History Main / ItsGoingDown

** It's more TruthInTelevision, actually. Most old windmills were made to grind grains to produce flour; flour is incredibly flammable, and generally when you add friction/heat to a flammable substance in a large building constructed primarily of wood and fitted with huge bits of oiled or waxed canvas...

* Both Death Stars in ''Franchise/StarWars'', as well as [[Film/TheForceAwakens Starkiller Base]] (basically a Death Star on ''lots'' of steroids).
** The ''Executor'' survives ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', but blows up in spectacular fashion in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
* Any villain's base in a Film/JamesBond movie [[CollapsingLair will end up blowing up by the end]].
** As will any vehicle involved in any sort of chase scene. James' car may not blow up, [[ChronicallyCrashedCar but it's bound to get trashed.]]
*** One time, it actually got ''[[Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough sliced in half. Lengthwise.]]'' And was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] immediately afterwards by Bond. ("Q's not gonna like it!")

*** [[spoiler: Although the Venice building that sinks into the Adriatic compensates the lack of a CollapsingLair in ''CR''.]]

* Axis Chemicals in ''Film/Batman1989''.
** It ends up blown again in ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020''.

* ''Film/VForVendetta''. As soon as V promises to blow up the houses of Parliament in the first act, the ending is a foregone conclusion. Nothing would satisfy but a massive explosion. Set to the 1812 Overture.
** In the book, Parliament's the first thing to go, followed by the Old Bailey, and, a year later, Downing Street.

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}, CMOT Dibbler, who becomes a movie producer in ''Literature/MovingPictures'' creates the epic "click" "Blown Away", where, in the end, the city of Ankh-Morpork will burn to the ground. Based loosely on real events, but in the movie, several buildings that certainly didn't burn down, are torched.
** Not that AM doesn't get torched. The ''very first book'' opened with the city in flames. Plus the time the dragon took over. The fact that the populace knows how to stop a [[CrazyPrepared city-wide fire]] (close the sea gates and flood it out) shows that it probably happens more often than plausible.

* MarvelUniverse's [[AirborneAircraftCarrier Helicarriers]] are prone to spectacular crashes. The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse followed suit.

Also applies to any and all enemy vehicles in a chase scene. Not only is [[EveryCarIsAPinto Every Car A Pinto]], but so is every Motorbike, and Plane, and Speeder, and Battle Flyer apparently designed to travel through space.

Used to describe structures that will be destroyed by the end of the movie, usually in [[StuffBlowingUp a massive explosion]], even if for no other reason than the RuleOfCool. Your town has a large windmill in the middle of a field? It's toast. It's likely to explode because of loose flour, or to get burned down by an AngryMob. Same rule applies to bridges over chasms.

Then there's [[FallingChandelierOfDoom chandeliers]], [[EndangeredSouffle soufflés]], [[AshesToCrashes funeral urns]], [[PricelessMingVase antique vases]], [[ExplodingFishTanks aquaria]], [[Creator/SeanBean Sean]] [[ChronicallyKilledActor Bean]], [[DoomedSupermarketDisplay supermarket displays]]... all of these things, like rules, are made to be broken.

* The ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Xavier Mansion spends time standing as much as its destroyed. Its such a running gag to destroy the Mansion, that even ''Film/Deadpool2016'' lampshades it.

* ''Film/VForVendetta'' As soon as V promises to blow up the houses of Parliament in the first act, the ending is a foregone conclusion. Nothing would satisfy but a massive explosion. Set to the 1812 Overture.

* [[WatchThePaintJob Any really expensive car]] that suddenly turns up in the middle of a chase scene, e.g., the yellow Ferrari Nick Cage's character commandeers in the chase scene in ''Film/TheRock'' or the Lamborghini creamed in the hovercraft chase scene in ''Film/RumbleInTheBronx''. Soon as you see that car, you know it's doomed; that's why it's in the movie: [[ChronicallyCrashedCar to get creamed.]]

* The ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Xavier Mansion spends standing as much time destroyed. Its such a running gag to destroy the Mansion, that even ''Film/Deadpool'' lampshades it.

* The original ''MyLittlePony'' cartoon does this a couple times. In the pilot special, Tirak's fortress basically evaporates at the end. In the four-part episode ''Return of Tambelon'', the eponymous city gets sucked into another dimension ''twice'' - once in the backstory, and again at the episode's climax.

* Anything and everything that resembles a tower in ''VideoGame/SplitSecond''. That airport control tower? BOOM! That [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Needle Space Needle]] rip-off? BOOM! That crane? BOOM! ... And so on. They'll almost always end up on top of several cars.

* The road tanker in ''Film/TheTerminator''. Which the following movies imitate with a liquid nitrogen truck, both a firemen and a tow truck, and a school bus.

