History Main / DeusExNukina

* The Prince Roger novel ''We Few'' by JohnRingo and DavidWeber is famous in fandom for the first words being '''Imprimis, they nuked the spaceport'''.
** The "stay behind" concept cropped up in [[PosleenWarSeries another of Ringo's books]]. Notable because the person who did it is the BadAss star who ''survives the process.''
*** He ''was'' in a truly hardcore SuperPrototype suit of PowerArmor. Nevertheless, it was pretty over the top. Notably, the incident spawns the "Starburst," a sort of Purple Heart exclusively for soldiers who've been nuked.
*** Many of the crewmen of the nearby armor units got them too. NBC Protection for the win

** N2 stands for Non Nuclear. Nukes are almost never actually used in anime, since Japan is so anti-nuclear - understandably. So actually, the N2 devices are just excessively powerful conventional explosives. Probably based on something new and/or impossible only developed in the Evangelion universe.
*** Of course N2 devices are deployed in urban residential areas, if they were actually nuclear weapons we would need to move everybody to from Tokyo-3 to Tokyo-4 to Tokyo-5 to Tokyo-6...

* Same goes for ''DeepImpact''. This time, however, the nuke is delivered by a spaceship that literally flies ''into'' the larger of the two comet fragments.

* StephenKing's ''[[spoiler:TheStand]]'' features a ''literal'' DeusExNukina delivered [[TheDogBitesBack by hand]] by [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds the Woobie]] and set off by a [[MagicMissile loose spell]] that turns into the [[DeusExMachina Hand of God]].
* The CthulhuMythos takes it more literally, as Azathoth is the Outer God of radioactivity.
** He's called the "nuclear chaos" to indicate that he is at the center of all things, not that he's radioactive.

* In Lester del Rey's short story ''For I Am a Jealous People!'' aliens invade Earth. The news is all bad and human nuclear weapons don't seem to detonate. Later, it is discovered that replacing the electronic detonators with [[spoiler:human suicide volunteers]] does work. Of course, only the protagonist knows the reason why is that [[spoiler:God himself has told the aliens to KillAllHumans]] and he is causing the detonators to fail (along with "natural" disasters).
* ''The Golden Rendezvous'' by Alistair [=MacLean=]. The villains have hijacked a ship full of gold bullion, and plan to blow it up using a [[EmptyQuiver stolen nuke]]. When asked why a nuke would be necessary (they already have amatol explosive as a backup) the protagonist points out that entire magazines of explosives blew up on vessels during the war, yet still left survivors. Of course this still doesn't explain why the villains don't [[CutLexLuthorACheck just sell the nuke]].

* Played straight in the Season 1 finale of ''SeaQuestDSV'', in which the sub's nuclear payload - still contained within the sub, mind you - was used to weld closed a massive magma-spewing crack in the Pacific Ocean off the Australian coast. Very nearly requires a HeroicSacrifice on the part of Bridger, but he manages to escape at the last second.

** Not just in spirit, according to some versions of the fluff. Cyclonic torpedoes ''are'' crust-penetrating cluster nukes which basically liquefy the planet. Of course, [[DependingOnTheWriter according to other versions]] they're something else entirely...

** And what do the marines pack with their big bomb? [[RuleOfFunny Why, beers, of course.]]

* The Nova nukes in the ''{{Halo}}'' ExpandedUniverse were powerful enough to literally cause an EarthShatteringKaboom. The one-armed by Admiral Whitcomb and accidentally detonated by a Huragok obliterated an armada, blew up a moon, and cut out a big chunk of a planet.

** It's also a certain degree of Ax Crazy for the Russians to admit that they've detonated nuclear blasts to fix underwater oil spills at least five times...
*** Actually, the Russians have used nukes to seal underground spills of natural gas. Kind of an apples and oranges comparison.
*** Not really. Oil and natural gas go hand-to-hand and are often encountered in the same deposits, so the circumstances and conditions are basically the same. The problem was that all those sealed spills were on the ground, so no one could reliably predict how it would go in a similar conditions but underwater.

-->--'''Ellen Ripley''', ''{{Aliens}}''

[[folder: Anime and Manga ]]

[[folder: Comics ]]

[[folder: Fanfic]]

[[folder: Film ]]

* Earth's [[YouFailPhysicsForever molten core has to be restarted]] in ''TheCore'', and [[spoiler:[[SomeoneHasToDie someone has to Stay Behind]]]]. The problem started with earlier [[ScienceIsBad Bad Science]] involving an [[CaptainErsatz ersatz]] Project HAARP.
* In ''{{Armageddon}}'', an asteroid plummets toward Earth, and a spaceship is sent to deliver the nuke. One of the characters must [[spoiler:[[SomeoneHasToDie Stay Behind]] to trigger the nuke manually]].

