Discussion Main / AirstrikeImpossible

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: Lot of work needed., started by Deboss on Nov 9th 2010 at 4:59:54 AM

(from the "Film" section): DownPeriscope, A newly appointed submarine commander must take a renovated Korean War-era diesel submarine and evade the American Navy's detection to shoot mock targets in Charleston and Norfolk during a war game exercise. If that weren't hard enough, an admiral is determined to see him fail through any means necessary. Interestingly, the crew that Admiral Graham handpicks for Dodge (because he considers them unworthy of his navy) ends up being exactly what Dodge needs to win (except, maybe, Lake, as Dodge is actually just as good a diver as her but felt sorry for her.

DasBoot: a Nazi German submarine is told to redeploy to the Mediterranean, which means sneaking through the narrow Gibraltar sound, which at the tmie [sic!] was swarming with warships and planes. It gets worse: since the crewmen are unaware of British radar innovations, they are detected and bombed outside the strait, before they can even submerge and properly begin their approach.

Are these really examples of the Airstrike Impossible? In my opinion, they should be moved on the "Impossible Mission" page - although the air assaults threat plays some role in the plot, the details were not really depicted in the movies. Even if the strike impossible part would be emphasized (i.e. regardless of the medium in which the crafts are operating) the Das Boot example do not qualify, as there's no strike involved in the plot.

Wish the page quote could be lyrics from Treetop Flyer. Maybe not as clearly evocative as the current one but more poignant.

X Just X or general lack of elaboration. Add more if you think it needs it.

• 633 Squadron
• The Guns Of Navarone
  • Arguably Subverted in this case, as the airstrike really is impossible (an airman says the only way to destroy the guns would be via a kamikaze strike), hence the need for the commando raid that forms the film's actual plot.
• Mosquito Squadron
• Flight Of The Intruder
• Il-2Sturmovik, several missions (both campaign and single), especially if you crank up the realism and difficulty settings to 100 %.

• Flight Of The Old Dog, a tricked-out B-52 has to make an impromptu flight across the Pacific to destroy a Soviet laser site. (is this even an example?)

• The episode of Battlestar Galactica in which they attack the Cylon refinery.

Clean this before putting it back:

• Don't forget that every Ace Combat also has a mission where you fly through a canyon, and can't climb out of it without wandering into an Instant Death Height. Hell, Ace Combat Zero has both canyon-flying and tunnel-flying in the same mission, though not both at the same time.
• Not to mention all of the other games in the flight combat/simulation genre, though the more arcade-ish ones tend to have the more outlandish examples.
• On the other hand, the trope picture is from Ace Combat 04 which actually has the second easiest tunnel runs (X is even more generous with space); as long as you enter the tunnel at a gentle enough angle that you can adjust in time (slow the plane as much as you need without stalling and use the autopilot to level out), you just fly straight until it's time to climb out. Unlike the others with their twists and turns, the closing doors, an enemy fighter pursuing from behind, your own wingmen, the dark-colored hurdles, or anti-air artillery in the tunnel itself...
  • On top of that, exiting the tunnel doesn't kill you immediately. With 10 seconds between shots from the enemy's Wave-Motion Gun batteries, you can hop between each area by boosting to full speed and pulling out and up at the same time, towards whatever branch you want to enter. Necessary to learn to get the maximum amount of kills. (by doing this mission with either the XLAA or QAAM, you can kill two of the speeding planes in each wave, one as it flies towards you, the other as it flies away, for a grand total of four extra kills, or an extra 240 points. Although it seems like you can bag all three, the rightmost plane turns too hard at the intersection to keep from crashing into the wall, your missile won't make it. It seems to be a programmed path, as you won't either if you try the same stunt.)
• Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War's second-to-last mission: you fly down a tunnel. Not so hard, right? Well, you have to destroy switches on the walls inside this tunnel. Still not so bad, right? By the way, you've got enemy fighters behind you, including an enemy Ace, shooting at you. And you have no room to dance around in. Oh, and by the way? There are also enemy fighters coming in from the other end of the tunnel. Yeah, in front of you. Good luck.
• The finale for Ace Combat 6 has two of these, the first being piloting your plane through the tunnel that loads the warheads into the Chandelier, and the second being flying down the Chandelier's friggin BARREL.

• Afterburner Climax is one of "all of the other games", but deserves mention for the times the enemy uses Frickin' Laser Beams as "tripwires" to damage your plane with.
  • The canyon is probably the deadliest enemy in the game.

Should this be renamed to trench run? Since this is really what is commonly used to refer to such levels in videogames, and also film scenes.