History Main / MissingBackBlast

->-- '''Rule #2, Murphy's Law of Combat Operations'''

** So that's one point for realism on the back blast, and minus one point for playing the MadeOfExplodium trope straight. No amount of fire and pressure, especially at the front of the vehicle will cause anything more than damage to the radiator and at worst, a fire. A fire that, unless the entire vehicle was engulfed would never cause an explosion.

* The AT4CS, a variant of the disposable AT4 rocket launcher, uses saltwater as a counter-mass, making it safe to fire indoors.

* ''{{Warhammer40000}}'' plays this trope completely straight, as do the RPG games based on it, DarkHeresy and RogueTrader.

* ''Resident Evil 5'' features not one, but two RPG-7s fired from inside a helicopter.

[[SuperRobotWars http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/MissingBackblast.jpg]]

* Averted in MobileSuitGundam when a civilian helping to fire malfunctioning missiles from an aircraft doesn't realize she needs to get out of the way after setting them off and is blown out of the plane.
* Averted in KatekyoHitmanReborn when Tsuna finds that firing his [[KamehameHadoken X-Burner]] without firing a blast of equal force backwards at the right angle produces a very violent recoil.

* Similarly averted in JaggedAlliance 2. Don't stand behind the dude with the LAW if you value your face.
* Also averted in the CombatMission series. While the backblast-to-friendly-face never happens (firstly because each little soldier is an abstraction for a full squad spread over a large area, and secondly because they are representing trained soldiers, not ''morons''), firing a bazooka or panzerschreck from inside a building is a good way to pin down your own troops (the British PIAT is immune to this, as per RealLife). Note that the game's tactical AI knows better than to do it - it'll only happen through direct player prompt

* The rocket launcher in HalfLife uses compressed air to to launch the rocket a safe distance away before the propellant ignites, averting this trope.

* In the DarkForcesSaga, there's a rocket launcher that has its backblast expelled in ''front'' of the player - though it's at right angles to the rocket launcher, so it can't harm the player. The barrel also moves away from the rocket, absorbing some of the recoil.

* Darkest Hour, a Red Orchestra mod set in western europe, has the very good possibility of teamkilling - friendly fire is always on, and backblast from Bazookas and Panzershrecks is deadly. The Panzerfaust, however, does not have this.

* Averted bloodily in this MSPaint comic [[http://blog.riseagainst.at/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/1230730696614.png here]].

* There's a rather infamous photo of Dan Quayle holding a rocket launcher for a photo-op in a manner that would burn his face off if it was actually fired.
** Except it clearly doesn't have a warhead attached, so he's safe.

* One of the more extreme examples of "backblast" is the NATO ''Milan'' infantry anti-tank guided weapon. Similar in many ways to the American ''TOW'' (Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided)anti-tank missile, ''Milan'' is delivered as a certified round sealed in its own launching tube. When it is fired, as can be seen here [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmRfe09g9JM]], not only does the missile leave the launcher going toward the target, ''the launch tube is ejected at high speed in the opposite direction''. This makes reloading very rapid, but also demands a certain amount of care in positioning the launcher in, say, a dugout.

[[AC:{{Other}}]]

See the LawOfInverseRecoil for a related weapons trope and ToastedBuns for another trope involving missing rocket exhaust.

* In the ''DoctorWho'' story "Remembrance of the Daleks", keep an eye on the wall behind Ace when she fires an RPG at a Dalek. The scorch mark is clear proof that these were the days before CGI.

* Darkest Hour, a Red Orchestra mod set in western europe, has the very good possibility of teamkilling - friendly fire is always on, and backblast from Bazookas and Panzershrecks is deadly. The panzerfaust, however, does not have this.

* ''TrueLies'' had a brief moment of realism when one of the terrorists fires a Stinger shoulder-fired anti-air missile from a moving panel truck, causing the terrorist behind him to fly out of the front windshield thanks to the backblast. The weapon was not fired backwards, since the jet had to make manouvres to dodge the missile.

* A variant in ''Film/{{Transformers}} Revenge of The Fallen'' has Optimus brace himself then, [[spoiler: using the donated parts of Jetfire as flying PoweredArmor, uses the backblast of his thrusters to blast Megatron through a wall in some Egyptian ruins. Megatron is effectively out of the fight after this.]]

* A variant in ''Transformers Revenge of The Fallen'' has Optimus brace himself then, [[spoiler: using the donated parts of Jetfire as flying PoweredArmor, uses the backblast of his thrusters to blast Megatron through a wall in some Egyptian ruins. Megatron is effectively out of the fight after this.]]

* Mostly averted in ''AustinPowersTheSpyWhoShaggedMe''. An M9 Bazooka used in the film has a very large, bright backblast, though no injuries or property damages seem to result from it, despite being indoors.

* Averted in the ''{{Battlefield2}}'' mod, ''ProjectReality.'' The backblast from rocket launchers WILL kill other players.