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Ejection Seat (view source)

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'''Q:''' Because if you do, you'll release this section of the roof, and engage and fire the passenger ejector seat. ''Whoosh!''<br />
'''James Bond:''' Ejector seat? You're joking!<br />
'''Q:''' I never joke about my work, 007.|''[[Goldfinger (Film)|Goldfinger]]''}}
 
[[Space Fighter|Space fighters]], [[Cool Plane|normal fighters]], [[Humongous Mecha|giant mecha]], [[Cool Boat|submarines]], [[Back to The Future|time travel cars]], [[Cool Car|secret agent super cars]], [[Black Helicopter|helicopters]], [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|piano recital vans]]... just about ''everything'' has an ejection seat installed. Expect its success rate to be determined by the plot.
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** [[Failsafe Failure]] is mostly averted, but there are a couple of moments. In one episode, we see a character ({{spoiler|Kewell}}) die when the [[Super Prototype|Guren Mk-II's]] radiant wave fries his machine's internal computers. In another, Lelouch is badly injured because the seat activates when he doesn't have a clear vector of escape, making it bounce off the ground and nearby objects like a rubber ball; it's frankly quite amazing that he didn't get whiplash.
* In ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion|Evangelion]]'', the "entry plugs" that the EVA pilots rode in could be ejected in case of emergency. They [[Failsafe Failure|didn't always work]].
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam (Anime)|Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' had the Core Fighter, a small aerospace fighter that makes up the cockpit of the Federation's [[Super Prototype|Super Prototypes]]. The concept returns in a few series, but in some cases (particularly the [[Mobile Suit Victory Gundam (Anime)|Victory Gundam]] and [[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny (Anime)|Impulse Gundam]]) it seems to have been implemented mainly to allow for transformation and replacement of damaged parts rather than as an escape vehicle. ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam The 08th MS Team]]'' depicts a more traditional ejection seat.
** The original Gundam's Core Fighter somewhat subverts this, since its main purpose is to preserve the Gundam's learning computer and its compiled combat data moreso than it is to protect the pilot.
* While most Variable Fighters in the ''[[Macross]]'' universe have standard ejection seats, the VF-25 ''Messiah'' from ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' is unique in that it doesn't have a seat, per se, but the pilots wear exoskeletons/mini-mecha (called EX-Gear) that dock with the cockpit. The pilot can then eject and fly away, even in outer space, using their own self-propelled EX-Gear, which has its own wings, thrusters, and limbs.
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== Films -- Live-Action ==
* During the test of the [[Cool Car|Jet Car]], [[The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension|Buckaroo Banzai]] gets someone [[Locked Out of the Loop]] over his radio going "Eject, Buckaroo! Eject!" but Buckaroo refuses and goes on to go through the mountain and into the Eighth Dimension.
* ''[[Iron Man (Filmfilm)|Iron Man]]'' {{spoiler|saves a pilot who was pursuing him after the pilot is forced to eject. After damage to the fighter jet}}, the ejection seat is damaged, and the chute won't deploy. Tony uses the armor's strength to pull the lever hard enough to unjam it.
* In ''[[Stealth]]'', the [[Love Interest]] pilot is forced to eject in enemy territory. There's a long scene where she can't get her chute to deploy. She finally does, but she ends up injured because she was at a lower altitude than optimum for the chute.
* [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]]'s cars have had ejector seats in ''[[Goldfinger (Film)|Goldfinger]]'' and ''[[Die Another Day (Film)|Die Another Day]]''.
** In ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies (Film)|Tomorrow Never Dies]]'', [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] uses an ejector to eject an unwanted co-pilot from his stolen fighter jet, downing another plane in the process.
** During one scene in ''[[Goldeneye (Film)|Goldeneye]]'', [[James Bond (Filmfilm)|James Bond]] ejects himself and Natalya from a stolen prototype combat helicopter that was rigged to shoot itself with its own missiles. Of course, the ejection mechanism shot out the blades from the top rotor first, for fairly obvious reasons.
** In ''[[Die Another Day (Film)|Die Another Day]]'', he uses it as a propellant to flip his Aston Martin back onto its wheels. Oh, and [[High-Speed Missile Dodge|dodge a missile at high speed]].
