History Main / YourHeadASplode

[[caption-width-right:240:Looks like Homer got [[{{Pun}} a-head]] of himself.]]

** This had happened to a 19 month old baby during a Georgia raid in 2014. A S.W.A.T Team threw a flashbang through a door that happened to have a ''19 month old baby in the room'' and to make matters worse, the flashbang landed next to ''his head and exploded it.'' This is literally a WhatTheHellHero moment AT IT'S WORST!

Head asplosions are typically the result of an ExplosiveLeash, [[BoomHeadshot being shot in the head with high-powered ammunition]] (resulting in PinkMist), interacting with a BrownNote, or [[MySkullRunnethOver absorbing too much knowledge]]. Often, just before it happens, the unfortunate character [[GottaGetYourHeadTogether clutches their skull]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Happens at times in ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' thanks to psychic powers. The most iconic example is Yamagata, who gets offed like this by Tetsuo. More like LudicrousGibs considering what happened to his body.
* In ''Manga/{{Akumetsu}}'', this happens to the title character whenever he dies.
* In ''Anime/BaldrForceEXEResolution'', this tends to happen to those who meet a certain VirtualGhost.
* ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}'': Never has there been a head gone ka-goosh with more satisfaction than that of [[spoiler:Tenzen Yakushiji]], which happens when [[spoiler:Oboro regains the use of her {{Magical Eye}}s and turns their power upon him as he's reviving himself after he is killed by Gennosuke, rendering the evil ninja dead for good]].
* ''Manga/BattleAngelAlita'' has this quite often, with guns, fists, melee weapons blunt objects or whatever strikes your fancy as the cause. The sequel series even does it to its own [[spoiler:BigBad]].
* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Extremely common in manga.[[note]]But not the anime which, despite the large amounts of blood, is fairly sanitized.[[/note]] In fact, clean decapitations are almost nonexistent; most of the time, when Guts hits above the shoulders, the victim's head shatters.
** During the Eclipse, [[spoiler:this is the fate of Gaston, the last member of the Band of the Hawk to die during the Eclipse, by way of a parasitic demon]].
* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'': The leader of the Vandenreich does this to an Arrancar who didn't give his exact message to Soul Society. Reminiscent of how Yamamoto and Aizen could incapacitate people by focusing on them, he looks at the Arrancar until its head pops like a water balloon. Shunsui's Bankai does this to Lille Barro during their fight.
* In ''Anime/CoyoteRagtimeShow'', the only way to kill the [=SISTERs=] is to blow up their heads.
* The main characters of ''Anime/CyberCityOedo808'' are fitted with [[ExplosiveLeash explosive collars]], with gory results if they try to remove it or fail to accomplish their mission in time.
* ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'' shows a rare example of someone surviving this: after she blows his and Tamayo's cover, Yushiro gets his head blown up when Susamaru sends a Temari ball flying in his direction. However, being a demon, he survives the deadly attack and heals. (Averted in the [[VideoGame/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaibaTheHinokamiChronicles video game]] adaptation.)
* In ''Anime/DirtyPair'' Flight 005 Conspiracy, when Kei is drowning her sorrows at a bar believing Yuri was killed on an explosion, she asks the bartender, who unbeknownst to her is an assassin, to make her another drink, he spikes it with an unknown poison and hands it to her, her new partner Danny tells her that she's had enough and drinks it instead, he then convulses in pain and his head explodes, splattering his brain and skull fragments in her face.
* In the ''Anime/DragonBallZ'' Majin Buu saga, Babidi made the head of any {{Muggle|s}} that annoyed him explode without warning. It wasn't too gory, though. Ironically, he dies when Buu ''punches'' his head off. Of course, this was edited for the televised dub.
* In episode 95 of ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' Frieza has become so powerful in his golden form that he can make his opponents' heads explode with a single poke to the forehead, which he demonstrates on four Assassins from Universe 9
* ''Manga/DeathNote'': Performed with an interesting visual metaphor. [[spoiler:In the episode when Mello kills off most of the SPK,]] one guy kills himself by blowing his own brains out. Instead of showing his head asplode, they show an explosion of dice instead.
* In ''Manga/DGrayMan'', new character [[spoiler:Wisely]] seems to have the power to do this to people.
* This is the fate of [[spoiler:[=LeBlanc=]]] from ''Anime/DivergenceEve'' after [[spoiler: he downloads all of the information of the entire universe into his brain (so he can learn how to become immortal), which [[MySkullRunnethOver is too much for him to handle]], with explosive results]].
* ''Manga/ElfenLied'' uses this one, but most of the time it's a simple decapitation that sends the head flying on a jet of high-pressure blood.
* ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'': Pretty much the fate of any bad guy who messes with Kenshiro. [[YouAreAlreadyDead They are already dead.]] Also, [[FatBastard Mr. Heart's]] finisher. "HIDEBU!!!"
* In ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'', this is Scar's modus operandi for killing people, though he destroys their brain instead of their entire head.
** Done literally in an out-take of episode 28. The actual scene depicts Scar grabbing Father's face, growling as he unsuccessfully tries to blow it up. However, in the outtake, Scar's growling is removed and replaced by a battle cry of "YOUR FACE ASPLODE!"
** Later in the series, [[spoiler:Ed destroys Pride's body by [[HeadCrushing crushing his head]]. Yes, this is the same Pride that's an incorporeal mass of toothed shadows attached to a CreepyChild.]]
** Kimblee in [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist the 2003 anime version]], even though he tends to make a person's [[WhyAmITicking whole body explode]].
** [[spoiler:Atlas]] is killed in this fashion in ''The Sacred Star of Milos'' by [[spoiler:Colonel Herschel aka Ashleigh Crichton.]]
* ''{{Manga/Gantz}}'': Done fairly frequently, thanks to special guns which cause whatever they target to explode and special bombs implanted in each Gantz player's head, which go off if they break one of the game's rules.
* The opening scene of ''Anime/GhostInTheShell1995'' involves Major Kusanagi taking out a diplomat who is trying to get a programmer out of the country by shooting him in the head with some delayed-fuse high-explosive rounds which make his head go boom several moments after hitting. The phrase "explosively anatomically accurate" seems apt. The animation crew seems to have a somewhat disturbing liking for these -- there's a head-a-splode scene in some form or fashion at the beginning of each movie and the first/last episodes of [[Anime/GhostInTheShellStandAloneComplex both anime seasons]].
** The scene in question comes from the first scene in [[Manga/GhostInTheShell the manga]], which plays out much the same way, with the biggest difference being that the Major doesn't get naked in order to use her thermoptics.
* The 1980s ''Manga/Golgo13'' animated film ''The Professional'' features tycoon Leonard Dawson deciding to commit suicide by throwing himself from the window of a very tall skyscraper. Lands on the concrete below so hard that when his head hits, it gets pulverized. Golgo 13, always one to get the "last word" in, manages to put a bullet through his forehead before impact.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'':
** Char delivers quite the coup de grace to Princess Kycilia. With a rocket launcher. He also took off the Gundam's head with the Zeong.
** Combined with the FacePalm in ''G Gundam'' as Domon Kasshu's primary means to achieving victory [[StrictlyFormula in pretty much every episode of Season 1]].
*** JustifiedTrope. By the rules of the Gundam Fight, destroying the head of the opponent's Gundam eliminates that fighter from the tournament. Whereas wrecking the entire Gundam but leaving the head intact would make it perfectly legal for the fight to have his Gundam repaired and continue competing.
*** When he [[MidSeasonUpgrade upgrades halfway through the series]] from the Shining Gundam to the God Gundam, Domon also upgrades his FinishingMove. This version becomes more like Your Whole Body Asplode. At least sometimes.
* ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'': Nexa's head was said to be "blown to pieces".
* ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}'', with its over-the-top violence and gore, is slowly reaching the point of self-parody.
* ''Manga/IkkiTousen'' Dragon Destiny has Koshaji. Her top gets destroyed and exposes her boobs, [[{{Fanservice}} which is par for the course with the source material]], but she then gets picked up by her head and gets slammed into a wall. [[HeadCrushing Her head basically gets crushed like a grape]] and explodes in a bloody mess.
* Ochazuke Nori's story "Infection on Flight 999" involves a disease that makes adult's heads explode -- children just experience a high fever, pain, and blueness in the face.
* ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'':
** In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Stardust Crusaders]]'', [[spoiler:Dio Brando]] is killed in this manner when he faces Jotaro Kujo [[{{Pun}} head on]]. Questionable since it was really more his whole ''[[BloodierAndGorier body]]'' that exploded, but it appears to start from the head and work its way back down. The fact that originates from a punch to his ''leg'' of all places makes this incident particularly [[RuleOfCool noteworthy]].
** Araki is rather fond of that particularly [[{{Gorn}} exceptional]] variant: it happens to [[spoiler:Santana]] in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureBattleTendency Battle Tendency]]'' and [[spoiler:Jotaro himself]] in ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureStoneOcean Stone Ocean]]'', though both of them are still alive afterwards in [[ForScience some]] [[ResetButton fashion]].
** In ''[[Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventureSteelBallRun Steel Ball Run]]'', [[spoiler:Mike O. decides it would be a good idea to keep using his Tubular Bells Stand even after Hot Pants made it so if he even tried to inflate anything, he would die. Predictably, he tries to make another metal balloon, and his neck and the top of his head explode violently, revealing his spinal cord where his esophagus used to be.]]
* In the anime ''Anime/{{Kite}}'', the protagonist, taking a page from Ghost In The Shell, uses bullets that explode five seconds after impact, typically causing the head to explode in bloody gore.
* This happens to Sakura several times in ''LightNovel/BludgeoningAngelDokurochan'' after getting hit by Dokuro's Excalibolg.
* In ''Manga/MagicalRecordLyricalNanohaForce'', this is implied to have happened to some of the test subjects [[spoiler:[[TheVirus who were infected with the Eclipse]] and failed to [[ViralTransformation become a suitor for Lily]].]] How else would you explain the brain things lying on the floor with the rest of the corpses?
** On the same season, this also seems to be the way Veyron finished off [[spoiler:another Eclipse infected]] he was fighting on chapter 19. He grabbed his head with his [[PowerFist "Claw Grab"]] and then BOOM!
* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' (post-time-skip), Deidara sends spiders made of explosive clay to attach themselves to the faces of three Sand Village guards. ''Boom.''
* The beginning of ''Anime/PsychoDiver'' has a diver whose head explodes graphically. As it turned out [[spoiler: the girl he was trying to help, Yuki, had a demon inside her soul and his head exploding was a result of the demon attacking him when he connected to her psychically.]]
* In ''LightNovel/NyarukoCrawlingWithLove'', the invading Mi-Go are defeated when Nyarko's [[ProductPlacement iPhone]] starts ringing and playing the pop song she had set as her ringtone. This is an explicit ShoutOut to ''Film/MarsAttacks'', as earlier in the episode Nyarko [[ConversationalTroping discussed]] aliens having [[WeaksauceWeakness unusual weaknesses]], including music (said as a silhouette of the Martians appears).
* At the end of Episode 5 of ''Anime/PacificRimTheBlack'', [[spoiler: Joel picks up Mei's radio and in retaliation for Mei escaping from Bogan, Shane detonates a bomb inside the radio which causes his head to explode.]]
* In ''Anime/PsychoPass'', [[spoiler: Joushuu Kasei]] shoots [[spoiler: Choe Gu-Sung]] in the face with a dominator, causing his head to explode.
* In the third ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'' movie, this happens to [[spoiler:Kaworu]] when [[spoiler:his ExplosiveLeash detonates]].
* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': There's Akira using an anti-tank rifle on the heads of cyborgs Yajima and Zelmo in flashy manuvers. And then Akira dodging Toralt's {{BFS}} strike before drop-kicking his head using the full strength of his PoweredArmor.
* In ''Manga/{{Toriko}}'', [[NeverMessWithGranny Setsuno]] can make her enemies' heads explode by [[BlowYouAway increasing the air pressure around them]] to basically act as a pressure cooker.
* In ''Manga/UntilDeathDoUsPart'', terrorists had explosives implanted in their molars that were activated by biting down on it. Unfortunately for everyone else, they could also be remotely activated...
* In a DVD-exclusive episode[[note]]Well, not that DVD-exclusive: it was shown in Latin America. Explosion scene included.[[/note]] of ''Manga/ZeroZeroNineOne'', Mylene/Agent 009-1 is told by a guy she just slept with that he knows she's a spy and that he has placed a [[WhyAmITicking bomb inside her body]]. But it turns out that he actually put the bomb ''in his own head'', which explodes and splatters when he triggers the detonator. [[TheMourningAfter Mylene mourns him anyway]] since she ''did'' like him.
* ''Literature/VampireHunterD'': Count Magnus Lee makes his henchman Rei's head explode after he betrays him and attempts to kill him for not making him an immortal.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''ComicBook/BeastsOfBurden'', one of Lundy's spells is capable of making a brain burst out of its skull.
* A common fate for minor villains in ''ComicBook/TheBoys''. Considering how brutal some of the deaths in that series are, an exploding skull is quite merciful.
* In ''ComicBook/ContestOfChampions2015'', Madame Hydra's head blows up after she loses her telepathic duel with the Maestro.
* Monty loves doing this in ''ComicBook/DeathSentence.''
* ''ComicBook/ElToxico'': After cracking a giant ant's head open [[DropTheHammer with a hammer]], El Toxico fires a shot into the wound, causing its head to explode.
* Used in ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' [[spoiler:when Snow White is shot in the head by Goldilocks. Since Fables are much stronger than normal people, she survives.]]
* ''ComicBook/FantasticFour'': The Invisible Woman claims she could do this to somebody if she had to by creating a force bubble in the center of the victim's brain and making it expand; she once threatening to do so to Doctor Doom when she was ''very'' angry (and it may have been the first time in his career anyone had truly frightened him). To date, she has never been angry enough to do this in mainstream Marvel, but she has in the {{elseworlds}} series ''ComicBook/DeadpoolKillsTheMarvelUniverse''.
