History Main / ExplosiveOverclocking

* In ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington The Honor of the Queen]]'', Commander Alice Truman is ordered to return to home base to inform the Admiralty [[spoiler:of Masada's impending attack on Grayson]]. She orders her chief engineer to take all safeties off their ship's hyperdrive, thus cutting a day off her travel time at the risk of destroying the ship along the way.

'''General Hein:''' '''''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis I! KNOW!]]'''''

* Pretty much any [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Skaven]] "wonder weapon", as they tend to be souped-up equivalents of other races' weapons but with a higher chance to go wrong, but total embracing this trope with the [[IncrediblyLamePun ratling gun]] -- a two (rat)man-portable [[MoreDakka multi-barreled rifle]]. You get as many shots as you roll on a dice and can either stop there, or roll again. And again. ''And again''. But if at any time you roll the same number as one you rolled before then [[HilarityEnsues it has funny]] and most likely lethal consequences.

* ''LightNovel/TrappedInADatingSimTheWorldOfOtomeGamesIsToughForMobs'': Leon’s RobotBuddy Luxion does this to his HoverBike to help win a race, and he just barely escape it exploding after the race finishes.

* As of ''Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaStrikers'', [[BeamSpam five simultaneous]] [[FinishingMove Starlight Breakers]] [[SuperMode on Blaster Mode Level Max]] is Nanoha's most powerful attack. Unfortunately, it also puts enormous strain on both [[MagicWand Raising Heart]] ''and'' [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique herself]], causing Raising Heart's entire frame to crack and [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique damaging Nanoha's body]] from one use.
** Also the case with Excellion Mode in ''[[Anime/MagicalGirlLyricalNanohaAs A's]]''. Fate is also warned about similar upgrades, though she's more powerful and thus can handle it a lot better than Nanoha can.
** The last of the three Aces, Hayate, is so powerful, she destroyed eight [[MagicWand Devices]] by simply channeling more than a fraction of her own energy through them. In other words, she has to [[WillfullyWeak underclock]] to avoid explosive overclocking in the Devices not specifically designed for her.
* Similarly, Rock Lee in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' uses a forbidden technique which involves essentially an "explosive overclocking" of his body by disabling its natural 'safety features'.
** Shockingly, this is the most ''realistic'' technique in the entire show: replace "heightened chakra flow" with "consciously controlled adrenaline output" and you've basically got someone with their Fight or Flight switch constantly stuck on Fight. See the "human body" listing down in Real Life.
** The highest-level form of this technique is described as providing power beyond what would otherwise be possible, even with the superhuman standards of the series, but only for a brief time. [[DeadlyUpgrade Then the user drops dead on the spot.]]. It's the only thing that actually hurts [[spoiler: Madara]], even coming close to killing him, something that all 5 Kages and ''all 9 tailed beasts'' couldn't do.
* Wamuu, from Part 2 of ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'', has a technique dubbed "Final Mode: Atmospheric Rift", where he draws an incredible amount of air into his body, compresses it, then fires it from his cranial horn as a highly destructive and focused cyclone. This ability is saved as a last resort, since the friction and heat it builds up in Wamuu's body causes it to gradually tear itself asunder.

* Done in ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind'' (the movie) where Kushana, faced with an advancing horde of Ohmu, activates the nascent God Warrior prematurely and sends it into battle. It fires [[WaveMotionGun several rounds]], then falls apart.

* The titular SuperPrototype of ''Anime/MobileSuitGundam00'' initially suffered from a design fault in that it couldn't go [[SuperMode Trans-Am]] for more than a few seconds or its GN Drives will belch smoke and shut down with "Error S0557". It was eventually corrected by real-time fine-tuning of the drives from the [[MechaExpansionPack 0-Raiser]] - and ''[[InvincibleHero how]]''.

* In ''Anime/GundamBuildDivers'', Riku's 00 Diver, based off of the 00 Gundam above, suffers the same thing, though it's explained that his build isn't perfected, so it's not going to work right. It scares Riku into trying to fight without Trans-Am for awhile, though.
** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'' gives us the [[SuperPrototype Tallgeese]], which is an honourary example on account of the weak point being the ''pilot''; the thing was so ridiculously powerful that an inexperienced or careless pilot could do themselves serious injury from sheer G-forces. The standard {{Mook}} MS of the series, the Leo, was simply Tallgeese with its performance "underclocked" back down to what normal humans could handle.
* Sasorina in ''Anime/HeartcatchPrettyCure'' is given a three-jeweled Dark Bracelet in a desperate attempt to finish off the Cures or be subjected to YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness. It makes the Desertian she fuses with much more stronger (strong enough to withstand three Forte Bursts and shatter Sunshine's Sunflower Aegis in one punch), but its power was too much and threatens to fry her. The girls realize what's going on and finally put her out of her misery.
* In the final stage of ''Manga/InitialD'', [[spoiler: Takumi accidentally revs his 86's engine past 12,000 RPM while using a [[SignatureMove Blind Attack]] to overtake Shinji. Because his gauge's backlights were off, and because Ryosuke had the 86's rev-limiter removed so he could use the extra RPMS as a last resort, Takumi had no idea he was revving his engine past its limit and wound up blowing it, though he still managed to win the race.]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' as visited by Creator/AAPessimal, the standard witch's broomstick is a sedate thing likened to an old Morris Minor caron our world - it will do the job reliably and consistently at an unremarkable speed. Then the WrenchWench mentality arrived[[note]]Two flight-minded Witches out of Far Überwald who REALLY wanted to know how to make them go faster, higher and further. And above all, ''faster''[[/note]], along with the {{Magitek}} of ground-based engineers and broomstick designers with interesting ideas. The Air Watch, backed by the goodwill of Vetinari and the unlimited development cash provided by Sam Vimes, attracts Witches of the right mind-set backed by ground Tekniks. Accidents happen. An early error when a broom was overloaded with more thaumic potential than the staff and bristles could hold led - very briefly - to a fast, powerful, aircraft. And then an incandescent fireball over Ankh-Morpork. Pilot Dorothy Culpclapper is now remembered on the memorial plaque.

* ''Film/WingCommander'': The human fleet is running their reactors at full blast in order to reach the enemy hyperspace exit in time, but it's not enough, so the captain orders the fleet to run the reactors above 100% (this is part of [[SpaceIsAnOcean maritime]] terminology, 100% being the maximum safe level; at this point, they're overloading the engines). At a certain point, a member of the crew informs him that they've lost a number of ships due to reactor overloads. He repeats the importance of getting there in time, and orders the reactors' power to be increased even further.

