Stuff Blowing Up: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|''"Whenever there seems to be a dull, quiet or otherwise non-car-filled moment, [the Director of this film] likes to believe that filming a bunch of cars exploding will distract the audience long enough to forget that these movies are objectively terrible.

 

First rule of Hollywood: ''Everything'' explodes.

 

 

There is a pretty good chance the audience has already seen something blow up at least once during a typical day of television.

 

A [[Super-Trope]] involving:

* [[Angst Nuke]]

* [[Baby Boomers]]

* [[Splash Damage]]

* [[Spontaneous Human Combustion]]

* [[Xylophone Gag]]

* [[Your Head Asplode]]

 

If only some characters in a work use it, can lead to [[Follow the Chaos]]. Compare [[Kill It with Fire]].

 

{{examples}}

* There was [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=td4VEGiIQmk a TV commercial] featuring a trailer for the non-existent summer blockbuster ''Blow'd Up'', which was [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what it sounds like]] (it was an ad for a stock trading company; after the end of the trailer, the commercial cut to a guy selling all his stock in that movie studio).

* [[Segata Sanshiro]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V65dtKOk2Y is so awesome that when he needs to advertise] [[Bomberman]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5V65dtKOk2Y he just judo flips this guy so hard that he explodes.] ''Twice.''

* [[Michael Bay|Awesome Barbeque.]] '''*BOOM*''' Awesome pool. '''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2z3pqFDzIA *BOOM*]'''

 

* Three key phrases can be used to succinctly sum up ''[[Blame]]''!: [[Walking the Earth]], [[Bizarrchitecture|Amazing Architecture]] and '''Stuff Blowing Up'''.

* The final episode of ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' features Nabeshin espousing the philosophy that "Explosions fix ''everything''!", then giving a graphic demonstration: a [[Biological Mashup|fused]] Excel and Hyatt are returned to their original bodies when he dynamites the room they're standing in.

* In ''[[Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles]]'' Ariel has a vision of Space station Liberty being blown up {{spoiler|Space station Liberty really is blown up, with blast radius of hundreds of kilometers - wiping out the Haydonite Fleet.}}

* Naturally, this trope is [[Baccano!|Nice Holystone]]'s [[Fetish|one true love]]. She even has explosives stored in her ''[[Eyepatch of Power|eye socket]]''.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' is particularly fond of filling the screen with explosions. Namely, if something is pierced with a drill, it explodes. The first [[Big Bad]] is defeated by getting a hole DETONATED on his torso, and the second one EXPLODES SEVEN TIMES.

** Don't forget that it ''opened'' with a zooming space-galaxy-thing shot...which then blew up. Then there were lots more explosions. [[Establishing Character Moment|Really, with a start like that you should've expected this sort of thing]].

* In ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'', one of Hong Kong's hobbies is to detonate firecrackers, according to his profile. More than one fanwork goes further and depicts him as a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|full-blown]] explosives expert.

* The "Cowboy Funk" episode of Cowboy Bebop involves the crazed Teddy Bomber; who blows up buildings throughout the episode (the last one nearly taking Spike and the cowboy Andy with it). Jet even states that the reason why no one goes after Teddy Bomber is because they don't want to get blown up.

** Second or third most powerful. The most powerful one, if mishandled, results in [[Earthshattering Kaboom]].

*** It's more like a [[Up to Eleven|UNIVERSE Shattering Kaboom]]

** And in the first ''[[Naruto]]'' film the [[Big Bad]], Doto, blows up his own fortress for no apparent reason.

* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Solf J. Kimblee is an alchemist whose power is to turn things into bombs. [[Mad Bomber|He thoroughly enjoys himself doing so]].

** Not to mention Roy Mustang. Things go boom when he snaps his fingers. Literally. He enjoys it less than Kimblee though.

* One Contractor in ''[[Darker than Black]]'' was a little boy who could blow up anything he'd left handprints on. This was impressive enough when the results were seen from a distance or when he was just using gravel as cherry bombs, but when he marked ''everything in the room'' with handprints? [[Impressive Pyrotechnics|Yeesh.]]

* [[Dragon Ball]] Z is made of this trope by the end of the Frieza saga. Planets get blown up left and right.

* ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'': This is how [[Dark Magical Girl|Homura]] planned on defeating [[Eldritch Abomination|Walpurgis Night]]. Using her [[Hammerspace]], [[Crazy Prepared|or stuff she just put there ahead of time]], she attacks with hundreds of rocket launchers, mortars, mobile artilleries, and a building covered wall-to-wall with explosives. {{spoiler|Too bad none of it helped.}}

** Also note that this was her original shtick {{spoiler|in previous timelines}}, she relied exclusively on homemade explosives until one of her teammates complained about stuff blowing up in front of them. {{spoiler|So she started [[Kleptomaniac Hero|stealing guns]] from the local [[Yakuza]].}}

* [[Dirty Pair]]: Pretty much the entire point of the series.

 

* This is pretty much the job description of the ''[[Nextwave]]'' squad, and they love it.

{{quote|'''Elsa Bloodstone''':"They ''explode!'' My life has taken on new meaning!"}}

{{quote|'''Deadpool:''' '''Aww, c'mon!''' Was it explosion discount week in Hollywood?}}

 

* In ''[[Dreaming of Sunshine]]'' it's a running gag that Shikako is extreamly fond of explosives.

{{quote|I nodded to myself and finished the tag I was drawing. Then stared at the huge pile that had materialised while I had been thinking.

* In ''[[Point of Succession]]'' when [[Death Note|Light and Matt]] invade [[Big Bad|Beyond Birthday's]] villain lair-as expected it's booby-trapped... with explosives. A ''lot'' of explosives.

 

* What happens in every action movie ever made to the point where it's a genre defining characteristic.

* ''[[Star Wars]]'' and the Death Stars, baby (in this case, the stations themselves, not [[Earthshattering Kaboom|their targets]]). You'd think a reactor would have fail-safes so that if containment was breached or the reaction controls were destroyed it would automatically shut down, rendering the station lifeless, but no, it goes kablooie. And it is ''[[Rule of Cool|sweet]]''.

*** The second Death Star was unfinished at the time.

*** The novel ''Death Star'' explained the colossal explosion: hypermatter reactors of a size large enough to power the Death Star superlaser are experimental technology. The ''Battle Lance'' hypermatter testbed ship, with an unusually large one as a trial run for the Death Star's weapon, had an unknown screwup with its reactor, and suddenly and permanently ''ceased existing''.

** The ''[[X Wing Series|X-Wing]]'' [[Expanded Universe]] books like to describe exactly how each TIE fighter that's shot down explodes, in exquisite detail. Other stuff blows up quite frequently also. [[Lampshade]]d by this quote:

{{quote|Donos: "Pretty. What do we blow up first?"

** For that matter, [[Every Car Is a Pinto|Every TIE Is A Pinto]]. Witness tiny ships like TIE fighters exploding into fireballs, most noticeably when Han takes out the last one in Episode IV, resulting in a ''massive'' multi-stage explosion from something that carries very little fuel and no exploding weapons. In the [[Expanded Universe]] it's explained they don't even have any internal life support (it's built into the pilots' suits), so there's no atmosphere to burn.

* The finale of ''[[Suspiria]]'' has ''the whole Academy'' blowing up bit by bit, starting with a ceramic panther and then ending up with a classic explosion with fire.

* [[Michael Bay]] demands things to be awesome. And by 'awesome', he means '[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXRCf9LbLM0 stuff blowing up]'.

** [[Dead Baby Comedy|It's a shame he didn't blow up the tiger.]]

* The alternate ending of ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.

 

* In ''[[Havemercy]]'', Royston's Talent is making things explode. He manages to state this in the wordiest way possible.

** Blowing anything (especially themselves) up is very much a staple of the Ankh-Morpork Alchemists' Guild. Well, that and turning <s>lead into gold</s> gold into less gold.

{{quote|Sten's hand was poised over the emergency power cutoff breaker when the ship's computer decided that it might be dying but preferred something less Wagnerian than what would happen, and beat Sten to it.}}

* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': "Then there was a crash and a flash of flame and smoke. The waters of the Deeping-stream poured out hissing and foaming: they were choked no longer, a gaping hole was blasted in the wall."

** Much later on, when he's told that his duel has to stay within the confines of the arena, his response is, "Well, I have this ''[[Destructive Savior|thing]]'' with buildings..."

