External Combustion/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A car is rigged to explode when started.

  • Straight: Bob walks to his car, puts his key in the ignition... *BOOM*
  • Exaggerated:
    • Alice wishes Bob a nice trip, and laughs an Evil Laugh. A long shot shows him approaching his car. The camera focuses on the key in the ignition while Ominous Music plays. The car explodes with an Earthshattering Kaboom.
    • Every vehicle in the car park is rigged to blow when the target starts his car.
  • Justified: The enemy is an ex-IRA explosives expert now working as a car mechanic, and wants to make sure no-one ever identifies the body.
  • Inverted:
    • Bob rigs a remote-detonated bomb to go off when he starts his own car, perhaps to destroy his office if he has to make a quick getaway.
    • alternatively: Bob's car is rigged to explode when he stops.
  • Subverted: Bob had found the bomb before time and moved it to his enemy's vehicle. They watch him drive off, and jump in their own car...
  • Double Subverted: ...just to retrieve the remote control for the backup bomb they put in his glovebox.
  • Parodied: Bob gets on a pushbike, kicks up the stand, and the bike explodes.
  • Deconstructed: ???
  • Reconstructed: ???
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: Someone waits near the car until Bob shows up, and Just Shoots Him.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: "If only Bob hadn't turned that ignition key. Then he'd still be alive."
  • Invoked: A mob boss doesn't want a snitch going anywhere, so he sends some dodgy-looking mechanics to tinker underneath the guy's car when he knows he'll see them.
  • Defied: "Whew, when Big Tony gave me the keys to a new car I kinda thought it would be a trap..."
  • Discussed: "50 quid says the car explodes when I turn the ignition"
  • Conversed: "So the Mafia supergrass is letting his girlfriend bring the car around for him. Sheee's dead."

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