History Main / StandardHollywoodStrafingProcedure

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Shore Leave". While on a planet where anything you think of becomes real, a crewman thinks about a fighter plane on a strafing run, and one appears and attacks him by strafing him.

* The ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Shore Leave". While on a planet where anything you think of becomes real, a crewman thinks about a fighter plane on a strafing run, and one appears.

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumDawn'': In most GDI campaign missions, taking out all the initial SAM sites unlocks the Airstrike power, which dispatches a pair of A-10s to napalm-bomb an area.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'': Occurs as a plane from the BigBad's ship finds Tintin and Captain Haddock adrift at sea in a lifeboat.

* Played with in ''TabletopGame/{{Battletech}}'', where a strafing run has the capacity to damage ''everything'', foe '''and''' friend, that's in the path of a strafing run. Coupled with a fairly high to-hit modifier, it may well be that nothing or everything gets tagged.

* ''Anime/MagicalShoppingArcadeAbenobashi'' uses this trope straight for purposes of parody. Sashi ends up getting strafed by a bi-plane in an episode where he's trapped in a world filled with nothing but Hollywood movie references and cliches.

* Two Luftwaffe fighters strafe the beaches of Normandy in ''Film/TheLongestDay''. Like most scenes in the movie, this was something that actually happened, when ''both'' planes the Germans were able to scramble against the invasion flew the entire length of Omaha Beach and emptied their magazines in one long trigger-pull before [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere quickly escaping before they could be shot down by the considerable number of Allied aircraft and warships in the area]].
* ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'', though it's not an attack plane but a regular plane with a passenger wielding a gun.

** In ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' he's strafed by a helicopter while hiding in the poppy fields under the net.
** In ''Film/YouOnlyLiveTwice'' the female Japanese Secret Service agent Kissy Suzuki is strafed by a SPECTRE helicopter while she's swimming back to the village to notify Tiger Tanaka about the SPECTRE base in the volcano.
* In ''Film/Batman1989'', the Joker stands still and lets the Batwing take a long strafing run at him, but not one bullet touches him. They all go to both sides of him instead.
* In ''Film/TheAvengers1998'', the flying insect robots sent by Sir August strafe Steed and Mrs. Peel as they're driving in a car.
* In ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'' the Son'a do a number on the peaceful Ba'ku village using this trope in combination with teleporting drones. All that's missing is a [[EmpathyDollShot dropped teddy bear]].
* In John Carpenter's ''Film/TheThing1982'', for some unknown reason the rifle armed Norwegians use their helicopter to do strafing runs on the Thing!dog, instead of just hovering in the air and sniping at it (which would have made for more accurate shooting). Of course, the real reason they did so was for [[RuleOfDrama dramatic purposes]].
* For ''Film/{{Transformers}}'', Michael Bay, famous for his love of U.S. military hardware and blowin' stuff up, strangely chose the less-awesome Hollywood version of an A-10 strafing run, with their Avenger guns making the "lines of little thwippy poofs" effect and sounding like machine guns. Compare the link under "Real Life", where an Avenger burst makes it look like you and everything within a few dozen yards got blasted by God's shotgun, [[RealityIsUnrealistic followed by the sound of Him farting in your general direction.]][[note]] The Avenger's 30mm rounds travel faster than the speed of sound. Combine this with the plane being some distance from the observer and/or target when he fires, and it takes a few seconds for the sound of the gun to catch up with the projectiles.[[/note]]
* Twice in ''Film/RedTails'':
** Towards the beginning of the film, a quartet of P-40 Warhawks spots a German train, and dive in to strafe it. One of the pilots actually protests that they should attack the train from head-on instead, to give the [[AntiAir defensive gunners]] on the train [[ShownTheirWork less of a chance to shoot them back]]. After three of the planes strafe the train in classic Hollywood fashion to little productive effect, the fourth pilot comes at the train low and head-on, focusing all of his fire into the locomotive, trashing the train.
** Later on, the same four pilots strafe a German airfield. While they use Hollywood strafing tactics, it seems to work because there is just ''a lot'' of things on the airfield to shoot at and blow up.
* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''. A Nazi fighter plane does this to Indy and his father as they're escaping by car.
* In ''Film/{{Sheena}}'', the soldiers' helicopter repeatedly tries to strafe a grazing herd of antelope, but apparently fails to hit anything.
* ''Film/WeWereSoldiers'': American A-1 "Sandy" attack planes and UH-1 Huey helicopters are both shown attacking North Vietnamese forces in this manner (in addition to laying in devastating heavy rocket and bomb attacks). Contrast with the book where Hal Moore described the Sandies as concentrating their cannon fire to chew up the terrain in a swath of destruction, and the Hueys' tendency to buzz around like bees, using the helicopters' hovering abilities to keep the door gunners oriented on their targets while moving about to prevent the enemy from taking cover behind anything.
* In the ActionPrologue of ''Film/ResidentEvilRetribution'', our heroine hits an Umbrella tilt-rotor gunship with GunsAkimbo SawnOffShotgun pistols, while the twin bullet streams from the gunship [[ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy spark off the deck on either side of her]].
* ''Film/RobotJox'' does the parallel lines version with giant robots [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Kn6jjJ_rk]].

