History Main / FastTunnelling

* The Mole, a supervillain from the ''Roleplay/GlobalGuardiansPBEMUniverse'', can do this. The Subterranean can do this also, but he uses a DrillTank.

* Any creature with a burrow speed in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 3.5''. Typical burrow speeds are half the burrower's normal movement speed. The most common burrow speed is 15 feet per round, or 1.7 miles per hour.

-->-- ''Disney/TheLionKingOneAndAHalf''

* ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'': Moliere's digging machine has these characteristics. SHE LIIIVES!!!

* Offscreen in one scene of ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'', Judy manages a FlashStep to the far side of a fence while Nick is climbing it. A hole next to her and a second on the other side of the fence suggests that she tunneled.

* Both played straight and subverted in ''VideoGame/NetHack''. If you find an uncursed pickaxe or a dwarfish mattock you become an expert digger just by wielding it, but the act of digging out a square burns much more time then walking through an existing corridor. (And eventually you have to eat.) The [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Wand of Digging]], on the other hand, blasts through a line of squares instantaneously. You can also polymorph into a Xorn which, like the ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' original, can walk right through dungeon walls.

* Knuckles the Echidna, from ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''.

** ''Dwarf Fortress'' is not as egregious as it seems. You still have to figure out how to manage all the leftover stone.
** Legendary miners are probably the epitome of this trope. They literally dig out tunnels as fast as they walk.

* ''DeepCore'' uses combinations of drills and FrickinLaserBeams to quickly go through rock. In ''Deep Core'', the test of the prototype subterrene (intended by the military as yet another method of nuclear delivery) results in the massive shift of the tectonic plate.

When you get down to thinking about it, there is a lot of ArtisticLicensePhysics involved when this happens in fiction. See, dirt's natural state is not to form a stable roof above. Like water, it seeks the lowest point. GravityIsAHarshMistress here, as a tunnel ceiling that looks stable may collapse at any old time. True, rabbits, insects and other burrowing creatures make these nice, neat little tunnels, but those are much smaller creatures than humans and they have evolved to dig quickly and safely[[note]]At least we think so. We have no idea how many rabbits die in natural cave-ins we will never know about[[/note]]. And then there's the fact that the soil and/or stone that the tunnel displaces has to go ''somewhere''. Having the creature eat their way through the earth doesn't help either, since a stomach will only hold as much material as will fit inside it.

* The Spies of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'' are very good at this. Their handheld and footworn gadgets can not only dig very quickly without a sweat, but they can also eliminate all the excess dirt or rock into thin air, even if the path is to go straight up, leaving the Spies clean and tidy.

** This happened in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E14LisaTheGreek Lisa the Greek]]" when Bart fell down a well and the townspeople dug a parallel hole to get at him.

** This happened in one episode when Bart fell down a well and the townspeople dug a parallel hole to get at him.

* According to ''AudioPlay/LeDonjonDeNaheulbeuk'', it takes 48 dwarfs to dig in two days a 28-meter tunnel in granite. Of those, about only six to eight dwarfs actually dig.

*** The Tasmanian Devil even does this on occasion, drilling through not just earth, but trees and even rocks. But unlike a duck, the Tasmanian devil is actually a burrowing creature.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' did this when Bart fell down a well and the townspeople dug a parallel hole to get at him.
** At the end of the episode "Homer the Vigilante", all of the townspeople dig a hole looking for buried treasure, but find an empty trunk. Not at all discouraged by this, they continue digging well into the night until they find themselves at the bottom of a very deep pit.

* [[AlphaBitch Brandy]] of ''BrandyAndMrWhiskers'' once did this to escape prison. [[TheDitz Mr. Whiskers]] happened to be walking past the area that her tunnel led to, mistook it for a sink hole, and put a large heavy rock over it to keep people from falling in.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterrene Subterrenes]] could ''theoretically'' drill tunnels and eliminate waste rock AND reinforce the resulting tunnels fast enough to act as RealLife '''{{Drill Tank}}s'''. However, [[SovietSuperscience only the Russians]] have ever built a "Battle Mole", as the primary component was a '''''nuclear reactor'''''. Which broke down and killed the crew. ConspiracyTheories abound, however.

* Averted in ''The Wizardry Quested'', part of the WizBiz series by Rick Cook, when a band of dwarves considers entering a castle by tunnelling into the cellars, but decide against it because they don't have the needed three years.

* Mario in ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros2'' and ''VideoGame/SuperMarioGalaxy2'' can dig extremely quickly when it's necessary, in the former to the bottom of a pyramid's underground chamber in minutes, in the latter through whole planets in seconds when using the drill. Bowser also digs an extremely long tunnel simply by shoving a DrillTank as part of the main quest in [[VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiBowsersInsideStory Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]], in probably hours at most.

When you get down to thinking about it, there is a lot of ArtisticLicensePhysics involved when this happens in fiction. See, dirt's natural state is not to form a stable roof above. Like water, it seeks the lowest point. GravityIsAHarshMistress here, as a tunnel ceiling that looks stable may collapse at any old time. True - rabbits, insects and other borrowing creatures make these nice, neat little tunnels but those are much smaller creatures than humans and they have evolved to dig fast and safe[[note]]At least we think so. We have no idea how many rabbits have died in natural cave-ins we will never know about[[/note]]. And then there's the fact that the soil and/or stone that the tunnel displaces has to go ''somewhere''. Having the creature eat their way through the earth doesn't help either, since a stomach will only hold as much material as will fit inside it.

* Occurs in ''[[EvangelionAtSchool Evangelion@School]]'', possibly as a ShoutOut to ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''.

* Shows up with the character Boris from ''TrintonChronicles'' who's main mode of transport is super-fast digging. It helps his power also restores the ground to pristine shape including repairing pipes, reconstructing cement floors, and undoing damage his huge claws create every time he burrows.

* According to ''Franchise/LeDonjonDeNaheulbeuk'', it takes 48 dwarfs to dig in two days a 28-meter tunnel in granite. Of those, about only six to eight dwarfs actually dig.