Satchel Charge

Plunger Detonator sold separately.

"Who needs keys when a satchel bomb will do just as well?"

—Lt. Karl Fairburne, Sniper Elite 4

A satchel charge is essentially several kilos of explosives packed together, usually inside a special case or bag (hence its name), or being taped or tied together. The explosives in question can vary, ranging from TNT, or, in more modern cases, the less-volatile C4. Usually included with the pack itself is a wick or detonator. In the former case, the wick is either a dynamite-style wick that can be lit by a lighter or match. In more sophisticated cases, a string or trigger system that is better at preventing the charge from either becoming a dud or exploding early is in use. Others, meanwhile are triggered by Plunger Detonator connected by a wire or cable, while more modern cases can instead utilize a remote detonation system. Its main purpose is in the midst of combat, usually wielded by The Engineer or a Demolitions Expert, to perform acts of sabotage on important military installations, clear obstacles blocking the path of an advancing army, or to destroy enemy vehicles, fixed weapons, and installations. Against infantry type units, they may be less effective if the infantry in question are moving around often, but can be potentially devastating if a number of them are caught within the blast radius of one, which due to its composition can be huge.

Aside from use by military units or irregular fighters, satchel charges can also be utilized by criminals and terrorist groups for a number of nefarious reasons, ranging from an Assassination Attempt on a heavily-guarded VIP, to blowing walls off a bank or doors off a safe for a Bank Robbery, or even as part of a Car Bomb.

There are usually two ways a satchel charge can be placed. The first is by simply planting it onto a surface. The second method is to throw the satchel towards the enemy. Triggering the charge, on the other hand, can be done either by the aforementioned wick or trigger systems mentioned above or by shooting the explosives from a safe distance.

In video games, satchel charges can be one effective way of countering or destroying a Stationary Enemy, particularly if they're an emplacement-type unit that's otherwise Immune to Bullets. By extension, satchel charges can also be used against heavily armored or fortified targets, thanks to their larger explosive yield being strong enough to force their way through and defeat even the thickest of armor or walls. When used in single-player type games, satchel charges can sometimes have Bottomless Magazines, in that the player character can pull out one such charge whenever an obstacle or enemy vehicle appears regardless of how many obstacles or enemies there are.

Compare with Sticky Bomb (of which some satchel charges can be categorized under if they can stick onto a surface without the risk of being thrown back) and Molotov Cocktail, another device that can be used to take out vehicles such as tanks. Some satchel charges can also be a form of Improvised Weapon, especially if they were made from everyday items rather than military-grade weapons or explosives. Due to its composition of usually military-grade explosives, it is unsurprisingly Made of Explodium and is very much intended to blow everything around it.

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Examples:

Films — Animation

• Big Hero 6: Honey Lemon's chem purse can, in an emergency, function as an explosive charge, but it's also a Death or Glory Attack, as once she's done it, she has no weapons at her disposal.

Films — Live-Action

• Blade (1998): When Whistler rescues Blade and Karen from the vampire archives, he hurls a knapsack at Quinn, who bats it aside without noticing a timer clipped to the bag counting down. A minute later the knapsack explodes and destroys the archives.
• The Blob (1988): Satchel charges are used twice at the climax to try to destroy the titular Blob Monster. The first time, the satchel charge causes a nice big fireball but does nothing to the monster. The second time, the satchel charge is used to blow up a truck full of liquid nitrogen, which freezes the blob solid and stops it for good.
• Clear and Present Danger: the US commando team use a satchel charge to destroy an underground drug processing factory.
• Hacksaw Ridge: US M37 Satchel charges are used to clear out Japanese bunkers, tunnels, and surface defenses during the fight to take the titular ridge. When used alongside flamethrowers, they prove to be very efficient at wiping out huge swathes of hiding Japanese soldiers.
• The Living Daylights: In order to foil Koskov's and Whitaker's Evil Plan, Bond — with the help of his Mujahideen allies — attempts to plant a satchel charge disguised as a bag of opium onto Koskov's cargo plane, which is carrying the opium he intends to use to make millions of dollars in profit. Ultimately, thanks to circumstances beyond the heroes' control, Bond instead uses it as an Improvised Weapon against an important bridge that Koskov's forces were using to rout the Mujahideen.
• Magnum Force: one of the vigilante cops uses a satchel charge to wipe out the gangsters and their molls at their pool party (the production crew misunderstanding John Milius' script and putting the bomb in an actual school style leather satchel).
• Predator: Dutch uses a satchel charge to create a Molotov Truck against the guerrilla camp; its detonation sets off the opening battle.
• Sands of Iwo Jima: During the invasion of Tarawa, a Marine tries to use satchel charges with a pull-tab type fuse to destroy two enemy bunkers. After the unnamed Marine is killed by machine-gun fire from one of the bunkers, Sgt. Stryker grabs the satchel charges and finishes the job.
• Windtalkers: Sgt. Joe Enders volunteers to use a satchel charge on a heavily-defended Japanese pillbox towards the end of the first battle on Saipan, ultimately blowing the enemy structure sky-high after throwing it into the enemy bunker's machine gun slit.

