Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2017 March 16

= March 16 =

Fictional rescue vehicles
Which movies and TV shows (for either kids or adults) feature fictional and/or anthropomorphized rescue vehicles? (Definitions: "fictional" means that vehicles with equivalent capabilities do not exist in real life (the vehicle in question may or may not be anthropomorphic); "anthropomorphized" means that the vehicle may be real or fictional, but has human-like characteristics added for the movie or show; "rescue vehicle" is a vehicle which was built or modified for rescue operations; and "rescue operations" are any operations intended to save people and/or property (including public and/or common property, such as wildlife) in an emergency.) 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:BD69:F75:7EED:9A2D (talk) 06:20, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * How about Ripley using the power loader in Aliens_(film)? 196.213.35.146 (talk) 06:51, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Cars (film). ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 07:23, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Do you not perhaps mean Planes? I don't see the "rescue operations" criteria in Cars.196.213.35.146 (talk) 08:42, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * There is a(n anthropomorphic) fire engine, police car and tow truck in Cars, so this counts as well. 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:69A8:ECDD:6CF5:1857 (talk) 08:45, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * The | AMP suit in Avatar? 196.213.35.146 (talk) 07:39, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Iron Man? 196.213.35.146 (talk) 07:45, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Budgie the Little Helicopter, Planet Express Ship, Transformers, KITT. jnestorius(talk) 08:38, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Thank you all, but I was asking specifically about rescue vehicles, not just any sort of vehicles (which some (I daresay most) of these have, but some of these haven't.) Specifically, of the ones listed so far: Aliens counts; Cars counts (see above); Planes counts; Budgie counts; I haven't checked Transformers yet because there's too many of them, but I'm sure at least one of them will count, by the laws of probability; however, Avatar doesn't count (the suit is a combat vehicle, not a rescue vehicle), Iron Man doesn't count (ditto), Planet Express Ship doesn't count (not equipped for rescue, at least to my knowledge), and KITT doesn't count (essentially a [para]military armored car built primarily for combat, with only a minor rescue capability). 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:69A8:ECDD:6CF5:1857 (talk) 08:44, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Surprised no one has mentioned thunderbirds (TV series) yet. MChesterMC (talk) 10:27, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Probably not the original Transformers, but certainly Transformers: Rescue Bots. Also there are some rescue characters in Thomas & Friends (Harold the Helicopter, Bertie the Bus I suppose). Chuggington has some rescue "Chug Patrol" characters. The characters in Paw Patrol are all rescue characters - the vehicles themselves aren't alive, but they are driven by anthropomorphic dogs. Adam Bishop (talk) 10:29, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Yesss! More good examples!  Thunderbirds definitely counts; in Transformers there's quite a few "Protectobots" rescue vehicles; in Thomas & Friends, Harold is definitely a rescue vehicle (and although Bertie isn't, there are a couple more -- Belle (whom I mentioned just the other day when asking about firefighting trains on the science desk) and Flynn); Chuggington also counts (I just checked).  As for Paw Patrol (which I've never seen), since the vehicles themselves aren't anthropomorphic, are any of the vehicles fictional (i.e. without any real-life counterpart)? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:69A8:ECDD:6CF5:1857 (talk) 11:23, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * They are real-ish (a helicopter, fire truck, police car, recycling truck, etc.) but they do cartoon things like transform into other vehicles sometimes. Of course there is a separate Wikia for this! See Paw Patrol Vehicles. Adam Bishop (talk) 11:47, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * You could trawl Category:Fictional vehicles and IMDB keywords e.g. "fire truck". jnestorius(talk) 11:08, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * If a tug can count as a rescue vehicle, there is Tugs (basically, Thomas the Tank Engine but with boats instead of trains). Iapetus (talk) 12:36, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, some (not all) tugs count as rescue vehicles -- see e.g. Safeguard-class salvage ship. (I haven't seen Tugs, but from looking at the article I could tell it does feature something similar, as well as a fireboat and a Coast Guard cutter.) 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:69A8:ECDD:6CF5:1857 (talk) 12:44, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * I can't check any 80s cartoon websites now because they will be blocked at work, but I have a feeling Jimbo and the Jet-Set may have had some characters that fit the criteria.  Hassocks  5489 (Floreat Hova!)  12:59, 16 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Several in the Thomas the Tank Engine series - Terence, Captain, Butch, Rocky, Judy & Jerome. Wymspen (talk) 18:27, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue and its Japanese counterpart Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoFive feature their giant robots which are all transforming counterparts of actual rescue vehicles. Similarly, Tomica Hero: Rescue Force and its spin off Tomica Hero: Rescue Fire also have giant, transforming rescue vehicles. uhhlive (talk) 20:23, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * M.A.S.K. (TV series)? † dismas †|(talk) 20:47, 16 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Yes, these too -- Power Rangers and Tomica Hero definitely count, and while MASK features mostly combat vehicles there's one or two rescue vehicles in there with fictional capabilities. Keep'em coming!  (And BTW, I noticed that most of these are kids' shows -- are there any examples also from movies for grownups?  Because while these probably won't have anthropomorphic vehicles, I'm sure quite a few have fictional rescue vehicles.) 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:69A8:ECDD:6CF5:1857 (talk) 05:59, 17 March 2017 (UTC)


