"Hey, I'm the friendly stranger in the black sedan
Oh won't you hop inside my car...
I'm your vehicle, baby
I'll take you anywhere you wanna go..."
Oh won't you hop inside my car...
I'm your vehicle, baby
I'll take you anywhere you wanna go..."
— The Ides of March, "Vehicle"
Tropes all about vehicles and transportation.
See also Chase Scene, Flying Tropes, and Travel Cool.
If you're looking for "vehicles" in the entertainment industry sense— a movie made specifically for one actor's career— see Non-Actor Vehicle.
Tropes:
Sub-categories:
- Accidental Astronaut: Involves a character accidentally launching the spacecraft with them in it.
- Ace Pilot
- Anti-Cavalry
- Anti-Vehicle
- Are You Sure You Can Drive This Thing?
- Armored Coffins
- Artistic License – Cars
- Asian Drivers
- Automobiles Are Alien
- Backseat Driver
- Badass Driver
- Bad Humor Truck: An ice cream truck is driven by a bad person.
- Balloonacy
- Belly-Scraping Flight
- Beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts: A good-intentioned driver picks a traveler in need of help only to discover it's a ghost.
- Blindfolded Trip
- Burning Rubber
- Cable-Car Action Sequence
- Captain Crash: The driver tends to crash whatever vehicle they are driving.
- Car Cushion
- Car Fu
- Carload of Cool Kids
- Casual Car Giveaway
- Chaotic Car Ride
- Chariot Pulled by Cats
- Chariot Race
- Chopper on Standby
- Circular Drive
- Coming in Hot
- Construction Vehicle Rampage
- Conveniently Empty Roads
- Cool Garage
- Crew of One
- Cruise Episode
- Damage-Proof Vehicle
- Dangerously Loaded Cargo
- Danger Takes a Backseat: A character is unaware an intruder is present in their vehicle until it's too late.
- Dead Foot Leadfoot
- Defenseless Transports
- Derelict Graveyard
- Description Porn
- Dinky Drivers
- The Dinnermobile
- Directionless Driver
- Dodge by Braking
- Does Not Drive
- Don't Come A-Knockin'
- The Dreaded Dreadnought
- Dread Zeppelin
- Drill Tank
- The Driver
- Driver Faces Passenger
- Drives Like Crazy
- Driving a Desk
- Driving Up a Wall
- Drunk Driver
- Dude, Where's Our Car?
- Eject... Eject... Eject...
- Ejection Seat
- Enormous Engine
- Epic Launch Sequence
- Epic Tank-on-Tank Action
- External Combustion
- Faking Engine Trouble
- Falling into the Cockpit
- Fantastic Ship Prefix
- Fantasy Helmet Enforcement
- Fell Asleep Driving
- Fighter-Launching Sequence
- Flashed-Badge Hijack
- Flying Dutchman
- Follow That Car
- Forklift Fu
- Franken-vehicle
- Free Wheel
- Game of Chicken
- Gangland Drive-By
- Getaway Driver
- Ghost Ship
- Global Airship
- Grand Theft Prototype
- The Great Repair
- Hack the Traffic Lights
- Handcar Pursuit
- Hard Truckin'
- Hero Stole My Bike
- High-Speed Hijack
- Hollywood Police Driving Academy
- Horseback Heroism
- Hostile Hitchhiker
- Hover Bike
- Hover Skates
- If It Swims, It Flies
- Implausible Boarding Skills
- Instant Convertible
- Itasha
- It's Going Down
- Jammed Seatbelts
- The Jaywalking Dead
- Just Keep Driving
- Lady Vessel
- Living Ship
- Look Both Ways
- Ludicrous Speed
- Machine Empathy
- Mailbox Baseball
- Mega-Maw Maneuver
- Midair Collision
- Missed the Bus
- Molotov Truck
- Motile Vehicular Components
- Mounted Combat
- Mounted Mook
- Murder by Remote Control Vehicle
- My Horse Is a Motorbike
- No Bikes in the Apocalypse
- Nose Art
- Not My Driver
- On-Ride/On-Foot Combat
- One-Wheeled Wonder
- Only I Can Make It Go
- Open Air Driver
- Outside Ride
- Overdrive
- Pardo Push
- Pedal-to-the-Metal Shot
- Pop the Tires
- Ramp Jump
- Ramp-rovisation
- Real Vehicle Reveal
- Removable Steering Wheel
- Rental Car Abuse: Someone rents a car and acts as if the car being a rental means that it's not their problem if the car gets damaged.
