Car Fu: Difference between revisions

Automobiles are, in fact, the most efficient killing machines on the surface of the planet. To date, the kill count of this invention is totally unmatched. And no, not even guns can be remotely compared. Being killed by a car is a very common cause of [[Death by Origin Story]]. How he/she was killed? Car accident. How convenient.

 

 

 

See also [[Toyota Tripwire]]. If done with ships or spaceships, it's [[Ramming Always Works]]. If the car explodes on impact, it's a [[Molotov Truck]]. For murder attempts with heavy machinery, see [[Forklift Fu]].

== Run'em down, Run'em over ==

=== Anime & Manga ===

* In the last episode of ''[[Daimos]]'', Kazuya uses the truck form of the [[Super Robot Genre|Super Robot]] to smash his way through a hallway protected by laser guns in an attempt to reach the control room at the end.

* In ''[[Death Note]]'', Soichiro Yagami commandeers a city bus and rams it into the main lobby of Sakura TV to gain access into the building without the Second Kira seeing his face.

 

=== Comics ===

* ''[[Preacher (Comic Book)]]'': Coming back to save his mate, Cassidy rams his pick-up truck into the [[Badass Longcoat|Saint of Killers]] at full speed. [[Implacable Man|Who doesn't even flinch]].

{{quote|'''Custer:''' Ugly fella there just drove a truck into you. Ain't you pissed at him at all?

* Long before ''[[Empowered]]'', [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Psylocke]] had the bright idea of driving a truck into the Juggernaut. It barely even slowed him down, but ripping open the cab left him a sitting duck for her psychic attack.

* ''[[Miracleman]]'' uses and somewhat averts this by having the eponymous hero throw cars at the [[Big Bad]], Kid [[Miracleman]]. The cars still have people in them.

 

 

* Parodied in the first ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movie, where he is driving a steamroller (extremely slowly) toward an enemy [[Mooks|Mook]], yelling at the man to get out of the way. The henchman stands in place for at least ten seconds, waving his arms and screaming in horror, until the machine runs him over.

* 1988 was a great year for using steamrollers against villains:

* In ''[[Raw Deal]]'', [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]]'s character proceeds to beat up some mob types, before leaving and driving a truck through the building where his victims are getting back to their feet.

* The live-action ''[[Spawn]]'' movie has the Violator drive a truck into Spawn, who protects himself with his cape.

* ''[[Aliens]]''. Ripley manages to kill an alien with nothing but the APC.

* Toward the end of ''[[RoboCop]]'', one of the bad guys is exposed to some toxic waste, RoboCop's primary target, [[The Dragon|Clarence Boddicker]] uses a car to reduce him to a red smear....

* ''[[Film/Night Watch|Day Watch]]'' has a very interesting scene in which Alisia, a "Dark" witch, drives a sports car ''hundreds of feet along the side of a building, then makes the car fall into a wall window, then drives through a corridor on the hundredth (or so) floor and into the [[Big Bad]]'s office for a meeting.''

* ''[[Shaun of the Dead]]'' has the characters run over someone with their car. Unsure if it was actually a zombie, they quickly back up to check on him. Once they're assured it ''was'' a zombie, they drive off.

** Harry's not the only one to do this, either; {{spoiler|Madrigal Raith attempts to kill Mouse by driving a car into him.}} Again, subverted in that it doesn't work too well; {{spoiler|Mouse turns out to be [[Only Mostly Dead]]}}].

* The pulp series ''The Spider'' featured this several times, at least once with a bus.

** Although it does go on to say that larger vehicles like semis and armored trucks have some decent applications as mobile forts.

* Sookie Stackhouse of ''The Southern Vampire Mysteries'' uses this method to rescue her [[Love Interest]], her boss and her Love Interest's boss from a large, vengeful vampire. It works, but her car is totalled in the process.

* During the second season finale of ''[[Burn Notice]]'', Michael uses ''unmanned'' Car Fu to clear out a crowd of agents waiting for him. He puts a brick on the gas pedal and aims the Jeep at the bad guys, using it as a battering ram to clear their blockade, and knock down the spike strip that would have punctured their tires if they had tried to drive out first.

** In the third season's midseason finale he pulls an even more dramatic stunt, sending Sam's girlfriend's Buick sailing off the third story of a parking garage to distract a gang that's trying to ambush Fiona. This is why Sam doesn't let Michael drive.

* ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' used to be built on Motorcycle Fu (he's called Kamen ''Rider'' for a reason), but more recent entries in the franchise have all but forgotten about it.

** Happily brought back into the show by [[Kamen Rider Double]].

** And then there's the car in ''Episode 2'' which has no built in weapons (besides the bumper), but still manages to be far and away the best way to kill the Hunters in the big battle at the end.

