Wire Dilemma: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

You know, in [[Real Life]], bombs with multi-coloured wires can be taken care of quite easily: Open the bomb. Find all wires. Take them all into one grip. Rip through all of them with your scissors. Shut the bomb. Go have a beer, you're done. No, really, that's it. The hardest part of disarming a bomb is, in fact, the ''recovering'' and ''opening'' part.

 

== Anime ==

** Lord Il Palazzo also has a couple of bombs set in the F City, resulting in the Ropponmatsu androids going and dismantling them - and always failing the [[Wire Dilemma]], resulting in big booms.

* The ''[[Detective Conan]]'' movie ''The Time-Bombed Skyscraper'' ends with this situation, in which Ran (Rachel) has to pick the red or blue wire (which weren't in the schematics they were using until this point). Throughout the whole movie it has been explained that Ran and Shinichi (Jimmy)'s lucky color for the month is red (for this reason, Ran got Shinichi a red sweatshirt for his birthday), so it seems like the correct wire would be the red one {{spoiler|until you realize that Ran actually ''told the villain who built the bomb'' about the lucky color thing. The correct wire ends up being the blue one, because Ran didn't want to cut the [[Red String of Fate]]}}.

** The 2-hour special "Trembling Metropolitan Police Headquarters: 12 Million Hostages" has several of these. {{spoiler|Three years prior, one of Sato's colleagues sacrificed his life by ''not'' disarming a bomb in order to text Sato a clue to the location of a bomb in a populated area that was given 3 seconds before the bomb went off. This is then subverted by Conan choosing to disarm a bomb in a similar situation before it can go off?8364;”he is able to figure out the location of the larger-population bomb from only half the clue.}}

* In one episode of ''[[Code Geass]]'', [[Mind Probe|the mind-reader Mao]] has {{spoiler|kidnapped Nunnally}} and has a thousand-pound bomb hanging above her set to go off if time runs out... or if she moves... or if anyone tries to cut the wrong wire... or if anyone tries to cut the ''right'' wire at the wrong time... or if Mao decides to just go ahead and detonate it remotely... Lelouch gives up and goes after Mao in the hope of disarming the bomb, but in the end it turns out {{spoiler|he told Suzaku which wire to cut and how, then [[Memory Gambit|erased his own memory]] so as not to tip off Mao}}.

* The anime adaption of ''[[Viewtiful Joe]]'' has a character who would show up randomly with this as his gimmick. He failed a lot.

* An episode of [[Patlabor]] had Asuma facing a wire dilemma. He was about to cut one wire, when a pair of wire cutters appears from offscreen to cut the other.

* In the third season of [[Koihime Musou]], Rin-rin must choose between red or blue {{spoiler|tail of an enraged elephant that's been imbued with the forces of the metaphysical.}}

* In [[City Hunter]] The Motion Picture, Kaori must choose between six different colored wires. Ryo tells her to cut the {{spoiler|blue}} wire - he made the decision by {{spoiler|[[Bat Deduction|lifting his client's skirt and noting the color of her panties, which were blue.]]}} It turns out {{spoiler|to be the right choice.}}

* Parodied in a ''[[Knights of the Dinner Table]]'' strip, where after trying hopelessly to figure out which wire to cut (the colorblind character problem), someone asks for a physical description of the bomb, and it turns out it's powered by a simple battery pack, which is pulled out. The GM was steamed he didn't realize it would be that simple.

* Subversion: In ''[[Batman|Catwoman]]'' #61, Catwoman fights Film Freak, a madman who sees everything in terms of [[Film|film tropes]]. After defeating him, she has to defuse an atomic bomb, and faces a classic [[Red Wire Blue Wire]] situation. She cuts a wire at random -- cutting ''[[Wrong Wire|any wire]]'' will shut the bomb down.

 

 

== Fan Fiction ==

 

 

** Also justified in that they weren't trying to disable the bomb, as they still needed to use it. They just needed to disable the activated timer and stop the Pentagon ordered the launch. It's also unclear if cutting the wrong wire would cause the bomb to detonate, or if it just wouldn't stop the countdown.

* In ''[[The Abyss]]'', Virgil must disable a warhead at the bottom of the Cayman Trough. He is told to cut the blue wire with a white stripe, ''not'' the black wire with a yellow stripe, but the yellow-green chemical light on his diving suit renders them indistinguishable. In reality, wires are striped (or not) specifically so they are distinguishable under colored lighting (e.g. one wire striped, one plain).