* In the alternate timeline series ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulkFutureImperfect'', this is said to be the only way to reliably kill the Hulk. Unusually, it's then subverted [[spoiler:by using TimeTravel to blow the Evil Hulk to LudicrousGibs instead.]]
* At the end of ''Series/IAmNotOkayWithThis'', Sydney uses her [[MindOverMatter telekinetic powers]] to blow up [[spoiler:Brad's]] head after he [[spoiler:rapes her best friend Dina, then [[DrivenToSuicide does the same to herself]] out of a belief that she's a bad person who brings nothing but pain to the world]].
* ''ComicBook/InfiniteCrisis'': Happens in the penultimate issue when Black Adam kills Psycho-Pirate by gouging out his eyes with his fingers then pushing his mask through his head (which asplodes). Complete with BondOneLiner "No more silly faces."
* In ''ComicBook/JusticeLeagueGenerationLost'', [[spoiler:Maxwell Lord succeeds in his mission to kill Magog. Max takes control of Magog's body and forces him to blow his own head apart with his own energy staff. What makes it even more horrifying is that Magog is completely aware of what's happening and spends his last moments begging for his life.]]
* In ''ComicBook/JohnnyTheHomicidalManiac'', the prime benefit of getting into Heaven is the ability to make other people's heads explode, and the highlight of Johnny's trip there is setting off a massive chain reaction of "head-a-splodey" violence, which is stopped only after a nun gets angry and detonates everybody's head simultaneously. People familiar with Jhonen Vasquez's work would probably not find this sort of thing out of place. Referenced in ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'', as Homer explodes the head of a tour guide angel.
* In an IntercontinuityCrossover with ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'', called ''Die Laughing'', ComicBook/TheJoker gains the power to explode people's heads with his laugh.
* In ''ComicBook/MarvelZombies'', the only way to make sure a zombie is dead is to destroy the head. Perhaps the most notable instance was when Invisible Woman exploded She-Hulk's head.
* In ''Pitt'', this is one of [[KidHero Timmy's]] primary uses for his PsychicPowers. It was especially useful against the ZombieApocalypse in the IntercontinuityCrossover with ''ComicBook/TheDarkness''.
* ''ComicBook/{{Planetary}}'': Pops up in The Drummer's backstory; he was one of about a dozen child prodigies tied to computers in an attempt to create a human system for secretly controlling the internet, all of whom wore bomb collars as extra security measures. He was the only one to survive escape.
* In ''ComicBook/{{Reyn}}'', [[ActionGirl Seph]] sticks her staff into [[spoiler:Brother M'Thall's]] mouth and zaps him with a magical spell. [[ShadowDiscretionShot While we don't fully see what happens]], it's clear that his head was blown to pieces.
* ''ComicBook/SavageDragon'' is rather fond of asploding heads. The dozens of separate instances and minor characters that die this way aside, Dragon himself had his brainpan asploded multiple times, twice by himself.... or his ''EvilTwin'', really. Wait, that was an Evil Twin killing another Evil Twin before the surviving Evil Twin killed Dragon and then was shot in the face afterward. By Dragon. ''ItMakesSenseInContext''.
* ''ComicBook/SinCity'' has different instances in which people get their heads blown off but the one that takes the cake is actually a dream sequence. John Hartigan is handcuffed to a chair, getting beaten to a pulp. He somehow finds the urge to break the cuffs and attack his tormentor. He punches him in the face so hard... his head explodes into a mushroom cloud. [[HopeSpot Then he wakes up.]]
* This is a regular threat for the ''ComicBook/SuicideSquad'', as Amanda Waller won't hesitate to set off the [[ExplosiveLeash bombs in their heads]] if they get out of line.
* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'':
** Invoked in ''ComicBook/RedDaughterOfKrypton'' when ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} thinks she has to talk the newest [[Franchise/GreenLantern Red Lantern]] down quickly before she blows more heads up.
--->'''Supergirl:''' I have to make this quick before she finds more heads to explode.
** In ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'' storyline, [[HeadCrushing Comet crushes villain Vax's head]] telekinetically until it bursts out.
** ''ComicBook/SupermanSupergirlMaelstrom'': Darkseid's soldier Cyberpak dies when the titular villainess shoves one grenade into his mouth.
** In the final part of ''ComicBook/TimeAndTimeAgain'', one of the reporters on the Earth's moon reporting Dev-Em's rampage is killed by a piece of debris flung at him at bullet-speed by Dev-Em that rips through his spacesuit helmet and also through his head, causing this to happen.
* ''ComicBook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesMirage'': This happens a few times to various thugs in the miniseries "Body Count".
* ''ComicBook/TrakkMonsterHunter'': In chapter 3, Trakk kills a monster by suqeezing its head until it bursts in his hand.
* ''ComicBook/TheTransformersRobotsInDisguise'':
** The Deceptions all have inhibitor/deterrence chips in their heads to prevent them from using their powers and transforming. If they get out of line, their heads will explode. When Horri-bull almost beats a neutral to death, Bumblebee detonates his chip. Ultimately subverted with the Constructicons in Issue #4: They show up alive and well later, despite Prowl detonating their chips, but it turns out they were Faking the Dead with a little help from Prowl himself.
** Wheeljack barely survives this in Issue 14.
** Shockwave shoots an already badly wounded Metrotitan in the face, blowing up his head.
* ''ComicBook/{{Transmetropolitan}}'': Happens -- over three panels, no less -- with the assassination of [[spoiler:Dr Vita Severn]].
* In ''ComicBook/{{Uber}}'', the titular superhumans can suffer a gory cranial explosion if their EyeBeams are used for too long without rest.
* Done in Marvel's ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}''. [[spoiler:Doctor Strange is subjected to the "squeezing until the head bursts" variety, courtesy of Dormammu's only appearance in the entire damn Ultimatesverse.]]
* In ComicBook/{{Watchmen}} #4 Dr. Manhattan is seen in a flashback using his powers to blow up the head of a gunman who opened fire in a nightclub.
* In ''ComicBook/TheWickedAndTheDivine'', Lucifer snaps her fingers and saves Laura by doing this to would-be assassins. She's also framed (maybe) for doing it to a judge, and it's later explained that any god with domain over fire could also pull that trick. [[spoiler: It's also how Ananke punishes Luci.]]
* In ''Requiem for a Rogue'', an arc of the ''ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron'' comics, the bad guy, failing to kill the Rogues, is interrupted by a new bad guy with a stronger connection to the Force. The new bad guy ''shoots his own hand'' off and telekinetically uses it to strangle the old bad guy while monologuing, then removes the hand and makes the old one's head explode. [[ComplexityAddiction Why not just shoot him, just strangle him, or just blow up his head?]] Because that's not ridiculous and overly elaborate enough, apparently.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* In ''Fanfic/AgesOfShadow'', this is how [[FallenHero Jade]]/[[PhysicalGod Yade Khan]] kills [[FakeUltimateHero Maximus Domino]] after she's done toying with him.
* Happens a lot to psykers in ''Fanfic/AgeOfStrife''. Also how Mirande killed [[spoiler:The Archduke]].
* ''Fanfic/CalvinAndHobbesTheSeries'' has this fate imposed on Socrates if his transmitter chip isn't removed in time. [[spoiler:[[AvertedTrope He makes it.]]]]
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10707012/2/Another-Day-in-the-Life-of Another Day in the Life of]]'' exploding heads are implied to be the result of a blood seal rebound.
* In ''Fanfic/TheCriesOfHaruhiSuzumiya'', [[spoiler:Haruhi asplodes Keiichi's head when she [[IWishedYouWereDead wants him to die]].]]
* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestriaEmptyQuiver'' features this as the destruction of a robotic dragon, courtesy of a 40mm grenade with the explosive yield of a mini-nuke. Your Head A Splode indeed.
* ''Fanfic/FromBajorToTheBlack, Part II'' has Eleya take out a Borg drone who's adapted to her phaser rifle by ramming said rifle through its DeflectorShield and into its mouth and ''then'' pulling the trigger.
* ''Fanfic/{{Frostbite}}'' has a couple of instances of [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]] making Breen {{mooks}}' heads explode. One such line:
-->"The disruptor bucked in [Tess's] hand as she fired and her target’s head exploded in a shower of sparks, bone, brains, and blood."
* Happens to the pirate captain in the ''Fanfic/GoldenAge'' series. [[spoiler: He likely didn't know that the empire planted a tooth bomb in him to keep the United Galaxies from discovering their trap.]]
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5483280/6/Harry-Potter-and-the-Champion-s-Champion Harry Potter and the Champion's Champion]]'' Ron makes Fleur angry enough to change into her avian form right before the First Task and she throws so many fireballs at the dragon she's supposed to be facing that its head explodes.
* It happens in ''Fanfic/HellsisterTrilogy'' when Doctor Fate fights Franchise/{{Superman}}'s enemy Lord Satanis. Let's say that Fate's Order magic doesn't mix well with Satanis' Chaos-powered headgear.
-->Fate put his hands to his helmet, lifted it off, and, swooping low, jammed it over the red helmet of his enemy. The power of Order, imbued within the golden helm, had an immediate reaction with the powers within Satanis's headgear.\\
There was an explosion everyone could hear, and what happened to Lord Satanis was not at all pretty to look upon.\\
Kent Nelson, standing in his blue and gold uniform, hesitated a second. Then he reached out, separated his own helmet from Satanis's, and replaced it on his head. Thankfully, it contained no baleful energies. He then took Satanis’s helmet. It came away from his body, with what was left of his head inside.
* ''Fanfic/TheImmortalGame'': This, via a blast of energy, is how [[BigBad Titan]] kills [[spoiler: [[GiantMook Exakktus]]]] when the latter pulls a HeelFaceTurn.
** Twilight [[spoiler: (having recently become [[PhysicalGod an alicorn]] herself)]] returns the favor during their subsequent duel. By ''punching him in the face''. Being a PhysicalGod, this barely slows him down.
* The ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' story ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5136265/1/The-importance-of-index-cards The Importance of Index Cards]]'' thrusts Watch adjutant A.E. pessimal into the most difficult task of his administrative career. Who would have known indexing and filing could be a life-or-death matter in a place where heads are known to spontaneously explode...[[spoiler: refer to '''Literature/MovingPictures'' below, for a hint of the primal evil Pessimal encounters]].
* ''Fanfic/TheInfiniteLoops''' MLP loops have some examples of this being PlayedForLaughs, including Twilight's head exploding twice after Pinkie "explains" how the Pinkie Sense works, and the Doctor's head exploding numerous times after the Mane Six loops into the Whoinverse as Daleks and decide to screw the whole extermination thing and be benevolent. The Doctor just couldn't process the concept of benevolent Daleks.
* In ''Fanfic/KOTORTheProdigyOfRevan'', Brejik gets this treatment from Knight in Chapter VII, via shoving the barrel of his pistol into Brejik's mouth and squeezing the trigger.
-->[[BondOneLiner "The guy didn't know when to shut up."]]
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Ripples}}'', this is the end result of [[AntiVillain Phobos']] BeamOWar with [[KnightTemplar Allora]], with him blowing her head totally off.
* In the ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/MarqueAndReprisal'', this happens to [[spoiler: Gabe.]]
* In ''Fanfic/MassFoundations: Redemption in the Stars'', [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas The Courier]] finishes off [[spoiler:the Harbinger-possessed Collector]] by discharging the entire clip of his [[HandCannon M-6 Carnifex]] into his head, with predictable results.
* In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfic ''Fanfic/PartiallyKissedHero'', Harry, having recently acquired Legilimency abilities from Voldemort's memories, {{Mind Rape}}s Snape so hard, Snape's head explodes.
* ''Fanfic/PokemonAttackOfMewtwo'''s first chapter has Mewtwo, [[spoiler: or rather, Mewthree]], tell Sarah to shut up, or he'll do this to her. Sarah continues to defy him, and so he uses 'sichic' to do so. [[MadeOfIron Sarah somehow survives this]].
* In ''Fanfic/PokeWars'', this is the fate of Misty's Psyduck when he's undampened (aka, having his PowerLimiters removed), the extreme overload of psychic power being too much for him.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12501270/7/Soul-Scars Soul Scars]]'' a troll's head explodes after Harry casts Reducto into its open mouth.
* In ''Fanfic/UnnaturalDisaster'', Taylor turns all the water in [[spoiler:Kaiser]]'s head into steam, causing this to happen.
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8286141/7/Harry-Potter-Death-s-Ultimatum Harry Potter & Death's Ultimatum]]'' Crabbe senior's head explodes when Harry casts Reducto at it.
* [[http://daisyofsarasaland.deviantart.com/art/Your-Head-Asplode-69242364 This]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice funny, yet disturbing]] picture from a Website/DeviantART user that shows what would happen to [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario's Yoshi]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome if he really did eat a live Bob-omb...]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''Film/ThirtyDaysOfNight'': [[spoiler: When Eben punches out Marlow.]] One vampire's head gets blown off by a shotgun blast and (apparently) killed earlier too.
* Alien heads asplode quite a bit in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''. It's a serious plot point because their spraying acid blood kills or injures several of the Marines. It's also not LudicrousGibs in this case, as Lt. Gorman explains that the Marines' pulse rifles fire "10-millimeter '''explosive''' tip caseless. Standard light armor piercing round."
** Meanwhile, the prequel ''Film/{{Prometheus}}'' has the already-severed head of a dead Engineer suddenly spasm madly before exploding into a gooey mess when the scientists restart its biological processes (said explosion occurs as a result of the bioweapon it had been infected with prior to death).
* ''Film/BattlefieldEarth'': BigBad Terl (played by Creator/JohnTravolta, no less) attaches an explosive collar to a man's neck and blows his head off. Thankfully, we get a GoryDiscretionShot.
* ''Film/BattleRoyale'': The students on the island are each fitted with an [[ExplosiveLeash explosive collar]] that goes off if they try to escape the island or try to remove it.
* The final battle of ''Film/TheBattleWizard'', where the hero, Tuan-Yu, managed to overload his ''chi'' into TheDragon... causing his entire cranium to blow apart.
* During the climactic scenes in ''Film/{{Bite}}'', [[spoiler:Jared stomps on the mutated Casey's head, which explodes into green goo.]]
* ''Film/BladeTrilogy'':
