In creating ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias,’ J.J. Abrams has already invented his personal visual style: because the action derives organically from Abrams’s very human characters, he chooses a natural, realistic, and gritty approach over stylized, slow-motion, and highly edited fighting sequences.
Legendary action director Vic Armstrong was charged with realizing J.J. Abrams’s signature action style on the big screen in “Mission: Impossible III.”
“All the initial discussions I had with J.J. were about the style,” stresses Armstrong. “J.J. wanted to put his own stamp on the action sequences; my job as an action director is to copy the style of the director. You need a seamless transition between the action and the rest of the film – it’s all part of the same world. Once we had established that, I started looking at the action in the movie and what had to be achieved.”
In order to work out the complicated action shots and sequences, Abrams made full use of the pre‐visualization capabilities at his disposal. Previsualization is the director’s opportunity to describe an action sequence, as he envisions it, to a visual effects editor, who makes a CG representation of it. In this way, each department can see exactly what the specific requirements will be as they prepare to pull it off.
Special Effects Coordinator Dan Sudick explains, “When we sit down with the director and look at a pre-viz for the bridge sequence, for example, we can see the cars driving down the bridge, flipping, rolling, or whatever J.J. wants them to do. We take that information and do it in the real world. We take the cars and rig them to do exactly what is shown in the pre-viz.”
Once the heads of each department can see what the director intends for the sequence, they can begin the intricate work of realizing the sequence on film. Sudick continues the example of the bridge sequence: “There are a lot of cars to rig. Stunt players will drive many of them; each of those cars has to be fitted with roll cages. Then we have to work out how to get the performance from the cars: the rolls, flips, and explosions. It can take weeks to shoot a sequence that will appear in the film for only a few minutes.”
Armstrong – a movie-industry veteran of more than 40 years – says that his experience working with Tom Cruise on “War of the Worlds” prepared him for the actor-producer’s well-known enthusiasm for performing his own stunts.
“He’s 100% hands on, which is ideal, because of his tremendous ability,” says Armstrong. “Having worked with him before really helped, because I designed the stunts with him in mind. We’ve done some amazing things with Tom; he went above and beyond what I expected him to do.”
For Abrams, achieving the effects in-camera (as opposed to with CGI) with Cruise performing as many of his own stunts as possible was a must. “All the latest CG technology is great – but if you can do something for real – actually have the actor perform the stunt and not rely on head replacement – well, nothing trumps that.”
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