The Making of The Thing Part 1
The Making of The Thing" is a captivating and immersive documentary that peels back the layers of one of the most legendary and enigmatic horror films in cinematic history, John Carpenter's "The Thing" (1982).
This documentary invites viewers to journey back in time to the early 1980s, a period when practical effects and suspense-driven storytelling reigned supreme in the horror genre. Through a combination of rare archival footage, exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes materials that have remained hidden for decades, "The Making of The Thing" provides an intimate and illuminating exploration of the film's creation.
The journey begins by revisiting the origins of "The Thing" as a remake of the 1951 classic "The Thing from Another World" and the decision to take the story back to its source material, John W. Campbell Jr.'s novella "Who Goes There?" With Carpenter at the helm, the documentary delves into the director's vision of paranoia and isolation in the remote Antarctic setting.
Audiences are treated to in-depth interviews with key players, including Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, and John Carpenter himself, who share their experiences working on the film. They discuss the challenges of portraying fear and distrust among a close-knit group of characters and the intense camaraderie that developed during the shoot.
"The Making of The Thing" also delves into the groundbreaking practical effects work of Rob Bottin, whose grotesque and imaginative creature designs continue to astonish audiences to this day. The documentary explores the meticulous craftsmanship behind the film's iconic transformations and the risks taken to achieve such stunning and terrifying visuals.
As the narrative unfolds, viewers are transported behind the scenes of the film's remote set in British Columbia, where the cast and crew faced the harsh elements and the difficulties of shooting in subzero temperatures. The documentary captures the dedication and determination of everyone involved, showcasing the collaborative effort required to bring Carpenter's chilling vision to life.
The film's release and initial reception are also explored, highlighting the mixed critical reviews and the subsequent rise of "The Thing" to cult status. "The Making of The Thing" examines how the film's intricate storytelling and practical effects have continued to influence and inspire generations of horror filmmakers.
In the end, "The Making of The Thing" is a thrilling and intimate tribute to a timeless masterpiece of horror cinema. It provides an inside look at the enduring legacy of "The Thing" and its lasting impact on the genre, cementing its place in the pantheon of cinematic classics.
This documentary promises fans and cinephiles an unprecedented journey into the heart of the Antarctic terrors and creative genius that made "The Thing" a landmark in horror cinema.
This documentary invites viewers to journey back in time to the early 1980s, a period when practical effects and suspense-driven storytelling reigned supreme in the horror genre. Through a combination of rare archival footage, exclusive interviews with the cast and crew, and behind-the-scenes materials that have remained hidden for decades, "The Making of The Thing" provides an intimate and illuminating exploration of the film's creation.
The journey begins by revisiting the origins of "The Thing" as a remake of the 1951 classic "The Thing from Another World" and the decision to take the story back to its source material, John W. Campbell Jr.'s novella "Who Goes There?" With Carpenter at the helm, the documentary delves into the director's vision of paranoia and isolation in the remote Antarctic setting.
Audiences are treated to in-depth interviews with key players, including Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, and John Carpenter himself, who share their experiences working on the film. They discuss the challenges of portraying fear and distrust among a close-knit group of characters and the intense camaraderie that developed during the shoot.
"The Making of The Thing" also delves into the groundbreaking practical effects work of Rob Bottin, whose grotesque and imaginative creature designs continue to astonish audiences to this day. The documentary explores the meticulous craftsmanship behind the film's iconic transformations and the risks taken to achieve such stunning and terrifying visuals.
As the narrative unfolds, viewers are transported behind the scenes of the film's remote set in British Columbia, where the cast and crew faced the harsh elements and the difficulties of shooting in subzero temperatures. The documentary captures the dedication and determination of everyone involved, showcasing the collaborative effort required to bring Carpenter's chilling vision to life.
The film's release and initial reception are also explored, highlighting the mixed critical reviews and the subsequent rise of "The Thing" to cult status. "The Making of The Thing" examines how the film's intricate storytelling and practical effects have continued to influence and inspire generations of horror filmmakers.
In the end, "The Making of The Thing" is a thrilling and intimate tribute to a timeless masterpiece of horror cinema. It provides an inside look at the enduring legacy of "The Thing" and its lasting impact on the genre, cementing its place in the pantheon of cinematic classics.
