Completing Sam Mendes’ slow transformation from a helmer of quiet dramas like Revolutionary Road into the British Michael Bay, the Spectre director and his special effects coordinator, Chris Corbould, have earned the new Guinness World Records record for the largest explosion ever staged for a film. (Somewhere, Vin Diesel senses opportunity slipping through his fingers, sets his twenty-sided die to the side, and raises his head to howl at an explosion-free sky.)
The conflagration—which you can watch below, if the world’s biggest explosion is something you think you might like to see—apparently required more than 2000 gallons of fuel, 73 pounds of explosives, and constant vigilance from the watchers assigned to ensure Daniel Craig didn’t tear himself loose from his contract and bolt from the set. The new record will presumably stand until some director does something really crazy—2500 gallons? 74 pounds of bombs?—to smash it into bright, highly distracting fireballs and shards.
