from Trung Phan | by Trung Phan

Been looking at the most expensive real-life film stunts ever. Here are 9 wild ones. 1. MATRIX RELOADED (2003) For this chase sequence, a fake highway was built at a dis-used naval base in California. The 1.3 mile loop highway cost $2.5m and was fenced by a 19ft wall. t.co/HX9hyMgvRC

2. CLIFFHANGER (1993) Stuntman Simon Crane used a zip-wire to cross between two planes while 15,000 feet in the air (and both planes had to travel at exactly 150mph). He wore two concealed parachutes and was paid $1m for this insane stunt. t.co/3s5sENAFkT

3. DARK KNIGHT RISES (2012) The scene was filmed in Scottish Highlands and got government sign-off to drop a plane fuselage into the mountains. The plane was bought from a bankrupt airline and the film’s crew of 200 spent 2 months on the stunt (generating >$1m for the region). t.co/5vok1YzgOM

4. BEN-HUR (1959) The 10-min chariot race scene is reported to cost $1m ($10m inflation adjusted). It took 1000 people a year to carve the arena out of a rock quarry. There were 10k+ extra, 80 horses and 200 miles of racing. Miraculously, there were no serious injuries. t.co/N5Z6CFeZ4f

5. SPEED II (1997) The Speed sequel is awful. Somehow, the filmmakers convinced the studio to pay $25m to build a seaside town (~1/4th if the budget) The town is destroyed by a runaway cruise ship (Why didn’t Keanu Reeves do the sequel? He said the script sucked. Genius). t.co/S23SjHFSKa

6. SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (1998) The 23-minute long D-Day landing scene cost $12m to recreate (~1/5th of the film’s entire budget). It took a month to film the scene and included 1,500 actors and 400 crew. t.co/H2IdXFpTtk

7. MI: GHOST PROTOCOL (2011) Tom Cruise famously climbed the outside of the world’s largest building: the Burj Khalifa in Dubai (2,722 feet high) The stunt take place around 80% of that height. And it’s among Cruise’s most expensive stunts because of the cost to insure him. t.co/ZPWcznZBDF

8. IRON-MAN (2013) Iron-Man saves the President and passengers after Air Force One takes a hit. The scene includes special FX, but real-life stunts cost 7-figures. Why? The falling passengers are 13 members of Red Bull parachuting team (they did 580 jumps over one month). t.co/vAIGHbtnHU

9. INTERSTELLAR (2014) While this isn’t actually that expensive, it’s my favorite film expenditure ever. Christopher Nolan spent $100k to plant 500 real acres of corn in Alberta. After filming, he sold the crop for profit. t.co/JsHocIt1e3

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For a very long time, I thought this was how The Matrix did bullet time (but is a parody from music video): t.co/RWX1wQZ7pC

One more: Cameron Crowe and Tom Cruise spent $1 million to empty out Times Square for 3 hours to film a dream sequence in 2001’s “Vanilla Sky”. t.co/VMgN14nmRo

Awesome explainer vid on Matrix Reloaded highway (via Nerdstalgic) t.co/vMU5zslrj0 t.co/FBQ5pICIp8