Parachute in a Tree

A character ejects or leaps from a plane overhead with a parachute. Before they hit the ground, they pull their parachute and fall slowly to the ground. All is well: soon they'll be safe and sound on the ground.

...If it weren't for that pesky breeze pushing them over towards that cluster of trees. Instead of landing on their feet, the character's parachute snags in the branches and he becomes stuck, dangling helplessly in the air.

If the fall isn't particularly high, the character may try to cut themselves down. Otherwise, they will probably need someone else's help to get down.

This trope covers any situation in which a parachute or similar object snags on something and leaves the owner dangling in the air. It doesn't have to be a tree, it can be a tower, lamppost, cables, or anything else that a parachute could snag on.

See also Improvised Parachute and Puny Parachute. Rarely used in conjunction with a Parasol Parachute or Parachute Petticoat.

Examples of Parachute in a Tree include:

Advertising

A coffee shop commercial includes an unlucky woman's parachute becoming entangled in the only tree in a large field.

Anime and Manga

In the first episode of Madlax, the title character paradrops into the middle of a jungle and, unsurprisingly, gets stuck on a tree. Instead of dangling there, however, she simply unstraps herself and lands gracefully on the ground.

Comic Books

Happens a few times in Buck Danny.

Film -- Animated

On Madagascar, when Alex demands to meet the people, King Julien points to the skeleton of a parachuter on a tree.

Film -- Live Action

Blair Williams from Terminator Salvation is introduced dangling from a derelict pylon by her parachute. She tries to cut herself free, despite the large drop, but Marcus Wright grabs her before she can fall from her harness.
In The Crazies (The Remake) they find the long-dead skeletal remains of a pilot who had this problem after ejecting.
The Longest Day includes a scene where a paratrooper becomes snagged on a French church spire. This incident is based on one from the real world.
In Jurassic Park III, a character falls victim to this and is later found half-eaten and still dangling from the canopy.
In Force 10 From Navarone, this happens to Corporal Miller during a parachute drop over Yugoslavia. A german soldier nearly shoots him before he is saved by Sergeant Weaver.
This is how the other characters encounter Edwin, the doctor, in Predators.
This happens to a trainee spy in the opening sequence of The Living Daylights.
A fatal example of this occurs in The Bridge on the River Kwai.
In The Dirty Dozen, Jiminez breaks his neck this way during a drop in France.
Happens to Topper Harley early in Hot Shots: Part Deux. He proceeds to cut himself free... with a chainsaw knife.
In That Man From Rio, the hero has to ditch a plane over the Amazon jungle and parachutes down - getting stuck in a tree and dangling just above a hungry crocodile in the swamp.

Music

Brian Eno's song 'Mother Whale Eyeless' includes the line "Parachutes caught on steeples".

Literature

The 'monster' in Lord of the Flies is actually a dead parachuter.
Flight of the Intruder: Jake Grafton not only ends up hanging from a tree after ejecting, but has the further indignity to somehow end up hanging from his parachute upside down. Fortunately, he was hanging only a foot or so off the ground.

Live Action TV

In The Drew Carey Show Tim Allen (As Himself) gets stuck in the tree in Drew's back yard after a failed parachute publicity stunt. Drew doesn't cut him down since the idea of having a celebrity stuck in your tree is funnier than letting him leave.
The Dads Army episode "Time On My Hands" centres on the characters' efforts to pull down a German pilot whose parachute is caught on the town clock.
In one episode of The Young Ones, after moving into a new house, Mike discovers Buddy Holly, still alive and guitar in hand, hanging from a parachute in one of the rooms. He has apparently been there since 1959 (23 yeas at that point). Mike tries to capitalise on the songs Buddy has thought up since then only for the parachute to give way and Holly fall screaming through the floor.
Full House: When Jesse goes skydiving, his parachute gets stuck in a tree, causing him to be late to his own wedding.
In an episode of Foyle's War, a German WWII flier who is found hanging in a tree from his parachute after a plane crash is involved in a murder taking place at the same time. Played with in the sense that the soldier did not in fact land with the parachute. He was transported in by a submarine and then hung himself up in the tree to make it look like he had been in the plane.
In an episode of Father Ted, during a flight emergency, Jack takes the plane's two parachutes and attaches the second one to the drinks trolley. As the credits roll, we see Jack and the trolley both stuck in the tree, with Jack vainly trying to reach it.
In Band of Brothers the men of Easy Company find a dead paratrooper caught in a tree.

Video Games

This happens to one of the first-dropped troopers accompanying you in the first Call of Duty. He's shot and killed by Germans before you actually reach him.
This also occurs in Level 3-1 of Medal of Honor: Frontline, where an Allied paratrooper is hung up on a windmill and gunned down by machine gun fire.
A parachute on a fence, sans passenger, is how Solid Snake can learn that Liquid is alive after his helicopter was blown up in Metal Gear Solid. Snake believes it was left there intentionally as a coded threat by Liquid.
Nathan Drake lands like this in Uncharted. In front of a statue with a sword in his face.
This is how one first arrives in Sholazar Basin in World of Warcraft.
Corpses of paratroopers hanging from trees are frequently found in the "Swamp Fever" campaign of Left 4 Dead 2. Upgraded weapons, medical supplies and grenades can be found on their bodies.

Western Animation

Happens a couple of times in the Street Fighter cartoon to provide a moment of humor. First Guile gets caught and Blanka teases him, and then the situation is reversed a few episodes later.

Real Life

During D-Day, a paratrooper named John Steele became snagged on the church spire at St.-Mere-Eglise and played dead for two hours before being cut down and taken prisoner by the Germans. The church still has a monument to him and the other paratroopers, in the form of a statue of a paratrooper dangling from the spire.
This is Truth in Television, and the military have taken steps to prevent it. Pilots are equipped with hooked knives for slicing throught their parachute cords if this becomes a problem and some parachutes have releasable extended lines so that you can reach the ground if you are too high up to get down or risk a fall.
One history of the SAS Regiment related an anecdote from World War II, about a trooper who got scattered away from the drop zone due to bad weather and landed in an orchard. Unable to see anything in the dark, and unwilling to risk injuring himself in a fall by cutting himself loose, he patiently waited for dawn only for first light to reveal his feet were six inches off the ground.