"I got it, I got it, I-AAAAAAAAAARGH!"
"I leap forward, arms outstretched. Reaching, reaching across endless feet. Hitting the carpet, feeling my chest and stomach burn. Straining my fingertips. The remote falls into my hand, undamaged."
— Odysseus, The Victors Project
Sometimes, it's not gunfire that sends a hero desperately dropping prone. Sometimes, they'll do it to intercept an object that absolutely must not strike the floor. Maybe a cornered villain just tossed a vial of The Plague in an attempted mass Taking You with Me. Maybe an explosive's detonator got dropped in the struggle to subdue a bomber, and contact with the ground could trip its trigger. Maybe it's a Macguffin that's needed to defeat the Big Bad, and one hero must throw it to another if it's to be activated in time. Or maybe it's just a Priceless Ming Vase that tips over and will shatter unless it's caught. Whatever the case, it's down to a quick-acting character's reflexes to intercept the item and save the day.
Sometimes Played for Laughs by having a character catch a non-essential falling object with just as much drama as if the situation were life and death, even if all that's at risk is a nice clean floor. Occasionally subverted when the thrown object turns out to be harmless, such as when Drill Sergeant Nasty tosses a dud grenade at trainees to watch how they react.
Sister trope to Catch a Falling Star, when it's a falling character that has to be caught in mid-plummet. Sometimes the follow-up of a Dramatic Drop, and a potential finale for many Sports Stories. A common complication during a "Mission: Impossible" Cable Drop. Dish Dash is a mass comedy version.
Likely to be shown in Slo Mo and to overlap with Diving Save. Failed attempts often lead to Dramatic Shattering.
Examples:
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Animation
- Mechamato: In episode 10, Mara lunges out of her wheelchair to catch a lit match before it can land in a puddle of oil and set Amato's house ablaze.
Anime & Manga
- Blue Lock: When Reo first meets him, gaming-obsessed Nagi performs an acrobatic maneuver in order to stop his device from hitting the floor. The incident convinces Reo that Nagi is capable of becoming a star football player by his side.
- My Dress-Up Darling: In the very first episode, when Gojo gets caught by Marin sewing in the crafts' classroom, the surprise makes him accidentally toss his Hina doll head into the air. He quickly scrambles to save it.
- Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea. While May and the Phantom are struggling over the container holding the Manaphy egg, its lid is pulled open and the egg flies into the air. May runs after it and dives to catch it, ending up face down on the ground.
- Parodied in the first volume of Nichijou with a dropped wiener.
- In Sonic X episode 17,
Knuckles and a ninja are desperately trying to catch a Chaos Emerald as it falls from a great height. Both parties impede each other so the gem falls in the hands of a bystander instead.
Comic Books
- In Bookhunter, Library Police Detective Bay pursues the thief "Kettle Stitch" across rooftops as she tries to get away with a priceless (stolen) antique book. When Kettle Stitch misses a jump and falls, Bay improvises a Building Swing to save the book.
- At the end of the "Million Zillion Ninja" arc of The Tick, Tick accidentally drops the Thorn of Oblivion (whose destruction is prophesied to bring about the end of the Ninja) off the roof of a hospital. The evil ninja master Sagin attempts one of these, and fails. Both Thorn and Ninja shatter on the pavement below.
Film — Animation
- By the end of Beavis And Butthead Do America, an unstable MacGuffin of Mass Destruction is accidentally sent flying, when a soldier tries to seize it, to the horror of authorities. Cue it softly thumping onto Butt-Head's hair and bouncing onto his opened palm. Slo Mo included.
- Happens repeatedly with the Ramu egg in the hunting scene from The Croods. Sometimes it's a Crood that catches it, other times a competing egg-eater or the mother Ramu, but they all try to keep it from cracking.
- In The Polar Express, a Belly-Scraping Flight by the dirigible that hauls Santa's sack of gifts to his sleigh knocks the star off the Christmas tree in Santa's courtyard. A team of elf skydivers drop from the dirigible to catch it in midair.
- Shrek 2: After Puss pulls the Happily Ever After potion from its containment, he loses his grip, causing it to fly through the air; just before it hits the ground, Donkey manages to catch it in his mouth.
Shrek: Nice catch, Donkey.
Puss: Finally, a good use for your mouth. - In the Animated Adaptation of Soul Music, Susan tosses the lifetimer of one of the Assassins towards him, sending him diving desperately to catch it because he'd die if it shattered.
