Sign up for the
TSL Newsletter
and get $50 off Final Draft 12
By Steph Greegor · March 10, 2015
The best movie explosions make you feel like you can smell the smoke and feel the heated debris falling down around you as you sit there wrapped in the IMAX experience. The fiery bursts of gasoline/air tank/laser fueled goodness rip across the screen as you hold your breath, palms sweating, heart racing until the final boom and you scream, “Yeah, baby!” in the theater.
OK, maybe that last part is just me, but you get the point. A good explosion makes you feel something. If the ball of fire means the good guys win, you cheer with the hero as glass shards rain down from the sky. If that leveled building means the bad guys are winning in an Act III twist, it makes your blood boil with anger as swear words curse the antagonist.
But whether the fiery blast is good or evil, a solid explosion is always worthy of repeat performances. And they always boil down to a few basics: It has to be big, it has to be memorable, and most of all, it has to be a gratuitously good ride of kabooms, flames and shattered structures, just like these bad-ass screen burners.
Steph Greegor is a prize-winning screenwriter and award-winning journalist with 15 years of professional writing experience. She’s currently a professional freelancer with several feature length screenplays under her belt. She serves as an advisory board member for the Gateway Film Center, one of the nation’s top independent film houses located in Columbus, Ohio. Tweet her HERE in your spare time. She likes that.
10. Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977)
The original Death Star—It may not be the biggest explosion on the list, but it is certainly the most memorable. It is the destruction of the Death Star, one of the best “the good guys win” moments in cinematic history. And relevant now that J.J. Abrams is set to release Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens in December. The bang of this blast is not so much in the visual effects (well, perhaps in 1977) but, more in the wheelhouse of emotional impact. LUKE KILLED THE DEATH STAR. Good guys: 1; Bad guys, 0; in a space explosion worthy of your attention.
9. The Matrix (1999)
The helicopter crash—The Matrix exposed us to the real world—well, according to the bended minds of the Wachowskis, Andy and Lana. And what a world it was.
The helicopter crash into the building first creates the rippling waves of computer green glass before morphing into a rain storm of crystal shards over the city.
8. V for Vendetta (2006)
Blowing up Parliament – I wonder if Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky knew his classic 1812 Overture would be the backdrop for this spectacular display of C4 delight. Nothing is sweeter than explosions set to classical music. And the fireworks—literally—are vivid against the total destruction of Parliament.
Tchaikovsky would be proud.
7. Speed (1994)
Bus blows up plane, because, gratuitous—Speed has one of the best explosion scenes out there and it’s a tragedy that it’s often forgotten. How many views can one get of a singular explosion? Speed shows us with its multiple camera angles and blasts as one bus takes down one plane in over a minute of fiery flames and eardrum banging blasts. Mass transportation destroying mass transportation? #Win
6. Stealth (2005)
Hanger explosion—Stealth, also known as, “How to lose $60 million and all audience respect,” is one of the worst…movies…ever. But, it still plays host to one of the best explosion scenes. Oh, the sweet, sweet carnage of metal as Josh Lucas launches a stealth bomber missile from inside the hanger to escape. And while Hollywood execs cried themselves to sleep over the dismal ROI, the resulting fireball that sent jeeps, bad guys and metal into the camera, left pyromaniacs with a smile on their faces.
5. Tropic Thunder (2008)
Airtsrike—Who says comedies can’t have explosives? “I got about 200 pounds of shit your pants,” Danny McBride hollers as he preps for go time. His premature release of the 12-explosion firebombing is not only funny, but also a 350-foot high mushroom cloud of fiery goodness. Who loves napalm in the morning? This girl.
4. Die Hard (1988)
Exploding rooftop—Any and all explosions from the Die Hard franchise should be in this list, so let’s consider this mention a cover all. But the rooftop scene is one of the best, as viewers follow unwilling action hero and cop, John McClane. “Oh God, please don’t let me die,” McClane says as he jumps off the skyscraper just as the rooftop explosion lights up the sky. Yippee kay-yay mother…well, you know.
3. The Dark Knight (2008)
Gotham General Hospital—The late Heath Ledger’s brilliance shined in this flick, and he was rewarded posthumously for his efforts with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the Joker. And in this explosion scene, Leger plays it perfectly—no stunt man, no digitally adding him later. Blowing up the Gotham General Hospital was something Director Christopher Nolan wanted to do for real—no mini-models here. Nolan and his crew destroyed an abandoned Brach’s candy building in Chicago for this explosion sequence that took three weeks to set up and 30 seconds to bring down.
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
Doctor Jones survives nuclear explosion—There are quite a few nuclear explosion scenes that make the rounds in these top 10 lists, with The Terminator’s terrifying explosion usually topping out. But I’m calling B.S. The fact that in this nuclear annihilation, Indiana Jones is able to get inside a 1950s refrigerator, be blown out of town by an atomic bomb, land miles away and then get out and walk away…well, that takes the C4 cake.
1. Independence Day (1996)
Randy Quaid is back—When the White House blows up, it is the explosion that takes all explosions. When it’s an alien force doing the exploding, it wins the action genre. But Randy Quaid serving up his own brand of destruction is an act that deserves the number one spot.
Raking in over $104 million at the box office its opening week in the United States, Will Smith’s alien nemesis delighted audiences with explosions of the century, annihilating the White House and several other American cities in gargantuan blasts that impressed with over 3,000 special effects shots.
Honorable Mentions
The Hurt Locker (2008)
The IED—The beauty of this explosion scene is one of Director Kathryn Bigelow’s trademarks—using slow motion action sequences. In The Hurt Locker, watching the pebbles lift off the ground and the dirt jump off the vehicle in slow motion is beautiful simplicity.
Fight Club (1999)
Blue buildings blast—The final scene of Fight Club is poetic destruction as the buildings light up with explosives in tune to the music. “You met me at a very strange time in my life,” says Edward Norton to the talented Helen Bonham Carter. Indeed.
Jaws (1975)
Air tanks blow up sharks—A great white shark explodes thanks to ingesting an air tank that our hero, Roy Scheider, shoots with a gun, while sinking into the ocean. Suspension of disbelief engaged. Gratuitous amounts of shark meat prevail. You’re welcome.
Martin Keady · March 10, 2015
Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · April 15, 2024
Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · April 10, 2024
Ken Miyamoto from ScreenCraft · April 8, 2024
