"Fox, something is not right. The Walled City has not yet returned to the planet. My husband is still stuck up there."
— Queen EarthWalker, Star Fox Adventures
It is often said that going up is more difficult than going down. But in this case, going down is actually the hardest part.
The majority of characters in fiction are unable to fly naturally, and most aren't equipped to do so artificially either. Therefore, if someone gets into a spot or location that is well above the level ground, then they'll expect to go back down through the same auxiliary means they employed to go up in the first place. Unfortunately, for some reason (likely an unexpected misfortune or emergency like a fire, an earthquake or a gradual crumble; or simply due to the original upward path not being viable anymore), the character gets trapped in the high spot without an apparent way to safely go back down. Alternatively, the character was brought to the high spot against their will and now they have to figure out how to find their way back down. Think of the Cat Up a Tree situation, only here it's not a cat but a person who is stuck at the top.
How difficult it'll be to return to level ground will depend on how high the current position of the character is. If the high location is still geographically connected to level ground (i.e. it's a building, a tall tree, or a plateau), then the character can gradually descend step by step; emphasis on gradually, because a misstep can make them trip or slip, leading to them plummeting to the ground and potentially getting themselves killed. Conversely, if the character is located in a spot that is not connected to level ground (i.e. it's a Floating Continent), then they will have to either find or build a vehicle, or resort to some fantastical method to get back down. In the case of an airplane which they cannot (or don't know how to) pilot and thus a Crash Course Landing is not possible, they'll have to find a way to exit the vehicle before it's too late (whether with an Improvised Parachute or an Ejection Seat). A Leap of Faith is often ruled out unless it's the last resort.
Since Tropes Are Flexible, it also counts if the character could easily return to level ground, but either an evil person or a wild animal (like a wolf or a snake) is looming below, thus requiring the character to find a way to evade, incapacitate or kill the threat. If all else fails, the character will need to be rescued by someone else, but that's assuming they manage to contact the rescuer in order to give them awareness of the situation. If the character cries for help and there's no one around to listen, they'll be out of luck (and definitely in grave danger).
The expression terra firma hails from Latin, and literally translates as "solid earth".note It has been used historically in both aeronautics and naval engineering to refer to the firm ground whose level matches that of the sea.
Super-Trope to:
- Cat Up a Tree: Most cats have a difficult time getting out of the treetops they've otherwise reached with ease.
- Coming in Hot: When a character is piloting (or simply boarding) a malfunctioning or damaged flying vehicle (i.e. an airplane or a spaceship), and needs to find a way to land safely.
- Crash Course Landing: For cases when a character who is inexperienced at piloting manages to get the flying vehicle back to level ground, whether thanks to the guidance of someone who is experienced or simply on their own somehow.
- No Escape but Down: When a character who is in a tall building escapes from a pursuer by falling from a window to the ground, hoping to survive in the process.
Compare Not the Fall That Kills You…, when hitting the ground after falling kills a character (and it's usually one of the reasons why people who struggle with this trope are scared). A Girl in the Tower may attempt this trope if she comes up with a good idea. Sister Trope to Lost at Sea, which revolves around sailors or seafarers trying to find a way to get back to the shore. Contrast Casual High Drop and Journey to the Sky.
Examples (before adding any, please make sure it doesn't fit better under the aforementioned subtropes):
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Anime and Manga
- High-Rise Invasion: Yuri Honjo finds herself trapped into an alternate world where suspension bridges and the rooftops of skyscrapers are patrolled by serial killers, and she happens to be in one such area. At first, she tries to make her way back to the urban road while dodging her pursuers, but over the course of the story, she learns that the only way to get rid of the ongoing threat is by defeating the Administrator who watches over this alternate world.
Film — Animated
- Toy Story 2: During the movie's climax, Woody and Jessie have to exit the airplane that is scheduled to fly to Japan. However, the plane begins its pre-takeoff run before they make it out, so they have to move through the front wheels' stabilizer and time their jump onto Bullseye (who's being ridden by Buzz Lightyear) before the plane takes off.
Film — Live-Action
- The Aeronauts: After having broken the record for the highest ascent to the skies, Amelia and James try to find a way to return to the ground. Unfortunately, by that point the hot air balloon is flying so high that it begins to freeze, and throwing away bags isn't making it go down (also, James begins suffering hypoxia and considers throwing himself away to save Amelia, which she refuses to let him do because that's how her husband had died in her previous aerial expedition). So she begins climbing to the top of the balloon to reach the valve at the top and open it to gradually deflate the vehicle. After some time, the two characters realize that the balloon is falling so quickly that it begins to collapse; they decide to cut off the basket, but the situation doesn't improve. Finally, they cut the cords so the silk remains in shape, turning it into a giant parachute. The landing is still painful, but they survive.
- Everest (2015): After Scaling the Summit, the climbers attempt to descend the mountain, but as they do so the blizzard makes the way back far more dangerous. Many characters end up dying due to the harsh conditions, and those who don't have to resist until they're ultimately rescued. This movie is based on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, so the misfortune is bound to be displayed.
