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* One episode of ''[[Cat's Eye]]'' involved the girls, who are not expert miners by any means, drifting a tunnel a good fifty metres long in just a few hours. Granted, they're using proper machinery, and going through relatively soft rock, but that only brings it down to "ridiculously fast" rather than "ludicrously." To give credit where it's due, waste rock disposal and the shoring up of the tunnel are given consideration.
* Diggers like Simon in ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' use hand powered drills to bore through rock and soil at very high speed.
** Lagann can be [[Fastball Special|launched as a fastball]], drill through lots of rock without losing speed, come back out, and destroy two robots. It's not earth they have there, it's not even water! Justified since [[Rule of Cool]] is the most important law of physics in the setting.
▲*** [[Literal-Minded|"Do the impossible! See the invisible! Row row, fight tha powah!"]]
* ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'': [[Memetic Mutation|Diglett-dig, Diglett-dig, TRIO TRIO TRIO!]] (Meaning, considering the world, that he may have [[Mons|help.]])
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', it took years and years for {{spoiler|Sloth}} to dig {{spoiler|the transmutation circle that surrounds Amestris}}, but the rocks he digs up still seem to be going to nowhere.
* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', both humans and trolls dig hard rock at close to normal walking pace. Maybe [[A Wizard Did It|magic was involved?]]▼
▲== Comic Books ==
▲* In ''[[Elf Quest]]'', both humans and trolls dig hard rock at close to normal walking pace.
* The Mole, one of ''[[Mandrake the Magician]]''{{'}}s recurring villains, regularly wore a suit with a head-mounted wide heat beam capable of burning through anything. It also had a jetpack. That's right, the beam burned away rock and earth with no residue fast enough that he could ''fly'' along the tunnel as it was being made. [[Cut Lex Luthor a Check|He used it to rob banks.]]
* Occurs in ''[[
▲== Fan Works ==
▲* Occurs in ''[[Evangelion At School|Evangelion@School]]'', possibly as a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[Gurren Lagann]]''.
== Film ==
* Averted in ''[[The Shawshank Redemption]]'', in which it takes Andy Dufrene 20 years just to
* In ''[[Starship Troopers (film)|Starship Troopers]]'', the Bugs' ability to do this is a minor plot point.
* The Graboids in the ''[[Tremors]]'' franchise travel underground at incredible speed using this method, pushing themselves along with the spines covering their bodies and ramming earth aside with bulletproof heads. In more localized projects, they are also able to bury a car, eat the foundation from under a house, and dig a pit trap for an earthmover in relatively short order. A nod to realism is given in that though they can move easily through sand and soil, any kind of stone remains a barrier. One kills itself by attempting to ram through the concrete wall of a drainage gully.
* ''[[The Core]]'' features a giant tunneling drill train thing to quickly tunnel to the center of the Earth. These are called subterrenes in Real Life.
* ''[[Deep Core]]'' uses combinations of drills and [[Frickin' Laser Beams]] to quickly go through rock. In ''Deep Core'', the test of the prototype subterrene (intended by the military as yet another method of nuclear delivery) results in the massive shift of the tectonic plate.
* Averted and played straight in ''[[Short Circuit
* Parodied in ''[[Top Secret]]!'' when Nick returns to the lab to free the professor, who is behind a tarp dropping a small spoonful of dirt into a small pile.
{{quote|'''Professor''': But I had almost finished my tunnel!
'''Nick peers behind the tarp to find a modern road tunnel complete with paving, concrete wall and electric lighting.'''
'''Nick''': [surprised]
* ''[[The Great Escape]]'' at least shows a bit of the logistics: Where do you put the dirt you dig out from the ground, how do you make sure the tunnel won't collapse, and where do you get the materials to stabilize it? Especially if you're watched by
== Literature ==
* Averted in ''The Wizardry Quested'', part of the ''[[Wiz Biz]]'' series by Rick Cook, when a band of dwarves considers entering a castle by
* A couple of ''[[The Pendragon Adventure]]'' books include [[Drill Tank]]s called dygos which can dig nearly as fast as they can drive. In the territory they show up in, there's a whole civilization [[Beneath the Earth]] that was dug with these things.
