History Main / FastTunnelling

*** ''VideoGame/MarioPartyDS'': There's a minigame where the characters have to dig a tunnel quickly to avoid being caught by a Monty Mole (it looks big, but it has a regular size; the characters fleeing from it were shrunk by Bowser at the start of the game).

*** ''Mario Party DS'': There's a minigame where the characters have to dig a tunnel quickly to avoid being caught by a Monty Mole (it looks big, but it has a regular size; the characters fleeing from it were shrunk by Bowser at the start of the game).

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'' has a gadget called the Mole Gloves, which allows the wearer to dig tunnels and travel underground within seconds. It appears mostly in the shorts, though said gadget was used in one movie, ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaInTheWanNyanSpacetimeOdyssey'', when Nobita and their new friend Hachi gets trapped underground by a cave-in.

** ''WesternAnimation/BugsBunny'': Bugs typically digs at about the same pace other characters walk or run, leaving a raised trail to mark his passage as he zips about underground.

%%** Sometimes even WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck does this.

** ''VideoGame/MarioParty DS'': There's a minigame where the characters have to dig a tunnel quickly to avoid being caught by a Monty Mole (it looks big, but it has a regular size; the characters fleeing from it were shrunk by Bowser at the start of the game).

* ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsSindbadTheSailor'': After one of Sinbad's punches knocks him inside a tree, Popeye somehow moves down from this tree and into the ground, rapidly moves underground while visible from the surface as a moving bump, and comes back up through another tree.

** WesternAnimation/BugsBunny going anywhere. (Maybe that's why he always makes a WrongTurnAtAlbuquerque.) Very possibly the TropeMaker and UrExample.
** Also Buster and Babs on ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures''.
** Sometimes even WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck does this.
** Ralph Wolf had a notable instance after he snapped up Sam Sheepdog and got pancaked for it.
** The Tasmanian Devil also 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.
** The WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}} episode "Draculee Draculaa" had the Warner siblings traveling this way. When they emerge from the ground, Yakko tells the audience:

* ''WesternAnimation/SwatKats'' had a digging machine that got underground in seconds.

** This happened in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS3E13RadioBart Radio Bart]]" when Bart fell down a well and the townspeople dug a parallel hole to get at him.
** At the end of the episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E11HomerTheVigilante 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.
--->'''Otto:''' How do we get out?
--->'''Homer:''' We'll dig our way out!
--->'''Chief Wiggum:''' No, no, dig ''up'', stupid!
* 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 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.
* The eponymous drill from the second season episode of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' "The Drill" goes through the roughly 20-metre-thick ''compressed granite'' wall of Ba Sing Se in perhaps two hours.

* Digger, Basher and Miner VideoGame/{{Lemmings}} make pretty darn good progress relative to their size in a short period of time, and they won't stop digging until they reach the other side of whatever obstacle they tackle.
* Seems to be the inspiration behind the "Tunneling" travel-power in ''VideoGame/ChampionsOnline'' (the animation for which resembles Bugs Bunny's style below)
* Nod [[DrillTank Subterranean APCs]] and Devil's Tongues can travel pretty swiftly underground in ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun''.

* Drill Man from ''VideoGame/MegaMan4'' and Ground Man from ''VideoGame/MegaManAndBass''. The ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' series has Grizzly Slash.

** In ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and ''Platinum'', there is 'Ruin Maniac' that challenges you to collect a certain rare Pokémon (Unown) before he finishes digging a tunnel, aptly called 'Maniac Tunnel'. The more versions of Unown you collect, the longer the tunnel becomes. Closer to the end of your collection (i.e. after obtaining 26 out of 28 Unown), the man has singlehandedly dug the tunnel hundreds of feet long — even if you only take a few hours to collect the required variants of the Unown — with the tunnel itself leading to the two variants of Unown needed to finish one's collection. The townspeople outside [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this by talking about how crazy the guy is.

* ''VideoGame/DigDug'' lives by this, as does any video game that involves mining.
* The pneumatic drill and blowtorch "weapons" in ''VideoGame/{{Worms}}''.
* Knuckles the Echidna has this ability in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''. The Yellow Drill Wisps in ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' also utilize this as a means to get to secret rooms and pathways. The tunnels made are filled back up just as fast, though.

* One of the Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse games has {{Sand Worm}}s that move ridiculously quickly and with little disturbance of the surrounding sand.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Shantae}} and the Seven Sirens'', Shantae can dig her way through soft ground with the Gastro Drill transformation. She can dig through it as fast as she can walk, and can move even faster with the Dirt Crawler card equipped.

* 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 (though Toad is even faster), in the latter through whole planets in seconds when using the Drill powerup. ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker2'' grants this ability with the [=SMB2=] Mushroom, as it can be used to dig through SolidClouds. 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.

* Zerg units in ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'' and its sequel can burrow, making them invisible. This is a valid strategy to take the heat off your front line units during combat, forcing the enemy to switch targets to healthy units instead. The can burrow into dirt, rock, asphalt with the same ease and even in bridges...[[FridgeLogic somehow]]. This even works with [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the ultralisk]], a mutated six-legged elephant so big it looms over tanks and tramples force walls but is nevertheless capable of burrowing completely underground in less time than it takes a missile to travel to it. [[SpiderTank Roaches]] and [[TheVirus Infestors]] fit this trope perfectly, as they can actually tunnel underground.

* ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' allows a player with a matlock to instantly remove dirt or rock in their path. Bombs clear a large section very quickly as well. This is often the easiest and safest way to make your way through any given stage.

* ''WesternAnimation/LoonyTunes'' and related media:

* Diggers like Simon in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'' use hand powered drills to bore through rock and soil at very high speed.

** [[AWizardDidIt Magic involved?]]

* Averted in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' when they use mole forms to dig a tunnel to the yeerk pool. In the two hour limit they barely get 6 feet dug, and at the angle of decent means they only got 1 foot below ground. [[spoiler:Not only that but they ''miss'' the intended destination and end up in a bat cave that just happened to border the Yeerk Pool]].
** Played straight in a later novel, where Ax and Tobias use [[spoiler: [[HorrorHunger Taxxon]]]] morphs to [[ExtremeOmnivore eat a massive tunnel to the Yeerk Pool]].

* Unseen but implied to have happened in ''Series/HogansHeroes'', where Hogan's men have dug so many tunnels that one is surprised the camp doesn't fall in.
** Downplayed, though, as the new tunnels they dig are depicted as very narrow and small, and with several men working for hours they don't manage to go very far. It's only later on that each tunnel winds up resembling an entire second story. As said above, it's a little unnerving that the entire camp is just a sinkhole waiting to happen.

* In the ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' and ''Platinum'', there is 'Ruin Maniac' that challenges you to collect a certain rare Pokémon (Unown) before he finishes digging a tunnel, aptly called 'Maniac Tunnel'. The more versions of Unown you collect, the longer the tunnel becomes. Closer to the end of your collection (i.e. after obtaining 26 out of 28 Unown), the man has singlehandedly dug the tunnel hundreds of feet long — even if you only take a few hours to collect the required variants of the Unown — with the tunnel itself leading to the two variants of Unown needed to finish one's collection. The townspeople outside [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] this by talking about how crazy the guy is.

* Knuckles the Echidna, from ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog''.
** The Yellow Drill Wisps in ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' also utilize this as a means to get to secret rooms and pathways. The tunnels made are filled back up just as fast, though.
* Players in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' easily dig a fifty meter long tunnel in a matter of minutes. Faster, if they can get themselves a diamond tool. (And as of 1.16, slightly faster than that if they can upgrade that diamond tool with a netherite ingot). And carrying 2240 cubic metres of cobbled/solid rock around with them doesn't slow the process down at all.

** And if that wasn't enough, 1.4.2 introduced a Beacon, which can give you the Haste effect. With an Efficency V Diamond or Netherite Pickaxe[[note]]Gold Pickaxes are technically faster, but so much weaker you're probably not gonna use them.[[/note]] with the Haste II effect, you can dig out your own quarry in minutes.
* 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 (though Toad is even faster), 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.

** Similarly in ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' Crypt Fiends can burrow down fast enough to escape someone trying to kill them. They can still be killed by aiming siege weaponry at the ground though, so apparently they don't go that far.

* ''WebAnimation/DSBTInsaniT'': Martha's [[OurWerebeastsAreDifferent Monster form]], which is a giant blue snake that can dig fast.
** Screech can do this by [[ThisIsADrill creating a giant drill in front of himself.]]

* WesternAnimation/BugsBunny going pretty much anywhere. (Maybe that's why he always makes a WrongTurnAtAlbuquerque.) Very possibly the TropeMaker and UrExample.

* Rather inverted by WesternAnimation/KimPossible, who briefly has Superman-type powers in one episode. She could drill through dirt and rock by spinning at a high speed, but unlike Superman, or even a Tasmanian Devil, she looked visibly nauseous from the effort.

* ''Deep Core'' uses combinations of drills and FrickinLaserBeams to quickly go through rock. 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.

* Players in ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' easily dig a fifty meter long tunnel in a matter of minutes. Faster, if they can get themselves a diamond tool. And carrying 2240 cubic metres of cobbled/solid rock around with them doesn't slow the process down at all.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K'': Tyranid Trygons and Mawlocs are massive digging creatures that are able to dig tunnels by using bio-electrical fields to fuse the earth to the sides of the tunnels.

-->'''Otto:''' How do we get out?
-->'''Homer:''' We'll dig our way out!
-->'''Chief Wiggum:''' No, no, dig ''up'', stupid!

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS7E19ToChangeAChangeling To Change a Changeling]]", while the Maulwurf spends most of its on-screen time above ground, it digs away extremely quickly once it decides to flee at the end of episode. At the very least, it digs fast enough to take its entire elephant-sized bulk underground in a second or two, while leaving nothing more than slightly raised edges around the resulting hole in the way of detritus or displaced soil.

* This is a ninja trick used a few times in ''Anime/{{Naruto}}''. Naruto used it in his fight with Neji to deliver the finishing blow, and Kakashi's ninja dogs used it earlier during the second fight with Zabuza to attack and immobilize him, somehow using there sense of smell to see while underground. This trick is apparently not an [[DishingOutDirt earth technique]] as Naruto does not have earth powers.

* ''Videogame/DeepRockGalactic:'' Pickaxe digging is a ''little'' slow, but still significantly faster than real life would dictate. The Digger's twin drills, however, will take him through solid rock almost as fast as he can walk, leaving a perfectly safe tunnel his teammates can follow. And the Drop Pods that take you to and from the mission areas can carve through miles of earth in minutes, though tunnel stability is less of a problem when they can just drill back out.

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]