JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 Stunt Coordinators Discuss the Process of Getting Hit by Cars
John Wick: Chapter 4 featured some pretty insane and impressive stunt work that wowed audiences. There was one sequence in particular that was particularly challenging was the traffic car scene that took place at the historic Arc de Triomphe in Paris, France.
The scene features so many cars and there were a lot of shots of people getting hit by those cars during the action sequence! If you thought those people getting hit by cars were CGI… you would be wrong! Those were real stuntmen taking those hits! That was all 100% real!
The film's lead stunt coordinators, Scott Rogers and Stephen Dunlevy, recently talked about this sequence in an interview with /Film, and Rogers explained how it was all visualized and what went into making it happen. There is a way to shoot these kinds of dangerous stunts safely so that people don’t die. He said:
"I guess that was one of the hardest things, is making sure things are safe. It's 'John Wick,' and stunt people all want to be on the movie, everybody wants to work on it, wants to do this. But it is dangerous. Ultimately, you're getting hit by a car. We do have the luxury of VFX so we can make padded cars; we can put padding on cars, we can put padding on the ground, and that can protect your brain, but you can still ding your shoulder.”
As far as some of the injuries that came from shooting these scenes, Rogers said, “And we sprained an ankle, and one guy hurt his shoulder a little bit, but that was it." Not bad for some of those brutal-looking scenes! It also helps that the stuntmen wear padded suits as well. It still seems crazy dangerous! The CGI used in these scenes basically removes all of the padding that is protecting the stuntmen.
On top of that, you need super-skilled drivers in those cars! Not only do the actors need to hit their marks, but the drivers also have to be precise in their driving. Those drivers also need to hit their mark! If they screw up, someone could seriously get hurt. Rogers also explained:
"[T]he drivers of the cars are some of the world's best and they're sliding to a mark. So you as a fighter, getting to this mark and this car's coming to this mark so it looks worse than it is, as long as everybody hits their mark. And I'm very proud of the fact that how we did it and what we did and the fact that most everybody walked away unscathed. And like I said, I think we sprained an ankle and we dinged a shoulder. Besides that, everybody walked away and we did some really big hits."
That’s so cool! I would actually love to see a behind the scenes documentary about how these kinds of stunts are actually pulled off. I’m fascinated by this kind of stuff, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for those stuntmen and stuntwomen that do this kind of stuff for our entertainment!