- Turning Red:
- Mei realizes she's holding a 4*Town CD which she doesn't want to be seen with when she gets home. The panic over that causes her to throw it up in the air and just manages to catch it before it falls onto the sidewalk.
- Ming's panic over what she thinks is Mei's first period causes her to bump into a table holding a Priceless Ming Vase which falls over and she manages to catch it.
- Mei accidentally launches herself toward the camera she and her friends are using to record their dance routine causing it to fall over and Mei tries and fails to catch it.
Film — Live-Action
- Airplane II: The Sequel. One of the passengers aboard the Lunar Shuttle has brought a bomb on board. During a struggle the bomb is thrown up into the air and a dog jumps into the air to catch it before it hits the floor and detonates.
- In Alvin and the Chipmunks : Chipwrecked, Dave tosses Alvin the pocketknife he'd confiscated earlier, so Alvin can cut the leash that's got Jeanette snared.
- One of the Beethoven sequels has this gag, with the titular dog ending up in a posh mansion. One of the servants sees a streamer of drool dropping from his mouth and does a Diving Save to keep it from hitting the floor. It lands on his face.
- In Casper, Cat lunges to catch the glass bottle of red substance that could bring Casper back to life. She catches it just in time, complete with slo-mo.
- In the short film Countdown, the protagonist attempts suicide with a gun equipped with a timing mechanism: a wind-up toy attached to the trigger by a cord, that will roll off the table and yank it. When circumstances intervene, he must catch the toy to prevent the gun going off, which isn't easy as he'd handcuffed himself to a chair in case he lost his nerve.
- In The Dark Crystal, Kira throws the Shard to Jen just before she's stabbed so he can heal the Crystal when the three suns align.
- Symbologist Robert Langdon holds a cryptex while Sir Leigh Teabing points a revolver at him in The Da Vinci Code. Robert simply flings the cryptex to one side. Leigh makes a desperate effort to catch it but, being lame, fails. Teabing is left in tears as vinegar runs through his fingers, certain that the cryptex's failsafe is dissolving the papyrus note inside, destroying a critical clue to the location of the Holy Grail.
- In Derailed (2002), Galina attempts to take the vials back after Cole opens the case, but the case goes flying. Natasha makes a desperate dive and manages to catch it, but the one of the vials breaks, exposing everyone on the train to the virus.
- In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, capturing the occamy requires Tina to catch an object flung across the room by Jacob. Said object is a live cockroach, which she must catch with a teapot.
- In Fantastic Four (2005), Reed's stretching power first reveals itself when Sue knocks a bottle of wine off a table and he reflexively extends his forearm — by about three feet — to catch it before it can break.
- In Final Encounter, Stoner is cornered by enemy troops on the opposite side of a corridor from Southerland. He makes a Heroic Sacrifice by throwing a critical MacGuffin to his companion, fatally exposing himself to enemy fire.
- In Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Freddy alters Carlos's hearing aid to make the teen hypersensitive to sound, then drops a pin from a high balcony. Having already experienced the bone-rattling roar of water dripping from a faucet, Carlos frantically dives to catch the pin before it can crash to the floor. He catches it, but Freddy (being Freddy) follows up by dropping a whole handful of pins.
- The Harry Potter franchise has a situation in Order of the Phoenix, in which the baddies try to catch the object. The prophecy everyone is after is confined in a glass globe that's about to hit the floor. Lucius Malfoy makes a desperate grab for it but misses and it shatters.
- In The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Bilbo nearly kicks the key to Erebor off the cliffside in his haste to find it before the keyhole can vanish from sight. Thorin stomps on the leather thong to which the key is attached, pinning it securely under his boot, just before it can plummet over the edge.
- In I, Robot, Sonny throws the canister of nanites to Spooner, allowing the police detective to deactivate Big Bad V.I.K.I. while the robot saves Calvin.
- In The Last Jedi, Rose's sister performs a Heroic Sacrifice by launching her vessel's cargo of bombs at a massive First Order warship, knowing she'll be caught in the backblast. Her efforts are impeded because the control box to launch her bomber's payload is teetering at the top of a ladder, there's no one else alive on board to retrieve it, and she's sprawled on her back after falling down the ladder. In desperation, she kicks the ladder until the control box tips over the edge, snags it one-handed before it can plummet out of her vessel's bomb bay, and triggers the payload's release.
