
The charge is set up so that the explosion fans shrapnel out in an arc in front of the mine, similar to a shotgun blast, rather than a general disorganized kaboom. Rather than just blow up and hope someone's over it, these consist of a mounting plate, the explosive charge, and the soon-to-be shrapnel. yay?Īlso applies to all manner of similar explosive boobytraps involving pressure plates, trip wires and other triggering mechanisms.Ī recent variation is a 'claymore' or directional mine. In fact, you're almost twice as likely to survive a landmine as not. A lot of people survive landmines with missing feet or legs. Antipersonnel mines are designed to maim rather than outright kill because wounded but still alive soldiers need to be evacuated from the battlefield, which costs more time and resources. Yikes).Īnother fun fact about landmines is that they don't necessarily kill you. That said, if the mine is a Bouncing Betty, the most effective thing to do is dive and duck immediately to receive minimum damage from the shrapnel, as it mainly spreads horizontally (at roughly crotch-height, so even if it doesnt cut you in half, you may end up wishing it did. If the landmine simply blows the poor guy's leg off, The Squad still has to tend to him, only now the explosion has tipped off any nearby defenders to intruders. Also, the only benefit from a mine following this trope is that a group of soldiers are delayed trying to help their friend. Which makes sense, if you consider that a pressure-release trigger would be more complicated and more prone to failure. In reality, most personnel mines will go off whether or not you release the button. Part of a Minefield's purpose is area denial, so if seeing the land mines makes you stay away or find a different path, they're still doing their job. Such land mines might even feature flashing lights and beep a few seconds before they go off, which rather defeats the purpose. Many video games feature land mines with serious design problems, so it's quick and easy for a single main character to avoid or disarm them, unlike in real life. It'll give an audible warning that it's been triggered, but that's no help to the victim - all they have time for is an Oh, Crap! reaction before he's pâté.
Deus ex human revolution mines how to#
This is derived from Real Life military training on how to extract yourself from a minefield - except the part about using knives (or anything made of steel/iron): some of the larger (antitank) mines have magnetic-proximity triggers. This is often followed by the survivors getting down on their hands and knees and carefully making their way out, probing the ground ahead with sticks and knives (especially in war stories). This usually involves finding a nice big rock to hold the button down while everybody runs for cover.Īnother variant is to have a redshirt, a mook, or an otherwise expendable character step on one and have it detonate immediately, killing them. In fiction, however, the squad will hear a tiny "click" as someone steps on the first mine, and we will have a tense moment while their friends try to figure out how to get the poor guy off of it without killing him. In Real Life, you probably won't know somebody stepped on a mine until they blow up. Thus, it's no surprise that mines turn up a lot in fiction.

Modern armies deploy everything from explosive counter-charges to remote-controlled robots to deal with these nasty things. They were considered so dangerous in World War II that the armies used special tanks equipped with massive rollers and chain whips to detonate them away from the tank's hull and clear a path through the field. One of the most dangerous and easy to deploy weapons of war, they can effectively deny an area from use for any purpose until they're cleared.


Hundreds of thousands of them lie buried and forgotten around the world.
