Fast Five's Stunt Coordinator Breaks Down the Vault Car Chase Scene

Hi I'm Jack Gill.

I was the stunt coordinator on Fast Five.

And I'm gonna do a one scene breakdown

of the infamous vault chase in Fast Five.

[dramatic music]

I started out as a stunt person.

I really enjoyed doing the high falls

and doing all the car wrecks and all the motorcycle wrecks.

And then as you get older,

you're in a boardroom with a lot of people

who don't really know action

telling you to your face that

I don't think you could do that.

And then you bring it to the screen.

That's where the real enjoyment for me is.

Is to be able to see something

on the screen that they told you

you couldn't do.

The vault chase was easily

our biggest chase in the entire film.

So at the opening of this bit

we're got Vin and Paul in their Chargers.

And they've got cables attached to a vault.

They're gonna pull the vault through a cement wall

and then carry it down through this parking garage

and out the front to exit.

This is a breakaway wall obviously

that we're pulling our vault through.

And these cables are real cables they go to

but what you don't see on the bottom is we put Delrin,

which is a really thick plastic on the bottom

of the vault here so that it would slide easier.

The problem we found out with the Delrin

is once you get the vault moving,

it doesn't want to stop.

So we had to take the Delrin off once

we got out of the street because

once the vault started sliding right and left,

we never could stop it.

This entire square here was all breakaway wall.

This was on a stage.

Once you see the vault leave that frame,

then we're back in a real environment.

[dramatic music]

[shots firing]

We brought the vault out of this underground parking garage

at speed in our first shot.

Made the right hand turn and tumbled the vault

across this whole section you see out here.

And we were just guessing as to

where that thing would tumble.

But that is a real 9000 pound vault tumbling across

out of these cement posts that we put in.

We had about two of these real steel 9000 pound vaults.

Two of the driving vaults.

And two of the semi vaults which we'll talk about later.

Like I said it started with Delrin plastic

to make it slide easier on the inside.

What you see here is it's just sliding on steel,

titanium so that we could create sparks out both sides.

It was an intricate and tricky little piece

because if one of the Chargers turns early,

he picks up a piece of the safe

and that makes the other Charger not be able

to pick up his end of it.

So they have to have complete tightness

on the cables from both Chargers at all times.

The idea behind the dolly track

and the camera being that close to where

we knew it was gonna crash

was that you want the audience

to feel that rush in their face.

And that's the thing that really makes the difference

in a Fast and Furious movie is that the audience

wants to feel that they're part of this chase.

And if you can't get the cameras in close enough

to the action coming right to your face, you've lost 'em.

[dramatic music]

What you will see in this shot is something

we like to do in all the Fast and Furiouses,

is we like to put people in the foreground.

And you see this stunt guy right here.

Now he's gotta watch that safe.

If the cables break it's coming right for him.

And then there's another stunt guy out here.

We've got pedestrians here and here.

And crossing in front of camera

you'll see them go right and left.

If that gives us the feel that there

are people on the streets and it's dangerous.

This is a completely different setup for us.

What we did is we took all the pedestrians

that were in danger out of the way.

And we said bring this thing around the corner

as fast as you could bring it just so we have speed.

We knew we couldn't put any stunt people

you know anywhere over here because it's a dangerous spot.

You have to be careful about each and every one

of these shots and when you see it in the cut,

because you've seen all those people in the foreground

the cut before that your eye doesn't miss all of them

in this one 'cause it's such a quick cut.

[dramatic music]

In this scene we knew we wanted

to tie in a child in the foreground looking out

and seeing the vault being pulled by two Chargers.

Here's what we did is we took the bus side of it.

We drug the vault, the real vault around two or three times

'til we got the shot we wanted with our other cameras.

And then we put the bus back in

and this little girl you see here is Justin Lin,

our first unit director's daughter.

And we shot over her and we pulled

another vault past it again.

But we didn't pull the 9000 vault past her.

We pulled another vault past her

that we had a hidden pickup truck inside the vault.

I know that's a little tough to understand

because pickup truck's pretty big.

