(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: My heart is going pitter pat, pitter pat.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
Me, in fireworks! Geez, I love it. Oh, it's beautiful.
Fireworks! Fireworks!
Oh, I love 'em, and I know that...
I’m not the only one.
JEFF: In every corner of this not so bitter earth,
this is the way that we celebrate
some of the most momentous moments in our lives. But...
Why?
In America, we spend, every year on fireworks, guess how much?
-One billion dollars. -(CASH REGISTER RINGS)
Can you believe that? What is it about this stuff? Man oh man!
Hey, what do you think? Is there something that we’ve all got deep in our bones
somewhere that just make us powerless to resist the wonder of fireworks?
Fireworks. Fireworks. (CHUCKLES)
JEFF: Mm-hmm.
(UPBEAT MUSIC CONCLUDES)
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
-JEFF: What do you like about fireworks? -Just the loud noises, the bright lights.
Long as I can remember, I've been into 'em. It’s magic in a box.
It’s magic in a box! Miles found something.
(CASH REGISTER RINGS)
(SCANNER BEEPS)
Wait, Christian, Schaeffer, Luke, Luke? No, Luke, Luke, Luke...
-Oh, you’re all Luke. -Yeah, we're basically...
Call me Luke, also. What are you doing here?
-We’re all... -Oh, we love fire.
You love fire? Well, it’s so interesting. So...
What do you feel like when you light all this stuff up?
I think I love doing it just 'cause of the adrenaline.
-It's just adrenaline rush. -Lighting it and running.
-It’s, it’s so fun. -Running away.
What, have you got anything yet?
-We haven’t gotten anything. -You just got here?
We’re going to head over to the Roman candle section.
I’m thrilled. Luke, Luke, Luke and Luke,
I’m just thr... Roman candles?
And there’s a pack of thirty-six over there, so...
-Go ahead. Let me follow you. -Let’s go. Let’s go. Let's go.
I'll be your chaperone, huh?
Yeah. You know, they’re having a good time,
and it’s nice to see them excited.
-Okay. -It’s sixty dollars, so, fifteen each.
-Oh, I see. Not bad -LUKE 3: Great deal..
I remember being kind of thrilled, and what's this?
JEFF: I remember, you know, being five and six, and what? What? Ooh!
And...
These are unpredictable, you know, but something could happen.
There’s always that moment of fear.
-Yeah. -MALE VOICE: When you’re
the one lighting it.
It's just the unknown, I guess.
I’ve felt myself, you know, hey, this is scary.
And even, “I don’t know if I should be doing this or not, but…
-I just want to. -(MALE VOICE CHUCKLES)
JEFF: So, what is this feeling that comes over me?
CASHIER: All right.
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: Maybe it has something to do with homo-sapiens' relationship with fire?
-I mean, first, we were scared of it... -(FEMALE VOICE SCREAMING)
JEFF: ...before we controlled it.
And today, what if fireworks replicates that same primal feeling?
You know, when we know that we're not in danger, but we still feel fear.
A surge of dopamine, a chemical that regulates pleasure,
is activated in our brains, which triggers a kind of euphoria.
Hmm, I wonder.
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC CONCLUDES)
-Are you excited? -FEMALE VOICE: Anticipation.
-CHILDREN: Yeah. -We’re excited...
JEFF: Okay, so I’ve attached myself to these folks,
the MacPhersons, who can’t wait to try out their new purchases.
Would you like to start us off then?
-Sure. I’ll do the honors. -FEMALE VOICE: Awesome.
This is for the large crème brûlée...
-(CHUCKLES) -JEFF: And then I’m gonna...
No need to run, no need to run. No need to run, no need to run.
FEMALE VOICE: Yeah, back up a couple steps.
JEFF: I’m going to run like crazy, and dive into that snowbank.
I’m a little bit afraid.
I don’t know if it’s the enjoyable kind of afraid,
-but I’m a little afraid. -ALL: Three...
-Two, one... -(CHUCKLES)
-Goodbye. Goodbye. -(CHUCKLES)
Look at that! Oh boy. Oh, come on!
-MALE VOICE: Whoa! -Oh, come on!
-(FEMALE VOICE CHUCKLING) -(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
I’ve never seen anything this close up before like that.
-(MALE VOICE CHEERS) -(CHEERS)
JEFF: It’s a physical experience.
You hear things, you smell things, and you see things.
-FEMALE VOICE: Right... -JEFF: Uh-oh.
Ready? The traditional lighting of the sparklers.
They were mesmerized, they were scared, they were excited, they were...
