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Asbestos-lined pants and boots are optional upgrades.

"Jetpack is useful for quick escapes. Always keep a reserve in the fuel tanks."

A standard piece of equipment for anyone from The Future or for secret agents, a Jet Pack is a back-mounted item that uses jet propulsion to allow the wearer to fly. Strangely enough, despite them almost always being portrayed as having streams of fire (or occasionally rings of Pure Energy for more futuristic models) coming out the exhaust, nobody ever suffers Toasted Buns as a result. Nor do most ever run out of fuel, or even consume any in the first place.

Also covered here are Rocket Boots and rocket packs, which can be ideal for robots, cyborgs, and androids with trumpet limbs.

Due to its ubiquitous appearances alongside the Flying Car as a predicted technological advance, it's one of the reasons why people declare I Want My Jet Pack (the main reason we don't have them, by the way, is the complete lack of protection for when you crash into something).

A Sub-Trope of Flight and Awesome Backpack. Not quite related to Stupid Jetpack Hitler, although Nazis with jetpacks may be involved there as well. Compare Helicopter Pack and Jump Jet Pack.

Strangely never accompanied by an additional jetpack on the chest, which would logically be required for horizontal flight (if the jetpack does not have wings) for the same reason that you wouldn't want to wear just one paraglider strap or one jet boot.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 
  • Astro Boy: The titular character has rocket boots.
  • In Code Geass, the Float systems used by Britannian Knightmare Frames look like Mecha-sized jet packs. The Air Glide Wing variation used by the Black Knights, and the Energy Wing system that appears later look less like jet packs, although they are much more refined.
  • Gundam:
    • The main propulsion/jumping thrusters for most Mobile Suits are mounted on a backpack. Some have secondary thrusters in the legs as well.
    • Zeon spacesuits sometimes include a belt with two thrusters for maneuvering in space. There's also a maneuvering backpack option for Federation suits.
  • Hanaukyō Maid Team La Verite episode 11. Konoe's Onee-sama has a jet pack as part of her armor, which she uses to pursue the protagonist party as they escape via elevator after rescuing Mariel.
  • Macross franchise:
    • Macross Frontier finally gives the franchise a real jet pack, standard on all EX-Gears.
    • The movies also give us the Gas Jet Cluster, which can be worn inside a skirt to help keep idols from falling to their doom in the middle of concerts. These, alongside EX-Gears, appear once again in Macross Delta.
  • Mazinger Z's Mid-Season Upgrade was a Jet Pack docked with Mazinger-Z. It was yellow with red Razor Wings and could shoot star-shaped shurikens to whoever tried attack Mazinger-Z from back. Its name was Jet Scrander.
    • Great Mazinger: Great Mazinger had a red Jet Pack folded from its back, and a second Jet Pack (Big Booster) docked with it. It was grey, with wide triangular wings, and was equiped with a spike to impale Robeasts. Venus-A also had an attachable Jet Pack, right like Mazinger-Z.
    • UFO Robo Grendizer: Grendizer had THREE jet packs (not counting its spaceship): Double Spacer -to fly inside and outside of atmosphere-, Marine Spacer -to fly and dive underwater- and Drill Spacer -to fly and burrow underground-.
  • Chachamaru of Negima! Magister Negi Magi is equipped with a jet pack, though even in her upgraded form, she can only use it for up to fifteen minutes before needing to recharge.
  • Panzer World Galient:
    • Marder's foot troops use jet packs.
    • In episode 4, Hilmuka and Chururu steal a pair of jet packs and use them to fly across a low-gravity area.
  • Pokémon:
  • The Principal in Ranma ½ has a jet pack that explodes.
  • Samurai Gun: Kaishu Katsu has a Jet pack in the Tokugawa era.
  • The eponymous Strike Witches have a cross between Rocket Boots and Power Armor for the leg area, powered by magic.
  • Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: The eponymous mech uses the drills on its back to assimilate an enemy aircraft and turn it into a jet pack.
  • In the first episode of Urusei Yatsura, a jet pack was used by Ataru Moroboshi in an attempt to catch Lum, despite her flying abilities. Instead the jetpack blows up when he starts it.

    Asian Animation 
  • In Happy Heroes, Careful S. will occasionally use Kalo morphed into a jetpack to travel. Careless S. also owns an actual jetpack he sometimes uses.
  • Mechamato: MechaBot can mechanise with Amato's backpack to form a jetpack, aptly named the Mechajet, that he can use to fly around town, which is also useful in finding bad robots quickly.
  • Wolffy uses a jetpack in Pleasant Goat Fun Class: Sports are Fun episode 14 to boost his jump during the trampoline competition. This gets him disqualified since it's cheating.

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 
  • In the Star Trek: Voyager Uberfic The Artisans of War, B'Elanna Torres and Annika Hansen are extracted from a bladescraper via a Big Damn Gunship shooting out the windows, followed by a US marine jetpacking through the broken window, locking them into a hostage rescue harness and flying them back to the helicopter.
  • In Captain Proton and the Planet of Lesbians, Proton tries using his rocket pack while doing a Bridal Carry and finds he can't reach the chest controls to turn it off, causing them to ricochet around the room like a pinball until they crash.
  • In New Beginnings (Smallville), Oliver Queen decides he needs a jet pack after seeing Clark Kent flying for the first time.
  • Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space. A recorded voice lampshades the No OSHA Compliance of this trope when our heroes strap on jetpacks to escape a Chekhov's Volcano (see Quotes). Facing an imminent death from being boiled alive by lava, they launch anyway.
  • Rocketship Voyager. The Space Marines have dirigible space armor. When one of them gets knocked off a launch gantry his jetpack fires automatically to break his fall, sending him careening across the hanger. Later there's a brief mid-air battle between the marines versus cyborgs with their own built-in jetpacks.

