History Main / WireDilemma

'''[=McCall=]:''' [[StopHelpingMe Shut up, Mickey.]] ''[hesitates... cuts the blue wire. Bomb deactivates]''

* The focus, multiple times, of a particular ''Anime/OutlawStar'' episode, with the final dilemma (if there even was one) occurring offscreen. Both wires set off the bomb. The real detonator wire is implied to have been concealed behind an earlier booby trap with no dummy wire and is easily disarmed.

* An episode of ''Anime/{{Patlabor}}'' had Asuma facing a wire dilemma. He was about to cut one wire, when a pair of wire cutters appears from offscreen to cut the other.

* ''WesternAnimation/GIJoe'' had an episode where COBRA-planted earthquake-causing bombs had to be disarmed in this fashion.

* ''Series/{{Arrow}}''. In "The Calm", [[VoiceWithAnInternetConnection Felicity Smoak]] tells Roy Harper to cut the yellow wire on a bomb planted under a stadium. Roy tells her there is no yellow wire. They end up using a Freon line from the stadium's air conditioning system to freeze the bomb instead. Added bonus: The Freon pipe that Roy breaks is yellow.
* Played with in an episode of ''Series/StrikeBack'', where a protagonist calls a retired CIA buddy to help disable an active bomb, [[spoiler: but he only called because he knew the friend was terrible under pressure, so he reasoned that whatever wire he told him not to cut was actually the correct wire.]]

* ''Series/BionicWoman'' (2007 remake). Jaime finds her LoveInterest turned into a [[WhyAmITicking human bomb]] during a HostageForMcGuffin trade -- the bomb has two false wires and one true one. Fortunately MissionControl can see an enhanced view relayed through her bionic eye, and tell her which wire to cut based on where the power is going.
* The ''Series/BlakesSeven'' episode "Countdown" uses the YourOtherLeft trope for this. Avon is trying to defuse a DoomsdayDevice that will kill everyone on the planet if he gets it wrong.

* ''Series/TheEqualizer''. In "China Rain", Robert [=McCall=] and Mickey Kostmeyer find the child hostage they're trying to rescue tied up in a room with an IncrediblyObviousBomb. They use a simple rhyme (presumably taught in SpySchool) to help them remember which wire to cut. Provided they can remember the rhyme correctly...

* In the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' episode "The Girls' Night Out Job", Tara and Sophie [[DefiedTrope defy]] this trope. They find a time bomb with about a minute left before it explodes, so they call up Hardison to ask how to defuse it. He starts running through a complicated spiel about how to determine which wire to cut. They quickly realize that they don't have time to do what he's saying, and [[CuttingTheKnot throw the bomb out the window]] instead.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{MacGyver|1985}}'', a TimeBomb is planted on a ship. After Mac disables the numerous defense mechanisms of the bomb, he arrives at a Wire Dilemma. A bomb technician tells him which wire he should cut, but Mac cuts the other one instead [[spoiler: because he suspects that the bomb technician is the villain]].

* In the ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' episode featuring ''Film/TheBrainThatWouldntDie'', Mike attempts to gain control of the Satellite of Love by cutting wires and when Tom Servo says to "cut the red wire", Mike responds "Which one? There are, like, four of them!" Tom responds "The green one." He ends up cutting something that is ''not'' the cheese compressor line.

* ''Series/PersonOfInterest''. A variation occurs in "Dead Reckoning". Not knowing how to defuse a bomb, Finch instead tries to hack the mobile phone being used as a detonator. He has five possible combinations for the unlock code, but the phone will lock him out after the first three.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''
** In "Stakeout" the lads are disarming a crude home-made atomic bomb with the help of its builder, who's decided he doesn't want to die for the cause after all. He's just removed the detonator with 30 seconds to go when he forgets which wire he's supposed to cut (it's red, naturally).

* ''Series/ThePunisher2017''. In "Virtue Of The Vicious", Lewis Wilson is holding a DeadMansSwitch for the bomb vest he's wearing, and is using Karen Page as a HumanShield against Frank Castle. Frank already knows to cut the white wire (having disarmed another bomb built by Lewis) and has to talk Karen through picking the right one (she can reach the wires but can't ''see'' them) [[MultitaskedConversation while supposedly]] TalkingDownTheSuicidal.

