Typical military explosives, such as trinitrotoluene（TNT）, hexogen, octogen, pentaerythritol tetranitrate, can cause a variety of toxic effects on mammalian tissues and organs such as liver, kidney, blood and nerves. This paper reviewed the toxic effects and mechanisms of typical explosives, and briefly summarized their cellular, microbial and animal toxic effects, as well as the epidemiological statistics of occupational populations. Taking TNT as an example, the review also introduced the toxic mechanisms of typical explosive, emphasizing the oxidative stress and the reaction of TNT metabolites with protein and DNA. Finally, it was pointed out that the current toxicity study of explosives mainly focuses on the testing of toxicity, while the understanding on toxic mechanisms of explosives is lacking. We presented future research priorities. For example, the quantitative structure-activity relationship between explosive molecules and biological toxicity by the machine learning technology, the investigation of toxic mechanism for nitroaromatic explosives, including hemoglobinemia, toxic cataract, carcinogenic and teratogenic, should be paid more attention.