History Main / PopTheTires

* ''Manga/LupinIII: Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro:'' In the opening chase scene, Jigen attempts to shoot out the tires of the henchmens' vehicle. The first time, it's subverted; he hits the tires, but they are a special kind that are impervious to regular bullets. Jigen upgrades his ammo and tries again, this time hitting them and causing the car to immediately spin out and crash into the side of the mountain.

* Subverted on an episode of ''{{Thunderbirds}}'': Lady Penelope attempts to shoot out the tyres of a car, only for it to fail because they've been reinforced to protect against such things.

* A possible tactic in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity''. In fact, CrazyPrepared players might just preemptively take out the tires of stationary vehicles near the mission to prevent their opponents to escape by driving them. Another common tactic is getting a 3-star wanted level, wherein the cops will start laying spike strips on the street, then the rest is obvious: as long as you can get your opponent to run over them, and avoid them yourself, you'll be fine.

* This is Nitro Man's weakness in ''VideoGame/MegaMan10''. You can freeze him with a direct Chill Spike shot, but this does a bit of damage. However, if you shoot it at the ground to form an icy [[SpikesOfDoom spike strip]] and let Nitro Man run over it, he suffers a lot of damage.

* In addition to the police use of spike strips mentioned above, some parking garages use spike beds designed to only puncture tires from one direction. They're used both to enforce one-way lanes and to interfere with people trying to leave without paying, and are often accompanied by the iconic "DO NOT BACK UP - SEVERE TIRE DAMAGE" warning.

* In addition to the police use of spike strips mentioned above, some parking garages use spike beds designed to only puncture tires from one direction. They're used both to enforce one-way lanes and to interfere with people trying to leave without paying.

* ''Film/TheMatrix Revolutions''. While the Agents are pursuing Trinity and Morpheus on the freeway, an Agent shoots out the left rear tire on Trinity's car, which eventually forces her to stop.

* In the 90s Charlie Sheen movie ''Film/TheChase'', Sheen's character, (an escaped inmate) manages to shoot the tires out on a police car chasing his stolen car by sheer accident as it pulls up alongside him. As this happens at high speed (the tires are popped at 90mph), it sends the police car ''flying'', and it crashes into a series of other cars..

** In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', Richard Burns [[GTARadio on the news]] is riding with cops trying to stop illegal street racing, and Richard then tries to shoot out a car's tires.

* This is a gameplay mechanic in ''TrueCrimeStreetsOfLA''.

* A possible tactic in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity''. In fact, CrazyPrepared players might just preemptively take out the tires of stationary vehicles near the mission to prevent their opponents to escape by driving them. Another common tactic is getting a 3-star wanted level, wherein the cops will start laying spike strips on the street to puncture tires, then the rest is obvious: as long as you can get your opponent to run over them, and avoid them yourself, you'll be fine.

* A possible tactic in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity''. In fact, CrazyPrepared players might just preemptively take out the tires of stationary vehicles near the mission to prevent their opponents to escape by driving them. Another common tactic is getting a 3-star wanted level, wherein the cops will start laying caltrops on the street to puncture tires, then the rest is obvious: as long as you can get your opponent to run over them, and avoid them yourself, you'll be fine.

* A possible tactic in the ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series since ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity''. In fact, CrazyPrepared players might just preemptively take out the tires of stationary vehicles near the mission to prevent their opponents to escape by driving them.

* A possible tactic in the ''GrandTheftAuto'' series since ''GrandTheftAutoViceCity''. In fact, CrazyPrepared players might just preemptively take out the tires of stationary vehicles near the mission to prevent their opponents to escape by driving them.
** In ''GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', Richard Burns [[GTARadio on the news]] is riding with cops trying to stop illegal street racing, and Richard then tries to shoot out a car's tires.

* In ''VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies'', you can pop the tires of the vehicle based Zomboni and the Catapult Zombie by planting a [[SpikesOfDoom Spikeweed/Spikerock]] in its track. For some reason, this does not only pop the tires, but also make ''the entire vehicle blow up''.

* ''Franchise/{{Terminator}} 2''. During the scene where the T-1000 (driving a truck) is trying to run over John Conner (on his motorcycle), the T-800 shoots out the left front tire of the truck. The T-1000 loses control and rams the truck into an overpass, causing the truck to explode.

