Smoke Screens

I love action films and have grown up watching so many of them. From Vijay's insane onscreen presence and actions sequences in Tamil cinema to the Fast & Furious saga, it is always a thrilling watch to witness the intensity and grandeur of these sets/scenes. I was catching up on some films I have been meaning to see when one particular scene struck me deeply. It's the climax and the antagonist is essentially burned alive inside this huge tank of kerosene by the hero. The explosion so massive that it made the ending so powerful and dramatic. But how are these fires controlled? Are they controlled?

It got me thinking. What unfolds on screen in a matter of minutes can represent years' worth of carbon emissions that are rarely acknowledged. Despite major advances in CGI, films like Spectre continue to rely on real fires, explosions, and large-scale practical effects. As exhilarating as these scenes are to watch, the environmental cost behind them appears disproportionately high and remarkably underdiscussed. As a devoted film enthusiast, it is unsettling to realize the amount of waste, emissions, and toxic residue generated in the pursuit of realism. Entire historical environments and elaborate sets are built for production, only to be dismantled, discarded, or destroyed once filming ends.

‘Data analysis shows that one average tentpole film production, a film with a budget of over US$70m, generates 2,840 tones of CO2e, the equivalent amount absorbed by 3,709 acres of forest in a year. Within this, transport accounts for approximately 51% of carbon emissions, mains electricity and gas use accounts for around 34%, and diesel generators for the remaining 15%.’ (BFI, 2020)

Can cinematic realism coexist with environmental responsibility?

Perhaps the first step is simply acknowledging the scale of the environmental impact associated with global film production, a topic that remains surprisingly underdiscussed and underresearched. From an urban design perspective, this raises an interesting question around standards and accountability. Fields such as architecture, landscape architecture, and urban design rely on frameworks like Sustainable SITES to encourage environmentally intentional planning and design. Could cinema benefit from a comparable benchmark for production practices?

A version of this already exists in the United Kingdom through BAFTA’s Albert initiative, which measures and guides sustainability in film and television production. But could such frameworks be adapted globally and embedded more deeply into the filmmaking process, encouraging spectacle to be created within environmental constraints rather than outside them?

https://baftaalbert.org/about/

The question extends beyond emissions alone. What happens to the enormous volume of material waste generated by production? During a high speed chase sequence, multiple vehicles may be wrecked, overturned, or exploded in seconds of screen time. Where do these materials go afterward? Are damaged vehicles dismantled and recycled? Are sets, props, and production debris repurposed, salvaged, or simply discarded? If cinema has mastered the art of constructing immersive worlds, maybethe next challenge lies in learning how to dismantle them more responsibly.

It's easy to turn to AI to create these scenes but at the end of the day AI usage itself is environmentally detrimental. Cinema is art, and I would hate to see the nature of it be limited. The takeaway is simple. Before debating solutions, the industry may first need broader recognition, research, and standardized ways of understanding the environmental costs of filmmaking. Only then can meaningful strategies for reduction and reuse become part of the conversation.

Ofcourse I have to end with this :

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