Wire Dilemma - Television Tropes & Idioms

"And he also told me that the red wire is always the one that stops the bomb... any James Bond flick can tell you that."
Reo glared at Matt. "And what were we watching right before we left the room? Hmm? Could that have been Goldeneye?"

--The Alliance of Night's Vigilantes

"Clip the red wire, then the blue wire, then the yellow wire..." A Dead Horse Trope. It is impossible to have a character in a bomb-disarming situation and play up the dramatic tension of the decision to cut one wire or another without bringing to mind the sixty-two thousand other times this scenario has been portrayed. You have to imply a possible outcome and subvert it in some way.

Known permutations:

The red wire isn't there.
All the wires are the same color.
Cutting any wire at all is a bad play.
The hero is colorblind.
The guy reading from the manual changes his mind between maybe red, maybe blue ... are any of 'em green?
The guy with the manual says "red", the hero says "Frack it!" and yanks out the whole snarled-up mess of wires, or cuts the blue one and...
1. there is big explosion or
2. it's all good.
The guy with the manual tells the hero to cut the red wire. He goes on to do so, but just as he's about to cut it (sweat in his eyes and all) (or already has the guy says "NO!! STOP!! It's not that one!".

Here

◊ is, in the words of one character, a "Very poorly designed bomb".

Naturally, a bomb intended for air-dropping (or a missile warhead) really shouldn't have any trick wires!

The Wire Dilemma has a minor Sub-Trope in the Wrong Wire.

Examples: Live Action Tv

Subverted in M*A*S*H's season one episode, "The Army-Navy Game". Of course, nobody in their right mind would even consider writing a manual this way:
Blake: Next, clip the blue wire, just above second lug nut.
Hawkeye: The blue wire, the blue wire...
<clip>
Blake: But first...
The "very poorly designed bomb" above is from a Deep Impact-style plotline in Stargate SG-1 where the team has to blow up an asteroid, then learn blowing it up is a bad idea because it would only make things worse:
Carter: Now find the wires leading from the timer to the detonator and cut the red one.
Jack: Carter, they're all yellow!
Carter: Say again?
Jack: There are five wires, and they're all yellow!
- A later episode featured an interesting variation, with a space mine whose arming mechanism was designed like a combination lock. The scene goes all out with this trope, including a "No, Wait!", uncertainty over the correct code and a Wrong Wire scenario resulting from the fact Carter and Jackson are having to translate the manual on the fly using the language's distant descent from Phoenician which doesn't have the number zero.
- Also in Stargate, Mitchell was told by his Alternate Universe counterpart "when the time comes, cut the blue wire" with no further explanation. In other words, Cam knows he has to cut a blue wire some time in his future, but he doesn't know when, where, or why. For that matter, his counterpart could be lying (as he's well pissed off at that point) or referring to something that won't happen or will play out differently in his universe.
In an episode of Eureka, the town is under threat from a "Death Ray" accidentally activated in a disused lab. Attempts to disarm it include a failed wire dilemma that shortens the countdown. When the weapon's designer shows up and simply removes the launch keys, the system fails to shut down. He asks, "Did someone cut the blue wire?"
Subverted in Life On Mars, where Sam agonises over which wire to cut, but the bomb squad appears from off screen, cuts both wires with a pair of hedge trimmers, and walks away.
Another twist in a Hogans Heroes episode, in which Hogan cuts the opposite wire of the one Klink picked, on the theory that Klink is always wrong.
Hal from Malcolm In The Middle plays up this trope to evade the cops. After a strange series of events that leads the police department to believe that Hal's detached ankle bracelet (he was under house arrest) was a bomb, he claims he is from the bomb squad and tries to defuse it. As the police watch, Hal suddenly screams "Oh God, I cut the wrong wire! This thing's gonna blow!". When all the cops duck, Hal makes a run for it.
Given an interesting twist in the Profiler episode "Unsoiled Sovereignty", where the villain has planted explosives at a site, all of them accessible only by the outside of the building. ATF agent Coop defuses the first, but it is affixed to the inside wall of the building, so he has to work THROUGH a small window without being able to see what he's doing. VCTF agent John Grant, who always wanted to be on the bomb squad, panics at trying to defuse the second, mounted on a strut of the building, and it is only after Coop ignores his own bomb to talk John through his that John figures out how to disarm it. Of course, both bombs are disarmed.
Subverted on Monk. Monk is disarming a mail bomb, and the bomb expert tells him that it doesn't matter which wire he cuts. Monk nearly lets the bomb go off because he can't decide whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire. (Eventually he cuts both.)
Avoided in the Austrian series Komissar Rex. One of the characters is agonizing over which wire to cut. He can't come up with anything, the timer runs out - and his colleague had pulled the detonator out of the explosives.
Parodied in The Fast Show. After doing the standard Wire Dilemma for the first two wires (complete with dramatic close ups on the wires being snipped and disagreements over which wire to cut first) another soldier goes "Sod this, anyone fancy a pint?" and just cuts them all with hedge trimmers.
On one episode of Criminal Minds the profilers face a victim wearing an explosive vest built by someone using the plans of a bomber Gideon had imprisoned. With the usual seconds left, the bomber tells the bomb squad tech which wire to cut. Just as he's about to, Gideon tells him to cut the other one, basing the decision on the fact the bomber had earlier admitted he could never pass up an opportunity to see something go boom.
Parodied as early as Monty Python's Flying Circus, with the Unexploded Scotsman squad.
A variation is used in an episode of Space Precinct, where instead of cutting wires, the defusers have a choice between removing the power pack or the trigger.
Nash Bridges had one episode where all the wires were very strange colors.
The pilot for new series Phoo Action had the 'Hero is colourblind' version.

