Hollywood: home of the blockbuster, mind-blowing special effects, and awe-inspiring CGI. All these help create the awesome, adrenalin-fuelled scenes you see in your favourite action movies, including the explosions;
With that in mind, M-Net Movies is taking a look at ten of the best Hollywood explosions.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Sarah Connor dreams about Judgment Day - envisioning a frightening future in which Los Angeles and everything in its path, including Sarah herself, is seared and eradicated by Skynetโs nuclear holocaust.
Armageddon
Nobody creates an explosion quite like Michael Bay, especially when itโs coming from outer space. Inย Armageddon, an asteroid is hurtling towards Earth, with the beginning of the disaster reducing Paris to nothing.
Independence Day
Talking about outer space, aliens cause havoc inย Independence Dayย as an invasion leads to the destruction of the White House, giving Americans more than just fireworks for the 4th of July.
V for Vendetta
Remember, remember the 5th of November? Not like this we donโt. The dystopian Natalie Portman vehicle sees an explosion festooned with fireworks, as an anarchist inspired by Guy Fawkes successfully blows up London Parliament. The explosive destruction is elevated to triumph by Tchaikovskyโsย 1812 Overture.
Fight Club
Project Mayhemโs rampage of destruction culminates inย Fight Clubโsย conclusion as the cityโs skyline collapses in a rain of rubble and fire. Likeย V for Vendetta, it successfully employs music to help deliver a more powerful impact โ although here the effect is more chilling than triumphant, as the narrator and Marla Singer contemplate chaos to the sound of The Pixiesโย Where is My Mind?
Stealth
The song used inย Stealthโsย explosive hangar scene does not deliver the same mood as eitherย Fight Clubย orย V for Vendetta'sย musicย do, but the explosion that hurls bodies and vehicles alike through smoke and fire is still rather impressive.
The Matrix
Keanu Reeves playing cowboy with a helicopter that slo-mo crashes into a building with warped style is as mind-bending as any of the sci-fi actionerโs posited reality.
Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Slim Pickens, as Major Kong, takes the cowboy metaphor one step further. Yelling jubilantly, the major straddles a nuclear bomb as if itโs a mechanical bullโฆand stays there as it plummets to the earth below, giving literal credence to the movieโs title.
Jaws
Got an unwanted guest? Apparently the best way to get rid of them is to blow them sky high, as Police Chief Brody does to the shark inย Jaws. Although thereโs no denying how awesome it looks, the movie sadly helped give sharks a bad rep that theyโre sill trying to shake off today.
The Dark Knight
Bombing buildings is an explosive staple when it comes to action movies, but the reaction Heath Ledgerโs Joker has when he blows up Gotham General Hospital in Christopher Nolanโs secondย Batmanย instalment makes this explosion both iconic and comical.