But what I did is I took a pickup truck

and I cut the entire middle path out of it

from the back of the front wheels

to the front of the back wheels we took that out

and we welded it back together so all it has

is an engine, front wheels, and back wheels, and a seat.

And that's essentially it.

And then we fit it down inside of the vault.

And then we gave him steering wheels

and we got this thing about,

about an inch off the ground so that

he could actually swing it around the corner and drive it

extremely close to this bus without endangering anybody.

What we didn't really know was that

the truck sitting inside of a enclosed vault creates heat.

We knew it would be hot.

We didn't know it was gonna be 190 degrees in there.

So the stunt guy that was in there

starting passing out on us.

So let's bring in dry ice and put it all on top

of the steering wheel, in front of the steering wheel,

and that'll cool you off.

What happens when you bring dry ice

into an enclosed surface?

It takes all the oxygen out of the air

so now he couldn't breathe.

So then I had to put a helmet on him

with an enclosed shield and everything

and a pipe that went out the top

so that he could now breathe air

that was outside of the vault and then he was comfortable.

So it took a little bit of time

to figure all this out but once we got it

past all these little problems,

we figured out that this drivable safe

was really gonna help us.

[dramatic music]

[crashing]

[crashing]

[crowd screaming]

We knew we wanted to roll this vault

and we created this bank building from scratch.

This essentially was just a parking lot.

Built this entire curb here.

Built all the steps.

Built the glass.

Put it all in there and knew that we wanted

this thing to tumble through.

So what we had is two stunt guys in Chargers.

Right here and right here.

Pulling a real vault in at speed.

And hitting a parked police car.

Just to show the immense size of this thing.

And get it to start turning.

When it hits it here we put a guy in the foreground

which is what I told you about before

to give it a sense of danger.

It looks like he's only a few feet away from the vault.

But this is what we call a compressed lens, a long lens.

It makes our stuntman right here look like

he's a lot closer to the vault than he really is.

But this is just the first piece

of a multiple piece sequence that you'll see.

So here we have our entire built bank building.

What we wanted on the inside

was we said we want to have a camera on a dolly

dollying past people that are inside of the bank building.

So that as we're seeing their faces at camera,

the vault is tumbling behind them.

The second piece of this

is the vault is back here.

And it's on an enormous ram

that the special effects people built for us.

A ram is something that is a hydraulic piece

that has a piston that shoots out.

At an enormous rate of speed and creates the tumbling effect

and the speed on an enormous track

that goes all the way through the floor

of the bank building so that

it can't get off the track and can't hit our stunt people.

And when it's sitting back here,

it's on these two arms with these two holders

on it that are going through the middle.

As he pushes it, it starts tumbling.

And as it's tumbling,

when it hits the outside of the bank building here

it releases and once it started tumbling,

it's now tumbling on its own through there

on the track that we want.

[sirens blaring]

[dramatic music]

[sirens blaring]

[car crashing]

So in this sequence we were trying

to think of ingenious ways for Paul and Vin's character

to stop police cars coming at them.

We came up with this idea of splitting

and going into an alley each themselves

which then makes the vault come forward

toward the police cars that are coming head on at 'em.

The car you see here is towed in.

There's no stunt people in that.

The car you see here has one stunt person in it

with a helmet on in a full cage and everything else.

See the vault was coming in at probably

40 and we were towing in that car

at probably 40 so it's an 80 mile an hour crash.

And then the stunt guy in the back,

we told him we thought this car

was gonna hit and the back it was gonna get a little light.

And if you see it get light try and stuff your car

underneath it and that's exactly what happened.

One of the key things to remember

in a chase like this that every time you do

a chase scene and you're going down

the straightaway at the end of the scene,

and I yell cut, the stunt guys driving the Chargers

as Paul and Vin have to stop the vault.

You can't just slam on the brakes

'cause that 9000 pound vault is gonna crash into you.

So they have to ease off the throttles.

Not even hit the brakes for about another 40 or 50 feet

and let the vault take another 50 or 60 feet

to slide up behind them.

[dramatic music]

[shots firing]

[car skidding]

[crashing]

The biggest problem with any motorcycle stunt

in any film is that you have no protection.

