Basic Trope: A landmark in a disaster or action film gets destroyed to add to the effect of power.
- Straight: An evil alien overlord named Vrillon destroys the Statue of Liberty in the invasion, to show he means business.
- Exaggerated: Vrillon destroys ALL of the world's famous landmarks onscreen.
- Downplayed:
- Vrillon damages the Statue of Liberty only.
- Vrillon destroys the statue, but we only get to see a shrunken and brief clip of it being destroyed.
- Justified:
- The Statue of Liberty is a Weaponised Landmark
- Liberty Island is hosting a secret base that could oppose Vrillon, and the Statue happens to be standing on top of it.
- Vrillon wants to instill fear into the people of New York.
- Inverted:
- Vrillon builds more of these statues.
- Monumental Damage Resistance
- The Statue of Liberty destroys Vrillon and/or the city instead.
- Subverted:
- Vrillon gets killed before he destroys the Stature of Liberty.
- Vrillon was about to destroy it, but the screen cuts away, with only the people seen in shock.
- Double Subverted:
- Then another alien overlord destroys it.
- Then the Statue of Liberty was seen already destroyed in the aftermath.
- Parodied: Vrillon draws a target on the Statue of Liberty and fires a dart-like missile at it, destroying it in the process.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: The Statue of Liberty isn't destroyed or targeted.
- Enforced: The creator of the comic/films wants to add it in so it can be more recognizable to the audience.
- Lampshaded: "He likes to take down the landmarks first."
- Invoked: Vrillon decides to go after the statue first.
- Exploited: The Statue of Liberty was used as bait in order to lure Vrillon's forces into a trap.
- Defied: The government doesn't want Vrillon to destroy the Statue of Liberty, so there are extra forces protecting it.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: The News reporter says that a statue in New York was destroyed by an Alien overlord, but the Statue of Liberty (and her destruction) was never directly shown.
- Implied/Downplayed: A week after the fight, scaffolding is seen being removed from the Statue Of Liberty.
- Deconstructed: Vrillon destroys a memorial, such as the 9/11 Museum or Japan's Genbaku Dome, thus creating a huge public backlash against the creator and Vrillon (and making him The Scrappy).
- Reconstructed: Vrillon was deliberately a Hate Sink to begin with, so the creator can use the WTC's destruction to draw more hate into Vrillon.
- Played For Laughs: Vrillon accidentally destroys the Statue of Liberty with only a waffle iron; Hilarity Sues.
- Played For Drama: People were seen dying in vain as Vrillon destroys the Statue of Liberty.
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