Self-destruct
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A self-destruct is a mechanism which causes a device to destroy itself under a predefined set of circumstances. Self-destruct mechanisms are sometimes found in high security data storage devices, where it is important for the data to be annihilated in emergencies.
Self-destruct mechanisms are also found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people. The Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster rockets, for example, are wired with explosives so that the boosters can be destroyed in the event that it loses control on launch and heads towards a populated area. This feature can be seen in videos of the Challenger explosion. After the initial disintegration of the shuttle, the two solid rocket pods continue flying out of control until they explode simultaneously several seconds later. This occurred when the Range Safety Officer decided that the separated engines had the potential to endanger those on the ground and detonated the self-destruct system.
The Naval procedure of scuttling is used to destroy a ship or ships to prevent them from being seized and/or reverse-engineered.
[edit] Use in fiction
Self-destruct mechanisms are an extremely common plot device in science fiction stories. So common, in fact, that it has become a true cliché, or a weak plot device. Especially prominent is the self-destruction of a military installation, a spaceship or the theme of an artificial intelligence destroying itself due to cognitive dissonance (see Does not compute). Rather unsurprisingly, they were frequently used as a mode of plot development.
Examples of self-destruct in fiction:
- In the Star Trek series, the Federation starships are equipped with an auto-destruct mechanism. This option is open to the senior officers on the starship as a form of scuttling in case the starship falls into enemy hands or becomes unworkable for some reason. It was also used as a form of kamikaze weapon, turning the starship into a powerful bomb. It usually had a time delay, so that crew could escape via the escape pods.
- Halo: Combat Evolved The final mission in the game involves the player purposely sabotaging the Pillar of Autumn's engines so it will self-destruct and destroy Halo
- Star Trek: The Original Series (episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")
- Alien
- Resident Evil video games (where practically every game ends with one)
- Spaceballs (Almost averted except for an out of order override switch. Upon discovering this, the character of Colonel Sandruz yelled, "Out of order!?", followed by Dark Helmet who exclaimed "Fuck! Even in the future nothing works!")
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
- Star Trek: The Next Generation
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Star Trek: First Contact
- Star Trek: Voyager
- Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back ("I didn't hit it that hard- it must have had a self-destruct" - Han Solo, after having shot an Imperial Probe Droid on Hoth)
- Predator
- Mission: Impossible ("This tape will self-destruct in ten seconds.". In M:I2, the tape is replaced with sophisticated sunglasses, which will self-destruct in the same manner)
- Most games in the Metroid series require the player to escape from a place (usually the game's first level) after activating its self-destruct countdown. In Super Metroid, there are two scenes, involving a space station and an entire planet. In Metroid Prime Hunters, the first trip to each of the four planets ended this way.
- Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Alpha 5 activating his self-destruct program to save himself from Primator)
- Power Rangers: Turbo, where the Rangers self-destruct the Rescue Megazord in a failed attempt to destroy the monster Goldgoyle.
- Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, where Heero Yuy detonates his gundam each time he fails a mission.
- Stargate SG-1 Television Series (where Cheyenne Mountain is equipped with a bomb)
- In the Bond film For Your Eyes Only a form of Self Destruct is used to destroy ATAC, a coding machine used by the British Government. However, when the spy ship on which is it is housed was fatally struck by a mine, the crew were unable to activate it.
- James Bond's Aston Martin is fitted with a self destruct mechanism.
- The crew of the Minbari war cruiser Trigati in the Babylon 5 episode Points of Departure destroyed their vessel rather than surrender to another Minbari war cruiser demanding their surrender.
- In the PC game Descent , the goal for every mission is to locate the reactor and destroy it. Doing so will initiate the self-destruct sequence. The player must locate the exit before the countdown ends in order to succesfuly complete the mission.
- In the video game Pokemon, all versions have a move called "Self-destruct", in which the user sacrifices themself to cause massive damage.
In lighter or humorous fiction (such as cartoons and superhero films), the self destruct button is an ubiquitous component in any self-respecting mad scientist's machines. Rather than requiring authorization or procedure, it simply is a button that, when pushed, will cause the machine to self-destruct, frequently destroying the entire structure or complex it is housed in. The often complete uselessness (and danger) of such a device (except to a good guy) is possibly one of the many reasons a mad scientist is known as 'mad'. Likewise, in Inspector Gadget, Chief Quimby gives Gadget each episode's mission on self-destructing paper; inevitably, Gadget carelessly disposes of the paper, often over his shoulder, and it detonates in the Chief's hiding place.
