History Main / BigDamPlot

* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Brother from Another Series" involves Sideshow Bob's brother trying to frame Bob for destroying a dam he's building.

* The ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Jet" revolves around the titular character trying to destroy a dam.

* ''Anime/MonsterRancher'' has [[{{Nakama}} The Courageous Seven]] face this problem in the episode of the same name: [[HairRaisingHare Evil Hares]] see them entering a town and decide to destroy the dam, wiping out the whole place just to take care of them.

* Seen in the "Mega X" episode of the Series/MegaMan cartoon.

* The Hoover Dam is a popular place for this in the United States, thanks to the EiffelTowerEffect.
** ''[[FalloutNewVegas Fallout: New Vegas]]'' features it as a major resource, since it's one of the only sources of power in the Mojave Wasteland. The end of the game involves a huge battle for control of the dam. Your character has to either defend it or take it over depending on which faction they're aligned with, and it's possible to destroy the dam or at least render it unusable.
** The destruction of a lookalike dam figures prominently in the first ''{{Superman}}'' movie.
** The ''GrandTheftAuto'' series seems to love this trope. In both ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'' and ''GrandTheftAutoII'', there's a mission where you must put bombs into a dam. Besides, the one featured in ''Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas'' is an {{Expy}} of the Hoover Dam.

* ''TheSimpsons'' episode "Brother from Another Series" involves Sideshow Bob's brother trying to frame Bob for destroying a dam he's building.

* ''ClassOfTheTitans''' second episode ("Chaos 102", part of the three-episode special) has the heroes fighting at the city dam. It's not clear whether the dam is ever actually threatened, though.

* ''FistOfTheNorthStar'': The whole Yuda arc ends in a dam being destroyed
* Speedy Dave's arc in ''MegaManBattleNetwork 2'' involves a dam going to be destroyed by explosives.

* ''FrankensteinMeetsTheWolfMan'': The villagers decide to take out a dam.

* The ''AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Jet" revolves around the titular character trying to destroy a dam.
* ''IceAge The Meltdown'': The melting glacier creates a natural dam as most of the ice melts, leaving a thin wall. The animals try to get to the other end of the valley before it bursts.
* In ''OsmosisJones'', the dam is in Frank's nose and it holds not water but mucus. A pollen allergy, compounded by Thrax's sabotage, causes it to break.
* TheSmurfs have a dam protecting their village from flooding. Many stories have the dam breaking or treathening to break, like in Smurfette's initial storyline, where she is actually an agent of Gargamel's trying to flood the village.
* In ''FlushedAway'', Toad's plan is to open the floodgates protecting the rat's sewer city so that it gets washed away during the WorldCup halftime.
* In ''CityOfHeroes'', the Positron Task Force revolves around the Clockwork, Circle of Thorns, and Vahzilok all hatching plots involving the city dam in Faultline. The finale of the second part[[hottip:*:the original version too, although that used a generic lab map and the mission entrance was in a different zone]] – which awards the [[JustForPun Dam Hero]] badge – has all three plans coming together simultaneously.
* ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' uses the Panama Canal to the same effect.
* In ''TinyToonAdventuresHowISpentMyVacation'', Buster and Babs' subplot is kicked off when an [[EscalatingWar escalating water fight]] ends with Babs intentionally opening a dam and flooding Acme Acres.
* ''[[BattlefieldSeries Battlefield Bad Company 2]]'' includes a multiplayer map involving control of a village beneath a dam. If the Americans win, they blow it up.
* ''Anime/MonsterRancher'' has [[{{Nakama}} The Courageous Seven]] face this problem in the episode of the same name: [[HairRaisingHare Evil Hares]] see them entering a town and decide to destroy the dam, wiping out the whole place just to take care of them.

* In {{Animorphs}} the heroes supersize a beaver dam so that ''they'' can unleash a GiantWallOfWateryDoom on attacking yeerks.
* in one of the Dark Horse ''{{Shrek}}'' comics, Shrek tries to get rid of a dam that has flooded his swamp.
* Just right after the Snuggly Duckling scene (and hence the song "I've Got a Dream") from ''{{Tangled}}'', Rapunzel and Flynn can actually be seen escaping a collapsing aquaduct when the latter is spotted by the palace guards outside the Snuggly Duckling.
* In the 1st episode of ''{{TheTick}}'', the Idea Men hold the city dam for ransom with explosives.

