Legendary smuggler Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) had abandoned his life of crime to settle into a life of comfortable domesticity with his wife and their two young sons. But after his brother-in-law, Andy (Caleb Landry Jones), botches a drug deal for his ruthless boss, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi), Chris is forced back into doing what he does better than anyone – running contraband – to settle Andy’s debt.
With the help of his best friend, Sebastian Abney (Ben Foster), Chris quickly assembles a crew that includes their childhood friend Danny Raymer (Lukas Haas) to head to Panama and return with millions in counterfeit bills. They must pull this off under the suspicious eyes of the ship’s captain (J.K. Simmons), whose long history with Chris’ father makes him suspect the younger Farraday of even shadier dealings.
Things quickly fall apart, and with only hours to reach the cash, Chris must use his skills to successfully navigate a treacherous criminal network of brutal Panamanian drug runners such as Gonzalo (Diego Luna), cops and hit men before his wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale), and his sons become their target.
Casting the Action-Thriller
For Contraband, Kormákur employed the same casting technique he used during the years he made movies in his home country. Rather than choosing an actor by his or her looks, the director casts according to the performer’s personality. “I like to find the core of people,” he says. “The outer appearance is less important. What is the person? You try to figure that out and make that right for the character.”
The first actor cast was the same man to whom the director brought his ideas for a film inspired by the one in which he last performed. Kormákur commends: “Mark has a mixture of boyish charm and toughness, and you believe him as a blue-collar guy. Chris has actually walked out of the criminal world, but then he’s forced back in. That’s the great thing about heist-thrillers. It’s great to see people step outside the norm and do something that the rest of us wouldn’t do.”
Describing his character, Wahlberg explains: “Chris is definitely a thinker, but he is not afraid to raise his voice or get his hands dirty.” For Wahlberg, when his character finds himself back in the game, and possibly over his head, that’s when the fun begins. He offers: “Chris is continuing to try to figure out a way to survive, to still solve the problem and then get his ass home to his wife and kids.”
When it came time to casting the role of Chris’ wife, Kate, a number of actresses were considered. None, however, brought the combination of beauty and iron will needed…until the performer who has handled the blockbuster Underworld series as effortlessly as she’s helped create comedies and period pieces threw her hat in the ring. Of the production’s decision to bring Kate Beckinsale onto the project, Kormákur says: “Kate was a good choice in many ways. She’s obviously very beautiful, but, at the same time, very real. There is an interesting mixture of sensitivity and toughness in Kate, and her role is a bit different from the original.”
Wahlberg agrees that they wanted Chris’ wife to have more of an attitude in this chapter of the Contraband story. “Kate responded to it right away and was hungry to do something different,” he reflects. “She reminds me a lot of Amy Adams in The Fighter. You’re watching somebody you’re used to seeing in a certain way completely surprise you.”
The actress admits that Guzikowski’s taut narrative captured her attention. “Contraband has a gripping story and terrific characters,” she commends. “It created a world that I was interested in and one that was unfamiliar to me.” Of her role, the actress says: “She’s a great character because she’s loving and strong, tough and quite reactive.”
Beckinsale explains that because she is apart from her co-star for much of the film, she spent much time considering the relationships within her character’s family. She says, “You have to fill in a number of things yourself so that when you show up to shoot, there feels like there’s a history between your husband and yourself, or your brother, whom you’ve helped raise. It was important to feel that strong foundation there.”
As the production had been underway for a few weeks before she joined, Beckinsale admits she felt like “the new girl.” Glamorous, it wasn’t. “I turned up on set and was covered in blood and then wrapped like a burrito in plastic tarpaulin,” she laughs. “It was hailing and freezing, and I was trying not to shiver. Then I was dumped into a muddy hole and had concrete poured on me. I thought, ‘Well, that’s probably as good a way as any to start to feel like part of the gang.’”
Brought onto the team to play Sebastian Abney, childhood best friend of Chris Farraday, was Ben Foster. “Sebastian is a fantastic character in many ways,” explains Kormákur. “What is interesting to me is that Sebastian is a consummate pleaser. Pleasers tend to avoid confrontations and often end up making things worse. By trying to please everyone, you betray yourself and everyone around you. Chris stands up for the right things under difficult circumstances while Sebastian doesn’t.”
