The most expensive explosion sequence in movie history
The spectacle of cinema is perfectly suited to the action movie genre, with large explosions, car chases and ferocious shoot-outs being projected on massive screens with booming sound systems. The greatest action filmmakers, such as James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Kathryn Bigelow, know this fact better than anyone, often spending a little bit too much money in order to recreate their wildest action-packed imaginations.
Like children rummaging through a toy box, most high-profile directors have the freedom to create any vision they want using any high-tech tool at their disposal, a recipe for disaster that often leads to financial disarray. You don’t have to look far for proof of this either, with the 2013 film R.I.P.D, starring Ryan Reynolds, losing $92million and, more recently, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny lost about $100m.
Neither of these films went so far as to use $5.5m for one explosion sequence alone; however, this record goes to none other than Michael Bay, the notorious lover of bombastic action flicks.
In the 2001 movie Pearl Harbor, starring Ben Affleck, Josh Hartnett and Kate Beckinsale, which dramatises the events that hauled America into World War Two, Bay went all out to immerse the audience. This included an explosion sequence at the end of the movie that saw the destruction of six vast ships, with the entire scene costing $5.5m (£3,850,000) to put together, breaking movie records.
Captured by 12 different camera teams, the scene took a month to put together due to the fact that it required 700 sticks of dynamite and 18,185 litres of gasoline.
Although the film was a massive box office hit, earning $450m from a budget of $140m, the film was criticised for having one major historical inaccuracy.
The scene in question revolves around Japanese pilots attacking civilian targets in Hawaii, despite the fact that this never happened in real life. Commenting about the movie and controversy, American political scientist Carl Boggs stated: “Although Pearl Harbor at the time symbolized national defeat and humiliation at the hands of the Japanese, the event has been celebrated in endless ceremonies, rituals, books, TV specials, monuments, and movies, emerging as a defining moment of the ‘good war’ legacy”.
Take a look at the trailer for Pearl Harbor and witness one of Bay’s most outrageous movies, thanks to melodramatic performances from Affleck, Hartnett, Beckinsale, Alec Baldwin and Cuba Gooding Jr.