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 
  • The classic Buster Crabbe Buck Rogers serials had a jet pack strapped to the back of the eponymous hero in some of their more memorable moments.
  • Commando Cody (a.k.a. Larry Martin, a.k.a. The Rocketman), the interchangable hero of various Republic Film Serials in The '50s who battled criminals, supervillains, and alien menaces with the aid of an atomic-powered jetpack and a rather silly helmet.
  • In Dune: Part One and Dune: Part Two, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen uses repulsors to move around since he's morbidly obese. Also in Part Two, the heavy armors Harkonnen soldiers use in the deep desert include repulsors, which seems quite useful in case of incoming sand worms.
  • Fahrenheit 451 (1966) film: The bad guy search squad has jet packs.
  • Gravity: An astronaut is sent hurtling into space, but fortunately another astronaut happens to be testing a Manned Maneuvering Unit (see Real Life section). As mentioned in that section however, it only has limited fuel to enable them to reach a nearby space station.
  • Iron Angels: The third movie of the trilogy culminates with its protagonist, Alex, and his sidekick piloting jetpacks with twin-gatling guns attached, which allows them to mow down hordes and hordes of mooks within seconds.
  • James Bond:
    • James Bond uses a jet pack to escape to top of a building at the beginning of Thunderball. Bonus points for this not being a special effect, but was an actual flight by a Bell Aerosystems Rocketpack provided for use in the film by the US Air Force (see the Real Life section below).
    • This same jetpack that appeared in Thunderball makes a cameo in Die Another Day.
  • Used by the dwarf secret agent hero in the Filipino James Bond parody For Y'ur Height Only. Given his lack of stature, he probably found it more necessary than most.
  • J-Men Forever: Rocket Jock (a re-dubbed Commando Cody) mutters constantly about the problems of using his atomic-powered jetpack, including the worry that his tailor might have forgotten to include the lead-lining, the need to hit his springboard in order to launch himself into the air, sore arches whenever he lands, his feet setting on fire, and the risk of drowning inside his full-face helmet should he get airsick.
  • Kick-Ass has the main character saving Hit-Girl by flying into the scene with a jetpack with mounted Gatling Guns that she and her father bought over the internet previously and unleashing Glorious More Dakka upon the Mooks. While set to Elvis Presley singing "Glory, Glory Hallelujah".
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • Iron Man's armors include repulsors in the legs and hands that allow him to fly.
    • Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Sam Wilson (a.k.a. the Falcon) is a former USAF Pararescuer. His flight suit is basically a jetpack with wings, and it doesn't work after the wings are torn off during the final battle — Sam has to deploy a parachute to land safely.
    • Guardians of the Galaxy (2014): Quill (a.k.a. Starlord) uses rocket boots, and in the sequel the Guardians are using jetpacks (except for Drax the Destroyer, who complains that the chest strap hurts his sensitive nipples).
  • A jetpack inexplicably turns up in the fantasy-comedy film, The Mermaid, as one of the various gadgets developed by Liu's company. For most of the film the jetpack is shown being tested and screwing up hilariously, throwing Liu around, but it eventually works when Liu uses said jetpack to save the titular mermaid from being killed by mercenaries.
  • Minority Report: PreCrime enforcement units use jet packs.
  • In RoboCop 3, Murphy gets his hands on a prototype jet pack to aid him in foiling bad guys.
  • The Rocketeer:
    • Despite the name, this was a jetpack rather than a rocket, since it was fueled by alcohol but carried no oxygen to combust it with. Here, the hero stopped Hitler from creating an army of flying Nazi stormtroopers that would conquer America — and the world.
    • Hell, the first time they fire it up you can see an air intake fan start to move under the housing. Everything we're shown in the movie marks the device as a Jetpack, but everyone in the movie keeps calling it a "Rocket" — even Howard Hughes, who built it and presumably knows the proper name.
  • The Running Man: A jet pack is used by the Stalker named Fireball.
  • Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Action Girl and Ace Pilot 'Franky' Cook ejects from her submersible airplane just in time to avoid a Macross Missile Massacre. After breaking the surface of the water a Jet Pack boosts her the rest of the way up to her Airborne Aircraft Carrier. Even the rival for the hero's affections is impressed.
  • In Sleeper, Milo (Woody Allen) tries to use a jet pack to escape the security police, but it takes off without him. He then tries a backpack helicopter, also with comedic results.
  • In the 1979 Disney comedy A Spaceman In King Arthurs Court, the eponymous astronaut has a lunar rover, the seat of which can blast off with the aid of booster rockets and clearly visible wires. He uses it to rescue the fair maiden and give King Arthur airborne support when Mordred's army attacks his castle.
  • Spy Kids has Machetes' BuddyPacks. Both are in use by the heroes and villains, of course. Carmen uses one to pursue the villains to recover the Third Brain. While trying to escape, Juni accidentally activates a stray BuddyPack that causes one of the villains to get her hair burned off by the flames shooting out of pack's exhaust pipe.
  • Star Trek:
    • In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Spock steals a "thruster suit" — a space suit with a rocket backpack — so that he can reach V'ger's inner chamber. Kirk uses a second such suit to meet Spock and bring him back aboard after V'ger sends him back.
    • Spock has rocket boots (Spocket boots?) in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
  • Star Wars
    • Both Fetts have jetpacks, and both of them fail them in one way or another. Since they wear armor, it's at least justified why they never get burned.
    • The Star Wars Expanded Universe has a very select cadre of (non-Mandalorian) mercenaries with jetpacks, also armored. There are also several varieties of clonetroopers and stormtroopers with jetpacks, each with different appellations like jet trooper, airtrooper, and Rocket Trooper. Since at least one of those was developed for a tabletop game, the type of jetpack troopers use comes with restrictions like fuel and where it can or can't be used.
    • Raises Fridge Logic issues, as repulsor-field technology otherwise suggests that jetpacks are obsolete as a means of aerial propulsion. Justified by Rule of Cool and as an homage to sci-fi tradition. It is noted in a few places that Repulsor packs are not small and are not efficient when they are small. Even droids that use them don't use them constantly, because it drains their batteries. And really heavy loads still use wheels or legs to support them.
    • Granted, Boba's is probably nostalgic, because it belonged to his father. Mandalorians as a whole are traditionalist, since they made the art of bounty hunting they don't like people taking different approaches by altering the core of their tactics (flamethrowers, wristblades and personal missiles in a world with laser everything-else).
    • One of the clone troopers is called Commander Cody in a homage to the original Rocketman.
    • In Attack of the Clones, we suddenly discover that R2-D2 is equipped with leg rockets.
    • In The Rise of Skywalker, stormtroopers are revealed to have been issued with jetpacks (to the dismay of the heroes) but they turn out to be Awesome, but Impractical (a stormtrooper's aim isn't any better whilst flying and they crash with nice fiery explosions).
  • In the Failure Montage that opens Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Red Skelton is seen trying a crude 1910s version twice. Both times it ends with an Epic Fail.
  • In Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, Optimus uses Jetfire's parts to form a jetpack for a time.
  • Winner Takes All has a finale involving a jetpack jousting duel between the two heroes (respectively a Gentleman Thief and a Cowboy Cop) and their main nemesis, a Japanese assassin, while hovering on top of electrified floor panels. It sounds awesome on paper, but unfortunately because some Special Effects Failure (and for most of the fight the camera doesn't show what's below the three characters' feet) it's painfully obvious that all three combatants are fighting on a raised platform instead of actual jetpacks.
  • The 1999 remake of Yongary: Monster from the Deep has one outstanding aspect in an otherwise mediocre film; the T-Force, a specialized branch of the military consisting of trained operatives on jetpacks! They're apparently better than jets and tanks, being deployed after Yonggary wiped out most of humanity's defenses, and puts up quite a good fight by flying circles around the titular kaiju. When the Force is down to it's last two members, one of them decides to perform a Heroic Sacrifice by accelerating his jetpack at maximum speed and using himself as a missile to target the jewel on Yonggary's forehead, the monster's main weak spot.

    Literature 
  • The pulp novel Armageddon 2419 AD, best known as the original source of the comic strip Buck Rogers, is the Ur-Example of a jetpack in modern fiction note . The jetpacks are called "floaters", and are back-strapped rockets encased with the gravity-reducing "Inertron". The floaters are a technical evolution of the "jumpers", wide vest-like belts full of inertron that reduce weight to the wearer's preference.
  • In Bad Mermaids, some of the talking sea horses of Rainbow Landing wear clam jet packs to get around faster.
  • Bill the Galactic Hero shows how Awesome, but Impractical jet packs are in combat conditions. A soldier wearing Powered Armor that's too heavy to walk around in, so he uses booster jets until his fuel line is damaged by an enemy shot, whereupon he falls into a swamp and drowns.
  • In Bounders, the kids are taught to use blast packs so they can get around on planets with unusual gravity levels. On Jasper's first try, he accidentally flies into the ceiling and knocks himself out.
  • Carnival in a Fix: Late in the book, in order to catch up to Mr. Moonbottom, Emily, Mr. Jinks, and Mr. O'Hare borrow some jetpacks from Lord Krull's Space Commandos.
  • Discworld: In The Last Hero, having already established dragon-power as the motive force of the Discworld's first rocketship, Leonard of Quirm invents a device that allows one to leave the ship with a dragon strapped to one's back, in emergencies. No-one else can think of an emergency that would be worse than having a dragon strapped to one's back.
  • In The Dreamside Road, Orson Gregory’s repulsor boot allows him limited flight. Powering the boot is an ongoing concern, notably in the battle against Master Nine.
  • Stewart Cowley's Great Space Battles: A law enforcement officer investigates the base of a band of mutant space pirates. After they detect his presence, he activates his backpack jet pack and lifts off, barely escaping their grasp. When he returns with the authorities, the pirates are gone. Illustrated using this thrilling picture by science-fiction artist Peter Elson.
  • Rocket packs are a common add-on to spacesuits in Robert A. Heinlein's "Solar System" novels. In Space Cadet (Heinlein), for example, maneuvering using a rocket pack is a standard part of Space Patrol training.
  • In Honor Harrington, spacesuits can be fitted with external thruster packs with several minutes worth of fuel for short-range extravehicular operations. Senior Chief Petty Officer Ginger Lewis nearly dies when a crooked crewman rigs her suit to burn all its fuel in a single uncontrolled, undirected blast, sending her tumbling away into space at high velocity.
  • In Incandescence, the remote bodies Rakesh and Parantham use to explore hostile environments have small ion thrusters attached to their backs.
  • Go-packs are used in the Priscilla Hutchins series, and in Chindi Hutch has to rescue someone on a runaway spacecraft but she's run out of fuel in her shuttle, so she ends up strapping a bunch of go-packs to her and jumping out into space.
  • In Robert A. Heinlein's Starship Troopers, among the many features of the Mobile Infantry's powered armor suits are jump jets. These don't allow for controlled flight, but do greatly increase the height and distance that the wearer can jump.
  • In Star Wars novels, the Fetts have jet packs that work in atmosphere and outer space.
  • Isaac Asimov's The Tercentenary Incident: Lawrence Edwards begins the story with a flotron motor worn on his back, using it to hover two hundred feet above the crowd during the 300th anniversary of America's Declaration of Independence.