Live-Action TV

• In one episode of Law & Order, the trope is brought up when a reputed member of the IRA is on trial for pursuing terrorist goals in New York. Defense claims that he works for the peaceful arm of the organization. The DA's office flies in a woman from Ireland who can testify that the man is lying — because some years earlier, he had left his satchel sitting on the sidewalk. Her husband had spotted it and tried to return it to the defendant, only for it to turn out to be one of these, and it blew up "half the street" as well as the woman's husband and their two children.
  "You don't forget the face of the man who blew up your entire family."

Tabletop Games

• BattleTech:
  • It features satchel charges as a possible option for infantry attacks. Infantry can scale a 'Mech and plant charges in leg joints to cripple a 'Mech. This often results in only one or two points of damage and a lot of dead troopers, but done right, infantry platoons can hobble a 'Mech or even blow off its leg.
  • One of the most infamous uses of satchel charges was during the Amaris coup, shortly after he initiated the coup by assassinating the young Richard Cameron, last First Lord of the Star League. Amaris had about three minutes to savor his personal participation in the assassination before an alarm was tripped, at which point Royal Black Watch jetpack troopers jumped on top of the Royal throne room, blew a hole in the roof, and began liberally dispensing satchel charges. Not for for breaching, but as grenades. A large number of Amaris' own guards were slaughtered, and Amaris himself only survived by hiding behind a large stone dais in the room until the Black Watch ran out of satchel charges and had to pull back to get more.
• Warhammer Fantasy: Blasting charges are an optional upgrade for Dwarf miners, who normally use them in civilian use to break open rock formations. They are a projectile weapon with high strength and armour piercing, which due to their extremely short range are commonly only used as part of a Stand and Shoot order.
• Warhammer 40,000: Soldiers of the Astra Militarum can be issued Demolition Charges which come in an astonishing variety of makes thanks to the wildly varying quality of gear available across millions of warzones, but are most commonly a bundle of standard explosives taped together. Their sheer destructive force makes them popular among regiments tasked with breaching static defenses or fighting in urban environments, and are perennial favorites of the Catachan Jungle Fighters. Carrying one is quite dangerous since Demo Charges have a large blast radius and will only fly as far as the soldier throwing it can manage. However, because volunteering for such a hazardous duty qualifies a trooper for improved quality and quantity of rations, there is never a shortage of willing bearers.

