Land Mine Goes Click: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|'''Lt. George:''' If we do happen to trod on a mine, Sir, what do we do? <br />

 

Land mines. Hundreds of thousands of them buried and forgotten around the world. One of the most dangerous and easy to deploy weapons of war, they can effectively deny an area from use for any purpose until they're cleared. They were considered so dangerous in [[World War II]] that the armies used special tanks equipped with massive rollers and [[Epic Flail|chain whips]] to detonate them away from the tank's hull and clear a path through the field.

* ''[[Macross]] Zero'' demonstrates an odd if potentially realistic example. One character steps on a mine, only for career soldier Roy Fokker to notice just in time to tell her not to take another step. He then carefully digs away the dirt surrounding the mine and, over the course of several stressful minutes, disarms its detonator. He then proves himself to be a total jerk by pulling his companion into a kiss, to which she freaks out and demands how long the mine's been disarmed. "A while."

* ''[[Full Metal Panic|Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu]]'' has a prime example of this. In the [[Hot Springs Episode]], when Kurz and the guys are trying to get peeks of the naked girls, one of them steps on a landmine planted by Sousuke. Kurz immediately throws himself to the ground and unearths the mine, and picking up a big rock, tells the would-be victim to slowly shift his foot as he slides the rock on the mine. The procedure is almost finished... When our victim sneezes. Naturally, [[Hilarity Ensues]] as everyone is sent flying.

** In Black Jack 21, it is revealed {{spoiler|this was done intentionally by an evil organization his father was working with}}.

* ''[[Hellsing]]'' plays this completely straight, with the Wild Geese surrounding Hellsing Manor with mines to {{spoiler|fend off the charging Nazi vampires.}}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

*** It may have been that they were only spread out in that clearing. Or just [[Rule of Funny|a one-off gag.]]

* The 1979 Australian Vietnam war film ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079652/ The Odd Angry Shot]'' uses this trope too. The unfortunate soldier who ends up on the mine {{spoiler|eventually can't take it any longer after about 8 hours or so, when several efforts and ideas to save him have failed, and he just steps off to his doom}}.

{{quote| '''Crapgame:''' "Hey hey hey! I found one!"<br />

'''Big Joe:''' [[Deadpan Snarker|(calmly)]] "What kind is it?"<br />

** Yet another one took place in a snowy cave in which all Mac had to do was dig the snow out from the side and shove a metal bar into conveniently sized holes to stop the "platform" from springing up.

* An episode of ''[[CSI: Miami]]'' had the [[Victim of the Week]] blown up on a beach covered with mines. This trope played out when one of the cast stood on a mine by accident. Slightly more realistically it was removed by burning the explosive away with thermite (this would work as most explosives are designed to burn unless they are set off by a smaller explosion).

* ''[[The Professionals]]''. Bodie dials the first number of his phone and suddenly realises it's booby trapped. Fortunately he's got his radio to call Doyle for help, who disarms it with their [[Casual Danger Dialog|usual exchange of banter]] (though somewhat more terse).

* ''[[Due South]]'', episode "The Edge".

* Played straight with the "dragon mines" in ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'', including using a rock to hold the weight of a person. Also, one of the [[Mook|Mooks]] chasing them steps on a mine and is immediately blown up.

* Like the [[MacGyver]] example above, ''[[Eureka]]'' has an episode where rescuing a girl from one mine lands Fargo right on top of another one.

* ''[[Primeval]]'' has a whole ''minefield''. Unusually for this trope, they actually notice the minefield a while before using it to blow up a phorusrachid.

* A ''living'' minefield variant on ''[[Tremors]]: The Series'' consisted of mutated plant roots that squirted acid when disturbed. No clicking, but it played this trope straight in that the swollen acid-sacs in the roots made icky squelching noises prior to cutting loose with their spray. The gag of someone obliviously walking right through the field without being harmed was also used.

