Improvised Parachute

If you're not a cartoon, using a carpet as a parachute will kill you.

A character is falling from a great height and has no conventional parachute. What to do? Improvise with something else! Usually it's an article of clothing, though a Rubber Man can make themselves the parachute.

Parasol Parachute is a Sub-Trope. A Badass Cape or a Parachute Petticoat may be used. Puny Parachute is a sister trope. Compare with Improvised Sail.

Please Don't Try This at Home unless you are, yourself, falling from a great height and have no parachute.

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Examples:

Advertising

• In this 1991 Taco Bell commercial, MC Hammer shows why they're called "parachute pants" when he jumps off a building to get away from some rabid fans and to a Taco Bell.

Anime & Manga

• Aria the Scarlet Ammo has Riko Mine, whose clothes turn into a parachute. Leaving her flying across the sky in her underwear.
• Attack on Titan: Junior High: In the opening, Armin uses his futon as a hang glider as the human students fly around a Titan classroom.
• JoJo's Bizarre Adventure:
  • Battle Tendency: Joseph utilizes a makeshift parachute as a distraction while he's being chased by Kars. After the plane he's flying starts to go down, he tosses dummy out to distract Kars long enough to reach the nearby volcano.
  • Golden Wind: After the plane the group is flying gets destroyed by Carne's Notorious Big, Trish quickly uses Spice Girl to turn the remaining part of the plane into rubber to be carried down by the wind.
  • Stone Ocean: When their helicopter is attacked, Jolyne, Ermes, and Emporio jump out while Jolyne uses Stone Free to grab onto the helicopter as it closes near the ground for a safe landing.
• Lupin III: Zenigata once makes a parachute from ramen bowls, and Lupin has made use of extra boxers this way.
• Pecola: In "Double Troubles", the titular character uses a sheet hanging on Aunty Yorkshire's laundry line to catch Robo-Pecola, who then starts to fly around in the sky. When Robo-Pecola runs out of energy, Pecola uses the sheet as a parachute to slow down his landing.
• In Planetes, the heroes escaped a burning building using parachute made of tied bedsheets. Even while it was on the Moon (and thus gravity was only a fraction of Earth's) they ended up badly injured but alive.
• Sherlock Hound: In "The Stormy Getaway", Moriarty, Smiley and Todd use Moriarty's cloak as a parachute (while it is still around Moriarty's neck) after their steam car plunges off a cliff.

Comic Books

• Batman: In some Silver Age stories, Batman's cape doubles as a parachute. In the Modern Age, it's sometimes used as glider to slow his fall, with the added bonus of allowing him to reach the safety of rooftops, all while looking really cool. Same basic principle.
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe: Donald Duck and his nephews who were disguised as Indians while trailing after Scrooge McDuck in a comic book story use their blankets as parachutes after Scrooge bails out of a commercial airplane owned by his company with a parachute.
• Fantastic Four: Reed Richards often turns his super-elastic body into a human parachute when he needs to save himself and his family from a fall.
• The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones: In issue #4, Indy uses a blanket as a parachute when forced to bail out of a plane off the British coast.
• In the comic-only sequel to The Great Mouse Detective, it is revealed that Ratigan survived his fall from Big Ben by using his cape as an improvised parachute.
• Spider-Man: Spider-Man has, on multiple occasions, created a parachute using his web shooters.
• Superman: It happens in the storyline Who is Superwoman?. Supergirl's powers get nullified when she's flying over the city's streets, so she grabs her cape and parachutes her way to a nearby rooftop.

Eastern Animation

• In this commercial featuring the Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf characters, the goats jump off a cliff and use their tissues to float back up into the sky.

Fan Works

• In Pokémon Reset Bloodlines, Lt. Surge's Joltik is lodged to the ceiling and attacks Ash's Charmander with Hidden Power, who deflects it back with Metal Claw. The attack causes Joltik to fall off, but Surge orders it to use Spider Web as a parachute to slow down the fall.
• There is a Not Safe for Work Senran Kagura fancomic by LilacDragoon on DeviantArt where Yomi tests out a glider that ends up falling apart in mid-air, hundreds of feet above a cactus-filled desert. Thinking quickly, Yomi doffs her dress and uses it as a parachute. Her relief is short-lived, because she doesn't notice where she's landing and drops butt-first onto a cactus.

