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13[[quoteright:350:[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/indynukesthefridge_8425.jpg]]]]
14[[caption-width-right:350:A bomb shelter on a budget.]]
15
16A bomb is about to go off while the hero is indoors. Where does he find refuge? Usually, either the bathtub or the fridge. Think about it as a completely different kind of FridgeLogic. This has been tested by ''Series/MythBusters''. Even taking cover behind a wooden table at 5' will prevent instantaneous death from the pressure wave, though death by shrapnel or other injuries are still [[{{Pun}} on the table.]] For a similar fallacy, see ConcealmentEqualsCover. Of course, most of the time almost any cover will still be better than ''no'' cover -- it's just that fiction often presents it as more effective than it's really likely to be.
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18If the explosive device is small, such as a hand grenade, the hero can throw it in a fridge. This has been tried by ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' as well, and proved to be at least partially false: while the sides of the fridge offer some protection, the front and back will just turn into so much deadly shrapnel.
19
20Subtrope of ArtisticLicenseExplosives. See also BombDisposal.
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22----
23!!Examples:
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25[[foldercontrol]]
26
27[[folder:Film--Live Action]]
28* ''Film/BangkokDangerous'': Nicolas Cage also used a bathtub.
29* ''Film/BrokenSaints'': Yet another fridge.
30* ''Film/{{Eraser}}'': John Kruger and Dr. Cullen hide from the villains firing a handheld railgun with a [[InfraredXRayCamera thermal sight that can see through walls]] by hiding behind a refrigerator toppled on its side, as the cold blocks their image. So the villains fire a bouncing-Betty type grenade inside the house. Kruger quickly raises the fridge door to shield them from the blast, except for the flechette he gets [[ImpaledPalm through his hand]].
31* ''Film/TheGirlInTheSpidersWeb'' also has a bathtub, in which Lisbeth jumps once her apartment is about to explode.
32* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'': Harrison Ford prefers using a fridge. Lead-lined [[RefugeInAudacity in case of nuclear blast.]]
33* ''Film/LethalWeapon2'': Riggs and Murtaugh use a bathtub. This specific case was [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythBusters tested by the MythBusters]] and found to be a workable solution, though freezing the bomb's battery would likely give them a lot more than two seconds to get to safety.
34* In ''Film/TheMortalInstrumentsCityOfBones'', Clary Fray hides in a fridge with the door closed over while a cooker explodes right next to the fridge.
35* Hiding in a bathtub worked for [[Film/ThePunisher2004 The Punisher]] in the 2004 film as well.
36* Sean Connery went the bathtub route to survive a pair of hand grenades in ''Film/TheRock''.
37* ''Film/{{Stalingrad 2013}}'': a Red Army soldier uses a bathtub as improvised portable armor to get past a German machine gun nest.
38* ''Film/TimeAndTide'': Also a fridge.
39[[/folder]]
40
41[[folder:Literature]]
42* Subverted in one short story where a child during the UsefulNotes/ColdWar hears jetfighters flying low overhead and assumes that a nuclear war has started. He hides in an abandoned fridge and gets trapped there.
43[[/folder]]
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45[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
46* Inverted in ''Series/{{Bones}}'', where it's the bomb that's in the fridge instead of the heroes (Booth and Brennan)and it goes off when Booth opens the door.
47* The ol' cast-iron bathtub is used again in ''Series/{{Castle|2009}}'', where it also serves as a ChekhovsGun: a seemingly [[{{Fanservice}} gratuitous]] {{shower scene}} establishes that Beckett is within diving distance of the tub.
48* ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'': Not exactly an appliance, but in "Harvest", Morse dumps a grenade inside a lead-lined drum intended to hold nuclear waste. The heavy drum acts as a sump and funnels the blast upwards.
49* ''Series/{{FBI}}'': In "Scorched Earth", Maggie and OA find a bomb in an exclusive restaurant with two minutes left on the timer. While OA gets everyone out of the building, Maggie disposes of the bomb by placing i in he walk-in freezer in the kitchen, where it explodes without harming anyone.
50* In ''Series/FXTheSeries'', the good guys find the bomb ''inside'' the fridge, and stuff it in a cannon prop to direct the blast away from themselves.
51* Malcolm stuffs a grenade into the fridge in the episode "The Grandparents" of ''Series/MalcolmInTheMiddle''. [[SubvertedTrope It ends up destroying the kitchen, roof, and the refrigerator anyways.]]
52* ''Series/{{Monk}}'': In "[[Recap/MonkS3E15MrMonkAndTheElection Mr. Monk and the Election]]", Adrian Monk tosses a grenade into the fridge, then opens up the fridge again to [[ObsessivelyOrganized place it neatly in the empty socket of an egg carton]], before running away.
53* ''Series/MythBusters'' showed a clip of ''Monk'' and investigated the myth. They proved that the fridge offered some protection against the blast, but the front and back turn to deadly shrapnel. Later tests showed that such common items as a fish tank and a bed could potentially save one's life in the right circumstances.
54* On one ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', Gibbs survives a bomb blast that shredded the other person in the room because he was crouched down behind an industrial washing machine. Although he is seriously injured, the doctors conclude that the washer is the only thing that kept him from being killed.
55* ''Series/{{Spooks}}''. A briefcase bomb is delivered to the home of an SIS agent, but a malfunction in the security system prevents the family from leaving the house. In the end, they take shelter in the bathtub and survive the CliffHanger explosion that apparently destroys the house.
