History Main / MegaMawManeuver

* One of the story arcs on ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' has them looking for the giant whale Maybe Dick, which turns out to be a ship Boris Badanov uses to swallow ocean lines so he can plunder them.

* One one the story arcs on ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' has them looking for the giant whale Maybe Dick, which turns out to be a ship Boris Badanov uses to swallow ocean lines so he can plunder them.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', a villain named "Lock Up" used a [[BadassBigRig robotic truck]] to kidnap someone: the back opened up and two claws came out, snatched her car and dragged it inside.

In a nutshell, this is when a hostile force attacks a target by using a much larger vehicle with a large door to chase down and then "swallow" the target vehicle. The attackers have just performed the Mega Maw Maneuver. The reasons for using this tactic are usually as a form of piracy. Once inside the large vehicle, the target is at the mercy of its captors, and can be easily boarded, plundered, or seized without risking damage in a firefight.

Compare: SwallowedWhole, which is this trope but with monsters, and DrivingIntoATruck.

* In ''WesternAnimation/PinocchioAndTheEmperorOfTheNight'' the huge, creepy FlyingDutchman-like ship of the BigBad opens its bow and swallows the paddle tugboat Pinocchio and his posse were on.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* Spaceball One eats Princess Vespa's spaceship in ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}''.
* Done by the good guys at the beginning of ''Film/{{Serenity}}'', when most of the crew is on the Mule running away from the [[IAmAHumanitarian Reavers]]. Wash warns Zoe that they're going to try a "barn swallow". Zoe turns the Mule around and heads straight for the Reaver ship, only for Wash to bring the ''Serenity'' in and pull off this trope.
* The Cortez parents are captured in their car submarine by a much larger submarine this way in ''Film/SpyKids''.
* In ''Film/MortalEngines'', London harpoons smaller mobile cities, then drags them inside to be cut up for their resources. [[TrojanPrisoner Hester uses this to infiltrate London]], by putting herself on a city in its path.
* ''Film/{{Explorers}}'': Happens Twice. First to the Thunder Road, and again when [[spoiler: the parents of the aliens the kids meet come looking for them.]]
* Happens twice in ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars''. When Nanelia's tiny one-woman spaceship is swallowed up by Caymen's slaver ship, and in the climax when Sador decides IWantThemAlive and has Nell tractored into his MileLongShip. Which turns out to be a [[SelfDestructMechanism big mistake]] that [[NiceJobFixingItVillain causes his destruction]] when he's on the verge of winning.

* Used by a ship pirate masquerading as a trader in ''Literature/HouseOfSuns'' to trap the protagonist's starship inside a enormous world-ship.
* ''[[Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You]]''. The Special Corps investigates the mysterious disappearance of a navy space station whose last message was: "THE TEETH!" He uses time travel to go back to the event and sees it swallowed by a planetoid sent by alien invaders, who carry the station back to their homeworld.

* The Seeker's semi-invisible spaceship does this to the Space Shuttle Odyssey in ''Series/OdysseyFive''.
* A ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'' episode has a large sub pulling this to capture UEO transport subs.

* Happens in the intro of ''VideoGame/BattleToads'' when the small spaceship of one of the Battle Toads gets captured by the large starship of their foe.

* As a parody to the James Bond film ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', ''Videogame/FurFighters'' has a massive submarine that eats an aircraft carrier.
* The opening to ''VideoGame/{{Battletoads}}'' for the NES shows the space-Buick that Pimple and Angelina were riding getting quite literally eaten by Dark Queen's spaceship ''Gargantua''. Quite messily, too; you can see chunks of the space-car falling behind as Gargantua's jaws close down.
* Happens to the titular ''VideoGame/AlienHominid'' after clearing stage 2-6 when his [=UFO=] gets swallowed up by a U.S. military spaceship, setting up the stage for the Area 51 levels.

* One cutscene in ''VideoGame/{{Anachronox}}'' shows the protagonists' shuttle getting eaten by Rictus' FaceShip KSC ''Grimacer''.
* A lethal variation in ''VideoGame/RedAlert3'': The Apocalypse tank is so huge it runs over tanks the same way tanks run over infantry, and has a Magnetic Harpoon that disables its main gun but pulls enemy vehicles towards itself. When the harpoon is activated, the tank deploys a set of grinders that very quickly reduce the target to scrap metal, essentially eating the target (in the case of huge vehicles and buildings, the tank is instead pulled towards the target, but the effect is the same). It even works on ships, destroying them instantly when they reach dry land.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': {{The battle|star}}plate Morokweng carefully drains away the reactor power of the protagonists' ship before tractoring it into one of their bays. [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-01-06 They didn't take into account]] the crew's crazy DemolitionsExpert.

