Awesome Backpack

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
You too, can blast ghosts with 500,000 Mhz of protons!
"Why worry? Each one of us has an unlicensed nuclear accelerator strapped to his back..."
—Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters

An ordinary backpack doesn't do anything too special, being that it's just there to carry things around, and, by its nature, weighs you down and gets in the way in the process. An Awesome Backpack is different though, such that you end up wishing you could get your hands on one. While most Awesome Backpacks aren't for carrying things around, it can still involve a normal backpack if it constantly provides items that are a central part of a character's capabilities (especially for Crazy Prepared or Crazy Awesome characters).

Subtropes include: Ammunition Backpack, Backpack Cannon, Helicopter Pack, Jet Pack, and any backpack variety of Bag of Holding.

Examples of Awesome Backpack include:


Anime and Manga

  • Kagome's backpack in Inuyasha: modern food and medicine in a medieval setting, plus arrows.
  • In Gundam Seed, this seems to be the theme of the series. The main character's mobile suit is unique for its abilities to wear a different Awesome Backpack for every situation, which carries onto the mass-produced versions in the sequel. The Justice also has an Awesome Backpack, which doubles as a hoverboard.
  • The Beargguy from Model Suit Gunpla Builders Beginning G has the Landcell unit. It looks like a school backpack, yet it's outfitted with space thrusters to allow it to move through space and holds its Beam Recorder/Saber and a missile launcher.

Comic Books

  • The original Rogue Trooper's backpack was so awesome it was one of the characters, being implanted with the biochip of one of his fallen comrades! Also something of a Bag of Holding.

Film

  • The Ghostbusters carry unlicensed nuclear accelerators on their backs.
  • Sarah Harding's backpack in The Lost World Jurassic Park saves her ass on a few occasions.
  • RJ's golf bag full of random man-made items in Over the Hedge isn't particularly special, but seeing as Verne feels the need to point this out to his friends...
  • Kick Ass, in the climax, gets his hands onto the Jet Pack, complete with two shoulder-mounted retractable miniguns.

Literature

  • The kosho warrior (basically a futuristic samurai) in Barrington J. Bayley's The Zen Gun carries an arsenal of mentally aimed weapons in his backpack.
  • Nakor from The Riftwar Cycle has one with a magic portal in the bottom that terminates in a fruit warehouse, allowing him to always produce an orange from it no matter where he is. He can also use it to hide things in the fruit warehouse.
    • And, later, in a cave where his things are less likely to get stolen.
  • The "Knapsack" from Fablehaven book four - poke your head inside (or crawl right in) to reveal a good sized storage space, with food, water, a Yahtzee-obsessed demon, and odds and ends that you will never, ever need unless you are in a fantasy novel.
  • The "adventurer's bags" from the "Adventurers Wanted" series. Each bag is rather light, made of sturdy material, can never be stolen, and has at least three rooms. yes, rooms. What's more, you can go buy more rooms! Rooms that get bigger, rooms with swimming pools, even a garden! They also appear to have an endless source of energy - they come with lights.
  • Hatter Madigan's backpack, in keeping with Hatter's general badassery, is capable of opening up like a Swiss Army knife, revealing assorted blades and corkscrews.

Live-Action TV

Tabletop RPG

  • Warhammer 40,000: the four-armed robo-tank-repair-backpack of a Techmarine. Indeed, with the exceptions of Scouts and Terminators, all Space Marines wear awesome backpacks, often including such things as eagle's-head exhausts, trophy racks, and (in the case of Chaos Possessed) functioning batlike wings.
  • The Warcasters in Iron Kingdoms wear steampacks that generate a power field, enhance their physical traits, and nullifies the roleplaying penalty to casting Arcane spells while wearing armor.
  • Manhunter. Characters can buy an Antigravity Backpack that allows them to fly at up to 120 kilometers/hour.

Video Game

  • The medigun backpack in Team Fortress 2.
    • Especially the Quick-Fix's. Why does it have to be the worst medigun?!
    • The Soldier has a few.
  • The Gluon gun in Half Life, partially a Shout-Out to the above proton packs, as the alternate name for the weapon in scripting is the "Egon".
  • Banjo's backpack in Banjo-Kazooie could be considered a subversion: most of the awesome comes from Kazooie, not the backpack itself. Double (maybe even triple) subverted in Banjo-Tooie where the backpack has powers on its own and can do many things you wouldn't be normally able to do... but it still pales in comparison to Kazooie.
  • The FLUDD in Super Mario Sunshine
  • The Poltergust 3000 in Luigi's Mansion
  • Bagman from Rogue Trooper is the ultimate in this trope. Fully sentient, and loaded with whatever gadget Rogue needs at the moment. It even has a mechanical arm to hand the desired item to Rogue.
  • Various backpacks in multiplayer of Red Faction: Guerrilla
  • Clank is an Awesome Backpack most of the time.
  • Star Wars Galaxies has some pretty awesome backpacks, the best one being a FRICKIN KRAYT DRAGON SKULL! For reference, this is a Krayt dragon and they are still one of the most fearsome enemies in the game.
  • The backpacks owned by Lucas and Dawn in Pokémon Platinum can store 999 copies of every item, in addition to the Key Items, which are things like (well, collapsible, but still) bicycles.
  • In Psychonauts Rasputin's (Raz) backpack may not look like much, and may store a few odd things, but keep in mind that his backpack keeps track of his powers as they advance by adhering flying merit badges! And he has some pretty sweet powers!
  • Starsiege: Tribes. Everyone gets jetpacks (and we do mean everyone)! The equipable Packs might also qualify, although some are more awesome than others.
  • Global Agenda, trying very hard to be a modern Tribes, does this. The jetpacks open up when you activate them, and dont close for a few seconds. You can color them. They're shiny. The devs realized at some point that the thing you spend hours looking at should be pretty. The medic ones have tubes of something running through them. Not sure what it is, but it has almost as much animation in making the tubes of shining goop bounce as for the rest of the player model.
  • Fallout 3 gives you the Shishkebab, complete with a motorcycle gas tank on the back.

Web Original

Western Animation

Real Life

  • Real Life: flamethrowers.
    • Another Real Life example would be an astronaut's PLSS, allowing them to do a free flight EVA.
  • The LC series of backpacks the US military has used since at least Vietnam. Who doesn't want a backpack that's 40 years old, survived combat, trans-Pacific travel, extreme climate and climate changes, and STILL WORKS?
  • Pangolin Backpacks http://gizmodo.com/5398996/pangolin-backpack. A backpack made from old trucking tires, slides down via magnets, and is incredibly sturdy.
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