Gundamjack: Difference between revisions

 

== Anime and Manga ==

** ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' has the first example of this trope in Gundam with Kamille helping the AEUG pull this off. It's also slightly more justified than many examples as the Gundam in question was already powered up and idling (being examined for damage after the pilot crashed it) when Kamille ran in and swiped it.

*** The AEUG was originally planning to steal a single Gundam Mk II prototype to reverse-engineer is revolutionary "movable frame" technology. With Kamille's help, they were able to steal ''all three''. This allowed them to send one away for study, use another for combat, and break down the last one for spare parts to keep the combat unit in service.

*** ''[[Zeta Gundam]]'' is perhaps unique in that it's a case of the main protagonist pulling this off as opposed to [[Falling Into the Cockpit]]. It's certainly unique in that Kamille's motivation for jacking the Gundam is [[Revenge Before Reason]]; he just goes along with the AEUG afterwards because it seems like a good idea.

** Similarly, ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' begins with the ZAFT G-boys snatching four of the Alliance's five new Gundams. The plan was to steal all five, but poor Rusty got killed before he could do his part. And, of course, {{spoiler|Kira comes by his [[Mid-Season Upgrade]] by Gundamjacking the Freedom, with help from Lacus.}} ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' begins with the ''Alliance'' stealing three of ''ZAFT's'' new Gundams.

*** Subverted in Season 2 when Revive and {{spoiler|Anew}} fail to get the {{spoiler|00 Gundam}} because they couldn't bypass the security.

**** But Revive DOES successfully Gundamjack the {{spoiler|0 Raiser}}, only to be foiled by {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|RED HARO]] of all things.}}

*** Heck, Judau spent the first several episodes repeatedly trying to jack the Zeta Gundam so he can sell it, only to have an enemy appear the moment he gets his hands on it and be forced to fight it off.

*** Well, technically Trowa wasn't the intended pilot of Heavyarms...{{spoiler|at least, not the Trowa ''we'' know; [[The Movie]] shows that the real Trowa Barton was killed for being a [[Jerkass]], leading to a nameless engineer offering to take up the dead man's name and mission for more noble purposes.}}

*** In episode 34, Zechs steals Wing Zero from OZ after [[Discard and Draw|self-detonating his Tallgeese]], before OZ got a chance to destroy it.

*** Well, she ''is'' their designated mechanic. Wouldn't be ureasonable to assume she might have written a minor subroutine in case she needed to put on a full suit (she was using a glove to check the function of an arm repair in an early episode) to check pilot it sometime.

*** Later, while Domon and Rain are in Hong Kong for the finals, a local kid tries to steal the Burning Gundam, nearly killing himself and screwing up Domon's shoulder in the process.

** In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Age]]'', the Gundam itself doesn't get hijacked, but Grudech gundamjacks the battleship ''Diva''.

*** Although it does get hijacked in episode 5. By a ''seven year old.''

* ''[[Getter Robo]] Hien'' has the protagonist jacking Getter-1, then having to talk the other two pilots into working with him. Given that they were in the middle of a battle at the time, they don't have too much of a choice.

* It happened in ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' after a fashion. Minerva X was designed by Professor Kabuto, but never actually built; Dr. Hell got his hands on the plans and constructed Minerva, using mundane armor materials instead of Super Alloy Z, and installing an AI "crown" piece in place of a Pilder.

** And in ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]'' (one of the sequels), Duke Fleed steals Grendizer and flees with it before the Vegans can seize it.

** And ''[[Great Mazinger]]'' was seized by a Vegan commander in ''[[UFO Robo Grendizer]]''

* The movie ''[[Firefox]]'' is about [[Clint Eastwood]]'s character making off with a Soviet prototype jet.

** The movie averts the [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]] trope by having him subsequently get chased down by the other prototype and forcing him into a dogfight with it. Apparently the Soviets made at least two, and certainly still have the plans (although not necessarily the scientists) to make more but don't want the Americans reverse-engineering it before it goes into production.

** {{spoiler|Turns out that Tony gave Rhodey authorization for the suits, ostensibly because he was dying and preparing for Rhodes to succeed him. Which explains why a machine that previously relied on the Arc Reactor in Tony's chest now has its own self-contained power source.}}

 

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' example: Slave I, the vehicle that Jango and Boba Fett pilot, was a prototype vehicle stolen by Jango; he then blasted the other prototypes with it. Eventually more models are built...because of the popularity of the design as a result of Boba Fett being the galaxy's best bounty hunter.

** By then the Slave I was a decades-old design and remained viable mainly because of Boba's piloting skill and the very expensive custom upgrades he'd made. The production models introduced to cash in on its fame were fairly mediocre by the time they hit the market.

* Subverted in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': [[The Big Guy|Boromir]] [[Anti-Hero|tries to pull one of these]] with the [[Artifact of Doom|One Ring]] at the Council of Elrond but has his idea shot down pretty quickly.

