While attempting to escape their pursuers, the Fosters 'borrow' Holbrooke Grant’s car, the much-too-powerful-for-Phil Audi R8. When Phil inadvertently smashes into a taxi cab, the two vehicles’ bumpers become hopelessly locked together.
Nonetheless, the chase continues, the conjoined twin automobiles smashing their way down Manhattan streets.
The complicated sequence came about when Levy and Klausner were brainstorming ideas for a chase scene. Concerned about repeating the oft-used, cliché urban car chase, Klausner recalls, "I remember sitting in a room with Shawn, telling him, ‘You know, do we really have to do a car chase, because how many times have we seen a car chase in these movies? How interesting can that be?’"
Levy then related to his writer a story from his teenage years. "He was just learning to drive, and was trying to park, but he ended up smashing into another car in front of him and getting stuck on that car. His father just drove by and shook his head." Thus was born the idea of conjoined cars.
But just having two cars barreling down the street wasn’t enough. "Shawn wanted to do something that nobody had ever seen before," says 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator Jack Gill, who planned and executed the sequence.
"Once we got the basic idea of conjoining the cars, we began figuring out not only how to build the cars, but how to make it work comically. I then started adding eccentricities, like spinning them around in circles and having characters fire guns at them."
Besides having six different cars that, each of which handled a specific aspect of the chase stunts, Gill built a 40 foot frame, upon which the Audi and cab bodies were placed. "So there’s just one rigid frame," he explains.
The stunt driver was situated at the leading end of the conjoined vehicles. "So when the cab is facing forwards, with the Audi ahead of it facing the wrong way, the stunt driver is actually driving from inside the Audi’s trunk, looking out the back so he can see where he’s going and drive around corners."
In addition, for most shots, the rig’s rear wheels, those under the rear end of the conjoined vehicles, could also steer, in the same manner as those of a hook-and-ladder fire truck. Needless to say, don’t try this at home on your own Manhattan street.
New York City ordinances limited the production to the types of stunts that could be filmed on Manhattan streets. So following a week of night work in New York, the stunt team moved to downtown Los Angeles to complete the sequence.
"We had about six blocks to work with on Broadway, which was great," Gill recalls. "We needed a long stretch locked down, because when you conjoin two cars together, you’ve got a thing that’s forty feet long, getting it up to speed and shutting it all down can be tough.
"You can’t just do it in two blocks." The sequence was filmed with up to six cameras, including a special 'balloon cam,' with wheeled buoys on each corner, which allowed the camera to be sent into the path of the speeding car pair and getting hit head-on, without damaging expensive camera equipment.
Carell did actually drive the R8 himself for a number of shots. "We wanted the car to have way too much power for a guy like Phil to handle," says Gill. "So I asked Audi to disconnect the all-wheel drive, which meant putting all 560 horsepower into the rear wheels." So what was Carell’s impression?
"He said it felt like somebody hitting him in the back of the head with a shovel when he stepped on the gas."
In one shot, Phil must make his way to the cab while Claire is driving the Audi at high speed. "We did all the transfers across the hood with doubles, that was all real," notes Gill.
Close-ups of Carell and Fey were done against a green screen set at Twentieth Century Fox. Since the chase acrobatics had already been filmed, besides their scripted lines, Carell and Fey filled in the gaps with their gut-busting ad-libs.
"I’d show them footage and explain to them, ‘Here’s what we did last week downtown with the real cars, what do you think?’" Gill says.
"And we’d bounce off ideas until something really clicked. And then Shawn was always there to say, ‘You’re right on track here that’s really funny!’ It really helps when you have a collaboration where everybody can talk ideas out."
Even with all the excitement, Levy kept the scene’s theme on track. "Once we had the concept of having the two cars stuck together, then we could find a way to thematically tie it in to what the movie’s about, which is this couple that has to learn to communicate to survive, he explains.
Indeed, even with all that happens to them on this fateful night, the Fosters achieve their goal: to reinvigorate their relationship and reconnect with the love and excitement that brought them together in the first place.
