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Hydrant Geyser

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"Cool 'er off, sucker!"
Any of the Turtles, Turtles in Time

In media when an out of control car runs over a fire hydrant the inevitable result is a geyser of water that instantly adds both drama and excitement to the scene. In reality the most likely result is a good deal of front end damage and a bill to repair the broken hydrant, but in a non-trivial amount of cases the car will wind up as an aquarium. Whether this trope is Artistic License or Truth in Television depends on the design of the hydrant: "wet barrel" models bring highly pressurized water all the way up into the part that sticks above ground, while "dry barrel" variants keep the vital valve equipment many feet underground, and that is opened via a long shaft.

Any location subject to cold temperatures must employ dry barrel hydrants to avoid problems with burst pipes. This combined with the protection against the very calamity that the Hydrant Geyser portrays is why dry barrel hydrants make up the overwhelming majority of installed units in North America. Of course with wet barrel units being acceptable in warm locations such as Southern California, that design makes up the majority seen in media, hence the popularity of the trope.

This trope is constantly hovering on the border of becoming discredited or even a dead horse, with spoofs and parodies making up a large number of examples, however it is frequently played straight both in media and Real Life. Like the exploding car, this trope maintains a strong grip on the popular psyche causing people to be genuinely surprised when hydrants are knocked over with little fanfare.

The presence of a Hydrant Geyser can always be Hand Waved away by saying that any given dry barrel unit was accidentally left pressurized via an open valve.

Often the geyser is preceded by a comical rumbling of the ground as if the hydrant acted as some sort of champagne cork or oil well cap. This is always wrong as a pressurized hydrant will instantly gush water, not take a few seconds to "get going".

Similar to Telepathic Sprinklers. See also Water-Geyser Volley


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • Happens in this 1999 commercial for Kraft's Rugrats Macaroni and Cheese when the Cheesasaurus Rex crashes his bicycle into a hydrant, causing a gusher of cheesy sauce to come shooting from where the hydrant was.

    Comic Books 
  • In the Dynomutt story "The Incredible Mr. Mastermind" (Marvel, issue #2), Blue Falcon finds himself on top of a hydrant geyser after Dynomutt knocks it over. But it's not Dog Wonder's fault—Mastermind has taken remote control of him.

    Films — Live-Action 
  • Animal House: During the destruction of the parade, a float with a Genghis Khan head on it is sent crashing into/over a hydrant. The resulting geyser comes out of the head (rather than just blowing it off— Rule of Funny, after all).
  • In The Blues Brothers a geyser is seen to erupt after the police car collides with The Good Old Boys Winnebago after the Blues Brothers flee the Country Bunker.
  • In Bruce Almighty, Bruce uses his God powers to knock a hydrant over, allowing some kids to play in the resulting geyser.
  • Demolition Man hands us a very peculiar one as Simon Phoenix takes a shot with his newly-acquired BFG and decapitates a fire hydrant, resulting in the expected geyser. The catch is that this particular hydrant was in an archaeological dig of an LA street buried when the Big One earthquake struck. Meaning the entire city was destroyed and buried and yet somehow this hydrant still had pressure. Ragnarok Proof, indeed.
  • Happens during the "Do I feel lucky?" bank robbery scene in Dirty Harry. Bonus points for the car also wrecking a flower stall at the same time.
  • In Ghostbusters (1984), Stay-Puft knocks one over and gives his rampage a touch of realism. note 
  • Towards the end of Lethal Weapon, when the cops are shot in front of Murtaugh's house their car rolls into a hydrant that creates the geyser that then creates the mood for the ultimate fight scene.
  • In RoboCop (1987), when the Boddicker gang are playing around with their Cobra Assault Cannons, one blows the top off a fire hydrant causing a geyser.
  • In Superman III the action opens with an out of control car knocking over a hydrant, which proceeds to fill the passenger compartment with water and threaten to drown the person trapped inside.

    Live-Action TV 
  • In an episode of CSI: Miami a hydrant geyser threatens to wash away critical evidence after a motorist was shot (thus causing the geyser).
  • H₂O: Just Add Water: Cleo discovers she can command water when she opens a fire hydrant and sends a bully flying with a blast of pressurized water. A second wave of her hand depressurizes the hydrant and shuts the water valve off.
  • Episode 5 of the short-lived 1980s Herbie TV series, Calling Dr Herbie, has The Love Bug intentionally backing into a hydrant in order to soak the used-car salesman inside him, out of revenge for Jim & Susan buying a station wagon.
  • One episode of NCIS starts with a gushing hydrant as the result of an assignment Gone Horribly Wrong. After an ass-chewing from Vance, we find out How We Got Here.
  • Scorpion: In "Revenge", Happy deliberately creates a hydrant geyser by knocking the cap off a hydrant, and using the resultant jet of water to knock two fleeing bad guys off their motorcycles.
  • This skit has Ryan Gosling bumping into a hydrant and this trope unfolds.