* Dwarves in ''[[Artemis Fowl]]'' eat their way through the ground, and do so at very high speeds - faster than they can ''run''.
* Averted in ''[[Animorphs]]'' when they use mole forms to dig a tunnel to the yeerk pool. In the two hour limit they barely get 6 feet dug, and at the angle of decent means they only got 1 foot below ground. {{spoiler|Not only that but they ''miss'' the intended destination and end up in a bat cave that just happened to border the Yeerk Pool}}.
** Played straight in a later novel, where Ax and Tobias use {{spoiler|[[Horror Hunger|Taxxon]]}} morphs to [[Extreme Omnivore|eat a massive tunnel to the Yeerk Pool]].
== Live-Action TV ==
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* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'': The Horta ("Devil in the Dark") has a very strong acid that it uses to dissolve rock to form tunnels-problem is that this process is depicted as being virtually instantaneous, and there is virtually no detritus left over other than a few wafting vapors.
* Used to get to the center of the Earth in ''Saul of the Mole Men''.
== Tabletop Games ==
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== Video Games ==
* Seems to be the inspiration behind the "Tunneling" travel-power in ''[[Champions Online]]'' (the animation for which resembles Bugs Bunny's style below)
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has this trope, although the time dilation might make it more plausible... also they're [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same|dwarves]]. Subverted "properly" in that you still have to figure out how to manage all the leftover stone.
** It's also mentioned in the story [http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/story/tt_summon.html Summoned to Darkness]. A single dwarf dug an amazing escape tunnel in a few weeks with no tools.
** Legendary miners are probably the epitome of this trope. They literally dig out tunnels as fast as they walk.
* Drill Man from ''[[Mega Man 4]]'' and Ground Man from ''[[Mega Man and Bass]]''. The ''[[Mega Man X]]'' series has Grizzly Slash.
* In
* ''[[Dig Dug]]'' lives by this, as does any video game that involves mining.
* The pneumatic drill and blowtorch "weapons" in ''[[Worms]]''.
* Knuckles the Echidna, from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]''.
** The Yellow Drill Wisps in ''[[Sonic Colors]]'' also utilize this as a means to get to secret rooms and pathways. The tunnels made are filled back up just as fast, though.
* Players in ''[[Minecraft]]'' easily dig a fifty meter long tunnel in a matter of minutes
** As of 1.0, tools can be enchanted to improve various aspects including the speed at which they break blocks. With the best efficiency enchantment, a diamond pick will break stone-based blocks INSTANTLY.
* Mario can dig extremely quickly when it's necessary, particularly in ''[[Super Mario
* Bowser digs an extremely long tunnel as part of the main quest in ''[[Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story]]'' in a matter of hours at most.
* In ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]'',
* '''[[NetHack]]'' allows the player to do this using a pick-axe or a dwarvish mattock, which can dig out tunnels in a matter of turns; player dwarves can dig them out even faster.
** NPC dwarves can also dig around the dungeon if they have a pick-axe on hand. The rock mole and umber hulk are also natural fast tunnelers that can literally chew their way through the walls, and polymorphing into them allows you to do the same.
** The wand of digging can carve out tunnels with a single zap, and can be used as a handy escape item or a [[Dungeon Bypass|speed-running implement]] (the community calls this "digging for victory").
* Zerg units in ''[[StarCraft]]'' and its sequel can burrow, making them invisible. This is a valid strategy to take the heat off your front line units during combat, forcing the enemy to switch targets to healthy units instead. The can burrow into dirt, rock, asphalt with the same ease and even in bridges...[[Fridge Logic|somehow]]. This even works with [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|the ultralisk]], a mutated six-legged elephant so big it looms over tanks and tramples force walls but is nevertheless capable of burrowing completely underground in less time than it takes a missile to travel to it. [[Spider Tank|Roaches]] and [[The Virus|Infestors]] fit this trope perfectly, as they can actually tunnel underground.
