History Main / AerialCanyonChase

* The first ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' movie, ''Anime/DoraemonNobitasDinosaur'', had Nobita, Doraemon and friends being trapped in prehistoric times and getting pursued by a flock of pterodactyls in a narrow canyon while wearing their take-copters. Things took a turn for the worse when Doraemon couldn't find a suitable gadget in the chaos (RummageFail happens as usual, no surprise) and when he eventually found the pack of Momotaro pills (which is used to tame wild beasts), a passing pterosaur knocks the pills out of Doraemon's hands. And then another pterosaur caused Gian's take-copter to fall off, where Nobita had to hold Gian before he could fall to his death. When things start looking ''really'' hopeless... comes the [[VillainousRescue Dinosaur Hunters suddenly blasting the pterosaurs out of the sky]].

* The first ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' movie, ''Nobita's Dinosaur'', had Nobita, Doraemon and friends being trapped in prehistoric times and getting pursued by a flock of pterodactyls in a narrow canyon while wearing their take-copters. Things took a turn for the worse when Doraemon couldn't find a suitable gadget in the chaos (RummageFail happens as usual, no surprise) and when he eventually found the pack of Momotaro pills (which is used to tame wild beasts), a passing pterosaur knocks the pills out of Doraemon's hands. And then another pterosaur caused Gian's take-copter to fall off, where Nobita had to hold Gian before he could fall to his death. When things start looking ''really'' hopeless... comes the [[VillainousRescue Dinosaur Hunters suddenly blasting the pterosaurs out of the sky]].

* This trope happens at least twice in ''Film/TheBlueMax'', once where anti-hero Bruno Stachel leads a naive young wingmate to his doom in a chase-game of progressively more dangerous low-level stunting, near tall buildings and inconvenient telegraph wires. Other films about First World War aerial combat have used this to spectacular effect; ''Film/AcesHigh'' sees an aerial chase at low level lead to the destruction of both aircraft.

* Pilots based in US military installations in California, as well as allied militaries participating in "Red Flag" training exercises out of [[AREA51 Nellis Air Force Base]] in Nevada, would train for low-altitude maneuvers by flying through Rainbow Canyon in Death Valley National Park. The resemblance of the flights to the sequence at the end of ''Film/ANewHope'' earned the canyon the designation "Jedi Transition" from the US Air Force, and "Star Wars Canyon" from photography enthusiasts who would come to photograph the multiple daily flights, like a rather high-speed version of trainspotting. Unfortunately, in summer 2019, one pilot crashed and died while coming around the turn.

* The first ''Anime/{{Doraemon}}'' movie, ''Nobita's Dinosaur'', had Nobita, Doraemon and friends being trapped in prehistoric times and getting pursued by a flock of pterodactyls in a narrow canyon while wearing their take-copters. Things took a turn for the worse when Doraemon couldn't find a suitable gadget in the chaos (RummageFail happens as usual, no surprise) and when he eventually found the pack of Momotaro pills (which is used to tame wild beasts), a passing pterosaur knocks the pills out of Doraemon's hands. And then another pterosaur caused Gian's take-copter to fall off, where Nobita had to hold Gian before he could fall to his death. When things start looking ''really'' hopeless... comes the [[VillanousRescue Dinosaur Hunters suddenly blasting the pterosaurs out of the sky]].

* The movie ''Film/{{Stealth}}'' has the [[AIIsACrapshoot out-of-control robot plane]] use this trope to dispose of one of the overconfident heroes.
* ''Film/{{Captain Marvel|2019}}'', Maria Rambeau takes down [[spoiler:[[EvilAllAlong Minn-Erva]]]] in one of these in the final battle.
* Creator/WillSmith uses this trope to escape the pursuing space invaders in ''Film/IndependenceDay''.