* [[Double Subversion]] in The French film ''[[Banlieue 13]]'': a police officer is given the shutdown code to the bomb by cell phone- {{spoiler|but it turns out that the code would have detonated the bomb immediately, [[Utopia Justifies the Means|taking out the entire ghetto with it]]. The bomb timed out, but did nothing.}}

* Played almost totally straight in ''[[Bon Cop, Bad Cop]]''. Martin was bomb squad before taking his current position, so he knows exactly what to do.

** Even though they aren't totally colour blind and would at least have a vague hint of which colour was which.

* Subverted in ''[[Die Hard With a Vengeance]]'', where the bomb squad guy is cutting wires left, right, and center, but nothing happens at all...he stays to the end.{{spoiler|..when the timer hits 0 and he finds it's a fake.}}

** Fun Fact: the original cut of the film actually read "003", and this is reflected when Bond explicitly says there were "three ticks" left. Only later did the producers think it would be clever to make the timer read "007", so they shot the timer reading just that... but Bond still says "three ticks" in the final cut of the film. Felix Leiter also makes reference to Bond's fate if they had been 3 seconds too late.

* ''[[Heathers]]'': {{spoiler|"WHICH . . . red . . . button?!"}}

* In [[Jet Li]]'s ''High Risk'', any (big) wire you cut will inadvertently activated the bomb, but a string of wire, subtly hidden from untrained eyes, will actually defused the bomb. Because of the small size and the hidden nature of the wires (attached to a bigger wire), the bomb squad thinks that the small wire is a trap.

* The 1974 film ''[[Juggernaut]]:'' in which a blackmailer has placed bombs inside 55-gallon drums on a cruise ship. At the film's climax, defusing the bomb requires guessing whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire. The police back in London have captured the bad guy, and he tells them to cut the blue wire -- so now the question becomes, do you believe him, or cut the red wire?

* In ''[[Lethal Weapon 3]]'', Riggs insists on trying to defuse a bomb rather than waiting for the bomb squad to arrive. After joking around with Murtaugh about what color wire to cut, he finally cuts [[Wrong Wire|one that accelerates the timer on the bomb...]] which leads to the classic one-liner, "Grab the cat."

* Parodied in National Lampoon's ''[[Loaded Weapon 1]]''. The first wire that Emilio Estevez cuts causes Jon Lovitz to blow up. The second causes the power to go out on the boat. The third causes [[Thirty Second Blackout|a complete power outage in Los Angeles]]. Finally, he throws the bomb overboard.

* Played with a twist in the 1986 vehicle for bad acting, worse science and [[Fridge Logic]] moments, ''[[The Manhattan Project]]'' (featuring a young John Lithgow). The timer on a fat-man style plutonium bomb is accidentally activated and couldn't be deactivated. Fortunately, the bomb is just a high-school science project. No trick wires; no problem. Yet, before the right wire could be cut, the individual photo-flashers that powered the detonators charged up. This meant all '''six''' wires between the flashers and the detonators had to be cut ''simultaneously''. And wouldn't you know it, there were only five pairs of wire-cutters in the hangar.

* In ''[[Rush Hour]]'', the token chick (the bomb technician) must disable the C4 strapped to a child. The important part is not in what she cuts but in what order: she fails a bomb training class because of this - in fact that's why they hire her to get it off. She even uses a rhyme to memorize it. The order: Roses are red (red), violets are blue (blue), honey is sweet (green), and so are you (takes the bomb off the kid).

* In the 1994 ''[[The Shadow]]'' film, Dr. Lane, faced with a bomb he built while under [[Mind Control]], declares that "It's usually green," but then cuts the red wire (he'd [[Chekhov's Gun|previously been established as red-green colourblind]]). At the last second, Margo pulls the green wire before he does so.

'''Dan:''' I cut the blue one.<br />

[Bomb explodes] }}

* Also seen in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'', where Dascombe is trying to defuse V's bomb. Lampshaded by an appropriately nervous Finch.

{{quote| "Do you have any idea what you're doing?"}}

* Subverted in the 1998 [[X-Files]] movie, when this trope set up as a bomb is discovered in a government building and an FBI agent remains behind to try to disarm it. However, {{spoiler|we find out that he actually makes no attempt to disarm the bomb and intentionally lets it explode to preserve a government cover-up.}}

* One of the international posters for ''[[The Hurt Locker]]'' has the tagline "Cut the red one", taking the trope front and center. [[Covers Always Lie|There is no such wire dilemma in the film]].

* Not with a bomb, but with connecting an oxygen tank to a space shuttle's tubes, in ''[[Space Camp]]''.

