4 ms·

Is there some movie that's source of the cliche of needing to defuse a bomb by cutting the wire with the right color? This is so common a cliche that it must ha

by nonce42 13y ago

Is there some movie that's source of the cliche of needing to defuse a bomb by cutting the wire with the right color? This is so common a cliche that it must have come from somewhere. And while I'm asking random questions, where did the cliche of the anarchist with the spherical black bomb with a fuse coming out the top come from? This icon was used for system errors on the original Mac, but it must be way older than that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_(symbol) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bomb_(symbol)

HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago
I think it may have originated with Wargames (1983 movie starring Matthew Modine and a pretty good movie at that), but what do I know: I'm old and confused.
- ams6110 13y ago
  I think you mean Matthew Broderick. Anyway the "cut the blue wire" cliche is a lot older than that. I think I remember it from old Mission Impossible episodes on TV when I was a kid, and those were produced in the late '60s/early '70s.
  - russellsprouts 13y ago
    According to TVTropes, under Wire Dilemma, Get Smart also had an instance of it around the same time, which leads me to believe that it was a widespread trope even then. There is an idea that it originated in WWII, when some German bombs featured overly complicated designs that purposely didn't explode all the time, because a live bomb is arguably worse than an already exploded bomb.
bazzargh 13y ago
Re the spherical bomb: an example from 1946: Tom & Jerry, Trap Happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMfR_yoEdE#t=1m59 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMfR_yoEdE#t=1m59 In 1922, Buster Keaton's "Cops" features a bomb-throwing anarchist: http://images.greencine.com/images/article/keaton-bomb-2.jpg http://images.greencine.com/images/article/keaton-bomb-2.jpg (Buster unknowingly lights his cigarette with it) And 1919, a 'Red Scare' cartoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Come_unto_me,_ye_opprest.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Come_unto_me,_ye_opprest.... But this has got to be older, as this type of throwing bomb was obsolete in the early 1900s. There's the Haymarket affair (1886): http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haymarket/justicebomb.jpg http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haymarket/just... I'm guessing that's the incident that ties this bomb to political activists. But the design is a lot older; the badge of Napoleon's grenadier guards is an image of this type of bomb, but the round throwing bomb is way, way older: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ming_Dynasty_fragmentation_bomb.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ming_Dynasty_fragmentatio... Recognisably the same bomb, from the 14th century.

by nonce42 13y ago

HeyLaughingBoy 13y ago

I think it may have originated with Wargames (1983 movie starring Matthew Modine and a pretty good movie at that), but what do I know: I'm old and confused.

ams6110 13y ago
I think you mean Matthew Broderick. Anyway the "cut the blue wire" cliche is a lot older than that. I think I remember it from old Mission Impossible episodes on TV when I was a kid, and those were produced in the late '60s/early '70s.
- russellsprouts 13y ago
  According to TVTropes, under Wire Dilemma, Get Smart also had an instance of it around the same time, which leads me to believe that it was a widespread trope even then. There is an idea that it originated in WWII, when some German bombs featured overly complicated designs that purposely didn't explode all the time, because a live bomb is arguably worse than an already exploded bomb.

bazzargh 13y ago

Re the spherical bomb: an example from 1946: Tom & Jerry, Trap Happy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMfR_yoEdE#t=1m59 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyMfR_yoEdE#t=1m59 In 1922, Buster Keaton's "Cops" features a bomb-throwing anarchist: http://images.greencine.com/images/article/keaton-bomb-2.jpg http://images.greencine.com/images/article/keaton-bomb-2.jpg (Buster unknowingly lights his cigarette with it) And 1919, a 'Red Scare' cartoon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Come_unto_me,_ye_opprest.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Come_unto_me,_ye_opprest.... But this has got to be older, as this type of throwing bomb was obsolete in the early 1900s. There's the Haymarket affair (1886): http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haymarket/justicebomb.jpg http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haymarket/just... I'm guessing that's the incident that ties this bomb to political activists. But the design is a lot older; the badge of Napoleon's grenadier guards is an image of this type of bomb, but the round throwing bomb is way, way older: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ming_Dynasty_fragmentation_bomb.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ming_Dynasty_fragmentatio... Recognisably the same bomb, from the 14th century.