EXPLOSIONS in Movies: More Than Just Spectacle 

The video’s characterization of “Flight of the Valkyrie” is incorrect. In the opera, Die Walkure, the Valkyrie, Brunhild, had disobeyed her father, Wotan, and, fearing his anger, she sought protection amongst her sisters. The Valkyries were not riding into battle, as was claimed, but in fact were fleeing in fear. I believe Francis Ford Coppola used this music with intentional irony in Apocalypse Now.

*-Michael Bay, sinisterly casually cackling in the background-*

I disagree about apocalypse now. The beauty of that film is that it gives you that glorifying feeling and then makes you feel awful for it. It's much easier to watch an anti-war film with a clear, agreeable thesis the whole way through than it is to watch a film that forces you to realise that you are part of the problem.

As a little kid of about 9 years old, I accidentally watched Barefoot Gen when it aired late at night on public television. It is indeed extremely graphic and it traumatized me for YEARS. I knew it was a true story which made it even worse. However I didn’t remember the name of the film until just now watching your video. Thank you for profiling this important film and reconnecting me with a key moment from my childhood ❤

Long ago, I asked a coworker what made a good movie to him, thinking things that ranked as a good movie to me was good character development, acting, directing, and editing. The guy said, "explosions". I was flabbergasted that an explosion would actually be in the top 10 reasons why anyone would consider a movie great, let alone the number 1 reason. I then went to another coworker to tell him what the other guy said but first asked him what makes a good movie to him. He said, "explosions." I was done.

Great video, especially loved the shoutout to How to Blow up a Pipeline. My favorite explosion is when Ahnold runs away from the exploding Predator at the end of the movie Predator (1987)

I don’t know how you could see Apocalypse Now and think it glorifies war? Very clearly a movie about how awful it was not only for the Vietnamese but also the American soldiers. It’s a “cool” scene obviously but the point is to show how we view our soldier’s actions and then the actual reality. Soldiers see themselves as Valkyries. Jarhead shows them watching it as awesome specifically to illustrate how desensitized marines are and how they desensitize themselves from the actual violence they’re inflicting.

Thank you for mentioning Barefoot Gen, the movie is definitely in my watch list now.

Appreciate the analysis! Am I misremembering or do the terrorists in Die Hard just use their anti capitalism as a cover when in actuality they’ve taken over the plaza to break into the corporate safe? I feel like that adds an interesting angle to how capitalistic structures maintain themselves

Nice! Explosions are actually a subject in movies that for whatever reason started to interest me a lot, and made me curious what their importance and use could be and what stories used them the best. After seeing Oppenheimer yesterday, i'd certainly say it's up there as one of the best uses of them in movies.

In Die Hard, they didn’t want to blow up the entire building. They wanted to just blow up the roof so they could get away without a trace.

Sitting in the front row and center for Oppenheimer. Wish me luck. 🤯

I got so many good movie recommendations from this. Great topic and video essay!

Very interesting videos , can tell alot of effort is put in , keep up the good work ❤

probably should've mention the ending of fight club, I remember watching all the building explode at the end and thinking chaos won, then it's like, wait no, one building survived, I guess everything is going back to normal

Excellent insights!

What a great perspective on explosions! This video made me pick up on the difference between explosions with debris vs. obnoxious mini mushrooms, as well.. Dope work

WOW! This one is deep! Love it! Thank you ♥♥♥

Very nice, especially appreciate the use of deep-cut arthouse film and not just mainstream titles. There is something to be explored about explosions as a masculine signifier of finality in male dominated industry, as opposed to other signifiers, like the mic-drop, the car door slam, the drop of something on a desk, even a smooth exit.

Perhaps you could argue that the lack of damage in die hard instead of dampening it’s critique is actually showing the futility in fighting the capitalist machine. Much like in real life every small victory achieved in reality has little to no effect on the greater structure?

great video…. but I was mostly wondering why you mentioned mark wahlberg was wearing a hat 😂

Since this topic is on explosions, let me recommend the Danish/German movie This Land of Mine. It is a movie about the real cleaning of Danish beaches after the second world war. The beaches were littered with landmines and Denmark used young German POW to find and get rid of them. In the movie the possibility of an explosion is always imminent and at all times present, thus building tension throughout the movie. In a way it is the same as the movie Hurt Locker. We know an explosion can come at any moment and are anxiously awaiting its arrival.

David Lynch used the Trinity test explosion to great effect in Twin Peaks. That scene is scary, when he takes us deep into the explosion

4:40 a double feature of Oppenheimer and Barefoot Gen would be something

Huh. The Biblical parallel of Lot's wife never occurred to me!

"I do not understand why everything in this script must inevitably explode."

liked, commented, and subscribed

love the video!! i do enjoy a nice explosion myself

It's worth knowing that the movie "How to Blow Up A Pipeline" is much more deeply conflicted about it's subject than it appears. This is a movie that promotes keeping an FBI informant in the group and alters the bomb making process not just so that anyone following it would fail to make a bomb (something I wouldn't object to), but altering it in ways likely to kill anyone attempting to do it. [Or at least that's what I saw in another video on RU-vid where someone interviewed an old man who built explosives for the IRA. That video didn't explain how ti make a working bomb, but it did point out several unnecessarily dangerous choices in the process.]

So happy you mentioned How To Blow Up a Pipeline in this

I just saw the movie today it changed my perspective forever on what around uncertain future is. Oppenheimer opposed the use and development of nuclear weapons like the H bomb I cannot imagine how horrible he felt for him creating one of the first and only things that could actually destroy mankind once you watch the movie and think deep about its gonna change your perspective on nuclear weapons forever. At the end of the movie, when he was speaking to Albert Einstein, he said something that would forever hunt me. "I believe we already destroyed the world," as he said that it showed the uses and destruction of ICBMs that he didn't wanna be see or developed, but it happened. It sent a chill down my spin. I can not express how much that movie changed me. Because once you watch it and think you deeply about everything behind it or what it represents. You'll be hunted or changed, but if you ignore it, you will be without even knowing, and that's the most terrifying part.

The explosion in Oppenheimer was the best cinematic experience of my entire life.

Explosion go boom

A good reason not to look at a bomb going off: shrapnel meet eye

I feel like that in die hard it’s more about we aren’t or can’t do anything against the big corporate capitalist.

Barefoot Gen traumatised me for life.

"Mein fuhrer, i can walk" Still the best explosions in the history of explosions

Look at Quentin tarantino's comments on there will be blood he wanted big set pieces. But later he realizes there is one. Burning oil rig

We were very underwhelmed by the explosion

Thank you for your work !! Jokes about Micheal bay aside, explosions can't be dismissed as a vulgare tool but can be embraced as a powerful visual storytelling

Thank you for mentioning that Mark Wahlberg was wearing a hat

Ironically in Oppenheimer they do look at the explosion

I would hope the burning the Mona Lisa has some change to some system, even if it is just the lending practices of museums. Find biblical analogies usually a hindrance, it's not everybody's religion, more importantly we could say instead of punishment, shame is the stronger emotion when it comes to explosions. Explosions are rarely good, there are practical and joyous appliances, but in movies we could always ask: Does a character feel shame about the explosion they bring about, or should we? Can we revel in it, or is it an unnecessary escalation?

The G in Barefoot Gen is a hard G as in Guitar, not a soft G as in gel

I feel it's a tired trope and kind of laugh it off now. I think it originally served a good purpose but when it's done so many times, it's predictable.

Those were not "random" changes in color palette.

RA, is that you??

I feel you should take into consideration 2 movies for the "cool guys don't look at explosions" trope: The Other Guys and Django Unchained, quite cleverly subversing the cliche.

OMG are you spying on me. I literally just said "I need to have an explosion" in the first episode of this show I'm developing *AND* I'm currently re-watching Shooter (the series) which I finished for the first time last week, after which I watched the movie Shooter for the first time. It's like you made this video for me. 😂😂😂 what is going on?

An interesting delve into the topic, but I feel that you've looked rather too deeply into some of your examples. As other commenters have pointed out, Die Hard's villains are only performing anti-capitalism as a smokescreen while they steal a ton of money, and even if it had been real, that would put John Maclane on the side of the capitalists, not against them as he tried to save the office workers. I love that movie, but there really isn't that much depth of societal critique in it.

The nuke in Oppenheimer was hella disappointing.

Die Hard stars Bruce Willis, not John McClane

Only with your vids do I hit like before I get to the one minute mark!

3:23 Is that Barefoot Gen??

Great video, but I do not get your point in why The Menu's and Glass Onion's explosions fall short. SPOILERS Those island mansions are the movies' stand-ins for the capitalist system they want to critisize. They are similar to Nakatomi Plaza where you said it would be sufficient to blow the place up to get across the message. Like what do you want more? Blowing up random financial districts at the end of the movies wouldn't make much sense to me at least. And yes, I think you can critizise the terrible system of capitalism and still show how it, for some reasons, still persists leeching of the greed that will always be there in some human beings.

Looking back means they dont want to give up back their sinful lifestyle. So her sin was not looking at the destruction but the desire of keeping that life and not accepting the new one God is offering.

Great analysis of "Barefoot Gen", but I disagree with both of the other examples. Shooting down innocent village folk with helicopters is NOT a fun and cool set piece intended by the film, just because the death comes with spectacle. Some stupid soldiers might misuse it for that in real life, it happens. I was in the army for 2 years and the first half of "Full Metal Jacket" is considered a fun comedy by most people there, sure... That doesn't influence the intended tone of the movie though. "Apocalypse Now" was and never will be a fun spectacle. As for "Die Hard", I think the ending is even more bleak if you leave the building intact. It doesn't mean the movie is therefore on the side of capitalism. It's the opposite: even our hero can't beat the real enemy. He might have won this single battle, but he can't win the war against the system. The movie is not on the side of capitalism.

Lot's wife wasn't punish for doubting God's destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but bc she showed a love for the evil of these cities instead of repentance and love for God alone. She showed regret to leave sin for holiness. Just like Jesus says inLuke 9:62, "No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." To follow God means to fully give up on one's former life of sin; trusting him fully that we need nothing else than him.

girl, what’re you talking about the bible for

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I would not compare the citizens of Hiroshima to those of Sodom at 06:05

Coppola's anti-war film quote is so misguided though, its entirely up to personal interpretations of what is glorifying or not. Automatically assuming your own interpretation as an intentional choice by the creator is just so puerile.

First 😍

Your theory about Lot and Sodom is nonsense. Lot’s wife was not punished because she doubted the certainty of God’s will. It has long been acknowledged that so-called anti war films are also often spectacular. Colonel Dax demonstrates his lack of fear in front of the men about to go over the top. Similar to Kilgore. Also it shows that you can get used to death and destruction. This is the motivation for almost all those shots like in Shooter. The hero is just not that impressed with explosions. It’s the movie having it’s cake and eating it. “Our movie is not all about explosions and to prove it ,here’s an explosion that the main character doesn’t give a damn about (suckers)”

Sadly, the movie Oppenheimer doesn't explore much, and it doesn't look at the explosion from innocent victims' POV either. It rather shows Americans walking away from the explosion never to look back, but only at themselves and to who of them was the cooler American patriot. It is basically propaganda for the USA's war crime committed against the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.