"I get these chills up and down my spine, and all of the sudden, it's as clear as day. That if I stay put, I'm dead."
— Kabuto, Psyren
A character has the psychic ability to know when something is about to happen, and react accordingly to prevent some kind of harm. Named after Spider-Man's iconic super-power.
To prevent it from becoming a Story-Breaker Power, the sense usually comes with a few limitations. Typically, it will detect danger and allow the character to measure severity by intensity, but cannot indicate the danger's exact nature or origin. Often, it may trigger just before danger strikes, limiting the character's ability to avoid the danger entirely and instead enabling them only to dodge the worst of it.
This power is similar to, and often a part of Combat Clairvoyance, but it does not usually help evading specific attacks on purpose, unless explicitly said so. When the character knows that something has just happened — as opposed to knowing that something is going to happen — it's an example of My Significance Sense Is Tingling. If it's limited to surveillance, it's awareness of Being Watched. Also expect extreme mockery from the viewer if the power fails on a regular basis.
In comics, this is often denoted as squiggly lines around the character's head. See the Trope Namer and Professor Xavier of the X-Men for two prominent examples. Compare The Force Is Strong with This One, which is when a character can sense another's Power Level.
Compare and contrast with Killing Intent and Super-Reflexes, the non-psychic versions of this power. Compare Achey Scars, in which warnings of a specific threat that injured the recipient in the past are conveyed via physical pain. Contrast Imminent Danger Clue, where some bit of subtle evidence provides a warning of danger.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In the short-lived Celebrity Toon Abunai Sisters: Koko & Mika, Koko and Mika can sense any danger with their breasts. They don't even have to be nearby, as in the final episode they're away at a film festival when they sense the villains breaking into a safe in their mansion.
- Berserk: Guts' Brand of Sacrifice starts bleeding when Apostles are nearby, but also attracts Apostles to him.
- In A Certain Magical Index, it is postulated that Touma can subconsciously sense AIM (psychic energy), mana (magic), and telesma (divine energy). This explains why Touma can react to supernatural attacks no matter how fast they are. Note that this does not help him with mundane attacks, and this does not allow him to detect supernatural beings. Word of God confirms this but explains that Touma is not aware he has this ability himself and just thinks he has incredible reaction time.
- Clare and Teresa of Claymore. Rather than "seeing" the attacks, they rely on their youki perception, the power of sensing the attack before it connects.
- To an extent, Goku's Ultra Instinct in Dragon Ball Super qualifies; it's not so much that he has a sixth sense that picks up danger, but rather he has complete awareness of his surroundings and the ability to react to them without thinking.
- Sousuke from Full Metal Panic! has an uncanny, sixth sense-like ability to sense "killing intent". He could actually feel other people's malice and intentions to kill him, which allowed him to determine that assassins were nearby. This, of course, helps to allow him to set traps for them ahead of time. This was also used to torment him. One of Mithril's agents would observe him via the scope of a rifle, and was amused to discover that Sousuke became visually agitated when she did this. It's implied that much of Sousuke's misbehavior in school is caused by the agent remotely triggering Sousuke's danger sense, causing him to lash out against people near him.
- Takuma Fudo Get Backers has the ability to foresee the future in increments of a few seconds each time, up to eleven seconds, with much the same effect.
- The Newtypes in Gundam have the ability to sense (amongst other things) hostility directed at them, which allows them to dodge attacks much faster than any normal humans can. Whenever it happens, you see a Beam of Enlightenment around the character with a distinctive sound effect, widely referred to now as the "Newtype Flash."
- In the Super Robot Wars series, it's an actual ability (called "Flash" in the original Japanese, and "Alert" in the English versions), and not limited to just Newtypes. The activation of the ability is even the Gundam Newtype Flash sound effect.
- In the Haruhi Suzumiya books, this turns up a lot; Kyon refers to his "danger sense tingling". You develop this pretty quickly around Haruhi. It's a survival trait.
- Hunter × Hunter:
- Machi denies she has this, passing it off as intuition and trying to downplay it when put on the spot about her predictions. It would be much more convincing if her "intuition" was ever wrong.
- Additionally, all proficient hunters develop the ability to sense a "killing intent," regardless of their hatsu type. This is limited by a radius, as shown when Kurapika stalks the Phantom Troupe. Trained hunters can react instantly when others deploy their killing intent, as if it were a reflex. The "killing intent" is explained because emotions affect one's aura, so bloodlust and aggression are channeled through a person's aura, therefore it is nearly impossible to conceal it completely.
- Haruo Niijima from Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple has one of these thanks to his alien-like features. It manifests as either two arrow-tipped antennae or a sharp lock of hair that erects and twinges on top of his head whenever there is incoming danger. Apparently, he has been known to gauge the level of threat that an opponent posed though this manner and can even function as a radar or sorts (he once was able to avert certain death after detecting the incoming missiles locked on to the boat that he and his entourage were using to infiltrate a Yami base, and then later on, discern the presence of a number of murderous elite soldiers lurking in the dense woods during a beach field trip).
- This is a default, albeit low-key ability of any worthwhile martial artist in Lone Wolf and Cub. Although not working as true precognition, it allows them to sense harmful intent in another person, no matter how well hidden by body language. Many times that is enough to warn of an imminent threat. Extremely skilled individuals however can thwart it by learning to mask their own Qi.
- The Lupin III character Goemon has a katana called the Zantetsuken. It acquires a "shadow of death" when he or the people he likes might be killed. The shadow has been used to foreshadow the danger, or apparent lack of danger, that other members of the gang are in.
- The supplementary manga of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha The MOVIE 1st reveal that Nanoha gained this as a side-effect of her magical powers slowly awakening. Even though she never saw it coming, she immediately reacted and caught a speeding baseball that was headed for Alisa. The fact that she also did all of that with her bare hand without receiving any injuries just added to her general bewilderment on what she had just managed to do.
- Amusingly parodied in Martian Successor Nadesico with Inez Fressange, who can sense when other characters attempt to deliver explanations.
- Kuroko from Murciélago has developed a sense of "death"; if something is about to kill her, she can dodge it with ease. She describes it as sometimes being able to "see" it, other times being able to "hear" it.
- My Hero Academia: The Fourth User of One For All, Hikage Shinomori was born with a Quirk named Danger Sense, which would manifest as an intense stabbing pain in the head whenever he or someone around him was in imminent life-threatening danger. Generations after Shinomori's death, Danger Sense was inherited by Izuku Midoriya, the Ninth User of One For All. Izuku awakened it along with Nana Shimura's Float Quirk during the Paranormal Liberation War.
- In Naruto, several characters, most notably Hinata's father, have demonstrated the ability to detect the intent to kill. Probably all ninjas have this skill — Naruto felt the "killing intent" of the girls in his class (who beat him up for accidentally kissing Sasuke). At this time, he hadn't even finished ninja school yet.
- Once Naruto masters the nine-tails' chakra by befriending him, he gains the ability to sense negative emotions, allowing him to detect anyone with malicious intent in his vicnity.
- Negima! Magister Negi Magi mages have this. The Negima Bible explains it as a mix of sensing magic and precognitive magic.
- In One Piece any person can train themselves to use a power called Haki. One of the three forms of Haki is called Observation Haki, and it allows the user to sense the presence and aura of living things. It allows them to predict and react to attacks by sensing the attacker's aura. This can be trained and developed into an even advanced form, allowing the user to see slightly into the future. Some are even born already able to use Observation Haki.
