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They prefer their actual titles: martial artists, gymnasts, precision drivers, action actors.
Its about hitting marks, reiterates David Barrett, another humble stuntman (turned director).
Ahmadi will surely forgive us for stating the truth: Stunt work began with fearless daredevils.
You dont need hundreds of stuntpeople working on the set with you anymore, says stunt coordinator Jack Gill.
When I got in the business, youd need 100 stuntpeople for a big Western or war scene.
Nowadays with CGI, you’ve got the option to create that.
you’ve got the option to bring in 30 to 40 people and create the others.
Speaking of drifting, the biggest difference stunt performers identify in their industry today is a trend toward hyper-specialization.
Everybodys gotten so much better at specific things, said David Barrett.
Everybody has a real specialty.
Now there are world-class athletes in each category.
Its still a bit unusual to be just a car person, said stunt driver Sera Trimble.
But I dont do falls.
I dont do fire.
I drive cars and put them where they need to be.
So its always rougher in a tunnel.
The scene was to have the old Camaro on two wheels.
Trying not to wreck it but also trying to steer it.
When you come off the ramp its still in a turn.
So until I get it to the balance point, Im still turning.
I think it took four tries to get it, an hour or two.
I was embarrassed that it took me that long, wasting Michael Bays time.
I was so stressed.
But the Full Twist Sidekick hadnt been done on film before.
There was this one moment where they allowed me to pull any flying kick I wanted.
During rehearsals, I really fought for the kick.
You never want to cut it up.
You want to be able to pull the camera back and show the performers actually doing what theyre doing.
Youve got the strobe lights from the high rise, so everything is more dim.
Your aerodynamics are off because your costumes a little tighter to move in.
So I wasnt nailing it the first few takes.
We just kept pushing for more and more and more until we finally nailed it.
That is the concept of the thousand takes shot.
Because on film, it lives forever.
I said theres nothing sexy or graceful about crashing a motorcycle.
Its just a hot mess.
They were, Oh, thats awesome, can you do that?
And Im like Well, Ive never done it but I think I can do it.
I feel like I can.
At the time, I wasnt really thinking of doing it.
I was just wanting to know if I could really figure it out.
I thought,I could do this on flat ground, so maybe.
Thats kind of how it started.
We brought in this thing called an air ram.
The air springs you up in the air and throws you out and away from the cliff.
In my mind, it was still pretty dangerous.
You cant miss the airbag because youre going to die.
Even if you land on a piece of the airbag, its still going kill you from 65 feet.
So I said, Okay, lets line it all up.
Are you okay with that?
I do it once and then I do it twice on flat ground, and it all works.
But the third time the air ram misfires.
It doesnt go off.
He said, Yeah, the explosions are keyed off when your foot touches that air ram.
I tried it again and the air ram misfired.
So I told the guy that owned the air ram, Im not doing this.
Lets call it off.
He said, I think I can go get you another air ram.
Now its probably 2 oclock in the morning.
I do it four times on flat ground.
It fires every single time.
I said, Okay, lets not disconnect or move anything.
Back then, we didnt have the safety.
The way we did it was the only way to do it.
The Matrix Revolutions(2003), Neo vs.
In itself, it wasnt complicated or it wasnt as dangerous as other stunts.
Things like that are difficult.
But the most difficult stuff Ive done are these gymnastic-y throw in kicks.
Youve got to rehearse it.
That was a really difficult move to do on a flat surface that was slippery.
First take, I just went flat on my back, and everyones silent.
No, Im gonna get this!
Theres a lot of pressure, because you dont want to spend too many takes doing it.
The more takes you have, the more tired you guys are.
I mean, the character didnt.
And I had to be in a short-sleeve shirt.
The stunt was to lay it down in front of an oncoming bread truck going uphill on pavement.
So you put your thumbs on the grips and its a one-two-three beat.
First, hit the back brake.
Two, you slam the motorcycle to the ground, and three you push off from it.
I knew that I was going to have my arms exposed and my head exposed.
I was paying a lot of attention when I went down that I hit those two spots!
If you hit the right spots you tear up the pads and your wardrobe.
If not, youre gonna hurt for a while.
We did it once, and I told Jan de Bont I could do a better job.
I could get it a little closer to the bread truck.
He said, Are you crazy?
We can move on.
This is my product.
That pain lasts a few days maybe.
That film clip lasts forever.
I thought that it was going to be easy.
Once we started, I understood that I had maybe oversold what could be done.
But we pulled it off.
It took three takes.
The second one was a little too overconfident, then I had to bail out on it.
But take one and take two, I got it.
It made it in the movie.
The commitment had to be there.
That one stands out not only to me, but the audience latched onto it as well.
It was one of my first big stunt jobs in a film.
Queen Latifah was in it, and I was doubling her.
It didnt fit the scene, or it didnt fit time-wise.
Sam and I go, Alright, here we go, and I jumped as far I could.
I went first and I went slamming and fell off into some boxes.
It was pretty amusing to watch two brothers just living it up, acting like kids.
Sam Hargrave, fight coordinator:We worked really closely with visual FX to design this space.
I was with them from conception to building.
Usually Ill work with the writers [on the choreography] and we do just kind of a pass.
What important character moments do we need to hit along the way?
And often times thats set out in the script already.
Then we kind of do a breakdown of that.
I really enjoy the energy of other people and the kind of creative flow, the improv.
I start with, Okay, throw a punch, just throw a punch at me.
Its always Captain America fighting Captain America.
With additional reporting from Tolly Wright.
