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The application of high voltages to animated flesh and bone renders the former translucent and the latter luminescent, allowing the skeleton to be seen in the style of a classic X-ray for as long as the current flows.
Despite the impressive light show, the victim will usually suffer no ill effects beyond looking a bit singed and shocked. On the other hand, a Disintegrator Ray (which is far more likely to be lethal) can also produce these sparks as it zaps the victim to dust (or leaves only the skeleton behind).
The trope name is a tribute to the "X-Ray Specs" that have been advertised in the back of comic books since time immemorial.
Examples
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General
- Was once a (non-discredited) live-action trope, appearing in various monster movies of the black-and-white era, as well as "The Borderland", an episode of the original The Outer Limits.
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Anime & Manga
- When Ash first meets Pikachu in Pokémon, Pikachu shocks him for a good ten seconds and his skeleton is shown every other second. Pikachu then goes for another electric shock, this time affecting Professor Oak as well.
- One Piece
- A common result of Nami using her Climattack to shock some bad guys.
- Parodied by having it happen to, and be Lampshaded by Brook, a living skeleton.
- Gigantor: "Battle of the Giant Robots" had a truck display an X-ray skeleton when hit by a robot's weapon.
- Shown in Harukanaru Toki no Naka de - Hachiyou Shou OAV episode "Kokoro no Yukue" when Kotengu is struck by lightning as a punishment for losing a tengu competition.
- Happens to the villains in Yatterman, due to the two main protagonists using electrified weapons.
- Hanaukyo Maid Tai episode 10. Happens to Taro when he's in an electrified chair: Ikuyo Suzuki did it to help him stop falling asleep while studying.
- Naga and Diol both get an electrifying experience from one of Lina's spells in an episode of Slayers.
- Happens to Chuck from Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt on a regular basis, and in episode 8, it happens to Panty and Stocking too.
- In the Shaman King manga, when Ren uses his new lighting powers on Yoh. And then he looks back and says: "You are very good, Ren," while we still only see his bones.
- In the anime Daphne In The Brilliant Blue, both Maia and Gloria get a shocking experience at the start of episode 26.
- In the anime The Girl Who Leapt Through Space, happens to Bougainvillea.
- Happens to Batch in episode 12 of Mon Colle Knights.
- Happens in episode 7 of Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W to Kūko.
Comic Books
- In Léonard le Génie, this happens almost every time Basile has to power up some new invention.
- Tends to happen to Wolverine whenever he's struck by a large amount of electricity. Like Storm's lightning.
- Happens to Marv when he is executed at the end of The Hard Goodbye. Twice.
Comic Strips
Fan Works
Films — Animation
- In Monsters Vs Aliens, briefly happens to Susan when Doctor Cockroach attempts to revert her to normal size.
- Occurs in Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs when Flint attaches a jumper cable to an electrical tower at the power station.
- In Fantastic Mr Fox, Kylie (an opossum) and Mr. Fox climb an electric fence and their skeletons are seen. (This film is stop-motion animated.) It also happens later to Rat when fighting Fox in the sewer. It doesn't end well.
- When Remy and his brother Emile attempt to cook food by chimney smoke in Ratatouille, they get struck by lightning (attracted to the TV antennae) and their skeletons briefly appear for one or two separate frames.
- Scrat when struck by lighting in the first Ice Age movie.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Happens to the title character during the short cartoon Somethin's Cookin' at the beginning, when his fingers get stuck in some electrical sockets.
- Happens to Batty in FernGully 2.
- Happens in Cats Dont Dance, near the end when Darla hits a machine with a wrench, her skeleton is seen for less than a second before she flashes many different colors
- Happens to several pink elephants during this part of the song "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo.
...Look out! Look out!
They're walking around your bed
On their heads! (Clippity-cloppity)
Arrayed in braids,
Pink Elephants on Parade!
- Happens to the goons in Sleeping Beauty when they're all hit by Maleficent's lightning.
