Time Bombs in Fiction
Time bombs are common plot devices used in action/thriller TV series, cartoons, films and video games, where the hero often escape the blast area or defuses the bomb at the last second. Many fictional time bombs are improvised, and usually involve a beeping sound with a large prominent countdown timer (on rare occasions, the timer will count up).
Such fictional appearances include:
- Kojak, Knight Rider, MacGyver, Get Smart, Men in Black: The Series, 24, Sonic X, Hogan's Heroes, VR Troopers, and Walker, Texas Ranger on television;
- James Bond: Goldfinger, Die Hard with a Vengeance, The Hindenburg, The Mask, The Peacemaker, Battle Royale, Battle Royale 2: Requiem and New Police Story in film;
- Counter-Strike, Sonic Adventure 2, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Halo, F-Zero GX, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Trauma Center: Under The Knife and Trauma Center Second Opinion in video games; and
- Songs by The Old 97's, Dave Matthews Band, Chumbawamba, Godsmack, The Format, Rancid, Buckcherry, The Dismemberment Plan, Faber Drive and Beck titled "Time bomb" or "Timebomb".
- The popular Super NES video game Chrono Trigger takes its name from the timer-detonator assembly of a time bomb, although the game itself has nothing to do with time bombs but with time travel instead.
Read more about this topic: Time Bomb
Famous quotes containing the words time, bombs and/or fiction:
“Aesop, that great man, saw his master making water as he walked. “What!” he said, “Must we void ourselves as we run?” Use our time as best we may, yet a great part of it will still be idly and ill spent.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why—but the editorialists forget it—terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“The obvious parallels between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz have frequently been noted: in both there is the orphan hero who is raised on a farm by an aunt and uncle and yearns to escape to adventure. Obi-wan Kenobi resembles the Wizard; the loyal, plucky little robot R2D2 is Toto; C3PO is the Tin Man; and Chewbacca is the Cowardly Lion. Darth Vader replaces the Wicked Witch: this is a patriarchy rather than a matriarchy.”
—Andrew Gordon, U.S. educator, critic. “The Inescapable Family in American Science Fiction and Fantasy Films,” Journal of Popular Film and Television (Summer 1992)