- In Legion, a character drops a baby and Bob dives to catching the little thing before it hits the ground.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- The Infinity Stone in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) is a powerful gem that destroys everything it gets into contact with. Ronan forges it into his warhammer, but during the film's climax, it gets blown out and threatens to destroy the planet on contact with the ground. Both the villain and the hero dive for the stone in dramatic Bullet Time fashion. Guess who saves the day.
- In the opening battle of Captain America: Civil War, Crossbones's crew have stolen a bioweapon from an infectious-disease institute. Black Widow confronts two of the men, one of whom threatens to drop the vial in a crowded marketplace and kill hundreds. Natasha quickly takes down both of them, then catches the vial when it flies from the falling henchman's hands.
- In the climax of Ant-Man, Scott gets lost in the Quantum Realm, unable to activate his suit to grow back to normal size. He fumbles while retrieving his last grow-disc from his belt, and barely manages to grab it before it can drift out of reach.
- In The Matrix Resurrections, Neo desperately tries to catch a bullet that's been shot at a frozen Trinity, while both he and the bullet have been forced into bullet time. He doesn't make it by a hair, but the Analyst plucks it out of the air just before it hits Trinity's temple, and the ending of his monologue.
- Pacific Rim: Uprising does this with Humongous Mecha. Jake Pentecost, controlling his Jaeger, Gipsy Avenger, desperately dives to catch the falling helicopter carrying his adoptive sister, Mako Mori. Unfortunately, Gipsy Avenger's hand is not fast enough and narrowly misses the helicopter, which results in Mako's death.
- In The Quick and the Dead, Cort is forced into public gunfights with a single bullet in his pistol. When his first shot injures but fails to stop Spotted Horse, he pleads with the audience for someone to find him a second bullet. The blind boy digs one from an ammo box by feel and tosses it to him, allowing him to finish off Spotted Horse before the wounded man's wild shots can connect.
- At the start of A Quiet Place, one of the children is trying to grab a toy space shuttle on a shelf above his head. The toy gets knocked off the shelf and his sister lunges to catch it before it hits the ground. It's our first indication that they're not deaf (except the sister) but desperate to avoid making any sound.
- Sallah from Raiders of the Lost Ark saves Indy from poisoning himself with a drugged date by snatching the tossed morsel in midair, just short of Jones's mouth. Sallah'd noticed barely in time that eating from the same bowl of dates had proven fatal for a hungry monkey.
- Return to Oz: Scarecrow saves a green vase in the Nome King's collapsing ornament room. Good thing too; the vase was Jack Pumpkinhead and Bilina.
- In Risky Business, Guido the pimp throws Joel's mom's crystal egg award at Joel, so Joel has to catch it so it doesn't break.
- In The Rock, Goodspeed has his hands full with one of the packages of spheres that contain the V-X nerve gas, when one of the balls that hold the deadly chemical agent falls off the end of its chain. Unable to grab for it, he cushions its fall with the springy laces on top of his shoe, then sets the other spheres down very carefully and dives to catch the runaway before it can roll off a ledge and shatter.
- In Rush Hour, during a shootout at an exhibition of ancient Chinese art, one of the mooks tries to knock over a very large artifact. Detective Lee catches it, gets kicked several times while keeping it from falling, manages to get back up, set the piece back level... just in time for a stray gunshot to shatter it.
- Used repeatedly in The Sand, as the characters toss items to one another so as to avoid contact with the deadly tendrils of the sand-burrowing jellyfish-monster. Nastily subverted when one character's overextended reach for a thrown towel sends him tumbling over the lifeguard hut's railing to his messy death.
- In his fourth test in Saw 3D, Bobby has to guide a blindfolded Cale across some precarious planks, then toss him a key to unlock a cable that will hang Cale if the time runs out. He throws it just too high, and it bounces off Cale's chest and through the space between the planks, dooming Cale to hang.
- An early demonstration of Peter's super-reflexes in Spider-Man has him catching a flung lunch tray, complete with all its scattering contents, in about one second. Not life or death, but it does spare Mary Jane from being spattered with food, which is pretty important to Peter.
- Spider-Man 3: Peter loses his grip on Aunt May's engagement ring that he's intending to offer M.J. and has to frantically grab, swing, and web-shoot to try to recover it while fending off a Green Goblin attack by Harry.
- At the climax of Suicide Squad (2016), Harley scoops up Deadshot's pistol and throws it to him, allowing him to set off the explosive device which Croc hurled into Enchantress's World-Wrecking Wave-generator.