* In ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/TheForceAwakens'' the Resistance make strafing runs against the First Order's ground forces attacking Maz's castle. Poe Dameron is skilled enough to take out individual Stormtroopers with pinpoint accuracy, and leaving the good guys unscathed.

* In ''Film/TheFinalCountdown'', Japanese Zeros make repeated strafing runs against a civilian boat. After destroying it, they turn and strafe the survivors in the water, the bullets again making parallel impacts in the water. And one of the civilians.

* Happens with ornithopters in intro to ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0287839/ Chidren Of Dune]]''.
* ''Series/MacGyver1985'', in a sequence from the episode "The Golden Triangle" that also appeared in the title sequence.

* Happens frequently in ''Series/StargateSG1'', often as the team race for the gate pursued by Death Gliders. Laying down fire ''ahead'' of the fleeing team would seem more sensible. Occasionally the Gliders manage to hit someone unimportant (as in "Summit"). The Gliders don't appear to have any targeting systems, so all shots are eyeballed.
* ''Series/{{Cannon}}'': In "A Flight of Hawks", Cannon attempts to stop a fighter plane from taking off. The pilot attempts to strafe Cannon while both of them are still on the ground. The twin streams of bullets pass either side of Cannon.

* Soviet Yak fighters in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'' attacked like this. Players eventually learned to just target a spot right ''behind'' the target, so the Yak did more damage while "walking" its shots at it. Against massed infantry, though, the nickname "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Infantry Eraser]]" is well earned, and it also chews up buildings and light vehicles with ease.
** The EmpathyDollShot happens in first Soviet mission victory cinematic, which primarily consists of sending Yak fighters to take out vehicles and buildings so paratroopers can mop up the rest.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' gives the USA general the ability to call in an A-10 Thunderbolt strike. The plane (or planes, as higher ranks mean more Thunderbolts) saturate the target area with their Avengers and fire a missile barrage once they're close enough. A wing of three is enough to [[ScissorsCutsRock cut down any lone air defense installation]].

* The aircraft descends slowly and menacingly while its engine gets very loud and high in pitch, [[StukaScream resembling a Stuka dive bomber]], giving its victims plenty of time to [[OhCrap realize]] ''THEY'' are the target.

** If the aircraft does NOT have dual machine guns, the bullet pattern may STILL be two parallel lines, usually wide enough to be on each side of a road, just to give the good guys a sporting chance.

Showing the path of devastation wrought by the likes of the P-47D's [[MoreDakka eight .50 cal machine guns]] would be much more difficult, expensive, dangerous and confusing, and the likely results [[LudicrousGibs would not be suitable for most audiences]]. The guns were individually aimed at a single point of intersection a certain distance in front of the plane (think about it - if the guns weren't turned slightly inward so that the shots converged, planes would have trouble with air combat as they'd end up missing targets to both the left and right at the same time). They were also far too powerful to waste on a single individual. These planes were said to be capable of sawing fully grown trees in half on a strafing run. Pilots described train cars being pushed over, and horses being thrown 30 feet, by the sheer kinetic impact. Not that a pilot would be likely to see a single person on the ground in any case. Without spotters on the ground in radio contact pilots would strafe vehicles, roads, trains, or large obvious targets.

