The Godfather I and II

14. Floyd Bennett Airfield

New York, NY

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Although the plot indicates that Sonny's death takes place on the Jones Beach Causeway, on the road to Long Beach, it was actually filmed at the Floyd Bennett Airfield. Floyd Bennett Airfield's open space was an ideal location to capture Sonny's dramatic death. If you look closely while watching the film, you can see bullet holes in the roof of Sonny's car before he is shot, and these bullet holes appear and disappear throughout the scene, which was considered a technical nightmare for the crew. It consisted of fitting the tollbooths and Sonny's car with breakaway safety glass, drilling two hundred bullet holes into the car, painting over the bullet holes, and filling the holes with an explosive charge. All aspects of the scene were wired and activated by remote control. This scene cost approximately $100,000 to shoot, and could only be filmed once. Actor James Caan risked severe injury to make Sonny's death appear as realistic as possible. His clothes were fitted with small brass casings that contained gunpowder and fake blood. All of the casings were wired and attached to a hidden cable on his back that was to be pulled by off screen technicians. James Caan wore 110 casings, the most worn by an actor in movie history. If these casings were deployed incorrectly, James Caan could have been severely injured.