Original subtitles

I'm John Davis. I'm the producer of Behind Enemy Lines.

JOHN DAVIS: With me is Wyck Godfrey. WYCK GODFREY: Hey.

JD: Wyck is the executive producer.

We'll do the commentary from the producer's view.

Both of us worked on this film for years. It's been about six years now.

The movie started with an idea. . .

. . .when Scott O'Grady was shot down over Bosnia.

The idea was we could make a movie that dealt with an American pilot. . .

. . .who's down behind enemy lines. . .

. . .where there were terrific obstacles in being able to bring him out.

This pilot had to survive on his wit and cunning. . .

. . .and just sheer determination to survive.

We could make a movie that would be exciting, that would bring to bear. . .

. . .all the technology the Navy and the Air Force would make at our disposal.

If we could get a director who could bring visualization and reality. . .

. . .maybe we could do something that was exciting and different.

WG: It was John Moore and Zak Penn's idea to open with a beautiful image. . .

. . .of soldiers planting trees. They later become the mystery of the movie.

JD: We wanted a director who'd bring a freshness. We went after John Moore.

He'd directed commercials and music videos in Europe. . .

. . .where directing commercials is an art form.

John, when he came on board, had this vision, this fresh perspective.

I think John knows every kind of military aircraft weapon.

Doesn't he know how to use hand grenades, land mines and all that?

WG: I think he's had some experience.

Here's the carrier, the USS Carl Vinson.

We had Navy cooperation, which was one of the big struggles of this film. . .

. . .because one of the things John Moore, and we, wanted. . .

. . .was to shoot this action in a way that no one had seen before.

So we went out at sea for a week.

While they were doing their carrier qualifications. . .

. . .we would basically jump up on deck when they weren't landing planes. . .

. . .get a scene and jump back down. You can see a bit of it here.

JD: John said shooting on a carrier is like living in a tin drum. . .

. . .with someone pounding on it all day. Something's always going on.

Planes landing, taking off. We were fortunate they allowed us on board.

September 1 1 th occurred a few months after we finished shooting that.

We would've never been allowed on.

The access we had was amazing, and probably won't be allowed for years. . .

. . .given the high state of military alert that we're all on now.

BURNETT: Four more days.

JD: It was a very long process negotiating with the Navy.

We were fortunate to befriend some pilots.

At one point, the project had stalled.

One of the pilots, Captain Kennedy, came to me.

He was getting ready to retire from the Navy.

He said, "This movie has to be made. I'll help you with the process.

I'll help you with the carrier and with the Department of Defense.

Get interested again in this project. Get it moving. "

That was a key point. After that, he introduced us to pilots. . .

. . .and we were able to get this sense that the movie is really based on:

These are ordinary men, not Top Gun pilots. They don't ride motorcycles.

They have families. They're the kids next door who always wanted to fly.

They're ordinary men who can do extraordinary things.

That's what Owen Wilson is in this movie.

He's the navigator. That was Owen's idea.

He was the pilot.

-He made the change in the script. WG: Right.

JD: He basically helped us play up that idea of an ordinary individual.

He certainly is everyman, and he was casted for that reason.

The idea was to make this real and go against type.

Make Owen feel like the pilots we had met.

We had to negotiate with the Department of Defense over the script.

They like accuracy and they're sensitive about things.

Intense negotiations. We didn't want to compromise the film's integrity. . .

. . .but we needed access to the helicopters, the aircraft carrier.

We were able to find a middle ground on some issues. . .

. . .and then, boom, we were off and running.

WG: You'd think they wouldn't want to show guys play football on the deck. . .

. . .but it came while we were shooting, we decided to open the movie. . .

. . .with something more fitting with Owen. . .

. . .and the character. It was a bit more light.

We originally had a big action sequence in the air. . .

. . .but it didn't fit the idea of them in the Adriatic with nothing to do. . .

. . .and this really pulled it off.

JD: We want to thank the NFL for supplying that football that we lost.

WG: We only knocked about 1 8 of them into the ocean.

JD: Gene Hackman was the first actor hired on the film.

It was important to me-- I was doing Heartbreakers with Gene.

This is the sixth movie I've done with him-- To get him involved.

The studio felt when Gene signed on the part had weight and bearing.

WG: He's a real anchor for movies.

JD: But John hadn't directed a movie before.

I got Gene to accept a first-time director.

I wanted to keep Gene from meeting him.

I was afraid if Gene met him and didn't like him, I'd be in trouble.

With first-time directors and actors, you've got to be fairly clever.

Gene asked me, "When will I meet this director?" I kept saying, "Soon. "

He went to do another film. By the time he came back. . .

. . .it was time to go to Europe and shoot the movie, so we were safe.

WG: I guess Gene met John in Slovakia the day before he started shooting.

-I know that's not Burnett. BURNETT: Captain, good to see you.

JD: Gene Hackman green-lit this movie.

This movie was done for a price. This is a $40 million movie.

Which, in action movie parlance, is a low-budget movie.

Gene only worked on the movie five weeks. . .

. . .but it feels like he's on the movie the entire time.

Getting him on board for that period of time so we could afford him. . .

. . .and using him the way we did in this film, gave the studio a sense. . .

. . .that no matter who else we brought in, it was anchored.

Gene has a foreign audience and he'll turn in a brilliant performance.

His performance fit what we're trying to accomplish. . .

. . .which was a real movie, 21 st century war action picture.

WG: The next step was to find out who that guy would be.

As you can see, Owen was who we went with. Gene thought it was a good idea.

We felt Owen wasn't a movie star yet.

We felt like we could break him. . .

. . .Iike Bruce Willis had never done an action film before Die Hard...

. . .and Keanu Reeves had never done an action film before Speed.

Owen really pulled off something that I think people--

People were surprised to see him in a movie like this.

His sort of irreverent tone in the beginning. . .

. . .is what people bring from his other films.

Then he transforms through this film.

-You'll see him doing more action. JD: I saw him in the Tom Dey picture.

Wyck, can you help me on the name of that picture?

Shanghai Noon. I saw him in Shanghai Noon. That convinced me.

His charisma in that, he played an action role. . .

. . .it was comedy and action. His charisma there convinced me. . .

. . .that he could pull this off. Gene saw that movie and was supportive.

We went to the studio as a united front and said, "We want Owen.

He can do it. We could interest him in doing the role. "

Tom Rothman, to his credit, understood it and went with it.

It wasn't an obvious choice, but it's what makes the movie work.

-Sir, about the football-- REIGART: I have your letter--

JD: You make an action movie, the foreign component is important.

Action movies do really well foreign. They can do well in Germany and Japan.

You can do more business foreign than domestically.

So having the right action movie and the right cast is important.

Gene will help us foreign. Owen will help us foreign also.

The most important thing that will help us in Europe--

This conflict took place on European soil. There's relevancy there.

For Japan, the special effects and action will prove exciting. . .

. . .in the way they like to see their high-tech action films.

WG: This is the one main scene Owen and Gene are in together.

When we started shooting with Owen, he has a tendency to show up. . .

. . .and look at the scene and say, "I wouldn't say this, I'd say this. "

Since he's a good writer and may get. . .

. . .an Academy Award nomination for Tenenbaums--

But the night before he shot this, he was a bit nervous.

I said to him, "Owen, you can't rewrite this scene tomorrow.

You have to memorize it. Gene will kill us if we try to change it. "

And he showed up and knew his lines.

JD: Gene never once got mad at anybody on this movie, which is great.

He got mad at John once.

WG: He got mad at us once when we shifted around some lines in a scene.

Gene works very hard to get his scenes down days before he shoots them.

So, in all fairness, you don't want to show up the same day and say:

"We thought about doing it this way. "

He put a stop to that early on.

JD: Gene's a professional. He shows up two, three minutes before you shoot.