    Live-Action TV 
  • The Saturday morning kid's show Ark II used the "Jet Jumper" in practically every episode. It was a genuine, working jet pack flown by a stuntman. You can tell it was real by how huge and bulky it was, compared to more typically-streamlined Hollywood portrayals.
  • George Michael receives a jet pack in an Arrested Development episode, with predictable results.
  • Jet packs are mentioned as being part of the equipment available to the crew of Babylon 5 in "The Fall of Night", when Sheridan is falling to his death after leaping from a shuttle blown up as part of an assassination attempt, but never shown.
  • In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Seeing Red", Warren of the Nerd Trio does a Villain: Exit, Stage Left using a jetpack hidden under his jacket. Andrew tries to follow suit, but fails to notice that he's standing under an overhanging ceiling and knocks himself out.
  • Cowboy Bebop (2021): In "Sad Clown A-Go-Go", the Villain of the Week Mad Pierrot uses the rocket boots version. Spike Spiegel defeats him by activating the rockets sending him flying off the asteroid they're fighting on.
  • One episode in Dai Sentai Goggle Five features a jet pack. Which never seems to work properly, so it doesn't become a staple to the series.
  • Doctor Who: In the Two-Part Episode "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven", the Cybermen have upgraded themselves with rocket boots. When the Doctor is put on a UNIT airborne command post to handle the crisis, they have no problem following.
  • Farscape: The engine room of a Peacekeeper Command Carrier is so large it requires jetpacks to conduct routine maintenance. Needless to say this leads to a mid-air jetpack fight between the protagonists and a group of Peacekeepers.
  • Jet packs are a piece of standard equipment available to Unicorn agents in the Japanese show Giant Robot (you may know it better from its movie compilation, Voyage Into Space).
  • Gilligan's Island: A military jetpack lands on the island. Due to his weight, Gilligan is the only one who can fly it. He flies into a cloud, causing a rainstorm that halts the military search for it. Later, he tries to fly to Hawaii, but forgets to strap it on properly.
  • Jet packs are used a few times by John Robinson in Lost in Space. They actually filmed a stunt pilot using a Bell Rocket Belt.
  • The Mandalorian:
    • In "The Sin", the other members of the Mandalorian covert enclave arrive for their Big Damn Heroes moment by jet pack, and Paz Vizla briefly flies after the Razor Crest to salute him. It's not explained why the Mandalorian doesn't have one of his own, but he wants one.
      The Mandalorian: [after Paz Vizla flies off] I gotta get one of those.
    • He finally gets the desired Equipment Upgrade in the Season One finale, though the Mandalorian Armourer cautions our hero that he must train with it first as he hasn't used one since he was a foundling trainee. As it turns out circumstances force him to use it a lot sooner in a battle with a TIE fighter. The same episode also has a flashback to how he became adopted by the Mandalorians, with him being saved as a child by a Mandalorian in the middle of a battle and then carried to safety using a jetpack.
    • In the Season 2 premiere "The Marshal", Cobb Vanth, the self-appointed protector of a small settlement called Mos Pelgo, is revealed to be in possession of Boba Fett's armor and jetpack. Vanth and Mando use their jetpacks to aid them in their slaying of the Krayt Dragon terrorizing the locals. Mando even melees Vanth's jetpack to send him flying away to safety, referencing Boba Fett's defeat at the hands of Han Solo.
    • In "The Passenger", a bounty hunter is holding a knife at the Child's throat, so Mando trades his jetpack in exchange. As soon as he has the Child back, Mando remotely activates the jetpack and sends the bounty hunter shooting a long way up into the air, then drops him.
  • The NCIS episode "Ignition" is about a murder committed over the design of a new jetpack. McGee is unsurprisingly a huge fan and bores his co-workers to tears with trivia on rocket belts, but when the guilty party tries to make a quick getaway in one at the end, even Tony and Ziva look impressed.
  • Jet packs are mentioned in the Red Dwarf episode "Terrorform":
    The Cat: I say let's get into the jet-powered rocket pants and Junior Birdman the hell out of here.
    Kryten: An excellent and inventive suggestion, sir, with just two tiny drawbacks. A, we don't have any jet-powered rocket pants, and B, there's no such thing as jet-powered rocket pants outside the fictional serial "Robbie Rocket Pants".
    The Cat: Well, that's put a crimp on an otherwise damn fine plan.
  • Star Trek: Voyager: A jet pack is worn by Tom Paris in the holodeck program The Adventures of Captain Proton, in an affectionate homage to the old Commando Cody/Rocketman Republic Film Serials. Tom even wears the same jetpack controls as Cody on his Adventurer Outfit.

    Pinball 
  • The man and the woman in the unspecified future of The Atarians are each wearing a rectangular flying pack.
  • The alien invaders in Firepower use jet packs to get around.
  • Foo Fighters (2023): Fittingly, the Foo Fighters are shown using jet packs as a means of quickly leaving their van during "Learn to Fly."
  • In Gilligan's Island, Gilligan is wearing a jet pack, which he uses to fly over Kona the Volcano God.
  • Jet packs are used by the heroes in Mac Attack. One of the Video Modes involves flying up the side of a building and dodging enemy fire.
  • In The Party Zone, Captain B. Zarr's various female followers fly around with chrome jet packs shooting energy rings.

