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Where's the Kaboom?: Difference between revisions
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* ''[[Saiyuki]]''. Fortunately for the heroes, Hakkai had removed the explosives Yaone set to blow them all up, because 'I'm sorry, I found them earlier and thought they were dangerous'.
* [[Ah! My Goddess (Manga)|The Ah My Goddess]] [[The Movie|Movie.]] Toward the end, a giant bullet FIRED FROM HEAVEN impacts the earth, creating a massive bubble/magic explosion effect. The soundtrack? Empty.
* Demonstrated in ''[[Dance in The Vampire Bund]]''. When [[Villain of the Week|Histerica]] tried to blackmail Mina scattering minions with implanted cell-phone-activated bombs throughout Tokyo's subway system, Mina manuvered her inside a building she had effectively converted one big [
* Played for tragedy in ''[[Heroman]]''. {{spoiler|Joey's father died when he tried to blast a passage clear for his fellow trapped miners. When the dynamite failed to detonate, he went to check what was wrong, and found out that faulty wiring caused a delay of a few secon- '''BOOM!'''}}
* A sad version happens in ''[[Zeta Gundam]]''. Jerrid's given instructions to detonate a capsule that is said to contain a bomb in it if anyone gets near it while Emma attempts negotiations with the AEUG (re: unknowingly giving them a note telling them to surrender the captured Gundam Mk. II or said capsule would explode). When Kamille races out with the Mk.II to get the capsule, Jerrid takes aim and fires, destroying the capsule and promptly freaks out as to why it didn't explode and take out the fragile Mk.II. {{spoiler|There was no bomb. In the capsule was Kamille's ''mother''.}}
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** It's pointed out though that had he sided with the agent, they'd all have been atomized.
* In [[Terry Brooks]]' ''Gypsy Morph'', this occurs when the heroes try to destroy a bridge and slow the advancing army. One of the characters raced down into the ravine and fixed the problem in a [[Heroic Sacrifice]].
* In ''[[World War Z]]'', the Indian government is evacuating all surviving citizens into the Himalayas to escape the [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. Unfortunately, the last bridge to blow before the safe zone is closed off has defective explosives. Between two problems - the possibility of the Indian Air Force [[Nuke'Em|nuking]] the area (and making the situation worse) and allowing zombies into the safe zone - [[Four
* In Ernest Hemingway's ''For Whom the Bell Tolls,'' {{spoiler|Pablo throws the detonators into a river, forcing one of the other guerillas to die while manually setting them off ([[Heroic Sacrifice]]).}}
* In [[Ciaphas Cain|Cain's Last Stand]] the heroes attempt to collapse a shrine containig an immensely powerful [[Artefact of Doom]] rather than let it fall into the hands of Necrons. Alas, Necrons have advanced enough means to simply jam their signal and take the artifact.
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* In ''[[Myth Busters]]'' they were testing a very small amount of explosive and nothing happened. Subversion of the trope similar to The Bridge at Remagen when it was discovered that the explosion had occurred, but out of concern they had put too many sandbags on top of it to detect the event visually.
** Another ''Mythbusters'' case happened when Kari, Grant and Tori were setting off explosives in a quarry to create a wave...and silence. The bomb squad then spends several tense minutes carefully fishing the tons of live explosives out of the lake to find the problem. A similar situation has happened to Jamie and Adam at least once. This is one of the most dangerous malfunctions a bomb squad can encounter because of the chance of a delayed explosion while someone is investigating the problem.
*** Heck, this trope seems to be invoked in at least half of the myths where an explosion is called for. Most of the time it's played straight (as with the surfing myth above), to the point that the phrase ''"Ah, [[Shout
*** Not to mention the bit with the Hindenburg skin with Thermite paste, where it seemed to not ignite until their backs were turned, only to suddenly BURST into flames.
** In some other myths, they use a backup explosion in case the myth-related one still has a chance of going off unexpectedly.
