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:

* 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.

 

 

** 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.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' - Vampire Amilyn (Paul Reubens) hangs onto the top of Pike's van as he's fleeing and even punches a hole in the roof to grab him. Too bad about that low tree limb...

* In ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'', Indy finds himself clambering all over a truck which he's trying to hijack, a process made difficult by the Nazi soldiers who are riding in the back.

* ''[[The Invisible Man (film)|The Invisible Man]]'' has the eponymous character follow his target this way. Made easier by the fact that, well, he's invisible. Ignore the fact that he's also naked in the middle of winter hanging onto the side of a speeding car...

* 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.

* [[Clint Eastwood]] as cop Harry Callahan does this a few times. In the first movie ''[[Dirty Harry]]'', Harry jumps from an overpass onto the roof of a schoolbus taken hostage by the Scorpio Killer. In the sequel ''[[Magnum Force]]'' a mobster trying to escape a police raid speeds out in a getaway car and Harry clings to the hood of it.

* Done with an airplane in ''[[The Mummy Trilogy|The Mummy 1999]]'', though it probably wasn't moving when they got on it; two people ride on the wings of a two-seater plane.

** Shows up a couple of times in ''[[The Avengers (film)|The Avengers]]''. Thor makes his entrance by landing on the team Quinjet {{spoiler|so he can grab Loki from them and take him back to Asgard.}}

 

 

== [[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.

* Some more train examples happen in ''[[Wario Land]] 2'' and ''[[Wario Land]]: Shake''.

* 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.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Chase Scene]]

[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]