nuke the fridge

Nuke the fridge is a phrase with a meaning similar to jump the shark. It is used to refer to the moment in a film series(usually a half-serious genre) that is so incredible that it lessens the excitement of subsequent scenes that rely on more understated action or suspense. Such moments are felt to mark the beginning of a low point in the quality of the franchise, as it attempt to explore more absurd avenues.

The term comes from the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, in which, near the start of the movie, Harrison Ford's character survives a nuclear detonation by climbing into a kitchen fridge, which is then blown hundreds of feet through the sky whilst the town disintegrates. He then emerges from the fridge with no apparent injury. Later in the movie, the audience is expected to fear for his safety in a normal fistfight.

Fans of the Indiana Jones series found the absurdity of this event in the film to be the best example of the lower quality of this installment in the series, and thus coined the phrase, "nuke the fridge."

The phrase started on the IMDb message boards and can now be found across the Internet including Youtube, Wikipedia, and Facebook.

"When George Lucas introduced Jar Jar Binks in Phantom Menace Star Wars really nuked the fridge."

"Predators and aliens in the same movie? Now they're really nuking the fridge."

"I hope Indiana Jones 5 doesn't nuke the fridge like part 4 did"

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