 * This might be too far from what you're looking for, but Lego has sold or published a number of search and rescue related kits and plans. They have varying degrees of plausibility. http://brickset.com/sets?query=rescue
 * ApLundell (talk) 13:59, 17 March 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but I've already seen them all -- I was looking more into fictional rescue vehicles in movies and TV shows. :-) 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:1812:83B6:C84E:722 (talk) 02:45, 18 March 2017 (UTC)


 * (un-indent) Still no examples from any movies/TV shows for grownups, besides Aliens? That's strange, because I can think of at least 4.  So let me start: Meteor (film), Deep Impact, The Abyss, Executive Decision... anyone know any others? 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:1812:83B6:C84E:722 (talk) 02:48, 18 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I had a couple of examples from Star Trek in mind, but when I looked them up, I realized that they weren't using special S&R vehicals, just the show's standard set of fantastic spaceships. This seems to illustrate the overall difficulty with this question.  There's lots of fantastic fiction that involves S&R missions, but it seems to be more dramatic if it's performed by people for whom S&R is not their primary function.
 * I do have an example from video games : The game Dead Space starts with the USG Kellion docking with a derelict spaceship. The Kellion is an "Emergency Maintenance" vehicle, dispatched to ships in distress. The Kellion doesn't feature too heavily in the rest of the plot, but the main character is a Kellion crew member who spends the rest of the game attempting to find survivors on the derelict. ApLundell (talk) 17:04, 18 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Excellent example -- and a very useful vehicle for rescue missions to distant planets! ;-) (BTW, am I right that the Kellion is essentially the space equivalent of a Heavy rescue vehicle?) 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:1812:83B6:C84E:722 (talk) 01:03, 19 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I think so. They don't explore its capabilities, but the basic premise was the USG Ishimura was mysteriously wrecked, and this was the first responder sent to deal with that situation. I think the implication was that they could have done heavy emergency repairs. It also has very large engines compared to similar ships we see later in the game, so the idea might have been that it could be used as a tug, but that's just speculation. The Kellion is itself wrecked early on, so we don't see what it could have done. Really, it was mostly a plot convenience to get our hero to the scene of the disaster so he can have his adventure. ApLundell (talk) 14:12, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Ah, so more like a rescue and salvage ship like the aforementioned USS Safeguard? That's even more fascinating! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 23:37, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
 * I forgot another children's show - The Octonauts, who rescue various sea animals in each episode with special rescue boats and submarines. Adam Bishop (talk) 19:35, 18 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Yes, another great example -- lots of vehicles with some really cool fictional capabilities! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:1812:83B6:C84E:722 (talk) 01:03, 19 March 2017 (UTC)
 * The EVA pod from  A Space Odyssey. Clarityfiend (talk) 20:30, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Possibly -- although primarily designed for repair of the mother ship, they can be used to rescue a stranded astronaut or to salvage another spaceship, so they could be considered rescue vehicles (which, by extension, would make the mother ship a rescue vehicle as well, as per my definition). 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 23:37, 20 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, the pod was used to try to rescue the original dead Poole. Discovery One maybe, in 2010: Odyssey Two, by boosting the crew to safety. Clarityfiend (talk) 02:05, 21 March 2017 (UTC)
 * True, although I do have to point out a semantic distinction: because my definition of a rescue vehicle is one built or modified for rescue missions, the fact that the Discovery One boosted the other spaceship to safety does not in itself make it a rescue vehicle, since it wasn't modified (much less designed from the outset) for this purpose but only used for it -- however, the fact that it carries EVA pods which were built from the outset to be capable of rescue and repair work does make it a rescue vehicle, just as the USS Pigeon is a rescue vehicle by virtue of carrying the Mystic-class DSRV. So you had the right answer, but for the wrong reasons. BTW, that's an interesting hypothesis you have that Frank Poole was resurrected as Deadpool -- it's a theory I've never heard before! 2601:646:8E01:7E0B:F88D:DE34:7772:8E5B (talk) 12:33, 21 March 2017 (UTC)