History Main / LandMineGoesClick

In RealLife, you probably won't know somebody stepped on a mine until they blow up.

Another fun fact about landmines is that they don't necessarily kill you. Antipersonnel mines are designed to maim rather than outright kill because wounded but still alive soldiers need to be evacuated from the battlefield, which costs more time and resources. A lot of people survive landmines with missing feet or legs... In fact, you're almost twice as likely to survive a landmine as not. So... yay?

* A sociopathic bomber rigs one up under the floor of his own hotel room in a ''Series/{{Castle}}'' episode, and Kate Beckett steps on it. If she moves or even shifts her weight while standing the mine goes off. If she remains where she is, the mine, which is on a timer, blows up anyway. To help fight fatigue Castle helps keep Beckett's mind occupied in a series of flashbacks about their [[RelationshipUpgrade very complicated relationship]].

* In ''Film/{{Assembly}}'' have one of the PRC lieutenants, Zhao Erdou, stepping on a landmine (according to another character, a "French anti-personnel mine") and unable to lift his foot for fear of getting blown apart. His best friend, Sergeant Gu, managed to rescue him by sticking a knife through the underside of Zhao's boot and apply pressure to prevent the mine from triggering, as Zhao unties his shoelaces and lose what he's wearing. The mine still goes off, without killing anyone though it still costs Gu [[EyeScream his left eye]].

* In ''ComicBook/SgtRock: Between Hell and a Hard Place'', Ice Cream Soldier is patrolling with NewMeat Rin Tin Tin when Tinny realizes he's stepped on a landmine. Ice tries to keep him calm and dig it out from under him, but ultimately he's forced to get to cover as the thing goes off, taking Tinny with it.

*** ''Fallout 3'' offers four types of mines: basic frag mines, stronger plasma mines, and anti-electronic pulse mines, The home-built bottlecap mines are technically [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvised_explosive_device IEDs]] but they are massively powerful. As an amusing example of VideoGameCrueltyPotential, you can [[WhyAmITicking arm a mine and put it into your opponent's inventory]] for a quick kill with less collateral damage than doing the same with a grenade.

* ''VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon'' has the AT-S, a disc-shaped mine with an obvious {{color coded|ForYourConvenience}} flashing light on top (red for enemy-placed mines, green or blue for yours). You can't throw them very far and they barely bounce around when hitting the ground, but they do explode on contact with a hostile when mid-flight; after they land and are armed, they'll jump up like a bouncing betty when triggered before exploding with a blast radius larger than the frag grenade's, but not quite as wide as the remote bomb's. In the {{Compilation Rerelease}}s, you can pick your thrown mines back up.

* In ''VideoGame/SevenDaysToDie'', landmines can be crafted out of air filters, candy tins and even hubcaps, for defensive purposes or offensive, depending on your creativity. The area surrounding a military camp and certain seedy buildings will most likely be stuffed with them. Not that it helped against the zombies, but [[ArtificialStupidity they're still dumb enough to walk into them]]. These mines do not beep, click, or hesitate before detonating. Mercifully they are not buried and can usually be survived, but hide well in even moderately tall grass and can be destroyed with weapons fire.
* ''VideoGame/ActionDoom2UrbanBrawl'' has the forest level, which is filled with landmines visible (barely) as vague gray patches on the brown ground in the darkness of dusk. The first time you step on one, it's always a dud, but the game isn't as merciful the next time.
* In ''VideoGame/Ashes2063'', the SecondaryFire of the pipebombs causes Scav to pull on a tripwire and set the bomb down on the ground. If an enemy touches it, the bomb detonates and sends the hapless mook (and often several of their cohorts) up in smoke. The only way to dispose of a planted pipebomb used to be by shooting it[[note]]though that was rarely necessary since Scav cannot trigger his own trapped bombs by accident[[/note]], but with the release of ''Ashes Afterglow'', they were changed to be defusable by pressing 'use' on them, whereupon they can be collected. Handy when chapter 2 has pipebombs placed by other wasters to protect their stashes.

* Used twice on ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', when a time-shift plunked two characters who were scanning for temporal disruptions in a present-day meadow into a 1940s-era security minefield. Like the ''Macgyver'' example above, it's rescuing a girl from the first mine that lands Fargo on top of the second one.

