History Main / GasLeakCoverUp

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* In the pilot of ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'', after Scott Summers accidentally provokes a fire in a soccer game, Professor Xavier rewrites the memory of a nearby cop into thinking it was a leak in a propane can.

* In ''LightNovel/TheCaseFilesOfYakushijiRyoko'', the destruction of a skyscraper in Ginza is attributed to a large-scale gas leak and explosion. In reality, the building's owner belonged to a cult that had bred a colossal snake and kept it near the top of the building. Inspector Yakushiji gave it a massive dose of growth drugs that caused it to instantly grow large enough to tear the building apart from the inside.

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* In ''Manga/TheCaseFilesOfYakushijiRyoko'', the destruction of a skyscraper in Ginza is attributed to a large-scale gas leak and explosion. In reality, the building's owner belonged to a cult that had bred a colossal snake and kept it near the top of the building. Inspector Yakushiji gave it a massive dose of growth drugs that caused it to instantly grow large enough to tear the building apart from the inside.

* In ''Literature/HonorHarrington'', an "air car explosion" destroys the [[http://honorverse.wikia.com/wiki/North_Hollow_files North Hollow Files]], which were loaded with blackmail material to extort cooperation from others.

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' subverts this trope as a joke. Upon entering "Area 52", the player sees a flash of light and is given a tooltip that persists for 30 seconds which says, "The flash of light you did not see has erased the memories you did not have."

** Used again in ''Conviction'' by [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Black Arrow]] to evacuate the Washington Monument fairgrounds so that their men can move in to get Sam.
** Used again in ''Blacklist'' to cover up the vehicles Grim destroyed with a UAV in Tehran. [[BlatantLies Of course a gas leak could destroy a dozen SUVs while leaving everything else around them okay]], but [[JustifiedTrope the Iranian government goes along with it]] since they are no more eager than Fourth Echelon to engage in a shooting war with the U.S.

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "A Tale of Two Stans" [[spoiler: Ford]] manages to get TheMenInBlack out of town by claiming the energy caused by the Universe Portal was actually from an unreported meteorite shower. [[spoiler: It works because the agents just had their recent memories wiped.]]

* In the second ''{{Literature/Montmorency}}'' novel, an explosive terrorist attack at a train station is covered up in this manner.

** In ''Broken Homes'', the near-total demolition of a small farm during a magical battle between two veteran combat wizards is written up as the result of some propane canisters exploding.

* At the end of ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' episode "A Tale of Two Stans" [[spoiler: Ford]] manages to get the MenInBlack out of town by claiming the energy caused by the Universe Portal was actually from an unreported meteorite shower. [[spoiler: It works because the agents just had their recent memories wiped.]]

* The trope is exaggerated and PlayedForLaughs in the first ''Film/MenInBlack'' movie; as evidenced by the page quote, the typical cover story for UFO sightings given by MIB agents takes multiple elements from every standard, individual variant of the trope (swamp gas, weather balloons, Venus) and combines them into a single cover story. Though the MIB do put more effort into making it seem legitimate (such as having a crew of cleanup agents use flamethrowers to both burn away evidence of aliens and scorch some of the nearby terrain) and they have the added benefit of [[LaserGuidedAmnesia a memory-erasing device]]. The neuralizer goes a long way for [[JustifiedTrope justifying]] the whole ordeal: the brain will invent new memories to fill the gap, during which time it becomes very impressionable.
** Subverted when [[Creator/TommyLeeJones Agent K]] tries to use such a coverup on a woman whose husband was killed and skinned by an alien. [[Creator/WillSmith Agent J]] calls his coverup garbage, and instead offers the explanation that she threw the husband out for being a DomesticAbuser (what little we see of him pre-death suggests that this was pretty close to the mark).

* In the first episode of the second series of ''Series/BeingHuman'', [[spoiler:the villains use a gas leak excuse to clear out a whole neighborhood so they can use a psychic to find out what house the heroes--one of whom is a ghost--live in]].

* ''VisualNovel/HigurashiNoNakuKoroNi'''s "Hinamizawa Disaster" is said to be a gas leak--[[spoiler:a bit of a borderline example, as gas really ''was'' released into the town...it just [[GasChamber wasn't accidental]]. And by "not accidental", we mean the town was herded into schoolrooms and killed with poison gas grenades]].

->''The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.''
-->--'''Agent K''', ''Film/MenInBlack''

*** And what would ordinary Muggles even know about Dark Marks...

** Subverted when [[Creator/TommyLeeJones Agent K]] tries to use one of these explanations to justify why a woman's husband disappeared (in reality, he'd been killed and skinned by an alien). [[Creator/WillSmith Agent J]] calls his coverup garbage, and instead offers the explanation that she threw her husband out for being a DomesticAbuser.

* Used in ''Film/{{Transformers}} 2: Revenge of the Fallen''. Sort of. Here, it's used in the same ways as in ''Close Encounters'', right down to the excuse:

* This was the excuse used in ''Film/HellboyII'' at the museum to keep people out while the team investigated.

* ''Film/{{Hellboy}} II: The Golden Army''. FBI Director Tom Manning ''tries'' to use a gas leak story to cover up the BPRD's investigation of Prince Nuala's massacre of an antiquities auction. Then Liz uses her [[PlayingWithFire pyrokinesis]] to set off the corresponding explosion...and Hellboy ''intentionally'' positions himself where he'll be blown out a window into the midst of Manning's crowd of reporters.

** In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'', Voldemort's murder of a family of Muggles is attributed to a gas leak. Makes sense, as neither gas leaks nor Avada Kedavra leave marks. But gas leaks do ''not'' leave Dark Marks....

-->"No other object has been misidentified as a flying saucer more often than '''[[LargeHam the planet Venus]]'''."
-->"Even the former leader of your United States of America, James Earl Carter, Jr., thought he saw a UFO once, but it's been proven he only saw '''the planet Venus'''."
-->"If you tell anyone that you saw anything other than '''[[RuleOfThree the planet Venus]]''', you're a dead man!"
* On Nickelodeon's ''Series/TheTroop'', the gym is destroyed by enormous worm monsters during a big dance. But The Troop destroys the monsters and uses their miniature memory zapper monster (the snark) on everyone. As everyone surveys the wreckage, the Troop's adult advisor cheerily tells them that there had been a simple plumbing leak.
* In an episode of ''Series/ColdCase'' a bomb was wired to a stove to make it look like the explosion was caused by a leaky gas pipe in the kitchen. The case is reopened years later when the new owners of the house find a piece of the detonator trapped behind a wall in the basement.
* Played with on ''Series/TheVampireDiaries''. [[spoiler:The Council]] are all killed in a gas explosion. The official explanation is that a gas pipe was busted and the house owner failed to notice, however, the audience knows that the man actually disconnected the pipe himself and triggered the explosion in a strange murder-suicide.

* In the ''TabletopGame/DarkMatter'' adventure ''The Killing Jar'', the bad guys use this ''modus operandi'' when killing more than two people. (They call it a tragic fire.)

** In the "Golden UFO" case in ''RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'', the dragon Kohryu tells Raidou to make up an excuse to cover up sightings of him, suggesting swamp gases as a possibility.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 2}}: Eternal Punishment'', the fire at the sanitarium is explained as a "gas explosion."

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' subverts this trope as a joke; upon entering "Area 52", the player sees a flash of light and is given a tooltip that persists for 30 seconds and says, "The flash of light you did not see has erased the memories you did not have."

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