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1->'''Natalya Simonova:''' Do you destroy every vehicle you get into?\
2'''Film/JamesBond:''' Standard operating procedure.
3-->-- ''Film/{{GoldenEye}}''
4
5Used to describe structures that will be destroyed by the end of the movie, usually in [[StuffBlowingUp a massive explosion]], even if for no other reason than the RuleOfCool. Does your town have a large windmill in the middle of a field? It's toast. It's likely to explode because of [[MadeOfIncendium loose flour]], or to get burned down by an AngryMob. Same rule applies to bridges over chasms.
6
7The later in the film that the destruction occurs, the more spectacular it is likely to be. If the hero is chased over a RopeBridge in the first half an hour of the movie, that bridge will get off pretty light; a couple of the planks will snap after the hero steps on them. If this bridge is involved in the big finale, however, expect every support and mooring on one side of the bridge to give way or snap in half. Slowly and dramatically. With the hero in the middle, and twenty {{Mooks}} heading toward him from either end. And that's if it's not set on fire. Or rigged to blow.
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9As there is NoOntologicalInertia, the castle, fortress, temple or other elaborate and impressive structure that houses the BigBad will make an even more elaborate and impressive explosion after he has been dispatched by the heroes (see LoadBearingBoss and CollapsingLair). A clue that this is happening is if anyone mentions the lair being "bound to or crafted by the villain's will/power/magic." A more mundane version is when the imposing manor or [[EvilTowerOfOminousness tower]] from which the EvilOverlord was conducting his operations is beset by villagers wielding impromptu torches, battering rams, and various other weapons of architectural destruction. Usually, there will be a wide shot of the tower in flames and crumbling, even if it is constructed entirely out of stone. RuleOfCool again.
10
11Also applies to any and all enemy vehicles in a chase scene. Not only is [[EveryCarIsAPinto Every Car A Pinto]], but so is every Motorbike, and Plane and Speeder, [[HindenburgIncendiaryPrinciple Zeppelin]] and Battle Flyer apparently designed to travel through space.
12
13Then there's [[FallingChandelierOfDoom chandeliers]], [[EndangeredSouffle soufflés]], [[AshesToCrashes funeral urns]], [[PricelessMingVase antique vases]], [[ExplodingFishTanks aquaria]], [[Creator/SeanBean Sean]] [[ChronicallyKilledActor Bean]], [[DoomedSupermarketDisplay supermarket displays]], [[SpanishAnnouncersTable Spanish wrestling commentators' desks]]... all of these things, like rules, are made to be broken.
14----
15!!Examples:
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17[[foldercontrol]]
18
19[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
20* A variant in ''Manga/BlackButler'': Bard uses flour ([[RealityIsUnrealistic which is surprisingly flammable]]) to blow up a building.
21[[/folder]]
22
23[[folder:Comics]]
24* Franchise/MarvelUniverse's [[AirborneAircraftCarrier Helicarriers]] are prone to spectacular crashes. The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse followed suit.
25* ''ComicBook/ThePunisher'' once mentions that whenever he sees a bus, truck, or other large, fuel-filled vehicle, he can't stop himself from thinking what a big boom it would make. This just as he's about to fire and take out a commercial airliner filled with an island's worth of villains.
26* The ''ComicBook/XMen'''s Xavier Mansion spends as much time in ruins as it does standing. It's such a RunningGag to destroy the Mansion that even ''Film/Deadpool2016'' lampshades it.
27[[/folder]]
28
29[[folder:Film]]
30* The windmill in the climax of ''Film/SleepyHollow1999''.
31* The windmill in ''Film/VanHelsing''. Unusually, this windmill exploded spectacularly in the film's opening scene.
32%% * ''Film/TheSeeker: The Dark is Rising'', when a bunch of windmills fall victim to Will's hissy-fit.
33* Any windmill in any action movie (an alternative name suggested for this trope was "Burn Windmill Burn"). Oddly enough, the more techy modern windmills that make up wind farms tend not to get burned down, although they're so new there probably isn't a trope for them yet.
34** In ''Film/MissionImpossibleIII'', a modern windmill gets blown up by a guided missile. It's as close to burned down as makes no difference.