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'' - ''Literature/YoungJediKnights'': Generally averted with the burrowing detonators and sonic punchers (motion-activated grenades) used during the civil war on Anobis (as portrayed in ''Return to Ord Mantell''. Sometimes the soil the burrowing detonators are in can be seen moving moments before one goes off, but there's rarely any warning. Fortunately, Jedi can sense them wherever they're planted, and the Solo children and their friends make use of this to help clear out many fields and tunnels that have been seeded with these weapons. Flying low enough over a field with shields active also proves very effective for clearing out the burrowing detonators planted there.

* In ''Manga/EdenItsAnEndlessWorld'' a military officer is clearing a newly mined road by forcing local villagers to walk through one by one. After a young girl steps on a mine and freezes, officer comments that she's smart, as mines only blow up when you step off. Then he shoots her in the leg to make her fall.

* Happens to a character in ''Film/TheCondemned 2''. He steps on a land mine, hears the click and stops in his track. His friend helps him out by carefully sliding a big rock onto the mine to replace the foot's weight.

** This one has to take the cake though: in 2015, unexploded ordnance was found in Washington state that dates back to ''[[http://warisboring.com/articles/america-still-has-a-problem-with-unexploded-civil-war-bombs/ the Civil War]]'', over '''150 years old.'''

** Since the frontlines stabilized in mid/late 2022 leaving the South and East of Ukraine occupied by Russians, Russians have mined pretty much all of these lines in anticipation of an Ukrainian offensive, several layers deep. It is now the [[https://euromaidanpress.com/2023/08/13/russian-mines-hinder-ukraines-counteroffensive-efforts-insider/ largest mine field in the world]]. In their attempts to clear it for their offensives, Ukrainian engineers have developed special [[https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a44737062/spider-boots-may-save-ukraine-from-russia-mine-warfare/ pod-tipped boots]] that help against some types of mines.

Land mines. Hundreds of thousands of them lie buried and forgotten around the world. One of the most dangerous and easy to deploy weapons of war, they can effectively deny an area from use for any purpose until they're cleared. They were considered so dangerous in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII that the armies used special tanks equipped with massive rollers and [[EpicFlail chain whips]] to detonate them away from the tank's hull and clear a path through the field. Modern armies deploy everything from explosive counter-charges to remote-controlled robots to deal with these nasty things.

* The Glukkons of ''VideoGame/OddWorld'' [[NoOSHACompliance liberally seed their factories and industrial complexes with mines]] [[StupidEvil for no very good reason]]. As well as the surrounding countryside. And their transportation hubs. Indeed, [[FridgeLogic it often seems]] like Abe would be better off finding out who is manufacturing them and shutting them down first because whoever it is is [[IncrediblyLamePun making an absolute killing]]. The common type gives off a healthy red glow and beeps when it explodes. Another type blinks red and green in sequence, requiring you to tap it when it is green to deactivate it.

* ''Series/{{Prison Break}}: In "The Legend", while looking for a way into the Company's headquarters, Sucre accidentally steps on a land mine which starts beeping. With Sucre unable to move for fear of detonating the mine, Lincoln reluctantly brings in Gretchen who attempts to disarm it. Michael and Mahone decode the blue prints for the defences around the Company HQ and learn the mine is also an alarm and disarming it would alert the Company, so they manage to override the mines, allowing Sucre to safely step off.

* ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'':

** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'', the Chinese can equip every structure with hidden (for enemies) land mines and neutron mines (in ''Zero Hour''), which kill infantry, even in vehicles, which you then can proceed to capture. They can also airdrop minefields. Likewise, GLA demo traps are hidden barrels with proximity sensors and an explosive payload powerful enough to take out a tank, that stay cloaked until they're interacted with; for an extra mean kick in multiplayer, the player can set it to manual mode and detonate it that way. They take a second to bleep a very unpleasant sound and then proceed to explode, taking out anything that isn't very fast and just cruising past it like a Technical or Combat Cycle. {{Worker Unit}}s can disable mines, and in ''Zero Hour'', Demo Traps as well; the latter can also be revealed like any cloaked unit and shot until it detonates, and they even yield experience to the unit that deals the last shot.