Animation of the SL F-15 breakup

[AdlerDriver]

Nice to see him up and about.

Maybe a dumb question, but in the computer animation, the landing gear lowers. Why?

The emergency gear handle is operated via cable. Normally it removes hydraulic pressure from the gear and releases the uplocks so it will free fall into the down position.

As the cockpit area separated from the fuselage, the cable was pulled and severed resulting in the gear lowering.