This documentary promises fans and cinephiles an unprecedented journey into the heart of the Antarctic terrors and creative genius that made "The Thing" a landmark in horror cinema.
Transcript
00:00This is U.S. Station 31, can you read me?
00:15I found something in the ice.
00:18We need some help down here.
01:01This is U.S. Station 31, can you read me?
01:03I found something in the ice.
01:05We need some help down here.
01:07We need some help down here.
01:09We need some help down here.
01:11We need some help down here.
01:13We need some help down here.
01:15We need some help down here.
01:17We need some help down here.
01:19We need some help down here.
01:21We need some help down here.
01:23We need some help down here.
01:25We need some help down here.
01:27We need some help down here.
01:29We need some help down here.
01:31We need some help down here.
01:33We need some help down here.
01:35We need some help down here.
01:37We need some help down here.
01:39We need some help down here.
01:41We need some help down here.
01:43We need some help down here.
01:45We need some help down here.
01:47We need some help down here.
01:49We need some help down here.
01:51We need some help down here.
01:53We need some help down here.
01:55We need some help down here.
01:57We need some help down here.
01:59We need some help down here.
02:01We need some help down here.
02:03We need some help down here.
02:05We need some help down here.
02:07We need some help down here.
02:19I first became aware of a movie called,
02:21The Thing, when I saw the original film.
02:23It was 1952, and I would've been about
02:25where as you watched it it was so frightening that my popcorn flew out of
02:28my my hands in other words when they went up to the doorway and they had they
02:33had this Geiger counter he's and he they opened the door he's right there I went
02:37nuts I'm crazy then I subsequently read the the short story in high school and I
02:43realized it was a lot different than the movie what they'd done in the first film
02:47was kind of make the the James Arnest monster more like a Frankenstein
02:52creature yes he could he was a kind of a vegetable that could reproduce various
02:57life forms but he wasn't the imitator the creature that could imitate any life
03:03form from the original story the John W Campbell story who goes there was
03:08basically an Agatha Christie kind of ten little Indians you know this creature is
03:13in your midst and he's imitating either one or all of us who's human and who
03:18isn't and that that kind of an idea really fascinated me so we went in that
03:25sense back to that idea with Bill Lancaster in the screenplay John Carpenter
03:30was always our first choice Stuart had some relationship with him in school
03:36through USC film school I knew John's work I did not know him and so we had a
03:45meeting with him and he said yes yes yes and as soon as we had finished Escape
03:50from New York and it was being released I started to work on the thing and we
03:54started writing from scratch basically Bill Lancaster wrote an original
03:58screenplay and started all over again there were several drafts of Toby Hooper
04:03had done I can't remember his name now his partner had done a draft and there
04:07had been some short story treatments by various people but we started over and
04:13studio like what we were doing and proved it and off we went it was I was
04:18reminiscing the other day it was the longest prep that I've had on the movie
04:23I haven't had one as long since it was from the time I started going in an
04:28office to the time the movie was released was over a year and the
04:32business has changed so much now that they'll only give you they try to
04:35shorten your time on either end they try to make you do it really quickly that
04:39was one of the luxuries of the thing was to have that much time to work on
04:44well the short story itself was I wouldn't say it was a really great one
04:49although it's a very admired one in the science fiction realm back in the late
04:5430s and I think it was the first story to deal with this this shape-shifting
05:00body snatcher type element and all that stuff seriously that's not what 100%
05:05attracted me to the piece it was more the ambience and all the characters
05:10involved and the mood of it the enclosure elements of the paranoia the
05:16short story was to a stepping stone to take advantage of all those kinds of
05:20elements from the story and the film I love the idea of being trapped in
05:26Antarctica these people working up there for whatever reasons horrible winter
05:32freezing conditions cold and it's a monster lurking
05:46trying to talk about how to how to approach making a movie is difficult
05:51each one has its own personality what basically you start with is an idea for
05:57a director of photography you want to begin meeting production designers you
06:02want to begin the process of setting up how to make the movie and one of the big
06:07keys to me in in making the thing was discovering John Lloyd you see I had
06:13come from low-budget filmmaking and I had never really worked in a studio
06:16situation and John came along with enormous enthusiasm and knowledge and a
06:22great eye well essentially I was working for Universal Studio at the
06:27time and the thing the strip came across my desk and I said you know read it said
