Your head ASPLODE!!!

The other day I was playing "Gears of War" with my brother when I shot a guy in the head and it exploded into a billion tiny little bits. I had seen that a ton of times already but for some reason that got me thinking about all the heads that I have seen explode in my lifetime. After running it through my mind for a few hours and then talking it over with a few people I believe I came up with a pretty good list of exploding heads that I wanted to share with you for no other reason that it makes a weird blog entry.

The first exploding head I can remember is at the end of the game "Bionic Commando." After you finish the game you get to see Master D's head explode in all it's 8-bit glory. Sure it doesn't hold up well over time and looks a bit cheesy now but I must have been around 7 or 8 at the time and it was then and still is now one of the better game endings I have ever seen.


Now the exploding head in "Scanners" wasn't the first exploding head memory I have but when I think of exploding heads I only think of this one scene. It is the perfect mix of asplode and gore. Plus the exploding head is caused by Michael Ironside's telekinetic abilities. That motherfucker just walks into a room and peoples heads start exploding left and right. It's true my brother saw it happen once in L.A. and it was a good thing he was in the other room otherwise his head might have exploded as well.


A close second place has to be the head shot from George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead." A cop bursts through the door of an apartment and BLAST! Head chunks on the walls. This one scene very early in the film really sets the tone for the rest of the film. Not only is this a great satire on American consumers but it's also a gore filled freak fest.


For years now I have been telling everyone about a little movie called "The Story of Ricky." For some reason not many people have seen this classic film. I'm going to assume that you haven't seen it either and just go ahead and show you the exploding head clip but do yourself a favor and see this movie ASAP.


Maybe not quite as gory as the others but just as good was a scene in "Total Recall" where Schwarzenegger takes off a fake head and throws at some cops. Guess what it does? That's right it explodes.


Newer movies have had a few great exploding heads as well. "Pulp Fiction" is a perfect example of a more main stream movie with a great exploding head. I'm sure everyone remembers the scene where John Travolta accidentally shoots a guy in the head in the back seat of a car. This scene is great not only because was it unexpected in the context of the movie but because it used buckets of blood to get the proper exploding head effect. The resulting dialog after this moment is also very well written which makes the whole scene that much more entertaining.


Of course because all of this started with me playing "Gears of War" it would be completely irresponsible of me to not talk about those exploding heads. This game actually has a few different types of exploding heads. You know to keep things interesting....

Sniper Riffle

The sniper rifle really goes all out with the gore and it quite rewarding when you take someones head off from across the map without them knowing they are in your cross hairs.



Shotgun

The shotgun is a more up close and personal head removal device. Although it isn't as satisfying as the sniper rifles because of the close quarters it is nice to see your enemy drop to the ground with one solid shot to the face.


Curb Stomp

Sure the cub stomp was really made famous by "American History X" but it wasn't until Gears that it was perfected. Not only is it a disgrace to curb stomp someone in online combat but it is also really, really fun to do. Sadly I couldn't find just a curb stomp video online for you to check out. I did however find a ton of montage videos of people curb stomping. Most of those were set to really bad songs and had horrible editing. I did find this tech demo on youtube which has a bunch of kills in it and looks at the various multiplayer levels. At around 49 seconds in there is a great example of the curb stomp.


Just so you could have physical proof in your house at all times that Gears had great exploding heads someone went ahead and made an action figure out of it.


Long live the exploding head!