Snake Eyes G.I. Joe Origins (2021) Behind The Scenes

Samuel Fly

Behind the Scenes Compilation from the movie Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021).  Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (or simply Snake Eyes) is a 2021 American superhero film loosely based on Hasbro's G.I. Joe toy line character Snake Eyes. It is the third instalment in the G.I. Joe film series. The film is directed by Robert Schwentke from a screenplay by Evan Spiliotopoulos, Joe Shrapnel, and Anna Waterhouse. It serves as an origin story for the title character, while also being a reboot of the film series. The film stars Henry Golding as Snake Eyes, with Andrew Koji, Úrsula Corberó, Samara Weaving, and Iko Uwais in supporting roles.  The project was first announced in May 2018, with Golding being cast in the title role in August 2019 and the rest of the cast joining in subsequent months. After initial filming took place in Vancouver and Japan from October 2019 to February 2020, reshoots took place in March 2021. Snake Eyes was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on July 23, 2021. The film received negative reviews from critics and only grossed $40 million worldwide against an $88–110 million budget.

Transcript

00:00In the beginning of this movie, it's felt as though he's making some really bad decisions.

00:11He's making some extremely bad choices, and he's got his own agenda as his guiding star,

00:17which we find out isn't exactly the best thing.

00:22And through his journey, through being with Arashikage, he realizes that there's so much

00:28more than just his well-being, that he has to look after others.

00:33And when he's a part of a family, there's responsibilities to protect that.

00:37And so he becomes the Snake Eyes that he wants to be.

00:43In the beginning of the film, they see each other as brothers.

00:46They're so close, they're almost blood brothers.

00:49But there are things that are tearing Snake Eyes apart, that the relationship is under

00:55a guise of trying to get close and fulfilling this mission that he has, which he believes

01:00will change and bring vengeance for his father.

01:04But in essence, he's turning against the only family that has ever accepted him, and that

01:08is the Arashikage.

01:11The imagery itself is just very yin and yang.

01:13Deeper than that, I think it's quite familiar, like a brotherhood bond, and these two brothers

01:17who can't seem to be on the same page.

01:20And I think who Snake Eyes eventually becomes, a very vow of silence, monastic monk.

01:24And then you've got Tommy on the other side, who was born into it, and feels entitled to

01:29it.

01:30And because of that, there's an arrogance to that, and there's an immaturity there.

01:32Whereas the Snake Eyes is from a more humble background.

01:35For Tommy, for Storm Shadow, there's a real imbalance.

01:40He has the weight of the clan on his shoulders, and so much expectation.

01:46But he feels as though without the right access to the power, it's all meaningless.

01:52So he gets power hungry.

01:54And that takes him on another path, which in turn collides with what Snake Eyes is trying

02:00to achieve.

02:01And they're adults.

02:02They understand that they are still brothers, but they just can't come to terms with it.

02:13In everything, in all the action scenes that we're doing in this movie, we basically have

02:16fought to try and find ways to have the action scenes be character beats, to have a narrative

02:22contents.

02:23And we have this big, exciting car chase that takes place from Tokyo to the Arashikage Castle.

02:29But the best part of the whole journey is that we're really establishing the character

02:34of Snake and Tommy, and why they came to have the bad blood that they have.

02:41Well, Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are the brother fantasy, and the loyalty fantasy,

02:50and all that rolled into one.

02:53There's always this illusion between Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes that they had this past,

02:57and they were brothers in some way.

02:59And you've seen snippets of it in other films, and there's a lot of different cartoons and

03:03different comic books and things about it.

03:04But this really fleshes it out.

03:06And it was so cool to see that.

03:07It was so cool to be like, oh, I get it.

03:10It has this incredible twist where it's sort of like, who's the good guy?

03:13Who's the bad guy?

03:15Our hero is not necessarily all that heroic.

03:20There's a huge section in this film which is a big fight on a car carrier.

03:25So breaking it down, we had a lot of prep with little mini cars.

03:29We made our own streets and stuff like that, really blocked it out, the process.

03:34We first started, it was really big, and then we kind of tuned it down and tightened it

03:37up to make for a more action-packed feeling.

03:41And within the sequence, we're also jumping back to a massive sequence that's happening

03:44at the castle.

03:45And the most important thing for us is that this doesn't come out of a computer, or it's

03:50not something that we feel that it's fake.

03:52So even though this is a very big and challenging sequence, I mean, everything, it's all moving

03:57cars.

03:58We have a fight that takes place on a moving car carrier.

