8 Stunt Tricks Used Over And Over In Movies | Movies Insider

In this shot from Central Intelligence, a man on a motorcycle does a backflip and then knocks the Rock's character over. But look behind the scenes and you'll see nobody was injured that day because this shot was actually two separate takes. This is a stunt trick known as a camera lock-off, and it's just one of many tried-and-true techniques Hollywood uses in films and TV shows, making even the most unimaginable stunts come to life. In this scene in Baby Driver, Ansel Elgort's character pulls into a parking spot and then runs out moments later. In reality, that's a stunt driver driving into the spot. The driver's side gets covered by this pillar, which is also hiding Elgort. So as Elgort runs out, it looks like he's the one getting out of the car in the first place. This is a trick known as a Texas switch, an in-camera effect in which the actor and their double will actually switch places midway through the action. The move involves close collaboration between the stunt crew, camera crew, and director. Whether it's a whip off of the actual actor to something to come right back to them, you can't just go focused on that person and then put another person in. And the set needs a natural hiding place for the switch to occur, like this rock that Sean Connery is hiding behind in From Russia With Love. The Texas switch isn't just for action. It's even become a comedic staple in everything from The to Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. In this scene in Elf, for example, Buddy needs to put a star on top of a very tall Christmas tree. First, Will Ferrell runs off camera. Then the double runs out and launches himself on top of the tree. Maleficent, Mistress of Evil contained many moments where Angelina Jolie had to perform dialogue in midair. So how exactly did they make it look like she was flying while allowing for her to comfortably and safely act in the scene? They used this device called a tuning fork, which consists of two prongs that lock into both sides of the performer's body. The rig is controlled by a steering wheel that is driven by stunt people in blue or green suits who are raced in post-production. Tuning forks were especially useful for the shots where Maleficent hovers in the air, and the steering wheel makes 360-degree turns possible. This was key for scenes where the Fae twist and turn in the air in Maleficent, or when Mulan performs full spins in the air in the live-action remake. You can also see it in action in Captain Marvel when Carol Danvers realizes her full potential. But the fork isn't a complete replacement for wires, which are still crucial for flight. According to stunt coordinator Monique Ganderton, wire work helped give the character more mobility in Captain Marvel and Endgame. She had two wires on her hips only because I like them to have freedom in their upper body, and then a guy in a blue suit behind just kind of puppeteer the leg up so her body can go side to side and then come back up into an upright position. In Men in Black International, a menacing alien tosses Agent H down a staircase. To achieve this violent-looking motion, filmmakers use a trick called a ratchet pull. During a ratchet pull, a performer is tied to cables powered by an air pressure cylinder, which pulls them either backwards, forwards, or upwards. The more pressure you use, the farther they'll go. In Twilight Eclipse, for example, Monique Ganderton was ratcheted 20 feet forward after a CG wolf attacked her character. Sometimes a simplified version of a ratchet pull, called a dead man, will do. Instead of tying a performer to a complex rigging system off-camera, the performer is tied to a solid stationary object in frame. What happens is when you fully commit, you run and you jump and you hit the end of that line and it just whips you back onto the ground. You can see it performed during the Battle of Wakanda in Infinity War. It gives for this violent, this really simple but violent action. The dead man can also be used to pull somebody off a horse, like you see here in this cut sequence from Chaos Walking. And when Thor gets hit by Thanos in Endgame, both a traditional ratchet pull and a dead man were actually needed, so Chris Hemsworth's double, Bobby Holland Hampton, could be pulled forward and then thrown to the ground. Getting a stunt performer to go through glass, like in this scene from The Hunt, requires a lot more force than just a person's body weight. When a character needs to jump or fall out a window, productions use tempered glass, which shatters into tiny harmless bits instead of sharp shards. But the glass itself is so strong, actors would simply bounce off it, as you can see in this gag. So in these moments, the special effects team rigs the glass with explosives, timed to go off the exact moment the performer falls through. By cracking it, you weaken the whole system. In The Hunt, the doubles were attached to a wire that pulled them backwards just as the explosives go off. Exploding glass also helped hoist stuntman Daniel Hargrave out If you look on the ground, you can see how tiny the broken glass pieces actually are. Stunt people are finding efficient ways to update this trick, too. In John Wick 2, the character is thrown through a glass sculpture. Basically, the performer just had to hit the glass and let the computerized, you know, system do its thing. They put four charges that were pressurized into the glass, so it