History Main / DeusExNukina

* The SciFiChannel absolutely ''loves'' to use this as the solution to their [[DisasterMovie natural-disaster-of-the-week films]], even if it makes absolutely no sense. The sun spewing deadly flares that will [[CriticalResearchFailure ignite the Earth's atmosphere's supply of methane]] and burn up all the oxygen on the planet? Stop the burn with a nuke in the atmosphere. Planet-wide tempest surging out of control because some doofus unleashed an [[SealedEvilInACan ancient Sumerian storm god]]? Nuke the skies and cut off its power supply. ''The moon breaking up like a bad jawbreaker in a cataclysmic shower of meteors that will destroy the Earth?'' Take an A-bomb to its core and seal the cracks. It's official: nuclear weapons are the new [[DuctTapeForEverything duct tape]].

* The ''VideoGame/HaloReach'' live-action trailer ''Deliver Hope'' shows Kat and the previous Noble Six hand-delivering a tactical nuke to the inside of a Covenant cruiser.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'', Master Chief hand-detonates a nuclear (or possibly antimatter) weapon. No explanation is given as to how Cortana manages to protect him from a blast that started literally in his hands.
** There was an incident where an Elite refugee on Earth tried to detonate a havoc nuke in a civilian area but was caught by Spartan IVs before he could arm it.

** In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'', the BigBad can be nuked, or can be talked into nuking himself. Trying to kill him with guns results in the former. ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' adds a hand-held nuclear catapult, and giant monsters.
** The GNR radio quest is the straight-played example, where both the problem (giant monster) and the solution (nuke) are introduced at the same time. It's possible to kill the Behemoth without the Fat Man, but it's undeniably convenient.

** Well arguably a subversion -- the whole thing is started by underground nuclear testing weakening the Earth's crust, then a nuclear weapon used as a giant drill. [[spoiler:Then a H-bomb is used to stop the crack, but it's effect is limited.]]

** They also semi-regularly do this with broken Oil Derricks which catched on fire, because almost nothing else can stop a burning Oil Derrick from... well, burning.

* ''{{Hyperdrive}}''. After their disastrous FirstContact with the Queppu, the crew seek to avoid future problems by covertly nuking the planet behind the captain's back while he's giving a PatrickStewartSpeech.

* In ''VideoGame/PathwaysIntoDarkness'', HardLight projections of {{Precursors}} tell UsefulNotes/BillClinton 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 monster's dreams, and blast it back to somnolence.

* Creator/StephenKing's ''[[spoiler:TheStand]]'' has DeusExNukina delivered [[TheDogBitesBack by hand]] by [[WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds the Woobie]] and set off by a loose spell that turns into the [[DeusExMachina Hand of God]].

** [[GeniusBonus H-bombs fuse hydrogen into helium. He inhales the helium.]]

* An episode of ''TheSixMillionDollarMan'' featured the threat of an imminent catastrophic earthquake in the San Andreas Fault, and the good guys planned to use a nuclear explosion to move the epicentre in order to reduce the damage. But TheHero was trapped in the shooting range...

* The same exact concept is used in ''Film/SolarCrisis''
Not quite, in the movie Solar Crisis a giant solar flare that would roast Earth is predicted. The nuke is supposed to trigger it prematurely when it's safely on the other side of the Sun. Which is admittedly just as ludicrous as Sunshine's plot, scientifically speaking .

* Played straight in the Season 1 finale of ''SeaQuestDSV'', in which the sub's nuclear payload - still contained within the sub - 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.

* ''The Tango Briefing'' (1973) by Adam Hall. British spy {{Quiller}} must use a small nuclear weapon (what we'd now call a backpack nuke, though it's a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Plowshare US commercial design for blasting wells]]) to destroy a shipment of lethal psychotropic nerve gas on a crashed aircraft (the cylinders have cracked and the gas has filled the plane, so they can't just be removed). Unfortunately the timing device is smashed when Quiller parachutes in so he's ordered to [[UnplannedManualDetonation detonate the device by hand]] (local military helicopters are in the area doing a sweep search, so there's no time to parachute in another device). Fortunately Quiller is able to field-improvise a means of pushing down The Button.

* Earlier, in the ''QuestForGlory'' computer game series, a magic-using Hero can learn a spell called "Thermonuclear Blast", which will instantly end the game upon its use... but it has one possible, practical use where the Dragon of Doom is concerned. Basically, the Dragon is said to be impossible to slay (it's not, quite) without someone going up to it and offering themselves as a final sacrifice. The Dragon's resting place and the only place to fight before its flame gets out on the surrounding world is a thick volcano.

* In ''PathwaysIntoDarkness'', HardLight projections of {{Precursors}} tell UsefulNotes/BillClinton 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 monster's dreams, and blast it back to somnolence.

[[quoteright:350:[[ComicBook/FantasticFour http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nuke_fantasticfour.jpg]]]]

[[quoteright:330:[[ComicBook/FantasticFour http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nuke_fantasticfour41_330_8509.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:330:The right tool for the right job.]]

->"I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure."

** In the episode "Into the Fire", Sheridan lures both major ancient races into an area mined with hundreds of 500 megaton nukes to cause a decisive battle.
*** Something on an aversion, since the nukes were used to get their opponents' attention, and were not themselves the resolution to the battle.
*** Indeed. The nukes were shown to hardly have any effect on the Vorlon ships, while it only managed to destroy Shadow FIGHTERS while the Shadow Motherships/Battlecrabs were even seen just casually passing through the blast like their Vorlon counterparts

* Meet [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_A119 Project A119]]: The United States Air Force's late 1950s project to detonate a nuclear bomb on the moon partially to achieve some vague apparently scientific goals, but [[UsefulNotes/HistoryOfTheColdWar mostly to show off to the Soviet Union]]. Thankfully, cooler heads eventually prevailed and it was decided that it would be better to land people on the moon than to pointlessly nuke it.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion) Project Orion]] was a theoretical plan for a spacecraft that used a series of small nukes as a drive system, called a OrionDrive.

* In ''Film/MarsAttacks'': [[GeneralRipper General Decker]] insists using a nuclear missiles to blow the martian's head ship. When the president is at his lowest out of desesperation, he agrees to finally shoot them. [[spoiler: The martians use a bizarre machine that absorbs the explosion into a balloon, brings it back to the ship and the martian emperor ''inhales the nuclear explosion'' which makes his voice [[HeliumSpeech sound funny]].]]

* The same exact concept is used in ''Film/SolarCrisis''.

* The ''HaloReach'' live-action trailer ''Deliver Hope'' shows Kat and the previous Noble Six hand-delivering a tactical nuke to the inside of a Covenant cruiser.

* ''CodeGeass'': Late in season 2, Suzaku is getting absolutely mangled by Kallen's new Guren SEITEN. Just before the final blow hits him, [[spoiler:Suzaku's [[CursedWithAwesome "Live!" Geass]] kicks in, causing him to deploy the [[FantasticNuke FLEIJA]] that he was until this point unwilling to use, and by extension kills off 30 million civilians.]] Whoops. This incident also brings up either FridgeLogic or FridgeHorror: [[spoiler:had Suzaku hit Kallen, the warhead would have killed him, too. This either means that it was a last-ditch shot, or he deliberately nuked a civilian population ''for a distraction''.]]
* ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'': In the fight against Armisael, [[spoiler:Rei uses Unit 00's experimental N2 device to [[HeroicSacrifice take out the Angel along with herself]]]]. It works, but [[spoiler:it destroys most, if not all of Tokyo-3.]]