History Main / VehicularAssault

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has this, with you in a hovercraft with a machine gun against a Combine Hunter-Chopper (in fact, about half the game up until that point is spent running away from said chopper, until you get the machine gun). Episode 2 takes it UpToEleven, fighting one of the same choppers on foot. With no rocket launcher.

* ''ComicBook/RobinSeries'': Tim uses his car's ability to drive itself to have it drive through the wall of a building he's in and through the attackers surrounding him. He'd given up on the bodywork at that point since a criminal had already rammed the Redbird earlier in the evening.

* Some bosses in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar 2'' do this.

* ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}} 2'' had a giant mechanical spider bristling with weapons (who had kidnapped Louie) as the final boss. [[spoiler:Of course, the game offers the alternate explanation that Louie was in fact the one controlling the spider all along...]]

* The original ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' has you fight [[BigBad General Morden]] in a helicopter as the FinalBoss. Morden does try to shoot the player with a bazooka, but that's nothing as compared to the Gatling gun, bombs and homing missiles used by the helicopter...
** He fought you from the second boss (a large missile-launching plane) as well, bazooka and all.
*** ''Metal Slug 2's'' first boss was a hovering plane with two soldiers standing on the wings with homing bazookas. In the remake ''Metal Slug X'', the same plane was upgraded (and moved to a later level) to a ClownCar dispensing suicidal falling ''tanks''.
** In general, many enemies you fight, from mooks to bosses, amount to different kinds of military vehicles, which you have to blow up either on foot or with a vehicle (the titular Slugs) of your own.

* ''[[{{VideoGame/Contra}} Super Contra/Super C]]'' has the first boss, a carrier helicopter loaded with turrets and an [[ClownCar endless amount of Mooks]].
* The stage 3 boss of ''Contra Force'', an armed gunship. Also the final boss's helicopter.

* ''Bowja The Ninja'': Most of the enemies Bowja faces are standard ninja mooks who can be dispatched with arrows or elaborate traps, but the bosses are mostly the same mooks in helicopters, tanks or mecha.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' has this, with you in a hovercraft with a machine gun against a Combine Hunter-Chopper (in fact, about half the game up until that point is spent running away from said chopper, until you get the machine gun). Episode 2 takes it UpToEleven, fighting one of the same choppers on foot. With no rocket launcher.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'': You vs a tank. You vs a Hind-D helicopter. You vs a Metal Gear. ''Metal Gear Solid 2'': You vs a Harrier jumpjet. You vs many Metal Gear Rays. ''Metal Gear Solid 3'': You vs the Shagohod. ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' is slightly different in that you have to take on a Metal Gear Ray, but you yourself are in a Metal Gear Rex. ''Metal Gear Solid V'': You vs Metal Gear Sahelanthropus.
* In the new Music/FiftyCent game, the Website/GiantBomb review complained that every single boss in the game is a generic helicopter gunship.
** They also [[http://www.giantbomb.com/news/giant-bombs-game-of-the-year-2009-day-three/1807/ award]] their end of the year "Best Villain" award to the Helicopter, beating out [[VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves Zoran Lazarevic]] and [[VideoGame/BrutalLegend Doviculus]].
* In the original ''Franchise/{{Robocop}}'' video arcade game (1988), one early boss was an opponent in a large vehicle.

* Fairly typical with bosses in older platformers, e.g. Doctor Wily in ''VideoGame/MegaManClassic'' or Eggman in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''. These types of fights usually play out in a combination of the first and second, where the cockpit of the vehicle is the weak point. Usually, the pilot gets away to fight another day (or level in the case of [[RecurringBoss Eggman]]), or survives the destruction of their vehicle only to be captured and/or [[VillainsWantMercy start begging for mercy]].
** One particular instance of the third style in a ''Sonic'' game would be the G.U.N. Truck from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'', which made a return in ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations''.
* Tends to come up in most RTS games that have hero units, especially (but not exclusively) those in modern or sci-fi settings. ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' is one of the few games that actually makes this a ''really hard fight,'' due to vehicles just being better.
* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'':
** The classic final boss fight of ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld'' with Bowser and his flying Koopa Clown Car.
** Bowser has a more traditional car in ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', using it to run over the player and throw bombs at them.
** [[OverlordJr Bowser Junior]] takes some pages from the aforementioned Eggman's playbook and almost exclusively uses either vehicles or HumongousMecha in any boss fights with him.
* ''VideoGame/TimeCrisis'' had you versus [[TheDragon Wild]] [[MoreDakka Dog]] And Helicopter. Apparently it's the popularity of either this battle or [[DracoInLeatherPants Wild Dog himself]] that keeps bringing him BackFromTheDead.

