Line #84 Main/RidiculouslyPotentExplosive


1	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/liquid_tiberium_2.png]]]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350: The chemical bomb that created this blast was small enough to be transportable by ''semitruck''.]]
3
4	-> ''"If God is Dead, he was probably screwing with Arconite"''
5	-->-- '''Breach grenade description''', ''Videogame/HeatSignature''
6
7	It is a well-known fact that EverythingIsBetterWithExplosions and many authors would also agree that BiggerIsBetter. After all, the bigger the explosion, the more powerful your devices and the bigger the {{Spectacle}}! Thus, [[JustForFun/{{Troperithmetic}} logically]], Everything is ''Even'' Better With ''Bigger'' Explosions, right?
8
9	Just one problem; the explosion you're now displaying is far too big to be caused by the explosive you say is causing it -- or, in the case of fictional explosives, too big for any known real-world explosive of equivalent size and type; it's literally providing too much bang for its buck. To create the explosion from that small a package would require a [[TitleDrop Ridiculously Potent Explosive]]. The [[http://jabootu.net/?p=13 Jabootu glossary]] calls this trope the "Atomic Grenade".
10
11	Some authors realize this and create their explosives out of {{Unobtainium}}, [[FantasticNuke Magic]], or their local GreenRocks or MinovskyParticle in an attempt to justify the explosive power, but even that is not a guarantee that you won't end up with creating an unjustified Ridiculously Potent Explosive if, for instance, your explosion is chemical yet rivals nuclear, or {{antimatter}}, devices in potency. [[labelnote:*]]To put this in perspective, cubic gauche nitrogen, a solid form of nitrogen similar to diamond, has the highest predicted chemical binding energy density of any known substance. It would still take around twelve thousand tonnes of the stuff to match the yield of a tactical nuclear weapon weighing ''less'' than one tonne.[[/labelnote]]
12
13	Subtrope of ArtisticLicenseExplosives, often a case of SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale in terms of energy, or it might occur because WritersCannotDoMath. May be used to create {{Earth Shattering Kaboom}}s. Compare MadeOfExplodium, for things which really shouldn't be exploding in the first place. Compare and contrast the SlapOnTheWristNuke for when the explosion ''under''performs for what is producing it, and the BigBulkyBomb, another similar (but reversed) misconception where a huge-looking bomb may have a bigger yield compared to a smaller one (disregarding the bomb's active elements). Examples might be subjected to ScienceMarchesOn should we manage to create more potent explosives of the same category in the future. Compare with EverythingMakesAMushroom, where the mushroom cloud itself is usually PlayedForLaughs.
14
15	'''Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease''' This trope is about those explosives [[ArtisticLicenseExplosives whose explosive portrayal would be impossible to replicate with real world equivalents]], ''not'' merely really powerful explosives. [[labelnote:*]]Even nuclear and antimatter-matter annihilation, while very explosively potent, [[ShapedLikeItself are still not any more potent than nuclear and antimatter-matter annihilation]], respectively.[[/labelnote]]\
16	When a real-life explosive emerges that breaks the laws of physics, ''then'' it can be added.. [[RealityBreakingParadox and may God help us]].
17	----
18	!!Examples:
19
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
23	* ''Anime/AuraBattlerDunbine'': The world of Byston Well uses special materials to create what appear to be regular missiles and grenades for its Aura Machines, which run on the spirit energy (Aura) of the pilot. [[spoiler:They are only normal in Byston Well. One of the two creators of Aura Machines later learns that the environment of Byston Well suppresses chemical reactions, and Aura power in modern (Upper) Earth is ten times more potent. Standard Aura chemical-based missiles and grenades fired in Upper Earth have the power of nuclear weapons and entire cities are destroyed as a result.]]
24	* In ''Manga/RurouniKenshin'', the bomblets [[ChekhovsGun Sanosuke obtains before heading for Kyoto]] are small enough to fit in a palm. Yet, when he throws them at the Rengoku, Shishio's personal armored battleship, the explosion is powerful enough bust open the hull, sinking it before it can return to the shore it just left.
