History Main / ShootTheFuelTank

** This often has he side effect of setting the tank on fire which, with the current patch, will randomly damage modules, injure crew members and possibly cook the ammo for massive damage.

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* The way [[VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas Courier]] Ethan Sunderland kills [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Blue Suns]] Pyro in his first engagement with their troops.
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** Maybe they're [[IncrediblyLamePun blasting caps]].

* In ''Literature/RatedR'' Sid destroys Lily's car this way.[[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] when she outright tells him Mythbusters proved you can't blow up a car that way. Then he does it anyway.

*** This was, in essence, the only reliable way to shoot down airships and balloons during WorldWarOne. Simply shooting them full of holes (hard enough given that many airships of the era could fly higher than airplanes) didn't really work because it was more akin to trying to sink a ship by punching a bunch of little holes in it. Instead, pilots had to use incendiary ammo, which still wasn't always effective at lighting off the hydrogen. And of course, trying the same trick on helium airships and balloons in WorldWarII was even less effective since helium is inert and won't ignite.

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] twice on WereAlive. First in Chpater 13 when Burt, Angel and Riley try to use gas canisters as explosives to ward off zombies while they try to get a fire truck started. The tanks don't ignite when Burt tries to shoot them. ([[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Datu who told them it wouldn't work before they tried it.) The second instance happens in Chapter 24, when the Mallers have a fuel truck rigged with explosives driving toward the Tower and Burt tries to blow it up while it's still far enough away to not cause any damage, but once again his shots fail to blow it up. (Again [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]], this time by Angel who screams "This is just like the gas cans all over again!"

* [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in ''WesternAnimation/Archer''. In the episode "The Rules of Extraction", Archer tries to shoot a gasoline tank with a M-16 in order to set a fire to scare some alligators. [[RealityEnsues It doesn't work]], the tank just end up with some holes in it.

* ''StarWarsTheCloneWars'':

* ''VideoGame/Uncharted2AmongThieves'' has a few sequences where Nathan shoots propane tanks in order to cause explosions. One instance where he's hurling them at the enemy and shooting them in the air was a big pain for NolanNorth who was performing the motion capture and voice acting at the same time. He had to repeatedly hurl an empty propane tank, which isn't exactly light weight, across the studio to act out the sequence.

* The assassination in ''Film/TheJackal'' (1997) involves a remote-controlled gun in the back of a station wagon. A police sniper destroys the weapon ([[NoKillLikeOverkill and the vehicle, and everything around it]]) by firing a shot into the fuel tank, then a second shot to ignite the leaking fuel.

** Strange, when you consider this is averted in the first movie, though that was with a helicopter and not a car. The only effect [[ShootTheFuelTank shooting the fuel tank]] had was an empty tank a few moments later.
** Hell it was averted a few minutes earlier when Morpheus' Cadillac was shot about 1500 times from all directions during the car chase, which must have hit the fuel tank at least once, and nothing happens to it.

* Subverted with the WWII British Matilda II tanks. Their external fuel tanks were arranged so they could get shot, blow up, and the tank could still keep fighting. This troper is sure many Nazi AT teams were very disappointed at this, considering how tough the Matilda II was.

* Shooting another tank's fuel tank in ''MultiTrackDriftingWorldOfTanks'' won't make it explode, unless your gun was actually enough to kill it, but if the enemy doesn' die from it, it will immobilize it until its crew can fix it.

* The ''MultiTrackDriftingFarCry'' series of games has this as a gameplay element, usually to show off the dynamic fire effects in game. Dotted around enemy outposts and towns are a variety of tanks to shoot, ranging from the standard ExplodingBarrel to a large propane tanks. It should be noted that some of the tanks don't immediately explode when shot; they rather emit gouts of flame from the bullet holes, or in some cases fly around like rockets before exploding. While EveryCarIsAPinto, they don't blow up when the gas tank is shot, curiously.

* Shooting another tank's fuel tank in ''WorldOfTanks'' won't make it explode, unless your gun was actually enough to kill it, but if the enemy doesn' die from it, it will immobilize it until its crew can fix it.

* The ''FarCry'' series of games has this as a gameplay element, usually to show off the dynamic fire effects in game. Dotted around enemy outposts and towns are a variety of tanks to shoot, ranging from the standard ExplodingBarrel to a large propane tanks. It should be noted that some of the tanks don't immediately explode when shot; they rather emit gouts of flame from the bullet holes, or in some cases fly around like rockets before exploding. While EveryCarIsAPinto, they don't blow up when the gas tank is shot, curiously.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Halo 2}}'', shooting a Ghost's gas tank will cause it to explode.
** Of course, a Ghost's "gas" is pressurized [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment hot plasma]].

* Done in ''Series/{{Torchwood}}: Children of Earth,'' when the bad guys are pursuing, Gwen uses this tactic to buy themselves some time. It works.

* Averted in ''Film/TheBaaderMeinhofComplex''. Police corner two terrorists in a garage used for storing bomb supplies, including several gas cylinders. Though multiple shots are fired into the garage, nothing explodes.

* Seen in ''Film/TheColony'' when one character makes his last stand against the horde of cannibals.

* JustifiedTrope in ''Film/LoneWolfMcQuade'', as the opening scene has ChuckNorris loading his sniper rifle from an ammunition case of 7.62mm Armor-Piercing Incendiary rounds.

In fiction, shooting a fuel tank makes it explode. This makes for an effective tactic in battle, as it's filled with [[HairTriggerExplosive nitro, in addition to the gas]].

** A gas tank does explode after a crash in ''Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay'', but that's only because a live wire sparked next to the leaking fuel. (Also impossible, diesel fuel doesn't explode even when a blowtorch is pointed at it.) Averted later during the Cyberdyne shootout, where the T-800's minigun does not ignite any of the police cars it's fired that.