go ballistic: fly into a rage
Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), capable of delivering a nuclear warhead over a long range, began development after World War II. However, ballistic didn't become a household word in the United States until the early 1980s, the era of President Reagan's proposed Strategic Defense Initiative, informally known as Star Wars. The Strategic Defense Initiative was designed to protect the country from ICBM attacks. Partly because of the $1 trillion price tag and partly because the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the program was never implemented. Meanwhile, the missiles inspired the expression go ballistic.
The figurative use of the phrase dates from at least 1985, when the Washington Post quotes a Pentagon official as saying, "Wickham went ballistic when he heard about the recommendation." Going ballistic really entered the pop culture when President George H. W. Bush used it to describe himself in a November 7, 1988 New York Times article: "I get furious. I go ballistic. I really do and I bawl people out."
The word ballistic isn't especially connected with the nuclear age. It has been in use since the late eighteenth century to denote the flight of projectiles. For example, a scientific paper published in the 1778 issue of Philosophical Transactions describes a ballistic pendulum, a device for measuring projectile velocity. Ballistic is based on the even older term ballista, a word for an ancient catapult-like war machine used for hurling stones at the enemy.
A lower tech way to go ballistic is to go postal.