Action Bomb: Difference between revisions

[[File:Bobomb.png|link=Super Mario Bros.|frame|Warning: [[A Worldwide Punomenon|Explosive temper]].]]

 

 

So, the [[Five-Man Band]] has been cornered by [[The Dragon]], and they seem locked in a fight which will kill them all. Unless they get a massive amount of fatal damage in soon, they're screwed—whoops, there goes Joe, blowing himself up right on the enemy and positively obliterating him. That crazy shmuck!

 

See also [[Having a Blast]], [[Mad Bomber]], [[Taking You with Me]] and [[Why Am I Ticking?]].

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Chaozu in ''[[Dragon Ball]] Z''. Vegeta and Goku also tried exploding to defeat their enemies at least once (resulting in a huge [[Tear Jerker]] for the former), and Cell actually killed Goku doing it.

** Played completely straight in ''Shin [[Getter Robo]] VS. Neo [[Getter Robo]]'', in which Musashi, completely overpowered by his enemies, decided to [[Taking You with Me|take them with him]] by crushing the extremely [[Made of Explodium|volatile]] energy reactor of his [[Humongous Mecha]].

* Quatre Winner's Sandrock Gundam from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam Wing]]''. It sacrifices itself while letting Quatre escape to safety.

* In ''[[Cyborg 009]]'', three teenagers get bombs implanted in them and are given the mission of killing someone they know and love: {{spoiler|the eponymous Cyborg, Joe/009}}.

** Also, in the older Tv series Albert/004 has a nuclear bomb stored in his stomach. {{spoiler|And in the 80's movies, he ''does'' use it to save his teammates. He manages to survive, though.}}

** She actually seems to be made of gun powder herself seeing as the [[Cool Old Guy]] managed to distract her and use ''her'' [[Self-Demonstrating Article|to blow a hole]] [[Just for Pun|in the hull]] of the ship.

* ''[[Dance in the Vampire Bund]]'' has vampires pull creative twists on this twice so far. One reporter [[The Mole|secretly involved in a conspiracy]] has herself turned so she can cut herself open and sew a sizable block of C4 in her abdomen before attending a press conference given by Mina Tepes. In an apparently seperate case {{spoiler|an agent of a rival vampire clan implants vials containing a chemical that reacts explosively with the blood of vampires and rigged to rupture with a cell-phone signal inside the bodies of numerous minions, and tries to blackmail Mina by [[Western Terrorists|dispersing them within the Tokyo subway system]]}}.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Fu tries to commit a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] by jumping at {{spoiler|Wrath}} while covered in lit dynamite. {{spoiler|The explosives never go off, but he dies nonetheless.}}

* Yasu "The Weasel" from ''[[Shin Mazinger Shougeki! Z-hen]]'' has a literal bomb in his stomach to be used only when the situation is otherwise hopeless.

 

== Film ==

* Russel Casse in ''[[Independence Day]]'': "Hello boys! I'm baaaaaaack!"

* {{spoiler|Robert Neville}} in the theatrical ending of ''[[I Am Legend]]''.

== Tabletop Games ==

* ''[[GURPS]]: [[Transhuman Space]]'' considered a borderline case: more powerful missile weapons are called "Autonomous Kill Vehicle". After all, if it got all the elements of a ship except the habitable part, what's point to call it a "torpedo"? You can rate it a specialized auto-piloted vessel just as well.

** In the 4E Eberron book, there are details about if a PC is infected with Filth Plague, and if it progresses to it's critical state, the infected loses all surges, cannot heal, and when reduced to 0 hit points, explodes and all creatures within a burst 3 contract the Filth Plague.

* ''Brave New World'' [[World War 2]] supplement ''Glory Days''. A "Bomber" is a delta who can make his body explode and then reassemble himself. The Japanese perform kamikaze attacks by dropping Bombers on Allied ships.

** There's even an item in some Dragon Quest games called a Kamikazee bracer that blows the user up when they die and kills all opposing enemies.

* In ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask|The Legend of Zelda Majoras Mask]]'', Link can use the "blast mask" to create an explosion right in front of his face. This can hurt, but the damage can be blocked by putting the shield in front of his face. There are also rat-like enemies who have bombs strapped to the ends of their tails, and explode upon touching Link. In-universe, this inspired an invention called a "bombchu" (also found in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time|Ocarina of Time]]'' which is a sort of bomb modeled after these rats, which hovers over the ground like a heat-seeking missile.