** [[Film/{{Blade}} The first movie]] has Blade using an anticoagulant that reacts violently with vampire blood. The area hit by the syringe swells and then explodes -- and he does it on the neck of an enemy, causing the head to explode.
** In ''Film/BladeII'', Blade sticks an explosive device onto an [[EnemyMine uncooperative bad guy's]] head. While the ChekhovsGun does not go off while attached to said head, it's a big enough bomb that when it does, the person holding it (including his head), explodes.
* This is how Chucky meets his end in ''Film/ChildsPlay2'' after getting covered in melted plastic Kyle sticks an air hose in his mouth causing his head to inflate and explode.
* ''Film/ChoppingMall'': Leslie [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNj-kHe-EmQ goes out this way]] courtesy of a KillerRobot's [[EnergyWeapon Frickin' Laser Beams]].
* While not actually seen a-sploding, one must imagine this happened to Cyrus at the end of ''Film/ConAir'' when a conveyor belt takes him underneath a rock crusher.
* Both ''Film/DawnOfTheDead1978'' and [[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 its remake]] feature memorable "shotgun blast to the head" scenes, although in very different contexts. The head splosion in the original was one of the first live-action attempts at the trope (achieved with various... organs).[[note]]It was a case of ThrowItIn, since the head was a mold of Gaylen Ross, and they decided not to kill her off (with her head being sliced in half by helicopter rotary blades.)[[/note]]
* ''Film/DawningOfTheDead'': In one scene, someone shoots a zombie in the head, causing it to explode.
* ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' features a scene in which an individual reacts poorly to an experimental serum. After some brief BodyHorror and vomiting as the Vampire Paramedics frantically try to save his life, he finally seems to settle... before his head violently explodes.
* Early on in ''Film/DeadBirds'', one of the bankers is shot in the head, causing his head to vanish down to the lower jaw.
* A particularly awesome [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSW2pPlZF-M head asplosion]] occurs in ''Film/DeadlyFriend'' when a cybernetically resurrected Kristy Swanson kills the obnoxious old lady neighbor with a thrown basketball.
* In ''Film/DeathSpa'', vengeful ghost Catherine causes AmoralAttorney Tom's head to explode while he is in the sauna.
* ''Film/{{District 9}}'' has at least one guy losing his head to a snazzy special effects explosion.
* In ''Film/{{Dobermann}}'', the Abbot shoves a grenade inside the crash helmet of the police officer who killed Pitbull's dog. He and then Leo then shove the unfortunate officer out of the car, where he struggles in vain to remove the helmet before his head explodes.
* ''Film/{{Dogma}}'': Any human who hears [[BrownNote God's voice]] suffers this fate. According to Metatron, "We went through five Adams before we figured that one out," resulting in an angel getting the job of speaking to humans for God. The Metatron later notes a human is immune if the human is already dead.
* In the 2011 film ''Film/Drive2011'', a scene has [[spoiler:Blanche's head being blown to bits, her brains splattering all over the bathroom]].
* ''Film/DustDevil'': [[spoiler:How Wendy kills the Dust Devil’s host.]]
* ''Film/EasternCondors'': During one of the fight scenes, a Vietnamese soldier has a live grenade shoved into his mouth and the pin pulled: with predictable results.
* Happens to Trantor the troll in ''Film/ErnestScaredStupid'' after Ernest shows him the love and innocence of a child.
* In ''Film/EvilDead2'', Ash steps on the neck of a wounded Deadite then proceeds to give it a point blank shotgun blast. Considering that it's a Deadite, there is no need to mention the resulting copious gore.
-->'''Deadite:''' I'll swallow your soul! I'll swallow your soul!\\
'''Ash:''' [[PreMortemOneLiner Swallow this.]]
* In ''Film/TheFlyII'', TheDragon's second-in-command is flung under a descending elevator, which crushes his body. The edge catches the back of his skull, causing it to rupture messily.
* In ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', a random teen dies this way, because he is wearing a hearing aid that magnifies sound so much your head explodes when you hear a normal volume sound. Creator/RobertEnglund cites this as one of his favorite deaths, saying that in today's climate, it's good to know that Freddy'll even kill the TokenMinority.
* In ''Film/Fury2014'' one unfortunate soldier is killed when he peeks out of his tank and he is shot in the head with a shell from another tank causing his head to explode.
* Inverted in ''Film/TheFury'', one character is blown up with psychic powers and everything ''but'' the head explodes.
* In ''Film/FullMetalJacket'' Private Pyle becomes deranged after the abuse he endured from his fellow privates and murders his own sergeant with a loaded rifle. Realizing what now awaits him for his crime, he takes his rifle and shoots himself in the mouth, spraying blood and brains all over the washroom walls.
* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': Along with EyeScream, this is one of the best ways to dispatch Viper Commandos or Neo-Vipers. Scarlett's exploding arrow went through a Viper Commando's eye before blowing his head up, and Heavy Duty jams a grenade in a Neo-Viper's neck guard to do away with his head. OWCH. During the Paris chase, Scarlett targets an unarmored Neo-Viper in the head too, suggesting this is her preferred M.O.
* In ''Film/{{Glory}}'', this happens to a Union Army RedShirt at the Battle of Antietam, who takes a direct hit from artillery.
* In the first ''Film/{{Gremlins}}'' it happens to a gremlin when Lynn stuffs it into the microwave and turns it on.
* In ''Film/HalloweenTheCurseOfMichaelMyers'' Michael knifes [[AbusiveParents jerkass dad]] John Strode onto a fuse box, electrocuting him to the point where he starts foaming at the mouth before his head blows up.
* In ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes2006'', we are treated to a very graphic shotgun suicide. On the potty, no less.
* ''Film/Halloween2018'': When [[spoiler: Michael's doctor goes insane in his attempt to pin down what makes him tick]], Michael catches up to him and stomps his head into a pile of goo.
* After Prof. Campell's severed head reminds Lucas how to defeat Jenke in ''Film/TheHorrorShow'', it explodes.
* Spoofed in ''Film/HotFuzz'': in an early scene with Angel giving a presentation to some school kids, he asks for questions. The only hand raised is that of his partner, who asks, "Is it true that there is a place in a man's head that, if you shoot it, it will blow up?" Our hero is not amused. DVD extra Fuzz Facts states that they were unable to find such a place on the human head.
* ''Film/{{Immortals}}'' does this a lot, especially when the Gods fight the Heraklions and Titans.
* Referenced in ''Film/InBruges'', when Harry is offered dum-dum bullets, "the bullets that make the head explode", and takes them like someone on a diet would accept chocolate cake: "I know I ''shouldn't''... but I will." Even professional hitmen can't resist the awesome of Your Head A Splode, apparently. [[spoiler:But they really should.]]
* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'':
** ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'': [[spoiler: When René Belloq and his Nazi company open the Ark of the Covenant, he is subject to the wrath of God first-hand as he is wreathed in flame from the Ark, screaming his lungs out before his head violently bursts. [[{{Bowdlerise}} The flames were added to obscure him partially to prevent Raiders from receiving an R-rating (PG-13 had yet to be thought of at the time)]], despite [[CruelAndUnusualDeath the equally gruesome deaths]] of Herman Dietrich (whose head was shriveled and collapsed) and Arnold Toht ([[ImMelting whose face was literally melted]] and was arguably more graphic) being shown uncensored.]]
** ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'': [[spoiler:Spalko's "gift" from the aliens overloads her brain, and fire spews out of her face before she is vaporized completely.]]
* In the 1987 movie ''Film/{{Innerspace}}'', there is a scene where Jack Putter, while disguised as the Cowboy (thanks to a MagicPlasticSurgery disguise), faces the possibility of not just any pain but '''Propane'''. This results in him freaking out, which causes his head to expand and distort greatly looking like it could explode. Luckily, it didn't, but his cover is blown wide open when this reverts his face back to normal.
* The sharks' deaths in ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' and ''Film/Jaws3D'' fit this trope, as both animals were chewing on something that exploded in their mouths.
* This happens in ''Film/KickAss'' as a man is locked in an industrial microwave.
* Done with [[spoiler:Professor Arnold]] early on in ''Film/KingsmanTheSecretService'', and then later [[spoiler:with all of Valentine's soldiers, party guests, and most of the heads of government]] due to the chips in their necks overheating and exploding after [[spoiler:Merlin hacks them]].
* ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft,'' or at least the remake, ends on this note.
* In Creator/BillCosby's ''Film/LeonardPart6'', the titular hero offs one of the vegetarian bad guys in such a manner -- by feeding him a cold hot dog.
* In a ''[[Film/JamesBond Bond]]'' film ''Film/LicenceToKill'', one guy's head actually ''does'' explode (due to ExplosiveDecompression).
* ''Film/LittleDeadRottingHood'': During a shoot-out in the middle of the movie, we're treated to a shot of a wolf's head bursting into LudicrousGibs.
* In the original ''Film/TheLostBoys'' the vampire gang member Dwayne is killed when he's shot in the head with a holy water-tipped arrow by Michael, it causes him to go flying into an amplifier which electrocutes him and causes his head to explode.
* In the most infamous scene from the film ''Film/Maniac1980'', psycho killer Frank attacks a couple [[AutoErotica making out in a car]] and shoots the male (played by Creator/TomSavini, who was also in charge of the effects) in the face at close range with a double-barrel shotgun, blowing his brains all over the car and his poor date.
* In ''Film/TheManWhoSavesTheWorld'', the protagonist, during the middle of a fight, [[spoiler:rips off a toilet paper mummy's head with his hands and throws it at other mummies, making the head go Boom!]]
* The Creator/GeorgesMelies film ''The Man with the Rubber Head'' provides a classically oddball example: Méliès makes a living clone of his own head [[NoTimeToExplain by means that remain unexplained]] and blows it up to ginormous dimensions, only to see it [[{{Pun}} literally blow up]]. [[OlderThanTheyThink Did we mention this was made in 1901?]]
* In ''Film/MarsAttacks'', the Martians' heads explode [[AchillesHeel when exposed to]] [[BrownNote the song "Indian Love Call"]].
* ''Series/MaxHeadroom'', as mentioned under Live Action TV, which is [[{{Blipvert}} what causes]] the problem in the film as well.
* In ''Film/MenInBlack'', Agent K shoots the normal-seeming pawn shop owner Jack Jeebs in the head, causing this; turns out Jeebs is an alien, and [[GoodThingYouCanHeal gets better]]. It's implied that this is the routine for the two. It's implied in ''Men In Black 2'' that every time he does this, [[CloneDegeneration the head comes back a little...off]].
* ''Film/NobodySleepsInTheWoodsTonightII'': In Adas' DreamSequence at the start of the movie, Adas shoots the first killer ballroom dancer in the head, causing it to explode.
* Happens in ''Film/ThePatriot'' set during The American Revolution by means of a cannonball to the face.
* Obscure SlasherMovie ''Film/TheProwler / Rosemary's Killer'' ends with the villain getting a point-blank shotgun blast to the face, blowing his head completely apart in an extremely messy manner. Of note, Creator/TomSavini has referred to this movie as being one of his finest works.
* When being [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]] in ''Film/ThePitAndThePendulum1991'', Esmeralda's head explodes because she is holding a mouthful of gunpowder.
* ''Film/PulpFiction'': "Oh man, IJustShotMarvinInTheFace!" Though oddly, if freeze-framed, Marvin's (relatively intact) head can be seen in the trunk later.
* Happens [[{{Gorn}} a LOT]] in ''Film/PunisherWarZone.'' And A LOT of it is so over the top, that it's more funny than gory or shocking (he just ''punches someone'' and it happens), considering they were aiming to go darker, this is somewhat amusing.
* ''Film/TheQuickAndTheDead''. Creator/KeithDavid's head doesn't ''exactly'' a splode, but what's left can't be structurally sound.
* In ''Film/RamboIV'' movie, the first death via Rambo and his new M2 Browning is the driver of the truck it's mounted on. He gets off around 25-30 shots at point-blank range into the guy's head. The next shot is of a waterfall of brains, bone, and blood pouring down the gun's shield. A later shot has what's left of the driver's torso sliding out of the truck like a giant, bloody cigar butt. [[NoKillLikeOverkill Rambo doesn't stop at mere head explosions.]]
* ''[[Film/CabinByTheLake Return to Cabin by the Lake]]'': Subverted. VillainProtagonist Stanley sticks a firecracker into someone's ear as an IronicEcho to a comment the guy made earlier about "lighting a firecracker under your ass". He puts it out just before it goes off, but he [[BuriedAlive buries the man alive]] instead while lighting fireworks on top of his casket.
* Jen suffers this at least twice in ''Film/Revenge2017'', courtesy of point-blank shotgun blasts to the face. Fortunately for her, it was [[AllJustADream All Just A Bad Peyote Trip]].
* [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext This is how the sentient telekinetic car tire kills people in]] ''Film/{{Rubber}}''.
* Schwarzenegger's ''Film/TheRunningMan''. Prisoners wear neck collars which, when activated by a sensor perimeter, explode. It happens to Chico when he mistakenly thinks the perimeter's been shut down.
* In ''Film/SawIII'', one of the characters spends most of the movie with a makeshift device made out of shotgun shells attached to her neck which will detonate if the evil mastermind dies. This kinda sucks since he has terminal cancer. [[spoiler:Mercifully, she's offscreen when it eventually does go off, but the ruined stump left in place of her neck afterward is horrifying enough.]]
* Creator/DavidCronenberg's ''Film/{{Scanners}}'' famously blew up a man's head around the beginning as a particularly bitchin' KickTheDog moment for villain Darryl Revok. Made even more awesome when you know how they did it: nothing fancy at all -- just a fake head filled with various substances (including dog food and rabbit livers) and a twelve gauge shotgun aimed at the back of its neck! So [[TheMoreYouKnow now you know exactly what happens to a human head when hit point blank by a shotgun...]]
* In ''Film/ScoutsGuideToTheZombieApocalypse'', Augie's doorknob-launching air cannon inflicts this trope upon a row of three zombies ''in one shot'', seriously impressing his fellow Scouts. Also to a bunch more individual undead, at least until it runs out of ammo.
* In Billy's proposed ending, this happens to Charlie in ''Film/SevenPsychopaths'' (see page quote).
* In the 2007 movie ''Film/{{Shooter}}'', when the assassination takes place, the target is shot with a .50 cal sniper rifle from over a mile away, and we get to watch the head a-splodin' through the crosshairs. It's a good-and-gory splatter, but even then it wasn't as bad as what would have happened in RealLife (see '''Other''' below).