Films — Animation

• Disney's Aladdin: Aladdin and Abu use a rug as one when they jump out a window during the song "One Jump Ahead".
• Alice's dress in Disney's animated version of Alice in Wonderland lets her float down the rabbit hole safely.
  • It also happened in the 1988 Burbank Films Australia version.
• The Incredibles:
  • Elastigirl uses herself as an improvised parachute after Syndrome blows her plane out of the sky. Using her kids as ballast.
  • She does this again during the climax when she has to save Jack-Jack after he falls out of the arms of Syndrome.
• In The LEGO Ninjago Movie, when Lloyd jumps off Ninjago Tower after telling Lord Garmadon that he wishes he wasn't his father, he grabs a flag off a pole and uses it as a parachute.
• In Sherlock Gnomes, the gnomes use Chinese lanterns as parachutes when they jump from Curly Fu's to the roof of the bus.
• Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans has the original, 2003 Robin using his cape as an improvised chute when all the Titans (both the 2003 and 2013 teams) are falling from the Master of Games' aerial colloseum to land without harming himself. The same thing can't be said for 2013!Robin, however.

Films — Live-Action

• The Baroness' long skirt in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang also acts as a parachute when she is shot into the air by Grandpa.
• The Dark Knight: When the Joker throws Rachel Dawes out the window of Bruce Wayne's penthouse, Batman leaps after her in a desperate attempt to save her. He grabs hold of Rachel but can't get his batwings deployed properly as he's falling vertically instead of gliding, while also bearing Rachel's weight. Fortunately they still slow them enough to absorb the impact with the help of a Car Cushion.
• In The Da Vinci Code, Robert Langdon saves himself with a piece of plastic this way. Probably the least expected object to become a Chekhov's Gun.
• For Your Eyes Only: James Bond uses a poolside umbrella to slow his fall when jumping off a wall. It's also useful as a momentary visual shield to avoid bullets.
• Indiana Jones used an inflatable liferaft when the plane he was on was about to crash into a mountain in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. This also doubles as Special Effects Failure as you can clearly see the dummies in the raft as it flips over several times in the air.
• In The Lost World (1998), the survivors of the expedition construct a makeshift parachute from the remains of the envelope of the balloon, and Challenger and Amanda ultimately use it to escape the plateau.
• In Peewees Big Adventure, Pee-Wee and Mickey drive off a cliff, and the convertible top of their car serves as a parachute.
• The Smurfs in the self-titled live-action movie and its sequel use their own hats as parachutes.
• Undercover Brother jumped away from an explosion on a high cliff, and had his tight jeans explode into parachute pants, allowing him to land safely.

Literature

• Alex Rider: In Scorpia, Alex uses a slowly deflating hot air balloon as an improvised parachute to reach the ground.
• In Angels & Demons, Langdon used a tarp to slow down the fall from an exploding helicopter.
• In Ella The Elegant Elephant, Ella's hat deploys like a parachute after saving Belinda from the building's edge.
• In Rendezvous with Rama, a character uses his shirt as a parachute. Justified since the main purpose of the 'chute is to ensure he hits water feet-first. Plus Rama's centrifugally-generated gravity isn't as strong as Earth's, so he isn't falling as fast.
• In Super Folks, the Lois Lane expy's skirt acts as a parachute when she is thrown off a skyscraper. It turns out she is not wearing underwear which gives quite a show to the rescue workers below.
• Attempted in the French novel Windows on the World, as one of the characters tries to escape from the burning North Tower of the World Trade Center by using a large curtain as a parachute. It works... for the first few seconds, before Surprisingly Realistic Outcome occurs and he ends up killing himself and two people on the background.

Live-Action TV

• Using various items as parachutes was part of an experiment on Brainiac: Science Abuse.
• An odd example: In one episode of the 2010 Human Target TV adaptation, Christopher Chance and his client use one to stop from great speed, rather than fall safely.
• In Jack of All Trades it's used by the president's niece's dress to escape the French in Canada.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: While The Skydivers doesn't use this trope at any point, Tom Servo quips that one character's enormous, sculpted hairdo could be used in this way.
  Tom Servo: I predict that in the final scene, she jumps without a parachute and then her hair opens up.
• MythBusters:
  • They tested an inflatable raft as a parachute. It technically worked, but was not reliable.
  • They also tried the plywood parachute (based off an urban legend of a worker being blown off a building while carrying a sheet of plywood). It didn't work... at all.
  • Also tested was a news story about a man who tried building a parachute in his hotel room (from available materials) to escape the cops. Luckily for him, he was captured before he had a chance to use it, because three tries = three failures.

Music

• In the song "The Ginger Cat" on the album Captain Beaky and His Band, the eponymous cat does this when the bed he is resting on falls off a cliff.
  I grabbed four corners of a sheet,
  And held on with my hands and feet.
  And as the cliff was out of reach,
  I parachuted to the beach.

Myths & Religion

• In Chinese Mythology, Shun is often considered to be the first parachutist. According to legend, Shun was repairing the roof of a granary when his father and step-brother set it on fire. Shun escaped by using two big straw hats as an improvised parachute.