** In at least one point in the series you can drop your car on your enemies with a crane. In fact, there's an achievement/trophy for it.

** The announcer will yell "Roadkill!" or "Hit and run!" when you run over a player on foot; "Pancake!" in the rare case you manage to drop a vehicle directly on top of an infantryman; and "Vehicular Manslaughter" and "Road Rage" when running over several players in vehicles, without being killed. The Scorpion even has extendable blades designed to chop up infantry as you zoom past.

** In ''UT3'', the Necris Viper and the Scorpion can be set to self-destruct. If a player aims a vehicle at a given target, sets it to self-destruct, jumps out just as they're about to hit the target, and manages to kill someone with the resulting explosion, the "Bullseye" distinction is granted. Earning Bullseye twenty times grants the "Deathwish" award. Getting roadkill/pancake fifteen times in a match equals a "Road Rampage", ten of which bestow the "Armadillo" award, and killing a player in an aerial dogfight makes you a "Top Gun", twenty of which bestow the "Ace" award. A player who has killed at least one player with each vehicle earns the "Jack of All Trades" award. Destroying certain vehicles with the main gun on the Goliath tank produces a declaration of "Eagle Eye". Many of these can also be found in ''UT2004''.

* This trope is the heart and soul of the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series.

** Especially fun when you use the car as a projectile. Drive at target in police view (say, said police). Accelerate. Abandon vehicle. If the target doesn't dodge... squish. And no wanted levels! Another less than realistic piece of fun from ''Vice City'' was the old standby, the chopper blades of chopping, which I don't think really ticked off the cops in that game, either (they wise up for ''San Andreas'''s sequel, though.).

* In ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]]'' and its sequel, a player can ram ground troops with their vehicles, although this is usually ineffective as most ground vehicles are quite slow. However the swoop bikes can be used to kill an enemy by running them over, although careful timing you will need. The droid AAT, while moving slowly (especially in the first game, with no boost), is rather pointy and will take out clones pretty fast if you ram them.

** In addition, many players have discovered a tactic in that they can place mines on the front of their vehicles as they will detonate the moment they come into contact with an enemy unit. As a result, ram tactics can result in a spectacular, albeit suicidal if you don't jump out quick enough, victory.

* ''Interstate76''

* In the early days of ''[[PlanetSide]]'', the most common use for tanks and other heavy vehicles was ramming infantry, which generally instantly splattered them. The hover vehicles were especially notorious for this, with the hover tank Magrider earning the [[Fan Nickname|nickname]] Magmower (and other less savory names). Eventually, this tactic was sharply reduced in effectiveness, to the great dismay of tank drivers everywhere.

* Two vehicles, the buggy and the dumptruck in N64's ''[[Blast Corps]]'', also work on this same principle. It helps others destroy a little bit faster, but it's the key to beating these vehicles' missions.

* While there's mostly ranged weapons involved, the ''[[Twisted Metal]]'' series has plenty of Car Fu moments; any vehicle can engage in Car Fu against other vehicles and the occasional pedestrian or enemy driver; there's even damage bonus for T-boning an opponent (colliding with them in their side) in some versions. And certain other vehicles (especially in ''Twisted Metal Black'' and not just Darkside) have Special Weapons that emphasize Car Fu. For example, Yellowjacket's omnidirectional spike launcher has a secondary attack mode where turbo-ramming an opponent with them deployed but not fired will increase the collision damage. Grasshopper's special has her [[Awesome but Impractical|launch into the air to 'squash' other vehicles.]] Axel's hidden secondary Special Weapon retracts him inside his torture wheels, turning it into a single, humongous tire that decides it doesn't need be on a Monster Truck to crush cars and people. And let's not forget Mr. Slam ([[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]] -a modified backhoe), the only vehicle that can Car Fu with a ''grappling'' attack. Over and over.

* ''[[MadWorld]]'' has a motorcycle example. Jack has a Bloodbath Challenge where he spins his motorcycle around to knock aliens into various deathtraps. The boss fight in that same level involves both of you on motorcycles, with the final QTE having you smash your motorcycles into each other to try to beat the other's ride into submission.

* You get the Road Rage Execution Style in ''[[The Godfather (video game)|The Godfather]]: The Game'' the first time you run over an enemy gangster with a car, while the Traffic Accident Execution Style is collected by shoving an enemy so that someone else runs him over for you.

* The ''[[Call of Duty]]: Modern Warfare'' games have several examples of these. One of them in ''Modern Warfare 2'' is a pickup controlled by Shadow company running into a minigun-equipped Ultranationalist Humvee.