He doesn't chat with anybody. He does his scene. . .

. . .then leaves the set right after and goes back to his trailer.

He's all about business, but every single take is great.

The toughest thing about being a producer on location far away. . .

. . .is having to be away from your family. Wyck's wife was pregnant. . .

. . .had two children just before. . .

. . .and needed to be on the ground for the entire period.

Our company was shooting three movies, so we were all moving around.

Wyck was on location. I came to visit. . .

. . .and was overwhelmed by the fact we were shooting in a Third World country.

The technology and support systems were very rudimentary.

It was inexpensive to shoot where we were shooting.

The construction costs were very cheap. . .

. . .but you were shooting in a Third World country.

WG: We shot the film in Slovakia.

Which is Czechoslovakia split in two: the Czech Republic and Slovakia. . .

. . .which is primarily the sort of farming part of that country.

It was pretty brutal. Tough situation.

Between that and shooting on a carrier. . .

. . .it was the hardest physical production I've ever been involved in.

JD: Wyck had a tough time on the aircraft carrier getting room service.

[MAN GIGGLES]

-Dad, I gotta go. -We're very proud--

WG: The only thing that allows you to sleep is because you're so exhausted.

They're landing aircraft on your head until 2:00 a.m. . .

. . .and start again at 6:00 a.m.

So you don't get much sleep. Somehow, by the third or fourth day. . .

. . .you can sleep through anything.

The problem is that you're working around their plan.

They have a number of planes to get down and up to get their qualifications.

You're given three hours.

If you're not off the deck, you'll have a plane land on your head.

For a movie that you need a lot of control in. . .

. . .to get these scenes, it was amazingly difficult.

JD: The scene coming up, which is going to be the shoot-down sequence. . .

. . .created more anxiety for us than any other aspect of the movie.

Again, we did this movie for a price. . .

. . .so we had to be clever with how to shoot the shoot-down scene.

Our access to models technology and other computer effects was limited.

So to put this together and make it look real was the ultimate challenge.

WG: We wanted to shoot as much as possible, real.

There was a point where they wanted us to do this entire sequence CGl.

It was controllable. But we wanted as much real F-1 8 footage as possible.

So we shot this in California, air-to-air. We shot from the ground. . .

. . .which is this shot. Up in the air. Then we had to put in the missiles.

There's nothing better than seeing those real jets.

JD: You have three technologies here: live-action, air-to-air photography. . .

. . .computer-generated effects, and you're going to have models.

I've come to believe that models are very tough to make look real.

The models are my least favorite. The computer-generated missiles. . .

. . .after months and months of finessing them, playing with them. . .

. . .and working on them, fairly good.

I guess we all feel this sequence fulfilled our expectations 900/0 .

We were frustrated. . .

. . .we couldn't go the last 1 00/0 .

The models technology given to complete this. . .

. . .was just so difficult. . .

. . .to bring that level of reality we wanted. There were some compromises.

You probably won't notice. . .

. . .but every time we see a shot we're not happy with, it sticks in our side.

WG: Some of these were shot on a stage with a gimbal and a mockup F-1 8. . .

. . .and you mapped in the background.

Another useless joyride at the cost of--

JD: A producer has to always. . .

. . .do what's possible in a situation. A producer is always compromising.

The idea is not to compromise the quality of the film.

The studio will force you to compromise on the budget.

The director has to compromise on his vision because you can't afford it.

But you've got to keep him from being discouraged.

The actors have to compromise on what they want to say and do.

They're part of a process. It has to work together.

The producer is the person in the middle. . .

. . .trying to keep everybody on course and moving forward.

Keeping people from being discouraged when making a compromise. . .

. . .that is in the best interest of the film.

And/or keeping the film from getting shut down by the studio.

If you don't make your budget, the studio can start cutting pages.

Nobody wants to do that. Sometimes, before you get your movie made. . .

. . .the studio is gonna force you to agree to your budget.

They'll have the power to keep you from varying from that budget.

So it's very difficult being a producer on a movie such as this.

You want to achieve so much, yet there are tradeoffs that have to happen.

WG: One thing we did on the ground because John Moore wants everything. . .

. . .and in particular, all of the hardware you see.

The tanks, and the guns, and the--

All of that stuff was constantly trying to be squeezed down. . .

. . .by the studio for budgetary reasons.

"You can't have five tanks, just two. " We were squeezing. . .

. . .and finding a way to get him as much as he needed. . .

. . .to fill out the scenes.

JD: lsn't that you flying the plane? WG: Oh, yeah.

Here's the introduction. . .

. . .of our sniper assassin, played by Vladimir Mashkov.

He's a huge Russian actor and directs theater.

He's one of their big stars. . .

. . .and he really carries a great, quiet sense of menace.

JD: These missiles are all CGl.

It stands for computer-generated imagery.

STACKHOUSE: I don't. Call my turn. BURNETT: Just slice left. Hard.

STACKHOUSE: Jesus Christ.

Where is it?

JD: It's funny, the director wanted to shoot the movie in Sarajevo.

WG: Our first compromise. He wanted to shoot it in Croatia.

It was just a little bit too hairy.

But Slovakia, in terms of the back country, is a good match.

Bratislava's not so bad because at least it's a city.

But some of the places we shot were 30 miles from the Ukraine border. . .

. . .up in the mountains, and it was--

There were times we hopped in four-wheel drives to get to a site.

It was as secluded as could be.

JD: But cell phones worked throughout this entire country.

You could always get anybody on the phone in the U.S.

One day I talked to John, he was scouting locations.

I was trying to convince him not to go to Sarajevo and get shot.

He tried to convince me that Sarajevo was now safe.

It was something I didn't buy.

During our conversation, he says, "I'm surrounded by armed guards.

I'm at a border. They want me to get out of the car. I'll call you back. "

I had visions that our director was gonna be arrested as a spy.

Fortunately, he was able to call me back later. . .

. . .and get himself out of whatever jam he was in.

WG: Here's the model shots.

JD: These are the model shots which I was particularly unhappy with.

But I think that. . .

. . .they came out fairly well after we were able to massage them.

There's a lot of color correction to try to make them look real.

There was some fog we put into the shots to make it feel more natural.

WG: It's one of the most positively reviewed sequences in the movie.

So all the stuff you obsess about doesn't matter to everyone.

JD: lf you don't obsess. . .

. . .it's never going to be as good as it should be or can be.

Even if you don't get everything you want, if you obsess. . .

. . .convinced it'll be a disaster, somehow you get it good enough.

And hopefully great.

Shit!

JD: The movie's editing is interesting.

Basically, the director gets 1 0 weeks after shooting.

Technically, you're not allowed to interfere with him. John was great.

He brought us in.

When I was in Slovakia, I convinced him on the set at a weak moment. . .

. . .to let me go in the editing room and take a look.

Now, while he's shooting, I'm looking at the movie.

I could tell the movie was working.

I was able to tell that the movie had a fantastic look.

The cinematography was working well with his camera technology. . .

. . .to tell a story.

The movie had this feel.

From there, John Moore showed us both the film very early on. . .

. . .and we were able to discuss with him choices he was making.

A first-time director, he wanted everything in the movie.

As time went on, he realized that he had a story to tell.

He learned that well and picked it up quickly.

As a producer, you're constantly going in the editing room. . .

. . .trying to impart into the director a sense of objectivity. . .

. . .about how one might improve the storytelling or improve the pace.

Wyck and I enjoyed our time in the editing room with John.

It's a lot of fun being in the editing room.

It gives you a sense of the making of the movie. . .

. . .in its little bits and pieces.

These little details very much add up to the pace. . .

. . .and the quality of the storytelling in the movie.

-A hell of a party, sir. -I really like Christmas.

JD: The editing room is not a democracy.