Wahlberg describes how Foster came onto the project. “I went up to him at an event,” he remembers. “I said, ‘Hi, I’m a big fan,’ and he looked at me like I was crazy. He didn’t believe me at first, and he thought I was joking around. I said, ‘I’ve seen you in many different things, and I hope we get to work together.’ When this came up, I knew I had to get him.”
Foster relished the chance to play a complex character. The performer says: “I based him on a producer I once worked with. He has a desperate need to be liked by everyone…presenting himself to the world as a great success, all the while his personal life is spinning out of control. We all make mistakes; we have all let ourselves and loved ones down in some way. In life and work, one has to suspend judgment to get at the heart of a person. I refuse to judge the people I play. You have to root for them and fight for what they believe in. In his mind, Sebastian is trying to do the right thing.”
When Giovanni Ribisi first auditioned for Contraband, it was for a different part from the one he ultimately landed. Kormákur suggested he read for
Tim Briggs, the local thug who terrorizes the Farraday family after Andy flubs a lucrative deal. Kormákur says he was originally looking for “the tough guy,” but he felt that Ribisi brought something unexpected and more dangerous than a typical bully would.
Says the director: “I’ve followed Giovanni for a long time. He is a fantastic actor who dug into this character. The great thing about good villains is that you want to see more of them. At the same time, you are freaked out by them. He plays this role with a great balance.”
Ribisi describes his character of Briggs as “the bogeyman”: “He’s the guy you don’t want knocking on your door at night. He just spent five years in Angola, and he’s your worst nightmare.” The actor adds that he was impressed by the methods with which his director shot the film. “I feel like Balt stretches the boundaries of ordinary filmmaking because the film is so steeped in reality. He doesn’t glamorize smuggling; he shows the reality of it.”
X-Men: First Class star Caleb Landry Jones was brought onto the production to play Kate’s younger brother, Andy, whose botched smuggling deal at the onset of the story sets the stage for the film’s harrowing follow-up events. States Wahlberg: “After casting Kate, we had to find someone who was believable as her brother. Caleb was that guy, and he is obviously a tremendous young talent.”
“Andy is a very tricky character,” adds Kormákur, who says he met with close to 100 young actors before choosing the 22-year-old Jones for the role. “You cannot cast just the sweetest guy in the world to sympathize with because you have to believe that Andy does the things that he does. He’s young. He does stupid things, but he’s not a bad guy. We fell in love with Caleb when he read; he’s a very special talent.”
Jones admits that he’ll not soon forget the adrenaline rush of shooting the scene in which the U.S. Customs officials close in during his failed smuggling attempt. “I was much more afraid than I would have been if there hadn’t been a helicopter,” he remembers. “Those sniffer dogs got me running pretty fast, too.” Jones laughs that he didn’t have a problem jumping a fence or being locked into a wall…“as long as they let me out later.”
J.K. Simmons was asked to join the cast as Captain Camp, a character who offers a mix of authority and humor. “He knows Chris,” explains Kormákur. “His father has a history with him. Chris doesn’t mind going on the boat to make life difficult for the captain. Better the devil you know than the one you don’t. There’s instant rivalry because Camp knows Chris left as the most accomplished smuggler of New Orleans, and now he’s back. Camp knows he’s up to something, so he is on Chris’ back trying to figure out what the hell he’s doing. It’s a cat-and-mouse play.”
Simmons says that there was a running joke among the character’s shipmates about his obsession with vacuuming. Discussing the part, he laughs: “There’s a little Felix Ungar i n t h e captain, so he likes to keep the ship clean. That is part of his feeling at home.” He may have a predilection for staying clean, but there’s no doubt that Camp plays dir ty. “I like to keep up the appearances of being the noble captain, but I’m a bit of a scumbag. If anybody’s trying to run anything on my ship, they include me and I get a payoff. Bud Farraday, Chris’ dad, wasn’t interested in doing that, so I made arrangements to have Bud take a long-term vacation…”
Lukas Haas, who has worked with Ben Foster on the feature Alpha Dog and Giovanni Ribisi on Gardener of Eden, as well as on a two-episode storyline on Levinson and Wahlberg’s Entourage, joined the project as Danny Raymer, a close friend of Chris’ who goes with him to Panama to try to fix the botched deal made by Andy. “We tested a lot of guys and when Lukas read with Mark, they had such good chemistry,” recalls Kormákur.
