Smashing it
Total Film picks some of its favourite demolition jobs...
Bathroom door The Shining (1980)
The most iconic scene in an iconic film sees Jack Nicholson’s insane caretaker Jack Torrance axe through a bathroom door to get at his cowering wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall). The prop department initially made a thin door to help the actor, not realising he was a former fire marshall – his technique reduced the door to splinters and a thicker one was built.
Car Christine (1983)
Twenty-eight Plymouth Furies were purchased and restored for the filming of John Carpenter’s take on Stephen King’s bestseller, such was the damage inflicted to (and inflicted by) the rampaging vehicle. The most memorable carnage is when Buddy Repperton’s gang smash and slash Christine with bats, knives and sledgehammers. “It’s not easy to rip up a car. These guys went at it,” says Carpenter.
Pizzeria Do The Right Thing (1989)
The mob-handed destruction of Sal’s pizzeria bring events to a fiery climax after the steady build-up of racial tensions in a Brooklyn neighbourhood over one sweltering day. The pizzeria was constructed on an empty car park, ready to be torn apart. Paramount backed out of the project because of the intensity of the finale, but Universal stepped in.
printer Office Space (1999)
Peter, Samir and Michael take their office printer outside and kick the shit out of it, then smash the remains with a baseball bat while Geto Boys’ ‘Still’ blasts on the soundtrack (“Die muthafuckas, Die muthafuckas!”). Fox execs worried about using hip hop but the film achieved cult status and the track became an anthem to white-collar fury.
Mirror Nightcrawler (2014)
Characters punching a mirror in anger is something of a cinematic trope, but normally it’s planned and the glass isn’t real and no harm is done. But Gyllenhaal, lost in his ghoulish character of crime photojournalist Louis Bloom after an 18-hour day, punched a real mirror with no forewarning. The result? On-screen intensity… And a real-life trip to ER to stem the bleeding.