25	* ''Manga/HunterXHunter'': An example whose disproportionate potency is actively PlayedForDrama - the Chimera Ant arc introduces a FantasticNuke called the Poor Man's Rose, so named for the gigantic rose-shaped mushroom cloud it produces. If the massive explosion doesn't kill you, the radiation it spreads out for ''miles'' certainly will, and the bomb itself is cheap, easily-produced, and [[DeadMansSwitch compact enough to store inside a person's heart.]] In keeping with the [[HumansAreBastards Chimera Ant]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters arc's themes,]] the fact that something so destructive and cruel could ''also'' be made so portable and accessible is treated as a testament to humanity's capacity for evil.
26	[[/folder]]
27
28	[[folder:ComicBooks]]
29	* Several instances in both Marvel and DC comics have implied or directly shown nuclear bombs to be capable of completely destroying the Earth - not just wiping out civilization or rendering the surface uninhabitable, but completely shattering the entire planet. {{Franchise/Lobo}} once detonated a nuke not much bigger than himself which blew a giant hole in a planet (although that could partially be attributed to the [[CartoonPhysics cartoonish style]] of that particular comic).
30	[[/folder]]
31
32	[[folder:Fan Works]]
33	* ''[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/legendary-tinker-worm-lol.993889/ Legendary Tinker]]'': Pyro-gel is a magical equivalent of blasting jelly -- but rather more potent. A fingernail's worth of it is enough to take out a house. Andy makes five-pound blocks of it, each of which contains "enough firepower to turn most brutes into a Rorschach test."
34	--> Or, if I was being honest, a city block.
35	[[/folder]]
36
37	[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
38	* ''Film/ANewHope'': By the numbers, the EarthShatteringKaboom that wipes out the planet Alderaan would require more energy than the sun produces in two years and is definitely more than the relatively puny laser shown should be capable of outputting. [[AllThereInTheManual Supplemental materials]] HandWave this by explaining that the Death Star's "hypermatter reactor" uses exotic particles from [[SubspaceOrHyperspace hyperspace]] to cheat the laws of physics and ''Film/RogueOne'' makes great emphasis on the Khyber Crystals that are used to boost the laser's power (and were originally used for lightsaber construction -- it's all but flat out stated in canon that the superlaser [[AWizardDidIt just runs on space magic]] by now).
39	* ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' shows one of Hawkeye's trick arrows, which can't be more than grenade-sized, blow up with a fireball larger than one of the four propeller engines that keep the AirborneAircraftCarrier aloft.
40	* The Alpha-Omega Bomb of ''Film/BeneathThePlanetOfTheApes'' is a cobalt-boosted nuclear warhead mounted on what looks like a golden Minuteman missile shell (the bomb's appearances in both this film and ''Film/BattleForThePlanetOfTheApes'' inconsistently imply either it's a warhead on a missile or that the entire visible shell is the bomb) capable of annihilating the whole planet.
41	* ''Film/DeepBlueSea'': The ploy to kill the final Mako shark involves improvising a pipe bomb with the gunpowder in a handful of signal flares, a bomb that is explicitly mentioned will have the potency of two sticks of dynamite. When it goes off, the shockwave it sends out looks more like it had been made by half a ton of C-4.
42	* ''Film/{{Desperado}}'''s big money shot is of a single frag grenade (functionally just a bigass M-80 firecracker designed to fling shrapnel) which creates a fiery explosion so massive that it sends a wall of flame shooting up past the roof that El Mariachi is standing on.
43	* In ''Film/DieHardWithAVengeance'', two volatile liquids mixed creates a binary explosive known as PLX, which is energetic enough to flip a chair using only a paperclip-tip's worth. PLX actually exists in the real world but neither looks like it does in the movie nor is it -- or any known chemical explosive -- that energetic.