35** These tend to undergo [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3FZtmlHwcA catastrophic failure]], as also seen in an episode of ''Series/{{House}}''.
36* In ''Film/{{Saved}}'' it is... unsurprising what fate befalls the giant cardboard statue of Jesus.
37* The whole burning-windmill thing probably got its start with the climax of the original ''Film/{{Frankenstein|1931}}'' film.
38* Marion's bar in ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'', the great big rope bridge in ''Temple of Doom'' and the Grail Temple in ''The Last Crusade''. And the temple blowing apart in ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', [[spoiler: when the aliens take off]].
39* Both Death Stars in ''Franchise/StarWars'', as well as [[Film/TheForceAwakens Starkiller Base]] (basically a Death Star on ''lots'' of steroids). The ''Executor'' survives ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', but blows up in spectacular fashion in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
40* Film/JamesBond:
41** Any villain's base in a movie [[CollapsingLair will end up blowing up by the end]]. As will any vehicle involved in any sort of chase scene. James' car may not blow up, [[ChronicallyCrashedCar but it's bound to get trashed.]] One time, it actually got ''[[Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough sliced in half. Lengthwise.]]'' And was [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] immediately afterwards by Bond. ("Q's not gonna like it!")
42** Interestingly, the Daniel Craig movies thus far tend to be more realistic (i.e. fewer overall explosions). [[spoiler: Film/CasinoRoyale2006, for example, didn't even have a base to blow up, so the explosions were contained to the beginning of the movie.]] Except for ''Film/QuantumOfSolace'' returning to the old tradition of a CollapsingLair with [[spoiler:Greene's hotel]].
43** ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' destroys Bond's stuff - his car and his childhood home - instead of the villain's.
44** ''Film/{{Spectre}}'' has [[http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2015/11/daniel-craig-accepts-certificate-for-largest-film-stunt-explosion-in-latest-bond-405307 a record-setting explosion]] in SPECTRE's Moroccan base. Not to mention the MI-6 building, which was condemned after being the target of a terrorist attack in the previous movie.
45* Axis Chemicals in ''Film/Batman1989''. It ends up blown again in ''Film/BirdsOfPrey2020''.
46* [[MonumentalDamage Any remotely recognizable building in a global disaster movie.]] ''Film/IndependenceDay'' was notorious for it, while the director later return to even greater MonumentalDamage in ''Film/TwoThousandTwelve'' seemed to take the most glee in this. ''Film/IndependenceDayResurgence'' even lampshades with the line "they like to get the landmarks".
47* ''Film/VForVendetta''. As soon as V promises to blow up the houses of Parliament in the first act, the ending is a foregone conclusion. Nothing would satisfy but a massive explosion. Set to the 1812 Overture. In the book, Parliament's the first thing to go, followed by the Old Bailey, and, a year later, Downing Street.
48* The Eiffel Tower in ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'' and Cobra's base at the end of the film.
49* The road tanker in ''Film/TheTerminator''. Which the following movies imitate with a liquid nitrogen truck, both a firemen and a tow truck, a school bus, and another truck.
50* The pagoda in many ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' movies, ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' being one more memorable examples.
51* The Schloss Adler in ''Film/WhereEaglesDare''.
52* [[WatchThePaintJob Any really expensive car]] that suddenly turns up in the middle of a chase scene, e.g., the yellow Ferrari Nick Cage's character commandeers in the chase scene in ''Film/TheRock'', or the Lamborghini creamed in the hovercraft chase scene in ''Film/RumbleInTheBronx''. Soon as you see that car, you know it's doomed; that's why it's in the movie: [[ChronicallyCrashedCar to get creamed.]]
53* In-film example - ''Film/TheParty'' begins with a location shoot where actor Hrundi Bakshi (Creator/PeterSellers) is inadvertently, and repeatedly, messing up shots. A large fortress set has been rigged to explode, but before they can set up to shoot it, Bakshi goes to lace up a sandal, and rests his foot on the detonator.
