History Main / OutrunTheFireBall

** In ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', the ''Enterprise'' outruns the blast wave of a supernova. Unlike the previous example, though, the issue is not their ability to outrun the supernova (even Warp 1, the lowest possible warp speed, is more than sufficient to outrun a supernova), but whether they can afford to wait around long enough to rescue the crewmembers currently engaged in a firefight on the nearby space station.

* Even though this is possibly the last trope in the world you'd expect to be OlderThanDirt, it's [[UrExample right there in]] ''TheEpicOfGilgamesh'' — on the titular character's journey to Dilmun, Gilgamesh had to pass through the tunnel through which the sun goes at night. The tunnel was long, and before he could get to the other end, the sun god entered from the other side... if that's not a fireball to outrun, we don't know what is.

* Parodied in the ''InvaderZim'' episode "Walk For Your Lives", where the entire episode is focused on a bomb that explodes and creates an explosion that is incredibly slow. As the episode title suggests, civilians could literally ''outwalk'' the aforementioned explosion.

** In ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', this is played straight and subverted. Bond outruns the fireball during the final battle when [[spoiler: he blows Skyfall Lodge skyhigh in order to destroy [[BigBad Silva's]] helicopter and kill most of his men. Though he beats the fireball that took out the house, he doesn't beat the second fireball from the helicopter plowing into it. He instead dives into an alcove which spares him the brunt of the blast.]]

* The final mission in ''VideoGame/FreeSpace2'' starts out as the second half of an EscortMission. Then MissionControl lets you know that the Shivans have made the local sun go supernova, and you only have a few minutes to get to the [[FasterThanLightTravel jump point]] where you can escape the explosion. Good luck.

* In ''{{Contra}} III: The Alien Wars'', [[BigBad Red Falcon's]] base [[LoadBearingBoss blows up]] after its defeat. And in the Hard Mode run, the FinalBoss turns out to be NotQuiteDead. The player, hanging from the bottom of the extraction helicopter, has to shoot the boss down into the inferno. {{Konami}} loves this trope. This also occurs in ''Shattered Soldier'' during the TrueFinalBoss fight and in the opening sequence of ''Neo Contra''.

* Played painfully straight in ''CSIMiami'', after surviving a super Tsunami striking Miami Horatio then tops this by outdriving an exploding building in a Hummer. And then he ''drives into the building'' to save a kid, instead of, as a police officer, just calling the demolition company and telling them to delay the planned ''implosion.''

* ''{{Mirai Nikki}}'': Yuno, during the second episode; she's being held indoors (where there are several motion-detonated bombs set up), while Yukiteru is outside, about to be killed by [[spoiler: Minene/Ninth]]. Naturally, [[{{Yandere}} Yuno being Yuno]], she sprints down the corridor despite the bombs (and innocents killed as a result), resulting in this.

* The penultimate {{Dollhouse}} episode has Echo outrunning the fireball after [[spoiler: blowing up Rossum's main computer in her unsuccessful attempt to prevent the thoughtpocalypse.]]
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' has the group try to do this in "The Nigerian Job." They wake up in a hospital. Nate fares slightly better in the season 2 opener. Parker does a sliding variant in the Hot Potato Job, in this case it is slightly justifed in that the explosive was said to be thermite which actually is more of a burning effect than a more conventional explosion.

* The final mission in ''{{Freespace}} 2'' starts out as the second half of an EscortMission. Then MissionControl lets you know that the Shivans have made the local sun go supernova, and you only have a few minutes to get to the [[FasterThanLightTravel jump point]] where you can escape the explosion. Good luck.

* This seems an appropriate place to mention that the South Korean Army, frustrated by the minefields in the Korean DMZ, developed a combat boot that could protect a soldier's foot from a land mine. When tested, the boots actually protected the feet inside them. It would be impolite to ask about the rest of the soldier; let's just say that the boots were found fifty meters apart. But the feet were protected.
* According to tales told by some USGS employees, a team of vulcanologists actually did outrun the blast at Mt. Saint Helens in a car; they were miles away, but their starting position was inside the (eventual) radius of the pyroclastic cloud (it should be stated that if their starting point was near the starting point of the flow they would not be alive).