- Fall: Two friends climb a decommissioned TV tower for the thrill of it. They get stuck there when the ladder collapses and have to survive until someone comes to help.
- Gravity: Exaggerated. The main characters Stone and Kowalski are astronauts out on a spacewalk in low-Earth orbit when Kessler Syndrome occurs, destroying their Space Shuttle and forcing them to look for alternate means of getting back to the planet's surface. Only Stone manages to come back down alive, and even then it takes a very difficult ordeal for her to succeed.
- The Towering Inferno: The characters are on the top floor of a high-rise office building that is on fire and must make their way to the ground floor and safety.
Literature
- Arabian Nights: In the first part of the tale Hasan of Basra (or Hassan of Bassora), Hassan is kidnapped by a Persian magician and brought to a very high mountain on a remote island, in order to fetch some wildbushes to prepare an alchemical potion. Hasan enters a camel's hide, which some eagles bring to the top of the mountain. Hasan tosses the bushes to the magician, who abandons him up the mountain to die, just as he has done to other victims. Hasan, then, wanders off to the edge of the mountain and, seeing the ocean beneath him, decides to jump into the water. It may not be terra firma just yet, but he manages to swim for long enough to reach a safer shore.
- Guardians of Ga'Hoole: There's mention of an owl with a disability that prevents him from flying. His wings are perfectly fine, as you might not expect, but the talons on his feet are unable to grip branches. When you can't land safely, flying becomes a much less enticing activity. Fortunately, the owl invents foot prosthetics that enable him to take his place in the skies.
Live-Action TV
- Fraggle Rock: In "The Battle of Leaking Roof", Pa gets stranded on the roof one night when the ladder falls and breaks. Junior thinks of several harebrained ideas to get his father down, such as having him jump. He finally sets up another ladder, but the top of it doesn't reach the roof. Junior sets up a board as a bridge from the roof to the ladder, which Pa has to inch his way across in the dark.
Video Games
- Banjo-Tooie: George Ice Cube used to live on the snowy side of Hailfire Peaks with his wife Mildred. However, due to a severe windstorm, he was brought skyward to Cloud Cuckooland, a Level in the Clouds, and has been stuck there since then. When Banjo and Kazooie meet him, he asks them to push him from the ledge so he can fall back to his homeland. Unfortunately, due to an inevitable miscalculation, he's instead thrown into the volcanic side of Hailfire Peaks, falling squarely into a moat of boiling water and melting.
- Etrian Odyssey: Shortly before the climax of the story, the party characters discover that they've inadvertently done this during their descent across the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. It turns out the surface they've lived in is a landmass that was actually erected by the mystical tree after the original ground where humans lived went through an apocalypse and said characters are the descendants of the civilization that lived during that tragic period. So when they reach the fifth stratum, they find themselves on the highest floors of the Shinjuku buildings in Tokyo, Japan. Going further down merely means getting back to the surface of the now-defunct old world.
- Garfield's Nightmare: The third world begins as Garfield is transported to a stormy sky with Solid Clouds. Over the course of the levels, he gradually makes his way back to the grassy ground, which is shown by the background weather becoming calmer with each subsequent level.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: After his initial defeat on the highest floor of his tower, Ganondorf uses his remaining power to make the structure collapse; this forces Link and Zelda to quickly escape downstairs to the first floor of the tower and make it out before it's too late. Along the way, they face opposition from Stalfos and a ReDead, as well as obstructions created by the falling debris.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: During the game's prologue, it is revealed that the goddess Hylia had transported the landmass sustaining the village of the Hylians (Skyloft) to the high skies as a means of protection against the reaches of the monsters that were ravaging the land. Link and Zelda have lived in Skyloft since their birth, but after the Wing Ceremony, the girl gets abducted by an evil tornado. When Link recovers his consciousness, he's guided by a spirit (Fi) to the interior of Hylia's statue, where he has to place an Ancient Tablet to dispel a part of the dense clouds beneath the floating islands so the young hero can land onto the surface and begin his quest to find his childhood friend.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild:
- Prior to the events of the game, Link has a close encounter with death while trying to protect Princess Zelda from mechanical Guardians that successfully ravaged the land of Hyrule and allowed Calamity Ganon to destroy the kingdom. While Zelda herself manages to save him thanks to her awakened powers, he's so gravely injured that she takes him to the Shrine of Resurrection in the Great Plateau. A century later, Link wakes up fully recovered, but without his memories and unable to leave the Great Plateau due to how tall it is. He receives the guidance of an Old Man to acquire abilities for the Sheikah Slate as part of his training. The Old Man then reveals his true identity to Link as the deceased King of Hyrule and, after explaining to him the events that led to the kingdom's destruction, gives him the Paraglider so the young hero can land back safely to the kingdom's surface.