- Carnage Kabuto in One-Punch Man aborts his first attack against Saitama because he can somehow sense that he'd be killed if he made it. He's probably right considering Saitama's absolutely superior Super-Reflexes and Super-Strength, but he must have some special sense that's telling him this since Saitama is just standing there and looking unprepared.
- Psyren has the psychic abilities from the "Sense" category (a sub-category of the body-strengthening "Rise") which improve the users basic senses, allow them to feel psychic pressure, and can basically act as lesser spider-senses. A perfect example is Kabuto's main power "Menace" (see quote above), which allows him to clearly feel incoming danger and also see the menace of dead and thus predict all of the enemies attacks. In fact, Kabuto's power goes even further than merely allowing him to sense danger — he can manipulate the area of menace and chuck attacks back at his opponent too, allowing him to dodge attacks without actually moving.
- Lieutenant Alice Malvin from Pumpkin Scissors gets tingles on the back of her neck when something important is going to happen, whether good or bad. It's low-key, but it's never been wrong yet.
- The martial artists in Ranma ½ can sense if someone is about to attack them. Ranma's is so good, he sometimes dodges attacks in his sleep. This includes Akane as well. Unfortunately for Ryoga, his "danger sense" is also affected by his terrible sense of direction.
- Rosario + Vampire Every monster gives off a sort of 'monstrous aura' depending on what they're doing and how they feel at the moment. Although most monsters have the ability to detect it, vampires (and the blood-infused of vampires) are most proficient at it. It is shown as ranging from general location (i.e. Mizore hiding in the adult section of the magazine stand) to actually hearing their thoughts ("My little Koko..." being enough for Shuzen to drive a spear through the middle of a floorboard and into Haiji's forehead) to "What's that deadly presence feels like seven Inner Moka got pissed off at me?"
- Rurouni Kenshin All of the high-level fighters can at least read body language, if not outright killing intent and ki. In fact, the only battle Kenshin has significant trouble fighting against someone of a (slightly) lower skill level is Soujirou, whose combination of being a Stepford Smiler and super speed made him both difficult to read and difficult to react to.
- In the manga version of Sailor Moon, Minako can sense danger, people spying on her, or strange things happening. The ability being weaker than most examples, it doesn't always work.
- A few of the students in Thou Shalt Not Die have a form of it, Kuro's intuition is so developed he can sense landmines or know if a sniper is gonna shoot a teammate. Asagi's Super-Intelligence and Photographic Memory means he can tell the probabilities of any outcome in the war zone but due to his powers having aged his brain to the point of dementia it's more this trope than omniscience as he'll need someone or something to trigger his deductionsé
- Amasawa predicts the weather via his hair in The Weatherman Is My Lover. It's nigh infallible.
Asian Animation
- Sweet S. of Happy Heroes does not have this power naturally, but gains it in Season 8 Episode 17 when Huo Haha feeds her a magic herb and retains the newfound power for the duration of the episode. She starts foreseeing all the bad things that are about to happen to people nearby and tries to warn them so that they don't get hurt.
Comic Books
- In Bone, Grandma Ben had her "gitchy feeling" that served as a portent that something really bad was going to happen.
- Following his Mid-Season Upgrade, Captain Marvel received an ability known as Cosmic Awareness that was basically Spider-Sense. With it, he could even sense threats from other planets. Unusually, he didn't receive this power as part of the aforementioned upgrade, but was granted it by the benevolent Eldritch Abomination Eon in order to save the universe from Thanos.
- While he used it to good effect, it also had a depressing downside: Mar-Vell himself knew that he'd developed cancer and that it wasn't treatable thanks to him turning Cosmic Awareness inward. Later heroes who received Cosmic Awareness also didn't deal with it anywhere near as well as the experienced war hero Mar-Vell did; it even drove his son and successor mad.
- In addition, unlike Spider-Man's Spider-Sense Cosmic Awareness wasn't very useful in actual combat, since Mar-Vell had to focus if he wanted to, say, identify a weakness in an enemy (and the scale of enemy he tended to fight rarely gave him an opportunity to do so). It's part of the reason why when Cosmic Awareness did warn him about something (e.g. Thanos getting up to something), he'd usually gather allies so that he'd get the time he needed to use Cosmic Awareness to specifically identify weak points and the like. Otherwise, once in combat he relied more on his combat-honed experience.
- Daredevil's super senses put him here under some writers, as they allow him to pick up cues and warning signs (heightened heartbeats from assailants, guns being cocked, etc.) long before any normal person would, even if he doesn't consciously process them.
- Also parodied by Deadpool.
Deadpool: Sshhh. My common sense is tingling.
- The Flash villain Brother Grimm can sense the Speed Force, allowing him to anticipate and hit or block Flash no matter how fast he attacks. To bypass this, Flash has to fight him at normal speed.
- As Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers possessed a precognitive "seventh sense". When Rogue permanently absorbed Ms. Marvel's powers she did not overtly manifest the seventh sense but she speculated that it took the form of a sense of impending attacks, allowing her to evade them.
- Urk of Paperinik New Adventures developed his fighting skills to the point he can detect when he is about to be attacked and which one of his attackers will strike first.
- In Wally Wood's Sally Forth, the alien Snorky sometimes invoked his "martian sixth sense" that informed him of plot-relevant information.
- Parodied in Sam & Twitch by Sam.
Twitch: I think something's wrong.
Sam: Yeah, me too. My spider-sense's tingling. - Marv of Sin City has a "cold thing" in his gut that tells him when something's wrong, which has saved his life on several occasions.
- Ricochet of Slingers has a similar set of powers to Spider-Man, including a "Danger Sense" which is functionally identical to the Spider-Sense. He's one among several heroes who got to take up old, temporary identities Spidey used. Unlike the others, he lasted a long time, probably due to actually being an interesting character who wasn't just a carbon copy of the webslinger.
- Mayday Parker, Spider-Girl, takes after her dear old dad in this department. Hers is described as more honed, as it also discerns direction attacks are coming from and allows her to pinpoint weak spots in enemy defenses.
- Anna-May Parker, another AU Parker daughter, gets her share of Spider-Sense, too. As with Kaine above, hers is so heightened that it predicts the future. It takes some time for her and her parents to figure it out.
- Naturally, the Spider-Man comic books feature this all the time, and also have villains trying to find ways of stopping/evading it. Green Goblin will occasionally use a gas that deadens it, which is how he learned Peter's secret identity, while Venom's symbiote is immune to it due to the time it spent bonded with Peter, an immunity the symbiote passed on to its many offspring. Ben Reilly and Kaine are immune to it due to being clones of Peter; likewise, Peter is immune to their Spider-Sense. Kaine's Spider-Sense is augmented to the point of giving him premonitions. During the "Back in Black" arc, Sandman questions the wisdom of talking out loud about your ace-in-the-hole sixth sense.
- It apparently also comes in useful when he's being bluffed in poker, to the point where Iron Fist mentioned that other heroes have stopped inviting him to their games. His spider-tracers are tuned to his Spider-Sense as well, allowing him to track them without using an external device. The downside is that if the tracer is destroyed while he's tracking it, the resulting feedback is extremely painful.
- One of its most important uses in the early days was the ability to detect, essentially, if it was safe to take his mask off or not. It's the reason why his secret identity became one of the best-kept secrets of the Marvel Universe. In general, it's also very sensitive, to the point that it'll gently guide him out of the way of any other pedestrians he might accidentally crash into. In that sense, he could essentially bury his nose in a book while walking with no fears or worries of collision. And when he's swinging around the city, he doesn't have to consciously aim at targets for his webs.