04:00So we're actually out here figuring out how we're going to smash a car into a motorcycle

04:07and have a stunt player actually do, perform as many of these things as we can for real.

04:13So we've got a little stretch of road that we've got here, and we're driving back and

04:16forth on it with all these Yakuza SUVs that are attacking Snake, and he's jumping from

04:21his bike on top of their SUVs, and then that smashes him into a car carrier, and then there's

04:25a fight that takes place on the car carrier, and all these different exciting things happen.

04:28And we're doing them all for real.

04:29I mean, there are certain things just for safety that we're going to take onto the stage,

04:33but for the most part, we've been able to, in a series of locations, actually shoot all

04:38of these things for real, all of our crashes, all of our big stunts out here on location

04:43practically.

04:45So we're out here tonight.

04:47We're shooting on an airstrip that we've converted into a freeway.

04:52We have an amazing light setup.

04:54We have a huge car carrier, and we have Hyundais that we are using, which are the perfect vehicles

05:00for this sequence.

05:01And they do all kinds of great, fantastic action.

05:04You know, it can take a few weeks to shoot an action sequence like this, because there

05:09are a lot of vehicles involved.

05:10Obviously, things need to be safe.

05:12It takes a lot of time to set up the different shots, and you want to get it perfect.

05:17So we're very, very thorough.

05:19They rehearse everything, and then when they shoot it for eight or nine hours a night,

05:24and we do that over a week, and then we do additional stuff on a stage to sort of enhance

05:28the sequence.

05:29We made sure we had Jeremy Fry, who was in charge of really lining up the whole dance

05:35with all the cars, who is just incredible at it.

05:38I mean, he's like a genius at it.

05:39And just making sure that at all times, everyone knew where they were going.

05:45Everyone knew what marks they were hitting at 60, 70 miles an hour.

05:48Let's go to our far mark.

05:49Let's get the speed up on this one.

05:51So we've got a car chase.

05:53One cool thing about it is we actually are getting to utilize several different vehicles,

05:57and they've proven to be really beneficial.

06:02Shockingly, we've dropped one of them off the top deck of a car carrier, Sonata, the

06:06inline.

06:07And the first time we did it, it expectedly conked out, which I figured was the least

06:12what happened.

06:13So we fully expected that tonight.

06:14That was at a rehearsal.

06:15Tonight, when we dropped it off, it just kept going.

06:17So we got more than one take out of it, but the car chase is going well.

06:38Takahiro has, you know, Kenta, the character, has this way of command of everyone around

06:45him, physically and mentally, without doing anything.

06:49It exudes out of Kenta.

06:51And it's like, well, how do you do that?

06:53And then we got Tak, and he is 100% that.

06:57It's incredible.

06:58That jewel, pretty much the holder of it, destroys anything that comes near him.

07:05So using that, I'm going back to the Irohashikage castle to let them know that I'm strong.

07:14It's funny.

07:15As soon as you yell cut, he's like, hey, how you doing?

07:17It's really just lovely kind of outgoing guy, which is pretty amazing, because the character

07:23of Kenta is so not like how he is.

07:25He really is just a very, very nice guy.

07:27So to be able to click into that and to do it so perfectly is amazing.

07:32You know, Kenta thinks he's using Cobra to get the jewel, but Cobra is also using me

07:39to get to the Irohashikage.

07:41So there's a lot of betrayal and backstabbing.

07:45The thing we're setting up for right now, it's when Snake Eyes jumps down into the pit

07:49and it drags Kenta down in with him.

07:52And, you know, we're dragging Takahiro across this big set and dropping him over the edge

07:56of this cliff for real.

07:58So we just put the camera right on his face and, you know.

08:02My last fight with Henry, we shot like in the first week, but the forest was great.

08:07And, you know, fight sequence was, you know, we practice, practice.

08:11And it's just coming together at the end.

08:13It was just like, it was good.

08:16Snake Eyes

08:23This is the first piece of material that Snake Eyes really owns and truly owns

08:29that somebody's given to him, placed under his protection as such,

08:33when it becomes almost a second arm or a third arm.

08:36And putting on the suit just to finish off the whole look was crazy.

08:41It was unbelievable.

08:42You cannot but feel like a superhero, like some badass, like ninja

08:48that will just destroy anything in his way.

08:52And so walking around the set for the first time, I think everybody was just like...

08:59You know, you're working on this movie where ultimately you see him in his armor

09:05right at the end.

09:07And it makes the journey to become Snake Eyes worth it.

09:11Because everybody knows what the suit is, but everybody doesn't know and understand

09:15the sacrifice that that individual had to come across or overcome

09:20to be that guy in the suit.