"Date Night is kind of like a fable," says Levy. "It takes place over a very short period of time, but in some way, it’s timeless, because it’s a story about a journey two people make in their relationship.
"And we leave the night feeling like they will go back to their lives and no one except for the people involved that night might ever know what happened. We’ve watched them experience this crazy night, but the real adventure of their married life, now that they’ve found each other again, is just about to begin."
"They’re comfortable enough again with each other to be able to say ‘Knock it off’ and ‘I love you’ within the same five minutes," says Steve Carell.
Tina Fey has just one last piece of relationship advice: "Go on a date night and see Date Night."
Date Night is out now.
While attempting to escape their pursuers, the Fosters 'borrow' Holbrooke Grant’s car, the much-too-powerful-for-Phil Audi R8. When Phil inadvertently smashes into a taxi cab, the two vehicles’ bumpers become hopelessly locked together.
Nonetheless, the chase continues, the conjoined twin automobiles smashing their way down Manhattan streets.
The complicated sequence came about when Levy and Klausner were brainstorming ideas for a chase scene. Concerned about repeating the oft-used, cliché urban car chase, Klausner recalls, "I remember sitting in a room with Shawn, telling him, ‘You know, do we really have to do a car chase, because how many times have we seen a car chase in these movies? How interesting can that be?’"
Levy then related to his writer a story from his teenage years. "He was just learning to drive, and was trying to park, but he ended up smashing into another car in front of him and getting stuck on that car. His father just drove by and shook his head." Thus was born the idea of conjoined cars.
But just having two cars barreling down the street wasn’t enough. "Shawn wanted to do something that nobody had ever seen before," says 2nd unit director and stunt coordinator Jack Gill, who planned and executed the sequence.
"Once we got the basic idea of conjoining the cars, we began figuring out not only how to build the cars, but how to make it work comically. I then started adding eccentricities, like spinning them around in circles and having characters fire guns at them."
Besides having six different cars that, each of which handled a specific aspect of the chase stunts, Gill built a 40 foot frame, upon which the Audi and cab bodies were placed. "So there’s just one rigid frame," he explains.
The stunt driver was situated at the leading end of the conjoined vehicles. "So when the cab is facing forwards, with the Audi ahead of it facing the wrong way, the stunt driver is actually driving from inside the Audi’s trunk, looking out the back so he can see where he’s going and drive around corners."
In addition, for most shots, the rig’s rear wheels, those under the rear end of the conjoined vehicles, could also steer, in the same manner as those of a hook-and-ladder fire truck. Needless to say, don’t try this at home on your own Manhattan street.
New York City ordinances limited the production to the types of stunts that could be filmed on Manhattan streets. So following a week of night work in New York, the stunt team moved to downtown Los Angeles to complete the sequence.
"We had about six blocks to work with on Broadway, which was great," Gill recalls. "We needed a long stretch locked down, because when you conjoin two cars together, you’ve got a thing that’s forty feet long, getting it up to speed and shutting it all down can be tough.
"You can’t just do it in two blocks." The sequence was filmed with up to six cameras, including a special 'balloon cam,' with wheeled buoys on each corner, which allowed the camera to be sent into the path of the speeding car pair and getting hit head-on, without damaging expensive camera equipment.
Carell did actually drive the R8 himself for a number of shots. "We wanted the car to have way too much power for a guy like Phil to handle," says Gill. "So I asked Audi to disconnect the all-wheel drive, which meant putting all 560 horsepower into the rear wheels." So what was Carell’s impression?
"He said it felt like somebody hitting him in the back of the head with a shovel when he stepped on the gas."
In one shot, Phil must make his way to the cab while Claire is driving the Audi at high speed. "We did all the transfers across the hood with doubles, that was all real," notes Gill.
Close-ups of Carell and Fey were done against a green screen set at Twentieth Century Fox. Since the chase acrobatics had already been filmed, besides their scripted lines, Carell and Fey filled in the gaps with their gut-busting ad-libs.
"I’d show them footage and explain to them, ‘Here’s what we did last week downtown with the real cars, what do you think?’" Gill says.
Tagged in Date Night