# In movies, does dropping a nuke EVER help a situation? (SPOILERS, probably) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 22, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107 "2003-07-22T08:25:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/1 "2003-07-22T08:25:55Z")
…I mean, think about it. All the detonation of nuclear bombs ever seems to do is to spark an environmental catastrophe (_The Day After_, _Godzilla_), or just prove completely ineffective against the foe it’s used against (_Independance Day_, _War of the Worlds_). All the _other_ nukes seen onscreen are held by villains, and _those_ are almost always stopped from detonating just as the bomb timer reaches “0:01” (or “0:07,” in a certain series of films). In fact, the only times I can think of nuclear weapons _successfully_ being deployed by the _good guys_ are in the twin “asteroid movies,” _Armageddon_ and _Deep Impact_. But surely there are others…right? ---
**Author:** ![Trjckster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Trjckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trjckster)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/2 "2003-07-22T09:32:25Z")
In Independance day they destroyed the alien mothership with a nuke after getting inside it, but I understand what you are talking about. Its a very common plot, the big miltary guys ignoring the heros advice and reacting with a super weapon that only makes things worse. ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/3 "2003-07-22T09:43:29Z")
Although, you have to admit, nuking the bastards is kinda cool. ---
**Author:** ![Trjckster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Trjckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trjckster)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/4 "2003-07-22T09:59:08Z")
If you think dropping a nuke is bad what about stepping on one? Take [this](http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993943) you dirty dirty communist! ---
**Author:** ![refusal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@refusal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/refusal)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/5 "2003-07-22T11:06:33Z")
From one point of view, Fail-Safe, although it’s not exactly a good solution to the problem: The Americans bomb Moscow by mistake so to avert a tragedy the USAF also drops a nuke on New York. Of course, since the problem was also caused by dropping a nuke, this may not count. If that’s the sort of way a nuke helps a situation, you’re probably better off firing them at mutant radioactive lizards. ---
**Author:** ![HeatMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecd19e/32.png) [@HeatMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatMiser)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/6 "2003-07-22T11:09:36Z")
I believe _Aliens_ would be another example where the nuke (presumably) did the job it was intended to do. (_“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. That’s the only way to be sure.”_) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/7 "2003-07-22T11:38:34Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by HeatMiser \* > (_“I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. That’s the only way to be sure.”\*) 😃 Fuckin’ A. Though actually, the nuclear explosion was the result of the colony’s reactors going out of control, rather than any action by Ripley and the marines. Ripley sets off a nuclear blast of some kind when she self-destructs the _Nostromo_ in the previous film. It doesn’t really help, though, and on reflection, it was a really bad idea. John Sheriden (Bruce Boxleitner) crashes a 600-megaton nuke into Zahadoum (sp?) to great effect in, I believe, the third-season cliffhanger of _Babylon 5_. Not a movie, I grant you. ---
**Author:** ![HeatMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecd19e/32.png) [@HeatMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatMiser)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/8 "2003-07-22T11:59:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bryan Ekers \* > \*\*Fuckin’ A. > > Though actually, the nuclear explosion was the result of the colony’s reactors going out of control, rather than any action by Ripley and the marines.\*\* Thanks for the correction; I’m quite embarassed that I misremembered that sequence of events so badly. I’d still like to think that the nuke would have worked and worked well had they been allowed the opportunity to drop it - maybe it still serves as a counter-example in some small way to the increasingly prevalent cliche that bold, direct action only makes things worse. \ \ ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/9 "2003-07-22T12:20:30Z")
Actually, on reflection, my account wasn’t entirely accurate, either. The reactors going out of control _was_ indirectly through the action of the marines, when they shot up the cooling facility while fending off aliens and when the drop ship crashed (also because of alien interference), damaging the system enough so the survivors couldn’t shut the reactors down. Adding to my _Babylon 5_ comment, Sheriden also used a nuke in the _B5_ movie “Thirdspace”. There’s a megacool moment when he opens a secure locker on the station filled with metal containers covered with the yellow nuclear warning symbol. Then he has to deliver the nuke by flying across open space with a jetpack of some kind while a huge battle rages around him. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/10 "2003-07-22T12:34:54Z")