06:34my god this is probably one of the best science fiction films I've ever read in
06:38my life and then I heard about John Carpenter he was coming on the lot and I
06:42heard about his reputation and I made a connection with one of the production
06:47managers to talk to him and then arrange an interview and I take my
06:54drawings and things up and talk to John and ended up getting the show I met John
07:00I'm not sure what year it was but it was just before Halloween it was it was for
07:04Halloween Deborah Hill introduced us and we John decided that you know we would
07:16probably make a good team and so we worked on Halloween and that I guess
07:24was such a good experience for both of us that we began a series you know and
07:32I worked on the fog and escape from New York and then subsequently the thing and
07:47so so I guess we went through a sort of that formative period together you know
07:54the the work I did with John and pictures we did together I think we're
08:00that that period some very challenging ones for me and and also a lot of fun
08:08because they allowed us to sort of experiment and work on you know visual
08:13style basically it's a process of lining up the people to do the movie and
08:18one of the crucial decisions we had to make was on the special effects and
08:24whether or not to hire what what kind of an effects person to go with and what
08:29kind of a concept to go with and I chose Rob Boteen I saw Halloween and I
08:36instantly became a John Carpenter fan he was you know that film is just amazing
08:42amazed me and I had the the fortune of working on a picture which was a Roger
08:49Corman film Rock and Roll High School I met Dean Cundey he did an amazing job on
08:55Halloween I was also a big fan of him as a cinematographer director of photography
09:01and I begged him to introduce me to John Carpenter you know I said I got to work
09:06with this guy so I went in I met John and he was shooting the fog and I you
09:14know I said you know what do you have any creepy kind of characters that you
09:17know are in this movie I said I'd love to play it you know you got anything
09:19like the guy with a mask and Halloween or whatever as a matter of fact I did
09:23you know and actually just sort of burst in on this meeting you know and he's
09:28going who's this guy the Dean right and I'm like going I'm your big fan right
09:32and you know I asked him this question then he said stand up I thought he was
09:36gonna say and get out right you know when I was hitting him up for this this
09:40part you know and he looked at me a second he goes you got the job be there
09:45tomorrow you know you got to do this with the makeup that this so I got to
09:49work with him and I was very happy and we had a good working relationship and
09:54really had a lot of similar interests and things and he said guess what
10:00you know and I said you're kidding you're gonna remake the thing and he
10:05said yeah he said that's the idea you know he says I want you to make the
10:09thing right and I went oh my god this is fantastic you know and you know
10:16actually after I did the fog I actually did a picture called the howling and it
10:24was such a big success for me and I was about 20 years old when I did that and I
10:30think I finished up a project when I was 21 and John saw the movie you know
10:36and he called me up one day and he said you got to get in here we're doing the
10:40movie now you know we're doing the thing you know you got to get in here he came
10:44in with a wild concept which is that the thing can look like anything it doesn't
10:50look like one monster it looks like anything and out of this changing shape
10:56this imitation comes all the creatures throughout the universe that the thing
11:00has ever imitated and it uses these various forms and Rob was very daring in
11:06his approach I must say even sometimes I was doubtful as to whether he'd pull it
11:11off he goes I got an idea he goes we got a because we got a great storyboard
11:16artist on this movie named Mike Fluge right and you know and he says you
11:23should go down to the Universal Art Department meet this guy and I said
11:30you mean Mike Fluge you like that and he goes Fluge Fluge you know I mean he
11:34was really John's funny guy you know he's like on whatever he goes he's a
11:37real funny guy you know and I said yeah I go he did a lot of great comics you
11:42know this guy's like you know I'm a big fan you know cuz I'm like you know rabid
11:45comic book collector ever since I was a little boy and I said God you know Mike
11:50Fluge cool you know so he says yeah why don't you go down there and tell him
11:54what you just told me and he's what I want you to do is sit there with Mike
11:58and he goes and I want you to go through all the scenes and I want you to to to
12:02show what it is you just told me shot by shot and he says because he goes that's
12:08the only way we can do this thing right so it took a you know a couple of weeks
12:12to get all this stuff down then after we had finished the storyboard process I
12:18piled them all up you know went walking back up to you know Carpenter's office
12:23and he said let's see what you got you like that and we pinned them all up on
12:28the wall covering all of his office walls then again he looked at me and he
12:32said do you know how to do all this stuff and I said no you know so that
12:37that's what that that was really the challenge of that picture and what was