** Similarly in ''[[Warcraft]] 3'' Crypt Fiends can burrow down fast enough to escape someone trying to kill them. They can still be killed by aiming siege weaponry at the ground though, so apparently they don't go that far.
* Imps and Dwarves in ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' dig out tunnels big enough for a dragon to walk down at an incredible rate, especially once the imps get [[Super Speed]].
* The ''[[Mass Effect]]'' universe contains enormous [[Sand Worm]]s called [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Thresher Maws]] who are able to tunnel faster than ground vehicles can move. They also only cause tremors and [[Worm Sign
* One of the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]] games has [[Sand Worm]]s that move ridiculously quickly and with little disturbance of the surrounding sand.
* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus]]'' has a [[Sand Worm]] as a boss that can keep up with a galloping horse.
* Many monsters in ''[[Monster Hunter]]'' will dig underground in order to move though an area. Most notable are the Diablos/Monoblos and Agnaktor, because they usually try to come up from underneath ''you
==
* According to ''[[Le Donjon De Naheulbeuk]]'', it takes 48 dwarfs to dig in two days a 28-meter tunnel in granite. Of those, about only six to eight dwarfs actually dig.
* The Mole, a supervillain from the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', can do this. The Subterranean can also do this
* Shows up with the character Boris from ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' who's main mode of transport is super-fast digging. It helps his power also restores the ground to pristine shape including repairing pipes, reconstructing cement floors, and undoing damage his huge claws create every time he burrows.
* Thanks to the [[Applied Phlebotinum|handwavium]] employed in their creation, the [[Drill Tank]]s and other digging devices of the [http://fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Pellucidarans Pellucidaran] faction of ''[[Fenspace]]'' frequently move through the earth at an otherwise impossible swiftness.
* ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' cartoons have this occur with [[Bugs Bunny]] going pretty much anywhere. Very possibly the [[Trope Maker]] and [[Ur Example]].▼
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* [[Bugs Bunny]] going pretty much anywhere. Very possibly the [[Trope Maker]] and [[Ur Example]].
** Also Buster and Babs on ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]''.
** Sometimes even [[Daffy Duck]] does this.
* ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]''
* [[Played for Laughs]] in the film of ''[[Fantastic Mr. Fox]]''.{{context}}
* ''[[Swat Kats]]'' had a digging machine that got underground in seconds.
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' did this when Bart fell down a well and the townspeople dug a parallel hole to get at him.
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'''Homer:''' We'll dig our way out!
'''Chief Wiggum:''' No, no, dig ''up'', stupid! }}
* The eponymous drill from the second season episode of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' goes through the roughly 20-metre-thick ''compressed granite'' wall of Ba Sing Se in perhaps two hours. That drill, at least, is a lot more realistic in appearance than most, and presents the need to remove the debris (with the latter factor being a plot point). Its (relative) speed could be attributed to its tremendous scale.
* Shows up on ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', where Jimmy and Beezy tunnel into both Heloise's and Lucius' homes in a matter of seconds.
*
* [[The Tick (animation)|The Tick]] encountered this when the Mole Men came to visit the surface world so the Mole King could find a girlfriend (which he does
==
* [[wikipedia:Subterrene|Subterrenes]] could ''theoretically'' drill tunnels and eliminate waste rock
* [[Fiction 500|Jeff Bezos]] brags at [https://longnow.org/clock the webpage for "The 10,000 Year Clock"] that they removed a large amount of material in a vertical shaft in good time by pulling the bit up the bore rather than driving down; in this arrangement the spoils drop away rather than fouling, to allow continuous progress.
{{reflist}}
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