History Main / NeutronBomb

* The DNA Bomb from ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' effectively functions this way, being designed to kill all life on a given planet while leaving man-made structures intact. [[BigBad Sarrano]] was delivering it to Stygia when his ship was attacked by [[PlayerCharacter Grayson Hunt's]] ship. It creates a RaceAgainstTheClock scenario halfway through the game, as Grayson, Ishi, and Sarrano must keep it from detonating before their evac comes. [[spoiler:However, that turns out to a ruse by Sarrano to trick Grayson and Ishi into arming it.]] [[spoiler:It goes off at the end, and works as advertised.]]

The other potential use of neutron bombs is knocking down enemy nuclear warheads and spacecraft. Above the atmosphere, where there isn't much medium to create a shockwave, neutrons and X-rays became nuclear weapon main effects. Neutrons, hitting electronics, could quite easily fry it completely, making it useless. And in case of enemy warhead, neutrons from outside blast "heat up" the warhead nuclear fuel, making it too active to detonate properly (it would fizzle, pre-detonating before enough fuel would be drawn into a chain reaction, producing only a weak sub-kiloton explosion). Due to that, neutron warheads remained main weapon of anti-missile defense during Cold War, albeit later (1980s) nuclear warheads started to receive anti-radiation hardening specifically against neutron attacks.

** [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 The first game]] has a lab on Noveria equips with a neutron purge for dealing with any biological experiments that break out.

-->Gonna drive up to your place baby,\\

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->''"Efficiency and progress is ours once more,''\\
''Now that we have the Neutron Bomb,''\\
''It's nice and quick and clean and gets things done."''

* In the ''Anime/{{Trigun}}'' anime, [[StrawNihilist Knives]]' weapon is apparently one (or at least its fictional version), making the whole population of a town disappear without trace but everything else is intact. [[TechnicalPacifist Vash]]'s one is the opposite, destroying everything when activated but living things - but Vash himself doesn't know it ([[CrapsackWorld not like people usually survive much there after the town is hit with it anyway]]).

* The film ''Film/RepoMan'' revolves around a car with one of these in the trunk. Or maybe shrimp-aliens who vaporize people. Or David Bowman. Or some combination of the three.
* The French movie ''Film/District13'' had one stolen by criminals and kept in the slums of future Paris. The bomb has a fail-deadly feature of detonating after 24 hours unless the heroes storm the castle and disarm it. [[spoiler: Some politicians let the bomb get stolen so that when it blew up, it would take out the slums and most of the criminals in Paris. The disarm code given to the heroes actually arms it. They figure it out in time.]]
* One of the news stories in the first "Media Break" segment of ''Film/RoboCop1987'' is about how tensions in UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica, reduced to the status of a besieged city state, have increased after the government reveals that they have acquired a French made neutron bomb, and demonstrated their intent to use it as a weapon of last resort.
* This is one reason ''why'' the Genesis Device was considered so dangerous in ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''-- it not only had the ability to create a completely livable ecosystem, it did so by eradicating ''everything'' on the surface of the planet it was dropped on. Imagine if some genius admiral decided to drop one on the Klingon homeworld...
* ''Film/HaloNightfall'' opens with a variant used by a Covenant remnant group on a human colony. The bomb uses a fictional transuranic element that causes a lethal illness in many humans while leaving infrastructure and Covenant races totally unscathed. The rest of the story deals with Locke and his team trying to destroy the source of said element so no more bombs like this can be made.