* One one the story arcs on ''WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle'' has them looking for the giant whale Maybe Dick, which turns out to be a ship Boris Badanov uses to swallow ocean lines so he can plunder them.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater'' featured the ''Maelstrom'', a massive pirate ship fashioned from the bones of a colossal sea monster. The jaws formed the ship's prow, resulting in a much more literal version of this trope than is usually seen whenever they opened to swallow a smaller ship.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', a villain named "Lock Up" used a [[BadassBigRig robotic truck]] to kidnap someone: the back opened up and two claws came out, snatched her car and dragged it inside.
* A villain in a ''WesternAnimation/MaxSteel'' episode builds an enormous aerial fortress that does this to normal planes. The resident scientist points out that having something so large fly through air [[LampshadeHanging should be impossible or, at least, an engineering nightmare]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost'' episode "Revenge of the Spider Woman". The title villain sends a shark-shaped submarine to capture Jan and Jace. As they are jet skiing on the ocean, the submarine surfaces, opens its bow like a mouth and swallows them.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': the Planet Killer, a giant ship that destroys planets. In an inversion, they deliberately flies a starship into its maw to destroy it from the inside out.

* Happens twice in ''Film/BattleBeyondTheStars''. When Nanelia's spaceship is swallowed up by Caymen's slaver ship, and in the climax when Sador decides IWantThemAlive and has Nell tractored into his MileLongShip. Which turns out to be a [[SelfDestructMechanism big mistake]] that [[NiceJobFixingItVillain causes his destruction]] when he's on the verge of winning.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': {{The battle|star}}plate Morokweng carefully drains away the reactor power of the protagonists' ship before tractoring it into one of their bays. [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-01-06 They didn't take into account]] the crew's CrazyAwesome DemolitionsExpert.

** ''Film/TheForceAwakens'': As Rey and Finn are escaping from Jakku in the ''Millennium Falcon'', the ship is suddenly overridden and a large transport engulfs it. They're certain they've been caught by the First Order, but it's actually [[spoiler:Han Solo and Chewbacca]].

* In ''VideoGame/FullThrottle'', the biker gang The Vultures drive a Jumbo Cargo Transport, a heavily modified cargo plane converted into a kind of truck capable of driving on highway-sized roads. While main character Ben battles the villain Ripburger on a semi, The Vultures assist by pulling up behind and swallowing the truck with their transport.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', a villain named "Lock Up" used a robotic truck to kidnap someone: the back opened up and two claws came out, snatched her car and dragged it inside.
* A villain in a ''WesternAnimation/MaxSteel'' episode builds an enormous aerial fortress that does this to normal planes. The resident scientist points out that having something so large fly through air should be impossible or, at least, an engineering nightmare.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

-->'''[[LetsPlay/{{Critikal}} Cr1TiKaL]]:''' "Aw shit! Space VideoGame/PacMan!"

* ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'': The enormous MechanicalLifeform V'Ger had a giant maw like this, which the Enterprise flew through in order to reach V'Ger's main processing center. It then closed, trapping the Enterprise inside.
* A hilarious variation could be the scene in ''Film/MarsAttacks'' where the US launches nukes, and the Martians deploy a tiny probe that sucks up the nukes into a balloon-like compartment, in which they explode harmlessly, the balloon probe containing everything. Then the Martians smoke the radioactive remains in some kind of space-bong that gives them HeliumSpeech.

* {{Film/Explorers}} Happens Twice. First to the Thunder Road, and again when [[spoiler: the parents of the aliens the kids meet come looking for them.]]

* In the ''Literature/MortalEngines'' quadrilogy, most towns and cities (except those in Anti-Tractionist territories) have been converted into enormous tracked vehicles. In accordance with the philosophy of 'Municipal Darwinism', these settlements are fitted with 'jaws' that allow them to catch and dismantle other settlements and claim their resources; cities prey on towns, towns prey on suburbs, and "statics", non-mobile settlements, are the bottom rung of the food-chain and fair game for everyone else.

*** One race has a starship so large that they simply beam ''Voyager'' inside to capture them.

%%* {{Film/Explorers}} Happens Twice.

* {{Film/Explorers}} Happens Twice.

* ''Fanfic/RocketshipVoyager''. When the cube-ship of the Psiborg Collective locks on with a [[TractorBeam gravity traction beam]], ''Voyager'' doesn't wait to subdued but [[EatMe flies straight in and opens up with its rapid-fire autocannon]] on the unprotected interior.

** ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'': The BigBad Karl Stromberg has a device that can cause submarines to lose power and surface. He also has an oil tanker with a bow that can open and swallow up the helpless submarines. He uses them to capture three nuclear missile submarines (one Soviet, one American and one British) during the movie.
** ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'': [[BigBad Ernst Stavro Blofeld]] has one of these, which he uses in {{False Flag Operation}}s to kidnap US and Soviet space capsules to start WorldWarIII between them.

*** This seems to be the primary assimilation tactic of the Borg Sphere, which tries to do it to ''Voyager'' twice (it succeeds in the finale, though it doesn't stick).

* As a parody to the above James Bond film ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' ''Videogame/FurFighters'' has a massive submarine that eats an aircraft carrier.

* ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'': The [[TheBattlestar battleplate]] Morokweng carefully drains away the reactor power of the protagonists' ship before tractoring it into one of their bays. [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2008-01-06 They didn't take into account]] the crew's CrazyAwesome DemolitionsExpert.