Launching An Entire Fireworks Display At Once

Human error has launched massive barrages of fireworks at the wrong time before. We're doing it deliberately!
Camera and audio mix by Matt Gray: mattg.co.uk
Edited by Michelle Martin: / @onthecrux
With thanks to Jonty for lighting
Thanks to the team from Titanium Fireworks: titaniumfirewor... - this was not a sponsored video!
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[@johnnyboy3949]

I knew the button wouldn’t do anything as it’s clearly the mystery biscuits button

[@CZEFrank]

MYSTERY BISCUITS!!!

[@lewist7576]

CZ Frank OH YEAH!

[@TheRealPentigan]

Now what we need is a video edit that when he presses the button faintly in the distance you can hear the Mystery Biscuits jingle

[@newton21989]

Or... Tom: "That's why this button doesn't do anything." _[press button, cut to fireworks]_

[@serpwntine]

noticed that too.

[@colinfurze]

Ok not many times in life do I get to put this comment on a video.........yeah that was good but you can do all that while riding a bike Muhahahaha.

[@ethanross4308]

ahaha

[@SolidStuDoo]

colinfurze there's always one person who has to do one-up, isn't there? Though, I suppose that's most of the point of your channel!

[@SwedishMindwacker]

I seriously thought I watched one of your videos until the end card with Tom Scott came up.

[@QuinterServarosius]

300.000 more subscribers and we can find out what that looks like to!

[@HiHACKER]

colinfurze savage

[@valdeizm]

the entire time i was worried your hand gestures would accidentally hit the button

[@kodaspaws]

and that is a fantastic commentary on gun control....

[@viktor8986z7o]

@@kodaspaws You mean gun safety?

[@HansPeter-qg2vc]

@@kodaspaws That's a perfect comment demonstrating how little the anti gun idiots know about guns.

[@kodaspaws]

@@HansPeter-qg2vc Feel free to explain....

[@kodaspaws]

@@viktor8986z7o both

[@SimonClark]

This was such a well designed video Tom! Also congrats on 1 megasubs!

[@no1fanofthepals]

late but megasubs is amazing

[@weirdernow]

3 megasubs :)

[@jayd2279]

Technically just a megasub, not multiple

[@frankzaffuto3670]

@@jayd2279 🤨 explain.

[@jayd2279]

@@frankzaffuto3670 Similar to how we use one kilogram, even though it is a thousand grams, or a megabyte, which would be a million bytes (I'm not a linguist or anything, I might be wrong)

[@smallvalleyproductions9103]

'...Thats why this button doesn't do anything.' *TOP 10 ANIME PLOT TWISTS*

[@RainaRamsay]

I was about to be SUPER PISSED OFF

[@sansyboy4181]

Nani?

[@lewiszim]

daga, oboerarenai ne

[@zizo0ditto1989]

kkonstantinosss2 Yakso Okurutsken

[@squidgrill]

Dougy STAHP RIGHT THERE! It’s illegal to lewd those lolis! You’re under arrest!

[@deepspace]

RIP KZbin compression

[@coolminer6242]

DeepSpace killed it

[@tommihommi1]

the original footage probably already has artifacts, recording fireworks without any is really tricky.

[@ArgoIo]

tommihommi1 Depends on his camera settings. Some professional equipment allows for storing uncompressed video data.

[@jamesmnguyen]

More confetti! More confetti!

[@Neojhun]

tommihommi1 All Intra frame video is very popular on professional video cameras now. Should have very little artefacts filming fireworks.

[@TomScottGo]

I don't know how well this translates to a small KZbin screen -- hopefully the reaction shot gives an idea of what it was like to be there!

[@Oliver-pi4wd]

Tom Scott hi

[@0xbenedikt]

Who did pay for it and why did they do it? Was it test planned by the fireworks event company?

[@lyndawilliams8434]

The reaction shot? Oh you mean you both giggling like a pair of schoolgirls? Yeah I figure we got the message :D

[@berechet.m]

Tom Scott it does

[@MisterAppleEsq]

+Benedikt Müssig Watch the Behind the Scenes video on the Matt and Tom channel.