In a film, there's supposed to be one vision.

A producer has got to support that. The vision needs to be the director's.

If you have seven visions, and they're all in a movie. . .

. . .it'll be chaos. The movie won't be as good as it should.

It could be a disaster.

Editing is never a democracy. . .

. . .but if you have a good relationship with your director. . .

. . .the producer can have tremendous impact on how the picture is cut.

WG: Part of the process is when the studio gets involved.

We test the movie. They'll have a lot of input and insight with fresh eyes.

Part of our job is to listen to those ideas and figure out the best way. . .

. . .to put the ones that are important and work for the movie in. . .

. . .while massaging the ones that may not be additive.

JD: The studio and the audience will be involved in the editing.

Because what we do is test a movie with an audience.

When you do that, you can hear and feel the audience.

You know when they're into it, when they're bored. . .

. . .when something's working that excites them emotionally.

And then, in the end, we do a focus group.

But it's more important to feel an audience.

A lot of times, you need to use that input to further refine your movie.

Shit. Squeeze right here.

JD: When you first see a film with an audience, you're terrified.

You have no idea-- The director's even more terrified.

If people are gonna like the film or not like the film and not respond.

You don't know. You can have a sense. You can hope. You can have a feeling.

I go into those screenings and we've worked enough on the picture. . .

. . .so you like it. You've gotten it into the shape where you. . .

. . .are somewhat happy with it.

WG: You've seen it so many times you don't know how people will respond to it.

You've forgotten how you felt the first time you saw it.

JD: That's a good point. You've read the script 50 times. . .

. . .you've seen the picture five, six, seven times before.

The audience is a fresh, objective opinion on a picture.

WG: It takes you back to when you green-light the film.

That was when you thought this would be a commercial, satisfying movie.

It's a year and a half later, you're finally seeing if you were right.

Oh, God.

JD: The screening process always turns up something.

It always turns up some unexpected. . .

. . .piece of information that you need to react to.

This picture tested very well the first time we tested it.

But what became obvious is we had too many endings.

We had three or four. The challenge was, "How do we give it one ending. . .

. . .but create enough closure with all the story sub-elements and subplots. . .

. . .so the audience feels sufficiently informed at the end?"

Frankly, I had a sense we had too many endings, but I liked them all.

I wasn't sure that we had to do something about it.

The audience was very clear about that.

When the movie was over for them emotionally, the movie was over.

Now this scene, Wyck, you want to describe what it was like. . .

. . .getting those pieces of aircraft on that mountain?

We showed up and the production designer had, on this mountain. . .

. . .burned a whole swatch of land. . .

. . .and laid out the pieces of the plane.

I said, "John, how come the whole plane is laid out there?

Didn't they land separately?"

We hadn't even begun to shoot the shoot-down sequence.

We didn't do that sequence until we got back to Los Angeles.

But you can't tell that the entire plane's there.

We shot around it pretty well.

One of John's favorite shots. It was 7 in the morning.

He loved the guys coming over the mountain.

This was the most removed location of the entire movie.

We were as high on a mountain as you could get in Slovakia.

We were always in danger of not making it to the site.

Rain would have washed out the roads.

It was a miracle we got out of this location.

JD: The other problem was that this movie was shot in the winter.

This particular scene was shot in November, I believe.

The sun disappeared here probably about 3:30 or 4:00.

So you had a very short day to work with.

Given that we had a short schedule. . .

. . .it's very important the director knew exactly what he wanted. . .

. . .how to get it, and to move quickly.

WG: We only had about 7 1 /2 hours of daylight.

It was really difficult.

Casting the soldiers was pretty easy. We went and got the Slovakian army.

We went to them and said:

"We need to use. . .

. . .your Russian-made armory, and we need to use the tanks and stuff. "

All of our great extras are actually the elite soldiers of Slovakia.

So they understand organization, they understand discipline.

And in terms of using them, it worked out great.

You'd say, "We need you here. " They'd be there. You can't fake the training.

When they come through Hach later, you'll see how professional they are.

They're the real deal.

One thing about Slovakia, rather than Canada, which we thought about. . .

. . .is that all of our extras truly have that Eastern European look.

The Muslims are all Muslims.

A lot of our extras or smaller cast. . .

. . .were Croatian, from that territory.

There was a sense of realism to the casting.

JD: And these elite soldiers swore their allegiance to the director.

When the studio tried. . .

. . .to enforce a shorter schedule, they were there. . .

. . .to hold them at bay, and that was helpful.

WG: Again, that was probably one of the easiest things.

The government of Slovakia fought very hard to get us to come to Slovakia.

There's so much filming in the Czech Republic, Slovakia gets the leftovers.

So when you go and make a deal with Slovakia to use. . .

. . .their stages in Bratislava. . .

. . .for a military film, you've got a good line. . .

. . .to get the government to put pressure on the military to help.

JD: I still remember my first day in Slovakia, driving to the set.

We were at a studio, and there were soldiers in the street.

This is not near the studio, this is in Bratislava.

They were stopping people and they were searching their cars. . .

. . .and checking their l.D.s. I was thinking:

"Boy, this certainly feels like a different place to shoot a movie. "

WG: The scene where Owen is running and escaping earlier. . .

. . .he was doing his own stunts.

We had mortars exploding around him and one blew up in his face.

He looked up after it was over and. . .

. . .was very calm about it: "Okay, let's do it again. "

From that, we knew. . .

. . .we wouldn't have trouble getting Owen to do any difficult stunt work.

JD: It's nice not having a prima donna in a movie like this.

It'll be hard work and you'll have to get in there and do your takes.

Be in crappy weather, and in different locations. Really bust your ass.

Owen was able and willing to do that.

WG: Here was the first thing we shot. The first day was up on this mountain.

Again, a very difficult location to get to.

-What is that? -Sorry, sir. There's interference.

The homing beacon.

Well, shut it off.

WG: Between Stephanie Austin, our line producer, and l. . .

. . .you're dealing with every crisis of the day.

The day before you shoot, one helicopter is stuck at the border.

The gyroscope on your picture helicopter is stuck in Venice. . .

. . .you can't get it out. Everything has to be handled days before.

You know shooting in these locations, there's gonna be a problem.

You kind of have to have the solutions lined up. John Moore's. . .

. . .very good when he knows what to expect, but doesn't like surprises.

I don't think any directors like surprises.

Your best thing is to be ahead of him as much as possible.

JD: This whole set Gene is on now, the interior of the carrier. . .

. . .was all built in Slovakia.

It was a massive set. It took up three sound stages.

You could walk from one end of the ship to the other on these stages. . .

. . .and go from porthole to porthole to corner to curve, and it really--

It really felt, once you were inside this set, it was so elaborate. . .

. . .that you were on a carrier.

When I was on the real carrier, I was surprised how well. . .

. . .we were able to capture that feel.

WG: The designer and art director, Nathan Crowley and Patrick Lumb. . .

. . .took tours of carriers before the film had officially been green-lit. . .

. . .and took pictures and got the layout. So when we got to Slovakia. . .

. . .we could duplicate it and enhance it visually where we needed to.

The job they did is one of the things that's phenomenal about the movie.

It has a great look and a great sense of place.

The contrast between what's going on on the ship and outdoors. . .

. . .it's one of the things people really respond to.

It's so beautiful outdoors and you cut to the ship and it's claustrophobic.

It's like, "We can't do anything to get our guy in this open space back. "

JD: And the music here. . .

. . .was the creation of Don Davis, our second composer.

When you work with a first-time crew-- We had a first-time director. . .

. . .who was brilliant, a first-time DP. . .

. . .basically, a first-time production designer and a first-time composer.

The first-time composer didn't work out.

So we had to go back and bring Don Davis in. . .

. . .who came in with not a great amount of time left.

