History Main / TunnelKing

%%* The moles in ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'', with rare exceptions like Egbert in "The Bellmaker".

* ''Film/TheLadykillers2004'': The General was a North Vietnamese tunnel rat in UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and is the main force behind digging the {{Caper Crew}'}s tunnel.

A Tunnel King is a character who is an expert in, well, tunneling. His solution to any problem is likely to be "We'll dig our way out." Carrying the trope to its extreme, the Tunnel King may dwell BeneathTheEarth in an underground civilization that he constructed himself.

%%* In ''Manga/FairyTail'' there is Virgo and [[{{Gonk}} Everlue]] with the former being Tunnel Queen.
* ''Anime/GingaDensetsuWeed'': Mole the dachshund may look small and useless to the group but he proves to be a useful ally when he uses his digging skills to dig through a tunnel to Gin's prison for stealth purposes.

* ''Manga/OnePiece''
** Miss Merry Christmas is a [[DistaffCounterpart Tunnel Queen]], as she has the power of the Mole Mole Fruit. The sheer tunneling power is awesome, considering that she can dig as fast as a running man, with only one arm, and while carring, with the other one, a person ''that is out on the surface'' (meaning that that arm is cutting the terrain like a blade).

** The Fishman Island arc gives us Daruma, one of Hody Jones's officers, who ''bites'' his way through the ground with nasty, big, pointy teeth. Chopper [[spoiler: one-ups him by showing off his new Horn Point, which likewise lets him excavate at high speed.]]

* Ryoga from ''Manga/RanmaOneHalf'', once he learns the Bakusai Tenketsu, a pseudo {{Pressure Point}}s attack that lets him demolish rock with a touch of a finger. Once he learns the [[KamehameHadoken Shishi Hokodan]], he gets even better at it. Why someone with [[NoSenseOfDirection his directional issues]] is burrowing under the ground in the first place is a mystery.
* Free from ''Manga/SoulEater'' wanted to escape prison using this method but [[Funny/SoulEater they only gave him chopsticks]].
* Simon the Digger from ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann''. Yes, "The Digger" is his [[TheMagnificent title]]. Prior to discovering Lagann, his main job and talent was to dig very fast (that's how he discovered Lagann in the first place), and it's therefore fitting enough that his mecha (and its successive upgrades) employs drills as weapons. He manages to fight off several enemies with tunneling tactics, including Viral, the Dai-Gunzan and the Dai-Gundo. Even his name reflects this, as it's pronounced "Shimon" - and "shimo" means "below" in Japanese.
* The Prince of the Underworld, from ''Manga/UruseiYatsura''. Being a TunnelKing was literally his power, akin to Lum's flight and [[ShockAndAwe lightning bolts]], but with NoSenseOfDirection.

* Franchise/{{Batman}} had a villain called The Mole (inspired by an older villain named Melvin Mole). Attempting to tunnel out his prison, he tunneled his way into a pipeline carrying toxic waste was was mutated into something resembling an actual mole with phenomenal digging abilities.

* Cave Carson, an obscure Creator/DCComics character from the '60s who still makes the occasional cameo. He's a spelunker with a tunneling machine that he and his team use to explore underground caverns. Revived by Creator/YoungAnimal in ''ComicBook/CaveCarsonHasACyberneticEye''.

* The Dalton Brothers from ''ComicBook/LuckyLuke'' are experts in escaping through tunnels. They often dig [[TooDumbToLive one tunnel each]] to get out of their single cell, but still.
* An early ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' (back when it was a comic book) story featured a character named Melvin Mole, who could dig through anything given an implement, be it a spade, a lunch spoon, a toothpick, or even his nose hair. This leads to his downfall when he tried to tunnel out of prison and [[spoiler: ended up tunneling into his own execution chamber.]]
* ''Digby the Human Mole'' in TheSeventies UK AnthologyComic ''Plug'' was a criminal whose mole-like appearance made him a brilliant tunneller, using this both to break into places and break out of jail. Unfortunately, his sense of direction wasn't quite so good. HilarityEnsues.
* ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}'': Chin Chao, an Asian associate of Giorgio Papino's band, is known for digging his way out of prisons... [[CutleryEscapeAid with spoons]]. He himself states as much when leaving the burning house in "El caserón fantasma" through the 'emergency escape tunnel':

'''Chin Chao:''' In the Cuatro Caminos prison, it was my first escape... ''(every other character's eyes [[RedEyesTakeWarning suddenly turn red]], some of them can clearly be seen making angry faces)''
** Referenced again in the sequel "Nosotros los Papino", as Chin Chao is in charge of tunneling the band out:

** Although he usually prefers to fly, Superman is able to burrow through the ground as easily as he soars across the sky thanks to his superhuman strength, speed and toughness. When he was ComicBook/{{Superboy}} -during the Pre-Crisis and late Post-Crisis eras-, he dug a tunnel connecting his parents' basement with the woods to get in and out of his house quickly and stealthily. In ''ComicBook/KryptoniteNevermore'', a hallucination shows him digging his way through Earth as battling the Sandman Superman.
** At the beginning of [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks the Silver Age]], ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} couldn't let people learn of her existence, so she resorted to tunnel underground when she wanted get anywhere or perform deeds unseen. Being a Pre-Crisis Kryptonian, she could dig one tunnel through the planet in ''seconds'' (as seen in ''ComicBook/ActionComics'' #267). She got so good at it that she built a whole underground lair in a matter of minutes for her friend ComicBook/{{Batgirl}} in ''Detective Comics #509: ComicBook/TheAttackOfTheAnnihilator'' only because Babs mentioned in passing she needed one.
** [[ComicBook/{{Valor}} Mon-El]], another character linked to the ''Superman'' and ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' mythos is an excellent digger. In ''The Dominator War'' Legion storyline, Mon-El has to go from Metropolis to Tokyo, so he tunnels his way to Japan merely because he felt like it.