[@rngwrldngnr]

'Technical Hitch' during filming of KZbin video causes .1 second fireworks display to stretch out to 10 minutes and sync up with "Pachelbel's Canon in D". The root cause investigation is in progress, but is expected to return a verdict of 'Human Error'.

[@charliefischer59]

"This button doesn't do anything" Fertilizer factory blows up in background*

[@BullyBentley]

This comment didn’t age well...

[@anhbui-bc4ew]

@@BullyBentley ?

[@null2640]

@@BullyBentley what

[@BullyBentley]

Zynke what

[@theultimatebananaboi163]

@@BullyBentley what

[@zaphodbeeblebrox8382]

Awesome video and super relevant for engineers! As an chemical process engineer a lot of our systems include several redundancies and checks throughout the day. The process is mostly autonomous, while the human element mostly maintains the controls and redundancies.

[@Nadia1989]

I was thinking about pilots as well! There are lots of accidents that were caused by badly designed checklists, or no checklists at all.

[@StrimClocks]

People should brush up on their NASA procedures. We didn't just go to the moon to get some rocks, which we kind did anyway, but to prove that following procedures, checklists, and pre-flight tests are important.

[@ViridianIsland]

I'm a control system engineer; trust me, we have alot of checks, trips, interlocks, voters and redundancy. Much respect

[@mdkc]

Oddly enough we're having a few major legal battles regarding human error in medicine at the moment - the Hadiza Bawa-Garba case being the key one. Turns out the terms "system failures" and "human error" go down far less well with NHS management than "find a scapegoat". Interested to here your thoughts Tom

[@scottmcintyre2809]

I wonder if there was any temptation in the sound edit to, when Tom presses the big red button, very quietly insert "Mystery Biscuits! oh yeah..."

[@Tom5TomEntertainment]

Pyrotechnics all going off at once? Bet they got fired.

[@Robbmann67]

Nah, they went on strike

[@dylanharding5720]

Tom5tom Entertainment haha

[@maxximumb]

No but the boss's face was incandescent when he found out.

[@denelson83]

Nah, they just went out with a bang.

[@prim16]

Wow, the number of likes on your comment really exploded.

[@GaviLazan]

Matt seems to have particularly enjoyed that.

[@RainaRamsay]

Matt looks so happy!

[@djvesko]

When he walks up with the "Alright, show me." expression on his face. :D

[@JustOneAsbesto]

Matt Gray bounced extra hard that day.

[@wojtek4p4]

Yes! His reaction alone made me giggle :D

[@iriscandy6377]

:3

[@weasdown]

The whole system design thing strongly reminds me of the Hawaii missile alert incident...

[@user-ok6cm6qk9d]

William Easdown that system also has the demand that it should be able to activate on full scale as fast as possible at any time. The worst that can happen is not a false alarm, but a real alarm being delayed in critical situations. Still a huge mistake on their part

[@ekki1993]

TBH just having a couple of checks isn't a significative delay, especially assuming that whoever controls that knows how to do the checks quickly.

William Easdown I thought of that too, maybe it was even an inspiration for this video.

[@RainaRamsay]

I was wondering whether this video was in response to that incident.

[@EoRdE6]

Definitellyyyyyy think it was aimed at that

[@magic_cfw]

If only the mystery biscuits button did that... every... single... time...

[@maxximumb]

Oh Yeah!

[@RainaRamsay]

Petition for that to happen

[@TheErebusGaming]

Matt staring agape into the sky and yelling 'AWESOME!' is my new favourite thing.

[@MegaMGstudios]

Tom: the professionals over there do the firing. Matt: *does the firing*

[@gamemeister27]

You learn a ton about this from programming. People will mess up, and they will do so in the most unimaginable ways possible.

[@demonic6802]

"You make something foolproof, and then they invent a better idiot."

[@ChrissieBear]

To be honest? I wouldn't have guessed that was not a normal fireworks shot if you hadn't told me. That did not look like 10 minutes worth of fireworks.

[@AllThoughts3rased]

How to ruin a video's quality- the expensive method.

[@lukebentley5690]

AllThoughts 3rased I really hope that's a reference to his compression video.

[@AllThoughts3rased]

Luke Bentley yep

[@xthereon754]

I love the childlike joy in Tom's face 😂💜

[@whatsinadeadname]

Watching this, I thought, "If they really hooked it up to that button, this is remarkably stupid. Tom cannot afford a retake of these shots with that type of error."

