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Time Bomb: Difference between revisions
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'''Eight...'''
Often there's the illusion of [[Real Time]] when we see the timer, but if you count the seconds and watch the clock, a 30 second countdown can often stretch as long as two minutes. Or it may ramp up and tick off far more time than has passed. (See [[Magic Countdown]].)
'''Seven...'''
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'''Six...'''
This trope is actually in contrast to real-life bombs which are camoflagued and seldom, if ever, include a visible timer. Television bombs must include a countdown to add tension, and often include blinking lights to let the audience, and the heroes, know that it is a bomb they are looking at.
There would probably be a lot more dead TV heroes if the villains would stop putting [[Incredibly Obvious Bomb|blinky lights and timers]] on their bombs.
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== [[Anime]] ==
* 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.
* [[Bloody Monday|Bloody-X]] gives you a 2 hour time limit.
** {{spoiler|...and the bomb itself...}}
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== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Airplane!]] 2: The Sequel''. Sonny Bono buys a timebomb at the airport convenience store.
* The ''[[Star Trek]]'' films have used this. ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|The Wrath of Khan]]'' (the Genesis device activating), ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|The Search for Spock]]'' (the Enterprise [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]]) and ''[[Star Trek: Nemesis|Nemesis]]'' (the Scimitar activating its primary weapon) all feature variants of this trope. This extends to the television series as well.
* ''[[Beverly Hills Ninja]]'', ''[[Cloak and Dagger]]'', and ''[[Speed]]'' are all movies where the bomb goes off without hurting anyone, although the last wasn't a ''time'' bomb per se.
** ''Speed'' has fun with the fact it's not a time bomb, but a speed bomb, so the speedometer acts as a readout meter. When the bus encounters a problem, director Jan De Bont likes to show the speedometer getting ''ohsoclose'' to the 50-mph point.
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** Subverted (somewhat) in ''[[You Only Live Twice]]'', when Bond detonates the enemy spacecraft with five seconds left on the timer.
** And more appropriately, subverted again in ''[[The Living Daylights]]''.
** In ''[[Diamonds Are Forever]]'' Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd used timed bombs (without visual counters) twice - first to destroy the diamond-smuggling helicopter, and at the end in an attempt to kill Bond and Tiffany Case.
* The bundle of explosives in ''[[The Mask (film)|The Mask]]'', which The Mask disposes of by swallowing it.
* The nuclear [[Self-Destruct Mechanism]] in ''[[The Andromeda Strain]]'' (1971), which is disarmed with 8 seconds to spare.
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* In ''[[Detective Conan]]: The Private Eye's Requiem'', Conan must deactivate the wristband bombs attached to Ran and the kids which will set off at the clock's hour or if they exit the amusement park's boundaries. He needs to input the correct computer password, accomplishing it, and successfully resets the timer with 9/10 of a second to spare.
* In [[Team America: World Police]], Kim Jong Il invokes the ticking [[Japanese Ranguage|crock]].
* In the ''[[Saw]]'' franchise almost every trap has the classic timer attached. Subverted in that the the victim is usually about 3 seconds ''away'' from defusing it when it goes off. Justified in the sense that the series would have very little following if people actually got out and the devices never went off while being close increases tension and their attempts to get out typically provides the torture portion of the "torture porn".
* 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.}}
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== [[Literature]] ==
* [[Bruce Coville]]'s [[Rod Albright]] series includes a different sort of time bomb. {{spoiler|It's a bomb that blows up time.}}
* A throwaway bit in [[Robert A. Heinlein|Heinlein's]] ''[[Starship Troopers (novel)|Starship Troopers]]'' involves a ''talking'' time bomb. Rico jumps into a building full of Skinnies, throws something at them, and jumps back out. It begins yelling at them in their language: "I'm a thirty second bomb! I'm a thirty second bomb! Twenty-nine... twenty-eight..." The explosion is not described.
* ''[[El Filibusterismo]]'' has a 19th-century version in the form of {{spoiler|a gas lamp.}}
* 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.]]}}
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'''Cortana:''' You DON'T wanna know! }}
** Then he "gives the Covenant back their bomb".
* ''[[Trauma Center]]: Under the Knife'' has you disarming one.
* In ''[[Syphon Filter]]'', the first level of the first game has you racing to disarm one at the bottom of a subway station. {{spoiler|The second level of the game has you trying to get out of the same subway station after you fail to stop the bomb.}}
* In ''[[Police Quest]] II'', Sonny had to diffuse the bomb in the bathroom of an airplane that the hijackers took control. With the bomb instructions, you have to cut and connect the wires in reverse.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the ''[[Futurama]]'' episode "A Big Ball of Garbage" the gang installs a time bomb on the giant garbage ball set to blow up in 25 minutes. Unfortunately, the timer was installed upside down, so it is actually set for 52 seconds.
* Semi-lampshaded in the ''[[Justice League]]'' episode "Wild Cards", where the Joker plants ''twenty-five'' time bombs all over Las Vegas, challenges the league to find them, sends the Royal Flush Gang to stop them, and sets the entire thing up as a reality show, complete with actual timer on the screen.
** Subverted: The league finds most of the bombs, but two go off:
*** The Joker manually detonates one and nearly kills Green Lantern.
*** The other one, the final one, is grabbed by the Flash and moved to the desert ''while it's going off''.
* A ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'' episode involved the Clock King using a portable device to slow down time so he could sneak in and plant a bomb. Batman winds up grabbing the bomb, slowing time down and driving it out of town. There's a nice shot of Batman holding the bomb as it detonates in super-slow motion.
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