was on a pressure system. As soon as that glass pushed against the charger, it had like a maybe like an eighth of an inch of pressure on it. So as soon as you'd push through, it would blow. This risky stunt from Central Intelligence, in which The Rock's Bob Stone is hit in the head by a motorcycle, was made possible by clever camera work and visual effects. In a trick known as a camera lock-off, two actions are shot separately from a camera that is locked into the exact same place both times. Then those two shots are combined using visual effects. First, filmmakers shot a motorcyclist doing a backflip. Then in another shot from the same angle, stunt double Tanoi Reed was pulled back on a ratchet to imitate impact. The wires were erased and the two shots layered together into a seamless whole. For moments like this, stunt people can actually get hit by cars, but lock-offs can lessen the pain of vehicular hits. Take this moment in Atomic Blonde, where Gascoigne, played by Sam Hargrave, is hit by a car and then smashed into a van in front of him. Sam was on a ratchet so he ran to his mark and we ratcheted him into the van so no car hit him and then I was driving the car and we just, same thing, lock off. I slid in as if I hit him and then they merged together and then he just turns and you see a wide shot of him getting hit and flipped into this car. In Underworld, the werewolf Lucien has to run at superhuman speed and this isn't the work of CGI or camera tricks. It's actually a practical effect called a magic carpet. For this stunt, the crew will attach a large tarp to a vehicle. The performer will start running on the smooth surface as the car drives, allowing them to run much faster than a normal human would. Underworld stunt coordinator Brad Martin had actor Michael Sheen and a stunt double run on an 80-foot tarp attached to a car, creating the appearance of running at 35 miles per hour. It was so successful that Martin used it again in Underworld Awakening. It can make just about any type of character look like they have superhuman speed. Without a magic carpet, the actors in 2001's Planet of the Apes would never look as fast as apes on all fours and it's also why Black Panther looks so fast when he runs and jumps onto the back of a car in Captain America Civil War. However, this really only works on flat surfaces like asphalt. For off-road terrain, stunt crews may use a weighted wire system attached to a winch, basically a giant spool, to physically lift and propel them. Look at the start of the Battle of Wakanda in Avengers Infinity War when Captain America sprints past his fellow Avengers, who are also running at full speed. Stunt double Daniel Hargrave was clipped into a harness and attached to wires above his head. The winch was then weighted to counteract his body weight, helping him move up and forward. With the extra help, he could run up to 24 miles per hour. I was about 50% on my feet so I still had to run and move my feet as fast as but I wasn't actually doing all the propelling myself. And it's helpful with Marvel villains as well. In The Incredible Hulk, a similar weighted system helped Emile outrun several soldiers after taking the super serum, launching actor Tim Roth to speeds ranging from 30 to 40 miles per hour. Some of Hollywood's most daring car stunts need trained stunt drivers to pull them off safely, but what if you still want to make it appear as if the actor is the one driving? A much more dynamic way to capture chases is by using a biscuit. It's a vehicle that you can put other vehicles on, so while the actors appear to be driving on camera, the real work is being done by a stunt driver sitting in a driver's pod just out of frame. But because the stunt driver isn't seen in a biscuit rig, the camera can capture way more dynamic angles. These rigs allowed the audience to see Christian Bale up close in Ford vs Ferrari and some seemingly impossible car moves in Baby Driver. In the movie Drive, they actually shot this part twice, where Ryan Gosling's character gets hit by another car. First, they shot the exteriors with two actual stunt drivers. Then they shot Gosling on the biscuit, able to mimic every move to get the inside of the car. CGI can be used to create big, safe fires, but fire is still one of the hardest elements to create with visual effects. It's easier to set a real stunt person ablaze, so how do they do it without causing any harm? Stunt performers often wear three layers of fireproof underwear, which is soaked in a flame-retardant material called Zelgel. They then add on three more layers, a rain suit, a fire suit, and a thin cotton suit. Even more Zelgel will go on any exposed skin. According to Game of Thrones stunt coordinator Rowley Erlam, timing is key for fire stunts. A stunt performer can't be fully engulfed in flames for more than 15 seconds. And you often have to account for multiple stunt actors. Over 73 performers were set on fire for the loot train attack in Game of Thrones. Full fire burns also come with acting challenges. Performers need to hold their breath while engulfed in flames in order to not breathe in any of the fire. What stunt tricks do you want to hear more about? Let us know in the comments. Daniel and I did a winch drop that was almost 600 feet together on Hunger Games. It wasn't a hard gag for us, but it's like if something goes wrong, you die because it's like 600 feet. But we had a great time. We just, for three days, we just went up and down and up.