Tripwire’s Paul Neal Looks At The “Let’s Launch A Nuke To Solve All Our Problems” Cliche In Movies

Time To Call In The Nuclear Option

Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul N Neal thinks he has spotted an annoying trend in modern movie making. This is where in action or superhero movies the military forces of one country or another (usually the United States of America) resort to using missiles or extreme measures like nuclear weapons at the expense of common sense only for a small group of heroes to save the day. Surely we have all seen this concept a few times.

He wanted to see just how common this conceit is really used. Has he spotted a trend?

Is there a pattern? He will list only the facts of each movie as his sees them. In no particular order, he begins with 2012’s epic Marvel superhero team-up Avengers.

The Avengers (Avengers Assemble: UK) (2012)

The Threat: A huge alien invasion
Heroes: The Avengers.
Military Solution: NUKE Manhattan.
Result: Hopeless until the missile was taken into another dimension.
Verdict: Military were idiots but got lucky.

Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice (2016)

The Threat: Doomsday (and Lex Luthor.)
Heroes: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
Military Solution: Nuke Superman and Doomsday.
Result: Nearly kills Superman and makes Doomsday stronger.
Verdict: Military were just idiots.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (2008)

The Threat: A very large robot and Keanu Reeves.

Heroes: Technically Keanu Reeves and oddly John Cleese.

Military Solution: Planned to NUKE the problem.

Result: Utterly pointless. Earth thrown back to the stone age.

Verdict: Military were total idiots.

Independence Day (1996)

The Threat: Another huge alien invasion.

Heroes: Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and Bill Pullman.

Military Solution: NUKE Houston Texas.

Result: Utterly pointless.

Verdict: Military were idiots until they listened to common sense.

The Core (2003)

The Threat: The Earth’s core has mysteriously stopped spinning.

Heroes: Aaron Eckhart, Hilary Swank, Stanley Tucci etc.

Military Solution: Sonically NUKE the planet.

Result: Would have made everything worse. Avoided.

Verdict: Military were idiots.

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

The Threat: Some horrible neo-Nazis

Heroes: Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Jack Ryan.

Military Solution: NUKE everything in sight.

Result: It was all a trick. Nuclear War narrowly averted.

Verdict: Military and politicians were idiots.

Don’t Look Up (2021)

The Threat: An asteroid on course to wipe out all life on Earth.

Heroes: Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence.

Military Solution: NUKE the asteroid.

Result: A comical farce and all life on Earth is wiped out anyway.

Verdict: Military and almost everyone on screen were idiots.

The Abyss (1989)

The Threat: An alien species hidden deep in the ocean.

Heroes: Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

Military Solution: NUKE the aliens.

Result: Several Megatsunamis (The Special Edition.)

Verdict: Military were stupid, might have had the bends.

Outbreak (1995)

The Threat: The fictional Motaba Virus.

Heroes: Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Military Solution: NUKE the fictional town of Cedar Creek, California.

Result: Pointless, the virus had already spread.

Verdict: Military were idiots, and scientists saved the day.

Arrival (2016)

The Threat: Twelve Mysterious Alien craft on Earth.

Heroes: Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

Military Solution: NUKE all the Alien spacecraft.

Result: Crisis averted though an understanding of the nature of time.

Verdict: Military and world leaders were idiots.
Note: Arguably the BEST science fiction movie in three decades.

Moonfall (2022)

The Threat: A weird black nano virus that hates the moon.

Heroes: Halle Berry, Patrick Wilson and John Bradley.

Military Solution: NUKE the Moon!

Result: Pointless, averted and Humanity is saved

Verdict: Military (and the scriptwriters were idiots.)
Note: Arguably the WORST science fiction movie in three decades.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)

The Threat: King Ghidorah. Maybe Godzilla?

Heroes: Kyle Chandler, Millie Bobby Brown and Bradley Whitford.

Military Solution: NUKE Godzilla.

Result: Pointless. Nearly kills Godzilla, makes Ghidorah stronger.

Verdict: Military were idiots. Again.
Note: Bit similar to the plot of Batman V Superman.

Stargate (1994)

The Threat: The Unknown. May an invasion of led by alien masquerading as ancient Egyptian pharaoh.

Heroes: Kurt Russell and James Spader.

Military Solution: NUKE the Stargate.

Result: The nuke was reused to defeat the Alien, Ra.

Verdict: Military were still idiots and got lucky.
Note: Roland Emmerich films tend to have a trend. He likes nuclear weapons!

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Conclusion.

He has presented his evidence. He by no means suggested it would be an exhaustive or complete list.

He excluded Deep Impact (1998) and Armageddon (also 1998) from his list because using nuclear weapons in these two films actually worked!

Plus, he argues Godzilla (1998) simply involved an airstrike, and in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) the bomb was created by Bane and not the military so it doesn’t qualify.

Also, he maintains Godzilla (2014) is such a disappointingly bad film it wasn’t worth his time trying to rewatch it to form opinion.

As ever Tripwire is always interested in lively debate about these things. Has he missed any films that should qualify? Do you disagree with his theory? Has he found a movie cliché? Please feel free to disagree with him.

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Final note: This article is a sequel of sorts to Paul’s previous article named the X-Files Syndrome. For those interested here is a helpful link.

https://tripwiremagazine.co.uk/headlines/did-the-x-files-lead-to-copycat-tv-shows/