History Main / PlungerDetonator

* ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' TOS episode "The Quetong Missile Mystery". The guards use these to detonate [[SeaMines underwater mines]] to blow up intruding boats. At the end, the BigBad, General Fong, suffers a KarmicDeath when [[YouHaveFailedMe he shoots one of the guards]], [[DeadMansTriggerFinger who falls on the detonator]] and detonates a mine under Fong's boat.

** In ''VideoGame/MedalOfHonorAirborne'', you use one to destroy a [[VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon FlaK Tower]] in the final level.

* On the ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' and any other Muppet media, Crazy Harry sets off explosions by pushing down on a silver plunger. In one song, 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 another he revealed an instrument he calls the Explodophone, which is a series of plungers he pushes in time with the song to trigger explosions.

* ''Series/YoungIndianaJones'': I seem to remember a scene where Indy had to put the plunger back into such a detonator just in time or something.

* The cannons in ''VideoGame/KirbySuperStar'' sometimes have these hooked up to their fuses, allowing them to be triggered without a flame. Some of said cannons are actually traps and will simply explode instead of firing if Kirby jumps into them, though, whereas the ones without detonators are never of this nature.

* Dick Dastardly uses one in the ''WesternAnimation/WackyRaces'' debut episode "See Saw To Arkansas." It fails to detonate the dynamite he employs to block a pass and stall the other racers, so he runs over to the dynamite to see what went wrong. Muttley sees what it is: the wire leading from the detonator to the dynamite was severed, so he reconnects it. The dynamite subsequently blows up in Dastardly's face. Cue Muttley snicker and Dastardly's DopeSlap.

* Used in ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'' once or twice.

* Used in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' demo, "Uplink", in the ''Half-Life: Blue Shift'' expansion, and used in the ''Opposing Force'' expansion to blow up an alien Gargantua.

* ''Series/{{Batman}}'' episode "While Gotham City Burns". When the Dynamic Duo are trapped inside a giant steel book and about to be steamed to death, the Gotham City police use one to detonate some explosives and blow the book open.

* ''Series/TheMuppetShow''. Crazy Harry loved these.

* Used in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' demo, "Uplink",in the ''Half-Life: Blue Shift'' expansion, and used in the ''Opposing Force'' expansion to blow up an alien Gargantua.

* There's a used one in one of the ''Videogame/{{Submachine}}'' games, surrounded by soot and bits of clothing.
* Used in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' demo, "Uplink", and in the ''Half-Life: Blue Shift'' expansion in the "Power Struggle" level.

* Used in ''VideoGames/RedDeadRedemption'' once or twice.

* In ''VideoGames/SeriousSam'' series, it can be found in a few places. It's a trigger marker by default though.

* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh's'' Gopher, as a miner, will often be seen with one of these and a whole lot of dynamite.

* ''Film/BattleOfTheBulge'' (1965). A group of German paratroopers disguised as US [=MP=]s pretend to rig a bridge behind American lines for demolition while actually holding for their own army. Part of their act includes two men ostentatiously hooking up a detonator while other men pretend to rig charges. Everyone is fooled until the leader of the squad of U.S. Army engineers actually assigned to blow the bridge arrives and immediately protests such a clear (and stupid) violation of basic safety procedures. He and his men get shot dead for his trouble.

* Averted in the 1987 Australian film ''The Lighthorsemen'' where a BigElectricSwitch is used (the detonation wires are connected to a switchboard).

This detonator is usually a plain square box with a T-shaped plunger on top and wires attached. Although typically not seen anymore in RealLife, it is ubiquitous in classic WesternAnimation and is period-accurate in stories set between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. In the real world these are actually called "blasting machines" because the plunger spins a little magneto similar tfo an old-fashioned hand-crank phone to generate the electricity used to detonate the explosives.

This detonator is usually a plain square box with a T-shaped plunger on top and wires attached. Although typically not seen anymore in RealLife, it is ubiquitous in classic WesternAnimation and is period-accurate in stories set between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. In the real world these are actually called "blasting machines" because the plunger spins a little magneto similar to an old-fashioned hand-crank phone to generate the electricity used to detonate the explosives.

* In one level of ''Videogame/MedalOfHonor: Allied Assault'', Nazis attempt to use one to blow up a bridge, and you must snipe them before they can reach it.

* ''Series/DoctorWho''. A Regency-era villain uses a prochronistic [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wimshurst_machine Wimshurst machine]] with a plunger stuck on the top to set off explosives manually after the Doctor sabotages his TimeBomb.