12:43great about it was that John actually did give me a great opportunity to say
12:48hey kid you know go nuts you know and use your imagination and he was so
12:54supportive during the whole process that it was just you know a real
12:59amazing thing that happened to a 22 year old. Well we started casting the thing
13:05and and realized very quickly that we had to be realistic and although there
13:10are women who work in the Antarctic and that that would be a real thing to put
13:16them in there it's more fun I think I thought at the time to make this an
13:20all-male movie simply because you wouldn't have to deal with that issue
13:24they had a girl in the a couple of women in Hawks's version and I thought maybe
13:30it would be a more of a streamlined approach in an all-male movie I hadn't
13:33seen one in a long time and I started casting with Kurt Kurt Russell wanted to
13:39play the lead and he was the kind of linchpin and then we just looked at
13:44every good actor we could find and assembled great cast. John was trying to
13:49cast the the role of Macready and we spent some time together talking about
13:56that thinking trying to think of other actors I wasn't involved with the movie
14:00and he was casting the movie and had some of the other roles cast pretty much
14:06when he was not finding what he wanted for Macready and I gave him some
14:13suggestions and we just as friends we were just talking about and then with
14:16about I guess it was about three weeks to go or a month maybe less than that he
14:21came to me said would you what would you think about playing it and so then I
14:25really read it and said yeah I thought it'd be a lot of fun at that time we
14:29were gonna try to do definitely a strictly ensemble piece where Macready
14:33was just one of the group and very slowly came out of the group to have to
14:40deal with the thing at the very end and that kind of changed slightly once we
14:44discovered that we had that you know these makeup and these wardrobe problems
14:48where everybody looked the same. I was asked to come in for another role like
14:52for the life of me I can't remember what it was
14:56and after I got there John and I were talking and we we had known each other
15:04socially a little bit and I said listen what are you thinking about Clark the
15:10dog handler he said I haven't really focused on that role yet and I said well
15:16that's the one that interests me the most and he said really and I said yeah
15:19he said why and I said I because there's something about him the fact that he's
15:24more connected to the animals than he is to the people I see him as a kind of
15:29loner sort of strange other entity in the in the group and I think he liked
15:39that in it and I like the fact also he was sort of the red herring the one that
15:44everybody thought was gonna be the carrier. And we had the whole cast
15:49together and we went over to Universal and we sat around the table the first
15:53couple of days and talked about the script and talked about what characters
15:58needed and wanted and so on and so forth and then we worked on mostly the
16:02psychological aspects of it that's what was most interesting at least the way
16:05that the script stripped of all the special effects when you first read the
16:10script I never read the monster turns here and I just look at the scene so we
16:17had a chance to work on that first and probably good because once we started
16:20shooting the technical aspects began to take predominance. It ended up being
16:25great for me because I I was the one who got to work the most with Jed the wolf
16:33dog and Clint Rowe who raised and trained Jed and I got to be good
16:41friends and and Jed and I got to be good friends he was a very spooky dog when we
16:45started because he was half wolf and half dog and and the wolf half was real
16:52dominant in him he he did everything like a wolf he would never bark he never
16:58growled but the minute he would become uncomfortable he would just so suddenly
17:04go and you just went oh wait a minute and he did that with me sometimes and
17:10you know Clint had warned me if you see you see this look on his face just
17:16relax try and relax you know he's something spooked him and you never knew
17:22what was gonna spook him he was not very experienced working around people so we
17:26had to really lock the set down whenever Jed was on the stage and because he had
17:32to do that one scene where he went through the entire room and went
17:36underneath the pool table and everything he had to go past almost everybody in
17:44the in the company so we were in rehearsals for two weeks which was it's
17:51interesting John originally I thought it was a great instinct he'd never done it
17:55before but to put this group of twelve people together and then try and figure
18:00out what the dynamics were going to be between them who didn't like who who
18:05felt who would react this way in this circumstance and we came up a lot of
18:11very interesting stuff in that process but also we took some of the control
18:17away from John in the process too because we really bonded and we got
18:24very interestingly involved with each other because of that I remember at one
18:31point in the pre-production and John Lloyd came to me and said okay here's
18:36here are our options we're gonna have to go probably up to British Columbia and