* In ''DrStrangelove'', the Soviet [[spoiler:doomsday machine]] is unintentionally triggered by Major Kong's [[spoiler:[[RidingTheBomb famous ride on The Bomb]]]].

[[folder: Literature ]]

* Stephen King's ''[[spoiler:TheStand]]'' features a ''literal'' DeusExNukina delivered [[TheDogBitesBack by hand]] by [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds the Woobie]] and set off by a [[MagicMissile loose spell]] that turns into the [[DeusExMachina Hand of God]].

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

** In "The Siege," Sheppard flies a nuclear bomb into the bay of a Wraith Hive in order to destroy it. [[spoiler: He gets beamed out right before detonation.]]
** In "Hot Zone," Sheppard has to detonate a nuclear bomb over the city in order to create an EM field strong enough to kill the nanovirus infecting the entire city. In the season three premier, they nuke an encampment of Wraiths. [[spoiler: Michael escapes.]] They also nuke some Genii at one point. Honestly? They just like nukes a LOT.

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* In ''MassEffect'' a nuke has to be improvised from a ship's engines. Easy enough, However, the pick up ship only has time to [[spoiler: [[SadisticChoice pick up one of your two human squadmates]]]].

* In ''PathwaysIntoDarkness'', HardLight projections of {{Precursors}} tell Bill Clinton and his cabinet there's an immortal SealedEvilInACan deep under the Yucatán crater in Mexico that's about to awaken in eight days, but that they won't reach Earth for two years. The solution? Send a commando team with an atomic bomb down to the bottom of the cavernous GeniusLoci generated by the slumbering CosmicHorror's dreams, and blast it back to somnolence.

.

* [[CallOfDuty ''Modern Warfare 2'']] features one of these where [[spoiler: Captain Price and [=TF141=] attack a Russian Submarine Base to use their nukes to EMP the East Coast of the US. Though, only Price]] knows exactly what he is going to do. Surprisingly, no one officially punishes them for it right after, but there is kind of a [[ManipulativeBastard reason]] [[ShockingSwerve for that]].

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'' where a nuclear strike only [[NiceJobBreakingItHero makes things worse]]. In the second installment of the game you race against time to ''avert'' a nuclear strike on Manhattan. [[spoiler: You succeed, which may come as a surprise given the game's propensity for MonumentalDamage.]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In the {{Futurama}} episode "War Is the H-Word", Bender is [[spoiler: rigged with a planet-busting bomb]] and sent to "negotiate" with the Brain Balls of Spheron I.

* Legion Of Super-Heroes Season 1 finale ended with the legion trying to deliver a nuke to a suneater that was guarded by kill bots and a nearly-impenetrable shield. One team went off to beat up the mastermind, another team went off to temporarily disable the shield and everyone else had to buy the bomb squad time and a path to deliver it. Ferro Lad had to set off the detonator manually.

* Similar to the Fantastic Four example above, the Thing had to carry a nuke to the center of Ego, the living planet, in the 90's {{Fantastic Four}} cartoon.

* Guardians in {{ReBoot}} seem to think this is the only option for dealing with web creatures in isolated systems. Sure it's not an actual "nuke", being inside a computer, but it makes a huge explosion that leaves a hole in Mainframes sky/ceiling which quickly turns into a massive tear.

[[folder: Real Life ]]

** Even better the most efficient craft weighed 10 000 tons! and could launch from the earth's surface and pootle around the solar system, contrast with the most powerful modern launch vehicles that can only lift around 100 tons(Aries was supposed to do 160-188) to low earth orbit

* Operation Downfall, the planned-but-thankfully-never-executed invasion of Japan in WWII. On X-Day, seven nukes would be used, along with several million troops and possibly chemical weapons. Casualty estimates were so high that a half-million Purple Hearts were manufactured, and no more have been made since. Shockingly enough, the estimates of 250,000-4,000,000 American casualties (and about double to triple that for the Japanese) are now considered to be underestimates, since the plans would have troops occupy ground 48 hours after it was nuked.

