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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/ThisGunForHire https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/this-gun-for-hire_5345.jpg]]]]

Our heroes/heroines are on the run, whether from the bad guys or misinformed agents of the law. They attempt to flee over a bridge or overpass, only to find that their pursuers have sealed the other end of it and are closing on them. They're cornered. What do they do? Surrender? Go down in a blaze of glory? Why no, they look off the bridge, spot an accommodating looking vehicle passing beneath it (depending on what's under the bridge, it could be a truck, train, boat, SoftWater or any number of other possibilities), and take a well-timed leap, landing safely on the back of it and escaping.

A very frequent type of stunt in action movies, it is sometimes subverted [[PlayedForLaughs humorously]] by having the character FacePlant painfully on the ground beneath the bridge, or dramatically by having him or her only ''pretend'' to take such a leap or otherwise mislead pursuers into thinking he or she has done so (by, for example, throwing a cell phone or other piece of trackable electronic equipment onto the back of a passing vehicle). It's just as often played straight, however.

Can (but doesn't have to) involve a NoEscapeButDown.

Variations:
* Can involve a jump from any high place, including buildings, cliffs, etc.
* Can involve falling off a high place instead of jumping.
* Can be carried away by something other than a vehicle (e.g. a river).
* VehicleRoofBodyDisposal, when it's a corpse rather than a live person.

