History Main / HomingProjectile

May or may not be a PocketRocketLauncher

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'': During Bowser's invasion of the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario (wearing a Tanooki Suit) stops a Banzai Bill from destroying Princess Peach's castle by hitting it in the eye, which makes it mad and give chase. Mario flies through the mushroom forest with the giant bullet in hot pursuit until he lures it into [[spoiler: the Warp Pipe from which he entered the kingdom, which destroys the pipe and [[RealityBleed transports a chunk of the kingdom into Brooklyn]]]].

* ''Film/BabylonAD''. During the shoot-out in New York, one of the combatants fires a missile that homes in on the nanite-passport injected in the protagonist's neck. [[spoiler:He only survives because someone shoots him dead to stop the signal, then revives him later.]]
* ''Film/Dune2021''. When Paul and Jessica escape from Kyne's Sietch in an Ornithopter, they're followed by Harkonnen troops in three other Ornithopters whom they attempt to evade by flying into a sandstorm. The Harkonnens aren't crazy enough to TryAndFollow them, so fire off homing missiles before turning away. As he's flying a civilian Ornithopter he can't use flares to divert them, so has to fly into the sandstorm (instead of skirting the edge) so the missiles will be destroyed by the high-velocity winds (hopefully before his Ornithopter is).
* ''Film/TheFifthElement''. In the famous scene where Zorg demos the ZF-1 for the Mangalores, he proudly shows off the "replay button" feature, firing a single bullet at the target, then pointing the gun in the opposite direction and firing on full auto; all the bullets curve backwards and hit the target where the first bullet did.
* Present in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseofCobra'' and ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation'' in both arrow and bullet form respectively.

* ''Film/TheIncredibleMrLimpet'': When Fish!Henry becomes the Navy's "secret weapon" thanks to his ability to track Nazi submarines, enemy scientists invent a missile that homes in on whatever makes his thunderous [[SuperScream "thrum"]] noise. In the final battle, Henry takes advantage of this by using his sound to lure the missiles to the subs, then [[DeadlyDodging swimming out of the way before they strike]].

* ''Film/{{Runaway}}''. As well as his {{Killer Robot}}s, [[MadScientist Dr. Luther]] invents (and uses) a pistol firing projectiles that act like a tiny guided missiles, homing in on an individual's thermal signature.

* ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''. Magneto uses his powers to send a bullet arching out the window after Mystique, hitting her in the leg as she's falling ([[FridgeLogic how would he know her position though, if she wasn't in his line-of-sight?]]) He's also accused of [[MagicBullets doing this during the Kennedy assassination]], though [[WhoShotJFK Magneto denies it]].

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Dayna's favourite weapon was a small wheeled robot [[HyperspaceArsenal that she could produce from nowhere]] and send around a corner or into a room to blow up some hapless {{mooks}}.

[[folder: Music]]

* ''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie'': One of Gruntilda's spells in her FinalBoss battle can't be avoided without using [[InvincibilityPowerUp invincibility]]. She performs it only twice during most of the battle (namely at the end of the first phase, and at the end of the second), but will periodically shoot it during the final phase, urging the duo to activate the Jinjonator to win the battle before they run out of Gold Feathers (or, should they persist, before they run out of HP).
* ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'' has an Homing Egg code. It's earned after you deliver a special blue-colored egg to Heggy the Hen in Isle O' Hags. When you enter the code and then enable its effect in Mayahem Temple, your eggs will home onto the closest enemies, which becomes handy when you're dealing with fast flying mooks.

* ''VideoGame/BubbleTanks 2 and 3'' have seeker missile [[SecondaryFire sub-weapons]], which do a good amount of damage. There's also the [[TheVirus Doomsday Infector]], which infects an enemy with a homing virus. The virus then starts sapping the enemy of health, and when the enemy dies, it releases 1-3 more of the virus to infect more enemies.

* A fairly annoying attack by bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Darius}}'' games.
** ''VideoGame/DariusGaiden'': The high-level missiles home in on targets.

** Demon Hunters in ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' can do the same. Overlaps with PinballProjectile when done in narrow passages, as it will look like the arrow bounces off the walls. In open spaces, however, the Demon Hunter can fire an arrow in the complete opposite direction of an enemy and the arrow will simply make a sharp turn mid-air and hit the enemy anyhow. Furthermore, the Demon Hunter has various skills that can also be upgraded with runes to fire homing rockets.

* ''VideoGame/MarioKart'': While regular green shells bounce randomly around the track, red shells lock in on the driver that's in front of you when they're shot, while blue shells infallibly head over to the driver in front.

* ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'': Gailen's spinning scythe re-adjusts itself to follow the Knight's location even as it bounces. He also periodically pauses it for a bit before directly aiming it at the Knight again.

* Throughout ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':

** In ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', the Rocket Launcher and Rocket Hog turret can home in on aircraft (which has carried over into subsequent games), the Banshee Bomb can lock on to vehicles and turrets, and the Plasma Launcher can lock onto both vehicles and infantry.
** In ''VideoGame/Halo4'', the campaign version of the Mantis can fire homing missiles.
** In ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', the Suppressor and Boltshot now fire tracking shots, with the Scattershot also able to do so if you first ricochet its shots off something. The campaign version of the Mantis can now lock onto multiple enemies with its missiles at once, though the standard multiplayer version can only do so against aircraft. Additionally, several REQ variant weapons/vehicles in Warzone have special lock-on capabilities.
* The Homing Missiles in ''VideoGame/HeavyWeapon'', which only [[AntiAir home in on air targets]]. There were also two kinds of annoying helicopters that fire homing missiles at you, jets with DeflectorShields that do the same, and 13 of the 19 bosses have some kind of homing missile attack.
* Magic variant in ''VideoGame/HellFighter'', collecting brown orbs turns your throwing knives into homing daggers that targets the closest enemy.

* The Missile Launcher from ''VideoGame/JazzJackrabbit'' fires heat-seeking missiles which change their flight paths to hit the nearest enemy. It's especially useful against the type of enemies that [[GoddamnBats chase and attack the player]] when he gets too close to them.

* In ''Manga/ChainsawMan'', the Gun Devil is not only a massive {{kaiju}} that levels cities with MoreDakka but it also demonstrates the ability to fire homing bullets that will lock on to every living thing within 1000 meters of itself.

-->'''Crusty:''' Stop makin' that whale-bustin' thrum of yours! Those things go for it!
-->'''Henry:''' Yeah, how 'bout that? Then I'll just keep it up! ''Follow me, you beepin' devil!''
* ''Film/StarTrekVITheUndiscoveredCountry'': While most torpedoes are guided, and therefore should be guided JustForFun/InSpace, this movie had a particular photon torpedo that was explicitly modified to counter an [[InvisibilityCloak invisible enemy]]. The torpedo had a scientific instrument used to "catalogue gaseous anomalies" grafted into its guidance system. After being fired, the grafted sensor did what it was designed to do and brought the "probe" it was attached to up to the gaseous anomaly that was the cloaked ship's impulse engine ionized exhaust trail, and then the torpedo warhead did what ''it'' [[StuffBlowingUp was designed to do.]]