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Ground-Shattering Landing

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The roof's weatherproof, but not Major-proof.

"Sorry, street!"
Emmett, The LEGO Movie

What goes up must always come down. In this case, it comes down hard.

This trope illustrates characters who can land with such an impact that it can break the ground beneath them. Remember though, to have enough force to break the ground, (often a concrete sidewalk or asphalt street) you also would have enough force to break your legs, or if you are falling from high enough, every bone in your body. Though given the mass of the human body, even that isn't likely to be enough to break solid concrete. However, those who make a dramatic entrance this way are rarely human anyway, whether literally or just power-wise; if it's not classic Super-Toughness, the character might be using some sort of Applied Phlebotinum (Functional Magic, Deflector Shields, Nano Machines, etc.) to reinforce their body, nullify the force of the impact upon said body, or some other relevant effect.

Can be combined with Three-Point Landing for extra badass points.

See In a Single Bound, which commonly invokes this trope. Also see Ground Pound for examples of more hard landings or Goomba Stomp when the "ground" in question is an enemy.

Note, if it causes a ripple effect spanning out from the impact point, it's a Ground Wave.


Examples

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    Anime and Manga 
  • Happens a few times in Ranma ½
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • When the Saiyans land their space pods. Raditz's makes quite a crater, and Nappa and Vegeta's actually destroy buildings before leaving their mark on the Earth. And that's not to mention what happens during the fights that the characters get into.
    • The series also features Ground Shattering Takeoffs — As the characters get stronger, the Chunky Updraft climbs to ridiculous levels, usually culminating in a violent explosion just as a character launches into flight.
  • In The Fruit of Evolution, or at least the Animated Adaptation, when Rurune the donkey leaps over the stalled racers in her introduction chapter/episode, she hits the ground so hard that not only does she leave a crater, she creates a Shockwave Stomp effect that blows away the dozen-strong pack of Grand Wolves she landed amongst, with at least two of them hitting the city wall so hard that they are killed by the impact, their skulls leaving splashes of blood where they impact the stone.
  • Major Kusanagi, a full-body cyborg, does it both in the original film and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. Generally, the Major causes damage whenever she moves quickly, because her cyborg body weighs hundreds of pounds. The series tends to be inconsistent on this part, however, as she rarely leaves markings when starting her leaps and is on one occasion capable of doing huge leaps on the roof of an antique wooden building without any of the old lumber giving way during take-off or landing. The original manga mentions that it's actually illegal for full-prothetic cyborgs to travel around by leaping around rooftops because of the collateral damage that it causes.
  • In Appleseed, Briareos (a full conversion cyborg) inflicts a fair amount of damage to things he lands on.
  • When Greed enters the battle against Wrath in Fullmetal Alchemist, he jumps off a very tall building and lands hard enough to crack the floor.
  • One Piece demonstrates just how durable the Pirate Emperor Kaido is by this trope. Kaido willingly throws himself off of a sky island (Which is roughly 30 thousand meters in the air) and the narration states that Kaido has survived so many executions that he's taken to attempting suicide as a hobby, just to see if there's anything that can kill him. And Kaido, meanwhile, pulls himself out of the crater his landing made completely unharmed.

    Asian Animation 
  • In the Motu Patlu episode "Super Murgiyan", to deal with a bunch of super-powered chickens who are causing mayhem, Motu jumps into the air to eat his Power-Up Food, samosas, and creates a big crack on the ground where he lands due to the strength the aforementioned samosas have given him.

    Comic Books 
  • Alias: Jessica does this in the second chapter to frighten someone. She also tends to do this unintentionally due to being bad at landing.
  • The Incredible Hulk: The Hulk often uses this as an attack.
  • Superman:
    • Played with in Superman's case. The Man of Steel generally makes careful landings specifically to avoid this, so if he's doing this it's generally an "Uh-Oh" sign.
    • In the cover of Supergirl Vol 5 #12, the eponymous heroine performs a ground-cracking landing (combined with a Three-Point Landing for greater effect).
    • Last Daughter of Krypton: After confirming that her parents are dead, Supergirl has a breakdown. She takes off, flies like crazy and finally lands, stomping the floor beneath her feet so hard than it shudders and cracks.
  • Iron Man's famous Three-Point Landing pose is well known for causing this kind of damage.
  • Planetary: Jakita's Super-Toughness is first demonstrated in a scene where she jumps out of an aircraft without a parachute, landing unharmed and leaving two sets of radiating cracks in the rock where her feet made contact.