[@Onio_Saiyan]

Matt's reaction was all that we needed to hear at the end to tell how good it was.

[@mazda9624]

Extremely informative video and no one should skip straight to the launch because it is very anticlimactic

[@goininXIV]

This designing for critical systems reminds me of Ecological Interface Design which I recently worked on. It's meant for exactly this kind of situation, but does it the other way around from what people usually do (and what the expert describes in the video): Instead of creating a blacklist of possible problems (if A, B or C goes wrong, we have a problem), you define a whitelist (only if D, E and F are true is the system working correctly). That way, you also catch problems that no one anticipated while building the system.

[@HansAnonymous]

2 years later, KZbin blesses us by sharing Tom's old magnificent video(s)

[@matrinoxtm]

Absolutely right. In the software industry, we learn to automate deployments because saying “a developer hit the wrong button” is like saying a pilot hit the wrong button and killed hundreds

[@cxsghcu]

Pure, unadaulterated joy. I'm so glad you included your reactions, they were even more satisfying to watch than the fireworks. That laugh really gives you a sense of what one must've felt to actually witness it in person. Love it!

[@BenS855]

Was that the mystery biscuits button?

[@delacote60]

Oh yeah

[@ShaggyMummy]

congrats on 1 million subs

[@3rdJan]

It's like that scene in Malcolm in the Middle where they set off a firework so huge it just becomes daytime for a few seconds and they're blind for two days. Great video Tom!

[@TheShadowflare1]

The ending is a literal display of boys and their explosive toys. Amazing. Wish I was there to see that!

[@BlinkWhite]

Launching mystery biscuits?

[@mikiqex]

Oh yeah.

[@derekantrican]

You deceptive bugger

[@Musikur]

I know everyone is going on about the spectacle of the fireworks, but thank you for raising the points of systemic failure vs individual error. It's something which I wish more people took notice of

[@DiMono]

Hey, congratulations on passing 1 million subscribers. Literally setting off ten minutes of fireworks in a matter of seconds is a fine way to celebrate.

[@qwertyTRiG]

And never mentioning anything to do with subscribers in the video itself is classy.

[@SmartGuy202]

To be honest, I half expected "Mystery Biscuits" to play when you hit the button.

[@serahill]

San Diego took inspiration from here

[@Joulfreunde]

"The professionals over there" ummm... just for a moment it looked as though Matt was pressing the buttons :D

[@jan_harald]

**cue ecstatic laughter**

[@protocol6]

It was kind of anticlimactic on video.

[@vinesauceobscurities]

I thought the timer was a trick, to bait us into something we don't expect. Oh boy, do I look dumb.

[@RevanXIII]

probably why they usually spread them out over several minutes.

[@ignasb]

cool edit with the timer ;)

[@Orbrun]

I wish it went off at the exact moment the timer hit 0.

[@ShonkyLegs]

Great episode. I love how you can do something like "very large explosion' and put some real valuable information in there as well.

[@TheSFMCreators]

*"Unintentional additional procedural step"* is my new favourite thing to say when messing something up

[@adrianridgway4333]

One continuous still shot of the fireworks from a hard camera would have been better.

[@DavidCruickshank]

Adrian Ridgway Totally agree, they gave you a full shot of the people but not the fireworks, the reason for the video.

[@onemansvoice9132]

@@DavidCruickshank no its not

[@IntoTheOrdinary]

I think it's time to explain how big red buttons work...

[@Spikehead777]

...or, rather, don't.

[@neilisbored2177]

They make shitty sonic games.

[@michaelgiannes]

I've done a fireworks show with a friend who is in the business. there is no better view than what the technicians get from underneath, truly spectacular.

[@luigigaminglp]

"AWESOME!" Yup that´s Matt. 10/10 would recognize again xD

[@Rcmodelgeeks]

I was kind of expecting more. I guess it's a " you had to be there" moment.

[@PieGaming87]

I think you can really get it if you look at the background when they show the shot from the alternate perspective. The whole scene is lit brighter than day.