* ''Film/MagnificentWarriors'' has an aerial chase between the protagonist, Ming-ming (Michelle Yeoh) and a Japanese Zero plane. Ming's biplane gets badly damaged, but she managed to take out her pursuer by [[SnipingTheCockpit shooting a flare into the cockpit]].
* In ''Film/X2XMenUnited'', lacking a conveniently placed canyon with which to perform this, Storm uses her weather manipulating powers to create one from tornadoes, giving the X-Men a chance to escape. It has the added benefit of making sure the inevitable crashes aren't actually fatal for their pursuers, but also the downside of allowing a clean missile lock.
* The film version of ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' has the titular submarine using the cliffs of an undersea canyon system to scrape off a torpedo dropped on them by a "[[ReportingNames Bear]]" that was part of the Soviet group tasked to prevent the ''Red October'' from making it to the US.

* ''Film/SkyCaptainAndTheWorldOfTomorrow''. The title character flies his fighter plane along the streets of New York just above ground level while trying to escape Dr. Totenkopf's robot ornithopters.
* ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'': Iron Man takes out many of the invading flying charioteers by getting them to chase him through the streets of New York after Hawkeye notes that they aren't as maneuverable as he is.
* This trope happens at least twice in ''Film/TheBlueMax'', once where anti-hero Bruno Stachel leads a naive young wingmate to his doom in a chase-game of progressively more dangerous low-level stunting, near tall buildings and inconvenient telegraph wires. Other films about First World War aerial combat have used this to spectacular effect; ''Film/AcesHigh'' sees an aerial chase at low level lead to the destruction of both aircraft.
* In ''Film/SpiderMan3'', during the first fight between Peter Parker and Harry Osborn as "New Goblin", Peter tries to escape by webslinging into a narrow gap between two buildings. Harry manages to follow by turning his SkySurfing glider sideways (unlike his father's, his is no bigger than a snow surf), but he has a hard time avoiding obstacles and scrapping the walls.
* ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'': On Qo'noS, when the infiltration ship sent by the ''Entreprise'' is located by the Klingons and pursued by a pair of interceptors, Kirks flies it through the ruins of the Ketha Province until he finds a ''very'' narrow space between buildings, tips the saucer-shaped navette to the side and goes through, despite the protests of his teammates. So narrow, in fact, that the ship scraps the walls both on top and bottom. Though it's all for naught since it's stopped by more Klingon interceptors on the other side.
* An aquatic version: In ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'', Indiana and Elsa piloted their speedboat between two large ships while being pursued by the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword. Somewhat subverted because they both knew [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat it was an insane maneuver]], but Elsa misheard Indy's instructions to go ''around'' the ships, ''not'' between them.

* In the techno-thriller called ''Storming Intrepid'' a pilot does this. He flies down into a canyon and through an arch with ''less than six feet to spare'' on each side. The opposing pilot pulls up, thinking the first guy crashed, and the first guy simply pulls up behind him and lights him up. The second pilot later, drives out to the scene, sees the setup, and realizes that if he had tried to follow the first guy, he would've crashed ''anyway'', and the first guy must be a sociopath to risk both their lives on an interservice laser dogfight competition. He's right.

* During ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'', Tash Arranda tries this through an AsteroidThicket with a Star Destroyer in hot pursuit, not unlike ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'''s scene. The Star Destroyer plows in after her, able to blast asteroids big enough to do it harm, [[spoiler: but was not aware of the space slugs.]]
* In the novellas and audio dramas of the VideoGame/DarkForcesSaga, Jan pilots the ''Moldy Crow'' through a canyon on Sulon at Kyle's urging in order to evade TIE fighters. As usual, a TIE fighter fails evade a canyon wall.
* Creator/DerekRobinson's novel of First world War air combat, ''War Story'', sees a British plane chase a wounded German down into a river valley - which has telegraph wires strung across it. The British pilot makes his kill, but fails to see the wires, and tangles into them in a catastrophic crash which brings down his flimsy wood-and-canvas biplane.

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}''. Aeryn Sun pursues a Harvey-possessed John Crichton through a glacier in "Die Me, Dichotomy".
* ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' starts with Falcon persuing Batroc the Leaper and his minions(in wingsuits) and getting chased in turn by attack helicopters.

