History Main / HellishCopter

* The ''VideoGame/JustCause'' series dials this trope UpToEleven. You can literally daisy-chain helicopter hijackings with your GrapplingHookPistol, or shoot them down with assault rifles and revolvers, plus the game [[CaptainCrash doesn't really encourage landing the aircraft you use]] -- so if you as much as spot a helicopter, chances are it's going down through your effort.

** In both titles, you can end up invoking this during gameplay by calling your extraction helicopter to hover over enemy territory, which guarantees it'll shot down by rockets or anti-aircraft fire unless (if you're playing ''The Phantom Pain'') you've invested in upgrades to the helicopter's armor or weaponry.

** At the end of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVGroundZeroes'', Morpho ends up getting destroyed when an explosion [[spoiler:from a bomb planted inside of Paz]] sends it spinning out of control, causing it to crash into a pursuing XOF chopper.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain'' has two doomed helicopters in the prologue; one gets destroyed by the Man on Fire, while another gets eaten by [[MindScrew the apparition of a flaming whale]]. Later on, Snake's extraction helicopter, now codenamed Peqoud, is brought down during "Metallic Archaea" by the titular substance.

* Many many Helicopters meet their demise in the VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto series. ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIVTheBalladOfGayTony'' missions "High Dive" and "For the Man Who Has Everything" get a special mention, where multiple LCPD and NOOSE Helicopters are severely damaged or destroyed.

* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'' has a mission in which you chase someone in a helicopter which gets damaged by a missile. Since this is supposed to happen a cutscene plays and everybody gets out before it explodes, like it would if it were out of a cutscene.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' has one mission where CJ attempts to take out some rival criminals from a helicopter, only for it to be almost immediately blown up by a rocket launcher and crash in the ocean. CJ gets out okay, but the pilot isn't as lucky.

* Helicopters are taken down twice in the Edward Norton-starring ''Film/TheIncredibleHulk'', first when the Hulk throws a piece of debris at a military helicopter during the campus fight, and later when the Abomination brings down the helicopter carrying [[spoiler: Betty and General Thunderbolt Ross]].

[[quoteright:350:Dang it, lost another one!]]

** In ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', Professor Markovitz and Dr. Bechmann leave Karl Stromberg's Atlantis base in a helicopter, which unbeknownst to them had a bomb onboard, which Stromberg blows up with a button. Later Bond and Anya Amasova are chased and shot at by Karl Stromberg's [[MsFanservice gorgeous assistant]] Naomi in a helicopter. Bond drives his Lotus Esprit into the sea, activates its submarine mode and disposes of Naomi with an AntiAir missile.

** In ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'', Bond and Anya Amasova are chased and shot at by Karl Stromberg's [[MsFanservice gorgeous assistant]] Naomi in a helicopter. Bond drives his Lotus Esprit into the sea, activates its submarine mode and disposes of Naomi with an AntiAir missile.

** In the ActionPrologue of ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Bond is LuredIntoATrap in a remote-controlled helicopter by a wheelchair-bound villain who's [[LawyerFriendlyCameo Blofeld in anything but name]]. The helicopter almost crashes on several occasions but Bond manages to gain control of it and turns it against the villain.

** In the ActionPrologue of ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Bond is LuredIntoATrap in a remote-controlled helicopter by a wheelchair-bound villain who's[[LawyerFriendlyCameo Blofeld in anything but name]]. The helicopter almost crashes on several occasions but Bond manages to gain control of it and turns it against the villain.

** During the FinalBattle of ''Film/DiamondsAreForever'', Felix Leiter leads an assault of US Coast Guard helicopters armed with rockets on {{B|ig Bad}}lofeld's. One of them gets destroyed by an AntiAir battery.

** In the Actionprologue of ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Bond is LuredIntoATrap in a remote-controlled helicopter by a wheelchair-bound villain who's[[LawyerFriendlyCameo Blofeld in anything but name]]. The helicopter almost crashes on several occasions but Bond manages to gain control of it and turns it against the villain.

* Film/JamesBond is attacked by helicopters in several movies. Needless to say, they will always go down.

** The Eurocopter Tiger in ''Film/GoldenEye''. The villains trap Bond and Natalya Simonova in it and have its own missiles fired at itself, while it's on the ground. Bond manages to save himself and Natalya by pushing the EjectionSeat button with his head.

** In ''Film/FromRussiaWithLove'', Bond is chased by two SPECTRE henchmen in a helicopter after getting out of the Orient Express in the middle of the Balkans. They throw grenades at him, until he shoots the arm of the one dropping the grenades just as he unpinned one. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard It goes boom inside]].

* Film/JamesBond is attacked by helicopters in many movies. Needless to say, they go down easily. It's averted when the good guys are in them, except for ''Film/GoldenEye'', where Bond and Natalia are only saved by the cabin ejector (and the helicopter was on the ground, anyway).
** In ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'', helicopter-mounted circular saws, first seen trimming trees to make way for the pipeline, are utilized in the attack on Zukovsky's caviar factory, and one of them saws Bond's car in half. He takes one heli down with a surface-to-air missile and the other by shooting a gas tank it hovers above.

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham'', the Joker and Deadshot end up fighting over a helicopter (which [[ConflictBall would have been perfectly adequate for all the villains if they'd been willing to share]]) while Harley Quinn (who has no idea what she's doing) pilots the thing. Naturally, they end up crashing into a building.

* In ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', Brotherhood of Steel Vertibirds seem to exist in only three states: crashed, in the process of crashing (which happens instantly if you [[SnipingTheCockpit snipe the pilot]]), and about to start crashing.

[[folder:Videogames]]

* ''Franchise/SuperMan'':
** In the 1978 ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' we see a helicopter for the sole reason of having it get in an accident and cause Lois Lane to fall off a building. That gets to lead to a great line in the movie, though:

** ''Film/SupermanII''. During the Army's battle with the three Kryptonian supervillains Ursa blows a helicopter away with her super breath, causing it to crash.

* ''ViedoGame/EmpireEarthII'': Helicopters are extremely fragile and tend to go down in a single hit from dedicated AntiAir and not much slower against heavy infantry (who use machine guns and assault rifles). However, it reaches RockBeatsLaser extremes in a prehistoric/future matchup, where the heavy infantry of the era (using maces, swords, and spears) are ''still'' able to attack a chopper's shadow and bring it down, while light infantry (archers, who later evolve into mortars) are unable to target them.