Conveniently Empty Building: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"The buildings are empty. Security, maintenance,'' [are] ''all our people."''|'''Tyler Durden''', ''[[Fight Club]]'' (1999)}}

''When a building in a modern action film or series is [[Stuff Blowing Up|blown up]] or otherwise totaled, there will be no people nor plot-critical items inside when the destruction hits.''

 

 

Nope. it was a Conveniently Empty Building. No carnage.

Whenever a writer gets his hands on a special effects budget, it seems that several buildings suddenly become conveniently empty - inevitably leading to [[Stuff Blowing Up|explosive goodness and giant fireballs]]. This is dictated by the [[Second Law of Metafictional Thermodynamics]].

 

 

After all, there [[No Endor Holocaust|was no holocaust on Endor.]]

 

* This happens to an entire ''city'' in ''[[Pokémon Special]]''.

** Then again, Lance does insinuate that there probably ''were'' a few people still in the city when he blew it up. Not that he cares.

** How he knew it was Sunday, or why the buildings would be empty on a Sunday is never adressed. Of course the death toll was just a ''little'' bit higher in the original version.

** Minutes after landing Nappa decides to vaporize a large portion of the city they are in. We are later told by a reporter that the entire portion of the city had somehow been evacuated before it was destroyed. Despite the fact that hundreds of people were gathered around the impact crater ''seconds'' before the attack.

** Still later, when reporters are filming Nappa's fight with the heroes, he turns and blows up one of the news choppers. The dub helpfully adds in one of the reporters shouting, "He blew up the cargo robot!" Parodied by [[The Abridged Series]].

* One chapter of ''[[Karakuridouji Ultimo]]'' has Hana (A little girl about 5 or 6) and Eddie/Gluttony (A huge ass robot doll) try to get Yamato, the protagonist, to call out Ultimo (his robot doll) and fight them. They do so by destroying the school Gymnasium, which, sure enough, is empty. This is a bit odd considering that at any ''other'' given point in the series, there seems to be no problem with [[Anyone Can Die|killing people off.]]

'''Teana''': Well, this place has long been abandoned anyway... }}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** [[Cleveland Rocks|Strangely enough, this would be the case if Superman had remained in the city of his creators, Cleveland]].

** It's still a common trope. In a recent JLA storyline, Plastic Man (who was giant-sized in order to battle a giant-sized opponent) remarks that he's ''grateful'' for the bad economy, otherwise there'd be no abandoned buildings to smash.

* In a one-shot parody comic called ''What The--?!'', [http://oi52.tinypic.com/2pq2o1l.jpg one panel] thoroughly lampshades the use of this trope in the [[Marvel Universe]]. Ironically, this particular example [[Fridge Logic|would make perfect sense]] in the canon universe: no non-super-powered urban dweller with half a brain would want to risk living or working in buildings neighboring a publicly known superhero base where someone is always picking a fight. The buildings' owners would also have long since abandoned them as unprofitable, leaving the city to demolish them.

* Lampshaded in ''X-Factor'' vol. 2 #32, where Val Cooper makes an offer to X-Factor to work for the US government. They refuse, leave town, and to underscore the point, Madrox blows up their abandoned building when Val and her forces arrive, giving them just enough time to get out. Let's let Dr. Cooper sum up, after she catches up with Jamie a few months later in the epilogue:

 

 

** Averted elsewhere, when the characters actively gun down innocent security guards, to prevent them from becoming bodies for Agents.

* In ''[[Volcano]]'', there is a finished but unoccupied condominium building conveniently located for being turned into a lava barricade. Furthermore, the building is conveniently owned by a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]].

* In ''[[Blue Thunder]]'', a [[Misguided Missile]] from an Air Force F-16 slams into a skyscraper during an aerial battle in the early evening hours. Aside from expressions of dismay by the various police and military personnel in charge, the incident appears completely forgotten about. So... was it Conveniently Empty or is this a blatant case of [[No Endor Holocaust]]? We may never know.

* In ''[[Megamind]]'', Titan and Megamind crash through one, though the roof and down through every floor.

 

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' is inconsistent on this trope. Some days, like in ''Blood Rites'', the building is Conveniently Empty. Other days, like ''Grave Peril'' it's packed to the gills with his enemies. Either way, if a building can be burnt to the ground without hurting innocents, odds are [[Jim Butcher]] will see to it that it ends as a burnt husk.

** The building in ''Grave Peril'' probably ''wasn't'' empty of all innocents, a fact which causes Harry significant distress. However, the humans in there were almost certainly dying or doomed without his interference anyway.

* Averted callously in ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'', where destroyed buildings are almost ''always'' occupied by somebody. Since a lot of the villains are [[Complete Monster]] types [[A World Half Full|by design]], this shouldn't come as a surprise.

 

** ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' once commented that the giant robot-kaiju battles took place in the "abandoned warehouse district". Whether it was a warehouse district that had been abandoned due to weekly giant robot-kaiju battles, or a district that had been set aside at some point for the express purpose of being full of empty warehouses ''in case of'' giant robot-kaiju battles, is left up to the viewer.

** In ''[[Power Rangers SPD]]'', one monster exclaimed "I ''hate'' empty buildings!" as it knocked one down. Another episode of the same series has a monster fire at a building, blowing it up to drop rubble at the Rangers, and the Yellow Ranger says "Lucky no one was in that building!" (No, there was ''no'' sign that anybody checked, or could have checked.)

*** Don't think [[Super Sentai]] never does this, either. In ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]],'' a villain has hijacked the most powerful of the mechs. When he turns it to obliterate a few buildings, Doggie Kruger quickly orders an evacuation. Apparently, a massive evacuation was completed in the ''seconds'' it took for the robot to ''turn ninety degrees and fire''. That's some kind of record.

** Naturally, both [[Power Rangers]] and the [[Super Sentai]] original have many, many, '''MANY''' instances - fewer in PR post-9/11 but they're there - of buildings being annihilated during giant robot-kaiju battles. The fact that it'd mean thousands of people were also annihilated often goes unmentioned. The otherwise-wacky [[Engine Sentai Go-onger]] was especially bad about it. Hammer monster strikes the ground, several blocks' worth of downtown buildings crumble to piles of concrete instantly, [[No Endor Holocaust|nobody seems to care]].

 

* Seemingly averted in ''[[Bangai-O]]'', of all things. Every time a building is destroyed (for the purpose of raising the high score), screams can be heard. [[Video Game Cruelty Potential|Not that anyone cares]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Constantly lampshaded in ''[[Megas XLR]]'', with signs like "[[Trope Namer|Conveniently Empty Building]]" and "Going to Be Demolished Anyways" on the buildings in question.

** Interestingly, at the time the show was made the Washington Monument [[Truth in Television|really was]] closed for renovation.

** Also, [[Fridge Logic|what about the renovators?]]

** The entire DCAU exhibits this trope. The property damage in a typical episode of ''Superman'' or ''[[Justice League]]'' can be massive, but almost no-one gets hurt. An extreme example was in the finale of JLU, in which Superman hits Darkseid with everything he's got, sending the big D flying through five or six skyscrapers, but the only people seen on screen are those on the ground watching in awe. STAS also played with subverting the trope in the episode in which Lobo is introduced: Superman hits him, sending him flying through the Lexcorp building, and there's a lovely shot where Luthor is working in his office and Lobo comes crashing through the floor and out through the ceiling, cursing the whole way. No-one gets hurt, but the building was definitely occupied.

 

[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Conveniently Empty Building]]