Blowing up a car.

Mine doesn’t either.

      • It does go out. I’ve done it. Me and a couple friends tried it after the local fire chief told us that you can’t light gasoliine with a cigarette, because you have to have a spark or a flame to do so: a smoldering fire won’t work. It’s true for all common liquid fuels such as kerosene, charcoal grill lighter fluid and fuel oil too. — The reason you can’t smoke at gas stations is that the spark/flame from your cigarette lighter might ignite fuel vapors, not because your burning cigarette ever will. - MC

Gunslinger, IIRC you drive a pre-catalist car. Cars that run on unleaded gas have a necked down gas filler tube that, when , leaded fuel was avalible, it could not be used in the car. Lead kills cats (automotive type)
Fierra, what type of car do you drive? When I pumped gas for a living, unless it was broken, all cars had a flap that you had to push open with the nozzle.

Lemme take a swipe at a part of his questions here.

When one blows up a car, one does several things. The gas tank is stripped out, or foamed. the roof and doors are almost totally sawed through from the inside going out. In some shots, there will be a large pneumatic ram rod buried in the ground. At the critical moment, the ram rod will slam upwards, “tossing” the car into the air, or at least over into it’s hood-just as it’s exploding. Witness the Arab Sook scene from “Raiders Of The Lost Ark”. The truck explodes and leaps up into the air momentarily, and sadly the gag is blown ( regrettable but necessary pun :smiley: ) because the air powered ram rod is actually visible IN THE SHOT, pushing up into the underside of the truck. Forget slo-mo, it’s seen in realtime as the scene ufolds.

Gasoline may be used for the flames, but other chemicals are mixed in. I can’t get hold of my Pyro/EFX pal Drew Jiritano at the moment to find out what other chemicals specifically are used to generate copious amounts of smoke, etc. High explosives are indeed used to blow up cars in movies. Drew showed me a gag he’d done the day before of a car being blown up supposedly by David Letterman. ( Letterman hit a switch, Drew really blew the car) Explosives were used, in addition to other tricks mentioned above. Drew’s the real deal. He and his crew “blew up” Aracebo for the James Bond movie ( can’t remember which one).

There is no specific Pyrotechnicians Union. Special Effects Technicians operate under the guise of the I.A.T.S.E. ( International Association of Theatrical & Stage Employees). Most, like Drew, are also licensed by the local Fire Department to operate explosives, gas jets, etc in that jurisdiction. Because many EFX people also are hired as Armorers/ Weapons coordinators, most are also licensed by the local Police Dept. to handle-and supervise the handling of- large numbers of firearms in public.

As for the chemical vapors portion, ** Anthracite ** and the others are at the fore there. :slight_smile:

Cartooniverse

Cartooniverse: Excellent explanation, except for this tiny tidbit:

If you’ll pull out your videotape (I know you have one) and replay the scene, you’ll see that the hydraulic ram pole is actually mounted on the truck itself, not in the ground. It shoots down from the underside of the truck, and is used to knock the truck over, not make it jump when it explodes. It’s an easy mistake to make, because the air ram is used as you say for most shots like this, but do take another look at this specific scene.

By the way, for what it’s worth, Raiders is an absolute treasure trove of little gaffes like this. My favorite is when the amulet’s chain teleports through Marion’s neck, because I didn’t notice it until like the twentieth time I’d seen the movie, but that’s a separate thread… :slight_smile: