Outside Ride: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|And when they're boarding, they always say get on the plane, get on the plane. I say fuck that, let Evel Knievel get ''on'' the plane. I'm getting ''in'' the plane!|[[George Carlin]]}}

This is popular in many cop shows; Our Hero can be counted on to leap to the roof of a speeding getaway car at least once per season. Alternatively, he can jump onto the hood and glare at the driver while said driver tries to shake him off. Larger vehicles can also be used (particularly popular version is jumping onto a tall vehicle from an overhead bridge) - if it's a truck, for example, our Hero will often need to climb forward to the cab somehow. (You can also [[Traintop Battle|climb about on trains]], but they're a bit different, since they don't swerve about.)

 

 

For example, in [[Real Life]], it is incredibly difficult to hold onto a car even at low speeds, and at high speeds, it is impossible to do so. It may be slightly easier to hold onto a train, but all of your effort has to be spent in ''just'' holding on ''and'' you have to be on top of a car that isn't rounded or containing hot liquids - plus, tunnels can cut too close to the roof for a standing person to survive passing through one. Aircraft - at least when we're talking jets, spacecraft, or anything that is flying at a sufficiently high speed and altitude - are literally impossible to stand on the outside of and doing so is certain death.

 

{{examples}}

== [[Comic Book]] ==

* ''[[Sin City]]'' has a couple of examples:

** Dwight attempted this in ''A Dame To Kill For'', but failed.

** In the first Sin City tale, Marv subverted this by actually hurling himself through the windhield of a cop car as opposed to just hanging on.

** Way back in ''Amazing Spider-Man'' #1, Spidey hopped onto the Chameleon's helicopter and ripped the door off in order to get to him.

** He pulled a similar move at the climax of the first Hobgoblin storyarc when he jumped onto the side of an armored van in order to get to the villain.

* After the first arc of [[Joss Whedon]]'s ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' run, the newly alive-after-all Colossus is shown riding on the top of the team's jet on their way to a monster fight. After spending...uh, [[Comic Book Time|x number of years]] locked up in a lab, he wanted to feel the wind.

* After [[Scott Pilgrim]] gets his [[He's Back]] moment, he rides the bus this way back to Toronto.

 

 

== Fan Fiction ==

 

 

== [[Film]] ==

* In both ''[[Green Hornet]]'' movie serials, the Hornet catches a ride on the back bumper of a villain's car.

* Happens with the titular train in ''[[The Polar Express]]''.

* In ''[[Batman]]'' (1989), reporter Alexander Knox does this on the hood of Vicki Vale's car.

* In ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' (1990), Tracy's Sidekick "The Kid" hitches a ride on the back of police cars.

* ''[[The Matrix]] Reloaded''. An upgraded Agent jumps onto the hood of a car from another car, and just stands there while the car swerves back and forth.

** There is also a full-scale kung fu battle on the top of a semi truck, brought to an abrupt end when it slams into another truck head-on.

* In the first ''[[Back to The Future]]'', Marty gets to school quickly by holding onto the rear bumpers of cars while standing on his skateboard. This turns out to be something of a [[Chekhov's Skill]] when he uses the same technique to keep from being run down by Biff in 1955.

* The ''Deathproof'' half of ''[[Grindhouse]]'' shows clearly that even trained stunt professionals have a hard time hanging on to the hood of a car when there's a maniac slamming his car into yours at high speed.

** Justified, since he "does whatever a spider can", being sticking to surfaces, like a car roof.

** A hold-over from the comic book; Spidey frequently hitched unwitting vehicles when traveling through places with low overhead or few to no skyscrapers.

* Constantly in ''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]''. In an early scene you can just about see one of the actors playing a rebel soldier go flying off the hood of the car because of it, he continues with the scene as it nothing happened. Not too surprising as it's set in Africa where riding on top of a car is not uncommon.

 

 

* [[Doc Savage]]'s favorite way to get around NYC is to let one of his buddies drive while he stands on the running board.

* The hero does this at one point in ''[[Slan]]'' and even gets a chance to read the villains' minds.

 

 

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

* [[Scrubs|EAGLE!!]]

* In a season 3 episode of ''[[Primeval]]'', Danny does this in an attempt to escape some hungry terror birds.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Unfortunately, teenagers + booze + cars can equal [[Truth in Television]] for this trope. It normally ends with a trip to the hospital (or morgue), since they never add in safety harnesses.

* [[Real Life]]: The remora, a fish that uses a suction cup on its head to hitch rides with sharks.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* Doable in ''[[Grand Theft Auto]] San Andreas''.

* After the first boss battle in ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'', and the homage sequence in ''[[Crisis Core]]''.

* It's easier to do by accident than on purpose in ''[[Saints Row]] 2'', as most impacts, even minor bumps, send the target flying. But climbing on the roof of a stopped vehicle activates a car surfing minigame.

* ''[[Skitchin]]''' was a Genesis game where you would hitch rides on the bumpers of cars while on your inline skates.

* ''[[Battlefield 1942]]'' lets you do this ON AN AIRPLANE.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In the Generation 1 ''[[Transformers]]'' episode "A Plague of Insecticons" where the episode-namer Insecticons used lightning to down the Autobots, they found the lightning-based attacks are nulled with the rubber on the tires of their vehicle mode. Optimus Prime and Wheeljack (team's tech-head) both rode a pair of team mates in vehicle form whilst firing their weapons. It's probably simpler to coordinate this stunt when everyone involved is a robot.

** Don't know why not. He can [[Batman Can Breathe in Space|breathe in space]], after all.

* In one episode of ''[[Yogis Space Race]]'', the prize for winning the race was a trip on a space plan. As usual for this show, there was a twist to the prize that made it not worth winning: In this case, the trip was ''on'' the space plane, rather than ''in'' the space plane.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Chase Scene]]