- Also, more importantly, is that his Spider-Sense not only allow him to sense potential threats but if Peter senses IMMEDIATE threats (like say, a bullet coming at him), his Spider-Sense would activate his Super-Reflexes and cause him to automatically go to take the quickest and most effective way to avoid the danger, this includes combat, and even swinging across New York City. In fact, it's how he manages to make jokes while dodging attacks, as it's literally doing everything for him.
- This is deconstructed in later iterations. As said above, it's doing all the dodging for him and he over relies on it, so when Peter loses his Sense, he becomes severely weakened. Of course, then he receives training in martial arts while he's lost it, and then develops the Way Of The Spider.
- It also varies depending on the author. Some treatments supplement the interaction of his Spider-Sense and his reflexes by pointing out that his nerves are conducting signals faster than normal, which means that he spends every fight in Bullet Time. This means that even without his Spider-Sense, he still has a much better than average chance of identifying incoming danger and reacting to it simply because he's got more time to notice things with his five normal senses. This is doubtless a fact that the Way of the Spider capitalizes on.
- The Spider-Sense often does not register for people he feels really close to. In one scene, Aunt May attacks him with a vase after mistaking him for a burglar, and he doesn't see it coming.
- Whenever there's a potentially world-destroying situation in any Marvel comic, it's pretty common to cut to a panel of Spidey thinking 'my Spider-Sense is suddenly going wild!'.
- His Spider-Sense also makes him very resistant to hypnosis or mind control, as it will usually warn him not to look at someone trying to hypnotize him, or will start buzzing so loudly in his head that it becomes "white noise" that makes mind control nearly impossible.
- An alternate universe version of Spider-Man 2099 who appears in Timestorm 2009-2099 is shown to have the Spider-Sense, though the original version does not.
- Rose Wilson a.k.a. Ravager, a former member of the Teen Titans and Deathstroke's daughter, has the power of minor precognition that lets her predict a person's actions a few seconds before they happen. She is able to match Cassandra Cain in hand-to-hand combat since this power helps her to counter Cassandra's ability to read a person's body language to predict movements. The new Clock King is crazy about Rose because her natural abilities can counter his near-identical powers.
- X-Men:
- The X-Men have to deal with Destiny, a mutant Blind Seer who can foretell the future.
- Psylocke can do this from time to time as well. That's not some Ass Pull like her powers tend to be, she's had this ability since day one but it only happens when she or someone close to her is in mortal danger.
- Blindfold, one of the X-Men's students is just a younger version of Destiny. When Blindfold meets an undead Destiny their powers cancel each out due to the way precognitive abilities work in the Marvel universe.
- One of the 198 still-powered mutants is a minor precog named Ticktock who can see 60 seconds into the future.
- The Leopard from Lime Street is a Spider-Man Send-Up so he naturally has a leopard themed version of this.
Comic Strips
- Beetle Bailey: In one strip, Sarge can sense when Beetle is about to start slacking off, but it doesn't help him catch him doing it, because he can sense when Sarge is coming the same way.
- This is hilariously averted in the newspaper Spider-Man comics. Spidey's stated to have Spider-Sense, but in practice, he's extremely prone to getting hit in the back of the head by random goons, hitting his head on obstructions during fights, smashing his face into walls because of distracted web-slinging, and walking into stationary, head-height objects
◊. Maybe it's been weakened by all the concussions.
- A special case happens in Migraine Boy: Instead of sensing the danger, the migraine of Migraine Boy is marked with thin lines around his head, which are thicker when his headache is stronger.
Fan Works
- The Apprentice, the Student, and the Charlatan: Nova Shine has an ability to sense energy (something almost anyone can learn as long as they put their mind to it in-universe), which allows him to detect magic and energy in all forms around him, be it within a pony, a trap laid in the ground, a spell flying at him, or the chemical change in someone's body caused by lying. Multiple times, this allows him to detect oncoming magic attacks before they come.
- Atonement: Part of Madison's powerset is a red "danger line" that connects her to people who are about to be hurt. The worse the potential injury, the darker and more 'solid' the line gets. It does not, however, work for Madison herself.
- the curse of the anime protagonist: Izuku's quirk is essentially this — it alerts him to dangerous situations that are happening or will happen nearby, and people he needs to save. When he was younger this amounted to rescuing cats from trees, but it gradually worked up to more dangerous scenarios like people about to be hit by a car, to muggings and violent assaults, and so on. Everyone acknowledges it'd be a great quirk for any hero. Pity this version of Izuku wants to be anything but a hero.
- The Differentverse: A trait shared by all four Pie sisters, though each of them specializes in different things: the two elder sisters relate to other people; the younger pair relate to actions. Limestone can always find somepony who will be good or bad for a task; Maud (per canon) can always tell where a specific individual will be; Pinkie (also per canon) knows when various things are about to happen; and Marble knows when she needs to perform a seemingly random act of kindness (and what that act is) that will prove very helpful for another being.
- Empath: The Luckiest Smurf: The Smurf bartender Tapper, although not a psychic like his friend Empath, can somehow sense in his own spirit whenever there is a danger approaching his fellow Smurfs.
- The Girl From Mistral: Aura enables this when a person is particularly sensitive, warning the user of danger they're unaware of.
- Here Comes The New Boss: This version of Taylor inherited a danger sense from Flinch, a hero who accidentally became the third Butcher. Unfortunately, it isn't as useful to her as since the Butcher's powers are weakened when they pass to a new host.
- The Lion King Adventures: The Hermit of Hekima can sense presences. He senses Virusi's presence in The Message, just before his death.
Virusi: You thought you could hide all the way out here, huh, hermit?
The Hermit of Hekima: I knew you were coming. I sensed your presence hours ago. Such strong evil is very easy to detect. - Mass Effect: Human Revolution: The electromagnetic signature given off by nearby cloak-users causes the element zero nodes implanted in Bryce Lawson and the line of clones he belongs to to tingle.
- A Song of Silk and Saplings: During a duel, Hornet realizes that she has a very limited version of her father's precognitive Foresight, and learns how to sense danger right before it happens.
- Stormwolf Adventures: Like in their canon, Force users can sense too fast or invisible things, or the presence of someone far away. This allows them to fight back against the physically faster vampires.
Films — Animation
- Policeman Earl has it in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs:
My chest hairs are tingling. Something's wrong!
- The Incredibles: Mr. Incredible has this power, which is listed among his abilities in the DVD extras. He demonstrates it during the opening sequence when he realizes something's wrong shortly before Bomb Voyage blows the wall open, and later on when the first Omnidroid is behind him. It doesn't always work (or perhaps has to be actively listened to) as Syndrome and the Omni-Droid v.10 are able to completely ambush Mr. Incredible in the board room halfway through the movie.
- In Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, all of the Spider-People share the spider-sense and can use it to detect each other. It's never explicitly called out, and instead depicted purely visually; in addition to the wavy lines adopted from the comics, the backdrop usually shifts hue to the trademark Spider-Man red-and-blue. In one instance, Miles detecting an incoming obstacle is depicted by the words "LOOK OUT" physically appearing behind him.
- Repeated in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. On a similar note, Miguel O'Hara's case of averting this trope serves as a plot point wherein his lack of a spider-sense allows Miles to siphon off the energy of his suit without him realizing until too late in order to blast him away with a Venom Strike and escape.
