History Main / DeathfromAbove

** Multiple aerial moves involve either suddenly lunging downwards with an attack or dropping some for of projectile, such as Bowser's Bowser Bomb, Yoshi's Yoshi Bomb, Link's Air Cutter, Kirby's Stone and Cutter, Ike's Aether and Dedede's Super Dedede Jump as well.
** In addition to standard moves that involve attacking from above your opponent (i.e Spiking and Meteor Smashes), many [[LimitBreak final smashes]] in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' bring Death From Above onto the battlefield. Notable examples: [[VideoGame/EarthBound1994 Ness and Lucas']] PK Starstorm, [[VideoGame/KidIcarus Pit]] summoning [[TheCavalry Palutena's army]], [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} King Dedede]] and his Waddle Dees, [[VideoGame/MetalGear Snake's]] Grenade assault from a helicopter, [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Lucario's]] [[KamehameHadoken Aura Storm]], and all three [[VideoGame/StarFox Landmasters]].

** In ''VideoGame/MegaManStarForce 3'' [[spoiler: the same thing more or less happens again]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}} 2'' lives and breathes this trope, allowing the player to call in everything from Tomahawk missiles to Tac Nukes... for the right price, so much so that [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation Yahtzee]] calls the game "Airstrikes 2: Hooray for Airstrikes" and this article's Quotes page has no less than ''three'' quotes involving it.

* ''Literature/TheAcademyNovels'': The Omega Clouds are gigantic, mysterious artifacts which travel through the galaxy, coming in waves about 8,000 years apart. They investigate planets they pass, and rain down electrical death from the skies on any civilization foolish enough to use right angles in their architecture.

** Chiron to Percy in ''[[Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians The Lightning Thief]]''.

* WesternAnimation/IceAgeDawnOfTheDinosaurs: A flock of [[TerrorDactyl deadly pterosaurs]] follow and fly above the main characaters before they [[BeakAttack dive down closer to attack]], with some attempting to [[KidnappingBirdOfPrey try snatch the mammals up with their feet.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Wolf}}'' will teach you to fear planes and helicopters; human snipers armed with {{Instant Death Bullet}}s prowl the skies with them, just looking for a wolf to shoot. If you see one coming, don't even bother barking to alert your packmates; just tuck your tail between your legs and '''''scram''''', because if that shadow touches you, you're going down in one hit.

* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'': Many spells throughout the series, like Burn Strike, Meteor Storm, and Indignation, come down from the sky.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'' has a few characters whose final attack in their [[LimitBreak S-Craft]] pull off this trope. Examples include [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky Agate]], [[MasterSwordsman Aurelia]], [[BladeOnAStick Gaius]], and [[spoiler:[[HeelFaceTurn Crow]] in ''Cold Steel IV''.]]

* In general, be wary of staying under trees woth hard, heavy fruits like coconuts. Humorous it may be, [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_coconut death by coconut]] is serious enough they actually have warning signs for it. Durians may be even worse, as mature durians are hard, heavy, and ''[[SpikesOfDoom spiked]]''.

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZelda'':

** In addition to standard moves that involve attacking from above your opponent (i.e Spiking and Meteor Smashes), many [[LimitBreak final smashes]] in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros Brawl'' bring Death From Above onto the battlefield. Notable examples: [[VideoGame/EarthBound Ness and Lucas']] PK Starstorm, [[VideoGame/KidIcarus Pit]] summoning [[TheCavalry Palutena's army]], [[VideoGame/{{Kirby}} King Dedede]] and his Waddle Dees, [[VideoGame/MetalGear Snake's]] Grenade assault from a helicopter, [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} Lucario's]] [[KamehameHadoken Aura Storm]], and all three [[VideoGame/StarFox Landmasters]].

* Not strictly Death From Above, but in Creator/DreamWorks' ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' the fiery hail is gloriously rendered as a serious, sky-lighting event.

* In ''Literature/{{Footfall}}'' (by Creator/LarryNiven and Jerry Pournelle) the alien invaders have two versions of this. First, they use space-based lasers and the 'Rods From God' described below to destroy Earth's military forces and insurgents; later, after [[spoiler: Kansas is nuked to defeat their first invasion they land the eponymous 'Foot' (an asteroid) in the Indian Ocean to try to force Earth's surrender (it doesn't work)]].

* ''Literature/NightsDawn'': In ''The Reality Dysfunction'', a special forces team floating down a river through enemy territory get some sudden and unexpected support when 5,000 precision-guided kinetic energy harpoons fired from a spaceship slam into the banks on either side. The harpoons are falling so fast no-one hears them until after they land. Then they ''really'' hear them.

* In ''Literature/RogueStar'', the ''sun'' reaches out a tendril of plasma for a precision strike on Cliff Hawk's underground laboratory, where he's researching rogue stars. The results are unfortunate for the lab and the people inside it, but no more than annoying for the newly born baby star.

** PteroSoarer, monstrous and usually [[ArtisticLicensePaleontology highly inaccurate]] pterosaurs attacking people from above.

Occasionally leads to RidingTheBomb.

For a more personal version of this trope see VerticalKidnapping.

* [[Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure HEARTCATCH ORCHESTRA!]] Despite its name, the true nature of the attack is to summon a [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever giant pink haired woman]] who punches her enemies [[https://youtu.be/s3Epi7ArY5A?t=66 from above with a PowerFist!]]

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean'' features Viviano Westwood's Stand, Planet Waves. When active, Planet Waves pulls Meteorites towards Westwood, burning them away before they make contact with him. Ones flying towards other people though will not do so. Now imagine that power being active during a fist-fight...
** Dio Brando's [[MemeticMutation (in)famous]] steamroller attack, featured near the end of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders''. '''''ROADA ROLLER DA!!!'''''

*** Or alternatively, the [[BigBad Doom Dragon's]] attack, Cruel Ruin, which appears to shoot a chain of exploding beams, each destroying massive areas of land. Also, the Daedalus summon, which brings out a giant ancient-looking robot that shoots several small missiles that hit immediately and a final, huge one, which three turns later, hits for a large explosion.

** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' introduces a combat technique called the Finishing Blow, a OneHitKill which involves Link jumping very high in the air and coming down to [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impale the foe]] on his sword. The same technique reappears in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]''. In both games, [[spoiler: it is used to finish the final boss]].

* ''LightNovel/EightySixEightySix'':