Wire Dilemma: Difference between revisions
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[[File:colored wires bomb cutter 3268.jpg|frame|"There's no green wire?!"]]
{{quote|'' You know, I'd like to take this opportunity to say that [[Lampshade Hanging|this is a very poorly designed bomb]], and I think we should say something to somebody about it when we get back.''
|'''Colonel Jack O'Neill''' on opening a bomb with all yellow wires, ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', "Fail Safe"}}
You know, in [[Real Life]], bombs with multi-coloured wires can be taken care of quite easily: Open the bomb. Find all wires. Take them all into one grip. Rip through all of them with your scissors. Shut the bomb. Go have a beer, you're done. No, really, that's it. The hardest part of disarming a bomb is, in fact, the ''recovering'' and ''opening'' part.
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Example of a [[Dead Horse Trope]]. The '''Wire Dilemma''' has a minor Sub-Trope in the [[Wrong Wire]]. See also [[Bomb Disposal]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime ==
* In an ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' episode, Excel found herself trying to defuse a bomb in a restroom, while at the same time Il Palazzo questioned what a bomb was doing in the [[Dating Sim|dating game]] he was playing (and which was also controlling the episode's events). Both chose the red wire. Both chose wrong. Thankfully, they had a living [[Reset Button]] in the cast.
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* [[Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple]] subverts this beautifully with a bomb made by the Laughing Fist, Diego Carlo. Miu disarms it, and a little video of Diego pops up, telling her that he wouldn't make disarming the bomb that easy, and starts the timer. Then she disarms it again...and another video pops up, with Diego mocking her for attempting to disarm the bomb again, and takes another minute off the timer as a penalty. Then {{spoiler|[[Big Damn Heroes|Miu's grandfather shows up]], picks up the bomb, and throws it far enough away that it doesn't do any damage.}}
* In the third season of [[Koihime Musou]], Rin-rin must choose between red or blue {{spoiler|tail of an enraged elephant that's been imbued with the forces of the metaphysical.}}
* In ''[[City Hunter]] The Motion Picture'', Kaori must choose between six different colored wires. Ryo tells her to cut the {{spoiler|blue}} wire - he made the decision by {{spoiler|[[Bat Deduction|lifting his client's skirt and noting the color of her panties, which were blue.]]}} It turns out {{spoiler|to be the right choice.}}
{{quote|'''Ryo:''' {{spoiler|What are you so mad about? It WORKED, didn't it?}}}}
* Shows up in episode 3 of ''[[Tiger and Bunny]]''. Barnaby is doing fine cutting the wires to a bomb until he gets to the final two: both the same color, but sticking out from the top and bottom ends of the detonator. He is stuck on which to cut, but in the end [[Take a Third Option|chooses the "upper" one]]—as in he and his [[Charles Atlas Superpower|super-powered]] partner break the ceiling and throw the bomb into the air a second before it goes off, thus [[Relocating the Explosion]].
* Subverted(maybe more downright averted) in episode 13 of ''[[
* ''[[Rail Wars!]]'': Sakurai shows off her [[Cowboy Cop]] tendencies by disarming a bomb the slow way - after having been ordered not to try. {{spoiler|She succeeds, but only by thinking outside the box}}.
== Comic Books ==
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== Fan
* In ''[[Naruto Veangance Revelaitons]]'', an odd variant comes up, presumably the author trying to use this trope without understanding it. Ronan's son Ekaj has to struggle which wire to cut, but in this case, his goal is to ''detonate'' a bomb.
* In the ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' SFM video ''End of the Line'', scout opened a bomb and it had the question "Disarm bomb?" There were 2 buttons below it: {{red|yes}} and {{green|yes}}
== Film ==
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* In ''[[The Abyss]]'', Virgil must disable a warhead at the bottom of the Cayman Trough. He is told to cut the blue wire with a white stripe, ''not'' the black wire with a yellow stripe, but the yellow-green chemical light on his diving suit renders them indistinguishable. In reality, wires are striped (or not) specifically so they are distinguishable under colored lighting (e.g. one wire striped, one plain).
* Played straight in the 1997 movie ''[[Air Force One (film)|Air Force One]]'', where the President of the United States has to choose three wires out of five on the titular airplane's fuel dump system blindly. He puts his trust in red, white, and blue and is proven right.
