History Main / SuperPersistentMissile

* In reality, this trope is heavily downplayed. There are some highly maneuverable missiles out there, particularly air-to-air missiles, whose likelihood of hitting the target on the first attempt is very high, since they can turn much harder than a manned aircraft with a squishy human in it and move very fast. However, most of these missiles have limited fuel, only boosting for a few seconds immediately after launch, and then gliding (very quickly) the rest of the way. That makes them nearly unavoidable at close range, but the further the missile has to fly, the less energy it will have when it gets to the target. If a pilot manages to avoid the missile's first attack run, it's highly unlikely it will be able to completely turn around and try again. The ability to keep trying for a missed target is called "reattack capability" and is generally only the domain of long-ranged anti-ship missiles, which have fuel-efficient jet engines and relatively large and slow-moving targets.

* The [[FunWithAcronyms S.L.A.M.]] (Super-Sonic Low Altitude Missile) was a concept by the air force conceived as back up plan in case [=ICBMs=] didn't pan out. It would have been powered by a nuclear Ramjet, allowing the thing to fly for upwards of ''three years'' before the reactor failed. It was also would have been one of the smartest missiles of its time, as it would have had a very large "brain" to go with its large size. In its anti-ship mode it would have effectively been this, not only would it not have given up, it would have had up to ''sixty'' warheads.

* The seeker torpedo that Jango Fett fires at Obi-Wan in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/AttackOfTheClones'' actually chases Obi-Wan's starfighter ''through an asteroid field''. Obi-Wan barely managed to escape from said missile, with the assistance of his protocol droid R4 dislodging debris to finally take out said missile.
** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' has some that are ''too'' persistent; a pair of missiles are launched at Anakin's fighter, and when he spins it they corkscrew around to match until they collide and explode.

* While missiles haven't gotten to this extent yet, we are very close. New Infrared Guided Missiles are either in service, or are being researched, that are able to tell the difference between a decoy flare and a jet engine, and won't 'go stupid' and chase after bogus heat signatures [[note]]like the sun or scattered heat reflections on the ground.[[/note]]. To add insult to injury, even being on an enemy planes Six won't protect you, as the missiles can 'look' behind them, and whip around to hit targets behind the launching aircraft. Worse yet, as the computers get smarter, the missiles will as well, and they'll get increased range and agility. With all of this in the works, future air battles could very well become a mix of this, and MacrossMissileMassacre.

* An episode of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' featured a star ship sized missile intended to wipe out a planet. The ship/missile had on board weapons to wipe out any ship that tried to intercept it, and an AI system that compensated for any interference in its mission, including orders by its programer to deactivate. [[spoiler:And then it was hijacked by an enemy program, fooling its AI into thinking the "new" target was the normal one...]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Dota 2}}'' features the BunglingInventor Gyrocopter's homing missile--a comically large bomb with a fuse that doggedly tracks its target. It picks up speed and hurts more the farther it goes.

* In FailSafe, the Soviets have a relatively slow air-air missile that's hard to shake and has a very long range.

* ''Series/UltramanAce'': Alien Hipporito can fire a homing missile that pursues its target for over a minute, as TAC found out in their second confrontation with the alien. They have to pilot their jet in circles (to the tune of Theatre/CanCan!) and still failed to lose the missile, at which point the pilots have to eject and let their plane take the projectile.

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' has a mini-missile as a gadget-of-the-week, used to target a troublemaker stray cat who ate Shizuka's bird, stole Doraemon's beloved Dorayaki and made a mess of Nobita's backyard. Said missile pursues the cat for more than a page in the manga, even getting back up after hitting a wall, before blowing up said cat (in a comedic NonFatalExplosions kind of way, since it's a PG manga and they're only trying to teach the stray a lesson). Nobita later asks for another missile to get back at Gian for picking on him, where said missile actually ''infiltrates'' Gian's house by hiding among the groceries, until Gian managed to trick the missile into flying outside and then bolting all the windows and doors in his house. It backfires hilariously on Nobita ([[OncePerEpisode as usual]]) when in an attempt to trick Gian into opening the windows, Nobita accidentally disturbs a beehive causing bees to swarm over him, until his face is all swollen and looking ''like Gian'' - then Nobita starts running like crazy when his missile mistook him for Gian.

* The Revenant enemy in VideoGame/{{Doom}} has two attacks: fast dumbfire rockets, and slow seeker missiles. The latter are particularly hard to dodge, especially if you're playing VideoGame/BrutalDoom or its spinoff ''Project Brutality'', both of which have all attacks boosted and improved. You can save your skin if you manage to put something between you and the rockets while they're still at a distance, but if they're close they have a way of following you around surprisingly narrow corners - and even if they don't hit directly they have a wide splash damage area, so it's almost inevitable to take at least a few points of damage. The only feasible way to dodge Revenant seekers is to run ''into'' them and dodge at the last second, and they won't maneuver fast enough to hit you. But if you don't get to safety immediately they'll resume hunting you as soon as they complete the U-turn, and it takes a ''long'' time for them to eventually start running out of steam and losing altitude.

* ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''. An ArmsDealer shows off a smartgun that's so smart, the bullets can track down a target at any range by disguising themselves as a member of the [[IntimidatingRevenueService Internal Revenue Service]].

* ''Manga/FairyTail'' has those missiles that the [[HumongousMecha Doroma-anima]] fires at Natsu.

* ''VideoGame/StarFoxAssault'' has Predator Rockets. These are one of the few, if not the only, weapon that will hunt down Arwings and Wolfens even if the target does a loop.

If ''[[UpToEleven a swarm of these]]'' are going after you, it's MacrossMissileMassacre.

** ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'' takes this up to eleven with the HVAA (Hyper Velocity Air-to-Air Missile), which is faster than the QAAM and has a longer firing range.

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' has two variations on this... the Red Shell, which homes in directly on the next person ahead (and in later games, will maneuver itself through the course until it finds its target). It gets turned UpToEleven with the Blue/Spiny Shell, which fires relentlessly toward the leader with practically no way to stop it (and in later games causes a huge, blue explosion to damage nearby drivers as well)

* ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' have a guided missile in the film's ActionPrologue that pursues James Bond as he tried making a getaway on his miniature one-man jet. Bond spends maybe more than 2 minutes trying to lose it, before he eventually tricks the missile into flying through the very warehouse where the colonel who unmasked him as well as the radar that's the target of his mission stood and causing the missile to crash into the warehouse's closing doors, blowing everything up there.

* Missiles in the ''Literature/StarCarrier'' series are stated outright in the very first dogfight to be nearly impossible to shake with passive systems such as ECM or with a HighSpeedMissileDodge. They're flown by weak {{AI}}, use a huge variety of sensors to track targets, and can easily out-accelerate any fighter. The only viable countermeasure are active systems. Human and Turusch ships dump "sand" (granules of gravitically compressed lead) into space to serve as a physical barrier or shoot them down with energy weapons, and they're little threat to {{Beam Spam}}mers like the Sora, Slan, and [[spoiler:Sh'daar]].

* Multiple enemies in the ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series use these. It's made worse by the fact that some of them don't explode on contact, and will pester you until you shoot them down.

* ''Film/{{Octopussy}}'' have a guided missile in the film's ActionPrologue that pursues James Bond as he tried making a getaway on his miniature one-man jet. Bond spends maybe more than 2 minutes trying to lose it, before he eventually tricks the missile into flying through a warehouse full of enemy soldiers and causing the missile to crash into the warehouse's closing doors.

* The seeker torpedo that Jango Fett fires at Obi-Wan in ''Franchise/StarWars: Film/AttackOfTheClones''.