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| 5 | %% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks! |
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| 10 | %% Image removed per Image Pickin' Thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1382647359017646100 |
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| 12 | ->''"Dying might be unavoidable, but losing your cool is inexcusable."'' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | When a stereotypical airplane (or spaceship) pilot speaks over the radio, either to flight controllers on the ground or to his own passengers, he does so in a very soft, smooth register, just barely loud enough to pick up on the radio, probably with a faint American Southern accent (unless he's British, in which case it is [[StiffUpperLip an upper-class one]]). He uses radio jargon, even when he doesn't really need to. A true Danger Deadpan never loses his cool or changes his tone of voice [[CasualDangerDialogue under any circumstances whatsoever]], a habit which is often {{played for laughs}}. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | May often be found in the cockpit of a CoolPlane. Particularly likely from pilots with NervesOfSteel. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | In RealLife, this makes a lot of sense. Even if your plane's lost two engines and half a wing, the last thing you need is a bunch of scared people in the back of the plane panicking and raising hell; you can't be screaming "OH GOD WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE" over the radio. Not to mention the fact that if you stay calm and actually tell MissionControl what the problem is, you won't throw away what may be your last chance to actually work out how to fix it or at least get to the ground in one piece. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | Especially true for a test pilot, whose flight data will be of future utility even if they do die. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | !!Examples: |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 28 | * ''Literature/RebuildWorld'': |
| 29 | ** Akira being a HumbleHero, often reports his amazing feats such as ImprobableAimingSkills or taking down TheSwarm of monsters like this, which gets a verbal DoubleTake from others. This is because he thinks it’s only due to his VirtualSidekick Alpha that he could. |
| 30 | ** The RobotMaid agent who sells her martial services to the highest bidder Olivia, talks like this in the middle of chaotic battlefields due to being an ArtificialIntelligence. |
| 31 | * Charlotte Yeager does this in ''Anime/StrikeWitches''; not surprising, since she's the DistaffCounterpart of the real-life Chuck Yeager. |
| 32 | [[/folder]] |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[folder:Fan Works]] |
| 35 | * In ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic Fanfic/ThirtySecondsOverToKiRin'', a downplayed version is used by fighter pilot Dusk Skyshine as he begins to realize exactly how much trouble his wingman Dash Firehooves is in. Culminating in |
| 36 | -->“To Tambelon with your ship!” Dusk shouted. “Dashie, if you try to land now, you’re going to crash anyway, and the US Naval Air Force will lose a P-86 Sabre and a Dash Firehooves. And the second one is less replaceable!" |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Film -- Live-Action]] |
| 40 | * The ''Discovery's'' mission controller in ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', who was played by an actual U.S. Air Force radio operator stationed in England, whom Kubrick hired because he couldn't find any actors who could do this kind of voice. |
| 41 | * Corporal Ferro, the DropShip pilot in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. |
| 42 | * The totally deadpan "I'm hit, I'm going in." from the Helicopter attack scene in ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. |
| 43 | * ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'': |
| 44 | ** The infamous, understated, oft-repeated line "[[BeamMeUpScotty Houston, we have a problem]]", as delivered in the film, owes at least a little to the Chuck Yeager spirit. |
| 45 | ** Jack Swigert (as played by Creator/KevinBacon) had this going on for most of the film. |
| 46 | ** After the potentially-fatal reentry, which took over a minute-and-a-half longer than anticipated, the real response was just "Okay, Joe". |
| 47 | * Murdock (sort of) does this in the film of ''Film/TheATeam''. While he's quite excited to be flying in such a dangerous situation, when the plane is actually hit by a missile, he calmly says, "Ladies and gentlemen, if you look out the side of the aircraft, you'll see the right wing is on fire." |
| 48 | * Trudy Chacon's final line in ''Film/{{Avatar}}'', uttered calmly as she tries to retain control of her Samson after it was shredded by heavy machine gun fire. |
| 49 | -->"Rogue 1 is hit, I'm going in. Sorry, Jake." |
| 50 | * Blackhawk pilot Wolcott in ''Film/BlackHawkDown'' - "6-1 going down... 6-1 going down...", said in a very calm voice while the pilot's face displays quite a bit of concern. The radio guys relaying the info around sound more emotional than he does. |
| 51 | ** During the crash, not on radio, the pilot also says with a disturbing amount of calm: "Hey, you gonna pull those PCS offline or what?" |
| 52 | * The 1998 made-for-TV movie ''Film/BlackoutEffect'', a movie centering on a failing radar system at a Chicago airport and a mid-air collision between a cargo plane and a passenger carrier. During one scene in the movie, the recording of the final conversation between the passenger plane pilots and air traffic control is played for the news media; the trope is averted to play up the dramatic pathos, with the pilots -- knowing they are going to crash within less than a minute and all efforts to prevent such from happening are no use -- crying and saying their goodbyes. |
| 53 | * The crew of the ''Messiah'' from ''Film/DeepImpact'' keep their cool throughout their mission even when discussing their eventual SuicideMission to stop one of the comets. The only time anyone gets emotional is when Gus is blown off the surface of the comet and sent drifting into space, Tulchinsky yells at Tanner to go back for him and lets out a PrecisionFStrike when Tanner refuses. |
