Thread of Fictionally Destroyed Cities

[M II A II R II K]

Originally Posted by CanadianCentaur

It doesn't show a city as a whole, but it captures the mood.

Looks like that image was taken on 9/11 as one of the towers were collapsing.

[eemy]

Originally Posted by BoiseAirport

Also, a real asteroid wouldn't make a nuclear type explosion like it did. Just take out the fire and explosion, and that'd be MUCH more realistic. But it'd also be more boring, so I just think of it as an acceptable movie mistake.

Anthony

Actually a real asteroid would very likely make a nuclear type explosion. The Tunguska Event in Russia is believed to be the result of an asteroid or comet that exploded roughly 6-10 km above the ground, producing a blast pattern very similar to those shown to result from nuclear bombs (which are usually set to detonate high in the air). In Tunguska's case, it is believed the explosion was roughly 10-20 megatons, equivalent to the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated by the US.

Since the 1950s, atmospheric monitoring has confirmed that meteoroid air blasts are actually quite common, though usually at a smaller scale. Apparently a 10m meteoroid can and regularly does produce a 20 kiloton explosion, roughly equivalent to Little Boy over Hiroshima.

Edit: corrected megaton to kiloton... oops

[fever]

In Atomic Train a nuclear weapon was detonated by Capilano Lake and blew up Denver.

[Trantor]

@Canadian Centaur: I am pretty sure this is the Chrisler Building, not the ESB...

[CanadianCentaur]

Originally Posted by Trantor

@Canadian Centaur: I am pretty sure this is the Chrisler Building, not the ESB...

You're right - It is the Chrsyler Building! I stand corrected.

[mSeattle]

Originally Posted by M II A II R II K

Looks like that image was taken on 9/11 as one of the towers were collapsing.

I thought something about that scene seemed familiar.

[mSeattle]

Comoneymaker from Denver happily shared this with the Northwest Forum a couple of weeks ago. Seattle...

[Upward]

First of all, I don't find these types of images interesting ever since 9/11. The one of the crumbling Chrysler building is especially offensive to me. This stuff just isn't "cool" after seeing the horror of the real thing.



Regarding the discussion of whether a meteorite impact would look like a nuclear explosion, it's my understanding that it would. In fact, it could BE a nuclear explosion. Supposedly, the energy released by a large impact would create so much heat that it could induce nuclear fusion. Fusion is what makes the really huge explosions in hydrogen bombs. They use a fission reaction to achieve the extreme level of heat. The fission bombs dropped by the US in WWII had yields in the 20 kt range, NOT 20 megatons. The only bombs that powerful are h-bombs, in which a Hiroshima-sized bomb is just the trigger for a fusion reaction one hundred times stronger.

Originally Posted by mSeattle

Why don't the suburbs ever get destoyed?

It's part of a Hollywood conspiracy, funded by WalMart, Applebee's, and General Motors, to make cities look dangerous to make more people want to move to the suburbs.



Or, maybe because it's a lot more interesting/shocking to see the destruction of large buildings and familiar landmarks, rather than anonymous suburbia.

Also, in the case of movies involving an attack (rather than a natural disaster), the attacking force would want to concentrate on the area with the highest population density. For the same reason as above, attacks on the iconic parts of a civilization are also more psychologically damaging to the population. These reasons are unfortunately why we see real attacks, like 9/11, targeting the urban areas we love.

Lastly, cities just tend to be the location of movies far more often than suburbs. When a movie is set in a city, but not in the downtown area, it tends to be in an older area of detached housing. About the only time you see new car-dependent lookalike sprawl as the setting of a movie is when the anonymity and sterility of the location is a prominent theme in the movie.

[EventHorizon]

Here's New York from the movie 'A.I.'

Humans are extinct and the descendants of human-created artificial beings have inherited the earth.

They are excavating The City which is under hundreds of meters of ice.

[CanadianCentaur]

I chose to remove the third tsunami pic in my post, mainly because it's not only semi-fictional (it has been pointed out that the fleeing people scene may actually be from the 9/11 attacks), but some here may find 9/11 still too painful, given how it's been just five years since. So...I apologize for any unintential harm.

[Stephenapolis]

The source (movie, etc.) should be posted along with the images. Most of them I do know, but some have made me even more curious. I guess I am also morbid about these things too.

[Touray]

Here are some great pics of seattle destroyed.

[James Bond Agent 007]

^
I was looking for some of those yesterday but forgot the artist's name. Thanks for finding them!

[Stephenapolis]

Originally Posted by CanadianCentaur

Nuclear war!
'Shroom cloud over a city.

Tactical nuke going off over RAF Finningley near Sheffield, England in the movie Threads, which I find especially haunting. I read somewhere that when making the film, the simulated explosion was realistic enough that the locals thought the real thing occured - and got the film crew in trouble with the authorities.

Threads was an awesome movie. It is what "The Day After" should have been like. Speaking of it. Anybody have a screen shot of Jason Robards overlooking the remnants of KC.

[Lost Island]

Originally Posted by mSeattle

Why don't the suburbs ever get destoyed?

Because we are essentially forms of Tupperware and asbestos, therefore INdestructable.

[JManc]

the gargoyles in paris are really there but not that close to the eifell tower and not that high up:



also, KC got nuked by the russians. this movie scared the ever lovin' shit out of me and every other kid in america when it came out:

[Trantor]

Originally Posted by EventHorizon

Here's New York from the movie 'A.I.'

Humans are extinct and the descendants of human-created artificial beings have inherited the earth.

They are excavating The City which is under hundreds of meters of ice.

Are you sure??

From what I had understood of the film, both humans and robots had ceased to exist. It were ALIENS who were excavating Earth, to know more about the lost civilization of humans.

[yumiko ^.^]

I still don't understand why climate change would result in a sudden giant tidal wave

[Stephenapolis]

^
Because it isn't a tidal wave. It is a storm surge. Still a surge of the magnitutde they portray is ridiculous.

[latennisguy]

Heres L.A. being destroyed by some crazy scientologist:



and by the Governator:



Villaraigosa to the rescue!!: