But first be sure you have disconnected the red wire or the bomb WILL go off.
Why is it, in Hollywood, the time bombs that some poor shlub has to defuse (am I using that word right? How about diffuse? If you don't defuse the bomb it will diffuse you all over the landscape) always comes down to "cut the blue, or cut the red wire." And choosing wrong ALWAYS leads to bomb detonation.
You're the villain that made the bomb, maybe hide it better instead of setting up some elaborate electronic trap where diffusing the time wrong leads to KABOOM.
I got 10 seconds left on the clock, I don't want an electric impulse going from the timer to the detonator, all wires are getting snip snip snipped. But that is just me.
So many shows:
The Abyss, the green light meant he couldn't SEE the colors.
A M*A*S*H episode.
The Bus That Couldn't Slow Down.
That time when there was a bomb on the Skytanic. Lukcily Ray Gillette knows his bombs.
The Manhattan Project. With John Lithgow!
Also, what's with the whole 'cut the red wire and the timer goes triple time' bit? With all the work that goes into makng the timer know a wire has been cut and change the native clock speed, it could just flash a helpful 'Nope!' Across the screen.
ReplyDeleteOne builds a device with all one colored wires.
ReplyDeleteEach end of each wire is identified with removable tape during construction. Then those identifiers are removed after installation.
Thats just one of the many ways that real devices are different from most fictional ones.
Also, I suspect that real devices have a lot less beeps and flashing lights. Of course, that would make for pretty lousy movie and television action. Considering how wrapped up we get when we see lousy gunhandling, imagine how the guys that build THOSE things feel. 'WTF? You don't put the flashing lights on! Why did you put the wires on the outside?! Do you WANT the thing diffused? THIS IS UNPROFESSIONAL!'
ReplyDeleteIn an episode of Castle a few years back, he just ripped out all of the wires to defuse a dirty bomb.
ReplyDeleteWhy would I have any identifiers in a bomb I have no intention of defusing after I lay it? Or any visible clock display? Or any lights or beeps? Who am I trying to impress?
ReplyDeleteNope -- a sealed box with detonators. Better yet, place the whole device inside a locked sheet metal container, with antitamper sensors. The tech then has to risk hitting an antitamper device trying to figure out where the bits of the bomb even are. . .
Which is why the "Go To" solution is always, always, always "Blow it in place" if you can afford to do so.
But, since Hollywood is so good at spreading bad ideas, I'm all for them rehashing this meme, because at least some moronic Bad Guys(tm) will do so in the real world, because it looks "right", based on what they've seen in almost every movie or TV show involving a bomb...
MILITARY ordnance and demolitions will often have easily identifiable and disarmable bits, because they aren't generally intended to be booby traps or terrorist weapons, nor are they generally supposed to stick around in enemy hands long enough for a trained EOD guy to deal with them -- they are intended to blow up very shortly after deployment. Therefor, making them easier to disarm after emplacing (but before detonating) is a safety feature, not a bug. But even then, with a lot of toys we (as infantry) were told, "DO NOT ATTEMPT TO RECOVER -- Blow it in place."