* Used twice on ''[[Eureka]]'', when a time-shift plunked a two characters who were scanning for temporal disruptions in a present day meadow into a 1940s-era security minefield.

* The better part of an episode of the ''[[The Unit]]'' is spent in a minefield the characters and the diplomatic workers they were evacuating wander into.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* In his autobiography ''About Face'' David Hackworth tells of an incident in Korea when he accidentally triggered a mine, but didn't hear the click due to his shell-damaged hearing. Everyone except Hackworth dove for cover, then looked up in amazement to see their commanding officer miraculously unharmed. Hackworth added to his [[Badass]] reputation by growling at them for not clearing the minefield properly, then striding off to find a place where he could quietly go into shock.

 

* ''[[Car Wars]]'' featured these in two main flavors, normal and 'Spear 1000', which primarily shot up rather than spread out. Both were primarily meant to take down the titular cars and similar; walking through a mine counter was perfectly safe. Splatbooks of course offered antipersonnel mines, as well as the minesweeper mentioned above that can get mounted on a convenient tank.

* These were given their own sidebar in ''Cyberpunk 2020'', referring to sneaky things you can do. Like wiring up one to an enemy's bed, or lining your escape route with claymore mines.

** They also love clearing them - by force marching Conscripts through them.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* ''Minesweeper''. What more need be said?

* Travis Touchdown from ''[[No More Heroes]]'' encounters ''a lot'' of these during the beach mission. Since he perpetually carries the [[Idiot Ball]], this results in him stepping on several mines in-cutscene, resulting in the "click," then getting blown up. Luckily, [[Made of Iron|he's strangely unharmed.]] The last one makes fun of this, as he ''sees'' the mine, steps over it with a chuckle... and steps on a buried one. [[Curse Cut Short|"FUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"]] BOOM.

* ''[[Metroid]] Prime 3'' used two different mines and both were in plain sight and were easy to shoot from a distance if you didn't rush into the room. One mine was a standard proximity mine that blew up if you got too close. The other mine type was similar to the bouncing betty one mentioned in the top of the page; if you got too close, the mine would jump up, fire a laser in 360 degrees, then explode.

*** Not really, the time you have until detonation depends on your Explosives skill (which also decreases the detonation time for mines you set up). At 100, you have more than a whole second. Also, you never set off your own mines.

** ''Fallout 3'' offers four types of mines: basic frag mines, stronger plasma mines and anti-electronic pulse mines, The home-built bottlecap mines are technically [[wikipedia:Improvised explosive device|IEDs]] but they are massively powerful. As an amusing example of [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]], you can arm a mine and put it into your opponent's inventory for a quick and clean kill (clean, as in mines have more concentrated explosions than grenades so the chance of collateral damage is smaller; as for the target, it's very messy).

** Mines in earlier ''Fallout'' titles are triggered by [[Pressure Plate|Pressure Plates]] that look very similar to the surrounding floor, detonate immediately and require a Traps skill check to spot.

** They can also be hurled through the air and used as a grenade.

* ''[[Half Life]]'' 2 has mines that beep and flash if a target so much as gets near them, followed by a distinctive sound if the player gets close enough to trigger it. The player then has a whole second to jump out of the way as the mine is launched to eye level (similar to a Bouncing Betty) or grab it in midair.

** You're supposed to use the gravity gun to pull it out of the ground, then toss it into a convenient enemy or somewhere where it won't hurt you when it explodes.

** You can plant the other types of grenades as well. [[Most Annoying Sound|They beep when they're about to detonate.]] [[Oh Crap|To the person on the receiving end, this means that they're]] [[Instant Death Radius|in an instant death radius and are almost certainly going to die.]]

* [[Resistance Fall of Man]] Whoever decided to place a land mine that behaves like a bouncing betty directly next to one that behaves in a traditional manner is a maniacal genius of tactical warfare.