* In
* [[Double Subversion]] in The French film ''[[Banlieue 13]]'': a police officer is given the shutdown code to the bomb by cell phone- {{spoiler|but it turns out that the code would have detonated the bomb immediately, [[Utopia Justifies the Means|taking out the entire ghetto with it]]. The bomb timed out, but did nothing.}}
* Played almost totally straight in ''[[Bon Cop, Bad Cop]]''. Martin was bomb squad before taking his current position, so he knows exactly what to do.
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== Literature ==
* The protagonist in [[John Ringo]]'s novel ''[[Paladin of Shadows|Ghost]]'', while trying to prevent a nuclear bomb from going off in Paris, takes a cell phone away from the terrorist mastermind and finds two pre-set numbers on it, "Fire" and "Ice". One of them dials the bomb and tells it to go off immediately, one dials the bomb and disarms it. The protagonist gives the French bomb squad as much time as possible to try to disarm it physically, then dials a number. The dilemma here being whether you trust the terrorist when he confessed which was the disarm code...
* The ''[[Warhammer
* In the Murray Leinster story ''Second Landing'' the main character has to disable an atomic bomb ''built by aliens.'' Eventually {{spoiler|he realizes that in all atomic bombs, no matter who built them, the explosives surrounding the fissionable core have to fire in a perfectly synchronized sequence or the bomb will fizzle. So he shoots the bomb with a bazooka, prematurely detonating some of the explosives.}}
* In ''[[The English Patient]]'', this is basically Kip's job description as a sapper, constantly coming up against newer and newer Axis bombs.
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{{quote|'''Marine''': Ma'am, with all due respect, this conversation is not doing my morale any good at all.}}
* In one of the later ''[[1632]]'' books, a downtimer finds a '''lot''' of explosives with a clock-and-battery trigger. He sends a friend to look for someone familiar with electrical devices (while he stays with the bomb, ready to try something based on desperate guessing if he doesn't get expert advice in time). But when a guy who knows enough arrives, he merely pulls one wire loose: this bomb was clearly too simple to have anti-tampering devices, so there '''wasn't''' a real dilemma. On the other hand, the desperate measure the first fellow had been about to try would've set it off at once -- he hadn't learned about electrical conductivity yet, and planned to keep two bare copper wires apart with a steel knife blade. Oops.
* In the Robb White novel ''The Frogmen'' the chief of a UDT school is definitely a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] not to mention giving the reader a suspicion that he has a bit of [[Tall Poppy Syndrome|resentment]] toward those destined for a more glamorous career. He takes an unseemly delight in the complicated anti-handling devices he puts in his "bombs" loaded with a [[Electric Torture|shock device]] instead of HE, to make sure his students have as [[The Spartan Way|good of training]] as can be gotten without actually being there. The point he teaches is not to touch a wire unless you have looked at it ''very'' closely. In a subversion the real mines they go to clear at the end of the book have no anti-handling devices but are detonated by the sudden low water pressure of a ship passing over head at the speed an approaching invader is expected to be making.
== Live Action TV ==
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* ''[[Family Matters]]'': Instead of having a timer, the bomb is on a treadmill, which has to have a rider on it non stop until it can be defused.
* ''[[Diagnosis: Murder]]'': One episode has the hero try to disarm a nuclear bomb, when told to 'cut the red wire' he replies that the wires are all black. Then a bomb tech yanks out all the wires disarming the bomb.
* Subverted in ''[[
{{quote|'''Henry:''' (reading instructions) And carefully cut the wires leading to the clockwork fuse at the head.
''Trapper cuts the wires''
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* In the season 3 finale of ''[[24]]'', Jack Bauer is told by a bomb disarmer to first cut the red wire on the {{spoiler|virus}} detonator, which he does, then to locate the green wire. The problem? He's only got orange, yellow, black, and purple wires. Seems the mechanism differs from model to model. After a few tense moments, {{spoiler|especially seeing as the bomb is attached to Chase, the two decided to hack Chase's arm off and run the bomb down to the nearest fridge to contain the virus}}.
* The...third episode?...of ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]'' begins where the last one ended—Sydney sitting on top of a ''nuclear'' bomb that has been wired to explode. She calls the bad guys she's a [[Double Agent]] infiltrating, reasoning that if she doesn't it'll blow her cover, and speaks to the nervous technical specialist there. Notable is the [[Long List]] of wire colors she notes, including "dark blue, blue, blue-white...". It of course uses the "NO WAIT!" trick, to which she quite reasonably responds "DO NOT TELL ME TO WAIT I AM SITTING ON A TICKING NUCLEAR BOMB". The ''real'' subversion here is that she then has to ''turn a nuke over to the bad guys''.