Films — Live-Action
- Still present in the reboot, The Amazing Spider-Man. The spider-sense even causes Peter to react automatically (and rather... aggressively) when exposed to any danger, minor as it might be, when he doesn't know how to control his powers — for his own shock. Through both ASM films, a specific sound effect indicates the sensation, while The Amazing Spider-Man 2 adds slowed-down point-of-view shots from Peter.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer has this as a featured power of the title character, but it was modified for the television series (see below).
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- This version of Spider-Man has his Spider-Sense, but he's not very skilled with it in Captain America: Civil War due to his lack of experience. He was able to sense a tiny Ant-Man on the shield he stole from Cap but he didn't react properly and got himself kicked. That being said, he was able to sense when the Winter Soldier tossed a large amount of rubble at him and had enough time to dodge it, grab it, and throw it right back at him (after quipping). It also seems to be less sensitive in non-combat situations, as seen in Spider-Man: Homecoming when he twice reveals his identity because someone was standing behind him.
- This power comes more to the forefront in Avengers: Infinity War. As Thanos's ship appears, we get a shot of the hairs on Peter's arms suddenly sticking upright. When Thanos kills off half of the universe, Spider-Man is the only one to feel unwell before turning into ash, implying his Spider-Sense is going crazy.
- Spider-Man: Far From Home: Aunt May refers to this (to Peter's chagrin) as the "Peter Tingle." It's on the fritz for most of the movie, implicitly due to his grief and emotional state. May manages to hit him with a banana early on, and Peter is easily fooled by all of Mysterio's illusions. It's only in the final battle after he has accepted his part in Tony's legacy, that he gains full control of it. When Mysterio attacks him with invisible drones in a fake environment, Peter is able to ignore the illusions completely. A few minutes later, Mysterio uses an illusion to pretend to surrender while he sneaks up behind Peter, invisible — only for Peter to easily avoid his gunshot.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home: Peter's Spider-Sense has been further developed and enhanced to the point that it can detect the exact moment when the Green Goblin persona takes over Norman Osborn's body. It also kicks in when Doctor Strange knocks Peter Parker's astral form out of his body- triggering his natural reflexes and allowing his otherwise unconcious body to keep dodging anyway. Notably, Peter's astral form actually has a transparent version of the "waves" often used to portray the ability in the comics. Later on, when the Andrew Garfield version of Peter shows up in the universe, MJ tries to determine whether he's really an alternate version of Peter by tossing a bread roll at him. After explaining she wanted to see if he has the "tingle thing", Peter explains that it doesn't work if the projectile isn't actually harmful.
- Somewhat parodied on Mean Girls: Karen has a fifth sense — her breasts always know when it's already raining. She calls it ESPN.
- In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode The Pumaman, the main character of the film "get[s] this way when [he] sense[s] danger." "This way" appears to involve dizziness and a headache (thus crippling him when he needs to be at his most alert), and it doesn't actually pinpoint the danger, just giving a general sense of "something bad is going to happen somewhere around here sometime soon", so it's not all that useful except in the broadest sense. Tom Servo mocks him as he fails to detect a large man running at him from behind: "A Post-It note senses danger better than this guy!" (though the man was not planning on hurting him, so that may have been a badly-demonstrated plot point rather than a failure of the power). The worst part is that he tends to comment on it, and then utterly ignore it. For example, he's warned by the large man not to go to the embassy, his danger sense goes off while he's at the embassy, and yet he's still taken completely by surprise when he's attacked by goons at the embassy.
- In the movie Serenity, River Tam knows someone is going to pull a gun before he actually does it, but it isn't clear whether she sensed the event via spider sense or simply read his mind as he thought about it.
- Spider-Man Trilogy:
- The 2002 Spider-Man movie depicts his Spider-Sense using Bullet Time. Whenever something bad is about to happen, time slows down from Peter's perspective, allowing him ample time to react. Later on in the film (and its sequels), the use of this power is mostly left to be assumed by the audience.
- There are still visual cues in the sequels, like when Peter senses the tram he's on is soon going to run out of track in Spider-Man 2.
- More subtle cues can be seen in Spider-Man 3. Peter's face becomes visibly shocked a split second before Harry tackles him off his scooter. Later, when Peter and Harry are fighting at Harry's pad, a strange whistling sound can be heard whenever Harry's arm-mounted blades get in close range of Peter. At first the noise seems to be caused by wind resistance since Harry is swinging the blades around, but the noise lingers while Harry attempts to push the blades into Peter's face, hence it's the spider sense.
- Star Wars: Jedi are sometimes gifted with this ability, albeit a relatively weak version. They generally have to meditate to see the future. This is also how the deflecting blaster fire with a lightsaber trick works; they get just enough precognition to get it in place in time, usually moving before the shot is even fired.
- This also accounts for why the lightsaber duels looked choreographed. They take place between trained swordsmen (and swordswomen) who are literally seeing the enemy attacks before they happen.
Gamebooks
- Legend of Zagor allows you to start off with four different heroes, each with their own special skills. One of them, Anvar the Barbarian Hero, has a keen sense of danger that allows him to avoid ambushes or defend himself in time - any enemy attacks in the book which cause damage to Skill and Stamina doesn't apply on players using Anvar.
- Lone Wolf:
- The Sixth Sense discipline, and its Magnakai upgrade Divination, which often allow for Kai Lords to sense danger before it's too late.
- In the World of Lone Wolf spin-off, Grey Star gets his "Prophecy" spell, too, and also a "Psychomancy" spell that lets him examine objects by laying his hands on it. All of these abilities help remove forks in the road when you're at a crossroads in the books.
Literature
- I Became The Villain The Hero Is Obsessed With: Played for Laughs with Da-in's Inner Monologue claiming he has the superpower of detecting when he's about to face a Woman Scorned so he can steer away from it. This after intentionally playing with women's hearts to earn their loyalty or taunt them.
- In the Ciaphas Cain novels, Cain always feels a strange tingling in the palms of his hands just before whatever harmless adventure he is on turns out to be pure unadulterated horror. The tingling is usually just in time to let him anticipate the first strike, but never in time for him to avoid the situation altogether. Cain himself believes it to be the sign that his subconscious noticed something that had just Gone Horribly Wrong long before his conscious mind can apprehend the situation. This is the most plausible explanation since this ability is not dampened by Jurgen, therefore it cannot be caused by the Warp.
- Tavi in Academ's Fury of the Codex Alera series.. His instincts notice everything and are never wrong. This is noted later as a trait of Tavi's father's bloodline. Those close to Tavi's father eventually made it a habit to write down anything unusual he said because there was a legitimate chance it would end up being prophetic eventually, if not always right away.
- Dexter's Dark Passenger acts like this or at least gives him impulses.
- Justine Ireland's Zombie Apocalypse Dread Nation gets a touch of low fantasy with main character Jane McKeene's folk magic enchanted "lucky penny" necklace. The penny grows cold to the touch when Jane's in a dangerous situation, including in the presence of people who have hidden bad intentions.
- Harry Dresden and other wizards sense the build-up of magic to figure out when something bad is about to happen. However, the series goes to great lengths to show that Harry does not have precognitive powers, and explicitly shows the time, effort, and necessity of research and preparation. When he does it right, it only looks like he knew what would happen in advance.
