10 Most Gratuitous Citywide Destructions In Movie History
3. London - G.I. Joe: Retaliation
The capital of the United Kingdom has suffered no shortage of particularly brutal fates over the years - including several zombie apocalypses and having to combat Gerard Butler in London Has Fallen - but its quick-fire, out-of-nowhere demolition near the close of the second live-action G.I. Joe outing is perhaps its most egregious.
After goading the rest of the world's superpowers into surrendering their nuclear arsenals through what is effectively a game of chicken, Jonathan Pryce's POTUS-who-isn't-actually-the-POTUS promptly annihilates London with a kinetic orbital strike codenamed Project Zeus.
The carnage sees Westminster effectively crumble in upon itself in a roiling sea of fire-and-debris-stacked waves - but this casual act of mass genocide nary warrants another mention across the film's climactic twenty minutes. It's simply goofy-looking wreckage for the sake of it.