10 Most Gratuitous Citywide Destructions In Movie History

Roland Emmerich may have mastered the disaster film - but when it comes to sheer gratuitous wreckage as colletral damage, he may be beat by Michael Bay, whose carnographic tendencies arguably peaked in the third installment of the Transformers franchise when he duly laid waste to Illinois over a protracted, punishing third act of Autobot-versus-Decepticon lunacy.

All of the director's grace notes are here for a hypercaffienated would-be finale - before he obviously returned for two further bites of the cherry - and there's hardly a major landmark that doesn't get at least a glancing blow, with the chief villain setting up his stall atop 35 East Wacker in order to ensure maximum coverage.

Bay seemingly hits everything he can and then hits it again for good measure; by the time Optimus Prime proves victorious, it's a wonder that there's any structure in a five-mile radius that's still standing.