Prison Break episode marks chaotic device’s final conquest
EMPs, or electromagnetic pulses, have infiltrated the plot of every show on television. With Michael Scofield’s construction of an EMP out of a microwave, aluminum foil, and a handful of shoelaces, the popular weapon has resurfaced yet again in a move that surprises no one.
“You can’t escape EMPs” says electromagnetic bomb enthusiast Mark Flanagan. “They’re devious, they’re exciting, and their effects are cheap to produce. Most of your standard Hollywood action scenes require planning, money, and a hell of a lot of explosives. With an EMP bomb, all you gotta do is get some intern to flick the lights on and off.”
Other notable appearances by the EMP include Season 4 of 24 and Season 1 of Jericho. It was also used as a key element in the movie Ocean’s Eleven, wherein it knocked the power out of a casino and allowed the thieves to proceed with their robbery. While the popular film is not yet a television show, Flanagan seems to think that the EMP could catapult the heist caper onto the small screen.
“That Don Cheadle is hilarious,” he says.
Due to the apparently simple construction of an EMP, viewers can expect them to pop up on more television shows in the future. Last week a rogue audience member hastily constructed an EMP bomb out of empty lipstick canisters and leftover Botox on the set of The View in order to blow out the ladies’ microphones and “silence their infernal prattling”. The relative ease with which this was accomplished proves that anything is possible.
~TVoD
Posted in Prison Break on October 24th, 2007 | |