Video Games

• Brothers in Arms: Baker and Hartsock use Satchel Charges to destroy German artillery gun emplacements such as Pak 36 Anti-tank guns, 88mm guns, and the occasional 20mm flakvierling. In Hell's Highway, Satchel Charges can now be used to destroy German panzers as well.
• Call of Duty:
  • Call Of Duty United Offensive adds the satchel charge to the multiplayer mode, where they serve as an alternative explosive to grenades, having a far larger blast radius and damage output, but also having a far more limited throwing distance.
  • Modern Warfare: C4 packs, available in both campaign and multiplayer, are essentially the modern counterpart of the satchel charge found in the WWII titles, only this time they use a different explosive and detonation method in the form of, well, C4, and a remote detonator rather than a Plunger Detonator or a wick. Like the WWII-era satchel charges, they're used to blow enemy structures and vehicles. These packs also appear prominently in Call of Duty: Black Ops as well, with pretty much the same appearance and function.
  • Call of Duty: World at War: Satchel charges are issued to Pvt. Miller during "Blowtorch and Corkscrew", which he must use to blow up a number of Japanese gun emplacements. These are of the detonator-triggered variety, which are thrown and then detonated from a safe distance. They're also available in multiplayer mode, which limits their capacity to 2 from the campaign mode's 5.
  • Call of Duty: WWII brings back the satchel charge to the game's multiplayer mode, where it performs similarly to the C4 from Call of Duty: Black Ops III.
• Company of Heroes: Satchel charges are available to a variety of infantry units, which are deployed by the unit tossing it to a location (and then running away from that location lest they be Hoist by His Own Petard) after which a timer clearly visible to all players counts down from them and then it explodes. Due to the long delay of them going off, they are generally best used against buildings and defenses that can't move, though any infantry that do get caught in their blast radius are probably all dead and they will do a good bit of damage to even tanks if they manage to hit them. Heavy machine gun teams are especially vulnerable to them out of most units since the delay of the charge going off is about the same amount of time as it takes for the gunner to pack up the gun and move, meaning if the team isn't already packing up/able to move by the time the charge lands, well...
• Deep Rock Galactic: The Driller's unique Utility Tool is the Satchel Charge, which in this case has the primary purpose of quickly clearing away various terrain with a secondary role of ordinance in combat, and the tertiary role of killing their own teammates. The Satchel Charge is able to stick onto vertical as well as horizontal surfaces at any height provided you can throw it far enough. Once set, a single charge can be detonated by a remote unit held in the Driller's hand. Unlike most other examples of Satchel Charges these can be customized to the player's tastes in terms of raw explosive power, blast radius, disarming switch for retrieval, and even sensitivity to weapons fire. To ease the Driller and his teammates in gauging the blast radius of one, a large red sphere periodically radiates out from the spot that a Satchel Charge's been placed.
• Fallout: New Vegas: The Lonesome Road DLC adds these to the game, and features a considerable number of them placed around the ruined landscape of the Divide. Armed and planted satchel charges present a massive hazard since they can and will detonate much faster than other explosives for brutal and likely fatal damage, but are also a supreme weapon in the hands of The Courier for much the same reason. Indeed, they deal even better damage than the mighty bottlecap mine, yet are much easier to craft.
• Grand Theft Auto:
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas features a satchel charge as one of the available weapons in the game, being the remote-detonated variety. They become available for purchase at any Ammu-Nation store for 2000 USD following the "Against All Odds" mission.
  • Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony: The Sticky Bomb given to Luis is pretty much a purpose-built satchel charge that can be remote-detonated and planted onto any surface. It returns in Grand Theft Auto V, functioning about the same as the TBoGT version, but with the added benefit of that game's smoother aiming to make tossing them easier and more accurate.
• Half-Life:
  • Half-Life, Half-Life: Blue Shift, and Half-Life: Opposing Force have a Satchel Charge as one of the weapons acquired mid-game. Pressing the alternate fire button has the player character shove the explosive on the ground, allowing it slide to a safe distance. The primary fire button, meanwhile, triggers the charge to blow.
    • In Black Mesa, the Satchel Charge functions in pretty much the same way it did back in Half-Life, being a bag of explosives triggered by a remote detonator. This time around, satchels are thrown with the primary fire button and can be picked up by the player in case they dropped the satchel prematurely. The secondary fire button, meanwhile, detonates the satchel.
