John Scalzi Rates SciFi Movies by Their EXPLOSIONS!
This Saturday, it's July 4, when America celebrates its independence from Britain by blowing things up real good. Nothing says "We, as a nation, aspire to be a beacon of democracy and equal rights" like a truly boom-tastic explosion. Since such outsize displays are on the minds of Americans everywhere, I thought I would give over this week's column to a critical review of explosions in science-fiction movies. Because, you know, why not?
Star Wars (1977)
To be sure, there were explosions before Star Wars, from the cheap exploding space craft in Flash Gordon to the more expensive exploding craft in Silent Running. But it was in Star Wars that the Big Damn Explosion really burst onto the scene as a science-fiction staple. What's more, Star Wars features not one but two really big explosions: The planet Alderaan getting zapped by the Death Star, and then the Death Star itself going blooey after a proton-torpedo enema. Of the two, I always thought the Alderaan explosion was more impressive. But then, the coolest explosion in the whole movie belongs to the last TIE fighter that dies chasing the Millennium Falcon after it escapes the Death Star. Seriously, go look for yourself.
Explosion Rating: A
Superman (1978)
Not content to just blow up a planet, this movie blows up a star and a planet! Not to mention, if you'll recall, unleashing a thermonuclear device on California -- an event that is, curiously, underplayed.
Explosion Rating: B
Alien (1979)
Ripley blows up the Nostromo to kill a single alien, the ultimate example of using an ax to kill a fly, if you ask me. Be that as it may, the explosion is awesome, since the ship blows up not once, not twice, but three times -- each explosion more spectacular than the last. A truly underappreciated exploding event in the history of science fiction.
Explosion Rating: B+
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
Yes, The Empire Strikes Back was the best-written and directed of the original trilogy, but on the explosion front, it was, shall we say, underwhelming. (TIE fighters? An Imperial walker? A power generator? Weak sauce.) Not so with Jedi, which blows up Jabba's yacht, a shield installation, Imperial cruisers, dozens upon dozens of fighter ships, yet another Death Star, and -- critically -- at least one Ewok. Really, this is a high point, if not the high point, in science-fiction exploderation. The explosion-special-effects people should get an Oscar -- THAT EXPLODES.
Explosion Rating: A+
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Remember how the Superman movie detonated a nuclear bomb in California, but never really did anything with it? Well, this one knows how to handle a thermonuclear device over L.A. Not only does it wipe out downtown, it also sets fire to a playground -- kids included -- which took chutzpa on the part of James Cameron. Also, it transforms Linda Hamilton into a fence-clutching skeleton long enough for you to freak out, but not so long that you ask, "Hey, what's holding those bones together?" Well done, Cameron.
Explosion Rating: B+
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)
The last original cast movie isn't generally considered an "explosion" flick by the general public, but aficionados know that when the Klingon moon Praxis blows up, in the opening scene, it squirts out a disclike shock wave that's so visually impressive that George Lucas added one just like it to the Death Star explosion in his 1997 Star Wars reissue. Now everyone thinks that's where it came from. Not so! George Lucas is a stealer! (Well, in fact, both movies were done by Lucas's effects house, Industrial Light & Magic. But still.)
Explosion Rating: B
Independence Day (1996)
The White House is blown up. Lots of other stuff blows up, too -- and rather impressively -- including L.A., New York, Houston, and, well, pretty much every other major metropolitan area on the planet. But no one gives a damn about that: dude, they blew up the White House. There's symbolism there, man. Note: the symbolism plays slightly differently in the post 9/11 world.
Explosion Rating: A-
Have any other scifi-explosion movies to add? Do so in the comments. And remember: if you're planning to do your own explosions this weekend, be careful. We want you to have all your fingers, eyeballs, skin, and hair come Monday. OK? OK.
Winner of the Hugo Award and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, John Scalzi is the author of The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies and the novels Old Man's War and Zoe's Tale. He's also a creative consultant for the upcoming Stargate Universe television series. His column appears every Thursday.
Indy in a fridge!
Only explosion that matters.