    Fan Works 
  • Once More with Feeling: When they sortied to fight Israfel Shinji and Asuka were transported in air carrier aircraft and then dropped on the battlefield. Their Humongous Mechas crashed down on the ground, fracturing it noisily (although they suffered no harm).
  • When Paul lands (or jumps, for that matter) with significant force in With Strings Attached, he leaves a big hole. Enough of a problem that he's very careful about when and where he jumps.
  • In The Keys Stand Alone: The Soft World, Paul totally trashes the pretty little grotto outside Chandalla when he jumps and lands.
  • In Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supergirl crossover fic The Vampire of Steel, Buffy (who is at in the time possessing Supergirl's body) does this to kill off a vampire. It's said she "slammed into the ground with the impact of a moderate California earthquake".
  • The Great Alicorn Hunt: In chapter 5, the Mane Six (minus Pinkie Pie) deliberately make use of this trope in order to convince the Pie Family that attending the Royal Coronation of Equestria's six newest princesses is just short of Compulsory.
  • In Harry and the Shipgirls, Hamakaze, after seeing Harry's broom start trying to shake him off, raced down the stands and leapt into the Quidditch Pitch with such force that not only did she crater the ground where she landed, but caused the whole stadium to shake.

    Films — Animated 
  • Emmet does this in The LEGO Movie when he returns from the real world.
    Emmet: Sorry, street!
  • In Turning Red, Ming does an impressive one when she jumps down to the SkyDome floor. Quite justified, given that she's a kaiju-sized magical red panda, over a hundred feet tall with a mass of many tons.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Iron Man does it in the movie version: he crashes through his roof, his piano, and his floor, only stopping when he smashes a sports car in his underground garage. Funnily enough, it was unintentional. And it happens again in the climax when his suit loses power.
    • He does a proper version when confronting Loki for the first time, though, in The Avengers.
  • Scott does this in Ant-Man, sometimes, it's presumably to show that he retains his mass when shrunk but the writers clearly haven't thought that aspect through.
  • Colossus landing in the battlefield in X-Men: The Last Stand.
  • Logan does too in X-Men Origins: Wolverine though he fell off
  • Hancock does this after flying to show how messy and inefficient he is.
  • The Matrix: Morpheus ends his demonstration of his gravity-defying skills with a powerful knee attack that is aimed at Neo, though the latter manages to dodge it. And in the sequel, Neo makes the ground ripple when landing or taking off.
  • Selene does this in the opening of Underworld (2003). Her legs not breaking can be excused by her being a vampire. Her high-heeled boots on the other hand...
  • Chronicle features this trope when the film's protagonist lands in front of several neighborhood bullies.
  • Superman does this while landing on Lex Luthor's artificially grown island in Superman Returns.
  • Man of Steel features both this and some Ground Shattering Takeoffs.
  • Deadpool even lampshades it during his confrontation with Angel Dust and Ajax!

    Live-Action TV 
  • Baal Veer: Baal Veer often appears by landing on the ground and creating a small crater where he lands.
  • Kamen Rider Kiva's Finishing Move is to jump superhumanly high and descend on the Monster of the Week with a kick so powerful it slams it into the ground... leaving a giant imprint of Kiva's symbol. The enemy then shatters. This is impossible, but awesome. In The Movie, he slams the enemy all the way into the moon, leaving a Kiva symbol imprint that must be continent-sized. For our peace, we are soon shown that the imprint is not permanent in this case.
    • Kamen Rider G is likely homaging this when Goro is knocked off of a building, but lands on his feet, smashing the G symbol into the ground. Asskicking ensues.
  • In Red Dwarf, the last two surviving crew members, plus a sentient feline and a cleaning droid, have full access to all the ship's mecha and shuttles. But the problem is, Lister and Rimmer were only lowly janitor-grade personnel tasked with nothing more technical than servicing the vending machines. Initially, they have no clue as to how to drive the machinery nor relevant training. Kryten, being a domestic mechanoid, has no desire or inclination. This makes for a LOT of knocks, prangs and earth-shattering landings. Ironically, the best pilot turns out to be the Cat...