Sure you've got a helmet most of the time.

But with car stunts you've got metal all around you

and a cage and things that protect you.

On a motorcycle like this,

you could only put on so many pads inside

of a police uniform and a helmet.

And that's still not steel around you

like you have in a car.

So you're actually trying to put your feet

on some back pegs that you've put on the motorcycle

that don't exist in real life.

You weld on two little tiny places

where you can put your feet back there.

You said that right before you hit this vehicle,

you can push like crazy and get

your knees above those handlebars.

If your knees hit those handlebars,

it then turns you over and you do a nosedive into the hood.

So what actually happened here

is what our stuntman riding the motorcycle

just didn't get off the motorcycle quick enough.

He was a millisecond late.

And he dug his shoulder into the car right there

instead of turning completely over and broke his shoulder.

[car engine roaring]

So in this sequence we've got a Charger pushing

a real 9000 pound vault backwards out into the street.

With the other Charger leading it.

And as he comes out, our Charger that's pushing it

past the throw what we call a reverse 180.

You go as fast as you can in reverse.

Then you spin the steering wheel.

The front end comes around the back end.

And then as it comes around all the way around,

you throw it into drive and you gas it

and now you're going straight again.

It's a very very difficult move on its own

let alone pushing a 9000 pound safe.

We've rehearsed this one scene

in a parking lot for almost a week.

[car screeching]

[car crashing]

[car crashing]

[car crashing]

[pole crashing]

[car crashing]

So we created this entire bus stop.

It wasn't there before and we built all the glass walls

and put the top on and put everything else in there.

And then said we're gonna have the Chargers

split the bus stop and have the vault go through the middle.

You can see that there is a big pole here.

And what we wanted the audience to see

is that prior to this,

a light pole had dropped in the middle of the street.

And we wanted this to look like the policeman hit

the light pole with the front end, it turned sideways.

Then the side hit the light pole

and the car tumbles side over side down the street.

Well that's not gonna happen in reality

and look really spectacular.

So what we do underneath the car,

we put what's called a cannon.

So just think about a real cannon pointed toward

the ground stuck where the passenger seat is.

You weld it all into the cage.

And then you give the stunt guy a button.

And you say come in here at speed.

Pitch the car sideways, hit the button.

That cannon fires, shoots the projectile out

it hits the ground, and makes this car flip like this.

[shots firing]

[car crashing]

So what this is,

is this is a two part process.

We took the Chargers and ran our real 9000 pound vault

into parked cars cabled to the ground

on big steel plates so they couldn't move.

That gives us the most resistance

and creates the crush factor that we want.

Then we went in and we took all the engines

out of these cars and cut some of the cars up

so that they crushed a little easier.

Then we got bored with it.

We thought we're just not getting

the kind of crush factor that we really want.

So what you see now is our third vault.

And this is gonna be a little more difficult to understand

is we took an entire semi-truck.

We took the box off of it.

It's just the semi-truck tractor.

And we stuck it and built a vault

around the front three sides of this semi-truck

and put huge steel channel all around it

so that a semi-truck which weights a lot of weight

can hit all these parked cars

and crush them and drive away from it.

Now he's never being pulled by the Chargers

but we did have the two Chargers drive in front

of him with no cables so that he could pile drive

these parked cars and make them look like matchbox.

We wrecked somewhere between 190 and 210 cars.

[Woman] You cut loose right now.

[explosion]

So this is the 180 when Vin has to throw a 180

and get the vault to go by him

so that he can then go the other direction

to attack the bad guys.

But if he throws it too late or too early,

the vault then hits him which is not a good thing.

So we rehearsed this with pylons

to simulate exactly what the width of this street was

and we got it down to the perfect line

where he could actually throw it and you can see

just how close this vault goes by his back end.

You wouldn't want to get hit by it.

[car engine whirring]

[speaking in a foreign language]

In every single Fast and Furious,

we have to have a wheelie with Vin's car.

Vin's Charger or whatever Vin is in.

And so out here we decided well how

is he gonna wheelie with a 9000 pound vault behind him?

We figured well that's the reason

that we'll make it work.