Newspaper Comics

• Calvin and Hobbes: In one early Sunday strip, Calvin tries using his blanket as a parachute to jump from the roof of his house. It... didn't work, but at least his fall was broken by the rose bushes in the front yard.

Video Games

• Aladdin (Capcom): If Aladdin collects the bedsheet in the first level, he can use it as a parachute for the rest of the game.
• American McGee's Alice: Alice's dress slows down her fall (and also helps her float over air vents).
• BackDoor: At the start of Door 2, the player has to use the towel as a parachute.
• Batman: Arkham Series: Batman's cape allows him to immediately slow down right before landing after falling from a great enough height.
• Disney Infinity: Alice uses her long skirt as a parachute after doing a jump or super jump.
• Dusty from Dusty Revenge (and the prequel, Dusty Raging Fist), a badass rabbit outlaw who can use his ears as parachutes.
• The Jungle Book: If Mowgli falls from a great enough height, his loincloth will fold into a parachute, slowing him down but exposing his buttocks.
• Kirby: Sasuke◊'s conical straw hats are used as parachutes by Kirby.
• The Legend of Tian-ding: The titular character can use his red sash (usually meant for combat purposes) as parachutes. In stages containing lava pools he can even use his sash to collect the steam and float upwards.
• Lego Marvel Superheroes: Mr. Fantastic uses himself as a parachute, saying he saw it in a movie once.
• Madagascar: Operation Penguin for the Game Boy Advance: Once Private recovers a hamburger wrapper, he can use it as a parachute.
• MDK: Kurt Hectic's coil suit has long streaks that, when held like a hood, lets Kurt either glide or float downwards softly, or get carried to great heights if he's in an updraft.
• Psychonauts: Raz can use his psychic powers to create an improvised parachute - he creates a literal Thought Bubble and grabs onto the dotted bit.
• Shantae and the Pirate's Curse: Risky's Hat is used by Shantae in this manner, letting her glide over large chasms or float around with the help of some updrafts.
• The Simpsons: Virtual Bart: During the Baby Bart level, Baby Bart can use his diaper as a parachute when he is airborne.
• Spiritfarer: When Stella unlocks the ability to glide, she uses her hat as a parachute.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Super Mario Bros. 2: Princess Peach uses her dress as a parachute in several games in the series, starting with this one.
  • Super Mario World: Mario's Cape can be used like this to glide, though it requires careful timing with the inputs to the control pad.
  • Mario Party 4: The minigame Paratrooper Plunge starts as all players fly to the skies and then jump out of the plane to start parachuting with color-coded balloons tied to them with ropes. While they descend, they can grab lots of coins and money bags, but also have to avoid being hit by Fly Guys and Paratroopas. If a character takes damage from a mook, their balloon will deflate a little, and if they're hit four times the balloon will deflate completely and the player will plummet to the ground.
  • Mario Party DS: In the Parachutin' Gallery minigame, each of the characters jump off a beanstalk while holding onto a leaf as a parachute maneuvering around to fly through the shown shape.
  • Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga: Luigi uses Peach's spare dress to parachute out of the rebuilt Koopa Cruiser with the Beanstar in order to escape Bowletta and Fawful. At least until a passing bird cuts the rope.

Web Comics

• In Casey and Andy, Quantum Crook saved himself from falling into lava by making a parachute out of his trenchcoat and boot laces.
• In Electric Wonderland, after Shroomy falls out of a window, her skirt billows out like a parachute, but it collapses once Aerynn grabs her.
• Subverted in Schlock Mercenary, when the amorphous Schlock plans to jump off the top of a skyscraper with a big canister of valuables, using himself as a parachute... but it doesn't work, and he winds up having to improvise on the way down, turning the parachuting into a bungee-jump...
• Sueños del Sur: One of the later arcs has Eliana inadvertently using her extremely long hair as a paraglider after she accidentally jumps off a cliff. Unfortunately, a strong wind ends up blowing her away from the ground and into a tree.

Web Originals

• Happy Tree Friends: In "Wingin' It", when Mime falls out of the plane, the skin on his face comes loose, and he uses it as a parachute to land safely, before being hit by the plane anyway.
• In one segment of Your Comments Come To Life!, a delivery woman with long hair longer than her body ends up using it as a parachute when she accidentally falls out of an apartment building window.