- Happens to the Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as she is becoming the Witch, although you could only see her hands.
- Played with in Winnie The Pooh when Eeyore is struck by lighting. Instead of bones, it's his stuffing.
- Happens to several submarine crew workers in Atlantis: The Lost Empire during the scene where the Leviathan starts destroying the submarine they are in.
- In Shark Tale, Ernie and Bernie, the two Rasta Electric Jellyfishes, make fishbones flash whenever they shock a fish with their tentacles.
- During the musical number in Eight Crazy Nights in which all of the townsfolk are singing about how badly they treated Whitey over the years, this happened to Whitey when they made him be the TV antenna.
- During the credits sequence to Wreck It Ralph, Ralph faces Blanka when going into Street Fighter II and gets zapped, revealing his gigantic skeleton.
Films — Live-Action
- The first Hot Shots! movie actually does this to a live-action Charlie Sheen, although he is only visible through the frosted window of an office door.
- The film Home Alone 2 features Marv (Daniel Stern) being shocked; an effects shot briefly replaced him with a Real Life skeleton puppet wearing the same hair, beard and clothes as him, before turning back to his regular fleshy self.
- Star Wars
- Subverted with Emperor Palpatine, but not Darth Vader, when the Emperor hits himself by Force lightning, caused by the surprise of being lifted by Vader, at the end of Return Of The Jedi. Nothing of the Emperor is displayed, but Vader touching him and conducting the Force lightning displayed not only Vader's skeleton, but some of his mechanical implants. (Which we can somehow see through his armor.)
- Pretty much anyone hit by force lightning except Emperor Palpatine in Jedi is subject to this trope. See also Mace Windu in Revenge Of The Sith.
- In Young Frankenstein, this trope is used as the monster is brought to life (using lightning). Only (alas) the monster's skull is shown illuminated under his skin.
- In Willow, occurs as Queen Bavmorda is struck by lightning as a result of her own backfiring magic.
- The Mask
- Happens to Stanley Ipkiss in the first movie when he becomes the eponymous Mask for the very first time.
- In one sequel, the dad gets possessed and shoots lightning at the bad guy. He starts to flip around and flash into a skeleton.
- In Son of the Mask, this is the fate of Loki when Odin struck him with lightning to remove his godly powers.
- The programs being drained by the MCP near the end of TRON show their skeletons as energy pulses through them.
- Ghostbusters. While the electrical bolts are hitting Dana Barrett and Louis Tulley and turning them into Gozer's demons Zuul and Vinz Clortho, you can see their skeletons inside their bodies.
- Happens to Gadget in the sequel to the live-action Inspector Gadget movie.
Live-Action TV
- Since 1988, the Dalek energy guns on Doctor Who make the victim's body briefly flash lime green while their bones glow bright white. According to dialogue, the victim dies as their internal structures are chaotically rearranged. Earlier it was just a circular area of film around the victim turned negative.
- During the Aquabats Super Show! musical number Doing Science
 , Eaglebones receives this when messing around with electrical circuits.
Music Videos
- Happens to "Weird Al" Yankovic in the animated video for "I'll Sue Ya", when he tries to use a hair dryer while standing under a still-running shower.
Tabletop Games
- Champions supplement Gadgets. The illustration for the "Deathwind" Commando Suit shows the victim of its electrical charge attack displaying this syndrome.
- Dungeons & Dragons, Ravenloft setting adventure Web of Illusion. In Mahakala, Arijani's temple to Kali, there's a room with a trap that hits the PCs with lightning bolts. One of the illustrations shows a lightning bolt hitting a PC's head and the PC's skull showing through their skin.
- Paranoia. The illustration of the use of the mutant power Electroshock shows the victim of the power being electrified, with the victim's skeleton shows through their skin.
Video Games
- Happens in Little Big Adventure whenever someone is electrocuted.