* The quote at the top of this page comes from ''[[Star Wars]]'' during the assault on the Death Star (unfortunately for him, he gets blown up before he has time to eject). The starfighter is designed so that the cockpit and couch would separate from the fuselage and engines, thus leaving the pilot drifting in what was effectively a survival capsule. The suit is air tight and has a small force field that will keep you breathing for about three or four hours. Now being next to a giant moon-sized space station that explodes isn't exactly survivable so it was still a waste of time.
* ''[[Top Gun]]'' shows that ejecting doesn't always help, as Goose smacks into the canopy and breaks his neck. This was a real risk at one time; now the ejection seat in many fighters is designed with a mechanism to shatter the glass before the pilot could hit it in the case that the canopy is not out of the way already.
** Additionally, the F-14's canopy had a tendency to get sucked into a low-pressure zone directly above the cockpit during ejection.
* ''[[The Cannonball Run]]'' features the Aston Martin DB V from ''[[Goldfinger (Film)|Goldfinger]]'', complete with ejector seat, driven by [[James Bond|Roger Moore playing a man who thinks that he is Roger Moore]].
* ''[[Space Mutiny]]''. "I LOST POWER!"
* In contrast, the ejector seat on [[Pee WeesWee's Big Adventure|Pee Wee Herman's bike]] delivers nothing but poetic justice.
* The [[Cool Car|Batmobile]] in ''[[The Dark Knight]]'' has an unconventional ejector seat which converts into a kickass Bike from hell.
* Used in the [[Show Within a Show]] ''Austinpussy'' in ''Goldmember''.
* ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]'' (2004). [[Action Girl]] and [[Ace Pilot]] "Franky" Cook ejects from her [[Military Mashup Machine|submersible airplane]] just in time to avoid a [[Macross Missile Massacre]]. After breaking the surface of the water, a [[Jet Pack]] boosts her the rest of the way up to her [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier]]. Even the [[Love Triangle|rival for the hero's affections]] is impressed.
* ''[[Death Race]]'' has an ejector seat in the hero's car. The eject was never for the Hero, just [[Ms. Fanservice|the navigator]]. Assuming it's the same for all the vehicles, it makes sense seeing as how viewers would like to think the ladies don't die.
* The ''[[Speed Racer (Filmfilm)|Speed Racer]]'' movie has an ejection mechanism that fills the cockpit with foam and then ejects the foam ball with the pilot inside. This allows them to survive such events as crashing into pillars at 300 kph or falling off a track at skyscraper height. They did this to justify the heroes sideswiping cars off cliffs in a kid-friendly movie.
* ''[[The Fast and Thethe Furious|2Fast2Furious]]'' features a pair of improvised ejection seats in two cars powered by partially spent N2O cylinders usually used for [[Nitro Boost]]. {{spoiler|Played with when Brian delays hitting the button because he needs the mook in the seat for a little longer, and again when he presses the button and it doesn't work, opening the way for Roman's [[Big Damn Heroes]] moment.}}
* Parodied in ''[[Hot Shots]]'', where a character successfully ejects... right into another plane. His head is stuck in another pilot's cockpit for a good long while, his arms and legs flailing around uselessly as he begs said pilot "Don't land!"
* In ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'', when Baron Bomburst commands Grandpa to make the eponymous car fly, Grandpa presses a button at random that sends the Baroness shooting skyward out of her seat (she is saved by her [[Parachute Petticoat]]).
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** Averted with the [[Mookmobile|TIE Fighters]], which are well known among the ''[[Star Wars]]'' community for NOT having ejector seats, among other things, which is used as an example of how [[The Empire]] doesn't give a fig about its, well, anything. [[We Have Reserves|They have reserves]].
* Averted in ''[[The Laundry Series|The Jennifer Morgue]]'' by [[Charles Stross]], which goes into some detail as to why an ejection seat in a car is an insanely bad idea; when Bob Howard presses the eject button on his [[Cool Car]], the ''entire car ejects'', which is only slightly less so. It's made clear that only time you should press the button is if ''not'' pressing it is ''definitely'' going to kill you. The explanation also deflates the idea of the "easy eject"; Bob describes how, due to the G-forces involved, the pilot is likely looking at weeks in traction ''at best''.