Oh, I think they were all of those things.
JEFF: But me, I’m ambivalent, because at the heart of all this,
aren’t we still blowing stuff up?
JEFF: I’m told this is secret
and nobody ever is allowed to be here, except us.
Let's check things out.
But this says, “All unauthorized persons and vehicles.”
-What? -(MUSIC CUTS)
Is the... I don’t understand the syntax here.
“No smoking, open, flames…”
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. See this comma here?
“No smoking, open, flames.”
I think they mean "open flames". Oh, hey, good. So...
(CHUCKLES) ...so, forget that.
"All unauthorized persons and vehicles..."
(MUMMBLES)
You know, "beware," I guess.
"Turn back." "Turn back." "Turn back."
We’re authorized!
(CAR ENGING REVVING)
No welcoming committee? Where’s the band?
-Well, hello, anybody? -MALE VOICE: Who’s there?
I... It's Jeff Goldblum.
Well, I’m the wizard of "Oohs" and "Ahs". Would you like to come in?
-You’re, "the wizard of 'Oohs' and 'Ahs'?" -MALE VOICE: Yes.
-Oh, my golly! And who are you people? -(ALL CHUCKLE)
-I’m Jim Souza. -Sounds crazy?
Look, what the heck is going on here? What is this place?
This is a munitions storage depot, it's been decommissioned.
We took it over. We have fourteen of these bunkers in this whole facility.
It stores over 300,000 pounds of explosives,
and we’re here in what we call the pick magazine,
or the supermarket of fireworks.
You’re setting off bombs, these are bombs, let’s be frank.
JIM: They are bombs.
No, no, no. Let’s not even talk about that.
-JIM: Yeah. -It gives me the heebie-jeebies!
-JIM: Let’s have a walk. -JEFF: Let’s go.
You were bringing up, like, war munitions and I wanted to sort of like juxtapose
the difference. I mean, there's similarities in language,
like we refer to this as a shell.
We launch our fireworks out of mortars.
(IMMITATES GUNSHOTS) This is a five-inch shell.
This is the, you know, the second largest gun,
on a battleship in America would use one of these to destroy stuff,
but we make it to...
Colors go in the sky, and make "Oohs" and "Ahs."
It’s called explosive entertainment, where we're having explosives,
but we’re here to entertain people in a safe way.
JEFF: And yeah, you can’t help but notice
that many of the world’s most iconic displays,
like Independence Day in the United States, and France’s Bastille Day,
and Guy Fawkes Night in the UK, all commemorate violence.
But apparently, the spark behind all of this
started with peace-loving monks in China. How about that?
The theory goes that back in 200 BC, somebody threw some bamboo onto a flame,
and thus something magical happened. And that became a ritual
that they thought could banish evil spirits.
Of course, you know the history of mankind,
this soon led to the development of gun powder
and the potential for a great deal of harm.
And so, it seems to me,
that the story of fireworks is some kind of strange marriage
between obliteration...
and prettiness.
(CROWD CHEERING)
JIM: I want to show you the authentic, ancient book, written by my grandfather.
This is the family recipe, secret formulas
of all the firework compositions used...
-This is fantastic. This is fantastic. -....at the time
This is the chemicals that make the stars,
and the stars are what we have here and.
When this goes up in the air, there’s a bursting charge in there,
and it’s going to light them up, and spread them across the sky
similar to some of these photos here.
-Let's see. Let's see. -They’re going to burst in shapes
like chrysanthemums and peonies, palm trees.
JEFF: Now I'm seeing this, when this happens, it really is great.
JEFF: With all this chit-chat about shells and bombs and fuses,
I see the inspiration has something to do with nature in blossom.
Not boom, but bloom.
(FIREWORKS CRACKLING)
(EXPLOSIONS)
JIM: It is ironic 'cause we’re... here we are in an explosive bunker
-and we blow things up... -JEFF: Yeah.
...but they go in the sky and create beauty, magic, and wonder.
Wow.
JEFF: And nobody does it better than the Souza’s.
They’ve had a family business for over a hundred years,
and they’ve designed some of the biggest displays in the country.
So, what we were hoping to do is to invite you to a little jam session,
and we really need a musical track...
-JEFF: Yeah. -...to really do the design to.
Let’s get some flow. I like that.
So, everything that you saw, we have a virtual copy of.
This is what you’re talking about?
(GASPS) And that’s an accurate depiction
-of what we're ordering up? -Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, and it gives the proper duration of the shell,
so we can really see what the design is going to look like.