- During the climax of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the villain attempts to throw the time-traveling scepter off a roof while he escapes, which would trap the turtles in feudal Japan if it breaks. Mikey grabs the scepter, but almost falls off the roof until the other three turtles manage to pull him back up.
- In Waterworld, Deacon deliberately tosses a lit match at the open hatch leading to the oil tanker's petroleum tanks, just so he can watch one of his henchmen make a Diving Save to keep it from falling through and potentially blowing the entire vessel to hell.
Literature
- Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. series:
- In Unnatural Acts, a villain threatens to smash a jar containing a highly-volatile captive soul unless the heroes back off. When another character jumps the villain from behind, the jar falls and Dan dives to intercept it, letting it land safely on his own body rather than the concrete floor.
- In the short story "Eye of Newt", Dan saves the titular organ (stolen from his client Geck, a newt-person) from becoming the final ingredient in a cooking-contest entry, by catching it just before it can drop into the chef's cauldron.
- Discworld:
- In Mort, while Mort is dueling with Death, several lifetimers are knocked off the shelves and Ysabell and Cutwell rush to catch them before they break. Thanks to their quick reflexes, the five people to whom the lifetimers belong are miraculously saved from falling to their deaths.
- In Guards! Guards!, Vimes dives to catch Errol the swamp dragon when the big dragon knocks the smaller one out of the air. It's only after he's got Errol in his arms, volatile multiple stomachs rumbling alarmingly, that Lady Sybil tells him that the swamp dragon would've exploded on impact.
- In the fiction portion of The Science of Discworld I, a startled Rincewind reflexively hurls the glass globe containing Roundworld's universe into the air when the Bursar pops out of thin air near him. Lucky for us, his Diving Save safely intercepts it a few inches shy of the hard stone floor.
- The season three novel of Le Donjon de Naheulbeuk has Gluby the northern forest gnome catch a vial of alchemist fire dropped by the dying Big Bad.
- The Dresden Files:
- In Small Favor, Harry's gloved left hand snatches a slain Denarian's coin out of the air before it can touch his own skin, potentially subjecting him to demonic possession.
- In Skin Game, Harry throws a blessed sword's hilt to Charity Carpenter, hoping that her faith will be sufficient to restore its power. It bounces off her open palm into the hands of another character, whose faith renews it.
- Forest Kingdom: In book 4 (Beyond the Blue Moon), an assassin/sorcerer under powerful magical protection takes the infant king hostage, and demands that the Queen Regent trade her life for the boy's. At the last moment, the Queen's father tosses a protective amulet for his royal daughter to catch, and its power lets her bypass the assassin's shielding spells and cut his throat with her own concealed dagger.
- Double subversion: In "Darkly Through A Glass Of Ale", a short story set in the Forgotten Realms, one of several treacherous spies threatens to drop a glass sphere containing smoke powder and an ignition chemical, thus blowing up himself and everyone else in the tavern. When a third party disrupts the stalemate and everyone involved in the confrontation starts killing each other, the spy is shot in the head and a guard captain on the scene frantically snatches the incendiary device out of the air. Then he drops it because his gloves are slippery, but another participant in the brawl strikes his knees from behind, causing his feet to shoot out from under him, so the explosive sphere lands in his lap, undamaged.
- Harry Potter:
- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone: Harry's impressive successful catching of one of Neville's keepsakes during broomstick lessons being seen by McGonagall is what gets him the position of Seeker with the Quidditch team.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: A Death Eaters finds themselves trying to catch the sphere that holds the prophecy as though his life depends on it, but misses.
- Joe Pickett: In Force of Nature, Nate is got in a desperate gunfight with members of a black ops team when his Hand Cannon runs empty. Joe arrives at the crucial juncture, and is carrying a bullet Nate had left earlier so he would know a certain message actually came from him (Nate being the only person Joe knows who shoots .454 Casull ammunition). Joe tosses the bullet to Nate who has to make a desperate catch and reload.
- In Tanith Lee's Kill The Dead, Parl Dro attempts to convince the astrally-projected Myal that the latter is just temporarily disembodied, not a ghost. Pointing out that astral projections can handle solid objects if their motivation is strong enough, Parl tosses Myal's beloved musical instrument at the incorporeal Myal, who catches it to save it from breakage without even thinking about it.