Is once he throws the 180 and then has

to go back after the bad guy,

there's not two cars pulling it anymore.

So that's the perfect spot to add the wheelie

as opposed to anywhere else in the chase.

Now what we did was put

a bunch of weight

on the back of the car here.

And that weight sticks out a little bit.

And when the stunt guy gives at the gas

with a 9000 pound safe on there,

it drags a little bit and the front end comes up in the air.

Most people don't know this but

when the front end comes up in the air guess what?

You can't steer the car.

So you better be going straight.

Well we cheated a little bit.

We had turning brakes inside the car.

Inside the car you've got two brake handles.

Each brake handle is attached

to the rear wheel brakes.

So if it starts to go a little right,

you just ease on the brake on the left

and I it pulls it that way until it's straight again.

This is where we shear the roof off of a police car.

We knew we always wanted to do this

because we thought with all these police cars

coming head on at 'em,

somebody has to get forced in underneath the cable

and it has to be like a guillotine bin.

Well we put a real stunt guy in there

and what we did was here and here,

and all across here and up in the front

and all across the front,

cut all across there and just left

a tiny bit of metal still connecting the top to the car.

And then we had our tiniest stunt guy

put a helmet on and test running this at the car

in the cable and ducking down at the last second.

He has to lay over and hide.

And we have a camera over his back

seeing the cable come at us.

And we had a pylon on the side of the road

to say you have to be down by that pylon.

You're laying over about a second or a second

and a half before the cable shears the car.

We did it without the cable four

or five times 'til we got the timing right.

And then I felt comfortable that he was laying over

early enough to ensure that he wasn't gonna get caught

by the cable and then we did it for real

and it worked absolutely perfect.

[shots firing]

[shots firing]

[vault crashing]

We knew we wanted to have our Vin double

throwing a 180 here.

He can only use this half of the frame.

When you're throwing a 180

it's a very tight frame like that.

It's a tough shot to get because

the front end has to be so big in frame.

This was the frame that we really wanted.

And we want the vault tumbling this direction.

But it has to be a CG vault.

So it's gonna tumble this way.

All the way through our shot and this is what he had

to leave open so this is the only time

that we really see a CG vault tumbling.

[vault crashing]

[screaming]

[vault crashing]

So what this was,

was we had Vin, real Vin.

Jumping out of a car on stage.

And then we had a stunt guy jumping out

of a real car that's being snatched out of frame very fast.

We had a countdown.

We had him with the door open.

We said three, two, one, go.

Stunt guy jumps out on one.

And on go we snatch this car up and out

of the shot like you see it here.

Now the car is cartwheeling through the air

which we did on a big, huge crane.

We had two cranes up in the air.

Cranes are all off camera behind us.

But you'd see the arms would come down.

There would be cables here.

And cables off here and cables over here.

But you can't see the crane arms.

They all come in from the top.

And they spin this car and cartwheel it.

And it goes all the way into there.

And we knew that we wanted it spinning

as if the vault which is now in the ocean,

is now pulling it toward this car.

Just so you know how many pieces are in this last big crash.

We could spin the car around and his our bad guys' car here

which was a Volkswagen Touareg.

But it never really hit it

with the front end like we wanted.

And so after doing the big spinning crash

and we hit the Touareg,

we took it off, put a new Touareg in,

got another Charger, stuck that up in the air,

and pulled this Charger way way back here on a crane.

And just let it come flying in and have the front end

just crush all of this.

And then got our actors' POV for the other side of it.

When I first get the script to like a Fast and Furious,

we are starting usually three and a half

to four months before we start filming.

And then once we've round tabled all of the action

to where everybody feels like it fits,

then we have to go out there and rehearse each

and every bit of action to make sure

that it's safe for the crew.

And then safe for the stunt people and the actors.

That's the part that nobody really sees.

And everybody that I talk to about the show

likes the part that everything is real.

And if we keep it real it makes them feel

like something that they could be involved in.

And I think that's what really makes

the difference with you know,

any kind of action series is to put the audience

in the seat with you and then they feel like

they're a part of it and that's what

makes it exciting and entertaining.