18:42shoot this on a glacier in looking for somewhere to build the the set for the
18:49Antarctic ice camp they they opted for Stewart British Columbia because it was
18:55purportedly one of the highest snowfalls areas accessible easily we scouted it I
19:03believe it was in the summer when it was still warm relatively warm and the
19:11location we had chosen on this hilltop overlooking a glacier was still
19:16essentially dirt so that they could build the camp so we were I would say
19:21six months ahead of when we would shooting when we would be shooting we
19:25were choosing a spot it was a little knoll on top of a mountain that was
19:33accessible by a one-lane road that was also used by the the mining company the
19:39mine road had only been open briefly and it was shut down after that so it was
19:44kind of a unique thing to find because you just don't drive on top of glaciers
19:48and you don't do it and here is this place and it it worked it was just right
19:53there and I the only one problem there were trees to one side so I built the
19:57set side of the set to hide that under normal shootings they wouldn't see it
20:01but I was really extremely happy with all that you know I thought it it looked
20:07right
20:15my responsibilities were the opening title sequence which involved
20:26fabrication of the miniature spaceship which was actually built by a person
20:34named Susan Turner this is a spaceship from the opening sequence of the thing
20:38used in two shots it's principally made of ABS plastic I made out of that so we
20:45could could help hold all the heat that would be generated by these hundred and
20:48forty four lights we have circulating it has a lot of brass etched pieces
20:55including the grill around the outside the vents the dome the exhaust I did
21:03that because I wanted maximum detail possible which is not possible in my
21:07opinion with styrene I like the brass it's painted with many shades of gray
21:12it's airbrush painted I by hand masking techniques there's also a light in the
21:18dome which is made of hammered brass it was actually flat when it was etched and
21:24it was hammered into shape in wood form I wanted you to be able to see the
21:30lights at a continuous intensity through the grating instead of hot little hot
21:35spots or what you usually would get with a grain of wheat light and there's
21:39infinite values of intensity and speed on this too so when we got in and saw
21:47what speed we needed to have it go out to give the right effect we would have
21:50the we would have the option of making it go making the lights go faster or
21:55slower or be brighter or duller
22:05we shot at Apogee four passes the spaceship pass the pass with the
22:18swirling lights to give it the motion which is presumably powering the ship
22:21there's another pass with a little light on the top in the dome where
22:26presumably the the creature is steering the ship and we also shot a mat pass the
22:34actual title itself when I did the effect for the title what I used when
22:40the title comes you know the spaceship flies by and and then the title comes
22:45and burns on the the way that that was done we had like a fish tank that was
22:51about I don't know four feet wide by two feet high and I put smoke in the fish
22:57tank and then on the back of the fish tank I put the title the thing I drew it
23:01on an animation cell behind that I had a piece of garbage bag plastic which I
23:06stretched over a frame and behind that I had a light which was pointed up you
23:15know through the letters and when I photographed it I hit the garbage bag
23:21plastic with a little flame you know like a match I would just light it
23:27around the garbage bag plastic and then the garbage bag plastic would open up
23:30and let the light come through the letters and that's how the letters look
23:36like they form and you know and burn on with the rays and everything it was
23:39actually a very simple process to to do and look pretty good although we went
23:46through a lot of takes one one take actually opened up forming the letters
23:52NG I delivered the spaceship to Universal to Al Whitlock shop and that's
23:59what they used to paint from I worked with with Albert Whitlock for for the
24:04first and only time I've worked with him I've been a great fan of his his work
24:08and he's a man of unique talent he does amazing amazing things with paint and
24:15brush and he did for us he created this giant flying saucer in the middle of the
24:19snow at a scale we couldn't do and he solved some lighting problems for us
24:26because painting a snowscape with the correct light on it is is not as easy as
24:32as you might think we had to do a lot of work on that but I'm extremely proud of
24:38what he did and it worked out great
24:46well the career in Universal started off really with the birds Hitchcock called me
24:54in and I introduced myself as somebody that worked with him in England and he
25:00really didn't believe it actually but after I talked to him for a while he got
25:04to realize that I knew things that were absolutely authentic and then he got
25:10interested well after that there was Tom Curtin Marnie all the films that he
25:17worked on are that he made after that I did work on because he liked doing
25:23match-ups I mean he liked doing anything like that
25:27earthquake was a very difficult movie in as much as Universal indulged in the