* As in the games on which they're based, the ''[[Wing Commander (Literaturenovel)|Wing Commander]]'' novels occasionally feature ejection seats. In ''End Run'', it's noted that there's a mechanism that's supposed to prevent an ejection while on the carrier, but that has a reputation for not always functioning. [[Chekhov's Gun|Later in the novel]] it fails for one pilot, smashing him against the landing bay overhead<ref>for those not familiar with naval terminology, the ceiling</ref>.
 
 
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* The Vipers in ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'' have ejector seats, although ejecting usually means that you'll either be in a [[Whole-Episode Flashback|flashback episode]], or have a long, ruminating episode full of wangst while you [[Rule of Drama|contemplate your slow demise]].
* When Wendy Watson flies to rescue ''[[The Middleman]]'', [[Ridiculously Human Robot|IDA]] triggers the Middlejet's [[Ejection Seat]] remotely, much to Wendy's horror.
* Fighters in ''[[Babylon Five5]]'' are often equipped with ejector seats, though rescue is a bit of a crapshoot in space.
* ''[[Knight Rider]]'': KITT's ejection seats never left the car, they simply catapulted the occupant a couple stories in the air. Which makes less sense.
* ''[[Get Smart (TV)|Get Smart]]'': Maxwell Smart's car occasionally features an ejector seat. You can imagine how well that works.
* The ''[[Myth Busters (TV)|Myth Busters]]'' proved you could, with some difficulty, put a crude ejector seat in a car and trick somebody into sitting on it.
* In the [[Stargate Verse]], the F-302, being space-worthy fighters, can eject the whole two-place cockpit, as to make sure the pilots can survive in space. Most of other races' [[Mookmobile|mook mobiles]], like the [[Stargate SG-1|Goa'uld's Death Gliders]] or the [[Stargate Atlantis|Wraith Darts]], have no such equipment.
* In ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'', Aeryn is ejected in one of these, with [[Meaningful Funeral|disastrously heart-breaking]] but, of course, [[Death Is Cheap|non-permanent results]].
* An episode of ''[[Good Eats]]'' had Alton ejecting "James Bond" from his bar with an ejection ''stool'', complete with a [[Shout-Out]] to the dialog at the top of the page.
* Documentary series ''[[Pawn Stars]]'' had someone try to sell this to the pawn shop. It was appraised as genuine.
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** The seatbelt, if you used it at all, was poorly designed and disconnects as soon as the seat ejects.
** And many, many more.
* ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'' has these for its [[Humongous Mecha]], usually with an automatic trigger in case of an ammo explosion that would otherwise destroy the 'Mech and the pilot with it. In some advanced designs, the entire head assembly comes free, but a plain old ejection after popping the canopy is still the default. It may be worth noting that the setting does canonically feature enemies ruthless enough to specifically gun for MechWarriors forced to do this.
* An option for a ''[[Car Wars]]'' vehicle, too. It boasted three accessory packages: a hang glider to fly away, a parachute to waft down, or (the 'Mother-in-law special') absolutely nothing, for the Wile E Coyote impersonation scene. No restrictions on vehicle (although helicopters did lose their rotors after ignition request). Fellow [[Steve Jackson Games]] product ''[[GURPS]] Vehicles'' also, naturally, had these.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Critical Mass 1995 (Videovideo Gamegame)|Critical Mass]]'', if you don't eject before your ship is destroyed, you have [[Final Death]]. This is true of most flight-simulation games, unless there ''is'' no ejection option.
* In ''[[Escape Velocity]]'', playing on [[Final Death|"Strict Play"]] mode makes buying an escape pod a wise move. There's an auto-eject option which automatically launches it if your ship is breaking up.
* Featured prominently in the ''[[Wing Commander (Videovideo Gamegame)|Wing Commander]]'' series. Ejecting means that you just failed every remaining objective (because your wingman [[We Cannot Go Onon Without You|Can't Go On Without You]]), but it can occasionally be a wise move, especially if you don't like [[Save Scumming]]. Ejection in many missions, however, was still a loss. And one Kilrathi ace in particular was known for shooting up ejected pilots. In the cartoon ''[[Wing Commander Academy (Animation)|Wing Commander Academy]]'', the ejection was via an enclosed pod, not just one's seat.