Palm tree...
color-changing chrysanthemum. Would that be...
-JEFF: Uh-huh, right. -RICKY: Okay.
JEFF: Is that right? All right.
-Lots of them going, different sizes. -Okay. Wow.
How long will this show be?
We’re looking for like a nice minute, minute and a half or something, from you.
-JEFF: So... -You could be the opening (IMITATES PINAO)
-You’ll decide when it comes in the show? -RICKY: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
At the beginning or the end or something, yeah.
-JEFF: So, you’ll take that... -This will take a lot of interpretation
now because I see it building, bring it back down.
I see it going wider, up, so we'll play along to that.
You’re like a choreographer.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Goldblum waterfall?
Here comes... Here's the big finish.
-RICKY: Yes! I love it. -That’s a big finish.
JEFF: Okay, I gave the Souzas some of my noodling.
We’re going to cook up a display. Oh, boy! Oh, boy!
JEFF: Now, while the Souzas are proudly following
over a thousand years of tradition,
some people want to say, “Oh, that’s old school"
because there is something new on the horizon.
(SIREN BLARING)
REPORTER: Flying saucers have invaded our planet.
Wow!
REPORTER: The whole world is under attack.
JEFF: And they’re buzzing, they’re buzzing like a snake!
(HISSING)
They’re always surprising me with one thing or another.
I guess they’ve released the drones.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: That's amazing.
What are they doing?
(SCREAMS)
JEFF: The Intel corporation seems to want to initiate me
into the world of fireworks that are digital.
Hey, is that you, Natalie?
Thanks for coming to our airfield, we really appreciate it.
-Is that what you call this, an airfield? -Yes, we build our own drone light shows.
Just for the art of it?
-Just for the design of it? -Because it’s a cool engineering problem.
Right? Like, right now, there’s a lot
of drones where you have to have one pilot,
-and one drone to control it. -Right.
-But if you have a hundreds of drones... -Yes, yes
-...and just one pilot to control it... -Right.
...it’s a very difficult engineering problem to solve.
The beauty of this is you can have a show and reset it and...
-You’re never throwing stuff away. -Right, it's green.
We can use them every night.
It’s so different than seeing it on the video or on photos,
-it just doesn’t justify it. -Yeah. It's meant to be seen live.
-NATALIE: Exactly. -Not unlike fireworks, I guess.
To see them live is really kind of what it's intended,
-or feels like it’s intended for. -NATALIE: Absolutely.
-All right, so we’re going -Okay.
-to take off soon. Are you ready? -Okay,
let’s take off. Is there going to be music or should we sing our own music
-as they’re taking off? -You are welcome to sing your own music.
-Oh, really? Okay. Oh! -You ready?
-Yes! I know what it is it just came to me -What?
JEFF: Up, up, and away
With the latest design software,
one pilot is able to control the color, and flight pattern of every single drone.
-Geez. -PILOT: Be three minutes to launch,
five minutes and forty seconds to animation.
PILOT: Drones launching.
-(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) -(WHIRRING)
Oh, my gosh. Look at that!
-They’re taking off. -Yeah.
Look at that!
So, that’s three hundred of them up in the sky.
-That’s three hundred already? -Right.
-You've got to be kidding. -(CHUCKLES)
JEFF: You got to be kidding.
-Whoa, that’s a jellyfish there. -(CHUCKLES)
Oh, my gosh. They’re becoming something else. Wait a minute.
I think I see…
this is fantastic.
White. Green. It’s the Earth.
-It’s the Earth! -Yes.
It’s the globe spinning around. Oh, my golly.
What a wonderful thing,
and you feel some kind of power...
and some strange, indecipherable, inconceivable intelligence.
And it did put me in a state of...
you know, wonderment and quiet...
admiration.
And this feeling is different, and I think we may have found our way
into, not exactly pure fear or joy,
but something profound, fundamental.
Since the beginning of the species, haven’t we looked up to the sky,
for navigation and discovery,
to learn about the universe and our place in it?
Where in the heck are you taking me? This is a place of darkness.
I thought I’d take you to a place that is, so far from really any ambient light.
And the darker the sky...
-The brighter the stars. -JOHN: ...brighter the stars.
ANNOUNCER: Liftoff on Space Shuttle Endeavor.
JEFF: I am hitching a ride with the great astronaut John Herrington.
FEMALE VOICE: (OVER RADIO) Go ahead, John.
JOHN: (OVER RADIO) Houston, Endeavor
-for EVA one and two. -JEFF: And he...
has had personal encounters with the bright lights of connectivity
that we have with the cosmos.