Diego Luna, whose breakthrough role came in Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También, was cast as Panamanian drug runner Gonzalo, the final obstacle for Chris before he can return to New Orleans and erase his brother-in-law’s debt. When Chris discovers the counterfeit cash he has been planning to bring back to the States is unusable, Chris turns to Gonzalo for help. Little does Chris know just how much it will cost to help the former petty criminal who now sees himself as a kingpin.
Notes producer Fellner: “Diego has this ability to take what could easily be a stock character and transform him into something very unexpected. We see that Gonzalo has risen his way through the ranks to become one of the heads of this Panamanian cartel, and at any moment, he could snap and kill the men in Chris’ crew. It takes an actor of Diego’s caliber to create a character that walks the fine line between opportunistic thug and unhinged psychopath.”
Additional supporting parts in Contraband belong to Wanted’s DAVID O’HARA as Louisiana crime kingpin Jim Church; television’s Sons of Anarchy’s WILLIAM LUCKING as Chris’ father, Bud Farraday; and Reykjavik- Rotterdam’s ÓLAFUR DARRI ÓLAFSSON as the ship’s easily stressed engineer, Igor.
Life in the Big Easy: Design and Locations
Contraband was filmed on location throughout the many diverse communities of New Orleans, with select sequences shot in Panama City. Under the creative eye of cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, the thriller was filmed using multiple cameras to capture real-time action. Early on, the design team traveled to Panama City to determine what scenes should be lensed on location and what scenes would use New Orleans as a location double.
Ackroyd’s decision to use more than one camera allowed the actors greater ability to improvise, without worrying as much about hitting specific marks. Kormákur and the cast trusted the action-veteran DP to capture their natural movements on film.
Shooting in New Orleans
Production designer Tony Fanning offers that his team envisioned a layered, textured New Orleans. “We see a lot of economic status differences, industrial versus suburban, in Contraband,” he explains. “Most of us know the French Quarter, and we know about New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina and the catastrophes that have happened there. It’s nice to see real people living in their environments in different parts of New Orleans; these are not places that we ordinarily see in movies.”
Of lensing in less commercially recognized areas, Kormákur says that he didn’t want to be predictable. “It’s the same thing I do when filming in my own country. I want to dig in and see sides of places you haven’t seen a thousand times before. That is more interesting to me.”
The setting offers ferry docks with freighters seen coming from both directions. “Tony, Balt and I had many conversations about where we should set the characters,” adds location manager SAM TEDESCO. “We came upon the idea of placing them on the West Bank of the Mississippi River. This allowed us to show their blue-collar upbringing, with the river as a dividing line between the two sides of the city. That informed everything else. The locals in Algiers call this area the ‘French Quarter with parking.’ It’s got a lot of the flavor, and yet it’s got a real neighborhood feel.”
Fa n n i n g s ay s t h e place chosen as the set for the Farraday’s home represented their past and present. Situated under the Crescent City Connection Bridge, the house, according to the designer, “is a visual connection to the life that Chris and Kate had across the river before they moved.”
As Chris rebuilds a life away from his criminal past, he is in a more sheltered, protected spot.
The majority of the thriller’s scenes take place on the West Bank. However, as one of the Farraday’s friends who moved to the warehouse district, Sebastian has a loft apartment that ran the other end of the spectrum. “Ben brought a lot to a character who is confused, unsure of where he wants to go,” Fanning offers. “He wants to have this macho life, but he also wants to have quality goods. He’s not a good judge of it, so we made both of his spaces uneasy. He’s constantly renovating and not sure how to finish it. He has well-known design pieces, but also old chairs that he can’t part with.”
For Briggs’ apartment, Fanning contacted the owners of Crescent City Apartments, a large complex that had been hit hard by Hurricane Katrina. The building had been going through a renovation when the owner went bankrupt. Permission was granted to take a location in the building from its run-down condition to a state of even further decay.
