The Wire Dilemma
LowRider44M
Language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
From a site on TROPES listed at bottom.
A relative gold mine of plot devices - check left index.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WireDilemma?from=Main.RedWireBlueWire
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The Wire Dilemma
(upon discovering that all of the bomb's wires are yellow) You know,
I'd like to take this opportunity to say that this is a very poorly
designed bomb, and I think we should say something to somebody about
it when we get back.
— Colonel Jack O'Neill, Stargate SG-1, "Fail Safe"
In fiction, disarming a bomb is simply a matter of cutting the right
wires in the right order - usually each wire will be given a
distinctive color, and an assistant will read from a manual: "Clip the
red wire, then the blue wire, then the yellow wire..." The implication
is generally that if the wrong wire is cut, the bomb will explode
instantly, killing the person disarming it. Combines Race Against The
Clock with the need to make absolutely sure you're making the right
decision for dramatic tension. Of course it's never as easy as just
following the manual - generally some kind of subversion is used to
heighten tension:
Known permutations:
1. The red wire isn't there.
2. All the wires are the same color.
3. Cutting any wire at all is a bad play.
4. The hero is colorblind, or the lighting makes him effectively
colorblind.
5. The guy reading from the manual changes his mind between maybe
red, maybe blue ... are any of 'em green?
6. The guy with the manual says "red", the hero says "Frack it!"
and yanks out the whole snarled-up mess of wires, or
cuts the blue one and... there is a big explosion.
7. The guy with the manual tells the hero to cut the red wire. He
goes on to do so, but just as he's about to cut it (sweat in
his eyes and all) - or already has - the guy says "NO!! STOP!!
It's not that one!".
8. The color is one the cutter doesn't know: taupe, ochre,
turquoise, umber, etc.
9. The guy reading from the manual says something like "It says to
cut the blue wire.." * snip* ".. after cutting the red one.."
10. The hero just throws the bomb out the window.
Naturally, a bomb intended for air-dropping (or a missile warhead)
really shouldn't have any trick wires! Still, it makes you wish there
were an Override Command
------------- Examples -------------------------------------
Films
* Played a little too straight in Armageddon. As Roger Ebert put
it, "The movie has forgotten that this is not a terrorist bomb, but a
standard-issue U.S. military bomb, being defused by a military guy who
is on board specifically because he knows about this bomb. A guy like
that, the first thing he should know is, red or blue?"
* In The Abyss, Virgil must disable a warhead at the bottom of the
Cayman Trough. He is told to cut the blue wire with a white stripe,
not the black wire with a yellow stripe, but the yellow-green chemical
light on his diving suit renders them indistinguishable.
o In reality, wires are striped (or not) specifically so
they are distinguishable under colored lighting (e.g. one wire
striped, one plain).
* Played straight in the 1997 movie Air Force One, where the
President of the United States has to choose three wires out of five
on the titular airplane's fuel dump system blindly. He puts his trust
in red, white, and blue and is proven right.
* In The Avengers, when Mrs. Peel is trying to turn off the
weather control machine, she must choose whether to pull a red wire or
a black wire. She chooses and pulls one, and the machine turns off.
However, a short time later a Self Destruct Mechanism activates, which
indicates she may have made the wrong choice.
* Double Subversion in The French film Banlieue 13: a police
officer is given the shutdown code to the bomb by cell phone- but it
turns out that the code would have detonated the bomb immediately,
taking out the entire ghetto with it. The bomb timed out, but did
nothing.
* Played almost totally straight in Bon Cop Bad Cop. Martin was
bomb squad before taking his current position, so he knows exactly
what to do.
* Cats And Dogs "Okay, cut the red wire." "Wait a minute. We're
dogs. We're colorblind!"
o Even though they aren't totally colour blind and would at
least have a vague hint of which colour was which.
* Subverted in Die Hard With A Vengeance, where the bomb squad guy
is cutting wires left, right, and center, but nothing happens at
all...he stays to the end...when the timer hits 0 and he finds it's a
fake.
* Played with in Fight Club. "Oh, heavens, no, not the green one,
anything but the green one." (After the green wire is cut) "I asked
you not to DO THAT!" More interesting is that the person who is
disarming the bomb is the one who built it.
* Subverted in Goldfinger: James Bond only has seconds to defuse a
nuclear bomb in Fort Knox, and the best thing he can think of is to
attempt to pull out a mass of wires and hope it does something.
However, just when he makes the attempt, Felix Leiter arrives with a
bomb expert who brushes away Bond and simply hits the off switch for
the bomb to stop its countdown. With "007" on the timer.
o Fun Fact: the original cut of the film which made it to
theaters actually read "003", and this is reflected when Bond
explicitly says there were "three ticks" left. Only later did the
producers think it would be clever to make the timer read "007", so
they shot the timer reading just that... but Bond still says "three
ticks" in the final cut of the film.
* Heathers: "WHICH . . . red . . . button?!"
* In Jet Li's High Risk, any (big) wire you cut will inadvertently
activated the bomb, but a string of wire, subtly hidden from untrained
eyes, will actually defused the bomb. Because of the small size and
the hidden nature of the wires (attached to a bigger wire), the bomb
squad thinks that the small wire is a trap.
* In Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, Buck tries to kill a Man
Eating Plant that is about to digest Manny and Diego. He dives inside,
goes to the center of the stem and... there's a red root and a blue
root. The page image.
* The 1974 film Juggernaut: in which a blackmailer has placed
bombs inside 55-gallon drums on a cruise ship. At the film's climax,
defusing the bomb requires guessing whether to cut the red wire or the
blue wire. The police back in London have captured the bad guy, and he
tells them to cut the blue wire — so now the question becomes, do you
believe him, or cut the red wire?
* In Lethal Weapon 3, Riggs insists on trying to defuse a bomb
rather than waiting for the bomb squad to arrive. After joking around
with Murtaugh about what color wire to cut, he finally cuts one that
accelerates the timer on the bomb... which leads to the classic one-
liner, "Grab the cat."
* Parodied in National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1. The first wire
that Emilio Estevez cuts causes Jon Lovitz to blow up. The second
causes the power to go out on the boat. The third causes a complete
power outage in Los Angeles. Finally, he throws the bomb overboard.
* Played with a twist in the 1986 vehicle for bad acting, worse
science and Fridge Logic moments, The Manhattan Project (featuring a
young John Lithgow). The timer on a fat-man style plutonium bomb is
accidentally activated and couldn't be deactivated. Fortunately, the
bomb is just a high-school science project. No trick wires; no
problem. Yet, before the right wire could be cut, the individual photo-
flashers that powered the detonators charged up. This meant all six
wires between the flashers and the detonators had to be cut
simultaneously. And wouldn't you know it, there were only five pairs
of wire-cutters in the hangar.
* In Naked Gun 2 1/2 Drebin has to disarm a nuclear bomb at one
point in the film. He can't figure out what wire to cut, but saves the
day by accidentally unplugging the bomb, shutting it down.
* In Rush Hour, the token chick (the bomb technician) must disable
the C4 strapped to a child. The important part is not in what she cuts
but in what order: she fails a bomb training class because of this -
in fact that's why they hire her to get it off. She even uses a rhyme
to memorize it. The order: Roses are red (red), violets are blue
(blue), honey is sweet (green), and so are you (takes the bomb off the
kid).
* In the 1994 The Shadow film, Dr. Lane, faced with a bomb he
built while under Mind Control, declares that "It's usually green,"
but then cuts the red wire (he'd previously been established as red-
green colourblind). At the last second, Margo pulls the green wire
before he does so.
MARGO: (strained, nudging the green wire) This is green.
(nudges the red wire) That's red.
* In Sky High, where the device that sabotaged the school's anti
gravity systems could be disabled by severing the red wire, but most
of its wires are red.
* In All Dogs Go To Heaven, done with water mains instead of a
bomb while Itchy tries to break Charlie out of the pound. They can't
agree on whether water mains are green or red, and being color blind
and in the dark, can't tell what color the pipe they're arguing about
is anyway. Turns out it's a water main and Hilarity Ensues.
* Spoofed mightily in 1976 Disaster Movie parody The Big Bus, in
which driver Dan Torrance must defuse a bomb planted on the world's
first nuclear-powered bus, guided by radio from the front cabin by
girlfriend Kitty Baxter (reading from Jane's Book of Bombs):
Kitty: It's got a single hand timing mechanism, four wires at
the top...
Dan: Right.
Kitty: One of these wires leads to the trigger. One leads to the
triggering mechanism, one leads to the trigger guard, and one leads to
all three. There are also three fake triggers, and four fake trigger
guards. One trigger looks like a detonator, one looks like a trigger
guard, and one trigger looks like a trigger.
Dan: Right...
Kitty: Now, about the detonators. You've got eight detonators,
but don't let 'em fool you, they're all fake-
Dan: Look, this bomb is no fake. I've gotta do something fast.
I'm gonna cut the yellow wire.
Kitty: No, Dan, don't! It could be the blue one! You cut the
wrong one and you blow it!
Dan: I'm cutting yellow. (Cuts a wire, bomb stops ticking)
[Later, after Dan has returned to the cabin]
Kitty: I spoke to Scotty, and you were right about cutting the
yellow wire.
Dan: Aaah..
Kitty: What is it?
Dan: I cut the blue one.
[Bomb explodes]
* [[Speed]]. The fact the wire colors match police diagrams is
justified - the guy who made the bomb is a retired Bomb Squad member
himself. He also knew how to make it impossible to practically
disarm.
Literature
* The protagonist in John Ringo's novel Ghost, while trying to
prevent a nuclear bomb from going off in Paris, takes a cell phone
away from the terrorist mastermind and finds two pre-set numbers on
it, "Fire" and "Ice". One of them dials the bomb and tells it to go
off immediately, one dials the bomb and disarms it. The protagonist
gives the French bomb squad as much time as possible to try to disarm
it physically, then dials a number. The dilemma here being whether you
trust the terrorist when he confessed which was the disarm code...
* The Warhammer 40000: Ciaphas Cain novel The Traitor's Hand uses
multiple permutations of this for hilarity. Cain discovers a hovercar
that has been crashed into a hotel full of high-ranking military
officers is jury rigged to explode in a very violent manner. He calls
up a techpriest to tell him how to fix it, who promptly tells him that
"theological matters" such as disarming a bomb are not for
unconsecrated plebes like Cain. Cain answers by threatening to have
him shot, and when he finally secures the man's cooperation, Cain is
told to pull the red wire....at which point Cain realizes both wires
are purple. The techpriest advises him to use his own judgement. So
Cain picks one at random and pulls.
* In the Murray Leinster story Second Landing the main character
has to disable an atomic bomb built by aliens. Eventually he realizes
that in all atomic bombs, no matter who built them, the explosives
surrounding the fissionable core have to fire in a perfectly
synchronized sequence or the bomb will fizzle. So he shoots the bomb
with a bazooka, prematurely detonating some of the explosives.
* In The English Patient, this is basically Kip's job description
as a sapper, constantly coming up against newer and newer Axis bombs.
* An interesting form of this shows up in Survivor's Quest. Luke
and Mara have been trapped in a turbolift and are told that they can't
slice their way out with lightsabers, because the power and control
cables for both repulsor beams have been wrapped randomly around the
turbolift car. Currently it's suspended midway between two
Dreadnaughts, but if one is cut the forces will become unbalanced, and
the surviving repulsor beam will quickly smash them into a
Dreadnaught. They and the people caught in other turbolift cars are
supposed to be kept there until their captors disarm the traps and let
them out.
o Luke and Mara get out of this by carefully moving their
lightsabers so that they don't quite nick the cables and using their
danger sense to discover which wire will shove them up and which one
will shove them down. Then they stand back to back, mindmeld, strike
simultaneously, and sever both at once, cutting both repulsor beams.
After that they start falling, but the safeguards in the car can
handle normal falling speeds. Four 501st stormtroopers and an officer
stuck in the same trap in a different car solve this by using their
sensors to figure out what wire does what and rigging something using
the control cables, so that some power from one beam is redirected to
the other, letting them move.
Live Action TV
* Family Matters: Instead of having a timer, the bomb is on a
treadmill, which has to have a rider on it non stop until it can be
defused.
* Subverted in M* A* S* H's season one episode, "The Army-Navy
Game". Of course, nobody in their right mind would even consider
writing a manual this way:
Henry: (reading instructions) And carefully cut the wires
leading to the clockwork fuse at the head.
Trapper cuts the wires
Henry: But first, remove the fuse.
o Then the bomb blows up, revealing it to be a propaganda
bomb... from their side.
* The quote at the top of the page comes from the Stargate SG-1
episode "Fail Safe", in which an asteroid is on a collision course
with Earth, so SG-1 goes to set off an explosive on it and blow it off
course. Then they realize it's a bad idea, but not before the timer is
set and space debris busts the keypad, so they have to defuse it
manually:
Carter: Now find the wires leading from the timer to the
detonator and cut the red one.
O'Neill: Carter, they're all yellow.
Carter: Say again?
O'Neill: There are five wires, and they're all yellow!
o An earlier episode ("Serpent's Venom") featured an
interesting variation, with a space mine whose arming mechanism was
designed like a combination lock. The scene goes all out with this
trope, including a "No, Wait!", uncertainty over the correct code, and
a Wrong Wire scenario resulting from the fact Carter and Daniel are
having to translate the manual on the fly using the language's distant
descent from Phoenician which doesn't have the number zero.
o Lampshaded in the Season 9 episode "Ripple Effect" in
which an alternate reality Mitchell impishly leaves his counterpart
with the cryptic advice, "When the time comes, cut the green
one." (Fans have debated whether he was referring to an actual future
event, or just messing with his counterpart's mind.)
* In the "Doctor Who" episode "Smith and Jones," the Tenth Doctor
is about to disconnect a blue electrical cord in order to turn off a
sabotaged MRI machine, but chooses to disconnect the red one at the
last minute.
o In "Victory of the Daleks" the Eleventh Doctor needs to
stop a bomb hosted by an Artificial Human from going off in an
underground bunker:
Amy: There's a blue wire or something you have to cut, isn't
there? There's always a blue wire!
The Doctor: Yes-
Amy: ...Or a red one.
The Doctor: You're not helping!
* In an episode of Eureka, the town is under threat from a "Death
Ray" accidentally activated in a disused lab. Attempts to disarm it
include a failed wire dilemma that shortens the countdown. When the
weapon's designer shows up and simply removes the launch keys, the
system seems to shut down, then activates a "deadman's protocol", an
anti-sabotage strike calling for an even bigger boom. The designer
asks, "Did someone cut the blue wire?"
* Subverted in Life On Mars, where Sam agonises over which wire to
cut, but the bomb squad appears from off screen, cuts both wires with
a pair of hedge trimmers, and walks away.
* Another twist in a Hogans Heroes episode, in which Hogan cuts
the opposite wire of the one Klink picked, on the theory that Klink is
always wrong.
* Hal from Malcolm In The Middle plays up this trope to evade the
cops. After a strange series of events that leads the police
department to believe that Hal's detached ankle bracelet (he was under
house arrest) was a bomb, he claims he is from the bomb squad and
tries to defuse it. As the police watch, Hal suddenly screams "Oh God,
I cut the wrong wire! This thing's gonna blow!". When all the cops
duck, Hal makes a run for it.
* Given an interesting twist in the Profiler episode "Unsoiled
Sovereignty", where the villain has planted explosives at a site, all
of them accessible only by the outside of the building. ATF agent Coop
defuses the first, but it is affixed to the inside wall of the
building, so he has to work THROUGH a small window without being able
to see what he's doing. VCTF agent John Grant, who always wanted to be
on the bomb squad, panics at trying to defuse the second, mounted on a
strut of the building, and it is only after Coop ignores his own bomb
to talk John through his that John figures out how to disarm it. Of
course, both bombs are disarmed.
* Subverted on Monk. Monk is disarming a mail bomb, and the bomb
expert tells him that it doesn't matter which wire he cuts. Monk
nearly lets the bomb go off because he can't decide whether to cut the
red wire or the blue wire, due to his OCD. (Eventually he cuts both.)
* Avoided in the Austrian series Kommissar Rex. One of the
characters is agonizing over which wire to cut. He can't come up with
anything, the timer runs out - and his colleague had pulled the
detonator out of the explosives.
* Parodied in The Fast Show. After doing the standard Wire Dilemma
for the first two wires (complete with dramatic close ups on the wires
being snipped and disagreements over which wire to cut first) another
soldier goes "Sod this, anyone fancy a pint?" and just cuts them all
with hedge trimmers.
* On one episode of Criminal Minds the profilers face a victim
wearing an explosive vest built by someone using the plans of a bomber
Gideon had imprisoned. With the usual seconds left, the bomber tells
the bomb squad tech which wire to cut. Just as he's about to, Gideon
tells him to cut the other one, basing the decision on the fact the
bomber had earlier admitted he could never pass up an opportunity to
see something go boom.
* Parodied as early as Monty Python's Flying Circus, with the
Unexploded Scotsman squad.
* A variation is used in an episode of Space Precinct, where
instead of cutting wires, the defusers have a choice between removing
the power pack or the trigger.
* Nash Bridges had one episode where all the wires were very
strange colors.
* The pilot for new series Phoo Action had the 'Hero is
colourblind' version.
* The British must love subverting this one. In an episode of
Spooks, the characters are presented with your standard "rainbow wire"
bomb. While Malcolm (the resident tech-head) angsts over which to cut,
Adam grabs his clippers and cuts them all. Malcolm frets over how
incredibly dangerous that was, until Adam points that waiting for the
timer to hit zero probably wasn't the healthiest alternative.
* Subverted in a recent episode of Lost; some of the heroes find
themselves trying to deactivate a bomb liberally festooned with wires
of every color. The debate is not which wires to cut but whether any
wires should be cut at all; Jack speculates that the bomb will
detonate only if they tamper with it and try to disarm it. He's right,
but Sawyer tries to disarm it anyhow...
* Bottom does this with tea mugs. Richie & Eddie are trying to
poison a burglar they have captive. Richie, in his haste, forgets
which mug - out of the three - the duo have laced with pigeon pellets.
Richie: No, which one's got the poison in it?
Eddie: The yellow one!
Richie: Eddie, they're all yellow!
Eddie: It'll be one of them, then!
Richie: But which one?
Eddie: A-ha-ha! The one with the poison in!
o They then give the burglar three mugs of tea to no effect.
+ Comic vomiting isn't exactly "no effect," but given
their expectations it's close enough.
* Used as a mission in The Mole: In "Tick Tock Boom", the
contestants had one hour to solve a puzzle that would tell them how to
defuse a time bomb. Successfully defusing the time bomb would add
$50,000 to the pot; if it blew up, nothing would be added. This came
down to cutting the correct (purple) wire, of the bunch of wires of
various colors leading into the bulletproof glass box containing the
bomb. It is unknown what would've happened if the players had cut the
wrong wire.
* The NCIS team once encountered a subversion of this situation.
They had two people who knew exactly how to disarm the bomb,
unfortunately it was so poorly made that disarming it would take
longer than they had left.
o Ziva is suspiciously adept at disarming bombs with no
colored wires. Must be something they teach at Mossad.
+ One episode had the team discover a giant bomb at
the end of the episode, with around 100 wires - Of course, some of
them are red and blue. Luckily, the "criminal" (she actualy isn't, and
was chasing the bomb owner to stop the bomb from exploding) they've
been chasing the whole episode knows how to defuse it.
* On Heroes, Matt Parkman is fitted with a bomb vest by the
season's Big Bad and dumped on the National Mall. When Nathan shows up
to help, Matt has to read the mind of the D.C. Bomb Squad officer
trying to figure out how it works. The scene plays this trope straight
as Matt pieces together the guy's scattered thoughts.
* A wireless variant is played straight in Babylon 5. A
planetbuster bomb drives up to the station to announce that it's
safeguarding its makers and will detonate, unless the inhabitants can
prove their intelligence by solving a series of difficult scientific
problems within a time limit of about a day. So, would the makers be
afraid of barbarians or of the sophisticated? The station crew is able
to come up with the answers but correctly guesses that the bomb will
detonate if it transmits them. To demonstrate the latter, they send
the transmission after the probe is almost out of communications
range. Boom.
* The Professionals. In "Stakeout" the lads are disarming a crude
home-made atomic bomb with the help of its builder, who's decided he
doesn't want to die for the cause after all. He's just removed the
detonator with 30 seconds to go when he forgets which wire he's
supposed to cut (it's red, naturally).
* The Equalizer. Robert McCall and Mickey Kostmeyer use a simple
rhyme (presumably taught in spy school) to help them remember which
wire to cut: Blue before yellow, kills the fellow. Then one of them
asks: "Wasn't it blue after yellow, kills the fellow?"
* Used at least three times on Home And Away, most recently with a
bomb placed under a bus that would explode if anyone got off (although
the bus wasn't moving at the time). With help from an explosives
expert on the bus, Hugo was able to cut the right wires, disable the
timer and remove it. However, he fails to notice a second timer until
about ten seconds before the bomb goes off.
* The Power Rangers and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles face this
dilemma in the P Ri S episode "Shell Shocked"
* The Crystal Maze would have a game like this Once A Series
* Subverted on an episode of Early Edition, Gary and some his
friends were kidnapped and left on a stranded boat that contained a
bomb. Gary suggested to his former-cop friend for which wires to cut.
But his friend told that the bomb's timer was entirely digital in
nature and had no weak wires.
* In one episode of Mac Gyver, a Time Bomb is planted on a ship.
After Mac disables the numerous defense mechanisms of the bomb, he
arrives at a Wire Dilemma. A bomb technician tells him which wire he
should cut, but Mac cuts the other one instead because he suspects
that the bomb technican is the villain.
* Came up in an episode of Honey I Shrunk The Kids The TV Show,
where Wayne Salynzkie admits to memorizing a Mnematic device (a
running gag in the episode) to decide which wire to cut, but gets it
confused with the Mnematic for Coral Snakes ("Red and Yellow, kill a
fellow... Oh God, that's snakes!")
* An episode of Chuck had a variation in which the person giving
the instructions was suicidal and wanted the bomb to go off. Chuck
figured this out in time and did the opposite of what he said,
disarming the bomb.
o In the very first episode, there is a bomb that is about
to go off connected to a computer with internet connection. Sarah and
Casey open up a panel to reveal a mass of wires, so are reluctant to
cut them. Chuck decides to disarm the bomb by downloading an OP
destroying porn file established at the beginning of the episode.
* An episode of Primeval had a bomb planted under a car in the
Arc. When Cutter and Conner stay behind to defuse it, Conner says to
cut "The red one. its always the red one."
o Too bad all the wires on the bomb are red.
* Human Target: Winston is on the phone to Guerrero, asking him
which wire to cut. Guerrero flips a coin, which does not improve
Winston's temper.
o I loved that scene, because Guerrero's "how should I know"
reaction alluded to the root unstated problem with this trope — aside
from military munitions, most bombs are "homemade" and would in no way
have a standardized construction, much less color-coded wiring.
Lacking that, the "expert on the phone" (or on scene) couldn't
possibly know what wire to cut to disarm the bomb safely. Indeed, a
bomber building a tamper-proof bomb would have every reason to * not*
color-code the wiring, and to make a visual inspection of the bomb's
innards as difficult and misleading as possible, negating the ability
of any "expert" to give meaningful "cut the red wire" advice, yet this
obvious bit of fridge logic is very seldom acknowledged in instances
of the trope, even in parodies.
* A Benson episode has one of these. (Bomb squad technician: "Is
it 'White you're right, red you're dead', or...?")
* A Turkish crime-drama ("Yılan Hikayesi") had a variation of it
where the protagonist is trying to defuse a bomb and having trouble
since neither him nor his partner have bomb training beyond basics.
His partner quips that "they always cut the red wire" in the movies.
The protagonist, on the other hand, works around the wires to see what
goes where before taking a risk to sever the wire he suspects is the
right one.
* In the season 3 finale of 24, Jack Bauer is told by a bomb
disarmer to first cut the red wire on the virus detonator, which he
does, then to locate the green wire. The problem? He's only got
orange, yellow, black, and purple wires. Seems the mechanism differs
from model to model. After a few tense moments, especially seeing as
the bomb is attached to Chase, the two decided to hack Chase's arm off
and run the bomb down to the nearest fridge to contain the virus.
* The...third episode?...of Alias begins where the last one ended—
Sydney sitting on top of a nuclear bomb that has been wired to
explode. She calls the bad guys she's a Double Agent infiltrating,
reasoning that if she doesn't it'll blow her cover, and speaks to the
nervous technical specialist there. Notable is the Long List of wire
colors she notes, including "dark blue, blue, blue-white...". It of
course uses the "NO WAIT!" trick, to which she quite reasonably
responds "DO NOT TELL ME TO WAIT I AM SITTING ON A TICKING NUCLEAR
BOMB". The real subversion here is that she then has to turn a nuke
over to the bad guys
------------------------
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WireDilemma?from=Main.RedWireBlueWire
LowRider44M
* Subverted in Life On Mars, where Sam agonises over which wire to
cut, but the bomb squad appears from off screen, cuts both wires with
a pair of hedge trimmers, and walks away.
Typographical Error Corrected (agonises vs agonizes) replaced an 'S'
with a 'Z'
* Subverted in Life On Mars, where Sam agonizes over which wire to
LowRider44M
Terrorist
Circle Markers
Omaha
St. Louis
Cincinnati
Method - Remote Trigger
Opportunity - Long Range
Target Class - Accelerators
Examples:
Fuel Storage
Train Tankers
LPG Tank Farm
Conclusion
No Hi-Q Seasoned Veteran
With Demolitions Expertise
Currently Available - Forced to Ship.
LowRider44M
Canadian Idol Terror Suspect in Court
Khuram Sher Appeared In Court On Terrorism Charge Friday
The Associated Press
OTTAWA, Ontario
A terror suspect who appeared on the TV show "Canadian Idol" has made
a brief court appearance.
Dr. Khuram Syed Sher, 28, is charged with conspiracy to facilitate
terrorist activity. Police say they seized 50 circuit boards intended
for use in remotely detonated bombs. Two other men arrested appeared
in court Thursday.
Sher appeared on the singing competition reality show in 2008 singing
a comical version of Avril Lavigne's "Complicated," complete with
dance moves that included a moonwalk.
The bearded father of three, a pathologist in Ontario, appeared
nervous during his Friday court appearance, where he was ordered to
return Sept. 1 via video feed.
Police say they moved in on the Canadian men to prevent them from
sending money to terror groups in Afghanistan.
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LowRider44M
: * Subverted in Life On Mars, where Sam agonizes over which wire
to
: cut, but the bomb squad appears from off screen, cuts both wires
with
: a pair of hedge trimmers, and walks away.
ABC News
Authorities Were on High Alert for Possible Hijack Attempt
Air Marshals On Board Suspects' Flight to Amsterdam
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
Aug. 31, 2010—
The arrests of two men in Amsterdam for questioning in a terrorism
investigation comes at a time U.S. law enforcement officials have been
on a heightened state of alert to a possible hijacking of U.S. carrier
flights from the Middle East, according to one senior U.S. official.
In response , in the past several weeks, authorities have greatly
ramped up the number of Federal air marshals on overseas flights,
especially to Dubai, the official said.
