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Eject... Eject... Eject...

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Pray that this doesn't light up...

This will flash somewhere on your instrument panel (or will be shouted at you in dialogue by another character over your com) whenever your jet fighter, Space Fighter, Humongous Mecha, etc. sustains critical damage and is about to crash or come apart on you. Better hope your Ejection Seat is working properly... It is frequently accompanied by a loud alarm, siren, or buzzer.

If the character is sufficiently badass, expect them to ignore the ejection as they attempt to finish the mission/task they are currently attempting.

Outside of video games, expect to see the trope title used as a stock phrase when the Ace Pilot needs to bail out.

Not to be confused with the usual utterance of Soundwave.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Inverted in Code Geass. The Knightmare Frames automatically eject the cockpit block when dealt crippling damage; only time we see bright flashing messages is when the pilot can't eject because of a system malfunction.

    Comedy 
  • Bill Engvall tells the tale of how he got to fly with the Thunderbirds, which is the U.S. Air Force's demonstration team. Bill admittedly has a bout of Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! while being briefed for the flight. His spell is broken when the instructor pilot says, "Okay Bill, when you hear your pilot say eject, eject, eject..."

    Fan Works 
  • Myrmidons once demonstrates a Star Trek-updated Ejection Seat on a Moab Confederacy-piloted Klingon to'Duj fighter. It simply beams the flight crew out of their plane and onto the nearest transporter pad.
  • Rocketship Voyager. When the Space Marines release tear gas on the Hanger Deck to flush out an alien intruder, a pre-recorded atmospheric contamination alert repeats until someone shuts it off.
    "Atmospheric contamination (Phenacyl Chloride) detected on (Hangar Deck)! Protection Level (Charlie-Charlie-Charlie) required!"

    Film — Live-Action 
  • During the jet car test near the beginning of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, one of the mission controllers tells Buckaroo to eject.
  • The ejection procedure is shown in quite a bit of detail in the first Behind Enemy Lines film, even showing how the crew's legs are automatically drawn back towards their seats to avoid getting caught on any instrumentation when the rockets fire. This portrayal is deceptively detailed, showing events that happen simultaneously as sequential. Where the ejection sequence in the film takes over 15 seconds per man once the canopy is blown, in reality all of the actions shown occur in only a few seconds.
  • Shown in Flight of the Intruder:
    Cool Hand: Looks like this is the end of Devil 505. Say goodbye, asshole! Eject! Eject! Eject!
    *punches out*
  • Parodied in Hot Shots!. When a plane is going down, the pilot screams "Eject! EJECT!" Then a videotape pops out.
  • This instruction given in dialogue to a pilot who is Coming in Hot in the film version of The Hunt for Red October.
    "Pick up your left wing! You're drifting left! Power, power, wave off! Wave off! EJECT! EJECT! EJECT!"
  • Interstellar. When Cooper's Space Plane starts breaking up in the black hole, his computer starts saying EJECT...EJECT...EJECT... until he does so.
  • Seen at least twice in 80s action film Iron Eagle.
  • Star Wars:
    • This is done in dialogue in A New Hope, when the other pilots tell Porkins to eject. He mistakenly thinks he can still pull out and dies by crashing into the Death Star.
      Porkins: I've got a problem here.
      Biggs: Eject!
      Porkins: I can hold it!
      Biggs: PULL UP!
      Porkins: No, no, I'm all right—
      BOOM
    • Notably, Imperial TIE pilots are not given this option in the standard model.
    • Since it's a series about pilots, this happens very often in the X-Wing Series. Hobbie Klivian in particular gets it a lot.
  • Parodied in Superman Returns - Superman saves the crashing jumbo jet after freeing the space shuttle it was carrying, and brings the jet down in the middle of a football stadium. After it has safely touched down, we see the pilots dazed in the cockpit, as the GPWS warns them to "fly up...fly up...fly up..." note 
  • Maverick to Goose in Top Gun: "Eject! Eject! Eject!" It's actually military protocol, but expecting your vehicle to tell you when to eject is a bit much.
    • In the sequel Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick is flying with Goose's son, Rooster, in an antiquated F-14 when they also need to eject. Unfortunately the system doesn't work this time.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Air Crash Investigation: Used frequently during the reenactments with standard alarms or, in more recent incidents, mechanical voice warnings of "PULL UP! PULL UP!"