He had six weeks to write the score and get it orchestrated. . .

. . .and for us to cut it into the picture.

We felt fortunate that so many first-time people. . .

. . .so many were able to do what was needed.

The element that didn't work, we were able to replace.

WG: This is a scene that keeps you on your toes as a producer.

We were supposed to shoot this down in the hangar. . .

. . .but Gene had just had enough. It was so loud and such bad conditions. . .

. . .that he didn't want to run a two-page dialogue scene down there.

While John was shooting another scene, we were running around. . .

. . .Iooking for a place, and we found the admiral's bridge.

You never see a scene shot in a real admiral's bridge.

Earlier in the scene, a plane lands and it makes you go:

"Wow, they're shooting this on an aircraft carrier. "

It worked out. There wasn't a lot of room to move around with the camera.

We didn't have a choice. Otherwise we wouldn't have our scenes.

JD: There's a lot of guerrilla filmmaking involved in this movie.

Our director was up to that. . .

. . .because he was used to conditions like this and preferred them.

WG: You're lugging cameras off the deck, you're running around. . .

. . .you know, scout locating and. . .

. . .you do whatever needs to sort of get things done.

You lose weight from running on stairs. The food's not so good.

JD: There's no elevators on carriers.

Only big ones on the outside that carry up helicopters and aircraft.

WG: This was shot in lovely California.

JD: We wanted to add an extra scene once the movie was shot.

Create another little action opportunity scenario.

I was sitting out there without sun-- Without a hat, or any suntan lotion.

It was 1 02 degrees the day we shot this.

I got very sunburned.

I was amazed that we were able. . .

. . .to make this look like it was shot in Slovakia.

This is all July. . .

. . .outside of Los Angeles, Angeles National Forest.

WG: When we looked at it, between the first and second radio contact. . .

. . .nothing happened for Owen.

Something happened for Gene, he was told he had to move his guy.

Owen just ran through the woods. We felt. . .

. . .we had to add something, to put more tension in his voice. . .

. . .when he got news they weren't gonna pick him up.

Here we are back in Slovakia.

JD: Now Owen, again, just worked in unbearable conditions. . .

. . .given that most actors are in a controlled environment. . .

. . .and aren't asked to do things that Owen's been asked to do.

He just did it. He was a trooper.

It was never too much to ask, he was always there.

He was always dirty and working in dirty outdoor conditions. . .

. . .and up to the task. I think that it shows.

When an actor really wants to play a role and wants. . .

. . .to be in the moment, his performance is reflective of that.

This guy didn't phone it in.

This is a guy who really wanted you to believe his character. . .

. . .and what he went through. He suffered to create that for us.

No.

Negative. Negative.

JD: An actor like Owen makes your job easier, except he's a great writer. . .

. . .and he's gonna want to rewrite his part. And other actors. . .

. . .will have to adjust to what he comes up with. It's a challenge. . .

. . .to get him to plan far enough ahead of time that everybody knows. . .

. . .and the actors can have rehearsed what they'll do in relation to Owen.

Somebody who's willing to give his all makes it easier.

WG: When Owen signed on to do the movie. . .

. . .the character was more gung ho. The Tom Cruise in Top Gun character.

Owen signed on after speaking with us and the director. . .

. . .with the idea that we would alter the character to fit. . .

. . .what he represented and what was a contemporary American pilot.

We'd done some of the work, but when he showed up. . .

. . .we had a ways to go. We were rewriting opening scenes. . .

. . .where he's talking about wanting to go fly for rock stars. . .

. . .when he got there. When he showed up it was tense.

He'd throw out suggestions and new scenes.

Part of our job was to figure out which ones we could do. . .

. . .and talk to the studio because most of them were great ideas. . .

. . .but some of them had larger implications.

Was Gene gonna read it and go, "This wasn't what I signed on for"?

At the end of the day, we negotiated everything with everyone.

It satisfied Owen and Gene. That's where we got to where we were.

JD: Now Owen's makeup and hair ended up being. . .

. . .a very important point of contention with the studio.

The studio is interested in his look. . .

. . .from his haircut and the look of his injuries when he's running.

They want him handsome enough. . .

. . .that people are gonna want to look at him.

We want it realistic so people are gonna believe it.

So we took Owen out and did a hair and makeup test.

We cut his hair and we all looked at it.

And it didn't look right.

We had to cut it again, which pissed off Owen.

After we got the hair set, we went through the makeup tests.

It was getting Owen on location and doing the makeup. . .

. . .and getting the studio the film. Then they had input.

The director and the producers all had. . .

. . .their perspective on what it should be.

One of the big negotiations was getting his hair and look right.

The nose is Owen's. There was no prosthetic makeup applied there.

WG: We had him bloody the first day of shooting.

The studio called, saying:

"We can't have him this bloodied up.

People aren't gonna want to watch.

You need to build to a level of makeup. "

JD: That was a good point on their part. Again, it's why. . .

. . .having a lot of perspective on a film is helpful.

You just need one decision maker.

That's what the director should do and what he did well here.

If people look at a film from their perspective. . .

. . .people can have input that's gonna be helpful.

Move.

REIGART: They're right on him!

WG: I can explain the part in the SCIF.

When we showed up to shoot this. . .

. . .the scene was about trying to figure out which one was Burnett.

And Rodway, who plays our marine, was the one who. . .

. . .figured out which one was Owen.

We arrived and started the video playback. . .

. . .which is a rear-projection screen. . .

. . .the actors were there going:

"What are we saying? That's clearly him. "

The design didn't fit and that was the first time we saw it.

The actors were right.

John and I said, "Give us 1 0 minutes. " And we ran off. . .

. . .got the script and rewrote it as you see it. . .

. . .such that it's about, "What happened to him, why did he quit moving?"

On the ground here in the mass graves, we had--

There was graphic stuff.

Obviously we wanted to make the film PG-1 3. . .

. . .so we really had to look at the way it came out.

In John's initial cut there was tons of shots of dead bodies and babies.

It really sort of pounded home. . .

. . .the gruesome nature of what Burnett was going through.

We managed to pull that off without having to show as much explicit stuff.

Right here you still get the sense they're in a bunch of dead bodies.

JD: John Moore earned his name Moore.

That's what he always wanted was more.

WG: When we said, "You can't do this," he goes:

"The name's not John Less, it's John Moore. "

JD: This is one of those instances. . .

. . .where the studio was probably right.

He could've made the scene so horrific that it would have been tough. . .

. . .for American audiences not to get thrown out and be overwhelmed.

Yet he was able to create the horror of what he wanted to do. . .

. . .without losing the scene.

It was a good compromise on all parts here.

-Understand? -Yes, sir.

JD: The pilot who originally got shot down in Bosnia. . .

. . .basically hid for three days. And radioed in, got picked up. . .

. . .and never considered himself a hero.

He did what he wanted to do, which was survive. He was the first to say:

"I was not heroic, it was just survival. "

This is a lot more active character.

This is a person who is using his ingenuity. . .

. . .to really move himself around, who is being aggressively pursued.

I don't think Scott O'Grady, after his first encounter over there. . .

. . .was actually pursued. I think he was able to hide.

WG: Anyone involved in Scott's story. . .

. . .would look at this and say not much is familiar.

We weren't intending it to be.

When he got shot down--

There have been numerous people shot down over the years.

It lends itself to an interesting movie.

JD: It did have an impact. We saw the Discovery Channel piece on O'Grady.

I was most moved by his family's reaction. . .

. . .not knowing if he was alive and not knowing what would happen.

Having to sit through it with the rest of the country-- It was very public.

And agonize over what was gonna happen.

That really made us want to bring the family into this.

The family was worked in to create that perspective. . .

. . .because a lot of us are fathers and wives. . .

. . .and could imagine having a son trapped and the anguish we would feel.