| 54 | * Matt Kowalski from ''{{Film/Gravity}}'' remains unflappably calm and collected throughout the entire disaster. Justified as he's trying to keep Stone calm by acting calm himself. |
| 55 | * Parodied in the comedy ''Film/HotShots''. On returning from the big mission, Topper is calmly narrating as his plane falls apart ("Lost my wing. There goes the other one.") And he is cheerily talked in by Washout, who give calm words of reassurance in response to each new glitch ("Looking good. Doing fine. Call the ball.") Followed by Topper landing by way of the smoldering wreck of his plane falling straight down onto the deck. [[SlapStick It's that kind of movie.]] |
| 56 | * The opening scene of ''Film/AMatterOfLifeAndDeath'' where Carter calmly and politely chats to a female radio operator about how utterly screwed he is, and that the ''best'' hope for survival is to bail out without a parachute and hope that he is wrong about the height he is flying at. |
| 57 | * The former trope namer himself shows up in ''Film/TheRightStuff,'' played by Music/SamShepard. Not to mention a cameo by the real Yeager. |
| 58 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 59 | ** Red Leader during the attack on the Death Star. After losing both his wingmen and failing to hit the exhaust port, with one engine out and Vader closing in to finish the job, he calmly orders Luke to set up for his attack run before getting shot down |
| 60 | ** Red Ten also qualifies; he even maintains his cool (mostly) just before "Mauler" Mithel blasts him. |
| 61 | ** Gold Five was similarly composed, even going so far as to calmly issue a sitrep on the destruction of his squadron ''as Darth Vader is firing at him to finish him off'', apparently just so Red Squadron would know what they were dealing with. These two guys are of course responsible for coining the Star Wars in-jokes "Stay on Target..." and "Just a few more seconds..." |
| 62 | ** Maybe there's just something about flying as Red Leader that keeps you calm: when it's Wedge's turn with the callsign in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' this time ''he's'' the one staying professional as everyone else gets jumpy. It's actually a bit of CharacterDevelopment for Wedge, as in the original film Red Leader has to admonish him to keep the channel clear, and he's still rather excitable at Hoth. |
| 63 | ** And then there's the ComingInHot scene from ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', with Anakin as the calm AcePilot and Obi-Wan in full DeadpanSnarker mode while the ''Invisible Hand'' is breaking up. |
| 64 | --->'''Anakin:''' We lost something.\ |
| 65 | '''Obi-Wan:''' Not to worry. We are still flying ''half'' a ship. |
| 66 | ** Luke himself qualifies in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', calmly issuing orders to his squadron throughout the Battle of Hoth, including directing Wedge to make his attack on a walker moments after his own gunner was killed by ground fire. The only real tension in Luke's voice during the battle is when his speeder is fatally damaged and he reports in he's been hit. |
| 67 | ** Rogue Two is shot up, and even ''bleeding'' from cuts on his face, yet still calmly issues instructions to his gunner right up to the point his cockpit explodes in flames when his speeder takes a direct hit. |
| 68 | * ''Film/WorldWarZ''. After the hero's satellite phone goes off [[SoMuchForStealth while they're trying to sneak past some zombies]] who wake up and swarm them, one of the snipers chimes in with a truly beautiful bit of snark over the radio: |
| 69 | -->"Looks like we just woke the dead. In that respect, uh, please turn off all pagers and cell phones." |
| 70 | * In ''Film/ZeroDarkThirty'', en route to Usama Bin Laden's compound, the helicopter shakes alarmingly. One of the SEAL team members asks, mildly, "Anyone here been in a Helo crash?" Several hands are raised without comment, and he grins "Okay, then!" |
| 71 | [[/folder]] |
| 72 | |
| 73 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 74 | * Another nice reference in ''Literature/TheCardinalOfTheKremlin'' - "When he spoke, it was in the matter-of-fact tone that professional soldiers reserve for only the worse nightmares. The Colonel had just had the privilege of witnessing something that few men in human history ever saw. He had just seen the world change, and unlike most men, he had understood the significance of it." |
| 75 | * Invoked in ''Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger'': as [[spoiler:crew chief Buck Zimmer]] dies in Jack Ryan's arms, Jack is nearly enraged by the helo pilot's calm reply to the news. The narrative notes that the pilot's demeanor is a defense mechanism: if he hadn't learned how to compartmentalize his rage and grief, he could never have lasted as long as he has. |
| 76 | * Uncle Hoole in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness almost always]] keeps to DissonantSerenity during stressful situations. Several of these involve ComingInHot; on one such occasion his [[{{Nephewism}} niece]] exclaimed: "We're going to make it!" (as in, land fine) and he told her "I'm afraid not." |
| 77 | * A variation occurs in ''Literature/GoodOmens'', during an... '''interesting''' incident at a nuclear power plant: |
| 78 | -->Four hundred and twenty practically dependable and very nearly cheap megawatts were leaving the station. According to the other dials, nothing was producing them.\ |
| 79 | [Horace] didn't say "That's weird." He wouldn't have said "That's weird" if a flock of sheep had cycled past playing violins. It wasn't the sort of thing a responsible engineer said. |
| 80 | * During ''Literature/LukeSkywalkerAndTheShadowsOfMindor'', Luke commands part of a fleet during a battle. For most of it he's outwardly calm but quietly nervous inside, sure things are about to go wrong - when things ''do'' go wrong, he feels calmer and absolutely shines, soothing the alarmed crew, sending a message to repeat, setting up to pull off what most would call an impossible landing, and in general being low-voiced and "preternaturally" calm. |
