Nuke'Em: Difference between revisions
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[[Manga]] and [[Anime]] is mostly immune to this, due to the [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo]]. In fact, [[Inverted Trope|expect the opposite to be true]]: that even if it's proven that [[Nuclear Option|nothing]] ''[[Nuclear Option|but]]'' [[Nuclear Option|a nuke would work]], there will be extreme resistance to the idea. [[Darker and Edgier]] such stories may even play this straight, of those responsible for finally pressing the button considering everything up to [[Seppuku|ritual suicide]], as a [[My God, What Have I Done?|result of guilt]].
As such, note that
See also: [[Five Rounds Rapid]], [[Immune to Bullets]], [[The Evil Army]]. Very common in [[Science Is Bad]] stories and usually involves a [[General Ripper]] (in fact, the [[Trope Namer]] for [[General Ripper]] made this his signature). A popular way of ruining someones day with [[Death From Above]].
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== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Amusing case in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'': The army do try almost everything in their arsenal before resorting to [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo|thinly-disguised nukes]], and when they fail decide [[Humongous Mecha|giant human shaped robots are the best bet]].
* The ''[[Macross]]'' series are an exception to the [[Nuclear Weapons Taboo]], although its reaction weaponry isn't nuclear ''per se''
** ''Macross Zero'': The propelling force of the final episode's bizarre ending is that, just after the hero has used [[The Power of Love]] to subdue the monster controlled by his girlfriend, [[Interrupted Cooldown Hug|the navy launches nukes and makes everything worse]]. Though, admittedly, every other ship with smaller weapons was wiped out ten minutes ago.
** ''Macross 7'': Lampshade hung in that, for all that it's implied that nuclear weapons are a weapon of last resort (Earth Command authorizing their use is seen as a big thing), ''every ship in the fleet'' seems to have unlimited stores of them. At one point, Basara even exclaims "Reaction weapons! Reaction Weapons! Any time something goes wrong, is that the only solution you have?!"
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* In ''[[Kingdom Come]],'' {{spoiler|this is the government's response to the super hero war that threatens to engulf the world.}}
* In [[World War Hulk]], someone suggested Nuking the Hulk and his Warbound. Maria Hill pointed out that this would just make him stronger.
* The default strategy of "[[Bio Apocalypse]]" is to saturate the monster with nukes. [[Serial Escalation|When it only hurts the monster but fails to stop it, they launch even more. When that doesn't work they unleash]] a {{spoiler|device [[More Dakka|that fires 50 nukes per second!]] And while it royally fucks up the monster, even THAT doesn't work.}} Beyond just using nukes as a go-to weapon of choice,
* In ''[[The Secret History (comics)|The Secret History]],'' the nuke dropped on Nagasaki was really just to kill {{spoiler|William de Lecce. It's a matter of speculation whether he's really dead or not.}}
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* [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5378267/1/bConquest_b_of_the_bEmperor_b_The_World_of_Naruto The Grand Empire] somewhat does this to Madara and his Zetsu's. But it is implied that they first had someone check to see what the impact of the fallout would be. Their [[Plan]] for the effects of the fallout makes it this trope.
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4236712/1/Project_Tatterdemalion Project Tatterdemalion], the top authorities involved initially wanted to nuke the facility after the Hollows began rampaging. Bad idea. As Juushirou explains, heat and radiation kill a lot of things, but only if they're contained long enough. If the Hollow virus was sporific, all nuking the facility would've done is pop open the box the Hollows were kept in, and spread still-infectious Hollow bits up into the jetstream, dooming the world...and infecting the spaceports. And as Juushirou said, all they knew for certain was 'Alien,' and 'Dangerous,' so it could've indeed been sporific, or close enough for an apocalypse.
* In the [[Deva Series]] {{spoiler|1=the Americans use a pair of SLBMs to obliterate a massive swarm of [[Implacable Man|Seeds]] that were heading for either New York or London. Even though nothing else significant was harmed - middle of the ocean, and all - Hayate was not happy, since she feels that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch now for someone to think to launch a barrage of nukes at Al Hanthis... which would obliterate Cairo in the process. Also, the Al Hantheans are utterly horrified once they learn exactly how nuclear weapons work. It is probably worth noting that there is [[In-Universe]] debate as to whether this was
* In [http://www.fanfiction.net/~mrevil Mr. Evil's] [[Ben 10]] fanfiction [http://www.fanfiction.net/s/4267279/1/Hero_High_Sphinx_Academy Hero High: Sphinx Academy], the Head of the Tempus Family questions why they can't just Nuke the city school they know the [[Big Bad]] to be in. Her assistants reveal that from the structural design he [[Genre Savvy|already re-enforced the school to protected it against such an attack]].
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* ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' (new version) likes to nuke them. In "The Light Brigade" the titular human warship is hit by two nukes. In "Trial by Fire" the US president tries to nuke the aliens who have splashed down in Earth's oceans.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' will sometimes resort to this, with early seasons favoring the [[Five Rounds Rapid]] treatment of nukes (namely epic failure) to give the title object and title team justification for existence. There is one early case where a nuke is actually used to prevent them all from being sucked into a black hole.
** Later seasons started using them more frequently, such as the Mark IX "Gatebuster," a Naquadriah-enhanced warhead with a supposed yield of several gigatons.<ref>For reference, the most powerful nuke ever actually detonated in reality was "merely" 50 megatons, which is roughly 100 times weaker than the Gatebuster</ref>
** The [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', on the other hand, practically giggles any time nukes are mentioned to the point where [[The Hero|John Sheppard]] makes putting a nuke on the enemy ship his ''default'' anti capital ship tactic, though he's more often than not justified in this, and pretty much every application works as intended. Nukes are used {{spoiler|on the first two Hive Ships sent to Atlantis, one flown into the Dart Bay, the other beamed on. Nukes are beamed onto two more Hive Ships. The Genii use one to kill one of their own armies and their boss in a coup. Finally, Sheppard single-handedly flies an F-302 into the Dart Bay of a [[Final Boss|Super Hive Ship]] undetected and armed with a nuke.}}
*** Then there's the giant Horizon planetary attack missile launched against the Asuran homeworld, which carried '''six''' Mark IX warheads.
