The newest James Bond movie had a great opening weekend and looks well on it’s way to creating piles of money for the studio. However, it wasn’t the biggest Bond opening ever, a title still owned by Skyfall. Spectre has made its way into the record books, however, and it did so with a bang, or rather, with an incredibly large boom. Spectre created the largest explosion in the history of film and the team from Guinness has provided the certificate to prove it. Check out the explosion here.
Special Effects supervisor Chris Corbould is the official recipient of the award for the explosion that blew up a building in Morocco. What goes into the largest explosion? How about 8,418 liters of kerosene and 33 kilograms of explosives. Needless to say it is quite an explosion. It goes for nearly 15 full seconds, and that’s before the film edits it to show every single aspect of the explosion from every possible angle. It should also be pointed out, though it goes without saying, that it’s the largest practical explosion in the history of the movies. As opposed to anything done with special effects. It actually raises an interesting question as the largest explosion is probably also one of the most expensive. The fact that they even bothered to actually create it rather than do it all with digital effects says something about the movie’s commitment to realism
Of course what we want to know is what criteria does Guinness use to determine the largest explosion in cinematic history. Is it the overall length of the explosion. Is it the amount of explosive? Is that measured by weight or volume? These are the questions that are not being asked. How is another supposed to compete for the new world record if these things are not made clear?
Of course all I can think about while watching the explosion is, what happens if Daniel Craig moves? The camera is filming him and his co-star in the foreground of the explosion watching it all happen.
What happens if Craig gets something in his eye? All that hard work on this massive explosion and it could have gone to hell. Director Sam Mendes even says the shot was longer than what we see here, with the two coming up the stairs before turning to look. Can you even imagine the poor guy whose job it is to push the button? If Mendes doesn’t like the first part of the shot he has to yell cut in time to prevent the explosion from going off. If the guy with the button waits too long he screws up the shot and still sets off the explosion. Never mind the size of the explosion, what about the perfection of that timing?