I would just point out that Independence Day has some really cool slo-mo explosions, too, which is a little odd, because they're apparently so slow that a woman, a kid, and even a dog, can see them, jump out of a car, run up a tunnel, pound on a door, get in, and even give the dog enough time to dither around deciding whether to follow or pee on the left front tire of a BMW. You know, C-4 has an expansion rate (how fast the gas expands upon detonation) of 26,400 feet per second, but these technologically sophisticated aliens' explosions move so slow you can outrun them, or memorably, have time to say, "Oh shit," as you watch cars overturn down the New York City street. No wonder we won the battle. With our terrestrial explosions those aliens didn't have time to do much of anything. Weird... but cool.
The Alien explosion does rather raise the question: after the entire ship has exploded once, what's left to explode that didn't explode the first time?
I think that Aliens deserved a mention as well, as the explosion has (probably) the longest buildup of all; you know it's coming for the entire second half of the film...
"Silent Running" -- when they blow up the greenhouse domes.
Nice enough explosions in their own right, but especially poignant because, you know, they're blowin' up NATURE. (Sort of)
V for Vendetta. Yes, the book was INFINITELY better than the movie and the film's explosions are further down the essplody scale, but the whole plot is predicated on Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament.
OK, so that plot failed. Hmm, weak movie ultimately based on an explosion that didn't happen...never mind. I'll shut up now.
I also won't open the "physics of explosions taking place in a vacuum (i.e. space)" can of worms...or did I just do exactly that?
War of the Worlds--the original, natch. I mean, come on, people.
Not that the Spielberg remake didn't have its share of explody goodness, but it sure didn't have the Flying Wing dropping Da Bomb.
No mention of the implosion/explosion in the new Star Trek? Maybe you didn't want to give out details for a movie that's still in the theaters.
Re: explosions in space
Hot things often glow. Hit something hard enough, it gets hot. Hit something hard enough to make it vomit hot particles in all directions and you have an explosion in space.
Just because it's red, and expanding, doesn't mean it's a ball of (literal) fire. But even if it was a ball of (literal) fire, space ships (and many SFnal planets) have air, which they can discharge in multiple directions WITH flammable materials.
I don't see the wominess.
Anyway, I nominate "War Games" for best explosions. Sure they were computer generated, and looked like "X" and "O" but there were so many of them! The world was blown up I don't even begin to know how many times!
... it squirts out a disclike shock wave ...
Blast-wavy Saturn-rings that have become so popular lately!
I think I've read too much by Mr. Scalzi. In the first paragraph instead of reading what he wrote, I read "aspire to be a bacon..."
I concur with Mr. Scalzi and can't add any other movies but my co-worker thinks The Last Starfighter and Starship Troopers deserves an expolosive nod. Go figure.
I think I've read too much by Mr. Scalzi. In the first paragraph instead of reading what he wrote, I read "aspire to be a bacon..."
I concur with Mr. Scalzi and can't add any other movies but my co-worker thinks The Last Starfighter and Starship Troopers deserves an expolosive nod. Go figure.
Louis Del Grande's head in Scanners. More of a meatsplosion, but still awesome.
I'm also partial the ominousness of the explosions at the end of Cloverfield, even if you don't actually see them happening as such.
Also, the Reliant going kerboom at the end of Wrath of Khan, mainly for the buildup with Montalban going omnomnom on the scenery, and of course the whole Spock thing.
ajay: I think in Alien the first explosion was the Nostromo, and the second one was the refinery it was towing.
As for the other Star Trek movies, TWoK should earn an A for both quality and quantity (the pseudo-broadside duels, Reliant's warp nacelle going bye-bye, and the rare final explosion that ultimately puts something together). And of course The Search For Spock had the original Enterprise's swan song - nice bit of practical work there.
My notes indicate there some explosions in Nemesis as well, but every time I try to remember anything specific about that movie I fall unconscious and wake up in a puddle of my own drool. Perhaps my amygdala is trying to tell me something.
Oh yeah, Silent Running and the killing of the bunnies. We had to leave the theatre- my younger sister went into hysterics.
The explosion in Alien always made me wonder- why didn't they just put on their spacesuits and open the airlock?