* ''Film/SinCity'' has Dwight [[spoiler:tossing Jackie Boy's head into a crowd of "bad guys". The head has a grenade taped inside. It asplodes.]]
** Also, [[Creator/BruceWillis John Hartigan]] does this to Roark Jr ''with his bare fists''.
* ''Film/SpyHard'': It's a well-known fact that during the singing of ''Film/{{Thunderball}}'', the high note at the end caused Tom Jones to faint. Music/WeirdAlYankovic parodies this in the title sequence when the high note at the end causes his head to explode!
* The Brain Bug in ''Film/StarshipTroopers3Marauder'' manages to do this to all of the non-plot-critical characters in the room with it when the human military leaders go to examine footage of Anoke talking to it by squealing.
* In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', Harrison likes to crush his enemies' skulls. [[SuperStrength With his bare hands]].
* Sonny Chiba's ''Film/TheStreetFighter'' has a particularly unintentionally-hilarious example. Sonny's character sneaks onto the BigBad's boat at night, grapples with one of his {{mooks}}, and ends up by throwing him about all of six feet down to a lower deck. The henchman's head reacts to contacting the said deck by exploding violently in what looks like it took a full gallon of red poster paint to achieve.
* In ''Film/TenaciousDInThePickOfDestiny'', Creator/JackBlack blows someone's mind in his dream with ThePowerOfRock.
-->'''Jables''': I did not mean!\\
'''Kage''': He did not mean...\\
'''Jables''': To blow your mind!\\
'''Kage''': To blow your mind!\\
'''Jables''': But that shit happens to me all the tiiiiime!
* ''Film/TheyCallMeBruce'' (1982). TheMafia asks a NightmareFetishist hitman how he plans to kill Bruce. After demonstrating various methods on a store dummy, the silenced pistol with explosive bullets that blows up its head gets their unanimous approval.
* ''Film/ThreeKings'': There's a flashback scene where a man's head is shown popping off. This is done for comedic effect.
* In the original ''Film/TotalRecall1990'', the exploding head is a bomb-rigged animatronic prosthesis which Quaid wears as part of a costume. His deception uncovered, [[HeyCatch he tosses the head to his pursuers]], in whose hands it cracks wise and then asplodes. Later, the thin Martian atmosphere causes one bad guy's head to asplode. Arnie and his gal narrowly avoid the same fate.
* In ''Film/TransformersDarkOfTheMoon'', this is how [[spoiler:Starscream]] meets his end. From ''Sam'' of all people.
* ''Film/Trench11'': The German who takes a point blank shotgun blast to the head.
* ''Film/TurkeyShoot'': In the 2014 film, the Libyan dictator's head is absolutely ''destroyed'' by the rifle bullet which hits him.
* In the 1987 movie ''Film/WantedDeadOrAlive'', BountyHunter Nick Randall, played by Film/RutgerHauer, brings Malak Al-Rahim, a {{Middle Eastern Terrorist|s}} who killed his best friend and his girlfriend, back to his employers with a grenade jammed in his mouth. He's being paid a bonus to bring the guy in alive, but ultimately decides "Fuck the bonus," just before pulling the pin and leaving him to die an explosive death.
* ''Film/{{Wedlock}}'': AKA (''Deadlock'') features explosive collars used instead of fences at a futuristic prison.
* In ''Film/{{Willow}}'', Madmartigan puts his sword into one head of a two-headed dragon. It splodes.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Any time someone gets shot in the head in a Creator/MatthewReilly book, their head ''will'' explode. ''[[SignatureStyle Always]]''.
* The big concert scene in ''Literature/AnnoDracula: Johnny Alucard'' features Spinal Tap, who were all on [[FantasticDrug Drac]] during their set, trying out the shape-shifting capabilities conferred by the drug; the drummer tried to generate horns on his head, but only succeeded in blowing his head apart. The stage manager laments that there is nothing but a big mess to clean up, while if he'd done it onstage it would have made a brilliant ending to their performance.
* In ''Literature/BattleRoyale'', students are outfitted with [[ExplosiveLeash explosive collars]] to enforce their compliance with the government's "game". One student dies when his collar goes off when he's stuck in a forbidden area.
* In his book ''Brain Droppings'', Creator/GeorgeCarlin wondered about the possibility of a world where the ''only'' cause of death was people's heads exploding, totally without warning.
-->'''Carlin:''' You know what? I bet people would get used to it.
* In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresHumanNature Human Nature]]'', one of the school children who is defending the school from a group of attacking aliens turns to say something to John Smith and gets hit in the back of the head with a dart from one of the alien's weapons. A moment passes then this trope splatters blood and brain matter all over the room, leading to a HeroicBSOD from John Smith.
* In the ''Literature/HyperionCantos''
** Kassad makes a religious fundamentalist's head asplode ''on television,'' using careful timing and satellites with tightly focused invisible laser beams to boil their brains. He plays this up as the wrath of Allah, backed by the wrath of the galactic military police.
** The AIs make a human hacker's head asplode when he tries to penetrate their systems.
* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''
** In ''Literature/MovingPictures'', we learn of the existence of Tshlup-Ashlapeth, the Infernal Star goat with a Million young, whose preferred and only way of slaughtering a victim is to hold them down and show it pictures of its children until they can take no more and their brain explodes.
** Used metaphorically in ''Literature/FeetOfClay'', when a dreaming Vimes sees a murder victim's head burst open and spill out words. Then again, non-metaphorically, when [[spoiler:the Golem King's head is smashed to pieces, with countless shreds of paper containing the king golem's Words flying out]].
** Used even less metaphorically in ''Literature/TheFifthElephant'', when [[spoiler:a werewolf reflexively catches Vimes' high-powered flare in his teeth]].
** According to ''Literature/{{Snuff}}'', an overdose of the [[FantasticDrug troll drug]] Crystal Slam can cause the victim's head to explode.
* In ''Literature/FengshenYanyi'', many Immortals during the course of the novel are often killed by head blows powerful enough to smash their heads to pieces, such as Lady Bixiao (head smashed by Yuanshi Tianzun's curved scepter), Sacred Mother Jinguang (head splattered by Guangchengzi's Heaven Turning Seal) and Luo Xuan (Li Jing drops an entire golden pagoda on his cranium).
* In ''Literature/{{Hammerjack}}'', pretty much everyone has communications implants in their brains. One of the deadliest hammerjack techniques involves hacking someone's implant and causing it to overload, making the victim's head explode. This is done by both Vortex and Heretic to dispatch enemy soldiers.
* A self-inflicted version in ''Literature/InfiniteJest'' where [[spoiler: James O. Incandenza drills a hole into a microwave, puts his head into it and]] well, the aftermath makes the Boston PD pathologist faint.
* ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'': Sun Wukong's cudgel weights nearly 6 tons and can wound gods: just touching the still staff makes one's body shake, it takes a slight blow to make a poor sop's cranium explode in a firework of skull fragments, blood and brain fragments.
* In ''Literature/{{Nightflyers}}'', [[spoiler:Thale's head explodes when Agatha injects him with esperon in an attempt to boost his psychic abilities.]]
* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' after Daylen finds out [[EvilPlan what Jena and the other Dawnists are planning]], he hits her straight in the head with every ounce of his considerable SuperStrength. The results are ... messy, to say the least.
* Literature/SkulduggeryPleasant briefly mentions a colleague who 'ruptured' after receiving a DeathGlare from Baron Vengeous.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'':
** A heartwarming DefusingTheTykebomb situation in ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' is interrupted by this; the BigBad anticipated that it might happen, so installed a tiny bomb in his weapon's skull.
** Attempted in ''Literature/TheApproachingStorm''. Soergg the Hutt controls a pair of Ansionians by planting explosive charges in their necks. Barriss Offee manages to disarm and remove them, and the Ansionians pull a MookFaceTurn and become native guides to Offee and three other Jedi.
* The first time the protagonist uses the eponymous blade from the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth'' series, the powerful magic in the sword makes his enemy's head explode -- in slow motion, no less.
* Virtually any headshot scored in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' novels results in this, given that the primary weapon of three different factions is a fully automatic miniature RPG. {{Invoked|Trope}} in ''Literature/SpaceWolf: Grey Hunter'' when the Wolves specifically go for headshots against a sanctuary of Chaos cultists [[spoiler:because the cultists have runes painted on their heads that Thousand Sons Chaos Space Marines are using to possess them and resurrect themselves]].
* The magic-wielding Asha'man from ''Literature/TheWheelOfTime'' series learn to do this as a standard attack. Later we see them exploding not just heads, but entire bodies, sometimes of whole ranks of soldiers at once. They are very good at their jobs. The meat-grinder carnage that results naturally makes other characters ill.
* Averted in ''Literature/WorldWarZ'', where a military research proposal to remote-control thousands of bullet-sized cruise missiles into the skulls of zombies and detonate them never accomplished squat, except to use up a huge amount of funding and resources.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}: [[AfterTheEnd Hell on Earth]]'' and ''[[SpaceWestern Lost Colony]]'' gives us [[XtremeKoolLetterz sykers]]. Similarly to the examples above, their ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin brain bomb]]'' special ability stuffs some [[FutureSlang waster's]] head so full of [[LifeEnergy "psychic" power]] that it literally bursts. [[LudicrousGibs Hard.]] Hard enough to cause damage to anyone standing next to the poor sap. And sometimes, it even [[MagicMisfire backfires]]. Yay!
** ''Hell On Earth'' also features the Combine (no, not [[VideoGame/HalfLife2 that Combine]]), an EvilEmpire whose soldiers each have a "loyalty chip" implanted at the base of their skull. It allows them to safely use Combine-issue weapons and vehicles, but if the chip determines that its owner could be about to reveal any Combine secrets, or if s/he defects from the Combine and is later discovered by a Combine officer who knows the correct passcode...well, they're not nicknamed "headbanger chips" because [[BigBad General Throckmorton]] is into heavy metal music.
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' has several ways to make someone's head explode, the [[PsychicPowers psionic powers]] ''intellect bomb'' and ''cranial deluge'' being the most marked examples. So can some lesser powers, such as ''mind thrust'', which has been described as causing the victim's head to explode when you kill them with it. Then there's ''detonate'', which makes someone explode and damages people around him; even if he survives, he takes so much damage his head apparently made a decent attempt at exploding. In addition to this, if a character for any reason obtains over three times their maximum hit point total (most likely as a result of too much time spent on a Positive Energy plane), they will explode, either "merely" their head or their entire body.
** For earlier versions, conjure water in the cranium. They get rid of it, though.
** The 5th edition spell Psychic Scream does this to killed enemies. Interestingly, the spell has no effect on enemies with an Intelligence of 2 or lower -- a character Polymorphed into a low-intellect beast would escape damage, but a Druid using Wild Shape to morph into that same animal would not.
* In ''TabletopGame/EclipsePhase'', this is a side effect of using the emergency [[BrainUploading backup]] [[BodyBackupDrive farcaster]]. Since it's powered by antimatter.
* Just one of the many occupational hazards of being a mook for the Eaters of the Lotus for ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' -- if you do or say anything contrary to what your EvilSorcerer master wants you to do or say, the magical ward that he put on you will make your head go kaboom. A very nice example of this is what happens to any Poison Thorns your characters interrogate (which can only be done through magical compulsion because of their fear of this) in the adventure "Baptism of Fire," which features an evil Lotus sorcerer as the main villain.
* "Freaks" in the 1980s action movie-inspired game ''TabletopGame/TheHardWay'' can do this to people with their minds, ''Film/{{Scanners}}''-style.
* OlderThanRadio: The second edition of the British card game ''[[http://www.wopc.co.uk/games/jaques-illustrated-proverbs Illustrated Proverbs]]'', circa 1885, has this trope on the first card for "They love too much who die for love." (Possibly also AteHisGun.)
* TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} introduces a spell in ''Occult Adventures'' called Explode Head, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin. It also damages anyone standing nearby due to what is politely referred to as "debris".
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' has "cranial bombs", explosive devices implanted in the human skull. Depending on size, they can do anything from just making the head explode to cleaning out a room.
** One ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' novel featured an acidic cranial bomb that ''melted'' a spy's entire upper body, obscuring evidence of his identity while partially subverting this trope.
* The more specific offensive psychic powers of ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' vary between this and MindRape.
** Ork Weirdboyz also generate head exploding hilarity when their powers go haywire. The exploding isn't limited to the Weirdboy, either, which is why Cunning Orks tend to give them a wide berth.
** Another 40K example featured a psychic war between two Space Marine Librarians. ''Guess how it ended''.
** The Imperial Guard's penal legions use explosive collars to enforce discipline among their members.
** "Mad Dok" Grotsnik did this to a few nobz that had come to him for a "Ghazgkhull Special" (basically a metal skull filled with gubbins that made Ghazgkhull into a genius); rather than the increased intelligence he promised, Grotsnik stashed away a plethora of explosives in the other orks' skulls, which he could explode at his leisure. After he CameBackWrong following an assassination attempt by the angry nobz, Grotsnik decided to celebrate by detonating all the explosives he had left.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'': [[spoiler:How Saito meets his end in the true final chapter. Here's the breakdown: Having by this point switched himself and Date back into their original bodies with the Psync machine, Saito has taken Hitomi hostage in the control room of the abandoned factory in the restricted area. With Moma's shotgun tossed away per the order but Aiba (still in the eye socket of his previous body) there on Ota's phone, Date engages her self-destruct sequence per the codes they agreed on during a ride earlier on in the route. The result is a real eye-popper for Saito.]]
* In the Source Engine conversion game ''VideoGame/AgeOfChivalry'', it's possible for Heavy Knights to cause this with their [[DropTheHammer warhammers]].