25:34luxury of booking films into the movie houses before they were even started so
25:41there was a 12-week schedule and there were 40 pieces of film to be done
25:47Hindenburg lasted almost a year but there were 70 odd scenes on that at the
25:56whole film was George Cotts at the end when the film was finished said it's his
26:02picture not mine well Albert Whitlock I had been on the Hindenburg because I had
26:10been kind of liaison with Albert on the Hindenburg and I knew Albert very well
26:15got along with him very well and really was I think one of the shining periods
26:23of my career that I got to watch Albert at work and watch him do all his magic
26:28all the matte paintings had a appropriate storyboard so you knew
26:32generally what you were supposed to see very often we had an element that would
26:38be a live-action element that was shot for a component of the matte painting and
26:42that would just be cut in for the appropriate length and then you would
26:44just wait until Albert delivered his work and then you just cut in his
26:51little masterpiece and away you went and and they dribbled in all the way through
26:54the making of the film. He would photograph say the bottom half of the frame out on the
27:01ice field or the top half and part of it whatever was important for the that and
27:07then take the film back to Hollywood not develop it he would store it in the
27:14refrigerator cutting off just a very small piece of it so that they could
27:19develop just that for for testing and for lineup and then painting a painting
27:26to match so it was actually an interesting process for me to go
27:31through I've worked with him subsequently a couple of times to to
27:36look at really sort of one of the Hollywood masters and how he did his
27:43particular technique. Well essentially what we did is we just built a portion
27:49of a spaceship and we planted then Albert Whitlock created this larger
27:56spaceship out of it but the big problem was getting the spaceship there we had
28:01to hook it to a helicopter and drop it and then we went to shoot the the matte
28:07shots and Albert wanted to wait till evening you know let's get the magic
28:14hour and we waited too long and the helicopter came was waiting and we
28:22waited we waited and finally Albert said it's once more and the guy said now look
28:27this is it we're leaving and so I never they all had this heavy gear and we
28:32tried to get in the helicopter I couldn't get the door shut and so
28:36regardless of that we took off I mean that was it was the end of the day and
28:40then the guy gets partway toward the camp he said my god I think I'm going
28:45to run out of fuel you know and then I say well if we run out of fuel what will
28:50happen well we'll just land he said we'll spend the night and I could
28:55imagine spending the night in this helicopter with six or eight people you
28:57know it's but we did we finally made it back and everybody was happy except the
29:04pilot he said he really we didn't realize you know really what kind of
29:08trouble we were in but again ignorance is bliss in those cases that we had to
29:14find a piece of high ground on the back lot because I didn't like working from a
29:19tower unnecessary anyway because the back lot of that time is very plain and
29:25very hilly so we found a high spot and laid the sheets out and just placed the
29:31people in the appropriate position the vital issue in making a match out work
29:36is having things standing in space if it doesn't look as though what you're
29:42painting is actually in space dimensionally in space receding from
29:47you which doesn't necessarily simply mean the dissipation of color and tone
29:52that's simple but still to get the feeling that it's this that standing in
29:58space you don't achieve that you don't achieve anything just looks like a
30:02painting remains two-dimensional that's the main thing you're aiming at clouds
30:11of course help you get that
30:22one of the things we were looking for was how to really create the feeling of
30:28of cold how to get breath from the actors mouths and we heard all the
30:32various stories that you know people in the film business had been trying up till
30:37then the lost horizon stories and so forth and we decided that refrigerating
30:43the stages was really sort of the best thing we we found out that it doesn't
30:48have to be really cold as long as the humidity is up so it was a very careful
30:52balancing act of humidifying the air spraying water overhead to bring the
30:58temperature down which happened at one of the hottest summers in in Los Angeles
31:06long time so it was very strange for us to work in this very kind of cold
31:12environment and then step outside in our park is in 102 degree heat to watch the
31:18tourists going by on the transit on the tour and have them wonder why are these
31:23people wearing this clothing and it was sweltering so more people got flu and
31:29cold and that pic they'd come out wearing their parker freezing they come
31:34out in the sweltering they take off their parker now they're hot then they
31:38go back in and put it back on it was so confusing the thing that I remember the
31:42most was all of us we got so tired of changing to go to lunch that we would
31:48just go to lunch in our complete well outfits in this brutal heat and just you
31:54know and just kind of blow it off and go well it's gonna be real hot getting over