- There's also a very strange moment when Harry sets foot on an island he's never visited before and gets a weird sense of deja vu. It's explained by a more experienced wizard that he was experiencing future sight: he was getting instinctual reactions about a place that would become very important to him in the future. It's implied that it happens to all wizards eventually, to varying degrees. The very next book, he establishes a kind of soul-link with the dormant power of the island, an enormously powerful locus for magical energy, confirming the vision.
- Dune:
- Miles Teg gets this in Heretics of Dune via Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
- Odrade's latent prescience in Chapterhouse: Dune also qualifies, though it senses threats to the sisterhood rather than her personally, she is Teg's daughter after all.
- Fengshen Yanyi: expert Taoists often can perceive imminent danger by recognizing omens around them (usually sudden strong gusts of cold wind or a sudden pain to the heart). They will then use divination (through incense-burning, gold coins or even finger reading) to understand the origin of this threat.
- In the Inheritance Cycle novel Eragon, Eragon's gedwëy ignasia (Shining Palm, the mark he got from becoming a Dragon Rider) sometimes itches when... well, it's not clear what exactly triggers it, but being about to be attacked has multiple times, and having a werecat sneak by at the edge of Eragon's sight seems to have another time.
- Kane Series: After several hundred years of living dangerously and sometimes dabbling in dark arts Kane seems to have developed a kind of sixth sense that warns him of danger. A good example is seen in "The Dark Muse", where he gets a feeling of an evil presence lurking nearby — and even though his men see nothing and are confused by his suspicions, he turns out to be right.
- In the Knight And Rogue series, Michael's natural Gift manifests itself this way. It's completely unreliable, though — he once felt it for weeks when an aunt was trying to get him married off, but it doesn't always kick in when people are trying to KILL him... and even when it does, the fact that it activates for things like matchmaking keep him from giving the warning too much credence.
- Lilly and Fin: A Mermaid's Tale: Whenever Fin's scales start to itch, he knows it means something bad is about to happen. Lilly never listens to him, though, despite numerous incidents in the past that proved him right.
- In the Modesty Blaise novels, Modesty's best friend and colleague Willie Garvin's ears sometimes prickle when something bad is about to go down. Not just for him; there have been occasions when Willie's ears have prickled to let him know Modesty is in danger when she's off doing something by herself. It doesn't happen every time there's danger, but when it does it's never a false alarm.
- Vimes displays a few moments in Night Watch, namely near the end just before the final fight (its ambiguous whether it's spider sense, momentarily acute hearing, or something else. Time travel is a part of the plot and precognition has been a frequently humorous aspect of the series, though Vimes is decidedly un-magical.)
- Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Number of the Beast. Zebadiah Carter has a danger sense that alerts him to trouble just before it occurs, allowing him just enough time to react to it. He insists that he just has good instincts, though. It's the other characters who are convinced it's a Psychic Power.
- In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe Zaphod Beeblebrox's Joo-Janta 500 Peril Chromatic Sunglasses provide spider senses to anyone who can buy a pair. At the first hint of danger, they turn totally opaque and black, preventing their wearer from seeing anything which might alarm them and thus reducing the amount of stress in their life.
- Sholan Alliance: Some members of the Brotherhood of Vartra have this ability. Sister T'Chebbi is a good example.
- The Star Wars Legends novel Death Star had Nova Stihl and 'blinking', a spider-sense of his own that allowed him to excel as a martial artist and stormtrooper. But it's actually the Force.
- This is in fact one of a Jedi's most basic skills; short-scale precognition. It's called their "Danger Sense" in the Novels and is what allows them to deflect attacks so easily.
- Certain Jedi, like Obi-Wan Kenobi, who are more attuned to the Unified Force have a longer-term version of this. It's actually one of Obi-Wan's particular skills, his 'bad feelings,' and he can often sense long in advance that a person, a place, or an action will cause trouble.
- Tash Arranda of Galaxy of Fear is an untrained Force-Sensitive. In the first book Luke Skywalker encourages her to pay attention to the odd feelings she gets, apparently oblivious to the fact that one of them is "I've been wanting to meet someone like you for my whole life." For the rest of the series, it's not consistent but sometimes it helps. When flying through an Asteroid Thicket, especially, it's a great boon.
- In the X-Wing Series, Corran Horn finds out he's Force-Sensitive and grouses about it a little because now he can't tell if feeling antsy before a mission is normal about-to-risk-his-life nerves or a warning from the Force.
- One of Sarah's powers Tales of an Mazing Girl though it's less for Danger than trouble-which is unpredictable, uncontrollable — but does help scoot her towards trouble.
- Because she is "shadow-kissed" (brought back from the dead by a spirit-using Moroi vampire), Rose from Vampire Academy, has the ability to sense when Strigoi (murderous, soulless undead vampires) are nearby. Unfortunately for her, this sense manifests itself as severe nausea whenever Strigoi are in the area, which is not helpful when you are trying to fight super-strong, super-fast creatures who want nothing more than to kill you.
- Wasp (1957): Apparently everyone has a Spider-Sense of a sort. While training to be an Agent Provocateur, Mowry is taught that an agent should always trust his Gut Feeling: if you ever begin feeling an inexplicable sense of dread, treat it seriously and run, because it usually means that they're onto you. (It's speculated that this is actually subconscious telepathy, sensing the enemy agents' mental focus on catching him.) It saves Mowry's life at least once; he moves to a different apartment once he suddenly gets the nervous feeling, and, though he never learns of it, his old apartment is raided by the police later the same day.
Live-Action TV
- The Amazing Spider-Man (1978) redefined the Spider-Sense completely. Instead of just the sense that something bad was about to happen, Peter would get the full-on Phoebe Halliwell/Cordy Chase flash (only conventionally shot with a red filter). This would be accompanied by a shot of Parker (played by Nicholas Hammond) standing still while his eyes flashed.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel:
- Curiously, while this was the only superpower she possessed in the film, the title character of Buffy does not possess this ability in the TV series. One early episode played with it and featured Giles chastising Buffy about her lack of intuition and the fact that she instead (correctly) deduces vampires based on their outdated wardrobe.
- Although, it did carry over her premonition dreams, which was more of A Storm Is Coming type of thing. It featured prominently in the movie and the first season then continued to feature, if not heavily then recurrently throughout the whole series. To name but a few examples, she mind-links with Faith and has prophetic dreams while Faith is in a coma, She has a prophetic dream of the Gentlemen in Hush which actually helps her defeat them, and she sees the army of the First Evil's Uber Vamps.
- Strangely Faith did claim she'd know if there was a vampire anywhere near, so maybe Buffy just never bothered to practice it, relying instead on... fashion sense. Given how many times she's been surprised by vampires, she probably could have worked on developing her magical senses a bit more.
- Whether Buffy possessed it or not, she was not above joking about it. In "I Robot, You Jane", she even called the trope by name:
Buffy: I can just tell something's wrong — my spider sense is tingling.
Giles: Your spider sense?
Buffy: Pop culture reference... sorry. - There are indications that she has some ability, including "Family" when Buffy senses the presence of invisible demons who are creeping up on her. Normals like Giles have also used the ability to be attuned to vampires in the area, so it could just be a matter of training.
- In "First Date", Giles is boasting of his Watcher's Instinct in defeating a Bringer (who was sneaking up behind him with an axe) only to get blindsided by Spike. He later admits he was making the story up, and actually heard the Bringer's shoes squeak.
- And on Angel, Doyle, and later Cordelia, got precognitive visions from The Powers That Be about demonic events of note in the L.A. area.