* ''Series/TheXFiles'': In the episode "Bad Blood," Mulder originally says that he does this to an RV which was stuck going around in circles. However, after Scully notices how dirty his coat is (and how late he was), Mulder sheepishly admits that shooting out the tires was more difficult than he thought it would be. After he ran out of bullets in the attempt, and after trying to grab onto the RV (subsequently getting dragged around, explaining the dirt) he finally just had to wait for it to run out of gas.

** "Darkness Falls": Ecoterrorists set up a tire spike on a road in the woods. Mulder, Scully and two guys from Federal Forest Service are screwed up because they have only one spare tire and must hike to the place they were heading.

* Happens by freak accident in one Literature/CiaphasCain novel: a frag grenade goes off near one of his tank's treads, jamming it completely.

* Leonardo does this to Snake's van in the first episode of the Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} ''[[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Ninja Turtles]]'' series by [[ImprobableAimingSkills throwing a shuriken on a curve in midair from the rooftops to hit a speeding vehicle directly in its front tire]].

* ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}. While driving alongside Tilly Masterson's car, Bond uses one of the Q gadgets in his car to rip open and flatten the tires of Tilly's car, forcing her to stop.

* In the 90s Charlie Sheen movie ''The Chase'', Sheen's character, (an escaped inmate) manages to shoot the tires out on a police car chasing his stolen car by sheer accident as it pulls up alongside him. As this happens at high speed, it sends the police car ''flying''.

* In ''Film/TheChase'', the tires are popped at 90mph causing the car to fly into the air and crash into a series of other cars.

[[AC:Manga and Anime]]
* This happens in ''Manga/DeathNote'' when they are trying to stop Higuchi from driving away with the Death Note.
* ''Anime/SpeedRacer'' attempted to do this to the Mammoth car. [[spoiler: It has so many tires that it didn't have any effect.]]
* ''Manga/LupinIII: Anime/TheCastleOfCagliostro:'' In the opening chase scene, Jigen attempts to shoot out the tires of the henchmens' vehicle. The first time, it's subverted; he hits the tires, but they are a special kind that are impervious to regular bullets. Jigen upgrades his ammo and tries again, this time hitting them and causing the car to immediately spin out and crash into the side of the mountain.
* ''Anime/PsychoPass:'' Akane shoots the tires of a big truck that the culprit Makashima is trying to make his get away in, while [[OutsideRide clinging to its' side]]. This works really well, especially since trucks are hard to turn, and he couldn't shake her off.

* In Roleplay/DinoAttackRPG, during her OutsideRide scene, Silencia Venomosa was climbing all over Montoya's car to slash the tires with her knife, and neither Montoya nor Schiess caught on until it was too late. By the time they managed to shake her off, the tires were all slashed and subsequently popped, sending the car crashing into a ditch.

* Defied in the D20Modern setting Urban Arcana with two vehicular magic items, the Reinflating Tires, reinflating once and only once when they get punctured, and the Impervious Tires, which are tires possessing a hardness of 20 (In LaymansTerms, they can resist .44 Magnum bullets.)

* A possible tactic in the GrandTheftAuto series since GTAViceCity. In fact, CrazyPrepared players might just preemptively take out the tires of stationary vehicles near the mission to prevent their opponents to escape by driving them.

* Leonardo does this to Snake's van in the first episode of the Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} [[Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles Ninja Turtles]] series by [[ImprobableAimingSkills throwing a shuriken on a curve in midair from the rooftops to hit a speeding vehicle directly in its front tire]].

!Examples:

* In addition to the police use of spike strips mentioned above, some parking garages use spike beds designed to only puncture tires from one direction. They're used both to enforce one-way lanes and to interfere with people trying to leave without paying.

'''Examples:'''

* In [[Film/MadMax The Road Warrior]]'', Wez shoots his wrist-mounted crossbow at the tires of the Mack truck supposedly carrying the precious fuel. Since it's such a huge and powerful vehicle, it doesn't accomplish much, and the truck keeps on going despite the flattened tires.

* In [[Film/MadMax The Road Warrior'', Wez shoots his wrist-mounted crossbow at the tires of the Mack truck supposedly carrying the precious fuel. Since it's such a huge and powerful vehicle, it doesn't accomplish much, and the truck keeps on going despite the flattened tires.