Nitroglycerin in Atlantis

Vinny: You didn’t just drink that, did you?
Milo: Mm-hmm.
Vinny: That’s not good! That’s nitroglycerin! Don’t move, don’t breathe, don’t do anything. Except pray, maybe…
Mole: BOOM!
– Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Disney has gotten into the habit of using their older animated films for new stories. So far they’ve released Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast, Dumbo, and Aladdin, not to mention the live-a*ction sequels like Alice in Wonderland and Christopher Robin. Plus, there was the Sleeping Beauty retelling called Maleficent. Oh, and technically there was that live a*ction 101 Dalmatians with Glenn Close as Cruella de Vil. That’s not even counting all the films are upcoming (The Lion King– though it’s live-a*ction status is highly debatable, Lady and the Tramp, Mulan) or being developed (Cruella, The Sword in the Stone, Pinocchio, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lilo & Stitch, The Little Mermaid).

With all of these remakes and reimagining, I’d like to throw out a suggestion: Disney, please create a live-a*ction remake of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. I’m not the only person who wants this. Others have even come up with dream casts for a hypothetical remake.



For those unfamiliar with the movie, Atlantis is an animated science-fiction/fantasy/a*ction-adventure story about a team on a quest to discover the lost city of Atlantis. The team is composed of a diverse cast. You’ve got Milo Thatch, the nerdy linguist and cartographer who was able to crack the code and figure out where Atlantis was hidden; Vinny Santorini, a demolitions expert who always seems to be one match away from creating an explosion; Audrey Ramirez, a tough engineer who won’t let anyone patronize her; Mole, a geologist who really, really enjoys digging; and so many other great characters. Unfortunately, Milo doesn’t quite fit in at first, and the other characters tend to prank him. For example, after he takes a swig from a canteen, Vinny remarks that what Milo drank was nitroglycerin, causing Milo to panic about his apparent doom. (It wasn’t nitroglycerin, by the way- just water.)

So what is nitroglycerin, anyways?






Nitroglycerin is an organic nitrate compound, meaning it contains carbon and nitrate (NO3–). It has the molecular formula C3H5N3O9, sometimes written as C3H5(NO3)3 to better demonstrate the nitrate group. It’s a colorless and oily liquid that also happens to be explosive, meaning it’s probably something that the demolition expert Vinny would have kept on hand.



Liquid nitroglycerin is fairly sensitive and can be set off when subjected to heat, flame, jolt, or impact. When it explodes, it decomposes by the below rea*ction.

4 C3H5N3O9 (l) → 10 H2O (g) + 12 CO2 (g) + 6 N2 (g) + O2 (g)

The rea*ction happens quickly, creating a lot of hot gases that then rapidly expand, causing the explosion. Because of its sensitivity, nitroglycerin can be very dangerous to handle. We have Alfred Nobel (yes, of the Nobel Prize fame) for developing a more stable way to handle nitroglycerin. He combined liquid nitrogen with the porous material diatomaceous earth (sedimentary rocks containing silica). The result was solid dynamite, which was much more stable than liquid nitroglycerin and could be used for construction, mining, and demolition.

If Milo truly had drink liquid nitroglycerin in the amount he had, he probably wouldn’t have made it to Atlantis. But a number of people ingest liquid nitroglycerin every day and live to tell the tale. In fact, the nitroglycerin is even beneficial to them.



It turns out that nitroglycerin can be used to treat chest pain in people with heart conditions. Chest pain with these conditions is a result of muscles that constrict blood vessels, preventing blood from reaching the heart and forcing the heart to work harder. The body can take nitroglycerin and produce nitric oxide (NO). The nitric oxide then causes those muscles to relax and allow blood to flow more easily, relieving the person of chest pain. Nitroglycerin can be taken orally by pill or spray, topically applied to the skin, or injected via the vein. The nitroglycerin is formed or diluted in a way that prevents it from being explosive.

Which is good, because I don’t think doctors want to explode their patients.