* In the finale of [[Darkness Visible]] we get Marsh throwing {{spoiler|a bottle of pyroglycerine from the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, with predictably messy results for the crowd of bad guys below.}}

 

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' blew lots of things up just for the fun of it. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP8Kah6vXsQ "The Exploding Version of the 'Blue Danube'"] [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|speaks for itself]]. No less explosive is the ever-popular "[http://youtube.com/watch?v=zekiZYSVdeQ How Not To Be Seen]" sketch, which ends in an orgy of [[Stock Footage]] explosions. Episode 16 has a [[Running Gag]] of random exploding animals, including [[That Poor Cat]] (offscreen). Other exploding things in the series include a penguin on a television set and Mrs. Niggerbaiter, whose friend's son says after she spontaneously explodes, "Don't be so sentimental. Things explode every day."

** Possibly the most extreme example is when they blew up a spare, nearly unsalvageable cement mixer with a ridiculous amount of explosives, which required the FBI's assistance, and that everything within a mile of the blast zone be shut down (including a portion of a nearby highway). They openly admitted it had nothing to do with the myth they were testing (whether you could use dynamite to clean the slag from the interior of a cement mixer), and was just a big boom.

*** That was also the scariest explosion they'd ever done. They were standing more than a mile away, but realized they may have miscalculated when pieces of the truck were still landing behind them.

*** In one episode, Sam Carter blows up {{spoiler|[[Remember When You Blew Up a Sun?|a sun]].}}

* It's a rare episode of ''[[Burn Notice]]'' that doesn't feature something blowing up.

* An honorary spot for this trope goes to the German action TV series ''[[Alarm Fuer Cobra 11]]''. A series about a team of highway cops in which cars explode on the slightest impact with other vehicles walls, trees or anything that touches something else than their wheels. (Examples [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dw91M54i_eQ&feature=related here].) Even a car just scraping a tunnel wall would explode just giving the driver enough time to bail out of the vehicle and run away. In later seasons of the show the directors cut down on the vehicle explosion rate.

** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yij0AbjSHqw&feature=PlayList&p=4D9FBBA39D527628&index=9 You sure about that?]

* On ''[[The Daily Show]]'', voting is so awesome, it '''[http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=209508&title=Indecision-2008:-America%27s-Choice---Stephen%27s-Distractions explodes.]'''

* [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Years before]] Spike TV came out, ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' featured a sketch called "The Man Channel" which contained nothing but clips of Stuff Blowing Up (mostly [[Every Car Is a Pinto|cars]] driving off cliffs) in [[Slo Mo]].

** When Linda Hamilton hosted, she had a monologue stating she wasn't [[Terminator|Sarah Connor]]. It mostly goes "here's my school... * kaboom* I bought this house after ''[[Beauty and the Beast (TV series)|Beauty and The Beast]]''... * kaboom* ". Exception is a [[Man On Fire]] ("oh, my first boyfriend").

** ''Reconstruction'' plays this fairly straight. One particular sequence of note is where Agent Washington disposes of {{spoiler|Agent South}}'s body by piling a bunch of exploding crates next to it and shooting at them.

 

* [[Fatboy Slim]] "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NfPIs9Zlc8 Gangster Tripping]"

** In fact, the final version of the script is a single line: "Blow stuff up."

* The end of Junior Senior's "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trCwPP8ZW9Y Move Your Feet]"

 

* ''[[Little Nemo]] in Slumberland'' always had fireworks being set off in some way on the Fourth of July.

 

* ''[[The Goon Show]]'': "You rotten swine, you! You have deaded me again with the dreaded dynamite!"

** Not to mention the exploding taxis...

*** Or Major Bloodnok, who was pretty much a walking, talking series of explosive sound effects.

 

* If something doesn't go kaboom at some point in ''[[Feng Shui]]'', you're doing things wrong. The Jammers even have it as their battle cry: "BLOW THINGS UP! BLOW THINGS UP!"

 

== Theme Park ==

* Happens quite often at [[Disney Theme Parks]], most notably in ''The Studio Backlot Tour''.

 

== Toys ==

* ''[[Bionicle]]'' has [[Exploding Fishtanks]], [[Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables|Exploding Fruit]], an (apparently) [[Noodle Incident|Exploding Rahi]], and, most recently, an exploding {{spoiler|[[Eldritch Abomination]]}}.