    Puppet Shows 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Fantasy Games Unlimited's Aftermath. Rocket packs were a high-tech way of getting around before the Ruin that ended civilization. Some of them are still available for the finding by survivors.
  • Ares magazine #14 game "The Omega War". Infantry units used in the war can fly using jet packs.
  • Battlelords Of The 23rd Century supplement Lock-N-Load: The Battlelord's War Manual. The T-5 jet pack can fly at a speed of 240 kilometers per hour for three hours.
  • The Steve Jackson Games game Battlesuit, which involves infantry wearing Power Armor. The troops have a limited flight ability using jetpacks.
  • Battletech:
    • Specially trained "Jump infantry" with jetpacks formed some of the least useless unarmored units in the original game, though their mission was frankly suicidal: to fly in, swarm huge mechs and hope to plant explosive charges before you were swatted like the vermin that, to the mech pilot, you resembled. Armored infantry also had jetpacks, a similar attack and a higher survival rate, but both were nearly useless in any area with clear fields of fire.
    • Certain BattleMechs had jump capability themselves, allowing a "Death From Above" attack on other mechs which, in the original rules, allowed EVERY ENEMY MECH within range a free shot before your mech slammed into your target mech, hopefully mashing its head, and everyone fell down.
  • Carcosa: Weird Science-Fantasy Horror Setting. Among other high tech items, the space aliens on the planet Carcosa have jet packs.
  • Champions supplements:
    • Gadgets!. The Rocket Pack allows powered flight at a speed of 65 m.p.h. in combat and 130 m.p.h. out of combat, with a maximum flight duration of 1 hour.
    • Enemies. The supervillain Lazer uses a jet pack which allows him to fly at 65 m.p.h. Interestingly, it is powered by his own Endurance rather than an onboard fuel supply.
    • Enemies II. The supervillain Death Commando, a member of Deathstroke, has a jump pack that allows him to fly up to 40 meters before having to be re-charged.
    • Organization Book 2 PRIMUS and DEMON. After DEMON steals the Earth Crown of Krim from PRIMUS headquarters, a Morbane (supervillain) wearing a jet pack flies with it to the local DEMON base.
  • Iron Crown Enterprises' Cyberspace RPG has jet packs for police, military and corporate use. They can reach over 60 k.p.h. and are controlled by extended handgrips. Some models can be controlled through cyberware.
  • DC Heroes has a jet pack that allows the wearer to fly at 100 m.p.h.
  • Encounter Critical. One of the items that can be purchased is a jet pack. It allows flight at a speed of 20" (by comparison, human ground movement speed is 7") and has a 23% chance of being defective. Another item on the equipment list is a Contra-Gravity Belt that doubles the jet pack's speed. The Combat Gravbelt in the Asteroid 1618 supplement triples jet pack speed.
  • GURPS:
    • GURPS Ultra-Tech has a nuclear jet pack that lets out a torrent of irradiated plasma below it. It's cool but neither particularly safe nor stealthy.
    • GURPS Supers supplement Supertemps. The heroes Clone and New Javelin each have a jet pack that allows them to fly.
  • The Hollow Earth Expedition main rules and the supplement Secrets of the Surface World has jet packs as a possible Artifact Resource for characters. They have a speed of 100 m.p.h. If the wearer carries another person, top speed is cut in half and maneuverability is reduced.
  • It Came from the Late, Late Show II adventure "Bjorn on the Bayou, or Escape from Alkatrazz XII". Alkatrazz XII is a prison planet. The cyborg warden Skrank and his bodyguard Jorj have jet packs as part of their standard equipment.
  • Judge Dredd, White Dwarf magazine #88 adventure "A Night in the Death of Sector 255". If the Judges attack the Big Bad Grag Peppard in his candy factory, he will try to escape using a jet pack.
  • Laserburn Sci-Fi Combat Rules (1980). In combat, jetpacks allow long, low leaps from cover to cover. They are normally used by assault troops, either for moving into close combat range or for a quick getaway. They're powered by chemical fuel cannisters.
  • Maid RPG. A Rocket Pack is in the Great List of Items, so it can be used by maids.
  • TSR's Marvel Super Heroes, Uncanny X-Men boxed set Adventure Book. At the end of Chapter 9 "Let the Game Begin", if the heroes don't find Arcade within 15 minutes after the end of the basketball game, he will put on a jet pack and try to escape.
    • Marvel Super Heroes Adventure Game Adventure 3 Fantastic Four: Fantastic Voyages. In the adventure "Hands of the Ravager", there are three jet packs stored aboard the Skrull scout ship Kell'rr Anelle, and the Kree Jon-Larr has one as well.
  • Monsterpocalypse's Sky Sentinel, Defender X, and Nova-ESR all wear giant jet-turbines to help them jump and fly their way across the battle maps.
  • Princess Ryan's Star Marines. One of the Black Guard opponents the title characters can fight are platoons of armored grenadiers wearing jet packs.
  • Rifts:
    • Most flying models of Powered Armor use heavy jet systems mounted on the back, though the armor itself is usually hanging/pushed along from them in an upright position. Jetpacks are otherwise fairly rare on Rifts' Earth, though the Three Galaxies setting uses gravity-based versions fairly extensively.
    • Also noted are a set of rocket boots used to enhance jumping ability. They fire once on takeoff, and again to brake for landing. Notable in that it's also mentioned that one has to be superhumanly tough to be able to use them without breaking your legs.
  • In Rocket Age, the United States was originally the only country to have mastered jet pack technology and kept it a closely guarded secret. The US Rocket Rangers use them as part of their standard equipment and Erisian 'Knight' Armor often included something similar.
  • Shadowrun supplement Paranormal Animals of Europe. In one story, a shadowrunner escapes the charge of a wild minotaur when her jetpak (sic) automatically activates and lifts her off the ground out of its way.
  • Spirit of the Century. The NPC hero Jackson "Jet" Black, the Flying Soldier, had a jetpack that he used to fly into battle during World War I.
  • Mongoose Publishing's Starship Troopers Role Playing Game. Both Mobile Infantry Marauder armor and the similar Skinny armor have jet packs on the back.
  • Tales of the Space Princess RPG. One example of a Super Science device is the Jet Pack. A character wearing one can fly at at a movement rate of 60 yards/10 seconds (15 m.p.h.) for 1 hour before needing to refuel.
  • Terran Trade Authority RPG. Space Combat Armor has a built-in jet pack on the back designed for use - IN SPACE!
  • Toon supplement Tooniversal Tour Guide, "Supertoons" setting. Toons can fly using either a Jet Pack or a Rocketpack. If you fail your skill roll, get ready for a crash!
  • Top Secret. Polyhedron magazine #9 has a list of new gadgets for the game, including the Model Jet Pack (MJP) - Defender Series. The wearer can travel at 30 miles per hour for up to five hours.
  • SPI's Universe. A Jet Pack is a rocket powered (solid fuel) backpack that allows flight in any type of atmosphere, including vacuum. Using one requires the Jet Pack skill, which determines speed (up to 200 km/hour) and the chance to crash.
  • Villains & Vigilantes. In the original main rules, Intercrime Power Infantry were said to wear jet packs with a maximum airspeed of 65 m.p.h.
  • Warhammer 40,000 is full of these. Space Marine Assault Squads, Tau Crisis Suits, Chaos Marine Raptors, Ork Storm Boys, Sisters of Battle Seraphim, Eldar Swooping Hawks, and Yeld Spyrers all have some form of jet pack. Most jump infantry without wings are examples of this trope, and even some with wings are as well.

    Most of these groups have slightly more realistically designs. Crisis suits, Assault Marines, Raptors, and Seraphim have angled thrusters so that they don't set their butts on fire, Stormboyz don't really care about safety, and Swooping Hawks use anti-gravity vanes sculpted to look like wings instead of proper jetpacks. Also, given the rules' remarks that soldiers don't have unlimited ammunition but are instead assumed to have enough to last six turns of gameplay, it is reasonable to assume that these people merely have enough fuel in their jetpacks to last a normal-length battle instead of being unlimited-fuel affairs.

    The Space Marine version actually has a slightly plausible explanation for how it works. Power from the backpack reactor is used to convert reaction mass to a superheated plasma, which is directed to launch and maneuver. This explains why the Jump Pack only allows the user to make short hops, not full flight - it takes a short while to convert enough mass to perform the next Jump.
  • Judges Guild's Wilderlands of High Fantasy (Issue N) has a plethora of relic high tech items with little description, including a "fully operational flyer harness".

