable? Wow does the star type come into play?

16

Forest fires on Earth can cause red skies, as can sandstorms with a lot of red sand/dust in them.

17

It isn’t visual media but what about the song Red Skies Over Paradise by Fischer-Z?

Check out the album cover.

18

For some reason “natural” looking red/orange skies (like the gettysberg and october sky posters) don’t cause any sort of reaction for me. Even fictional skies that aren’t a deep, unnatural red, are fine. But there are some shades of a red sky that just make my skin crawl! brrrr…

Thanks for the responses everyone :slight_smile:

That red skies over paradise album cover really gives me the willies, for example. urk

19

Stargate SG-1 has an episode entitled “Red Sky”, in which the sky of the planet they visit does indeed turn red. Since the red color is the result of a shift in the local star’s output, it has the logical consequence of illuminating scenes on the planet in reddish light as well.

20

Red sky at morning, sailors take warning
Red sky at night, sailors’ delight
Red sky in fiction, drewtwo feels friction.