History Main / OutrunTheFireBall

* Handled with a bit of grisly realism in the first scene of ''Film/TheHurtLocker'', when Sergeant Thompson attempts to run away from an active bomb. He gets clear of the visible explosion, but is killed by the shockwave.

* ''Film/TheTerminator'' has a rare, if not unique, theoretically realistic version of the trope. Sarah is able to get away from the exploding truck as it explodes because the truck doesn't go up in only ''one'' explosion but a progressive series of them from back to front. You still have to assume that for some odd reason the truck would do that in the first place but no laws of physics appear to be violated. It could be that fuel truck's tank usually comprises of many smaller compartments (to counter the effects of inertia during acceleration and braking) hence could explain the progressive explosions. Almost all fuel trucks do indeed have several compartments in the fuel tanks for safety.
** Some fuel tankers also have separate compartments for different grades/octane levels of gasoline (regular/87 octane, super/89 octane, premium/92 octane).

** Parodied in "Homer Badman", when Homer is running away from an angry mob at a candy convention he kicks a soda kiosk, catches an ejected soda can, grabs a bag of pop rocks out of his pocket, opens them with his teeth as if they were a grenade, [[UrbanLegends combines them]], shakes them, and after yelling [[PreMortemOneLiner "See you in hell, candy boys!"]] throws it at the angry mob. He leaps towards the camera as the convention center explodes in a huge fireball behind him. The producers claimed that scene was based on "every Creator/BruceWillis movie ever made".

* A few levels in ''VideoGame/AssaultRetribution'' ends with the player running for dear life while everything explodes behind them, until they reach an exit. Notably the second stage, after a KillSat destroys the mutant base and the player is informed to leave before everything goes up in smoke.

* In ''[[VideoGame/FirstEncounterAssaultRecon FEAR]]'', there is a point where the player must shoot the lock off a gate, but in doing so they ignite a a burst gas main, causing a massive fireball that they must then outrun. Irritatingly, the lock cannot be blown up with explosives or shot off from a distance, and the explosion cannot be triggered by firing a weapon close to the main.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'', the player is climbing through a narrow pipe when a soldier throws a satchel in at one end -- the player must then back quickly out of the pipe to avoid getting caught in the fireball.

* In ''VideoGame/RenegadeOps'', the renegades open a prison box, hoping to find Genawi. instead they find an [[OhCrap armed LVA warhead]] with 10 seconds on the timer. [[DontAskJustRun Time to step on that speeder across a rapidly crumbling bridge.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'': When the archaeological site in Planet Sprague is blown away, you can see a RedShirt trying to run away from the explosion that slowly approaches in slow-mo... However, he is also running in slow-mo, and thus he gets swallowed by the fireball.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', Dash outruns a burst of fire from a rocket launch, and barely escapes. Admittedly, he does have SuperSpeed.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'', Shrek, Donkey, and Fiona use this trope as they reach the bridge leading away from the dragon's castle, and the dragon takes one last shot at them with her fiery breath.

* ''Series/StargateSG1'' parodied this in the episode "Point of No Return". Our heroes find themselves in an abandoned building along with an amnesiac (but friendly) alien, and a strange beeping device. The alien tells them that the device is ''counting down to something'', and so they all assume the worst and promptly run out of the building, screaming for everyone nearby to take cover, and dramatically leaping towards the camera at the last second just as... ''absolutely nothing happens''. It turns out [[spoiler:the device ''was'' counting down

* In the first issue of ''ComicBook/XMen Unlimited'', things go boom and the group of X-Men outfly it all... helped by the fact ComicBook/{{Storm}} is controlling the wind.

* [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]] (Tim Drake) saves Officer Harper from an explosion and the two of them just manage to avoid the ensuing fireball as he swings away. In a more depressing take than normal, two kids Tim didn't realize were in a car right next to the bomb were killed.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/SonOfBatman'' when ComicBook/RasAlGhul is unable to outrun a fireball despite being fast enough to block bullets with his sword. Deathstroke (whom he was fighting) is barely able to do so, and only because he'd been forewarned to get out of the building as they were his helicopter gunships firing missiles at it.