* Altitude in ''[[TabletopGame/Warhammer40000 Aeronautica Imperialis]]'' is rated on a scale of 1 to 9, with 0 being the ground and 10 being orbit. Seriously tall mountains can reach altitude 6, which allows for the construction of maps designed for this fairly easily.

* ''VideoGame/RescueOnFractalus'' was originally going to have this be the ''only way'' to defeat enemies; George Lucas said that was silly.

* The canyon level of ''VideoGame/CrimsonSkies: High Road to Revenge'' is pretty much this trope.

* [[VideoGame/AirForceDelta ''Air Force Delta Strike'']] features two missions where the player has to run the length of one very winding canyon.
** In the first, the canyon is wide but has gigantic steam-rollers that must be flown past and an artificial ceiling is placed over the canyon by an inadequately explained air defense network.
** In the second, you are the one being chased by enemy ace pilots as you make your way through it. A gigantic wind generator is making it impossible for you to fly above the canyon rim and you have to reach the end in order to destroy it.
* Shows up in several of the space rail shooter missions in ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'', likely as a reference to some of the [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack source material]].
* Several chapters in ''VideoGame/StarWarsRebelAssault 2'' involve some variant of this trope. There are two straight versions involving an actual canyon run and a forest, while other chapters include two {{Asteroid Thicket}}s and four separate instances of flying through the interior of a space station or similar. Combined, that's more than half the game's chapters.
* At one point in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', the Normandy SR-2 has to evade pursuers by flying through a massive debris field that would destroy any ship, the Normandy included, were it not for the skill of the ship's pilot. However, even this is a close shave; the Normandy survives, but if the player doesn't upgrade the ship's barriers, the stress placed on them by debris collisions overloads the ship's power core, killing a squadmate in the resulting explosion.
* ''VideoGame/SkyOdyssey'' is an unusual example. Nothing actually chases you, as there's no combat in the game. It more than makes up for it in the "fly through the narrow canyon" part, which the game has in spades. In fact from the first to the last level the most common form of death in this game is usually crashing into canyon walls. Often you even have to fly through caves. To top it all off earthquakes hit frequently on the islands the game is set in, meaning you sometimes have to dodge [[DeathFromAbove rockslides falling down from above]].

* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/StormHawks'', Aerrow tries this to defeat the Dark Ace. As demonstrated earlier in the episode, the very end of the canyon is so narrow, one must turn one's fliers to motorcycle mode to get through, and then back again as to not plummet to the ground. The trick here is that, earlier in the fight, Aerrow had stuck a wrench into the Dark Ace's wing mechanism, preventing him from retracting them.
* Cheetor tries this with a canyon that has many close pillars in ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars''. Even though he manages to shake off the {{Mooks}} with this technique, Megatron just plows head-first right through the pillars to no ill effect.
* In a Season 2 episode of ''WesternAnimation/CodeLyoko'', Aelita riding on Odd's HoverBoard has to shake off a whole swarm of Hornets by tricking some into crashing over cliffs of the Mountain Sector, before luring the rest in a cavern with lots of twists and turns, further eliminating more. Helped by the fact that, as deadly and maneuverable Hornets are, they suffer from acute ArtificialStupidity.

* During the 1971 war between Pakistan and India, a Pakistani destroyer was caught in a MacrossMissileMassacre. Because he had zero effective air defense, he attempted to pull this ''with his destroyer'' by hiding among merchant vessels and using the much larger vessels as targets for the incoming missiles. After running out of merchant vessels, he proceeded to do the same thing with dockyard facilities. By the time the Indians were finished shooting at him, the port and all of the merchant vessels were destroyed, but the destroyer was still afloat. While it was commented that he should have been court marshaled, the skipper remarked "one has to be alive to be court-martialled."

* The climax of ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'' involved Jumba, Pleakley, Nani, and Stitch flying in a giant spaceship to save Lilo from [[TheDragon Gantu]], who accidentally captured her while attempting to capture Stitch (he escaped), by chasing him down a series of volcano-filled canyons located all over Hawaii. Originally, they were going to go after Gantu by chasing him down with a stolen passenger jet into the capital city of Honolulu, but due to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, the entire scene had to be reanimated into what we see in the final version of the film.