Western Animation

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: In "Mac-Hopper", Tails grabs a sheet off a clothesline, which Sonic ties to the raft that he and MacHopper are on to use as a parachute.
• Adventure Time: In "Cloudy", Finn uses Ice King's jacket as a glider to get to the angler lard and save Jake.
• Animaniacs (1993): In "Operation: Lollipop", when Buttons and Mindy are on an airplane, Mindy's lollipop falls out of the open door. When Mindy tries to grab it, Buttons grabs her by the seat of her pants, then holds onto a mail bag so she can pull her back up. When the mail bag slips out the door, he uses it as a parachute so he and Mindy can safely descend in their backyard. This gets him in trouble with Mindy's Mom, as she thinks he bothered the mailman against her wishes.
• In Atomic Puppet, the main character is used as a parachute sometimes since he's a sock puppet. Has saved Joey's life on more than one occasion.
• Cat Burglar: If Rowdy succeeds in the pole-vaulting segment, it ends with him using a bra as a parachute.
• Camp Lakebottom:
  • In "Frankenfixer", McGee uses Sawyer's handkerchief as a parachute.
  • In "Live And Let Squatch", Gretch and Squirt get knocked out of Abomina Lafur's Dread Zepplin but are saved when the pants Squirt is wearing on his head act as a improvised parachute. (It Makes Just As Muchsense In Context)
• On the Dungeons & Dragons (1983) episode "Day of the Dungeon Master", Presto's magic hat acts as a parachute when the gang fall off the back of a roc — for all of them but Eric, who misses his grip and has to be saved by Hank.
• Ed, Edd n Eddy: In "A Glass of Warm Ed", while sleepwalking, Ed falls off a tree and grabs a pair of panties hanging from a clothes line, which sends him flying in the air and the pair of panties inflating like a parachute as he slowly descends down a few yards away.
• Grossology: In "Hirsute Yourself", Abby's hair becomes several times longer than her body after getting sprayed with a ton of Frederick Follicle's formula, with one of the uses she has for it being a parachute when she and Ty are falling from several stories.
• Hammerman's parachute pants.
• The Herculoids: In "Defeat of Ogron", Gloop takes the shape of a parachute to lower Zandor to safety. In "Mekkor", Gleep provides this for Dorno.
• In one episode of Hilda, Alfur uses a lettuce leaf as a parachute during the chase at the market.
• One episode of the 1960s The Inspector cartoon had him and Sgt. Deux-Deux falling from the cliff. Deux-Deux grabbed the tent he was carrying, saving both him and Inspector. Unfortunately they landed next to a hungry tiger.
• Jackie Chan Adventures: After a fight against the Dark Hand off a snowy cliff, Jackie grabs the shirt off Tohru and uses it as a parachute. This happens again in a later episode when he jumps out the window of a castle to escape the Shadowkahn and uses the curtain as a parachute to get down the side of the cliff safely.
• The Magician often used his cape this way.
• In the first act of the Mr. Bogus episode "Battle Action Bogus", Bogus is falling down a cliff until he pulls out a T-shirt, which he uses as a parachute to slow his fall. Unfortunately for him, a pair of buzzards are flying by, with one of the buzzards snatching up the T-shirt and Bogus falls once again.
• Early in the "Jungle Jeopardy" episode of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Penelope uses her scarf as a parachute after her airplane falls apart in flight.
• In one of the Roger Rabbit Shorts, titled "Tummy Trouble", when Roger and Baby Herman fall down an elevator shaft, Herman's diaper expands into a parachute during his fall, slowing him down and dropping him safely onto one of the nearby floors.
• Samurai Jack: Jack uses his own clothes as a parachute in order to reach greater heights using blasts of air from the ground.
• In The Simpsons episode "The PTA Disbands", the bus Bart's class takes to a field trip has such bad brakes that Principal Skinner has the students hold their shirts out the windows to use as drag chutes.
• The Smurfs escape being captured by Lord Balthazar by using a sack as a parachute in The Smurfs (1981) episode "Flighty's Plight".
• In The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol , Grouchy's new hat that he receives as a Christmas present can be used as a glider.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Pizza Delivery", the pizza SpongeBob is delivering becomes a parachute, held to the box by strings of cheese. It also happens in the episodes "Hooky", "Sand Castles in the Sand", and "Chum Bucket Supreme".
• In the Title Sequence, Stripperella is seen using her hair as a parachute.
• The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!: In "The Bird! The Bird!", a mother Birdo snatches Toad, thinking he's her lost baby, and takes him out for a flying lesson. As Toad plummets to the ground, he gets the idea to use his mushroom cap as a parachute.
• In one Tom and Jerry cartoon, Jerry uses a bra as a parachute.

Real Life

• This was futilely attempted by those trying to escape the inferno that was the World Trade Center on 9/11. Witnesses reported seeing numerous jumpers holding tablecloths that they clearly thought would allow them to drift to the ground safely, only to have the wind rip it away and leave them to fall to their deaths (which tragically would have happened anyway, as the tablecloth material was nowhere near thick enough to provide any kind of substantial resistance).

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