SPIDER-MAN 2
Riding the rails…
ChiCago With it
Spidey and Doctor Octopus tussle on the train. As elevated trains were no longer running in Manhattan, 16 cameras shot Chicago’s Loop in 2002, just five months after Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man opened. The script wasn’t ready and principal photography wouldn’t start for another six months.
gRavity Calls
The FX team were tasked with conveying the environment’s effects (wind, shaking train) on the fighters’ bodies. After the characters were CG-animated, stars Tobey Maguire and Alfred Molina were redeployed to give the sense of “having to stabilise themselves”, explains animation director Anthony LaMolinara.
Riding in CaRs
Along with effects director John Frazier’s soundstage train mock-ups, the scene was achieved through the integration of 100-plus VFX shots, live-action Chicago/NYC plates and more. Effects designer John Dykstra calls it “a giant mix ’n’ match”, effects producer Lydia Bottegoni “a continuity nightmare”.
Ride on time
Spidey slows the hurtling train. When the initial idea to have the train thunder off-track was ditched, Maguire faced what he calls his “toughest” sequence. While he acted out Spidey’s struggles in strenuously repeated expressive details, CG animator Remington Scott ensured his face and body suitably jiggled.
FaCe oFF
Spidey is unveiled, referencing a 1964 comic where Doc Ock unmasks a flu-weakened Peter Parker. Even in a huge tentpole pic, Raimi kept things personal. Maguire asked if his halfbrothers could be involved. Raimi’s reply? “Absolutely, I could use ’em right now!” They play the kids who return Spidey’s mask.
smash and gRab
Doc Ock makes an entrance. Luckily, Frazier’s “air piston” opened the doors for the metal-crushing invasion in one take: Molina, not a fan of stunt work, was flinching. Ock’s 8ft tentacles were realised with puppeteering and CGI enhancements, helping Spider-Man 2 to grab the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. KH