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** You gotta give props to FASA: it takes nerve to nuke your game company's own hometown.
*** Their own headquarters, as a matter of fact.
* In the [[Old World of Darkness]], this was the [[Mage: The Ascension|Technocracy's]] answer to the Ravnos Antediluvian rising. Well, OK, it was repeated applications of Prime-enhanced spirit-shredding nuclear warheads, mixed in with the three most powerful Kuei Jin alive throwing down on Ravnos for several days while underneath a hurricane created by their powers to block out the sunlight, and then when the Kuei finally went down that cleared the way for the Technocracy to focus the power of the sun on Ravnos ''five times over'' by using multiple redundant orbital solar mirrors, at which
* ''[[GURPS]]'' should probably be given credit for specifying how much damage various types of nukes do, most games are willing to settle for "you die".
** They also specify how damage gets reduced by distance from the center of the blast, and how much radiation damage the aftereffects cause. They also let you use nuke as warhead for pretty much ''anything'' if your bullet is large enough, up to and including nuclear grenade launchers and antimatter ammo for normal firearms, so one would need nothing bigger than a (still rather large) ''pistol'' to
* Averted in GDW's cold war tactical games like ''[[Harpoon]]'' and ''[[Air Strike]]'' which focused on conventional weapons. For a nuclear variant the game designers recommended dousing the game in lighter fluid and setting it on fire.
* ''[[Mekton]]'' has rules for nuclear weapons, with the degree to which you are screwed being directly proportional to how close you are to the centre of the blast. If you're within the basic blast radius, you automatically die unless you have a ''really good'' excuse. Outside of that, you're simply ''very likely'' to die. It also gives some key rules about using them so as not to destroy the ''game'', just the ''battlefield'', such as "Only drop them to establish a scenario, rather than as a cheap Draw button" and "if you ''must'' drop it during the fight, do so in the centre of the battlefield." (Just to reinforce this, the "nuclear" upgrade for missiles and bullets is very expensive.) Supernovas use the same rules, although the rules state that you just treat the hex you're in as ground zero and quit whining - the ''entire system'' is screwed, why should you be immune unless you're flying an Excessive Scale [[Humongous Mecha]] that could [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?|stomp Cthulhu underfoot]]?
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** The Omega Cannon in ''Hunters'' is practically a portiable nuclear bomb. It's the only weapon that can kill the final boss and in multiplayer, it kills anyone, including the shooter, instantly if they are caught in the blast.
* In [[DEFCON]] your job is to pretty much nuke the entire world (with the exception of your own continent). While several other weapons beside nukes exist, they are mostly used to shoot down nuclear missiles. Or shoot down airplanes carrying nuclear missiles. Or sink submarines that can sneak up on you and fire nuclear missiles. And all is shown in the style of the final scene from ''[[War Games]]''.
* [[Operation Flashpoint]] and its successor Armed Assault and [[Arm A]] 2 all feature nukes to some extent - though in keeping with the ultra-realistic tone of the games they are only used as a last resort by madmen. And their detonation, should you fail to stop them, is shown to kick off global thermonuclear armageddon. Particularly true in [[Arm A]] 2 bonus mission 'Eagle Wing', which starts off with your AH-64D moving ahead of a naval taskforce to engage Russian forces, but goes all to hell... A panicked "Pull Back!" message from command is cut short by a nuclear detonation, and your helicopter is smashed out of the air. You then have to escape and evade in a silent, devastated world (and this is well outside the blast radius, which covers most of the
* Every game in the main ''[[Civilization]]'' series features the development of nuclear weapons (or "Planet Busters" in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'') in the late game, which are by far the most devastating offensive units available even after it becomes possible to build countermeasures. However, using them makes all AI players declare war on you automatically, releases vast amounts of pollution, and in some games advances the [[Global Warming]] timer by a significant amount. Too bad the AI doesn't have nearly the same compunctions about deploying them.
* In ''[[MUGEN]]'': The [[Game Breaker|A-Bomb]]. It nukes your characters and completely vaporises anything that isn't as overpowered. Good thing there's always [[Chuck Norris]] to destroy it...
* ''Global Effect'' (an early 90's PC game) would let you nuke enemy cities at will. Made the whole screen fade into white for a few moments. It was a guaranteed way to punch an ozone hole in the sky.
* The Carronade or Hex Cannon in ''[[Breath of Fire]] IV'' is depicted as a particularly (and ''literally'') [[Nightmare Fuel]]-filled magical thermonuclear weapon equivalent.
** Depicted originally as a plot-point in a town that was Hex Nuked, including literal Hex Decontamination Teams. {{spoiler|Even with this, it is stated will take many years for the hexed city to recover--which has had to be evacuated of residents.}}
** Depicted most tragically in Fou-lu's storyline.
* In ''[[Prototype (video game)|Prototype]]'', Operation: Firebreak, which is nuking the area, is the [[Final Solution]] to deal with a virus infecting a town.
* The first major arc of ''[[Shin Megami Tensei I]]'' ends with {{spoiler|the Americans dropping nuclear missiles on Tokyo. You later [[Time Skip]] 30 years into the future, and not surprisingly, the rest of the world has been reduced to nuclear ruin.}}
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