Christopher Nolan reveals his favorite action sequence, and it's from The Dark Knight Rises...
Last night, Christopher Nolan joined fellow filmmaker Bennett Miller for a variety of movie discussions at a Tribeca Film Festival event. Their chat covered everything from the first film Nolan saw (Snow White and the Seven Dwarves) to the pictures that convinced him to want to be a filmmaker (Ridley Scott’s Alien and Blade Runner, for the record). They even considered the eternal struggle between studios and directors.
However, one topic sure to appeal to Batman enthusiasts of every age came when a fan in the audience was able to ask Nolan a question: what is his favorite action sequence that he filmed? After all, between The Dark Knight Trilogy, Inception, Interstellar, and even parts of Insomnia, he has spearheaded some of the most memorable set-pieces of the last decade. And after a bit of hesitation, Nolan had an interesting answer involving several airplanes, some IMAX cameras, and the opening minutes of 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises.
“If we’re talking pure mechanics, I suppose [it’s] the beginning of The Dark Knight Rises,” Nolan answered. “There’s a scene in the air that we shot largely practically and very efficiently. It took us about two days in Scotland, and it was an incredible amount of months and months of planning by different members of the team who worked for months rehearsing these parachute jumps and wind-walking, and all these different things. So for me as a filmmaker, I spent two days in a helicopter and we’re done. And we scheduled it for five days.”
Nolan is also a notorious proponent of practical in-camera effects (film cameras to be exact and with IMAX preferred). So, the limited use of digital trickery also makes that high-flying aerial sequence stand out for its director.
“The visual effects work in this scene is very minimal. It’s important, but it’s minimal, and I was really amazed by what the team put together where we’re shooting in terms of very a old-fashioned [style] in a way. I was very proud of the work everyone did.”
The scene, which introduced audiences to Tom Hardy’s pop culture defining image of Bane, opened the picture in spectacular fashion when the masked terrorist overturns a single engine CIA plane to ascertain a prized nuclear scientist. The entire scene is located below for your enjoyment.
