Picture this: It’s October 24, 1991. You’re enjoying a quiet evening at home when you hear a massive boom that shakes your entire home. You run through the smoke to your neighbor’s house, scared out of your wits, only for them to tell you that the commotion was just the old City Hall blowing up — and it was all planned as part of a blockbuster movie.
As bizarre as that may sound, that’s exactly what happened when the crew behind “Lethal Weapon 3" filmed in Orlando. The plot called for a stand-in for International Control Systems, Inc., a building from which LAPD officers Riggs and Murtaugh (played by Mel Gibson and Danny Glover) would rescue a stray cat before the structure imploded. Orlando’s old city hall was the perfect prop.
Blowing up an old city hall sounds simple enough, right? But what if the new one was already built only four feet behind it? Engineers Mark and Doug Loizeaux of Controlled Demolition, Inc. spent nearly ten months carefully planning the implosion so that the building would collapse at an 8- to 10-degree angle east, away from the brand new, $36 million City Hall.
Of course, imploding an entire building wasn’t enough for the filmmakers — it had to look as blockbuster-worthy as possible, too. 4,000 pounds of exploding glass, cork, and paper + 400 special effects charges were used to add drama to the implosion.
When the highly-publicized day arrived, thousands of locals gathered in nearby office towers and in the streets outside the six-block safety zone to witness the implosion. As planned, old City Hall collapsed in less than six seconds, and the new City Hall was left completely unscathed.
Will Orlando ever see another movie-making moment as magical as the “Lethal Weapon 3" implosion? That remains to be seen. Maybe Riggs and Murtaugh will return to our streets to add another film to the franchise, although we already know what Murtaugh would say: “I’m too old for this s***.”
