Explosive Punch

FALCON! PAWNCH!!!!!!

"PUNCH HIM SO HARD HE EXPLODES!!!"

— Mr. Torgue, Borderlands 2

All good hand-to-hand fights are decided by how effectively one guy can punch the other guy. Fantastical fistfights usually go the extra mile, with the combatants applying some elemental affinity to their punches. Somehow, putting literal firepower into your hands isn't overkill enough, so some people will go even further, having their fists actually detonate on impact. Obviously applying the element of fire is a very effective method of adding that explosive touch to your fisticuffs. However, don't disregard the people who are just so strong that they can punch things hard enough to explode just by force of impact.

Note that while the majority of examples are punch-based, explosive kick examples are allowed and encouraged.

A Sub-Trope of Elemental Punch and Megaton Punch. See also Rocket Punch, which usually results in the fist itself exploding.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bubblegum Crisis Linna Yamazaki's Hardsuit comes equipped with "Knuckle Bombers" (small explosive charges) on its right hand allowing her to add explosive damage to her punches when utilised. The Mid-Season Upgrade also added them plus kick bombers to Priss' suit.
• F-Zero: GP Legend: Captain Falcon's moveset from Super Smash Bros. was so iconic and inseparable from him that it made its way back into F-Zero, with the Falcon Punch making an explosive return in the Grand Finale of this anime adaptation.
• My Hero Academia: Katsuki Bakugo's quirk lets him sweat nitroglycerin from his palms. He uses his explosive sweat primarily to propel himself toward his enemies and pound them with palm strikes.
• One Piece:
  • Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Red Hawk is a technique where he uses Armament Haki as a method of igniting his fist, causing a violent explosion on impact with his target.
    • During the Wano arc, he performs an upgraded version of Red Hawk, combining Gear Third's inflation, Red Hawk's flames, and advanced Armament Haki to create Red Roc, a punch that's strong enough to injure Kaido, one of the Four Emperors, who previously has been able to No-Sell pretty much every attack he's taken up to that point.
  • Ideo's Destruction Cannon, his signature technique, is powerful enough to send an unconscious giant flying a few meters. Being a member of the Longarm Tribe, Ideo's arms have two elbows; the secret to his technique involves pushing his first elbow to his shoulder, then decompressing the arm as he punches his target for added force, with explosive results.
• In The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World, Red's Burning Kizuna Punch causes an explosion wherever he hits. While helpful for killing monsters, the heat and explosive force incinerate the drop items he'd normally get, leaving him in Perpetual Poverty.

Comic Books

• The Golden Age: When the unpowered Dan the Dyna-Mite, sidekick of the hero T.N.T., undergoes an enhancement, he gets superhuman strength, flight, and the power to give his fists an explosive charge. Unfortunately, by that point, he's not Daniel Dunbar anymore, he's Adolf Hitler.

Films — Animation

• DC League of Super-Pets: Krypto the Superdog's most powerful ability is the Solar Paw Punch, which involves flying close to the sun, absorbing its energies, then diving back down to Earth to strike his foe. The result is an explosion of solar energy that destroys both the target and the user, making the move a Dangerous Forbidden Technique.

Live-Action TV

• Ultraman Mebius has the titular Ultra's Lightning Counter, a supercharged punch that results in an explosion capable of taking out the Monster of the Week, as one of his many abilities.