* ''VideoGame/DukeNukemManhattanProject'''s first boss is a helicopter.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfTheEmpire'': The Gall Spaceport boss fight starts out as just a standard one-on-one duel with Boba Fett. However, when damaged enough, Boba Fett flees, only to return in his ship.
* ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}: Dinosaur Hunter'' does this in the first boss battle. Before you can engage the actual boss, you have to fight off a hummer. And then ''another'' hummer after you destroy the first one.

* ''VideoGame/{{Shinobi}}'': the second boss Black Turtle is a helicopter that's a ClownCar full of those damned Fly {{Ninja}}.
* The (suplexable) Ghost Train boss in ''Videogame/FinalFantasyVI''.
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/BanjoTooie'' is the HAG-1, a large DrillTank piloted by Gruntilda and a combination of the first and second types: parts of the drill require being damaged to proceed during the phases of the fight, but the main target (and the one whose health is measured) is Grunty herself.
* This is what distinguishes most of the bosses in ''VideoGame/{{Police 911}} 2'', since every foe, like you, is a OneHitPointWonder. Your pistol isn't powerful enough to destroy the vehicles, so you take out the drivers by firing through the windows.
* In the [[TheProblemWithLicensedGames video game adaptation]] [[Creator/{{Bethesda}} of]] ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'', one of the stages has you running from a gunship that you can't hurt (but can kill you over and over and over...).

* VideoGame/{{Touhou}} has Rika of the second game, fighting [[MagicalGirl Reimu]] in a tank. Justified however, as without it she's [[{{Muggles}} helpless]].
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' you fight Space Pirate transport crafts on a few occasions and Space Pirate fighters when you deliver the bomb to destroy the Elysian Leviathan Seed's forcefield.

* A planned game that was canceled (because of the fact the creator just postponed the idea in order to create Iron Twilight) has a stage where you fight 3 bandits who drive in futuristic cars. But you get outnumbered when you see the boss in the stage. Compare the boss's high tech racing car to your puny police bike. Yikes...
* In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfSpyro'', you have to fight a boss who uses a steam locomotive. That shoots fireballs and exploding crystals. And is almost as big as [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid Metal Gear Rex]] and can move incredibly fast. Ouch...
* Cannoli from ''VideoGame/WarioMasterOfDisguise'' fights with his Mad Hat machines, because Wario stole his wand that granted him super powers. They're supposedly family heirlooms.

* During the final confrontation with a brainwashed Jake in VideoGame/ApeEscape, Jake attempts to take you on in a large race car.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Bomberman}} 64'', Orion, the mini boss from the Red Mountain area, returns at the last section of the world in a large, mining/battle robot.
* ''VideoGame/CaveStory'' has Monster X, an aptly-named X-shaped vehicle in one of the Labyrinth tunnels[[spoiler:that's piloted by a homicidal giant cat]].
* The heli-gunship isn't it's own trope yet? Oh well, ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' has bunchloads of them.
* Some of the bosses in ''VideoGame/JawsUnleashed'' are ships sent out to destroy the shark.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has three gunship battles: one during Archangel's/[[spoiler:Garrus']] recruitment mission, one during Samara's recruitment mission, and one during Kasumi's loyalty mission.
** And in ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', a gunship provides cover fire to allow your enemy to recharge his shields. Unlike the ones in 2, this one (and the enemy) are undefeatable; you can take some potshots at it, though.
* The final ''Sons of Samedi'' mission in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' sees you fighting the General in the city mall. Naturally he brings a custom Bulldog, packed with {{Mook}}s and fitted with a roof-mounted, triple-barrel Gatling. Cunning and careful players can also maneuver their own vehicles into the mall... such as the game's resident AwesomePersonnelCarrier.
* ''VideoGame/NinjaBaseballBatMan'' has the second boss Mad Lax, a monster truck. The first boss Windy Plane may count in a way, it's a freaking anthropomorphic prop plane that punches with its wheels!
* Army of Two: Devil's Cartel has the Destroyer, a massive, heavily armored truck. Encountered several times, it's nearly unstoppable on foot, but one is fought with rocket launchers from the back of an armored truck. [[spoiler:The Final Boss drives one during the final confrontation.]]
* ''VideoGame/SilentScope'' has the player character, a sniper, fending off human enemies in vehicles throughout the series, including a truck, a fighter jet, a camouflaged mech, among other things. These vehicles boast more HP than a human boss alone--20 or 30 HitPoints as opposed to 5 or 10 for human opponents--although shooting the human driver or pilot will take off a large chunk of that HP and a [[BoomHeadshot headshot]] will inflict a OneHitKill. Strangely, both the driver/pilot and the vehicle share the same HP, so plugging enough holes into the vehicle to render the next hit a CriticalExistenceFailure means the driver can be killed with the next hit even if they haven't been shot yet, and vice versa.
* In ''VideoGame/FreedomPlanet'', Serpentine faces the player character at the end of Jade Creek in person. When that fails, he stops fighting on equal terms and hops into his military helicopter, from which he shoots missiles and deploys alien soldiers while hovering just out of reach most of the time.
* ''VideoGame/{{Iconoclasts}}'' has General Chrome's helicopter and the Carver (a massive wormlike mining machine). [[spoiler:The first form of the FinalBoss also turns out to be a glorified alien ''truck'']]. These fights are all of the first style of vehicle battle.