  • Half-Life 2: The Deathmatch multiplayer expansion adds the SLAM, which can act similarly to the Satchel Charge from the first game and its expansions when thrown, complete with its own detonator.
• Hell Let Loose: The Satchel Charge is issued to the Assault, Anti-Tank, and Engineer classes as an unlockable weapon. Its wicks can be set to 30-, 60-, and 120-second timers, which can be changed depending on the player's preference. Once planted on a surface, it has a blast radius of 15 meters, which can kill entire squads of enemies, supply nodes, spawns, enemy tanks and trucks, and even player-built defenses, which can very useful in trying to capture a heavily-defended point.
• Beginning in Hitman (2016), you can unlock (and sometimes find) C4 demolition and Semtex blocks that are remote controlled or proximity based, and can also stick to walls. They are also extremely explosive; having the biggest killzone and explosion of any explosive in the game, and also doing the most damage. various Palette Swaps of the item would make their way as unlockables in Hitman 2 and Hitman 3 also.
• Killing Floor 2: Demolitionist perks have access to C4 explosive charges that can be placed around the map and remotely detonated via the alt fire button. They can be pretty expensive to stock up on but the resulting boom is usually well worth the price, especially if the player can nail a big horde or elite zed with one.
• League of Legends has a few instances of this:
  • Ziggs, the Hexplosives Expert, has an ability literally called "Satchel Charge" that has two unique functions among his arsenal of other explosive weaponry: if he's standing in its radius, it can be activated to harmlessly propel him away, and the other is blowing up enemy turrets, the explosion instantly totaling them if they fall below a health threshold.
  • Tristana, the Yordle Gunner has a similar ability called the "Explosive Charge", with its spiked design mixing in elements of a Sticky Bomb. She can lob it onto an enemy or a turret to make it explode after a delay, but she can "prime" it by continuously firing at the target, greatly multiplying its damage.
• Mafia III: The Satchel Charge is available as usable equipment should Lincoln increase Thomas Burke's income a certain amount. Outside of this, Lincoln also uses satchels to destroy an old coal dumper during his assassination of Lou Marcano. The charges in question here are packs of C4 taped together, detonated with a remote from afar.
• Medal of Honor:
  • Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Satchel charges, also known as Composition B, are depicted as packs of TNT taped together, with a timed detonator attached. Normally, these are planted onto a surface, and detonate after a set amount of time. On certain occasions, however, the charge is detonated via the use of a Plunger Detonator, as seen in the final Fort Schmerzen level and the Anzio level of Breakthrough.
  • Medal of Honor: Airborne: Satchel charges, depicted as a pack of TNT taped together with a detonator, are used by Cpl. Boyd Travers to destroy various German emplacements, ranging from Anti-Air guns, to tanks, ammunition storage facilities, and even a massive railway artillery gun. In addition, several similar charges are planted by Setzer and Wirth to destroy Der Flakturm via it's ammunition storage, complete with a Plunger Detonator, though Travers is the one to ultimately do the deed after the former two are killed in an ambush.
• Mission Impossible (1990): Max's secondary weapon is 10 satchel charges that the manual identifies as cluster bombs. Press the button once to plant them, and press it again to detonate. Useful in some cases to destroy walls, but also the most powerful attack you possess, capable of killing almost every enemy with one bomb, and can take out multiple enemies at once. It also helps that Max is immune to the explosion.
• Myth has dwarves who carry a few satchel charges. Generally they are set off by throwing grenades at them, although a Fetch's lightning attack or a Wight's death can also set them off.
• Operation Flashpoint has this as either a timed or remote-controlled explosive, which is placed on the ground. They're used in Stealth-Based Missions to destroy objectives once you're far enough away.
• Red Faction 2 calls your planted explosive weapon "satchel charges." However, they lack bags and resemble shaped charges or mines instead, behaving something more like a Sticky Bomb with homicidally easygoing arming requirements thanks to its habit of sticking to anything...or anyone.
• Red Orchestra:
  • Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad: The Germans have two such weapons that function as this: the HHL Anti-Vehicle grenade, used by the German engineer and anti-tank classes, which can be thrown at enemy tanks, infantry, or emplacements to kill or disable them, and the 3kg Satchel, which is a more conventional-looking satchel used exclusively by the German engineer. The Soviets, meanwhile, are also issued a similar 3kg satchel for their Engineer class, with their Anti-Vehicle grenade being the RPG-40 and issued to the Soviet equivalents of the aforementioned classes, which acts similarly to the HHL.
