Has there ever been any movie, book or other work of popular fiction where the heroes actually die in the collapse of the villain’s hideout?
So here we go again – I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, or is still enjoying them, but we have to get on with the plot, after all.
And this, of course, is the classical ending to the collapse of a villain’s hideout. At first it seems that the heroes perished under the crumbling structure, and all to be seen after the dust settles, is a pile of debris. Then a small pebble starts to move, as if by coincidence. Then a couple of rocks roll down, as if pushed upward from below. Finally all the heroes emerge, who almost made it to the exit, and were buried only by a thin layer of rocks (getting hit by only a few dozen 300kg boulders will leave the average hero completely unscathed).
Well, the stereotype requires not necessarily all protagonists to escape, the ‘scoundrel’ character sometimes gets squished for the purpose of higher justice. Which reminds me, has anybody seen Snuka around?
An old adventuring hand like the Professor has naturally survived his share of hideout collapses, even if I need to modify his statement a bit. As far as I know, Moriarity never had a hideout collapse on him, and der Kaiser’s hideouts are mostly still around, even, and serve as museums or tourist attractions (if you can call an ornate 100-room palace in the center of a major city a hideout at all). And of course villains used to be more villainous when the Professor was young, after all, back then summers where hotter, winters were colder, and sex was sexier.
Biff is not the person to learn his lesson from a single clobbering, so I expect the wormholes to hammerspace will see some more traffic yet.
New voting incentive today! For a bit of variety, it’s NOT Harry Potter themed. I’ve settled on Star Wars instead, since I happened to find an Episode III DVD under the Christmas tree.
Drop by the forum occasionally, and don’t miss Thursday’s update, the last of the year.