Danger Deadpan: Difference between revisions

 

In [[Real Life]], this makes some sense. Even if your plane's lost two engines and half a wing, the last thing you need is a bunch of scared people in the back of the plane panicking and raising hell; you can't be screaming "OH GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" over the radio. Not to mention the fact that if you stay calm and actually tell [[Mission Control]] what the problem is you won't throw away what may be your last chance for one of you to actually work out how to fix it. Especially for a test pilot [[Mission Control]] figuring out the problem is of utility even if you do die.

 

{{examples}}

 

== Anime and Manga ==

 

== Film ==

* The opening scene of ''[[A Matter of Life and Death]]'' where Carter calmly and politely chats to a female radio operator about how utterly screwed he is, and that the ''best'' hope for survival is to bail out without a parachute and hope that he is wrong about the height he is flying at.

* The former trope namer himself shows up in ''[[The Right Stuff]],'' played by [[Sam Shepard]]. Not to mention a cameo by the real Yeager.

 

== Literature ==

* In the Jack McKinney novelization of ''[[Robotech]]'', the pilots are all described as discussing their life and death situations in combat "as if they were talking about the weather", and lampshades this with an explanation that combat pilots are traditionally superstitious that displaying any worry or fear of death invites its attention.

* Invoked in ''[[Tom Clancy|Clear and Present Danger]]'': as {{spoiler|crew chief Buck Zimmer}} dies in Jack Ryan's arms, Jack is nearly enraged by the helo pilot's calm reply to the news. The narrative notes that the pilot's demeanor is a defense mechanism: if he hadn't learned how to compartmentalize his rage and grief, he could never have lasted as long as he has.

 

== Live Action TV ==

== Video Games ==

* Kysouke Nanbu is portayed as such in the [[Super Robot Wars]] series, he has occasional bouts of shouting [[Hot-Blooded]]-ness but his overall character is the 'cool and levelheaded' archetype, slumbering volcano deal.

** By extension, Tom Kazansky, a hero from the bonus campaign, who has the exact same voice and face, but being a [[Hero Unit]] is probably the original.

*** Confirmed by a [[All There in the Manual|caption on the official website]]. Same with the Firebat and other heroes.

*** His name is also a [[Shout-Out]] to Val Kilmer's character in [[Top Gun]] - appropriately callsigned Iceman.

** The [[Drop Ship]] pilot as well, being a fairly obvious reference to Corporal Ferro below.

** The Banshee, while somewhat more aggressive-sounding (and apparently relishing in the idea of bombing things) also keeps remarkably calm. In fact, the only Terran pilot (close to the only Terran soldier period) who ''doesn't'' is the [[Lovable Coward]] Battlecruiser captain.

* Iceman, in the first ''[[Wing Commander (video game)|Wing Commander]]'' game, is described in the manual as being the [[Alliteration|calm, cool, collected]] pilot, and the one on top of the scoreboard when you start the game. A fellow pilot notes that everyone else shouts in combat, but you sometimes have to strain to hear Iceman, because he's pretty much ''whispering'' in terse, two-or-three-word sentences.

[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes On a Plane]]