WONDER WOMAN’S BULLETRIDDLED NO MAN’S LAND BIRTH

In Greek mythology, Man was forged using clay and fire. In Wonder Woman, a superhero is forged in the fires of war. Arriving on the German front line, Amazonian warrior Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is confronted with the horrors of WW1. “We need to help these people,” she tells Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). “This is No Man’s Land, Diana,” he replies, trying to convince her to toe the line. “That means no man can cross it.”

Guess what she does next? Throwing off her cloak, headdress in place, Diana mounts a ladder and swaggers out onto No Man’s Land, deflecting bullets with her bracelets and – in one awesome moment – bracing behind her shield as it’s pelted with bullets. It’s a pivotal double reveal. Superficially, it’s the first time we’ve seen Diana in her superhero costume. Emotionally, it’s the heart-in-throat moment we watch her become Wonder Woman.

“I was super hands on, obsessed with that scene from the very start,” reveals director Patty Jenkins, who knew this was the moment upon which the success of the whole film rested – and not just because it’s a

demonstration of Diana’s power. “Who is she fighting?” muses Jenkins. “We’re not angry at the villain. It’s not about that; it’s about her.”

Shooting in February 2016, three months into filming, the sequence was staged on an outdoor, 300-yard set in London. Jenkins had early meetings with DoP Matthew Jensen and visual effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer, which were “tempered by this palpable sense of dread”, says Jensen. “I’d think, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to pull this off?’” They continually thrashed out ideas. “Every week of prep we made suggestions and changes because we knew it would be such an enormous undertaking,” Jensen adds.

Wire rigs were strung across the set to secure the camera as it swooped across the battlefield. Gadot shot her ladder ascent 15 times, but the tricky terrain meant Jensen wasn’t happy with the final result. “It didn’t have the emotional impact we wanted,” he says. Cue studio reshoots against a green screen. “It was 100 per cent the way to go and I’m very happy with the results we got,” Jensen says. “Sometimes it’s better to bend reality.”

Reality may have been bent, but the emotional impact is genuine. The shot of the shield, the bracelets and the whip. Wonder Woman swatting bullets and leading the charge. Although Warner Bros was initially confused about the lack of a clear antagonist in the sequence (“She’s not even fighting anything,” they argued), Jenkins sold them – and the world – on it. “It was only about her, it’s not about anybody else,” she says. And that’s why it’s wonderful. JW