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!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Advertising]]
* Just For Men hair coloring. A female neighbor asks to borrow some milk, which the guy doesn't have. He jumps out a window onto a truck passing by underneath.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Comical variation in ''Manga/Change123'': When one of the heroine's {{Split Personalit|y}}ies is about to start a fight, she suddenly jumps off the footbridge -- not to ''escape'', but because she had recklessly put away her purse onto the railing and later pushed it down with her elbow, so she has to jump down (onto a truck) to fetch it.
* ''Anime/CowboyBebop'':
** {{Subverted|Trope}} in "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession2StrayDogStrut Stray Dog Strut]]". Spike and Hakim both jump after Ein when the dog jumps off a bridge onto the canvas covering of a boat passing underneath it, but Ein turns around and jumps into Spike, so that the two of them fall into the canal while Hakim lands on the boat, tearing through the canvas covering and falling into a tank filled with live crabs.
** Played straight in "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession21BoogieWoogieFengShui Boogie Woogie Feng Shui]]". Jet and Maifa jump off the top of a stone wall and land on a passing bus to avoid the two pursuing gunmen.
* Zangulus tries this in one episode of ''Anime/{{Slayers}}'' when trying to capture Lina as she and her friends were rafting down a river. He mistimes the jump and splashes into the river before the raft passes under the bridge he jumped from.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* ''ComicBook/BlakeAndMortimer'': Olrik does it as he's being exchanged for a Soviet scientist, jumping off a bridge rather then going to the gulag. As he does it on the Soviet side of the border, the heroes declare it the Soviets' problem and leave.
* ''ComicBook/TheFurtherAdventuresOfIndianaJones'': In #5, Indy and his female companion are dangling off London Bridge by Indy's bullwhip, when Nazi agents arrive. They point guns at Indy and demand he hand over the MacGuffin. Indy says that his options are to agree or to loosen the whip and [[NoEscapeButDown drop to almost certain death in the river]]. Then, to the Nazis' astonishment, he does just that. However, instead of hitting the water, he and his companion land on a garbage scow that is passing underneath.
* ''ComicBook/{{Robin|1993}}'': When some car thieves pull onto a busy Gotham freeway Tim takes a shortcut to a bridge over it in his Redbird and then leaps down onto the truck they're driving.
* Franchise/{{Tintin}} did it twice in ''[[Recap/TintinTheBlackIsland The Black Island]]''. The first time, he failed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Eastern Animation]]
* Wolf attempts to pull it off in an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOjVeqTMn9k episode]] of ''Animation/NuPogodi'', jumping off a bridge to land on his runaway motorcycle. He just barely misses.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bolt}}''. Bolt jumps onto a train from a bridge, with reluctant prisoner Mittens and delusional fanboy Rhino in tow. Rhino reassures Mittens that he does it all the time in the "magic box", which is how she realizes that Bolt's just an actor in a TV show.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''. Captain America leaps from an overpass, onto a moving truck carrying Vision and Ultron. Cap and Ultron proceed to duke it out on top of the truck.
* In ''Film/BatmanReturns'', Batman knocks Catwoman off the roof of a building, only for her to escape when she lands in the back of a truck full of sand.
* PlayedForLaughs in ''Film/BetterOffDead''. Lane Meyer, planning to do himself in by jumping off a bridge, is talked out of it by his friend Charles. Then Charles gives him a back-slap that sends him falling from the bridge into a garbage truck.
* [[Film/TheBourneSeries Jason Bourne]] jumps from a bridge onto a barge in ''Film/TheBourneSupremacy'' during the foot chase in UsefulNotes/{{Berlin}}. This [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome gets his leg injured]], as he has a limp for the remainder of the film and the [[ImmediateSequel first scene]] of ''Film/TheBourneUltimatum'' as a result, though he still manages to escape from his pursuers. The barge is slow and the cops quickly call it to stop, so Bourne just sneaks out by climbing underneath the bridge.
* ''Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid''. Butch and Sundance are forced to jump off a cliff to escape a pursuing posse: they land in a river and are carried away downstream.
* In ''Film/DickTracyVsCueball'', Cueball jumps from a footbridge on to the top of an (unmoving) freight train, and then to the ground to escape into the rail yards. Dick follows him.
* ''Film/TheFirm''. Mitch [=McDeere=] escapes from the big bads in his Firm by smashing his office window and plummeting onto a truck filled with bales of cotton.
* ''Film/TheFugitive'' (1993). In order to escape Deputy U.S. Marshal Gerard, Doctor Kimble does a Peter Pan off the side of a dam into the river below and is swept away by the current.
** He does it in the 2000 TV series remake as well.
* In ''Film/HardTarget'', Chance and Nat escape from Fouchon, Van Cleaf and their mooks by jumping of a bridge onto a freight train passing underneath.
* ''Film/HudsonHawk''. While escaping from the Vatican, Eddie ends up on top of a light pole. He flips off of it and lands on a bus passing underneath him.
* In ''Film/{{Hunted|1952}}'' (1952), the two fugitive heroes jump from a bridge onto a slow-moving train.
* During the LeParkour chase in ''Film/TheManFromKangaroo'', the mugger attempts to escape John by dropping off a bridge on to the roof of a doubledecker tram that is passing underneath. John follows by jumping into a much lower cart that is following the tram.
* ''Film/TheMatrixReloaded''. Morpheus orders Trinity to get the Keymaker to safety, and she does so by jumping with him off the bridge and landing on a truck carrying motorcycles. Later on Morpheus is shown on top of a truck, implying that he did the same thing.
* The ActionPrologue in ''Film/TheMechanic2011'' ends with the ProfessionalKiller leaping off a bridge while a barge passes beneath. Rather than a desperate improvisation, it's all part of a meticulously planned contract killing. He manages to upstage this in the sequel, escaping pursuers by jumping off a cable car onto a hang glider which happened to be flying beneath!
* In the scene that introduces him in ''Film/MenInBlack'', [[Creator/WillSmith James]] chases down a perp (actually an alien in disguise) who jumps off the elevated Park Avenue Viaduct onto 42nd Street, at least a 15-foot (4.5-meter) drop onto hard asphalt below without so much as a tweaked ankle. Instead of just watching the perp get away, James jumps down after said perp by waiting for a double-decker open-top tour bus full of {{Japanese Tourist}}s to pass underneath the bridge before jumping on it and getting down that way to continue the chase.
-->'''James:''' It'd be raining black people in New York!
* In ''Film/MissFisherAndTheCryptOfTears'', Phryne and Shirin escape from the Palestinian police by jumping off the top of a tunnel on to a train that is passing underneath.
