USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Aeronauts’ stirs more than just hot air
Predicting weather by the hour? The idea would have gotten one laughed out of the room 150 years ago.
This weekend, “The Aeronauts,” ( in select theaters Friday and streaming on Amazon Prime Dec. 20) is sending audiences back to the mid- 19th century, when the idea of weather forecasting was as knee- slapping as Elf on a Shelf. In the new film, Eddie Redmayne plays budding meteorologist James Glaisher to Felicity Jones’ fictional balloon pilot Amelia Wren, with the two re- teaming after 2014’ s “The Theory of Everything” ( which earned Redmayne an Oscar for portraying Stephen Hawking and Jones a best- actress nomination).
This time, the English duo are skybound on a scientific mission into oxygen- deprived levels of the atmosphere – until their expedition turns into a fight for their lives.
As Amazon Prime launches a six- city “Aeronauts” fan experience in support of the semi- biographical drama, Redmayne, 37, and Jones, 36, answer our burning balloon questions.
Were the actors really in a hot air balloon for the movie?
Actually, it was a gas balloon. While many “Aeronauts” scenes were shot in a studio against green screens, production designers created a replica of a giant 19th century balloon, and Redmayne and Jones ascended 8,000 feet while being filmed by a helicopter and drones. “It was actually quite breathtaking when you do it and very quiet,” Jones says. “It’s not like a traditional hot air balloon where you have the flames.”
Redmayne and Jones had a harrowing moment in the sky
The thing about flying a gas balloon over England is that, eventually, you have to land it. But when Redmayne and Jones were descending, their pilot noticed they were headed straight for a dense patch of trees.
“As we were coming down basically careening toward this forest, the pilot, who had been hiding in the basket while we shot, basically said we needed to throw out all the sandbags,” Redmayne recalls. “So Felicity and I start throwing out all the sandbags and we rose up a bit. We missed the forest and then we looked at this poor pilot’s face, ashen. We said, ‘ What’s the problem?’ And he said, ‘ Well you’ve thrown out all the sandbags.’ He hadn’t mentioned how many sandbags to throw.”
With no weights left, Redmayne says the trio had no way of avoiding the next obstacle that came their way. “The basket smashed on the ( ground) and Felicity was blown back, her head cracked on a chest in the basket and there was complete silence.’ And Felicity said, ‘ I don’t think I can move my neck.’ It was a horrifying moment.” Jones was fine, but ...
Their screams remained
“Our wonderful but slightly masochistic director announced the other day that although he didn’t see any of this because he had flown up in a helicopter, they did record all of the sound ( in the basket), and in that last act as we are careening toward our deaths, he’s used some of our ( real) screams,” Redmayne says.
Felicity Jones did a daring stunt at 2,000 feet
After weeks of stunt rehearsals and training with an aerialist, Jones was ready to go for it. At 2,000 feet up in the replica gas balloon, Jones climbed the ropes, hoisting herself up from the basket and onto the hoop. “It was a pretty nerve- wracking experience,” Jones says.
Is Felicity Jones’ character real?
No. “The film is kind of top hits of ballooning history,” says Jones, acknowledging that a woman was never present in the balloon basket during the meteorological journeys depicted. But women
were aeronauts. The film, she says, is “an amalgamation of all the best stories of the pilots.
“The woman I play is inspired by Sophie Blanchard, who was a French aeronaut in the 18th century. She was the first woman to fly solo and fly at night and she used to set off fireworks from her balloon. So I very much had her in my mind as I was making it.”
Director Tom Harper defends the choice, saying they weren’t trying to make a documentary. He notes the film has taken several such liberties. “We change all sorts of things all the time. There would never have been an Indian man ( played by Himesh Patel) in the Royal Society. But representation is important, and we are cutting this film for a modern audience.”