[@brycewalburn3926]

This happened in San Diego on a much bigger scale. It sounds cool in theory, but they all go off at once and you just get a big flash of light and can't really see anything. Not too exciting.

[@LordTyrus]

And the packing days, you'll be able to see again after three days

[@sharpphilip]

I remember that! We got quite a chuckle out of it (though I’m sure there were some folks who weren’t laughing).

[@AlgorhythmKid]

Awesome. My favourite fireworks booboo, has to be called something like Big Bay Boom, or Bang. I think in San Diego on a barge just off shore. It is unreal! I love how the spectators go from, wonder to worry in a few seconds.

[@SnailSnail622]

This by far was the most iconic, probably the most hilarious thing to happen in San Diego history

[@jayorn]

Well done to who ever did the editing, can hardly see the fireworks with all those cuts and zome. Brilliant.

[@moritzschroder]

i dont know what it is about fireworks, i just cant get enough of them! whenever there is something exploding, i need to see it! 😄probably should have created a channel where i blow things up instead of the content i create now 😉

[@OsamaRaoPK]

Reminds me of Komodo 3000

[@topherglatastryuser]

Dammit, got here before me!

[@leifvejby8023]

Osama Rao me too!

[@jwrm22]

When will my eyesight return? "In about 3 weeks." Totaly worth it.

[@erikasrah5828]

MITM nioceeeeeeee

[@Aderon]

Nothing quite like Tom's candid excitement.

[@LordMarcus]

"This isn't just about fireworks." You should have mentioned the nuclear missile "this is not a drill" warning from Hawaii last month. :)

[@picvan]

It's funny, you can see everyone enjoys it in the reaction shot, but you really see the guys turn into kids.

[@EuanTodd]

Why is it when Tom is reacting to something does his mouth open exceptionally wide?

[@Beateau]

That made me way more giddy than I was expecting. Also love the Bes Isis cameo at the end on the left there.

[@punya1621]

That was impressive, the thought of human errors causing disasters. This is why I love this channel. Thought provoking sophisticated stuff simply explained

[@maddiechurchill8255]

me when someone asks me what’s wrong after a long day of holding in all my emotions

[@ikahn17]

Selling Bamboozle insurance for those in need

[@abed_3382]

My Brain: "It's just a little fart, no-one will notice..." The Fart: 3:11

[@happybe6222]

the sheer amount of joy you guys have on your faces. wonderful.

[@TheNightFalxon]

Tom Scott: “They pressed the wrong button-“ **hits the button**

[@VanessaMagick]

[distantly] "Mystery biscuiuiiits"

[@SenshiSunPower]

That button is for biscuits only.

[@easymac79]

An unintentional procedural step. I love it.

[@Ikelae]

I don't think I have ever seen Tom so happy. That expression at the end was just contagious =]

[@TAYZER_]

_how old is Tom?_

[@AChannelFrom2006]

56

[@TAYZER_]

valcarni1 don’t believe it

[@AChannelFrom2006]

he's actually 33.

[@drlogiq1494]

What Tom didn't realize at the time is that the red button starts Skynet :P

[@Turnip0739]

I love matt's "AWWWWWESOOOOMMMMEEE" I want that as a soundbyte

[@__will__bl]

This video is probably better than TV quality. It's amazing!

[@theminer3746]

DON’T PUSH THE BIG RED BUTTON!!!

[@Booskop.]

Ooh ooh ooh, what does this button do...

[@kagez6515]

3 2 1 Fi- sky: *_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA_*

[@menachemsalomon]

An old adage: "Engineers are in a race with the Universe, trying to come up with tools that are more and more foolproof, while the Universe is producing bigger and bigger fools. So far, the Universe is winning." So, while I applaud the effort and appreciate the sentiment, the goal of eradicating human error can only be the negative implication of a mathematical limit: No matter how close you get, so long as you're restricted to the finite world, you can't get there.

[@TheWolfHowling]

I was expecting Mystery Biscuits when Tom hit the button

[@Parkskigaming]

When the BTS gets more views than your actual video

[@EliteXtasy]

BTS Army FTW!

[@leopichler]

That was awesome but where is Colin Furze XD

[@kilikx1x]

When you are filled with so much joy that you just burst out laughing with no real reasonable explanation...

