History Main / HairTriggerExplosive

* Some of the "Things I Won't Work With" category on [[http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/ this chemistry blog]] are included for this reason.

* A website of RealLife stories involving this trope: [[http://www.logwell.com/tales/menu/index.html stories]]

* In ''BreakingBad'', Walt throws a handful of mercury fulminate on the ground and it explodes, causing major damage to the room.

** The ''BreakingBad'' scene listed below was busted. When the mercury fulminate didn't detonate when thrown, the guest stars from the show tried to {{handwave}} by saying Walt had also used a bit of silver fulminate.

* Some of the "Things I Won't Work With" category on [[http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/things_i_wont_work_with/ this chemistry blog]] are included for this reason.

** Another one is if C4 can blow up if put into a microwave. It can, but only if it has a blasting cap in it. Another subversion is that burning C4 doesn't make it go off. Also, dropping an anvil, stomping it, and shooting it with any bullet they tried didn't make it blow. For the final try, they ignited thermite right on top of C4. that didn't work.
** Busted the ''BreakingBad'' scene (below). The mercury of fulminate didn't explode when thrown. Then the actors (who were guest-starring) tried to {{Handwave}} by saying Walt had a bit of fulminate of silver with the mercury.
** Another ''Series/MythBusters'' example would be the claim that a binary explosive used in special effects work can be set off in a car wreck. (Busted, it's far too stable to be set off that way ... and that's assuming anyone's dumb enough to transport the stuff mixed.)

* In ''BreakingBad'', Walt throws a handful of mercury of fulminate on the ground and it explodes, causing major damage to the room.

* A website of RealLife stories involving this trope: [[http://www.logwell.com/tales/menu/index.html stories]]

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars Pyramids of Mars]]", the Doctor and Sarah happen across a poacher's cache of old, unstable gelignite. Sarah casually tosses it to the Doctor, nearly giving him a hearts-attack, before he warns her of the danger.

->'''Sarah:''' Aha! This looks like it! ''(throws box to the Doctor, who freezes in place)'' What's wrong; not enough?

->'''Doctor:''' Sweaty gelignite is highly unstable. One good sneeze could set it off. ''(carefully puts the box on the floor)''

-->'''Sarah:''' No, no, nothing else. [[DeadpanSnarker Perhaps he sneezed?]]

->'''Doctor:''' Sweaty gelignite is highly unstable. One good sneeze could set it off.
(He carefully puts the box on the floor.)

** Grenades and flamethrowers also have a tendency to explode when the person carrying them dies, especially in strategy games.

Subtrope of StuffBlowingUp and WaferThinMint. Supertrope of NitroExpress. Also see ExplosiveStupidity when someone doesn't know this. This applied to a car intentionally is MolotovTruck, and unintentionally is EveryCarIsAPinto. Compare/contrast MadeOfExplodium, in which something that should not be explosive explodes anyway. If a nuclear weapon is treated like this, it's ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics.

Some RealLife explosives really have a hair trigger, some...don't. Note that most explosives in fiction are not depicted this way. Usually in fiction, a plunger or a similar device (e.g. with a blasting cap, fuse, PlungerDetonator, etc.) is used to safely blow up explosives. But also in fiction, they get the volatility of explosives wrong, especially TNT and dynamite.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Recap/DoctorWhoS13E3PyramidsOfMars", the Doctor and Sarah happen across a poacher's cache of old, unstable gelignite. Sarah casually tosses it to the Doctor, nearly giving him a hearts-attack, before he warns her of the danger.

There are powerful explosives, and can blow up almost everything. But Hollywood gives it a nasty drawback: anything can [[StuffBlowingUp make it explode.]] And I do mean anything. You have to be super-careful or it will blow up. Or maybe it blows w/out any apparent reason.

* ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' has Nitro boxes that go off like this. They also bounce randomly.
** TNT is less sensitive than nitro, as in you can touch the side w/out dying. Hitting the top triggers the timer, but you can still kill yourself like it's nitro.

* In ''VideoGames/AngryBirds'', if a bird, rock, piece of wood (anything, really) hits a box of TNT, it will blow up (even if there's no source of fire).

* During the ending of the ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' episode ''Dying for Pie'', Spongebob shows Squidward that he never ate the bomb pie, he was saving it in his pocket the whole time. He then trips, dropping the pie and causing an explosion (a live-action nuclear one to be specific), and then it cuts back to Spongebob and Squidward, completely covered in [[AshFace ash from the explosion.]]

