History Main / OutrunTheFireBall

* Happens at least once in ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}''.

* ''Plan 7 of 9 from Outer Space''. [[Film/TheAdventuresOfCaptainProton Captain Proton]] and Buster Kincaid use {{Jet Pack}}s to escape a ChekhovsVolcano destroying the SupervillainLair.

* The "run, nothing happens, relax, explosion" twist occurs in the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', when the wizards react with horror to adding [[GargleBlaster Wow-Wow Sauce]] to a magical hangover cure.

!!!TV Movies:

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels''[[Recap/StarWarsRebelsS3E20ZeroHourPartII , "Zero Hour"]]: Once Ezra and the Mandalorians manage to destroy one of the gravity well generators on the Interdictor, Ezra has to outrun the blast because he doesn't have a jetpack, just a limited thruster. He makes it in time, partially due to getting to a point where the explosion itself gave him a bit of a boost to the starfighter the group is escaping on.

* ''{{Videogame/Doom}} II'' has "Barrels O' Fun" for its 23rd level, involving several segments where enemies can set of '''large''' chains of exploding barrels.

* A real-life version happened during the filming of the ''Series/BlakesSeven'' episode "Star One". An explosion in a BBCQuarry was so loud that emergency services rushed to the site, and assistant cameraman Paul Godfrey had to run for his life when the wind blew the fireball in his direction, engulfing his camera in a ball of flame.

* Played straight in WebVideo/DoomsdayArcade.

* Spoofed in ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' in the episode "Peter's Daughter": Stewie and Brian jump out of the way from the blast of a [[StuffBlowingUp house blowing up]]. Stewie and Brian, as well as the house exploding, are flashed on the screen [[OverlyLongGag numerous times]] at several different angles.

* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' episode [[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS3E21TheBurden "The Burden"]]; after the demented six-year-old school hamster Chris Morris [[MacGyvering turns a lamp and Bunsen burner into an explosive trap]], Gumball and Darwin are forced to outrun the explosion. They dramatically jump too soon, then the wall of flames engulfs them.

* ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars''[[Recap/StarWarsTheCloneWarsS1E13JediCrash , "Jedi Crash"]]: Everyone has to run to the escape ship from Aayla's exploding cruiser. A couple of clones don't make it and Anakin realizes the rest of the group is going to be overcome as well so he stops and force pushes everyone else past the next blast door. While he's able to keep the flames mostly off himself using the force the concusive blast knocks him out and Ahsoka and Aayla have to yank the door open and carry him the rest of the way.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' had inversions of this trope. Batman and the Flash each had scenarios where he grabbed a bomb and ran it out of town ''as it detonated, in his hands'' in super-slow motion. At normal speed, The resulting fireball OUTRAN the civilians.
* All the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' style "run straight away from the falling tree". But in those, they never do outrun the [[strike:fireball]] falling tree.
* This is also done on ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' on more than a few occasions. Not to mention that it's seen in the opening sequence of ''every episode'' of the first season.
* One THX trailer featuring Creator/{{Pixar}}[=-designed=] mascot Tex has him doing it in a car's exhaust pipe as the usual Deep Note starts playing.

** ''Disney/{{Bambi}}'': A forest fire.
** ''Disney/RobinHood'': Prince John's castle fire.
** ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'': A lava flow.
** ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'': An avalanche (which they fail to outrun), and later on, an exploding fireworks tower.

** ''Disney/{{Fantasia 2000}}'': The Firebird.
** ''Disney/{{Dinosaur}}'': A meteorite.
** ''Disney/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'': A lava flow and pyroclastic cloud.
** ''Disney/LiloAndStitch'': A blaster overloading because of a carrot stuck in its barrel.
** ''Disney/TreasurePlanet'': An Earth-Shattering Kaboom.

* In one room of ''VideoGame/OriAndTheBlindForest'''s LethalLavaLand FinalDungeon, Ori has to run from an ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}''-style lava flow.