44	* ''Film/EagleEye'' has the Hex crystal, a crystal small enough to fit in a man's hand that is said to be able to take out a football field. A much smaller sliver of the crystal -- small enough to pass as part of a diamond necklace -- is calculated by the BigBad Evil A.I. of the film to have enough potency to successfully perform "Operation Guillotine"; a.k.a. eliminate the President and his yes-man cabinet by vaporizing a significant chunk of the House of Representatives.
45	* In ''Film/InventionForDestruction'', Prof. Roche is kidnapped by Count Artigas because he is working on 'positive matter': an explosive so powerful that a single hell can level an entire city.
46	* ''Franchise/JamesBond'' showcases this in ''Film/GoldenEye'' with its signature exploding pen, taking the top half of a test dummy clean off. [[JustForFun/TropesExaminedByTheMythbusters The MythBusters]] would later show that this is an impossible feat for a pen-sized explosive to do, even with modern explosives.
47	* In ''Film/TheMouseThatRoared'' the MacGuffin that is central to the plot (and provides the Duchy of Grand Fezziwig with the victory it ''[[SpringtimeForHitler doesn't]]'' want) is the "Q-Bomb", an experimental nuclear device with the capacity to take out an entire continent that just also happens to be so compact that it's shaped, has the same weight, is as easy to carry as ([[CoconutSuperpowers and is portrayed by]]) an American football.
48	* In ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'', John Harrison invents a binary explosive so powerful that mixing the pill-sized solid tablet into a drinking glass of liquid blows an entire building sky-high.
49	* In ''Film/SuperMarioBros1993'', the Bob-Omb is a teeny-tiny wind-up bomb roughly the size of a cherry bomb and which, realistically, should explode with just as much force. When Mario pulls it out, all passerby on the other side of a street run away in terror and when it goes off, it tosses Koopa (who is halfway into devolving into a ''UsefulNotes/TyrannosaurusRex'' and either still weighs as much as Creator/DennisHopper, or halfway between that and the total weight of a ''Rex'') [[BlownAcrossTheRoom about a dozen feet straight into the air]].
50	* In ''Film/VanHelsing'', Carl demonstrates the effect of a single drop of "Nitroglycerin No.48" -- it blows up like a ''grenade'', scaring the bejeezus out of all the other weapons researchers in the room. Their collective anger heavily implies this is not unusual for him.
51	-->'''Researchers''': STOP IT, CARL!!!
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Literature]]
55	* ''Literature/TheButterBattleBook'' features the "Bitsy Big-Boy Boomeroo", a bean-sized explosive that's [[FantasticNuke supposed to have enough force to blow up an entire city]]. The book ends [[BolivianArmyEnding with the Yooks and the Zooks in a stalemate, threatening to use their bomb on the others]].
56	* The ''Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures'' see Ace develop Nitro-9 ''in candy form.'' Ten times more powerful and easier to carry than the original, it's fortunate that human stomach acid neutralizes it.
57	* In the first ''Literature/{{Deathworld}}'' book, Jason promises one person several grenades made from "solid ultranite", powerful enough to blast open a large warehouse. He also promises the pocket lighter in which they are kept.
58	* ''Literature/HaloGhostsOfOnyx'' combines this with ChekhovsGun when a human superbomb known as a NOVA bomb is discovered by the Covenant and brought to a planet. The NOVA Bomb, as (quite proudly) described by one of the admirals that oversaw its construction, is nine nuclear fusion warheads encased in futuristic armor. When detonated, it compresses the force of the explosion to the density of a ''neutron star'', which boosts its yield a hundredfold. When detonated in a planet's ''orbit'', it scorches a fourth of the planet, [[DetonationMoon blows up the planet's moon]], and causes massive storms across the rest of the world, wrecking it. When actually detonated on a planet, EarthShatteringKaboom results. Fittingly, the bomb was designed to be snuck aboard the Covenant's home base, High Charity, and detonated there, so the UNSC wasn't taking any chances.