09:42Snake Eyes

09:44Snake Eyes was famously known as the silent ninja.

09:48He always had kind of a mysterious past.

09:50So no one could quite put a finger or a pulse on what his intentions were

09:56or like whose side he was on.

09:58I think for me, the real draw to Snake Eyes was the fact that

10:03we weren't going from a very traditional standpoint.

10:08I'm Andrew Koji and I'm playing Tommy, whose full name is Tommy Saburo Arashikage.

10:14This is before he becomes Storm Shadow, as most people know him to be.

10:21Tommy is the next in line to lead the Arashikage.

10:25You know, one moment they're fighting together.

10:27One moment they're fighting against each other.

10:29One minute they hate each other.

10:30One minute they're brothers.

10:31So it was so important for us to get that relationship right in this movie.

10:35Not only is it telling some of Snake Eyes' past history and motivations,

10:41but it's also allowing us a peek into why that relationship is so strong

10:47and why it's lasted all of these years so contentiously.

10:51Akiko is our chief of security.

10:55We value her advice, but we don't have to take it.

11:00Akiko is one of the new characters that are being introduced to the story.

11:04She's played by Haruka Abe.

11:06She's this very tough, capable fighter,

11:10but at the same time she has a certain vulnerability that she buries deep down.

11:15It was interesting to try to figure out a younger woman's place in a martial arts clan's world.

11:22She wasn't born into the clan.

11:24She was taken in by the Arashikage as a child.

11:29She's very wary of this stranger being welcomed into her clan

11:34and she's so protective over Tommy and the rest of the Arashikage

11:39that she suspects Snake Eyes of something.

11:42Even allowing him this much access is reckless.

11:45I vouch for him.

11:46With respect, Tommy-san.

11:48The security of the clan means everything to her,

11:50but at the same time she's kind of intrigued by him.

11:54And of course there's an attraction between the two,

11:56in part because they are the only two that are not born to the Arashikage.

12:00Akiko butts heads with Tommy quite a lot because they both care about the clan a lot,

12:05but sometimes their approach is slightly different.

12:08But basically Tommy's like her brother who keeps putting her down

12:12because Akiko's not from the clan and that's her big chip on her shoulder.

12:16I've been keeping tabs on an old friend of mine who just landed in Japan.

12:20Her name is Anna DeCobre, a.k.a. Baroness.

12:23Scarlet is one of the Joes.

12:26She's in most of the original G.I. Joe comics.

12:31She kind of comes in and out.

12:32Well, Scarlet, I just pretty much based on my wife.

12:35Not physical characteristics, but her personality.

12:39Very practical, pragmatic.

12:42Gets things done.

12:43Takes no guff.

12:49Scarlet, I mean, she's just a badass.

12:51She just is a problem solver, and she has the answers,

12:55and when she doesn't, she's not too proud to ask for help.

12:59She is caring and maternal, but tough, and I look up to her.

13:06Scarlet has always been a character, I think, a little bit ahead of the time

13:10in terms of how female characters were presented.

13:13She's the head of intelligence.

13:14She's also really good at violence.

13:17I think that's one of the things that's very appealing to her.

13:19She seems very mom and apple pie, and she can kick ass.

13:22What is she doing here?

13:24Let's just say our goals are temporarily aligned.

13:29Just for tonight.

13:31The Baroness and Scarlet were good friends at one point.

13:38They were students studying together when they were, like, 17 years old in Europe.

13:44They were very, very close friends.

13:46But then they had very different philosophies.

13:52So after that, they are not in the same team.

13:55To me, the Baroness has always been the great villain, frankly.

13:58I find her my favorite villain of the G.I. Joe universe.

14:01She's badass. She's classy. She's vicious.

14:05She's got a lot going on.

14:07She's very powerful.

14:09She's the co-birth leader, which, in short, is she's a badass.

14:17She plays one of the two villains of the movie.

14:22In some ways, the more responsible of the two villains.

14:25You will never be one of them.

14:27Your path was already chosen.

14:30Kenta is the Yakuza's leader.

14:33He's selfish. He's a selfish man.

14:35He's capable of anything.

14:37The Kenta is looking any possible way to exploit the Yakuza.

14:43He's looking any possible way to sneak into the Arashikage.

14:48And then in the earlier scenes, Kenta finds Snake Eyes.

14:53He's in a street fight.

14:55He has that anger in him.

14:57And so Kenta sees that.

14:59He picks him out of the crowd.