--shot at, I believe him.

What do you expect me to do?

Command says I gotta sit on my hands.

WG: The political construct is fictional, not from Scott's story.

The whole idea that Gene Hackman's under the thumb of NATO. . .

. . .and can't do anything through most of the movie.

We're part of a coalition, and then we have to--

We can't just march in. We have to think of the big picture.

That was something the writer created and allowed us to get Gene Hackman. . .

. . .because he created this character on the ship.

JD: This is an important negotiation we had with the DOD, right here.

It was over whether Gene. . .

. . .is gonna pick up the phone in the next couple of seconds or not.

The basis of that was the Department of Defense felt. . .

. . .Iike Gene's character, if he picked up the phone, would be insubordinate.

He would be using the press in a manner that wasn't military.

It happens a lot.

WG: What's funny is, for the regular audience member. . .

. . .this is a heroic thing Gene does. It's one thing people are cheering.

He figured out a way. . .

. . .to propel the movie forward, to propel his cause forward.

Look at it from the military standpoint.

They think he's breaking the chain of command.

JD: So the negotiation resolved itself, he looks at the card. . .

. . .and doesn't pick up the phone, you cut to the reporter.

AERNOUT: It's also unclear what, if any impact--

WG: This is Aernout Van Lynden. . .

. . .a famous European reporter for Sky News.

John Moore grew up idolizing him. . .

. . .because he was in Lebanon and these horrible situations reporting.

When we got to Slovakia, he said, "I want Van Lynden. "

He called the guy and said, "We've got a reporter. . .

. . .I'd like you to play him. " Aernout got down there.

Unfortunately, he had to leave about halfway through production. . .

. . .because the fighting began in lsrael and he went to cover it.

JD: Originally we were gonna do the entire movie in English.

The decision was made to subtitle the Bosnian soldiers.

It created a problem because we had to teach them the language.

WG: We had cast the movie thinking that they were. . .

. . .going to speak English with phony accents.

And the studio said:

"You know what, for authenticity's sake they should speak the language. "

The problem was the actors we had cast didn't speak Croatian.

We had-- We had to bring in translators. . .

. . .teach them the lines. It was all very last-minute.

JD: And I was quite nervous because I once did a movie. . .

. . .where we had to teach Japanese actors English. . .

. . .because the director felt everybody should be speaking the same language.

And the Japanese who learned English for the picture. . .

. . .could never get that moment of connection right.

It was like a one- or two-second disconnect delay. . .

. . .where they would deliver their lines.

Which we couldn't render in the editorial process.

We were quite nervous here, but it worked out great.

WG: There's precedents for both.

Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger...

. . .those movies figured out a way for you to believe. . .

. . .the foreign-speaking characters would speak English.

They filmically used devices.

There are World War Il movies that have the characters speaking German.

It was a tossup.

JD: I hope Bosnian critics don't kill us.

WG: For accent. JD: Yeah, exactly.

WG: We're coming into the mine sequence. . .

. . .which was one of the action sequences. . .

. . .where we thought we weren't gonna be able to do for budgetary reasons.

At the last minute, we found a location and a way to shoot it affordably.

It's some people's favorite sequence in the movie.

JD: It's one of my favorites.

I never imagined this sequence this way when the script was written.

And the sequence we had was pretty exciting.

But this is even more visual.

It was a great solution.

Constantly, when you don't have enough resources. . .

. . .there are solutions that are creative and better.

If you throw too much money at a movie in a situation. . .

. . .the movie can really not reach its potential.

A lot of times, when you have to compromise and improvise. . .

. . .you come up with fabulous solutions.

WG: We actually did soil and air samples from this location.

It was a Communist-era industrial factory.

Nobody could tell us what they were manufacturing. . .

. . .when we scouted the location.

We were thinking, "We better check this out. "

JD: I hope it's not anthrax.

[MAN CHUCKLES]

WG: Fortunately, the air and soil were fine.

JD: That's a thing to worry about. . .

. . .when you go to a formerly Soviet-occupied country.

You're going to factories and places to work and bringing a crew.

You've got to expect the unexpected. . .

. . .or anticipate it, anyway.

[CHILD LAUGHS]

JD: When you're dealing with a tight budget. . .

. . .and a first-time director, you need time to plan.

The more time you have to plan. . .

. . .the more you're in control of being able to deal. . .

. . .with contingencies and problems that are gonna come up. . .

. . .and a short shooting schedule.

We had no money on this movie and very short days.

The director wanted a winter look which helped the movie.

That gave us very little sunlight to deal with.

WG: Here's a Photo-Sonic shot. This was the bullet buffeted.

But John used a Photo-Sonic camera. You can see the shell go up midair.

You can tell the gun was blown away. It's an amazing shot.

Very difficult to get in-camera.

JD: But with a first-time director, a lot of times. . .

. . .they don't understand budget.

You can actually get them to do more with less.

Once they understand and do their next pictures. . .

. . .they need money to do what was inexpensive the first time.

John didn't know any better. He had to create solutions and plan a lot.

We had a short schedule. We were gonna have to move.

He's working with a first-time DP, his DP, who gave us a great look.

Working with his DP helped a lot. He could be quicker.

When the DP auditioned for me. . .

. . .we shot the hair and makeup sequences.

I was impressed that he didn't use a lot of external lighting.

We shot this in Wyck's backyard.

-His wife was really pissed afterwards. WG: Trashed it.

The stunt that we just saw, Owen did himself.

It was the first day Gene was on the set.

He came to meet John.

When he looked up and saw Owen doing that stunt. . .

. . .and how it was handled with professionalism. . .

. . .everyone was pretty safe, it gave Gene a comfort level.

Owen, it was his favorite thing.

He ran through the mines with explosions going off behind him.

He had a blast doing it.

JD: We had his agent chase him through, which sped him up a bit.

WG: Gene walked up to John.

John was all harried because he was meeting Gene.

They talked and Gene goes, "Get back to work. "

John said, "Yes, sir. "

I don't know. You tell me, sir.

REIGART OVER RADIO: The hard bit's over. You--

WG: This is one of the scenes where it originally was written. . .

. . .in a way in which Owen kind of loses it for a second.

He is sleep-deprived and he makes a reference to his pilot. . .

. . .that implies that he kind of thinks he's still alive.

That spurned Hackman into saying, "Let's talk about something else. "

He snaps him back into it and gets his head back into it.

We looked at it and the studio felt. . .

. . .that we didn't support that idea through the movie.

That he was at a place where he would literally lose his mind for a minute.

Because he snapped back into it, they didn't feel like it worked.

So we had Owen instead, off camera, reference. . .

. . .that he's feeling guilty about leaving Stackhouse behind.

--garbled. Let's talk about your gear.

How's it holding up?

JD: It's important for a producer to give a sense of comfort to an actor.

That there's somebody to talk to when he needs to complain.

It's important that a producer doesn't get involved. . .

. . .with an actor's performance. But that he talks to the director.

And that the director communicates.

You can create anarchy on a set otherwise.

I think that certain actors are trying to please multiple people.

That can create a tough situation.

You're with an actor to make them feel warm, comfortable and supported.

You're there when they have a problem.

It's important that any performance-related questions. . .

. . .go to the director and the director communicates them.

I've seen producers talk to actors to give input on performance.

I really think that it is a bastardization of what we do.

WG: Whenever Owen had any big problems with the script. . .

. . .John, he and I would hash it out so that we were on the same page.

A thing that can happen is the director can go off with the actor.

All of a sudden they're shooting and you're not recognizing the scene.

We tried to avoid that.

JD: The director has a responsibility to let you know. . .

. . .if he's gonna make any changes to the script.

The score in this movie could be an essential additional element.

This is one of those movies where a score makes it 1 0 or 1 50/0 better.