* In ''TinyToonAdventures: [[TheMovie How I Spent My Vacation]]'', Buster and Babs' subplot is kicked off when an [[EscalatingWar escalating water fight]] ends with Babs intentionally opening a dam and flooding Acme Acres.

* The Ents destroy a dam to wash away Isengard in the ''LordOfTheRings'' movies.

* ''[[BattlefieldSeries Battlefield Bad Company 2'' includes a multiplayer map involving control of a village beneath a dam. If the Americans win, they blow it up.

** It is destroyed in the climactic battle of the ''Film/{{Transformers}}''.

* In ''Death Or Glory'', CiaphasCain finds his ramshackle band of survivors pinned in a canyon between a hydroelectric dam and an Ork army. After discovering a tunnel through a nearby mountain to the other side, he decides to blow the dam to cover his retreat. [[AdvancingWallOfWateryDoom He succeeds beyond his wildest hopes]].

* ''TeamAmericaWorldPolice'' uses the Panama Canal to the same effect

** The climax of the RomanticComedy ''Fools Rush In'' takes place on the Hoover Dam, as Salma Hayek gives birth to Matthew Perry's baby, their divorce becomes official, and they decide to give it another try, all within three minutes or so.
** TheAmazingColossalMan meets his doom at the bottom of Hoover Dam.

The GiantWallOfWateryDoom is a pretty scary threat. Consider that a dam needs to contain outright gigantic amount of water, a bit of MonumentalBattle or worse, threat of MonumentalDamage can be VERY scary. In the us, the prototypical dam for this to happen at is Hoover Dam, thanks to TheEiffelTowerEffect and the big potential for SceneryPorn.

That's how you get a DisasterMovie with a Big Dam Plot, where a dam is threatened with destruction or actually destroyed in whole or part. Though a MonumentalDamage threat can be very effective indeed, sometimes they do manage to destroy it, or even if just happens kind of randomly. In any case, you don't want to stay around.

* The Hoover Dam is a popular place for this in the US thanks to the EiffelTowerEffect.
** It is destroyed in the climactic battle of the ''Film/{{Transformers}}''

** The GrandTheftAuto series seem to love this trope. In both GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas and GrandTheftAutoII there's a mission where you must put bombs in a dam. Besides, the one featured in GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas is an {{Expy}} of the Hoover Dam too.
** The climax of the RomanticComedy ''Fool's Rush In'' takes place on the Hoover Dam, as Salma Hayek gives birth to Matthew Perry's baby, their divorce becomes official, and they decide to give it another try, all within the space of three minutes or so.
* The Ents destroy a dam to was away Isengard in the ''LordOfTheRings'' movies
* ''EvanAlmighty'''s climax has a dam breaking to justify the construction of the arc
* ''TheSimpsons episode "Brother from Another Series" involves Sideshow Bob's brother trying to frame him for destroying a dam he's building.
* ''XMen2'' ended up with the destruction of the power station

* ''ClassOfTheTitans''' second episode ("Chaos 102", part of the three-episodes special) has the heroes fighting at the city dam. It's not clear whether the dam is ever actually threatened, though.

* ''FistOfTheNorthStar'' -- The whole Yuda arc ends in a dam being destroyed

* ''Force 10 From Navarone''. In this FilmOfTheBook (and the original book) a dam is destroyed in order to wash away a bridge and prevent Nazi troops from wiping out a group of Yugoslavian Partisans.
* ''OurManFlint''. The Galaxy organization uses its weather control machine to destroy a dam.
* One of the major set-pieces in ''{{Earthquake}}'' is the destruction of a dam.
* In ''TheEmeraldForest'' the natives plan to destroy the dam that's going to flood their forest by singing to the frogs. Kinda makes sense in context... the American hero thinks their beliefs are quaint and plans to use dynamite instead. The dynamite fails, but the dam is brought down in a storm anyway. Did the frogs do it? You decide.