Collapsing bridges in the movies

May 24, 2006 3:18 PM

MovieFilter: Movies or TV shows that have someone running across a bridge that's collapsing as they're crossing it. Perhaps at the end they make a final leap to safety. Rope, stone, wood , the material doesn't matter. Here's what I have so far...

Jurassic Park III
Fellowship of the Ring
Lost
Duck Tales
Van Helsing
Cliffhanger

posted by asavage to media & arts (41 comments total)

Temple of Doom
posted by MsMolly at 3:19 PM on May 24, 2006

Shrek
posted by matthewr at 3:23 PM on May 24, 2006

Romancing The Stone (though if running is absolutely required, this might not qualify)
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 3:25 PM on May 24, 2006

SPOILER below:

"King Kong", the 1933 version. Men run across a natural bridge -- a tree that has fallen across a chasm. Kong picks up the tree and shakes it. I haven't seen the Jackson remake, so I don't know if it's in that version too. I did see the 70s version, but happily I've blocked it out.
posted by grumblebee at 3:30 PM on May 24, 2006

Uncommon Valor
Saving Private Ryan

In both movies the bridge is in fact being blowed up

Also, can't remember the name, but maybe the Clooney/Kidman movie with the stolen nuke?
posted by vito90 at 3:31 PM on May 24, 2006

Hellboy.
posted by team lowkey at 3:33 PM on May 24, 2006

I believe an episode of the Simpsons had this? I'm sure someone here knows which one specifically.
posted by apple scruff at 3:35 PM on May 24, 2006

THE SORCERER has an AMAZING bridge scene with heavy trucks carrying nitroglycerin having to drive across a rope bridge in the middle of the jungle.

What's better than a truck that's about to explode making a final leap to safety?
posted by Gucky at 3:39 PM on May 24, 2006

Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
Possibly several episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess (don't know specifics).

This is a major phobia of mine. I had my head buried under my arm during that scene in LOTR.
posted by matildaben at 3:40 PM on May 24, 2006

And in Stand By Me the kids were running across a bridge from a train, if that qualifies...
posted by vito90 at 3:40 PM on May 24, 2006

the episode of South Park where they kill Chef.
posted by kingjoeshmoe at 3:45 PM on May 24, 2006

True Lies. I believe the bridge was scheduled for demolition so the footage is real.

I'm ashamed to know this.
posted by fandango_matt at 3:49 PM on May 24, 2006

derail: that thing about true lies is actually a myth. They used a miniature.
posted by puke & cry at 3:57 PM on May 24, 2006

I believe an episode of the Simpsons had this? I'm sure someone here knows which one specifically.

Thirty Minutes Over Tokyo

(I feel like there are others, too, but I'm not positive.)
posted by box at 4:07 PM on May 24, 2006

Ice Age -- where they're running away from the volcano over the ice "bridge".

And True Lies doesn't meet the criteria for the question anyway. The bridge isn't collapsing and the actor isn't running away!

the Clooney/Kidman movie with the stolen nuke?

Peacemaker. Though I don't remember any bridge part.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 4:19 PM on May 24, 2006

Mothman Prophecies, based on a real-life bridge collapse.
posted by lychee at 4:21 PM on May 24, 2006

The Mothman Prophecies? I don't remember precisely if people are running, but there is a really cool/scary bridge collapse right at the end.
posted by hwestiii at 4:23 PM on May 24, 2006

I, Robot when hes in the house schedualed for demolition.
Shrek is a good one, because they kind of exaggerate it a bit..
posted by lain at 4:26 PM on May 24, 2006

I'm sure Alias has done it at least once, but I don't remember specifics.
posted by graventy at 5:03 PM on May 24, 2006

It's been awhile since I've seen it, but I believe that Gunga Din has a scene like this.
posted by pmurray63 at 5:59 PM on May 24, 2006

Bridge on the River Kwai. I think there were people on the bridge when it collapsed; they were running but they weren't the protagonists.
posted by Jeff Howard at 6:27 PM on May 24, 2006

The Librarian

Main characters walk 1/2 way across a dilapidated wooden (trestle) bridge over a waterfall deep in a jungle. One almost falls through and gets pulled back to safety. The bridge then starts collapsing from the starting point and the main characters run towards the finishing point & jump the last bit to a safe landing.
posted by jpeacock at 6:50 PM on May 24, 2006

Aliens vs Predator
posted by SPrintF at 6:53 PM on May 24, 2006

Thomas and the Magic Railroad has a gripping denouement as Lady is being pursued by Diesel 10 and the aqueduct crumbles and falls just as she crosses. Diesel 10 of course falls into a barge full of manure.
posted by jeremias at 8:31 PM on May 24, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Best collapsing bridge footage ever is of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge tearing itself apart. Some of the footage has people & cars still on the bridge.
posted by drstein at 8:41 PM on May 24, 2006

White Water Summer - He is not exactly running across, but it is colapsing while crossing.
posted by vagabond at 10:52 PM on May 24, 2006

True:

• A Bridge Too Far — World War II bridge battle (and movie.)
• Grand Canyon Skywalk — well, we're all waiting for this one...
• Hyatt Regency Walkway Collapse — engineering failure kills 114 partygoers.
• Tacoma Narrows Bridge — stills and video clips. No people died, just a dog in the car.

