News Culture 300 destroyed cars and 2.3 million euros for one of the most expensive action sequences in cinema history
Published on 03/31/2023 at 18:00
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At the moment we’re talking a lot about John Wick 4 and its many action scenes, including one particularly impressive car stunt. Almost 20 years to the day, it was another car sequence that made headlines.
Millions of euros for a few minutes
When Matrix Reloaded is released in France on May 15, 2023, critics blow hot and cold. For Télérama, the Wachowski sisters’ film “shoots blanks,” while Chronic’art conjures up a body of work that is “far superior to traditional blockbusters.” Nevertheless, there is one sequence that has convinced (almost) everyone: that of the Autobahn. In this scene, Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) are being pursued down a highway by the twins and agents. This sequence cost the production 2.3 million euros to set up. It required destroying 300 cars and building a freeway for filming. only that !
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A 2-kilometer road was actually built on a former runway of the Californian Naval Air Station in Alameda, USA. The street was fenced off by a 6 meter high wooden wall, which was transformed into larger than life concrete thanks to the decoration teams. what about cars They were donated by the American automaker General Motors, who donated 300 cars for the purposes of the film.
A complicated shoot
The actors have previously explained how difficult the sequence was to shoot and that the production hired “the best stuntmen in the world” to prevent accidents during filming. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Carrie-Anne Moss gave details of her stress during filming. “A passenger’s life depended on my ability to be flawless and perfect, knowing that if I allowed my mind a moment of doubt, I could hurt another person. And that’s how I went through the whole shoot… it was exhausting to think about having to keep him alive,” she said. Even today, the highway scene in Matrix Reloaded is considered one of the most spectacular in cinema history. Matrix Reloaded will (already) celebrate its 20th anniversary on May 15, 2023.
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