Whether it’s a superhero movie, a bank robbery movie, or a thrilling spy thriller, chances are the movie you’re watching this weekend shows the horrific destruction of at least a few cars. But what most of us don’t know is how much effort Hollywood and the TV studios go to make sure those vehicles are damaged exactly the way the directors want.
A new video on InsiderThe YouTube channel’s youtube channel covers some of those methods with the help of JEM FX, one of the companies that Hollywood has turned to for help in making movies like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
If you’ve seen the ten rings movie, you might remember the scene where a runaway bus in San Francisco drives over the top of a bunch of cars, including a BMW i8 and Porsche 944, with the roof of each going completely flat. But we all know from seeing real crashed cars that a car roof and pillars are pretty strong, so to get the “crushed” look the movie producers were after from the cars, JEM cut parts out of their screen pillars. The modifications were invisible from the outside, but ensured that the roof of each vehicle was immediately and completely compressed when the bus climbed over the top.
Other tricks include mounting cars with fake panels made of soft aluminum that can wrinkle on demand, either when hit, or by being pulled on the other side of the panel by a device hidden from the camera. This technique was used in Ghostbusters: Afterlife when the production team needed the body of a truck to look like it had been dented during a chase by a ghost that would later be added using CGI technology.
JEM also reveals how it partially severs engine hoods and then rams them so that the hood in front of the windshield can crack when the car hits a wall or another car, and even how it welded giant wheels to the side of a shipping container to keep it from moving. looks like it’s tumbling down a road.
You could argue that knowing some of these movie hacks does spoil the magic a bit, but if you’re like us and love exploring what goes into making stunt scenes, just as much as you want the end result. see, this video is definitely worth watching.