True Lies VFX review

Movie -  True Lies
released - 1994
Director - James Cameron
Cinematography - Russel Carpenter
VFX - Digital Domain 
Miniature explosions : Joe Viskocil

True lies is a james cameron directed 1994 movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Arnold, Art Malik, Tia Carrere, Bill Paxton, Eliza Dushku, Grant Heslov and Charlton Heston. Harry is a special task force operative under cover who leads a double life as a computer salesman at home.

This Movies Main action sequences use explosions, Harrier jet stunts & mid air fights which were very realistically done! lets have a look at how these effects were pulled off.

Climax of the movie had helicopter chase scenes, & harrier jet mid air hovering sequences while actors fought on the wings & cockpit. to achieve these John Bruno & his team from Digital domain were summoned. To achieve what james cameron wanted as the final result, it had to be a mix of practical effects & CGI.

A 47 foot replica of a harrier jet was made with fibre glass material & fixed to a metal frame. then the  setup was mounted on a motion control platform. the platform simulated the moves of the jet it could turn a 60 degree angle in any direction.

The harrier jets motion control system was controlled by computers. Computers controlled the hydraulic base which weighed 20,000 pounds which had the 7000 pound jet replica mounted on it. To add realism james cameron opted to move out of the safety of the sound stage & moved the whole setup on top of a 30 story building!

Because the jet was controlled by a computer, a sequence of moves can be programmed & repeated the same way over n over again, which gave the director freedom to focus on the actors & there emotions. all the parallel  up looking shots of the jet sequence were shot on this motion controlled stage.

GreenScreen effects came in to play when the more reisky actions involved, this shot shows the terrorist Aziz jumping on to the harrier jet, which was added later & then cuts to a parallel shot of him sliding on the plane.

Though the parallel & up looking shots were possible on top of the set, other shots required the use of the green screen which helped more control for the VFX artists. so the motion controlled setup was moved to a airforce hanger which served as the green screen setup.

The plus side of having a computer driven motion control system is that you get the same movements where ever you set it up. 

once the onset work was over, the VFX artists started adding the backplates, hovering jet engine fume effects to the shots. the hovering jet engines hot air effects were simulated & added to the moving & rotating jet which is seen very realistic in the movie.

John bruno who worked with james cameron in movies such as Abyss, had to pull wizardry on air this time around compared to the underwater shots of Abyss.