movies of mass destruction

Man of Steel City Damage Professionally Estimated

HENRY CAVILL as Superman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ and Legendary Pictures’ action adventure “MAN OF STEEL,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Photo: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures/? 2013 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Legendary Pictures Funding, LLC ?

Last week, we asked the question: “Is it possible to make a Hollywood blockbuster without evoking 9/11?” The piece argued that it’s disturbing just how casually big action movies will destroy major cities, without any mention of the life lost. To that point, BuzzFeed worked with the disaster experts at Watson Technical Consulting to estimate exactly how much carnage was inflicted on Metropolis in Man of Steel. After running simulations on Manhattan and Chicago, they got a sense of what the damage would’ve been. WTC estimates 129,000 people would’ve been killed, over 250,000 left missing, and almost a million injured. In total, WTC estimates the physical damage to be about $700 billion (compared to, for example, the $55 billion 9/11 caused). In total, WTC estimates the entire economic impact at $2 trillion. But, hey, at least that one family in the train station is okay.

Man of Steel Damage Professionally Estimated