- This was a feature of Pikachu's electrical attacks in the original (and ONLY in the original) Super Smash Bros Ness (with PK Thunder), Samus (with Charge Beam), and the Ray Gun did the same thing in the original Super Smash Bros., but like Pikachu, they could only do so in the first game. This even provides something of a visual gag if Samus gets shocked, because instead of showing us her skeleton, we just see the human figure inside her power suit. On the other hand, when Kirby and Jigglypuff get hit by electric attacks, only their eyes are visible, implying (sensibly) that they have no skeleton. Funnily enough, Mario and Luigi's noses appear to be part of their skeletons.
- Touch Detective Nintendo DS game. One of the characters in Episode 2 can suffer from X Ray Sparks by fooling around with an electrical socket.
- Crash Bandicoot
- In Metal Gear Solid 3, Naked Snake (Big Boss)'s skeleton is shown while he is electrocuted repeatedly by Volgin. It is not shown as much in the European or Australian release though.
- This happens to characters from Darkstalkers when they are hit by an electric attack, but some don't show skeletons when hit (for example, Pyron shows a constellation, Jedah shows runes, etc.).
- Similarly, Street Fighter II does this with anyone who is capable of electricity-based attacks. Which used to just be Blanka (pictured above), but there are probably new zappy characters here and there. Especially notable as every character had their own "zapped" animation, which was averted completely from the Alpha games onwards with a Palette Swap instead. In Street Fighter 4 and Captain Commando, the feature of X-Ray Sparks returned.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Happens to Knuckles in Sonic and Knuckles when he is counterattacked by Robotnik after trying to reclaim the Master Emerald.
- Predating this, sprites found from a prototype of Sonic CD revealed that Sonic was originally going to get this effect when shocked by the electric wires of Wacky Workbench, but this was scrapped due to policies regarding the image of the company's mascot.
- In Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed, going through an electrical current in the Curien Mansion track, Graveyard Gig, will have this happen to you. It also occurs when you drive through the laser grids in Race of AGES, or when Gillius or Metal Sonic attack you with their All-Star attack. Also, Metal Sonic apparently has a skeleton, Sonic and Shadow's quills are part of their skulls while Aiai and Meemee's ears are part of theirs, the Sonic characters have toe bones despite not having toes, Ulala and Pudding have very slim and nice bones, and Wreck-It Ralph, of course, has a gigantic skeleton.
- The title characters in some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game show this effect when they are zapped by beams from roving robots on wheels.
- Touch any electrified material in Little Big Planet, and you get the same result. Sackboy lights up, twitches violently for a few seconds, and then explodes. (Don't worry, he comes back normal from the previous Checkpoint after his Critical Existence Failure.) Hilarity Ensues if the electrified object was moving, as Sackboy is stuck in midair during electrocution, and the object may even go right through him. Some people on YouTube have found a way to save the Electrified Sackboy as a costume they can put on whenever they want, making for a very cool, glowing Halloween effect.
- Mortal Kombat
- In Mortal Kombat 3 (and only there), Nightwolf's lightning and Stryker's taser fatality will make the foe flash blue, and a skeleton can be seen throughout the lightshow. This was removed in Mortal Kombat Trilogy (an update of the same game).
- Somewhat subverted in Mortal Kombat 9. Stryker's X-ray attack has a part where he uses taser and the foe's entire skeleton can be seen, shaking.
- BlazBlue
- Any victim of Rachel's electric attacks. It's especially visible on the long-duration attack from the electric frog, George XIII.
- Also invoked with Iron Tager's Gadget Finger attack.
- Happens in Leisure Suit Larry V when you stick your fingers in an outlet. As they had decided to remove the accidental deaths from the LSL series around this time, it isn't fatal.
- In Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars, Yatterman-2's grab attack consists of her electrocuting her opponents with their skeletons (or inner mechanical parts for robots) showing. For some reason this is the only electrical attack that does this.
- Happens in 3D in Sims 2: attempting to repair anything without enough Mechanical skill causes you to flash as a bright green skeleton, then wind up with your clothing turned to soot and hair completely frazzled.
- Bubble Bobble
- Bubble Symphony. Only, little voltage is required to kill a protagonist.
- Puzzle Bobble 2 (arcade): A VS CPU mode cutscene before facing off against a giant lightbulb thing has the player character getting fried.
- Used in the Bio Shock plasmid videos to demonstrate electrocution, bizarrely they use the same thing to show being set on fire.
- Occurs in Vanguard Princess when Luna Himeki or support character Eko blows an electrified "kiss" to their opponent.
- Happens in the Metal Slug Series whenever any of the main playable characters gets zapped.
- Happens in Final Fight 2 & 3 whenever a character is hit by an electrical prod. In Final Fight 3, this extends to enemies as well as the character Dean can electrocute all characters around him, including his own teammates.
- Happens in Space Quest 6 when Roger uses the hand icon on the electrical outlet in his room, resulting a death being reduced to ashes, clothes intact.
- The slot machine death ray and the Sarien pulserays in the first game both completely turn Roger to ashes with this effect.
- Super Mario Bros
- In Mario And Luigi Superstar Saga, both brothers can display this trope when in contact by electricity.
- In the Super Mario Strikers intro, a hammer bro gets slipped onto an electric fence.
- Also occurs in the sequel Super Mario Strikers Charged to not only a Birdo and a Pianta in the opening clip, but also to all characters when knocked into the electric fence (Or hit by Dry Bone's Skillshot).
- Happens in the Super Mario Galaxy games when Mario (or Luigi) gets shocked. In the first game, if the shock killed Mario, he would die as just a skeleton, but this was removed in the sequel.
- In Magicka, using a eletric component in your spell will shock the enemies and show their 3D rigging.
- Happens in a boss fight near the end of Dixie's Double Trouble. Just hit K.Rool's flight pack and he'll fall onto the electrified floor.
- In Creatures Adventures, norns that are struck by lightning show their skeleton briefly. It's completely harmless.
- Occurs when a spy is blown up or killed by a Bucket Booby Trap in Spy Vs Spy.
- Subverted in Bug. The title character does blink black and white when electrocuted by a literal lightning bug, but no skeleton appears because he's an insect. However, it could also mean that this trope is played straight with his entire exoskeleton.
- The first inFAMOUS game did not feature this. inFAMOUS 2, however, has this happen upon hitting someone with a bolt attack, as well as when using the Bio Leech.
- This happens to any enemy in Fable III when using the Shock Gauntlets. Killing them with it leaves their corpses as bare skeletons.
- Happens in Makai Kingdom when anyone is hit with an electric based attack.
- Happens to the characters in Po Po Lo Crois, as well as most of the enemies when they are hit by an electric spell.
- BloodRayne Betrayal
- If Rayne is struck by Kagan's lightning, her skeleton flashes for the duration of the spell. Also happens when you beat him the first time, he electrocutes her to stun her.
- The "Electric Eyes" also do this if you try to go Raven Form in front of them. For some reason, the electric frogs do not cause this effect.
- In Nexon's game, Dragon Nest, this happens if you or an enemy is affected by the "electrocuted" satus debuff.
- In Balloon Kid, touching a spark at any time causes Alice to get electrocuted and knocked out.
- In Lollipop Chainsaw, this happens to Juliet if she gets struck by Vikke's lightning bolts in Stage 2. Viewing from the front reveals that she has a goofy and cartoony skeleton, despite looking realistic on the outside (as realistic as the Unreal Engine allows, anyway). You even get a trophy/achievement for being shocked 10 times, and the trophy/achievement icon shows...guess.
- Happens to any character that hits the electrical sign stage hazard in Eternal Champions.
- The Tesla Cannon in Blood does this to its targets; even the ghost-like Phantasm's skeleton becomes visible!
- Lego Batman 2. If Batman gets an electrical shock (e.g. from the Joker) his skeleton can be seen inside his Batsuit.
- Occurs to any character when they touch an electrical material in The Outfoxies.