- Angel is able to detect Darla lurking in his apartment ("Angel"). The spin-off series established (late in its run, waaaaay at the end of Season 5) that vamps can sense each others' presence.
- Doctor Who:
- According to the Doctor, all Time Lords have this as an innate power. They can sense when time has changed and can feel the timelines changing around them. Visually demonstrated in "The Waters of Mars" when the Doctor sees the future change after Captain Brook kills herself to restore the timeline that he changed after having his own creepy A God Am I moment. The look on his face screams "My Time Lord Sense is tingling!"
- During the Tom Baker era, the Doctor makes a similar claim when he realized the Master's plan in "The Deadly Assassin":
The Doctor: I can feel my hair curl. Which means either it's going to rain, or I'm onto something.
- During the Tom Baker era, the Doctor makes a similar claim when he realized the Master's plan in "The Deadly Assassin":
- "The Robots of Death": Leela demonstrates this, only for the Doctor to scoff at her.
The Doctor: By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes. No, I can't, and neither can you.
[the Sandminer suddenly goes off-balance, knocking the Doctor and Leela around]
The Doctor: [sheepish] Please don't say "I told you so." - In "The Five Doctors", K-9 senses danger. Just ... danger. And the Doctor is involved.
- According to the Doctor, all Time Lords have this as an innate power. They can sense when time has changed and can feel the timelines changing around them. Visually demonstrated in "The Waters of Mars" when the Doctor sees the future change after Captain Brook kills herself to restore the timeline that he changed after having his own creepy A God Am I moment. The look on his face screams "My Time Lord Sense is tingling!"
- River Tam from Firefly might possess such an ability, as in "Out of Gas" she predicts an explosion on Serenity several seconds before it happens. However, the show ended up being cancelled before this was explored in detail.
- The Immortals in Highlander could sense each other's presence, usually leading to their finding a private place to try and lop each others' heads off. Occasionally played with by giving unique proximity-sense visualizations or sound effects to specific immortals, hinting that perhaps with extra skill or perceptiveness, it might be possible to tell exactly who the Immortal that set it off was before seeing them. Or it could have just been for the audience's benefit.
- Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight have the title character and his fellow Riders be able to sense when something had come through the mirrors from the Mirror World/Ventara. This was displayed by the use of an odd keening noise that only those with Advent Decks or who had been in contact with a deck or abducted by the Mirror Monsters could hear.
- In The Legend of William Tell Drogo often senses danger. It's a facet of his wolf heritage.
- In MacGyver, Frank Colton's eye twitches when something isn't right about a situation.
- On M*A*S*H, Radar could sense incoming choppers full of wounded before anyone else could see or hear them, anticipated other characters' (particularly Col. Blake's) requests, and often picked up the phone just before it rang.
- The British series No Heroics has a hero named Timebomb who can see sixty seconds into the future. "Oh, you might want to watch out for the anti-tank missile." "What anti-tank missile?" *BOOM*
- In Power Rangers Wild Force, with the help of the wind, Merrick is able to sense the presence of nearby Orgs. This proves especially useful while fighting Onikage, who tries to hide from sight during some attacks.
- Stargate SG-1:
- Sam and Cassie are able to sense the presence of a Goa'uld. The reasons for this are never fully investigated, but it's suggested to be due to trace amounts of naquadah in their blood; Sam frequently acts as a Goa'uld detector when strangers are brought back to Stargate Command. Likewise, some Goa'uld are able to sense that Sam had previously been "blended."
- The Goa'uld and Jaffa are able to sense the presence of a Reetou, a phase-shifted and therefore invisible alien species, because (again, for reasons that are never explained) their symbiotes become highly agitated.
- On Star Trek: Discovery, Kelpiens have the inherent ability to sense danger and the coming of death. When they do, their "threat ganglia" emerge from the back of the head.
- The Thundermans: The Thundermans have a special ability called "Thundersense", which allows them to sense incoming accidents or danger before they even occur.
- The Twilight Zone (1985): In "Teacher's Aide", Miss Peters can sense that Wizard plans to attack her after she is possessed by the spirit of a gargoyle.
- On Warehouse 13, Pete has 'vibes', gut feelings that usually are correct, and judging by the setting it's implied that he is a latent psychic. While usually correct, they don't do him much good since he can't tell when the thing is going to happen. All through the season finale he was getting senses that Arty was going to die, but it didn't actually happen until the end.
- In an episode of Yes, Dear, Jimmy states that he feels a chill when, unbeknown to him, his wife realizes he had given advice she doesn't approve of to their eldest son. When his in-laws claim they feel nothing after he asks them, he thinks that he got nervous for nothing... until his wife walks in a second later to confront him.
Myths & Religion
- Yagyuu Munenori, also known as Tajima no Kami, was a samurai renowned both for swordsmanship and (later) for philosophy. He made a reputation of a man seeing the trouble coming. One story about him tells how he once sensed "incoming danger" but failed to see any. It turned out that his assistant merely looked at him and mused about whether it would be possible to attack him from behind.
Tabletop Games
- Several Super Hero role-playing games have Danger Sense as an allowable power.
- In the Champions system, "Danger Sense" is marked with a stop sign, indicating it's a potential Story-Breaker Power since it can be difficult for the GM to run certain plots with this power in the vicinity. (Particularly if the player bought the character's power up to "planetary" level.)
- An example in the Amber Diceless system of the Warfare skill is an invisible Player Character trying to attack Benedict (the Universe's greatest warrior) from behind and still being blocked, merely because Benedict's skill told him that it was an ideal time for an invisible attacker to attack him from behind.
- A minor example occurs in d20 Modern, where even if caught unawares, characters still retain their class bonus to defense, described as their inherent ability to avoid harm. This means that even if sitting down and completely distracted, a character can still dodge an attack because they can sense danger.
- Dungeons & Dragons:
- In 3rd edition there is a class feature called Uncanny Dodge that allows a character to keep their Dexterity bonus to Armor Class, even when caught unawares. In other words, even though they don't see where an attack is coming from they can still dodge it.
- The Foresight spell and a variety of psionic powers in various editions of D&D give characters similar abilities.
- The Hair Trigger Neck Hairs gun shtick from Feng Shui is essentially a gunman's Spider-Sense. It grants a bonus to Perception checks to spot hidden dangers (ambushes, bombs, deadly snakes, falling rocks, etc.), and if the Perception check is made, the bonus then becomes the bonus to your first Active Dodge or Guns attack to deal with the danger.
- In the Old World of Darkness, Danger Sense is a relatively cheap merit that gives you a bonus on reacting to imminent threats. Almost any game also includes a spell like this, usually very high-leveled.
- Rifts has the Psychic Power Sixth Sense, which warns a character that they are in danger 15 seconds before it happens. It doesn't tell the character where or what the danger is, but the advanced warning is enough to give the character some useful combat bonuses.
Video Games
- ADOM: Though there's no explanation of the Player Character having such a power, they effectively do — at least provided the player knows how to interpret the various messages the game gives. If you "sense a certain tension," there's a room full of monsters on the current level. If you "sense taint in your vicinity" or "sense a soul in agony," a monster just stepped into a corruption trap. If you "feel excited" when entering a level for the first time, it has a large vault full of monsters in it. And so on. Clearly, your character has the ability to sense a lot of different things that are going on, but they don't automatically know what they're sensing.
- The Jerboa in ARK: Survival Evolved: Scorched Earth can detect inbound storms and makes different sounds and gestures to communicate which of four weather patterns will occur. This means keeping one as a shoulder pet is as practical as it is cute since sandstorms and heat waves can be deadly.