Hmm, it might have been the _B5_ movie “A Call to Arms”, not “Thirdspace.” ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/11 "2003-07-22T12:42:34Z")
Starship Troops brought us rifle fired “tactical” field nukes that seemed to turn bad situations into somewhat less bad situations by incinerating large numbers of bugs. MeanJoe - One of Seven people who really loved that movie! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de053/32.png) [@Umbriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/12 "2003-07-22T14:01:03Z")
Generally, just letting the good guys nuke away their problems would be unsatisfying from a narrative standpoint. It’s like letting them push a “Win” button. Thus, when they work, it can only be after some laborious effort to deliver them (e.g., _Independence Day_, _Babylon 5_ and the asteroid movies). In _Aliens_, having the nuke effectively get set accidentally, and thus imposing a time limit on the action, maintains the momentum of the story much better than simply having the characters get back to the ship and then anticlimactically blast the place. There’s also a certain anti-nuclear subtext in place though (in Hollywood? Perish the thought!), which, regardless of one’s politics generally, seems ridiculous in the context of things like alien invasions. Sending fighters to attack a 15 mile-wide spacecraft with air-to-air missiles was comparable to sending cops to destroy the New Orleans Superdome with their handguns. The fact that the fleet of ships was systematically incinerating cities made the professed fear of collateral damage simply absurd, and the single tactical nuke ultimately used would probably not have been sufficient against a target of such size even without alien forcefield technology protecting it. If I had been President Pullman, I’d have been saturating the bastards with every nuclear bomb and missile we culd dig up. A 50kt Lance missile hit didn’t make them flinch? Let’s try a dozen 200Kt MIRV’d ICBM warheads, with a 9 Megaton B-52-delivered cherry on top. Plus I’d have had the Russians on the phone (and who’d have thought _they’d_ be so timid as to need _my_ encouragement) asking them to launch some of their serious multi-megaton hate our way. Harm to the environment? Arguable. But if ever a situation merited a scorched earth policy… scorched “Earth”, in fact… ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de053/32.png) [@Umbriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/13 "2003-07-22T14:04:13Z")
By the way, MeanJoe. You might be interested in [Heinlein’s real-life inspiration](http://www.guntruck.com/DavyCrockett.html) for those sub-tactical nukes. ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/14 "2003-07-22T14:10:47Z")
**Umbrield** - Thanks for the link, tres’ cool stuff! ---
**Author:** ![Rhum\_Runner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rhum\_Runner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhum_Runner)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/15 "2003-07-22T14:31:41Z")
“Mr. President, we need to nuke 'em, we need to nuke 'em now!” /Mars Attacks ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/16 "2003-07-22T15:02:04Z")
Setting off the nuke helped in **Armageddon**. Not that that film should be used as a shining example of, well, anything. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/17 "2003-07-22T15:21:52Z")
I swear, one of these days I’ll learn to read OPs fully… ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/18 "2003-07-22T16:21:05Z")
It doesn’t help the situation, but in the movie _True Lies_, the bad guys successfully detonate a nuke in the Florida Keys. It’s probably the first movie where the bad guy’s nuclear bomb actually gets to go off. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/19 "2003-07-22T16:46:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > \*\*It doesn’t help the situation, but in the movie _True Lies_, the bad guys successfully detonate a nuke in the Florida Keys. It’s probably the first movie where the bad guy’s nuclear bomb actually gets to go off. \*\* No way, unless you define “bad guys” in a very narrow sense. Off the top of my head, _Dr. Strangelove_ and one of the _Planet of the Apes_’ sequels had bombs successfully set off by bad guys. By the way the _Babylon 5_ scene described by **Bryan Ekers** is definitely from _Thirdspace_. _A Call To Arms_ was the pilot for the _Babylon 5: Crusade_ series, I believe. It mostly featured the new Excalibur class destroyer, which was a direct ripoff of _Starblazers_. (It has a super-powerful main gun which, when used, disables the ship for one minute. Such a convenient plot device.) ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107/20 "2003-07-22T16:56:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diceman \* > \*\*It doesn’t help the situation, but in the movie _True Lies_, the bad guys successfully detonate a nuke in the Florida Keys. It’s probably the first movie where the bad guy’s nuclear bomb actually gets to go off. \*\* Not even close. In _Dr. Strangleove_ (1964), the insane Brigadier General Ripper orders the 34 bombers under his command to attack the Soviets. Thirty are recalled, three are shot down, but one gets through and manages to nuke its target, with Slim Pickens ridin’ all the way to ground zero. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-movies-does-dropping-a-nuke-ever-help-a-situation-spoilers-probably/190107.md?page=2)