Deadpool & Wolverine is full of standout moments but the sight of the title characters fighting the Deadpool Corps in a gloriously gory one-shot sequence isn't one we'll soon forget.
Set to Madonna's "Like a Prayer," the Corps prove no match for the threequel's leads and Wolverine is unleashed in a way we've never really seen on screen before now.
It ends with the Merc with the Mouth and Logan striking an iconic superhero pose but how did filmmaker Shawn Levy put that insanely complex and action-packed tracking shot on screen? In a new Entertainment Weekly interview, he explained how it was filmed.
"That is the single most complicated shot in the movie," Levy admitted. "It's the most complicated shot I have ever done in any movie, and, frankly, it's more complicated than most shots any of us will ever see in any movie. It took nine months of preparation, starting with the idea, which was always one laterally-tracking shot, always left to right, always in our mind set to 'Like a Prayer.'"
"It aspired to be an ecstatic symphony of violence. It started with storyboards. Those evolved into pre-visualization, where you animate the storyboards. Then the next big hurdle was, let's get 50 stunt people and figure out how we're going to do this with real humans and bodies in space because those are not digi-doubles. Those are real fighters the whole way through."
"Then the big fly in the ointment is: What happens when you rehearse no longer in sweats but in the suits?" he continued. "The body doesn't move the same way. It took hundreds of teammates to figure it out and pull it off. It's one of our great prides."
While Ryan Reynolds is well-known for improvising on set, Levy later elaborated on why that wasn't possible for a fight scene which required months of planning. However, Wade Wilson failing to stick the landing alongside Wolverine was added to the movie later on.
"A lot of it was scripted. I do want to give credit to the entire section in the bus through that shot," the director said. "That was our storyboard artist, Jeremy Simser. That bus section and the idea of the windows getting increasingly obscured with blood splatter, that was Jeremy. I mention it because I really think the key to directing is to be loose enough that you are open to the best possible idea regardless of where it comes from. I am a great beneficiary of tremendous creativity from the whole team."
"The one thing that I recall being a later add is Ryan fumbling and tapping off this glorious epic action sequence with a very clumsy dismount, and then Deadpool commenting on his God-awful dismount because we could have just ended it with superhero glory, but somehow that's not quite Deadpool," Levy added. "You always want to zig when the expectation is for the genre to zag."
When the threequel is finally released on Blu-ray and Disney+, we're sure this will be one of the most replayed scenes, particularly as it opens with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine finally donning his iconic mask from the comics.
Deadpool & Wolverine is now playing in theaters.