History Awesome / MatthewReilly

'''The Tournament''':
* This book is extremely light on action by Reilly standards, but still gives us Roger Ascham's CombatPragmatist defeat of the murderer Sinon, and showing his BrassBalls by telling Sultan Suleiman to his face that he knows the tournament is rigged.

''Awesome/{{Contest|MatthewReilly}}''

'''Contest''':
* The scene where Swain, Hawkins and Selexin bamboozle the Karanadon by shouting, "Hey you! Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you! Well, fuck you then!" in turn.
* The ElevatorActionSequence ''beneath'' the elevator.
* Swain's BigDamnHeroes as he reunites with his daughter. "Initialize!"

Matthew Reilly.

Actually, say a lot more. This is the place where we bow down to his sheer awesomeness, or to be more precise, his characters.

'''Troll Mountain''':
* The book was specifically designed because of Reilly's love of the destruction of the Hall of the Mountain King in the opera ''Peer Gynt'', so that he could write a similar scene. Once we get there, it fully lives up to that.

'''Ice Station''':
* The nitrogen grenade on the bridge scene, for a start.
* Christ, just the Scarecrow himself. And the scars just make him sound cooler.
* Killing a French soldier with an underhand knife throw, WHILE WALKING!
* Destroying a sub with explosives and a grappling hook.
* Imploding a diving capsule with a harpoon gun.
* Reversing a trap by turning around the claymore mines.
--> This side towards enemy.
* Ever flown a plane out of a collapsing ice tunnel? The Scarecrow has.
* Buck Riley kicking a frag grenade back to the people who threw it.
* Mother shooting the killer whale about to eat her.
* Running over the top of an enemy hovercraft while firing blindly into it, and nailing the driver. And doing it while dragging along a little girl.
* Gant killing the French soldier who almost got her, sending the arrow stuck in her helmet through his eye with a headbutt.

* Mother snapping Schofield out of his {{Heroic BSOD}} after [[spoiler:Gant's death.]]

* The entire "smash and grab" run to get the red uranium spheres: bridging the gap to the main tower with a tanker truck and four Maghook cables, blowing up the laboratory tower while inside it, taking out a helicopter by cutting the tanker free, and a desperate car chase to dump the spheres in the ocean. [[spoiler:Sure, it was all in vain, but A for effort.]]
* [[spoiler:Ira Barker]] saving the world with a quiet piece of sabotage after Scarecrow himself completely fails.
* Taking down 40 men with sheer UnstoppableRage after [[spoiler:coming back from the dead]].
** And meanwhile [[spoiler:Mother and Baba bit the heads off the rats that were going to kill them.]]
* Zack [[spoiler:killing Bad Willy with a nearby acid-spewing valve and rescuing Emma in the process.]]
* Mother [[spoiler:MacGyvering a salve to seal Baba's wounds. Showing that even she can think of something brilliant.]]

* [[spoiler:The Kid]] manages to rig an explosive device to blow up the villain’s missile silo after being shot through the forehead.

* Pooh Bear killing [[spoiler:his brother Scimitar]] in a KnifeFight by using plastic explosives. Then killing [[spoiler:Vulture]] by throwing [[spoiler:Scimitar's]] knife into his throat.

* [[spoiler:Scarecrow. The motherfucking Scarecrow.]]
** The whole build-up to this is masterful. [[spoiler:In the lead-up to the book's publication, Reilly gave no hints at all that Scarecrow would be in it. Then we see one of the other Champions is a Marine wearing wrap-around sunglasses, and the longtime fans start thinking "Wait a minute...". Then when the Champions get a partner, the Marine's is a large woman who fights just as well. And then we actually see his name, buried among all the others Champions in an illustration of the screen showing their status. And just when you start thinking all this is just some Easter eggs for the fans, Jack and Scarecrow finally meet, and ultimately even fight each other just like Reilly knew we'd all want to see.]]