* ''[[Steel Battalion]]'' would delete your save if you didn't use the molly-guarded [[Big Red Button]] on the insanely expensive custom controller to bail out of your [[Humongous Mecha]].
* The ''[[Mech Commander]]'' series had ejection as part of the gameplay. Your Mechwarriors would typically successfully eject (with some injury, which was another gameplay mechanic) should their 'Mechs be disabled by anything but destruction of the head. Understandably (as the head contains the cockpit), destruction of the cockpit results in the death of the Mechwarrior. In either case, death of your Mechwarrior would result in him being removed from your roster permanently; a fairly big issue, as Mechwarriors get better with experience and recruited Mechwarriors cost credits and are typically worse than the ones you currently have.
* ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' had escape pods built into the cockpits that gave pilots a chance to survive losing their BattleMechs. They were seemingly powerful enough to get back to orbit under their own power, which is a good bit beyond the normal capabilities of ejection seats in the board game.
* In ''[[Operation Flashpoint]]'' pilots routinely bail out from their badly damaged helicopters. (It's not ejection in the usual sense of the word, they simply jump out and pull their chutes, but it's still absurd, since they usually go through the still-turning rotors and yet ''remain unharmed''.
* One of the devices you can equip on your vehicle in ''[[Banjo -Kazooie|Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts]]''.
* Ejection seats play a major role in [[Faking the Dead]] at one point in ''[[Ace Combat]] 5.'' {{spoiler|A jammed ejection seat kills Chopper earlier.}}
** Enemy aces in ''Ace Combat Zero'' sometimes manage to eject and survive the battle, according to the Assault Records.
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== Western Animation ==
* During the 1980s, the [[Moral Guardians]] were all concerned about damaging fragile child minds, so [[Never Say "Die"]] was in full effect. This was particularly noticeable on ''[[G.I. Joe]]''. Any aerial dogfight between the Joes and Cobra ended up with the loser ejecting and parachuting to safety before their plane was destroyed. [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|Peril sensitive ejector seats FTW!]]
* ''[[Batman: theThe Animated Series]]'' examples:
** The animated Batmobile ''does'' have ejector seats, as evidenced in [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?|the episode with Earl Cooper]].
** In the episode "Joker's Millions" of ''Batman: The Animated Series'', [[The Joker]] is so poor that he could afford only one ejection seat. Boy, was Harley mad!
* Batman in ''[[Batman: theThe Brave And The Bold (Animation)|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' has an ejector seat in the Batplane. He hovered a finger over the button because Plastic Man was getting on his nerves.
* The first season finale of ''[[Megas XLR]]'' features one of these, with the button "Bet You Can't Guess What This Button Does". Next season, there was an "Eject Skippy" button, conveniently anticipating where the annoying kid would be sitting.
* An episode of ''[[The Smokey Bear Show]]'' had one character installing an ejector seat in another character's newly acquired sports car.
* In the "Rhode Island Road Race" episode of ''[[Wacky Races]]'', Penelope Pitstop uses her ejector seat to expel Dick Dastardly.
* Freddy installs an ejection seat in the desert racing episode of ''What's New, [[Scooby Doo]]?''.
* The ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]'' Turbo Kat plane has ejector seats for both T-Bone and Razor. The seats could fly independently for some time, and were shown re-docking with the plane in a few cases.
* ''[[Space Ghost]]'': Jan and Jayce's little space coupe has ejector seats.
* The Javelins used by ''[[Justice League Unlimited]]'' have ejector pods.
* Brock Sampson of ''[[Venture Brothers]]'' owns a '69 Charger with an ejection seat.
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Elementary, My Dear Stacey", Agent "Double 0" 0's car has an ejector seat. Agent P triggers it.
* ''[[Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers (Animationanimation)|Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers]]'': One of the most famous upgrades Gadget added to her father's plane, as Monty accidentally finds out.
* In ''[[Storm Hawks (Animation)|Storm Hawks]]'', [[Properly Paranoid]] [[Crazy Prepared]] Stork builds the Storkmobile. Among other safety features is an ejector seat. Because, as Stork says, "You ''always'' need an ejector seat."
 
 
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