* Captain Tupolev pushes the attack submarine ''V.K. Konovalov'' to catch up with the ''[[Film/TheHuntForRedOctober Red October]]''.

* This is what happens in ''Film/IronMan3'' when someone gets a little too much [[MyBloodRunsHot Ex]][[PlayingWithFire tre]][[HealingFactor mis]]. Emphasis on the word [[ActionBomb "explosive"]]...
* In ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'', this is what the Bluesmobile is doing during the final epic chase sequence from the Palace Hotel Ballroom to Chicago City Hall, presumably because it's on a MissionFromGod. It eludes cops, Illinois Nazis, and the Good Ole Boys, gets Jake and Elwood to the Cook County Assessor's Office in record time, and then suffers CriticalExistenceFailure and collapses into a pile of scrap metal.
* ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'': As opposed to its comics counterpart, [[spoiler:Thanos activating the fully assembled Infinity Gauntlet and wiping out half of the universe causes the Gauntlet to explode into a twisted hunk of golden metal attached to Thanos' arm. The arm itself is also badly wounded with what appear to be serious electrical burns, and unlike the chest wound Thor gave him with Stormbreaker, his arm does not appear to be healed in the film's final pre-credits scene.]]
** In the direct sequel, ''[[Film/AvengersEndgame Endgame]]'', [[spoiler:Thanos uses the damaged gauntlet to destroy the Infinity Stones off-screen, which, combined with the terrible wound Thor gave him at the end of ''Infinity War'', almost killed him. The gauntlet became fused to his arm and has lost all the gold shine it once had, and Thanos is visibly struggling to breathe quite often.]]
*** Later in ''Endgame'', [[spoiler:both Hulk and Iron Man use the Stones with a new gauntlet, and suffer in a similar fashion to Thanos. Hulk's arm becomes crippled from their power, and Iron Man [[TheHeroDies doesn't survive their use]].]]

* In Alastair Reynolds's ''Redemption Ark'', Skade tries to overclock her inertia-suppressing engine to go faster than light. It fails, kills her technicians, and blows up.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov:
** "Literature/TheRedQueensRace": To send something back in time, someone overclocks a ''nuclear power station'', making it a bunch of scrap.
** "Literature/TheMule": Part of the EmotionControl powers that the Mule has allows him to cause intuition and creativity to skyrocket, at the expense of their lives. He describes human brains as normally operating at 20% efficiency (essentially [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain failing to use 80%]]), and he can use his power to force all of it to work ''non-stop'' without any chance of rest for weeks on end. He puts Ebling Mis in this state, allowing him to replicate most of a genius mathematician's life's work in only a few weeks, at the cost of killing him within the same timeframe.
** ''Literature/PebbleInTheSky'': A permanent and technologically induced [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain mental state]] that is implied to essentially an {{Overdrive}} situation: you think faster and clearer, and might even develop telepathic powers, but wear and tear increases. Do this for a couple of weeks, maybe some months at most, and the wear and tear is pronounced enough to make metaphorical 'engine failure' a statistical near-certainty.
* Creator/IsaacAsimov and Creator/JanetAsimov's ''Literature/NorbyAndTheCourtJester'': When Jeff wants to get past a locked door, Ing advises him to overload the stun gun he has. Jeff tries that, and the explosion breaks down the door, just as predicted.
* During the climax of the [[Literature/TheDresdenFiles Dresden Files]] novel ''Literature/WhiteNight'', Lash (who resides in the [[NinetyPercentOfYourBrain so-called "unused parts"]] of Harry Dresden's brain) temporarily over-clocks Harry's brain in order to gain additional time to react to a threat. It is made clear that this is a very Bad Idea and will likely result in brain damage if done for an extended period of time. In truth, this overclocking is ''normal'' in stressful situations. It can happen to normal humans during dangerous periods, for exactly the purpose of giving them a smaller reaction time. [[http://www.livescience.com/2117-time-slow-emergencies.html More here.]]
** A more explicit version occurs earlier, in ''Literature/FoolMoon'': Harry makes a potion that he calls a "full night's rest in a bottle". He drinks it after he's exhausted himself, and it gives him such a high that he pushes himself to do powerful and delicate magic, a ''lot'' of it, in about five minutes. Five minutes after that, the potion's effect doesn't so much wear off as remind him that he's ''still exhausted'', and he collapses. For the rest of the story, he struggles to perform ''any'' magic, with the concern being that he might have burned himself out entirely, and permanently (which, as the rest of the series shows, is not true).

* In the book version of ''Literature/TheHuntForRedOctober'', the Russian [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfa_class_submarine Alfa subs]] are desperately attempting to catch up to the titular escaping sub, redlining the reactors and working the engines for all they're worth. The engine room technicians notice a possible problem and want to slow down in order to perform a repair, but the [[PointyHairedBoss political officer]] doesn't want to waste time and orders the Overclock to continue. It doesn't take long for things to [[GoingCritical go badly]]. The process is [[ShownTheirWork meticulously described]] in an epitomical example of TechnologyPorn.
* In ''[[Literature/HonorHarrington The Honor of the Queen]]'', Commander Alice Truman is ordered to return to home base to inform the Admiralty [[spoiler:of Masada's impending attack on Grayson]]. She orders her chief engineer to take all safeties off their ship's hyperdrive, thus cutting a day off her travel time at the risk of destroying the ship along the way.

* In ''LightNovel/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob'', {{Magitek}} items can create truly spectacular effects when fed large amounts of magical power, such as a washing machine producing a tsunami or a hairdryer producing gale-force winds, with a risk of exploding. Demons, who naturally produce more magic than humans, are prone to accidental "overclocking" when trying to use appliances.
* Etheric gauntlets in ''Literature/TheCinderSpires'' generate a fair amount of waste heat, so there's a limited number of shots you can fire before you have to stop and let it cool off. Of course, if you're desperate and/or don't care about burning your arm off...
* In the the ''Legend of the Jade Phoenix'' novel (a ''Tabletopgame/BattleTechExpandedUniverse'' trilogy), Aidan's final battle in [[BloodSport the tournament]] to win his bloodname takes place on a low-gravity, airless moon. His [[HumongousMecha battlemech]]'s muscles are designed for standard Earth gravity, allowing the mech to sprint across the regolith at astonishing speeds once he throws a safety switch off. However, inertia is a harsh mistress and after sprinting to close the gap on an enemy, his mech's leg joints shatter as it makes contact with the ground, sending his mech sprawling at the legs of his opponent.
* Averted in ''The Sands Of Mars'' by Creator/ArthurCClarke. The ship's communications officer has to boost a radio transmitter (using [[TechnologyMarchesOn valves]]) by increasing the power supply from 750 to 1,000 volts. "Gibson, who had been expecting sparks to start flying, was disappointed. [...] Bradly, who knew better, looked at his meters and bit his lip savagely."
* This trope may well be OlderThanSteam: a line in the opening scenes of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' refers to "cannons o'ercharged with double cracks" - in other words, twice the normal amount of gunpowder, which makes the weapon far more potent and - presumably - also far more likely to suffer catastrophic failure. Explosive indeed.