Hollywood:

• Cliffhanger — over the top with Sly.
• The Devil at 4 O'Clock — collapsing wooden bridge over river of molten lava.
• The General — Buster Keaton sends full-size wooden trestle and real steam train into river (and gets the girl.)
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade — Indy's "leap of faith" onto the invisible stone bridge.
• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — the ore cart jumps across broken tracks over a chasm.
• The Man Who Would Be King — rope footbridge is cut.
• The Money Pit — stairs collapse as Tom Hanks leaps to safety (almost).
• The Mummy Returns — Brendan Fraser leaps across raising drawbridge.
• Sorcerer — truck inches across decaying wooden suspension bridge over flooded river.
• The Wild Bunch — full-size wooden bridge blows up, dropping stunt horses and riders into river.

posted by cenoxo at 10:58 PM on May 24, 2006

Sorcerer- has Tangerine Dream soundtrack.
posted by hortense at 1:01 AM on May 25, 2006

I think Goonies, but not sure.
posted by Cochise at 1:37 AM on May 25, 2006

"Some of the footage has people & cars still on the bridge."

I'm pretty sure that the only person on the bridge after they closed it, long before it collapsed, was a reporter from the local newspaper (or at least he was the last person on the bridge). And I'm thinking that he was actually on the bridge when it started breaking up. He and a photographer, maybe? Those 20 foot (or whatever those extreme ones were) oscillations only happened right at the end.

Anyway, I don't recall footage of this guy and anyone with him on the bridge existing, though I could be wrong.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 1:59 AM on May 25, 2006

Update: there's weird contradictions in the various reports of the bridge's collapse. The wikipedia entry says that Leonard Coatsworth was the last man on the bridge but doesn't say that he was a Tacoma News Tribune newspaper reporter. He's mentioned in conjunction with his dog, "Tubby", who died in the collapse of the bridge that day, in Coatsworth's abandoned car.

At least one source I read said that the bridge was closed 30 minutes prior to its collapse, which would indicate what I had remembered from previously reading about this that Coatsworth was allowed on the bridge in his capacity as a reporter. However, his own account of his experience that appeared in the News Tribune makes it sound as if the bridge was open and he attempted to drive across it thinking it was safe and he wasn't there as a reporter. And his account includes a reference to another man crawling on his hands and knees trying to get off the bridge right before it collapsed.

But a problem with this is that all these other reports talk about Tubby and specifically that a bridge worker first tried to get back to Tubby to rescue him, but that a Professor who was there observing the bridge actually made it to Tubby but got his hand bitten for his troubles. A photo of this appeared in the paper the next day. However, the way that Coatsworth tells the story, he left Tubby in the car, crawled his way to safety, and then the bridge collapsed.

I don't trust his account at all because it contradicts in several ways some other authoritative accounts and I'm inclined to believe that his article takes liberties with the truth that would today be unthinkable but then might have been routine.

So, hell, I don't know if there are films showing people scrambling to get off the bridge as it collapses. Sure doesn't sound like what I knew before just now from reading about the bridge. The snippet of foot that you see often from the longer 22 minute film doesn't show much, certainly no people. But there's a longer clip available online and at the wiki that I'm about to watch when the download completes.
posted by Ethereal Bligh at 2:44 AM on May 25, 2006

Why does The Long Kiss Goodnight stick out in my mind? Wasn't there an exploding bridge scene in that movie?
posted by JigSawMan at 6:00 AM on May 25, 2006

Coronado, a fairly bad 2003 release, includes scene wherein a wooden bridge falling to pieces while the protagonists attempt to cross.
posted by leapfrog at 7:57 AM on May 25, 2006

I guess the opposite of this would be when magneto Built the bridge as he was crossing it in the first X-Men.
posted by skrike at 8:41 AM on May 25, 2006

I seem to remember a collapsing bridge in The Librarian: Quest for the Spear.
posted by icontemplate at 8:54 AM on May 25, 2006

"The Lost World" (silent film, 1925)
"Around the World in Eighty Days" (1956)

1941 documentary/studio advertisement called "You Can't Fool a Camera" is supposed to have a special effects example/scene of escaping a bridge collapse.

And if those are too obscure, a coworker just told me "Mission Impossible III" has one.

Luck on finding what you need! Be safe.
posted by mattfn at 9:40 AM on May 25, 2006

Hollywood, continued:

• Apocalypse Now — village bridge blown up during helicopter assault.
• Fortress — In a fight, Christopher Lambert and another prisoner are trapped on the end of a high catwalk as the evil warden retracts it under their feet.
• Gee Whiz-z-z-z-z-z-z — Trying to fool the Roadrunner into stopping, the Coyote paints a false front across the road (showing a collapsed bridge over a ravine). The Roadrunner breaks right through the canvas and continues on his way: the Coyote takes off after him and falls into the painted ravine.
• It Came From Beneath The Sea — Fed up with traffic noise, Ray Harryhausen's giant six-tentacled octopoid (cut back from eight to reduce stop-motion animation time), demolishes the Golden Gate Bridge.
• The Man with the Golden Gun — OO7 jumps an AMC Hornet (in a 360º spin) across a broken bridge.

Great game, this trivial pursuit...
posted by cenoxo at 10:43 AM on May 25, 2006

"Peacemaker: Though I don't remember any bridge part."

A truck was about to fall off the side of a mostly intact bridge and Clooney leapt to safety on top of a nuke-in-a-box which was attached to a cable suspended from a helicopter. Yes, please, shoot me.
posted by redsnare at 10:46 AM on May 25, 2006

Toy Story 2 found Buzz Lightyear in Zerg's lair, crossing a bridge made of floating discs that collapsed beneath him (each step he took played a note from Also sprach Zarathustra!)
posted by Scoo at 11:11 AM on May 25, 2006

Does Star Wars count? The bridge doesn't exactly collapse (Luke blasts the controls so it can't be extended) but he and Leia have to swing to safety.
posted by deborah at 8:37 PM on May 25, 2006

The opening theme of Ducktales! You guys simply must remember such things!
posted by Xoder at 8:33 AM on November 9, 2006