“We put graffiti on the walls and trashed it in order to give the place the right look,” explains Tedesco. “The people were incredibly generous to let us come in and literally paint graffiti all over a five- or six-story building. They had people coming there every day to look at apartments to rent, and the whole time we had trash strewn everywhere…with mattresses and furniture hanging off of balconies. They were incredibly generous with letting us do that as they tried to market the property at the same time.”
Tedesco adds that Ribisi was so into his character that when the actor saw the place, he asked if he could temporarily stay there. “We literally had to talk him out of moving in,” laughs the location manager. “He thought it would be a great way to get to know his character and inhabit the role.”
The setting for the Old Point Bar, frequented by the thug Briggs, is a locals’ hangout known in Algiers Point. “What I love about the Old Point Bar is that half the bar stools are occupied by dogs,” says Tedesco. “That’s unique to New Orleans. The bar has such great architectural character and a patina that comes with age that you cannot re-create. Both inside and out, it’s just dripping in character. To find a bar that working-class people and merchant seamen hang out in was difficult. A lot of the New Orleans bars have tremendous character, but they don’t have that dark, threatening quality. This had everything rolled into one.”
The challenge in the search for the location that would become Kate’s salon was that the production team had to be able to control the street on a busy Friday night and allow for a truck to crash through the window. Most of the contenders were in very populated areas, but a yoga studio off the beaten track turned out to be ideal. The owner saw Kormákur and Levinson standing out in front of his place on a scouting mission, so he invited them into the studio.
Fanning shares that the yoga studio was formerly an old metal shop, and it turned out to be perfect for the crew’s needs. “It was this house that was connected to a brick shop that had a garage door in it,” the designer says. “We took the garage door out and put a glass door in and worked with the existing space. We added a salon element to it, but on top of the owner’s style, we also tried to play up New Orleans.”
Discussing the location that became Sebastian’s shipping company, Tedesco says the team was lucky to work with Avondale Container Yard. Both the father and son owners became part of the crew and were generous with their time. Foster shadowed Mike O’Brien, Jr., to see what it was like to run the place. “Mike always had a smile on his face,” says Tedesco. “He would come in extra early on the shoot days saying, ‘How can we help? What do you need?’ We shot that place thoroughly and got a lot of production value out of it.”
For scenes in which Chris goes to the prison to see his father, the production chose to shoot in an actual correction facility rather than filming on a set. They were helped by the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office and lensed in a prison in the city of Gretna, adjacent to Algiers on the West Bank. The facility had an exercise yard overlooking the Mississippi River, which gave the team just the background they needed.
The stunning Hargrove, Tranquility Plantation served as the backdrop for one of Contraband’s final scenes in which Chris unloads “super notes” to his buyer, Mr. Church, one of New Orleans’ most successful criminals. The opulent setting has 250 acres of land and an original house from the Civil War, and it is surrounded by a bayou on three sides.
For Beckinsale, lensing on location helped her develop her character and accent. “We were shooting in a city we were supposed to be living in,” she provides. “That doesn’t happen as often as you might think. In terms of placing where the character is from, it’s great to actually be there and to walk around. New Orleans is such a particular city that you have to be there to get the vibe.” To help her prepare, Beckinsale says she arrived a few days prior to shooting and visited several hair salons in the parish. “I met some fantastic women who were helpful in terms of listening to their accents.”
A good portion of the production was in New Orleans as Mardi Gras heated up. As the crowds and the street closures made it impossible for the cast and crew to get to work, Contraband shut down for four days during the event. Sums Kormákur: “It was a treat to be able to really enjoy the true spirit of New Orleans in the height of the season.”
Filming on Ships
Much of the interior shots of Captain Camp’s ship were filmed aboard an actual U.S. Maritime Administration vessel, the S.S. Bellatrix, anchored at Marrero, Louisiana. Although the ship, measuring at almost 900-feet long, might have looked spacious, the crew had its challenges maneuvering the camera gear in such tight quarters. Shares Kormákur: “I love that the boat is a huge metal monster that becomes a character.”
Interior shots of the ship were accomplished during a week aboard the S.S. Bellatrix. The ship’s engine room is five-stories tall, with catwalks throughout it, and allowed for incredible shots that could never have been captured on a conventional set.