*** In season 6 of ''Series/StargateSG1'' Anubis blew up Earth's gate using an Ancient device that very slowly caused energy to build up in the gate until it reached critical. Had they not strapped it to a [=X-302=] and flown it into hyperspace the explosion would have been an extinction level event, had the Earth even remained intact.
*** ''[[Series/StargateAtlantis Atlantis]]'' season 5 has the Atero Device. An Ancient weapon designed to disable Wraith hyperdrives across the whole galaxy, but it had a nasty side effect. The subspace static it generated caused energy to rapidly build up in any active stargate, causing it to violently explode in a matter of seconds. The Atlantis team had to collapse the city's ZPM powered shield to encompass just the gate, and it still wasn't enough to mitigate the explosion.

** Averted in "Relics," Scotty chides Geordi for ''not'' padding his estimates, and later tells Geordi that he knows a particular component can take a lot more stress than the regulations say it can - because he wrote the regs, and "A good engineer is always a wee bit conservative...at least on paper."

* ''Series/RedDwarf'': "White Hole". The crew develops a technique which increases Holly's intelligence by several orders of magnitude, but they discover that this has reduced her lifespan to three minutes.
** To be exact, they had intended to restore Holly's (the titular ship's AI) IQ to it's original 6000 as Holly had gained a form of "computer senility" due to being in continuous use for 3,000,000 years. (And having no one to interact with during that time.) Kryten had theorised that the procedure may result in Holly being smarter than previously but increasing it's IQ to 12,000 rather than 6,000 or a bit higher was far beyond their expectations.
* In the start of the third season of ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', the rangers were getting pounded by new foes, and tried this to give the Thunderzords more power to resist them. It fails, resulting in the Command Center's power going out, their Ranger powers irreparably damaged (not destroyed, as we see [[Series/PowerRangersInSpace in]] [[Series/PowerRangersWildForce later]] [[Series/PowerRangersOperationOverdrive seasons]]), and their zords destroyed.
* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' in general does this quite a bit. Apparently, megazords have independent power supplies for each of their independent systems (weapons, shields, whatever "auxiliary power" is supposed to do). They often will talk about siphoning power from one system into their weapons systems for one final "fry all weapons systems" blast. Whether it's overclocking or simply filling one battery by draining another depends on circumstances.
* Suprisingly, shown to be (in extreme cases) as TruthInTelevision by the ''Series/MythBusters'' in their attempts to duplicate the results of various myths. This includes such things as CD-ROM drives (to test whether CD-ROM disks can explode - they had to use a router motor for the spindle, but did indeed show that the disk COULD fragment when spun fast enough, with painful results from the shrapnel) to washing machines (the machine destroyed itself rather spectacularly on cue with Buster in it - the secondary explosion didn't happen though).
** The washing machine stopped ''looking'' like a washing machine long before- the outer panels had to be removed to A)Defeat all the safety features, and b) Provide sufficient power to spin Buster's weight by replacing the stock motor with one meant for an electric ''car''.
* ''Series/HomeImprovement'': Most examples of TimTaylorTechnology actualy ''made'' by Tim Taylor have this result in one way or another.
* ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' has an absolute top speed of around Mach 2.5. However, anything approaching Mach 2 is straining on the copter, so the computer auto-limits the turbos' power. In one episode, String has Dom "remove the cap", allowing Airwolf to reach her potential top speed.
* In one episode of ''[[Series/ScrapheapChallenge Scrappy Races]]'', the Barley Pickers' captain attempted to overclock their huge lorry / tractor hybrid by loosening the diesel engine's governor. The nut he was adjusting came off in his hand, and the engine tore itself apart. It's implied that the engine went into [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_engine_runaway diesel engine runaway]] and could not be stopped until a fire extinguisher was released into its air intake.
* In ''Series/KamenRiderDouble,'' the hero's forms (actually, the ''[[FusionDance heroes']]'' forms) come from two Gaia Memory TransformationTrinkets, and the Maximum Drive {{Finishing Move}}s is activated by placing just ''one'' of those into their weapon for weapon finishers or a side-slot for the physical ones. Doing ''both'' when desperate (such as when the [[ArcVillain Weather Dopant]] was getting the better of them) is very, very much ''not'' recommended. It'll take your power UpToEleven, but also the strain on the components and wearer - it's a good way to fry the suit ''and'' yourselves! This keeps the "Twin Maximum" a DangerousForbiddenTechnique.
* In the live-action marionette show ''Series/FireballXL5'', the titular spacecraft is actually Explosively Overclocked every time the main engines are run at full power. It's just that it takes some time for the engines to heat up to the point of exploding and the pilot knows how far he can push it before lowering the power. When he isn't around to shut down the engines, the engine explodes (non-fatally) and use of a manual fire extinguisher is required.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' does this multiple times, with both machines and ''living things'' - the Tyranids biologically "overclock" broods of monstrous mooks that are even more dangerous than normal, but die messily within minutes after being deployed, the Imperium's [[PsychoForHire Eversor Assassin]] ramps up his metabolism to the point that his ''blood explodes'' if he dies. This is also represented in-game with "turbo-charged" Rhinos (which go faster, but may break), plasma weapons that can overheat (up to 4th Edition rules, they had a greater chance of overheating the more shots they fired), and in ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'' by supa-charging Ork [[InherentlyFunnyWords Meganobz]], making them go fasta but damaging them.
* Pretty much any [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}} Skaven]] "wonder weapon", as they tend to be souped-up equivalents of other races' weapons but with a higher chance to go wrong, but total embracing this trope with the [[IncrediblyLamePun ratling gun]] - a two (rat)man-portable [[MoreDakka multi-barreled rifle]]. You get as many shots as you roll on a dice and can either stop there, or roll again. And again. ''And again''. But if at any time you roll the same number as one you rolled before then [[HilarityEnsues it has funny]] and most likely lethal consequences.