    Video Games 
  • In Battlefield 2 the bots will helpfully tell you to bail out of two place aircraft if they are critically damaged. Even if the damage is survivable. It's definitely not annoying.
    • More straightly, if your vehicle is at very low health, an alarm will sound. Usually it's a good idea to bail out, because your vehicle has probably caught fire and will soon explode.
  • The Venom Patrol Craft pilots in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars explicitly yell "Eject! Eject! EJECT!" in an increasingly panicked tone as one of their lines upon being shot down. However, it can be rather hard to notice, given that the thing violently explodes at the same time.
  • In Elite Dangerous, the ship's computer will repeat "Eject" three times as the ship is blowing up from critical damage. In this case, it's informing you that you are being ejected by the automatic escape system.
  • Escape Velocity starts playing a loud klaxon sound when your ship is doomed.
  • In F-16 Fighter, a simulator for the Sega Master System in which you pilot a F-16 fighter plane, when you run out of fuel or are shot down by enemy gunfire (not missiles), the screen with turn red complete with an alarm klaxon and the "Eject" button illuminated in red toonote .
  • A literal version of this mechanic is used in Janes USAF. To eject, you must press ā€œEā€ on the keyboard three times.
  • Mechwarrior and MechCommander series feature it often in cinematics:
    MechCommander 1: The Hunchback finds itself on the wrong end of a Mad Cat's long range missiles and ER Large Lasers. With smoke rising in the cockpit and alarms sounding, the pilot gives the triple call over the comm as he straps down and hits the lever.
    Video Game/ Mechwarrior 3: Mad Cat vs. Atlas. Atlas winning handily (despite missing an arm already) -but too close to survive the resulting core breach. Seeing the characteristic flash, the Atlas pilot ejects.
    Mechwarrior 4: Shadow Cat vs missile launchers. She just took them out, then she sees the missiles coming. The commander tells her to eject. She doesn't make it.
    Mechwarrior Online promo: Warhammer vs. Atlas. In a close match, the Warhammer loses. The mech computer advises ejection, and the pilot complies. Unfortunately for him, where the first two got to eject inside armored cockpit modules, he got the standard seat-only ride. This doesn't help when his 'mech explodes directly beneath him, and the fireball rises to meet him.
    • In Mechwarrior Living Legends, battlemechs will flash EJECT warnings on either side of the crosshair when their reactor is shot out. Tanks will plop a "PROCEED TO EMERGENCE ESCAPE HATCHES" and "BAIL OUT" above the crosshair when their engine is damaged, and the Chevalier scout tank will sound off a klaxon when critically damaged.
  • Overly expensive video game Steel Battalion combined this with a Roguelike twist. If you didn't eject in time and died with your mech, your game data was erased.
  • Titanfall has your Titan's computer say this to you when your Titan takes critical damage or you just decide to eject on your own. In Titanfall2, the voice advises you to either eject or get a battery when heavily damaged, and for an instant while you eject the screen displays often bizarre messages, usually quotes from other works of fiction.
  • In Wing Commander, a light labeled "EJECT" will flash accompanied by a siren sound if your ship is damaged so badly that one additional hit would most likely destroy it, prompting you to press Ctrl+E to eject from your ship. May stop flashing when your shields recharge. However, it's not uncommon to be destroyed anyway by a volley of enemy fire which destroys you faster than the EJECT warning can react, taking you from good shape to death almost instantly.
    • And in Wing Commander Prophecy, doing so will get you captured by the new alien threat, leading to a caption informing you of a literal Fate Worse than Death and game over.

    Web Animation 

    Web Video 

    Real Life 
  • On military aircraft with more than one seat the commanding officer will in fact yell "eject" thrice to the other crew member(s) to order them to bail out. This ensures that no single utterance of the order - possibly spoken completely out of context - will result in unnecessary (and expensive) ejections, as well as to ensure the rest of the crew will eject, no matter what, if they do hear the repeated order. See here.
  • This tends to count for other cockpit warnings too - normally computer callouts occur in groups of two or three - i.e. "STALL, STALL" or "TOO LOW TERRAIN", "TERRAIN, TERRAIN".

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