* The book's climax is tremendously satisfying given the political climate when it was released. [[spoiler:The long-subjugated minotaurs finally have the spark of rebellion ignited by a Champion saving one of their own and the news that the heir to the Underworld is planning to kill their king, and storm the palace where they brutally kill a bunch of the arrogant, entitled royals who've been smugly watching the whole time.]]

* [[spoiler:Aloysius Knight]] returns.

* This book is extremely light on action by Reilly standards, but still gives us Roger Ascham's CombatPragmatist defeat of the murderer [[spoiler:Sinon]], and showing his BrassBalls by telling Sultan Suleiman to his face that he knows the tournament is rigged.

* Halfway through the book, we find out how CJ got away from the crocodile that scarred her face: [[spoiler:stabbing it over and over in the belly until she got its heart.]]
** To elaborate, CJ accomplished that while [[spoiler:a crocodile had her head in its mouth! CJ was drowning, disoriented and was in the process of having her head crushed in a prehistoric killing machine's vice like grip and CJ not only survived, but managed to WIN the fight and kill the crocodile]] "Don't mess with CJ Cameron" indeed.

* The main attraction's themselves of the Great Zoo are undoubtably awesome and it's impressive how Reilly was able to create [[spoiler:Dragons]] that were not only menacing, but incredibly believable and realistic, with so much detail put into the creatures biology and collective subspecies. This is not even going into what the monsters accomplish in the story. The velociraptors from ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' have absolutely nothing on the Great Zoo's main attraction.

* Christ, just the Scarecrow himself. And the scars just make him sound cooler to this troper.
* Killing a French soldier with an underhand knife throw, WHILE WALKING!!!

* Even though he's a bastard, Caesar did sound pretty cool.

* The Black Knight. The scene when he and Schofield blast their way out of the castle deathtrap was ''awesome''.

* The ''Halicarnassus'' '''floating''' just near the Great Pyramid on the day of Tartarus. That is all.

* The scene where Swain, Hawkins and Selexin bamboozle the Karanadon by shouting, "Hey you! Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you! Well, fuck you then!" in turn really cracks this troper up.

* Doogie killing a helicopter with an ''enemy-piloted'' [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_Raider Rigid Raider]] by turning a seaplane so sharply that the wings form a ramp.
** He was out of bullets.
* Race thinking fast enough to escape an explosion by hiding in the containers used to transport the Supernova.
** And this was well before Kingdom of the Crystal Skull came out.

** To elaborate, CJ accomplished that while [[spoiler:a crocodile had her head in it's mouth! CJ was drowning, disoriented and was in the process of having her head crushed in a prehistoric killing machine's vice like grip and CJ not only survived, but managed to WIN the fight and kill the crocodile]] "Don't mess with CJ Cameron" indeed.

* The main attraction's themselves of the Great Zoo are undoubtably awesome and it's impressive how Reilly was able to create [[spoiler:Dragons]] that were not only menacing, but incredibly believable and realistic, with so much detail put into the creatures biology and collective subspecies. This is not even going into what the monsters accomplish in the story. The velociraptors from Jurassic Park have absolutely nothing on the Great Zoo's main attraction.

----

* Reversing a trap by turning around the directional grenades.

* CJ's two KillItWithFire moments, first against the soldiers about to execute her, and then on a much bigger scale against a set of dragons.

* Mother [[spoiler:MacGuyvering a salve to seal Baba's wounds. Showing that even she can think of something brilliant.]]

* Veronique Champion pulling out her own Maghook, cutting off Schofield's attempt to use his own for the first time in the book.

* Flying side by side with a missile at Mach 6.7, to disarm it before it blows up Mecca.
* The Black Knight. The scene when he and Schofield blast their way out of the castle death trap was ''awesome''.

* Veronique Champion pulling out her own Maghook, cutting off Schofield's attempt to use his for the first time in the book.

* ''Bertie''. Described as WesternAnimation/{{WALL-E}} with a machine gun, and completely lives up to that.