* In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons [[TabletopGame/PlaneScape cosmology]], "Positive Energy" makes the boo-boos go away--[[ReviveKillsZombie as long as you're not undead]]. However, on a Positive Energy Plane itself, unprotected living being first heals, then "heals" more, then overdoses and explodes like a firework, not even leaving any remnants to [[BackFromTheDead raise]]. Inert matter jumps right to the last stage, for that matter.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'', you can keep firing a laser pistol or rifle past its normal six-shots-per-barrel rating, but the chance of malfunction starts going up pretty quickly.
* The Mechanic class in ''{{TabletopGame/Starfinder}}'' can do this to powered weapons, creating a makeshift grenade by doing so.

* In Star Fleet Battles, one of the Hydrans' heavy weapons, the fusion beam, can be overloaded for 1.5x damage. It also is capable of a "Suicide" overload that doubles the damage to the target in exchange for destroying the weapon and scoring an additional point of damage on the firing ship. X-ships have a similar ability to fast-load heavy weapons, but this can destroy them.
** Also, Orion Pirate ships can temporarily double the power output of their warp engines, causing damage that reduces the engine power output afterwards.

* ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' features an interesting meta example: apparently, one of the developers was frustrated by long loading times and put in a shortcut to force the game to load everything required for the next scene in the space of a single frame by pushing the escape key. This feature was overlooked and made it into the final product undocumented, allowing players to use it as well. With a sufficiently powerful computer, this can reduce the game's load times to almost nothing. But with a less powerful computer, it will immediately crash the game as the engine tries to load all assets immediately and usually hits a buffer overrun or simply exceeds the memory limit.
* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, the plasma pistol can be "overcharged." This will overheat the weapon and gulp a disproportionate amount of battery power, but will short out any energy shields it hits.
** And from ''VideoGame/Halo3'' onwards, holding it in overcharge slowly drains its battery.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' series, the fusion pistol can be overcharged similarly, but if it is overcharged for approx. one minute (only likely due to a stuck key as it beeps and shakes alarmingly for most of that time), it explodes, instantly killing the character regardless of health or invincibility. This was, however a very powerful and accurate attack if charged for 4-5 seconds, and can damage otherwise invincible enemies (in multiplayer).
* Usable on many FPS weapons, but the strangest occurrence is the Mag 60 from ''[[VideoGame/{{Turok}} Turok 2]]'' onwards, which uses its alt-fire instantly, blasting an oil drum-sized hole in the torso of the enemy soldier and using 15 shots automatically. Despite that, it looks like a typical automatic handgun (resembling the Time Crisis guns but realistically painted, even with the same gunfire motion) and you pick up small boxes of bullets. So...what the hell is it? Note that there's a recovery time afterwards, while you can fire all 60 shots without reloading normally, meaning they must all be loaded in at once. It's pretty much nonsensical on all fronts.
** In ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'', The Argon Laser Pistol can be configured to fire in Overload mode. The same game also allows you to overload ''your brain'' when using the Psi Amp.
*** In the original ''VideoGame/SystemShock'', all energy weapons feature an "Overload" option, with the realization that the weapon will instantly overheat when fired (requiring two to four seconds before it can be fired again) and that it will take a large amount of your global energy to fire. Still, using the powerful Ion Rifle on overload will kill almost ''anything'' in one shot. [[spoiler: The semi-secret, hard-to-find Plasma Rifle ''will'' kill anything in one overloaded shot.]]
** Also, in the game ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' and its sequel, there's a Tesla Gun you can Overclock to shoot a much more powerful and ammo consuming shot with alternate fire, but you can't shoot it again in a few seconds afterwards, while in the normal shoot mode it shoots at automatic rate. It is powerful enough to kill even some Bosses in a few shots.
** In ''Take No Prisoners'', one of the last weapons is a Plasma Cannon that can be charged for more powerful shots at larger ammo costs. But if you charge it long enough, the gun explodes with you.
* ''VideoGame/EVEOnline'' features a system called "Heat", whereby one can overload certain shipboard modules. The tradeoff for significantly improved performance is that the heat accumulation from running them like this for an extended period will damage the module and others adjacent to it, resulting in repair costs at the least, and inoperative modules if you overload it too long. [[WorthIt Totally worth it]] if you know when to use it. This ability is made available by training the skill "Thermodynamics" which also reduces the heat produced by overloaded modules.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption,'' Samus's [[ToxicPhlebotinum Phazon corruption]] and PED suit allow her to overclock ''herself'' by sending her into Hyper Mode whenever she wants, which [[CastFromHitPoints uses health as ammo]] and causes [[NonstandardGameOver total corruption]] if she stays in it for too long.
** Strangely enough, there are some enemies that will induce this mode in Samus as a form of attack. The logic behind it is essentially taking an enemy that can already overpower herself and pushing the berserk button, on the off chance she'll lose herself in rage before she can blow your face off.[[note]]They don't ''purposefully'' activate her hypermode. They are simply armed with phazon weapons of their own, which when absorbed into Samus's body overload her phazon supply. The only way to purge said phazon is to enter hypermode, otherwise she would end up corrupted.[[/note]]
** In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'', Samus's [[LimitBreak Final Smash]] (while wearing her PowerArmor) is "Zero Beam", which fires off a [[WaveMotionGun blast of energy]] powerful enough to ''destroy her suit'' afterwards. Instead of outright hurting her however, this just leaves Samus in her [[LatexSpaceSuit Zero suit]].
* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'' Aigis (a robot girl) can go into Orgia Mode (releases the limiters on her body) for three turns, but after the three turns she requires a cool down period before being able to do anything.
** In FES Metis (Aigis' robot sister) can stay in Orgia Mode for a significantly longer time.
* This is how ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' begins (''We boosted the anti-mass spectrometer to 105% - bit of a gamble but we need the extra resolution...'')
** ''Half-Life'' also has the Gauss Gun, a prototype weapon that you can charge up for a more powerful shot. Attempting to charge it past its maximum power will make it explode, reducing its hapless user to LudicrousGibs. The player first gains the weapon after a security guard accidentally demonstrates this rather glaring design flaw, [[FridgeLogic though how the gun remains usable is never explained.]]

* All Mechs in the ''VideoGame/MechWarrior'' game series have reactors that heat up as their capacity is used. If you overheat them a safety system will automatically shut them down, cooling them much faster than usual but disabling your Mech; after a few seconds, when the temperature is back to normal levels, the Mech powers up again and lets you keep going about your business. If you haven't been blown up yet, that is; as this usually happens in the middle of combat, a shutdown usually leaves you unable to move or attack right in front of your enemy, often with preditcably messy results. Which is why there's the option to override the shutdown procedure, and keep using the Mech - if nothing else to turn tail and run like hell - even as the reactor redlines. Overuse this option at your own risk, as severe abuse results in your Mech spontaneously blowing up from the inside.

* ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'''s Thunderbolt gun + water = full discharge of cells and instagibbing of everyone in the vicinity including you.
* In ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'', Chaos can make their heretics (worker unit) work themselves to death, they work faster but will die pretty quick, best to use lots of them, you can always get another one.
* Anybody that has played ''VideoGame/{{Descent}}'' knows that the Fusion cannon plays this one perfectly straight. While a decent if somewhat slow weapon normally, it can be charged for about 3 seconds for incredible damage; one ship can instakill anything with a fully charged fusion shot. Go beyond 3.5 seconds and you start taking damage, and the damage goes back to normal.
* In ''VideoGame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody'' (and its ExpansionPack ''Hisotensoku''), [[MoonRabbit Reisen Udongein Inaba]] has a move called "Patriot's Elixir" where she takes a swig of her master [[MadScientist Eirin]]'s [[PsychoSerum shady new drug]], granting a StatusBuff to her attack and defense. The effects stack for each potion drunk, up to three; if she drinks a fourth, she explodes. This doesn't actually harm Reisen, but it can be devastating to her opponent. It's generally a really bad idea to do this since it makes her lose the effects of her StatusBuff and the explosion is somewhat easy to avoid, but it could be useful as a surprise attack in the endgame when the loss of the buff won't make much of a difference.
* Overclocking the ARS in ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'' by removing its limiters can have unpleasant effects on the user. In-game, if Sam takes too much fire from enemy troops, he passes out, and the suit's attempts to repair and compensate for the damage result in its engine overloading and exploding. [[spoiler: Naturally, the final boss is too fast and requires the limiters to be removed so that Sam can match him, though it's strongly implied that this could straight up kill him if it's run for too long, and he does seem to have some difficulty recovering afterwards.]]
* In ''VideoGame/FreeSpace'', the weapons on the GTVA Colossus are overcharged to the point that the beam emitters start ''melting'' in order to match the firepower of the Sathanas. As a result of both this and damage incurred to its armor, the ship was to spend the next few months drydocked for repairs (this was the ship the Alliance was hoping would [[CurbStompBattle Curb Stomp]] the opposing armies).

* In ''Franchise/FateSeries'', a Servant can overload their Noble Phantasm with prana and transform it into a Broken Phantasm, causing them to take a massive power hike in exchange for being lost. Given that most Servants only have between one to three Noble Phantasms ([[PublicDomainArtifact which are artifacts such as Excalibur]]), and Noble Phantasms represent the solidified history of each Servant the very idea is unthinkable.
** In ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'', when Archer uses a Broken Phantasm against Berserker early on in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route, his Master Rin has a minor freakout because he seemingly destroyed one of his Noble Phantasms seemingly on a whim. He does this again when fighting Caster, using another Noble Phantasm very similar to the one he used against Berserker. [[spoiler:As it turns out, Archer's true ability is [[SpontaneousWeaponCreation Projection magic]], which allows him to replicate other Noble Phantasms infinitely - this means that he can use Broken Phantasms as much as he wants with no loss to him, something very terrifying if other Servants knew about this. In fact, this is a ''necessity'' for him because the replicas are naturally inferior to the real deals and the overclocking is necessary to boost their power enough to match the originals.]]
** Shirou can do the same thing, by overloading his Magic Circuits. [[spoiler:When he makes a contract with Rin in the ''Unlimited Blade Works'' route, he is able to actualize his [[MentalWorld Reality Marble]] by taking in ten times his normal capacity; this allows him to beat up Gilgamesh, but after their fight he ends up temporarily paralyzed. When he gets Archer's arm in the ''Heaven's Feel'' route, he is able to flawlessly reproduce Noble Phantasms at the cost of nearly frying his brain every time.]]
** In ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'', the Rider-class Servant Mandricado has this with his Noble Phantasm ''Serment de Durandal''. He can imbue any weapon he gets a hold of with the power of the legendary sword Durandal, even if that "weapon" is just a wooden stick...but he can't copy Durandal's (unbreakable) durability. As a result, any weapon he uses inevitably ends up ''exploding'' from overuse, forcing him to get a new one.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII'': The Black Belt class has an ability to store energy to inflict massive damage. You can do this twice, but if you try on the third time, the monk has a good chunk of his/her health taken off.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' sees the Archadian Empire test the power of deifacted nethecite [[TooDumbToLive by putting it in a warship's boiler]]. It produces so much energy that not only does it blow out all the safety systems, they can't shut it ''off''. A few minutes later, the warship blows up, taking the entire fleet surrounding it out with it.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Terminus}}'', ships are given a rated maximum speed based on their relative hull strength. Smaller, sleeker ships can go faster, while the larger ships, with their heavier loadouts, are not nearly as quick. In an emergency, though, you can continue applying thrust, pushing your ship past its rated maximum. There's a marginal "safe" excess the ship can go, after which the hull stress will literally tear your ship apart. And don't even think about turning in this state, because trying to shift that excess momentum is deadly.
* In ''[[VideoGame/RobotArena Robot Arena 2]]'' you can attach motors to other motors to make weapons such as spinning blades spin faster. Due to a glitch with the physics engine (known as Havok Explosions), this can also result in the entire robot flying up into the air and bounce off of walls.
* ''VideoGame/{{Ikaruga}}'': To defeat the Stone-Like, the Ikaruga deactivates its restraint devices to charge up a super-BeamSpam that will [[SuicideAttack destroy the ship as well]], and while it is charging, you are unable to fire and must [[HoldTheLine dodge the boss's attacks for sixty seconds]].
* Averted in ''VideoGame/GhostbustersTheVideoGame''. Firing a Proton Pack causes heat to build up inside the particle accelerator. Too much heat, and the pack [[GoingCritical goes critical]] [[EarthShatteringKaboom with the force of several megaton bombs]]. The original 'packs had this problem, but the new, 1990 pack--a consequence of the Ghostbusters' new contract with the city--has a cut-out feature that shuts the pack down, allows it to cool, and restarts it about five seconds later. Of course, this is incredibly dangerous when you're surrounded by ghosts looking to take you out, so there's also a ''manual'' vent option, which has a cycle-time of about a second, making it the preferred option to use[[note]]Realistically, the only time you would use the failsafe venting option would be if you were not paying attention to your heat levels, though the Meson Collider's primary fire generates heat so quickly you might force autoshutdown a few times before you're used to it[[/note]].
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' has special ammunition for energy weapons that are called Overcharged: they do extra damage and ignore large amounts of enemy DT but they put added strain on your gun (meaning it can be used less until it breaks) and you need to use a couple of ordinary energy cells/electron charge packs/microfusion cells to make overcharged ammo. They're best used when dealing with EliteMooks and even then sparingly unless you're willing to fork out the extra caps for repairs and more expensive ammo The guns category has this too in the form of hand load bullets which pack much more punch but suffer the same issues stated above: more components needed to craft them and they burn through guns quickly.
* Li Kohran in ''VideoGame/SakuraWars'' can do absolutely miraculous things with an iron/coal/steam technology base, but almost everything she makes beyond simple utilitarian items blows up after one incredibly successful use. Or ''during'' that use.
* The Small Craft in ''VideoGame/AffordableSpaceAdventures'' has components that can operate up to a power level of 5, but 3 is the minimum safe power level. Running at 4-5 for too long can either blow a fuse temporarily shutting down the Small Craft, or straight up cause the Small Craft to explode.
* In ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'', players can supercruise through the radiation beams on the poles of neutron stars to supercharge their FasterThanLightTravel drive, at the cost of internal damage.
* In ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'', the final boss is [[spoiler: Emerl, who went absolutely insane and got overloaded with all of his ultimate skills, which cannot be done without cheats to raise the maximum Skill Point limit.]]
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has the bridge office abilities Override Subsystem Safeties and Exceed Rated Limits from the Intelligence and Miracle Worker specializations, respectively. The former grants a massive boost to all current and maximum subsystem power levels. This boost decreases over time, and when it ends, a random subsystem is knocked offline. The later greatly accelerates the fire rate of energy weapons and negates the weapon power drain from firing them while afflicting the user with damage over time and an all-subsystem power drain.
* In the climax of ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire'', [[spoiler:as Eothas attacks the Ukaizo Wheel to rob the JerkassGods of their power over mankind, he ensures the Wheel will be DeaderThanDead by channeling every ounce of his divine power into his giant stone avatar to [[WaveMotionGun deliver blows so ludicrously powerful]] they actually [[CastFromHitPoints blast chunks of said avatar off]]. The sheer amount of energy expended and damage taken by doing this ultimately [[KilledOffForReal kills him permanently]], but it certainly gets the job done.]]
* ''VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram'': Cramming too many engines too close to one another and firing them all at full throttle is guaranteed to make them overheat rapidly. Let them get too hot, and all those engines will explode spectacularly.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}'', you can put your generator on overdrive to increase its heat output (great for getting through harsh weather or saving coal), but you can't keep it running like that forever. Should you let the generator overheat to 100%, you have a single opportunity to stop it from having a castrophic meltdown by either spending a precious and limited Steam Core or [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment send a child to its certain death to fix it momentarily, causing ''massive'' damage to your Hope and Discontent levels]]. If you let it overheat a second time or don't bother fixing it the first time, the generator explodes. Game Over.
* In ''Videogame/DeusExMankindDivided'', Installing too many Experimental augmentations can cause a lot of problems ranging from [[InterfaceScrew in-universe interface glitches]] to horrible backfiring. This can be mitigated by either disabling certain normal augs or by obtaining a Neuroplasticity Calibrator that allows Adam's surgeon to remove the limits completely.