* Occurs during a cut scene in ''[[Red Steel]] 2'', when the villain Payne tries to run over the player with a tanker truck. The game then starts a series of [[Press X to Not Die|quick-time events]] where you have to fight Payne while avoid being thrown from the runaway truck.

* The [[Daytona USA|Hornet]] car in ''[[Fighters Megamix]]'' is a literal example. The car stands on its back tires, and boxes with its front ones.

* Early in ''[[Devil Survivor 2]]'', the protagonists run into Dubhe, who is impervious to all of your attacks. The level at first seems to be an "escape" level, but the escape is blocked off before you can reach it. Then {{spoiler|Daichi}} runs a truck off of a bridge and into Dubhe, turning most of its immunities into ''weaknesses'' and taking out about half of its HP in one shot.

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has recently implemented minecarts. The fanbase have already begun producing minecartillery tracks to fire them at incoming hostiles.

 

=== Real Life ===

* Suffice it to say that armoured fighting vehicle crews refer to infantry as "Crunchies" for a reason.

* The 1997 street brawl in Amarillo, Texas [[Jerk Jock|resulting in the death]] of [[wikipedia:Brian Deneke|Brian Deneke]] is a particularly tragic (or [[Karma Houdini|infuriating]]) example of Car Fu.

* Some crooks use cars to break into stores. It's rarely very effective, as it alerts everyone to the crime immediately.

* The popularity of car bombs (suicide or otherwise) probably falls into this category.

* A rare female mass murderer, Priscilla Joyce Ford sped down several sidewalks in Reno, Nevada, killing seven and maiming over twenty. During interrogation, she boasted about her desire to kill at least seventy-five.

* In cases of people who are extremely Anxious about driving, their Anxiety stems from the fear that they will accidentally kill someone.

 

* Despite it being unintentional, ''[[One Piece]]'' goes the extra mile by using ''Train'' Fu to take down a giant.

* More recently, we can see {{spoiler|Little Oars Jr., the giant, using one of the government's battleships to open a breach through one of marineford's walls.}}

* In ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' Sniper has [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] and can mark opponents so objects hone in on them. Yusuke isn't worried as he is able to avoid rocks and knives. [[Oh Crap|Then he sees a truck heading for him]].

 

* ''Brit'' #7 contains several variations of this during a fight against the [[Body Snatcher]] inhabiting ''[[Invincible]]''. First, Brit looks like he's going to crash into the [[Body Snatcher]], but instead drives past it and uses the car to pull a building onto it. When the [[Body Snatcher]]'s recovered from that, ''then'' Brit crashes into it, and to keep the onslaught going, his friend uses her teleportation powers to drop every car on the block on its head. The [[Body Snatcher]] maintains control just long enough to pick up a car and hit Brit over the head with it.

* Writers tend to forget this, but [[Spider-Man]] is strong enough to [http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/6340000.html throw Cadillacs.]

** At one point, Doc Ock tries to crush Spidey with a pair of cars he picked up from the street. Spidey dodges by jumping in a side window, notices the key is still in the ignition and proceeds to ram the car into Ock.

*** The [[Spider-Man (film)|second movie]] has Doc Ock throwing a car at Pete and Mary Jane's date, only being saved by the [[Spider Sense]]. (Although as [http://www.moviemistakes.com/film3843?singletype=plothole someone pointed out], it wasn't a wise thing to do.)

 

=== Tabletop Games ===

** The latter problem lead to a fully outfitted system for Car Fu in the ''nWoD'', including statistics for vehicles, damage based on speed and weight of both "participants", and examples of when Car Fu is a really bad idea (using a small compact to try to ram a Death Raging Werewolf, for example).

 

** Also, you can [[Die Hard|kill a helicopter with a car]]

* In ''[[Crackdown]]'', not only can you run gangsters down with your vehicle, but by bulking up your strength, you can progressively throw a car door, a car, and a semi at enemies. There's an achievement gained for killing gangsters with a giant bronze globe, a la Atlas.

* In ''[[Wild Arms 4]]'', a member of the [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]] is a demon who has complete mastery over space and can thus teleport [[Tank Goodness|tanks]] above your characters and [[Death From Above|drop it on their heads]].

* In the original ''Command & Conquer'', you were able to run over Nod Attack Cycles with GDI Medium Tanks.

* ''[http://workhate.co.uk/?p=9 Captain Broadband]'' threw car at Imaginary Cat. It was unsuccessful. Innocent bystander standing in car's path at time loses 50HP. Innocent bystander is destroyed.

* ''[[Panthera]]'''s Leo and Pardus use their earth- and air-powers to throw a car at {{spoiler|Oosterhuis}}. It is glorious.