# The plane is going to crash offscreen...but yay they pulled out of it! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 23, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458 "2015-02-23T23:25:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/1 "2015-02-23T23:25:39Z")
I was trying to come up with a list of movies where this happens, as I know I’ve seen it dozens of times. Heroes are inside an airplane that’s in a nosedive…then it disappears from view while you wonder if they made it (if you’re 12 and haven’t seen a movie before) and then yay! The hero has recovered and you see the plane again swoop back into view, having pulled out of it. Unfortunately I can only think of a few movies right now where this happens - **Goldeneye** (the beginning scene, where Bond skydives into the free falling plane), **Thunderball** , (Bond karate chops the board that restrained him and pulls up), and **Oblivion** (electrical problems blah blah). Can you help me with other movies? I know there’s a bunch of times where someone pulls really hard at the controls to avoid a mountain or whatever, but I want the scenes specifically where the movie waits a couple of beats while you’re supposed to think it’s crashed, before it reappears. I’m also surprised there isn’t a TV Trope about this specifically - unless I missed it ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/2 "2015-02-23T23:34:15Z")
Superman Returns ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2015, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/3 "2015-02-23T23:42:42Z")
It happens at least once, and possibly multiple times, in _2012_. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/4 "2015-02-24T00:13:36Z")
Yeah, that trope is super familiar. You see it a lot when someone builds a flying machine that _might_ work. They launch off a cliff and the machine plunges out of site to the accompaniment of screams. Then the machine flies up into the foreground and over the viewer’s head. A couple of possibilities – the flying machine in Wild Wild West (sigh…yes, I saw it), and the flying mutant in X-Men First Class. I’d be willing to bet they used it in How To Train Your Dragon as well. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/5 "2015-02-24T01:06:27Z")
Not a plane, but the mice in the animated Disney movie _The Rescuers_ (1977) use a seagull as one and it also falls down like a rock after a few wing flaps taking off from a high raise roof, they recover before hitting the roads of New York. That scene BTW has one of the few confirmed “the animators added something naughty” in the background, the naked breasts of a woman show for a few frames in one of the windows when they were diving. [spoiler] [http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.asp[/spoiler]](http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.asp%5B/spoiler%5D) Spoiler to make it two clicks. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/6 "2015-02-24T01:15:13Z")
_Always_ (1989) probably did this a couple times. ---
**Author:** ![Trancephalic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trancephalic/32/380_2.png) [@Trancephalic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trancephalic)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/7 "2015-02-24T01:29:52Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Not a plane, but the mice in the animated Disney movie _The Rescuers_ (1977) use a seagull as one and it also falls down like a rock after a few wing flaps taking off from a high raise roof, they recover before hitting the roads of New York. He’s an albatross, not seagull. On that note, there’s a manga series called Gon wherein the titular character raises (brusquely as his nature) an albatross chick to adulthood. About two pages are dedicated to his uncertain plummet off a cliff… after Gon kicks him off of it. The albatross, Ho, henceforth becomes Gon’s constant companion/punching bag. Gon’s pretty great stuff. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/8 "2015-02-24T01:40:20Z")
> [@Trancephalic](#): > > He’s an albatross, not seagull. Yes, you are right, I forgot that detail from those days. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e79b87/32.png) [@The\_Joker\_and\_the\_Thief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Joker_and_the_Thief)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2015, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-plane-is-going-to-crash-offscreen-but-yay-they-pulled-out-of-it/713458/9 "2015-02-24T03:48:27Z")
It happens in a episode of MacGyver as well, though I don’t come close to remembering what one.