You want to take advantage of that if you can.

There's emotional moments that the score can help drive home.

They can create a theme, a sense of movement of action.

And I think that if the score's working right. . .

. . .the overall movie is gonna just feel more organically whole.

--then return to the helo.

This is Colonel--

WG: For this scene we had little time. We had to get it in one shot.

John put it on a Steadicam and revolved around them.

It may have not been the way he wanted to design it.

With three characters talking, you want to shoot all three.

Due to the situation and planes landing, we just had to get the scene.

We were gonna be off the ship in two days and couldn't make it up.

That's a case of a first-time director thinking on his feet. . .

. . .trying to make a problem into an asset.

JD: Getting back to the music-- The process was very interactive.

Don Davis would score a piece of the movie and we would go to his house.

He has a studio. And we would listen to it.

We'd comment, he'd make changes and we'd come back.

He worked with us. It's most like the script process. . .

. . .I've ever experienced with music before.

We had a short time to get it to work right.

The composer was willing to work with everybody.

I think we were able to quickly take a part of the movie. . .

. . .that was in disastrous shape and turn it into a plus.

WG: Coming up here is one of my favorite scenes.

The scene in the back of the truck.

Which was intended and I think accomplished. . .

. . .in making you feel the surreality of what Owen's going for. . .

. . .and the oddness of this place.

The fact that the kids in the back of the truck. . .

. . .are drinking Coke and listen to rap music.

There's this bizarre disconnect with what he's doing, trying to survive.

Suddenly, he's in a truck with teenagers.

Who are still teenagers, even though they're--

JD: Originally we wanted to introduce the idea they're weekend warriors.

They're holding down jobs and conducting everyday lives.

And on the weekends they go fight.

And originally we had a great scene constructed. . .

. . .where he fell into a foxhole with some weekend warriors.

They were talking about having tickets for a concert.

They were conversing and it really created a connection between. . .

. . .the reality of war and everyday life.

This was a good solution. We couldn't do in the new script. . .

. . .that same series of scenes.

I think that this really drove home. . .

. . .the idea that this war in particular had part-time combatants.

WG: It's also the time in the movie where Owen makes a connection. . .

. . .with the people of the country who are the victims of what's going on.

He has an opportunity to see what they're going through.

It ties you in emotionally to what's happening. . .

. . .rather than it just being pure action the whole way through.

JD: There's a scene coming up where Owen pulls out a Coke.

I've been asked if Coke paid us for that.

-They didn't. They got free publicity. WG: Right.

-You have water? -Water?

WG: These actors in the truck are guys we found. . .

. . .just local high-school actors in Bratislava.

She's actually a stunt woman in Slovakia.

As you'll see coming up, she'll have reason to use her skills.

All of them were just people we'd called in before shooting and said:

"Do you want to be in an American movie?"

The kid, Babic, I think really has a great presence.

They're all such sweet kids who had never been in a movie, obviously.

BABIC: --NWA, Public Enemy.

WG: They had fun and Owen had fun with them.

He appreciated the fact that they were not really actors, but doing it.

JD: Kind of doing it for the first time in a big American movie.

BURNETT: That's good. That's good.

JD: Helicopters drove us nuts because John. . .

. . .was such a military enthusiast.

He so knows his details that if a nose cone wasn't right. . .

. . .he wouldn't shoot with us. So we went all over. . .

. . .making sure the helicopters. . .

. . .were authentic, including the nose cones.

WG: Hach, which was built from scratch by the production designer.

This you'll see on the DVD. . .

. . .there's a much more intense version with more violence.

This is the one area of the movie where John just went for it.

He wanted it to feel like warfare.

He wanted everything to feel as harsh, brutal and loud. . .

. . .as anything anyone had seen before.

And when we saw the first cut, it was fantastic. But it was R-rated.

That's when we had to start to make the decision:

"Is this a film we want to release PG-1 3 or R-rated?"

And we released it as a PG-1 3.

JD: For my tastes, the longer version was a little too gratuitous.

WG: And I loved it.

[MAN LAUGHS]

WG: We shot this entire sequence in Hach in five days, five shooting days.

Both the interior--

JD: These are the only women in the movie, the ones seen here.

I'm sorry, go ahead.

WG: The interiors we shot last.

We actually shot that part you just saw, the destruction, first.

Then we went and got these dialogue scenes and the action inside.

It was at the end of the shoot.

We were all extremely exhausted. . .

. . .and at our wits' end. Fights every day.

EJUP: Of what?

JD: This is being shot close to Christmas, year 2000.

There was a determined attempt to finish and get everybody home. . .

. . .for Christmas.

That was the movie's theme, "Be home by Christmas. "

WG: John would've liked more time to shoot this, but it was impossible.

People had scheduled trips back. They were on to other movies.

We were shooting into the night. That's why we shot interiors last. . .

. . .because we knew we could control it and go longer if we had to.

We ended up getting it in five days, which was kind of a miracle.

America government for shit! Now go!

WG: We brought that tank in and had to do that shot three times. . .

. . .to get the explosion just right.

There's a huge safety issue with tanks.

You've got them moving around, you've got soldiers who drive the tanks. . .

. . .trying to listen to a first AD who doesn't know their language.

We'd have to clear everything out while moving the tanks. . .

. . .to get them in position.

But obviously, safety's first, and that slowed us down quite a bit.

JD: I always wanted my own tank.

It'd be a great thing to drive your kids to school in.

WG: You could probably buy one. I think they're on the market.

JD: Yeah.

WG: This area here is on the DVD.

You'll see where the more brutal execution-style violence came in.

That was a problem. You can have violence. . .

. . .but when they're pure executions, that sends you over into the R rating.

People look at this and wonder how this is PG-1 3.

But that's a negotiation, it's our job and the studio's job. . .

. . .to show them a version, make some trims.

And get to a place where you get the rating. . .

. . .but you've also gotten the movie you want.

JD: It's not collaborative. The board will look at it. . .

. . .say what the rating is and tell you what their issues are.

Then you go and address them.

You can do it partially and re-submit and sometimes get the rating you want.

There's a theory that if you submit enough, they'll get tired of it. . .

. . .and give you what you need.

They see the film, come up with a judgement and give you their notes.

It's like a ref at a football game who calls holding.

It's in the eye of the beholder. Was that holding or not?

So it's good that you can re-submit. Sometimes you can negotiate.

Because sometimes their first opinions. . .

. . .will be somewhat difficult to understand.

WG: One of the things that got us through Hach was. . .

. . .we had about four units shooting.

We had a second unit shooting outside while we were inside.

We had an aerial unit shooting some of the helicopter air-to-air.

And a unit shooting the inserts.

By the end of the show in Slovakia. . .

. . .we had anybody who could hold a camera shooting some stuff.

JD: There's a lot of guerrilla filmmaking that went on.

It helped having a director who was used to picking up a camera. . .

. . .and shooting it himself.

That enabled us to do a lot of this.

The first-time DP, Brendan Galvin, did a spectacular job.

He could move so quickly. . .

. . .and could light a scene without using a tremendous amount of lights.

It was very helpful.

We saw tests of the film. The DP came out and auditioned for us. . .

. . .shot the film and makeup tests. We saw early shots on the mountain. . .

. . .with Owen that we did before we started the movie.

Always impressed with what he was able to do.

I think he's wonderful. The look is fresh and works well for the film.

Cinematography and the idea worked well together.

WG: Well, obviously it was such an external, an outdoor movie. . .

. . .we were relying upon the weather and what was expected at the time.

It was the warmest, driest winter they'd had. . .

. . .in 55 years.

We went in thinking we'd be shooting in the snow. . .

. . .and clouds, which would've helped. But a lot of times it'd be sunny.

We'd have to throw up some screens or wait for a cloud.