* The very first mention of a Neutron Bomb in a work of fiction was in "The Ipcress File" by Len Deighton; the Nameless Agent/Narrator (he was only Harry Palmer in the films)is an observer at the test of such a weapon on Tokwe Atoll when he gets "snatched".
* In David Graham's ''Literature/DownToASunlessSea'', in addition to several countries throwing nuclear weapons at each other, a major military base on an island is apparently the target of a neutron bomb. Some people show up and supposedly all the buildings, equipment and structures are intact, it's just that everything living is dead. Apparently nothing is alive above ground, not even worms, because the pulse killed everything, to a distance of ten feet below ground. The only survivor was a man who was in the vault of the military base, 60 feet underground, at the instant of the blast.
* In Eoin Colfer's ''Literature/ArtemisFowl'', the incredibly technologically-advanced fairies have a neutron bomb known as a "blue rinse". It can destroy all life in an area and leave every non-biological thing intact. It's also remarkable in that it can be tuned to a blast range of centimeters, if not millimeters.
** This is partially due to the [[PhlebotinumBomb fictional element solinium]] not to mention the fairies' time-stop capabilities. Essentially, because the blue-rinse detonated in an isolated area of time-space, everything outside it remained unharmed while everything inside died horribly.
* In ''The Survivalist'' series by Jerry Ahern, the Soviets use a neutron bomb on Chicago so that they'll have an intact city from which they can direct the [[InvadedStatesOfAmerica occupation of America]].
* In the ''Series/RedDwarf'' novel ''Infinity Welcomes Careful Drivers'', the radiation leak that kills the crew is described as being equivalent to a neutron bomb.
-->The ship remained structurally undamaged, but in 0.08 seconds, everyone on the engineering levels was dead.

* In the Creator/DaleBrown novel ''Chains Of Command'', Russia's campaign to reconquer the Ukraine begins with a bombardment of neutron bombs against the main Ukrainian Air Force bases, killing three-quarters of the pilots, thousands of civilians, and destroying the bulk of the aircraft. In this case, the weapon was selected to take out an air base with one shot (impossible with conventional weapons) while leaving the cities a couple of miles away mostly unscathed (impossible with a full-scale nuclear bomb). The bases themselves were leveled.
* In the foreword of a later edition of ''Literature/BraveNewWorld'', AldousHuxley mentioned that he had thought about such a weapon that'd kill all the people but leave the great artworks of mankind intact.
* Banshee bombs in ''[[Literature/TheFourHorsemenUniverse Asbaran Solutions]]'' by Chris Kennedy. Built by Besquith mercs, they're illegal due to being designed to be detonated at high altitude, as in above [[FictionalGenevaConventions the legal 10-mile limit for air attacks]]. When detonated, they kill every living thing across a wide area; the Besquith themselves are more resistant than other species to the radioactive contamination they leave behind. [[spoiler:The Blood Drinkers used them to take the planet Moorhouse, and a lucrative garrison contract, from Asbaran Solutions, but Nigel Asbaran can't prove it and so goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]
* Creator/DaveBarry discussed the neutron bomb in one of his Reagan-era columns. After noting that many people were protesting it because they "much prefer the old-fashioned humane-type nuclear devices that kill people ''and'' destroy buildings," and that in Western Europe, where it was to be deployed, "most buildings are for it, and most people are against it, on the grounds that it might kill them," he offered as his own view that America ought to develop the weapon to deploy on its own territory using a modified design that leaves both buildings and people intact but obliterates third-class mail instead.
* Parodied on the {{Literature/Discworld}} with one line of crossbows marketed as "kills people but leaves buildings standing".

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Used rather [[ANuclearError inaccurately]] in an episode of ''Series/{{Alias}}'', where one only killed people in its immediate area, but left everything else unharmed.
* A similar device is used in the ''Series/DoctorWho'' story "Timelash".
* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. The episode "Countdown" involves the race to defuse a "solium radiation device" before it kills everyone on the planet. The description of the device fits the propaganda view of the neutron bomb exactly. The evil Federation threatens to detonate the device if there's a major insurrection. They'll then simply repopulate the planet with more settlers using the still intact infrastructure.
* An Expy of one in the ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode "Chain of Command"; Captain Picard is sent to investigate suspicions that the Cardassians are developing a metagenic weapon, which is a virus capable of destroying all life on a planet within days, dissipates in less than a month leaving all the planet's technology intact. [[spoiler:This turned out to be a hoax by the Cardassians themselves, in a BatmanGambit to get Picard to investigate so they could capture him.]]
* A similar device is mentioned in ''Series/{{Firefly}}'', where a antique-loving warlord used them to kill people and leave their property.
* Implicitly used in ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'', as part of the Cylon plan to preserve cities such as Delphi for re-settlement. That said, the level of damage varies. Over the course of the series, we see cities that are completely destroyed, cities that are damaged and [[DepopulationBomb cities where not even the windows are cracked]].
* Used twice in ''Series/{{DansUneGalaxiePresDeChezVous}}'' The T-bomb is specifically, a bomb that damage no building but kill all lifeforms. The first movie have the [[EvilCounterpart Roberto-Menard crew]] contemplating using a similar clean bomb that does this to a planetary scale and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking shorten pants]].

