Time Bomb: Difference between revisions

 

{{examples|suf=s}}

* The countdown to Graceland's destruction in ''[[Coyote Ragtime Show]]'' is not only displayed on the bomb itself, but publicly announced daily by the Galactic President.

* Constantly in ''[[Spiral]]''. Almost every other episode seems to be about some kind of time bomb.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* In ''[[Excalibur (Comic Book)|Excalibur]]'', team enemy Gatecrasher devises an...unusual example: as Excalibur is making breakfast, one of the eggs jumps off the counter, breaks open, and reveals a cartoony bird who starts shouting at the team. As they stare at it in complete bogglement, it starts counting down...

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Mater gets one strapped to his air filter during the climax of [[Cars|''Cars 2'']].

* The ''Nostromo'''s [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] in ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' counts, since it gives Ripley only ten minutes to leave the ship before it explodes. {{spoiler|She makes it out just in time, including stopping to pick up the cat.}}

 

'''Four...'''

* Boba Fett uses one to pull a [[Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb]] on Bossk in ''[[Bounty Hunter Wars|The Mandalorian Armor]]'' so he can steal Bossk's ship (long story). As Fett gets away in the ''Hound's Tooth'', Bossk hears a voice aboard ''Slave I'' counting down. The timer reaches zero and ... nothing happens. {{spoiler|Fett was planning to come back to retrieve ''Slave I'' after he got the price on his own head lifted. [[Captain Obvious|That's kinda hard to do if it's free hydrogen.]]}}

 

* In ''[[24]]'', the Time Bomb actually went off and did some fairly major damage to CTU.

* ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'', too many times to count

** Honorable mention to the fireworks O'Neill threatens his SGC recruits with during a training exercise in "Proving Ground". The recruits can't figure out how to disarm the "bomb" before the timer goes off, so the team leader aborts the exercise.

** Then, there's the episode "Fail Safe". In an attempt to destroy/divert an asteroid headed towards Earth, SG-1 places a bomb on it. Unfortunately, Carter then discovers that the asteroid itself is a huge bomb, and their bomb will trigger an explosion large enough to destroy Earth. With only a few minutes to go before the timer reaches zero, the team climbs back out to their bomb, only to discover that the control mechanism has been damaged by a falling rock. To make matters worse, instead of the classic red-wire, blue-wire, it turns out that all of the control wires are the same color; as O'Neill puts it, [[Lampshade Hanging|"This is a very poorly designed bomb!"]]

* ''[[MacGyver]]'' featured ridiculously large numbers of time bombs, especially in earlier episodes. Pretty much the first [[MacGyvering]] we see is done to keep a time-delayed missile from exploding. There was even a time bomb in the ''opening credits,'' and an entire early episode focused on defusing some bombs on a cruise liner. Handily, Mac [[Expansion Pack Past|happens to have served in Vietnam as an expert in bomb defusing]].

** The "MacGruber" skits from ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'', which are themselves a parody of ''MacGyver'', always take place in a locked room with some sort of time bomb. One of his allies (Maya Rudolph, [[The Other Darrin|later Kristen Wiig]]) is always on hand, counting down the time on her watch. {{spoiler|However, the bomb always ends up exploding.}}

* In the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episodes "Obsession", "The Immunity Syndrome" and "The Doomsday Machine", the bomb was used by the ''Enterprise'' crew to destroy a [[Monster of the Week]]. In each case crew members or the ''Enterprise'' had to get out of the blast radius before the bomb detonated.

* A common plot device in ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'', although in this case it's usually the heroes who set the bomb. Much drama comes of having to escape the area before it goes off and much comedy comes of Carter's bombs going off a few seconds later than his eager countdown.

* Played straight more than once in ''[[Chuck]]'' ("Chuck Versus the Intersect", "Chuck Versus the Sandworm") but also subverted, as Chuck and Sarah {{spoiler|encounter a large device with a countdown timer that they believe to be a bomb. After an unsuccessful attempt to defuse the bomb, as the timer nears zero, they share a [[Now or Never Kiss]], but the device turns out not to be a bomb}}. All three of those in the first nine episodes of the series. Also played straight in "Chuck Versus the Third Dimension"{{spoiler|, in which the device has to be taken away from the crowd.}}

* ''[[Castle]]'': "Countdown" has a dirty bomb with a timer set to go off in New York. Castle and Beckett find the bomb with less than 2 minutes. They send a picture of the bomb to an expert, but he can't see any way to disarm it in time. Castle and Beckett brace for the explosion, only for Castle to yank all the wires with the timer reaching 0. No boom, averting the [[Wire Dilemma]] trope.

* The [[Nickelodeon]] [[Game Show]] ''[[Think Fast]]'' featured one in the first version of its "Locker Room" [[Bonus Round]]. While being given 30 seconds to match items or characters behind lockers, the first contestant had to open the locker containing the Time Bomb in 20 seconds; otherwise, the second contestant would only be given 20 seconds (instead of 30) to find the remaining matches.

 

'''Three...'''

*building explodes*

Wildcat: "Of course, my watch is a little slow..." }}

* Used several times in ''[[Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures|The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest]]'', notably in "Escape from Questworld," and "Future Rage," in both of which cases Dr. Quest manages to stop the countdown with one second left.

* [[Filmation]] ''[[The New Adventures of Superman]]'' episode "APE Strikes Again". Lex Luthor tries to use a bomb in an alarm clock to blow up a generator.

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx1XIm6q4r4 Snape, Snape, Severus Snape.]

* Including it just because it was so epic: in one script for the now cancelled ''[[The Flash]]'' movie, Vandal Savage declared he'd done this. If the Flash, the "Fastest Man Alive" couldn't find it in time, it would kill his wife. Flash checks literally everywhere for it, but couldn't find it in time, and had to escape, saving himself and [[What an Idiot!|not carrying her away]]. A few decades later, Savage offhand mentions: "What bomb? I used a rocket to blow up Wifey-Poo".

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bomb Disposal]]

[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]

[[Category:Weapons and Wielding Tropes]]

[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]