15:02There is a component of wanting power,

15:05but it really has to do with, in a way, his inner insecurity.

15:09So that's what's so interesting about him.

15:11It is the dream cast for this movie.

15:13The cast has been, in some ways, I would say the biggest surprise

15:17because they've all brought their A-game,

15:19and they've gone above and beyond what we sort of dreamed of.

15:25Not me, that guy.

15:41ARASHIKAGE

15:58The Arashikage are a clan of people from Japan

16:02that are very traditional in some aspects,

16:05but extremely futuristic in others.

16:08They are a clan that protects the world

16:10from these unseen dangers,

16:12and they have done so for millennia.

16:15I didn't really have a handle on Snake Eyes

16:19until they introduced Storm Shadow.

16:22So I had to establish this relationship

16:25between the two characters.

16:27So in the very first time that they meet,

16:30in issue number 21,

16:32they're fighting and both of their sleeves get torn.

16:35So I thought, I'll give them the same tattoo.

16:38So I chose hexagram 63 of the I Ching,

16:42which is the ancient Chinese Book of Changes.

16:45It was a hexagram that was like alternating broken and solid lines.

16:49And I decided, OK, it's the sigil of a ninja clan.

16:53So when we were looking at the Arashikage and who they were,

16:56we had to come up with a backstory,

16:58and we wanted them to be an ancient clan,

17:00predating basically the Shogun.

17:02So one of the things that we did with this

17:04was we tried to focus on the Arashikage clan

17:06being very concerned with lineage and ancestry.

17:10And it's one of the conflicts in the film

17:13because you have a clan that has been protectors of Japan historically,

17:17but then they also need to modernize for the times.

17:20The Arashikage clan works with the Joes

17:23on matters of global security.

17:25Their lot is to protect the world,

17:27but even within them, there are some struggles.

17:30Snake Eyes at the beginning of the film

17:32meets Tommy, who brings him to the Arashikage clan

17:37with the hope that he will become part of the clan.

17:40And Snake Eyes has to go through several challenges

17:44in order to be accepted into the clan.

17:47Tommy is the second-in-command of the Arashikage clan.

17:52He's the grandson of Sen, who's the head of Arashikage.

17:57So he's basically the born prince of the clan.

18:00I have given my life to this clan!

18:05It is my blood right!

18:09Tommy is an heir to the Arashikage.

18:13I think he's got that thing that he deserves a throne.

18:17For 600 years, our ninja have been trained

18:21by the greatest warriors the world has ever known,

18:25Hardmaster.

18:27Hardmaster and Snake Eyes,

18:29his relationship is a contentious one.

18:31He really doesn't believe Snake Eyes

18:33to be deserved of being in the Arashikage.

18:37Hardmaster, he's really tough.

18:40He's really vicious.

18:41Hardmaster's a little bit more of a tougher teacher in this one,

18:45and Blindmaster imparts a little bit of philosophy,

18:48a little bit of a gentler nudge in training, let's say.

18:51He has developed these ninja skills

18:53despite the impediment, or the apparent impediment,

18:56of being blind,

18:57and he has a certain amount of sage wisdom to impart,

19:00which is part of his tutorship.

19:02So they're like the two masters who trains all the ninjas.

19:06They're the ultimate fighters.

19:08The Japanese government really worked closely with us

19:11to allow us to film in 1,000-year-old temples

19:14and Himeji Castle being one of the greatest locations.

19:17So it gave us license to be really authentic.

19:21And because Japan plays such an integral role within the clan,

19:25it was so important to get that right.

19:27When you go to Japan,

19:28there's definitely a feeling of respect

19:30and kind of culture there, and I think we all felt that.

19:33We didn't want to try to fake it all.

19:35In order for the Arashikage clan to have a home

19:40and to have an architectural heart

19:41and for us to be faithful to both the culture

19:44and the architecture of Japan, we needed to be in real places.

19:47What we wanted to design is this beautiful, magical,

19:50old, dilapidated water mill that actually reveals itself

19:53to be the Arashikage Shrine of the Ancestors.

19:55So as you open up the doors, there's 1,000 lanterns inside

19:59for all of the Arashikage members who've passed.

20:01It's an interesting thing to try to create an environment

20:04that's very striking, that's memorable,

20:06that in some ways can be as memorable as this

20:10because of the action that's happening in it.

20:12So it's a wonderful opportunity for a sword fight

20:15that is, in fact, the most intimate of the film.

20:19I'm David Dowling. I'm the prop master on Snake Eyes.

20:22I have a couple of the stunt swords that we made for the film.

