History Main / RidingTheBomb

* SonicTheHedgehogTheMovie did this too with Sonic being onboard instead.

* In OnePiece, Kizaru rides one of the cannonballs that signals his arrival on Sabaody Archipelago.

* In the DarkAvengers Ares miniseries, Ares rides a missile into ground zero, for no other reason then RuleOfCool.

* A sketch on SNL featured an interview with then-Vice President Richard "Dick" Cheney, who was riding a missile at the time. And eating a Lunchables snack-pack.

* During the closing stages of WWII, the Japanese developed the [[WorldWarII Yokosuka]] [[HeroicSacrifice MXY]]-[[SenselessSacrifice 7]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohka Ohka]], essentially a 1200kg bomb with wings and a cockpit attached. The mothership would approach to within twenty nautical miles of the target and release the Ohka. The Okha would glide to the target, before firing three Type 4 rocket motors for the final approach. Despite having a production run of 842 bombs, thankfully most were sunk along with the Japanese carriers ''Shinano'' and ''Unryu''; those that did see service accounted for only seven Allied ships, largely due to the excellent defensive tactics of the Allied navies. US sailors nicknamed them "baka bombs", after the Japanese word for "idiot".

* The Germans, towards the end of the war, developed the Fieseler Fi 103R ''Reichenberg'', which was a V-1 flying bomb with a small cockpit mounted just before the pulsejet. It was to be flown by the 5th ''Staffel'' of ''Kampfsgeschwader'' 200, the so-called "Leonidas Squadron". Technically speaking, it was not a suicide weapon; the pilot was supposed to aim the craft at the target, pop the canopy, and bail out. However, the chances of the pilot surviving the exit (which would, after all, take place directly in front of the pulsejet's intake) were estimated at less than one in twenty. Pilots were required to sign waivers before joining the Leonidas Squadron accepting that its operations would result in certain death[[note]]"I hereby voluntarily apply to be enrolled in the suicide group as part of a human glider-bomb. I fully understand that employment in this capacity will entail my own death."[[/note]]. Test pilots actually managed to pull this off, and the ''Reichenberg'', although it crashed very often, rarely killed its test pilots (Hanna Reitsch survived several crashes unscathed); though test versions, of course, were not fitted with the giant bomb the operation version would carry. Minister of Armaments Albert Speer and the commander of KG 200, ''Geschwaderkommodore'' Werner Baumbach, eventually convinced Hitler than suicide attacks were "not in the German warrior tradition" and it was cancelled. However, during the early stages of the Battle for Berlin, the concept was revived, and Leonidas Squadron pilots flying modified Fw-190s attacked Soviet bridgeheads at Kuestrin, destroying a railway bridge, which was, like the ''Kaiten'' a waste of good men and good platforms.

* RealLife example, sort of: The [[WorldWarII Yokosuka]] [[HeroicSacrifice MXY]]-[[SenselessSacrifice 7]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohka Ohka]].
** And its maritime equivalents, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaiten Kaiten]] and [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairyu_class_submarine Kairyu]]. One is on display on the shore side of Hawaii's USS Arizona Memorial Museum.
* There was a manned version of the V-1 Flying Bomb.
** ''Supposedly'' the Reichenbergs (manned V-1s) were not suicide weapons, the pilot would eject before impact. Considering how much trouble pilots had getting the canopy open when the thing was parked on the ground, odds are that had the Reichenberg ever seen active service it would have been purely this trope.
** While an ejection mechanism was provided as a courtesy, it was understood to be an effective suicide mission, and the pilots were required to sign disclaimers that they fully realized that they should not expect to survive, before joining the unit. That said, the test pilots did survive crashes more often than not.
* The US tried to build one, too. It was designed to be flown by a trained ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon pigeon]]''.
** A chicken works too.

* A subversion during the [[WorldWarII Battle of Midway]], a crippled Japanese carrier was in the process of being [[AbandonShip abandoned]] by her crew due to severe damage and fires caused by an American dive bomber attack. An American submarine saw the opportunity to launch a CoupDeGrace on the vulnerable ship (in case the Japanese may have [[DamageControl managed to save her]]). American torpedos of the time [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns being what they were]], the torpedo struck dead on, then promptly [[EpicFail didn't explode]]. The warhead snapped off and sank, leaving the body of the torpedo bobbing in the water, whereupon a Japanese sailor promptly hopped on and [[GallowsHumor pretended to ride it like a horse.]]