* A future-y variant occurs in ''[[Star Trek:
* ''[[Bionic Woman]]'' (2007 remake). Jaime finds her [[Love Interest]] turned into a [[Why Am I Ticking?|human bomb]] during a [[Hostage for McGuffin]] trade—the bomb has two false wires and one true one. Fortunately [[Mission Control]] can see an enhanced view relayed through her bionic eye, and tell her which wire to cut based on where the power is going.
* In ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', a bomb is placed UNDER the Liberty Bell. The bomber had earlier given a [[Dying Clue]] of "red, white, and blue" to Steve. When Steve lifts the Bell for a bomb tech to disarm the bomb, there are FOUR wires - red, white, blue, and green. Steve figures out that the bomber WANTED the Bell to be destroyed, so he tells the tech to cut the green wire - which disarms it.
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes]]'' can be summed up as Wire Dilemma, the game. It also includes other things other than cutting wires like pushing buttons. One player has a manual but doesn't see the bomb, the other sees tries to defuse the bomb without the manual. The players need to communicate to win.
* In the [[RPG]] ''[[Illusion of Gaia]]'', after defeating one boss, you have to cut one of the wires on the bomb your friend is tied to (red or blue, naturally); however, either one will work, and the true problem is making your decision before the timer stops - {{spoiler|at which point it turns out the bomb is a ''dud''.}}
** This is because, of course, the main character Will has the power to always guess correctly. No matter which one the player picks, it's right, because Will is psychic. Since this is introduced very early and not used throughout most of the game, it is often forgotten by the player. He uses this power later in the game to win a game of Russian Glass (like Russian Roulette, but with poisoned drinks)... unfortunately for the other guy.
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* [[Played for Laughs]] in the [[Hidden Object Game]] ''Hidden Expedition: Devil's Triangle''. One minigame requires you to disarm a bomb by cutting colored wires in the correct order. If you cut the wrong wire, you get a short cutscene of the island exploding, a snarky comment on the lines of "try again", and the minigame resets.
* ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]:[[Vice City]]'' has an amusing example in the mission Publicity Tour. The band Love Fist's car has been rigged with a bomb that will explode if their limo slows down. The drunken stupor of Love Fist's efforts to cut the wires combined with Tommy's annoyance? Priceless.
* In the Uldum storyline of ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', this dilemma comes up when the player and [[Adventure Archaeologist| Brann Bronzebeard]] find the [[Doomsday Device]] left behind by the Titans. With a one-minute countdown due to Brann's sloppy approach, he decides to simply cut the color associated with the player's faction (blue if Alliance, red for Horde) and lucks out. Unfortunately, the player can't help him here, even though he or she has done pretty much everything else in the dungeon.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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'''Raphael:''' It stopped. But I said to pull the red wire, not the blue wire!
'''Donatello:''' I know. That's why I didn't pull it. It ''is'' always the red wire. They tried to trick us. }}
* Also parodied in ''[[The Fairly
* In one epsiode of ''[[Swat Kats]]'' one of the lead characters needs to defuse a bomb in mid-air. Popping open the hatch while muttering it's always the red wire, he discovers the villain has filled the entire bomb with enough red wires to fully equip a house.
{{quote|'''Razor:''' Okay, piece of cake, just remember, always cut the red wire. ''[opens the bomb]'' Oh Dark Kat, you miserable psycho!}}
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== Real Life ==
* During the Second World War, some bombs dropped over Britain by the Luftwaffe intentionally featured such designs, on the logic that simply blowing up a building causes trouble, but calling out the bomb squad could drive an entire town to a standstill.
**In those days the tech always had a walkie-talkie to an enlisted man out of range of potential explosion. When ever he made a move he would say,"Unscrewing this fastener, cutting this wire, etc. If the next sound heard out of the radio is, "BOOM", then this is recorded and the bomb squad has information about what not to do.
* At least one novelty alarm clock (like [[:image:Colored wires bomb cutter 3268.jpg|the one in the photo]]) has been marketed to play directly on this trope... by appearing to be a fake bomb, on which cutting one randomly-selected wire either stops the count or (alternately) causes the remaining time to "detonation" to suddenly become zero.
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Bomb Disposal]]
[[Category:Action Adventure Tropes]]
[[Category:
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