History Main / PlungerDetonator

* In the UsefulNotes/XboxLiveArcade version of ''TabletopGame/SettlersOfCatan'', one of the [[EmoteAnimation emote animations]] shows a player using one of these to blow up the dice. The AI sometimes uses it when it has a run of particularly bad rolls.

* ''Film/JonahHex2010'': The Dragon uses one of these to blow up a train.

* ''Film/TrailOfThePinkPanther'' has a scene where a young Jacques Clouseau is using one while he was a member of the French underground during World War II. Typical of Clouseau, it doesn't work right.

* ''Film/MysteriousDoctorSatan'' (1940 FilmSerial). In "Chapter 03 - Undersea Tomb", the hero and his plucky girl assistant are lowered into the water in a diving chamber so they can plant explosives to prevent the villains getting their hands on it. Suddenly the villains board the boat and during the subsequent brawl, someone falls on the plunger, setting off an explosion that blows a hole in the diving chamber for the obligatory end-of-chapter CliffHanger.

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'' has a strip in which a couple catch their dog trying to blow up their house with a plunger-type detonator. The caption implies that this is not the first time this situation has occured.

* The Dragon uses one of these to blow up a train in the ''Film/JonahHex'' movie.

Compare CartoonBomb and IncrediblyObviousBomb. Possibly related to BigElectricSwitch, insofar as the obsolete look of the device is a deliberate choice of RuleOfCool over realism. HairTriggerExplosive doesn't need this to set it off.[[note]]But doesn't mean it can't be there. Even if it's never used.[[/note]] Weapon of choice for a DastardlyWhiplash. Notably, some [[SatchelCharge satchel charges]] are actually triggered by detonators like these, at least when they aren't shot at or being triggered through a wick and trigger system.

* ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' includes this on the "Thin Ice" secret level.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowGuardian'' have one of these in the first level, Luxor, and you trigger it by ''stepping'' on the plunger.

* ''Film/Hellfighters''. Used a few times throughout the movie when the team detonates their nitro barrels to snuff out oil well fires.

* On ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' and in all other Muppet media, Crazy Harry sets off explosions by pushing down on a silver plunger. In "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfFRiK36dZk Chanson D'Amour]]", Harry brought his onto the stage and set off explosions with every line he sung (culminating in him setting of an array of explosions while cackling madly), and in "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnV8y_VnkS0 Wild About Harry]]", he revealed an instrument he calls the Explodophone, which is a series of plungers he pushes in time with the song to trigger explosions.

Compare CartoonBomb and IncrediblyObviousBomb. Possibly related to BigElectricSwitch, insofar as the obsolete look of the device is a deliberate choice of RuleOfCool over realism. HairTriggerExplosive doesn't need this to set it off. [[note]]But doesn't mean it can't be there. Even if it's never used. [[/note]] Weapon of choice for a DastardlyWhiplash. Notably, some [[SatchelCharge satchel charges]] are actually triggered by detonators like these, at least when they aren't shot at or being triggered through a wick and trigger system.

-->'''Wilkins''': You know, people who don't drink Wilkins coffee just blow up sometimes.\\
'''Wontkins''': Ah, that's a load of... ''([[CurseCutShort Wilkins blows him up before he can finish his sentence]])''\\
'''Wilkins''': See what I mean?

* In TheSeventies Panasonic sold "Dynamite 8" 8-track tape machines shaped like these. You pressed the plunger to change tracks. [[Series/GoodTimes Jimmy "JJ" Walker]] did the commercials, using his CatchPhrase "Dy-no-mite!"

* An early ''ComicBook/{{Cattivik}}'' story from Bonvi had the titular character trying to blow up a shop with some dinamyte and a plunger detonator, but accidentally mistakes the bomb's plunger with the one of an air pump for a nearby bike. When he finally realize the mistakes, [[ActuallyPrettyFunny he laughs over it]]... only to accidentally lean on the real detonator, blowing himself up.

* A non-explosive version occurs in the teaser of ''Film/LiveAndLetDie''. A British Secret Service agent stationed in the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations building is killed when someone unplugs his translator and replaces it with a plunger device that sends a [[MakeMeWannaShout deadly sound to his head]]. Incidentally the climax does involve StuffBlowingUp, but activated by {{Time Bomb}}s.

* [[https://thecrewofthecoppercoloredcupids.wordpress.com/2019/11/17/cupid-comic-13-professional-endorsement/ Memorably used]] by Conquest-932 on ''Webcomic/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' to destroy the Cupid Parliament building.