ME ON INSTAGRAM
rhdagostino Ah yes there is that
drone we lew into a tree three
summers ago. #trampoline #drone
#lostandfoundrhdagostino #trampoline #handsrhdagostino #trampoline
#afterschool #bounce #exerciserhdagostinoBehind the Scenes
RYAN D’AGOSTINO
Editor in Chief
@rhdagostino
I MISS the bonus material DVD.
I love the behind-the-scenes footage, the bloopers, the interviews about how
they ilmed the ight scene or the car chase. I love learning about the ilmmaking
process, the decisions that were made as the movie came to be, the stuf that made
it happen. You ever see the footage of Tom Cruise undergoing Navy training to
learn to ly F-14s for To p G u n? And then the mother of all bonus DVDs is actually a
whole other movie unto itself, Hearts of Darkness, the story behind the making of
Apocalypse Now.
Some people avoid learning about the making-of because they think it detracts
from the magic of the movie. They don’t want to know. I understand this. I
couldn’t explain why I disagree, so I asked my friend Tom, who is good at explain-
ing these things. He said that if something is truly great, then knowing how it was
made doesn’t make it any less great. I
think that’s right. (And the corollary is, if
a particular ilm or other work isn’t great,
it doesn’t matter because there’s no magic
to spoil.)
In this issue, we go behind the scenes
of a lot of great stuf. Our blockbuster-
movie spectacular (page 62) lets you in on
the secrets of some of this summer’s big-
gest ilms—including the indefatigable
Mr. Cruise, still at it, doing his own stunt
work on the latest Mission: Impossible extravaganza. And Kevin Dupzyk spent
about six months walking from the Popular Mechanics headquarters uptown to
the American Museum of Natural History every couple weeks, chronicling how
the artists and scientists there create a huge exhibit. I checked out the new Fast &
Furious ride at Universal Orlando before it opened (see page 28 for details about
the trip we’re giving away), and automotive editor Ezra Dyer got exclusive access to
the new wind tunnel at General Motors for his surprising story (page 13) about the
future of aerodynamics.
On a fundamental level, these are all the same story. How’d they do that? How
does that work? Why does it look that way? What makes it do that? That’s part of
the beauty of this magazine, and of being a human being: We ask these questions.
About movies, about ighter jets, about aged bourbon, about solar cars, about can-
cer, about museum exhibits and roller coasters and headphones and smartphones
and ocean liners and, 50 years from now, who knows what?
Behind-the-scenes never gets old.
If something is
truly great, then
knowing how it was
made doesn’t make
it any less great.One of the companies featured in our story “How to Camp in 2018,” Tentrr, is owned by my brother, Michael. It’s a cool
company. We are not including it because he’s my brother and Thanksgiving dinner would be awkward if we didn’t, but
rather because it’s a leader in the new wave of campsites on private land.NOTE
4 JULY/AUGUST _ 201 POPULARMECHANICS.COM