Nuke the fridge

Nuke the fridge or Nuking the fridge is a phrase with a meaning similar to jumping 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 attempts to explore more absurd avenues. Example: "This movie really nuked the fridge when he was swinging thought the jungle with the anti communist monkeys."

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 lead-lined 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 and a huge erection. Later in the movie, the audience is expected to fear for his safety in a normal fistfight.

Fans of the Indiana Jones series found 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". Other fans, who liked the movie, have used the term as a catch-all phrase to sum up the criticism of the film by detractors.

The phrase is also a rip off of the phrase "jumping the shark", which has the same meaning, only applied to a television series instead of a film series.

This phrase is currently not in common use as it is a new term. The term originated at IMDb. Youtube videos can be found dedicated to "Nuking the fridge", as well as Facebook group . There has also been a website created specifically for the phrase, www.NukingtheFridge.com.

NOTE: Not to be confused with "Raiding the Fridge", an act which famed actress Karen Allen performed hundreds of times the past 25 years.

The Fridge

Along with creating the phrase, fans have also created a character out of the Fridge itself. The Fridge has been given personifications, such as homosexuality and petitions to make it the President of the United States.

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