| 81 | --> This is New Republic Cruiser ''Justice'', Luke Skywalker commanding. Admiral Kalback is dead. The ship has broken up, and there are no escape pods remaining. I have taken the helm and will attempt to set down behind the dawn terminator above the north tropic. Begin the search for survivors at the coordinates on the encoded supplementary frequency. Good luck, and may the Force be with you. Skywalker out." |
| 82 | * In the Jack [=McKinney=] novelization of ''{{Anime/Robotech}}'', the pilots are all described as discussing their life and death situations in combat "as if they were talking about the weather", and lampshades this with an explanation that combat pilots are traditionally superstitious that displaying any worry or fear of death invites its attention. |
| 83 | [[/folder]] |
| 84 | |
| 85 | [[folder:Live Action TV]] |
| 86 | * [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed to Hell and Back]] in the Season 2 finale of ''Series/BreakingBad'', though with an Air Traffic Controller rather than a pilot. Jane Margolis' father David works as an Air Traffic Controller in his day job and uses the trademark deadpan "mission control" voice in all of his conversations with pilots. Because of his job, he's even forced to maintain his cool composure [[spoiler: the day after his daughter dies of a heroin overdose]], so the people around him have absolutely zero clue that there's anything wrong with him...until [[spoiler: he gets so distracted by his grief that he lets two planes collide in mid-air, resulting in all 167 people on both planes losing their lives]]. |
| 87 | * In one episode of ''Series/DeadliestCatch: After The Catch'', Mike Rowe is talking to a Coast Guard helicopter pilot and [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] the pilot's display of this trope, and [[DiscussedTrope discusses it]] at length. |
| 88 | * Captain Stapley of Concorde Golf Victor Charlie in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial "[[DoctorWhoS19E7TimeFlight Time-Flight]]". |
| 89 | ** Brand new Air Hostess Tegan Jovanka too: "Ladies and Gentlemen, your flight is ready, please begin boarding." This would be after the aircrew has managed to repair their Concorde which has crash-landed in the Cretaceous. They call it ''Time-Flight'' for a reason. |
| 90 | * ''Series/{{Firefly}}'': Wash was very lively and emotional normally, but when piloting under pressure became a zen-like stoic. [[DVDCommentary Joss Whedon]] wanted the contrast for the character and was dismayed during the making of one episode to discover everyone had dispensed with this to have Wash flying as excitably as his actor had been playing his brand new X-Box. When they all cited RuleOfFunny at him, Joss agreed to let it stay in. |
| 91 | -->'''Wash:''' ...Kaylee better get us some extra power from the engine room to offset the burn-through, or this landing could get ''pretty'' interesting.\ |
| 92 | '''Mal:''' Define "interesting".\ |
| 93 | '''Wash:''' "Oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die"? |
| 94 | * Most everyone in ''Series/GenerationKill'', though there are few pilots and their speaking roles are very brief. Has two notable exceptions in [[FunnyForeigner Sgt. Batista]] and [[TheNeidermeyer Captain America]], both of which are criticized for their behaviour by the main characters (the captain, of course, not to his face). |
| 95 | * A non-pilot example: On ''{{Series/MASH}}'', Hawkeye is noted in-universe as staying "cool as a cucumber" in the OR no matter how many casualties and how bad the injuries he is having to deal with. If he starts sounding riled up at all, it's usually to get across to someone else the need for urgency, or anger either at who inflicted the casualty or who's making it hard to treat it, not panic. When he does lose his composure, it's always a case of OOCIsSeriousBusiness. |
| 96 | * ''Series/RedDwarf'': Ace Rimmer, who calmly reports that he's broken his arm, then apologizes in advance for fainting briefly. |
| 97 | * O'Neill employs this in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode "Redemption Part 2" as he's rapidly falling back to Earth in the X-302 after the initial plan fails and his engines have burned out. |
| 98 | -->O'Neill: I'll just... keep falling. |
| 99 | * In ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' Starfleet captains seem to have this attitude. Admiral Hanson who commanded the fleet in their first engagement with the Borg deserves special mention. While in the middle of the largest defeat Starfleet had faced in generations, he transmitted a simple "The fight does not go well, Enterprise" before being cut off by his ship being destroyed. |
| 100 | * ''Series/{{The Twilight Zone|1959}}'' episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33" has a fair bit of this: |
| 101 | -->'''Captain Farver''': If you look out from the left-hand side of this aircraft you'll see directly below an area called Lake Success.…What I'm trying to tell you is that somehow, some way, in some manner this aircraft has gone [[spoiler: back into time and it's 1939]] but we're going to try to increase our speed and go back through the same sound barrier we've already done twice before. I don't know if we can do it. All I ask of you is that you remain calm and ''pray''. |
| 102 | * ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'': An averted, non-pilot example, in the episode "A Little Peace and Quiet." In the final scene, nuclear war has broken out between the Soviet Union and the United States, and a radio newscaster -- who would normally be calm even in the presence of imminent death -- is clearly losing his efforts to keep calm as he advises the public as to the warning. He is starting to cry and say his goodbyes as the protagonist (a harried housewife who had found an amulet that can stop time) manages to freeze time shortly before she is killed in a nuclear explosion. |
| 103 | [[/folder]] |
| 104 | |
| 105 | [[folder:New Media]] |
| 106 | * [[http://www.fromtheinside.us/thinking/Groundspeed_Check.htm Pilots want to sound like Chuck Yeager, but Air Traffic Controllers want to sound like Houston Mission Control]]. |