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* In ''[[Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'', Mac and Charlie try to fake their deaths by exploding a car. First they run it into a wall, but it doesn't explode. Then they go to a pawn shop and buy a gun and a grenade. They toss the grenade into the car expecting a mammoth explosion, but it releases little more than a puff of smoke. Thoroughly disappointed, Mac does some poppers and tries shooting the gas tank, but even that does nothing. They ultimately give up, reasoning that the damage is enough to convince everyone that they were vaporized.
* In the Season 2 finale of ''[[Star Trek Voyager]]'', Voyager faces repeated, seemingly inconsequential attacks from the Kazon that, despite the fact that they're being led by [[Face Heel Turn|former crewmate Seska]], only damage the non-essential "secondary command processors". Eventually a full-fledged Kazon ambush, combined with a suicide bombing, cripples the ship and Janeway grimly gives the [[Self-Destruct Mechanism|self-destruct code]] to prevent their capture. The computer replies that it cannot comply since [[Oh Crap|the secondary command processors are offline]], and Janeway realizes exactly why the Kazon kept targeting it over and over again.
* In the ''[[
{{quote| '''Doctor''': ''[Disappointed]'' Oh, is that it?}}
* In ''[[Red Dwarf (TV)|Red Dwarf]]'', the self-destruct is accidentally triggered by Lister ordering a chocolate bar. They do everything possible to deactivate it, even transferring the mind of one of the crew into Lister so she can give the abort code. Nothing doing. It reaches zero...and [[Rule of Funny|it dispenses the bar]]. Turns out Holly removed it.
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* At the start of the war German torpedoes were very unreliable. U-56 fired two torpedoes at HMS Nelson which was hosting a conference and had both Churchill and Pound aboard. Both torpedoes hit but failed to explode.
* American submariners complained a lot about their torpedoes too.
** To expand on this: American submariners saw great success in the Pacific front - or at least, they would have [[New Technology Is Evil|had their bosses not become obsessed with magnetic detonators for their torpedoes.]] In theory: 1) Torp swims under enemy boat. 2) Magnetic trigger finds the target's magnetic field. 3) [[Stuff Blowing Up|???]] 4) <s>[[Step Three: Profit|Profit!]]</s> Victory! Unfortunately, [[Did Not Do the Research|someone forgot to tell the admirals that a ship's magnetic field is...different, at the Earth's equator.]] Instead of detonating under the boat, the torps would blithely continue on their way, swimming under the more pancake-like magnetic field forever searching for a hemisphere of juicy target. Many American subs asked [[Where's the Kaboom?|the titular question]] to be answered with depth charges.
*** One should note however that eventually, [[Science Marches On|magnetic detonators on torpedoes were made feasable]], and now most torpedoes in the world are equipped with these (very reliable) devices. The reason for having the torpedo detonate under the enemy hull rather than in it is that the air pocket created by the explosion will remove support from the ship's keel and cause it to ''break in half.'' A regular old contact detonated torpedo will just leave a hole. The idea was just more ahead of its time than it was harebrained.
*** Just for comparison, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5QApkTZQuM#t=2m39s this] is your (CG) traditional torpedo damage. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgNtlEL2C3g This] is your magnetic detonator.
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* As bad as the [[Useful Notes/Columbine|Columbine]] high school massacre was, it could have been much worse; the shooters had set up some bombs in the cafeteria that were supposed to detonate at lunchtime, killing hundreds.
* Nuclear bombs are exceptionally delicate; the detonation relies on detonating several hexagonal blocks of C-4 at ''exactly'' the same time. If one fails to detonate, the fission material is merely pulverized, rather than forced to undergo fission.
** Although more modern designs only use [
* An attempt to assassinate Hitler in early 1943 failed when the bomb on Hitler's plane didn't go off. The cold, unpressurized cargo hold caused the detonator to fail.
* A terrorist car bomb attack in London in [
* From [[Darwin Award|Darwin Awards]]: An unlicensed pyrotechnician was killed when an apparently faulty firework blew up in his face when he tried to see what was wrong.
* A rapture that was supposed to happen on May 21st, 2011 at 6:00 PM didn't.
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[[Category:Index Failure]]
[[Category:Wheres The Kaboom]]
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