20:26This is Snake Eyes' sword, the Morning Light.

20:29Tommy presents it to him when he's wandering the grounds of the castle.

20:33It needed to be something that was a very traditional-looking sword.

20:37We went with a little bit more contemporary look for it

20:40because it sort of fit with the next generation of the Arashikage,

20:44so it seemed to make sense.

20:46One of the biggest challenges was to make a stunt-friendly,

20:50curved rubber sword.

20:52We did lots of research regarding getting something that would satisfy

20:55Kenji, our Japanese stunt-slash-fight coordinator.

20:57He had some samples that he had brought over from Japan that were excellent,

21:01so we took some of the ideas of those swords and made our own.

21:11Kenji is a legend.

21:13The speed that Kenji and his team have is amazing.

21:17It blew me away, just their sword work and how fast they are.

21:20It's insane.

21:21My name is Kenji Tanigaki.

21:23My job is I belong to the stunt department.

21:26First mutual understanding with Robert is Tommy must be very skillful

21:30because he trained in Arashikage for many years.

21:34And Snake doesn't have to be very skillful,

21:37but he knows because he's coming from the street.

21:39The type of training that we actually went through

21:42was predominantly focused on the choreography

21:45because through the fighting and the martial arts, your body changes.

21:50First I had to do the basic movements, quite traditional stuff.

21:53It's called Tachi Morari.

21:54It was finding the movement, the psychology to how we would fight.

21:57And Kenji Tanigaki, who's a genius-level sword choreographer,

22:00he thinks of it on the spot.

22:02Kenji, he's just so enthusiastic and so creative.

22:05So in a way, it's not just great action, which is not easy to do,

22:11but the process of it has really given us, I think, a lot of flavor to the action.

22:16It is also going to establish, I think in a way,

22:20the real quality of what is the Arashikage.

22:24I always sort of loved the idea that Snake Eyes went to Japan

22:30to train with Arashikage, with Storm Shadow,

22:33and he learns the way of the Arashikage, and it changes his life.

22:37It gives him a momentum and it gives him a purpose.

22:40If there wasn't an Arashikage clan, there wouldn't be a Snake Eyes.

22:55For the samurai, a sword was not merely a weapon,

23:00but an extension of their soul.

23:04Every great warrior demands an equally great weapon.

23:09And for a hero as courageous as Snake Eyes, no ordinary blade will do.

23:16His destiny is to carry the sword known as Morning Light,

23:21the honor sword of the Arashikage clan.

23:25The story of Morning Light can be traced back nearly 500 years

23:29to the day Emperor Gonara bestowed the Jewel of the Sun upon Arashikage,

23:34his most faithful and decorated general.

23:37General Arashikage knew he must protect the jewel at all costs,

23:41and he knew he could not do it alone.

23:44He would need a weapon.

23:46One forged with pride by Onihashi, the greatest bladesmith of his age.

23:51And he would need a clan.

23:55In the years and decades to come,

23:57many adversaries tried to steal the Jewel of the Sun.

24:04And the Arashikage struck them down, one by one.

24:09Eventually, the Arashikage grew beyond protecting the jewel.

24:13They took to the battlefield with Morning Light

24:16to defend against Oda Nobunaga and his Shogunate forces.

24:20As he set out to crush all ninja clans and bring the nation into his grasp,

24:26the honor sword was crucial in defending the Arashikage against the Omikana clan,

24:31fierce rivals who threatened the Arashikage's very existence.

24:35Morning Light was passed down from generation to generation

24:39as a mark of honor and a sign of respect.

24:41Arashikage leaders wielded the sword in battle

24:44or bestowed it upon their strongest warriors.

24:46And Morning Light's legend grew.

24:48Generation after generation, the myth of the sword spread.

24:52But still, its journey was not done.

24:59Guardians of the Jewel, warriors of the feudal age,

25:02shadowy assassins of the Meiji period.

25:05The Arashikage fulfilled all these roles with nobility,

25:09with honor, with Morning Light.

25:13For 30 generations, this tradition carried on

25:17Every time when the Morning Light's bearer faded or fell,

25:21a new Arashikage ninja stepped up to take its place,

25:25carrying Morning Light into a new battle, a new mission.

25:28And Morning Light brought honor to all these warriors.

25:31But all the while, its final destiny was yet to arrive.

25:37Morning Light's destiny seemed fulfilled in the hands of Snake Eyes.

25:42War is it.

25:44Hello, brother. I believe you have something that belongs to me.

27:36No!

28:06No!

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