History Main / CrewOfOne

* Taken to spectacular heights in Creator/KeithLaumer's ''{{Bolo}}'' series, where massive continent-sieging combat vehicles can be operated by a single pilot. Some of the later models, however, ''[[InstantAIJustAddWater don't even need a pilot at all]]''.

* Taken to spectacular heights in KeithLaumer's ''{{Bolo}}'' series, where massive continent-sieging combat vehicles can be operated by a single pilot. Some of the later models, however, ''[[InstantAIJustAddWater don't even need a pilot at all]]''.

* In the original ''MobileSuitGundam'', while not all tanks can be run by one man, the crew sizes are unrealistically small. TheFederation's Type 61 tank has only a driver & a gunner, with the commanding officer usually taking the latter station, possibly justified by panoramic view provided by tiny cameras on the hull & screens in the interior. The Guntank also starts out with a driver/gunner crew, but is later upgraded so it can be piloted singlehandedly. The Zeon Magella Attack Tank, on the other hand plays it straight, with a single pilot in the turret, which can detach & become a fighter jet.

** In ''StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock'', Scotty automates the Enterprise sufficiently to fly it with only a few people... though the system breaks down when they end up in a combat situation.

* A ''StarTrek'' novel has Scotty control an entire starship himself by basically rigging a shuttlecraft's controls into it, so that the ship basically does whatever you tell the shuttle to do. Of course, he ''is'' Scotty.
** StarTrek spaceships (at least of the StarTrekTNG era) can generally be operated by a single person thanks to the advanced computers (though maintenance requires a complete crew).

** Taken to the extreme by the ''USS Prometheus'' in ''[[StarTrekVoyager Voyager]]'', which is advanced enough to fly a complete combat mission against Romulans - and win - without any crew at all (there were two characters on board, but they weren't actually piloting it). Somehow it still manages to avoid being classed as an AI, however.
** Subverted in one episode of StarTrekTheNextGeneration when this is one more reason Beverly Crusher realizes something is HORRIBLY WRONG when only she and Picard are piloting the Enterprise. She asks him why there is no crew and he responds 'We never needed anyone else.'

* Rambo does this in ''{{Rambo}} III''. He's apparently able to drive, fire and load a Soviet tank with his head sticking out the front hatch.

** In X-2: The Threat, this is very obvious by the lack of crewmen at your bridge's seats.
** At the same time, Not only is the player controlling their ''own'' ship, but also the many many ships of their empire at the same time. (although these too are computer controlled, the "living" NPC pilots aren't much smarter than your AI-controlled ships)

* Every vehicle in ''BattleZone'', most of which are hovertanks of one form or another. The player can even snipe the driver of an enemy tank, run over and jump in. ''Even if said tank is explicity stated to be an AI-controlled drone.''

* Both used and averted in ''[=~Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood~=]''. The [[spoiler: Bomber]] is justified as only having enough space for one man. The [[spoiler: Tank]] needs three people to run it, though gameplay usage does not act as such. The [[spoiler: Machine Gun]] is clearly meant to have a driver and gunner, but you get separate parts of the mission for using both and during the latter the thing is on autopilot or something. The [[spoiler: Naval Weapon]] clearly is meant to have a gunner and driver too and this time Ezio has to switch between the two positions as necessary.

* ''{{Crysis}}'' has tanks, as well as jeeps and trucks, whose mounted weapons are controllable from the driver's seat. They just magically swing around. Note that this happens only in easy difficulty; harder difficulty levels require you to change seat in order to control the gun - although that still takes such a short time that it isn't really much of a hinderance.

* JamesBond Goldeneye does this with a tank in the second level, not to mention a similar tank in the original film. Plus numerous other vehicles throughout the series.

