History Main / DetonationMoon

* This happens in the somewhat distant future in ''TheTimeMachine'', when some genius decided that using nuclear weapons to dig caverns beneath the surface was a good idea. It causes a bit of an [[ApocalypseHow armageddon]]. The moon's still there despite their effort, but only about half or so is intact, the rest having settled into orbit or hit the Earth.
* The Moon inexplicably combusts in ''Amazon Women On The Moon'', with a small piece [[SpecialEffectsFailure continuing to dangle from a wire]], after the first astronauts to visit it incur the wrath of the Amazons living there.

It's bad enough when some bad guy tries to [[DefaceOfTheMoon put his John Hancock into the moon]], it becomes really serious when it's destroyed. This happens in many continuities in many shows many times. Think of an EarthShatteringKaboom, only on the moon.

A sister trope to DefaceOfTheMoon. Compare with GraspTheSun for a symbolic use of celestial bodies. Expect there to be NoEndorHolocaust.

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* Piccolo destroying the moon in ''DragonballZ'' to stop Gohan from rampaging as a giant ape (the moon is the giant ape form's power source).
** DragonBallZAbridged parodies Piccolo's moon destruction via a news report detailing an estimated death toll of over 100 million due to the lack of moon to regulate the tides, not to mention all [[AvatarTheLastAirbender waterbenders]] losing their power and {{Sailor Moon}} being in horrible agony.
*** [[MemeticMutation MOOOOOOOOON!]]

*** This is somewhat of a case of Fridge Logic, if Roshi and Piccolo had enough energy to blow away the moon, which is roughly only just a little bit smaller than the Earth itself is, then they should be able to store enough energy in their fists to punch the monkey out. Now this doesn't apply later on, but at this point in the series the Great Apes aren't THAT powerful.
**** Er... At least according to Wikipedia, the moon is "a quarter the diameter of Earth and 1/81 its mass". That's more than a little bit smaller.
***** How many times has the moon been blown up, and apparently regenerates without a wish to bring it back, also one of the filler villains in dragon ball was put on the moon, no continuity for lunar objects?
****** It obviously deployed chaff and escaped at the last second, hiding behind Mars until it was safe to come out again.

* OriginSpiritsOfThePast uses this trope, though instead of the moon being completely destroyed it's just split into [[IncrediblyLamePun tree.]]

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* The Moon inexplicably combusts in ''AmazonWomenOnTheMoon'', with a small piece [[SpecialEffectsFailure continuing to dangle from a wire]], after the first astronauts to visit it incur the wrath of the Amazons living there.
* The 1980 ''Film/FlashGordon'' movie, Ming pokes the moon out of orbit so it is sent on a collision course with Earth.

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* In the ''StarWars'' ExpandedUniverse, at one point a prototype Death Star aims at the planet Kessel, ''misses'', and blows up its moon instead.
** Mako Spince was expelled from the Imperial Military Academy when he attempted to blow the Imperial seal off one of Carida's moons as a joke but used too much antimatter.

* In the novel ''Moonfall'' by Jack [=McDevitt=] the moon is smashed into itty-bitty bits by a mysterious giant comet just days after a commercial moonbase has been built there.

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* RealLifeComics questions if NASA [[http://www.reallifecomics.com/archive/091009.html only wanted pictures when crashing things into the moon.]]

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* ''TechInfantry'' has the Moon blown up in order to have the broken pieces rain down upon the Earth and make in uninhabitable.

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* ThundarrTheBarbarian, where the rogue planet that causes TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt in the OpeningNarration also splits the moon in half, and the shattered remnants can be occasionally seen in the night sky during episodes.
* Almost happens in ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'', when Zhao plots to kill [[CosmicKeystone the moon spirit]]. It's not clear if the moon was ''physically'' destroyed/wiped from existence, but at the very least he got it to stop reflecting light. Somewhat averts NoEndorHolocaust in that they make it clear the moon's death would be a very bad thing. As it stands, however, [[spoiler:all it did was force a HeroicSacrifice to fix the moon and create one ''very'' pissed off ocean spirit kaiju.]]

* One episode of ''InspectorGadget'' had two MAD agents attempting to change the face of the moon for Doctor Claw's birthday to the MAD logo, but Inspector Gadget stops them.
** Unless at some point they change their mind to trying to '''destroy''' it, that's not this trope, but DefaceOfTheMoon instead.

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** Though Eggman did replace the missing parts as a way of saying sorry. [[spoiler:Of course, the replacement just so happened to be yet another of his bases.]]
*** Eggman "fixing" the moon only happened in [[SonicX the anime]]. The games just sort of forgot about it.

* The end of ''{{Kirby}}'s Adventure'' sees the pink guy fly after [[spoiler:Nightmare]], eventually ending up on the moon's surface. Before the battle, the moon is whole; after the battle, it becomes permanently crescent.

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->''"Where's the moon?''
->'''''"WHERE'S THE DAMN MOON?!"'''''
-->--Vegeta, ''DragonBallAbridged''

* On ''TheBigBangTheory'' The guys are bouncing a laser off the moon to see if its viewable from earth and penny's date thinks they are going to blow up the moon until Leonard says that they set the laser to stun.

** DragonBallZAbridged parodies Piccolo's moon destruction via a news report detailing an estimated death toll of over 100 million due to the lack of moon to regulate the tides.

-->--''Austin Powers: The spy who shagged me''

[[JustForPun Punning]] on the 1950 SF classic ''[[{{tintin}} Destination: Moon]]''.

* So no one's gonna mention [[YuGiOh Giant Soldier of Stone attacking the moon?]]

-->''Austin Powers: The spy who shagged me''

->''Mr. President, are you suggesting we blow up the moon?''
->''Would you miss it?''

[[JustForPun Punning]] on the 1950 SF classic ''Destination: Moon''.

* In ''Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann'', Anti-Spiral uses the moon to attempt to destroy the earth, causing the Gurren Brigade to attempt to destroy the moon. Notable in that the otherwise VERY soft sci-fi makes it abundantly clear that the approach of the moon and it's removal would have a negative effect on the planet.

* The only way to [[spoiler:[[HowToKillAMockingbird kill a mockingbird]]]] was by HITTING IT WITH THE MOON!!!!