How Hobbs & Shaw Created Action Scenes
5 Ways Hobbs and Shaw Created Epic Action Sequences
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To up the action, the cast and crew had to come together like a family. Welcome to WatchMojo and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 5 Ways Hobbs & Shaw Created Epic Action Sequences. For this list, we’re taking a look at production details that went into making this highly entertaining “Fast & Furious” spinoff.
#5: Fight Styles Reveal Character
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Rather than bombarding the audience with expositional dialogue, director David Leitch allows the fight choreography to express who these people are. Every character has a specific fight style that matches their personality. The slick Shaw, for example, is more “focused” where the hulking Hobbs is prone to take a more “reckless” approach. Since the Shaw siblings grew up as partners in crime, they both fight in a similar fashion, using nearby objects as weapons. Hobbs’ family return to their roots for the final battle, arming themselves with traditional Samoan and homemade weapons inspired by their ancestry. The main cast members perform a fair share of their own stunts and when they aren’t exchanging quips, the actors let their fists and clubs do the talking.
#4: Practical Action
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Obviously, CGI was required to bring some of the film’s more improbable moments to life. Leitch strived to incorporate as much practical action as possible, however. This not only meant using practical vehicles for certain scenes, but also training the actors to fight. While Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, and Idris Elba all came from action-heavy backgrounds, Vanessa Kirby had a lot to learn and her hard work certainly pays off in the final product. For the third act’s big showdown against the villainous Brixton, the actors assumed that CGI rain would be added in post-production. Leitch insisted on using the real deal, however, having a rain machine installed on a stage. When it rains, it pours… especially in an action flick of this magnitude.
#3: Fight Viz (aka Stunt Viz)
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When it comes to fight sequences, the actors don’t just make moves up as they go along. Stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara and stunt choreographer Greg Rementer mapped out the movie’s fight-heavy set pieces through “fight viz,” or “stunt viz.” This “visual storyboard,” as O’Hara puts it, provides an essential stepping stone between conceiving a fight scene and making it a reality on the big screen. Once a fight sequence has been thought through, the filmmakers have something of a trial run in a stunt gym. Stunt performers fill in for the actors while adjustable boxes substitute the set. This rough session lays the groundwork for the more polished finished product.
#2: Pre-Viz
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The film’s more intimate action scenes were rehearsed in a gym, but extravagant set pieces had to be staged using previsualization, or “pre-viz” for short. The filmmakers start off by devising a series of storyboards. The sketches are then translated into a digital version that brings the action into the third dimension. So basically, it’s like producing an animated movie and then using that as a template for a live-action one. “Pre-viz” was a pivotal tool in planning the elevator sequence, the power plant escape, and that crazy climatic car chase, all of which threw logic out the window. Imagining this in your head in one thing, but you never know exactly how an action scene will play out until you’ve seen it in a computer.
#1: They Push It to the Limit
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Hey, if you’re gonna make a “Fast & Furious” movie, you’ve gotta go that extra mile. To live up to this franchise’s standards, Leitch kicked every major set piece into high gear. The filmmakers set the bar when Briton and his crew come crashing through the CIA’s windows. Producer Hiram Garcia described the ensuing elevator set piece as the movie’s “anchor,” but the movie’s subsequent chases literally took the action to new heights. Why just have a car leap out of a building when you can corkscrew it? Driving a truck off of a cliff is too simple. Let’s have a tug-of-war between the truck and a helicopter instead! Even the final punching match is slowed down to soak up every massive, over-the-top blow.