* [[PunnyName Molier]] in ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire:'' He's not only the team excavations expert, but also ''absolutely obsessed with dirt.'' He keeps piles of it from different parts of the world! There's apparently an explanation for his... er, profession, and equally apparently, [[YouDoNOTWantToKNow we don't want to know]]. Near the end of the movie, he even head towards a potted plant to dig up the dirt once a formal photo-shoot of the team was over.

* Áksula(the king of termites) from Talamancan mythology, He made a tunnel between worlds so Sibú (the supreme God) and his mother could escape from the Sórbulu who wanted to kill them.

--> '''Gopher:''' ''(explaining his nickname)'' I was forever tryin' to dig cut. Dug so meany tunnels. It was partly because of [[Badge]]. He was the Badger and bigger than me, so they called me the Gopher.

* ''Literature/LouisLAmour'': Yuma prisoners Tom Badger (a Native American) and Gopher in ''Kid Rodelo.''

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheGreatEscape https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/great_escape_danny.png]]]]

* In Chapter 4 ''VideoGame/BugFables'', Kabbu gains the ability to burrow underground (or rather, finally decides to use it when the situation requires to do that), and does so with surprising ease. It lets him and his teammates go under certain barriers, dig treasure out of mounds of dirt, and avoid some enemies. Also, after gaining the Ant Compass, he can instantly revisit the Ant Mines.

* Melvin Mole (see below) inspired a one-shot Franchise/{{Batman}} villain, also called The Mole. Attempting to tunnel out his prison, he tunneled his way into a pipeline carrying toxic waste was was mutated into something resembling an actual mole with phenomenal digging abilities.
* ''Henry Burrows'' was a similar concept in ''Comicbook/TheBeano'' in TheNineties, minus the criminal aspect.

** Mon-El, another character linked to the ''Superman'' and ''ComicBook/LegionOfSuperHeroes'' mythos is an excellent digger. In ''The Dominator War'' Legion storyline, Mon-El has to go from Metropolis to Tokyo, so he tunnels his way to Japan merely because he felt like it.

--> MoleAr mildly said, “This is what I do. I have a Masters and a Ph.D. in mining engineering from Texas A & M.”

* ''Series/{{Oz}}'': Agamemnon 'The Mole' Busmalis, who likes tunneling into banks and out of prisons, which is why they gave him a cell on an upper floor. Eventually, he finds a storeroom on the ground floor and starts tunneling out during the day.

->''"Huh, huh! Dig, dig, dig, dig!"''
-->-- '''Melvin Mole''', ''Magazine/{{MAD}}''

* ''ComicBook/{{Superlopez}}'': Chin Chao, an Asian associate of Giorgio Papino's band, is known for digging his way out of prisons... with spoons. He himself states as much when leaving the burning house in "El caserón fantasma" through the 'emergency escape tunnel':

* "The Day Before Midnight" a novel by Stephen Hunter (creator of ''Film/{{Shooter}}'') is a DieHardOnAnX story where Russian terorist hijack a missile silo and the Army tried to come in under them through an old coal mine using two Vietnam tunnel rats: One who turned to crime and is willing to help [[BoxedCrook in exchange for either a pardon or a transfer to a better prison]] and a shell shocked former ''enemy'' tunnel rat who lost most of her family in the war and emigrated to America afterwards. Each I see assigned a Delta Force soldier to work with and they prove to be very adapt at tunneling into the silo and fighting underground.
* ''Literature/LouisLAmour'': Yuma prisoners Tom Badger (a Native American) and Gopher in ''Kid Rodelo.''
--> '''Gopher:''' ''(explaining his nickname)'' I was forever tryin' to dig cut. Dug so meany tunnels. It was partly because of [[Badge]]. He was the Badger and bigger than me, so they called me the Gopher.

* ''Literature/LouisLAmour'': Yuma prisoners Tom Badger (a Natie American) and Gopher in ''Kid Rodelo.''

* "The Day Before Midnight" a novel by Stephen Hunter (creator of ''Film/{{Shooter}}'') is a DieHardOnAnX story where Russian terorist hijack a missile silo and the Army tried to come in under them through an old coal mine using two Vietnam tunnel rats: One who turned to crime and is willing to help [[BoxedCrook in exchange for either a pardon or a transfer to a better prison]] and a shell shocked former ''enemy'' tunnel rat who lost most of her family in the war and emigrated to America afterwards.