"Riding on a rocket, I wanna go to Pluto..."
— Shonen Knife, "Riding on a Rocket"
Science Fiction's answer to the Flying Broomstick, in which a character rides on — as opposed to in — a rocket or jet engine.
Not to be confused with Riding the Bomb, as this trope involves flying and being able to navigate the projectile rather than just having it fall.
Also comes in the form of a Rocket Bike, a Cool Bike without wheels. Unwilling versions involve being Strapped to a Rocket.
See also Gas-Cylinder Rocket.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The Rocket Bikes in the sewer in AKIRA.
- The Daichis - Earth's Defense Family: Since Dai wanted to get the mission done and over with he types out the Item Card he wants to use which he summons and pilots the large Big Bang Crusher rocket by holding onto its handles and navigating it towards the large flower. While he was forcefully dismounted from someone, the rocket was fortunately close enough as well as the right angle to where it was able to reach its destination without him.
- One of the last episodes of Grenadier has Touka riding a missile.
- The Halo Legends short The Package features Spartans riding Booster Frames, which are basically just rockets with lots of guns and missiles attached to them.
- While not quite a rocket, Donald gets to "pilot" a Magnum Loader in Kingdom Hearts II; this happens by accident, and against his will.
- In Shin Mazinger, Juzo Kabuto rides a Rocket Punch to snap Kouji out of a Heroic BSoD.
- Symphogear: This is occurs several times throughout the five seasons, usually by Chris who often rides her own missiles she's firing. Other Gear users have ridden on her missiles as well.
Comic Books
- Batman: The Penguin has ridden on a number of rocket powered Umbrellas in the comics. They are referred to as "Umbrella Jet Packs" in Batman: The Movie.
- Spider-Man: The Green Goblin's initial introduction in issue #14 of the Lee and Ditko run of The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) has him riding a rocket powered broomstick before upgrading to his famed Goblin Glider.
- Tails' 30th Anniversary Special: Bearenger, the second boss from Tails' Skypatrol, appears in the story and rides on the same rocket he rode in the game he debuted in.
- Top 10:
- Leni "Sky Witch" Muller rode a rocket powered broomstick.
- Stefan "Saddles" Graczik rode a rocket powered saddle.
- Wonder Woman: In Sensation Comics #74, Diana fights Spud Spangle and his gang of smugglers, who get around on riding what look like modified torpedoes as their transportation.
Films — Animation
- The opening credits of Paprika.
- Being toys, an ordinary (but powerful) bottle rocket is used by Buzz and Woody at the end of Toy Story 1 to catch up with the car their owner Andy is leaving in.
Films — Live-Action
- Cloud Atlas has such vehicles in the Neo Seoul subplot.
- Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe (1953 Film Serial). When hostile aliens from Venus start bombarding Earth with missiles, Commando Cody surrounds the planet with a radioactive dust cloud that will explode the missiles or any invading rocketship. In "Atomic Peril", a Venusian uses a one-man rocket small enough to penetrate the cloud to land on Earth for his mission. Though that only raises the Fridge Logic as to why the missiles aren't small enough to do the same.
- The Devil at Your Heels involves a real-life attempt by a stuntman to leap the St. Lawrence River in a rocket-propelled car.
- Pinocchio (2022, Disney): While trying to find Pinocchio on Pleasure Island, Jiminy falls down a grate leading to an underground lair, where he finds out that the kids who go to the island are turned into donkeys. While they're being loaded into crates, a lone firework falls from one of their pockets, giving Jiminy the idea to light it and ride it back up the grate to warn Pinocchio, hopping off right before it explodes.
- The Martian flyers in Princess of Mars are essentially rockets with handlebars.
- The Speeder Bikes of Star Wars fame, as seen in Return of the Jedi and Attack of the Clones.
- Wonder Woman 1984. During the fight with Maxwell's security convoy, Diana Prince has to get ahead of the convoy fast to protect some children who've wandered out onto the road. Steve Trevor sticks an RPG warhead in the smoke grenade launcher of the armored car he's driving, firing it into the air where Diana can lasso it and be pulled along behind. She then flicks the warhead out into the desert and uses her momentum from there.
Literature
- A Princess of Mars, which makes them Older Than Television.
- Rocket-powered rideable craft much like broomsticks are used in asteroid mining in The Rolling Stones by Robert A. Heinlein.
- Star Wars Legends:
- In Han Solo's Revenge, middle volume of The Han Solo Adventures, Han and a friend take a ride on a "swoop", essentially a skimmer engine with a pair of handlebars. Exact numbers aren't given, but judging by the description it's fairly maneuverable and at least as fast as a racing motorcycle.
- At least one book took a speeder bike and welded the controls of a bike to a podracer engine. Han commented it must shake considerably when it breaks the sound barrier. The owner answered that it did. He later experienced it first hand.
Live-Action TV
- The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.: In order to catch up with some bad guys on a speeding train, Brisco rides a prototype rocket which he has mounted on the train tracks and uses his saddle to stay on.