54* Any main building in a Creator/RogerCorman film from his Poe-adaptation years can be expected to go up in spectacular flames by the end. One notable exception, Film/{{The Tomb Of Ligeia}}, has it destroyed by a flood instead. Corman later said that he chose a flood only because he was tired of ending every film with flames.
55* Discussed in ''Film/StarTrekBeyond'', as [=McCoy=] thinks the PlanetSpaceship being visited "looks like a snowglobe just about to be broken". While Yorktown does suffer some damage, it survives the movie just fine.
56[[/folder]]
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58[[folder:Literature]]
59* Barad-dûr in ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. It's a mile high and powered by pure liquid evil, so its eventual epic collapse was a foregone conclusion.
60* The Tower of Tol-in-Gaurhoth in ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'', which crumbles after Sauron is forced to flee it, though [[MagicMusic Luthien]] was the one who actually triggered the collapse.
61* Literature/{{Discworld}}:
62** CMOT Dibbler, who becomes a movie producer in ''Literature/MovingPictures'' creates the epic "click" "Blown Away", where, in the end, the city of Ankh-Morpork will burn to the ground. Based loosely on real events, but in the movie, several buildings that certainly didn't burn down, are torched.
63** The ''very first book'' opened with the city in flames. Plus the time the dragon took over. The fact that the populace knows how to stop a [[CrazyPrepared city-wide fire]] (close the sea gates and flood it out) shows that it probably happens more often than plausible.
64* The [[FallingChandelierOfDoom chandelier]] in ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' is a classic example of this, enough to be a trope on its own.
65* Creator/TerryPratchett plays with it oh so much in ''Literature/{{Maskerade}}'', especially with the FallingChandelierOfDoom. Seeing as the plot is closely related to ''Literature/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', it's no wonder that everyone declares it an accident waiting to happen.
66* The titular structure in "Literature/TheFallOfTheHouseOfUsher" by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe collapses into the surrounding lake/swamp as the narrator flees, having learned that Madeline was buried alive, and Rodrick knew she was alive at the time. It's a metaphor for Rodrick's mental state as well as the end of the Usher family, hence the title.
67* It's a castle that falls off its precarious perch instead of exploding, and it's when the [[LoadBearingBoss Red Bull]] is defeated instead of the king, but the crumbling is foreshadowed during the characters' visit to the nearby town in the book of ''Literature/TheLastUnicorn''. And since it's at the end of the story, it does its thing very dramatically.
68* In ''Literature/{{Otherland}}'', the mile-high tower of J Corp, located conveniently in the Louisiana swamps. It goes out most spectacularly when [[spoiler:[[DeathFromAbove a satellite deorbits and crashes into it]]]].
69* ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' Kredik Shaw ''almost'' lasts out the series [[spoiler: Until Vin flattens it]].
70[[/folder]]
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72[[folder:Live Action TV]]
73* In the fifth season of ''Series/TwentyFour'', a plot was hatched involving the natural gas refinery. The audience members immediately knew that this building was doomed to a swift and fiery death.
74* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' had an ElaborateUndergroundBase imploding (but still producing an enormous blast), and both a [=DHARMA=] station and a submarine blowing up (all three with John Locke's involvement, but the first wasn't intentional).
75* The town of Sunnydale, California on ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. By the end of the finale, it's a crater.
76** Sunnydale High. Also, Buffy often alludes to burning the gym down at her previous school, which went on her permanent record.
77* On ''Series/TopGear'', any caravan or Morris Marina is guaranteed to be destroyed.
78** Subverted with the now memetic [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk Toyota Hilux.]] That truck makes Rasputin look like a pansy for dying so easy.
79[[/folder]]
80
81[[folder:Music And Music Videos]]
82* The floating windmill island appearing in the {{Music/Gorillaz}} videos for "Feel Good Inc" and "El Manana".
83[[/folder]]
84
85[[folder:Video Games]]
86* More windmills! The beautiful centerpiece windmills of Bruhl didn't last past the initial invasion in ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles''.
87* Every Skull Castle in the original ''[[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man]]'' series. And no small number of lairs in other games either.
88* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'': Odds are that any place Gordon Freeman sets foot in is going to blow shortly after he's been there.
89** The test chamber, teleporter, and all of Black Mesa in ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' and ''Opposing Force''.