| 107 | [[/folder]] |
| 108 | |
| 109 | [[folder:Podcasts]] |
| 110 | * PlayedForLaughs and {{Invoked}} by Dr. Harley in Episode 13 of ''Podcast/FindUsAlive''. As he cheerfully instructs the site to start lighting things on fire, the script describes his tone as an "airline pilot voice". |
| 111 | -->Personnel of Site-107, we are beginning our descent into anarchy, please be advised. Around the site, you'll find every Dash One instance that Security has sectioned off after we failed to stop its completion. [[{{Understatement}} These instances present a danger to our workplace, and are not compliant with modern OSHA regulations]]. |
| 112 | [[/folder]] |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[folder:TabletopGames]] |
| 115 | * Aside from the ''legions'' of aerospace pilots in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where some of this is to be expected, there's also servitors (lobotomized humans, typically convicts, extensively augmented/modified and then used for things like heavy lifting, factory work, and as walking weapon platforms) who cannot panic given they do not feel fear or pain, and then there's ''also'' the Mechanicus. Tech-Priests invariably speak in robotic monotones thanks to their training and augmentations, though occasionally an undercurrent of urgency or fear can be detected. Or just annoyance at whatever tech-heresy the unaugmented meatbags are committing ''this'' time. |
| 116 | [[/folder]] |
| 117 | |
| 118 | [[folder:Stand Up Comedy]] |
| 119 | * Bill Engvall had a similar story during the Blue Collar comedy tour. His plane was coming in for a landing when it had to pull up at the last second. A moose had wandered on the runway. |
| 120 | * Adam Hills relates a story about flying into Hobart when the pilot aborted the landing at the last minute. |
| 121 | --> Captain came on and made the single coolest announcement I've ever heard in my life. ''(Suave voice)'' 'Ladies and gentlemen, you can probably tell we didn't land then. This is because the wind conditions just changed a little bit and were pushing us slightly off course. We just decided to pull up and do another lap of the airport, we'll have you on the ground in about five minutes time.' I thought that is pretty damn cool - for a man who nearly killed us all. That wasn't wind, he [[PrecisionFStrike fucked up]]. |
| 122 | * [[Series/NevermindTheBuzzcocks Phill Jupitus]] has a routine about this in his ''Quadrophobia'' show, in which he contrasts the Danger Deadpan approach seen in ''Film/{{Apollo 13}}'' with the probable result if the astronauts had been British: not so much "Houston, we have a problem" as "THE F**KING ROCKET'S F**KING F**KED!!" Notable as an example of an inversion of BritishStuffiness. |
| 123 | * Referenced by Creator/RobinWilliams on his "Live 2002" album (although not in the HBO ''Live On Broadway'' special) during a routine comparing pre- and post-9/11 flying: |
| 124 | -->'''Robin:''' Remember when you used to get on the planes before 9/11? Pilots would come on, give you that whole Chuck Yeager: ''(Chuck Yeager voice)'' "Hey everybody. Had a couple of cocktails. Feelin' pretty good. Let's take this sucker down to the end of the runway and see what she'll do..." Now, they come on and go "I love all of you. We are family." |
| 125 | [[/folder]] |
| 126 | |
| 127 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 128 | * ''Every'' airman in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare''. The best example is probably Outlaw 2-5, who responds to being told he's in danger of getting ''nuked'' with a deadpan "Copy, we know what we're getting into." |
| 129 | ** Deadly, the downed Cobra pilot Outlaw 2-5 landed to rescue, remains admirably collected whilst losing her tail rotor and plowing into a building. The next you hear from her, she's a bit more shaken up. Considering she's also trapped in the cockpit with a broken leg or worse, her gunner is dead, and angry [[{{Qurac}} Quraqis]] with lots of guns and a grudge against American air power are pouring out of the woodwork, this is forgivable. |
| 130 | ** Taken to the logical extreme in the level "DeathFromAbove", where you are the gunner of an AC-130 gunship. The crew responds to you disintegrating both infantry and vehicles alike with less emotion than a guy watching sports on TV; the only guy who speaks above a normal, conversational tone of voice is the loader for the plane's 105mm cannon, whose only dialogue is "Gun Ready!". |
| 131 | ** Similarly with any of Glenn Morshower's characters: most of the pilots, as well as 'Overlord', 'Warlord' and the NORAD HQ controller in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2''. The latter gets a disturbingly subtle hint of malice if you kill more than ten people in a single Predator Missile strike, though. |
| 132 | ** The replacement voice for helicopter pilots in ''Modern Warfare 3'' remains the same, though with one instance where he does lose his cool during the first mission, when you shoot down an enemy gunship with one of the side-mounted miniguns and it [[TakingYouWithMe plows into your helicopter on the way down]]; while the helicopter pulls through, the pilot is shouting as he tries to get it back under control, even calling it a "son of a bitch". |
| 133 | * In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer: Red Alert 2'' the Allied Harrier jets apparently have pilots that sound like your typical Chuck Yeager-type pilots when clicked on. The only time they sound panicky is when they get shot down. The Allied Rocketeers were more or less the same. |
| 134 | ** And then in ''Red Alert 3'' you get this for pretty much anyone who flies a plane -- including Japanese pilots and Soviet women pilots. The Century Bomber pilots are a clear homage to [[Film/DoctorStrangelove Major Kong.]] |
| 135 | *** The Apollo pilots sometimes shout "Where's the eject?" when you shoot them down. |
| 136 | *** "Mig going down, Mig going dooowwwnnn!!!" |
| 137 | ** Earlier in the series in ''Tiberian Sun'', GDI had the rather unshakeable Orca pilots and Nod had the even ''more'' unshakable Banshee pilots, who upon being shot down uttered a [[CasualDangerDialogue deadpan "Whoops"]]. |
