Superb drivers, and each one is a dedicated killer.
When the bad guys have matching vehicles, often painted black, maybe with one or two distinguishing features like a racing stripe. They'll often drive single file, or in a formation, until they start fighting whatever good guy they happen to be pursuing. They could also simply be part of the villain's motorcade/escort/entourage.
This trope helps the audience keep track of the bad guys during a chase scene taking place in heavy traffic, like on a freeway. It can also be used to contrast with the variety seen in the good guys' vehicles, demonstrating the conformity of joining up with the villains. This is even more apparent if we never see the people driving, which counts as a vehicular version of Faceless Goons.
Justified when the antagonists are the police or members of some military or another, as their vehicles are meant to be easily recognizable. Also, a presidential motorcade can become this if the president or other head of state is the antagonist of the story.
The Cool Car trope is often in full effect, but it doesn't have to be limited to cars. It could be motorcycles, planes, watercraft, etc. It can also overlap with Mook Mobile, but those are specifically for combat and are very easily destroyed. This trope is for any time the bad guys have multiple vehicles uniform in appearance and with a certain amount of coordination. Compare Opposing Sports Team, which often uses the clothing equivalent of this trope, and Van in Black, which is about sinister surveillance vans that are usually black. Compare and contrast Hero's Classic Car.
Examples:
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Films — Live-Action
- In Armor of God 2, a.k.a. Operation: Condor, Jackie Chan rides a motorcycle through several city streets and a dock, pursued by at least six cars all very similar in appearance.
- In Batman (1989), the Joker's goons chase the Batmobile in cars painted purple and green.
- S.H.I.E.L.D. sends a string of identical black SUVs to apprehend Steve and Natasha in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
- Condorman: The KGB drive matching black Porsches and are capable of quickly driving in formation. The same is true of their speedboats later in the film.
- Crops up occasionally in The Fast and the Furious franchise, and not just with cars. In the first movie, Johnny Tran's mooks ride similar motorcycles and even wear similar helmets.
- In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry and the Gryffindor Quidditch team all have their own brooms. The Slytherin team, on the other hand, are all equipped with shiny black Nimbus 2001 brooms, a gift from Draco's father.
- Moon: The space vehicle of the Eliza Unit is painted black.
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005): While driving on the freeway, John notices a black car following them. After a moment, four more cars appear from behind the first one, now forming a V.
- In Resident Evil: Apocalypse, after causing a zombie outbreak in Raccoon City, the evil Umbrella Corporation sends in a team of operatives driving a line of black SUVs to retrieve important personnel.
- In Star Trek this trope is especially present in the "Kelvin Timeline" movies with bad guys like Nero and John Harrison/Khan dressing up in black clothing and commanding gigantic, menacing black ships, the Narada and the USS Vengeance. Ever so slightly downplayed in Star Trek Beyond due to the ships that compose the "Swarm" presenting stylish golden decorations and Krall putting on a yellow Starfleet uniform during the final confrontation.
- In Star Wars, the Rebels have many different, distinct designs for their starfighters and capital ships. The Empire's Star Destroyers are all wedge-shaped, though, differing only in size, and their TIE fighters are all ball-shaped with panels on either side. This uniformity is carried over into the sequel trilogy's First Order.
- During the Light Cycles scene in TRON, the heroes' Light Cycles are different shades of gold while the villains' are identical shades of blue.
- In Twister, the good tornado trackers have a motley collection of vehicles, while the evil tornado trackers have a fleet of matching black SUVs.
Literature
- The Vogon fleet in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is composed of identical yellow ships. They're black in the film adaptation.
- The Sixers in Ready Player One have a virtual version, in that their avatars in the OASIS and the vehicles they drive there are all identical. This is in contrast to the Gunters, who design their own avatars and vehicles.
Live-Action TV
- Daredevil (2015): Wilson Fisk travels in a black Cadillac Escalade with several other Escalades carrying his bodyguards.
- Luke Cage (2016):
- Most of the Stokes gang use black Cadillac Escalades to drive around Harlem. Only a few, like Shades, drive cars of other makes and models.
- In season 2, when the Stylers are sweeping Harlem looking for Luke and Piranha, they're doing so using black cabs with Jamaican flag decals behind the rear windows, while blasting loud reggae music to announce their presence.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000: Subverted with ork vehicles, each of which can be broadly categorized in terms of armaments (trukks are transports, deff dreads are Mini-Mecha, etc.) but are unique to the mek that built them.
Video Games
- Many Wide-Open Sandbox games that feature enemy gangs (Grand Theft Auto and Saints Row, in particular) will also have "gang cars" for their street-level thugs to use for street patrols or chases. These vehicles usually have very distinctive modifications and/or paint jobs but are, performance-wise, identical to their stock counterparts.
- Saints Row: The Third has an interesting twist with the vehicles used by the three Syndicate gangs. While each gang has their own vehicle preference and primary color (red luxury saloons for the Morningstar, blue tuner cars for the Deckers and green Hummer Dingers for the Luchadores) , they all share a similar black paintjob and use a large star symbol on their roofs, signifying that these sub factions are united as part of a larger gang.
Web Videos
- CinemaSins will add a sin any time they notice the bad guys "driving black SUVs single file and tailgating".
Western Animation
- Transformers: Prime:
- The Decepticons' Vehicon Mooks all transform into sleek purple-black sports cars. Their flying variants turn into winged but similar-looking "hoverjets".
- M.E.C.H. is a straighter example, being a high-tech human terrorist organization that operates a fleet of identical green-and-black Corvettes.