59	* In ''Literature/TheLastHero'', a barrel of Agatean Thunder Clay compact enough to fit on Mad Hamish's wheelchair is powerful enough to destroy Dunmanifestin, producing an explosion that would be visible across the Disc and an AntiMagic {{EMP}} that would wipe out the Disc's entire BackgroundMagicField. This seems to be enhanced by its location at the Hub however, [[spoiler: when it actually detonates on the way ''down'' the mountain, the results aren't quite as impressive]].
60	* In the ''Literature/{{Lensman}}'' series the standard go-to explosive is "duodec" ("duodecaplylatomate"). Large stores can crack the crust of a planet, and "small" pellets are used to destroy a mansion (and outbuildings) without damaging nearby residences. However, duodec does quickly become obsolete for anti-spaceship work as the setting ''is'' the {{Trope Namer\|s}} for the LensmanArmsRace trope.
61	* "Literature/LetsGetTogether": Total Conversion, or TC, implies that 100% of some {{Unobtainium}} changes from matter into energy.
62	* ''[[https://www.tor.com/2012/07/20/a-tall-tail/ A Tall Tail]]'' by Creator/CharlesStross concerns the creation and single, disastrous test of a Ridiculously Potent Rocket Propellant.
63	* ''Franchise/Warhammer40000ExpandedUniverse'':
64	** Justified at the end of the ''Literature/CiaphasCain'' novel ''Caves of Ice''. While the bombs planted were only intended to create a crater in the ice to trap an enemy vehicle, they blow up in a gigantic fireball because [[spoiler:the caves below were flooded with fuel, effectively creating a giant fuel/air bomb, to the delight of the resident MadBomber chief sapper]]. The resulting explosion is so large that ''a ship in space is hit by the shockwave.''
65	** ''Literature/DarkHeresy'''s take on promethium (an all-purpose chemical fuel used in everything from flamethrowers to tanks to Titans) is that 500 million liters of the stuff (the carrying capacity of between 1 and 2 modern supertankers) results in an explosion more than ten times the size of the ''Sun''.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
69	* ''Series/DoctorWho'': The Seventh Doctor's companion "Ace" became (in)famous because she was a teenage DemolitionsExpert who brewed her own variation of nitroglycerine, "Nitro-9". The "9" in the name was because the amount that could fit inside of a shaving cream can could create a small earthquake rated ''9.0 in the Richter Scale'' if set off.
70	* Repeatedly defied in ''Series/MythBusters''. They've tested many, many explosive myths, and the real-life blast is almost ''never'' as impressive as the original myth states. The closest they came to this trope was their testing of particle matter fireballs from a Website/YouTube video, where they made a dairy creamer aircannon - most would barely consider dairy creamer an explosive, yet the cannon belched out a fireball big enough to make a mushroom cloud and sent the build team [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere running for the hills]].
71	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'': MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds blows up a planet with a baking soda bomb.
72	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
73	** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'': In "Whom God's Destroy" Captain Garth somehow manages to create bombs which resemble tiny crystals in canister which he can easily carry. He describes them as the most powerful explosives in existence (making them greater than Photon Torpedoes and other weapons that utilise antimatter), claiming the whole canister is enough to destroy the whole planet. Whilst Garth is insane, all the evidence suggests he was right as blowing up a single crystal creates an explosion that shakes the Enterprise ''whilst it's in Orbit.''
74	** In "Obsession", the [[{{Cumulonemesis}} Dikironium Cloud Creature]] is ultimately destroyed by one ounce of antimatter from the Enterprise's warp core, detonated on a planet's surface. The problem is, the explosion it creates is so massive that it makes a crater that covers almost one half of the entire planet, which would be impossible with such a small mass of antimatter. (In reality, one ounce of antimatter, even if it annihilated with 100% efficiency with an equal amount of matter, would create a blast of less than 2 megatons in yield).
75	** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': No matter what's in an Omega Molecule, its energy is by definition stored in chemical bonds. The notion that it could destroy whole sectors of space--let alone subspace--is ludicrous.