The weather didn't help him at all. . .

. . .and the third act takes place in the snow.

We'd fully expected it to be all real snow by then.

But a lot of it we had to make.

JD: Somebody's always watching, the producer or line producer.

You can very easily get your day re-positioned. . .

. . .or destroyed based on what happens.

Rain, in a situation where you're not expecting it. . .

. . .and you can't move to a cover set, can cost you a day.

And there's no such thing as weather insurance.

Weather's a factor. Sometimes a studio will forgive you. . .

. . .if it was beyond your control.

An act of nature and you just didn't get your day.

Sometimes they won't relent.

They'll go, "You had 55 days to shoot, that's it. "

And you won't wanna have to take pages out or compromise a scene.

So you always have a cover set.

But it can take two or three hours to get to it, so it's not useful.

Weather can play a big factor on how much time you have to shoot.

WG: On this, we rarely had a cover set. Because of Gene's schedule. . .

. . .we shot all this stuff on the skiff over the course of four weeks. . .

. . .and the rest of the movie is outdoors.

So we were really at the whims of the weather.

We were always told by the studio, "You can't wait for clouds.

You can't say you're not shooting because it's sunny. "

We kind of made the best of it.

For the most part, you don't notice the continuity problems.

JD: They showed a Jack Lemmon film, Days of Wine and Roses...

. . .where the film was shot at "golden hour," as the sun sets.

I was amazed they could schedule it so they'd shoot only those two hours.

You couldn't do that given the cost of modern filmmaking.

You can't wait for your weather, especially with this price-range film.

You've just gotta work with the hand you're dealt with.

REPORTER: This is bound to spoil NA TO's hope of an exit from the--

JD: Don Davis' music helped create an additional emotional component.

AERNOUT: --Burnett's death comes as another blow.

JD: David Keith was a real champ.

He took the movie back to the Carl Vinson...

. . .right in the middle of the Afghan War.

And we had a premiere on the deck of the Carl Vinson for the crew.

WG: We promised we'd find them wherever they were at the time. . .

. . .so they could see it first because a lot of them are in the movie.

A lot of the guys on deck and in the football scene are from the ship.

They really appreciated it.

It was great for them to be a part of it.

JD: Owen accidentally shot down the helicopter. . .

. . .when he was firing his gun.

We needed a new helicopter after take two.

That's why he cusses there.

You've got to be shitting me!

WG: This is in Kosice, Slovakia. It was probably our most--

It's a city in northeast Slovakia, close to the Ukraine border.

Basically they found a potato field and threw them out there.

It was towards the end of production. . .

. . .and we wanted to get that sort of stark look.

JD: John Moore took a helicopter and literally searched. . .

. . .over a two-week period every inch of Slovakia. . .

. . .to make sure he had locations that really optimized. . .

. . .what he wanted to do in those settings.

The look of the film is a testimony. . .

. . .in how dogged he was in doing his research.

And the fact that he had a helicopter to scout locations.

WG: He actually took the helicopter and took it to Croatia.

He wasn't satisfied with Slovakia.

JD: We found out and said, "Don't think you're gonna shoot in Croatia.

-We can't get insured there. WG: Permits.

JD: We can't get permits and the studio will have a fit.

So get your ass back to Slovakia. "

I think that he was gonna see if he could fool us a little bit.

Like we wouldn't know where the border was or notice we were in Croatia.

WG: This originally was scripted--

One of the things we wanted to capture with the Tracker's suit. . .

. . .it was supposed to be a Sarajevo Olympic sweat suit. . .

. . .and this was to be an Olympic memorial. But we couldn't get. . .

. . .the Olympics to let us use their logo, the four, five rings.

And we couldn't get that signet. . .

. . .of the Sarajevo Olympics, so we had to fudge it.

That was one battle we lost.

The Tracker's backstory is that he was a biathlete in the Olympics.

And now, given civil war, he's using his talents for his own purposes.

Instead of shooting at targets he's shooting at people.

You'll be safer here.

JD: It was another tattoo from a concentration camp that he could be. . .

. . .identified with the person you thought was Burnett.

WG: The tattoo he has in Hach and shows people is one moments. . .

. . .where you realize he's a badass. He's been to prison, he's out now.

It was a fun way to give you his backstory without being expository.

This is a guy that's not a nice guy.

[MAN CHUCKLES]

WG: The most difficult physical production by far was this scene. . .

. . .on the frozen lake.

We had to build this frozen lake with wax.

And it took probably four days longer than we thought it would. . .

. . .to shoot this sequence coming up.

So many things, with the Army coming in and the helicopter footage. . .

. . .and the guns having to work.

And it was freezing. We were into the heart of winter here.

We only had seven hours of daylight.

And it was really brutal conditions.

This was the biggest hurdle to get over from a production standpoint.

By the end of it we were all dead tired.

JD: Unfortunately not dead.

[MAN CHUCKLES]

WG: The snow here is all fake. It's manufactured snow.

The lake he slid on was made with a sort of wood base underneath.

The art director and production designer poured. . .

. . .thousands of gallons of hot wax and had to let it dry.

Every couple of days, it'd get torn up from filming on it.

The night before they'd pour another layer of wax to give that lake a feel.

The reason we have a lake up there is because John said, rightly so:

"The rescue can't take place if the helicopters can put down. "

Because that's what they would do. They'd put down, hop out and fight.

We weren't gonna be able to construct a sequence. . .

. . .where you had to have an entire Bosnian military on one side. . .

. . .but to also shoot the action of the U.S. military.

It was more effective to have them fight the battle from the air.

We put Owen on a frozen lake to explain why they can't put down. . .

. . .which you'll hear Hackman or one of his soldiers say later.

JD: This is one of my favorite shots coming up. This is the elevator. . .

. . .on the aircraft carrier that moves the equipment up and down.

And in a moment you'll see the opposite elevator.

John has his camera on the elevator, giving us this great shot of Gene.

Those elevators move up and down incredibly quickly.

WG: They transport the planes from the hangar bay onto the deck.

She's a member of the military from the Carl Vinson...

. . .who we cast when we arrived on the ship.

-How long has that been on? ANALYST: Seven minutes.

You've gotta be very familiar--

JD: Again, this is all constructed in Slovakia. . .

. . .where Gene is right now on a sound stage.

And the detail and the realism they were able to capture. . .

. . .when you go on the actual ship, was amazing.

Again, this is all on a sound stage. All this stuff.

WG: This is a real satisfying point in the movie.

Unlike a lot of Gene's roles, he's been fairly impotent in this movie.

We got a great reaction. . .

. . .when he finally makes the decision to go.

The Tracker leaving Bazda to die. This used to be a larger story line.

The Tracker's competition with Bazda, who's Lokar's right-hand man.

At some point the idea was that Lokar, feeling the noose tighten. . .

. . .starts to weed-out the people that could turn on him later.

The idea was-- In the scene earlier, by the memorial, we cut this out. . .

. . .he tells the Tracker, "Take Bazda with you. "

You get the sense he's gonna kill him.

JD: Sometimes there are subplots you write in a script.

When the movie's put together, it's too long. . .

. . .and the subplot isn't as important as you thought it was.

So those subplots get minimized. . .

. . .so other story elements can move at a better pace.

WG: This actor playing Bazda is a local Bratislavan actor named Marko.

I forgot his last name. He was fantastic.

We brought Eyde Belasco, our Fox casting director, to Slovakia.

And she and I looked for local talent while John scouted locations.

We'd find somebody and throw them in front of John.

He'd sort of go, "Yes, no, yes, no. "

I think he had a great look and a great sort of. . .

[EXPLOSION ECHOES]

. . .quiet cool.

JD: It's amazing that we constructed this entire lake.

Shooting in Slovakia gave us the ability to do things. . .