- The Mandalorian: hoverbikes are present everywhere as is common in the Star Wars universe, but the Marshal goes a level above and rides one made by welding a crude seat to a podracer engine, much like the Literature example above.
- Power Rangers Mystic Force had Mystic Racers. Like other examples mentioned here, they're high-tech versions of the Flying Broomstick. (Well, they're wizard Rangers — what else would they ride?)
Music
- Crazy Frog: In the latter half of the music video for the "Axel F" cover, the Drone chasing the Annoying Thing shoots a Super-Persistent Missile which the Frog later hitches a ride on after dodging, leading it towards the Big Bad's car and blowing it up, alongside the Thing, who suffers nothing worse than an Ash Face.
- Edguy has an album (and its title track) appropriately named Rocket Ride, and its front cover
◊ pretty much illustrates it.
- A cretin rides a rocket to Russia on the back cover of The Ramones album, err, Rocket to Russia.
- Geri Halliwell's video for Scream If You Wanna Go Faster appropriately enough features her riding a transforming jet-powered hoverbike around the desert.
Pinball
- In Bugs Bunny's Birthday Ball, Wile E. Coyote rides a rocket to chase the Road Runner.
Tabletop Games
- Warhammer 40,000:
- The Eldar and Dark Eldar have some pretty cool jetbikes .
- Ork Stormboys take a remarkably simplified approach to jetpacks: Take a larger-than-average rokkit, strap it to your back, and you can now fly. One stormnob even had his legs replaced with bionic claws so he can live up to his nickname of "Da Vulcha".
Toys
- G.I. Joe had a few small vehicles that worked this way in its toyline, mostly used by Cobra and Destro forces, like the Cobra Rocket Sled.
Video Games
- In Action 52, main character and some enemies in Rocket Jockey ride on a rocket.
- One chapter of Bayonetta has you riding a heat-seeking rocket towards a distant island and shooting down enemies in the style of Space Harrier.
- It happens in both NES and Wii versions of A Boy and His Blob to reach Blob's home planet and to navigate the levels.
- Contra
- Contra III: The Alien Wars' 4th boss involves riding a Macross Missile Massacre while disabling the boss's anti aircraft weaponry and shields. This fight is a Rule of Cool and takes Refuge in Audacity.
- Contra: Shattered Soldier had Mooks riding missiles in the second stage. And in the fourth stage, you ride one again.
- Dante from Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening plays this for laughs, sort of, by jumping on Lady's rocket and riding it like a surfboard.
- In Devil May Cry 5, one of Nero's equippable arms lets him fire off a Rocket Punch that he can surf on much like Dante above.
- Donkey Kong:
- The last non-boss level of Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Rocket Rush, has Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong ride a Rocket Barrel. Also a frequent form of Auto-Scrolling Level on Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, though Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong, as well as Dixie Kong, Cranky Kong, and Funky Kong in the latter game, don't have to worry about fuel, only not crashing into enemies or terrain.
- In Donkey Kong 64, there are two missions involving Diddy Kong using his Barrel Jet to pass through a series of rings. They're quite hard, but at least its magical fuel (Crystal Coconuts) is unlimited in these cases.
- In Diddy Kong Racing, Wizpig rides a huge rocket in his second (and definitive) race.
- Earthworm Jim: The "Pocket Rocket" is a jet turbine modified into a small spacecraft, and is Jim's main mode of transportation throughout the game. He keeps it inside his suit pocket when he's not flying on it, though don't ask how he fits it in there.
- Doable in Fortnite Battle Royale with anyone's rocket-propelled grenades with proper timing. A player can time a jump so they land on top of a rocket and fly for a good distance before jumping off... usually before the rocket hits something. It can let players get a drop onto another if the target is on a high hill or vice versa.
- Guilty Gear Xrd has Sol Badguy riding an ICBM right as it launches out from a ship after outrunning some gunfire.
- A mission in A Hat in Time has you race against a mafia goon who is riding a rocket. Due to Hat Kid's fastest movement options being obviously slower, the intended way to win the race is by cheating, as indicated by the mission's title, "Cheating the Race".
- Heroes of the Storm lets Junkrat do this as one of his Heroics. He flies into the air on his rocket, crashes it onto an area (dealing heavy damage in the process), and respawns a few seconds later. He can then ride his rocket around the arena until dismounting (the rocket gives him 150% more movement speed). His LV20 Talent "I Hate Waiting!" makes the rocket his default mount.
- Honkai: Star Rail: Tribbie's talent Busy as Tribbie as triggered whenever her allies perform their Ultimate has one of her triplet siblings Trianne ride on a rocket that lands and explodes onto all of her enemies during combat. She clearly enjoys the whole ride, though.
- All vehicles in Jak II: Renegade are jet bikes, and can be jacked in midair. Doing this to the Krimzon Guard brings down the wrath of the Demonic Spiders and is best avoided.
- In Jak 3: Wastelander, Daxter occasionally has to ride a missile in order to send it to a target.
- At the end of Just Cause 2, you have to ride on not one but four nuclear missiles and disable them in midair while fighting the boss, who, naturally, is also riding one.
