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Danger Deadpan: Difference between revisions
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[[File:chuck-yeager.jpg|frame|The [[Trope Codifier]].]]
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When a stereotypical airplane (or spaceship) pilot speaks over the radio, either to flight controllers on the ground or to his own passengers, he does so in a very soft, smooth register, just barely loud enough to pick up on the radio, probably with a faint American Southern accent (unless he's British, in which case it is an upper-class one). He uses radio jargon, even when he doesn't really need to. A true [[Danger Deadpan]] never loses his cool or changes his tone of voice [[Casual Danger Dialog|under any circumstances whatsoever]], a habit which is often played for laughs.
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* Corporal Ferro, the [[Drop Ship]] pilot in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Aliens]]''.
** It's also [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in the novelization of the ''Aliens'' comic ''Genocide'':
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* The totally deadpan "I'm hit, I'm going in." from the Helicopter attack scene in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.
** In a similar vein, Blackhawk pilot Wolcott in ''[[Black Hawk Down]]'' - "6-1 going down... 6-1 going down...", said in a very calm voice while the pilot's face displays quite a bit of concern. The radio guys relaying the info around sound more emotional than he does.
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== Live Action TV ==
* Wash from ''[[Firefly]]'', although he only takes on this persona while flying the ship, and is otherwise usually quite prone to panic.
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'''Mal:''' Define "interesting".
'''Wash:''' "Oh god, oh god, we're all gonna die"? }}
** This could be why pilots talk like this now. "I don't mean to alarm anyone, but I think we're being followed..." really does get the message across without causing panic.
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* [[Red Dwarf|Ace Rimmer]], who calmly reports that he's broken his arm, then apologizes in advance for fainting briefly.
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode ''The Odyssey of Flight 33'' has a fair bit of this (paraphrasing rather loosely):
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* Captain Stapley of Concorde Golf Victor Charlie in the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' serial ''Time-Flight''.
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== Stand Up Comedy ==
* Referenced by [[Robin Williams]] on his "Live 2002" album (although not in the HBO ''Live On Broadway'' special) during a routine comparing pre- and post-9/11 flying:
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* [[Never Mind the Buzzcocks|Phill Jupitus]] has a routine about this in his ''Quadrophobia'' show, in which he contrasts the Danger Deadpan approach seen in ''Apollo13'' with the probable result if the astronauts had been British: not so much "Houston, we have a problem" as "THE F**KING ROCKET'S F**KING F**KED!!" Notable as an example of an inversion of [[British Stuffiness]].
* Adam Hills relates a story about flying into Hobart when the pilot aborted the landing at the last minute.
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** Which is [[Just Plane Wrong]]. It is entirely possible to have variable winds or wind shear account for the need to go around.
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* You can customize your player model in ''[[Starsiege: Tribes|Tribes 2]]'', including your character's voice. One of the options for a Human Male player model is "Iceman." It sounds as you might expect.
* ''[[Homeworld]]'' and ''Homeworld 2'' radio chatter is filled with Chuck Yeagers: ship captains, fighter pilots, and even [[Machine Monotone|Fleet Command]], herself. They barely break out in panic even in hopeless situations: the most that you will hear is a slight tone of urgency.
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** Although not a full 180 degree spin, ''Homeworld: Cataclysm'' radio chatter deviates from Chuck Yeager by a significant margin.
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* The ironclad units from [[Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds]] are a British, naval version of this trope, remaining much calmer than their land-based compatriots even when reporting that Martian units are firing at them. [[Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds|Come on Thunderchild]] indeed.
* Played straight, averted, ''and'' subverted by ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]''. You hear all enemy radio chatter, so when you take out a helicopter you hear the pilot's reaction to what you do - and final words. Some pilots are calm and collected going in, some panic and wail immediately, and some lose control just before they hit. After a while, the panicked screams can become [[Tear Jerker]] material.
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** Curiously, though the voice in the movies and other audible media is often Texan, Yeager himself was from West Virginia.
** His collected persona on the radio was demonstrated profoundly in an incident mentioned in his autobiography and (sort of) shown in the movie version of ''[[The Right Stuff]]''. While testing the X-1A, the airplane broke into an abrupt spin at just over Mach 2 -- in an airplane that was impossible to escape from. When he finally manages to break out of the spin, he's just barely got enough altitude to make it back to base (the X-1 series was designed to use up all of its fuel on the way out and come back unpowered). Next thing you know, he's making a wisecrack to the carrier aircraft about not needing a structural integrity demonstration. Probably a [[Real Life]] [[Moment of Awesome (Sugar Wiki)|Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for a man whose life was ''full'' of them.
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"Well, folks, those folks down there on the ground—it must be too early for 'em or somethin'—I 'spect they still got the sleepers in their eyes... 'cause they say they caint tell if those ol' landin' gears are all the way down or not... But, you know, up here in the cockpit we're convinced they're all the way down, so we're jes gonna take her on in... And oh, while we take a little swing out over the ocean an' empty some of that surplus fuel we're not gonna be needin' anymore -- that's what you might be seein' comin' out of the wings -- our lovely little ladies... if they'll be so kind... they're gonna go up and down the aisles and show you how we do what we call 'assumin' the position'." }}
** Though Chuck Yeager is most known example and the book "Right stuff" made a nice legend, he probably isn't the first who started to talk that way. For example, Mark Gallai (a Soviet test pilot who started his career in 1930's) recounts just this way of reporting over radio about as soon as radio was introduced on airplanes. Let's just repeat: when you need to report your condition to ground crew, you are going to speak calmly and clearly, no matter what's happening with your plane.
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** This is part of their training. Pilots are explicitly told ''not'' to use the intercom unless they can sound completely calm, so as to prevent passengers panicking.
* Well trained tank crews will sound like this. You'd have something like:
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'''Gunner''': "Sabot. Loaded."
'''Commander''': "Fire. Wait for impact. Hit. Traverse, target BMP with radio mount, 12 o'clock, HE." etc }}
* Although not a pilot, [[Four-Star Badass|Ferdinand Foch's]] [[Badass Boast|"My center is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent, I am advancing"]] deserves mention here for capturing the spirit of this example so well.
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** Charles Hobaugh, although not the pilot during that mission, is the one calmly repeating "''Columbia'', Houston: UHF comm check" time and time again after they lost contact with the shuttle.
* There is also the eerily calm demeanor and voice of NASA public affairs officer Steve Nesbitt, immediately following the ''Challenger'' disaster.
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* The British military's commitment to the [[Stiff Upper Lip]] often works out this way. It has caused problems when the British operate with allies; in the Korean War there was a near-disaster when an American General had a British commander report his situation as "somewhat difficult" and didn't realize he meant "vastly outnumbered and virtually out of ammunition."
** His second report was that his situation was "a bit sticky" and he needed urgent reinforcement. By "a bit sticky" he meant [[It Got Worse|"catastrophically outnumbered and near overrun,]] [[Guile Hero|throwing our ration cans at the Chinese in the hope that they mistake them for grenades."]] Unfortunately, the American commander didn't speak [[Stiff Upper Lip]], and told him to hang in there.
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