There was an episode in Axis Powers Hetalia movie "Paint it, white" when nations tried to find a way to control UFO, Russia presses one and activates an alert.Miami, New York City, Chicago, and Tokyo are all destroyed and from space the earth turns red. In Future War 198X the Minister of Defense ignores orders and presses the large red button, which launches a massive second wave assault.Used in One Piece when Franky pushed the "Pirate" button in Vegapunk's lab, thus blowing the whole place up.In Wandaba Style, Susumu always gets his experiments started by exclaiming "Wandaba Style A Go!" and pushing a large button labeled "Wandaba.".You gotta wonder how many of those little glass panels they go through in a month. In one episode, Mikoto is out of action, leaving Swan to engage Final Fusion instead.she, too, opts for the fist-smashing-through-glass option. While it, like the Gatchaman example above, has a glass cover over it that can, presumably, be flipped up with relative ease, Mikoto never bothers to do so, instead always opting to smash her fist right down through it. In GaoGaiGar, Final Fusion is initiated with one of these.It ends with Belldandy (whose personality is markedly different from Urd's) pushing the button. Skuld finally writes "push it" to prevent her sister from using it. Lampshaded in a strip of Ah! My Goddess where Skuld writes under a Big Red Button "don't push." Urd wants to push it because it's stated not to do so.
To emphasize that, the button has a glass cover that retracts when the missile system is armed, but sometimes Joe doesn't wait and punches through it to push the button.
It is not, however, found in real-world examples of certain weapons. In nuclear reactors, this is referred to as a SCRAM Switch. It is always an emergency shutdown or power disconnect, intended to save the life of the operator or bystanders by stopping the machine in a big hurry. Of course, if you don't tell them about it, they might walk right up to it and discover by experimentation the answer to the question " What Does This Button Do?"Īlmost every piece of factory equipment or freestanding power tool sold in the real world has an actual Big Red Button. Sometimes, it's used as an excellent piece of Schmuck Bait to lure someone into a trap by making it Forbidden Fruit tell someone not to press it, list all the negative side effects it will cause and all the terrible consequences if they do press it, and you can almost guarantee they will press it. (At least the only one that's not painted on the background layer.) In animation, this will often be the only control, period.
In live action, this will often be the only control big enough to make out on camera. Pressing the Big Red Button activates the function of a given machine that is important to the plot, be it firing the superweapon, activating the Self-Destruct Mechanism, or emergency shutdown. It's usually colored red, as a hazard warning. The activation control of choice for any truly powerful effect, usually located dead center on the control console, sometimes under a molly-guard.