The Avengers: 5 Movies That Destroyed New York Before Loki
What Culture's list of the 5 biggest threats New York has faced in recent cinematic history.
Manhattan may well be the commercial, financial and cultural centre of the United States, but if cinema has taught us anything it is also the epicentre for evil, its famed skyline the backdrop to some of Hollywood's biggest disasters, and favourite holiday hotspot for mutants, monsters and mad men. The most recent example of this is Marvel's box office record buster "The Avengers" in which the Earth's mightiest heroes go to battle with Loki and the demented Chitauri race. But have you ever wondered what other threats the Big Apple has faced over the years? Well wonder no more. Here is What Culture's list of the 5 biggest threats New York has faced in recent cinematic history. 05. Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th part 8: Jason takes Manhattan, 1989)
No such list as this would be complete without mentioning everyone's favourite hockey mask wearing psychopath. OK, so it's fare to say that the majority of the film doesn't actually take place in Manhattan but for at least 10 minutes Jason is loose, taking in the sights of Time Square and knocking the head off one of his unlucky teen victims. Jason is also put to death in the underground labyrinth of New York's sewers though no explanation is made as to how he ends up back at Crystal Lake for the next sequel. Claims that this particular franchise should have been flushed into the sewers after this effort remain unsubstantiated. 04. The Gremlins (Gremlins 2: The New Batch, 1990)
Following the events of 1984's Gremlins movie, Joe Dante moves his malevolent monster movie to New York City where the films original stars are now living. After the death of his mysterious owner Mr Ling, loveable Mogwai Gizmo is taken to a laboratory where he becomes the test subject for Clamp Industries science division. Unsurprisingly, Gizmo is quickly exposed to water and an army of mischievous Gremlins are spawned. Clamp Industries building soon becomes overrun as more and more Gremlin's come to life and destroy everything in their wake. Sadly those grizzly buggers remain confined to the same 4 walls throughout, never making it out onto the streets of Manhattan which is probably for the best considering their aversion to sunlight and a distinct lack of sun block.' 03. King Kong (King Kong, 1933/1976/2005)
In the history of bad ideas removing a gigantic ape from his remote island home and showcasing him in the heavily populated city of New York must be right up there as one of the worst! Similarly, a T-Rex found it's way to San Diego in the sequel to Jurassic Park with equally disastrous results. However, over in New York, King Kong was literally going apeshit through the streets and kidnapping sexy young women willy nilly. It wasn't until his monkey instincts kicked in and he unwisely climbed to the top of the Empire State building that the threat of the giant Gorilla was eliminated. Amazingly we were spared the scenes where Kong threw his own poo at attacking planes. Perhaps they'll make it on to the centenary edition of the DVD? 02. Godzilla (Godzilla, 1998)
In 1998 the scourge of Japan made its way to American shores and massively underwhelmed at the box office. Be that as it may the import from the Orient managed to destroy everything in it's wake, including key locations across the Big Apple like Madison Square Garden, as it rampaged through the city in search of the perfect nesting sight for it's young. Much like it's monkey predecessor Godzilla met it's demise at the hands of the US army and its aircraft but one of it's offspring managed to survive setting up a sequel that never ever came. 01. The Staypuft Marshmallow Man (Ghostbusters, 1984)
When you think of New York and monsters one name always springs to mind - Ghostbusters. The list of candidates from this movie is quite vast. There was Gozer and her dogs, the grizzly taxi driver and even Slimer, but they all take a backseat to the iconic mother of all Manhattan church squashers; the one and only Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Summoned to kill the Ghostbusters accidentally by Dan Aykroyd's loveable Ray Stantz, Mr Stay Puft seems pleasant enough but soon turns nasty after being blasted by proton packs for a few minutes. Even in death the Marshmallow Man manages to cause chaos, exploding and covering everything and everyone in delicious supernatural marshmallow, well, everyone except Bill Murray. So those are our picks. Are there any others we may have missed? Were the events of Avengers even bigger than these? Have your say below.