History Main / GasCylinderRocket

->"Can you recharge these for me if I need more air?"
->"No." He shook his head, beaming. "Used to have charging room, but also assistant who broke valve one day. Tank went through wall here and flew three streets away, finish through side of bus!" Peals of laughter. "Nobody hurt, but take permission from me."

* Not actually a gas cylinder, but a similar effect occurs in ''WesternAnimation/TheCroods'' when the grandmother, attempting to beat the fire that's burning the end of her staff to death against the ground, sets some giant corncob-like plants alight. The flames heat up their oversized kernels until they pop, sending the cobs streaking in all directions; the "rocket" analogy is taken even further when the ones that fly upwards explode into colorful sparks, like fireworks.

* In ''[[Film/ThreeNinjas 3 Ninjas: High Noon on Mega Mountain]]'', the boys try to dispose of a time bomb by strapping it to three oxygen tanks and then breaking the nozzles off with a hammer. However, they turn out to not be strong enough to break them. Fortunately, [[Wrestling/HulkHogan Dave Dragon]] shows up and ''is'' strong enough to break them. For bonus points, the bomb gets propelled to the escaping bad guys' boat just as the timer hits zero.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Robots}}'', Rodney is [[SelectiveMagnetism magnetically]] attached to a gas cylinder as several other metal objects [[UpToEleven (including a dumpster)]] also chase after him. When the valve breaks, he flies into the air, with an inanimate metallic mob flying after him.

* In Die Hard 4.0 (Live Free or Die Hard in the US), John throws a fire extinguisher down a hallway towards a baddie and then shoots it, blowing said baddie out a window.

* Turned up a few times in ''Series/LondonsBurning'', usually played somewhat more realistically in that the source of the explosion was the building or vehicle the cylinders were stored in ''being on fire'', which is easily the most reliable way of getting this effect in real life. The seventh season ended with a particularly memorable example after a fire broke out in a builder's yard behind a row of terraced houses, with about fifty of them shooting off like bottle rockets and crashing down all around whilst Blue Watch tried frantically to evacuate the local residents and get the fire under control. We find out in the first episode of the next season that the fire eventually took three days and fifteen crews to bring under control, with one fire truck burnt out after it took a direct hit.

* In Die Hard 4.0, John throws a fire extinguisher down a hallway towards a baddie and then shoots it, blowing said baddie out a window.

* In the similarly-stupid ''Atomic Shark'', the two heroes use SCUBA gas cylinders to propel their boat safely out of range of the mini-nuclear blast that's set off when the title creature finally dies.

* In the Film/SyfyChannelOriginalMovie ''Dam Sharks!'', the heroes launch a couple of gas cylinders into the shark-built corpse dam by chopping off their nozzles with axes. The cylinders blast off and streak through the air to lodge themselves in the dam, yet [[ArtisticLicensePhysics somehow still have enough pressure left to explode]] and destroy it.

* In the workplace safety film ''Will You Be Here Tomorrow?'', an office worker is struck in the head by a runaway gas cylinder, which also sets fire to the office, killing him.

* In the ''Star Trek'' filk song "The Ballad of Transport 18", the crew of a broken-down cargo spacecraft use beer as a means of propulsion toward the nearest space station. Their joy at the prospect of rescue is muted by realizing that they won't be able to guzzle ''all'' the cargo.

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->"No." He shook his head, beaming. "Used to have charging room, but also assistant who broke valve one day. Tank went through wall here and flew three streets away, finish through side of bus!" [[ActuallyPrettyFunny Peals of laughter.]] "Nobody hurt, but take permission from me."

* In a variant, Wildstyle in ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie2TheSecondPart'' jetted between two space vehicles by popping the cork on a bottle of champagne.

Sister trope to AerosolFlamethrower. Subtrope of ImprovisedWeapon and ExplosivePropulsion. Compare RecoilBoost, which uses MoreDakka for propulsion instead of compressed gas. See also ExplodingBarrels, for when the "rocket" part is absent.

* Averted in ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', when the gas canister merely explodes rather than takes off (but see ''Series/{{Mythbusters}}'' example below).

[[caption-width-right:350:''Dear Lord, protect this rocket house and all those who dwell within the rocket house'']]

* In the CGI animated series ''Mighty Mike'', Mike the Pug uses a pink gas canister of helium to launch himself into the air, to rescue a kitten which a pesky raccoon had [[InflatingBodyGag inflated with the helium]] and sent skyward as a distraction.

* In the CGI animated series ''Mighty Mike'', Mike the Pug uses a pink gas canister of helium to launch himself into the air, to rescue a kitten which a pesky raccoon had inflated with the helium as a distraction.

Less credible, but still common, is a gas cylinder being ruptured by a gunshot and possibly shooting off like a missile. Whether this results in a GasCylinderRocket or merely StuffBlowingUp generally depends on [[ArtisticLicensePhysics whether the target it's being used against is right next to it or somewhere up ahead]].

* Creator/ValveSoftware's Source engine, used in every Valve game released in the 2000s starting with ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'', includes code to create a GasCylinderRocket. [[https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Physics_cannister The relevant reference material.]]

* In the casual hidden object game ''Surface: Mystery of Another World'', you can use a GasCylinderRocket to propel a large statue out of your path.