* Utterly averted in ''OperationFlashpoint'', in which tanks have the full crew of three (driver, gunner, and commander), though you can do without a commander in a pinch (and suffer impaired visibility as a result. In the tank missions the player typically acts as a tank commander, giving movement orders to the driver and targeting and firing orders to the gunner over the radio. If the tank isn't operating with a full crew, the ones present can switch positions as needed; even one person can drive a tank provided he switches between driving and aiming/firing as needed.

* Several vehicles in the ''StarWars: Battlefront'' games have multiple crew slots. The Assault Gunship has five: pilot, copilot, left, right & tail gunners. Only a pilot is required to drive and fire the main weapons, but a solo operator can switch rapidly from slot to slot if he wants to.

** It's long been a standing joke in the airline industry that the flight crew will soon be reduced to just a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog, and the dog will be there to bite the man if he tries to touch the controls.
*** [[{{Fridge Logic}} What kind of dog would (literally) bite the hand that feeds it, though?]]

* The World War 2 game {{Red Orchestra}} may be one of the few video games to nearly subvert this. There is a driver, main gun, and machine gun position on a tank; the driver can't see, and the gunners can't move. A good team needs to have the two coordinating their actions during a tank fight. Nearly, because players can and will drive out on their own, and switch between positions as needed.

* ''AirForceDelta Strike'' does this for its 2-man fighters as well.

* Train can run with a Crew of One, it's called DOO (Driver Only Operation)

* Can be seen in HalfLife 2 with both dune buggy and air boat. Being piloted by one fellow is reasonable enough, but that same fellow being a simultaneous driver and gunner? Not so much. Multitasking capabilities aside, there is a certain minimum of available arms required to preform both tasks, which can lead to only one conclusion [[PlayerCharacter Gordon Freeman]] has an extra set of invisible hands. This would also explain how he can climb a ladder while fully operating a gun. Then again, maybe he has three sets of hands, two of which invisible, as his arms aren't visible while driving either vehicle.

* Most games from the ''{{X}}-Universe'' series allow you to fly capital spaceships the size of space stations entirely on your own. Made all the more ridiculous because the ships in question are very clearly meant to house other people (at least, the lights and windows all over their surface suggest so). Handwaved by having the ship's computer handle practically everything. However, AI controlled capital ships (and corvettes) all have a large crew when open a comm channel with them - such as the Captain and navigation officer.

* Most games from the ''X'' series allow you to fly capital spaceships the size of space stations entirely on your own. Made all the more ridiculous because the ships in question are very clearly meant to house other people (at least, the lights and windows all over their surface suggest so). Handwaved by having the ship's computer handle practically everything.

* While you can't ''quite'' pilot a battleship or aircraft carrier by yourself in the ''{{Battlefield}}'' series, you can instantaneously hop between a ship's four to six different stations with a keypress to come remarkably close.

* In ''[[BattlefieldSeries Battlefield 1942]]'', a single player could seize control of an naval ship and sail it around. There was almost zero reason to do this. [[{{Griefer}} Aside from one reason.]]

* The ''[[BattlefieldSeries Battlefield]]'' series.

-->'''[[RalphWiggum Ralph]]''':''[carrying a missile]'' Pop music's hard work.

* In ''{{Mass Effect 2}}'', the Cerberus-built Normandy includes an AI that could theoretically take over pretty much every aspect of running the ship, apart from helming it, and allow it to be run by a crew of one. Cerberus intentionally made the AI unable to do so, [[spoiler:at least without overriding its safety constraints which you have to do late on in the game]], and thus the ship features a full human crew complement.

[[AC:Other]]
* Adverted in the MMO-FPS ''WorldWarTwoOnline''. More of a Simulator than a true FPS, driving tanks and boats required multiple crew members for multiple respective positions; The driver is, in fact, unable to shoot, has poor viability, etc. The player can swap between positions easy, however, but that doesn't lend much good in battle when one well-aimed shell can take you out.
* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/ArmoredCore'': For Answer. The megacorporations in the game world used to rely on HumongousMecha which played this trope straight, until they figured out that [[PhlebotinumRebel it was too dangerous to leave that kind of firepower in the hands of a single pilot]]. Consequently they started building [[MilitaryMashupMachine Military Mashup Machines]] with hundreds of crew instead.