* The freeware game ''Rustbucket Revenge'' has the player trying to survive without getting run down by [[AttackOfTheKillerWhatever a murderous sentient car]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Part 3 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' has villain ZZ Top with his [[FightingSpirit Stand]], Wheel of Fortune. It is a car that can grow spikes on its tires and shoot bullets made of pressurized gasoline.

[[folder:Film]]
* Creator/StevenSpielberg's first TV movie, ''Film/{{Duel}}''.
* ''Film/TheCar'' and ''Film/{{Killdozer}}'' both deal with "possessed" vehicles that attack people in this manner.

* ''Film/{{Transformers}}'' (2007) - Sam vs Barricade. But this pops up all over every version of ''Transformers''.
* ''Film/TotalRecall1990'' (1990): "Bennie, [[FunetikAksent Sklew yew]]!"

* ''Film/TheItalianJob2003'' had the main villain chase the good guys in a helicopter, and he instructed the pilot to use the [[HelicopterBlender helicopter blades as a weapon]]. It doesn't work and actually [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome damages the helicopter]]

* ''Film/MadMax1'', when the eponymous hero's wife gets attacked by the biker gang. Unfortunately, neither she nor her child survive the encounter.

* ''Warlord of the 21st Century'', a.k.a. ''Battletruck''. The BigBad, Colonel Straker, commands an armoured big rig, in search of fuel at any cost - even if it means running down anything in its way or murdering civilians. In the end, [[spoiler:Straker kills his driver in a fit of anger, because he is [[BadBoss too arrogant to be warned]] that the motor is overheating. Straker attempts to take the wheel himself, but is incapacitated by the main protagonist, leaving the truck [[DeadFootLeadFoot driverless]]. The end result? The truck flies over a cliff and [[EveryCarIsAPinto combusts big time]].]]
* ''Film/SinCity'' features Old Town girls ramming another car in order to get it to wreck in one scene and in another, Marv is hit repeatedly with a car.
* ''Film/PrimeCut'': Lee Marvin is pursued by psychopathic rednecks in a combine harvester.
* In ''Film/MurderAtTheBaskervilles'': Moriarty's chauffeur Price rams Holmes' car and knocks it off the road on the moors, after Moran first shoots it up with the automatic airgun.
* In ''Film/TheTournament'', Joshua attempts to ram a bus off the road with a chemical tanker.
* In ''Film/FairGame'', the hunters' opening move in their game of intimidation against Jessica is to ram her ute off the road with the Beast.
* In ''Film/{{Goldstone}}'', the Howlers attempt to ram Jay's car of the road. He manages to turn the tables and runs their car into a solid metal fence post.
* A ChaseScene at the start of ''Film/ChaiLaiAngelsDangerousFlowers'' turns into ths and as Rose and the mook she is chasing use their vehicles as weapons in an attempt to disable the other's vehicle. Rose ultimately triumphs, but her own car is almost completely totaled in the process.
* ''Film/TheCarRoadToRevenge'': The gangs of the city use cars and motorbikes to corral the eponymous car into an old quarry where Talen can kill it.
* In ''Film/RipperLetterFromHell'', the killer uses a pickup truck to ram Mary-Anne's car off the road and almost over a cliff.
* ''Film/SixtyEightKill'': When Chip attempts to flee, Liza chases after him and attempts to ram his car off the road.
* In ''Film/TragedyGirls'', Sadie and [=Mckayla=] use their car to ram Toby's motorcycle off the road.
* ''Film/VigilanteDiaries'': During the CarChase in Yerevan, the Vigilante uses [[HeroStoleMyBike the car he stole]] to ram Andreas' (also stolen) car into immobility.

* ''Literature/{{Christine}}'', naturally.
** Speaking of Creator/StephenKing, there's his story "Literature/{{Trucks}}", later adapted to film as ''Film/MaximumOverdrive''.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': In "South by Southwest", Gibbs and [=DiNozzo=], along with a local sheriff and witness, wind up getting attacked by an assassin in a helicopter. Ended when Gibbs, an ex-marine sniper, shot the pilot.