* Dave from ''Webcomic/RealLifeComics'' has a tendency to be overzealous with his overclocks as seen [[http://reallifecomics.com/archive/020725.html here]].

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'', surprisingly for comics about {{mad scientist}}s, doesn't use this frequently, but Agatha was shown [[http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050905 skipping warm-up mode]] and go for full power while reactivating decrepit machinery, with expectable (and desired) results.
** There's also the Smoke Knights' "Movit" potions. Movit #6 is the most potent one that your average schmuck can safely use; even Smoke Knights, whose training includes conditioning to be able to utilize the potions, tread carefully with the higher numbers. Zola (spoiler warning: not formally a Smoke Knight, but all family members have some level of the training) somehow managed to steal a vial of Movit #11, the most potent one period; it gives her a massive energy boost, but Violetta explicitly says that it'll kill her in short order as her body burns up from within. Later on, rather than outright poisoning Zola, Violetta chooses to inject her with ''more'' Movit #11 - which at that point is more lethal to her than any poison.
* ''Webcomic/YehudaMoonAndTheKickstandCyclery'': Arboritum, a super-light alloy that would be ideal for making bike frames if it didn't have a tendency to break under stress, normally resulting in severe injuries for the rider.

* In ''Webcomic/SecondEmpire'', Anzollo all but smashes his ship's gravitic lens to rip apart a pursuing Dalek force in a gravity pulse.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', Damien does this to himself, increasing the intensity of his WreathedInFlames ability to the point that he turned himself into an ActionBomb in an attempt to [[TakingYouWithMe kill Grace]].
* In ''Webcomic/CtrlAltDel'', Ethan discovers that his computer has exploded. Naturally, he blames Ted (a penguin who couldn't have possibly done it), when a video recording suggests that Ethan most likely blew up the computer himself because he tried to water cool it with liquid nitrogen.
* A minor example in ''Webcomic/{{Misfile}}''; James has challenged Ash to an endurance car race, going down the same stretch of road over and over until the person behind passes or the person in front pulls entirely out of sight. Ash plays it smart when it's his turn behind, keeping his distance so he can watch what James is doing and focus on driving well himself, only attempting to pass when he sees a real opening. James, on the other hand, lets his emotions get the best of him while behind, staying as close as possible and attempting to pass at every opportunity. This puts more stress on the car, wearing down his breaks and giving Ash a subtle but constantly growing advantage as the race goes on, until Ash is able to take advantage and pass James.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'':
** Subverted and mocked in "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" when, in an attempt to save the members of the Star Trek cast, Fry suggests they do a crazy reconfiguring of the ship like they had done on the fictional show in the past. Leela suggests shifting power around and reconfiguring the weapons to the villain's frequency to create an energy ray that may overload his quantum structure. Then there's a shot of Bender with a blow torch working on the ship, and after a few moments of work he says, "Ok. I'm done reconfooballing the energymotron, or whatever."
** In "Overclockwise", Cubert overclocks Bender to increase his reaction speed in a video game, and Bender proceeds to increase his processing power until he becomes omnipotent but has to use ''Niagra Falls'' as a cooling system.
* In the pilot for ''Disney's WesternAnimation/TaleSpin'', the Sea Duck was equipped with an ''Overdrive'' that made it jet-fast, but would fry the engines if used for long stretches. Was burned out for good after the fourth episode and never mentioned again. (Why Baloo didn't just have it replaced is never explained, but can be handwaved as Rebecca not knowing about it when she had the Sea Duck rebuilt after its destruction.)
* In ''WesternAnimation/MissionHill'', Kevin uses his friend's computers to try and crack the SAT exams by finding the supposed repeating string of correct multiple-choice answers. His attempts to get more and more processing power out of them eventually causes them to explode.
* Subverted in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR''. Megas' [[MacGuffin photonic stabilizer]] is damaged and in danger of exploding if Coop overworks Megas, and a fight breaks out while Coop is trying to find a new one. Just when Megas is on the edge, a EurekaMoment provides Coop with a method of fixing the stabilizer, allowing Coop to resume fighting normally; ''[[DuctTapeForEverything duct tape]]''. Played straight when the bad guy's mecha, which also had a stabilizer which Coop broke in the course of their battle, [[GoingCritical goes critical]] resulting in a [[EarthShatteringKaboom rather spectacular explosion]].