* The video game ''[[DaleBrown Megafortress]]'' illustrated this literally - there are several different stations all simulated (pilot, weapons officer, EW officer, etc), but it's up to the player to hop around to all the stations to control them. This can be tricky when you're trying to turn around to bring some weaponry to bear while firing a missile at the [=MiG=] heading at you while trying to get the bomb bay doors closed and fiddle the ECM settings. Never mind the engine that's on fire from the last hit and the fact your attack radar is still on, broadcasting your position to the world.

* Several vehicles in the ''StarWars: Battlefront'' games have multiple crew slots. The Assault Gunship has five: pilot, copilot, left, right & tail gunners. Only a pilot is required to drive and fire the main weapons, but a solo operator can switch rapidly from slot to slot if he wants to.
* ''{{Airplane}}!'': Ted Striker flies a modern jet airliner by himself, a task that normally takes a crew of three (pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer).
** The film sort of [[LampshadeHanging hangs a lampshade]] on this with what confronts Striker when he first enters the cockpit: a slow pan across a literally endless array of dials, levers, switches and knobs. The Boeing 707 seen ([[JustPlaneWrong but not heard]]) in the movie can be flown for a short time with a crew of one (the pilot). For longer flights, you need a flight engineer to keep an eye on the airplane's mechanical systems, and if you want to reach your destination, you add a third: the navigator. Modern jetliners only need a crew of two, the flight engineer's position having been given to computers.
** It's long been a standing joke in the airline industry that the flight crew will soon be reduced to just a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog, and the dog will be there to bite the man if he tries to touch the controls.
*** [[{{Fridge Logic}} What kind of dog would (literally) bite the hand that feeds it, though?]]

* There were real-life attempts to create one-man armored fighting vehicles back during the 1920s and 1930s; they belonged to a class of vehicles known as "tankettes." The French, for example, wanted to create a sort of infantry replacement; one man would drive the vehicle and take care of everything, and he'd also be armed with a machine gun. In practice, it was unworkable, and the concept was abandoned. To be perfectly fair, during the past century there has been a significant trend towards smaller crew sizes, due primarily to automation.
** However, the minimum crew size in a turreted vehicle is still three, because the only crewman who can realistically be replaced is the loader. And most western armies have avoided autoloaders because a good human loader is much more reliable, faster and more flexible. An autoloader can't help change a track, pull maintenance, stand guard, or sub for another crewman, either. He also serves as an extra pair of eyes to watch your back when he isn't loading.
** Furthermore, reducing the crew to just one is probably inadvisable simply for morale reasons.

* The World War 2 game {{Red Orchestra}} may be one of the few video games to nearly subvert this. There is a driver, main gun, and machine gun position on a tank; the driver can't see, and the gunners can't move. A good team needs to have the two coordinating their actions during a tank fight. Nearly, because players can and will drive out on their own, and switch between positions as needed.

* The titular HumongousMecha in ''Metal Armor Dragonar'' require high-powered AI to aid in operation in order to keep the crew size down to a single person.
* In the ''AceCombat'' series, when you choose any aircraft with a crew of 2 or more (F-15E, F/A-18F, F-14, etc...), you still control all of its functions yourself as if it only needed one person...however, when you look at the actual plane's MODEL, you can see a guy in the back seat, presumably doing his job alongside the pilot.
* ''AirForceDelta Strike'' does this for its 2-man fighters as well.