    Video Games 
  • In 007: From Russia with Love Both James Bond and his opponent Grant can use a jet pack to fly.
  • Adiboo: Magical Playland: Robbytock can turn his legs into propulsors.
  • Apocalypse: Airborne Mooks on rocket packs are a recurring enemy after the city stage, and they have a habit of appearing near catwalks, platforms, and areas where your hero have the most amount of difficulty dodging. Which makes them Goddamn Bats for players without homing missiles or a Smart Bomb.
  • Rocket Boots are a powerup in Backyard Football.
  • Barry Steakfries:
  • Battlefield: Secret Weapons of World War II has one as a jetpack pick up. However, it is only good for getting to roof tops, since it has a short range. Also, contrary to the intro video, you are limited to the smg it came with, and not the rocket launcher shown. It mostly lands in the Cool, but Inefficient territory.
  • Iva's movement ability in Battlerite is provided by a jet pack. It also leaks oil onto any enemy she passes over, putting them at risk of being lit up.
  • Pey'j from Beyond Good & Evil has Jet Boots, although they don't propel him very high.
  • Blow Out have your character equipped with a jet pack, which allows you to hover for limited periods of time to climb up shafts or evade swarms of mutant bugs. You do need to recharge it constantly, however.
  • Broforce has jetpack mooks that take off the ground when alerted. Their jetpacks are prone to malfunctioning upon contact with fire.
  • You eventually get a jet pack in Cave Story. Notably, it comes in two, mutually-exclusive forms. The Booster 0.8 can only angle its thrust straight down and is acquired in a normal playthrough. But, if you perform a bit of precision platforming, you can skip that Booster, which allows you to later acquire the Booster 2.0, which can fly in any direction and is required for the Golden Ending.
  • City of Heroes:
    • You get a Jet Pack and a rocket pack as a reward item for finishing a mission.
    • Rocket boots (and piston boots) are also an unlockable costume part, though they're purely cosmetic, only adding a special effect to existing flight powers.
  • The shop in Clash at Demonhead sells jetpacks. They're useful, but quite expensive.
  • Club Penguin features several instances of jetpacks:
    • The minigame "Jetpack Adventure'' requires the player to fly to the finish line with a jetpack without touching anything.
    • The character Jet Pack Guy is a secret agent who is always seen with this flying device.
    • In the minigame "Catchin' Waves", when the player is rolled over by a wave, a penguin with a jetpack will put him back on his feet.
  • Command & Conquer:
    • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 has Allied rocketeers, hovering light infantry. Soviets has the Cosmonauts in expansion which are prcticaly the same, just with laser weaponry. These are, however, used only on Moon.
    • In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Japanes has the deadly Rocket Angels. They function basically the same as the above, but instead of light anti-infantry weapons they use Macross Missile Massacre.
    • In the Command & Conquer: Tiberium series, GDI has specialist infantry units with jetpacks in Tiberian Sun. The Zone Troopers, Zone Raiders, and Commandos in Tiberium Wars also use jetpacks, although they are for leaping rather than flying.
  • Cortex Command has nearly all units equipped with jet packs, which is a good thing, because the "realistic" physics and inability to jump makes simply walking on anything besides completely flat ground almost impossible. However, if a unit carries too much weight, the jetpack becomes nearly useless, and not all units have jetpacks. Plus, they're a little fudgy to use, and if you come down too hard, you break your legs off. Or break your body. Losing legs and non-vital parts does mean losing weight, however, which makes it that much easier to fly.
  • Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back: The fourth-to-last and second-to-last levels feature the use of a jetpack as a game mechanic. Crash has to use it in order to travel across the corridors of the zero-gravity zone. It's also an example of Unexpected Gameplay Change, as the difficulty of the commands is why these stages have been put in the fifth Warp Room. Crash uses the jetpack again in the final battle against Cortex; the control scheme is adapted to make it so Crash goes forward automatically, so the player only needs to worry about steering.
  • The original Dangerous Dave features a jetpack that can be picked up and used on certain levels.
  • The protagonist of Dark Side uses one.
  • Dark Void:
    • Jet packs are the main selling point of the game.
    • Its Retraux cousin, Dark Void Zero, also features the use of jetpacks, although slightly more limited in scope.
  • Dead Space 2: Isaac has thrusters in his boots and shoulders. However, they only work in zero gravity (and certain cut scenes).
  • Destroy All Humans!: Crypto's suit has a built-in jet pack that can pop out and allow him to fly around.
  • Donkey Kong:
    • Donkey Kong 64: Diddy Kong has a wooden Rocketbarrel in this game, which becomes his recovery move in Super Smash Bros. Brawl; he can use it when he hops onto his designated Kong Barrel, and can fly for as long as he has Crystal Coconuts left (though in certain challenges as well as during the Final Boss battle the number of that item is unlimited, for the sake of convenience).
    • Donkey Kong Country Returns: Diddy uses a jetpack in this game (serving as a tool to temporarily hover in the air), though it looks much different from the Rocketbarrel in DK64 and Brawl, as it has a little rocket that comes out of a backpack to help Diddy (and Donkey Kong if he has Diddy on his back or if you combine in Co-op) float for a short while.
  • In the Dragon Ball Z games, Hercule has a jetpack to fly... but from the Tenkaichi series onwards, they only get him in the air for several seconds.
  • Duke Nukem 3D has one you can use whenever you want provided you still have fuel for it. Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project has it as a timed Power-Up.
  • Earth Defense Force has the Wing Divers (and their predecessor, the Pale Wings), female soldiers who use jet packs to navigate the battlefield. To keep their weight down and make the most of their mobility, they also forego using traditional ballistic weapons in favor of Energy Weapons. The challenge from this comes from the fact that the jet pack and weapons both draw from the same energy source, so careful management of the Wing Diver's energy is necessary to avoid running out and being left unable to fly or effectively fight back.
  • In Elite Beat Agents, the "Makes No Difference" stage has the agents entering the scene via jet packs.
  • Every hunter in Evolve has a jetpack. This allows the mobility to traverse the maps, which are filled with canyons, cliffs, and rivers, and the agility to dodge attacks.
  • EXTRAPOWER: Star Resistance: Turns out not all the alien characters are gifted with superhuman flight. Daitoku Igor is more mundane in his abilities, and keeps up with Sharkungo and Forcestar via jetpack. In Attack of Darkforce, this is also how he makes his escape when the robots he pilots get destroyed.
  • Fallout 4 allows players to mod their power armor with a jet pack that allows them to fly, but eats through fusion cores like a ravenous radroach.
  • Fighting Force has a boss with a jet pack.
  • Get Off My Lawn (2014): The second variety of aliens has them wear a jetpack. It allows them to dodge incoming shots at least once.
  • The Cyborg class in Ghouls vs. Humans has a jetpack, which has limited fuel. Apart from flying, it can be used for super-jumps, or to make a rapid dodge forwards, not unlike a Flash Step.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has a jet pack, and it was arguably one of the most fun vehicles in the entire game. It was also highly necessary to collect all the items on the rooftops in the Las Vegas-like city.
  • Halo:
    • Halo: Reach and Halo 4: What's cooler than a Halo multiplayer match? A multiplayer match with jetpacks!
    • Halo 2 introduced the Ranger-class Elites, who were equipped for EVA with anti-gravity packs and fully-enclosed helmets, though they fight planetside as well. Ranger units in later games use more traditional jetpacks, as do the Brute Jumpers introduced in Halo 3.
  • Henry Stickmin Series: In "Escaping The Prison" during the Sneaky Escapist route, Henry can try to use a jetpack to escape from the prison, which he quickly loses controls of and flies head-on back into his cell.
  • HeroSmash has some examples.
    • Some players have jet packs even though they can fly without them.
    • Rocker from Skull Deep has a jet pack.
    • In the trailer, Mr Purple has a jet pack.
  • The Horus Hersey: Legions: Units that have the Unstoppable ability have the ability to ignore units with Front Line ability. Cards that have them, are shown with jet packs on their cards to identify, and emphasis their ability.
  • Infinifactory has jetpacks as standard issue on the bright red space suits the Overlords issue to all their servant engineers. It's an essential tool for designing your factories.
  • Jables's Adventure. Jables even lampshades the fact that, since you have the jet pack, you must be near the end of the game.
  • Jet Force Gemini: Lupus has jet engines equipped in his four paws, allowing him to hover in the air for a surprisingly extended period of time (making him the only character capable of crossing large chasms that lead to unique areas). Later in the game, Juno and Vela are given jetpacks to fly vertically, though they can only use them when standing on a Jet Pad to collect fuel (during that same period, Lupus has his own jet engines upgraded to use the Pads as well).
  • The old ZX Spectrum game Jet Pac and its successor Lunar Jetman both have jet packs.
  • Jetpac. In this game, the main character wears it.
  • The side-scrolling shooter Jets'n'Guns is full of jetpacked mooks, and in some levels in the Gold Edition, you have to leave your spacecraft and infiltrate an enemy base wearing a jet pack.
  • Jetpack, where the jetpack provides Video Game Flight.
  • The hero of Jett Rocket has a jet pack, although the use is limited.
  • Neon Boulevard from Jitsu Squad have enemy mooks on hover-packs, who repeatedly attempts sniping your characters with a bazooka while hovering above the area.
  • JumpJet Rex has this as its main gameplay mechanic. Rex can use his rocket boots to hover, jump, rocket upwards and dash forward, and the player needs to master these abilities to traverse the levels quickly.
  • Kerbal Space Program gives its astronauts a Manned Manoeuvring Unit similar to the one used in Real Life. On Kerbin it does next to nothing, but on some lower-gravity bodies it's possible to achieve orbit with them.
  • Killzone 3 has a jet pack, though it is Awesome, but Impractical. Though it is obviously useful for flying around, you can't crouch while using it, and using it to fly leaves you open to enemy fire. The Jetpack does have a machine gun, but it's surprisingly weak, considering that it's supposed to be an LMG.
  • The Jet ability in Kirby Super Star basically grants Kirby a Jet Pack. He can use this not only to fly, but to charge at enemies and fire energy pulses, and even perform an aerial throwing attack.
  • In LittleBigPlanet a jet pack is one of the powerups, and there are two versions that people can use in their levels: The Tethered Jetpack', which has a certain range that can be set by the level creator, and the Tetherless Jetpack, which has no restrictions, save for people placing Powerup Removers everywhere.
  • LunarLux: Jet Suits allow their users to fly by examining Jet Pads. However, the user needs authorization from the law and a functioning Jet Chip.
  • Mass Effect: Andromeda: The Andromeda Initiative gives out turian Jump Jets, borrowed from the turian elite forces, as standard equipment to its explorers. No more getting waylaid by three foot high ledges! They're pretty powerful, even capable of taking the weight of a krogan. One quest ends with the quest giver asking, as terms of a deal, for one of them in trade.
  • Doris de Lightning of Max Blaster and Doris de Lightning Against the Parrot Creatures of Venus wears a pair of rocket pants for the mission.
  • In certain levels of MDK2, Max makes use of a jetpack with limited fuel.
  • Metal Fatigue. The game has jet packs as optional flight accessories for combots. MilAgro and Neuropa have jetpacks with wings while Rimtech uses mundane jetboots. Mounting jetpack/jetboots make combots behave like aircraft when ordered to move beyond a certain distance; they can even use ranged attacks without landing and cannot be attacked via melee until they do land. Now the drawback: while flying, combots get zero armor and all hits do full damage which means bad news, as flying parts have about 20 HP which is INSANELY low. It's still the fastest form of travel, though.
  • Mega Man:
  • Metal Slug: From 3 onwards, players will be occasionally granted access to jetpacks, which allows them to fly after enemies in airborne missions instead of pursuing on foot. Said jetpacks also has a missile launcher built in.
