Multiple recreations with a Pelican you were never meant to ride…

(7:53) Level 5 ('Assault on the Control Room') on Heroic. In quite a few of my movies I've caught a ride on the Pelican which drops Marines off under the first bridge, but I've never shown what happens to it. In this movie you'll see, and I'll also show lots of other fun you can have, after getting a handy checkpoint. See also my related new article Two Pelicans and other fun.

Released February 28th 2017, gameplay recorded February 23rd-27th 2017.

00:02 (Setting up) To get a handy checkpoint for repeated fun, I keep the passage checkpoint delayed until I want it. Initially I use jumping, but on the bridge there's a Grunt nearby so I'm able to rely on enemy threat. I elect to do a standard Shade ride. After throwing my plasma I'm ready to quickly kill the sleeping Grunt with a whack if he wakes - which he usually does - but this time he stays asleep. My landing looks like it's going to be nasty - I'm hitting upside down - but surprisingly I take no damage at all. Phew! I want to keep full health for the later fun.

00:40 Resuming my jumping to keep the checkpoint delayed, I see that the Banshee is up high. A few pistol shots attract it down, then I fire some more when it gets lower. I could finish it off with more shots but I see the opportunity for a fancy tag instead, so I go for it and score a hit. With the enemy threat gone I resume my jumping, then when the Pelican is a bit lower I stop and get the checkpoint.

01:18 (Two Pelicans) The first thing I show is getting two Pelicans. Just board and ride, and as long as you stay aboard long enough, it remains in play, sinking to the ground to join another Echo 419 already in scripted position at the crash site. After a bit of clambering I give my ride a few whacks. Melee can make it slip down a bit; I couldn't move it any further.

02:51 (Pelican vanishing) Taking another ride (and lobbing a grenade after the Marines, one of whom can be seen getting blasted), I bail early and the Pelican vanishes. In the subsequent shorter clip I bail late but still too early. If you wait for the engine tone to lower though, then it's ok to bail; the Pelican will stay. In the final clip on this theme, I race off in the dropped hog to demonstrate that vanishing is the normal behaviour.

04:04 (Beware of the hog drop) Don't stand too far back when the hog drops and gets pushed to the side, or you can get splattered. Like this!

04:12 (Shadow shooting and more) This clip shows a bit of shadow shooting with an AR, which one of the ground troops kindly donates. I also double grenade the hog, and at the end I manage to tag the Pelican just after I bail, getting a bang before it vanishes.

04:43 (Boarding from below) You can actually board from below, as seen here. Johnson is keen to have my help, and I oblige by tagging one of his Marines. Less for him to worry about. Then after fragging the Banshee wreck (also done in an earlier clip) I do a stunt bail, getting cushioned by a friendly slope. From there I go down the step, in time to see the Pelican vanish yet again.

05:14 (Late boarding from inside) You can also board from inside the compartment. I let the floor come down over me, then I jump up onto it. It's fun to do the boarding late, as seen here. The floor slides underneath me and I take a seat at the last moment. Then I do a bit of shadow shooting.

05:30 (Stunt boarding - and bailing) Now there's a sequence of seven clips on stunt boarding, jumping up in various ways. Fun to do! There are also a few recreations along the way, including getting an earth shower by hitting the Pelican's windscreen with a plasma ball. Around 6:25 I do a good stunt bail landing over the step; not easy to survive. There's also a stunt bail in which I get cushioned by a big rock, which I was specifically going for. That's in the 'blind boarding' clip, and it needed good timing because I would've died if I hit the ground. I subsequently take shots at the Pelican with a zoomed pistol, hitting with eight out of nine shots.

07:34 (Comedy ending) Comedy clip to end. I board from below and Johnson wants my help again. But maybe he had second thoughts after getting a plasma in the face. I also tag one of the others, which kills two.

Closing remarks A few months ago someone commented on one of my movies (BCM172) in which I boarded the Pelican at the end. In my reply I said maybe sometime I'd make a movie about what happens - so here it is. Originally it was just going to be about getting two Pelicans, but after creating my set-up I found more and more aspects to have fun with - particularly stunt boarding and bailing - so the movie grew. Actually there's still more you can do, but I didn't want to make the movie any longer; so you can probably expect another movie on this theme sometime.

A shortcoming of my set-up is that I end up short of two plasmas, giving me less to play with. The reason for that was, I hadn't yet realized all the fun you can have. Otherwise I would've made sure to set things up so I had maximum grenades. However, it didn't matter much.

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