[[/folder]]

*** A mega-nuke called Horizon and was described as a 1.2 giga-ton Phlebotinum enhanced nuke used to blow up a whole continent of Replicator cities.
**** The scary part about that is [[spoiler: that it didn't work.]] Kind of justifies the attitude.

**** The scary part about that is [[spoiler: that it didn't work.]]

* In the film of HG Wells' ''TimeMachine'', a nuclear weapon was the device which catapulted the time traveler out of the 20th century and forward into the future. Given the film depicts a war during the 1960s, when it was made, it was evidently meant to be HighOctaneNightmareFuel, and for this 12-year-old (at the time I saw it in the early 1990s), it worked.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'' has a sort of example, where the decommissioned science vessel ''Amerigo'' is demolished with a nuke. It counts, because the previous mission is about Zerg Kerrigan infesting the whole ship.
** And what do the marines pack with their big bomb? [[RuleofFunny Why, beers, of course.]]

**** The scary part about that is {{spoiler: that it didn't work.}}

* "Dragon Droppings" by HansVonHozel:

* Subverted in ''{{Crysis}}'' where a nuclear strike only [[NiceJobBreakingItHero makes things worse]]. In the second installment of the game you race against time to ''avert'' a nuclear strike on Manhattan. [[spoiler: You succeed, which may come as a surprise given the game's propensity for MonumentalDamage.]]

* Guardians in {{ReBoot}} seem to think this is the only option for dealing with web creatures in isolated systems. Sure it's not an actual "nuke", being inside a computer, but it makes a huge explosion that leaves a hole in Mainframes sky/ceiling which quickly turns into a massive tear.

----

* In {{Deus ex}}. Big bad has a trained army to protect him and time is on his side. To make things worse he plans to fire a missile to PC's allies. Our protagonist then stops the missile and redirects it to the big bad. This makes it possible to raid his facility and kill him (if you so wish).

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "War Is the H-Word", Bender is [[spoiler:rigged with a planet-busting bomb]] and sent to "negotiate" with the Brain Balls of Spheron I.
** It says a lot about both Zapp Brannigan and Bender that [[BatmanGambit the whole plan]] hinged on Bender [[spoiler: saying "ass"]] at a diplomatic meeting.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'' Season 1 finale ended with the legion trying to deliver a nuke to a suneater that was guarded by kill bots and a nearly-impenetrable shield. One team went off to beat up the mastermind, another team went off to temporarily disable the shield and everyone else had to buy the bomb squad time and a path to deliver it. [[HeroicSacrifice Ferro Lad had to set off the detonator manually.]]
* Similar to the Fantastic Four example above, the Thing had to carry a nuke to the center of Ego, the living planet, in the 90's ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFour'' cartoon.
* Guardians in ''ReBoot'' seem to think this is the only option for dealing with web creatures in isolated systems. Sure it's not an actual "nuke", being inside a computer, but it makes a huge explosion that leaves a hole in Mainframes sky/ceiling which quickly turns into a massive tear.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Real Life ]]