* Discussed in ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', as [=McCoy=] thinks the PlanetSpaceship being visited "looks like a snowglobe just about to be broken". While Yorktown does suffer some damage, it survives the movie just fine,

As there is NoOntologicalInertia, the castle, fortress, temple or other elaborate and impressive structure that houses the BigBad will make an even more elaborate and impressive explosion after he has been dispatched by the heroes (see LoadBearingBoss and CollapsingLair). A clue that ItsGoingDown is if anyone mentions the lair being "bound to or crafted by the villain's will/power/magic." A more mundane version is when the imposing manor or [[EvilTowerOfOminousness tower]] from which the EvilOverlord was conducting his operations is beset by villagers wielding impromptu torches, battering rams, and various other weapons of architectural destruction. Usually, there will be a wide shot of the tower in flames and crumbling, even if it is constructed entirely out of stone. RuleOfCool again.

[[folder: Anime and Manga]]

* In the Literature/{{Discworld}}, CMOT Dibbler, who becomes a movie producer in ''Discworld/MovingPictures'' creates the epic "click" "Blown Away", where, in the end, the city of Ankh-Morpork will burn to the ground. Based loosely on real events, but in the movie, several buildings that certainly didn't burn down, are torched.

* Creator/TerryPratchett plays with it oh so much in ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', especially with the FallingChandelierOfDoom. Seeing as the plot is closely related to ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', it's no wonder that everyone declares it an accident waiting to happen.

* The windmill in the climax of ''Film/SleepyHollow''.

* ''ThePunisher'' once mentions that whenever he sees a bus, truck, or other large, fuel-filled vehicle, he can't stop himself from thinking what a big boom it would make. This just as he's about to fire and take out a commercial airliner filled with an island's worth of villains.

* Both Death Stars in ''Franchise/StarWars''.
** The ''Executor'' survives ''Empire'', but blows up in spectacular fashion in ''Jedi''.

* Every Skull Castle in the original ''VideoGame/MegaMan'' series. And no small number of lairs in other games either.

* In the fifth season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', a plot was hatched involving the natural gas refinery. The GenreSavvy audience members immediately knew that this building was doomed to a swift and fiery death.

* Axis Chemical in the original ''Film/{{Batman}}'' movie.

* Being set in Holland, one level in ''[[VideoGame/MedalOfHonor Medal of Honor: Frontline]]'' naturally features windmills...one of which you promptly set on fire to signal the French Resistance.

* ''Film/TheSeeker: The Dark is Rising'', when a bunch of windmills fall victim to Will's hissy-fit.

Then there's [[FallingChandelierOfDoom chandeliers]], [[EndangeredSouffle soufflés]], [[AshesToCrashes funeral urns]], [[PricelessMingVase antique vases]], [[ExplodingFishTanks aquaria]], [[DoomedSupermarketDisplay supermarket displays]]... all of these things, like rules, are made to be broken.

* Most vehicles in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series that aren't the ''[[CoolShip Normandy]]'' ([[spoiler:and once even the ''Normandy'']]) tend to explode in a spectacular fashion, particularly Sovereign in the first game and the [[HumongousMecha YMIR mechs]] and the Collector base in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''.

* The [[FallingChandelierOfDoom chandelier]] in ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' is a classic example of this, enough to be a trope on its own.
** Creator/TerryPratchett plays with it oh so much in ''Discworld/{{Maskerade}}'', especially with the FallingChandelierOfDoom. Seeing as the plot is closely related to ''ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', it's no wonder that everyone declares it an accident waiting to happen.

* ''{{Mistborn}}'' Kredik Shaw ''almost'' lasts out the series [[spoiler: Until Vin flattens it]].

* In the fifth season of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'', a plot was hatched involving the natural gas refinery. The GenreSavvy audience members immediately knew that this building was doomed to a swift and fiery death.

* On ''TopGear'', any caravan or Morris Marina is guaranteed to be destroyed.

* Once a game in the ''ProfessorLayton'' series.
* Anything marked with a red and white star in ''[[VideoGame/JustCause Just Cause 2]]'' can and should be destroyed for fun and profit. This includes huge radio masts, satellite dishes, fuel containers, construction cranes, water towers, gas stations, propaganda trailers and yes, windmills.
* Planets visited by Samus in the side-scrolling ''{{Metroid}}'' series have a tendency to explode. By the end of the fourth game, ''all'' of the places she'd gone to had been taken out (discounting those from the 3D ''Prime'' series).
* Anything and everything that resembles a tower in ''SplitSecond''. That airport control tower? BOOM! That [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Needle Space Needle]] rip-off? BOOM! That crane? BOOM! ... And so on. They'll almost always end up on top of several cars.

* [[MonumentalDamage Any remotely recognizable building in a global disaster movie.]] ''Film/IndependenceDay'' was notorious for it, while the director later return to even greater MonumentalDamage in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' seemed to take the most glee in this.

* The road tanker in ''Film/TheTerminator''. Which the following movies imitate with a liquid nitrogen truck and both a firemen and a tow truck.