History Main / DisposableVehicleSection

** ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' opens with a chase scene, during which a truck driven by the enemy rams a spike through Bond's door. Bond elects to dispose of that door to free himself.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}}'' episode "Number One". When Birdman breaks into the title villain's pirate satellite, Number One activates a SelfDestructMechanism and escapes in the detached head of the satellite.
* ''[[WesternAnimation/{{Birdman}} The Galaxy Trio]]'' episode "The Duplitrons". When a rocket pod in which the Trio are flying malfunctions, Meteor Man presses a button and the pod splits in half. The rear section falls away and Meteor Man continues to fly on in the front half.

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', Scrat the squirrel and his love interest are fighting over an acorn when a geyser erupts beneath them, sending the three and a large rock skyward. As the two squirrels climb the rock toward the acorn, the bottom of the rock falls away in a ShoutOut to staged rockets (see below).

* In ''WesternAnimation/IceAge3DawnOfTheDinosaurs'', Scrat the squirrel and his love interest are fighting over an acorn when a geyser erupts beneath them, sending the three and a large rock skyward. As the two squirrels climb the rock toward toward the acorn, the bottom of the rock falls away in a ShoutOut to staged rockets (see below).

* ''Film/DeathRace'': The hero's car has a 6-inch-thick armor plating in the back called "The Tombstone". When it gets damaged, the hero jettisons it in the hope that it will damage the car behind him.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', the ending FMV of has [[spoiler:an emergency switch to eject the bridge from the Highwind, which transforms into a functional airplane]].

* In ''Manga/BreakBlade'', the ''[[HumongousMecha Delphine]]'' goes into battle wearing colossal heavy armor plates. Once those are too damaged to help anymore, Rygart drops them and gets about 200% faster.

* Seen in ''Literature/PerryRhodan'''s Andromeda arc. One contemporary [[FasterThanLightTravel linear drive]] unit simply doesn't have the range to cross the void between the galaxies with while the enemy can take a convenient large-scale intergalactic [[TeleportersAndTransporters transmitter]] shortcut? Well, let's just revive the old multi-stage principle with additional ''external'' units and jettison each as it burns out!

* ''Anime/HaloLegends''. In "The Package", when the team of Spartans led by Master Chief gets too close to their objective, the Elite Supreme Commander starts ejecting parts of his spacecraft in an effort to stop him, [[WeHaveReserve throwing everyone inside those sections into space]].

* ''Radio/{{Earthsearch}}''. The protagonists are in a shuttle when they find their starship has been hijacked and left without them. They do an EmergencyCargoDump in a desperate effort to catch up before they are AlmostOutOfOxygen. Sharna decides to ReadTheFreakingManual and finds the engine section can be detached with explosive bolts in event of an overload, so once they're out of fuel they dump that as well.

* In the ''Series/{{Buck Rogers in the 25th Century}}'' episode "Space Vampire", the ship that the Vorvon and Vamp!Wilma escape on is programmed to fly into a star. Once the star's radiation returns Wilma to normal, she detaches the rear portion of the ship and flies to safety while the Vorvon continues into the star in the front portion.

* The final boss in ''VideoGame/FTLFasterThanLight'' which loses a wing and escapes after you beat it the first and second times.

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[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TransformersTheMovie'', the Autobots perform an "emergency separation" of the front cockpit so the rear portion would be destroyed and fool the Decepticons into thinking they were killed.
-->'''Arcee:''' "Did we have to let them detonate three-quarters of the ship?"
-->'''Springer:''' "Seeing as how they were going to detonate four-quarters, I think it was a good choice."

[[folder:Film -- Live Action]]
* ''Franchise/JamesBond''

* In ''WebComic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', the [[CoolAirship Mechane]] included a feature to jettison its ballistae, as a means of passing itself off as a civilian ship in situations when the crew may find themselves in the middle of a warzone (referred to as the 'Innocent Traveler' plan). This was used to lighten the load of the ship [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots1076.html during the events of the story]] to help get them over a cliffside.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', the ending FMV of has [[spoiler:an emergency switch to eject the bridge from the Highwind]].

* Downplayed in the issue of ''ComicBook/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' that introduced the [=BATs=]. The Awe Striker is being pursued by a Cobra Stinger driven by one of the [=BATs=] and their main cannon has been unloaded. When Bazooka complains about the situation, Crankcase suggests getting rid of the cannon to save them some weight. He does and throws the cannon at the Stinger, decapitating the BAT.

* The ''Film/GreenHornet'' film showcases that the [[CoolCar Black Beauty]] has front-wheel drive, which allows the car to keep on moving when the rear end is torn off by an elevator.

* ''[[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]]'': While the Redbirds shifting panels were designed that way in order to change the car's appearance into that of a commercially available sports car they can be jettisoned off the car if they're damaged or stuck.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/WhereOnEarthIsCarmenSandiego'' episode "The Trial of Carmen Sandiego", Carmen and her henchmen escape from the Salisbury Cathedral having nabbed the Magna Carta, leaving brother-sister detectives Zack and Ivy trapped inside. The two siblings escape by rappelling out a window, throwing a spear to use as an anchor and damaging the tires of Carmen's getaway vehicle in the process. The duo manage to subdue the henchmen while Carmen gets away. At first unable because of the damaged tire, she converts the vehicle into a mini rocket ship and blasts off, leaving some of the damaged part of the vehicle behind with her henchmen. (See page image)
-->'''Carmen:''' I'd call this attempted entrapment detectives. You'll have to do better!

* Many larger rockets are designed to stage, separating an engine along with the now-empty fuel tanks feeding it to lighten the load after reaching the upper atmosphere, perhaps most notably the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_V Saturn V]]'', which may have been the SugarWiki/MostTriumphantExample.