* In the end of the Axis Chemicals level in ''VideoGame/BatmanDoom'', you press the switch that causes a HUGE wall of explosions to chase you down a street all the way to the Batmobile while you're trying to avoid pesky landmines on the way.

** The climax of ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' has the protagonists ''driving' away from an explosion. [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments In reverse.]] [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse We never find out if]] [[spoiler:Basil and the creepy twins]] managed to outrun it on foot, though.

** Happens again in the final battle of ''Film/{{Spectre}}'', where Bond and Madeleine escape the explosion of the old MI6 building on a speedboat. Earlier, Bond and Madeleine escape Blofeld's headquarters after Bond blows it up.

to an explosion, but it was the self-destruct mechanism of an alien ship, which was hidden in a completely different location]].

* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog''

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.]]

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[[folder:Fan Works]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In ''Series/{{Smallville}}'', Clark does this once to save Lana. Other times he usually [[NighInvulnerability just stands there]].
* In the short-lived ''Series/TheFlash1990'' television series, one episode had Barry Allen try to outrun a missile homing on himself. The explosion somehow boosted his speed so much that he ended up a few years into the future. The missile was supposedly nuclear, although that would mean Pike would be within the blast radius.
* ''Series/{{NCIS}}''
** Played with when Gibbs discovers a bomb in a house the team is investigating and they all dash out and dive for cover behind the car. And nothing happens. After spending 2 hours waiting behind the car, one of them suggests Gibbs might start looking into reading glasses. And the bomb promptly explodes.
** In the season 3 finale, Abby and [=McGee=] are computer-modeling an explosion that Gibbs was almost killed in. Their conclusion is that the bomb was not actually placed where everybody assumed it had been, as there is no way Gibbs could have survived the blast even remotely intact unless he were able to outrun flying shrapnel in mid-air. Armed with this knowledge, they work out where the bomb had ''actually'' been placed and solve the mystery.
* ''Series/DoctorWho''
** Creator/TheBBC trailer for the first season of the new series featured Christopher Eccleston outrunning a fireball. The clip was shot specially for the trailer and [[NeverTrustATrailer did not appear in the series proper]]. There's also a very similar publicity photo for the third season involving the Doctor and Martha.
** In the 2007 ChristmasEpisode the Doctor [[spoiler:out ''flies'' a fireball]].
** The fourth-season episode [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Stratagem"]] has The Doctor [[spoiler:and a UNIT officer leap out of a car, run, and dive to the ground... only for the car's GPS unit to emit a small burst of sparks and some smoke]].
--->[[spoiler:'''The Doctor:''' Oh, is that it?]]
** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E6TheLazarusExperiment "The Lazarus Experiment"]], the Doctor attempts to kill [[spoiler:the mutated Professor Lazarus]] by blowing up a lab. He then proceeds to outrun the fireball down a corridor.

* In the ''Series/{{Jake 20}}'' episode "Dead Man Talking", Jake tries to outrun a fireball, but (despite his nanobot enhancements) fails and gets engulfed and badly burned. He spends the most of the rest of the episode in an intensive care bed unable to move or communicate normally.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
** 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).

* 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 who was nice enough to give her a head start.
* 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 (The one Adam "dodged" was the Hollywood style explosion).
* Played painfully straight in ''Series/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.''
* In the CSI: Miami episode "Burn Baby Burn", Horatio finds a bomb in his Hummer; he calmly drives it to a piece of waste ground, takes off his sunglasses, gets out and WALKS CALMLY AWAY; as the vehicle explodes like an atom bomb behind him he CALMLY PUTS HIS GLASSES BACK ON and continues walking without showing any concern whatsoever: this guy is beyond cool!
* In ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'', Terminator Catherine Weaver does the UnflinchingWalk from an exploding building, but doesn't even bother to out-pace the explosion, as immolation is hardly even an inconvenience for her.
* The first season finale of ''Series/BurnNotice'' climaxes with Michael and Sam escaping from an exploding boat. Michael [[UnflinchingWalk doesn't flinch]], while Sam (a retired Navy SEAL) is freaking the hell out - mainly because he'd just been tortured for a few days and ''didn't know'' the boat was going to blow.
** The mid-second season finale ends with one of these as well.
** And the series finale, where the final BigBad tries to take Michael with him by bringing the whole building down on their heads and Michael escapes this way.