* ''Film/{{Gravity}}''. Happens for a brief moment (yes, yes, InSpace) when an oxygen cylinder explodes during the zero-G fire scene.

* In ''Film/TheHitmansWifesBodyguard'', Bryce, Sonia and Kingcaid hurriedly jump out of the exploding yacht after [[spoiler: both killing Aristotle and Bryce Sr. and stopping the virus used to destroy Europe.]]

* At the end of ''Film/LondonHasFallen'', [[spoiler:Banning and President Asher manage to escape one after jumping into an elevator shaft during the incineration of the terrorist's hideout.]]

** In ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', Kirk and Chekov outrun a long run when Kirk sets off [[spoiler:the remaining fuel within the saucer section of the destroyed ''Enterprise''.]] Thus, they're being chased by explosions, bad guys trying to kill them and [[spoiler:the saucer section flipping on its head thanks to Kirk's actions.]]

* In ''Film/{{Suffragette}}'' the protagonists run away from a explosion [[spoiler:caused by a bomb one of them built herself. It is not explained why she didn't build the bomb in a way that gives them more time to run away.]]

** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii "The Fires of Pompeii"]]: The Doctor and Donna manage to outrun [[spoiler:the advancing wall of volcanic ash and lava coming from Vesuvius all the way to Pompeii. Particularly [[ArtisticLicenseGeology impressive]] given that pyroclastic flows (the technical term) generally flow at around ''700 kph''.]]

* In the {{Pilot}} of ''Series/LoisAndClark'' (and the TitleSequence of the series), Clark outruns a fireball while carrying Lois and Jimmy. Of course, he's Franchise/{{Superman}}.

* The [[http://soldiers-of-metal.blogspot.com/2008/02/damageplan-new-found-power-groove-metal.html cover]] of Damageplan's first and only album featured the band members doing this, but much more badass.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': At the end of "The Ultimate Weapon", the final storyline quest of ''A Realm Reborn'', [[spoiler: you ride a Magitek walker out of the Praetorium as it self-destructs in the wake of Ultima Weapon's defeat.]]

* The final mission in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'' starts out as the second half of an EscortMission in which you try to evacuate as many people as possible from the Capella system before the only remaining [[PortalNetwork jump point]] gets collapsed, preventing the massive fleet of [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Shivans]] from following into human space. With still half the evacuation fleet minutes away from the jump point, Command sends out an urgent message to all ships that the Shivans just blew up the star and there are only seconds left to reach the jump point before the shockwave arrives. If you kept to the back of the convoy to protect stragglers, you're probably not goint to make it.[[note]]You still completely the game, just with a slightly different final cutscene praising the pilotes that gave their lives during the evacuation.[[/note]]

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}''

* ''VideoGame/PonyIsland'': [[spoiler:It's technically a full system dump you have to stay ahead of, but the trope still applies in the finale of the game.]]

* At the end of ''VideoGame/ZeroRanger'', [[spoiler:after destroying [[FinalBoss Despair]], you have to escape the alien planetoid as it explodes. As the explosion gets closer and closer your ship starts to shed its weapons in order to go faster.]] Depending on whether you've already beaten the game at least once, [[spoiler:your ship either [[HeroicRROD gets crippled as it flies out into space]], or survives the escape]].

* In ''Webcomic/GirlsInSpace'', when Red fails to defuse a bomb that will open a gateway between universes, colour explodes back into our universe and Red is forced to [[http://www.girlsinspace.co.uk/comic/colourblind-page-26/ run for her life.]]

* After the second of the three blasts of the 1970 [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Village_townhouse_explosion Greenwich Village townhouse explosion]], in which three members of the left-wing Weather Underground terrorist group were quite literally HoistByTheirOwnPetard, Cathy Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin, both of whom survived because they were two stories upstairs from where the victims were either building the bomb in the basement or re-entering the building, were able to escape the ruins just before the third and strongest blast, which knocked over a police officer trying to catch up to them,[[note]]They were fugitives at the time, having skipped court dates over charges filed against them in Chicago; the policeman didn't know that at the time and merely wanted to see if they were OK.[[/note]] leveled what was left of the building and rendered the neighboring buildings[[note]]one of which was Creator/DustinHoffman's house at the time[[/note]] uninhabitable.

