Epic Hail: Difference between revisions

"You'll know it when you hear it," answered Scarlet, "for you've never heard the like in your whole sweet life entire."''|from '''Tuck''', by '''[[Stephen R Lawhead]]'''}}

 

 

Somewhat less often, an [[Epic Hail]] is used by the villains. When this happens, it's almost always an [[Evil Overlord]] who wants to signal his armies to attack and [[Rule of Cool|can't be satisfied with a messenger on horseback]].

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End''. "Hoist the colours!"

* Bumblebee shining the signal light to call the Autobots in the [[Transformers Film Series|live-action Transformers movie]].

* ''[[The Rock]]''. Goodspeed (Nicholas Cage) has to prove he accomplished the mission on Alcatraz (and that he's still alive) with a set of green flares, to prevent being vaporized by the [[No Kill Like Overkill|thermite airstrike]] sent as a failsafe. Problem is, he's currently busy dying from a nasty poison, and the [[Bottled Heroic Resolve|antidote]] has complications of its own.

* The Axe Gang uses one of these in [[Kung Fu Hustle]].

* Parodied in ''[[Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy]]'': Ron blows on a conch shell, then proclaims loudly "NEWS TEAM, ASSEMBLE!", only to discover his cohorts are right behind him.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[The Dark Tower]]: Roland's horn.

** Boromir's horn-splitting call at the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, which we later learn was heard by Faramir on the other side of Gondor.

** Even more epic is the Horn-call of Buckland. The mostly peaceful hobbits, who have no military, are able to jump up and organize in the middle of the night under the guidance of the returned hobbits, to defeat an army of Saruman's men in the Battle of Bywater, which is the turning point of the occupation of the Shire.

** And ''[[Up to Eleven|even more]]'' epic is Eärendil sailing to Valinor to plead for the Valar to come to Middle-earth and aid the Free Peoples in their fight against Morgoth, at the end of ''[[The Silmarillion|Quenta Silmarillion]]''. Oddly, the actual hail we get is from ''them'' to ''him'':

{{quote| ''"Hail Eärendil, of mariners most renowned, the looked-for that cometh at unawares, the longed-for that cometh beyond hope!"''}}

* The Dark Mark of ''[[Harry Potter]]'' is a more sinister example of this. It is generally used to call the Death Eaters (who, keep in mind, are a group of [[Complete Monster|murderous racists]]) together, and does so by causing a tattoo on their forearms to burn. An alternate version acts as a giant, floating, glowing, signpost which they use to mark the sites of their [[Moral Event Horizon|atrocities]]. Also, it looks rather unpleasant (being a putrid skull with a snake for a tongue).

* In ''[[Myth Adventures|Myth Conception]]'' Skeeve wanted to use enemy signal tower to tell the enemy he defeated their company, as they ran too quickly to do it themselves. While his advisors try to remember flag code, he realises there's a simple way to do it. {{spoiler|Burning the whole tower is clear enough "signal".}}

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* Partially in the [[Firefly]] episode "The Message", when they [[Incredibly Lame Pun|call]] the baddies on ''not'' calling the station.

** The extremely brutal Earth-Minbari war started right when two ships of each of the races met for the first time. Identyfing the unknown vessel as a warship, the Minbari wanted to greet them with an [[Epic Hail]] that all fellow warriors would deserve. Apparently it was so epic that the humans completely freaked out and almost shot the Minbari ship into oblivion befor turning around and getting the hell away as fast as possible. Unfortunately the ship was transporting the Minbaris Emperor-Pope, whose death caused the Minbari to start [[Kill All Humans|killing all humans]].

** Series 1: {{spoiler|Rose Tyler signals ''herself'' by scattering the words "Bad Wolf" across all of space and time.}}

** Series 3: {{spoiler|The Master has hypnotized the human population on Earth using Archangel communication software. Martha Jones has spent the last year spreading the word (in this case, Doctor). At the proper moment, everyone thinks "Doctor!" and the Epic Prayer restores the Doctor's strength, allowing him to battle the Master.}}

* In the finale of ''Ultraman Tiga'', Tiga has been defeated by [[Ultimate Evil|Gatanazoa]] and sent to the bottom of the sea. However, the children of Earth call out Tiga's name all at once, sending their [[Light Is Good|inner light]] to him, not only bringing Tiga back to life but transforming him into [[Super Mode|Glitter Tiga]], [[Curb Stomp Battle|who proceeds to own Gatanazoa]].

** Happened again in ''Ultraman Dyna's'' movie when Queen Monera kills Dyna by sucking out his energy. A kid with a Tiga figure has everyone give their light to summon Tiga to revive Dyna. Once more, butt kicking ensues.

* On the ''[[Myth Busters]]'' [[Mac Guyver]] special, Adam and Jamie had to improvise one of these using parts acquired from an abandoned campsite. Though the campsite was set up so that the guys would have the materials to build a potato cannon, they ended up [[Off the Rails|building a giant kite instead]]. It still worked.

 

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* In ''[[Left 4 Dead|Left 4 Dead 2]]'', the Dark Carnival campaign ends with the players signalling the rescue helicopter with a pyrotechnics-heavy rock concert at an abandoned stage.

** In one of the DLC campaigns for Left 4 Dead, the Survivors attempt this at a lighthouse, but fail.

* ''[[Modern Warfare 2]]'' imitates the scene from ''The Rock'' above {{spoiler|when you stand atop the ruins of the White House to call off a massive airstrike on Washington.}}

* In Riven, the sequel to ''[[Myst]]'', you signal Atrus by {{spoiler|opening a fissure into outer space}}.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

(Shan Yu snaps the Emperor's flag from its post, [[Rape, Pillage and Burn|burning it in the signal fire]])<br />

'''Shan-Yu''': ''Perfect.'' }}

* In ''[[The Rescuers Down Under]]'', after Cody is kidnapped, the audience follows the radio signals as they travel mouse-to-mose from Australia to New York City to summon help from the Rescue Aid Society.

* The third ''[[Futurama]]'' film, Bender's Game, parodied the ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'' example given above by combining the two, with archers firing arrows from hilltop to hilltop to hilltop.