- Happens in Street Fighter x Tekken whenever any character gets electrocuted by Blanka and Cole.
- Happens in Streets Of Rage.
- Happens in the arcade game The Simpsons. Interestingly, when Marge gets zapped you can see that she has bunny ears hidden in her hair.
- Occurs in Castlevania Symphony Of The Night.
- Occurs in both of King Of The Monsters game.
- Happens to the title character in Alex Kidd in High Tech World.
- Happens to Valkyrie and Xandra in Valkyrie no Densetsu.
- Occurs in Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer.
- Happens to the title character in arcade game Nemo.
- Happens in some Sailor Moon games to the title characters.
- Occurs in Pocket Fighter.
- Occurs in the Gameboy Advance Digimon Battle Spirit games.
- Happens to any character that hits the electrical sign stage hazard in Eternal Champions.
- Occurs in Persona 4 Arena.
- Happens in the beat-em-up game Battle Circuit.
- Can happen in Sengoku 3.
- In Um Jammer Lammy, if Lammy and/or Parappa starts performing at either the Bad or Awful rank on the Teriyaki Yoko stage, they will be struck by lightning resulting in this effect. Sometimes, the game will glitch and not have the lightning appear, but the electrocution animation still plays. It is seen again in a flashback in the Stage 7 cutscene, when Lammy plugs in electrical equipment.
- Occurs in the first Shock Troopers game. Unfortunately, this was removed in the sequel.
- Occurs in the doujin game Arm Joe.
- Occurs in the freeware game Rena Story.
- In Duke Nukem game, this happens when the title character takes damage from any source.
- In Stage 2 of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Video Game, you frequently run into movie sets that have people in Godzilla and alien costumes. The people in the alien costumes will shoot bolts of electricity at you from their ray guns, resulting in this. The same electrocuted sprite (as well as the burning sprite) is used for all characters, but were made primarily for Scott's body shape and structure, so both sprites will make Stephen Stills look skinny for a second, or Ramona and Kim look flat-chested.
- Occurs in Blood Storm whenever a character is electrocuted by the character Talon.
- In the Wii game Madworld, one of the bosses you face in Asian Town is a sexy lady named Rin-Rin, and her blocky skeleton will be seen whenever she gets thrown at an electric sign, or the video monitor. This is also seen when anyone gets thrown into an electric sign, not just her.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- Any number of Bugs Bunny and Tom And Jerry cartoons.
- Happens in one Looney Tunes cartoon, where Taz gets zapped up by a christmas tree's lightbulbs.
- In the 2006 Christmas Special, Daffy Duck gets hurled onto an telephone wire.
- In the 2011 remake, The Looney Tunes Show, Daffy Duck and Bugs bunny get struck by lightning, revealing rabbit and duck bones.
- On Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, this happens to each of the five Rangers at least once throughout the series. In the episode "Does Pavlov Ring a Bell?", Monterey Jack shakes hands with the electrically charged lab rat Sparky and receives an electric shock strong enough to reveal his skeleton.
- Inspector Gadget
- Happens to Chief Quimby in every Title Sequence, while inside a safe, as the self-destructing sheet of paper explodes to his face.
- Happens to Inspector Gadget too, in the episode "Gadget and Old Lace", when he is shocked by the electric chicken.
- Dexters Laboratory:
- In one episode, the title character was repeatedly shocked by a robot.
- In the intro sequence for The Justice Friends shorts, Val Hallen tries to put in a lightbulb, but only gets shocked instead.
- In Home Movies, Duane and McGuirk both show their skeletons in electrocutions, unusual for a show that's otherwise low-key and absent of exaggerated cartoony action.
- Played straight in The Fairly Odd Parents; in the process, also shows Wanda with a BONE inside her hair swirl.
- Asajj Ventress, when hit by Dooku's force lightning in Star Wars Clone Wars.
- Happens from time to time in Darkwing Duck. Pretty much any episode with the lightning-wielding Megavolt.