* In ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' (any of the PC games or the newish console game), alien's heads tend to explode if you aim for them. Their bodies are kind of fragile and chitinous, so this is somewhat more believable.
** In the second game, headbiting a human (or, far more rare, predator) caused the victim's head to completely shatter. MadeOfPlasticine, indeed. (The first game merely decapitated the victim).
* After you defeat the pepper grinder-wielding Duchess in ''VideoGame/AmericanMcGeesAlice'', she has a sneezing fit, causing her head to explode.
** This happens to Alice herself if she is killed by an enemy with a firearm. In fact, there's a cheat code you can implement that will show you the death scene, but then allow you to continue playing the game -- with Alice having ''no head''.
** In ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'', this happens to the White Rabbit within five minutes of starting the game. Seriously.
* ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'', in the final battle against [[StupidJetpackHitler Cyborg Clone Hitler]]... [[NoSwastikas err, Master-D]]. Somehow, the censors forgot to pick that one up. An image of this scene can be seen [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hitler-Head-Asplode.gif here]]. This single moment is ''the only reason'' why the 2008 remake, ''Bionic Commando Rearmed'', is rated M!
** "Exploding Nazi Heads" seems to be a running gag in the series. In the 2009 sequel, after defeating the BigBad, a grenade is placed in his mouth and he is kicked over the edge of the platform. Boom!
* Comes in several different varieties in ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite''. The shotgun, sniper rifle, and HandCannon can all blow enemies' heads off with a clean headshot, one of the possible Sky-Hook executions has Booker grind the victim's head into paste with its blades, and most spectacularly, shooting an enemy to death while they're being electrocuted by [[ShockAndAwe Shock Jockey]] causes their heads to burst into flames before their bodies burn up.
* ''VideoGame/BishiBashi Special'', prefiguring the {{Trope Namer|s}}, had a ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}''-like minigame called "Puck Attack" with round head icons which would go up in a fiery explosion if the puck went into the goal.
* In ''VideoGame/TheBlackHeart'', if you're really low on health, one of Final's grabs will do this to you.
* Fatal headshots in ''VideoGame/BlacklightRetribution'' will not only cause the head to explode but will sometimes cause a sharp exploding sound to be heard across the map if the headshot deals enough damage.
* ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'': In the grim future, all of our heads are apparently filled with nitroglycerin.
** In ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'', one particular boss fight ends with its head exploding after you retrieve a software upgrade from its collar. The boss, in question, had all five of the game's elemental damage abilities, which are fire, electricity, corrosion, slag, and explosive, and after [[BigBad Handsome]] [[{{Jerkass}} Jack]] unveils it to you, he forgets its explosive capability right up until then.
** Score any kill on humans with electricity and see their heads go "pop" like a lightbulb.
* ''VideoGame/BrutalDoom'' and ''Project Brutality'' let the Doomguy blow the heads off of most foes with the vast arsenal he has ranging from a pistol to a rifle to a ''Gatling gun'' to a Revenant's rocket launcher's Railgun secondary fire. If their heads aren't blown clean off, it's turned into meat chunks plastered across the wall.
* This is possible in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: World At War'' with a high caliber firearm headshot.
* In ''VideoGame/CharlieMurder'', the default CoupDeGrace is a literal curb-stomp. The enemy's head will explode violently underfoot, but strangely their brain will remain intact and can be used as a projectile.
* In keeping with the ludicrous level of violence it displays, ''VideoGame/Condemned2Bloodshot'' allows players to explode enemies' heads in a number of ways, including industrial presses, and eventually [[spoiler:by shouting at them.]]
* ''VideoGame/DarkSeedII'' had a particularly {{Narm}}ful one [[spoiler:involving the protagonist's mother]] that seemed more like a BigLippedAlligatorMoment than anything else.
* In ''VideoGame/DeadRising'', break a jar containing a Queen bug in the vicinity of zombies, and their heads asplode.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'': Researcher vs. freakishly grotesque space baby, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0_Mo3iIxVc yeah...]] You can also do this to other Necromorphs during regular gameplay. It doesn't do anything other than pissing them off some more.
** In the third game, any headshot to Unitologist soldiers, even ones with weapons that would normally cause their heads to fall off will make it explode. This applies to explosive weapons, though it's unclear how instantly severing their body parts with one single explosion would cause their head to disappear other than a logical headshot with an explosive.
* The Anal Probe in ''VideoGame/DestroyAllHumans'' kills by making the victim's head explode, and in the process extracts more Furon DNA (glowing brains) than killing by other methods. Try wrapping your brain around that, getting anally probed is so violating that your head explodes.
* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry''
** In ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry3DantesAwakening'', this happens to Cerberus whenever you damage one of his heads enough; the death of a head prevents him from using a specific attack. He only has one head left after he's defeated by Dante.
** It's topped in glorious fashion in ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'' after the final battle with [[spoiler:The False Savior]], where [[spoiler:Nero finishes it off by crushing its face in his hand. Head asplosion comes complete with city-rattling shockwave]].
* Happens in ''[[VideoGame/{{Elvira}} Elvira II: The Jaws of Cerburus]]'' when you defeat a witch. (One of her eyes survives, and it can be used as an ingredient for a spell.)
* Some versions of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' had this, your character portrait would show damage depending on how much health he had. In a few versions, taking a vicious shot at low health would result in not the head slumping down dead, but blowing up.
* ''VideoGame/Doom2016'''s BigBad, [[spoiler:Olivia Pierce]], gets this treatment at the end of your final battle with her, with the Doom Slayer [[spoiler:sticking the BFG into the maw of the Spider Mastermind that she has become, just before cutting loose and blowing her brains out]].
* ''VideoGame/DoomEternal'' has the Slayer executing [[spoiler:the final Hell Priest Deag Grav]] in this fashion, by way of BoomHeadshot with the Super Shotgun.
* ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness'': You can hallucinate this happening if you cast a spell with low sanity. Also, if Xel'lotath is your enemy, [[spoiler:Paul Luther]] gets a good telekinetic head-bursting instead of the boss fight both he and TheDragon were expecting.
* Part of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' experience. In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', killing headshots with a rifle will cause this if the head is crippled, or decapitate if it isn't. After Frank Horrigan's body falls apart in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', you can talk to him to hear some useless last words before his head pops off. Satisfying!
** In ''Fallout 3'', using the Mesmetron to collect slaves has a random chance effect of pissing them off for a few seconds before their heads pop. Likewise, anyone successfully enslaved gets an ExplosiveLeash just to keep them in line.
** Also in ''Fallout 3'', any Rock-It Launched junk aimed to the head could explode it (watch a teddy bear impact with critically explosive fun!). It was more common than with any other Big Gun, as the others would more often result in charred husk, complete dismemberment, or full body splatter.
** The Repellent Stick. Hit a mole rat with it, wait a few seconds, and its head will explode. As fun as this sounds, all the Mole Rats do is smoke for a bit before their heads burst in a rather underdramatic fashion. Moira's reaction is altogether more amusing.
*** The Lone Wanderer's descriptions are hilarious:
---->"Well, at least it's non-lethal for people. For Mole Rats... not so much."\\
"It repelled their limbs from their body. Can you make one that works on people?"\\
"It appears that Mole Rats have a most fatal allergy to it. Explosively so."\\
"It's like explosive whack-a-Mole Rat. Can I get it in bullet form? For people?"\\
"It gives them quite a kick, like too much Jet or something."
** The add-on Mothership Zeta will have your head explode if you don't put your spacesuit on before opening the room's bay doors. {{Explosive decompression}} for the win! Though that [[FridgeLogic leaves one to wonder]] why you can open the bay doors when your hand, because of your Pip-Boy, is clearly exposed.
** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' also has the exploding slave collars. As a twist, a quest for the Brotherhood of Steel and the ''Dead Money'' DLC put the collar on ''you''. And thanks to interference from the Sierra Madre's sound system, straying too close to active speakers or ham radios for too long leads to warning beeps that grow faster and faster until ''BOOM splat!''
*** The More Perks Mod adds the perk Superior Mind that allows the Courier, if they have an Intelligence score of 9 or the max 10, to make an opponent's head explode with a dialogue option. If it's used on an opponent whose Intelligence score is higher, however, then crippling damage is applied to the user's own head.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' gets this at the end of the ''Sorrow of Werlyt'' storyline after the player finally defeats [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Diamond Weapon]]. [[spoiler: The Diamond Weapon, fueled by Alphonse, Gaius Belsar's adopted son, grabs the mastermind of the Weapon Project and the [=VIIth=] Legatus, Valens van Varro, and even with GoryDiscretionShot in effect, crushes him so hard his head is heard popping. The funny part is it sounds more like a balloon popping followed by water pouring down a sink.]]
* Various ''Manga/FistOfTheNorthStar'' games, [[MadeOfPlasticine when an enemy is punched]]. Apparently a faithfully adapted trait of the anime. Heads comically bloating before they pop optional.
* Rion, main character from ''[[{{VideoGame/Galerians}} Galerians]]'', often does this to all mooks around when his PsychicPowers spin out of control.
* In ''[[VehicularCombat Gear Grinder]]'', when Jack takes his [[WeaponizedCar devastating ride]] and tries to escape, his captors reveal that they [[ExplosiveLeash implanted a bomb in his head]] and threaten to set it off if he doesn't return immediately.
* In ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar'', headshots with a sniper rifle, or headshots when making a killing shot for pistols or shotguns do this. It's possible to purchase an action figure of a Locust Drone with his head asploding.
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII III]], [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity Vice City]],'' and ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas San Andreas]]'', heads would always neatly pop when shot with a sniper rifle.
** Gore mode allows you to blow off heads and limbs with any gun.
** In the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' mission Friend Request, [[spoiler: you do this with the phone bomb to Jay Norris. ''On live television.'']]
--->'''Rickie Lukens:''' [[{{Foreshadowing}} Have you seen the prototype in the demo room? When Norris unveils it at the keynote, minds are gonna blow!]]
* The result of a headshot in ''VideoGame/{{Gun}}''.
* In almost every ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' game, there is an obtainable Skull called "Grunt Birthday Party" that, when picked up, made it so that when you scored a headshot on a Grunt, [[MadeOfExplodium its head blew up]]. Into clouds of confetti. While little children cheer. And in ''VideoGame/Halo3'' the confetti actually causes, albeit small, damage to nearby enemies.
** Fun fact: Those cheering children are from ''VideoGame/VivaPinata''.
** The original version of this Skull appeared in ''VideoGame/Halo2'', where its effect is slightly different. There is no confetti or children -- the enemy just blows up exactly like a plasma grenade. Also, the effect works on any enemy with a head, not just Grunts.
* In ''Infernal Runner'', stepping into a certain wave field would cause your head to start bulging and after a few seconds explode messily.
* ''VideoGame/IWannaBeTheGuy'' hilariously subverts this. Instead of "Your Head Asplode," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jt7OlFTxFJo Everything BUT Your Head Asplode.]]" It doesn't matter what you touch, whether it be [[SpikesOfDoom barely grazing a spike]], [[SelectiveGravity getting hit by fruit falling up]], or [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight getting hit by Dracula's wineglass.]] [[InvertedTrope Your body explodes violently in a shower of red pixels while your head just remains untouched.]]
* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2''. If you manage to shoot somebody in the head in just the right way, their head will explode and their body will fall on the ground, [[HighPressureBlood blood squirting out of the neck]]. In fact, if you're lucky, you can save your game just before such a moment and replay it over and over.
* Scoring a headshot with a strong enough weapon in ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' will result in this trope. Even better, instead of [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation leaving a neck stump with a clean white bone sticking out like a blob of mozzarella on an incredibly poorly made margherita]], the lower half of the victim's head will be left behind, which is TruthInTelevision for those killed by extremely high powered bullets to the head.
* In ''VideoGame/TheLastStand'', zombie heads occasionally explode when shot.
* In ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' a headshot with any sufficiently powerful weapon (Any of the shotguns, the Assault Rifle or Hunting Rifle) will turn a normal infected's head into a brief cloud of [[PinkMist red goo]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Lemmings}}'', the bomber lemmings would hold their heads and quiver for a second or so before they blew up as if trying to contain the explosive force within their skulls.
* ''VideoGame/LetItDie'': woe be to the young fighter who makes a snack of a Boomshroom. Eating one guarantees the player a one-way trip to death (and their head, a one-way trip to the ceiling).
* In ''VideoGame/{{Lugaru}}'', if you enable debug mode, you can make enemy bunny and wolf heads explode with the tap of a key.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Manhunt}}'', the trope was limited to a few executions and heavy firearms. ''Manhunt 2'', on the other hand, has {{Mook}} head explosions in every other execution. Their heads will pop like a watermelon from weapons such as a sledgehammer, a baseball bat, a shovel, or even a ''flashlight''!
