History Main / DeathfromAbove

* In ''TheBigOne'', Nazi Germany gets the Quintessential Death from Above when it is wiped off the map by a rain of 232 atomic bombs dropped by B-36 bombers. The operation described actually used a real American warplan (AWDP-1) as its basis making this TruthInTelevision. The idea was to destroy German warmaking potential. It turned out doing that that meant destroying everything that went with it. And that meant everything.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', the esper Exodus' ultimate attack drops a [[{{Armageddon}} meteor the size of Texas]] on your enemy's head.

* Creator/{{Bally}}'s ''Pinball/{{Wizard}}!'' depicts the bombers from Captain Walker's bombing run.

* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter''[='=]s Bow class has the Arc ability, which shoots an arrow up into the air, and depending on what kind of Arc shot, turns it into different kinds of attacks such as a RainOfArrows or an explosive blast.

!!!Listed below are a few ways to rain this holy judgment:

Whether it's (un)holy smiting, meteor showers, nuclear weapons, bricks from bi-planes, ordinary ordnance, or good old napalm, there's lots of ways to rain Death From Above on those below. There's something about Death raining down from the sky that is almost Biblical; it's fear and awe inspiring because there is ''nothing'' the target can do to avoid this airborne doom but "duck and cover". It is at once a powerful and impersonal way to threaten or actually kill someone, hence a great way to establish a [[SlidingScaleOfVillainThreat villain's power and threat as being on a planetary scale]]; on the flip side it also makes the airborne cavalry come to save the hero look angelic and omnipotent in comparison to the efforts of the heroes. Listed below are a few ways to rain this holy judgment:

* JetsNGuns features the titular tune in its [[MachinaeSupremacy OST]].

* Another WarrenEllis comic ''GlobalFrequency'' featured the threat of [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic spears]]; weapons designed to be dropped from satellites, heat up on re-entry, and strike the ground with the force of a tactical nuke, and as hot as the edge of the sun. Part of a 'die-back' protocol.

* ''VideoGame/{{Disgaea}}'': [[Characters/DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Laharl's]] ultimate attack,Meteor Impact [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is exactly what it sounds like]]
** Generic Star spells, especially at mid- and high-levels, fall under this, too. In ''Disgaea2'', other characters had variations--Sword users, Spear users, Adell, Rozalyn..

->''"You should encounter little organized resistance because [[ScaryDogmaticAliens the Pfhor]] are preoccupied. I've been introducing them to the '''magic''' of {{orbital bombardment}}."''

* The orbiting "[[KillSat Clean Sweep Platform]]" ''Wrath Of God'' in Dave Hopkins' ''Rework The Dead''. The undead have taken over L.A? Call in WOG and vaporise them from orbit. ''Webcomic/{{Jack}}'' also by Hopkins has Angels, particularly Reckonin', doing this on a regular basis.

** The A-10 "Thunderbolt" attack aircraft (A.K.A. the "Warthog") - Basically a flying tank capable of holding over a dozen bombs or missiles and flying in very low, but its main feature is a [[GatlingGood 30mm gatling gun]] that fires 65 depleted uranium slugs EVERY SECOND. The plane had to be specially designed with a low stall speed and two very powerful engines just to keep it from dropping out of the sky every time the pilot pulled the trigger.

* [[KillItWithFire Napalm]], for the smell of it in the morning.

* In ''Literature/TheBigOne'', Nazi Germany gets the Quintessential Death from Above when it is wiped off the map by a rain of 232 atomic bombs dropped by B-36 bombers. The operation described actually used a real American warplan (AWDP-1) as its basis making this TruthInTelevision. The idea was to destroy German warmaking potential. that meant destroying everything that went with it

* ''Literature/DeathFromTheSkies'' by Phil Plait, a mostly non-fiction book about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin all the ways the universe could kill us]].

* Witnessed from afar in LawrenceOfArabia.

* ThreeHundred:

* ''{{Armageddon}}'' and ''DeepImpact'' both revolved around meteor impacts.

* Zeus's Master Lightning Bolt in the ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' series is a prime example of this trope.

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

* In the Darkwar Trilogy of the ''RiftwarCycle'', an epic-level demon is going through a portal connecting from the Dasati dimension to the [[spoiler:world of Kelewan]]. Pug's answer? Evacuate the world and drop the moon on top of the portal.