Film

May have originated with the 1974 film Juggernaut, in which a blackmailer has placed bombs inside 55-gallon drums on a cruise ship. At the film's climax, defusing the bomb requires guessing whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire. The police back in London have captured the bad guy, and he tells them to cut the blue wire -- so now the question becomes, do you believe him, or cut the red wire?
In the film Sky High, where the device that sabotaged the school's anti gravity systems could be disabled by severing the red wire, but most of its wires are red.
A twist (played straight) on the same-color situation: In the film The Abyss, the wires actually are different colors (blue with a white stripe and black with a yellow stripe), but the yellow-green chemical light renders them indistinguishable.
In Lethal Weapon 3, Riggs insists on trying to defuse a bomb rather than waiting for the bomb squad to arrive. After joking around with Murtaugh about what color wire to cut, he finally cuts one that accelerates the timer on the bomb... which leads to the classic one-liner, "Grab the cat."
Subverted in Goldfinger: James Bond only has seconds to defuse a nuclear bomb in Fort Knox, and the best thing he can think of is to attempt to pull out a mass of wires and hope it does something. However, just when he makes the attempt, Felix Leiter arrives with a bomb expert who brushes away Bond and simply hits the off switch for the bomb to stop its countdown. With "007" on the timer.
Played straight in the 1997 movie Air Force One, where the President of the United States has to choose three wires out of five on the titular airplane's fuel dump system blindly. He puts his trust in red, white and blue and is proven right. (This causes a logical paradox, as the weight of that anvil should have sent the plane falling out of the sky.)
Parodied in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1. The first wire that Emilio Estevez cuts causes Jon Lovitz to blow up. The second causes the power to go out on the boat. The third causes a complete power outage in Los Angeles. Finally, he throws the bomb overboard.
Played with in Fight Club. "Oh, heavens, no, not the green one, anything but the green one." (After the green wire is cut) "I asked you not to DO THAT!"

Western Animation

Swat Kats has another same-color play: In the episode "The Wrath of Dark Kat", Razor tries to defuse a bomb...
Razor: Okay, piece of cake. Just remember, always cut the red wire.
...only to find all the wires are red.
Razor: Aw, Dark Kat, you miserable psycho!
In The Tick, The Tick has to stop an oversized bomb from destroying The Renaissance. He finds a huge mass of wires inside, but after considering the wire problem, he finds an incredibly obvious On/Off switch instead.
Mercilessly destroyed Family Guy's "Brian Does Hollywood" episode fake episode intro.
Meg: What do you mean, cut the blue wire?! THEY'RE ALL BLUE!
The 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has the action-movie-savvy Michaelangelo calling it as the red wire, at which point Donatello cuts the blue one, banking on their enemies trying to "trick" them.