 

 

== Literature ==

* The ''[[Warhammer 40000]]: [[Ciaphas Cain]]'' novel ''The Traitor's Hand'' uses multiple permutations of this for hilarity. Cain discovers a hovercar that has been crashed into a hotel full of high-ranking military officers is jury rigged to explode in a very violent manner. He calls up a techpriest to tell him how to fix it, who promptly tells him that "theological matters" such as disarming a bomb are not for unconsecrated plebes like Cain. Cain answers by threatening to have him shot, and when he finally secures the man's cooperation, Cain is told to pull the red wire....at which point Cain realizes both wires are purple. The techpriest advises him to use his own judgement. So Cain picks one at random and pulls.

* In the Murray Leinster story ''Second Landing'' the main character has to disable an atomic bomb ''built by aliens.'' Eventually {{spoiler|he realizes that in all atomic bombs, no matter who built them, the explosives surrounding the fissionable core have to fire in a perfectly synchronized sequence or the bomb will fizzle. So he shoots the bomb with a bazooka, prematurely detonating some of the explosives.}}

* Subverted in ''[[Life On Mars]]'', where Sam agonises over which wire to cut, but the bomb squad appears from off screen, cuts both wires with a pair of hedge trimmers, and walks away.

* Another twist in a ''[[Hogan's Heroes]]'' episode, in which Hogan [[Anti-Advice|cuts the opposite wire of the one Klink picked]], on the theory that Klink is always wrong.

* Given an interesting twist in the ''Profiler'' episode "Unsoiled Sovereignty", where the villain has planted explosives at a site, all of them accessible only by the outside of the building. ATF agent Coop defuses the first, but it is affixed to the ''inside'' wall of the building, so he has to work THROUGH a small window without being able to see what he's doing. VCTF agent John Grant, who always wanted to be on the bomb squad, panics at trying to defuse the second, mounted on a strut of the building, and it is only after Coop ignores his own bomb to talk John through his that John figures out how to disarm it. Of course, both bombs are disarmed.

* Subverted on ''[[Monk]]''. Monk is disarming a mail bomb, and the bomb expert tells him that it doesn't ''matter'' which wire he cuts. Monk nearly lets the bomb go off because he can't decide whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire, due to his OCD. (Eventually he cuts both.)

* Avoided in the Austrian series ''[[Kommissar Rex]]''. One of the characters is agonizing over which wire to cut. He can't come up with anything, the timer runs out - and his colleague had pulled the detonator out of the explosives.

* Parodied in ''[[The Fast Show]]''. After doing the standard [[Wire Dilemma]] for the first two wires (complete with dramatic close ups on the wires being snipped and disagreements over which wire to cut first) another soldier goes "Sod this, anyone fancy a pint?" and just cuts them all with hedge trimmers.

* Parodied as early as ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', with the Unexploded Scotsman squad.

* A variation is used in an episode of ''Space Precinct'', where instead of cutting wires, the defusers have a choice between removing the power pack or the trigger.

* The British must love subverting this one. In an episode of ''[[Spooks]]'', the characters are presented with your standard "rainbow wire" bomb. While Malcolm (the resident tech-head) angsts over which to cut, Adam grabs his clippers and cuts them all. Malcolm frets over how incredibly dangerous that was, until Adam points that waiting for the timer to hit zero probably wasn't the healthiest alternative.

** In one episode, Ros and Lucas try to defuse a bomb in restaurant. Actually, it's a converted Italian landmine. No wires are attached, so Malcolm's solution is to pop it in the restaurant microwave for twenty seconds. It works

* ''[[Bottom]]'' does this with tea mugs. Richie & Eddie are trying to poison a burglar they have captive. Richie, in his haste, forgets which mug - out of the three - the duo have laced with pigeon pellets.

{{quote| '''Richie:''' No, which one's got the poison in it?<br />

** Ziva is suspiciously adept at disarming bombs with ''no'' colored wires. Must be something they teach at Mossad.

*** One episode had the team discover a giant bomb at the end of the episode, with around 100 wires - Of course, some of them are red and blue. Luckily, the "criminal" {{spoiler|(she actualy isn't, and was chasing the bomb owner to stop the bomb from exploding)}} they've been chasing the whole episode knows how to defuse it.

* ''[[The Professionals]]''. In "Stakeout" the lads are disarming a crude home-made atomic bomb with the help of its builder, who's decided he doesn't want to die for the cause after all. He's just removed the detonator with 30 seconds to go when he forgets which wire he's supposed to cut (it's red, naturally).

* ''[[The Equalizer]]''. Robert McCall and Mickey Kostmeyer use a simple rhyme (presumably taught in spy school) to help them remember which wire to cut: ''Blue before yellow, kills the fellow.'' Then one of them asks: "Wasn't it blue ''after'' yellow, kills the fellow?"