76	** On the other hand, the franchise frequently inverts this as well, especially when it comes to photon torpedoes. Their warheads use 1.5 kg each of matter and anti-matter, yet [[SlapOnTheWristNuke their explosions are often less powerful than they should be]].
77	[[/folder]]
78
79	[[folder:Video Games]]
80	* ''VideoGame/AceCombatAssaultHorizon'' features Trinity, a weapon that is functionally identical to a tactical nuke and small enough to be launched from a multi-role combat aircraft like an SU-35 or F-15. However, it is explicitly ''not'' nuclear in nature. A small nod to realism is that Trinity is far more unstable than would normally be acceptable for a military-grade explosive, but it is still way more potent than it has any right to be.
81	* In ''Videogame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'', Liquid [[MinovskyParticle Tiberium]] is made out to be enormously explosive, with a warhead sized bomb said to provide a yield '10 times greater than a 200 megaton thermonuke', on top of chain reactions if detonated correctly - and [[NotHyperbole it does live up to that claim]] InUniverse by creating an explosive cloud stretching more than a thousand kilometers into space[[note]]That's further up than the atmosphere, meaning that blast didn't climb to that height because of the heat like mushroom clouds do; it ''exploded'' crust-material that far into space.[[/note]] while the chain reactions set off a quarter-WorldWreckingWave.
82	* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'' has the Homemade Explosives, a unique grenade that can only be [[spoiler:stolen from Higba when you encounter him at Driftwood.]] The explosive is the size of a wine bottle that, when thrown, covers the ''entire screen'' with fire and does roughly ''10x'' the damage from a regular Firestorm Grenade, which scales based on the Intelligence stat of the character who threw it. Its explosion is strong enough to kill ''anything'' in the game.
83	* DoubleSubverted in the penultimate level of ''VideoGame/EternalDarkness''. Michael Edwards, a Canadian firefighter who has some C4 explosives he's been using to control fires in the Gulf War is prompted to use it to destroy [[spoiler: the pillar of flesh]] by a mysterious voice. However, he realises it's nowhere near powerful enough to do the job. [[spoiler: Luckily, the same enchantment spell that's been used on weapons the entire game turns out to work just as well on modern weaponry and bombs; the resulting explosion takes out the entire underground city.]]
84	* In ''Videogame/HeatSignature'', Arconite is the explosive used to make breach grenades, which, despite being small enough be thrown by hand or launched out of a standard grenade launcher, have the same destructive power as a ship to ship-missile, capable of not just [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill killing absolutely anything]], but also completely destroying the section of spaceship they're used in, causing nearby enemies to be sucked into space and giving you an instant escape route.
85	* Several ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' fatalities utilize in-game explosives, only multiplied by a factor of 10 to 20, which apparently upgrades their explosive potential to EarthShatteringKaboom levels.
86	* ''VideoGame/SuzukiBakuhatsu'' has some hilarious instances:
87	** The orange-sized bomb can destroy the whole part of Eastern Japan.
88	** In the iced coffee stage, a microscopic bomb is able to explode as large as a handheld bomb, and killing a human in an instant.
89	** The car engine bomb is able to [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroy the Earth completely]].
90	** A microscopic bomb inside a piece of rice in the bento box is able to destroy a hospital building.
91	** A submarine bomb is able to evaporate the entire ocean.
92	* In ''VideoGame/XCOM2'', some missions involve blowing up alien facilities. In order to do this, the player must have one of their units plant an "X4 Charge" before clearing out. The charge is a fist sized bomb that's planted somewhere inside the building, but the ending cutscene of the missions always show the entire structure exploding in a fireball worthy of Hollywood and being levelled to the ground. WordOfGod is that this even includes an unseen underground section of the buildings (to justify needing the X4 even if the fighting has leveled the aboveground parts).