Comics and Webcomics

Yet another same-color play: in the first issue of the furry Super Hero spoof Web Comic Supermegatopia, Weasel Boy tries to defuse a nuclear bomb in mid-air, only to find that all the wires are blue. Fortunately, the bomb crashes through the roof of a candy factory and lands in a vat of caramel without detonating, and with little incident other than the creation of a fairly amiable caramel monster.
Parodied in a Knights Of The Dinner Table strip, where after trying hopelessly to figure out which wire to cut, someone asks for a physical description of the bomb, and it turns out it's powered by a simple battery back, which is pulled out. The GM was steamed he didn't realize it would be that simple.
Comic book subversion: In Catwoman #61, Catwoman fights Film Freak, a madman who sees everything in terms of film tropes. After defeating him, she has to defuse an atomic bomb, and faces a classic Red Wire Blue Wire situation. She cuts a wire at random -- cutting any wire will shut the bomb down.
Subverted in the Judge Dredd comic book, where a 4-year-old amoral supergenius tries to hold Mega-City One hostage with several nuclear warheads placed in strategic locations. After bragging to the Judges that no one in the city but himself is smart enough to be able to defuse his intricate booby-trapped bomb triggers, Dredd solves the dilemna by simply handcuffing the villain to one of his own bombs.
Animal Man has the titular hero completely stumped as to how to disarm a Thanagarian bomb. Luckily, resident Thanagarian Hawkman walks in at the last second and figures out where the off switch is.

Anime

In an Excel Saga episode, Excel found herself trying to defuse a bomb in a restroom, while at the same time Ilpalazzo questioned what a bomb was doing in the dating game he was playing (and which was also controlling the episode's events). Both chose the red wire. Both chose wrong. Thankfully, they had a living Reset Button in the cast.
In the third episode of Galaxy Angel, Milfeulle, whose incredible luck powers render her the only one that could probably stop the bomb, is scared stiff of pressing the button to clip its digital wire; Vanilla has to force her to do it.
Lupin III, movie In Memory of the Walther P38: Everyone's survival comes down to red wire vs. blue wire. Goemon walks up while the rest of the group is paralyzed by the decision, draws his sword and cuts the red wire ("the color of pickled plums" being his justification). It works.
The Detective Conan movie "The Time Bombed Skyscraper" ends with this situation, in which Ran (Rachel) has to pick the red or blue wire. Throughout the whole movie it has been explained that Ran and Shin'ichi (Jimmy)'s lucky color for the month is red (for this reason, Ran got Shin'ichi a red sweatshirt for his birthday), so it seems like the correct wire would be the red one until you realize that Ran actually told the villain who built the bomb about the lucky color thing. The correct wire ends up being the blue one, because Ran didn't want to cut the Red String Of Fate.
The focus, multiple times, of a particular Outlaw Star episode, with the final dilemma (if there even was one) occurring offscreen.

Videogames

In the RPG Illusion of Gaia, after defeating one boss, you have to cut one of the wires on the bomb your friend is tied to (red or blue, naturally); however, either one will work, and the true problem is making your decision before the timer stops -- at which point it turns out the bomb is a dud.
- This is because, of course, the main character Will has the power to always guess correctly. No matter which one the player picks, it's right, because Will is psychic. Since this is introduced very early and not used throughout most of the game, it is often forgotten by the player. He uses this power later in the game to win a game of Russian Roulette... unfortunately for the other guy.
A 'wireless' variant appears in the adventure-game Death Gate, when the hero has been poisoned and shackled in a dungeon. He knows what color the antidote is, and uses a spell to possess a dog who can go fetch the bottle for him - only problem is, dogs are color-blind, and since the poison will kill you soon, you've only got time to pick ONE bottle. Effectively, the entire trope is reproduced in low-tech. The riddle is solved by observing colored lines behind the bottles, and based on which are visible through which bottles, you can figure out which is the right one...
Metal Gear Acid did Number 7 pretty well, with the bomb disposal segment going very smoothly - until Alice, giving instructions, loses her head and foreshadows the impending reveal of her dual personality. Minette had previously been told, very confidently, that the bomb would be defused as soon as she connects the black and white wires.
Minette: I'm gonna connect [the black and white wires] now.
Alice: ...No!
Minette: Hm?
Alice: Don't connect them. Just cut the red one.
Minette: What?
Alice: Two don't make one. It's impossible for two to be one!
Minette: ...Alice?
Alice: Just do it. Only cut the red one.
Minette: ...
Parodied by two mob goons in Max Payne.
Mook 1 Which wire do I cut?
Mook 2 In the movies it's always the red or the blue one.
Mook 1 So green?
Mook 2 NO!!!
BOOM!

Literature

The protagonist in John Ringo's novel "Ghost", while trying to prevent a nuclear bomb from going off in Paris, takes a cell phone away from the terrorist mastermind and finds two pre-set numbers on it, "Fire" and "Ice". One of them dials the bomb and tells it to go off immediately, one dials the bomb and disarms it. The protagonist gives the French bomb squad as much time as possible to try to disarm it physically, then dials a number. The dilemma here being whether you trust the terrorist when he confessed which was the disarm code...

Why Dont Ya Just Shoot Him

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