* PlayedForDrama in the opening scene of ''WesternAnimation/Ben10SecretOfTheOmnitrix''. In all three versions of the film's opening to boot. In the case of [[PlayingWithFire Heatblast]] and [[ExtraEyes Eye Guy]], they use their signature laser weapons to overload Dr. Animo's DNA bomb from de-evolutionizing all life on the Earth. The one featuring [=XLR8=] as Ben's alien features the more traditional approach with Ben manually overloading Animo's bomb using his SuperSpeed to help. [[spoiler:[[FromBadToWorse While the plan works, the bomb's reaction winds up activating the Omnitrix's self-destruct mode]].]]
* The 1937 Disney short ''WesternAnimation/MickeysAmateurs'' includes a performance by "Bandmaster WesternAnimation/{{Goofy}} and his 50-piece band", which turns out to be a mechanical contraption that allows Goofy to play a banjo and assorted wind, brass, and percussion instruments. The machine functions well (mostly) for the easy-going "In the Good Old Summertime", but when he declares, "Okay, fellers! Let's get hot!" and cranks things up for "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", the machine goes berserk, repeatedly mashing instruments into Goofy's face until it finally explodes in a shower of gears and drums.

* The first axial turbojet engines, which were developed in wartime Germany. By 1944 Germany was on its way losing the war, and needed new super weapons and fast, so [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Fighter_Program Emergency Fighter Programme]] was set in. Axial turbojets were chosen because while they were at the time experimental technology, it was possible to squeeze out more power from them than from centrifugal turbojets favoured by RAF. Unfortunately that came on price on reliability - the lifespan of Junkers Jumo 004 engine used on Messerschmitt Me 262 was ''25 hours before it was ready for scrapping'', and many engines simply exploded in take-off, where they were revved to full power, or mid-air in emergency situations. Conversely, the contemporary British Rolls-Royce Derwent engine, used on Gloster Meteor, has service-overhaul cycle of 3000 hours.

** Water-Methanol Injection on supercharged engines. They add up speed momentarily when needed - such as for a heavily loaded van when overtaking a semi on the road - but when used continuously, will damage the pistons.
* The amateur car tuning scene is all about this trope. You can significantly increase the horsepower of your ride if you're willing to spend a good deal of money and risk voiding the warranty. Performance tuning can be as simple as hacking into the engine CPU (e.g. to force an increase in the amount of fuel injected into the cylinders during each cycle) or as complicated as replacing pistons, installing ram air vents or even tossing in a [[NitroBoost nitrous oxide injection system]]. As can be expected, this significantly increases the temperatures and pressures involved - and not every engine is capable of functioning so far beyond its design specs, which is where the term ''explosive'' comes into play...[[note]]If the connecting rod breaks at high rpm, the entire engine block will be explosively ruptured[[/note]]

* Ironically, this trope applies to actual explosives, too, due to how nitrogen chemistry works. Simply put, the more nitrogens you cram into a molecule compared to stabilizing atoms like carbon and hydrogen, the more powerful the explosive - but also the more sensitive they get. The ultimate example of this is [[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2013/01/09/things_i_wont_work_with_azidoazide_azides_more_or_less azidoazide azide,]][[note]]officially named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1-Diazidocarbamoyl-5-azidotetrazole 1-diazidocarbamoyl-5-azidotetrazole]][[/note]] which by cramming fourteen nitrogen atoms and only two carbon together achieves extremely impressive energy densities but [[MadeOfExplodium will fly apart at the slightest provocation. Or no provocation at all.]]

'''General Hein:''' '''''I! KNOW!'''''

* In TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons [[TabletopGame/PlaneScape cosmology]], "Positive Energy" makes the boo-boos go away--[[ReviveKillsZombie as long as you're not undead]]. However, on a Positive Energy Plane itself, unprotected living being first heals, then "heals" more, then overdoses and explodes like a firework, not even leaving any remnants to [[BackFromTheDead raise]]. Inert matter jumps right to the last stage, [[IncrediblyLamePun for that matter]].

* In ''LightNovel/ICouldntBecomeAHeroSoIReluctantlyDecidedToGetAJob'', {{Magitek}} items can create truly spectacular effects when fed large amounts of magical power, such a washing machine producing a tsunami or a hairdryer producing gale-force winds, with a risk of exploding. Demons, who naturally produce more magic than humans, are prone to accidental "overclocking" when trying to use appliances.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}'', putting your generator on overdrive will increase its heat output (great for getting through harsh weather or saving coal), but extended use can be devastating. If the generator overheats to 100%, you have a single opportunity to salvage it by either spending a precious and limited Steam Core or [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment send a child to its certain death to fix it momentarily, which will cause ''massive'' damage to your Hope and Discontent levels]]. If you let it overheat a second time or don't bother fixing it the first time, your generator explodes. Game Over.

* In the ''Franchise/TouhouProject'' [[DoujinSoft doujin]] FightingGame ''VideoGame/TouhouHisoutenScarletWeatherRhapsody'' (and its ExpansionPack ''Hisotensoku''), [[MoonRabbit Reisen Udongein Inaba]] has a move called "Patriot's Elixir" where she takes a swig of her master [[MadScientist Eirin]]'s [[PsychoSerum shady new drug]], granting a StatusBuff to her attack and defense. The effects stack for each potion drunk, up to three; if she drinks a fourth, she explodes. This doesn't actually harm Reisen, but it can be devastating to her opponent. It's generally a really bad idea to do this since it makes her lose the effects of her StatusBuff and the explosion is somewhat easy to avoid, but it could be useful as a surprise attack in the endgame when the loss of the buff won't make much of a difference.