    Manhwa 

    Video Games 
  • Alex Mercer in [PROTOTYPE] can do this. The best part is that some landings can send cars flying depending on the height you jump from! It's implied he's carrying a lot of Shapeshifter Baggage that makes his biomass especially dense, allowing this and many of his other powers.
  • Cole in inFAMOUS also can do this. Extra fun when you charge up with electricity on your way down...
    • Both the [PROTOTYPE] and inFAMOUS characters, while they can do it, also have special attacks that charge up the slam.
  • Added as an ability in the first patch to Crackdown. Oddly enough, the ground heals.
  • When the title characters in EarthBound (1994) land in their incredible flying machine, they typically crash land, making a nice big boom.
  • In Warcraft, Infernals are summoned demons that land meteor-style, doing damage and stunning any unfortunate enough to have been landed on. In Warcraft III, stomp-type spells leave a small crater around the caster, despite going no more than an inch or so in the air (and this assuming they didn't simply raise a single foot and bring it down in an almighty impact).
  • World of Warcraft: In Legion, warriors do this when they leave their class order hall (which is floating in the sky) and "land" at a destination.
  • In the later Tekken and SoulCalibur games, being thrown onto the ground (via either a literal throw or a botched landing) results in that spot being cracked. It only disappears when another crack happens.
  • The fat and heavily armored knight in Trine is heavy enough to break fragile surfaces (such as wooden planks) by falling on them from a good height.
  • Characters in Champions Online do this if falling from a high enough height. Always happens if you use Super Jump or Rocket Jump. The same is true of DC Universe Online.
  • This is Mace Windu's trademark jump attack in Star Wars: Battlefront II.
  • The DS game of Transformers (2007) does this whenever you jump.
  • An actual power in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, with several variations.
  • Sonic The Hedgehog can do this with the bounce/bound attack in some of the games. Knuckles can also do this.
  • Shogun type enemies in The Dishwasher: Vampire smile do this either when they spawn or when they leap in the middle of combat. And at higher difficulties, they really, really hurt.
  • Jarvan IV in League of Legends does this, leaping on someone and trapping them within the circle of rock that shoots up around the impact point. Aatrox does something similar if with less visual effect: He flies up, then crash-lands on his target, knocking them up. In Legends of Runeterra, he provides the spell "Cataclysm" which allows any of your units to do the same.
  • Ezio in Assassin's Creed: Revelations does this to a wooden platform during the opening cinematic, after escaping from his impending hanging by wrapping the rope around the hangman's neck and jumping off, untying himself while dangling in midair, then falling at least three stories and finishing with a Three-Point Landing. Better, this is Canon, as gameplay starts immediately following the event, from which Ezio walks away without a scratch. Did we mention that he's 52 at the time?
  • You can do this everytime you respawn in Section 8's multiplayer, complete with Three-Point Landing... which is to be expected since 'respawning' includes dropping in (Being shot out of a dropship) from 15 kilometers above ground with nothing but your Power Armor. While you do have airbrakes to give you a somewhat softer landing, there's always the possibility of some self-induced Death from Above on some poor sap who forgot to look up to see you coming.
  • In Super Mario Sunshine, Mario's Ground Pound becomes more powerful if done from a certain height, and creates a harder landing than the normal Ground Pound. This is key to the Final Boss battle, where this must be used to destroy the hot tub in which Bowser is sitting.
  • Meredith performs one of these at the climax of Dragon Age II while infused with the power of the lyrium idol.
  • In Guild Wars 2, many of the character classes have a trait that will halve fall damage and trigger an extra effect when they receive it. For example, the warrior's "Death From Above" will damage and knock back nearby enemies. Impact effects for other classes include disappearing into stealth, spreading grenades, conjuring a poison cloud, and turning the ground into mud.
  • Iron Tager from BlazBlue has two attacks that end in the three-point variation of the landing. What makes this into an attack? The third point has your head in it.
  • High Dragon in Dragon Age: Origins can land right on top of your party members if you summon her with a Kolgrim's horn, doing respectable damage and knocking them down. This can be avoided, however, as the map is very large and there are plenty of tight spots where she simply cannot land in the first place.
  • In Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, jump packs let you do this. Repeatedly. And it stuns anything it damages, setting them up for executions (single player) or a flurry of melee strikes (multiplayer). In singleplayer, it's a deliberate Game-Breaker because the Orks have no way to counter it and stay stunned for well over five seconds.
  • The Matrix: Path of Neo has the above The Matrix Reloaded example, plus a few in-game cutscene examples with all with a Three-Point Landing.
  • City of Heroes: The Spring Attack power from the Leaping Power Pool let a hero leap a great distance and damage all nearby enemies. The ground where the power ended would appear shattered for a brief time.
  • Overwatch: two of Doomfist's attacks do this. His Seismic Slam has him hit the ground with his fist, breaking the ground in a cone in front of him and damaging and launching enemies caught in the zone. His Ultimate, Meteor Strike, is a more traditional application of the trope, wherein he jumps high into the sky and then comes down with a mighty force, dealing immense damage to those caught in the blast. Both attacks leave behind a cracked-ground effect, even on dirt, grass, and metal.
  • Saints Row IV: the Death From Above special attack is a targeted ground-pound attack that has a relatively large impact zone.
  • Warframe: There is a standard mod that allows players to deal a large amount of damage when dropping from a sufficient height. It's rarely used, as it's too situational. Rhino has a weaker version of the ability as a default.
  • Ex Mortis 3: When Mr. Hannay escapes the Spirit World, his return to Earth leaves a meteorite-scale impact crater from which he emerges unharmed. He's not nearly so resilient for the rest of the game.

    Webcomics 
  • Bud from Wapsi Square unsuccessfully attempts to skate down some stairs. Since she's an indestructible golem the ground comes off worse.
  • In A Miracle of Science Agent Prester and Caprice fall to the surface of Mars. From orbit. The leave a small crater where they land.
  • The Crusader does this in Fellowship Of Heroes, presumably because he doesn't have the hang of landing lightly.

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

 
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Thor Dark World - Landing

Thor doing a ground shattering land when he confronts Malekith about trying to destroy Earth.

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