* The ''[[Power Rangers]]'' and the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' face this dilemma in the PRiS episode "Shell Shocked"

* ''[[The Crystal Maze]]'' would have a game like this [[Once an Episode|OnceASeries]].

* In one episode of ''[[MacGyver]]'', a [[Time Bomb]] is planted on a ship. After Mac disables the numerous defense mechanisms of the bomb, he arrives at a [[Wire Dilemma]]. A bomb technician tells him which wire he should cut, but Mac cuts the other one instead {{spoiler|because he suspects that the bomb technican is the villain}}.

** He eventually calls up his son for the mnemonic... and it turns out to be wrong.

* An episode of ''[[Chuck]]'' had a variation in which the person giving the instructions was suicidal and ''wanted'' the bomb to go off. Chuck figured this out in time and did the opposite of what he said, disarming the bomb.

* A ''Benson'' episode has one of these. (Bomb squad technician: "Is it 'White you're right, red you're dead', or...?")

* A Turkish crime-drama ("Yılan Hikayesi") had a variation of it where the protagonist is trying to defuse a bomb and having trouble since neither him nor his partner have bomb training beyond basics. His partner quips that "they always cut the red wire" in the movies. The protagonist, on the other hand, works around the wires to see what goes where before taking a risk to sever the wire he suspects is the right one.

* ''[[Bionic Woman]]'' (2007 remake). Jaime finds her [[Love Interest]] turned into a [[Why Am I Ticking?|human bomb]] during a [[Hostage for McGuffin]] trade -- the bomb has two false wires and one true one. Fortunately [[Mission Control]] can see an enhanced view relayed through her bionic eye, and tell her which wire to cut based on where the power is going.

* In ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'', a bomb is placed UNDER the Liberty Bell. The bomber had earlier given a [[Dying Clue]] of "red, white, and blue" to Steve. When Steve lifts the Bell for a bomb tech to disarm the bomb, there are FOUR wires - red, white, blue, and green. Steve figures out that the bomber WANTED the Bell to be destroyed, so he tells the tech to cut the green wire - which disarms it.

* In an episode of ''[[Fringe]]'', [[Mad Scientist|David Robert Jones]] has his follows place a bomb placed on a window of a very tall building that releases a toxin that causes scar tissue to grow over one's [[And I Must Scream|mouth, nose, eyes and... other orifices]]. The wires are all black and the only way to turn it off is to telepathically turn off fifty or so little globes. {{spoiler|Olivia does so.}}

* Happens twice on ''[[Primeval]]''. In the first example, Connor tells Cutter to [[Genre Savvy|cut the red wire]], but all of the wires are red. In the second example, [[Mission Control|Jess]] is trying to disarm a bomb under Becker's direction, but the two wires- only one of which she can cut without killing both of them- are both red.

* In the ''[[My Name Is Earl]]'' episode "My Name Is Alias", Earl and Randy are handcuffed to a briefcase bomb. Randy figures out that all they have to do is open it up and cut the blue wire, since that's what always happens in TV. So they open it up, only to find that it's ALL blue wires.

'''Alice:''' Just do it. Only cut the red one.<br />

'''Minette:''' ... }}

{{quote| '''Mook 1''' Red, blue, or green?<br />

'''Mook 2''' It's always red or blue in the movies.<br />

* ''[[Trauma Center]]'' has one "operation" where Dr. Stiles is following very precise instructions to defuse a bomb. In the DS version, it's a fairly standard bomb - but it becomes ''ridiculously'' elaborate in ''Second Opinion''.

** In [[Trauma Team]], Naomi has to defuse a final bomb {{spoiler|that's in a pillow.}}

* Parodied in a cutscene at the end of ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak II]]''. [[Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass|Daxter]] climbs into the ginormous Piercer Bomb in order to get it to release the Precursor Stone (and, theoretically, disarm it). Some of his mutterings include "Should I clip the blue wire?" And "Wait a minute, are [[Weasel Mascot|ottsels]] coloblind?" He eventually just breaks a few things and the Stone comes loose. ''The Lost Frontier'' also has him disarming missiles by just pulling wires and stuff out.