. . .budget-wise we could never do anyplace else.

WG: lncredibly great construction guys.

Real talented in the building area.

--I want to make one thing clear before we leave.

JD: Gene worked with us a number of weeks on the location in Slovakia.

And then we convinced him to work on the carrier, which was months later.

We got four days with him there. What we were concerned with. . .

. . .is when one arrives or leaves the carrier at sea. . .

. . .you have to land on an airplane that gets catapulted off. . .

. . .at 1 30 miles an hour and goes from zero to 1 30 in a couple seconds.

And Gene is 71 years old, but he was up for it. . .

. . .and endured all that stress.

WG: I was more than happy to walk on, wait, and walk off the boat.

Not in a hurry to hop on that COD plane they had for him.

JD: Where you take off backwards and have all that G-force.

WG: We actually shot on two aircraft carriers.

One where we shot the actors and a second one. . .

. . .that was even busier than this one. John Moore actually went. . .

. . .and got as much deck activity as possible to construct. . .

. . .with his cool editing style, a kinetic sequence. . .

. . .showing how planes take off and land.

JD: This is an area where John Moore and I debated the music.

I thought this should be very patriotic.

He didn't wanna hit it as hard as I did.

So we compromised. There was a piece he wanted me to give up on earlier.

He said, "I'll trade you that for this. " I said, "Good idea. "

WG: For the aircraft carrier stuff, we had a commander, Bob Anderson. . .

. . .who runs the Navy Hollywood office. He coordinates. . .

. . .with film and television crews and the Navy.

There are public relations guys on the aircraft carrier. . .

. . .who've been told, "Give these guys what they need. "

You've got a letter from the Department of Defense saying:

"We're supporting this movie. "

A guy on the Carl Vinson named Charlie Brown was there to help us maneuver.

The night before you shoot, you'd sit down with the commanders.

You would compare schedules and negotiate every night. . .

. . .how and when you'd shoot your scenes. . .

. . .when they'd let helicopters fly, when they'd need to land the planes.

Every night you'd be up until midnight negotiating.

And you'd be up shooting the next morning by 7:00 when it got light.

But I have to say, as difficult as it was on the ship. . .

. . .they did an extraordinary job to help us get the shots we need.

I think they all have a sense of pride about the way the movie ended up.

We premiered the movie down in San Diego on the base. . .

. . .and it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them. They loved it.

JD: Top Gun was one of the biggest recruiting booms for the U.S. Navy.

They were open to the idea that this film could help them in a similar way.

[ALARM BEEPS]

JD: It was emotional showing the movie on the Nimitz...

. . .to the soldiers, especially after September 1 1 .

Tom Rothman got up and stated, "All we do is make movies.

You guys are out there risking your lives to do what you do.

And that's a fantastic commitment. "

Being able to show them this and talk to them after was very emotional.

WG: This scene you're watching now is sort of a quicker version. . .

. . .of a much more involved fight. . .

. . .we had to trim for ratings issues.

There were more shots Owen takes, bullet hits.

The fight was a lot longer.

Owen, from here on out in the movie. . .

. . .is acting with a partially separated shoulder.

He had had an accident on another stunt, he'd injured his shoulder.

He was back the next day doing action sequences with a separated shoulder.

It's amazing that it's not obvious.

If you look closely, at times you can see he's favoring his right arm.

JD: Owen's from Texas. Texas football, they're used to that.

WG: He grew up with two brothers, he said, "This is nothing. "

JD: Now this sequence was the subject of a lot of editing and re-editing.

It was very hard for us to get it right.

Initially John cut it as pure action, and it wasn't emotionally satisfying.

And this piece, which was originally in, but it was too obvious. . .

. . .we were able to do a more subtle version of it.

This gave us an additional emotional element. . .

. . .that transformed this from just being action to being about something.

It's about Owen saying, "I have to finish what this was all about.

I've gotta get these pictures. "

I think once this worked in the movie. . .

. . .we tested it twice, before and after. It made a difference.

This is what completed his character in the picture.

[ALARM BEEPS]

WG: The orchestration of this stuff with an army on the ground. . .

. . .as well as getting Owen in the middle of it. . .

. . .was an unbelievable production hurdle.

JD: Again, the music was written and rewritten here.

It was very difficult to get the music right. So many things are going on.

There's emotional turns, there's the helicopters, which is like the cavalry.

There's action, there's so much going on, it was so complex.

It was hard to get the music to play the action themes and emotions.

But that was when we were working with the director and the composer. . .

. . .hearing these pieces and giving input.

I think we were able to musically underscore the scene. . .

. . .and hopefully elevate it a little bit.

WG: This is a great stunt, watching guys rappel out of that helicopter. . .

. . .having a guy run up on this wing, jump and catch his arm.

We shot three different parts of it.

It's a pretty phenomenal stunt. . .

. . .when it all comes together.

JD: Thank God he held on to him.

Actually, he's tied up, so he's not gonna fall.

WG: Through the sleeves.

JD: Now we're gonna get into the multiple endings of the movie.

Because we have the movie reaching an ending here.

And we'll have it reaching an ending on the carrier.

We also had shot a full scene with Gene Hackman. . .

. . .on the aircraft carrier--

WG: Getting the news that he lost his battle group.

JD: And we had also shot the scene where our villain. . .

. . .gets taken down at an airport. . .

. . .dressed as a civilian, trying to escape.

Special Forces bring him down. And that was eliminated.

WG: And we had the scene which sort of parallels the opening. . .

. . .where they were planting trees, of the U.N. digging up the bodies.

On the DVD, you'll see we ended up matching that. . .

. . .doing a split screen with Lokar's arrest and the grave digging. . .

. . .which gave you closure on what Owen--

At what Owen's journey had brought about.

JD: Exactly.

WG: Unfortunately, the audience feels like the movie's over here.

They're happy for him, they're ready to go.

They weren't willing to sit through another three minutes of scenes. . .

. . .playing out the demise of the other character.

JD: Yeah.

This is a good time to thank everybody for sitting through the audio portion.

There's a lot of people we would like to thank for helping us with the film.

WG: Obviously, Stephanie Austin, the other executive producer.

She's in Prague shooting a movie, so she couldn't be here.

She was a great help in getting what the director needed to make the movie.

JD: The writers, the Thomas brothers, who wrote the original film concept.

And Zak Penn, who wrote the final draft.

David Veloz, who did an intermediate draft.

Each of the writers moved us further, and all added important stuff.

WG: John Gatens, who helped with the dialogue early on.

It was not credited but it helped with Owen's character.

JD: And Emma Watts, who was our Fox executive. This was her first movie.

She did a great job fighting some of the studio battles for us.

Don Davis came in in a pinch and helped us with the music.

Brendan Galvin, who was the DP.

And lastly, Tom Rothman and Hutch Parker. . .

. . .president and chairman of Fox, helped get this off the ground. . .

. . .were very helpful whenever we needed money.

[MAN CHUCKLES]

And John Moore, who did a great job, who's a great friend of ours.

And had a great first movie. Thanks, John.

WG: Thanks for sitting with us.

JD: What am I most proud and happy with when all is said and done?

The fact that I like the movie.

WG: I'm just proud that it's up there on screen.

It's a much bigger movie than any of us expected it to be.

JD: Whenever a movie gets made, you look back and go:

"How many times was it impossible that this was gonna happen?

How many times were we dead? How many times did we come back?"

And at the end, when it's done, you go:

"I don't know how we did it, but thank God we did it. "

WG: It's amazing. You tend to forget all the fights you have. . .

. . .and embrace the people that helped you. . .

. . .no matter how many times you fought with them.

JD: I lived with this project for six years.

And it was dead three times.

I almost gave up on it until a Navy pilot said:

"You can't give up on it, you just gotta keep at it. "