    Music Videos 
  • In the video for "What They Want" by DMX and Sisqo, the motif of people playing in the geyser of a broken hydrant is used, but instead of children, the people playing in it are grown women. Partly for Fanservice, and partly because the entire rap is a Misogyny Song in general.
  • In the video for Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca", a car goes out of control and hits a hydrant, busting it instantly and creating the geyser.

    Theme Parks 
  • At Universal Studios:
    • The former Kongfrontation attraction at Universal Studios had a broken fire hydrant shooting off water down in the streets, to show off the damage King Kong had done there.
    • A fire hydrant also gets broken and shoots water during the Hey Arnold! sequence in Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, a water effect would then be used to make the riders feel as if they're getting sprinkled by it.
    • This would occur in the also-defunct Twister...Ride it Out attraction when a car gets pulled forward by the tornado, dislodging a fire hydrant in the process.

    Video Games 
  • Both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Arcade Game and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time allow you to send water flying out of a hydrant, damaging any enemies in its path.
  • Several Grand Theft Auto games will do this if you hit a hydrant at any significant speed. From Grand Theft Auto IV onwards, the geyser has actual physical properties instead of being just an animated sprite of flowing water like in previous titles — the water pressure can knock people over and even lift cars.
  • In Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Jill passes by a busted hydrant on her way to the police department. By the time she comes back (a few minutes in real time, but several hours in-game) the hydrant has run out of pressure and the there is no more geyser.
  • One of Pac-Man's special move in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS makes him summon a fire hydrant which then sends short spurts of water on its sides, pushing the characters on the way. If Pac-Man stands atop the hydrant, a little geyser will push him upward. This move is based on the 1984 arcade game Pac-Land in which hydrants are obstacles, though the upward geyser is completely new to this game. A bit subverted as the water spurts if the Hydrant is not destroyed. Of course all of this does not make any sense and is just for the sake of the game mechanics.
  • In the second part of Road of the Dead, shooting a hydrant and driving through the geyser is the preferred way of putting out a burning engine.
  • You can bust hydrants in Duke Nukem 3D, and they generate an infinite (but modest) water geyser. You can drink from it to regain health.

    Web Comics 

    Web Videos 

    Western Animation 
  • Parodied in The Simpsons episode 22 Short Films About Springfield Chief Wiggum, on foot, recognizes Snake at the wheel of his car at a light and in the ensuing attempt to flee Snake crashes into a mailbox which results in a geyser of letters spewing forth from the ground.
  • This was a Running Gag in the Rocko's Modern Life episode in which Rocko teaches Mrs. Wolff how to drive; she would keep running into hydrants, which fill the car with water.
  • In Batman: The Animated Series, Mr. Freeze kicks open a fire hydrant and fires his Freeze Ray at the geyser to create a rapidly rising column of ice that he rides up a skyscraper. The animators admit it's unrealistic, but it looks really cool.
  • In the Darkwing Duck episode "It's a Wonderful Leaf", Darkwing accidentally rips a hydrant off the pavement when he gets his beak stuck on it, and he uses the ensuing geyser to soak and freeze Bushroot and his army of living Christmas trees.
  • Kim Possible: During a high speed chase, Drakken uses his hovercraft's Gravatomic Ray to try and catch Kim and Ron. He accidentally rips a fire hydrant out of the ground, creating a geyser that staggers his vehicle and lets the heroes get away.
  • The Loud House: While on a sugar strike, Lola flees from the ice cream truck, whose driver considers her his best customer. The chase ends when he crashes into a water fountain, which sprays a geyser strong enough to lift the entire ice cream truck into the air.
  • Mickey Mouse (2013): In "Stayin' Cool", the ice cream truck Mickey, Donald, & Goofy cool off in lands on a fire hydrant after flying off a hill. The hydrant ruptures, quickly filling the truck with water before a geyser bursts out the top (blowing off the cone decoration on the roof & lowering the temperature outside in the process).

 
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Cleo sprays Zane

Feeling threatened by Zane, Cleo summons water from a nearby hydrant to blast him away.

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Main / HydrantGeyser

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