- In SpongeBob SquarePants, the title character and Patrick shock themselves and this happens... even though they're both invertebrates and therefore have no skeletons.
- Total Drama Island
- Demonstrated in an episode of the first season where Heather gets shocked by an Electric Jellyfish.
- A teaser for Total Drama World Tour features this happening to Duncan when he gets hit by a laser beam.
- In the Beavis And Butthead cartoon "Head Lice," this results from the misuse of a bug zapper.
- Happens in Spider Man The New Animated Series during the webslinger's battle with Electro.
- Wakfu
- In season 1 episode 6, Vampyro shocks Sadlygrove with a mere touch, causing X-Ray Sparks.
- Happens to Posho at the beginning of episode 12... from the Eniripsa's vigorous "healing".
- Adamaï gets his turn when struck by the giant gerbil's lightning in season 2 episode 1.
- In The Legend of Ogrest special episode, it happens to Long-Tail the Ecaflip when struck by Otomaï's lightning potion.
- Happens in Jimmy Two Shoes, naturally to Samy.
- Happens in Pinky And The Brain, but in the theme song, when they have their "genes spliced", instead of bones, the electricity used to give the two mice their intelligence actually makes DNA strands appear in their bodies.
- This happens repeatedly in The Avengers, with the first appearance of Thor, he uses mystic lightning on frost giants, showing their skeletons. In the first appearance of the Hulk, he is struck by an electrical weapon that reveals his skeleton.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- In the episode "Griffon the Brush Off", Gilda gets this treatment when Pinkie Pie shocks her with a joy buzzer.
- In the episode "The Last Roundup", this happens to Derpy when she jumps on the lightning cloud.
- Happens to Ed in the Ed Edd N Eddy movie finale, he also transforms into various forms of himself that has been used previously on the show.
- The animated version of The Boondocks. In the episode "The Passion of Rev. Ruckus", as Uncle Ruckus is delivering a sermon he's struck by a lightning bolt while inside a church.
- Mad. In one sketch based on Star Wars, C-3PO shocks Chewbacca and Chewy's skeleton shows through his skin.
- Mr Bogus:
- Also happens to Bogus in the claymation short shown after the third act of the episode "Hipster Tripster", after getting struck by a lightning bolt during a thunderstorm.
- Happens to Bogus, after getting struck by an electric surge in the first act of the episode "Computer Intruder".
- Happens to Bogus again in the episode "The Bogus Invasion", when an attempt to high-five a fully-functioning robot causes his skeleton to be shown for a few seconds.
- The Simpsons: "Extremely high voltage? Well, I don't need safety gloves 'cause I'm Homer Simp-"]] (he touches the wires and is electrocuted).
- Superman: The Animated Series has this happen to Superman when Livewire electrocutes him.
- Sometimes happens on Animaniacs.
- Every time Johnny Bravo (or someone else on the show) gets electrocuted by something, you can be 100% sure that this will be the result.
- In the short-lived Disney cartoon The Buzz On Maggie, one episode had Maggie's older brother electrocute her with a hand buzzer, resulting in this. It should be noted that Maggie is an insect.
- Similar to the Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed example, in the intro for My Life As A Teenage Robot, this is done to Jenny the Robot. Yes, you read that right.
- Antoine in the Sonic Sat AM episode Ro-Becca, upon being struck by lightning.
- In Part 2 of the South Park two-parter "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut", Kenny has to sacrifice himself to get the power in the hospital back up, so he willingly electrocutes himself to start the generator back up. This is the only time X-Ray Sparks have been used on electrocutions during the show's history.
- In the Danny Phantom episode "Maternal Instincts", Vlad electrocutes Danny with a device that causes him to lose his ghost powers temporarily, and we see this for a couple seconds as he does so.
Disintegration variant
Comic Books
- When Galactus starts consuming Battleworld during the events of the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, limited series, the effects of his machinery absorbing the world cause all the inhabitants, all the heroes included, to succumb to this effect, leaving their skeletons visible. Thankfully, he's stopped before this can be completed.