[@non-pe8xn]

The laughter at the end was so pure and full of joy

[@JimGroome]

5 4 3 2 1 F-

[@StubbyPhillips]

Lots of clever, fast cuts, but we don't get to see the whole event in any of them. Typical...

[@MissKoalaFace]

I can imagine how that would have felt in their chests. I love the physical boom sensation during fireworks, having them all go off at once must have been amazing.

[@ZachMangs]

i love that i could easily pick out Matt’s laughter in the crowd.

[@realmenshoot3085]

That was incredibly disappointing. Just show a wide shot. Fireworks don't need six jump cuts to look exciting.

[@NovemberOrWhatever]

watch the BTS, one wide shot would not have worked

[@purrbox7514]

I thought they did a really good job, having it zoomed in like that gives us a better idea of what they were actually seeing. Think about it, if you was there your eyes do not have a wide angle lens, you look around and focus on a small part of the action.

[@spiceweasel1145]

When I was a kid, all families on the block would chip in to buy fireworks and then we'd all go to a vacant lot and the dads would set them off. When I was very small, there was a firework spinning around, attached to a telephone pole, a Catherine wheel (?). The problem was that it wasn't attached very well. So it spun off the pole and into the box with all the rest of the fireworks. Kids cheered, mothers screamed add grabbed kids and ran away as fast as they could and we had the greatest but shortest fireworks the neighborhood had ever seen. I think that was the last time we had a neighborhood fireworks show.

[@josuelservin2409]

I certainly loved more the reaction from you guys!

[@benjamingeiger]

I was at Epcot several years ago on Independence Day. Supposedly, the engineers had scoured the warehouses looking for every shell that was left over from other shows, things that were otherwise just collecting dust. And they put them into the finale of Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. When the time came, the result was almost exactly what appears in this video... Except it lasted for several continuous minutes. It looked like daylight with a steady rumble.

[@TypicalNerds]

I like it how you did it with the people who do the New Year’s Eve fireworks at the London eye

[@ReneSchickbauer]

Nicely sneaked in a 1M subscriber fireworks in an educational video! Well done!

[@gasdive]

I wish more engineers understood this. If it's designed so it's possible to make a mistake, then people will make that mistake. The fact that 'go' and 'stop' in a car are both pedals on the floor that you push, and if you mix them up, someone dies has always shitted me to tears. But there are examples everywhere. I flew a helicopter that some genius had designed with two knobs on the dash. Pull one and the cabin got warm (heater control) pull the other and the cabin got quiet (fuel control). That's right, you could accidentally turn off the engine in a helicopter trying to turn on the heater. It was also designed so that when the passenger got out they would slide over the throttle and apply full throttle (predictably bad thing as you're trying to maintain a low hover).

[@iamfinky]

Ah, Tom! You bring me such joy! Thank you xxx

[@thedesucomplex4365]

This is scary how much I sit down and think of this applying to my own job... so many cues to hit and so many things that can go wrong

[@RyanHayes98]

Tom scott is one of the few people I watch using a satellite connection. Not the cheapest way to watch the video, but I am dedicated Xd

[@Bergerboy1000]

For the record, totally saw the false button coming. Very funny. Love your vids Tom!

[@mjallan123]

Never new a fireworks display was such an engineering endeavor, very interesting

[@route2070]

Fabulous video I work for a minor league baseball team in the US. This team has about 15 post game firework shows per year. From that I have learned a bit about the behind the scenes of the shows. This video helped fill in the gaps.

[@Carl_Thompson]

Congrats on 1 Million subs !!! Need to have some kind of fireworks to celebrate....

[@Hans5958]

Even though the red button doesn't do anything, yes, the red button is pressed and the fireworks actually launched after that when the timer runs out.

[@user-pm4nn8br8b]

fancy seeing you here, mr. black midi guy person

[@BrandonGraham]

I once heard a production manager scold an employee for sending out a part that was not yet ready for the customer. I remember hearing him responding with the very reasonable argument that delivering a part worth tens of thousands of dollars should not come down to one person. Rather, a system should have been in place that was clearly set up to prevent what had been a very common problem at that company. His words fell on deaf ears, and he eventually left the company. I learned a lot of useful information at that company. Largely from the mistakes they refused to avoid.