* In ''Series/TheWildWildWest'' episode "The Night of the Juggernaut", Jim West must defeat the title machine (a SteamPunk armored car) and its operator.

* Creator/{{Capcom}}'s unreleased ''Pinball/{{Kingpin}}'' depict three mobsters performing a drive-by shooting against an unseen target on the sides of the cabinet, while the backglass shows a shootout between two carloads of gangsters.

* ''Film/TheItalianJob2003'' had the main villain chase the good guys in a helicopter, and he instructed the pilot to use the [[HelicopterBlender helicopter blades as a weapon]]. It doesn't work and actually [[RealityEnsues damages the helicopter]]

* ''Film/NorthByNorthwest'' has the protaganist Thornhill get strafed by a cropduster. Ended when Thornhill gets the plane to crash into a gasoline tanker.

* The original ''VideoGame/MetalSlug'' has you fight [[BigBad General Morden]] in a helicopter as the FinalBoss. Morden does try to shoot the player with a bazooka, but that's nothing as compared to the gatling gun, bombs and homing missiles used by the helicopter...

** ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar2'' includes a battle between Delta Squad and some Locust in which each side occupies an assault derrick (essentially, an armored drilling apparatus used to assault the subterrainean Locust home turf. The Locust have hijacked theirs). Because the derricks are in motion across mountainous terrain, the player(s) must kill the opposing derrick's pilot before the vehicles reach a one-lane bridge. Also, the turrets on the humans' derrick are broken.

* ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey'' has you fight [[spoiler:General Kakanas]] in a tank. Twice. He survives both times though. It also had a battle with a seige engine.

* ''VideoGame/SilentScope'' has the player character, a sniper, fending off human enemies in vehicles throughout the series, including a truck, a fighter jet, a camoflauged mech, among other things. These vehicles boast more HP than a human boss alone--20 or 30 HitPoints as opposed to 5 or 10 for human opponents--although shooting the human driver or pilot will take off a large chunk of that HP and a [[BoomHeadshot headshot]] will inflict a OneHitKill. Strangely, both the driver/pilot and the vehicle share the same HP, so plugging enough holes into the vehicle to render the next hit a CriticalExistenceFailure means the driver can be killed with the next hit even if they haven't been shot yet, and vice versa.

SuperTrope to ConstructionVehicleRampage, where vehicles intended for construction are [[{{Irony}} ironically]] used in this trope.

* Fairly typical with bosses in older platformers, e.g. Doctor Wily in ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' or Eggman in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''. These types of fights usually play out in a combination of the first and second, where the cockpit of the vehicle is the weak point. Usually, the pilot gets away to fight another day (or level in the case of [[RecurringBoss Eggman]]), or survives the destruction of their vehicle only to be captured and/or [[VillainsWantMercy start begging for mercy]].

** ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Diana directs her radio plane to follow ComicBook/SteveTrevor's commands, which he uses to defend himself against a couple of superpowered foes by having the snarky invisible plane fly right into them.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2006'': Diana uses her jet's remote AI directed piloting capabilities to direct to to fly through D'grth's neck, which severs his head and limits his ability to do damage to his words as it does not shut him up.

Compare VehicularCombat, where the emphasis is on the vehicles fighting each other, and VehicularSabotage, when a character's vehicle is maliciously tampered with before they drive it. Not to be confused with CarFu, which is when the vehicle is turned into a makeshift weapon. However, the two are likely to overlap. Also related to GanglandDriveBy.

SuperTrope of ConstructionVehicleRampage, where vehicles intended for construction are [[{{Irony}} ironically]] used in this trope.

* ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage3'' has a segment in the construction yard level where you're chased by an enemy in a bulldozer. You need to punch your way through (thankfully weak) enemies and barricades while avoiding being run over. You can punch the bulldozer to drive it back a short distance, but it won't be defeated until you reach the end of that area and it runs into a steel brace, causing a barrel to fall on the driver.

SuperTrope of ConstructionVehicleRampage, where vehicles intended for construction are [[{{Irony}} ironically]] used as this trope.

* The hero takes out the driver, thereby causing the vehicle to crash, or at least stop moving and attacking.

* A recent automobile ad shows a revolutionary war era battle, with the British, in their red uniforms, lined up in a field ready for the attack. George Washington, and his army come out of the woods in cars driving towards the British, forcing them to flee.

* In ''Film/RipperFromHell'', the killer uses a pickup truck to ram Mary-Anne's car off the road and almost over a cliff.