* Headshots of various types in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' (at least against human-sized organic targets) cause rather [[HighPressureBlood violent sprays]] of red, blue, purple, or orange.
** If you get a headshot on any mech, especially a YMIR mech, it will cause a large explosion.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' headshots can now explode the heads of organic enemies. In multiplayer, krogan and batarian characters can do the same thing with headbutts/punches... as can any character equipped with a Batarian Gauntlet. This includes volus, which is a little strange given that volus characters are about three feet tall, meaning that a volus heavy melee attack with an omni-fist involves punching people ''[[GroinAttack in the crotch]]'' so hard their heads explode.
** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' continues it with some organic enemies (but not all - krogan heads won't explode). Kett heads tend to explode in a gooey green mess (which the Codex kindly justifies). And sometimes, possibly due to a bug or just 'cuz, it happens if you use a melee weapon, giving the impression Ryder has hit someone hard to enough to make their head explode.
* [[spoiler: Celebrimbor]] the Wraith in ''VideoGame/MiddleEarthShadowOfMordor'' is especially fond of doing this to Uruks once you advance his skill tree. There are also weapon runes you can apply that utilize or improve your head-sploding powers. The Uruks find Talion's new talent kind of disturbing, judging by their banter.
* Featured in numerous fatalities across the ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' franchise.
** The very first exploding head, in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'', was courtesy of Raiden, although in the savagely {{Bowdlerise}}d SNES version it reduced the enemy to ashes instead.
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' punishes [[RageQuit rage quitters]] by making their character's head pop like an ugly zit.
--->"'''''QUITALITY'''''"
* ''VideoGame/MoshiMonsters'' has a whole species of creatures called Baby Boomers, whose heads explode randomly and they always grow back. Their eyes are also immune to this exploding.
* An EasterEgg at the museum in ''VideoGame/MysteryCaseFiles: Dire Grove'' lets you make the head of a stuffed sheep explode.
** In ''Escape To Ravenhearst'', a mannequin's head explodes after you beat it at cards.
* In ''VideoGame/NaughtyBear'', if a teddy is driven insane by naughtiness and scared one last time, he [[DrivenToSuicide will kill himself]]. This trope is what happens when said teddy is unarmed.
* In the freeware platformer ''VideoGame/NinjaSenki'', this happens when you finally kill the dragon at the end of Scene 8, followed by its entire neck gradually exploding.
* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', Travis defeats Holly. After losing, she tells him she has a thing for him, then takes one of her grenades, pulls the pin, and puts it in her mouth, with predictable results. Travis, desperately trying to pay respects, hugs her headless body. And buries her in a pit trap she dug.
* [=DJ=] Subatomic Supernova inverts this during the transition from his third phase to his final phase in ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads''. Rather than exploding, the narcissic disc jockey's head ''implodes''. This creates a black hole [[AdvancingBossOfDoom whose suction Mayday and Zuke must outrun for the rest of the fight]].
* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'' had one monster that had conjoined rolling heads! The monster would explode when its HP hit 0 or if you stepped on it.
** The Blood and Bone Suckler enemies hunt prey by diverting massive amounts of blood into their heads, creating explosive cranial pressure and turning their heads into fragmentation grenades, killing the prey item so that other Sucklers can eat it. They seem pretty volatile aside, though, since a single shot can set off a room full of them like a biological powder-keg.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonUltraSunAndUltraMoon'', the Ultra Beast Blacephalon's SecretArt is Mind Blown, wherein it takes off its own head and blows it up to damage the target, [[CastFromHitPoints at the cost of half of its own health]]. Because of its BizarreAlienBiology, the loss of its head isn't terribly inconvenient and it simply grows another one.
* In ''VideoGame/Portal2'''s Perpetual Testing Initiative, [[spoiler:one of the worlds you visit is a world where Aperture Science made psychic beings; [[Film/{{Scanners}} they turn out to be assholes who just like to make people's heads explode]]]].
* Spend many a happy moment explodin' the heads of FacelessGoons in ''VideoGame/PsiOpsTheMindgateConspiracy''. A favorite [[CrossesTheLineTwice over sadistic]] tactic was using telekinesis to pull one towards the player, and "catch" him with Mind Drain, which upon fully draining their HP popped their heads while they screamed in anguish. Very stress relieving! Or you can mind-control those suckers into eating the business ends of their own firearms. Strangely enough, you seem in total control of every aspect of their bodies, except their mouths. They scream like banshees right up to the skull explosion.
* ''VideoGame/{{Psychonauts}}'': Minor character Dogen Boole has the ability to make people's heads explode with his uncontrollable psychic powers. He wears a tinfoil skullcap to prevent any more accidents from happening further.
* ''VideoGame/Rage2011'' rewards shooting a bullet into an enemy's exposed brain with the whole head exploding. Doubles as LudicrousGibs, since a head explosion temporarily leaves behind the victim's brain, cranium, and jawbone in distinct, identifiable pieces.
* ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'':
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'':
*** Apparently, the skulls of everyone are [[MadeOfPlasticine made of cheap plaster]]. Why else would they detonate when the enemy is killed with a headshot? Maybe Las Plagas soften up your skull. This doesn't even require a high-powered weapon like a shotgun or a magnum -- Leon can elbow, kick, or punch suplex infected humans so hard that their heads burst.
*** This game also features [[EverythingFades corpses that frequently melt after seconds on the ground]], so it isn't just the heads that are [[MadeOfPlasticine soft]]. A few Ganados at the start don't fade but the point still stands.
*** Ironically, when you start out, blasting them in the face causes an injury animation that makes it seem like someone punched them in the face. It takes anywhere from five to eight un-upgraded handgun shots to get them to explode.
** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'': Since this game, the best way to save ammo was the head-exploding shot, a single, well aimed, scarily-close-to-the-zombie shot.
* In the computer game ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', this happens to one of the other six guests during a cutscene. There is no discernible reason why, either. Ego, the game's narrator, is heard to inquire, "...what's wrong with her head?" It also happens in a cutscene in the sequel ''The 11th Hour''.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowComplex'' has an achievement named after this, awarded to you if you get 50 headshots.
* In ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheWoolBall'', this is what happens to the BigBad [[ZeroEffortBoss once you as much as lay a finger on him]]. In the sequel, it turns out his underlings somehow managed to piece his head back together and he's alive, although with a disfigured face.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'': A cranial bomb is part of the plot of the game for the {{UsefulNotes/SNES}}. It gets activated ("Oops." "What do you mean, "Oops."?") during a surgical procedure, and you have a relatively short amount of time to get it deactivated. The surgeon does refund your money, though.
* In the original ''VideoGame/TheSims'', one of the prank calls your sims can receive at night is "Your psychic adviser's head has just exploded, be forewarned."
* In his Mummy form, Skul from ''VideoGame/SkulTheHeroSlayer'' can combine this with BallisticBone.
* Virtually every one of LetsPlay/{{Slowbeef}}'s {{Lets Play}}s has featured head explosions. Even ''VisualNovel/{{Sprung}}'', which was photoshopped with the explanation "every Slowbeef thread has a head explosion."
** "[[VideoGame/DarkSeedII Here, Mike, this will explain everything]]."
* In the first two ''VideoGame/SoldierOfFortune'' games, the damage modeling was such that you could sever limbs or blow off pieces of an enemy's head, including their jaw, sometimes exposing their brain. In the third game, the head always [[LudicrousGibs completely exploded]] when shot, although enemies could now temporarily continue to fight after losing a limb.
* In ''VideoGame/{{SOMA}}'', every member of personnel in Omicron Station mysteriously died of simultaneous head-explosions.[[spoiler: At first, it appears that Dr. Ross is responsible, however, he eventually reveals that [[AIIsACrapshoot the WAU]] killed everyone there, in order to prevent them from utilizing a supply of poisoned structure-gel.]]
* This is how Dmitri dies in ''VideoGame/SpaceApe''.
* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', [[BoomHeadshot headshots]] usually cause PinkMist but using a sufficiently powerful weapon such as a shotgun or the Desert Eagle will result in this trope.
* ''VideoGame/SpookysJumpscareMansion'': This is how some "enemies" die in The Mall of the Spook.
* In ''VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage'', there are wizards made of fire in Skelos Badlands who can be defeated by charging into them. This will cause their head to fall off and explode about a second after hitting the ground, potentially damaging Spyro if he's close enough.
* In the Battle of The ''Amerigo'' cutscene in ''VideoGame/StarCraft'', one of the marines' heads explodes when a Zerg claw gets put through his face. There's also the opening cutscene when the Protoss attack that salvage ship. Their beam vaporizes the ship from one end to the other, and somehow explodes the head of the guy on the bridge before his body just for good measure.
* {{Exaggerated|Trope}} with [[spoiler: Krazoa God Andross]] in ''VideoGame/StarFoxAdventures''. For those who don't know, [[spoiler: Andross is basically [[CognizantLimbs a giant ape head with a pair of floating hands]]. When he's dispatched at the end of the game, his head goes out in a massive explosion comparable to when the Death Star blew up in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Fox and Falco even have to OutrunTheFireball generated by his head's explosion with their spaceships]].
* Not as prominent as above, but the original ''VideoGame/StarFox'' and ''VideoGame/StarFox64'' end with Andross [[spoiler: or his robot double]] getting blown up. ''64'' has you outrun the explosion through a narrow maze.
* This is what happens whenever Troy dies in ''VideoGame/{{Struggling}}''. You can also invoke this to respawn at the nearest checkpoint.
* ''[[VideoGame/TheSuffering The Suffering: Ties That Bind]]'' has this as a FinishingMove of the Triggerman monster. They will simply hold [[PlayerCharacter Torque's]] body with one limb, then fire [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill all five of their guns]] at his head point-blank, with predictably gory results.
* One of the attacks ''VideoGame/StubbsTheZombie'' has involves pulling off his own head, rolling it like a remote-controlled bowling ball, then detonating it in an explosive blast of toxic gas. [[GoodThingYouCanHeal It grows back.]]
* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', the Bombed enemy's one form of attack is throwing its explosive head at you, then running away as it regenerates so it can throw it again.
* In the ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'' trailer "Meet the Spy", the BLU Spy gets his head blown off by the BLU Soldier after the latter mistakes the former for the RED Spy. To be fair, the BLU Spy had just warned the other people in the room that the RED Spy could disguise himself as one of them.
-->'''BLU Spy:''' He could be in this very room! It could be you! It could be me! It could even be- '''''*BLAM*'''''
** [[http://i.imgur.com/oR0uh.gif Here's a GIF.]] This one's messy too.
** An [[http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Ambassador unused icon for the Ambassador]] suggests that at one point, it was supposed to do something like this [[BoomHeadshot when it scored a critical hit to the head]] and violently remove the victim's head, or pieces thereof, from the rest of them.
** While not a full-fledged head explosion, the Demoman's melee unlocks the [[{{BFS}} Eyelander]] can and will decapitate foes in a fountain of HighPressureBlood. The Scotsman's Skullcutter and the Sniper's Hitman's Heatmaker do much the same.
** In the Mann vs. Machine game mode, one of the upgrades for the Sniper's weapons makes the head of the enemies explode if he scores a [[BoomHeadshot headshot]].
** Strongly implied by the [[https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Hollowhead Hollowhead]] cosmetic item for Pyro, featuring a blown-out mask with no head underneath, not even a hint of what was there. This is part of an ongoing RunningGag to keep them TheFaceless.
* In ''VideoGame/ThemeHospital'', the condition "Bloaty Head" is treated by popping the patient's head with a pin, and re-inflating it to normal pressure.
* ''VideoGame/TouhouKenbunRoku'': [[spoiler: DummiedOut in the final version of the game; during the final chapter, when Marco is killed by gunfire from several planes, his head was intended to implode; in the final, he just blinks, and disappears, supposedly drowning after taking a fatal wound, from the massive array of gunfire. The graphics for the explosion are still in the ROM.]]
* ''VideoGame/TransformersWarForCybertron'': Achieving a headshot on a mook causes their head to explode, complete with a loud "clang" sound effect.
* It can be done in ''VideoGame/TrueCrimeNewYorkCity'' when aiming at a person's head with a high caliber weapon.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Turok}}'' games started doing with ''Seeds of Evil'', the second in the series.
** The series' Cerebral Bore, which debuted in ''Seeds of Evil'', makes the target's head explode after doing [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin what its name implies]]: drilling into the skull and boring out their brains.
** Ditto for the explosive [[FunetikAksent Tek]] [[TrickArrow Arrows]].
** In fact, ''Seeds of Evil'' is enamored with exploding heads. Even a well-placed round from a mere 9mm pistol can leave baddies with a [[HighPressureBlood blood-spewing crater]] where its head used to be.
* In the intro of ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'', this happens to several victims of the microwave KillSat attack on San Francisco.
* {{Justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine'', considering that most of your ranged weapons are bolter variants. For those unfamiliar, picture a rocket-propelled grenade. Now picture a repeating RPG small enough to be fired one-handed, and you've got a basic bolt pistol.
* A number of the fatalities in ''Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style'' will cause this to happen, most notably Inspecta Deck's FingerPokeOfDoom fatality.
[[/folder]]

