# Snipping the wires on a time bomb **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 31, 2006, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipping-the-wires-on-a-time-bomb/378548 "2006-10-31T04:09:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [November 1, 2006, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipping-the-wires-on-a-time-bomb/378548/41 "2006-11-01T19:10:44Z")
Oh yeah, I was going to mention: one of my favorite variations on the old cliche is in **The Abyss** , where Ed Harris is sent to work on a bomb deep underwater. Over his intercom, they tell him, “Okay, now, clip the _black_ wire with the _white_ stripe, but absolutely do _not_ clip the _blue_ wire with the _yellow_ stripe.” But, in the green-yellow light of his glowstick, the wires look identical. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipping-the-wires-on-a-time-bomb/378548/42 "2006-11-02T00:50:40Z")
[QUOTE=Subway Prophet] If I remember the movie correctly, they did get a bang anyway, but somehow everyone was miraculously spared the plutonium contamination. [/QUOTE] That was my only big problem with that film. They crash through a stained-glass window at the end as the damaged trigger goes off, scattering plutonium through the air. And then lingered a couple days and died from heavy-metal and radiation poisoning caused by all of the plutonium dust they inhaled & got into their bloodstream through numerous cuts & abrasions. Oh, wait, no they didn’t. :smack: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snipping-the-wires-on-a-time-bomb/378548.md?page=2)