- In Ken Follett's novel The Man From St Petersburg, the bad guy, a Russian anarchist, is carrying a nitroglycerine bomb. Cornered by the authorities he chucks the bomb into the air and runs for it. The good guy dives and catches the device before it hits the ground, thus saving everyone's life.
- Thieves' World: In Beyond Sanctuary, Niko offers Randal a glyph-marked orb from the Big Bad sorcerer's gear as battle-spoils, and tosses it to the young mage. It's unclear whether it would've simply smashed, or unleashed some terrible magical backlash, had Randal not dived to catch it.
Live-Action TV
- In the season two finale of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., a dying Gordon throws a contaminated Terrigen crystal in the air as a Taking You with Me gesture. Coulson catches the falling crystal before it can shatter and release a mist that would turn everyone else in the room to stone, but doing so causes his hand to start turning to stone. Coulson only lives because Mack cuts his hand off with an axe to stop the spread of the transformation.
- Another villain version in Blake's 7. Tavis has sent an android disguised as a female Rebel Leader with a tiny sphere of virus to Blake's ship. Our hero discovers the plot, and reprograms the android for a Hostage for MacGuffin trade so it will drop the sphere on a verbal command or (unstated) movement. After Blake beams out with the real rebel leader, Travis tries to edge close to the android...then makes a desperate lunge as she opens her hand, grabbing the sphere before it hits the ground. This cuts no ice with Supreme Commander Servalan, who has him relived of command for getting them into that situation in the first place.
- Doctor Who:
- In "Terror of the Autons", Three disarms an explosive trap set by the Master by yanking hard on its trigger-cord, so the impact-sensitive bomb flies into the air rather than tips over. He catches it gently enough to avoid detonation and takes it apart.
- In "Four to Doomsday", Five saved his own life with this trope when he was adrift between two spaceships and nearly out of air. He tossed a cricket ball to bounce off one vessel, then caught it on the rebound, propelling himself towards the other with the cumulative acceleration of the throw and the catch. Had he missed, he'd likely have expired before reaching the airlock.
- In the mini-episode "Good As Gold", the Olympic torchbearer catches his torch in a Diving Save when a Weeping Angel drops it.
- On Flashpoint, the team must save a woman who's been equipped with a necklace bomb. When the one holding the detonator reveals himself, the team sniper shoots his wrist and he drops the device, which another team member dives to catch ... fortunately, right-side up, so the trigger button isn't depressed.
- An episode of Get Smart ends by toying with this trope, as Max breaks up a KAOS group that was planning to steal the British Crown Jewels. He bluffs the other side into surrendering by threatening to blow them all up with a vial of nitroglycerin, then scoffs when the KAOS agents give up, claiming it was empty and throwing it into the air derisively. 99 and Chief scream in terror, as it really wasn't empty. Thankfully, the Chief catches it.
- Subverted in the pilot of Helix: lecturing new CDC personnel, Alan tosses a vial of what he claims is cholera to Sarah, the better to scare the newbies with how very dangerous a single fumble can be. Then he admits it's just tea in the vial.
- There's an episode of Kenny vs. Spenny where the guys compete to see who can go on the longest without the use of his arms. Kenny, who uses a midget strapped to his body, throws Spenny's guitar down the balcony. Spenny catches it, which makes him lose the competition.
- At the end of the Murder, She Wrote episode "Mrs. Parker's Revenge", the murderer who'd been out to steal a lethal virus sample is accused by Jessica, so he threatens to drop the vial and kill everybody in the area if his fellow-spies don't back off. A struggle over the vial erupts, and several characters miss their attempts at a Desperate Catch before it hits the floor and breaks, prompting Jessica to reveal that she also deduced the murder victim had swapped out the real vial for a harmless decoy.
- On Odd Squad, Odd Todd throws a shrunken building to distract the Squad members while he and Shapeshifter escape, and Olive catches it with a Diving Save.
- Scorpion:
- Walter has to toss some bags of a rare-type blood from the back of a moving transport truck to his associates, who are following the truck in a beat-up old RV. He's only got three bags, and two are needed to save the life of a little girl. Guess how many of his tosses miss...?
- Happy dives to catch the beaker of acid that's about to drench captive Toby in "Toby or Not Toby".
- Wonder Woman (1975): In "A Date with Doomsday", Wonder Woman leaps to catch the virus thrown from a helicopter. She succeeds.
