History Main / PrecisionCrash

** A borderline example at the beginning of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': Grievous' cruiser falls out of the upper atmosphere, with barely any means of control (and massive chunks breaking off constantly, culminating in the ship breaking in half) and still manages to crash-land at an airstrip. It was not being piloted most of the way down and didn't seem to have any real controls even after Anakin took the helm. Furthermore, it reaches that airstrip ''dead on''. The novelization runs with it, going into great detail about just how hard controlling the ship is and dubbing the result of still landing safely "Anakin Skywalker's masterpiece".

** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Luke Skywalker randomly crashes his X-Wing into a swamp on the planet Dagobah, only to find that he is a short distance from the home of Yoda whom he was hoping to find there. Of course, the Force is strong with Luke and was likely leading him to that exact spot, or Yoda was doing it deliberately -- note how Luke's navigation computer wonks out on his way in, but he has no trouble on the way out, and Luke doesn't seem to have the same problem in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. In ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'', Luke hangs a lampshade on it and suspects that Yoda had done it on purpose.

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'', the MissionControl of an out-of-control rocket calculates that the rocket will likely crash in a given deserted, isolated, unpopulated area... And another immediately point out that there's an ammunitions depot right at that spot, chosen precisely for its isolation. Cue panic. At least two other episodes had spacecraft crashing into buildings. On one occassion, it struck the White House, and on the other, it crashed into the office of [[Series/TheXFiles Dana Scully]].

* In ''Film/ShaPoLang'' the villain Wong Po [[spoiler: defeats Inspector Ma]] by throwing him out the window of his high-rise office. Tragically, [[spoiler: Ma lands on the car containing Wong Po's family, killing his wife and child]].

* A strange land-based case occurred in Libya in 1973, when a drunk driver in a truck managed to collide with a tree -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Tenere the only tree within a 400-kilometer radius]].

* In ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', the incoming meteors hit several major cities. One large chunk precision-strikes the Eiffel Tower.

--> '''Jack:''' I've seen [[Film/{{Armageddon}} this movie]]. It hits Paris.\\

* In ''Film/ManOfSteel'', Superman and Zod's fight in Metropolis ends up bringing them into orbit, where they smack into a [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Wayne Enterprises]] satellite. Zod kicks it at Superman, and all three fall back to Earth, landing right in the middle of Metropolis again.

* A strange land-based case occurred in Libya in 1973, when a drunk driver in a truck managed to collide with a tree -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Tenere the only tree within a 400-kilometer radius].].

* A strange land-based case occurred in Libya in 1973, when a drunk driver in a truck managed to collide with a tree -- [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Tenere the only tree within a 400-kilometer radius]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/EekTheCat'', the MissionControl of an out-of-control rocket calculates that the rocket will likely crash in a given deserted, isolated, unpopulated area... And another immediately point out that there's an ammunitions depot right at that spot, chosen precisely for its isolation. Cue panic.

** A borderline example at the beginning of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': Grievous' cruiser falls out of the upper atmosphere, with barely any means of control (and massive chunks breaking off constantly, culminating in the ship breaking in half) and still manages to crash-land at an airstrip. It was not being piloted most of the way down and didn't seem to have any real controls even after Anakin took the helm. Furthermore, it reaches that airstrip ''dead on''.

* It is well known that Manga/DetectiveConan runs into corpses on a regular weekly basis. However, [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6402346/1/It-s-Raining-Men-Hallelujah one fanfic]] takes note of the canonical trend of bodies ''literally'' falling into his path when Heiji is around.

In fiction, an object falling from space, from orbit, or from high in the sky - '''completely unaimed and uncontrolled''' - has a disproportionally high chance of crashing (or threatening to crash) into an important or heavily-populated target.

It doesn't matter how small the target is, or from how high up that object is falling, the TheoryOfNarrativeCausality will work hard to ensure that it won't crash into just any uninteresting or remote spot. If the narrative demands it, the object will crash in the worst (or best) place possible. In the worst-case scenario, this might lead to MonumentalDamage. In the best-case scenario, the crash might bring a character [[ItsASmallWorldAfterAll to the exact spot where he/she needs to be in order to advance the story]].

* The object was not aimed at the target, and is falling uncontrollably (or without sufficient control to choose a target).

This trope is a specific case of ContrivedCoincidence, and often leads to ItsASmallWorldAfterAll. Closely related to PianoDrop, which is based more on the immaculate timing of the drop than on geographic improbabilities. Compare MonumentalBattle, since major battles also seem to be narratively attracted to places of interest.