* Pure nitroglycerin is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitroglycerin#Instability_and_desensitization extremely unstable and prone to exploding if roughly handled]] (the reason dynamite was invented was make nitroglycerin safer to transport and use). However, by freezing nitro, it becomes very hard to blow up.

Indexes: TropesThatGoBoom, StuffBlowingUp, TropesExaminedByTheMythbusters

Some RealLife explosives really have a hair trigger, some...don't. Usually in fiction, a plunger or a similar device is used to safely blow up explosives. But also in fiction, they get the volatility of explosives wrong, especially TNT and dynamite.

Subtrope of StuffBlowingUp and WaferThinMint. Supertrope of NitroExpress. Also see ExplosiveStupidity when someone doesn't know this. This applied to a car intentionally is MolotovTruck, and unintentionally is EveryCarIsAPinto. Compare/contrast MadeOfExplodium, in which something that should not be explosive explodes anyway.

!Examples

* [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]] in ''Film/RoosterCogburn'' from 1975 starring John Wayne and Katherine Hepburn. Marshall Cogburn and Eula Goodnight travel downriver by raft, carrying firearms and explosives, including boxes of nitro glycerin. The raft takes a wild ride through some whitewater rapids, but none of the nitro detonates. Once the raft reaches calmer waters, Hawk and his outlaws wait in ambush to recapture the munitions. [[spoiler:Cogburn and Goodnight gently float the boxes of nitro in the river, where they drift downstream toward the outlaws. Cogburn then uses a rifle to trigger the nitro to blow the outlaws to smithereens.]]

** Another one is if C4 can blow up if put into a microwave. It can, but only if it has a blasting cap in it.
** Another subversion is that burning C4 doesn't make it go off. Also, dropping an anvil, stomping it, and shooting it with any bullet they tried didn't make it blow. For the final try, they ignited thermite right on top of C4. that didn't work.
** Busted the BreakingBad scene (below). The mercury of fulminate didn't explode when thrown. Then the actors (who were guest-starring) tried to {{Handwave}} by saying Walt had a bit of fulminate of silver with the mercury.

* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Whom Gods Destroy". The madman Garth of Izar has developed an explosive so powerful that a single flask of it could vaporize a planet. It will go off if dropped to the floor.
* In BreakingBad, Walt throws a handful of mercury of fulminate on the ground and it explodes, causing major damage to the room.

[[AC:TruthInTelevision]]
* Pure nitroglycerin is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitroglycerin#Instability_and_desensitization extremely unstable and prone to exploding if roughly handled]]. The reason dynamite was invented was make nitroglycerin safer to transport and use.
** However, by freezing nitro, it becomes very hard to blow up.
* Another hair-trigger explosive is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_fulminate fulminate of mercury]], which is used in blasting caps in order to set off other explosives and percussion caps for muskets in the mid 1800s.
** And if you think fulminate of mercury is bad, then look at [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_fulminate fulminate of silver]]. It can explode under its own weight.
* There are "contact explosives" (see TheOtherWiki) that are almost ridiculously sensitive. Nitrogen triiodide is so sensitive that being exposed to ''alpha radiation'' is enough to detonate it.
* Anyone who has seen the lab demonstration concerning how quickly and simply nitro can be made (if you have the correct chemicals) will remember the inevitable sequel for life. The test-tube, in which a ''very small'' quantity of nitro has been made, is held at arms-length by the demonstrator and then dropped. The impact imparted simply by dropping the damn thing causes a large bang and sends glass shards flying ''everywhere''. (This was in the context of an Army lecture about improvised explosive devices and how simple explosives can be made from scratch. The instructors are usually experienced NCO's and officers who know how far they can go. I don't think this is taught in schools!)
* C4 is famous for it's stability and inability to go off w/out a blasting cap.
* A website of RealLife stories involving this trope: [[http://www.logwell.com/tales/menu/index.html stories]]

* [[TheSimpsons Zigzagged in]] "The PTA Disbands", a tour guide in Fort Springfield is giving a lecture on a "fully restored and in ready to fire condition" Civil War cannon aimed directly at the base of a manned lookout tower. She mentions that these cannons are "''very'' sensitive and that the "''slightest'' jolt" can set them off as the Springfield Elementary bus starts swerving towards the cannon. The bus hits it and... one of the cannon's wheels falls off.
-->'''Tour Guide''': Of course for safety reasons, we don't keep the cannon ''loaded''. [[RealityEnsues That's just common sense.]]