* In WorldOfWarcraft the [[FragileSpeedster Catapults]] used during [[PlayerVersusPlayer Wintergrasp]] fights have space for only one driver/gunner. The [[JackOfAllStats Demolishers]] also has a driver/gunner but have space for two passengers who can fire their own ranged weapons (bows, guns, etc.) from their seats. The [[MightyGlacier Siege Engines]] have a ram controlled by the driver, a turret-mounted cannon that requires a separate gunner and two passenger spots. Similar vehicles exist on the Isle of Conquest, Ulduar and other in-game locations.
* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. While Alex has learned how to pilot APCs, tanks and helicopters by consuming people trained to do so, he can somehow operate them all by himself.
** Maybe with his tentacles?
** Come to think of it, this guy has the ability to shapeshift into basically anything...it is not a far stretch to assume he just fills the entire vehicle with himself and can then easily operate all the switches, buttons and levers as he pleases.
* Inverted on ''TopGear'': In a crossover challenge with German motoring show ''D Motor'', the presenters had to drive double-decker cars, with one person on top steering and a second person on the bottom operating the pedals and gearshift, thus turning a vehicle that normally is Crew Of One into Crew Of Two.
* Train can run with a Crew of One, it's called DOO (Driver Only Operation)
** Real Life Subversion: [[http://tfl.gov.uk/dlr Docklands Light Railway]] runs trains with a crew of nought.
*** Though the on-board Passenger Service Agent is trained to become the CrewOfOne and drive the train if computer operation fails.

* Both used and averted in ''[=~Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood~=]''. The [[spoiler: Bomber]] is justified as only having enough space for one man. The [[spoiler: Tank]] needs three people to run it, though gameplay usage does not act as such. The [[spoiler: Machine Gun]] is clearly meant to have a driver and gunner, but you get separate parts of the mission for using both and during the latter the thing is on autopilot or something. The [[spoiler: Naval Weapon]] clearly is meant to have a gunner and driver too and this time Ezio has to switch between the two positions as necessary.
* Almost all fighter aircraft have a one-man crew, who both flies the aircraft and operates the weapons.
** Many exceptions to this are electronic-warfare variants of what are otherwise single-seat fighters (themselves often based on a two-seat trainer variant). The second person runs the (much more extensive) electronic warfare equipment. There are also fighters that only exist in two-seat configurations, which often carry much more elaborate electronics packages than single-seat aircraft do (since there's another person there to operate the more complex systems), such as the F-14 and A-6.
* Can be seen in HalfLife 2 with both dune buggy and air boat. Being piloted by one fellow is reasonable enough, but that same fellow being a simultaneous driver and gunner? Not so much. Multitasking capabilities aside, there is a certain minimum of available arms required to preform both tasks, which can lead to only one conclusion [[PlayerCharacter Gordon Freeman]] has an extra set of invisible hands. This would also explain how he can climb a ladder while fully operating a gun. Then again, maybe he has three sets of hands, two of which invisible, as his arms aren't visible while driving either vehicle.
** [[http://www.hlcomic.com/index.php?date=2005-05-10 Well, he can pick up objects without using his hands.]]

* ''{{Prototype}}''. While Alex has learned how to pilot APCs, tanks and helicopters by consuming people trained to do so, he can somehow operate them all by himself.

* Utterly averted in ''OperationFlashpoint'', in which tanks have the full crew of three (driver, gunner, and commander), though you can do without a commander in a pinch (and suffer impaired visibility as a result). In the tank missions the player typically acts as a tank commander, giving movement orders to the driver and targeting and firing orders to the gunner over the radio.

* Every vehicle in ''BattleZone'', most of which are hovertanks of one form or another. The player can even snipe the driver of an enemy tank, run over and jump in.

* Averted in ''UnrealTournament 3'' with the Leviathan, which needs a full crew to man all the guns.

* Parodied in the climax of ''TheSimpsons'' episode "New Kids on The Bleech", where pop band manager/Navy Lieutenant L.T. Smash single-handedly hijacks an ''aircraft carrier''. Well...almost single-handedly:

* Single-handed oceanic sailing in the RealLife. The first transatlantic single-handed crossing must have occurred already in the 18th century. First person to sail single-handedly around the world was [[JoshuaSlocum]] in 1895-1898 on his two-masted 36'9" ketch ''Spray''. This feat has been repeated several times.