Top 20 How Did They Shoot That?! Scenes

and you thought your job was hard welcome to watchmojo.com of cinemas most impressive sequences made possible through astonishing directing effects editing and cinematography these scenes additionally need to have a certain degree of difficulty or originality to them leaving the audience wondering how the hell did they do that number 20 the opening crawl Star Wars Episode 4 a new hope if you're gonna make an audience read you need to do it cinematically George Lucas paid homage to the opening of his favorite Flash Gordon films with the iconic opening crawl to Star Wars the scrolling text falling into a void added an epic quality to the story that allowed for all the exposition without losing any visual majesty while the effect is accomplished now thanks to software that's even permeated re-releases of the originals the effect was originally accomplished thanks to giant print plates and cleverly designed camera rigs that scrolled along the text number 19 the bridge collapse the bridge on the river kwai a classic from the pre CGI era the bridge on the river kwai works up to a crucial scene in which the bridge itself comes tumbling down rather than using models the filmmakers decided to demolish a full-scale bridge as a train comes plunging into the river below only getting one chance to shoot this pivotal not to mention expensive moment the whole picture would have basically been ruined if anything had gone wrong [Music] fortunately the flawless final product turned out to be nothing short of movie magic number 18 the centrifuge 2001 a Space Odyssey if you want to bring your viewers to the future your production needs to be out of this world when Stanley Kubrick wanted to simulate zero gravity in space on his ships giant centrifuge he built a mechanical one himself while it looks absolutely baffling to see the crew running around the giant circle and continuous shots the massive set was essentially a ferris wheel that had to be rotated along with the actors to accomplish the seamless shots by carefully coordinating the actors and crew members and even occasionally strapping in actors upside down to make it all look real Kubrick proved just how much you can accomplish with ingenuity and a dash of crazy number 17 the crazy 88 fight Kill Bill volume 1 Quentin Tarantino throws everything he has at his leading lady and the audience in this kick-ass scene you didn't think it was gonna be that easy did you yeah I kind of did confronted by an army of masked men the bride engages in a gloriously choreographed battle full of severed body parts and blood spewing everywhere as excessive as it may appear the fight never gets tiresome brilliantly shot and gushing with creative swordplay Tarantino just keeps topping himself the sequence is so overwhelming that you really need to stop and catch your breath once it's over good thing Kill Bill was split into two movies number 16 raining frogs magnolias for a biblical scene your attention to detail should be just immaculate after the emotional slow burn that fills the majority of Paul Thomas Anderson's surreal film the climactic ending goes above and beyond anything you'd expect from a standard drama after sprinkling in references to the exodus passage that mentions the frogs throughout the film Anderson brings the plague to life for a visceral and impactful ending to his film thanks to some clever effects work he mixes some practical frogs with countless CG frogs to rain down on the landscape shocking the audience as much as it shocks the characters on screen number 15 deserted London 28 days later filming a deserted city might not sound especially complex but when you consider the time and manpower needed to make a huge capitol look abandoned it is a pretty daunting task nevertheless Danny Boyle pulled it off in 28 days later placing Killian Murphy in the eerily empty streets of London [Music] with the police closing the roads at 4 a.m. and reopening them around rush hour boil only had a brief window of time each day sometimes only a couple of dozen minutes to shoot this stunning sequence but it was worth it the results certainly created a disturbing end-of-days vibe number 14 empty New York City streets Vanilla Sky well I suppose the empty Street meant loneliness if you've ever felt alone in the world this scene might hit pretty close to home in one of the many confusing sequences from Vanilla Sky Tom Cruise goes for a drive only to realize that the usually busy New York streets are unbelievably empty at 9:00 a.m. his unreal drive leads him to Times Square where he realizes something's wrong and begins to freak out as he seemingly stuck in a Twilight Zone episode like the one playing behind him [Music] most surprising however is that the scene isn't computer-enhanced director Cameron Crowe was given permission to shut down Times Square for filming on a Sunday morning to create the spooky emptiness number thirteen the Burj Khalifa Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol coffee suspending Tom Cruise outside the tallest building in the