  • Rising Storm: The US M37 Satchel Charge is a pickup weapon left behind on US ammo supply crates, which can be wielded by both United States and Japanese troops to destroy certain objectives such as artillery gun positions, or kill a large number of enemies. For the Japanese, they have the Type 99 mine, found on Japanese ammo supply crates, which is an Anti-Armor grenade that serves and functions as their equivalent of the US satchel charge, being a mine packed with a similar amount of explosives that can be thrown at either US infantry or emplacements to kill or disable, respectively. Like the US satchel charge, American troops can also pick the mine up for practically the same uses.
  • Rising Storm 2: Vietnam: The US, Australian, and South Vietnamese Engineer classes have access to a C4 pack that functions similarly to the satchel charges of the previous game (being explosives duct-taped together rather than placed in a bag), except this time the charges are remote-detonated rather than triggered through a wick.
• Saints Row 2: Satchel charges are a grenade-class weapon in the game. They act as a Sticky Bomb, adhering to whatever surface they hit, whether that's the sidewalk, a car, or a profoundly unlucky person. They're detonated via remote control.
  • In Saints Row: The Third, however, they occupy the Explosives slot (same as the humble Missile Launcher and a Grenade Launcher) and can only be obtained after the end of the second act, with them being Permanently Missable Content alongside a hoverbike and upgraded tank.^note  Unless you shell out for the Unlockables Pack DLC, which grants you the Satchel Charges from the beginning of the game as a Disc-One Nuke.
• Serious Sam 3: BFE and Serious Sam 4 have the C4 explosives, a bunch of tied-up explosives modelled after a Satchel charge using C4 explosives that are used against heavier enemies (such as the Khnum) and bosses (such as Lord Achriman and Ugh-Zan VI) and to clear obstacles up. Its activation is done via remote control after Sam throws a pack.
• Sniper Elite:
  • Sniper Elite V2 and Sniper Elite III: Karl uses satchel charges to destroy a number of important objectives, from a medium-sized bridge in Berlin to an entire tank and missile factory.
  • Sniper Elite 4: The Satchel Charge is made available to Karl Fairburne during the Bitanti Village mission, as a gift from Sofia di Rocco upon Karl discovering the whereabouts of the Partisan HQ. They're virtually unlimited in use, with Karl capable of planting them on vehicles and artillery guns. Depending on preference, the player can either set it off manually by triggering the wick or simply shooting the explosives from a safe distance with their Sniper Rifle.
  • Sniper Elite 5: The Satchel Charge returns, and functions similarly to how it did in 4. Unlike 4, however, only a limited number of satchels can be carried at any one time, they can no longer destroy vehicles in one explosion, and now have an option for a slow-wick detonation.
• Squad 44: Satchel charges are exclusive to the Engineer classes. These can be used to clear enemy defenses and structures or take out enemy artillery guns and vehicles. To detonate them, they're on a wick-based timer, and must be planted and set up beforehand.
• Team Fortress 1 and Team Fortress Classic gave the demo man a satchel charge. It's a high-power explosive and is used in some maps to open or close one of the routes.
• Unreal Tournament III has the Shaped Charge, a plastic explosive modelled after a Satchel Charge which acts as a much safer alternative to the Redeemer and the Leviathan's stationary mode Ion Cannon when it comes to obstacle^note such as barricades, which in certain maps can also trigger some events such as an avalanche or (un)blocking a path and objective^note such as Warfare's Power Nodes and Power Cores destruction. Once picked up, a player isn't allowed to fire any weapon until they drop it, which is when it's activated.
• Valorant: Invoked with Raze's Blast Pack ability, in which she throws down an explosive charge whose blast can either damage opponents or lift Raze into the air. When it's deployed, she says "Satchel out!"
• The World Is Not Enough has an exploding package weapon simply called, well, a satchel charge, which James Bond can throw at a target, back off, and detonate when he's a distance away.

Real Life

• The US M37 Demolition Kit is the archetypal example of a satchel charge. Issued mainly to US combat engineers during World War II, its purpose was to clear obstacles for friendly vehicles, destroy enemy defenses such as pillboxes, and to damage or destroy components of enemy tanks. It contained 8 blocks of high explosive placed inside a square-shaped bag, and was typically set off by a pull igniter.
• The Japanese Army of WW2 used these as suicide bombs: a man might, for instance, seek to conceal himself in a foxhole in the path of allied tanks with a satchel charge, and act as a kamikazi landmine when a vehicle rolled over him.