* The Scarfy in the ''[[Kirby]]'' series. Attempting to Inhale him often caused the Scarfy to mutate, chase after you and explode! There's also the enemy, Bomber, who is almost always perched dangerously close to the edge of a platform and then falls off promptly after Kirby comes on-screen blowing up on impact with the ground and (sometimes conveniently) taking all other enemies on screen with him. Having Kirby Inhale him will grant you one of the more powerful Copy Abilities...

** Crash. Crash basically [[Smart Bomb|nukes the screen]] when used, annihilating anything that isn't a Boss (even most sub-bosses will kick the bucket when this ability is invoked, but if the boss doesn't die it will be close to death anyway).

* The ''[[Tek War]]'' FPS (and corresponding novels) have android enemies that look just like normal civilians, except they explode when they touch you. Luckily you have a weapon that kills androids really quickly... at point-blank range.

* Shofixti ships in ''[[Star Control]]'' have a very weak main projectile weapon—and a ''very'' powerful self-destructive "Glory Device" as a secondary weapon.

* The Boomer zombies in ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' (There's a clue in the name). Interestingly, the blast doesn't hurt anything, but it causes knockback and covers anyone nearby in bile that immediately attracts a horde of regular zombies. And blurs vision. Originally, Boomers were literal walking bombs where its exposion could cause major damage to the survivors. Seeing how play testers kept accidentally shooting the Boomer in close quarters and lost a chunk of their health, Valve decided to make the Boomer's death explosion cover survivors in "non harmful" bile instead. The purpose of the Boomer is not to ''be'' an Action Bomb, however. It's there to barf on you to attract the horde of normals... the Action Bomb mechanic is there to discourage killing them up close.

* ''[[Persona 4]]'' has {{spoiler|Teddie}} using a self-destruct attack to save the party from a seemingly-invincible boss. {{spoiler|It leaves him flattened and disheveled, but he gets better.}}

* ''[[Star Wars]]: Galactic Battlegrounds'' features building-shredding Explosive Droids in one of the Rebel campaign missions.

* In the [[PS 1]] game ''[[Wild 9]]'', one of your allies has the special ability to explode on contact with anything, repeatedly, with no ill effects. Naturally, you have to toss him into things to solve puzzles.

* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'':

** In ''[[Mortal Kombat]] 3'', one of Cyrax's fatalities was blowing himself up to take out his opponent. Then through some twist of logic, he is back to fight his next opponent. Even more baffling is Smoke, who [[Earthshattering Kaboom|blows up the whole planet]]. Cyrax has a similar [[Earthshattering Kaboom]] fatality in ''Mortal Kombat Gold'' on the Dreamcast.

** Cyber Sub-Zero in ''[[Mortal Kombat 9]]''.

* ''[[Smash TV]]'' featured Mr Shrapnel. He'd wander around, grunt if he was hit by a stray (or not so stray) bullet, stand still for a while, and detonate himself into a few examples of his namesake. One of the better examples on the page, since while he's wandering he's very low down on the player's threat level: [[Bullet Hell|You]] [[Everything Trying to Kill You|have]] [[Mooks|other]] [[The War Sequence|things]] [[Nintendo Hard|to]] [[One-Hit-Point Wonder|worry]] [[Turns Red|about]]. And then it stops, and suddenly you realise that you've been ignoring several of the most dangerous enemies in the game and they take a ''helluvalot'' of damage to kill safely before they explode all up your face.

* ''[[Gauntlet (1985 video game)]] Legends'' had some enemies with an ominous red barrel and a fuse strapped to their back. The general warning was a suicidal scream before they charged you.

* ''[[Infamous (video game series)|In Famous]]'' has kamikaze [[Mook]]s who run up to you and explode. Which you can hear coming from a mile away because they scream at the top of their lungs.

* The [[Goddamned Bats|Goddamned Rats]] in ''[[Psychonauts]]'', which not only damage you by exploding, but also release a cloud of confusion gas that temporarily screws with the game controls. There are also Personal Demons, tiny humanoids with huge heads that just explode.

* Flying Bombs were an enemy in ''[[Wario Land]] 1'', with the rather annoying attack pattern of attaching to Wario's head, being difficult to remove and then exploding on a short timer.

* ''[[Survival Crisis Z]]'' has [[Dead Weight]] fat zombies, who explode like a grenade when killed. Best to keep your distance.

* One of the Ninjitsu in older ''[[Shinobi]]'' titles was the "Jitsu of Mijin", a self destruction attack that destroyed all onscreen enemies in exchange for a life from your stock. Musashi would reform himself right where he had been standing, unless the player was stupid enough to use it when no lives were left, in which case it would be Game Over.

* In ''[[Turok (series)|Turok]] 2'', the Endtrails have self-destruct mechanisms that they activate when critically injured.