Gamebooks
Films — Animation
Films — Live-Action
- In the 1953 adaptation of The War Of The Worlds a soldier is hit by the Martians' Disintegrator Ray. There's a closeup shot of him as his body glows a bright green, with the skeleton showing through the glow, before the whole thing fades away and the unlucky victim vanishes into nothingness.
- Fire example: During a battle in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Crash and the Boys catch the business end of a fireball launched by Matthew Patel and his backup singing Demon Hipster Chicks as he sings "Slick".
- One of the Green Goblin's weapons in the movie Spider-Man does something similar (though it is more an explosion than an electrical effect).
Literature
- In The Wheel of Time books, someone hit with balefire has their colors "inverted" and just fades from view in the brilliant white light of the Death Ray.
- Tom Clancy's carefully researched and highly descriptive "activation" chapter from The Sum of All Fears had a particularly brutal version of this trope. The police officers' bones received enough X-rays to fluoresce at a level that not only incinerated them but very likely burned off the man's flesh. Not that it mattered a few nanoseconds later, but the mental image is still rather terrifying.
Live-Action TV
- Notoriously used in the Made-for-TV Movie The Day After to show those closest to Ground Zero being vaporized. Not only is this appropriate, it's actually pretty close to accurate — or at least, close enough for TV's sake. In Real Life in a nuclear blast, for those closest to Ground Zero, their soft tissues would be vaporized a split-second before their hard tissues (bones) would be. Obviously, no-one has lived to tell the tale of whether or not these twin processes happen fast enough for the eye to see, but both processes happen fast enough for the dead person's shadows to be literally burned into the ground.
The effects themselves were realistic, but the special effects department's choice of photographs on which to create the effects made less sense. A few seconds earlier, Kansas City was a scene of panic and rioting; the people shown being vaporized are enjoying a day by the riverside, at weddings, in schools, in bars and coffee shops, etc. Some of the photos used in the vaporization scenes are actually stills from earlier in the movie.
- Super Nova, the second Lexx TV movie, shows Giggerota's skeleton briefly, because the super nova's shockwave dissolved her flesh and clothing a fraction of a second before her bones. It probably wouldn't happen like that in real life, but it looked cool enough that it was used in every version of the show's opening credits.
Video Games
- First Encounter Assault Recon has the Particle Beam Gun, which vaporizes the flesh off its victims' skeletons.
- The taser weapon in the Sega Genesis game Jurassic Park Rampage Edition is insanely powerful, able to kill dinosaurs and people in a single shot. When you use it, you see the skeleton of whoever or whatever you use it on before they collapse into ashes.
- The Ray Gun from Another World, when it hits a victim, leaves a charred black skeleton that quickly crumbles into dust.
- Raiden's bowdlerised fatality in the SNES port of Mortal Kombat involves him shocking the opponent to such a degre that they're reduced to a skeleton which collapses into a pile of dust.
- In Brain Dead 13, both Lance and Moose suffer from this in one death scene involving one of the deadly lightning rods, and both bodies become gray and blink their eyes a bit before they become dust.
- In Fallout 3, critical hits by energy weapons can reduce a target to ashes.
- If Bug gets killed by a lightning bug, he turns black and crumbles. Otherwise, the first instance occurs.
Web Comics
Western Animation
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Baxter Stockman was was placed in a disintegration chamber by Krang after one failure too many. A fly entered the chamber with him, and after a brief X-Ray spark Stockman was transformed into a giant mutant fly. This instance provided plenty of Nightmare Fuel; Baxter Stockman was pleading frantically for his life before and after being thrown in, and his screaming skeleton during the X-Ray spark was truly horrifying.
- In the original Courage the Cowardly Dog short, "The Chicken From Outer Space," after Eustace is mutated into a giant murderous chicken Courage proceeds to vaporize him with a ray gun. He turns into a skeleton a few times before dissolving into ash.
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