Say what you will about the Jerry Bruckheimer style of big summer movies, but they’re certainly not short of spectacle. The Lone Ranger seems set to continue that tradition with a vertigo-inducing stunt involving Armie Hammer, a rickety platform, a 2000-foot drop and a camera on a helicopter. For a look at how the moment was achieved, check out the new featurette.
With Gore Verbinski preferring to shoot for real when he can, the stunt involved Hammer – playing titular character John Reid – going up on the “spirit platform” you’ve probably seen in trailers for the movie.
Though he had a safety cable attached, there was still the small matter of his body screaming at him to get down, a heli-mounted chopper threatening to blast him from the platform and trying to see direction from the crew below while all this was going on. It might not quite be Tom Cruise’s skyscraper-scaling shtick, but it looks intense all the same. And no, apparently Verbinski would not go up there to check it for himself.
While this is the sort of behind-the-scenes material usually reserved for home entertainment releases, it shows the levels to which studios will go to promote new movies.
The Lone Ranger, which also features Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, James Badge Dale, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson, Ruth Wilson and Barry Pepper, is set to arrive on August 9.