- Early in the game, Link causes the Sheikah towers to rise from the ground. At least one NPC ends up stranded atop one.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: Shortly after the Upheaval occurs and Ganondorf returns to life, Link and Zelda fall into an abyss. While Zelda teleports back in time, Link is instead teleported to the Great Sky Island, which is located several hundred meters above the surface. Due to not having the paraglider anymore (and there isn't one nearby this time around), Link has to explore the island under the guidance of the spirit of Rauru (a deceased Zonai) to learn new abilities summoned with his (transplanted) right arm and, upon completing his training, he has to go to the backyard of the Temple of Time to carefully dive all the way down to a conveniently-placed lake in the central plains of Hyrule and begin his new adventure.
- Palworld: Cryolinx is a tiger/lynx-like Pal with long, clawed arms and short legs. This makes them excellent at climbing up mountains, but poor at descending. Many Cryolinx often get stranded after climbing a mountain they couldn't get down from.
- Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy: Shortly after Leon Bronev escapes from his headquarters in Targent and Professor Sycamore reveals to be Jean Descole in disguise and plans to board the Bostonius and leave them behind, Layton and his friends find themselves stranded atop the building where they confronted Bronev. Luckily, Layton devises a plan to catch up with Descole by using a pterosaur's skeleton as a handglider to perform an emergency landing to the launch pad where the Bostonius is and face Descole in a fencing duel. Luke, Emmy, and Aurora have to make their way back from the original path within the building, but at least they already know how to deal with the dangers present along the way.
- Scribblenauts: Some levels involve helping people get down from tall heights without injury. Solutions include providing a parachute, adding a cushion on the bottom, or providing the ability to fly via wings or a jetpack.
- Star Fox Adventures: Prior to the events of the game, General Scales removed the Spellstones from the Force Point Temples, leading to an energetic overflow in Sauria and the geological removal of some of its landmarks. These landmarks now orbit the planet as if they were satellites, and many dinosaurs (SnowHorns in DarkIce Mines, the eponymous inhabitants of CloudRunner Fortress, EarthWalkers in Walled City, and various dinosaurs of different species in Dragon Rock) are stranded in them without being able to return to the planet. Over the course of the story, Fox retrieves the Spellstones and puts them back to the Temples, though he later discovers that he also has to retrieve all Krazoa Spirits, which at the end are being used by Andross for his revival, so the segmented mainlands can descend back to the planet and reunify it and by extension the Saurian societies.
- Yoshi Touch & Go: During the start of a level, Baby Mario begins falling from the high skies (likely because the stork transporting him either accidentally released or got attacked like in the original game). At first, it seems to be a harmless descent (three ballons act as a collective parachute), but between the sky and the lush mainland of Yoshi's Island, there are Fly Guys, Briers, and Gusties aiming to burst the baby's balloons. The player has to draw Solid Clouds on the touch screen to guide Baby Mario and evade the enemies along the way until reaching the ground, where Yoshi awaits to grab the baby and escort him through the second half of the level. If all three balloons are burst, Kamek will appear to intercept Baby Mario and kidnap him, resulting in a Game Over.
Web Videos
- Scootertrix the Abridged: Episode 7 opens In Medias Res, with the main six at the top of Bald Mountain, about to confront a dragon. They drive away said dragon before the Cold Open is over. Then their trip back down the mountain takes up the bulk of the episode: what should be a Boring Return Journey instead proves surprisingly annoying, and the ponies get so lost they somehow wind up back at the mountaintop where they started. Eventually, Twilight remembers that two of them are pegasi (who can just fly back) and two of them are unicorns (who can just teleport the rest of the party home).
Western Animation
- SpongeBob SquarePants: In the Season 11 episode "Stuck on the Roof", due to an accident involving the fall of a Krabby Patty SpongeBob intended to retrieve from the roof of the Krusty Krab (plus Mr. Krabs' anger due to SpongeBob's fall also resulting in nearby people being filled with ketchup), he develops a fear of heights and becomes unable to come back down. Patrick and Sandy employ different methods to attempt to help him return to the ground but fail miserably. SpongeBob spends much of the night yearning for his good moments with friends. He later builds a new dining room (which attracts the customers placed below), but a rainstorm occurs and many people get blown off of the roof. He builds a new Krusty Krab on top of the old one to give shelter to the customers and entertains those getting bored with a dance he learned earlier in the episode. Finally, due to a massive erosion caused by the rain, the floor sinks the old Krusty Krab and lowers the new one to level ground, effectively allowing SpongeBob and company to leave the old building's roof (as it is level ground now).
Real Life
- The barnacle geese chicks don't know how to fly yet when they are born, and the eggs they're born from are placed in nests allocated several hundreds of feet above the ground, so they have to fall down and survive in order to start their lives. There's an episode of The Most Extreme that talks about this feat, making this Truth in Television courtesy of nature.
- On July 4th, 2023, a rollercoaster in Wisconsin
got stuck upside down for three hours at the top of the ride, which put the passengers in grave danger. They were successfully rescued but went to the hospital to check out any risks of brain swelling.