'''Man:''' (''louder'') NO!\\

'''Man:''' Wha... (''scared'') Are you serious?!\\

(''everything above the man's jaw explodes'')\\

[[folder:Webcomics]]
%%* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': "And oh my goodness you just dropped a sprocket and some guy over there said Queen Victoria was stupid." ''[[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/17p38 Boom.]]''
* Axel has the ability to make people's heads explode in ''Webcomic/AnsemRetort''. So far, it's been seen used twice:
** The first time was against a cowboy that coincidentally was in the replacement cast. Lulu said it was his just desserts for dissing ''Film/TheGodfather''.
** The second time was the entire population of Jericho, New York. Odds are, they probably deserved it.
* ''Webcomic/BobAndGeorge'': Ran's head explodes when he's hit with a technobabble overdose. In addition, using the time-freezing Flash power on [[CaffeineBulletTime Quick Man]] causes a loud pop and a large mess.
* From ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' Charby understood why he felt he had such a mind-blowing experience when he spotted a piece of his own brain stuck on a friend's suit. How fast Charby noticed it tends to be mind bl.. er, to show that he's still street smart even with a piece of brain missing. Charby also had punched Zeno with perfect accuracy on the face while still headless! What a badass!
** And way back from the earlier comics, there was Charby and Zeno's attack on Rodericke's lair. [[http://www.charbythevampirate.com/comic/237/comic_archive Bang.]]
* The Oculots of ''Webcomic/EnemyQuest'' cause this when they use their [[Main/{{Telepathy}} telepathy]] on non-Oculots. [[spoiler: They pay for it by getting feedback from the victim in the form of last thoughts, chunks of memories, and the sensation of death.]] Understandably, they don't like doing it.
* In ''Webcomic/ErrantStory'', Ian does this to an elven guard sneaking up behind him while talking to Meji. [[OffhandBackhand Without turning around]]. [[http://www.errantstory.com/2008-04-11/794 With sound effect]].
* ''Webcomic/ExterminatusNow'': The head of a psychic lab uses a hologram to contact the inquisition. The holo [[http://exterminatusnow.co.uk/2014-02-05/comic/tangled-web/stay-sanguine/ shows him covered in blood]], calling for a mop, and he explains that an anomaly "took out" two of his psykers. He also suggests giving psykers helmets in the future... to catch the splatter.
* ''Webcomic/{{Freefall}}'': Qwerty mentions that his fellow robots are concerned that this is a possible reaction to robots intentionally circumventing their [[RestrainingBolt safeguards]], in [[http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff1500/fc01451.htm this strip]].
* This will happen to Frankie in ''Webcomic/FrankieAndStein'' if Stein takes her [[spoiler:time-travelling]], at least according to Shelly.
* According to ''Webcomic/GetYourWarOn'', this can be caused by calling UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush "brilliant".
* In one of the alternate universes in ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'', Minmax is a powerful psion who does this to his party members.
* ''Webcomic/HitmenForDestiny'' uses the legend where chickens are still alive after being decapitated. [[http://www.webcomicsnation.com/thorsby/destiny/series.php?view=archive&chapter=42579 Death Rage Chickens]] become aggressive while decapitated.
* This happens in ''Webcomic/HaruSari'' [[spoiler:when a rogue elf blows up Alberich's dad's head]].
* This happened in the polyamorous comic ''Jake the Rake'' episode aptly entitled [[http://www.thisismarcus.com/jake/fourteen.htm "Explode Assumptions"]].
* In ''Webcomic/KevinAndKell'' this is [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2006/kk0122.html apparently a consequence]] of sudden {{Squick}}. At higher levels of Squick, [[http://www.kevinandkell.com/2003/kk1124.html it can lead to]] a head ''implosion''.
* ''Webcomic/LastRes0rt'': [[http://www.lastres0rt.com/2009/05/death-is-expensive-punchlines-are-cheap/ Say hello to Sedja!]]
** This also gets subverted the second time we see her: the Children of Gabriel [[http://www.lastres0rt.com/2010/10/ride-that-rocket/ expect the worst]] when she forces the one kid who tries to attack her with an AerosolFlamethrower to inhale her, but [[spoiler:she makes him [[VomitIndiscretionShot vomit her back up instead]], {{Squick}}ing the rest of the crowd and forcing them to scatter.]]
* In ''Marsh Rocket''. With a double-page {{NSFW}} spread. Ouchies. The character deserved it though.
* Amongst the contributors that make up the webcomic community The Middle Ground (www.mgcomics.com), the former author known as Maikeru is known in-comic for making peoples' heads explode.
* In one ''Webcomic/{{Nodwick}}'' story, this sort of curse is inflicted upon the title character ''twice''. The first one will cause his head to explode if he reveals the secret that the {{Mooks}} tell him, while the second (inflicted by different Mooks) will turn his brain into spinach artichoke dip if he does so. After both curses are accidentally both triggered ''at the same time'', the BigBad remarks, "This is why I have to keep firing the help..." (Fortunately for Nodwick, Piffany is [[DeathIsNotPermanent close by]].)
* Wonderella did it to herself in [[http://nonadventures.com/2015/10/24/the-blast-supper/ this]] ''WebComic/TheNonAdventuresOfWonderella'' when she realized that, technically speaking, [[spoiler: Jesus can be considered transgender.]]
* In ''Webcomic/PricklyCity'', Winslow object that they can't go away with the election in November. Carmen points out that it's ''next year.'' Winslow's reaction is the trope -- and "When do we head off? -- No pun intended."
* Happens to [[spoiler:an alien]] in ''Webcomic/RomanticallyApocalyptic''. The cause? TheCaptain giving them a ''really angry'' DeathGlare.
* When the comic protagonist Art in ''Webcomic/SequentialArt'' draws a picture that somehow manages to combine all known fetishes, [[http://collectedcurios.com/sequentialart.php?s=665 his housemate Pip's head explodes]] upon looking at it. Don't worry, though -- it was OnlyAFleshWound.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', when it happens to Ebbirnoth. Ebby happens to be a [[BizarreAlienBiology Unioc]], whose "head" is one big eyeball. It's messy and very painful when a sniper pops it, but Ebby is still all right because all of his vital organs (including his brain) are in his torso. Doesn't stop the sniper from thinking that he's dead, though.
* ''{{Webcomic/Sarilho}}'': [[spoiler: Jacinto gets [[BoomHeadshot headshot]] twice]]. Combined with PsychicStrangle in the case of [[spoiler:Márcia]].
* ''Webcomic/SleeplessDomain'': When Cassidy attempts to [[spoiler:violently interrogate Undine]] during their sparring match, Bud soon arrives and [[https://www.sleeplessdomain.com/comic/chapter-14-page-29 attempts to break up the fight]] via a laser blast through the head of one of Cassidy's [[DoppelgangerAttack clones]], destroying it instantly.
* ''WebComic/SluggyFreelance'': In "GOFOTRON Champion of the Cosmos", the [[NighInvulnerable invincible]] [[ComicBook/{{Lobo}} Lodoze]] faced off against the just badass [[KillerRabbit Bun-bun]]. The fight ended quickly after Bun-bun shoved his gun entirely up Lodoze's nose and then hit him in the face with a bar stool, blowing up the back of his head. [[HealingFactor That slowed him down]] [[ImplacableMan for a bit.]]
* This happened in ''Webcomic/{{Terinu}}'' when [[spoiler: when Terinu's powers traumatically activated and blew off the head of his kidnapper.]]
* ''Webcomic/Trevor2020'': Private Young‘s grey matter goes flying from the sheer force of [[spoiler: Trevor]] biting into his skull.
* Robots in ''Webcomic/{{Vexxarr}}'' actually win arguments this way. it generally goes like this:
-->'''Drone:''' I will not do that/go there and you can't make me!\\
'''Vexxarr:''' Oh, ''can't I??''\\
'''Drone:''' '''[[StuffBlowingUp BAM!!]]'''\
'''Vexxarr:''' Okay, you win.
* In the ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'' side story ''Vienne of Seferpine'', Vienne has a magic weapon that can do this, kept for self-defense in case the government comes for her. It's more of a "your head disintegrates" than "your head explodes", though. She uses it later in the story, [[ChekhovsGun obviously]].
-->And then the stranger’s head was gone. The stump of his cleanly-truncated neck gouted poppy-red blood. Vienne flinched away. The rest of him spasmed like the chicken she’d strangled for Mathis’ uneaten dinner two nights earlier. Then the body slumped to the mud and Vienne remembered to breathe again.
* Mela in ''Webcomic/WeAreTheWyrecats'' manages to simply shrug off her head being blown off in a fight. [[spoiler: As it turns out, she [[BrainUploading saved her brain in a black box]] just in case of emergency and has been living in a man-made body for some time.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'':
** In the episode "Sheen's Brain", Jimmy gives Sheen a brain gain helmet in order to boost his IQ. It backfires when it not only causes his brain to keep growing until it would eventually explode, he also develops psychic powers and [[AGodAmI a god complex]].
** In the special "Win, Lose, and Kaboom!", in which Jimmy and his friends were taken into an intergalactic game show, the gang faced against the Needleheads in the ''Series/FearFactor'' style game, "Can You Eat This?". For the Needleheads' turn, one was challenged to eat a banana cream pie, which caused his head to explode.
* Darwin's head pops like a balloon on three occasions on ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball''.
* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
** In "Dope & Faith", Stan makes a new friend only to be told that he's an Atheist, which heavily conflicts with Stan's ultra-Christian worldview ([[CharacterizationMarchesOn at the time]]). He calls the CIA to ask if the machine they were working on that projects an image of the Christian God into a person's brain was ready yet; clearly, it wasn't as the last test subject was shown to be sans head.
** A pretty spectacularly gory one in the climax of "Cops & Roger", where Roger drops his elbow onto the head of the bad guy as he falls from the ceiling of a warehouse, shown four times with increasingly gruesome close-ups. The episode ends a scene later with Roger asking Stan if that guy was okay. He even says what everyone watching was thinking: "That was unexpected."
* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce'':
** In "Kidney Car", after a particularly inane rant from Master Shake near the end of the episode, involving Carl's new car being sucked into a jet engine Shake had affixed on his car (which happened to be Carl's ''old'' car), Carl's head explodes.
--->'''Meatwad:''' Why'd he do that?\\
'''Master Shake:''' Why wouldn't he?
** In "Gee Whiz", Carl is hit with a flaming arrow fired by Music/TedNugent. After the Nooge tells him "Don't move!", Carl's head explodes. [[BrickJoke Then a rainbow comes out.]]
* In the Avatarverse, [[spoiler:having one's chi blocked at the wrong moment appears to be an (explosive) AchillesHeel for [[HavingABlast combustionbenders]]]].
** First, there was the fate of [[spoiler:[[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Combustion Man]]]] in ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', after [[spoiler:Sokka hit him in the [[ThirdEye light chakra]] with a boomerang]].
** Later, in the penultimate episode of Season 3 of ''WesternAnimation/TheLegendOfKorra'', [[spoiler:Suyin Beifong [[ExtraOreDinary wraps her metal armor]] around [[TheBrute P'Li's]] head just as the [[ColdSniper sniper]] is about to shoot Lin. Cut to GoryDiscretionShot...and then, cut back to the ''[[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill smoking crater]]'' where there'd been a 6'8" firebender moments before]].
* A RunningGag in ''WesternAnimation/BigMouth'' involves characters' heads exploding whenever they hear a surprising fact. Of course, this being a cartoon, their heads are back to normal in the next shot.
* This happens from time to time on ''WesternAnimation/CelebrityDeathmatch''. They include Creator/JimCarrey, UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush, [[Music/{{Oasis}} Liam and Noel Gallagher]], [[Franchise/StarWars Mark Hamill, Peter Mayhew]], Creator/AlPacino, Creator/KeanuReeves, and [[Series/MadAboutYou Paul Reiser]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/CentralPark'', Season 1 "[[Recap/CentralParkS1E4GarbageBallet Garbage Ballet]]", because of her disastrous kiss with Brendan, Molly drew in her comic Fista-Puffs kissing Kite Boy and [[FacialHorror his face melting]]. She rewinds time to wipe her lips and kiss him again, only for his face to melt again, then she rewinds time again to blow him a kiss, only for his head to explode as she screams in terror.
* In the Franchise/{{DCAU}}, robot heads tend to get exploded one way or another. In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'', Luthor reveals he has a kill switch for [[spoiler:AMAZO--excuse me, "[[NotUsingTheZWord the android]]"]], and uses it in this fashion... but by this point, a simple head asplosion just makes him ''mad''.
* Creator/TexAvery often used exploding heads--always resulting in BloodlessCarnage as a form of LaserGuidedKarma--as a common gag in his MGM shorts. Some examples:
** Spike's head explodes twice in the WesternAnimation/{{Droopy}} shorts ''Wags to Riches'' and ''[[UpdatedRerelease Millionaire Droopy]]''--the same two scenes in each.
*** Spike's head first explodes after masquerading as a press photographer. After rigging a camera with a mortar shell in place of film, he points it in [=Droopy=]'s direction. The camera immediately swivels around in Spike's direction, then gets fired straight into his melon. After the photo is taken, Spike leaves with a blanket hovering over an empty space where his head used to be.
*** The second time comes up when Spike sets up a shotgun to fire when a bathroom door opens. [=Droopy=] enters and immediately leaves the bathroom, but nothing happens each time. When Spike opens it... yeah. The carnage is initially hidden by the bathroom wall, then is further obfuscated by a card conveniently located on an easily accessible table.
** In ''The Chump Champ'', [[SameCharacterButDifferent Gorgeous Gorillawitz]] attempts to rig a potato-sack race by depositing a CartoonBomb into [=Droopy=]'s sack. The bomb promptly defuses before [=Droopy=] enters the scene. After the race ends, which [=Droopy=] wins easily, the bomb detonates as soon as Gorillawitz peeks into the sack, and we see nothing but air as he looks toward the audience.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': A cutaway gag shows Peter's head exploding after he eats half a fudgsicle in one bite.
** In another episode, a cutaway gag has customers' heads exploding after eating cupcakes that were baked by Peter. It also makes Peter a ''literal'' LethalChef.
** In "Chap Stewie" Stewie puts a box containing Peter's PornStash out on the curb to be picked up by Goodwill. Chris opens it, then screams in joy and his head explodes. He's perfectly fine later, where he announces that it took him three years to look at all of it.
* Done in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/FishHooks'', specifically it was Clamantha, after finding out that the girls knew about the party crashers. However, she is just a head so she blew herself up.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", Bender's head explodes after Creator/GeorgeTakei accidentally activates his SelfDestructMechanism.
** "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" introduces Malfunctioning Eddie, a neurotic robot used-car salesman whose head would explode when startled or excited. He shows up later in "Insane in the Mainframe" as a robot asylum inmate, where his condition is brought under control with medication (he only experiences a tiny explosion on his shoulder).
** Leela manages to make Robot Santa's head explode via LogicBomb but another one pops right up and he claims he was built with "paradox-absorbing crumple zones".
* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode “Scary-oke”, Dipper, Mabel and Stan defeat a horde of zombies by singing a three-part karaoke chorus, causing the zombies’ heads to explode.
* Variation on ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes'': Lucius gets so angry at Beezy that his head rockets off his shoulders and flies around.
* ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' is once trapped in the fast food restaurant to which he was exiled prior to the first episode, and all exits are programmed to make him swell up and explode if he tries to leave. Every time he even thought about escaping, a small child would shout, "He's gonna 'splode, momma!"
** Also happens to Gir in "Bad, Bad, Rubber Piggy", after spotting a [[LogicBomb flaw]] in Zim's plot to assassinate Dib via TimeTravel.
--->'''Gir:''' Wait... if you destroy Dib in the past, then he won't ever be your enemy. Then you wouldn't have to send the robot back to destroy him, and then he WILL be your enemy, so then you WILL have to send a robot BACK... *head explodes*
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Kaeloo}}'' episode "Let's Play Spies", [[spoiler: [[DoesNotKnowHerOwnStrength Bad Kaeloo]] gives a BearHug to Stumpy, Quack Quack [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther and Mr. Cat]]. She squeezes too hard and their heads explode, which is [[HollywoodHealing somehow fixed by bandages]].]]
** In another episode, Mr. Cat has an allergic reaction, and as a result, his head swells up and explodes offscreen.
* At least in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/PepperAnn'', the main character's head explodes briefly into a mushroom cloud.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' episode "[[Recap/PhineasAndFerbSummerBelongsToYou Summer Belongs to You]]", Isabella tries to get [[ObliviousToLove Phineas]] to notice her for most of the time they're in Paris. After he makes a statement about Candace and Jeremy being together, Isabella's head explodes in frustration (which turns out to be a DaydreamSurprise).
* In the ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' episode "The Last [=LaserDisc=] Player", when the [=LaserDisc=] guardian reveals its true form, it creates a high-decibel noise that causes one of the members of the VHS society to have his head explode while he's entranced by [=LaserDisc=]'s 44.1 kilohertz sample rate.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' episode "Ren's Brain" ends with every single person's head exploding, blowing up Earth in the process. "And thus endeth the Republican Party as we know it," says the narrator.
* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'':
** In the episode "Maurice Was Caught", little orphan Annie is given Mars for her sweet sixteen party, and upon visiting it, trips and loses her spacesuit helmet. Cue ExplosiveDecompression of her head.
** During another episode, several math students' heads exploded after being taught that the imaginary number ''i'' was the square root of ''-1''.
--->''"I don't get it! ... Oh, '''now''' I--(boom)"''
** In one sketch, Franchise/{{Batman}} sentences ComicBook/TheJoker to death row and he's executed via electric chair. When his face has been burnt away and he appears to be dead, his body suddenly spasms and his head explodes.
** In a ''Literature/HarryPotter'' sketch, Ron Weasley mixes a potion wrongly and drinks it. After a brief OhCrap, his teeth quadruple in size and shoot out like bullets and his head explodes.
* One early episode of ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' involves Rocko buying groceries at a very deep discount. The only shopping cart available for him is missing some wheels. The grinding sound it makes is so annoying, one shopper pulls his ears so hard in frustration that his head pops like a balloon.
* In ''WesternAnimation/RoughnecksStarshipTroopersChronicles'', human psychic Carl goes up against an alien "brain bug" and, in the battle of minds, the brain bug follows this trope quite messily, as it is essentially a large mobile brain. Carl later has the obligatory PsychicNosebleed.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** A THX sound test in one episode made one unlucky moviegoer's head pop.
** In "WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror X", spoofing the [=Y2K=] furor, Homer and Bart toss themselves out of the airlock from a spaceship filled with C-list actors, comedians, and has-been celebrities (it was already [[HurlItIntoTheSun headed for the Sun]], but staying even one more minute was so much worse). While in the vacuum of space, their heads swell up, they sigh in their few last moments of blissful silence, [[GoryDiscretionShot and their heads go "pop!" off-screen]].
** In the season six episode "And Maggie Makes Three", when Homer is telling the story of Maggie Bart takes over and Homer's head explodes after being told he was going to have another child.
** According to the episode "Lisa's Wedding", aired in [[TheNineties 1995]], [[IWantMyJetpack by 2010 there would be robots that looked completely human]] with one notable flaw; when they cry, their heads spark, explode and melt.
* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'': [[spoiler:The robot Scaramouche ended up having his head blown off by Aku, [[ItMakesSenseInContext after Aku was misinformed by Scaramouche with]] [[LockedOutOfTheLoop an outdated piece of information that Jack had lost his sword]].]]
* Towards the end of the ''WesternAnimation/SonicBoom'' episode "Let's Play Musical Friends", when Orbot and Cubot confront Nominatus, the episode's BigBad, they play a game of [[RockPaperScissors Rock]], [[{{Calvinball}} Donut, Thursday]] to determine who gets to fight him. Nominatus is baffled at the stupidity of the game, and further observation confuses him to the point where his head explodes from logical errors.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'':
** A juror's head explodes after hearing a complement to the ChewbaccaDefense in "Chef Aid".
** [[MemeticMutation Tay Zonday's]] head explodes after the "Dramatic Chipmunk" stares him down in "Canada on Strike". Complete with dramatic music and everything. He manages to blow the critter's head off with his gun before he croaks.
** The future guns in "Go God Go". They fire a dart into the target that, after a few seconds, causes their head to explode.
** [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny's death]] at the Plane'arium in "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods".
** Happens to Glenn in "Night of the Living Homeless" thanks to Randy's animosity towards destitute people.
** Cartman's head explodes in "Medicinal Fried Chicken" after he finds out that KFC has been banned from Colorado. ([[UnexplainedRecovery He gets better, though.]])
* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'':
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E19FoolsInAprilNeptunesSpatula Fools in April]]", Squidward's head explodes [[GaggingOnYourWords while trying to say sorry to SpongeBob]].
** A variant in "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS1E20HookyMermaidManAndBarnacleBoyII Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy II]]": when the Atomic Flounder is offended by [=SpongeBob=] suggesting that he could go back to villainy at any time, he unintentionally breathes radiation on Barnacle Boy's face. Barnacle Boy's head glows red before exploding into a miniature mushroom cloud, [[AshFace leaving it a burnt husk]].
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS3E20SpongeBobMeetsTheStranglerPranksALot Pranks a Lot]]", Patrick falls victim to the exploding gum prank. Of course, only [[TheDitz Patrick]] could fall for a prank while knowing he just entered a store that sells prank items.
** In "[[Recap/SpongeBobSquarePantsS5E9TheKrustySpongeSingASongOfPatrick Sing a Song of Patrick]]", a guy's head explodes from listening to Patrick's horrible song being played off the radio station's antenna. Another guy nearby who didn't suffer the same fate calls him lucky.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', [[BlobMonster Plasmus]] is pretty much a giant head on legs when Raven makes him explode, so while it's not technically bloody it's still messy, graphic and complete with gunky splatters right back in Raven's face.
* In one ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' Jerry sticks an air hose in Tom's mouth and it swells to massive size, then the duckling Little Quacker pops his head with a pin. Tom recovers.
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Unikitty}}'', Dr. Fox uses a shuttle to train Unikitty and Puppycorn for space travel, during which Unikitty and Puppycorn's heads inflate and explode.
* At the end of the ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' episode "The Good Bad Guy", Hater's head explodes when [[spoiler: Major Threat makes a remark heavily implying that Tumbleweed, the guy who inspired his HeelFaceTurn, really ''is'' the same person as Wander.]]
[[/folder]]

