It was the year’s best big-budget smashup: Dark Knight special effects supervisor Chris Corbould explains how his crew sent a 50-foot semi truck end over end for the first time in film history.
The Planning
Director Christopher Nolan doesn’t favor blue screens. If it can happen live he’ll always have it that way. The mechanics that went into making this work were huge, and I had my doubts whether it could be done. But I just let it go, in case it got written out of the script and I wouldn’t have to admit that I was worried about it.
The Power
We put together a nitrogen ram — a huge piston built into the box trailer that fires down and pushes the truck into the air. The downward force of that ram was more than 120 tons. I heard the piston go, and then there was silence as it arced over. It went up in the air so gracefully.
The Precision
A stunt guy was driving the truck at about 22 mph when it flipped, so the cab had a lot of steel in it to protect him, and, being a box truck, the box area acted as a cushion. The trailer was locked off, and it had just enough steering to keep it going in a straight line. That’s the one thing I lost sleep over — was it deviating.
The Payoff
One noise I was hoping not to hear was a bunch
of smashing glass. If the truck had fallen sideways even a little bit we could have done some material damage [to LaSalle Street in Chicago]. It never deviated even one degree. It was quite spectacular, and there was a huge round of applause.
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