- Kao The Kangaroo: Round 2 has you riding on underwater torpedoes in order to destroy cages that contain friendly turtles.
- Kerbal Space Program added external seats in an update. They were intended for use with rovers, but... Well, it was inevitable, really.
- Mega Man Legends 2: The Gemeinschaft launches Servbots riding Missiles. To defeat the boss, you must throw these missiles back at it.. It comes across as cute and hilarious, especially thanks to the facial expressions of the servbots.
- The Messenger (2018): The main gimmick of Forlorn Temple is rockets that the Ninja can grab onto and ride upward. These also feature in the fight with the Demon King, where the Ninja rides them into him and evaporates his giant eyeball form by shattering the ceiling of the throne room.
- One of the powerups in Pizza Tower are rockets that will fly Peppino/The Noise around. In the former's case however, it's less that he's riding it so much as it's flying while he's caught in front of it. The latter however, straight up eats it and turns into the rocket himself.
- This comes up a few times in Rayman 2: The Great Escape. The first few rockets you get to ride have legs, but in the final level you get to actually fly one.
- Rocket Jockey by Rocket Science Games had this as the primary form of conveyance in a sports game of the future.
- Vultures in Star Craft are of the "Rocket Bike" variety. They're apparently a lot smaller than their unit appearance suggests.
- Super Mario:
- In Super Mario Bros. 2, Mario, Luigi, Peach, and/or Toad can pull some Grass to ride rockets in World 4 to advance to the next part of the level.
- Rocket Guys, a variant of Shy Guys from both Yoshi's Island DS and Yoshi's Crafted World, ride them to attack Yoshi. In the former game, they are nearly invincible and are Yellow Shy Guysnote , while in the latter game, they are the usual red-robed Shy Guys encountered during the first phase of Baby Bowser and Kamek's boss fights and unlike DS, eating them will cause their rockets to disappear.
- Tails' Skypatrol: The second boss, Bearenger, is a bear who rides around on a miniature blue rocket with red fins and a face painted on the front.
- ULTRAKILL has a rocket launcher with the ability to temporarily freeze rockets. During this time, the player can jump on a rocket and unfreeze it afterwards. The player can steer the rocket as well.
- If you're very, very, very lucky, you can get one in World of Warcraft. They're rewards from the TCG.
- You can also get one from getting someone else to join the game, and there are several in-game rides to be had. There's the Rocketway in Azshara, The Uncrashable that carries one from Light's Hope Chapel to Fuselight Landing, and the taxi mount departing from Cliffwalker Post in the Stonetalon Mountains.
- Worms:
- Worms 4: Mayhem added Starburst, a replacement for the series' recurring Kamikaze weapon. It works almost the same as the Flying Sheep, but it is more powerful, harder to control, and has a worm attached to it.
- A cutscene in Worms: Open Warfare 2 transitioning from the Cold War to the Desert levels have two worms falling into a submarine tube, which then shoots out a missile along with them on it. One of the worms tries to hold on to the other's hand, but slips and falls to their doom mid-flight, whereas the other worm continues riding the missile until it lands and blows up in the middle of a desert.
Web Animation
- Animator vs. Animation: In Animation vs. Physics, The Second Coming encounters a rocket that he straddles and rides like a horse as it takes him through space.
- The protagonist duo of Indigen goes on an involuntary ride on a ballistic nuke launched by one of them from a military cruiser moments before.
Western Animation
- Roxy Rocket (pictured above) from Batman: The Animated Series.
- The character makes a return in Justice League Action and starts her own intergalactic transportation service.
- Baloo from TaleSpin flies a jet engine in "Mach One for the Gipper". (Literally just the jet engine.)
- Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner: This is a common mode of transportation for Wile E. Coyote, which turns out as well as you might expect. He returns with the rocket in Road Runner's Death Valley Rally. Though not as frequently, Coyote also rides life-sized fireworks in this manner.
Other
- Huntsville is awesome. https://www.deviantart.com/torsoboyprints/art/PRINT-von-Braun-102883305
- The Key of Awesome. The buxom Space Girl rides Dr Brain's doomsday rocket with the usual Freudian implications.
Real Life
- There is a (VERY) tall tale told about the B-17 bomber, in which an overdue aircraft is awaited... and awaited... Finally a sole engine falls from the sky onto the runway, with a pilot atop it, clutching a .50-calibre machine gun and saying "That was one hell of a mission!"
- The Me 163 Komet and Ba 349 Natter probably came closer to this trope than anything else in real life. While the Natter is very close due to its small size, both were aircraft with enclosed cockpits in which the pilot sat. There was also the Fi 103, the manned version of the V-1 flying bomb, intended for use against American bombers in extremis. The pilot (mostly recruited from the Hitler Youth) was allegedly supposed to bail out in the final seconds before collision, but it was fairly obvious that the chances of him doing so were minimal.
- The Japanese MXY-7 Ohka suicide missile also came pretty close. Of course, while surviving a flight in the Fi-103 was merely unlikely, it was impossible in the Ohka, which was designed to kill its pilot upon colliding with its target.
- The Japanese MXY-7 Ohka