  • Metal Warriors: When not piloting a Mini-Mecha, Stone can move around airborne thanks to a jetpack with unlimited fuel, though his standard human size makes him an easy target for all enemies except the ones who are also outside their mechs (even then, said enemies luckily don't wear any jetpacks, so they always attack from the ground).
  • Metroid Prime Trilogy:
    • Metroid Prime has the Pirate Aerotroopers, which not only have jet packs but also go kamikaze on you after being defeated.
    • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: The Gravity Boost is a powerup that lets you rise up while underwater for a limited time. It doesn't work on land, so it's an underwater-only jetpack.
  • Fassad from Mother 3 sports a jet pack from Chapter 7 onward. Presumably this is because Fassad lost the ability to walk when he was put back together ala Humpty Dumpty after his fall from Thunder Tower. So he flies instead.
  • In MySims Kingdom, one of the figurines depicts Trevor wearing a jetpack. Victor wonders why.
  • Nancy Drew, of all people, gets a jetpack in the game The Haunting of Castle Malloy.
  • In the Pilot Wings series, the "Rocket Belt" is one of the vehicles that can be piloted.
  • The signature ability of the light assault class in PlanetSide is their jetpacks. They are known for ambushing people from rooftops and windows.
  • Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time: The Far Future world introduces the Jetpack Zombie, who travels quickly, and can also fly over most plants to bypass them. There's also the Disco Jetpack Zombie, a disco version summoned by the Disco-Tron 3000. Finally, the expanded levels have the Blastronaut Zombie, a faster and tougher Jetpack Zombie whose Almanac entry subverts it, funnily enough — the jetpack is just for show, and his flight capability comes from a deep meditative state and being full of helium.
  • PO'ed grants you a jetpack as early as the second stage, when areas with platforming elements becomes common. You'll need to conserve enough fuel to take on the final stage where you're fighting atop an out-of-control artificial sun - run out of fuel and you'll fall into the surface.
  • The Rocketeer is one of Pulp Adventures available party members and has flight-related abilities, from hovering above ground while being able shoot, to ramming the target. There's also the Nazi Rocket Troopers, who are Nazi mooks with jetpacks; the Rocketeer initially appears ingame because he has been hired by the protagonists especially to not be too disavantaged against the Nazi Rocket Troopers.
  • Putrefaction 2 has jetpack-wearing enemies who can take potshots if they're airborne, although you can stop them from taking off if you shoot them quickly enough. You can also aim for their packs, causing them to lose control and crash.
  • Ratchet & Clank series
    • Going Commando has the "Levitator", a jet pack which gives proper flight with limited fuel.
    • This idea was later brought back in Into the Nexus and Ratchet & Clank (2016), where the jetpack now allows Ratchet to engage in aerial combat. However, if his fuel runs out, he still needs to find a refueling station.
  • Two examples in Risk of Rain: the Rusty Jetpack only increases jump height, whereas the Photon Jetpack gives limited flight.
  • Rocket Knight Adventures has Sparkster, a Rocket Knight, who, as the name implies, is a armored knight with a rocket pack, along with a sword that creates energy slashes. It's just as awesome as it sounds.
  • Rocket Ranger is a deliberate homage to the original Rocketeer in video game form.
  • You can make a jetpack in Satisfactory after unlocking it in one of the later Tech Tree tiers. The jetpack itself has finite fuel, but it automatically refills from fuel carried your inventory as long as you're on the ground.
  • Sly Cooper: This is one of Bentley's gadgets available to him in the second game, and he gets rockets in the third.
  • In Sly Spy, some enemies fly in on jetpacks, and when killed will sometimes drop theirs for you to use.
  • Sonic the Hedgehog:
    • Sonic the Hedgehog Chaos and Sonic Triple Trouble have rocket shoe power-ups in certain stages if you play as Sonic.
    • Shadow the Hedgehog also has rocket shoes, but the only time he's ever used them to hover is in the second Dark Story cutscene of Sonic Adventure 2. Most of the time, he uses them like a pair of roller skates.
    • Sonic Lost World has Dr. Eggman in possession of a jet pack, and he does use it. He also uses one in Sonic CD after his first boss machine is wrecked and he makes his escape.
  • Space Engineers has every character equipped with a small rocket pack for maneuvering in zero-gravity. The jetpack is fairly realistic affair, with multiple jets on both their front and back for movement in all three directions, and is aligned with the character's center-of-mass.
  • Special Project Y have multiple levels where you chase down enemies while wearing armed jetpacks of your own, firing at mooks in your way. The game's first mission have you pursuing enemies on speedboats with your jetpacks.
  • Jet packs can be found/purchased/stolen in Spelunky. In the first game, they were a Game-Breaker. The sequel nerfed it by making it blow up if you get hit by fire or bullets.
  • Splatoon 2's Inkjet special weapon causes the player to don a large jet pack that constantly fires continuous streams of ink out of it as a means of propulsion while arming the player with a rocket launcher that fires explosive globs of ink. The means of propulsion also means that flying over enemies causes them to take damage.
  • Splitgate: All players get a recharging jetpack that allows just a little flight each jump, and near-instantly restocks while not in use. While it won't let you fly across the map on its own it's definitely helpful, especially while taking a portal-enhanced leap.
  • Reapers in Starcraft II are Terran close-combat infantry with jetpacks and dual pistols. Their jets, actually mounted on the shoulders of their Powered Armor, don't let them outright fly, but they are very fast on the ground and can hop over cliffs.
  • In all Starsiege: Tribes games, the jetpack is an extremely integral piece of the gameplay. Someone in juggernaut armor can only achieve any significant height gain by standing still while the same person in scout armor is nigh unstoppable on flag runs. And then we have the skiing ability of players, which originally came by as a bug, but is explained away in-game via micro-bursts from the jets. By the way, only scout and assault armors have jetpacks; juggernaut armors have jetboots instead.
  • Automated Simulations' Star Warrior. Depending on which method you use to create your character, you can either choose a suit with a built-in jet pack for him or pay for a jet pack as one of his custom suit's options.
  • Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire. A jet pack has finite fuel, so you must learn to manage it.
  • Stormland grants you a jetpack called the Slipstream Thruster for hovering around the planet's skies.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • Super Mario Sunshine: FLUDD's Rocket Nozzle. It substitutes plumes of fire for a blast of rapid-shot water.
    • Super Mario Maker 2: In Ground levels set during night, Mechakoopas make use of jet engines to briefly hover in the air.
    • Wario Land: Wario has a hat version of this that debuted in Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, the aptly named Jet Cap/Jet Wario, which allows him to fly forward for a certain amount of time. Underwater too, apparently.
    • Mario Party 6: The minigame Lunar-tics has two dueling characters land slowly into a pad installed in the moon. Each character has a pair of jetpacks so they can slow down their descent (by pressing or holding the A button), because the goal is to touch the landing pad as closely to 0:00 in the countdown as possible. The key here is to maneuver with the falling speed with the jetpacks to measure the best moment to land. It's actually possible for one or both characters to land past 0:00, hence why the proximity to that instant is judged by the absolute value of the instant when a character lands onto the pad. Whoever lands on the instant closer to 0:00 (be it before or after it passes) wins, but if both characters land on the exact same instant, the minigame ends in a tie.
    • Mario Party: Island Tour: In the minigame Fuel Me Once, each character has to fill up a jetpack with just enough gas so they can equip it and fly to a round green platform above a lake that has some dark tiles in the middle segment, positioned exactly 100 meters away from the characters' launch site. Filling the jetpack with too little gas will make a character descend into the water before reaching the destination, while filling the jetpack with too much gas will make the character fly past the platform and thus fall onto the water as well. Making things trickier is that, when the minigame starts, the gas gauge's hand will show that the fill-up speed is designated randomly, and the gauge itself will be covered shortly after the fill-up itself begins, thus forcing the character to time the exact moment when they have to stop the gas input. The character who lands closest to the 100-meter spots wins.
    • Mario Power Tennis: Diddy Kong's Defensive Power Shot (a Limit Break that allows the player to hit the ball from anywhere as long as it's on their side of the court) has him summon his "Rocketbarrel" jetpack to fly to the ball and hit it. The design looks like a mix between the earlier Donkey Kong 64 design and the later Donkey Kong Country Returns design.
  • Super Smash Bros.:
  • The Rocket Boots can be purchased and used in Terraria.
  • Actual rocket boots are an unlockable powerup in the Toy Story 2 game.
  • In Twilight Heroes, a hero with enough time and resources can undertake the game's biggest construction project, the Jetpack. The diagram for building it has its own page on the game's wiki. But once you complete the task, the Jetpack serves as one of the game's best forms of transport - Range 5 (meaning it can go anywhere on the map; there are very few Range 5 vehicles), flying, and without any level limit. And the only requirement to use it is the Passable Pilot skill, available in any run to any hero with five turns, 500 chips, and access to Downtown (which only takes a Moped).
  • The Aero-Divers as well as Joe Fang fly using jet packs in Virtua Cop 2.
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine has a slightly more realistic take on its jump packs, the thrusters are angled such that they aren't going to fry Titus' ass (and given his Powered Armor it might not do much damage anyway), and at the end of every jump pack level Tidus comments that he's out of fuel and takes it off.
  • Warhawk's latest expansion pack adds jetpacks.
  • World of Warcraft:
    • Engineers have access to rocket boots, though their intended purpose is for horizontal travel rather than vertical.
    • The Icecrown Citadel gunship battle from Wrath of the Lich King gives players a somewhat limited form of jetpack to fool around with (it rathers serves as an improved jump to assault the enemy ship in practice).
    • In Battle for Azeroth, the Mechagone area has jet packs available for players so they can move more freely in the landfills. It is particularly useful for players who are farming the reputation, as the latter is a requirement to unlock the flying abilities for flying mounts in the expansion pack's zones.
  • Jet packs are used by some Mooks as well as one boss in Xain'd Sleena. The Laser Blade ones are the nastiest, as they love dives to either attempt to impale you with their weapons or in "kamikaze" fashion.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 
  • The Adventures of Dr. McNinja:
    • Organic jet packs that develop as a natural part of working your abs too much.
    • James invented rocket boots and uses them to kick people.
    • Cyborg Frans Rayner also has rocket boots, but they're fake. Enemies act foolish when they think they're fighting someone with rocket boots.
    • A possible future features dinosaurs with jet packs and rocket launchers.
  • A Beginner's Guide to the End of the Universe: After defeating the Singularity, the Everyman creates a jetpack with wing-mounted rockets to fly back out of the room it was in. He later incorporates it into Chairman Jack to give him rocket-propelled flight.
  • Cinema Bums features a strip applying the concept to The Shawshank Redemption.
  • Fluffy wears one in Commander Kitty. At least, in an Imagine Spot.
  • Homestuck:
    • John uses a jetpack which allows him to pull off some Sequence Breaking, with unfortunate results in an Alternate Timeline. He eventually stops using it after entering the God Tiers, as he gains the ability to fly unassisted.
    • The Trolls also make use of the jetpack's code to craft some variations on it. Vriska makes a pair of rocket boots, Gamzee rides a rocket-powered unicycle, Tavros replaces his wheelchair with a rocket car, and Terezi uses a jetpack/dragon wing combo.
  • As part of a rescue mission, Alice from I Was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space!!! built a set of rocket boots from a pile of scrap. The pirates all refused to wear them because the colour clashed with their uniforms.
  • An early Val and Isaac comic had Val using one of these and a pair of laser pistols to take on a large monster.
  • José from Waterworks has a back-mounted water hose (made out of a toilet tank) which he can use as a jetpack.