The BadassNormal often showcases just how cool he is by always [[UnflinchingWalk calmly walking away]] from the building or car, and perhaps casually putting on his CoolShades or lighting up a cigarette just as the explosion goes off. Badass characters don't have to run unless it's ''darned'' important. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqz5dbs5zmo Cool guys don't look at explosions]].

* In ''{{Descent}}'', every level ends with you outrunning the blast from the exploding reactor at the heart of the mine, regardless of how much time there is actually left until said explosion.

* [[{{Film/TwoThousandTwelve}} 2012]]. Where do we start...

* This can happen in ''{{VideoGame/Minecraft}}'' if a player gets careless with TNT. A pile of TNT can easily kill a player and vaporise anything they're holding; as such, if one happens to ignite (from a nearby lava source, a sudden spread of flame, or a griefer), standard operating procedure is to abandon whatever you're doing and run like hell, hoping you escape the blast radius.[[/folder]]

* A very literal example of this happened in the first ''BaldursGate'' game. The original ''[[DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]'' spell "Fireball" is instantaneous; you can't run away from it once it goes off. The game, however, animated the spell slowly enough that running away from it was plausible. The expansion pack ''Tales of the Sword Coast'' "fixed" this by letting characters run away from Fireball spells and not get damaged.
* ''KingdomOfLoathing'' concludes one pivotal battle with "a slow-motion bomb, magically enchanted to make the ensuing explosion happen so slowly that anyone could just barely outrun it and find shelter." Not only that, but "You even have time to pick up the adorable puppy who is staring at the explosion and whimpering."

* Subverted (like so many other things) in ''{{Tremors}} 2'', when Earl sets a bomb to detonate the explosives in the back of Burt's truck. The other heroes duck behind cover, only to see Burt continue running right past them, yelling "It's gonna be big!" Burt eventually settles for a trench which will provide sufficient protection from the blast wave.

* You can pull this off in the space rogue-like ''{{VideoGame/Transcendence}}'' if you destroy a station that makes a big enough boom. Firing the last shot while going over top of the station starts the explosion, and if you’re flying away from the station when you do it, it’s entirely possible to stay just ahead of the shockwave if your ship is fast enough. Trying this in a freighter is more likely to turn into an [[OutOfTheInferno Out Of The Inferno]] moment instead (as long as your shields aren’t completely roasted in the process).[[/folder]]

* Played straight in the season five opener of ''Series/LasVegas'', as Delinda outruns an explosion started by one of Danny's old marine comrades, a ShellShockedVeteran.

* [[AntiVillain Viole]] from ''TowerOfGod'' while dodging [[TheHero Ja Wagnan's]] grenades during their fight.

* In ''Film/DeepImpact'', the young man who was the co-discoverer of the asteroid that strikes earth, and is creating a tidal wave ''3000 feet high'' striking near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, basically destroying the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and probably anything within 1,000 miles, and moving across land at ''1100 miles per hour'' is trying to outrun the tidal wave on a ''motorbike!'' Did I mention that his his wife is also riding on the bike with him.

* One of the built-in missions in the ''{{Elite}}'' remake ''{{Oolite}}'' is to outrun the fireball of the sun in your current system going nova.

* TheFlash, of course, is fast enough to routinely outrun explosions and make it look easy. However, when he evacuates the population of an entire city in the time it takes a nuclear shock wave to destroy it, he breaks WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief.
** Someone did the math, he traveled roughly 2.5 ''Quintillion'' miles per second, or 13 ''trillion'' times the speed of light.

[[/folder]]

Virtually every action series has had its share of OutrunTheFireball moments. In fact, it is easy to imagine that some remote civilization studying Earth [[AliensStealCable through its television transmissions]] might conclude that Earthlings running ''causes'' StuffBlowingUp, not the other way around.