Whether it’s digitally created or made using practical effects, an explosion in any given movie is not only difficult to pull off but also expensive. This is due to a number of factors, including safety concerns and budgetary limits.
Although that hasn’t stopped certain directors from going over budget in order to achieve a particular vision for their films. Though whether they achieved that vision or not, they certainly racked up the level of destruction and expense for the movie itself. But some movie explosions are more expensive and destructive than others, and here are the highest in both categories.
The Bridge On The River Kwai Ending Scene
One of the classic war dramas from the 1950s, The Bridge on the River Kwai film is about a group of British POWs being forced to build a bridge at a Japanese camp within Burma. But what most people about the film is the climatic ending, where the bridge explodes.
What makes this scene very effective, though, is the intense buildup where the wire to the detonator is discovered accidentally leading to a series of scuffles that cause the explosion. Now out of the film’s $2 million dollar budget, $52,085 was used to make a bridge according to Mental Floss magazine.
Speed Bus Explosion
While the 1994 action movie Speed may not have the same memorability as Die Hard or infamy as Con Air, it does have famous stars attached such as Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Plus there are entertaining action scenes which involve the film’s ticking time bomb.
Namely, a bus that’s rigged to explode if it goes under a certain speed limit (hence the movie’s title). So the two main leads have to keep the bus going for as long as possible while trying to escape. This eventually culminates with the leads launching themselves out from beneath the bus which crashes into a plane that apparently costs $80,000 to accomplish.
Pearl Harbor Japanese Attack
If there’s one word to describe Michael Bay’s directing style, it’s excessive. Now, this wouldn’t be a problem in an action movie, due to audiences generally having lower expectations for them. But for war dramas such as Pearl Harbor, this approach didn’t entirely work in Bay’s favor as the film got scathing reviews from critics and was nominated for several Razzies.
Yet it did win an Academy Award in the Best Sound Editing category and had a few memorable scenes. This includes the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor itself, which reportedly cost $7.5 million with plenty of Bay-style explosions.
Saving Private Ryan Omaha Beach Assault
Another director that’s known to be excessive when it comes to special effects, Steven Spielberg at least put this to good use in Saving Private Ryan. Considered by many to be one of the best World War II movies ever made, its opening sequence alone is iconic which recreates the assault on Omaha Beach.
Notoriously brutal with lots of gunfire deaths and explosions, the Omaha Beach scene cost $12 million alone to shoot though some claim it was more like $11 million. Either way, it involved not just a lot of extras but also tons of prosthetic limbs and fake blood by the barrels.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day Nuclear Bomb Explosion
While the lackluster performance of Terminator: Dark Fate seems to imply there won’t be future installments, for now, that doesn’t mean the past successes of the franchise are worthless. Terminator 2: Judgement Day, for example, is among the better entries and one of the best sequels made in general.
A memorable scene from that movie is the nightmare Sarah Connor has where a nuclear bomb goes off killing everyone including herself. Now according to Newsweek, about $17 million out of the film’s budget was spent on the special effects alone. And considering Terminator 2 was the most expensive film made at the time, it’s not surprising.
Apocalypse Now Do Lung Bridge Scene
With a troubled production history, it’s amazing that Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now came out as good as it did. Setting Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness during the Vietnam War, the film follows the journey of Captain Willard who is sent to locate the reportedly insane Colonel Kurtz.
Among the various obstacles, Willard encounters is the Do Lung Bridge, which is one of the remote US Army outposts in Cambodia and is constantly bombarded as a result. It is also here that the film’s enormous budget is visibly present, having jumped from $14 million up to $31.5 million during production.
War And Peace (1966-67) Battle Of Borodino
The Hobbit trilogy of films are often criticized for how they bloated a relatively simple book, the opposite can be said of Sergei Bondarchuk’s War and Peace film adaptation. A Soviet Russia production, it was released over two years with four installments total.
Now given how long the original novel is, this strategy makes perfect sense. Plus, the film doesn’t shy away from grand scale especially during the Battle of Borodino scene in Part III. While the Soviets claimed the film cost the equivalent of $100 million dollars to make, the actual cost was more like $9 million (or $50-60 million today counting ruble inflation).
Mad Max: Fury Road Tanker Explosion
With the 2010s firmly behind us, many have naturally reflected on what they consider to be the best from that era. Among the titles that often show up on lists related to this topic is Mad Max: Fury Road, which serves as a sequel/remake of the original Mad Max trilogy.
Having won a ton of Academy Awards and with notable actors involved, it was a hit with audiences and already has a sequel in the works. Though it’s easy to see why with scenes like the tanker explosion which probably cost a lot out of the film’s $154.6-185.1 million dollar budget.
The Dark Knight Rises Stadium Explosion
Before he played the host for the alien symbiote Venom, Tom Hardy appeared in The Dark Knight Rises as Bane. With an estimated budget of $250–300 million, the film was given a mixed reception upon release due to not living up to its critically superior predecessor The Dark Knight.
Still, The Dark Knight Rises does have some merit with Hardy’s Bane among the good things in this movie. Not to mention the famous scene where Bane explodes an entire football stadium, which was filmed at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA. Known as the Pittsburgh Steelers’ home stadium, it wasn’t actually destroyed.
Spectre (2015) Morocco Lair Explosion
While we’re waiting for No Time To Die, which will be Daniel Craig’s last James Bond movie, let us take a look back on Spectre the previous installment. Because even though it didn’t do as well as Skyfall both critically and financially, it managed to set a Guinness World Record.
Particularly, for achieving the “Largest Film Stunt Explosion” in cinematic history which happened during a scene where Bond escapes a lair in Morocco owned by the villainous group Spectre. Now since Spectre had a $250-300 million dollar budget, with $48 million alone given to the car-related costs, it’s quite the spectacle.
