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Great movie explosions.


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Here's a fun little thread (I hope!), the title of which is simple: "your favourite movie explosion, and why?"

Here's a few of mine:

S.W:ANH-the "double" explosion of the TIE fighter at the end of "Ben's Death And TIE Fighter Attack",

S.W:ANH-the Death Star,

S.W:ESB-the asteroid field. Actually there are 3 to choose from; the one, where the pilot flies off to screen left; the "catherine wheel", where the TIE fighter flies into an asteroid; two TIE fighters collide in the trench,

S.W:ROTJ-the sail barge,

S.W:ROTJ-the shield generator,

S.W:ROTJ-the reactor,

S.W:ROTJ-the Death Star, mark 2,

Die Hard-the hellicopter explosions (actually 1 explosion cut in half-a very clever bit of editing on the part of Frank Urioste),

Superman-Krypton, and its sun.

Special mention should go to probably the saddest movie explosion of all: The U.S.S. Enterprise 1701.

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The Death Star exploding in Star Wars (and I guess in Return of the Jedi too). Such great relief to the tension.

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The Death Star exploding in Star Wars (and I guess in Return of the Jedi too). Such great relief to the tension.

Relief? Seriously?

Do you realize how many millions of innocent civilians working for the Empire were killed when both Death Stars were destroyed? Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian are lucky the Empire crumbled (for a while, at least), or they would have been executed as war criminals. The debris from both exploding stations would have made Yavin IV and Endor uninhabitable very quickly, which would have prevented the galaxy from exploiting the Ewoks.

But no, the movies want you to think both Death Stars were destroyed in a vacuum...

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Randall: Which did you like better: Jedi or The Empire Strikes Back ?

Dante: Empire.

Randall: Blasphemy!

Dante: Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father. Han gets frozen, taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is: a series of down endings. All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.

Randall: There was something else going on in Jedi, I never noticed it 'til today. They build another Death Star, right?

Dante: Yeah.

Randall: The first one was completed and fully operational before the rebels destroyed it.

Dante: Luke blew it up. Give credit where credit's due.

Randall: The second one was stillbeing built when they blew it up.

Dante: Compliments of Lando Calrissian.

Randall: Something just never sat right with me that second time around. I could never put my finger on it, but something just wasn't right.

Dante: And you figured it out.

Randall: The first Death Star was manned by the lmperial Army. The only people on board were Storm Troopers, dignitaries, lmperialists.

Dante: Basically.

Randall: So when they blew it up, no problem. Evil's punished.

Dante: And the second time around ?

Randall: It wasn't even done being built yet. It was still under construction.

Dante: So?

Randall: A construction job of that magnitude would require a lot more manpower than the lmperial Army had to offer. I'll bet they brought independent contractors in on that thing. Plumbers, aluminum siders, roofers...

Dante: Not just lmperialists. Is that what you're getting at ?

Randall: Exactly. To get it built quickly and quietly, they'd hire anybody that could do the job. You think the average Storm Trooper knows how to install a toilet main?

Dante: All they know is killing.

Randall: So they bring in independent contractors.

Dante: Why are you so upset ?

Randall: Those innocent contractors brought in are killed, casualties of a war they had nothing to do with. Look, you're a roofer. Some juicy government contract comes your way. You got a wife and kids, the two-story in suburbia. This is a government contract which means all sorts of benefits. Along come these left-wing militants who blast everything within a three-mile radius with their lasers. You didn't ask for that; you had no personal politics. You're just trying to scrape out a living.

Customer: l don't mean to interrupt, but what are you talking about?

Dante: The ending of Return Of The Jedi. My friend is trying to convince me that independent contractors working on the Death Star were innocent victims when it was destroyed by the rebels.

Customer: I'm a contractor myself. I'm a roofer. Speaking as a roofer, I can tell you a roofer's personal politics comes into play heavily when choosing jobs.

Dante: Like when?

Customer: Three weeks ago, l was offered a job up in the hills. Beautiful house. Tons of property. A simple re-shingling job. They told me if l could finish it in one day, I would double my price. Then l realized whose house it was.

Dante: Whose house was it?

Customer: Dominic Bambino's.

Randall: Baby Face Bambino? The gangster?

Customer: The same! The money was right, but the risk was too high. I knew who he was, and based on that, I turned the job over to a friend.