 

* [[Act of War]] counts with a graphic engine capable to bring some impressive explosion effects, with everything so carefully designed to be as realistic as possible the game's stuff blowing up looks awesome, even after all these years it can go toe to toe with some other [[Real Time Strategy]] games.

* One of the most useful Brush powers in ''[[Okami]]'' involves drawing Cherrybombs to blow up an enemy [[Mook|Imp]] or two, gain access to secret caves, & fluster the natives. You get this power from [[Physical God|Bakugami]], a boar god.

** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda]]: [[Oracle of Seasons]]'', you could use your fire item inside a house filled with bombs too. The results were [[Nonstandard Game Over|a little different]] though.

*** Actually, if you had good enough timing, you could escape that fate. And it's hilarious.

* One of the main features of most [[Vehicular Combat]] games, e.g. the [[Twisted Metal]] series.

* Despite being a fantasy world, ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]''. One of the most tragically wasteful traps in the game is the Booze Bomb, which is essentially a huge heap of barrels, a lever, and a caged fire monster. When goblins reach the barrels, you pull the lever (which should be located in another room, preferably a long way away from the bomb) and the cage releases the fire monster, which hurls a fireball at a goblin. The barrels ignite, and the goblins vanish in the fireball. This can also happen accidentally, say when a burning dwarf decides he needs a beer.

* A homebrew game for the Nintendo DS called ''Brix DS'' features sticks of dynamite grouped together as a single stick, set atop several grey and black bricks. The object of the game is to remove the grey bricks and to not let the dynamite fall onto the ground; the player must land it on the black bricks. The physics of the game are programmed well, and they become a huge factor after the first two level sets. Where does Stuff Blowing Up come in, then? If the dynamite touches the ground, it explodes, sending any remaining bricks flying off the screen. This can result in some amazingly laugh-out-loud losses. After level set five, bricks that explode on removal show up, which only ups the ante for the humor in losses, despite the increased difficulty.

* The cannonball in ''[[Backyard Sports|Backyard Soccer]]'', which explodes in the goal.

* [[Neverwinter Nights]] has an "On Death, Explode" script that can be assigned to any custom creature in the game. There is also a lesser variant which produces a "stinking cloud" effect on death.

** There are also fire traps, which range from "minor" to "deadly" (and beyond "deadly" to "epic"), in terms of the damage they do. Deadly and Epic traps will kill most characters if they aren't immune or highly resistant to fire damage.

* ''[[Halo]]'' Two words: Plasma Grenades!

* Bomb Man and Grenade Man from the ''[[Mega Man (video game)|Mega Man]]'' series specialize in this department.

* Mages in the ''[[Dragon Quest]]'' series can cast the "Bang", "Boom", and "Kaboom" spells which cause massive explosions that damage all enemies.

* [[Abnormal Ammo|Explosive rounds]] in ''[[Mass Effect]]''.

* The recurring Explosion spell in the ''[[Tales (series)]]''.

 

* Nearly every scene in the aptly named Flash cartoon ''The Demented Cartoon Movie'' ends with Stuff Blowing Up. The [[Earthshattering Kaboom|planet Earth]] gets blown up a total of ten times, and over 40 "nuclear explosions" happen, many of them thanks to the words "Zeeky Boogy Doog." '''* BOOM* '''

* You CAN'T sing in the ''Charlie the Unicorn'' toons. Kinda lampshaded in the second video.

* The Strong Bad Email "hremail3184" from ''[[Homestar Runner]]''. During the email, Strong Bad talks about all different kinds of explosions, such as [[Planar Shockwave|"those ones with the blast-wavy Saturn-rings that are so popular lately."]] The email ends with {{spoiler|Strong Bad blowing up his own computer.}}

 

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Mad Scientist Riff is convinced that explosives can solve anything.

* Likewise Vaarsuvius from Order of the Stick: "as the size of the explosion increases, the number of situations it is incapable of solving reaches zero"

* Surprisingly averted in Spontaneous Combustion

 

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VeB_-gWSdA&feature=related Try to repeat after me: * BOOM* Brass section, go: * BOOM* Now the winds: * BOOM* Now the drums: * BOOM* ]

* [[Yogscast Minecraft Series]], being set in ''[[Minecraft]]'' and all (see above), has this happen a lot, for various reasons:

** TNT in general, particularly when wielded by Simon. He's always the first to say "Fuck it, let's just blow a hole in this thing" and even uses TNT where it clearly shouldn't be, such as for building bridges. Over lava.

