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* At the beginning of [[The Eighties]], a remote starter was still a novelty that might turn up in mail-order houses in the back pages of periodicals like ''Popular Science''. Even if the blueprints had existed for at least twenty years, no one knew why they "needed" one. In an attempt to be clever, one advertiser promoted a "Remote Bomb Igniter" — finally, something for our gangster customers, long neglected as the gadgetry vendors tended to other clients. No more sending fearful, hapless underlings to "go start the car" (and possibly get blown away in the style of ''[[The Godfather]]''): just detonate the vehicle remotely and business continues as usual.<!-- The Clarion-Ledger from Jackson, Mississippi on August 5, 1982 notes an advertisement in the June issue of Popular Science for "a Remote Bomb Igniter" but the original's not online. A Nov 1962 ad for a $1 set of blueprints, [[Played Straight]], is archived.-->

* In the [[Batman]] ''[[Knightfall]]'' saga, a villain has stolen the Batmobile. Batman finds the car and gets in to start it, and kaboom! Cut to Robin screaming, followed by Batman reappearing and saying he got out just in time, realizing it was booby-trapped "[[Properly Paranoid|because that's what I would have done."