* In ''Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReckoning,'' near the end of the film, [[spoiler:Gabriel escapes from Ethan Hunt by jumping off the train they're fighting on (which is going over a bridge) and onto the bed of a truck.]]
* ''Film/RingOfFear'': When escaping from the asylum, O'Malley jumps off a walkway on to a truck, which he then steals.
* In ''Film/{{Salt}}'', Evelyn Salt escapes from her pursuers by leaping off a highway overpass onto a truck.
* ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'': After escaping from Stromberg's guards on the ''Liparus'', Bond leaps off the catwalk and lands in the back of the maglev rail car passing underneath.
* In ''Film/ThisGunForHire'', Raven escapes the police at the rail yard by leaping off a rail bridge onto a moving train.
* In ''Film/UnderworldAwakening'', Selene [[EscapedFromTheLab escapes the lab]] by jumping from a window onto a truck that's passing by below.
* ''Film/USMarshals''. Mark Sheridan jumps off the top of a building holding a rope, swings over and lands on top of a passing train.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''The Bronze Horseman'' by Paullina Simons. In his BackStory Alexander escaped from the train taking him to TheGulag by jumping out while it was crossing a river 30 metres below. His chances of survival were so small the guards [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat never even bothered stopping the train to look for him]].
* In the spy thriller ''The Man Who Was Saturday'', the protagonist escapes pursuit by jumping off a bridge onto a passing barge. He breaks a leg on the landing, and it doesn't heal neatly, either.
* In the third of the ''Literature/RachelPengNovels'', Rachel just barely manages to keep Jordan from trying this when he's running from the cops--she knows that the real world doesn't work like the movies, and it would ''not'' end well for him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. To cure Angel from a poisoned arrow fired by rogue vampire slayer Faith, Buffy needs the blood of a Slayer. So Buffy and Faith fight to the death, but when it looks like Buffy will win, Faith throws her injured body off the building onto passing truck as a final TakeThat to her rival.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In [[Recap/CSINYS04E20 Taxi]]," the final episode of the Cabbie Killer's arc, Mac & Flack have apparently cornered the perp near the top of a grain bin at a brewery, but the guy jumps before they reach him and lands on the canvas top of a passing semi truck, eluding capture for a bit longer.
* In ''Series/DayBreak2006'', Hopper jumps from a footbridge onto a moving metro to escape his pursuers.
* ''Series/DeadMansGun'': In "The Highwayman", Robert jumps off the scarp on to the roof the stagecoach and holds his gun on the driver and guard to force them to stop.
* Towards the climax of ''Series/DueSouth'' episode "All The Queen's Horses", Raymond Vecchio (while carrying CanineCompanion Diefenbaker) successfully jumps from a bridge to get onto the out-of-control train that the rest of the cast has been fighting terrorists on.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'':
** Team [[ClassyCatBurglar thief]] Parker does this when cornered by a security guard at a company they are infiltrating. She back flips off the balcony and hangs on below by her fingertips.
** In another episode, Parker convinces a rather reluctant Hardison to jump off a bridge with her onto a train passing beneath it.
* In the ''Series/PersonOfInterest'' episode "Reasonable Doubt" the POI escapes Carter by jumping off a high-rise onto a dump truck full of garbage.
* One idiot on ''Series/WorldsDumbest'' attempts a stunt where he BASE-jumps from a bridge into a raft being pulled by a motorboat. [[EpicFail He misses the raft and splashes into the river.]] (The commentators point out that he parachuted in the direction opposite to the boat, so even if he'd hit the raft, he wouldn't have stayed in. Had he gone in the same direction as the boat, he might've succeeded.)
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* In the video for Music/{{Shaggy}}'s "It Wasn't Me", Shaggy directs Rik to jump off a bridge and onto a passing truck he's arranged to pass underneath in order to escape Rik's vengeful girlfriend on whom he has just been caught cheating.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' does this [[HorseOfADifferentColor with chocobos]] at one point early on, when the party needs to escape Figaro Castle after it's been set on fire and about to burrow underground.
* Done in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' with a train after the characters blow the mako generator up.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel II'' has the heroes jumping from the bridge to the Eisengraf train stationed at Roer in order to rescue Alisa's mom who is held hostage. Said train is also moving because the jaegers alerted everyone of intruders.
* In Chapter 3 of ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' by Creator/TelltaleGames, Lee and Omid are forced to jump from an overpass onto the train because of a oncoming herd of Walkers.
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': It doesn't involve a literal bridge, but Vinnie Gognitti tries to escape from Max by jumping off the roof of a building onto a passing subway train. Unfortunately for him, there's a second train only a couple of minutes behind, and if he was hoping Max [[TryAndFollow wasn't crazy enough to try the same stunt]] he gets an unpleasant surprise soon after.
* A OneHitKO [[LimitBreak Heat Action]] in ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza 6}}'' when fighting on the train bridge in Onomichi has Kiryu grab a mook and toss him onto the roof of a passing train, with the mook only able to stand there awkwardly as he's whisked off to his new destination and Kiryu returns to the fight.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/DeadFantasy 5''. Heavily wounded and surrounded by {{ninja}}s, Tifa jumps from the top of a building and lands on a passing train below.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', Dimo launches himself off the pitched roof of a three story train station onto the snowy roof of the caboose on a departing train.
* In ''Webcomic/AMiracleOfScience'' Benjamin and Caprice ride their motorcycle off the reservoir embankment and [[https://www.project-apollo.net/mos/mos038.html onto a passing train]] in order to escape some robots. Notably this is only possible because [[GeniusLoci Mars]] is providing support to get the timing right.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/BooBoomTheLongWayHome'': Episode 25, Boo-Boom does this in order to get onto the train that is carrying his parents to a prison camp, after the original plan to keep the train from departing fails.
* Used by WesternAnimation/BugsBunny in the {{Anvilicious}} ''WesternAnimation/CartoonAllStarsToTheRescue'' when explaining that "My friends were doing it" is no excuse for getting into drugs; even if the others weren't being malicious, a bad idea is a bad idea.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': in the episode "The Clock King", the titular villain escapes from Batman in their first encounter by jumping from a building roof onto a passing train; being a ScheduleFanatic, he knew it would pass under that bridge at that exact moment.
[[/folder]]
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