I was watching Armageddon on blu ray, and one scene struck out as a total movie cliche. Gosh, I've seen this one played out in so many movies exactly in this fashion:


There is a bomb or nuke that is on a timer with only seconds left

Someone is trying to disarm the bomb and has to choose between the blue or red wire. It is always blue and red! lol

They go with one color and then at the last second, no wait, it's the other color.

Bomb disarms at the last second.


Can you think of other movies with this scene? I believe it is in Lethal Weapon 3, Executive Decision, and maybe Gold Finger?

Why don't they use pastel wires? Change it up a bit.

The opening scene of Lethal Weapon 3 immediately comes to mind.

I don't know if Goldfinger counts because Bond had no idea what to do and got bailed out by that other guy who knew exactly what to do.

I look forward to the end of MacGruber, in which hopefully the wrong wire is cut and everyone dies at the end.

Haha, this actually happened at the end of Sledgehammer season 1. Sledge cuts the wire and the next thing you see is a mushroom cloud. lol

The Manhattan Project?

Didn't that happen in The Dark Knight - only to result in a stream of liquified jelly?

Die Hard with a Vegeance

LOL, damn that show was awesome.

Well, at least I knew I've seen it before ...

The Abyss

Tho Bud Briggman couldn't distinguish the colors in the florescent glow.

The Peacemaker
The Andromeda Strain

Galaxy Quest

The English Patient

Goldfinger?

Well kinda

Armageddon not only has the defuse-at-the-last-possible-second, it also has detonate-at-the-last-possible-second. uniquely cliche

And it also has the cliche of one-guy-has-to-stay-behind and die to fulfill the mission because of some technical problem. The young guy volunteers, but then the old guy somehow tricks him and winds up getting to stay. They even did this on 24 years ago.(though in a better way).

Face/Off

Virtuosity has this all though it's a bit different with "input" and "output" connections via fiber optic cable.

Speed is another along with Blown Away which probably be the ultimate "red wire or blue wire" movie.

The Rock

"get me the fuck out of this suit"

The Big Bus

There was an episode of NCIS that showed two in-training bomb squad members training to disarm a fake bomb with a big red LED timer. The fake bomb "went off" with 30 seconds left on the timer, and their instructor said something to the effect of" The terrorist have seen the movies too."

Juggernaut

An old Richard Harris/Omar Sharif flick with bombs on a cruise ship. You thought Speed 2 was bad, it wasn't even the first "bombs on a cruise ship" film.

What about the walking away from an explosion with no reaction when it goes off cliche?