Exterior shots were filmed in the New Orleans harbor. Finding a huge container ship that was not in use, then garnering permission to shoot the vessel as it sailed down the Mississippi, was a big challenge. Fortunately, seasoned marine coordinator TROY WATERS was enlisted to sort out the myriad details.
According to Waters, there are several factors to account for when choosing to shoot onboard an actual ship. He explains: “Weather is a huge consideration because of continuity. The other consideration is the underway shots. Those shots require the cooperation of various river pilots, as well as governmental authorities like the Coast Guard and Harbor Police. So everyone has to be onboard, so to speak.”
Waters explains that it took five months to find the perfect vessel. He began his search through a worldwide network of brokers, but in the end, found the ship himself. While the script called for two ships, they only needed to use one. The art department helped to turn this 325-foot vessel into two ships by building an addition to the craft and painting the outside with two different names. For the opening scenes in which Andy is captured, the blue-hulled vessel was the B.B.C. Romania. By painting a section of it black, with an added exterior section to make the ship look much larger, this craft became the Borden. For the latter part of the film, it was now under the command of J.K. Simmons as Captain Camp.
Sailing the huge ship down the Mississippi involved considerable negotiations by Waters and his team. The marine coordinator says it was the U.S. Coast Guard who offered them the most help. “We work with the Coast Guard quite a bit on these types of productions,” he explains, “because they have authority in every navigable waterway in the country. So if they don’t get a warm fuzzy feeling with something that we want to do, we have to tone it down. But the Coast Guard group in New Orleans was very cooperative, and we were able to accomplish everything we wanted to shoot.”
The art department had its work cut out when it began to populate the ship with hundreds of containers…one of which contained a quite valuable van. They not only had to remove the logos from the many containers, but also had to hire a company to place the crates on the ship at the Port of New Orleans. This was accomplished by the aid of enormous gantry cranes.
In addition to the “hero boats” seen in Contraband, there were many marine vessels used behind the scenes. Along with the boats that were dedicated to various film departments, camera boats, safety boats and shuttle boats were all used in the production. Not enough? There was also a green-screen barge that was used to accommodate specific scenes that had to be filmed on green screen… but look as if they were shot on the river. Waters explains that this was “the biggest green screen” he had “ever put on the water.”
Some scenes on the ship were lensed in Panama. These occurred while the vessel was actually transiting the Miraflores Locks as it went into Balboa to the container terminal. Marine coordinators worked with the Panama Canal Commission and the multiple film authorities to secure the required permission for the shoot.
Cranes, Crashes and Chaos: Stunk Work and Action
To ensure dramatic tension, the action for the thriller was captured in real time. Explains producer Levinson: “To make you feel like you’re in the moment and feel the pressure, we wanted to keep it as close to reality as possible. Balt wanted to design the sequences so they weren’t predetermined, prethought of by the characters. Things would unfold randomly, instead of like in a spy film, where everything is carefully laid out. That was something he carefully orchestrated.”
Kormákur adds: “What I like about action is that I want it to be real as much as possible, but it has to be fun and entertaining at the same time. You want to push the action sequences to be gritty and real, but there has to be gravity to them.”
Fight Scenes
Stunt coordinator DARRIN PRESCOTT explains that Kormákur appreciates the hands-on approach. “Balt likes to try a few of the things himself,” he says. “He’s a hands-on actor, a physical guy who will get in there and do the fights. He did a stair fall and drove. He knows what he wants and doesn’t like action just for action’s sake.”
Wahlberg was often on the front lines, but he admits that he used to insist on doing more of his own stunts before he became a father. “You start thinking about safety first,” he says. “We wanted to make it as real as possible. So as long as there was nothing risky, we’d get out there and do it. Balt is very interested in capturing what’s organic and in the moment. That can be a bit hair-raising when you’re being thrown around a kitchen and having things smashed at your head.”
He wasn’t the only actor getting tossed about on the set. Underworld vet Beckinsale faced off with Ribisi, as Briggs, in especially brutal scenes in Kate’s salon and at the Farraday home. Beckinsale says she did go to sleep at night, having sustained quite a few bruises and cuts.