* In ''Franchise/StarWars'' ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' the Resistance make strafing runs against the First Order's ground forces attacking Maz's castle. Poe Dameron is skilled enough to take out individual Stormtroopers with pinpoint accuracy, and leaving the good guys unscathed.

** The invasion of Sicily

* in ''Film/TheFinalCountdown'', Japanese Zeros make repeated strafing runs against a civilian boat. After destroying it, they turn and strafe the survivors in the water, the bullets again making parallel impacts in the water. And one of the civilians.

* In Creator/DerekRobinson's [=WW2=] black comedy, ''A Piece of Cake'', an RAF pilot spots a German aircraft methodically strafing a road choked with French refugees. The effects of the [=Me110=]'s cannon shells are graphically described. The RAF plane descends to ground level and tries to shoot down the German. it doesn't help that the British pilot is in an unfamiliar American plane, and he discovers he has to angle his guns downwards so as to hit the German. As the German plane is right above a road choked with people, the British pilot's over-shooting adds to the civilian casualties... the unlucky French are being strafed by two aircraft simultaneously.

** The EmpathyDollShot happens in first Soviet mission victory cinematic.
* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' gives the USA general to call in an A-10 Thunderbolt strike. The plane (or planes, as higher ranks mean more Thunderbolts) saturate the target area with their Avengers and fire a missile barrage once they're close enough. A wing of three is enough to [[ScissorsCutsRock cut down any lone air defense installation]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/strafing_indy.jpg]]

** Easily replacable {{Red Shirt}}s and {{Mooks}} [[DeerInTheHeadlights freeze in horror]] or run about randomly and are cut down.

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* For ''{{Film/Transformers}}'', Michael Bay, famous for his love of U.S. military hardware and blowin' stuff up, strangely chose the less-awesome Hollywood version of an A-10 strafing run, with their Avenger guns making the "lines of little thwippy poofs" effect and sounding like machine guns. Compare the link under "Real Life," where an Avenger burst makes it look like you and everything within a few dozen yards got blasted by God's shotgun, [[RealityIsUnrealistic followed by the sound of Him farting in your general direction.]][[note]] The Avenger's 30mm rounds travel faster than the speed of sound. Combine this with the plane being some distance from the observer and/or target when he fires, and it takes a few seconds for the sound of the gun to catch up with the projectiles.[[/note]]
* Twice in ''Film/RedTails'': Towards the beginning of the film, a quartet of P-40 Warhawks spots a German train, and dive in to strafe it. One of the pilots actually protests that they should attack the train from head-on instead, to give the [[AntiAir defensive gunners]] on the train [[ShownTheirWork less of a chance to shoot them back]]. After three of the planes strafe the train in classic Hollywood fashion to little productive effect, the fourth pilot comes at the train low and head-on, focusing all of his fire into the locomotive, trashing the train.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'': Occurs as a plane from the BigBad's ship finds Tintin and Captain Haddock adrift at sea in a lifeboat.

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* In ''ComcBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'' #20, Indy is strafed by a crop duster in a cane field in Cuba in a scene straight out of ''Film/NorthByNorthwest''.

* The UrExample is probably found in the 1942 Hollywood propaganda film ''Air Force'', complete with the "two lines of bullet strikes" cliche, when a Japanese Zero strafes the protagonist's B-17 bomber crew in the Philippines. This scene probably inspired most subsequent examples and is somewhat defensible as most early war Japanese fighters actually did carry two cowl-mounted machine guns (in the Zero's case, two cowl and two wing guns) and the Zero's cowl and wing guns had wildly divergent ballistics and consequently required different aiming points so they frequently weren't fired at the same time.

