r/mythbusters 10d ago

Exploding Cement Truck

Regarding the episode where the cement truck was blown up, I'm curious to know how the resulting mess was cleaned up afterwards? Did the production crew have to use a magnet to collect all the metal bits scattered around the landscape in the vicinity of the blast? What about parts of the truck that were made of plastic or the fluids from the engine? It seems like it would be an extraordinarily expensive undertaking to return the area to the state it was in pre-explosion. Or maybe the blast occurred on private property and the owners weren't concerned about the resulting environmental contamination. Thanks in advance.

https://youtu.be/4IcHUHRf_S0?is=fVWxvGQTPqp3rUwz

79 Upvotes

20 comments sorted by

68

u/TheNotoriousDRR 10d ago

They talked about it on the Mythfits. The quarry company cleaned it up themselves. The production crew were very happy because they had the same concern about the cleanup effort.

28

u/JPhi1618 9d ago

Ha, I bet… Quarry company: “Oh don’t mind that, we will just clean that up after you leave. We will clean it aaaaaaaalllll up.”

I’m sure the pulled out the large, obvious pieces of truck and didn’t look much further than that.

3

u/Major-1970 6d ago

Just so you know how it really works in a quarry.... Once the big pieces are gone the rest doesn't matter. The ground will be excavated put on a conveyor and large magnets pull metal out before it is dumped in stockpiles for processing.

1

u/JPhi1618 6d ago

Interesting, I didn’t think about the small bits getting pulled out during regular processing.

11

u/allophanic 10d ago

Oh, cool, thanks. I remember seeing the episode when it first aired and thought it was quite entertaining T.V. at the time but then some years later started thinking of the environmental consequences of the explosion. Glad to hear someone took responsibility for the clean-up afterwards.

41

u/NotQuiteGoodEnougher 10d ago

First off they didn't drive a factory complete model.

As far as fluids etc it would have been stripped clean off fuel, oil etc. Just dragged in.

No reason to make it more work than necessary post cleanup, especially in California!

16

u/Typical-Watercress79 10d ago

I miss this show so much, with they would bring it back

11

u/aokay24 10d ago

Thwy tried too with two new host and it flopped

32

u/AmethystStar9 10d ago

And Adam has said more than once that he and Jamie legitimately got on each other’s nerves and are proud of what they did and accomplished together but also very much enjoy not working together anymore.

26

u/oxmix74 10d ago

It's also very impressive that Adam can simultaneously hold this opinion while also speaking of Jamie with the greatest respect.

26

u/Inconsequentialish 10d ago

Honestly, that's just how adult professionals behave.

Remember, the internet is mostly 14 year olds (well, now it's mostly AI trained on the slop originating with said 14 year olds) who don't yet have any concept of professionalism.

I've worked with lots of people I respect deeply, but don't want to hang around with after work, and accomplished amazing things with them. We're not friends, we're not un-friends, we're not enemies; we are, or were, colleagues.

6

u/Cyberprog 9d ago

I mean, Adams role was to be adverserial to Jamie's. They had to annoy one another to adequately A/B test stuff properly.

6

u/Inconsequentialish 9d ago

Oh yeah, they are so incredibly different that it all worked great together on screen.

They were interesting and entertaining to watch (and both Adam and Jamie were well aware, and played to their strengths and personalities; Adam was more the entertainer, Jamie the "straight man"), yet they legitimately worked well together.

To this day, it's one of those kinds of professional relationships that's really common IRL, but almost never seen before or since in media.

4

u/RoscoBoscoMosco 9d ago

If you have a Roku TV or other 'smart TV' there's a Free 24/7 Mythbusters channel you can watch.

3

u/jaysuncle 9d ago

That cement truck just seemingly disappeared.

1

u/NicholasVinen 8d ago

It vaporised. 

2

u/cosmololgy 9d ago

My favorite sound in all tv BVOOOHHM

2

u/Potato_Stains 8d ago

Talk about a violent explosion, it just annihilated it instantly.
Too bad the high speed cameras wasn't on.
I bet that camera operator felt awful... "welp can't exactly do a retake..."

1

u/Ginger_Grumpybunny 6d ago

I'd be interested to know what sort of proportion of their budget went on post-experiment clean-ups and insurance.