* Phantom soldiers in ''[[Dynasty Warriors]] 6: Empires'' have a nasty habit of exploding when you attack them. In previous ''Empires'' games, your weapons would [[Intangible Man|pass right through them]].

* [[Armored Core]] for Answer has a unique version called Assault Armor. In the game, each [[Humongous Mecha|NEXT]] is equipped with a [[Deflector Shield]] called Primal Armor, powered by [[Toxic Phlebotinum|Kojima]] [[Minovsky Physics|Particles]]. In for Answer, these deflector shields can be weaponized and exploded outwards, hence the trope. While these will outright take out lesser enemies (such as your common tank, helis, MTs, and some weaker Normals), these won't do much to another NEXT, barring depleting ''their'' Primal Armor. The side effect of using this is that your own Primal Armor takes more time to recharge back and recharges slowly, while the opponent's can recharge back almost immediately.

** While it does take a chunk of [[Call a Hit Point a Smeerp|Armor Points]], and there are shoulder weapons that explicitly amplify Assault Armor usage (one of the opponent NEXTs you encounter uses exclusively Assault Armor), newer rebalanced Regulation has reduced it's usefulness to somewhere between [[Awesome but Impractical]] to [[Cool but Inefficient]]. This might seem like a raw deal, but in exclusively [[Player Versus Player]] match, Assault Armors are still used for anti-rushers, since besides all that, a less-advertised effect includes "blinding" your opponents, preventing them to lock on to you for a specific amount of time.

** If a thunderbolt manages to strike a Creeper, it ''[[It Got Worse|super charges them]]'', making their explosion attack even more deadly and the craters they leave behind are a lot bigger than a normal Creeper's explosion.

*** As of the final version, creepers are by far the deadliest mob in the game, capable of inflicting a [[One-Hit Kill]] on players without armor on hard difficulty from a long distance, and even capable of one hitting players on easy difficulty at point blank range.

* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'', probably as a [[Shout-Out]] to the Voyager/TNG example above, features former Ambassador Ch'vorthq. Ch'vorthq is a genetically engineered bomb, set to go off at a meeting between the Creethlings (for whom he is the nominal ambassador) and the Golbwerians, killing the Golbwerian diplomats and allowing the Creethlings to attack in force. He's [[Incredibly Lame Pun|disarmed]] before he can do any actual damage. Unusually, Ch'vorthq doesn't '''know''' he's a bomb; he thinks he's a legitimate diplomat, and is horrified to discover that his employers/designers didn't ''actually'' want him to make peace. However, the 'disarmament' only stoped him from being forcibly detonated - he could still blow himself up at will. Or, rather, (since he's ugly, not crazy), setting a part of his anatomy on a short fuse and throwing it. At this point, he's lost both his arms and one of his eyes this way, but since then has managed to remain sufficiently in the background that further [[Heroic Sacrifice]] hasn't been necessary.

* Agatha's Dingbots in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' has the ability to do this, a rather uncomfortable fact that the Baron's army learned when they found themselves fighting several swarms of them.

* Ran in ''[[Bob and George]]'' is built of shoddy Soviet materials, and breaks so often (and is made so cheaply) that his creator simply set a machine to automatically download his memory and personality into a new body and teleport it back to the location of the previous one when he dies. Result, when the heroes are facing an army of Robot Masters? [http://www.bobandgeorge.com/archives/040910 Ran Bombs!]

* Nuclear Dan's entire strategy in ''[[Another Gaming Comic]]'' is to do this. Subverted in that he's normally immune to fire, but justified that any time he isn't, he still does it. It is surprisingly effective.

 

== Web Original ==

* ''[[Orion's Arm]]'': The early modified humans [http://www.orionsarm.com/xcms.php?r=oaeg-view-article&egart_uid=4ac6247bd1611 Homo Jihadi] had a modified endocrine system, "naturally" producing explosives that accumulate in their bones and other calcium-containing tissues. They were modified at the zygote stage and have not been known to reproduce. It did not help the reputation of genetic engineering...

* In [[Girlchan in Paradise]] one character detonates himself using his most powerful (and only) technique. He then proceeds to be poorly edited in so that he isn't dead.

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[Making Fiends]]'' has the exploding pigeon fiends in "Mama Vendetta". [[Rule of Funny|Naturally]], they proceeded to follow Vendetta everywhere they went after they hatched, thinking that she's their mommy.

* ''[[Sym-Bionic Titan]]'' has the [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]], Tashy 497.

 

== Real Life ==

* By definition, any suicide bomber is one of these.

* Some real-life ants and termites actually do this. It's called [[wikipedia:Autothysis|Autothysis]].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Combat Tropes]]