* In TheFifties, when [[ILoveNuclearPower atomic power was still new]] and the U.S. Interstate Highway system was being built by the Defense Department, researchers proposed low-yield nuclear weapons for [[AwesomeButPractical practical purposes]], such as '''paving the entire system with atomic weapons,''' turning the asphalt into atomic glass.
** Other proposed uses for "peaceful nuclear explosions" included widening the Panama Canal, digging mountain passes and roadcuts, excavating caverns for water/petroleum storage, connecting inland river systems or aquifers, excavating an artificial harbor, shale oil extraction, and natural gas stimulation. Fallout would render almost all of these projects useless, but a test run was actually carried out on the last option. Unfortunately (and predictably), they found the natural gas [[AwesomeButImpractical too radioactive to use]]. The Russians has a similar program, including succesful use in seismic profiling. One of their more famous tests towards excavation purposes resulted in Lake Chagan in Kazakhstan.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) Project Orion]] proposed flying to another star by building a space ship with a thick metal plate on enormous shock absorbers, and detonating nuclear weapons underneath it.
** [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Longshot Project Longshot]] was a later proposal based on the same basic principal; however, Longshot would use thermonuclear fusion in externally-detonated deuterium/tritium pellets, similar to those used in experimental inertial confinement fusion reactors today, instead of thermonuclear bombs.
** According to scientists, it's actually one of the more reasonable ideas for near-light travel.
** Even better the most efficient craft weighed 10 000 tons! and could launch from the earth's surface and pootle around the solar system, contrast with the most powerful modern launch vehicles that can only lift around 100 tons(Aries was supposed to do 160-188) to low earth orbit
* One of several ideas to deflect an asteroid or comet, should one be discovered on a collision course with Earth, would be to send a spacecraft with thermonuclear shaped charges which would detonate near the object's surface and alter its trajectory enough to miss Earth. It would be quicker than a gravity tractor - a spacecraft which hovers near the asteroid to let its gravity slowly alter the rock's trajectory. However, even if shaped charges - which focus the blast energy in the rock's direction - are used, the method is less predictable against a tumbling body than the rotation-invariant gravity or electromagnetic tractor design.
* Operation Downfall, the planned-but-thankfully-never-executed invasion of Japan in WWII. On X-Day, seven nukes would be used, along with several million troops and possibly chemical weapons. Casualty estimates were so high that a half-million Purple Hearts were manufactured, and no more have been made since. Shockingly enough, the estimates of 250,000-4,000,000 American casualties (and about double to triple that for the Japanese) are now considered to be underestimates, since the plans would have troops occupy ground 48 hours after it was nuked.
** And it also ignored the casualties of the other Western Allied forces that would have had to take part in it.
** Thankfully, it was avoided via [[NukeExMachina this very method]]. Well, a combination of that and the [[CurbStompBattle Soviet-Japanese Manchuria Conflict.]]
* The Russians suggested this to plug the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Seriously. They say they've done it before, with an 80% success rate.
** Although not Nukes, there are also proposals to use large conventional bombs such as the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast) to do it, which does have more scientific support. Same theory just a lot safer.
** Still not advised, given the geologic environment of the Gulf of Mexico. There's a lot of loosely consolidated sediment in there. You do not want to move that around. Tsunamis are bad.
*** The problem wasn't the risk of a tsunami, it was that because of the brittleness of ocean floor in that area the shock wave from a large detonation risked shattering it and making the leak [[ItGotWorse worse.]]
*** Actually even the most massive of nuclear blasts available today don't compare to even a medium (say 7 on the Richter scale) earthquake in terms of energy output, so any Tsunami of real power is laughable. That is, unless the nuke only serves as a trigger for existing fault lines or underwater landslides, in which case all bets are off seeing that triggering an earthquake with a nuke has never been tested (at least officially), only suggested.
**** Except that the "energy output" of an earthquake has nothing to do with the creation or size of a tsunami. It's basic displacement: earthquakes cause tsunamis by displacing water. A 6.0 magnitude upthrust earthquake that displaces water can cause a far more damaging tsunami than a 8.0 side-slip earthquake that doesn't.
** It's also a certain degree of AxCrazy for the Russians to admit that they've detonated nuclear blasts to fix underwater oil spills at least five times...
*** Actually, the Russians have used nukes to seal under''ground'' spills of ''natural gas''. Kind of an apples and oranges comparison.
**** Not really. Oil and natural gas go hand-to-hand and are often encountered in the same deposits, so the circumstances and conditions are basically the same. The problem was that all those sealed spills were on the ground, so no one could reliably predict how it would go in a similar conditions but underwater.
[[/folder]]

* In ''Deus ex". Big bad has a trained army to protect him and time is on his side. To make things worse he plans to fire a missile to PC's allies. Our protagonist then stops the missile and redirects it to the big bad. This makes it possible to raid his facility and kill him (if you so wish).

* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'''s N2 weapons both use and subvert this. In the first episode, Sachiel is only disabled by one, and not for long at that. Israfel is actually damaged enough by one that it takes a week to completely recover. One plan to destroy Leliel involved dropping all 992 of the UN's remaining N2 weapons into it and containing the blast with an AT field; fortunately, this wasn't used. Sahaquiel is unfazed by the N2 weapons used against it. In episode 18, as a suicide tactic against Zeruel, Rei charges the Angel in Unit 00 and pushes an N2 weapon through its AT field, but it covers its core with a shield which protects it from the blast. The only time that N2 weapons actually work to their true potential is in ''End of Evangelion'', when one completely annihilates what's left of [[spoiler:Tokyo-3]] and blows open the [[spoiler:Geo Front]] in preparation for the [[spoiler:JSSDF assault]].

* Reaction weaponry in {{Macross}} universe, which they always break out for every [[MonsterOfTheWeek Monster Of The Season]], and which works [[WorfEffect approximately half of the times]]. The WordOfGod states that it's actually the AntiMatter, and that they originally wanted to use straight-up nukes, but decided against it because of Japanese NuclearWeaponsTaboo and had to invent ''something'' of similarly devastating power. Only later they explained it by being antimatter.