world there are so many ways this sequence from Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol could have cheated rather than relying on a green screen or hiring a stunt double what the audience sees is virtually what they got the sequences only made more thrilling when considering that's really Tom Cruise running and crawling outside the Burj Khalifa even if cables are supporting him it'll have you hanging at the edge of your seat just as cruise hangs 123 stories above Dubai number 12 bloody elevators the shining while bigger doesn't always mean better when it comes to blood in horror films the more the merrier for this haunting scene and Stanley Kubrick's take on the ghastly story from horror master Stephen King a couple of liters simply wouldn't do for the extremely red river that both Danny and Wendy Torrance encounter in the Overlook Hotel elevator Kubrick once again refused to cut corners to make it happen employing over 200 gallons of the fake blood known as Kensington gore the blood eerily flows out splashing against the walls and ominously obscuring the screen in its terrifying journey towards the camera [Music] number eleven d-day Saving Private Ryan filmed over the course of a month the Omaha Beach landing sequence from Saving Private Ryan places the audience at the center of the action through hand-held cameras although the film hasn't introduced us to any characters yet we immediately share all the anguish and panic these soldiers endure while the scene is indeed a visual marble what's truly miraculous is how Steven Spielberg bluntly immerses the audience in combat with haunting imagery that will remain forever etched in our minds never has a depiction of war felt more hellish number 10 the bear fight the revenant how do you top falling off a cliff call in the bear for Alejandro and yari to survival masterpiece he needed to make Hugh glasses physical pain feel as real as his emotional pain and the bear attack in the film's first act was all but overkill as Leonardo DiCaprio walks through the forest he encounters a mother bear that proceeds to maul him and horribly damage his body to make it look believable neither a real bear nor pure CGI would work so the crew used a blue costume stuntman to throw DiCaprio around while cleverly applied and edited injuries were added along the way for a scene you'll feel in your bones number 9 the ruined city 1917 leading up to the release of this world war 1 epic we were all ready to be blown away by the much-discussed one shot filming techniques used by Sam Mendes and his team [Music] in order to execute their concept they had to design and build a set from scratch that would facilitate the many cameras and operators moving fluidly throughout during night scenes they had to find a way to light the set and actors while still maintaining the natural aesthetic of the film so they used flares so we needed to figure out how much time the flares needed to be in the air to get the look we were after using miniature models they were able to study the paths and shadows the flares created and then used those findings to map out the roots of all camera personnel in real time [Music] honestly it couldn't have looked better number 8 the joker chase the dark night through his Dark Knight trilogy Christopher Nolan aspired to create a Gotham City that could exist in the real world his grittier approach to the franchise especially shines in this freeway chase chiefly relying on practical effects filmed on the streets of Chicago the explosive confrontation works up to an applauded worthy climax as Batman utilizes his fully functional Batpod to flip the Joker's rig and yes the filmmakers overturned an actual truck with a driver inside how will Nolan ever top this amazing set piece stay tuned to find out number 7 another day of Sun la-la-land [Music] the loudest way is often the best way to get a message across especially in a musical in the opener to Damien Chazelle love letter to classic musicals the cast sings and dances another day of Sun around an LA Highway shedding all the frustration that the city's awful traffic usually brings [Music] one woman gets out of her car to sing and the rest of the drivers soon follow dancing on top of their cars and closing the number on a hilarious mix of door slams and honks la is actually cooperative when it comes to making film including the ability to take a rap of a freeway in downtown Los Angeles and shut it down the glorious six-minute long shot was filmed by ironically shutting off part of an la freeway for two days likely causing even more traffic in the process [Music] number six one take chase extraction most one take action scenes are already impressive enough when they last four or five minutes in extraction however director Sam Hargrave took things to a whole new level stitching together 36 individual segments to create 12 straight minutes of car chases tumbles gun battles and hand-to-hand combat the Netflix film sees Chris Hemsworth eluding capture in Dhaka Bangladesh as he seeks to return the son of a big-time drug lord did you trust