* Used in "Kill The Poor" by Music/DeadKennedys, where the rich get together and [[KillThePoor do just as suggested by the song title]].
* Another punk band, the Weirdos, did a song called "We Got the Neutron Bomb".

-->''Gonna drive up to your place baby,''\\
''Gonna park in your driveway baby,''\\
''Gonna wipe out your neighbourhood baby,''\\
''Gonna wipe out your parents baby,''\\
''With a neutron bomb, a neutron bomb.''

** The Prothean VI in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' From Ashes DLC authorizes a neutron bombardment against Reaper forces to cover his creators' retreat into stasis pods inside a bunker.

%%(ZCE)* [[spoiler:Jessica Six]] in ''Videogame/SoldierOfFortune''.

* Neutron bombs are used by the StoneWall ECA army as an area-denial weapon once their Pandora Protocol is triggered. They're fired from a huge tank armed with an equally huge railgun.

* A [[HalloweenEpisode Treehouse of Horror]] short on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' has Mayor Quimby make one too many frog jokes, prompting the French to fire "Le Bomb Neutron" [[WeaponizedLandmark out of the Eiffel Tower]], leaving Homer the apparent sole survivor of Springfield. For realism points, there's a noticeable bang and cloud when the bomb goes off. For comedy, [[RefugeInAudacity the bomb has an "Intel Inside" sticker on it.]]

The Soviet Union described the Neutron Bomb as "a capitalist weapon" because it was designed to destroy people while preserving their property. (And mostly because [[YoureJustJealous they didn't have one of their own]].)[[note]]The business with neutron bombs led to a [[RussianHumour Russian joke]]: The Americans sent Gorbachev a model of a neutron bomb. Gorbachev consults with his top military advisor to see what he should send in response. After explaining that the neutron bomb kills people but leaves property alone, the advisor says that Gorbachev should send a model of a warrant officer: Leaves people alone, but takes their property.[[/note]] They even called it the "landlord bomb". It should be really evident by this point that any landlord who used a neutron bomb to free up a building would be left with a building too radioactive to rent to anyone, if it wasn't ''blown up''.

* [[spoiler:Jessica Six]] in ''Videogame/SoldierOfFortune''.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' gives the Chinese faction the option to use neutron warheads with their Nuke Cannon artillery pieces, which kill the crew of enemy vehicles, [[EnemyExchangeProgram allowing infantry to take them over.]] The Neutron Mines building upgrade creates a minefield around structures with a similar effect. Neutron bombs explode into an eldritch-looking, purple SwirlyEnergyThingy in mid-air, whereas the mine variant explodes in a flash of white

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'' gives the Chinese faction the option to use neutron warheads with their Nuke Cannon artillery pieces, which kill the crew of enemy vehicles, [[EnemyExchangeProgram allowing infantry to take them over.]] The Neutron Mines building upgrade creates a minefield around structures with a similar effect.

* The DNA Bomb from ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' effectively functions this way, being designed to kill all life on a given planet while leaving man-made structures intact. [[BigBad Sarrano]] was delivering it to Stygia when his ship was attacked by [[PlayerCharacter Grayson Hunt's]] ship. [[spoiler:It goes off at the end, and works as advertised.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Bulletstorm}}'' has one of these appear near the middle of the plot, creating a RaceAgainstTheClock situation to deactivate it. [[spoiler:it goes off at the end, and works as advertised.]]

The other potehtial use of neutron bombs is knocking down enemy nuclear warheads and spacecraft. Above the atmosphere, where there isn't much medium to create a shockwave, neutrons and X-rays became nuclear weapon main effects. Neutrons, hitting electronics, could quite easily fry it completely, making it useless. And in case of enemy warhead, neutrons from outside blast "heat up" the warhead nuclear fuel, making it too active to detonate properly (it would fizzle, pre-detonating before enough fuel woild be drawn into a chain reaction, producing only a weak sub-kiloton explosion). Due to that, neutron warheads remained main weapon of anti-missile defense during Cold War, albeit later (1980s) nuclear warheads started to receive anti-radiation hardening specifically against neutron attacks.