* ''[[Return to Castle Wolfenstein]]: Enemy Territory'' has landmines hiss when you step on them, and detonate if you step off. An engineer can disarm them, or if they're spotted by covert ops, can be detonated by explosives.

* The Glukkons of [[Oddworld]] [[No OSHA Compliance|liberally seed their factories and industrial complexes with mines]] [[Stupid Evil|for no very good reason]]. As well as the surrounding countryside. And their transportation hubs. Indeed, [[Fridge Logic|it often seems]] like Abe would be better off finding out who is manufacturing them and shutting them down first, because whoever it is is [[Incredibly Lame Pun|making an absolute killing]]. The common type gives off a healthy red glow and beeps when it explodes. Another type blinks red and green in sequence, requiring you to tap it when it is green to deactivate it.

* [[Starcraft]] - the Terran Vulture hovercycles can lay down Spider Mines. These not only give a loud "click" of a warning, they actively chase down their targets.

** What makes them more destructive is that most detecting units default to close combat for attacking. [[Too Dumb to Live|And they don't make an exception for minefields.]]

** In some games you can attack a landmine and have it go flying. Some games even have achievements for offing an opponent like this. It's also practical, since in most games you're given limited ammo, but you can prod or whack a mine with baseball bats or your finger, which are generally set to Unlimited.

* In the ''[[Geneforge]]'' series, mines are [[Magitek]] artificial life forms. Trap mines, which can be disarmed, will go click and have a short pause between triggering and detonation. Spore mines, on the other hand, will go off as soon as a target is close enough. There's also a scene in the fourth game in which a servile has stepped on a spore mine not targeted at serviles and irritated it enough that it's ready to go off anyway. The player can either help the poor guy and disable the mine, or let him panic and trigger it.

* The [[Super Smash Bros]] series has the Motion-Sensor Bomb (Proximity Mine in the PAL version). This trope is actually averted, in that the bomb does not click, but explodes instantaneously, dealing somewhere around 25% damage. However, the things are fairly easy to disarm. God help you though if there's a bomb that someone managed to stick to the side of the stage.

* ''TNK III'' and its NES adaptation, ''Iron Tank'', feature blinking and beeping anti-tank mines. Instantly fatal to touch.

* Averted in ''[[Medal of Honor]]'', land mines instantly kill you if you step beyond the signs. In one of ''Allied Assault'''s expansion packs, you have to probe your way through a minefield with a mine detector.

* Strogg landmines in ''[[Quake 4]]'' are ridiculously conspicuous.

* Newly added in [[Mass Effect 3]], mines make a distinctive click and give the player enough time to dodge roll out of the way before they go off. Unless the evil, evil level designers put a [[Schmuck Bait|shiny new weapon]] right next to the mine, in which case the same button for "jump out of the way" instead performs the "pick up the weapon" command, resulting in the mine blowing Shepard up once you dismiss the resulting pick up menu.

*** And if it's a Roadrunner and Coyote cartoon, Roadrunner runs through all the mines without setting them off, and when Coyote goes to check what's wrong, they all blow up in his face.

* A example of this trope happens in the series ''[[Roughnecks Starship Trooper Chronicles]]'' where one of the main characters (the cameraman that supposedly is "documenting" the actions of the titular squad) runs into a minefield while trying to escape from the enemy. A ''big'' minefield. With accompanying Loud Click, and the reveal that lifting his foot would detonate not only the mine, but the entire minefield through the explosion of the first mine. (Yeah, I know - poor design if all the mines in the field could be set off by just one blowing). The squad has a robotic member that they are in the process of field-testing - the robot makes a Heroic Sacrifice after running out of ammo. He runs in, replaces our main character's foot with his own, and literally throws him clear of the minefield. The robot then waits for the enemy to get real close to him (the enemy naturally not setting off any of the mines on their way), then lifts his foot. Afterward, the troopers deliver a Aesop while ruminating on the sacrifice.

 

{{reflist}}