- In Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel, whenever an enemy tries to attack you from behind, white wavy lines will appear on the attacker's head, allowing you to counterattack if you're fast enough. These go away in higher difficulties though, forcing you to counter a sneak attack on your own.
- Deep Rock Galactic has a perk that gives players a visual warning that pops up if an enemy is about to grab them, which is indicated by a white border on the screen. The same perk also lets the player break free of the enemy's grip, but it works only twice per mission.
- Dragon Age:
- The Grey Wardens, due to the Taint in their blood, have the ability to sense the presence of nearby Darkspawn. Unfortunately, it goes both ways. One of the stock lines for a Human Noble with the Experienced personality? "Warden senses tingling!"
- Mages of the same series have the innate ability to sense disruptions in the Veil. With practice, they can learn to detect spirits, powerful spells, and even other mages if they're close enough.
- Templars go through extensive training in order to be allowed to sense Demons and magical activity.
- Krile of Final Fantasy V has one specifically tuned to her grandfather Galuf that lets her know when he's in danger so she can go rescue him. (At least, plot-based danger. There's no indication it triggered on the undoubtedly multiple instances of him needing a phoenix down in battle.)
- In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the siblings Nils and Ninian can sense danger. i.e., the introduction of the ballista in Lyn's Story has Ninian warning Lyndis when she's about to get shot by a distant enemy archer using one of these.
- Psycho Mantis, a powerful psychic/mind reader from Metal Gear Solid and The Last Days of Foxhound, uses his mind-reading abilities to tell what his opponents are going to do next, up to and including dodging bullets.
- To a certain extent, Vamp is capable of this as well. When fighting him as a boss, auto-aim doesn't work at all, because he can read Raiden's muscles and detect where Raiden is going to shoot before it actually happens. Because first-person aiming doesn't rely on "practiced technique" and is a bit more freeform, Vamp can't dodge those attacks.
- In Metroid Prime, the HUD has a small bar that warns the player of the presence and distance of environmental hazards (lava, poisonous gas/water, etc), as well as beeping if you get a bit too close.
- In the interactive romance novel Moonrise, Alice can predict when she's going to be in danger, or when a situation is about to become dangerous.
- In Pokémon games, the Anticipation ability effectively is this, as anything with it will shudder if they're suddenly faced with an opponent that either has a move that would be super-effective against it or a One-Hit KO move.
- The Paladin class in Quest for Glory IV can sense danger or evil intentions. In a variation, the Paladin doesn't necessarily sense the source of those intentions, and danger is not synonymous with evil or even deadly intent. It also borders on a Useless Useful Spell, as when it triggers the player is usually aware of the danger without it (being a Sierra game, about 90% of the game screens qualify). Even in the rare times the player gets a specific warning, it's generally blindingly obvious without needing it.
- There is one time that it reacts that doesn't appear to make sense at the time: when you meet with Katrina, the Paladin gets a vague sense of danger nearby, but can't specify what it is or even if it actually is dangerous, and it quickly gets muddled. Katrina is an extremely powerful vampire and wizard, and is masterminding a plan that will result in the Paladin's death, but also actually cares for and eventually falls in love with the Paladin, even saving his life at the end of the game. The danger sense activates because of what she is, but because of who she is, it can't figure out how to react.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- In Sonic and the Secret Rings, Sonic mentioned that his spikes can sense danger, though, this is an Informed Attribute that is never shown, nor brought up again in future games.
- Early Japanese material back in the 90s has stated that Sonic can sense danger by sneezing of all things. This ability was briefly showcased in Sonic the Hedgehog CD's into where he sneezes for a brief second prior to the rocks crumbling down on him (You can see the animation here◊) and there are unused sprites which showcased him sneezing◊, implying that it was also possibly gonna be in the game itself. This ability, however, was quietly dropped starting with Sonic Adventure.
- Naturally, just about any game featuring Spider-Man. Just how Spider-Sense is depicted depends on the game. Generally, Spider-Sense can take the form of any of the following (or even a combination):
- used to show a boss fight or other big threat is imminent (e.g. in Spider-Man vs. the Kingpin entering a boss area will result in the famous squiggly lines around Spidey's head accompanied by a blaring alarm sound, while in the video game adaptation of Maximum Carnage Spider-Man only gets the squiggly lines).
- used to point out where the player is supposed to go (e.g. Spider-Man)
- to warn when a powerful attack will be unleashed (e.g. Ultimate Spider-Man) or to signal a dodge or counter chance (e.g. Spider-Man (PS4))
- bullet time (e.g. The Amazing Spider-Man, Spider-Man: Edge of Time)
- a passive ability that grants Spider-Man improved dodge or evasion abilities without any particular attention drawn (e.g. in Marvel Ultimate Alliance and Marvel Strike Force)
- completely unused in actual gameplay but still referenced (e.g. in the Marvel vs. Capcom series Spider-Man's intro or between round banter can include him noting, "Spider-sense is tingling!")
- If the game is on a system with some form of haptic feedback, Spider-Sense will typically cause the controller to rumble.
- Naturally appears in Spider-Man (PS4). Thanks to Gameplay and Story Integration, the Spider-Sense is played a bit differently than in most comics: it'll warn Peter of incoming danger, but it's still up to him/the player to identify and react to it, such as dodging gunfire or attacks that will take his health to 0. In the construction site finale to Act 1, the Spider-Sense warns Peter of an incoming block of concrete swinging from a crane. However since Peter was busy trying to prevent the crane itself from falling, he only has time to turn in surprise before being hammered.
- Larry Holland's X-Wing series (including TIE Fighter) would actually encourage players to develop sense of the Force, thanks to nimble fighters mounted with blasters and turbolasers significantly slower than bullets, one had to be able to predict how her target would jink to hit it.note
- In Zork: Grand Inquisitor, your lantern gives you advice about danger, and your Elvish Sword glows blue when you're near something dangerous.
Dalboz: My lantern sense is tingling — warning me of danger. Oh, and your sword's glowing too!
Visual Novels
- Demonbane: Kuro often gets "chills" whenever something really dangerous is about to happen. This often occurs when his opponent appears wide-open but is in fact about to unleash a particularly devastating attack, confusing his allies about why he's suddenly retreating until he dodges the One-Hit Kill by a hair. It's implied to be part of his ill-defined intuition for sorcery.
- In Fate/stay night, the "Mind's Eye" skill does this. There are two versions, a "True" variant that includes rational combat planning and is gained by hard work and decades of fighting experience, and a "False" variant that is completely unconscious and is an in-born talent but doesn't allow for higher-order planning. Shirou has a talent in the latter (although since he's not a Servant it's never said outright): It's about the only thing keeping him alive half the time. In all storylines, Saber decides to train this sixth sense of Shirou's in order to give him a better chance at surviving. As Archer, he has the true version after honing that talent over the years. Which is how he is able to survive combat with powerhouses like Lancer and Saber.
- In the Fushigi Yuugi Dating Sim Suzaku Ibun, Miaka's expy Madoka Ohtori gains this ability when she lands in Konan to become the Suzaku no Miko.
- In Tsukihime, the protagonist Tohno Shiki has a sixth sense that tells him when he's about to be killed. According to one character, his danger sense is so good that it borders on precognition. Depending on the level of threat, his body may automatically react to it by moving in a way to avoid that death as much as humanly possible, whether or not he actually recognizes the danger.