* ''Creator/NorthByNorthwest'', though it's not an attack plane but a regular plane with a passenger wielding a gun.

Showing the path of devastation wrought by the likes of the P-47D's [[MoreDakka eight .50 cal machine guns]] would be much more difficult, expensive, dangerous and confusing, and the likely results [[LudicrousGibs would not be suitable for most audiences]]. The guns were individually aimed at a single point of intersection a certain distance in front of the plane. They were also far too powerful to waste on a single individual. These planes were said to be capable of sawing fully grown trees in half on a strafing run. Pilots described train cars being pushed over, and horses being thrown 30 feet, by the sheer kinetic impact. Not that a pilot would be likely to see a single person on the ground in any case. Without spotters on the ground in radio contact pilots would strafe vehicles, roads, trains, or large obvious targets.

Showing the path of devastation wrought by the likes of the P47-D's [[MoreDakka eight .50 cal machine guns]] would be much more difficult, expensive, dangerous and confusing, and the likely results [[LudicrousGibs would not be suitable for most audiences]]. The guns were individually aimed at a single point of intersection a certain distance in front of the plane. They were also far too powerful to waste on a single individual. These planes were said to be capable of sawing fully grown trees in half on a strafing run. Not that a pilot would be likely to see a single person on the ground in any case. Without spotters on the ground in radio contact pilots would strafe vehicles, roads, trains, or large obvious targets.

** While trying to cross a bridge that's blocked by a donkey cart that refuses to budge, Patton's troops get strafed by another pair of bombers, causing an enraged Patton to [[ShootTheDog shoot both donkeys]] and have their bodies and the cart they were pulling thrown off the bridge.

* In the 1989 film of ''{{Film/Batman}}'', the Joker stands still and lets the Batplane take a long strafing run at him, but not one bullet touches him. They all go to both sides of him instead.

* Played with in ''Battletech'', where a strafing run has the capacity to damage ''everything'', foe '''and''' friend, that's in the path of a strafing run. Coupled with a fairly high to-hit modifier, it may well be that nothing or everything gets tagged.

* In a comedy, Genre Savvy characters try to outrun the bullets or dodge them by [[BulletDancing dancing]].

** Easily replacable {{RedShirt}}s and {{Mooks}} [[DeerInTheHeadlights freeze in horror]] or run about randomly and are cut down.

* ''Series/MacGyver'', in a sequence from the episode "The Golden Triangle" that also appeared in the title sequence.

* In Creator/DerekRobinson's WW2 black comedy, ''A Piece of Cake'', an RAF pilot spots a German aircraft methodically strafing a road choked with French refugees. The effects of the [=Me110=]'s cannon shells are graphically described. The RAF plane descends to ground level and tries to shoot down the German. it doesn't help that the British pilot is in an unfamiliar American plane, and he discovers he has to angle his guns downwards so as to hit the German. As the German plane is right above a road choked with people, the British pilot's over-shooting adds to the civilian casualties... the unlucky French are being strafed by two aircraft simultaneously.

In RealLife, it's not so simple, as the type of target, the aircraft type, the pilot's experience, and nearby defenses or other targets (such as civilians) in the area, can all come into play. And if the aircraft is fast enough you won't even realize it's attacking until it's done and gone.

* In ''Manga/{{Zipang}}, a traitorous Manchukuo Imperial Air Force pilot performs a strafing run during a parade in an attempt to assassinate the Manchukuo Emperor [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Pu Yi]].

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* In Creator/DerekRobinson's WW2 black comedy, ''A Piece of Cake'', an RAF pilot spots a German aircraft methodically strafing a road choked with French refugees. The effects of the [=Me110=]'s cannon shells are graphically described. The RAF plane descends to ground level and tries to shoot down the German. it doesn't help that the British pilot is in an unfamiliar American plane, and he discovers he has to angle his guns downwards so as to hit the German. As the German plane is right above a road choked with people, the British pilot's over-shooting adds to the civilian casualties... the unlucky French are being strafed by two aircraft simultaneously.

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