* Apparently a favorite trope of Capt. Sheridan (FanNickname "Nuke'em Johnny) on ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'', who solved his problems with nukes on multiple occasions;

*** In fact, he had the ship wait in orbit and had it programmed to arm the nukes and home in to the signal of his communicator. Which was in his hand at that moment. [[IGotBetter He gets better]]. But not without consequences.

* Subverted in the ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' episode "Beachhead" in which nuking the Ori's energy field [[FeedItWithFire actually makes it]] ''[[FeedItWithFire grow]]'', the opposite of what our heroes were intending for it to do. It later turns out the whole thing was a XanatosGambit set up by the Ori.
** In an earlier episode, when [[ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere an asteroid was approaching Earth]], they ''did'' plan to use a nuke to deflect it... before they realised that, because it was a ''naquadah'' asteroid, that was a Very Bad Idea and had to [[WireDilemma clip the wires]] to disarm it.
*** Leading to Colonel O'Neill saying: "Carter, this is a very poorly constructed nuke." The reason of this being the order to cut the red cable in case of emergency. The poor part? All cables are yellow.

** Played straight in ''StargateAtlantis'' in "The Siege," when Sheppard flies a nuclear bomb into the bay of a Wraith Hive in order to destroy it. [[spoiler: He gets beamed out right before detonation.]]
** ''StargateAtlantis'' really likes nukes. In "Hot Zone," Sheppard has to detonate a nuclear bomb over the city in order to create an EM field strong enough to kill the nanovirus infecting the entire city. In the season three premier, they nuke an encampment of Wraiths. [[spoiler: Michael escapes.]] They also nuke some Genii at one point. Honestly? They just like nukes a LOT.
*** Don't forget the time they detonate a nuke over the city to make the Wraith think they blew themselves up. Or the time they nuked the Replicators.
**** Not to mention beaming nukes directly into Wraith hive ships (and the one time they just fired all their nukes at once since beaming wouldn't work)!
** Ignoring a strict nuclear arsenal, ''StargateAtlantis'' seems to love causing huge explosions and shrugging off the fallout, morally and statistically. Rodney [=McKay=]'s 5/6 of a star system is a good example.
*** [=McKay=] would like to remind you that "It was uninhabited!"

* At the end of ''{{Lost}}'' season 5, several characters decide to prevent Oceanic 815 from ever crashing by nuking the electromagnetic anomaly that caused the crash (doing so 27 years before the crash thanks to TimeTravel.) The plan is simply to drop the bomb down a shaft. It [[spoiler:doesn't detonate. Juliet]], after being pulled down the shaft and [[spoiler:critically injured, must detonate it manually.]]

* Used in spirit, and with abandon, in ''{{Warhammer 40000}}'', where application of planet-destroying cyclonic torpedoes is a regular and accepted solution to Tyranid invasions, major outbreaks of heresy, and other such problems.

* In ''{{Shadowrun}}'', a tactical nuclear weapon was deployed by Ares Macrotechnology to contain the mass breakout of bug spirits in Chicago. Even more of a DeusExNukina than usual, as the blast not only put most of the bugs into hibernation (huh?), but the bugs' own attempt to shield themselves averted the spread of radioactivity from the blast site.
* In ''{{GURPS}} Technomancy'' the first nuclear detonation caused (combined with the "I am become death, destroyer of worlds" incantation) some kind of reality distortion which affected the entire world and made it possible to work magic. The mushroom cloud itself remains present, as if frozen in time, and the closer you get to the blast site the more bizarre phenomena occur. The Soviets detonated another nuke on the Antarctic which resulted in an even bigger reality distortion around it, and among other things made the penguins develop a sentient HiveMind. Scientists in the gameworld theorize that each blast weakens the fabric of reality more and more, so that a third nuclear detonation would twist the entire world into practically uninhabitable state.

* In the ''Main/{{Futurama}}'' episode "War Is the H-Word", Bender is [[spoiler:rigged with a planet-busting bomb]] and sent to "negotiate" with the Brain Balls of Spheron I.