** Creeper_Boss, an "NPC" with a Creeper skin whose attack is to spam TNT.

* ''[[Cracked.com]]'''s Photoplasty contest "[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_1156_21-incredibly-satisfying-scenes-stuff-getting-destroyed/?view=article 21 Incredibly Satisfying Scenes of Stuff Getting Destroyed]" celebrates the fun of watch something explode, with examples including demolition of bridges, dynamite mining, and more. "Feel free to touch yourselves."

 

* The vast majority of episodes set within the [[DCAU]] end with the villain's [[Collapsing Lair|hideout exploding]], for reasons ranging from self-destruct devices to joy buzzers falling into loose wiring. On one of the ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' commentaries, the creators admitted that whenever they couldn't figure out how to end an episode, they'd just have a building blow up.

** One noteable example took place nearing the end of Bruce's reunion with Ra's al Ghul, who at this point should have racked up quite a bit of [[Genre Savvy]] and was smart enough to install automated fire extingishers into his lair. Unfortunately, once the fires are put out, Ra makes the critical mistake of pronouncing, "[[Tempting Fate|It's safe]]." Sure enough, one loose electrical wire strikes the Lazarus pit, resulting in... well, you know.

* Parodied in a ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch which features a fake trailer for "Michael Bay Presents: Explosions!"

** MA BA SPLOOM!

* ''Sealab 2021'' features the Sealab blowing up in pretty much every episode.

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' loves to blow things up in ridiculous ways. One of the best occurs when Homer tries to cook Mr. Burns breakfast and everything he tries ends up bursting into flames, even a bowl of cereal.

*** There was also the episode "Action Packed!" where a chicken calls in the day and explodes, Timmy's dad balls up the newspaper and throws it backwards, where it explodes, and then passes Timmy an audio tape asking him to pass the butter, which then self-destructs.

** And don't forget the Flying Nun. "This isn't funny!"

Lou: Looks like there's beer coming out of the chimney.

Chief Wiggum: I am proceeding on foot. Call in a code 8.

** In the eppisode were Sideshow Bob tries to cancel television, when Bart is going to jump from the Wright Brothers plane into the car, first he drops his bag which misses the car, gets run over, then exlpodes.

** In another episode were for some reason the kids are rampaging through Bart's class, they tip over the teachers desk, wich then explodes into flames.

** In the episode "Cartoon Wars" Kyle's big wheel goes flying off a cliff after a chase with Cartman. The toy bike breaks like a toy bike should until it hits the ground, when it promptly explodes for no reason.

* ''[[Raw Toonage]]'' parodied in one of the trailers [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjuvfMSmmBc here].

* In the world of [[SpongeBob SquarePants]], falling off a cliff not only merits you an explosion, but a ''[[The Deadliest Mushroom|mushroom cloud]]''. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqM1RqpHi_w Just ask Squidward].

** And when they [[Show Within a Show|try to make a movie]], Sandy gets a bit excessive with the fake explosions. 'Did somebody say boom?'

* After having his apartment/lair explodes, ''again'', Doofensmirtz of [[Phineas and Ferb]] wonders [[Lampshade Hanging|"why does everything blow up so easily?"]]

 

* Above-ground nuclear weapons tests were mostly this, especially later on. After a point, they weren't testing to see if it worked, or what it could do, they were just blowing stuff up for the sake of blowing stuff up. The higher-ups usually justified it as intimidating the filthy communists/capitalist pigs.

** [[wikipedia:Tsar Bomba|Tsar Bomba]] being a [[Big Bulky Bomb|50 megaton atomic bomb]] that the Russians let off during the [[Cold War]]... Could have been 100 megatons, but the Russians were concerned about fallout. They only made and detonated the one... Not practical to put on a plane I guess...

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Narrative Devices]]

[[Category:Rule of Cool]]

[[Category:Spectacle]]

[[Category:Index]]

[[Category:Everything's Better with Indexes]]

[[Category:Pandering to the Base]]