31:58there and then I'll get there will be air-conditioned and it won't be that
32:01terrible I remember that I also remember for about three days or so I was showed
32:08up in the commissary every day with a big ugly bullet hole in my phone to eat
32:13lunch and you know when I would come in and I go you should probably put me in
32:18the corner where everybody doesn't have to look at me because it was pretty
32:22disgusting but and there were other people who showed up you know with
32:25pieces of them hanging off to go to lunch it was we were we were quite a
32:31sight on the universe a lot there the thing for me was on the thing was that
32:37the production designing of the movie was so perfect that my job was easier I
32:45could concentrate instead on the acting and telling the story and the monster
32:53that was the big job was to convince the audience that this thing is real and we
33:00might have convinced him a little too much
33:11has a great sort of strange imagination and of course is his characters
33:17likewise the creatures and so forth I was really intrigued and challenged by
33:22the fact that we would be doing some things that hadn't been done up to that
33:26point in creating these illusions we tried all kinds of things
33:32cranking the camera faster and slower and and under cranking and shooting the
33:37camera upside down so the backwards action looked somehow strange a lot of
33:44different sort of photographic techniques one of the one of the tricks
33:49with working with rubber whether it's a mask or a makeup appliance or whether
33:56it's completely fabricated creature is is lighting it carefully so that it it
34:03looks real so that there is a you don't give away the tricks the little seams
34:09and the paint and the wires and and all the things that are necessary to make it
34:13work and Rob was Rob was always very sensitive about his creatures there was
34:21whether there was too much light on them we always sort of joked that if it was
34:27up to Rob he would build the creatures to be incredibly interesting and
34:32imaginative and then not put any light on them because he was afraid of
34:37showing them so it was always a case of Rob wanting less light less light you
34:42know so we we develop techniques of little tiny spots of light and shadows
34:46and also that you you never really looked blatantly at a rubber creature I
34:51went to visit Rob on the set he wanted me to help shoot some tests that he was
34:55doing of his vibrating dog and I think when I got there there were so many five
35:02gallon pails of KY jelly all over the place that it's like my my impression of
35:09the film was gee I I never knew that you could like buy KY jelly and in you know
35:15five gallon pails and have so many of them you know in in any one place you
35:20know they they used so much of it I believe on all of on all of his
35:24creatures that that's kind of what I think of when I when I you know think of
35:29working on the film and you'd walk into their model room and you'd see what they
35:34were going to eventually come up with you know because they would model them
35:37in clay I guess before they started to work on making you and it was incredible
35:43to see and I must confess I think I spent about 10 days with them all told
35:49they molded my face and a lot of different expressions they molded my
35:54hands my legs my torso they even took photographs of my chest without a shirt
36:00on and they assigned one person to make the hair pattern match and it was so
36:05good that the day we shot the sequence of my chest exploding I was inside the
36:12examining table that my body was supposed to be lying so that my head was
36:16out it was really my head my neck my shoulders and my arms and everything
36:20else was the model and Richard Dicehart is an old pal of mine played the doctor
36:27the medical doctor came in that morning and I was already in the harness and he
36:33said put some clothes on that guy for God's sakes disgusting and he came
36:38running over and it wasn't until he was right on top of me that he realized that was fake it was so
36:43incredible when I see the picture I know what my chest hair pattern looks like
36:47from looking at myself in the mirror for 50 years I'm shocked how accurate it is
36:52and actually it was very funny because it was a one-take situation we had to
36:57make him up and blend this whole body off that had this interior mechanism that
37:01would rip open right and what happened was is of course take one goes awry you
37:08know after you know you know 10 hours of makeup right and Charlie sitting
37:12inside this box and is working on him and stuff you know the cameras are all
37:17set tweaking the lighting you know getting it all set up putting little
37:20beads of sweat on him and fixing his hair making sure the rubber doesn't look
37:24too shiny and all this stuff John says action right the thing rips open and I
37:29wanted to have like a lot of saliva flying all over the place and
37:32unfortunately what happened was is it looked like a fountain in Las Vegas it
37:37came out and it just looked like there should be showgirls dancing out of his
37:40stomach and stuff and John goes cut thank you very much mr. Bo T like that
37:47he goes what happened you know he goes that was horrible you're like that he
37:51gets it look like a fountain in Las Vegas right and and you know Charlie's
