CDI Shoots Two Florida Buildings for ‘Lethal Weapon 3’
September 23, 2024
This article originally appeared in the June 1992 issue of DEMOLITION magazine, then called Demolition Age.
Two police officers sweat profusely as they try to defuse a bomb laden with enough explosive power to level the seven-story building in which it ticks. The elder of the duo wants to play it safe and wait for the bomb squad. His partner, however, wants to act immediately.
As the younger man moves to cut one of the two wires, his hand betrays not even the slightest tremble. Just before he makes the cut that will either defuse or detonate, he looks to his partner. An almost fiendish gleam appears in his eyes as he asks, “Aren’t you gonna miss all this when you retire, Rog?”
They’re back! Detective Roger Murtaugh, played by Danny Glover, and his longtime partner, Martin Riggs, played by Mel Gibson, return to the screen in Warner Bros.’ and Silver Pictures’ “Lethal Weapon 3.” Directed by Richard Donner and co-starring Joe Pesci of “Goodfellas” and “Home Alone,” “Lethal Weapon 3” features some of the most spectacular demolition footage ever to appear on the silver screen.
The film features the spectacular implosions of the old Orlando City Hall and the old Soreno Hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida, performed by NDA member firm Controlled Demolition Inc. of Phoenix, Maryland. Several months before the start of production in October of last year, producer Joel Silver received a letter from the Florida Film Commission regarding a building in Orlando that was scheduled for demolition and an invitation to come down to film it.
Director Richard Donner remembers, “When we first learned of the implosion, we thought it would be great but didn’t know where to put it. At the end of ‘Lethal Weapon 2,’ we’d pulled an entire house down; when this opportunity was presented to us, our screenwriter, Jeffrey Boam, suggested starting this picture off with a bang!”
The first building was Orlando’s abandoned eight-story City Hall, which took 21 months to build 33 years ago and 13 seconds to drop in front of an estimated crowd of 15,000.
Working closely with the people from CDI, Warner Bros.’ special effects supervisor Matt Sweeney, who was responsible for the precision of the one-take, on-target launch and landing of Murtaugh’s flying toilet in “Lethal Weapon 2,” spent two months fitting the building with 55-gallon rums containing debris and explosive powder, causing about 4,000 pounds of glass, cork and paper to spew out of the windows on cue. This effect was designed to mask the demolition of the building, creating the illusion of a bomb blast.
The implosion was swift and spectacular. At exactly 1:24 a.m. on Oct. 25, 1991, CDI felled the 108,000-square-foot building. CDI was working for Chapman & Son Inc. of Orlando and the city of Orlando. The Phoenix, Maryland, firm furnished $20 million worth of insurance to guarantee the safety of the brand-new Orlando City Hall located just 4 feet away.
The precise implosion was the result of painstaking calculations and preparation. Explosive experts analyzed the building for over 200 hours before planting 180 pounds of explosives in concert with 400 special effects cartridge explosives, designed to go off in a precisely timed sequence, weakening or breaking dozens of key pillars holding up the building. The implosion resulted in an estimated 13,000 tons of debris.
Warner Bros. was so happy with the felling of the Orlando structure that they decided to use the implosion of a second building to close “Lethal Weapon 3.”
At 11:54 a.m. on Jan. 25, 1992, CDI felled the 170,000-square-foot, eight-story tall Soreno Hotel in St. Petersburg. Working for the Plaza Land Company of St. Petersburg, CDI and Warner Bros. placed over 540 demolition charges wired in concert with 1,600 special effects cartridges to create a brilliant red “pulse” that radiated from an initiation point in the front center of the structure in the prospective of the camera lens. The Warner Bros. special effects people worked closely with CDI’s staff to perfect this magnificent daytime shot.
CDI provided $5 million of insurance to guarantee the safety of the adjacent properties located only 15 feet across an alley on the north side of the building. Eighteen feet to the northwest was the new headquarters for the Women’s Tennis Association.
Both projects were not only superb implosions but also spectacular visual effects for the upcoming film.