* In ''Series/TheSixMillionDollarMan'', a bomb is placed UNDER the Liberty Bell. The bomber had earlier given a DyingClue of "red, white, and blue" to Steve. When Steve lifts the Bell for a bomb tech to disarm the bomb, there are FOUR wires -- red, white, blue, and green. Steve figures out that the bomber WANTED the Bell to be destroyed, so he tells the tech to cut the green wire -- which disarms it.

** "Fail Safe" has an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth, so SG-1 goes to set off an explosive on it and blow it off course. Then they realize it's a bad idea, but not before the timer is set and space debris busts the keypad, so they have to defuse it manually:

** "Serpent's Venom" features an interesting variation, with a space mine with an access panel designed like a combination lock. The scene goes all out with this trope, including a "No, Wait!", uncertainty over the correct code, ''and'' a wrong wire scenario resulting from the fact Carter and Daniel are having to translate the manual on the fly using the language's distant descent from Phoenician [[spoiler:which doesn't have the number zero]].
** Lampshaded in the Season 9 episode "Ripple Effect" in which an alternate reality Mitchell impishly leaves his counterpart with the cryptic advice, "When the time comes, cut the green one." Fans have debated whether he was referring to an actual future event, or just messing with his counterpart's mind. WordOfGod says that they were going to come back to this, but they never found a good spot to use it in Season 10 and then the show got cancelled.
* A futuristic variant occurs in ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' when a torpedo is lodged in the hull of the stricken ''Defiant'' in a room where Quark and a merchant he had earlier swindled are trapped. It turns out that the merchant's people are actually the ones who sell the device,[[note]]leading to a brief moment of HilarityEnsues when the merchant wryly remarks that maybe he should offer the people that ''fired'' the torpedo a ''refund'' since it failed to go off[[/note]] so he knows how to disarm it. Rather than wires, there are two identical box-shaped pieces of the warhead, one of which will deactivate it if pulled out, while the other will cause it to detonate. Quark eventually just grabs one of them and in the process teaches the merchant a lesson about going with your gut.

* In ''Fanfic/TheWeaverOption'', Corax teleports into Quor Karmain's command room and plants a warpstone bomb with a warning that Quor needs to cut the red wire. The Dark Apostle opens the bomb to find it has thousands of wires, [[{{Troll}} all red]]. He guesses poorly.

** It shows up in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', when Bond takes the [[{{Macguffin}} ATAC]] from the sunken ship, but it's downplayed since there's no timer and he has the instruction card on hand. The ''real'' problem is the GiantMook who attacks him while he's trying to do the disarming.

* ''VideoGame/Judgment'': The Mad Bomber series of side cases involve homemade bombs, but instead of cutting the wires, [[CuttingTheKnot Yagami elects to rip the wires out, breaking the connection between the timer and the bomb.]] Luckily for everyone involved, this works.

Example of a DeadHorseTrope, partly since in real life the electronics of a bomb are both simpler and more fragile than Hollywood would have you believe. Mostly, however, it's because Time Bombs simply aren't used anymore, at least not very much. Both proximity triggers and remote detonation are more likely to get the intended target, as well as blow up anyone who gets close enough to disarm them. A Time Bomb still has the advantage of both letting you get away without the risk of a proximity trigger being set off by ''you'' or the need to hang around close enough to perform the manual detonation, but most simply opt for a work around instead of a timer. The Wire Dilemma has a minor Sub-Trope in the WrongWire. See also BombDisposal, OperationGameOfDoom, CutTheFuse, and RelocatingTheExplosion.

* Subversion: In ''ComicBook/{{Catwoman}}'' #61, Catwoman fights Film Freak, a madman who sees everything in terms of [[{{Film}} film tropes]]. After defeating him, she has to defuse an atomic bomb, and faces a classic "red wire blue wire" situation. She cuts a wire at random -- cutting ''[[WrongWire any wire]]'' will shut the bomb down.

* In ''Film/LethalWeapon3'', Riggs insists on trying to defuse a bomb rather than waiting for the bomb squad to arrive. After joking around with Murtaugh about what color wire to cut, he finally cuts [[WrongWire one that accelerates the timer on the bomb...]] which leads to the classic one-liner, "Grab the cat."