She relays: “The surprise and shock were appropriate. What’s so great about Giovanni is that he’s such a fine person and a brilliant actor. When you come from that place of feeling trust between actors, you don’t mind if they slam you into a table. Well, not too much.”
Prescott says that Beckinsale asked to perform in as much of her fight scenes as possible: “What we wanted out of that fight with Giovanni was just brutality. A lot of the time, those types of fights are harder on the actors than a choreographed fight because they’re meant to be messy. When people fight in reality, it’s not ‘you punch me, I punch you; I duck, you duck.’
“The fight was choreographed ahead of time so the director could get an idea and the actors could see where we were going,” the stunt coordinator continues. “It was more of a loose foundation, something for them to work from. Kate and Giovanni did well, but Kate ended up taking the brunt of it and never complained.”
Prescott says that a stunt double was standing by in case Beckinsale had enough, but she kept going. “The next day, she was pretty bruised up,” he remembers. “She was black and blue from head to toe. I don’t think I’ll ever hear the end of it from Kate.”
For the scene in which Briggs crashes his SUV into Kate’s salon, there was a stunt double in place of Beckinsale. The truck was rigged with what is known as a “dead man,” an anchoring system tied to the back of the vehicle as a safety in case the brakes fail. When the truck burst through the wall of tempered glass, it stopped within just five feet of the stuntwoman. To ensure the 12 panes of glass smashed, a small detonation charge was put onto each pane. The stuntwoman was showered with wood and glass but came out of the scene without a scratch on her.
Helicopter Work
In the opening scene of the film, in which U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) closes in on Andy’s botched smuggling effort, the officials attempt to board the vessel while it is in motion. This way, they may seize any contraband before it is thrown off the ship. For that scene, three CBP vessels were used, in addition to helicopters and a Black Hawk. As well, a “safe boat”—a rigid, inflatable craft surrounded by a tube to prevent any damage during contact with the boarded vessel—was utilized.
Safety during the shoot was a prime concern for marine coordinator Waters, who says that there was also a dedicated safe boat standing by to monitor cast and crew. As well, for boat transfers—from boat to boat or from boat to ship—the team wore inflatable life jackets with water-activated lights. The same safety net was used for the film’s climax, when Chris and Danny return to the ship with the authorities hot on their trail.
For the opening sequence, a Customs helicopter was needed to hover over the ship. Timing was crucial for aerial coordinator DAVID CALVERT-JONES, who knew that he only had approximately 30 minutes of light to capture the helicopter coming toward the ship. A camera crew was in a separate chopper. “The pilots were not film pilots experienced in working for cameras, and the aircraft were Customs helicopters,” explains Calvert- Jones. After an extensive rehearsal process, they got the shots that they needed. “Those guys rose to the occasion and did a great job.”
For the scene, when the helicopter must hover over the ship and shine “the night sun” on Andy below, Calvert-Jones says his team got that shot in one take. With the location just outside New Orleans’ air control zone, Calvert-Jones—in constant communication with the pilots above—was able to coordinate the scene from the ground.
For the big takedown sequences in which CBP commandeers the ship, there were more challenges in store for the team. The project was quite ambitious as the crew had to gain approvals for the container ship to navigate down the Mississippi River, directly in front of downtown New Orleans. Helicopters hovered above as boats surrounded the vessel. With hundreds watching from the shore, when the director called “action,” that’s exactly what he got.
Armored Car Heist
One of the biggest action scenes in Contraband takes place when Chris and Danny pull a heist on an armored car in order to settle the debt with a Panamanian cartel. Their very dangerous job is to cut off the vehicle. With Chris behind the wheel of a van, they veer in front of the truck; it crashes into them, and a shoot-out begins. The two men narrowly escape and leap into the back of a truck to make their escape. When the truck’s driver is shot, Chris jumps into the driver’s seat and heads back toward the ship.
Tedesco says that finding the location for this climactic scene was a big challenge. The setting had to look like Panama, but it needed to be shot in New Orleans. The crew was fortunate to discover a section of highway that had a grove of date palm trees and showed the city skyline in the background. The day he brought Kormákur to the site, Tedesco recalls: “I saw him start getting excited. He was walking around and picking angles. The wheels were turning, and he started grinning.”