me most impressive of all Hargrave actually strapped himself down to the hood of a car in one of the chase scenes providing the audience with a front-row seat to the action the strapping himself to the front of the chase vehicles as risky as it gets director's chair won't be necessary number five the car chase Mad Max - the road warrior given a bigger budget for the initial sequel to Mad Max George Miller was able to go as big and over-the-top as he wanted [Music] he put the money to great use particularly in the films wildly inventive climax driving a tanker our death-defying hero is bombarded by a gang on wheels determined to spill his blood for oil with vehicles crashing vehicles Catching Fire and characters jumping between vehicles it is exhausting just thinking about how Miller got this extraordinary scene on film however he did it we are 100% grateful number four bad trip children of men hey most films can barely manage one breathtaking long take but Alfonso Cuaron seemed to have more trouble avoiding them as the gang of Runaways drives down a country road things appear hopeful despite the dark future they live in but as Raiders descend on the car with weapons things go from happy to disturbing in seconds with an armed motorcycle attacker gunning one of them down during the same extended take on top of the precise amount of coordination that was used to get each of the countless actors in the right place at the right time a massive rig was also built on the car to catch each moment from the inside number three the Titanic sinking Titanic Titanic is full of awe-inspiring moments that authentically recreate the supposedly unsinkable ships rise and demise utilizing a diverse blend of sets models green screen effects and CGI to fashion the most convincing illusion possible James Cameron leaves the audience gasping for air up until the Titanic's final moments before it's submerged below the sea with countless extras crowding around the bow and holding on for dear life as the ship breaks in half the audience is thrilled shocked heartbroken and left feeling totally insignificant compared to the film's majestic size number two the whole movie Mad Max fury road creating an awe-inspiring scene is one thing but this film left audiences with jaws open from start to finish the exploding vehicles pole swinging and harpooning I'll bring enough danger on their own so it's hard to imagine that they were done practically director George Miller and stunt coordinator guy Norris had trade motorcyclists to simultaneously drop bombs on furiosa's tanker mid-jump along with stuntmen swinging on giant pivoting poles on moving vehicles with some help from a Cirque de Soleil member construction vehicles were really blasted off a tanker and most of the crashes really happened and yes the doof warriors guitar actually works movie magic is honestly so cool I could watch documentaries about practical effects all day long and when I found out that our number one pick was actually done practically I could not believe it and in fact the entire franchise was full of impressive effects so let's take a look at some honorable mentions and then we'll cv how did they shoot that scene the smell of napalm in the morning Apocalypse Now the construction-site chase Casino Royale [Music] burning down the house backdraft strapped to a plane Mission Impossible rogue nation holy Mele Kingsman the Secret Service [Music] before we continue be sure to subscribe to our Channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos you have the option to be notified for occasional videos or all of them if you're on your phone make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications number one crashing this plane The Dark Knight Rises it would be extremely painful trapped in an airborne CIA plane there appears to be no escape for Bane of course when ac-130 shows up though the criminal mastermind puts his unthinkable getaway plan into action this for it causing the government aircraft to take a nosedive and ultimately crash to the ground this scene is truly a revolution of stunts cinematography and staging it goes to show that Christopher Nolan will never stop pushing the envelope in terms of ambitious action sequences from the corridor fight and inception to this unbelievable opening to The Dark Knight Rises do you agree with our picks check out this other recent clip from WatchMojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos

Channel: WatchMojo.com

Views: 307,795

Rating: 4.8518815 out of 5

Keywords: hardest to film, best cinematography, best long take, long take, continuous shot, behind the scenes, difficult movie scenes, cinematography, visually stunning movies, beautiful movies, beautiful films, cinematographers, star wars, 28 days later, 2001: a space odyssey, kill bill, mission impossible ghost protocol, the shining, the revenant, 1917, the dark knight, the dark knight rises, titanic, children of men, mad max: fury road, film, action, scenes, watchmojo, list, top 20

Id: 4SM-utIKlio

Length: 18min 37sec (1117 seconds)

Published: Thu May 28 2020