* In another Creator/RolandEmmerich film, ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'', the canyon chase isn't a dogfight but otherwise meets virtually all the criteria. Gordon can't get his plane off the ground quickly enough to escape the [[EarthquakesCauseFissures giant earthquake fissure]] that opens up beneath it, leading the protagonists to spend the next several minutes flying through the cracks and skyscrapers of a [[CaliforniaCollapse crumbling Los Angeles]], with obstacles that include derailed subway trains, exploding oil refineries, and falling highway overpasses. They later get to do it a second time in Las Vegas, leading Gordon to mutter [[HereWeGoAgain "Oh God, not again."]]

* Will Smith uses this trope to escape the pursuing space invaders in ''Film/IndependenceDay''.

* Pilots based in US military installations in California, as well as allied militaries participating in "Red Flag" training exercises out of {{AREA51}} Nellis Air Force Base'' in Nevada, would train for low-altitude maneuvers by flying through Rainbow Canyon in Death Valley National Park. The resemblance of the slights to the [[AerialCanyonChase]] at the end of ''Film/ANewHope'' earned the canyon the designation "Jedi Transition" from the US Air Force, and "Star Wars Canyon" from photography enthusiasts who would come to photograph the multiple daily flights, like a rather high-speed version of trainspotting. Unfortunately, in summer 2019, one pilot crashed and died while coming around the turn.

** The Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse loves this in general. If a book has "[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing]]" in the title (and even occasionally if it doesn't), expect there to be at least one of some sort. X-Wings are actually somewhat slower and less maneuverable than TIE fighters, but there are a few reasons why the canyon trick can work. TIE fighters, with those square wings, have greater air resistance, and those pilots who haven't trained in atmosphere often don't compensate for that. And an X-Wing can turn on its side and use its targeting computer to get through a gap only a handful of meters wide, while TIE fighters are almost as wide as they are tall. As ''Iron Fist'' showed, a TIE interceptor can pull off a similar maneuver due to it having a narrower profile than a TIE fighter.

* In the original ''Film/TheTerminator'', Sarah and Reese are driving flat-out in a parking garage with the Terminator just behind them. Sarah spots the wall but Reese is too distracted to listen to her (with the gunfire and all). Sarah slams her car into park, but the Terminator doesn't react in time to avoid hitting the wall at top speed. Of course, being a cyborg, this is just a minor inconvenience for him.

* This happens in the first episode of ''[[Anime/SentouYouseiYukikaze Yukikaze]]'', as Fukai and Yukikaze chase Copy Sylph into a canyon. The chase ends when Copy Sylph simply vanishes into thin air... after calling in an antiaircraft [[NukeEm nuclear missile]] to take out Yukikaze.

* This happens in the first episode of ''[[Franchise/SentouYouseiYukikaze Yukikaze]]'', as Fukai and Yukikaze chase Copy Sylph into a canyon. The chase ends when Copy Sylph simply vanishes into thin air... after calling in an antiaircraft [[NukeEm nuclear missile]] to take out Yukikaze.

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''Comicstrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' parodied this. Or explored [[http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/01/12 the origin]].
[[/folder]]

* The series ''WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'' did this all the time with Baloo being a master pilot. For instance, in the climax of the first story, Baloo leads a merry aerial chase into the bowels of the city, causing all his pursuers to eventually crash, and he crows, "If you can't fly, don't mess with the eagles!"

* Cheetor tries this with a canyon that has many close pillars in ''[[WesternAnimation/BeastWars Beast Wars]]''. Even though he manages to shake off the {{Mooks}} with this technique, Megatron just plows head-first right through the pillars to no ill effect.

* Saburo Sakai, one of the most successful Japanese aces of WW II, mentioned in his memoirs that several pilots of Allied P-39 Airacobras attempted to throw off pursuit (by him or his comrades) with this trick during air combats over the mountains of New Guinea, only to kill themselves in crashes.