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Author: StarSword

Nov 24th 2012 at 12:30:35 AM

The first variation is TruthInTelevision to the extent that pressurized gas can potentially exert enough force to launch its bottle into the air (there's a reason bottles of welding gas and oxygen are shipped and stored with metal caps to protect the valve).  However, breaching the canister is much harder than it is in fiction, and for good reason.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* In ''[[Film/TheBourneSeries The Bourne Identity]]'', Bourne blows up a large household propane tank by shooting it with a shotgun.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* The shooting-a-gas-tank-blows-it-up variation is averted on two separate occasions on ''Series/BurnNotice''.  In one episode Michael jury-rigs a bomb out of a propane bottle, which as he points out in the voice-over requires an open flame to detonate it.  A later episode has Michael use the fuel tank on a box truck to blow it up.  His voice-over explains that if you shoot the tank, you just puncture it.  If you shoot any of several bags of acetone peroxide taped to the tank, on the other hand...