Video Games

• ARMS: One of the possible ARMS attributes is Explosion, which allows fully-charged punches to detonate shortly after impact for extra damage. However, most ARMS with this attribute have a unique weakness — if an opponent hits your charged ARMS before you throw a punch with them, they'll explode in your face instead.
• Batman: Arkham Asylum: At the climax following the boss fight against the Titan-enhanced Joker, Batman sprays his fist with explosive gel, then punches the Joker in the face; the force detonates the gel and the explosion knocks the Joker out cold.
• The Binding of Isaac: Knockout Drops is an item that turns Isaac's tears into fists with massively increased knockback. Ipecac is an item that replaces Isaac's tears with a massive explosive tear. Put them together and what do you get? Bibidi. Babidi. Boom.
• Doom Eternal: The "Blood Punch" has Doomslayer strike with a ton of built-up energy, resulting in a blast that can one-shot most basic enemies. It can only be used once he's charged up enough energy by performing Glory Kills.
• Fallout: New Vegas has the Ballistic Fist, a variant of the Power Fist with a shotgun built into it. Whenever you punch someone, blammo.
• In Final Fantasy XIV, the Summoner job's Crimson Cyclone attack has them rush at the target with a burst of flame before jumping and slamming their book into the target as an explosive hammer blow. This causes a fiery pillar to engulf the target and anything near it.
• The Henry Stickmin Series has parodied Captain Falcon's Falcon Punch and similar moves of his as a running gag since Stealing the Diamond.
  • One of the options in the first proper phase of the "Unseen Burglar" route from Stealing the Diamond is to make Henry attempt to do the Falcon Punch against a night security guard, only to interrupt when he notices that only smoke is coming out of his fist. To quote the fail screen immediately shown afterwards:
    Only one man is capable of doing that punch.
  • The opposite outcome happens with the "Government Supported Private Investigator" pathway's Falcon Kick from Infiltrating the Airship, which causes Henry to burn himself into ashes.
    I think you put too much energy into it that time.
  • Fleeing the Complex's "Convict Allies" route has the KNEE, in which Henry blasts out Grigori and (accidentally) Ellie with the Knee of Justice. This is followed by a "YOU WIN, PERFECT" message taken directly from Street Fighter II Turbo as Henry smiles awkwardly, which the fail screen lampshades:
    Whoa whoa whoa! You can't go mixing fighting game references like that!
  • Completing the Mission's "Capital Gains" route brings the gag to a tasteful conclusion. Henry and Ellie have to fight the Right Hand Man Reborn, and the correct option is replicating an iconic smash clip, "The Wombo Combo". They finish it off with their "Stickmin Pawnch", which finally succeeds and kills the Right Hand Man again.
• The King of Fighters: Almost all of Ralf Jones's punch attacks create powerful explosions with every hit. For example, he can produce a Gatling gun effect with Vulcan Punch, come crashing down with Dive Bomber Punch, or blast his opponent to pieces with the unstoppable Galactica Phantom.
• League of Legends:
  • Sett's "Haymaker" channels all of his strength and magical energy into a single, destructive punch that reaches way past the plausible range for your average haymaker. It also deals true damage, meaning he's punching right through his opponents' armor and other defenses.
  • Vi's Relentless Force explosively charges her next autoattack, blasting through her target to hit everything in a cone behind it.
• The Loader is Risk of Rain 2's resident boxer, getting up close and personal and beating the shit out of the unending swarm of monsters. Brilliant Behemoth is an item that makes all of your attacks cause explosions on hit. Do the math.
• Knuckles in Sonic Battle has a power move called "Deep Impact," a slow, but destructive punch that causes an explosion when performed. If used by Emerl in conjunction with one of the more powerful "Attack Boost" skill cards, it can potentially cause a One-Hit Kill on contact.
• Pokémon: First appearing in Pokémon Gold and Silver is the move "Dynamic Punch", in which the user punches the opponent with all their strength. Later generations would illustrate the force of this attack with an explosion animation. This ties back to the move's original Japanese name, Bakuretsu^note Explosive Punch.
• Splatoon 2: The Splashdown special has the Inkling jump into the air and slam down with a punch that causes an explosion of ink that'll kill anyone in its radius while also inking the surrounding turf very well. Splatoon 3's Triple Splashdown does the same, but with two additional ink-fists.
• Street Fighter V: G's "Smash" attacks have him rushing forward to deliver an explosive punch powered by magma. They get even stronger and explode-ier the more he builds his Presidentiality.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • When designing characters for the original game on the N64, Masahiro Sakurai and the team at HAL Laboratory had the freedom to go hog wild with Captain Falcon's moveset. He comes from F-Zero, a racing game with absolutely no gameplay taking place outside of his vehicle, so there was absolutely no canon inspiration to pull from.^note All that there was to go on was a short comic in the first game's instruction manual, which saw him attending to his bounty-hunter duties before the beginning of a race. So they gave him some basic attacks, applied the fire element to them, and had him be as flashy as possible. This design philosophy spawned the Falcon Punch, an attack where Captain Falcon winds up for a devastating punch that's powered by an explosion in the shape of an actual falcon. He also uses the Falcon Kick, which is faster but weaker than the punch, and the Knee of Justice, which explodes when connecting with the sweet spot.
  • One of Master Hand's attacks is to punch the ground with a powerful explosion at the impact point.
• Some home versions of Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 introduced a finishing move called the Brutality, a series of punches and kicks that end with an explosive punch, turning your opponent into a shower of bones and other assorted gore, far more than what should have come out of their bodies. Brutalities returned in Mortal Kombat Trilogy and have featured sporadically in the series since then.
• ULTRAKILL:
  • V1 can have a delayed explosive punch if he's claimed the Knuckleblaster arm from V2; the explosion is helpfully provided by a pair of shells packed into the knuckles.
  • Superboss Minos Prime has an especially infamous explosive dropkick. In his case, it's unknown if it's a matter of soul power or if (much like his debris-scattering Flash Steps) it's just a matter of him hitting that hard.

Webcomics

• In the world of Star Impact, all boxing gloves give a special ability to their wearer, and early in Chapter 1, Aster tries out a pair called Firework Parade that "can produce small explosions at the end of heavy punches", as Buzz says. However, they wind up being a poor fit for her.

Western Animation

• Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Assumed in "Demoncism"; Star is angry at Tom and Marco over the former wanting to undergo a demoncism, and she leaves to go punch some trees with Pony Head cheering her on. Later, the demoncism goes horribly wrong, setting the forest on fire just as one of Star's punches connects.
  Pony Head: Harder! HARDER! *BOOM* ...Dang, not that hard.
• Transformers: Animated: Lugnut's Punch Of Kill Everything causes a huge explosion when it connects, but it has a tendency to backfire when triggered prematurely.
  Blitzwing: I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: GIVE ME SOME WARNING BEFORE YOU USE ZE PUNCH!

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