to fail spectacularly. to end suddenly and completely. be utterly ruined or wrecked.

Will go down in flames meaning?

To fail spectacularly or to a great degree. Despite all the media hype, the major summer blockbuster went down in flames—hardly anyone went to see it while it was in theaters.

Is go down in flames a metaphor?

The crashing plane is going down, and because it is burning as it goes down you can say that it is going down in flames. To use the phrase as a metaphor means that something is not merely a failure, but an obvious, unquestionable, public, and spectacular failure.