10 Awesome Movie Effects That Aren't What You Think

3. John McClane's Roof Jump - Die Hard

What You Thought

There are so many iconic action beats in John McTiernan's Die Hard, but who can forget the fantastic moment when John McClane (Bruce Willis) leaps from the roof of the Nakatomi Plaza as it explodes, tethered only to a fire hydrant as he hopes not to fall to his death?

As McClane leaps, a cacophonous explosion is set off behind him, which conventional filmmaking logic would dictate was a relatively simple, controlled explosion detonated safely behind Willis, right?

The Actual Effect

Shooting the roof explosion was quite a technical challenge, as the production had to ensure not to deal any actual explosive damage to the real skyscraper atop which the scene was filmed, California's Fox Plaza.

According to McTiernan himself, Willis performed the leap from a piece of custom-built scenery placed away from the edge of the roof, but rather than use conventional prop explosives, his crew had to get creative.

The director said, "We built these crazy machines that had a great deal of propane in them, vaporised. On 'action,' they would make a great deal of fire for about a five-second burst."

McTiernan added, "To put the fire behind him in the traditional way would have been an enormous amount of nonsense. Instead, we had these mortars drive around with a forklift, and they would put fire exactly where you wanted it."