History Main / OutrunTheFireBall

SlowMotion is also very common thing to accompany the fireball.

* In ''[[TheDresdenFiles White Night]]'', this is played with. Harry Dresden doesn't so much outrun the fireball as [[spoiler:ride it out in a force field, generated via magic that he is powering with the lust generated by a heated kiss he shares with a succubus. Since he knew he wouldn't be able to actually ''outrun'' it, he effectively turned himself (and said succubus) into a ''cannon ball''.]]

* Subverted in the first mission in ''[[StarWars Jedi Outcast]]''. You have to blow up a generator blocking your path in order to proceed with the mission, but any attempt to OutrunTheFireball will result in Kyle Katarn becoming a very crispy corpse. Instead, avert OneDimensionalThinking by running into a room and letting the fireball pass you by.

* Again in ''StarWars: {{X-Wing}} Alliance'', the final mission has you flying the Millenium Falcon, into and subsequently out of the Death Star. Which is exploding after you're done with it. ''Rogue Leader'' on Gamecube depicts the same battle from the movie and also features OutrunTheFireball.

* In StarWars: The Clone Wars, one level has Anakin racing to escape from the Harvester before it consumes him.

* In an episode of ''Series/MythBusters'', when Adam and Jamie were testing some movie myths, Adam had some mats set up and orchestrated things so that he could "dive to safety" as a car blew up for [[strike:a myth they were testing]] fun. (There was no pretense of a myth, somebody donated a car, so they blew it up. Twice.) Though it did serve as an illustration of the difference between Hollywood style gasoline explosions and the real explosives used for military and demolitions purposes.

* In an episode of ''Series/MythBusters'', when Adam and Jamie were testing some movie myths, Adam had some mats set up and orchestrated things so that he could "dive to safety" as a car blew up for [[strike:a myth they were testing]] fun. (There was no pretense of a myth, somebody donated a car, so they blew it up. Twice.)

* A particularly ridiculous example can be found in ''BladeII'', where Blade and the Vampire Action Girl outrun the "fireball" created by a big box of "light grenades." Quite aside from the question of how these light grenades caused an explosion in the first place (or indeed, how the "blast front" flows round a curve of a tunnel in spite of the fact that light beams travel in straight lines) one wonders how fast Wesley Snipes must have been running, considering that light travels at the speed of - well - light...

[[folder:Film]]

* In JohnWoo's ''[[Film/BrokenArrow1996 Broken Arrow]]'', Capn. Hale (Christian Slater) actually outruns an underground nuclear explosion. To be fair, though, the explosion didn't happen until he was above-ground and safe from the blast.
* ''StarWars: ReturnOfTheJedi'' had an extended "outrun the fireball" scene as Wedge and Lando's crew blew up the Death Star core and had to escape the resulting blast.
** ''ThePhantomMenace'' had the exact same scene, but scaled down. Anakin flies into the main droid control ship, then fires two proton torpedoes straight into the main reactor. The ship starts to blow up from the inside, and Anakin flies as fast as he can toward the exit with flames shooting all over the place, feeling it necessary to quip "now ''this'' is podracing!" as he does so. There is an additional shot of a squad of battle droids failing at this.
* Almost avoided in ''Film/TheMummyReturns''. There's a particularly credulity-stretching scene where our hero must outrun ''the sunrise'' to make it to a temple. It is, in fact, almost correct, scientifically. Phil Plait's [[http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/movies/mummyreturns2.html Bad Astronomy]] page explains what's happening and why it's right and wrong (he even [[ShownTheirWork shows his work]].) In short, the character is not outrunning the terminator line of the sunrise, he's outrunning the '''shadows''' cast by the mountains in the background. However, the moving edge of the shadow is moving away from the sun and toward the temple -- that's the wrong direction; it should be moving down from the top of the temple and toward the rising sun.
** In the DVD commentary, director Steven Sommers states that they knew they were doing it wrong but kept it in because [[RuleOfCool it looked cool]].

* In ''TheIncredibles'', Dash outruns a fireball bursting through a tunnel, and barely escapes. Admittedly, he does have SuperSpeed.

* In the first ''{{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.
* Averted in the first scene of ''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.

* Used twice in ''WesternAnimation/{{Nine}}''.
** The first time is when the [[PunkPunk Stitchpunks]] blow up the factory.
** The second is when the Fabrication Machine ignites a pile of ammunition.

* Shows in in several animated {{Disney}} films:
** ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'': A forest fire.
** ''Disney/RobinHood'': Prince John's castle fire.
** ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': A lava flow.
** ''{{Mulan}}'': An avalanche, and later on, an exploding fireworks tower.
** ''Disney/{{Fantasia}} 2000'': The Firebird.
** ''{{Dinosaur}}'': A meteorite.
** ''AtlantisTheLostEmpire'': A lava flow and pyroclastic cloud.
** ''LiloAndStitch'': A blaster overloading because of a carrot stuck in its barrel.
** ''Disney/TreasurePlanet'': An Earth-Shattering Kaboom.
* Happens at least once in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''.

* Happens during Finn [=McMissile=]'s introductory scene at the very beginning of ''WesternAnimation/{{Cars}} 2'', when he is escaping the Lemons' oil rig.

* In {{Anastasia}}, Dmitri, Anya, Pooka, and Vlad duck behind, like, three boxes a few seconds before a stick of dynamite blows.

* ''Film/GIJoeRetaliation: Storm Shadow, Firefly, and Cobra Commander do it when the prison explodes. Subverted, in that Storm Shadow fails to fully outrun it and is very badly burned on his back.

** In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', all endings have [[spoiler: the Normandy trying to outrun the space magic wave, complete with the equipment in the cockpit beginning to [[ExplosiveInstrumentation overheat and explode.]]]] The Extended Cut shows that it escaped.

* JamesBond franchise: James Bond faces fireballs at times.

* In ''Fanfic/TheTeacherofAllThings'' Hiroaki Ishida and his camera crew all do this with a Champion Digimon.

* In ''FullThrottle's'' ending, Ben outruns an exploding plane/truck [[spoiler: on his motercycle.]]

* In ''FullThrottle's'' ending, Ben outruns an exploding truck [[spoiler: on his motercycle.]]

* In ''FullThrottle's'' ending, Ben outruns an exploding truck on his motercycle.

* ''FullThrottle's'' ending. Ben outruns an exploding truck on his motercycle. [[spoiler: Justified in that it's a part of the final puzzle. Ben wouldn't have made it out of the truck on foot.]]

* When SamuelLJackson hosted the ''{{MTV}} Movie Awards'', he had a sketch he called an "Acting Decathlon", where this very trope is an event.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}''

* ''{{Volcano}}''. In order to save the city from a volcanic eruption it is decided that a precision demolition of a 20 story building must be planned and executed in 15 minutes. Unfortunately, a random child wanders into the street directly in the path of the soon to be demolished building. The child is saved by Tommy Lee Jones sprinting (quite fast for an old man), grabbing the boy, then jumping behind cover.
* At the end of ''DantesPeak'', Harry and the family are outrunning a pyroclastic flow, which moves at 120 miles an hour in real life and would be impossible to escape.
* Averted in the MadeForTVMovie ''SuperVolcano'', where a scientist is trying to outrun the fireball, but it catches up and kills her. The film is known for ''actually'' doing their research, but allowing for some exaggeration for the RuleOfCool.

** In the first movie, John [=McClane=], stuck in the Nakatomi Plaza tower, straps a fire hose around his waist and takes a running jump off the roof of the tower. The second John launches himself forward, the entire roof explodes into an enormous fireball.

* Parodied in ''HotFuzz'', where Nick and Danny find a sea mine in some oldtimer's arsenal. He bangs it to prove it's harmless, and it starts ticking. Nick and Danny do the textbook running towards the camera and leaping over a hedge, followed by... nothing. Of course, the mine [[ChekhovsGun DOES blow up later]] in the film, but nobody got to run away from it that time.

* If fire isn't bad enough, the trope is inverted in ''TheDayAfterTomorrow'', when some characters out-run a "wave of cold", which then ''ices over'' the door they escape behind. It's particularly ludicrous given that the original scene had them running from digital wolves, which were scrapped. The end result means they're running away from something they should be able to see chasing them (and acted as such) but instead it is a "Run! It's the weather!" moment.

* John Cena's character outruns at least a half-dozen such explosions in ''TheMarine''.

** Used again in ''Film/StarTrek XI'', when the Enterprise [[spoiler: escape the explosion/implosion of Nero's ship]].
* Happens about thirty-two times in ''ThreeKings''.

* Possibly the lamest example on the page: In ''TheLongKissGoodnight'', Samantha/Charly and Mitch try to Outrun The Fireball from a grenade in a hallway, which couldn't possibly ''create'' a fireball, and whose frags would be instantly lethal. But there's more! The scene combines a couple more examples of when poor research fails to be overrun by RuleOfCool.

* ''DoubleTeam'' does this no fewer than three times. The first time subverts the trope, and the protagonist ends up bedridden for 6 months from his injuries.
* ''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.
* In ''MagicalLegendOfTheLeprechauns'' the fire guardian of [[CrystalDragonJesus The Grand Banshee's]] hotel turns into a fireball and attacks Jack and Kathleen and Jessica and Mickey. Both pairs outrun him.

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* ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' ends with you trying to escape Andross' underground base before being consumed by a fireball behind you in both the easy and normal/hard playthroughs. In the easy playthrough the chase is all part of a cutscene, but in the normal/hard playthroughs you have to navigate the narrow passages yourself while being led by the ghost/a hallucination of Fox's father.

* Subverted in the first scene of ''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.

* In 5 billion years' time, the entire planet Earth is going to have to outrun the single biggest fireball known to Man: ''The Sun'', as it goes all red giant towards the end of its life. Most theories state that even if Earth doesn't get subsumed in the Sun, its atmosphere will vaporize, its oceans will boil away, and [[DeathWorld its rocks will melt]].