The Tunnel Explosion (Daylight) Daylight
The opening explosion in Daylight (1996) is the film's most technically impressive sequence and the event that defines everything that follows. Two criminal operations -- a toxic waste smuggling run and a diamond heist getaway -- converge inside the Holland Tunnel at the same hour, and the resulting fireball races through the tunnel in both directions, incinerating vehicles and collapsing both portals. The sequence was shot on the full-scale 1,522-foot tunnel set at Cinecitta Studios in Rome using practical effects rather than CGI, and multiple critics singled it out as the film's high point.
The explosion is a chain of negligence, not a single event
The sequence unfolds across beats 1 through 6 of the beat sheet. First, the toxic waste trucks are loaded illegally and bribed through the gate (beat 1). Then the film introduces every vehicle that will be trapped: George Tyrell on his shift, Madelyne listening to her answering machine, Roy Nord leaving his boardroom, the Trillings with Cooper, the juvenile offenders on the bus, Kit driving his taxi (beats 2-5). The diamond thieves enter last, fleeing police at high speed in a black Cadillac (beat 6). The Cadillac triggers the Electroguard tracking system, clips other vehicles, forces the waste trucks to swerve, and the impact ignites the toxic barrels.
The catalyst is not a single failure but an accumulation: the bribed guard, the volatile cargo, the inadequate tracking system, the speeding thieves, the confined space. The Collision of Illegal Dumping and Criminal Flight (Daylight) traces the full argument about how two unrelated criminal enterprises exploited the same piece of public infrastructure simultaneously.
James Berardinelli praised the explosion but argued the film peaked too early
"This is an action picture without a villain." — James Berardinelli, ReelViews (1996)
Berardinelli called the opening explosion "truly breathtaking" but argued that the film was "anti-climactic" because its best effects arrive first. The observation identifies a structural problem: once the tunnel is sealed, the antagonist is infrastructure rather than a person, and infrastructure cannot escalate in the way a human villain can. (reelviews)
The practical effects won a Golden Reel Award for sound editing
The explosion sequence earned Daylight a Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing and an Academy Award nomination in the same category. The sound design team -- Richard L. Anderson and David A. Whittaker -- built the fireball's audio from layered practical recordings rather than synthesized effects, giving the explosion a concussive weight that the CGI-heavy disaster films arriving the following year would not match. (wikipedia)
Roger Ebert was less impressed by the production design, noting with amusement the implausibility of the tunnel's internal fixtures:
"The digital clocks were presumably installed by the same spendthrifts who provided emergency lighting in all areas of the tunnel that are sealed off so nobody can enter them." — Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com (1996)