| 138 | *** ''Tiberian Sun'''s land armor pilots are particularly more Yeagerish than other ''C&C'' equivalents and are on par with aircraft ones. |
| 139 | * Disconcertingly the Hell Talon pilot from ''[[VideoGame/DawnOfWar Dawn of War: Soulstorm]]'' talks like this. This is because, according to the fluff, Hell Talons are piloted by Servitors, who are basically partially organic robots created from clones or [[FateWorseThanDeath lobotomized convicts]]. |
| 140 | * ''VideoGame/EvilGenome'' have the protagonist, Lachesis, who gets quite snarky in the face of danger, notably when snapping at her AI MissionControl at times. For instance, after defeating a gigantic SandWorm boss trying to devour her: |
| 141 | --> '''Lachesis''': [''deadpan''] There was a bug on my face and you didn't tell me. Help me out here. |
| 142 | * ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'': |
| 143 | ** One level of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'' includes several crashed human aircraft. Standing near one reveals some interesting radio chatter regarding a space-battle above, including the calmly-stated line "I've lost avionics, I'm gonna try and hit their carrier. Goodbye guys." |
| 144 | ** The UNSC for some reason really likes to hire laidback Texan women to pilot their Pelicans. The one in the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first game]] was even given a nickname, [[MauveShirt Foehammer]], and survived until the last level; her calm demeanor and steadfast reliability through the entire game [[spoiler:made her death in the last seconds of the game ''heartbreaking'']]. |
| 145 | * ''Franchise/{{Hitman}}'': Agent 47 just doesn't ''do'' visible displays of emotion unless [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness the situation is pretty extraordinary]], and "a job that's gone south" is not extraordinary. Three disguises compromised already? Running low on ammo and ICA specialist gear, with a remaining arsenal consisting mostly of tinned foods and soft drinks? Half a dozen people who can see through his current disguise just outside the door? Doesn't matter. Any interaction he has is still going to be in a borderline monotone, with maybe a little bit of snark. |
| 146 | * ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'' and ''Homeworld 2'' radio chatter is filled with Chuck Yeagers: ship captains, fighter pilots, and even [[MachineMonotone Fleet Command]], herself. They barely break out in panic even in hopeless situations: the most that you will hear is a slight tone of urgency. It almost borders on CreepyMonotone. |
| 147 | -->We're going down. [[KilledMidSentence We're going-]] -- '''Hiigaran Battlecruiser captain''', ''Homeworld 2'' |
| 148 | ** Although not a full 180-degree spin, ''Homeworld: Cataclysm'' radio chatter deviates from Chuck Yeager by a significant margin. FridgeBrilliance as ''Cataclysm'''s pilots are all civilians, hastily trained no less. |
| 149 | --->'''Fire! Fire! Fire!''' -- Somtaaw [[BeamSpam Multibeam]] Frigate captain |
| 150 | * The ironclad units from ''VideoGame/JeffWaynesWarOfTheWorlds'' are a British, naval version of this trope, remaining much calmer than their land-based compatriots even when reporting that Martian units are firing at them. [[Music/JeffWaynesMusicalVersionOfTheWarOfTheWorlds Come on Thunderchild]] indeed. |
| 151 | * Joker in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series combines this with DeadpanSnarker for his scenes when not actively flying. |
| 152 | ** If you play the Omega DLC as an Engineer Shepard in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', when you reach the central reactor, you can use a Paragon interrupt to re-route power to the city instead of shutting it down, which achieves not only the shutdown of the force fields but saves the civilians instead. If you use it, once you get away from the reactor, you get this dialog: |
| 153 | --->'''Shepard''': You okay?\ |
| 154 | '''Aria''': Never better.\ |
| 155 | '''Nyreen''': That makes two of us. You brought all your skill to bear and accomplished the task without sacrificing lives. I applaud you.\ |
| 156 | '''Aria''': Shepard remains cool under pressure. Mind clear, shit together. ''(looks at Nyreen)'' Take a long, hard look; '''that's''' what fearlessness looks like. |
| 157 | * Chillingly averted in ''VideoGame/MetroLastLight'' when Artyom and Pavel share visions/hallucination/ghosts reliving their last moments: the crashed jetliner is shown minutes before the war gliding without power while Moscow goes up in flames as nuke after nuke bombards the surface. The pilot is barely holding it together while the co-pilot and passengers are screaming for their lives. |
| 158 | * Played straight, averted, ''and'' subverted by ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. You hear all enemy radio chatter, so when you take out a helicopter you hear the pilot's reaction to what you do - and final words. Some pilots are calm and collected going in, some panic and wail immediately, and some lose control just before they hit. After a while, the panicked screams can become {{tearjerker}} material. |
| 159 | --> ''"(Calmly) Mayday, mayday, we're going in ha-AAAUUUGGGHHH"'' |
| 160 | * The Wraith pilot from ''VideoGame/StarCraft''. "Woah. They're all over me." |
| 161 | ** By extension, Tom Kazansky, a hero from the bonus campaign, who has the exact same voice and face, but being a HeroUnit is probably the original. |
| 162 | *** Confirmed by a [[AllThereInTheManual caption on the official website]]. Same with the Firebat and other heroes. |
| 163 | *** His name is also a ShoutOut to Val Kilmer's character in ''Film/TopGun'' - appropriately callsigned Iceman. |
| 164 | ** The {{dropship}} pilot as well, being a fairly obvious reference to [[Film/{{Aliens}} Corporal Ferro]] above. |
| 165 | ** As of ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', they've been replaced by the Viking and Medevac pilots, respectively. |
| 166 | *** The Wraith is still in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'''s campaign with the same smooth voice and quotes. Infamously so, as while other units sound like they are in various states of duress and infestation from being [[MindControl infected by a neural parasite]], the Wraith's voice is completely unaffected and just as calm as ever. |
| 167 | ** The Banshee, while somewhat more aggressive-sounding (and apparently relishing in the idea of bombing things) also keeps remarkably calm. In fact, the only Terran pilot (close to the only Terran soldier period) who ''doesn't'' is the LovableCoward Battlecruiser captain. |
| 168 | * Kyosuke Nanbu is portrayed as such in the ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' series, he has occasional bouts of shouting HotBlooded-ness but his overall character is the 'cool and levelheaded' archetype, slumbering volcano deal. |
| 169 | * You can customize your player model in ''[[{{VideoGame/Tribes}} Tribes 2]]'', including your character's voice. One of the options for a Human Male player model is "Iceman." It sounds as you might expect. |
| 170 | * Iceman, in the first ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' game, is described in the manual as being the [[AlliterativeList calm, cool, collected]] pilot, and the one on top of the scoreboard when you start the game. A fellow pilot notes that everyone else shouts in combat, but you sometimes have to strain to hear Iceman, because he's pretty much ''whispering'' in terse, two-or-three-word sentences. |
| 171 | [[/folder]] |
| 172 | |
| 173 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 174 | * ''VisualNovel/DoubleHomework'' has a fake bus driver (who formerly posed as a sea captain) who keeps maddeningly calm when the bus that he drives into the mountains runs into some snow. |
| 175 | [[/folder]] |
| 176 | |
| 177 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 178 | * ''The Adventures of Letterman'', the animated skit from the live-action series ''[[Series/TheElectricCompany1971 The Electric Company]]'': In the infamous skit involving Spellbinder turning a plane into a plant, the pilot -- realizing there is nothing that can be done to save themselves -- cries out, "Air traffic control ... please talk to me!" |
| 179 | * Quagmire from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', on the one occasion where we see him actually doing his job as an airline captain, uses this voice, a severe contrast to his catchphrase-laden normal speech. He throws in one "giggity"[[note]]"headwind"[[/note]] in the last sentence. Of course, when things start going to hell a little later when the plane runs out of fuel halfway through the flight, he starts freaking out. |
| 180 | * Batman does this a lot in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', including when the Batplane and his ejection seat are shot out of the air and he's freefalling. Superman catches him at the last moment, and [[BadassNormal Batman]], in the same voice, immediately switches to coordinating his colleagues' efforts based on what he just saw. |
| 181 | -->'''Batman''': Batman to all points. I could use some air support. Since I can't fly. At all. ''[about 50 feet from impact]'' Now would be good. |
| 182 | * Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust'' - [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPkKEttKIQU a pilot who got perfect scores in his pilot exam is rejected]] because his voice is goofy, while a terrible pilot gets through when he brushes off the fact he failed his exam with "a little spot of bother there, but we're through the worst of it" in a suave, clipped voice. |
| 183 | * ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'': Rocko and Heffer are just about to start a plane trip when the captain comes over the intercom and mentions in a deadpan voice that he'll do his best not to pass out at high altitude like he usually does. |
| 184 | * When ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' fly home from Japan, the Chuck Yeager pilot keeps his cool even when the plane is grabbed and shaken about by Godzilla. |
| 185 | ** In the episode "Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming", two fighter jets are scrambled to intercept Sideshow Bob's escape in the Wright brothers' plane. It does not go well, as the pilot comments Yeagerly: "Bogey's airspeed not sufficient for intercept. Suggest we get out and walk." |
| 186 | [[/folder]] |
| 187 | |
| 188 | [[folder:Real Life]] |
| 189 | * TruthInTelevision. In real life, Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to break the sound barrier, originated this voice and this trope. The phenomenon of how real-world pilots all started talking like him, for no other reason than that he was [[RuleOfCool so cool]], is described in the Creator/TomWolfe nonfiction novel ''Film/TheRightStuff'', and to a lesser extent in the movie version of same. |
| 190 | ** Curiously, though the voice in the movies and other audible media is often Texan, Yeager himself is from West Virginia. |
| 191 | ** His collected persona on the radio was demonstrated profoundly in an incident mentioned in his autobiography and (sort of) shown in the movie version of ''The Right Stuff''. While testing the X-1A, the airplane broke into an abrupt spin at just over Mach 2 -- in an airplane that was impossible to escape from. When he finally manages to break out of the spin, he's just barely got enough altitude to make it back to base (the X-1 series was designed to use up all of its fuel on the way up and come back unpowered). Next thing you know, he's making a wisecrack to the carrier aircraft about not needing a structural integrity demonstration. Probably a RealLife SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome for a man whose life was ''full'' of them. |
| 192 | * Elsewhere in ''The Right Stuff'', Tom Wolfe describes Yeager as having originated the archetypal voice of ''the airline pilot'' "with a particular drawl, a particular folksiness, a particular down-home calmness that is so exaggerated it begins to parody itself..." and provides this example, from a flight from Phoenix getting into Kennedy Airport just past dawn: |
