As the trailer for Gerard Butler's latest disaster sequel, Greenland 2, showcases a toppling Eiffel Tower and a shattered Sydney Opera House, a familiar cinematic trope rears its head once more. Hollywood's blockbuster machine seems stuck in a loop, relentlessly targeting the same handful of global landmarks for spectacular, CGI-assisted annihilation.
The Usual Suspects: A Tired Roster of Destruction
New research from the insurance firm MS Amlin has starkly highlighted this lack of imagination, compiling a definitive list of the world's most frequently demolished movie monuments. Topping the chart is the Statue of Liberty, which has faced catastrophe in a staggering array of films including Planet of the Apes, Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, Cloverfield, and 2012.
Not far behind is San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, wrecked on screen at least 13 times in features from Superman and Terminator: Genisys to San Andreas and Pacific Rim. London's Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament have also endured their share of fictional apocalypses, being destroyed in no fewer than nine films such as Reign of Fire, V for Vendetta, and London Has Fallen.
The Eiffel Tower remains a perennial favourite, its cinematic demise featured in everything from Armageddon and Mars Attacks! to GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra and, curiously, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. The release of Greenland 2 simply adds another entry to this crowded ledger.
Beyond the Blockbuster: Examples of Inventive Mayhem
This repetitive cycle of destruction stands in stark contrast to filmmakers who have sought out more original backdrops for chaos. The article points to several key examples where creativity won over cliché.
In the 1925 silent film The Lost World, director Harry O. Hoyt had a dinosaur destroy the Blue Posts pub in Soho, a distinctly local landmark. Decades later, Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian masterpiece Children of Men used the seaside town of Bexhill-on-Sea to portray societal collapse with chilling realism.
Even the Marvel Cinematic Universe opted for an unconventional location for its epic superhero clash in Captain America: Civil War, staging the pivotal battle at Leipzig/Halle Airport in Germany, rather than another ravaged city centre.
A Call for Creative Catastrophe
The argument is clear: it's time for a revolution in ruin. Why must every alien invasion or extinction-level event focus its firepower on the same iconic structures? The cinematic landscape is begging for fresh targets that could add humour, pathos, or simply novelty to disaster narratives.
Imagine, the article suggests, an alien armada obliterating the Spam Museum in Austin, Minnesota. Or a rogue state targeting Brussels' diminutive Manneken Pis statue. What about a meteor strike finally taking out the Cleethorpes Coast Light Railway? These unconventional choices could reinvigorate a tired genre.
While the spectacle of seeing a familiar icon crumble will always hold a certain visceral thrill, an over-reliance on this trick risks audience fatigue. The success of films that dared to destroy differently proves there is an appetite for more inventive cinematic catastrophe. For the health of the disaster movie, perhaps it's time for Hollywood's directors to look beyond the postcard and start plotting the downfall of some truly unexpected landmarks.
