Stepping Stones in the Sky: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A version of [[Colossus Climb]] controlled by the [[Rule of Cool]]. A character somehow jumps and runs along a rain of falling debris or projectiles—none of which are actually attached to anything—not only to dodge but to ''gain altitude'', sometimes to reach the area firing the things in the first place. A very good way to not only show off a character's agility but also their speed.

 

{{examples}}

* While not using stones, the samurai in ''[[Samurai 7]]'' tend to leap from huge flying cyborg to huge flying cyborg, slicing apart as they go.

* The last chapter of ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' features {{spoiler|''Stepping Galaxies In Outer Space!''}}

* In the ''[[Sengoku Basara]] 3'' manga, Ishida Mitsunari takes this to the extreme by slashing a group of soldiers into the air with his sword and using ''them'' as stepping stones to reach a second story balcony!

 

* Near the end of one episode of the short-lived ''[[Spider-Man]] Unlimited'' series, Spidey easily executes this to escape a [[Collapsing Lair]], with Venom and Carnage right behind.

* [[The Flash]] can get away with this because he's not just quick, he's supersonic. Running up the side of a building is a standard Flash trick. But Barry Allen, the [[Silver Age]] Flash, didn't stop there; he took this trick (and so many others) to truly hilarious lengths. Barry would routinely run along things like smoke particles and—no joke -- ''light beams''.

* In the Archie continuity of [[Sonic the Hedgehog (comics)|Sonic the Hedgehog]], the Hedgehog hero once pulled it off using sand he got out of his shoes to go from falling off a cliff to running to safety.

 

* Beautifully parodied in the movie ''[[Kung Fu Hustle]]'': during the final battle, in order to gain enough height to execute his [[Finishing Move]], the hero uses a ''bird in flight'' as a stepping stone.

* The end of the anime film ''Mind Game'' has the main characters escaping their prison in the stomach of a giant blue whale by running up the water pouring in when it surfaces. Then they run up planes, subway trains, boats, and a large amount of other things being swallowed by the whale with enough power to launch them far into the sky. Earlier the main character outruns God.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children]]'', Nanaki, Yuffie, Vincent, and Tifa leap into the air and ''throw'' Cloud further upwards. It happens again in the final showdown between Cloud and Sephiroth, where part of the fight literally takes place on, in, and through falling rubble from a destroyed building.

 

* Luke, Mara, and Tahiri perform this during the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' series, at a point where they're fighting a Dark Jedi with the language-less mentality of a five year old on a ruined Coruscant. Slightly easier for them as they had the help of the Force, as well as the fact that many of the rocks they were hopping across were building size.

 

* In Irish myth it was said that Cú Chulainn could throw three spears at three targets, leap to the last spear thrown, from there to the second, then to the first, then to the ground to slay another opponent even as the spears hit their targets, making this [[Older Than Feudalism]].

 

* Every ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' game ''ever''. This ranges from logs in waterfalls to the much more regular falling stepping stones. Other objects include midair springboards to floating enemies that (usually) Sonic must homing attack across.

** The intro movie in ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog CD|Sonic CD]]'' has a particularly badass example of Sonic jumping on falling rocks before Spin Dashing through a large boulder and hopping off it before it crumbles away.

* ''[[The Lion King (Video Game)|The Lion King]]'': In the "Hakuna Matata" level, where Simba must climb up a waterfall by jumping on logs which are cascading down.

 

* ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'': Tex. Wash. The Meta. Falling and cracking ice shelf. It is ''[[Crowning Moment of Awesome|awesome]]''.

 

* In ''[[Teen Titans (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', using her name-implied superpowers, Terra performs a visual interpretation of the trope to get [[Badass Normal]] Robin into the face of a giant robot worm. Robin himself used this method several times over the course of the series.

* Tai Lung's prison break in ''[[Kung Fu Panda]]'' involved clawing his way out of a bottomless pit by leaping from bit to bit of the falling debris that would have crushed him. Po does it later in the film with some broken off roof tiles.