* In the [[Intellivision]] game ''Bomb Squad'', you have to cut out or replace the parts of each bomb in a certain order. If you replace a part incorrectly, the [[Magic Countdown]] speeds up until you remove it. If you cut a part out of order, you only have a few seconds to resolder it before that bomb explodes. Short circuits also occasionally occur, requiring you to use the fire extinguisher to prevent an explosion.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'', Riff buys a brand name nuclear reactor ([[You Fail Nuclear Physics Forever|actually a repurposed Soviet suitcase nuke]]) that goes meltdown after an EMP burst. He spends the next couple of strips [[Rule of Funny|talking to customer service]], who tell him to cut the wires in order of color, only to find out that, to save money, the company used the same color for each wire in a few of the reactors. After he tells them this, the company puts him on hold while they get to a safe distance.

* ''Oh My Gods!'' had a strip entitled "Why there aren't any gay men on the bomb squad." The strip featured the comic's two gay protagonists wondering, "Is it the cyanide wire or the chartreuse wire?"

{{quote| '''Marcie:''' You'll see three wires. Cut the ''carnelian'' wire. Do ''not'' cut the magenta wire. Whatever you do, don't ''touch'' the burgundy.<br />

'''Chris:''' They're red, Marcie.<br />

** And then {{spoiler|it turns out that Chris can, in fact, tell the difference between carnelian, magenta and burgundy, as a result of the [[Chekhov's Gun|apparently-unrelated activity he'd been engaged in when the crisis began]].}}

* Also parodied in ''[[Real Life Comics]]'' [http://reallifecomics.com/archive/031212.html strip]

 

 

 

== Western Animation ==

** Another time in the episode "Convicts From Dimension X" when inter-dimensional criminals trapped the turtles in a force field with a time bomb set up nearby. They freed themselves and Donatello has to decide which wire to pull.

{{quote| '''Donatello:''' I'm just not sure which wire to pull.<br />

'''Raphael:''' It stopped. But I said to pull the red wire, not the blue wire!<br />

'''Donatello:''' I know. That's why I didn't pull it. It ''is'' always the red wire. They tried to trick us. }}

{{quote| '''Razor:''' Okay, piece of cake, just remember, always cut the red wire. ''[opens the bomb]'' Oh Dark Kat, you miserable psycho!}}

** The bombs themselves turn out to be an [[Invoked Trope]] on part of the Joker, who is filming the whole thing for a TV show and [[The Coconut Effect|is playing with the public's perceptions on how time bombs function]] to increase suspense. Their confusing layout also helps cover up the fact that several of them are fake and won't detonate either way.

* In one episode of ''Atomic Betty'' Sparky must defuse a bomb while -5 reads him instructions over a video link. X-5 discovers that cutting any wire will cause the timer to count down faster and says "DO NOT CUT THE WIRES. REPEAT: '''DO NOT CUT THE WIRES!'''". The video link is bad and both of the "do not" parts of Z-5's transmission is cut off, causing Sparky to become frustrated and cut a wire randomly.

* In ''[[The Tick]]'', The Tick has to stop an oversized bomb from destroying The Renaissance. He finds a huge mass of wires inside, but after considering the wire problem, he finds an incredibly obvious On/Off switch instead.

** Compare with the episode "The Idea Men", where The Tick fails at disarming the bomb and ends up running it outside its intended blast zone to a place where it can't harm anyone (it detonates in ''his'' face, but The Tick is [[Nigh Invulnerable]]).

{{quote| '''Meg:''' What do you mean, cut the blue wire?! THEY'RE ''ALL'' BLUE WIRES!}}

* One episode of the US made ''[[Street Fighter]]'' cartoon has a scene where Guile tries to defuse a bomb, but comes up short and simply decides to Sonic Boom it. Miraculously, this actually defuses the bomb.

** While it's not clear whether the writers put that much thought into it, depending on just how the Sonic Boom works and the type of explosives involved, this might have worked if the circuitry was destroyed before triggering the bomb.

* ''[[Archer]]'': First the bomb expert directs Archer and Lana to cut the blue and white striped wire... except there are two of them, and they can't tell which one is blue with white stripes and which one is white with blue stripes. Then, after checking the serial number of the bomb, Archer is directed to cut the green wire... except the bomb expert misheard the last letter of the serial number, so cutting the green wire speeds up the detonation.

** Eventually they just [[Take a Third Option|dump out the bomb from the airship]]. [[Failure Is the Only Option|Onto a populated area]].

{{quote| '''Cyril:''' I think we just bombed Ireland.<br />

'''Lana:''' [[Acceptable Targets|I'm pretty sure that's Wales.]] }}

* While not a bomb, one episode of Dexter's Laboratory had Dexter cutting wires in one of his inventions, with help from a now genius Dee-Dee. While he goes to cut the wires she hints they are wrong until they get to the last one, which Dexter states has to be correct via process of elimination and cuts it. It's wrong. Dee-Dee then reveals they were all the wrong wires.