True Lies – 1994
Well, here we go back to the Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie. Beat ‘em up, shoot ’em up, blow ‘em up. Lots of guns, lots of explosions, and a bit of comedy for good measure. The effects were certainly ones we have seen before, but there was more than your general pyrotechnics. Some of the fire was certainly computer generated, but it looked real enough. And there was some pretty fancy flying with helicopters and Harrier Jets.
First, let’s look at some of the explosions. The most memorable one was when Arnold and his wife, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, are trying to stop the trucks carrying the nuclear bombs from leaving the Florida Keys. Arnold turns a fuel tanker into a makeshift flamethrower, setting a lot of bad guys on fire. But the movie’s main villain, Aziz, one-ups him and fires a rocket launcher at him. Arnold jumps into the water as the entire dock explodes behind him. Very cool shot!
Then there was when the Harrier Jets blew up the bridge to the mainland. This was one of the coolest shots in the movie because the missiles looked so realistic! The effects were a combination of practical effects and CGI. A life-sized replica of the jet was made out of fiberglass and suspended from a crane. When the missiles hit the bridge, it was amazing! As the truck was speeding along the pavement, three missiles explode behind him, each one getting closer than the last. The fourth one hit the target, the bridge collapsed and the burning truck was launched into the air!
The fantastic stunt that followed was also really exciting. With the bridge out, Arnold is in a helicopter, chasing his wife in the following vehicle, a limousine. The driver of the truck is dead with his foot on the gas. Curtis is reaching up out of the limo’s sun-roof while Arnold, hanging down from the copter’s landing strut, reaches down and pulls her out of the speeding car, just as it careens over the edge of the destroyed bridge, and into the water.
And the film’s climax, while not in the least realistic from a logistical standpoint, looked great on the screen. The final fight between Arnold and Aziz takes place high in the air on the outer surface of a hovering Harrier Jet. In fact, the two enemies have a fist fight, Arnold flying the plane, the terrorist clinging to its side, while all the while, Arnold’s teenage daughter is straddling the jet’s nose. The mock-up of the aircraft was on a computer controlled hydraulic rig, allowing for precise movements that could be exactly replicated as many times as needed, and in different filming locations. But still, just to give the illusion of height more realism, the whole thing was mounted on the top of an actual high-rise building.
While the effects looked real enough, their farcical nature in an otherwise realistic movie sometimes had me rolling my eyes. But that’s ok. Just check your brain at the door and you’ll enjoy the film and its special effects, which were all done with James Cameron’s usual high quality.