What Prescott describes as “the takedown scene” was the first opportunity he has had to create a big shoot-out.
The stunt coordinator says the key to crafting that scene was to keep it very organic. “Even the camera guys were told not to fixate on one thing,” he recalls. “If you know a guy’s getting shot over there, don’t just sit there and film the guy getting shot. Look over here and then come over and go past him and come back and catch him as you are getting his reaction. You’re there as an observer, instead of it being presented to you perfectly.”
Preparation for the sequence was intense. Five highways and exit ramps had to be closed down during the stunt sequences. With automatic weapons fire and C-4 explosions taking place, representatives from the fire department were on-site to monitor all activity. Before the roadways could be reopened to traffic, the crew had the very large task of cleaning up approximately 30,000 automatic-weapon shell casings.
When the armored car slams into Chris and Danny’s van, it was originally meant to be a big wreck with the van flipping and then rolling. The production was faced with the challenge of using a real bridge that could not be marked or hit. To compensate, the ingenious effects crew built what looked like a snowplow rig on the front of the armored car. The idea was that the snowplow would come in and “scoop up” Chris and Danny’s van and get it to rotate. The rig worked, and the van made a 50-percent rotation, giving the director the realistic look that he wanted for the scene.
Without heavily relying on post and the use of green screen, careful planning was needed to get the stunt driving and effects just right. To create the crash, the actors were placed in a van on a gimbal and spun around. This helped the director and cinematographer capture the shots needed of Wahlberg and Haas tossing and turning inside the vehicle during the terrifying crash.
Haas was in the passenger seat as Wahlberg maneuvered through the streets of New Orleans. He recalls: “Mark was spinning the van around, crashing into things.” The performer admits he was pleased not to act in front of a green screen. “When you’re shooting with green screen and CGI, you’re looking at something that’s not there. You can see it in the acting, and it can make the shot feel fake. In this case, we actually did everything. We were driving the van around and crashing into things. It gives you the feeling that it’s actually happening.”
Racing Home
Danny race back to Camp’s ship with the clock ticking, the docks of New Orleans were swarming with actors dressed as Customs officials and police officers, as helicopters hovered overhead. “The Drug Enforcement Administration delivered,” says Levinson. “They rolled out the red carpet and gave us the assets, the manpower and the know-how. People wanted to be involved and were excited about the process.”
“It’s a scene when you think Chris is at his lowest,” explains Kormákur. “Then when you think he has no chance of getting through it, you see helicopters, Black Hawks and boats coming up the river. There are dogs barking at every corner of the boat. It was great, but it was so many pieces to put together.”
Waters explains that the first step in receiving needed permission for the shoot was giving a walk-through for officials. “We first had to approach the CBP, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security,” he states. “They did a script review to make sure that it was not showing them in an unflattering light. They’re very protective of their image, so we had to rewrite some of the action, based on their protocols.”
To ensure that the situation was as authentic as possible, the team followed these protocols, to the letter. “There are several ‘houses,’” shares Waters. “There is the Air and Marine Wing, and there’s the Operational Wing; they don’t wear the same uniforms. As far as the boarding procedures, it had to be how CBP would do it. ”
One of the most complex scenes shot is when Chris rushes back to the ship with his stash, with the enemy in hot pursuit, and eases the car into a container. For the sequence, Wahlberg drove the car into the container. According to his passenger, Haas, “Mark drove right into the container five times, one right after the other, and he never hit the sides. He feels confident about what he’s doing, and so it makes you feel confident.”
Wahlberg concludes by offering that he hopes the audience enjoys this ride. “I hope they feel the suspense and the tension,” he ends. “But, ultimately, it’s going to trace back to the relationship between Chris and Kate. If the audience is invested early, then they’re going to be invested late. I hope they’re on the edge of their seat, watching, hoping, and waiting to connect the dots.”
Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Lukas Haas, Giovanni Ribisi, Jaqueline Fleming, Diego Luna
Screenplay by: Aaron Guzikowski
MPAA Rating: R for violence, pervasive language and brief drug use.
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: January 13th, 2021