* In a one-shot ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'' story, the world's first "space shuttle", launched in the victorian era, returns not just to earth but ''actually hits its launch pipe''. Said pipe being the thing that fired it into space in the first place as a giant gun. Needless to say the pilots of what was in truth little more than a diving bell with some gaslamps inside it did not survive, likely having starved as their propulsionless craft floated around the space between Earth and the Moon for a few hundred years.

* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'': While being chased by Romans, Brian falls off of a tall building and into the cockpit of a passing alien spacecraft. It goes into space and has a dogfight with another ship. The other ship hits it, and it crash lands right back in Jerusalem at the feet of a local who had seen it pass by in the first place.

** A borderline example at the beginning of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': Grievous' cruiser falls out of the upper atmosphere, with barely any means of control (and massive chunks breaking off constantly, culminating in the ship breaking in half) and still manages to crash-land at an airstrip. It was not being piloted most of the way down, and didn't seem to have any real controls even after Anakin took the helm. Furthermore, it reaches that airstrip ''dead on''.
** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Luke Skywalker randomly crashes his X-Wing into a swamp on the planet Dagobah, only to find that he is a short distance from the home of Yoda whom he was hoping to find there. Of course, the Force is strong with Luke, and was likely leading him to that exact spot, or Yoda was doing it deliberately -- note how Luke's navigation computer wonks out on his way in, but he has no trouble on the way out, and Luke doesn't seem to have the same problem in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. In ''[[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Heir to the Empire]]'', Luke hangs a lampshade on it, and suspects that Yoda had done it on purpose.

* On ''Series/{{Cosmos}}'', both Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson had to remind audiences that although the Milky Way and Andromeda are inevitably going to collide, it is highly unlikely that any of the stars comprising them will actually collide with each other, since the stars are absolutely tiny compared to the empty spaces between them.

** Subverted in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon Aliens of London]]". An alien ship comes streaking in, does a low pass over Tower Bridge, turns around over St. Paul's Cathedral, clips Big Ben, then belly-lands in the Thames. Later on we find out it was launched from elsewhere on Earth on a parabolic course and [[ColonyDrop aimed at London]], as part of a plot by the Slitheen to trick Earth into a nuclear war for their own profit.

* Subverted and played straight in the 1966 film adapaptation of ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'', ''Thunderbirds Are Go'' with the Zero-X spacecraft. Subverted at the beginning when series BigBad, the Hood, accidentally causes the ship to crash and it simply crashes into the open ocean and all crew members make it safely to the escape pod with time to spare. Played straight on the return trip when a random glitch causes massive system failures and the projected crash site of the spacecraft is now a small town in Florida.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': Kenny is killed in the opening scene of the episode "Pinkeye", when the space station Mir crashes into him.

* On July 28, 1945, a B-25 bomber flying through heavy fog crashed into the Empire State building in New York City. The bomber was attempting to land at nearby Newark Airport but the pilot became disoriented due to the lack of visibility.

* Also applies to every attempt at scare-mongering about large asteroids passing within "close proximity" to Earth. People rarely realize that the entire Earth is itself a tiny target, when compared to the vastness of space, and that "close proximity" still puts it at a distance of hundreds of thousands of miles. And while any asteroid hitting earth would have adverse effects, it's worth noting the fact that Earth is 70% water, and only a tiny fraction of the land (3%) is covered with cites, so the chances of scoring a ''direct hit'' on a large population center are pretty slim.
* There are three documented cases of meteorites striking a human being, which is an example of this trope due to the incredibly low odds of that happening at all. There may be many humans on the planet, and we have been recording history for a quite some time, but even 7 billion humans cover an incredibly small area of the planet's surface, making the odds astronomical.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''WesternAnimation/LiloAndStitch''. The aliens are relieved to see that rogue experiment Stitch (who is too dense to be able to swim) is plummeting toward the open ocean, only to react in horror when they see that he's headed directly for the single tiny cluster of islands in the middle of the sea. Of course, Hawaii is [[AliensInCardiff possibly the least convenient place for Stitch to unleash a reign of terror]]:

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Disney/LiloAndStitch''. The aliens are relieved to see that rogue experiment Stitch (who is too dense to be able to swim) is plummeting toward the open ocean, only to react in horror when they see that he's headed directly for the single tiny cluster of islands in the middle of the sea. Of course, Hawaii is [[AliensInCardiff possibly the least convenient place for Stitch to unleash a reign of terror]]: