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11 June 2008

Initiating Self-Destruct Sequence in 10... Why do only spaceships have self-destruct buttons? I mean, my car doesn't have one, planes don't have them. Are there any self-destruct buttons in real life? I don't mean things like just sabotaging something, erasing data, or shutting of the coolant to the engines, but a full on deliberate "this sucker's gonna blow" countdown kind of self-destruct. Does anyone know the origin of the self-destruct button concept?

post by: evilcupcakes at: 21:46 | 12 comments

Self-destruct devices are pretty common in the more advanced military vehicles. One generally doesn't like to stare down the barrel of one's own gun.

posted by eamondaly 11 June | 21:56

Rockets and missile can be set to destruct if they are going off course and heading towards population. I doubt that they have red LED countdown timers though.

posted by octothorpe 11 June | 21:58

Also- scuttling a ship or boat's been known to happen.

posted by small_ruminant 11 June | 22:26

Space Madness!

posted by arse_hat 11 June | 23:03

The Space shuttles' boosters have self-destruct systems.

posted by pompomtom 12 June | 00:07

The original Enterprise had one: I suspect that's where it started.

I suppose as octothorpe says, a spaceship travels at such speed it's very dangerous in the wrong hands. You could probably take out a city with an average interplanetary spaceship, a starship could probably wipe out a planet.

Not exactly self-destruct, but they've started putting remote shutdowns on buses in case The Terrorists start crashing them into things.

I seem to recall that in Alien, director Ridley Scott wanted to make it look like it wasn't just an easy button to push, but a complex process of overriding safeguards.

posted by TheophileEscargot 12 June | 00:32

It's a nifty theatrical device, builds supense, yadda yadda. There's one in "The Andromeda Strain", too (book and original movie - I didn't see the remake, but I assume they left it in), and I seem to recall a couple in James Bond movies.

posted by bmarkey 12 June | 00:40

Dr. Morbius self-destructs the whole planet in Forbidden Planet back in 1956.

posted by octothorpe 12 June | 05:35

Letters self-destruct... well, any letter Inspector Gadget ever received self-destructed, anyway.

posted by jonathanstrange 12 June | 07:38

Deus Ex Machina

Mental note - still need to make stickers that read "Aurem Ex Machina" (Gold from the machine) to stick on ATMs.

posted by plinth 12 June | 08:51

They were required on Spaceships after Ralph Nader the 52nd made the epic visiokinogram "Unsafe at Any Lightspeed" in which it was revealed that positronic radiation released when a spaceship crashed was causing ordinary plants to turn into triffids. After the triffid uprising, it was decided that it was better for a ship to harmlessly implode rather than release triffid-creating radiation into the air.

posted by drezdn 12 June | 09:09

Mission: Impossible: "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds."

Wikipedia on self-destruct

posted by kirkaracha 12 June | 12:00

← I was just nuking some frozen White Castles. || This is both →

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