There is no secret that many digital artists have joined the visual effects industry to get the opportunity to destroy things on a massive scale and the ability to do so has been taken to great cinematic advantage, as demonstrated the by film catalogues of Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay.
However, explosions and destruction have been part of the visual vernacular ever since the British silent short film Explosion of a Motor Car directed by Cecil M. Hepworth in 1900 and has since taken on nuclear proportions as demonstrated in the Oscar-winning biopic Oppenheimer in 2023; the latter took advantage of the practical expertise of special effects and elevated the spectacle by digitally layering the various shot elements together through compositing.
