Hollywood Skydiving: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Parachuting is a precise science in real life. There is only a small window on any given jump to deploy one's parachute; too soon, and you could risk breaking a leg or veering too far from the drop zone; open too late, and you might not have enough time to cut away and deploy your reserve should the main canopy malfunction at such a low altitude.

** Averted in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]'', as the HALO jump (High Altitude, Low Opening) is an actual military practice

* ''[[Point Break]]''.

*** The catch up was ''not'' possible in the scenario shown in the movie. They would have either had to jump from a much higher altitude, or the first guy out would have to have much less of a head start.

* The [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (film)|Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]] went sky diving in the first scene of the [[Non-Serial Movie]]. Bulk and Skull ended up on the same parachute and off target, landing slowly into a building site (the one where Ivan Ooze was dug up). Could've been worse - they were about to jump ''without'' their parachutes, but Kimberly stopped them with a "I think you guys forgot these.".

** Of course, the bad guy gets his chute cut up by 99 and survives his landing anyway, so they weren't really trying to be realistic here.

* Averted in the new ''[[Star Trek (film)|Star Trek]]'' movie. The [[Red Shirt]], true to his name, screws around on combat adrenaline and goes floof when he gets sucked into a vent because he doesn't open his parachute when ordered to and drops too far. Meanwhile, Kirk and Sulu nearly get turned into parachute pizza themselves, and they actually timed it correctly.

* At the beginning of ''[[Bridget Jones]]: The Edge of Reason'', Bridget is ordered to jump out the door without a trainer, and deploys her parachute a little too late. She ends up landing in a vat of pig excrement, but [[Take That|enough about the script]].

* Averted in ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]'': Galloway does not wait till the last second to pull the ripcord. {{spoiler|[[Crowning Moment of Funny|He doesn't even wait until he's out of the plane.]] To be fair, Major Lennox tricked him into doing that.}}

** "Not yet you dumbass!"

* The opening action scene of the first ''[[Charlie's Angels]]'' movie.

 

* Virtually any video game with a usable parachute adheres to Hollywood Skydiving. ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]: San Andreas'', in particular, comes to mind.

** Pretty well justified, if they made it realistic ''and'' interactive it would probably cease to be much fun.

** But that's okay because pulling off a perfect (3-gold-star) skydive, landing squarely in the back seat of a nearby gang car, grants you complete immunity from fall damage, thus enabling you to jump out of a helicopter far above the skyscrapers, fall for about a minute, and then do a nose-grind along the asphalt, without taking any damage whatsoever. This goes well with your immunity to car crashes until your car blows up and your own character's resistance to things like point blank machine gun fire.

* All of the ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield]]'' games except for the first ''[[Battlefield: Bad Company|Bad Company]]'' game feature a Magical Parachute that comes standard in every footsoldier's backpack. It's deployable anytime while airborne and slows you to a safe speed instantly, resulting in silly (but very useful) scenarios like using a parachute to safely jump off a tall building, or to bail from a jet, free fall for a minute, and deploy the parachute ''just'' before hitting the ground. Oh, and you can use it as many times as you need to without all that obnoxious repacking.

* Averted in ''[[Wii]] Sports Resort.'' In the "Air Sports" skydiving game, the player jumps out of an airplane and has three minutes to link up with other divers for photographs. The chute opens automatically with ample time to spare, avoiding the trope.

* The "ribbon parachute" from ''[[MDK]]'' might count. It works like a charm no matter if you're jumping off a six-foot ledge or from orbit.

* In the indy computer game "Spelunky" The parachute item will automatically deploy after falling for a certain amount of time, and will save you from being hurt even if you are inches from hitting the ground.

* [[Just Cause]] 2 kind of zigzags this trope. On one hand opening your parachute too high won't cause you to suffer any damage when you land, but opening it too close will cause you to suffer a slight degree of damage that fortunately heals rather quickly. Humorously you have an infinite amount of parachutes available to deploy and it is possible to go parasailing by using your hookshot to propel yourself. On top of that you can even buy rocket propellers for your parachute to fly yourself around. You know a game is fun when the act of falling out of the sky is so fun you could do just that and not get bored with the game.

* [[World of Warcraft]] parachutes (the player-deployed kind, not the automatic ones that the game sometimes provides) are a bizarre case. They work instantly, so you can fall as far as you wish, deploy your flexweave underlay half a second before you hit, and suffer no damage. However, they only last a short time, so deploying too early can find your parachute expiring while you're still far off the ground.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* The "jump whenever" part of the trope is averted and lampshaded in the second season finale of ''[[Archer]]''; Archer spends a good two minutes monologuing before jumping and ends up miles away from his drop point. You can see a light in the background go from red (no go) to green (go) and back again before he jumps, and the pilot quickly calls in and asks why the door was left open for so long.

'''Other agent:''' Yep. }}

 

[[Category:Skydiving Tropes]]

[[Category:Hollywood Style]]