Dominoes are pretty cool. I have no idea how to play the game and I don’t understand why the dominoes have different numbers of dots on them. I do know that when they are lined up and made to fall one on top of the other, they look great. For years people have been knocking dominoes one on top of the other and doing it in more and more interesting ways. In 2015 there was an incredible event in Germany that has yet to be matched, where an insane number of dominoes fell and records were broken.
Mittelstufenhalle hall in Nidda is where the amazing record took place. 700 spectators came to witness what was hopefully going to be a world record-breaking display of domino magic. In the end, a number of records were broken but more than that the creativity on display led this event to become known as the greatest domino spectacle to ever take place and for the ten-minute video to go viral.
The video starts with a visibly nervous Rainer Lapp approaching the first domino. Lapp works for the main sponsors and was given the opportunity to pus the first domino. While there was little he could do wrong it was still a nervy moment. To the crowd’s surprise Lapp didn’t bend down to hit the first domino, instead, he reached up. The domino team had organized the first 200 dominos to be stuck to the roof and that when they fell it would appear as if they fell in anti-gravity motion. I don’t understand how they did it but it looked excellent. Then tragedy struck.
The final piece of the anti-gravity line that was due to fall to hit the first domino of the normal line missed the marker. There was a disconnect. The audience exclaimed with disappointment but the organizers soon had a plan. If the rest of the domino line would fall without any issues they would still achieve all their records – just with 200 fewer dominoes than originally planned. Lapp approached the new first domino, pushed it, and the wave began.
From here the precision of the time really shined through. There were no more upsets, no more dramas the pieces trickled down as they were meant to. In one amazing moment, a member of the domino team lined up a number of cereal boxes. Had he put these in the wrong positions it all could have been over. This live moment worked perfectly though and a single domino knocked over a cereal box causing a cascade of boxes until it reached the next domino.
There were some amazing moments in the domino fall. The falls created pictures of steve Jobs, art, Hawaii, and more. In one clever moment, the picture went from a shopping list to a shopping list with ticks in each box again showcasing the creative skills of the team. The talents were not just on the floor either. Entire vertical pyramids of blocks fell and were incredible to watch. One of the most interesting moments was when the dominoes continued to fall despite going underwater.
The team really played with every medium possible and achieved amazing results with their dominoes. They ended up with three world records and one german record as a result. On that faithful day, they recorded the record for the “Most dominoes felled underwater”, “Largest 2D domino pyramid” and the “Largest domino picture”. It also became the German record for the most dominoes toppled in a chain reaction at 537,934 dominoes surpassing the record of 472,209 a year earlier. It was an incredible moment and it is fantastic to know that it is forever immortalized on video.