    Web Original 
  • Baron von Fogel of The League of S.T.E.A.M. wears a rocket backpack.
  • Red vs. Blue: The Project Freelancer Saga:
    • In Season 9, the Freelancers face a group of Elite Mooks equipped with jetpacks during the freeway battle.
    • In Season 10, the Freelancers themselves use jetpacks to navigate around an Insurrectionist controlled space station. It's also established that Agent Georgia had suffered a vague horrible fate involving a jetpack.
  • Whateley Universe:
    • The best known thing about Peril is that he tested a jetpack for an inventor, and the thing exploded at about two hundred feet up. Fortunately for Peril, he's super-strong and regenerates.
    • Chaka got to use one in a holographic sim (where she stole it off a badguy), and she wanted one for real. She just didn't want to lug it around when she wasn't in battles.

    Western Animation 
  • The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius: Jimmy's school backpack included a jet pack function, which he used every once in a while (notably the time he and Jet Fusion used it to escape an avalanche).
  • In Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode "The Cloning", after Shake uses Frylock's cloner to produce Counterfeit Cash, he considered on buying a Camaro but settled on a jetpack thinking it's cooler.
  • Batman Beyond has jet boots.
  • Used regularly by Batman in Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
  • Birdman (1967)
    • "The Purple Moss". At the end the villains escape their ship by donning jet packs and flying away. Unfortunately they're too high in the atmosphere and end up going into orbit around the Earth.
    • "Wings of FEAR". Several FEAR mooks fly using a combination of wings and a jet pack. They use them to kidnap people by swooping down, grabbing them and flying away.
  • In Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Space Rangers have these as standard issue with their spacesuits (and Chassis for XR). They also include a pair of wings, except for Booster's suit, which he has a double engine jetpack instead of wings.
  • As well as having one in Codename: Kids Next Door, Number One also has jet shoes, and they see a good amount of use throughout the series.
  • Dexter's Laboratory probably has a few of these, but the jet boots that Mandark installed in the giant statue of George Washington stand out.
  • In "The Fast & the Feathery", Duck Dodgers uses rocket boots to get back in his spaceship after falling out, only to jump out again as he's just set the seat on fire.
  • There was one that was one of the inventions made by Double-D in an episode of Ed, Edd n Eddy in which the Eds show up uninvited to Jimmy's birthday trying to be spy-like. The Jetpack didn't work so well, probably because it was damaged from Ed catching Eddy in mid-air when he used it.
  • Escape from Planet Earth. In a bid to stop their son from launching a spaceship, Kira carries hubby Garry from home to a launch-area by means of a rocket boots.
  • In Exo Squad, James Burns and the Venus Resistance make extensive use of jetpacks.
  • The Fairly OddParents!: When Timmy wishes that his life was an action movie, he gets a "jet pack out of nowhere". At the end, the villain's Right-Hand Cat gets one.
  • Fantastic Voyage: The protagonists had jet packs that they could use to fly around, as in the episodes "The Menace from Space", "The Atomic Invaders" and "The Master Spy".
  • In Filmation's Ghostbusters, the Ghost Packs could transform into "Buster Thruster Packs" at the press of a button.
  • G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero makes a lot of use of these as well, particularly in the opening of the first mini-series, and even more spectacularly in the opening of G.I. Joe: The Movie. Cobra has their own version in the C.L.A.W., which is essentially a jet pack with wings.
  • The Herculoids
    • "Queen Skorra": Queen Skorra's attack robots use jet packs to fly while fighting the Herculoids.
    • "The Pirates": The pirates wear jet packs while flying their "flying torpedoes" (hover vehicles). When Tundro smashes one of the vehicles and Zok destroys another one with his laser eye beams, the pirates piloting them fly away using their jet packs.
  • In the Toonami Immersion Event The Intruder, TOM 1 puts one on in order to go outside and investigate a breach in the ship.
  • In Jackie Chan Adventures, Section 13 has one.
    Jade: Oooh, when're you gonna finish your jetpack? [accidentally takes off]
    Kepler: [not noticing] Yesterday.
  • Heloise on Jimmy Two-Shoes. She even uses it in the second season opening. Lucius also uses one in several first season episodes.
  • Jonny Quest TOS
    • "The Invisible Monster". The Quest team uses jet packs to fly around the island and find the title creature, then to escape it when it pursues them.
    • "Turu The Terrible". Dr. Quest and Race Bannon use jet packs to ascend to the top of the plateau and face the title monster, who can fly himself because he's a pteranodon.
  • In the Justice League Unlimited episode "To Another Shore", King Faraday and his fellow Secret Service agents use jet packs to provide air support for Wonder Woman and Green Arrow.
  • Kim Possible: Jet packs are often used by Kim and sidekick Ron. Shego uses a bigger rocket pack at one point. And Dr. Drakken once used one to escape Kim and forgot that he was indoors. He embedded himself head-first in the ceiling.
  • Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies
    • A standard piece of equipment for Wile E. Coyote and Sylvester the Cat in their never-ending quest to chase the Road Runner, Tweety Bird and –- sometimes, for Sylvester –- Speedy Gonzales. Never worked.
    • In "Lighter Than Hare," spaceman Yosemite Sam uses one, which Bugs Bunny eventually replaces with a keg of dynamite.
      Sam: YOSEMITE SAM OF OUTER—*KABOOM* ...space?
  • Dr. Wakeman from My Life as a Teenage Robot was often seen using these. Brad and Tuck have stolen them for their own use before.
  • Filmation 1960's series The New Adventures of Superman. In the Superboy episode "The Revolt of Robotville", the robots that capture Clark Kent and Lana Lang and later rob a steel foundry use jet packs to fly.
  • Skye of the PAW Patrol has a variation, being a glider pack equipped with twin mini-thrusters and retractable wings.
  • Jet from Ready Jet Go! has a jet pack. He uses it in a few episodes like "Mindy's Moon Bounce House" and "My Fair Jet".
  • Recess: The cast found a note worth a large amount of money. Each of them talks about their fantasy of what they would use the money for, which all happen to feature a jet pack in some capacity, but they decided to try to find its owner instead. They did, and T.J returned it, only to be told to leave. The person he returned it to reappeared wearing a Jet Pack and explained that he did this all the time, and the gang was the only one to actually return the note to him and then offers each of them a ride on his jet pack.
  • Rick and Morty:
    • In "Pickle Rick", Rick flies a Jet Pack made from rat corpses and sewer junk to fly out from the sewers.
    • In "Forgetting Sarick Mortshall", Nick uses jetpacks to reach Morty after the latter crashes the car.
  • A sketch from Robot Chicken has a scientist complain that he's sick of people asking him all the time, "It's the future now, where's my jetpack?" They tried and failed, so they gave up on it and just decided to keep making iPods smaller.
  • Rocket Robin Hood: Robin and his Merry Men sometimes used jet packs to fly through space.
  • Space Ghost
    • Jan, Jace and Blip used them to fly through space. In the episode "The Drone" Space Ghost called them "rocket packs".
    • In "Brago" a young boy used one to go for help against the title bandit.
    • At the beginning of "The Web" a man uses one to escape the lair of the Black Widow.
  • In one episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, after SpongeBob and Patrick take Sandy's rocket and crashed it back to Bikini Bottom, Sandy resorts to using jetpack to travel to the moon.
  • Star Wars: The Clone Wars has Cad Bane, the bounty hunter. While he's skilled with his pistols, his jet boots — and the mobility they provide — help put him on equal footing with Jedi.
  • Superman: The Animated Series. In "World's Finest", Batman has come to Metropolis and is working with Superman. Being unable to fly himself, he uses a jetpack with bat-like wings that the Joker promptly mocks him for.
    Joker: Copy-bat! Copy-bat! Suffering from propulsion-envy, Batboy?
  • The SWAT Kats had them. It was even the special for Razor in the SNES game of it. They only used them a couple times in the show, though.
  • Slade's Mecha-Mooks in Teen Titans (2003) have rocket boots.
  • Used frequently by the girls in Totally Spies!.
  • Transformers
    • Transformers: Animated
      • Bumblebee has to get a volatile compound into the atmosphere real quick. His solution: Bulkhead throws him and Prowl, Prowl throws him, and by then he is high enough up that he uses his turbo boosters as a form of jetpack. Prowl himself has a jetpack that lets him fly short distances.
      • Sari gets a scooter that can transform into one after her Plot-Relevant Age-Up. She, her Dad and Ratchet build one (in pretty good time) for Optimus during the Grand Finale.
    • The Transformers:
      • Skyfire's toy had a jetpack that clipped on.
      • Sideswipe also had one, but only in the fluff (though a later toy would finally reproduce it in plastic form). Optimus Prime borrows it to reach the Decepticon ship at the end of the three-part pilot miniseries "More than Meets the Eye".
  • In The Venture Bros., 21 tries to get 24 to become full-fledged archvillains with him, using stolen jet packs as their motif. 24 burns his shoes with his, and 21 is too heavy to fly more than a foot off the ground.
  • Wishfart: The first wish Dez ever granted was giving a jet pack to his babysitter Muriel. But due to Dez's wonky wishing magic, Muriel can't ever take off or turn off the jet pack.
  • In Xiaolin Showdown, the Jet Bootsu are... jet boots.

