Basic Trope: The Hero prefers to improvise on the fly rather than making detailed plans.
- Straight: Action Hero Colorado Smith constantly puts himself In Harm's Way without any plan more detailed than "improvise."
- Exaggerated: The entire team are all doing their own improvised plans independent of each other and it still manages to work out.
- Downplayed:
- Colorado plans, but deliberately avoids overplanning as much as possible, since no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. His plans are all simple and can be easily modified on the fly.
- Colorado's fighting style is based on improvisation.
- Justified:
- Colorado is demonstrably better at thinking on his feet than trying to predict the outcome ahead of time.
- Colorado had a plan. Circumstances forced him to abandon it, and there's no time for Plan B. Plan C is their only option, and it has yet to be invented.
- Colorado is thrown into a dangerous situation with so little information that there's no possible way he could plan anything, so he has to wing it.
- Inverted: Colorado meticulously plans his operations ahead of time, taking into account as many likely outcomes as possible. His arch-nemesis Tennessee Williams is the perfect foil to this; an unpredictable Chaotic Evil Trickster.
- Subverted: It looks like Colorado is improvising, but he actually planned it the whole time.
- Double Subverted: Colorado was lying about planning ahead and was actually improvising.
- Parodied: Colorado doesn't plan a thing during his adventures. After he rescues the Damsel in Distress, he decides to marry her... on the spot. She tells him they need to plan their wedding but he assures her, he really never plans anything.
- Zig Zagged: It's a Running Gag that no-one can tell if Colorado is incredibly lucky or a Grand Master of Xanatos Speed Chess.
- Averted: Colorado does not risk himself without planning ahead first.
- Enforced: "He has to be cooler - make sure it's clear that he's improvising."
- Lampshaded: The Big Board in Colorado's HQ reads "Step One: Storm the Castle. Step Two: ??? Step Three: Triumph!"
- Invoked:
- Colorado purposefully places himself in these situations for the adrenaline rush.
- Colorado decides to create a situation as disruptive as possible to every plan that is in action, knowing he has everyone beat at the raw, desperate improvisation that follows.
- Exploited: Knowing Colorado's skill at improvising, Tennessee forgoes his usual Bond Villain Stupidity and wordlessly shoots the hero on sight.
- Defied: Colorado realizes that his girlfriend/friend/dog/whatever has been captured by the Big Bad and he plans everything out carefully in order to ensure he can save them.
- Discussed: "Colorado, have you ever had a plan... for anything?"
- Conversed: Bob and Alice watch the latest Colorado Smith movie and remark how fun it is that he never plans his next move.
- Implied: Someone comments that whatever the plan was, it's scarcely believable that he managed to predict every last unlikely detail like he did. Colorado replies "Uh, yeah... the plan. Which of course there was one... of. Ahem."
- Deconstructed:
- Colorado improvises everything, which causes unintended injuries and deaths of his allies as everything gets out of control. Colorado feels guilty because of the effects of his reckless behavior.
- Colorado is a Decoy Protagonist who kills himself through recklessness. His Smart Guy takes over and proves to be a cool-headed Science Hero.
- Reconstructed:
- Colorado learns from the experience, still improvising, but only considering options with the less likely chance of hurting his teammates.
- Jimmy Detroit, the aforementioned cool-headed science hero, still has many moments when he has to jump into situations without a plan and MacGyver whatever gizmos he needs on the field. He just is visibly more methodical about certain decisions (like bringing a number of gadgets that are useful for a wide variety of scenarios, such as duct tape).
- Played For Laughs: Colorado acts in the most insane and impulsive manner possible and somehow, everything falls into place. He later reveals he read the script beforehand and knew he would live.
- Played For Drama: Colorado is actually suicidal and his recklessness stems from deep depression and a death wish.
- Played For Horror:
- Colorado Smith is a Practically Joker villain, a chaotic madman who is utterly unpredictable because all he wants is to murder a lot of people and anything that helps him achieve that goal is acceptable. Furthermore, he is so absurdly lucky that even with the alleged handicap of "roughing it" he is constantly destroying the world.
- Colorado Smith's luck runs out, and of course he has no safety net. The result is a very brutal death.
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