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Destroying controls and switches is a time-honoured method of getting whatever they control to release, or open. Or close. Or lock. Or unlock. Or whatever you want them to do. At least in the movies - shooting some sort of electronics or control system is pretty much a guarantee to have it do exactly what you want.
This is of course unrealistic, and therefore not going to happen in a game situation. Nine times out of ten, if you shoot up some controls in a game, it'll achieve exactly the opposite of what you wanted. At least, it will if your GM is on the ball.
Rejected strip title: Return of the Fled PIE.
Commentary by memnarch (who has not seen the movie)
Jim looks to have had a successful Fast Talk roll on the GM. Disconnecting a line by blowing it up would definitely work, but this is more like driving off in your car with a gas nozzle still stuck into your car. Technically, you could still blow up the pump which would untether your car from the ground, but you also run the risk of setting your car on fire as well. With a land vehicle, you can at least walk away from a fire if it gets to be too much. A space ship while it's flying into space? Not so much.
Jim also appears to have forgotten that their PIE already is damaged. Only small arms fire damage of course, but that's still damage. This is starting to look a lot more like one of Jim's usual crazy plans that somehow work. Most of the time. The only weapons that looks like they're available at the moment are the star destroyer's, which are meant for blowing up ships much bigger than PIEs.
This is one of the issues with faking events or forging documents; where do you stop to make it believable? If Finn and Poe were actually escaping and not just pretending, this would be the point I'd say "mostly credible" turns into "something's fishy". The most unbelievable part so far (if it was a real escape) would be where Poe is found by a trooper that, for some reason, wants to defect. Everything else seems like an actual escape. Trying to survive an attack by a capital ship because you can and would be more "believable", is the part where aiming for a perfect escape story gets in the way of the believable escape.
Commentary by Keybounce (who has not seen the movie)
Of course. Your ship is tethered. Do you fire at the tether attachment to break it? Do you fire on the cable? Do you attempt to use your computer control panel to disconnect the tether via normal processes? No, you fire on the control room, which should destroy any equipment that would normally disconnect the tether, right? Right.
...
Did no one in the real production team do any checking? Sheesh, even a five-year-old should see that problem.
And... as you get away, you turn around and charge? Are you trying to do something really stupid, like attaching to the ship, and then floating away with the garbage? That only works if your ship has some sort of landing grapple. I mean, do you think you're in the Millennium Falcon-PIE?
Jim is a rather gung-ho roleplayer, interested in action, cool fight scenes, and lucrative spoils over careful consideration or puzzle solving. He frequently acts before he thinks, or at the other extreme comes up with overly elaborate plans for achieving what should be simple goals.
Hmm. So Jim is playing a pilot—again—and the last time he played a pilot, this worked. So, makes sense?
The funny thing is, this is the sort of thing that might work in an RPG, just because of the rule of cool, and the whole "If the player characters all die, then your campaign is over" issue. After all, expecting everyone to die and the story continues only makes sense if everyone has multiple characters ready to play.
Which actually can happen. There are systems where you are expected to take over another character on death. Heck, the new-kid-on-the-block Schlock Mercenary RPG system has that mechanic as I understand.
Transcript
Poe: All right! Is the fuel line released?
GM: If you wanted to turn off a light, would you blow up the switch?
Poe: Sure, that would break the circuit.
[SFX]: Pow! Pow! Pow!
GM: ... Okay, the line disengages.
GM: You zoom out into open space.
[SFX]: vreeeeooooowww...
Poe: Cool. I turn around and fly back towards the destroyer.
Finn: What? Why?!
Poe: This escape will be much more believable if our ship is damaged.
Finn: It’ll be more believable if we actually escape!!
Poe: That’s what I said earlier!
[SFX]: Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
Finn: Remind me never to escape with you again.
GM: And remind me never to ask him to turn off a light.