37:54going like wait a minute you know do we got to do this all over again yeah look
37:59and I go yeah Charlie really sorry and John goes wait a minute what do you mean
38:03and I go well the stomach ripped open you know we got a you know take this
38:07all apart and put a whole new one on and John goes we got to do this tonight you
38:12know I mean I'm going like oh my god you know so on the thing take two meant
38:17hours right so we had to you know clean Charlie up take him out put a whole new
38:23skin on this thing and come back and do it again and the second time we got it
38:27you know when it ripped open you know but that wasn't the end of it and it
38:31wasn't it was about 630 or 7 by the time we got the second shot I spent the
38:34entire day strapped in this harness took my back a week or two to recover but
38:39everyone was pleasant fact the worst part was everyone every two seconds
38:43somebody might say you all right Charlie all right Charlie I said just don't talk
38:47to me when we actually get to the scene or the actual shot within the sequence
38:54where you know Norris or Charlie you know has a stomach open and it's
39:01actually going to bite down on the doctor's arms you know what we did is we
39:06came in on it on a shot where you would actually see the mechanism open and we
39:12had you know the doctor you know actually put his arms in and then start
39:19to close the machine right and then we cut and what we do is is we come to a
39:24another angle right where we've actually replicated the doctor's arms
39:31perfectly making it out of jello right we made the arms out of jello we had
39:38wax bones built into the arms and we had rubber veins and gelatin veins and all
39:44this stuff so it was like you know living tissue and at this point what we
39:50did was we actually took a mold of the actor's face that was playing the
39:54doctor and what we did was we actually found the guy that had no arms those
40:00arms were actually cut off here right in an injury an industrial accident right
40:07and a very very great job guy you know this guy and we basically made a a
40:15prosthetic that actually looked exactly like the doctor included on this person's
40:22face and we glued the gelatin arms on to his arms right so we have him in
40:31there and what happens is that the stomach is actually hydraulic you know
40:34so it's made out of something that would be like you know same device that a
40:37tractor works with and can pick up you know a lot of you know weight and when
40:42this thing slams shut it actually rips right through the jello punctures the
40:47plastic veins which sends blood flying all over the place and then the you know
40:51the actor with no arms pulls his arms out and now he's just got the prosthetic
40:58damage you know on and blood shooting all over the place you know and that's a
41:04really good shot in the movie you know I mean that one was really tough to do and
41:08and very inventive you know very tough to do I would even be scared to do that
41:13again that sequence is so etched in the minds of people who see this movie
41:21everywhere I have ever been in the world someone has spoken to me about and I
41:25kid you not everywhere I've ever been I do a lot of traveling someone comes up
41:30to me on the street and speaks to me about that movie and about that sequence
41:34specifically then we actually had to start getting the the footage of his head
41:40coming off and you know obviously for this shot we couldn't use Charlie
41:44Hallihan right so he actually made like a perfect replica of this guy's head and
41:50and fully you know animated it you know with mechanical effects and whatnot you
41:58know and in it had a hydraulic ram that would actually stretch the neck out and
42:04sever the rubber at exactly a perfect point and again this was only like you
42:09could only do it in one take all right and when it when it stretches open and
42:13the skin rips what I wanted to see inside was something that was very
42:16reminiscent of like what's in a comic book whenever you see goose stretching
42:20and there was like it's really stringy stuff so we really didn't know how to
42:23make that stuff you know and there was nothing that would sort of stretch that
42:26far so what we did was we just started you know melting plastic and and getting
42:32bubblegum you know and making this crazy concoction that I'm sure was like so
42:36toxic you know it couldn't be good for you right and what we did is we right
42:41before the shot you know we had you know the whole replica of Hallihan's body and
42:45we actually had this this goo that we would pile in there really quick and and
42:50the whole time it's giving off fumes like paint thinner and lacquer thinner
42:54and all this kind of stuff and again we have effects guys buried in the little
42:59table underneath to operate this stuff and then all these guys that have
43:04rehearsed the motion of the neck coming off and everything without doing the
43:06split camera set up right everybody's going like what's that smell you know
43:12and I'm going oh it's the you know it's the stuff inside the neck you know just
43:16some nutty concoction we made that'll stretch you know bubblegum and whatnot
43:20plastic melted down it doesn't smell too good you know so I go well we better
43:25hurry up and shoot it right so the camera said everything's ready