Exploding Fishtanks: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

In action movies, it has become almost mandatory that if an aquarium is shown at any point, the aquarium will inevitably be destroyed, spilling the water and all the poor fish it contains out onto the floor. Sometimes this is the result of collateral damage, the fish tank was merely in the way, and sometimes the destruction of the tank is intentional, with the fish - always some deadly and often poisonous species - being used as weapons themselves.

 

 

{{examples}}

* ''[[Octopussy]]''. Octopussy is shown feeding her poisonous blue-ring octopus early in the film. Later, the aquarium is destroyed when [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] rams an assassin's head into it (and said assassin ends up with the octopus wrapped around his face).

** Done in ''[[Licence to Kill]]'' in a scene appropriated from [[James Bond (novel)|the novel]] ''[[Live and Let Die (novel)|Live and Let Die]]'' which was too cool to not be filmed.

* In the 2008 ''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]'' movie, the mob boss's piranha tank gets a single bullet hole, forcing one of the mobster underlings to sacrifice a finger to plug the hole.

* Several shots are enough to crack an aquarium at a zoo in ''[[Eraser]]'', which then explodes, covering the bad guys with water… And alligators.

* It was a very bad idea to even think of damaging Sipowitz's fish tank in the squad room of NYPD Blue. So you can imagine his reaction when it was summarily taken out by a stray bullet from a rampaging perp.

* ''[[CSI: NY]]'' had a guy who died when he fell into his aquarium, shattering it. No one knew until later that he was HIV positive, which created drama for Stella, who cut her hand while processing the scene.

 

== [[Music Videos]] ==

* The video game series, ''[[The Incredible Machine]]'', includes aquarium objects. With few exceptions, if any moving object (such as a cat or a tennis ball) just touches one, the aquarium will [[Made of Explodium|explode spectacularly]].

* The intro of ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak X]]'' has Jak crashing through a fishtank with a car.

* In the [[Roof Hopping|Kowloon level]] of ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops|Call of Duty Black Ops]]'', there is a room (apparently a kitchen) in one of the buildings, with 3 fishtanks. Considering the area is swarming with [[Elite Mooks|Spetsnaz]], it is extremely likely the at least 1 tank will be shattered in the fighting.

* ''[[Zork]] II'' hides a transparent object in a fish tank holding a sea serpent. The game makes sure you feel bad about the serpent dying in the open air once you break the tank.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Stuff Blowing Up]]

[[Category:Instant Index, Just Add Water]]