Dante: Based on personal politics.

Customer: Right! The next week, the Foresie family put a hit on Baby Face's house. My friend was shot and killed. Didn't even finish re-shingling.

Randal: No way.

Customer: I'm alive because l knew the risk involved in that particular client. My friend wasn't so lucky. Any contractor working on that Death Star knew the risk involved. If they got killed,

it's their own fault. A roofer listens to this, not his wallet.

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Outstanding. Jay knew what I was getting at, but I didn't want to go hunting for it.

But no, the movies want you to think both Death Stars were destroyed in a vacuum...

And for the record, they were, but in typical movie fashion, they're explosions where all debris, dead bodies, and mangled wrecks disappear in the next scene.

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Some one else has already mentioned the Sail Barge in Jedi. Great explosion.

Here is another one of my favorites from CutThroat Island

And this one from The Mask of Zorro (skip to 8:20)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ-9Bw65wKg&feature=related

-Erik-

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The destruction of the Reliant in Star Trek II.

The zeppelin in The Rocketeer (with honorable mentions to both gas truck explosions earlier in the film--especially the one in the flying circus sequence).

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the White House blowing up in ID4.

I think all the ID4 explosions deserve honorable mentions. New York, L.A., Washington - pretty awesome.

My favorite sequence is the bombing of Pearl Harbor in the 2001 film. Sad, but realistic and spectacular.

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Some I really like are:

One of the Y-wings in A New Hope that disintegrates into several pieces before the main part blows up and consumes the whole wreck in a fireball.... ID4, of course (almost all the explosions are great), the two huge attack ships that blow up in Avatar, the Cyberdyne lab complex in T2, the gas station in Terminator Salvation, and, although technically not really an explosion, the Yellowstone supervolcano in 2012.

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The droid control ship in TPM.

For some reason that explosion disappointed me... Just when the central part blows up, the explosion fizzles out and it's just a bunch of glowing debris floating away...

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The droid control ship in TPM.

For some reason that explosion disappointed me... Just when the central part blows up, the explosion fizzles out and it's just a bunch of glowing debris floating away...

I just like the shot of that big chunk of it drifting away.

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Two explosions which made me shit myself were the one at the beginning of 28 Days Later and the one in Munich.

I don't know about 28 Days Later, but there was an explosion in Munich that spooked the hell out of me. I'm not even a fan of the movie (maybe someday if I ever get around to revisiting it), but good job on the explosion and nude dying woman, Spielberg.

Krypton's explosion is pretty awesome. I also like the Praxis explosion in Undiscovered Country. Lucas really ripped that one off when he added the shockwaves to the Star Wars explosions. Perhaps a personal favorite is the Death Star's in Return of the Jedi. Without the pointless digital effects added, by the way. It's an all-around great explosion and rousing moment. The joyous music, the fleeting shot of the Falcon coming out of the port with flames spewing out behind it, Lando and Nien Numb celebrating and then there's a preliminary blast in the core (or somewhere), then the whopper as the Millennium Falcon is the equivalent of the guys running/jumping/walking away from the explosion. It's still a fantastic sequence.

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Also the Executor when it hits the Death Star in Jedi. And this:

the fleeting shot of the Falcon coming out of the port with flames spewing out behind it
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None really come to mind, though I recall loving the effect of the hospital exploding shot in the trailer for The Dark Knight. Preceded by a shot of Ledger clapping his hands, and with 'Molossus' from the first film, I recall moment.

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Always glad to help. :)

That's why he hoarded all those camels later:

-- "I said no camels! That's five camels, can't you count?!"

-- "Compensation, for my brother-in-law's car."

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-- "Compensation, for my brother-in-law's car."

that was the line i was talking about, because the way he was saying it or something i could understand what he was saying

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Yea I didn't get it either

i got the first one but the second one...... im guessing its something from Indiana Jones

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Yea I didn't get it either

i got the first one but the second one...... im guessing its something from Indiana Jones

Second one is from Raiders, when the Flying Wing explodes. Either of you guys ever go to Sunday School?

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"It came from...behind!"

*peeeewwww BSSSHHHHH!!!!!!*

A Y-Wing from the Battle of Yavin if I'm not mistaken.

*BBBFFFFFFFFFGGGHHH!!!!*

"Jones..."

Belloq, after that tower explodes.

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