93	[[/folder]]
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95	[[folder:Webcomics]]
96	* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': Emil's would-be breaching charge, which [[http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=539 fits into the palm of his hand]], is filled with some sort of liquid explosive. It blows the door off its hinges... And [[http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=540 part of the house into the stratosphere]]. It's worth noting that Emil is typically carrying around enough of the stuff to blow up half a town -- so it's no wonder he wasn't allowed to bring his kit inside Mora at the start of the comic. It makes sense in ''some'' way for it to be this powerful though, given that the job of the Cleansers is to raze Old World buildings to the ground to clear out any [[UndeadAbomination trolls]] which might be nesting in them.
97	* ''Webcomic/TrueVillains'': Thanks to AlchemyIsMagic, [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2008-03-01~N-Explosives%20of%20a%20Greater%20Kind-jpg.htm one rare flower]] can be distilled into a tiny vial with enough explosive power to [[http://www.truevillains.com/comic-2008-06-09~N-Beautiful%20Destruction-jpg.htm incinerate an entire city]].
98	[[/folder]]
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100	[[folder:Web Videos]]
101	* ''LetsPlay/MrGibbs'': In "Don't Nuke Yourself Challenge", one of the "bombs" is titled as "A Simple Soda Can" and looks like an ordinary soda can. It's the worst bomb out of all of them.
102	-->'''Ledger:''' Okay, so the Soda Can is not to be.. fucked with. Let's remember that.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
106	* In the short ''WesternAnimation/HaredevilHare'', Marvin the Martian's Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator looks like an ordinary stick of dynamite but is powerful enough to blow up most of the Moon (or, if channeled through a telescope, the Earth), and Bugs Bunny's rocket is propelled by what looks like an ordinary firecracker.
107	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': in "Marjorine", the bomb that the kids use to destroy the fortune-teller (which is a piece of paper) consists of several cans of gasoline poured onto the thing before being wired to a detonator. The resulting explosion is so massive that it levels the whole forest the kids were in and ''could be seen from space''.
108	* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': PlayedForLaughs, in "Dying for a Pie" when the bomb disguised as a pie finally goes off at the end of episode, the explosion is so great we see stock footage of an underwater A-bomb going off and the blast was large enough to destroy the entire city.
109	* "Promethium-X" from the symbiote arc of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' - a tiny chip, when sufficiently heated, produces an enormous explosion. The catch is that its half-life is measured in days, after which it becomes lead (which also means it's ''very'' radioactive, but not physics-defyingly so).
110	* The ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheMissingMouse", revolves around an escaped lab mouse that had swallowed some experimental high-powered liquid explosive -- powerful enough that the amount that fills the stomach of a mouse maybe two inches tall at the most turns a very large house, its (very large) garden, and an unknown amount of the surrounding neighborhood into a very deep crater.
111	* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' loves to [[PlayedForLaughs play these for laughs]].
112	** In ''Total Drama Island'', the first challenge all the contestants had to go through was high dive off a cliff into the water below. When [[BigFun Owen]] finally takes the plunge, he hits the water with enough force that the water explodes halfway up the cliffside and creates a tidal wave that wrecks the contestant watching on the beach.
113	** Izzy is a pyromaniac who loves causing explosions when put anywhere near a detonator. When her team was tasked with building a bonfire, Izzy scrounges together some natural materials (mostly tree sap) into the shape and size of a basketball. As soon as she tosses it into the smoldering embers of her team's bonfire, the flames shoot up into the sky with enough force to gently push away Chris' helicopter. This also attracts the attention of the Royal Mounted Canadian Police, who were tracking her down for going AWOL.
114	** In ''Total Drama Action'', one of the challenges for the war film episode involved using controlled explosives to decorate a base. Duncan managed to use the right amounts to create an intimidating giant skull with the paint. Izzy goes overboard and creates a giant green paint explosion that can be seen from the sky. Chris and everyone else around the explosion was left covered in green paint, their hair blown back and locked in the direction of the explosion.
115	[[/folder]]

Context Main / RidiculouslyPotentExplosive