* In [[VideoGame/RobotArena Robot Arena 2]] you can attach motors to other motors to make weapons such as spinning blades spin faster. Due to a glitch with the physics engine (known as Havok Explosions), this can also result in the entire robot flying up into the air and bounce off of walls.

* VideoGame/KerbalSpaceProgram: Cramming too many engines too close to one another and firing them all at full throttle is guaranteed to make them overheat rapidly. Let them get too hot, and all those engines will explode spectacularly.

* In Film/TheBluesBrothers, this is what the Bluesmobile is doing during the final epic chase sequence from the Palace Hotel Ballroom to Chicago City Hall, presumably because it's on a MissionFromGod. It eludes cops, Illinois Nazis, and the Good Ole Boys, gets Jake and Elwood to the Cook County Assessor's Office in record time, and then suffers CriticalExistenceFailure and collapses into a pile of scrap metal.

* In the climax of ''VideoGame/PillarsOfEternityIIDeadfire'', [[spoiler:as Eothas attacks the Ukaizo Wheel to rob the JerkassGods of their power over mankind, he ensures the Wheel will be DeaderThanDead by channeling every ounce of his divine power into his giant stone avatar to [[WaveMotionGun deliver blows so ludicrously powerful]] they actually [[CastFromHitPoints blast chunks of said avatar off]]. The sheer amount of energy expended and damage taken by doing this ultimately [[FinalDeath kills him permanently]], but it certainly gets the job done.]]

** One computer-related real-life example of the "safety margin" effect is the RAID disk array: this model treats several discs as a single unit. A RAID can be configured to sacrifice disk space and performance to increase availability by effectively storing a second copy of everything across multiple discs, providing redundancy in case of drive failure, or it could be configured to increase performance and potentially storage,[[note]]with the lower capacity drive effectively capping any gains, so a 240 GB drive put together with a 320 GB drive would only provide a total capacity of 480 GB,[[/note]] by combining two or more drives, but this runs the risk of allowing a failure on any drive to render the entire volume unusable. As is so often the case with computer technology, this risky method of optimizing performance has been largely superseded by the development of high-performance [=NvME=] SSD drives and the ever-decreasing cost of data storage.

* Early attempts to use [[http://www.kbptula.ru/en/productions/small-arms-guns-grenade-launchers/guns-machine-guns/gsh-6-30 GSh-6-30]] on aircraft (mainly [=MiG=]-27) suffered from the price of {{BFG}}'s performance -- vibrations caused by recoil, which proven to be too strong. This [[http://www.quarryhs.co.uk/GSh-6-30.htm led to lots of various damages]] -- from broken lights to breakages of various onboard devices to jammed gear doors to ''really wild'' cases, like failed locks causing spontaneous removal of the cockpit canopy or dash-board dropped right onto pilot's knees. In short, bursts longer than half-second shook planes so hard they just gradually fell apart, until either they were out of ammo, failed to shoot any more or gun overheat exploded ammo. It got better in CIWS, of course. [[SarcasmMode Oddly enough]], ships weighing thousands of tons are able to absorb the vibrations with no difficulty.

* Near the end of ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', Doc Brown overclocks a ''steam train engine'' (with three special fuel log packages) in order to reach the necessary speed to activate the time machine. There's only a minor, insignificant drawback: the third package blows up the boiler.

** One computer-related real-life example of the "safety margin" effect is the RAID disk array: this model treats several discs as a single unit. A RAID can be configured to sacrifice disk space and performance to increase availability by effectively storing a second copy of everything across multiple discs, providing redundancy in case of drive failure, or it could be configured to increase performance and potentially storage,[[note]]with the lower capacity drive effectively capping any gains, so a 240 GB drive put together with a 320 GB drive would only provide a total capacity of 480 GB,[[/note]] but this runs the risk of allowing a failure on any drive to render the entire volume unusable. As is so often the case with computer technology, this risky method of optimizing performance has been largely superseded by the development of high-performance [=NvME=] SSD drives and the ever-decreasing cost of data storage.

* Ironically, this trope applies to actual explosives, too, due to how nitrogen chemistry works. Simply put, the more nitrogens you cram into a molecule compared to stabilizing atoms like carbon and hydrogen, the more powerful the explosive - but also the more sensitive they get. The ultimate example of this is [[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2013/01/09/things_i_wont_work_with_azidoazide_azides_more_or_less azidoazide azide,]] which by cramming fourteen nitrogen atoms and only two carbon together achieves extremely impressive energy densities but [[MadeOfExplodium will fly apart at the slightest provocation. Or no provocation at all.]]

* The first axial turbojet engines, which were developed in wartime Germany. By 1944 Germany was on its way losing the war, and needed new super weapons and fast, so [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Fighter_Program Emergency Fighter Programme] was set in. Axial turbojets were chosen because while they were at the time experimental technology, it was possible to squeeze out more power from them than from centrifugal turbojets favoured by RAF. Unfortunately that came on price on reliability - the lifespan of Junkers Jumo 004 engine used on Messerschmitt Me 262 was ''25 hours before it was ready for scrapping'', and many engines simply exploded in take-off, where they were revved to full power, or mid-air in emergency situations. Conversely, the contemporary British Rolls-Royce Derwent engine, used on Gloster Meteor, has service-overhaul cycle of 3000 hours.

* The first axial turbojet engines, which were developed in wartime Germany. By 1944 Germany was on its way losing the war, and needed new super weapons and fast, so [Emergency Fighter Programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Fighter_Program] was set in. Axial turbojets were chosen because while they were at the time experimental technology, it was possible to squeeze out more power from them than from centrifugal turbojets favoured by RAF. Unfortunately that came on price on reliability - the lifespan of Junkers Jumo 004 engine used on Messerschmitt Me 262 was ''25 hours before it was ready for scrapping'', and many engines simply exploded in take-off, where they were revved to full power, or mid-air in emergency situations. Conversely, the contemporary British Rolls-Royce Derwent engine, used on Gloster Meteor, has service-overhaul cycle of 3000 hours.

* The first axial turbojet engines, which were developed in wartime Germany. By 1944 Germany was on its way losing the war, and needed new super weapons and fast, so [[Emergency Fighter Programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Fighter_Program]] was set in. Axial turbojets were chosen because while they were at the time experimental technology, it was possible to squeeze out more power from them than from centrifugal turbojets. Unfortunately that came on price on reliability - the lifespan of Junkers Jumo 004 engine used on Messerschmitt Me 262 was 25 hours before it was ready for scrapping, and many engines exploded in take-off, where they were revved to full power, or mid-air in emergency situations. Conversely, the contemporary British Rolls-Royce Derwent engine, used on Gloster Meteor, has service-overhaul cycle of 3000 hours.