| 193 | -->"Now, folks, uh... this is the captain... ummmm... We've got a little ol' red light up here on the control panel that's tryin' to tell us that the ''lan''din' gears're not... uh... ''loc''kin' into position when we lower 'em... Now... I don't believe that little ol' red light knows what it's ''talkin''' about—I believe it's that little ol' red light that iddn' workin' right (faint chuckle, long pause as if to say, ''I'm not even sure all this is really worth going into... still, it may amuse you...'') ''But''... I guess to play it by the rules, we oughta ''humor'' that little ol' light... so we're gonna take her down to about, oh, two or three hundred feet over the runway at Kennedy, and the folks down there on the ground are gonna see if they caint give us a ''vis''ual inspection of those ol' landin' gears and if I'm right... they're gonna tell us everything is copa''cet''ic all the way aroun' an' we'll jes take her on in. (And after a couple of low passes over the field, the voice returns:) |
| 194 | -->"Well, folks, those folks down there on the ground—it must be too early for 'em or somethin'—I 'spect they still got the sleepers in their eyes... 'cause they say they cain't tell if those ol' landin' gears are all the way down or not... But, you know, up here in the cockpit we're convinced they're all the way down, so we're jes gonna take her on in... And oh, (''I almost forgot'') while we take a little swing out over the ocean an' empty some of that surplus fuel we're not gonna be needin' anymore -- that's what you might be seein' comin' out of the wings -- our lovely little ladies... if they'll be so kind... they're gonna go up and down the aisles and show you how we do what we call 'assumin' the position'." |
| 195 | ** Though Chuck Yeager is the most known example and the book "The Right Stuff" made a nice legend, he probably isn't the first who started to talk that way. For example, Mark Gallai (a Soviet test pilot who started his career in the 1930s) recounts just this way of reporting over radio about as soon as radio was introduced on airplanes. Let's just repeat: when you need to report your condition to ground crew, you are going to speak calmly and clearly, no matter what's happening with your plane. Yeager was definitely the TropeCodifier for affecting a faint Southern accent while doing so, however. |
| 196 | * Black box recordings of pilots going down almost always show the captain maintaining a surprisingly calm and neutral voice, even moments before a fatal crash. |
| 197 | ** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Al_Flight_1862 Flight El Al 1862]] crashed into a flat in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 1992. On the voice recordings between its pilots and the Air Traffic Control center (ATC), the very last words of "going down, going down" spoken by the co-pilot, are remarkably stoic, considering they knew they were about to crash. Possibly subverted though when you also hear the captain's preceding orders in Hebrew. Heard on [[https://youtu.be/uVbdMRbjW-A?t=448 this sound recording]] which starts at the pilot-to-co-pilot communication in Hebrew, which sounds more panicky; then switches to their "Going down!" signal to the ATC in English; and then to the ATC-to-Arrival Controller communication in Dutch (which is chilling on its own). [[note]]This crash was also featured in Series/AircrashInvestigation, seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SI-I8WpRAu0 here]].[[/note]] |
| 198 | ---> '''Co-pilot to ATC:''' ''[Flat voice]'' Going down, going down, going down, copy, going down.\ |
| 199 | '''ATC (the tower of which oversees Amsterdam) to the Arrival Controller (which can't see outside):''' ''[[WhamLine It's over.]]''\ |
| 200 | '''Arrival Controller to Pilots:''' El Al 1862 your heading?\ |
| 201 | '''ATC to Arrival Controller:''' No. It's over. It has crashed.\ |
| 202 | '''Arrival Controller to ATC:''' What did you see?\ |
| 203 | '''ATC to Arrival Controller:''' [There's] One big cloud of smoke over the city. |
| 204 | ** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesley_Sullenberger#Flight_1549 Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger]]. Accounts have his conduct during the [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome ditching]] of [[EverybodyLives US Airways Flight 1549]] as almost [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZPvVwvX_Nc preternaturally calm and methodical.]] |
| 205 | ** Captain Eric Moody of British Airways Flight 9 managed to take this to ridiculous levels (probably helped by the good old StiffUpperLip), announcing this to his passengers; "Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. We have a small problem. All four engines have stopped. We are doing our damnedest to get it under control. I trust you are not in too much distress." [[labelnote:note]][[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome British Airways Flight 9 landed safely]]. Captain Moody later described the experience of making the near-blind landing (the cockpit windows had been sandblasted by ash, to the point of being opaque) with only three working engines as being like "negotiating one's way up a badger's arse."[[/labelnote]] |
| 206 | ** In Malcolm Gladwell's book ''Outliers'', he points out that sometimes this unerring calm actually helps to ''cause'' the accidents in question. The pilots are so muted that the Air Traffic Controllers and sometimes even the rest of the flight crew don't realize how severe the situation is. One Co-Pilot was ''apologizing'' to an ATC for interrupting him mere moments before running out of fuel. |
| 207 | * Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 lost one of its two engines 20 minutes after takeoff, and by "[[BeigeProse lost one of its two engines]]", we of course mean "the engine evidently exploded, blowing a hole on the side of the airplane, and [[ExplosiveDecompression depressurizing the cabin while nearly pulling a passenger out]]." The pilot, Captain Tammie Jo Shults, who happened to be one of the US Navy's first female fighter pilots, calmly issued the following report to Air Traffic Control while taking her damaged plane down to a low enough altitude for her passengers to breathe: |
| 208 | -->'''Shults:''' "No, it's not on fire, but part of it's missing. They said there's a hole, and — uh — someone went out." |