 

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* In a kind of inversion, the Soviets try on several occasions to steal [[Airwolf]]. This is not quite the same as the first story, where Stringfellow Hawke has to Gundam Jack-back the previously stolen chopper from Libya.

* With ''[[Power Rangers]]''' abundance of [[Humongous Mecha]], you can bet this shows up from time to time:

** ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' featured Gundamjacks of each of Tommy's Zords. Dragonzord in the first season after a briefly mind-controlled Billy was made to steal the Dragon Dagger and give it to Goldar, the Tigerzord in season 2 in an episode where Goldar stole Saba from Tommy and gave him to Rita, and in season 3 the Falconzord was stolen by Lord Zedd. The theft of the Falconzord lasted the longest, but the villains didn't use it, just kept it as a trophy.

*** The villains were the ones to claim the Shogunzords, and tried to blackmail the Rangers into piloting them. Of ''course'' the Rangers swiped the zords out from under them.

** The Turbo Megazord is stolen in ''[[Power Rangers Turbo]]'', forcing the Rangers to use the new Rescue Megazord. Something similar happened in the [[Gekisou Sentai Carranger|Sentai counterpart]].

** In ''[[Power Rangers in Space]]'', Delta Megazord, using a virus. Then Mega Voyager, thanks to Psycho Yellow.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

*** The Liao False Flag mission was basically this, send in several salvage craft in, steal the Davion Clanmechs and send the Steiner a nice middle finger barrage with it.

** The Crysis mod, ''[[Mechwarrior]] Living Legends'', allows you to blast an enemy's cockpit armor, then kill the pilot inside. Once you kill him, you're free to hop in the mech and drive it back to base to repair or sell it. Additionally, if an enemy players ejects, you can hop in his mech as he's flying up into the air, then blast him in the face when he lands.

*** You'd think if that were the case these people would start putting a [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] on their mechs.

**** Again, building mechs is fairly difficult. Blowing up a mech just because the pilot died means your side can't recover it either.

**** This is basically expected enough in-universe that practically every BattleMech comes with standard anti-theft countermeasures already built in. The most common example, showcased in various novels, is the computer running a voice recognition check in conjunction with an individual code phrase during startup. At the same time, several novels reveal that each mech's Neurohelmet must be re-calibrated for each new user, which can pretty much only be done in the hangar. Skipping this process leads to a punch-drunk machine and a pilot with a massive, incurable hangover.

** Both ''Mechwarrior 3'' and ''Mechwarrior 4'' and their expansions had missions where new units could be stolen from maintenance and added to the player's TO&E.

** Then everyone try to take the ''pilot'' with them, so the plot turns into a series of Feijacking

* ''[[Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty]]'' starts with Ocelot stealing Metal Gear RAY from The Patriots for The Patriots. It's as [[Mind Screw|complicated as it sounds]], yet this is [[Magnificent Bastard|Ocelot]] after all.

* Similarly, in the Activision version of ''Battlezone'', you can steal enemy vehicles by sniping the pilots.

* And ''[[Front Mission]] 3'', you can jack any vehicle without a pilot. Though only the normal Wanzers can be kept afterward.

* Undeservedly obscure vehicular shooter ''Redline'' (the one that came out in 1999, not the more recent racing game) has you either on foot or in cars. Each level has a few free cars that the character can get into should his own get too damaged/destroyed, and that's that - you can't grab enemy cars. However, should you decide to cheat and use the code that adds all the guns, you'll get the supposedly-multiplayer-only ejecto-gun, with which you can eject enemies out of their vehicles and grab them. This is when you find out that, in order to make it harder for the player, enemy cars [[The AI Is a Cheating Bastard|have virtually unlimited ammo]].

* ''[[Command and Conquer|C&C Generals]]'' has a hero unit that can snipe the pilots of enemy vehicles, leaving them inactive. It is then sufficient to walk a basic infantry unit inside and the unit is yours to command. The expansion pack has the [[BFG|Chinese Nuke Cannon]] being capable of firing neutron shells that kill enemy vehicle crews, making the vehicle available to capture.

* ''[[Persona 2]]'' has Tatsuya steal and command an enemy warmech from the Tenchu Army.

* This is both possible and surprisingly effective in ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]]'' when you play as an engineer class. Using your hydrospanner on an enemy tank long enough will eventually disable it and boot out the occupants so you can take it over. Stealing an enemy's tank not only keeps it from firing on your troops and but also keeps it from respawning for a while since you didn't technically "destroy" it in the first place.

 

== Web Original ==

* In the [[Whateley Universe]], when the Syndicate and Deathlist's army of Sabretooths try to invade [[Super-Hero School]] Whateley Academy at Halloween, school range officer Erik Mahren jacks one of the Syndicate's gunships. Turns out his old codename when he was in an Army special force was Hijacker.