Sports
- In American football, the purpose of a Hail Mary toss is to invoke this trope in hopes of scoring desperately needed points.
- In November 2014, two one-handed catches for touchdowns hit the highlight reels, one day apart. First, University of Virginia receiver Canaan Severin grabs the ball with his fingertips and dives into the end zone. Roughly 24 hours later, the New York Giants' Odell Beckham, Jr. performed what some already call one of the greatest catches in football history. You would not be faulted for confusing it with a yoga pose or ballet move.
- Apparently, it's not the first time he's done it.
- In November 2014, two one-handed catches for touchdowns hit the highlight reels, one day apart. First, University of Virginia receiver Canaan Severin grabs the ball with his fingertips and dives into the end zone.
- Baseball games sometimes come down to whether or not the final hitter's high fly is caught by an outfielder, who desperately leaps or dives to intercept it.
- Often done horizontally by soccer goalies, although deflecting instead of catching the ball is also sufficient.
- Volleyball is all about this trope. Ping-Pong is all about double subverting this trope, as the ball must be allowed to strike the tabletop once, but not a second time.
- In the 1970 World Cup, England goalkeeper Gordon Banks pulled off what has been acclaimed as perhaps the greatest save of all time. Playing Brazil, Banks initially dived to his right, caught wrong-footed by a striker called Pele. Pele, among many others, looked on in incredulous disbelief as Banks somehow changed direction in mid-air, rolling round as he dived, to get a fingertip to the ball and nudge it round a post for a corner.
Video Games
- One of the Flight School missions in Grand Theft Auto Online has you learn how to control yourself while skydiving by having you leap out of a plane to catch your parachute, which was thrown out of the plane a few seconds earlier.
- After defeating King Boo in Luigi's Mansion 3, Luigi catches the portrait containing Mario, Peach and his friends just before the hotel starts collapsing.
- Shadow Ops: Red Mercury have you defeating the main villainess in a boss fight atop the Eiffel Tower. Said villainess is about to drop a briefcase containing a nuke into Paris, and you quickly jump over a set of railings, catching the briefcase in the nick of time as the villainess falls all the way to her death.
Web Animation
- RWBY: This happens a few times in the Volume 7 episode Ace Ops with very volatile explosive Dust. Each member of the titular Ace Ops catches at least one, with Ruby beating out Harriet's Super-Speed to catch the last piece.
Webcomics
- In Godslave, after colliding with Turner carrying a canopic jar, Edith dives desperately after it before it can hit the floor and break. She manages it, but it breaks in her hands anyway.
Western Animation
- Aladdin: The Series has an episode where the gang gets caught in a "Groundhog Day" Loop caused by a magic artifact when it falls on the ground during a fight with marauders. At the end, Iago makes a lunge for it when it falls, and actually manages to catch it, thus breaking the loop.
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: In the episode "Dreamlighting", Simon hurls a bottle of explosive rocket fuel towards the earth from a hot air balloon, while Jeanette runs to catch it before it hits the ground.
- In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Fear of Victory", Scarecrow tosses a vial of fear-inducing powder off the overhead scaffolding at a Gotham Knights football game. Robin fights through a previous exposure to the powder and snatches the plummeting vial in mid-air. Lampshaded (kind of) by the sports announcer's simultaneous narration about a "fumble" and a "recovery" on the playing field.
- In Futurama's "Less than Hero", Leela and Fry have gained superpowers and are trying to stop the theft of a valuable jewel. The culprit drops the gemstone from a balcony to buy time to escape; Fry leaps after it, but can't fall any faster than it does. Leela uses her superspeed to race down the stairs in time to safely catch the stone, while Fry lands on top of Bender.
- In the Molly of Denali episode "Heat Wave," Tooey attempts this when he knocks over the fan. It didn't work, and it gets broken.
- On Ready Jet Go!, Jet gets a bit carried away with a gravity experiment and thoughtlessly tosses Sean's telescope off the treehouse balcony. Sunspot dives underneath it and puffs up his belly like a balloon, so the telescope bounces back up again where Sean can reach over the balcony and grab it safely.
- In Wild Kratts's "Back in Creature Time", Martin carelessly drops the remote time-trampoline, and Koki catches it with a Diving Save. In "Tardigrade Xtreme", Jimmy teleports Tardigrade Power Discs to the Moon-stranded bros, and the discs start to drift away due to the low gravity. Martin gives Chris a boost so he can snatch them before they're out of reach.