| 209 | * Well trained tank crews will sound like this. You'd have something like: |
| 210 | -->'''Commander:''' Target tank, 11 o'clock, Sabot.\ |
| 211 | '''Gunner:''' Sabot. Loaded.\ |
| 212 | '''Commander:''' Fire. Wait for impact. Hit. Traverse, target BMP with radio mount, 12 o'clock, HE. |
| 213 | * Although not a pilot, [[FourStarBadass Ferdinand Foch's]] [[BadassBoast "My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent, I am attacking"]] deserves mention here for capturing the spirit of this example so well. |
| 214 | * The commander of the space shuttle ''Columbia'' seemed completely calm when told that he had lost several instruments on the left side of his ship within a few seconds of each other, and gave no indication of anything but calm at any point, even until the shuttle disintegrated. |
| 215 | ** Moreover, telemetry of the last 30 seconds or so of ''Columbia''[='=]s flight and panel configurations of recovered debris reveal that the pilot was still attempting to troubleshoot and rectify the situation even as the craft was spinning out of control and rapidly breaking up. |
| 216 | ** Charles Hobaugh, although not the pilot during that mission, is the one calmly repeating "''Columbia'', Houston, UHF comm check" time and time again after they lost contact with the shuttle. |
| 217 | ** Supposedly when listening to the air-to-ground loop shortly before all contact was lost, it's possible that commander Rick Husband calmly stated: "feelin' the heat", which may be a deadpan acknowledgement that something had gone wrong. |
| 218 | ** Conversely the crew of the ''Challenger'' was also unaware of any problems up until the shuttle broke apart. In fact, the last statement recorded on the shuttle's CVR was pilot Mike Smith giving a nonchalant "Uh oh." |
| 219 | *** Back on the ground, Mission Control spokesman Steve Nesbitt did this as he reported "obviously a major malfunction" and "We have a report from the flight dynamics officer that the vehicle has exploded." [[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2011-01-20-RW_Challenger_Nesbitt_ST_N.htm He speaks about it here.]] |
| 220 | ** This was also invoked to a degree on STS-27. Space shuttle ''Atlantis'' had suffered extensive tile damage that concerned the crew. Due to poor images, Mission Control said it was of no concern. While the astronauts did not like that assessment, they decided to carry on with the mission regardless. Mission commander Robert Gibson later said that if the shuttle began to experience trouble during reentry, he would tell Mission Control "exactly what (he) thought of their analysis." |
| 221 | * The British military's commitment to the StiffUpperLip often works out this way. It has caused problems when the British operate with allies; in the Korean War there was a near-disaster when an American General had a British commander report his situation as "somewhat difficult" and didn't realize he meant "vastly outnumbered and virtually out of ammunition." |
| 222 | ** His second report was that his situation was "a bit sticky" and he needed urgent reinforcement. By "a bit sticky" he meant "catastrophically outnumbered and near overrun, [[GuileHero throwing our ration cans at the Chinese in the hope that they mistake them for grenades."]] Unfortunately, the American commander didn't speak stiff upper lip and told him to hang in there. |
| 223 | *** A friendly argument continues as to whose fault that was - Americans say that the man should have faked panic in order to convey the urgency better. The British say that the British commander called for '''urgent''' reinforcements, which is all the Americans needed to know. |
| 224 | * Not only is this trope for pilots in real life but traffic control, as well. Air traffic control is not supposed to make "assumptions" about a pilot's plane, for instance, and are supposed to phrase statements in a similar fashion. i.e. "Your aircraft appears to be on fire, sir." |
| 225 | * The Black Hawk designated ''Super 61'', piloted by [=CW3=] Clifton "Elvis" Wolcott[[note]]portrayed by Jeremy Piven in ''Film/BlackHawkDown''[[/note]] was the first of the two Black Hawks to be shot down during the First Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. He was noted as always being extremely calm on the radio. He legendarily maintained his calm after ''Super 61'' was hit, and remained almost casual on the radio up to the moment of his death during the impact. |
| 226 | --> '''Wolcott''': Hey, Bull, you wanna pull those [=PCLs=] offline[[note]]Which would essentially stop the main rotor and allow the helicopter some control over lateral movement, so that the helicopter could ''more safely crash''[[/note]] or what? |
| 227 | * The medical field actually requires a good amount of this. Whether it's one patient that's seconds from death or 60 bus crash victims showing up in the emergency department on a slow Sunday night, you can't render any aid if you yourself are operating in panic mode. |
| 228 | * Baseball commentators often have a lazy drawl akin to the pilot trope even in situations like an all-in brawl. |
| 229 | * Military snipers [[ColdSniper tend to have this persona as well]], communicating with their spotters and delivering long-range fire after a calm "Send it." |
| 230 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iaXEgvVmNA The crew of the TGV train that reached 574 km/h in 2007]], the fastest train speed ever at the moment, was apparently trained to remain always calm, stoic and collected even when speeding through train tracks at over 500 km/h. Every time they reach a speed milestone, they just calmly say "Four hundred." on the radio, only speaking a little louder as they reach their target speed due to the sheer noise of the train but nothing else. |
| 231 | * During the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_storming_of_the_United_States_Capitol 2021 storming of the U.S. Capitol]], the evacuation order for the House of Representatives was delivered in this fashion: |
| 232 | -->'''"Without objection, the chair declares the House in recess pursuant to Clause 12(b) of Rule 1."''' |
| 233 | [[/folder]] |
| 234 |
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