Captain Crash: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Everyone's encountered or at least heard of this fellow. He's the [[The Red Baron|Patrician of Demolition]], the [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Czar of "Fubar"]], and the [[Rhymes on a Dime|Master of Disaster]].

 

 

Even if he's in the desert with nothing to crash ''into'', he'll somehow find a way. To his credit, the crashes are survivable, so he does have that going for him. 

* In the ''[[Lucky Luke]]'' episode ''Going Up the Mississippi'' the machinist, [[Meaningful Name|"Bangs"]], is stated to have exploded fourteen river boats. {{spoiler|Subverted in the end: This time the other boat explodes, much to his surprise.}}

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

** The [[X Wing Series]] gives us [[Ascended Extra]] Derek 'Hobbie' Klivian and his much-lampshaded tendency toward spectacular crashes and long periods in a bacta tank. Despite this, he's unquestionably an [[Ace Pilot]] and even seems to make it work for him: no matter what violent fate befalls his vehicle, Hobbie will ''always'' eject, survive and be back kicking ass within the week.

** The first-published comic arc in that series, The Rebel Opposition, makes it necessary to mention Hobbie's squadronmate Tycho. He put on Imperial guise and reported in saying that his TIE had crashed. They gave him a new one. He flew on a mission, was shot down by his own X-Wing (long story), [[Ejection Seat|ejected and survived]], then returned to the Imperial base. They gave him a new one. Then he betrayed them. In fairness, TIE fighters are light, cheap, unshielded [[Fragile Speedster]]s mainly used for [[Zerg Rush]]ing.

* The absent-minded Admiral Benson in ''[[Hot Shots]]!'' gives us this line:

{{quote|''You know, I've personally flown over 194 missions and I was shot down on every one. Come to think of it, I've never landed a plane in my life.''}}

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Sinbad the Sailor]] had a bad habit of getting shipwrecked in his stories.

* Callista Carmel of ''[[Tour of the Merrimack]]'' earned the nickname "Crash Carmel" for totaling a number of shuttles.

 

** Racetrack and her co-pilot Skulls fall into the bad-luck variety. There is nothing to show that [[Deadpan Snarker|Racetrack]] is a bad pilot. That doesn't change the fact she seems to attract errors, breakdowns, sabotages and attacks. Did the striking workers spike the fuel, casing a Raptor to spin out of control and crash into Colonial One? It'll be Racetrack's. Did chief mess up the repairs and caused a Raptor to crash on the landing deck? It's Racetrack's. Did a saboteur plant a bomb in a Raptor to kill Baltar's attorney? It's Racetrack's Raptor. Did the experimental jump drive cause a mis-jump? It was Racetrack and how she discovered New Caprica.

*** Skulls lampshades it in the [[Grand Finale]].

* This was a running joke when referencing Uncle Albert in ''[[Only Fools and Horses]]''.

 

 

* Captain Jet Morgan of the old BBC radio serial ''[[Journey Into Space]]'' could fit this trope. He captains the spaceship Discovery, and when it's required that the ship lands, Jet is always the one who pilots her down. Unfortunately he tends to crash, or at least make hideously bumpy landings, more than he manages to bring her down smoothly. Of course, one of those times he had actually been knocked out before the ship was quite fully landed, but most other times it's just Jet. Nobody ever really comments on this.

** It may also count that he does extensive damage to a Martian asteroid ship when he tries to slow it to a stop. Granted, it doesn't actually crash—they are in space, after all—but it does the next best thing.

* A naval example in ''[[The Navy Lark]]'', Mister Phillips's standard method of docking is this trope. He caused more damage to Naval property than both world wars.

** Ironically, the ''one'' time he was ''asked'' to deliberately crash HMS Troutbridge into another ship (as part of a ploy to allow Captain Povey to escape his overbearing mother-in-law and join the rest of the crew at a pub) a fault in the steering mechanism ensured he ''couldn't'' hit anything... 42 times in a row!

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* More of a player Captain Crash than anything else, but in ''[[Saints Row|Saints Row 2]]'', if the Boss is driving in a car with Johnny Gat and s/he crashes into something, Johnny is liable to muse, "Just like old times."

** Also, <s>me</s> the Boss behind the metaphorical wheel of a helicopter. [[Heroic Resolve|I don't care]] [[Selective Obliviousness|what you say]], [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|those controls are impossible]].

{{quote|*Player awakens {{spoiler|on a ship and looks up to see the plane burning on top of the mast}}*

'''Flintlocke''': [his head popping into view, and looking down at the player] What? Like ''you'' could have done any better! }}

* The hero of ''[[Grandia (video game)|Grandia]] III'' has designed, built and crashed over a dozen planes before the game even starts. After his personal hero builds him a new plane, he stops crashing. Maybe it was just that he couldn't design a plane that would stay in the air.

* James Vega from ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'' gets this reputation after he intentionally crashes his shuttle into ''another'' shuttle to prevent {{spoiler|Dr. Eva from escaping with the plans for the Prothean device}}. ''Nobody'' will let him forget it. He can end up crashing ''again'' if he's the one to take over the skycar controls when Shepard {{spoiler|abandons the control panel to shoot at Kai Leng}} during {{spoiler|the Citadel coup}}—although ''that one'' is [[Drives Like Crazy|Shepard's fault]].

** [[Sarcasm Mode|Vega learned from the best.]] Shepard crashes the skycar no matter who is in the backseat with them. And when chasing {{spoiler|Tela Vasir}} in the last game's DLC missions, Shepard used another skycar to sideswipe {{spoiler|her}} into crashing. And let's not get into [[Drives Like Crazy|all]] [[Car Fu|those]] [[Good Bad Bugs|shenanigans]] with the Mako in the first game. One thing's for sure; if Shepard's driving, ''something'' is going to [[Stuff Blowing Up|end up in a fiery wreck]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

** [[Subverted Trope|Hilariously subverted]] in "The Golden Goose" when Launchpad attempts to crash on purpose, [[Springtime for Hitler|only to land perfectly]] - Launchpad may crash all the time, but he's so good at wrecking his planes that he's an expert at crashing ''safely''.

** [[Deconstructed Trope|Deconstructed]] in one episode where a Scrooge orders Launchpad to pilot a sabotaged blimp that's about to crash on its own. With Launchpad at the control, they still crash, but everybody survives with minor injuries.

** Received [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]] at least twice on ''[[Gargoyles]]'', with the drivers of crashed helicopters musing, "Any landing you can walk away from..."

* Ace in the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon and comic. Lampshaded in one instance when he says over the radio, "I'm going in!", to which Duke replies, "Every time you say that it gets expensive!"

** Cobra troops often joke about their own Air Devil pilots. "What's the last thing to go through an Air Devil's head when he hits the ground? His engine."

* The old ''[[Rocky and Bullwinkle]]'' cartoons featured the world's most incompetent sailor, Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz.

 

* [http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-666-j One of the "joke" articles] of the [[SCP Foundation]] states that Dr. Gerald has this effect on any vehicle:

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:All the Tropes Superhero Team]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]