* In TheBigOne, Nazi Germany gets the Quintessential Death From Above when it is wiped off the map by a rain of 232 atomic bombs dropped by B-36 bombers. The operation described actually used a real American warplan (AWDP-1) as its basis making this TruthInTelevision. The idea was to detsroy German warmaking potential. that meant destroying everything that went with it

* In the ''ChroniclesOfNarnia'' book "A Horse And His Boy," the main villain, having somehow found himself at a higher elevation than his enemies, declares "The bolt of Tash falls from above!" leaping upon his enemies... and getting caught on a hook halfway down to dangle helplessly for the rest of the battle.

* The Western Galactic Empire of Robert Zubrin's ''TheHolyLand'' uses Psioray bombardment. Capable of wide-area bombardment, accurate to within one-tenth of a percent of the range fired, can be tuned to only affect specific groups of beings (even more specifically than species), and reduces the targets to less than an inch in height, while leaving, for instance, local birds, lizards, and predatory insects the same size. [[spoiler:Poor Peru. Poor Iowa.]]
* ''The Ganymede Takeover'' (by PhilipKDick and Robert Nelson) has The Shaft, a miniature psychotropic autonomic dart fired from a satellite, used to kill (on an individual basis) a vast number of key technicians and leaders during the alien invasion.
* ''TheWarAgainstTheChtorr''. In an interesting inversion, a group of renegades attempting to booby-trap a helicopter landing field are exposed to a counter-ambush when an orbiting solar mirror is suddenly turned on the area.
* ''The Reality Dysfunction'' (part of the ''NightsDawn'' trilogy by PeterFHamilton). 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.

* A form of this is featured in the climax of the final novel of TadWilliams' ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'' series. [[spoiler:The Other tricks the heroes into giving it control of the satellite that it's imprisoned on, and sends the satellite plummeting to Earth, aimed directly at the headquarters of J Corp. Boom.]]
* In ''[[{{Conqueror}} Bones of the Hills]]'', when Jochi and Jebe are being pursued by Khalifa, Jochi sarcastically suggests dropping boulders on the Arabs. Jebe thinks that's a great idea. And it works.

* In ''TheDarkSideOfTheSun'' by Creator/TerryPratchett it's orbital bombardment with ''[[SpaceWhale eggs]]'':

* ''DeathFromTheSkies'' by Phil Plait, a mostly non-fiction book about [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin all the ways the universe could kill us]].

* ''Sky Masters'' by DaleBrown, a Chinese destroyer was about to nuke the city of Davao, the Americans neutralized it by dropping a satellite right on top of it.
* Mentioned to have happened in the history of Wellakh in ''YoungWizards'': their sun is somewhat unstable and flared, burning half the planet to a featureless plain and killing anyone who was there at the time, along with a good number of their wizards in the effort to stop it.

* In the pilot episode of ''DeadLikeMe'', a toilet seat drops onto the main character ''from orbit'', killing her instantly.

** And yet again in [[{{CSINY}} CSI: New York]], when a construction worker is found dead inside a port-a-potty, and the fecal residue found in the injury -- a hole in his head -- is justified early on as contamination from the scene. Turns out, he was the victim of a very, very unlucky (and timely) leak in an airplane stall.
* The usual outcome of the {{Lexx}} visiting a planet.

* ''EveOnline'' FanVid [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhVFsvWfqfM Day of Darkness II]] features Gallente [[AttackDrone Sentry Drones]] performing an orbital bombardment. Also, Admiral Tovil-Toba performs a ColonyDrop with his multi-kilometer spaceship.

* The cry "Death From Above!" occasionally appears in the webcomic ''Webcomic/DominicDeegan''. Dominic's cat, Spark, uses it as his catchphrase when dropping ''himself'' onto the head of a (usually much larger) enemy. The same series subverts the entire idea during one story arc, as a villain notes how the city he's threatening was designed to defend against aerial bombardment... then calls up an attack from ''beneath the earth''.

* Bomber planes rain down destruction during the final battle in ''Literature/TheLeonardRegime.

* As might be expected, the [[LensmanArmsRace Lensmen get into this particular Arms Race]]. If you're ''lucky'', they're just tossing bombs at you. If you get them ''really'' mad, they target you with [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale a couple of planets moving at several times ''c'']]. With diametrically opposed vectors. It's called the "nutcracker", and the results are described as the creation of a new, temporary star.

* As might be expected, the [[LensmanArmsRace Lensmen get into this particular Arms Race]]. If you're ''lucky'', they're just tossing bombs at you. If you get them ''really'' mad, they target you with a couple of planets moving at several times ''c''. With diametrically opposed vectors. It's called the "nutcracker", and the results are described as the creation of a new, temporary star.