Shoot the Fuel Tank: Difference between revisions
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In fiction, shooting a fuel tank makes it explode. This makes for an effective tactic in battle.
In real life the only thing that actually can ''explode'' there is fuel-air mix, which happens in large quantities only when a fuel tank is half-empty. Simple loss of fuel to leak is much more likely, and almost as dangerous. Which is why, of course, fuel tank protection on planes in form of sealing layers, inert gas filling and armor when possible was widespread back in WWII.
This myth was busted by ''[[Myth Busters]]'' as they proved that in most cases it simply will not work. A real life fuel tank explosion was only possible when they used a ''[[More Dakka|minigun]]'' armed with [[Incendiary Exponent|incendiary rounds]] which, suffice to say, is generally illegal. Besides, if you have a minigun then you're not likely going to need to shoot the fuel tank anyway.▼
This is about deliberately shooting a fuel tank. For vehicles that explode on any kind of incidental impact, see [[Every Car Is a Pinto]].
{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Quite possibly justified in
{{quote|
* ''[[Sin City]]'' had a scene in which the Old Town girls opened fire on a cop car with machine guns. Eventually, it blew up, implying this trope.
* [[Garth Ennis]]' rebooted ''[[Punisher]]'' series had Frank blowing up a car with nothing more than a few handgun bullets. At least they paid lip service to the reality by having him almost empty his clip with direct hits to the tank while his internal monologue hoped for one to spark.
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== [[Film]] ==
* This is how [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]] makes his escape in the opening sequence of ''[[Casino Royale]]'', he shoots a propane tank with a handgun.
** He also does this at the end of ''[[Quantum of Solace]]'' with a hydrogen tank.
*** To be fair, the building was already on fire.
* ''[[Jaws (film)|Jaws]]'' did it with a compressed air tank.
** Also busted by the ''[[
* Played straight (and in slow motion) by Morpheus during the freeway chase of ''[[The Matrix Reloaded]]''.
** Strange, when you consider this is averted in the first movie, though that was with a helicopter and not a car. The only effect
** Hell it was averted a few minutes earlier when Morpheus' Cadillac was shot about 1500 times from all directions during the car chase, which must have hit the fuel tank at least once, and nothing happens to it.
* ''[[Silent Night, Deadly Night|Silent Night Deadly Night]] 2'''s "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRBlzttL6Jo Bingo!]" scene (which immediately follows the infamous "[[Memetic Mutation|GARBAGE DAY!]]").
* ''[[The Bourne Series (film)|The Bourne Identity]]'': Bourne shoots a propane tank with a shotgun to distract the enemy/provide some smoke cover.
* Done in ''[[Mission: Impossible (film)||Mission Impossible]]''. To a moving vehicle, ''from'' a moving motorcycle.
* Subverted in ''[[Last Action Hero]]''. {{spoiler|When Jack Slater enters the real world, he chases Benedict until Benedict hops into a taxi. When Slater shoots at the cab, he is surprised to find that it does not explode.}}
* Averted in ''[[Speed]]'', when the cop trying to defuse the bomb by suspending himself near the undercarriage of the speeding bus accidently stabs the fuel tank with a screwdriver...which only causes the bus to leak fuel.
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== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Happens in almost every episode of ''[[Alarm Fuer Cobra 11]]''.
▲
** They still didn't get an explosion, just a fire.
** They also tested the 'explode a gas cylinder with a bullet' variant, and failed completely. They had to detonate explosives under the cylinder to make the gas catch fire.
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Aversion: Interestingly, most dangerously pressurized material is kept in cylinders which tend to not only be easier to store, but also tend to burst with a vertically aligned rupture which produces little shrapnel. Spherical containers are more likely to explode. This is due to a principle known as [https://web.archive.org/web/20090928041737/http://www.ae.msstate.edu/~masoud/Teaching/SA2/chA16.2_text.html hoop stress].
* The preferred way for many fire departments to deal with acetylene tanks (and some other compressed gas cylinders) in a fire is in fact to shoot them to ''keep them'' from exploding. Shooting them lets the gas out in a semi-controlled manner, and the released gas can be burned off instead of collecting and possibly causing an explosion. Furthermore, if the tank isn't already surrounded by fire, FD manuals state that you need to ''keep'' shooting at the gas cloud - with tracer rounds - after you've already put a hole in the tank to ignite the gas.
* Most definitely [[Truth in Television]], if not for your average gun, nor your average fuel tank. Various military forces often utilize incendiary rounds for the purpose of setting fuel reserves alight, while various vehicles can be surprisingly easy to set aflame, either due to [[Every Car Is a Pinto|bad design]], or a design necessity, such as the highly flammable fuel used by jet aircraft. A hit to a fuel tank with an incendiary, or occasionally even a high explosive round tends to lead to quite the fireworks
** Jet fuel is way ''less'' flammable than regular piston-engine fuel. It's more akin to diesel than gasoline.
*** Indeed, the plane with the worst reputation I know of for catching fire when hit was the Zero, Japan's famous WWII fighter. To save weight, the designers forwent the self-sealing fuel tanks that many other warplanes had, making it quite vulnerable to incendiary rounds.
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* Done toward the start of ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' but with a sword.
* The first ''[[Gears of War]]'' game has the player shoot propane tanks to light paths to get around the Kryll. The second one has the first battle against Locust take place near a pile of these, shooting these will usually clear the area of any enemy (and you are far enough away from them when this battle happens, anyway...)
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas]]'' allows you to instantly detonate a car if you aim for the gas ''cap''. Even if you can clearly see the rest of the tank, as on lorries, only the cap will set it off.
** Maybe they're [[Incredibly Lame Pun|blasting caps]].
* In ''[[Halo]] 2'', shooting a Ghost's gas tank will cause it to explode.
** Of course, a Ghost's "gas" is pressurized [[Department of Redundancy Department|hot plasma]].
* ''[[Left 4 Dead]]'' has fuel canisters and propane tanks that can be set down and shot to create a wall/sea of flames to kill the [[Our Zombies Are Different|infected]] with.
* In the train level in ''[[Star Fox (series)|Star
* The Boiler of a [[Steampunk]] tank in ''[[Valkyria Chronicles]]'' does this.
* ''[[True Crime]]'' has an unlockable feature that allows you to lock on to gas tanks in [[Bullet Time]] for easier destruction.
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* One of the more notorious elements of ''[[Modern Warfare]]'' and its sequel, albeit it will take several rounds.
* Seen in the latest ''[[Borderlands]]'' DLC, ''The Secret Armory of General Knoxx''. Badass Lance Troopers carry fuel tanks on their backs, which explode if you deal enough damage. Also seen in the original game, where Jakobs fuel storage tanks will explode if shot up enough. Strangely enough, you can't do this to the cars.
* The Red Alert series of ''[[Command
** And the second game of the Tiberian series does this with less-explosive ammo crates.
* ''[[Uncharted|Uncharted 2: Among Thieves]]'' has a few sequences where Nathan shoots propane tanks in order to cause explosions. One instance where he's hurling them at the enemy and shooting them in the air was a big pain for [[Nolan North]] who was performing the motion capture and voice acting at the same time. He had to repeatedly hurl an empty propane tank, which isn't exactly light weight, across the studio to act out the sequence.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the ''[[Justice League]]'' cartoon, Vigilante runs his motorcycle off a hill at the enemy, jumps off, then ''while flying backwards in mid-air'' shoots the gas tank with [[Guns Akimbo|both revolvers akimbo]] to make it explode at precisely the right time to hit the enemy. Remember, this is an episode devoted to the [[Badass Normal
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[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:Tropes Examined
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