In a recent interview with Empire, Michael Bay revealed his “recipe” for the perfect explosion, saying, “You’re mixing different things and different types of explosions to make it look more realistic. It’s like making a Caesar salad.” The director’s uniquely terrifying understanding of salad construction notwithstanding, his approach pays off in a particularly impressive explosion in his 2001 WWII epic, “Pearl Harbor.”
Bay explained the excruciating logistics behind the succession of fireballs and bomb blasts. “No-one [sic] knows how hard that is,” he said. “We had so much big stuff out there. Real boats, 20 real planes. We had 350 events going off. Three months of rigging on seven boats, stopping a freeway that’s three miles away.” Whether you’re a fan of the film or not, the result of all those simultaneous “events” is certainly something to behold. “James Bond tried to take the ‘largest explosion in the world,'” Bay quipped, adding a conclusive “bulls***. Ours is.”
Technically, the award went to special effects and miniature effects supervisor Chris Corbould for his design of the film’s Erfoud, Morocco-shot explosion. The (supposed) record-setting blast lasted 7.5 seconds, required nearly 70 tons of TNT equivalent, and as Guinness reports, “was the result of detonating 8,418 litres of kerosene with 33 kg of powder explosives.” Bay stopped short of providing the detailed math behind the blast he insists holds the record, but if you’re looking to judge for yourself, you can see it on YouTube.