* ''Series/{{Legion Of Super-Heroes}}'' Season 1 finale ended with the legion trying to deliver a nuke to a suneater that was guarded by kill bots and a nearly-impenetrable shield. One team went off to beat up the mastermind, another team went off to temporarily disable the shield and everyone else had to buy the bomb squad time and a path to deliver it. [[HeroicSacrifice Ferro Lad had to set off the detonator manually.]]
* Similar to the Fantastic Four example above, the Thing had to carry a nuke to the center of Ego, the living planet, in the 90's ''Series/FantasticFour'' cartoon.
* Guardians in ReBoot seem to think this is the only option for dealing with web creatures in isolated systems. Sure it's not an actual "nuke", being inside a computer, but it makes a huge explosion that leaves a hole in Mainframes sky/ceiling which quickly turns into a massive tear.

* In the two-part miniseries ''10.5,'' there is a scientific effort, led by our [[HollywoodScience Hollywood Scientist]] lead, to use six nukes to stop the Big Earthquake. Five nukes get detonated by remote, but the sixth requires a HeroicSacrifice. Subverted because the sixth wasn't actually detonated at the scientific place and time; it is uncertain, but this attempt might have [[NiceJobBreakingItHero worsened the problem]].

* Earth's [[YouFailPhysicsForever molten core has to be restarted]] in ''TheCore'', and [[spoiler:[[SomeoneHasToDie someone has to Stay Behind]]]]. The problem started with earlier [[ScienceIsBad Bad Science]] involving nukes.

* Humans construct a really big nuke in ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'', Humanity constructs a really big nuke, in a desperate bid to, ahem, ''re-ignite the sun''. Never mind that the sun creates the amount of energy generated by the bomb many times over ''every single second''. Best to suspend your disbelief on this point. The flaws of this idea are pointed out in [[http://theslackerz.com/index.php?nav=Comic&Page=45 this comic]].

* Humans construct a really big nuke in ''{{Film/Sunshine}}'', in a desperate bid to, ahem, ''re-ignite the sun''. Read that again and cringe. A giant spaceship carries the bomb into the sun. Turns out, a robot crew would have been the better choice.
** Flaws of said idea pointed out in [[http://theslackerz.com/index.php?nav=Comic&Page=45]]
** To their credit, they are aware of the implausability of the plan. It's just that they're out of ideas.
*** And yet it works. It seems our understanding of nuclear fusion [[YouFailPhysicsForever was wrong after all]].
*** Same exact idea in ''Solar Crisis''. At least that film had [[FanService Annabel Schofield walking around in her skivvies]]....

[[quoteright:330:[[FantasticFour http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nuke_fantasticfour41_330_8509.jpg]]]]

* Back in 1961, [[VoyageToTheBottomOfTheSea Admiral Harriman Nelson]] used a nuke to defeat [[GlobalWarning Global Warming]].
** In the ''Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea'' TV series based on the feature film (1964-68), nuclear weapons were initially viewed realistically, i.e. "if things go that far, it's All Over for the world." By the last season, nuclear weapons were going off at least every other episode- usually fired by Nelson at the Monster/Alien Invader/Other Miscellaneous Problem of the Week.

* Played straight, more or less, in ''[[TheLaundrySeries The Atrocity Archives]]'' by CharlesStross. A warhead is carried through a portal by a special ops team into a parallel universe to take out an EldritchAbomination. Turns out that this was the [[spoiler:endgame of a big XanatosRoulette by said abomination to provide it with enough energy to open a big portal to Earth and come through to eat our universe]]. One man has to [[spoiler:stay behind to cause a faulty detonation to stop an actual nuclear reaction, but gets severely irradiated]] in the process by the subcritical plutonium assembly.

* In order to suppress [[WorldOfDarkness an awakened Antediluvian]], [[MageTheAscension the Technocracy]] detonated a number of nuclear bombs in the spirit planes. The blasts destroyed the ghostly civilizations of the Underworld, caused a spiritual firestorm in the Gauntlet and signaled the end of the universe. NiceJobBreakingItHero
** In PrometheanTheCreated, there are the Zeka -- corpses reanimated through nuclear power. The first Zeka were created from ritually prepared corpses exposed to a nuclear explosion. The most monstrous example is named after its kindling fire -- Tsar Bomba.

** ''FallOut 3'' also featured a quest where the residents of an early town (aptly named ''Megaton'') built around an unexploded nuclear bomb (there's even a [[CargoCult religion dedicated to it]]). You're given the choice of either disarming the bomb or rigging it to go off. The rewards are roughly the same so it's entirely a question of your [[BlackAndWhiteMorality moral standing]].

*** Or if you're a character in Cortex Command, because it was made for Cortex Command, and it's a beast.