Well, the reality is that if you look up at the stars...
-Yeah. -...and if you could imagine what
a supernova looks like, you can imagine what fireworks
would be an image for what you’d see in the sky.
-Right. -And tie that between what fireworks mean
to us and what fireworks represent.
-Yes. - JOHN: So, let’s go see
what’s really in the sky.
-JEFF: Oh my gosh, I had no idea.
-JEFF: This is dark. -JOHN: Aw, jeez.
-JEFF: Do you like fireworks? -JOHN: Love fireworks.
-JEFF: You do? -JOHN: Sure.
JEFF: Do they remind you of the stars at all?
JOHN: Well, you look up at the stars, it looks like fireworks.
I look up...
Just the quietude, just the...
What is that feeling? Is there something in our consciousness?
JOHN: So, imagine stepping out of the
-space station, on a spacewalk. -Yeah. Yes.
JOHN: I was hanging on the end of the space station,
-with a thumb and a forefinger... -JEFF: Yeah.
...looking out over the edge of the earth,
-out of the vastest universe... -JEFF: Yeah.
...and the first time in my life, I thought,
"There’s nothing between me, and whatever else is out there."
And what’s that... How's that make you feel? Like...
We were really, really, really tiny.
It’s a sense of awe. It’s a sense of, you know,
appreciation for absolutely how beautiful it is.
You look at the stars and you think, Whoa, gosh, well, how did they get there?
It’s this idea that what it makes you feel inside is
an appreciation for what you are a part of.
This feeling of awe that I get to be a part of this.
JEFF: Awe. Wow, it's kind of a mysterious emotion.
Intense pleasure, seasoned with a sprinkling of fear.
It can be set off when we encounter a natural wonder...
(TRAIN ENGINE HISSES)
...or when we have an experience that’s life-changing in some way,
and when we see fireworks.
You know, scientists say that if we can appreciate our place in the universe,
and become available for that feeling of awe,
it can generally make us happier, and healthier,
and give us some real humility.
‘Cause it's an amazing thing, isn’t it? That human beings, from the very start,
looked up and were in wonderment at what was around them.
I suppose lighting fireworks is a kind of a
naive, and sweet, and primitive way of reminding us,
and making a show that is a little bit like
the grand, natural, beautiful,
amazing show that's in the sky all the time.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: Well, as this fireworks odyssey of ours comes to a close...
Hey, let’s check in with the Souza family,
and see if they’ve put together any kind of spectacle
that may include me banging on the pie-annie.
I brought the kids and Emilie, and we’re about to,
as the sun beautifully goes down on this epic landscape,
about to set off some fireworks.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
JEFF: Okay, what am I looking at?
Well, all right, so those are comets that are gonna go like this
-to the beat of the music. -Oh, my...
It’s going to go, you know, like a piano.
We’re going to go, one, three, five, seven. Two, four, six
Back, back, back. Yeah, exactly like a keyboard.
Nobody has to run in there and then do that?
No, we don’t have to do that anymore.
Where are you going to be? Where am I going to be?
I’m going to be with you. We’re going to be out over here.
We’ll all enjoy it just as one happy family,
in celebrating the fireworks.
That’s what I was just saying, celebrating fireworks, itself...
Family, fun, entertainment.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING)
-Is everybody ready? -RIVER: Yes!
-(ALL CHUCKLE) -Okay, here goes.
Thank you, Souzas, Charlie, and River, and Emilie.
Auto-fire! Here goes!
(INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC PLAYING)
Wow! Look at that.
JEFF: I love the old-fashioned artisanal craft of fireworks.
Oh, my gosh!
That real rawness of the sounds...
Wow!
...and those constellations of explosive,
-gaudy, glittering jewels. I just love it. -Wow!
-JEFF: And nowadays... -Wow! Wow!
...it might not be the worst idea in the world to get out,
and experience that fireworks anticipation and jubilation.
-RIVER: Wow. -(CHUCKLES)
JEFF: Feeling ourselves small in a big space
gives us a sense of connection to each other,
and to this ample and excruciatingly lovely planet.
-Oh, my god. It’s so beautiful. -JEFF: Look at that. Look at it.
JEFF: Wow! Wow!
-(ALL CHUCKLE) -JEFF: Oh, that was fantastic. Fantastic!
It was a variety of sounds and...
sights and light choreography.
It was amazing, amazing, amazing. Really wonderful.
It gets ten Goldblums out of a possible ten Goldblums.
That's my highest possible rating.
Amazing. Amazing.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)