We're finishing a commercial and I need a clip of a large explosion... one that fills the entire screen. No mushroom clouds. For the life of me I can't think of one!


thanks!
marc

Let's see...
DIE HARD 3 (the warehouse at the end of the movie, and maybe a couple of others)
LONG KISS GOODNIGHT (the bridge at the end of the movie)
STAR WARS (the planet/Deathstar)
When Beta drives the pickup into the assassin's ship in THE LAST STARFIGHTER (okay, that might not be big enough)
LAST ACTION HERO (when Arnold's uncle's house get's blown up)
SPEED (full of explosions)
The end of BATS (the mine blowing up)
Near the beginning of DEMOLITION MAN

There's a fireball in Resident Evil: Extinction.

There's a doozy in the Broderick Crawford western LAST OF THE COMANCHES (1953) that fills the screen. Full-scale, no opticals.

If color isn't an issue find a clip of the Ripple Rock explosion. Real life demotion from the 1950s, and it was a monster.

A friend of mine just showed me this year's Rambo and the big bruiser sets off a real doozy of an explosion at about 1:08:30 that's only a little bit mushroomy.

The ending of La Cité des enfants perdus (City of Lost Children) has a pretty good explosion at the end IIRC.

Anything by Bresson or Dreyer. :)

Doesn't every Hollywood action flick since about 1985 begin, middle, or end with a screen-filling explosion? The harder assignment would seem to me winnowing down the list.

Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunately, most of these don't have one that fill up the screen.

I did find one though that I totally forgot about... THE MARINE. More explosions that every action film in the past 10 years put together.


marc

There's a pretty vast Panavision-screen-spanning explosion in the Sino-Russian war flashbacks in THE OMEGA MAN...

Hey Marc,

Whatever you end up doing, it'd be cool of you could post a link to the spot here. We'd all love to see it.

You got it!

"The Rock" contains a very large overhead explosion near the end of the film. One of the extras on the Criterion dvd shows that the effect was completed by blowing up a barrel of gasoline over a large chroma key tarp (which is shown in realtime). Not sure if this is the angle you need, but it does fill the entire the screen.

Anything made after 1977.

The finale of DUCK YOU SUCKER

The big rig explosion in TWISTER fills the frame although it's through the windshield of Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt's truck, which might not be ideal.

Hey Marc,

If you're still needing one you may use any of the explosions in this YouTube hosted promo-teaser for use in your commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ja9CwIdWJI

If any of them work for you just drop me a line and I'll send a full-resolution version out.

BeAst WisheS -- L

How about when Coach blows up the cajun's shack in SOUTHERN COMFORT? Or when they use nitro on the tree blocking the road in SORCERER? These may not be fiery enough, though.

Watching the original Hellboy recently, I noticed that there is an orange rolling wall of fire that rushes up to the camera and engulfs it (after Liz's flashback in the hospital). And there are similar, Die Hard-esque shots in the climax of Hard Boiled.

"Think we used too much dynamite, Butch?"