Matthew Reilly/Awesome

Matthew Reilly.

Say no more.

Actually, say a lot more. This is the place where we bow down to his sheer awesomeness, or to be more precise, his characters.

The Shane Schofield Series

(Note: Any time Scarecrow takes out his Maghook the chance that something awesome is about to happen increases to six hundred forty percent.)

Ice Station:

• The nitrogen grenade on the bridge scene, for a start.
• Christ, just the Scarecrow himself. And the scars just make him sound cooler to this troper.
• Destroying a sub with explosives and a grappling hook.
• Imploding a diving capsule with a harpoon gun.
• Reversing a trap by turning around the directional grenades.

This side towards enemy.

• Ever flown a plane out of a collapsing ice tunnel? The Scarecrow has.
• Buck Riley kicking a frag grenade back to the people who threw it.
• Mother shooting the killer whale about to eat her.
• Running over the top of an enemy hovercraft while firing blindly into it, and nailing the driver. And doing it while dragging along a little girl.
• Gant killing the French soldier who almost got her, sending the arrow stuck in her helmet through his eye with a headbutt.

Area 7:

• Even though he's a bastard, Caesar did sound pretty cool.
  • Also, the awesome scene when he goes:

Caesar: Oh, no, no, Scarecrow. Remember, no shooting Uncle Caesar.
Schofield: No?
Caesar: No.
Schofield: Oh... *shoots Caesar*

Caesar: Wh... what... you can't shoot me!

Schofield: I think I'll leave you to decide that.

• • The prologue about his Crazy Prepared escape from prison firmly establishes him as Reilly's first true Magnificent Bastard.
• Ejection seat + rocket launcher.
• Crashing an AWACS plane:

Schofield: Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Please fasten your seatbelts, because we are about to take off.

• • note: this is said while hijacking a grounded AWACS in the 3rd Level of a underground base, surrounded by anti-air humvees (avengers) and also special forces soldiers that are literally on steroids!
• The maghook swing beneath the elevator done by Schofield and the President.
• Elvis' kamikaze attack on Bravo Team.
• "I only have one word to say to you" draw." Followed by shooting a missile out of the sky.
• Mother keeping up with a 747 about to take off with a steering column blown to crap.

Scarecrow

• Blowing up an aircraft carrier.
• Flying side by side with a missile at Mach 6.7, to disarm it before it blows up Mecca.
• The Black Knight. The scene when he and Schofield blast their way out of the castle death trap was awesome.
• Schofield proving himself to be a Badass Driver by driving up a wall and landing upright.
  • Not to mention the thing with the fence, the helicopter, and the big rigs.
• Speaking of Badass Drivers, the previous book's Non-Action Guy David Fairfax takes a few levels with his fight with the Zulu.
• Mother snapping Schofield out of his Heroic BSOD after Gant's death.
  • And her Big Damn Heroes at the climax, after escaping a death that seemed even more certain than the one in the last book.

Hell Island

• The entire second half of the book, with Schofield and his team fighting hundreds of gorillas with guns. Highlights include getting into a plane to gun down nearly a hundred of them, and tricking them into entering a room where he can blow them all up.

Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves

• Bertie. Described as WALL-E with a machine gun, and completely lives up to that.
• Veronique Champion pulling out her own Maghook, cutting off Schofield's attempt to use his for the first time in the book.
• Sliding down a girder while single-handedly taking out a whole tower of bad guys.
• The entire "smash and grab" run to get the red uranium spheres: bridging the gap to the main tower with a tanker truck and four Maghook cables, blowing up the laboratory tower while inside it, taking out a helicopter by cutting the tanker free, and a desperate car chase to dump the spheres in the ocean. Sure, it was all in vain, but A for effort.
• Ira Barker saving the world with a quiet piece of sabotage after Scarecrow himself completely fails.
• Taking down 40 men with sheer Unstoppable Rage after coming back from the dead.
  • And meanwhile Mother and Baba bit the heads off the rats that were going to kill them.

The Jack West Series

Seven Ancient Wonders

• Jack deliberately setting off a trap system because his compeditors wouldn't be brave enough to follow him.
• Stretch shooting RPGs out of the air with his sniper rifle.

The Six Sacred Stones

• Jack gets crucified and comes Back from the Dead. Bound to happen, really...

The Five Greatest Warriors

• Pooh Bear killing his brother in a Knife Fight by using plastic explosives.

Stand alone novels

Contest:

• The scene where Swain, Hawkins and Selexin bamboozle the Karanadon by shouting, "Hey you! Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you! Well, fuck you then!" in turn really cracks this troper up.
• The Elevator Action Sequence beneath the elevator.
• Swain's Big Damn Heroes as he reunites with his daughter. "Initialize!"

Temple:

• Professor Race disarming a doomsday device while freefalling in a tank!
• Doogie killing a helicopter with an enemy-piloted Rigid Raider by turning a seaplane so sharply that the wings form a ramp.
  • He was out of bullets.
• Race thinking fast enough to escape an explosion by hiding in the containers used to transport the Supernova.
• Renco ziplining through a hail of bullets onto a horse, firing back the whole time.
• Doogie providing covering fire for Race to get to the citadel, against Nazis and rapas alike.