The TIE fighter exploding while the Falcon escapes the Death Star? In Star Wars? I think you're confusing it with Return of the Jedi. While the Falcon escapes the Death Star tunnels, a pursuing Tie explodes, while in Star Wars, the last Tie fighter still functioning at the end is Vader's fighter and he's out of control. And doesn't explode.
For some odd reason, the first example of a Sci-Fi 'explosion' -- and I'm using the term loosely -- that came to mind is in Plan Nine from Outer Space. Flaming pie pans on wires; you don't ee that very often.
BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES.
The Big One happens when Charlton Heston detonates a Doomsday bomb at the end of the movie.
The shot turns white, then black. And Paul Frees' pear-shaped, dulcet tones inform us that the world ended, and EVERYONE is dead.
(OK, it turned out that Cornelius and Zira and Dr. Milo escaped for the next sequel, but since I didn't know there would be a sequel, it was pretty damned impressive at the time.)
@ioresult
He's not talking about when the Death Star blew up. He's talking about when Toff let the Falcon escape with a tracking beacon (bacon!) on board. Then Han and Luke had to shoot the Tie Fighters... The last Tie to go is a truly remarkable explosion.
Does animation count? Because I saw "Akira" like, 3 times 'cause I loved the explosions.
How about the last scene in Highlander? I loved the hand drawn animation and the creepy ghosts/daemons/whatever! I just don't know if it counts as an "explosion"...
Battlestar Galactica from 1978. This was the first 'episode' from the original series (actually a three-hour TV-movie edited to two hours for the theatrical release). Presented in Sensurround, it culminated in the explosion of the planet Carillon and a Cylon basestar. My mother had nodded off and nearly jumped out of her skin when the entire theater shook from the effect.
My Grade: A+
"...transforms Linda Hamilton into a fence-clutching skeleton long enough for you to freak out, but not so long that you ask, 'Hey, what's holding those bones together?'"
Isn't that from a dream sequence, though, and therefore exempt from that kind of nitpick?
I don't know if this counts, but how about in Back to the Future when the DeLorean does its first time travel. Its not technically an explosion, but the implosion is amazing. I had never seen anything like that before.
Worthy of mention is Jango Fett's sonic charges in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, if only for the delay between the explosion and the sound, and the coolness of the sound.
Star Trek: Generations for blowing up a sun, followed by a planet (with the Enterprise crew on it!) caught in the blast wave.
I also thought the ending of Predator had a very satisfying kablooey, with Ahnold almost getting caught in the blast.
Odd that no one has mentioned Michael Bay, since explosions seem to be about the only thing he does well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRS90V8BQGo
Well those certainly are great explosion movies and to add to ID4 you also have all the fighters and the larger ships exploding at the end of the movie.
I might include some of the following...
Terminator 3 - the finale with the nuclear blasts
Akira - the city at the beginning and again towards the end.
Transformers The Movie - the 1986 cartoon has when Unicron's body explodes.
Fifth Element had the cool explosion of the floating hotel.
Then there is The Wrath of Kahn and the Genesis device which wipes out a lot and leads to perhaps the MOST emotional scene in all of Star Trek footage ever - the death of Spock.
Armageddon - opening reign of astroids and then the blast of the main astroid at the end.
Knowing - interesting scene that I think might qualify somewhere towards the end.
Watchmen and the city blasts.
Dante's Peak's main eruption.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - what a lovely early scene of Earth.
I cannot add; I can only worship. (Why didn't **I** come up with "boom-tastic?")
Don't forget the movie Stargate - when they nuked the alien spaceship at the end (including the expanding blue shock ring) I was impressed.
An asteroid colliding with the Earth counts as an explosion - so we should include the title explosion in the movie Deep Impact. They played up the tidal wave, but that image of the impact viewed from space was awesome.
The buildings in Independence Day were the best, however.
What, no mention of the new Rambo film? An H Bomb explosion you outrun? How cool is that!
Was the movie Mars Attacks considered? That had a great many gratuitous explosions.
But what about how unrealistic the disc explosions are in Star Trek VI and the Star Wars Special Edition? Explosions are three dimensional, yet both shockwaves are two dimensional, like a kid's drawing of Saturn's rings. That's not how a planetoid blows up.
Rae S.
I give you "2010"...they blew up Jupiter, for Gods sake!!