HOW
MICHAEL BAY
MAKES A
SCENE
6 UNDERGROUND
IN 6 UNDERGROUND, RYAN REYNOLDS PLAYS A
billionaire who recruits a team of ghost opera-
tives to fight crime around the world. And as it’s
directed by Michael Bay (Transformers), there
are, not surprisingly, a few explosions. But the
helmer says the Bay-hem is more “hard stunts”
than CGI. Here, he breaks down one of the more
dazzling action sequences, which includes a
death-defying leap off an unfinished masterpiece.
1
The parkour is hardcore.
In the film, penned by the
screenwriters behind Deadpool,
Ben Hardy (X-Men: Apocalypse)
plays the parkour master of six
“ghosts” who faked their deaths
to move about unseen. Looking
for the best in the biz, Bay tapped
the Britain-based Storror parkour
squad to be the actors’ stunt
doubles. In this scene, one stunt-
man jumped “from pillar to pillar”
and landed, astoundingly, “on
a 12-inch-by-12-inch pad with
two gigantic explosions going on
behind him.” (He was wearing a
wire for safety.)
2
Practical magic is key.
Bay’s formula for the perfect
movie explosion? Hire the best
technicians and keep the CG to
a minimum. “[Practical effects]
are a dying art... It takes a year
to start whittling down who’s the
best team in the world. Who can
do everything absolutely safe.” He
didn’t step away from the mouse
pad completely, though. “There
are, like, three bluescreen shots
in the whole movie,” Bay says.
3
Locations aren’t sacred.
No Hollywood blockbuster
has ever shot at architect Santiago
Calatrava’s unfinished sports
stadium (featured in this scene) in
Rome, but you make exceptions for
Bay. “I ask for crazy locations and
I’ve been given them,” says the
director, who has previously filmed
around a space shuttle (Armaged-
don) and ancient pyramids in Egypt
(Transformers: Revenge of the
Fallen). For 6 Underground, he
raced cars through tight Florentine
streets and created fake doors
in order to crash into a Medici villa.
But despite the stunts taking place,
Bay truly is not out to destroy
monuments: “We leave [them]
untouched.” —Nick Romano
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DIRECTED BY Michael Bay
STARRING Ryan Reynolds, Ben Hardy,
Dave Franco IN THEATERS December
EW ● COM NOVEMBER 2019 65
(OPPOSITE PAGE) JAKE GILES NETTER/ WARNER BROS.; (THIS PAGE) CHRISTIAN BLACK/NETFLIX (2)