* A similar project that actually got the go ahead was the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb Bat Bomb]], essentially a b-25 would drop a large canister during a dawn raid over a Japanese city. The canister was loaded with hundreds of bats, each with a little napalm bomb strapped to their chests, at night they would go off to hunt and roost all over the city. A timer set all the bombs off in the middle of the day after the bats went to sleep, since most Japanese architecture was wood at the time this would have been very effective. The only reason it wasn't used was that the atomic bomb was finished first.

* ''VideoGame/Rayman2'' combines this with ActionBomb by having missiles with legs in some levels, which can be mounted once they've tuckered out and stopped chasing you. They're needed to traverse harmful terrain you normally wouldn't be able to cross, but doing so requires some precision, due to [[StuffBlowingUp the obvious result of colliding with something]].

'''Master Chief:''' ''[[BadassBoast To give the Covenant]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard back their bomb]].''

->''Bombs away! Try stopping this, Golbez! My once-in-a-lifetime unaided flight!!!''
-->-- '''Cid Pollendina''', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV DS'', as he dives from the Enterprise with a bomb in hand.

'''Master Chief:''' ''[[BadassBoast To give the Covenant]] [[HoistByHisOwnPetard back their bomb]].''\\
-- ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}''

->''Bombs away! Try stopping this, Golbez! My once-in-a-lifetime unaided flight!!!''\\
-- '''Cid Pollendina''', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV DS'', as he dives from the Enterprise with a bomb in hand.

* ''DrStrangelove'' is the TropeMaker. In it, Slim Pickens orders the bomb dropped, and then wonders why it didn't release. He goes down to the bomb bay and starts hotwiring the drop system to get the bomb to drop, while sitting on it. He then rides the bomb to a thermonuclear death.
* In the movie ''{{Armageddon}}'', when they're trying to lower the bomb into the core of the asteroid, Steve "Rockhound" Buscemi duplicates this scene, and everyone yells at him. Although he claims that he was actually getting the idea from ''TheLoneRanger''.

* Mushu, but with a firecracker in ''{{Mulan}}''.
* A scene in ''[[TheMummyTrilogy The Mummy Returns]]'' has a log bridge being blown up to allow the heroes to escape from frenzied mummified pygmies at Am-Shere. The pygmies that were on the log at the time plummet to their eventual doom; one of the pygmies, seeing the utter futility of it all, rides a large piece of the broken log.

* Played literally and subverted in ''CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger''. Johann Schmidt's ultimate HYDRA weapon, a massive Tesseract bomber known as "Valkyrie", contained various plane bombs that were presumably going to use to attack the targets specified on their hulls and are pilotable, making it the most literal use of the trope. The subversion comes in where Captain America manages to dispose a mook by opening up the cargo doors and releasing the latch before the HYDRA mook could get himself secured into the plane bomb.

* [[VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends Jinx]] gets her EstablishingCharacterMoment by riding on the lead of a rainstorm of missiles into Piltover in her introductory music video "Get Jinxed".

* ''WesternAnimation/PenguinsOfMadagascar'': In a scene of "The Lost Treasure of the Golden Squirrel" Skipper hallucinates riding the bomb, in a direct parody of the original.
Fan recreation, referring also to the above-mentioned Offspring song: [[http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/35100000/So-penguins-of-madagascar-35176844-750-600.jpg here]]

* For his most powerful special move, [[DisgaeaHourOfDarkness Laharl]] rides a ''meteor''. [[EvilLaugh Laughing maniacally the whole way.]]

* In the first Gungrave game, one type of enemy during the train level is two guys with machine guns riding a missle.

* Suicide bombers, especially those who drive automobiles laden up with exmplosives.

* In the TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} ''DeffSkwadron'' comic ''Da Sekret Weapon'', [[{{Cyborg}} Killboy]] has to open the bomb bay manually:

* In the movie version of ''HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' when the pixies are destroying the classroom, one of the pixies steals a wand and makes a huge dinosaur skeleton drop to the floor. A few pixies are then seen riding it to the ground like the bomb in DrStrangelove complete with cries of yee-hah.

* [[OlderThanTheyThink Even]] [[HilariousInHindsight older]] than ''Dr. Strangelove'' is this quote from Holden from ''Literature/TheCatcherInTheRye'':

* [[TheMunchausen Baron Münchausen's]] [[OlderThanRadio cannonball ride]].

-- '''Cid Pollendina''', ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV DS'', as he dives from the Enterprise with a bomb in hand. [[spoiler:([[IGotBetter He gets better]])]]

** His DistaffCounterpart Bayonetta rides a missile, fights on it using hand-to-hand, and shoots other missiles and flying enemies in her own [[{{Bayonetta}} self-titled video game]].