** Kenny's death at the Plane'arium in "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods".

* In ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'', a random teen dies this way, because he is wearing a hearing aid that magnifies sound so much your head explodes when you hear a normal volume sound. Creator/RobertEnglund cites this as one of his favorite deaths, saying that in today's PositiveDiscrimination climate, it's good to know that Freddy'll even kill the TokenMinority.

* In the alternate timeline series ''Future Imperfect'', this is said to be the only way to reliably kill [[ComicBook/IncredibleHulk The Hulk]]. Unusually, it's then subverted [[spoiler:by using TimeTravel to blow the Evil Hulk to LudicrousGibs instead.]]

* Spend many a happy moment explodin' the heads of FacelessGoons in ''VideoGame/PsiOpsTheMindgateConspiracy''. A favorite [[CrossesTheLineTwice over sadistic]] tactic was using telekinesis to pull one towards the player, and "catch" him with Mind Drain, which upon fully draining their HP popped their heads while they screamed in anguish. Very stress relieving!
** Or you can mind-control those suckers into eating the business ends of their own firearms. Strangely enough, you seem in total control of every aspect of their bodies, except their mouths. They scream like banshees right up to the skull explosion.

* Apparently, the skulls of everyone in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'' are [[MadeOfPlasticine made of cheap plaster]]. Why else would they detonate when the enemy is killed with a headshot? Maybe Las Plagas soften up your skull.
** This doesn't even require a high-powered weapon like a shotgun or a magnum -- Leon can elbow, kick, or punch suplex infected humans so hard that their heads burst.
*** The suplex head asplosion is one of the most gratifying ways to kill an enemy in the game.
** Since the first Resident Evil the best way to save ammo was the head-exploding shot, a single, well aimed, scarily-close-to-the-zombie shot.
** This game also features [[EverythingFades corpses that frequently melt after seconds on the ground]], so it isn't just the heads that are [[MadeOfPlasticine soft]]. A few Ganados at the start don't fade but the point still stands.
** Ironically, when you start out, blasting them in the face causes an injury animation that makes it seem like someone punched them in the face. It takes anywhere from five to eight un-upgraded handgun shots to get them to explode.
* In the computer game ''VideoGame/TheSeventhGuest'', this happens to one of the other six guests during a cutscene. There is no discernible reason why, either. Ego, the game's narrator, is heard to inquire, "...what's wrong with her head?"
** It also happens in a cutscene in the sequel ''The 11th Hour''.

** The very first exploding head, in ''VideoGame/MortalKombat1'', was courtesy of Raiden, although in the savagely {{Bowdlerized}} SNES version it reduced the enemy to ashes instead.

* In ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'', Travis defeats Holly. After losing, she tells him she has a thing for him, then takes one of her grenades, pulls the pin, and puts it in her mouth, with predictable results. Travis, desperately trying to pay respects, hugs her headless body. And buries her in a pit-trap she dug.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' also has the exploding slave collars. As a twist, the ''Dead Money'' DLC puts the collar on ''you''. And thanks to interference from the Sierra Madre's sound system, straying too close to active speakers or ham radios for too long leads to warning beeps that grow faster and faster until ''BOOM splat!''
*** The More Perks Mod for Fallout: New Vegas adds the perk Superior Mind that allows the Courier, if they have an Intelligence score of 9 or the max 10, to make an opponent's head explode with a dialogue option. If it's used on an opponent whose Intelligence score is higher, however, then crippling damage is applied to the user's own head.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanAssaultOnArkham'': Amanda Waller assembles the Suicide Squad to infiltrate Arkham Asylum to retrieve information stolen by The Riddler. She also warns them that she had explosive implants on their head if they desert her, KGBeast tries to leave but the implant explodes proving her point.

* ''VideoGame/BishiBashi Special'', prefiguring the TropeNamer, had a ''VideoGame/{{Pong}}''-like minigame called "Puck Attack" with round head icons which would go up in a fiery explosion if the puck went into the goal.

* The TropeNamer, of course, comes from ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'', in a ''Strong Bad Email'' segment revolving around a video game in which when you die, the message comes up on screen saying this.

* ''Anime/VampireHunterD'': Count Magnus Lee makes his henchman Rei's head explode after he betrays him and attempts to kill him for not making him an immortal.

** This had happened to a 19 month old baby during a Georgia raid in 2014. A S.W.A.T Team threw a flashbang through a door that happened to have a ''19 month old baby in the room'' and to make matters worse, the flashbang landed next to ''his head and exploded it.'' This is literally a WhatTheHellHero moment.

* ''Webcomic/{{TREVOR}}'': Private Young‘s grey matter goes flying from the sheer force of [[spoiler: Trevor]] biting into his skull.

* ''VideoGame/BionicCommando'', in the final battle against [[StupidJetPackHitler Cyborg Clone Hitler]]... [[NoSwastikas err, Master-D]]. Somehow, the censors forgot to pick that one up. An image of this scene can be seen [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Hitler-Head-Asplode.gif here]]. This single moment is ''the only reason'' why the 2008 remake, ''Bionic Commando Rearmed'', is rated M!

* TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}} introduces a spell in ''Occult Adventures'' called Explode Head, which does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTHeTin. It also damages anyone standing nearby due to what is politely referred to as "debris".

* In the uncut version of ''Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday'', Jason kills Vicki by squeezing her head between her palms until he literally pops it like a zit.

** Later in the series, [[spoiler:Ed destroys Pride's body by crushing his head. Yes, this is the same Pride that's an incorporeal mass of toothed shadows attached to a CreepyChild.]]

* ''Manga/IkkiTousen'' Dragon Destiny has Koshaji. Her top gets destroyed and exposes her boobs, [[{{Fanservice}} which is par for the course with the source material]], but she then gets picked up by her head and gets slammed into a wall. Her head basically gets crushed like a grape and explodes in a bloody mess.

** In ''ComicBook/{{Crucible}}'' storyline, Comet crushes villain Vax's head telekinetically until it bursts out.

* In ''VisualNovel/TogainuNoChi'', Keisuke's first act with his newly [[PsychoSerum enhanced]] strength is to hunt down [[spoiler: Takeru - a fighter who mugged him earlier -]] and crush his skull with his ''bare hands''.

** In "Thor vs Vegeta" [[spoiler:Vegeta dies in a unique application of the trope. After [[FacepalmOfDoom being grabbed by the face by Thor]], the God of Thunder proceeds to drag the Prince towards the ground while calling Mjolnir back to him, causing Vegeta's skull to be crushed like a watermelon between Thor's hand and Mjolnir's head.]]

For less explosive loss of heads, see OffWithHisHead For head impacts that aren't as violent, see CranialEruption.

[[folder:Other]]
* [[http://daisyofsarasaland.deviantart.com/art/Your-Head-Asplode-69242364 This]] [[CrossesTheLineTwice funny, yet disturbing]] picture from a Website/DeviantART user that shows what would happen to [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario's Yoshi]] [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome if he really did eat a live Bob-omb...]]
* The old [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn40v7N3V9c "I Smell Quality"]] promo by Warp Records label, which features a woman listening to "Warp" product and then, [[CrossesTheLineTwice her head]] [[BloodyHilarious deliberately explodes!]]
* The first VanityPlate used for the animation company Creator/WildBrain features a [[NightmareFace purple head with a pencil shoved through his ears]] on a black background. Suddenly, the head sniffles and [[SneezeOfDoom sneezes]] and then it explodes, revealing the words "Wild Brain".
[[/folder]]