* In the first issue of ''ComicBook/XMen Unlimited'', things go boom and the group of X-Men outfly it all... helped by the fact Comicbook/{{Storm}} is controlling the wind.

* In ''FanFic/LightAndDarkTheAdventuresOfDarkYagami'', the titular Dark Yagami is chasing Near in a car chase in Paris, when a nuclear explosion happens. The two have to outrun the fireball, and this is made even more difficult because it is "magic fire" that can turn corners.
* A conflagration chases [[Manga/DeathNote Light and Matt]] down a hallway in ''FanFic/PointOfSuccession'' after they discover that [[BigBad Beyond Birthday]] had booby-trapped the entrance of his villain lair with explosives.

* Used in one story of the ''FanFic/FacingTheFutureSeries'', where Danny and Sam are watching a movie where a car is doing this, only for it to be cut short by a blackout caused by Jack.
* The heroes escape the incinerated remains of the Metarex battlestation ''Tryphon'' in episode 64 of ''FanFic/SonicXDarkChaos''.
* In ''FanFic/ThisBites'', Cross does this when leaping off the Bridge of Hesitation.

* ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxy'': When The Collector's lair [[CollapsingLair gets blown up]], Groot grabs Rocket and hightails it out of there.

* [[ComicBook/RobinSeries Robin]] (Tim Drake) saves Officer Harper from an explosion and the two of them just manage to avoid the ensuing fireball as he swings away. In a more depressingly realistic take than normal Tim still ends up burned on the back of his head and neck and two kids Tim didn't realize were in a car right next to the bomb were killed.

* Season 6 of ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'' ends with the Reds and Blues driving away from an EMP pulse before their cars and the Epsilon memory unit are affected by it.

* Basically the whole point of the online game VideoGame/DinoRun, where you play as a dinosaur outrunning the asteroid impact explosion. You can even get bonus points for 'surfing' the 'pyroclastic wall of doom' and surviving.

* Interestingly, the "sunrise" example above appears in ''Film/TheChroniclesOfRiddick'', but cranked UpToEleven. The prison-planet Crematoria is such a harsh world that the temperature goes from -300 on the nightside to 700 degrees on the dayside, leaving only a brief 20 minute window before sunrise where the surface is actually traversable on foot and travel to and from the planet is possible.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. Vigilance rigs a dead drop located a lockup to soak in gasoline, then ignite [[FieryCoverup if anyone finds it]]. There's a brief scene where Reese helps Finch hobble away from the fireball, because he can't run due to his disability. They're already out of the lockup though, so it's just a matter of getting away from the blast area.

** In one episode, Janeway and Seven of Nine don't exactly have a fireball to outrun, but they still work in the classic dive-away-from-the-exploding-doors shot at the end.
** In another episode a failed example of this trope is used to dramatic effect when the Doctor is forced to seal two crew members in a collapsing deck (they were not fast enough to escape the approaching fireball, although we do not see it consume them).

* ''VideoGame/{{Avernum}} 2'' has an enemy fortress you escape by running across the roof while [[{{Hellfire}} quickfire]] devastates everything right behind you. There are plenty of other times you have to outrun quickfire as well.
** Fleeing from quickfire wasn't retired from gameplay until ''Avernum 4''. Before that it was [[OncePerEpisode featured in every game]], and the ''VideoGame/{{Exile}}'' trilogy before that.

** ''WesternAnimation/RobinHood'': Prince John's castle fire.

Examined exhaustively at the website [[http://web.archive.org/web/20080206055757/http://www.cc.gatech.edu/people/home/idris/Movie_Reviews/Reality_of_Running_Away.html The Reality of Running Away from Stuff]].

-->'''Mulan''': ''Get off the roof...Get off the roof...Get off the roof!''