Overkill
Overkill is a
slang term for the use of
excessive force that seems to go much further than just achieving its
goal. For example, shooting a
mouse with a
rocket launcher would be overkill.
In
criminal profiling, overkill refers to the agressions done by an offender (specially a
serial killer) to satisfy his fantasies, and that are not necessary to kill the victim. They are often carried-out
post mortem.
Overkill is especially used to refer to a
destructive nuclear capacity exceeding the amount needed to destroy an enemy.
The term was probably coined in the
1940s and was in common use during
cold war era, referring to the
arms race between the
USA and the
USSR. Both nations possessed (and still possess) more than enough nuclear weapons to destroy one anotherâ€"nuclear overkill.
The term is often used in situations when a person spends a large amount of time or money on a task or component, when a lesser alternative would work just as well. For example, buying 7
mm thick, high quality
audio cables to connect a computer to a pair of poor-quality speakers would be overkill.
Movies
In a critical sense, overkill might be considered as a close relative of
overacting and
overdramatizing. For example, in most modern horror films, such as
Friday the 13th, most of the killing is quickly
clichéd, and is always an overkill. For instance, when someone has fallen three stories onto the pavement, it would be overkill to hack them up with a
chainsaw.
Video games
Overkill is a common feature in many video games. For example, in
Valkyrie Profile, it is possible for
Freya to perform an attack that does over one million damage after the enemy has been hit 99 times for one million damage already. This is unnecessary, as the enemy may only have a few thousand hit points. Overkill is even a term used in the battle system of
Final Fantasy X: KOing an enemy with a very high-damage attack will display "Overkill" and give bonus rewards after battle. Additional examples in video games are common, including the effects of the
Desert Eagle weapon in
Counter-Strike, which provides an example of incorporating overkill effects in order to achieve
weapon balancing.