    Real Life 
  • The primary reason why this trope has not become reality is not impossibility but impracticality; you can make a jet pack, but humans are not aerodynamic, jet packs are terribly fuel inefficient, and flying is dangerous enough in a plane. Thus it is unlikely that jet packs per the popular imagination will ever be a common form of transportation on Earth. There's also the Toasted Buns issue: the classic jetpack would incinerate your butt with the jets of flame, and inflict severe burns on your shoulders and/or back (because the engines themselves are hot). Even the compressed air and high-pressure water variants have the danger that if the tanks experience catastrophic failure, the explosive result is the same as having a bomb strapped to your body would have been - and they don't allow for much control or safe travel distance.
    • The USA did devise a working steerable rocket-pack that did what it should and did not kebab the user. It was dropped because it could only carry 21 seconds worth of flight time, the pilot was too obvious a target to ground fire, and because the heavy cumbersome hi-tech device did nothing that could not already be done as well, using low-tech resources and equipment. (For example, a parachute is cheaper, lighter, and proven technology as a means of disembarking men from aircraft in flight; ejector seats already existed for pilots to use in emergency; men could cross rivers more effectively using combat engineer bridges; and special forces could attack on the ground more effectively, without needing to fly.)
    • Contrary to popular belief, the original military projects experimenting with jetpacks were only intended for short jumps. The idea was to allow soldiers to quickly leap across a river or bounce over a minefield, rather than sustained flight. Those designs (when they worked) did avoid most of the practicality issues like Toasted Buns, poor aerodynamics, etc. But other concerns like safety, weight, and especially noise (even modern jetpack engines are unbearably loud) made alternate methods more attractive. So they were still impractical but for different reasons.
    • There was an actual turbine powered version too, the Bell Flying Jet that was the first true jetpack. It was even to the point that it was (relatively) more practical, being a good bit lighter and with a longer flight time than the Rocket Belt, and likely could have become more practical in due time. Unfortunately, the creator and driving force behind it, Wendell Moore, died while it was still in the testing phase, and without his mind and driving force to perfect it, the United States military lost interest and the program died with him.
  • The opening ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles included a Bell Rocket Belt (the Thunderball device) flown across the stadium.
  • Many people spend lots of time/money (attempting a successful run at) making these. A fair number had military funding some decades ago.
  • The Other Wiki has this.
  • A Swiss man named Yves Rossy used a winged jet pack to cross the English channel in ten minutes.
  • Goin' public!
  • The space shuttle astronauts' Manned Maneuvering Unit is kind of like a jetpack, although its thrust levels are so low that it's only useful in Earth orbit. (It would run out of gas after only 25 meters per second of delta-v.)
    • The MMU's predecessor, jet shoes, is a literal rocket boot.
    • There was also consideration of giving the Apollo astronauts these for additional mobility on the lunar surface, but this seems to have been shelved when somebody realized how phenomenally dangerous it was going to be to just walk around up there, never mind trying to fly. The regolith is basically composed of very small bits of broken glass, and that's about as good an idea to walk around in wearing something that will cause you to die if it breaks down as it sounds. As it was the suit materials were seriously damaged by the lunar dust that got into them.
  • Hydro jet packs and "flyboards", although not self-contained, allow for some impressive stunt maneuvers and can propel much greater loads than any air-jet or rocket-based version.
  • The JB-9 is much smaller than the Martin motorbike-sized version, is capable of vertical takeoff and landing unlike Yves Rossy's rocket wing, and claims to contain enough fuel for 10 minutes of flight time unlike various rocket belts used in shows. If it lives up to these claims, it is perhaps the single closest example to this trope's use in fiction.
  • Want an ApolloTurbine? It's one of the traditional jetpacks.
  • Trek Aerospace, Inc. has an entire line of personal aircraft.
  • The Gravity Industries "Daedalus" jet suit was invented by British ex-marine Richard Browning in 2016, and it could be considered the first truly viable jet pack. The suit has the familiar bulky backpack-mounted jet, but it is supplemented by smaller jets attached to the forearms. The result is a highly stable and surprisingly intuitive means of flight that can fly for around 5-10 minutes and can exceed speeds of 137kph. It is still highly expensive and consumes a lot of fuel for only a few minutes of flight, but the design has plenty of potential to be improved upon. Some militaries have even expressed interest at the design, as a means of quickly boarding and egressing to and from ships without having to force the ship in question to stop.

 
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Alternative Title(s): Rocket Boots

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Splatoon 2 - Inkjet

The Inkjet is a jet pack propelled by the user's ink. It also comes with a rocket launcher that allows you to rain down ink missiles.

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5 (6 votes)

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