As a result, air marshals were onboard a Chicago-Amsterdam flight
yesterday and kept a close watch on two suspicious passengers who had
triggered security alarms, but were allowed to travel for
"investigative purposes," law enforcement sources told ABC News.
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Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezem al Murisi were taken off the
United flight in Amsterdam by Dutch officials who detained them at the
request of the U.S. government for questioning in a terrorism
investigation. Passengers on the flight recorded a cell phone video of
the two men being taken into custody.
U.S. officials said the two appeared to be travelling with what were
termed "mock bombs" in their luggage. "This was almost certainly a dry
run, a test," said one senior law enforcement official.
Airport security screeners in Birminghamn, Alabama first stopped al
Soofi and referred him to additional screening because of what
officials said was his "bulky clothing," which can be seen on security
camera photos obtained by ABC News.
Officials said al Soofi was found to be carrying $7000 in cash, and a
check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol
bottle, three cell phones taped together, several watches taped
together, a box cutter and three large knives. Officials said there
was no indication of explosives and he and his luggage were cleared
for the flight from Birmingham to Chicago O'Hare.
The two man attracted further suspicion in Chicago when al Soofi
checked his lugage on a flight to Washington's Dulles Airport but
boarded a different flight to Dubai. It is not known if al Soofi or
United Airlines was responsible for the change in flights.
At a press conference this morning, the Dutch public proscutor's
office said al Soofi and al Murisi "are held in custody on suspicion
of a conspiracy to a terrorist criminal act. In a few days it will be
made public if they will be charged."
Friends of al Soofi who spoke to ABC News yesterday say he had left
the Detroit area several years ago and was most recently living in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama working at a small grocery store.
"He did not do anything wrong, he never did anything wrong in his
life," a former Detroit neighbor who identified himself as Al Nasir
said. Another friend, Abdul Soofi, said al Soofi is not capable of any
plot.
"I think he's very honest," Soofi said. "You know, I think it was a
mistake here or there and, the way I know him, he has family. He came
[to the U.S.] for a reason to work here and work hard and try to
feed his family."
They said Soofi, originally from Yemen, has a wife and children
overseas.
An attorney for Hezem al Murisi, Klaas-Arjen Krikke, said, "I am
disturbed by the fact that so much information is being made public
that is being withheld from the defense. We must prevent my client
being found guilty in the court of public opinion."
In a statement yesterday, the Department of Homeland Security said,
"Suspicious items were located in checked luggage associated with two
passengers on United Flight 908 from Chicago O'Hare to Amsterdam last
night. The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves,
and as we share information with our international partners, Dutch
authorities were notified of the suspicious items. This matter
continues to be under investigation."
A Yemeni embassy official told ABC News Yemenis coming from and going
to the U.S. have been known to smuggle cell phones in quantity.
Chicago to Amsterdam United Flight
Airport security screeners in Birmingham, Alabama first stopped al
Soofi and referred him to additional screening because of what
officials said was his "bulky clothing."
In addition, officials said, al Soofi was found to be carrying $7,000
in cash and a check of his luggage found a cell phone taped to a Pepto-
Bismol bottle, three cell phones taped together, several watches taped
together, a box cutter and three large knives. Officials said there
was no indication of explosives and he and his luggage were cleared
for the flight from Birmingham to Chicago O'Hare.
CLICK HERE to follow the ABC News Investigative Team's coverage on
Twitter.
Once in Chicago, officials say they learned al Soofi checked his
luggage on a flight to Washington's Dulles airport for connections on
flights to Dubai and then Yemen, even though he did not board the
flight himself.
Instead, officials say, al Soofi was joined by the second man, Al
Murisi, and boarded the United flight from Chicago to Amsterdam.
When Customs and Border officials learned al Soofi was not on the
flight from Dulles to Dubai, the plane was ordered to return to the
gate so his luggage could be removed. Officials said additional
screening found no evidence of explosives.
The two men were detained by Dutch authorities when the United flight
landed in Amsterdam, according to the officials.
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