* In the German action series ''Series/AlarmFuerCobra11'' about 3200 cars have been crushed up to now, most of them in an exploding fashion with the main characters outrunning the fireball, of course.
* While not shown on-screen in ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'', the aliens when trying to understand democratic elections mentioned that leaders on their planet are chosen by who can "outrun the fireball".
* In the ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|2003}}'' episode "Rapture", the Fleet is forced to evacuate its personnel from the Algae Planet and jump before the shockwave of the exploding star reaches them. The bit with the Raptors landing and Galactica jumping just before the shockwave reaches has a classic outrun-the-fireball feel. A straighter example occurs in season 1, with Cylon skinjob Anton Doral spotted and confronted on Galactica by Adama and Tighe. Unfortunately, he's wearing a bomb vest, and Tighe just about manages to dive and push both Adama and himself out of the path of the fireball and into a side corridor. Indeed, Adama does pretty much the same thing in the miniseries for Cylon Leoben, pushing him into cover from a shell dropped while loading.

* ''Series/RobinHood'': Guy of Gisborne outruns a fireball in the episode "A Thing Or Two About Loyalty."
* ''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 to an explosion, but it was the self-destruct mechanism of an alien ship, which was hidden in a completely different location]].
* The penultimate ''{{Series/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 justified in that the explosive was said to be thermite which actually is more of a burning effect than a more conventional explosion.
* In the episode of ''Series/DeadliestWarrior'' "Jesse James vs. Al Capone", when showcasing the Pineapple Bomb, Al Capone calmly lights a cigarette while a Pineapple Bomb thrown by one of his gangsters explodes in the background.
* From ''Series/{{Community}}'' episode "[[Recap/CommunityS1E07IntroductionToStatistics Introduction to Statistics]]" [[spoiler:Abed (as Batman) dragging Jeff and Pierce out of the library to]] Out Run The Collapsing Fort Made Out Of Desks.
* A somewhat literal example in ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' when Buffy outruns and rescues Andrew and Jonathan from Dark Willow's vengeance-seeking fireball.
* ''Series/HoratioHornblower'':
** "The Wrong War"/"The Frogs and Lobsters" (part 4 of series 1): Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower and Acting Lieutenant Archie Kennedy outrun the fireball when the British Navy and Army blow up a bridge in France.
** "Retribution" (part 2 of series 2): This time it is a young sailor Wellard.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'':
** Oliver does this after he is trapped in a warehouse with a bomb by the rival archer in "Year's End".
** Combined with SuperWindowJump in "Canaries" when Oliver and Roy do this to escape from a bomber by leaping through his apartment windows just after he presses the detonator.

* ''Series/{{The 100}}'': Bellamy somehow outraces an explosion while crawling through an air vent.
* ''{{Series/Emergency}}'' had a couple. John Gage didn't make it in one case, and was injured in the explosion.
* ''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.

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** ''Disney/{{Mulan}}'': An avalanche, and later on, an exploding fireworks tower.

[[quoteright:300:[[Franchise/KamenRider https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cycling_out_of_the_blast.jpg]]]]

** Parodied 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".
** Similarly, another episode features Homer hiring the mafia to protect Marge's pretzel business from competitors. They blow up the competitors' falafel wagon. Maude is talking to Chief Wiggum who guides her through the process for throwing herself on the floor in front of the fireball.
** Spoofed in another episode, in which just after Monty Burn's Casino is demolished Homer and his family get into his car to try to escape of the dust cloud caused by the demolition. However, Homer's car enters in reverse into the dust cloud.

* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' and ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' had inversions of this trope. Batman and the Flash each had scenarios where he grabbed a bomb and ran it out of town ''as it detonated, in his hands'' in super-slow motion. The fireball outran the civilians.