* In an episode of ''Series/{{Eureka}}'', the town is under threat from a "DeathRay" accidentally activated in a disused lab. Attempts to disarm it include a [[WrongWire failed wire dilemma]] that shortens the countdown. When the weapon's designer shows up and simply removes the launch keys, the system seems to shut down, then activates a "deadman's protocol", an anti-sabotage strike calling for an even bigger boom. The designer asks, "Did someone cut the blue wire?"

** "Serpent's Venom" features an interesting variation, with a space mine with an access panel designed like a combination lock. The scene goes all out with this trope, including a "No, Wait!", uncertainty over the correct code, ''and'' a WrongWire scenario resulting from the fact Carter and Daniel are having to translate the manual on the fly using the language's distant descent from Phoenician [[spoiler:which doesn't have the number zero]].

** First Ray, the bomb expert directs Archer and Lana to cut the blue and white striped wire... except there are two of them, and they can't tell which one is blue with white stripes and which one is white with blue stripes. Then, after checking the serial number of the bomb, Archer is directed to cut the green wire... except the bomb expert misheard the last letter of the serial number (thanks to Archer saying "Mancy" for M), so [[WrongWire cutting the green wire speeds up the detonation.]] Eventually, they just dump out the bomb from the airship. Onto a populated area.

* Lewis Page, a writer for The Register, trained in bomb disposal. He remarks in [[http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/02/terror_idiocy_outbreak/ this article]] that he and his colleagues were originally trained to defuse bombs made by people who knew what they were doing, and actually had to be re-trained out of their paranoia about dummy wires, etc, as [[SturgeonsLaw they were more usually called out to deal with "bombs" made by the sort of people who probably have difficulty wiring a plug]]. Sample quote: "Your correspondent was once called out to a scene where a teenage cretin, finding that batteries would go pop if heated in a fire, taped nails around D-cells and put them on a camping cooker. Terrifyingly, some of the nails flew as much as [[BritishHumour two or three feet]] when this infernal device reaped its deadly harvest."

# The color is one the cutter doesn't know. (e.g. taupe, ochre, turquoise, umber, etc.)

* Played straight in ''Film/{{Armageddon}}'', where the Pentagon activates the nuclear bomb on the shuttle because they believe the mission is doomed to failure, and the Air Force nuclear specialists on the mission have to disarm it. In this case, the airmen can't shut the bomb down directly because it has been remotely activated, and they have to cut the wiring. The usual dilemma is subverted; the airman disarming the wires briefly hesitates when determining which wire to cut, but he remembers exactly which one to cut after a second of thought. Justified in that they weren't trying to disable the bomb, as they still needed to use it. They just needed to disable the activated timer and stop the Pentagon-ordered detonation. It's also unclear if cutting the wrong wire would cause the bomb to detonate, stop the countdown but render the bomb useless, or just fail to stop the countdown.

* ''Manga/SpyXFamily'': Anya discovers that a terrorist group planted a bomb inside a clock tower. When she tries to defuse it by cutting the red wire (as seen on TV) she realizes that all of the wires are black.

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': Instead of having a timer, the bomb is on a treadmill, which has to have a rider on it non-stop until it can be defused, and will go off the moment the rider steps off. So, of course, the bomb is discovered when [[BigEater Carl Winslow]] has just started running on the treadmill. When Carl begins to get tired, his boss jumps on the treadmill and starts running. Meanwhile, the [[DiscussedTrope trope is discussed at length]], with various mnemonics such as "Red you're dead" and "[[ChunkySalsaRule Blue you're through!]]" tossed back and forth until they figure it out. And why were these two left to deal with the bomb? The [[BombDisposal bomb squad]] was afraid to come inside because there was a bomb. Worth noting, the entire scenario is PlayedForLaughs. This show, of course, came on well before UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was a thing. [[HowDidYouKnowIDidnt Carl's boss, after the fact, how he knew which wire to pull. Carl's response being he didn't; he guessed]].

* ''Series/FamilyMatters'': Instead of having a timer, the bomb is on a treadmill, which has to have a rider on it non-stop until it can be defused. So of course the bomb is discovered when [[BigEater Carl Winslow]] has just started running on the treadmill. When Carl begins to get tired, his boss jumps on the treadmill and starts running. Meanwhile, the [[DiscussedTrope trope is discussed at length]], with various mnemonics such as "Red you're dead" and "[[ChunkySalsaRule Blue you're goo!]]" tossed back and forth until they figure it out. And why were these two left to deal with the bomb? The [[BombDisposal bomb squad]] was afraid to come inside because there was a bomb. Worth noting, the entire scenario is PlayedForLaughs. This show, of course, came on well before UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was a thing.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/SWATKats'' episode "The Wrath of Dark Kat", Razor needs to defuse a bomb in mid-air. Popping open the hatch while muttering it's always the red wire, he discovers the villain has filled the entire bomb with a rat's nest of enough wires to fully equip a house; and of course all of them are red.

* Subverted in ''VideoGame/HalfLifeOpposingForce''. Adrian Shephard has to disarm a nuke set by Black Ops that would [[spoiler: [[ItsTheOnlyWayToBeSure obliterate Black Mesa]] and everything inside]]. An open panel has instructions for how to arm it, and some wires are exposed, but all it takes to disarm it is flipping a red "ON/OFF" switch. [[Machinima/FreemansMindSpinoffs Shephard's Mind]] brings this trope into play, where Adrian ''thinks'' he has to cut a wire, and attempts to with his knife. It works. [[spoiler:The ease of turning it off gets turned around on him later, when Adrian later watches the G-Man pop in and re-arm the bomb, which detonates at the end of the game.]]

** It shows up in ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', when Bond takes the [[{{Macguffin}} ATAC]] from the sunken ship, but it's downplayed since there's no timer and he has the instruction card on hand.

* ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'': Subverted in "[[Recap/SherlockS03E01TheEmptyHearse The Empty Hearse]]" because [[spoiler: the bomb has a hidden off switch on the side]].

* The 1974 film ''Film/{{Juggernaut}}'' in which a blackmailer has placed bombs inside 55-gallon drums on a cruise ship. At the film's climax, defusing the bomb requires guessing whether to cut the red wire or the blue wire. The police back in London have captured the bad guy, and he tells them to cut the blue wire -- so now the question becomes, do you believe him, or cut the red wire? [[spoiler: You cut the red wire]].

--> '''Tonate:''' DISARM DISARM DISARM DISARM!!! STOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!!!

* Adrian and Phoenixia take this UpToEleven in the ''Fanfic/AntiClicheAndMarySueEliminationSociety'' -- they have an argument over which wire Phoenixia said to pull after Adrian already pulled the wire. The bomb ends up shutting itself off because the argument was so ridiculous.

* Came up in an episode of ''Series/HoneyIShrunkTheKids'', where Wayne Salynzkie admits to memorizing a mnemonic device (a running gag in the episode) to decide which wire to cut, but gets it confused with the Mnemonic for Coral Snakes ("Red and Yellow, kill a fellow... Oh God, that's snakes!") He eventually calls up his son for the mnemonic... and it turns out to be wrong. In the end, the bomb is disposed of by shrinking it to the size of a firecracker.

* In an episode of ''Series/SevenDays'', at one point an extremely patriotic lunatic has planted a bomb which the hero (Frank Parker) and the bomber's equally patriotic but less crazy brother (Nathan Ramsey) have to disarm. The wires are, of course, red, white, and blue (the colors of the American flag). Running out of time, with the colors not corresponding to any standard, Nathan cuts the red wire at the last second -- bomb defused. When asked why he chose the red wire, Ramsey replies "Because I hate Communists..." (implied to be [[StrangeMindsThinkAlike the same reasoning the bomber used]]).

* In the third episode of ''Series/CriminalMinds'', "Won't Get Fooled Again", the profilers encounter a serial killer who creates bombs using the plans of another serial bomber, Adrian Bale, Gideon had imprisoned, though only after Bale tricked Gideon and killed six FBI agents. Bale agrees to help on the condition that he gets released from prison. Eventually, the team is faced with a victim who has one of the bombs strapped to his chest, with a timer ticking down to the explosion. The bomb has two wires for operation, a blue and a red one, and the bomb squad technician asks Bale which wire he needs to cut. With the usual seconds left, Bale tells the tech to cut the red one and the tech believes Bale since a wrong answer would cost Bale his freedom. [[spoiler:Just as the tech is about to cut the red wire, Gideon tells him to cut the other one, basing the decision on the fact Bale had earlier admitted he could never pass up an opportunity to trick Gideon again]].