- Roadside Wave
- Road Trip Across the Street
- Rock Star Parking
- Running Over the Plot: When a story begins or resumes with a character being run over.
- Sapient Steed
- Sentient Vehicle: A vehicle that is sentient.
- Sexist Used Car Salesman
- Sci-Fi Flyby
- Shoot the Fuel Tank
- Shopping Cart Antics
- Sinister Car
- Skeleton Crew
- Sky Surfing
- Sniping the Cockpit
- Spiked Wheels
- Standard Sci-Fi Army
- Standard Sci-Fi Fleet
- Submersible Spaceship
- Sunroof Shenanigans: Someone uses a sunroof (typically in a limo) to misbehave
- Surprise Vehicle
- Take the Wheel
- Tandem Parasite
- Thememobile
- Toasted Buns
- Underside Ride
- Universal Driver's License
- Unnecessarily Large Vessel
- Unusual Weapon Mounting
- Vanity License Plate
- Vapor Trail
- Vehicle Title
- Vehicle Vanish
- Vehicular Assault
- Vehicle-Based Characterization
- Vehicular Sabotage
- Vehicular Theme Naming
- Vehicular Turnabout
- Wacky Racing
- Watch the Paint Job
- We Don't Need Roads
- Who Is Driving?
- Wiper Start
- Women Drivers: The stereotype that women cannot drive well
Genres:
- Driving Game
- Gearhead Show: Show about the (re)construction or customization of vehicles.
- Mecha Show
- Real Robot Genre
- Simulation Game (various subgenres)
- Sub Story
- Super Robot Genre
- Vehicular Combat
- Wooden Ships and Iron Men
Vehicles:
- Airborne Aircraft Carrier
- Airships
- The Alleged Car
- Animal Mecha: A driveable robot that resembles an animal.
- Animal-Vehicle Hybrid
- Automated Automobiles
- Awesome Personnel Carrier
- Base on Wheels
- The Battlestar
- Bell-Bottom-Limbed Bots: Robots have trumpet limbs.
- Big Badass Rig
- Black Helicopter
- Chicken Walker
- Clown Car
- Combining Mecha: Two or more robots that can combine to form an even larger robot.
- Cool Airship
- Cool Bike
- Cool Boat
- Cool Car
- Cool Horse
- Cool Plane
- Cool Sidecar
- Cool Ship
- Cool Starship
- Cool Train
- Drill Tank
- Drop Pod
- Drop Ship
- Flying Broomstick
- Flying Car
- Hippie Van
- Hopping Machine
- Horse Jump
- Hover Board
- Hover Mecha
- Hover Tank
- Humongous Mecha: A gigantic robot that someone controls from within.
- Improbably Cool Car
- Loudspeaker Truck: A passing vehicle makes a very loud noise to indicate awkwardness.
- Magic Bus
- Magic Carpet
- Mecha: Someone rides in a robot.
- Mercurial Base
- Meta Mecha
- Mid-Life Crisis Car
- Military Mashup Machine
- Mini-Mecha
- Mobile Factory
- Mobile Kiosk
- Monowheel Mayhem
- Mook Mobile
- Motion-Capture Mecha
- Official Presidential Transport
- Orient Express
- Pimped-Out Car
- Power Harness
- Prison Ship
- Rice Burner
- Rocket Ride
- Rollerblade Good
- Ship Out of Water
- Shopping Cart of Homelessness
- Signature Team Transport
- Sled Dogs Through the Snow
- Space Plane
- Spider Tank
- Spy Ship
- Super Wheelchair
- Tank Goodness
- Tanks, but No Tanks
- Tank-Tread Mecha
- The Taxi
- Technically a Transport
- Those Magnificent Flying Machines
- Transforming Mecha
- Transforming Vehicle
- Tree Vessel
- Van in Black
- Vehicle-Roof Body Disposal
- Vulnerable Convoy
- Walking Tank
- Weaponized Car
- What a Piece of Junk
- White Stallion
- The Workhorse
- Zeppelins from Another World