Web Animation
- RWBY: Maria has a Semblance called "Preflexes", which gives her hyper-awareness of her surroundings and incredible reactions speeds; she can almost see attacks before they happen. She demonstrates the power by catching a lemon that falls without warning from the tree she's under. She later thrashes the normally untouchable Neo, by using Neo's own moves against her.
Webcomics
- In Autumn Bay, Ghoul gets "this feeling, like... something seriously major is going on", that he has gotten these feelings all his life, and that they are usually "pretty... accurate". He's right. It is at that moment that several parties become aware of the bigger plot, and each other.
- In Bob and George this alerts Megaman to the flaw in his escape.
- Ciem Webcomic Series: Ciem has centuition, which is almost exactly the same as spider sense in every way — except it produces a "phantom scream" sensation instead of a "tingle."
- Dan and Mab's Furry Adventures:
- A shout-out to this trope with Mab sensing when Merliz is in danger.
- Then a subversion.
- A shout-out to this trope with Mab sensing when Merliz is in danger
- In El Goonish Shive:
- Greg and Elliot (and by extension Ellen) can sense immediate danger. However, Elliot's (and Ellen's) ability to do this is not completely reliable.
- Additionally, Tedd apparently has the ability to sense girl-on-girl action.
- Grace claims to have relationship senses. Instead of tingling, they jiggle.
- Greg and Elliot (and by extension Ellen) can sense immediate danger. However, Elliot's (and Ellen's) ability to do this is not completely reliable
- In Girl Genius, Lars is able to sense if a town is dangerous. When the troupe visits Sturmhalten, he is visibly trembling with fear since he has never sensed a town so dangerous in the past.
- In Housepets!, when a hunky cheetah steps out of a taxi cab that brought him to Babylon Gardens, Grape comments that her "hunk sense" is tingling, to which Peanut replies "That's Spider-Man's power, actually."
- Played with and parodied in Spinnerette — Spinny's "spider sense" tends to produce flashes of the obvious. Roommate Sahira states on several occasions that she doesn't believe in it at all.
- The Whiteboard: Apparently, Howie gets this. Especially when Doc is inbound with a truckload of rowdy paintballers.
Web Original
- Whateley Universe:
- "Danger sense" is a common form of low-level ESP, and some other traits may give similar abilities. The Whateley Academy powers testing staff have a standard testing procedure for determining if someone has a danger sense, involving throwing something harmless but potentially painful (like a tennis ball) at the back of the subject's head while they are occupied with some other part of the test. Because many students hear about that part of the testing ahead of time, and/or may not sense something unless it is actually harmful, improvisation is sometimes required.
- There's a mutant power category called "Exemplar". People with sufficiently high levels of this often have a danger sense, along with direction sense and eidetic memory.
- Chaka, who can manipulate Ki, can use her Ki to tell when someone is focusing on her or where someone's attack will go.
- Also, Franklin Delarose, the (non-mutant) Chief of Whateley Security, has an uncanny ability to sense when something bad is about to happen on campus. Of course, this may simply be that he's had a lot of experience dealing with a lot of very weird things, and has been in the job long enough to subconsciously recognize when something's not right.
- Worm:
- Taylor, the insect-controlling protagonist, is able to develop a limited version of this by sensing where every insect in her range is, allowing her to tell what people are doing or about to do.
- Eidolon also manifests this power, calling it a "danger sense," for his fight with Echidna.
- It's revealed that Jack Slash has a form of this that applies specifically to superpowered people, which is why none have ever been able to kill him. He's eventually taken down by a Dragon's Teeth officer in Powered Armor.
Western Animation
- This is also apparent in Hartman's other, Super Hero-based show, Danny Phantom. Whenever a ghost is near, a wisp of blue mist comes out of the main character's mouth, and he shivers. This is often called his "Ghost Sense." At one point he used it to borrow one of Spidey's most cherished lines:
Danny: Man, there are so many ghosts here, my ghost sense is going crazy.
- The Fairly OddParents! gave several on-point Shout Outs to Spidey's power over the course of the series, due primarily to series creator Butch Hartman's love of Spider-Man comics. Some, better than others:
Wanda: Oh no, my... Cosmo's-going-to-make-Timmy-dead.... senses are tingling.
- When Timmy gives his parents superpowers, he gives them a specific "Timmy sense" so they will always know when he needs them.
- Fantastic Voyage. The character Swami has mystical powers. In "The Master Spy" he detects the danger posed by the sabotage carried out by the title characters. The general area rather than pinpoint the exact spot it's in.
- One episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy uses this as a joke:
Grim: My Spidey Sense is indicating that whatever is making that music is turning everything into a retro cartoon.
Mandy: Grim, you don't have Spidey Senses.
Grim: ...Now that complicates matters. - In the Johnny Test episode Johnny vs. Bling Bling 3, immediately after Bling Bling determines that he needs to (non lethally) eliminate Johnny, so he can score with is sister Susan:
Dukey: My doggie sixth sense says something bad is about to happen.
- In Kong: The Animated Series, whenever Tann is in the presence of someone shady (Like De La Porte), his big toe itches. When this is brought up in the first episode, Jason retorts that it's propably an allergic reaction to eating pineapple pizza, prompting Tann to clarify that pineapple only makes his right toe itch; when both toes are itching, then there's trouble.
- Pinkie Pie's appropriately named Pinkie Sense from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Random reactions in her body let her know when something's about to happen, such as her tail twitching when something's about to fall. In the second season she uses it for actual super-heroics, saving ponies from a collapsing building while using her sense to avoid the falling rubble. However in "It's About Time", she says the Pinkie Sense only predicts immediate things and doesn't literally predict the future.
- Candace of Phineas and Ferb is shown to have a "Busting Sense" in the episode "Quietest Day Ever".
- In Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends, Sh'lainn Blaze, being a Banshee, can tell when a person is in mortal peril and how long they have until they are potentially killed. As she spends a lot of time with Nick, someone who regularly puts himself in mortal peril, Sh'lainn's "death sense" goes off regularly, acting as a warning to Nick, letting him know how long he has left if he doesn't take action to save his life.
- SheZow. The title character has this but calls it SheSP, which like the trope namer allows her to dodge danger when it comes to her but also change the wearer of the ring into SheZow. It's also the only power the wearer retains when not SheZow.
- Spider-Man:
- In the 1967 Spider-Man, Spidey has his "spider senses tingling" accompanied (in the first episode) by animated red wavy lines around his head, but for the rest of the series, ol' Webhead just mentions it when it happens.
- The '80s version and its sister series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends would have Spidey's eyes glow when his spider sense is set off.
- Spider-Man: The Animated Series has the air around his head suddenly flash his suit pattern, plus the screen went photo-negative. Sometimes, even though he knows something painful is about to happen to him, he can't do anything about it because there are a few instances in which his Spider-Sense goes off so strongly it causes him pain and slows down his reaction time.
- Spider-Sense in The Spectacular Spider-Man is accompanied by smoky, wavy lines surrounding Peter's head just like in the original comics. Occasionally, especially while at school, the lines are omitted and the only clue to the spider-sense going off is a sudden look of surprise on Peter's face and sometimes followed by a nonchalant dodge of whatever random object Flash just threw at him.
- ThunderCats (1985) has a rare example of an object with this ability: the Sword of Omens can sense danger and warn its wielder about it.
- Work It Out Wombats!: Amado can tell when a storm is coming by the smell of the air.
