Cars destroyed in movies: how do they do it?

We all suffer when we watch it. In action movies a spectacular car is always destroyed, run over by the hero’s (or the villain’s) car, crushed by a runaway bus, or hit by the unlucky victim falling from the 25th floor of a skyscraper. We always feel for the fate of those cars, but beyond what we see on screen, we know that in cinema everything is a trick and that those cars are prepared to collapse when the time comes.

Nothing is left to chance, and we already know that each model has different characteristics and can sustain different damage depending on its equipment and condition. But in film, everything must be planned down to the millimetre, so experts take care of preparing the car so it has the damage required in each scene. But how do they make it look the way the directors want?

Careful planning to destroy cars

In the video you can see how specialists work to turn a car into a wreck, depending on how the director wants it to end. Nothing is left to chance, and several modifications are made so the vehicle loses its shape according to the needs of the action.

For example, if the vehicle is to be run over by a runaway bus that drives over it, the specialists remove the vehicle’s pillars. This way, when the out-of-control vehicle crushes them, they deform quickly, allowing the scene to proceed safely and without surprises that could put the film crew at risk.

Another typical scene is a person falling from a considerable height onto the roof of a car and crushing it. The pillars are also removed to create that striking image. To make the bonnets crumple spectacularly, they are partially cut open and mechanisms are installed that deform them quickly and forcefully when the car simulates hitting an obstacle, so that from the cinema seat it looks as if they have really struck a wall or another vehicle.

They are all tricks, illusions that make us believe we are seeing something that is not actually happening. But the magic does not disappear, because technicians must know how each model reacts and force this action so that it behaves exactly as it should. If you are a car enthusiast, you probably suffer watching all these vehicles get destroyed, but I’m sure you find it fascinating to see these professionals at work creating the magic of cinema.

https://youtu.be/eMgMlNdREew