Jump Off a Bridge

Our heroes/heroines are on the run, whether from the bad guys or misinformed agents of the law. They attempt to flee over a bridge or overpass, only to find that their pursuers have sealed the other end of it and are closing on them. They're cornered. What do they do? Surrender? Go down in a blaze of glory? Why no, they look off the bridge, spot an accommodating looking vehicle passing beneath it (depending on what's under the bridge, it could be a truck, train, boat, Soft Water or any number of other possibilities), and take a well-timed leap, landing safely on the back of it and escaping.

A very frequent type of stunt in action movies, it is sometimes subverted humorously by having the character Face Plant painfully on the ground beneath the bridge, or dramatically by having him or her only pretend to take such a leap or otherwise mislead pursuers into thinking he or she has done so (by, for example, throwing a cell phone or other piece of trackable electronic equipment onto the back of a passing vehicle). It's just as often played straight, however. And sometimes it's disguised as a Suicidal Gotcha until a Reveal showing Our Heroes being carried away to safety.

Can (but doesn't have to) involve a No Escape but Down. Not related to "Jump Off a Bridge" Rebuttal, despite what you might think.

Variations:
 * Can involve a jump from any high place, including buildings, cliffs, etc.
 * Can involve falling off a high place instead of jumping.
 * Can be carried away by something other than a vehicle (e.g. a river).

Advertising

 * Just For Men hair coloring. A female neighbor asks to borrow some milk, which the guy doesn't have. He jumps out a window onto a truck passing by underneath.

Anime and Manga

 * Comical variation in Change 123: When one of the heroine's Split Personalities is about to start a fight, she suddenly jumps off the footbridge -- not to escape, but because she had recklessly put away her purse onto the railing and later pushed it down with her elbow, so she has to jump down (onto a truck) to fetch it.
 * Cowboy Bebop episode "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui". Jet and the girl jump off the top of a stone wall and land on a passing bus to avoid the two pursuing gunmen.

Film

 * In Salt, Evelyn Salt escapes from her pursuers by leaping off a highway overpass onto a truck.
 * The Matrix Reloaded. Morpheus orders Trinity to get the Keymaker to safety, and she does so by jumping with him off the bridge and landing on a truck carrying motorcycles.
 * Later on Morpheus is shown on top of a truck, implying that he did the same thing.
 * Hudson Hawk. While escaping from the Vatican, Eddie ends up on top of a light pole. He flips off of it and lands on a bus passing underneath him.
 * Played with in Men in Black during the Cold Opening, when Jay is seen chasing a perp who jumps onto a tour bus full of Japanese Tourists. Instead of watching the perp get away, Jay jumps down after said perp.
 * Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Butch and Sundance are forced to jump off a cliff to escape a pursuing posse: they land in a river and are carried away downstream.
 * The Fugitive (1993). In order to escape Deputy U.S. Marshal Gerard, Doctor Kimble does a Peter Pan off the side of a dam into the river below and is swept away by the current.
 * He does it in the 2000 TV series remake as well, identical to the Salt tactic described above.
 * U.S. Marshals. Mark Sheridan jumps off the top of a building holding a rope, swings over and lands on top of a passing train.
 * One of Lane's comically inept attempts at suicide in Better Off Dead is a leap off an overpass into traffic below. He lands instead in a garbage truck.

Video Games

 * Done in Final Fantasy VII with a train after the characters blow the mako generator up.

Web Animation

 * Dead Fantasy 5. Heavily wounded and surrounded by ninjas, Tifa jumps from the top of a building and lands on a passing train below.

Western Animation

 * Wolf attempts to pull it off in an episode of Nu Pogodi, jumping off a bridge to land on his runaway motorcycle. He just barely misses.