56* In an episode of ''Series/StargateAtlantis'', a bomb-disposal technician is seen dragging a chimney-like device on a trolley to take care of a tumor-bomb. Unfortunately, the bomb explodes seconds before it can be put inside.
57[[/folder]]
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59[[folder:Video Games]]
60* Played straight in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'''s infamous "Kid in a Fridge" quest: a ghoulified child managed to survive ''200 years'' trapped in a refrigerator, and is rescued (or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential sold to slavers]]) by the Sole Survivor.
61** The 4th game also has the Pulowski bomb shelters scattered around Boston; Large refrigerator-sized tubes with enough space to hold one person, mounted into the sidewalk. They aren't very effective. Some of them hold ghouls waiting to strike, and most of them have skeletons in them. Either they're totally worthless as budget fallout shelters, or they ''do'' work fairly reliably, but since radioactive fallout lasts a ''long'' time, the inhabitants will be trapped and die anyway.
62* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': if one takes the "Wild Wasteland" trait, they can find a refrigerator just outside the starting town of Goodsprings that contains a skeleton with a fedora and a revolver as a Shoutout to the ''Indiana Jones'' example.
63* ''VideoGame/HeavyRain''. A bomb-analogue is about to go off in an apartment, and you can choose to hide in a fridge. It works. And you get a [[CosmeticAward trophy]] for doing it.
64* In ''VideoGame/SpiderMan2000'', criminals realizing their attempt to rob a bank has gone pear-shaped attempt to blow up everything with a large bomb. Spidey realizes the nearby safe is tough enough to withstand it, thus tosses it in and runs for cover. It works.
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66
67[[folder:Visual Novels]]
68* ''VisualNovel/TheFruitOfGrisaia'': In Makina's route both her and protagonist Yuuji hide in a big refrigerator, not just from the agents raiding the building, but from the dust explosion trap that Yuuji set up.
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71[[folder:Webcomics]]
72* ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja'': A fridge survives an explosion that levels Doc's office, though no one was hiding inside it. The AltText for that page makes snarky reference to the ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' example, above.
73* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}'': When marooned on a moon that's about to get blasted, Jane takes advantage of the Felt's arrival to have everyone hide in Biscuits' oven.
74* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' lampshades this trope in [[http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0900.html Comic #900]] after playing it straight.[[note]][[spoiler:Sarcophagi]] are typically made of stone, and thus sturdier than your average Bombproof Appliance.[[/note]]
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77[[folder:Western Animation]]
78* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Batman once hid in a safe to escape the Riddler's DeathTrap. The Riddler couldn't figure out how he'd survived, Batman refused to tell him, and the final scene shows him back in Arkham [[MadnessMantra obsessively demanding an explanation]].
79* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': In "Summer of 4 Ft. 2" when Homer buys illegal fireworks for the 4th of July, he accidentally shortens the fuse of an already-lit, massive one. He initially shoves it into the fridge, but then gasps, realising that the beer would be destroyed, so he moved it into the dishwasher, where it detonated.
80[[/folder]]
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82[[folder:Real Life]]
83* There are bombproof trashcans, designed to minimize the damage caused by a terrorist dropping a homemade explosive device into one by focusing the blast upwards, away from bystanders. They were a common sight in the UK during UsefulNotes/TheTroubles and are still a common sight at likely terrorist targets like sports stadiums or railway stations. Inverted by the modern approach, which involves doing away with trashcans altogether in favour of transparent plastic bags on a hook; in theory, anything that looks like it might be a bomb is easily noticeable and the area can be evacuated in the event of a suspicious item being spotted. How well this works has yet to be put to the test.
84* Similarly, something you might include when digging a foxhole or some similar defensive fighting position is a Grenade Sump. It's a deep, narrow hole in the middle of your foxhole, working on the same principle as the bombproof trashcan. Bad guy tosses a grenade in your foxhole, you kick it into the hole. (Then hug the wall.)
85* There are also blast-proof refrigerators, used for storing volatile chemicals that may blow up even when refrigerated. [[note]]Also the electrical system does not produce sparks that would ignite flammable vapors inside the fridge. Storing flammables near any fridge is a bad idea.[[/note]]
86* In the 1980s, the US Air Force bought and installed a $7,000 coffee maker on a jet. The reason the coffee maker cost that much? [[MustHaveCaffeine It was designed to withstand a crash that would wipe out the whole crew]]. In addition, the Air Force also has over a hundred fax machines that are built to survive an atomic bomb blast.
87** That last part isn't nearly as silly as it sounds. A nuclear detonation creates a massive electromagnetic pulse, powerful enough to fry integrated circuits and other electronic components that are outside the blast radius. (For example, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime Starfish Prime]] high-altitude detonation disabled telephone systems in Hawaii, 900 miles away, and knocked out ten satellites.) In order to withstand such effects, much military communications gear and other electronics are EMP-shielded.
88* Bathtubs USED to be made out of heavy cast iron. If you're dealing with handgun fire or shrapnel/fragmentation and you jump into one of those tubs, you're golden. If you dealing with rifle fire... it can get dicey.
89** Makes a great backup option in case of a tornado. Naturally, a cellar is a better choice, but if it's a cast-iron tub or nothing, rub-a-dub-dub.
90* [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Adolf Hitler]] (along with most of the other people in the room) survived an assassination attempt by a bomb thanks to a solid oaken conference table leg in between. It ''was'' properly positioned by the bomber to kill, but one of the people present for the meeting felt it was unseemly the way the suitcase with the bomb was sticking out, and shoved it further under the table to put it out of sight.
91[[/folder]]

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