![]() ![]() But there are lots of little details that make this sequence great: the low camera the way the guy is suddenly knocked off his moped how the car window is open and Natascha McElhone's hair is fluttering around – they all add to the feeling of speed. ‘To shoot a sequence like this in a city like Paris, where the population don't care what a film crew is doing, is a nightmare. The Brit’s pick of sequence is the eight-minute chase in John Frankenheimer’s 1998 action-thriller Ronin. He was a stormtrooper in Star Wars, died several times in Saving Private Ryan’ s end battle, has doubled for 007, and helped oversee The Bourne Supremacy’ s breakneck Moscow car chase. Since then, he’s done stunt work on everything from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade to Tenet. ’Īn OG of the stunt world, Jim Dowdall started off as an armourer on big Hollywood war films like The Dirty Dozen and Where Eagles Dare. I feel for Yak in that moment, because I have four kids in the business and it's nerve-racking to send them off. I'm a great devotee of rehearsal but there are always happy accidents and here it's when (stuntman) Joe Canutt, Yak’s son, is fired over the front of the chariot. I grew up as a horseman – it’s what got me into the business – and I’m in awe of what (second unit directors) Bundy Marton and Yakima Canutt achieved. You couldn’t do it today – although they tried it and it didn't work. The grandeur, scale, the knowledge, how long it took to shoot… it might be the greatest second-unit shoot of all time. ‘If I could do what they did with this sequence, I’d happily retire tomorrow. ‘ It came out in 1960 when I was 14 and starting out as a jockey,’ he remembers. He's been in the business as a stuntman, second unit director and filmmaker since the ‘60s, working on historical epics (Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood ), sci-fis ( Starship Troopers ), Bond films (loads of them) and more recently, the fantasy mega-series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.įittingly, the one-time amateur jockey’s choice of action sequence is Charlton Heston's chariot race in William Wyler’s 1959 epic Ben-Hur. Or the daredevil leap from horse to tank as Harrison Ford's stunt double in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Take An American Werewolf in London, in which he helped orchestrate an improbable 24-car pile-up in Piccadilly Circus. Not only do they not make them like stunt legend Vic Armstrong anymore, they rarely make movies like the ones he made his name on. □ The 101 greatest action movies ever made And guess what? They love Jackie Chan even more than the rest of us. To celebrate their work – and kick off Time Out’ s Action Month – we asked some of the most respected, experienced stunt people in cinema, including bona fide legends like Vic Armstrong and Simon Crane, to pick a stunt or sequence that they love above all others, and give an expert’s view of how it was pulled off. There is one more thing that unites them: they’re passionate movielovers, to a man and woman, who regularly look to cinema’s past for inspiration. But one thing has stayed the same: it’s still a job for tough, daring and visually inventive people seeking new ways to keep audiences slack-jawed and on the edge of their seats. Thanks to VFX, the way action movies are made has changed radically since the madcap silent era days of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd clinging precariously to buildings. And if you sell ice packs, they’re probably your number one customers. There’s no Oscar for it and they rarely get to walk the red carpet taking the plaudits, but make no mistake, they’re the lifeblood of many of our favourite movies. Stunt professionals put their bodies, and sometimes even their lives, on the line daily to pull off the coolest action beats in massive blockbusters. ![]()
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