90** Nova Prospekt and the Citadel's Dark Fusion Reactor in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' (the rest goes up later)
91** City 17 in its entirety, at the end of ''Half-Life 2: Episode 1''.
92* Once a game in the ''VideoGame/ProfessorLayton'' series.
93* Anything marked with a red and white star in ''VideoGame/JustCause2'' can and should be destroyed for fun and profit. This includes huge radio masts, satellite dishes, fuel containers, construction cranes, water towers, gas stations, propaganda trailers and yes, windmills.
94* Planets visited by Samus in the side-scrolling ''VideoGame/{{Metroid}}'' series have a tendency to explode. By the end of the fourth game, ''all'' of the places she'd gone to had been taken out (discounting those from the 3D ''Prime'' series).
95* Anything and everything that resembles a tower in ''VideoGame/SplitSecond2010''. That airport control tower? BOOM! That [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Needle Space Needle]] rip-off? BOOM! That crane? BOOM! ... And so on. They'll almost always end up on top of several cars.
96* In the history of war games, no landing boat has ever made it to shore. They will be destroyed on approach, after which point the player will in a cut scene flail around helplessly for a few moments before remembering he can swim. This, of course, is because it's a homage to ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan''.
97* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'': Ratchet has a problem with destroying spaceships for no discernible reason. He's [[AcePilot capable of handling them just fine in a dogfight]], and they don't seem to have mechanical malfunctions, but even [[WordOfGod Insomniac themselves]] have admitted that ''they don't know'' why he crashed that first one. And considering half of the game's fun comes from StuffBlowingUp, it's not surprising he and his RobotBuddy Clank have left more than a few places in worse shape than they found them.
98* ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'' is full of this. Even if the troops or Infected don't trash Alex's ride, it's not like he's going to use it again, and he can survive any impact, so might as well park it the hard way.
99* Most vehicles in the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series that aren't the ''[[CoolShip Normandy]]'' ([[spoiler:and once even the ''Normandy'']]) tend to explode in a spectacular fashion, particularly Sovereign in the first game and the [[HumongousMecha YMIR mechs]] and the Collector base in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''. It gets to a point where it is a surprise when a ship Commander Shepard sets foot on ''doesn't'' explode.
100* Being set in Holland, one level in ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorFrontline'' naturally features windmills...one of which you promptly set on fire to signal the French Resistance.
101* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
102** Practically every single spaceship and Pelican dropship. In fact, there's only one level in the [[VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved first game]] in which an aircraft does not crash. Because that level doesn't feature any aircraft.
103** Forerunner installations have a tendency to get destroyed in spectacular fashion, often courtesy of the heroes. Heck, the Chief blows up [[spoiler:Alpha Halo]] ''twice''!
104* Given how much the fact that they were all destroyable was used in its advertising, this trope probably applies to all the buildings that show up in ''VideoGame/{{Mercenaries}}''.
105* Downplayed in the ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' games. If a haunted building has been created by the ghosts and Boos, there's no guarantee that it won't vanish by the end.
106* In ''VideoGame/Jak3'' this is brought up in the director's commentary for the opening cutscene. When Naughty Dog wanted to make a dramatic statement for the opening of the game, everyone agreed that "the Palace just ''has'' to come down".
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109[[folder:Western Animation]]
110* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' did this a lot, culminating in the ''New Batman Adventures'' episode "Torch Song", where major parts of the episode take place in flaming buildings. The producers said in commentary that if they couldn't figure out how to end an episode, they'd blow up the villain's lair and all but two (three maybe?) episodes of ''The New Batman Adventures'' ended with a large explosion, usually the villain's lair.
111** ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'', made by the same group that made TNBA, had even more explosions (since Superman couldn't simply arrest most of the [[MonsterOfTheWeek monsters/aliens/mutants/technofreaks.]])
112* The original ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyAndFriends'' cartoon does this a couple times. In the pilot special, Tirak's fortress basically evaporates at the end. In the four-part episode ''Return of Tambelon'', the eponymous city gets sucked into another dimension ''twice'' - once in the backstory, and again at the episode's climax.
113[[/folder]]

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