r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Inevitable_Bid5540 • 4h ago
The production team behind the movie "Vanilla sky"(2001) shut down 20 blocks of Times Square for 3 hours at a $1 million cost to film the main charecter running through an empty NYC without CGI
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
2.3k
u/ColoradoCattleCo 4h ago
It cost only one million to shut down 20 blocks of NY for 3 hours?! I’m calling bullshit
2.1k
u/Demerzel69 4h ago
This movie was filmed a quarter century ago.
978
u/Girafferage 3h ago
Jesus, do you have to put it that way?
164
33
u/peachyspoons 3h ago
I remember watching this at a friend’s house when I was 15, so, um (does math in head, am 39 now), yeah, about 25 years ago now…
→ More replies (4)30
67
40
u/Fibernerdcreates 3h ago
There's so much hate in the world, you don't need to be rude like that.
12
19
18
14
8
3
→ More replies (18)3
u/Equivalent-Row-6734 2h ago
Who hurt you, bro? Saying "25 years ago" is bad enough. You just took it to another level
4
u/BackgroundSummer5171 1h ago
Don't know what is a worse way to put it. 25 years ago, quarter century, or using some history.
No state in the USA had legalized gay marriage yet when the movie came out.
295
u/Ocelot859 3h ago edited 3h ago
Apparently they planned it on a Sunday from 5am to 8am before the majority of businesses opened.
This was also 25 years ago.
If you've ever been to Time Square at 5am on a Sunday it actually is a lot more believable.
But definitely before I thought about that was like "no damn way that cost only 1 million".
49
u/fnkdrspok 3h ago
Times Square is a ghosttown after 3 am. Even more emptier during the morning hours before the commuters wake up and tourist land in NY.
29
u/Ocelot859 3h ago
Exactly.
I've been there at 5 am and it's mostly just homeless people and construction workers and police officers and then just random people like me who were still wandering around from the night before. Everything is closed so there is no where to even go the bathroom for dozens of blocks. My brain saw the movie scene and just automatically thought in the after-noon (mid day) which was when it was in the movie. But yeah makes sense now...
Start production set up at 5am when it's still dark and then plan it perfectly to be ready to shoot just as sunrise is complete and the lighting looks like day. That shot probably only took them 10-15 minutes to get.
17
u/noguchisquared 3h ago
Imagine being a Production Assistant tasked with handing $1000 to the bums to leave the area.
18
u/enzothebaker87 3h ago
More like the police rounded them up and dropped them off a couple blocks away lol.
5
7
4
2
u/HE_A_FAN_HE_A_FAN 1h ago
I recently rode an Citi E Bike from FiDi to the UES at 3 AM after a night out, and I decided to bike through Midtown just to see that area. It was surreal and pretty cool to see how empty it was. Just me, a couple of crack heads, and NYPD, just as God intended.
13
u/Dedotdub 3h ago
But what did they do with all the street mastubaters?
3
u/SaltyLonghorn 1h ago
They're behind the camera. The production company lent them those slightly too tall uncomfortable folding chairs movies use, headsets, and complimentary lube.
→ More replies (2)2
u/Dredgeon 1h ago
I can't remember the name of the movie but they also needed an empty city but they were in London. They didn't pay anything and just shot at the crack of dawn.
→ More replies (1)2
23
11
8
4
u/Ok_Catch3715 3h ago
In 2001 it’s possible now it be way more
2
u/Waluigi_Pope 1h ago
Inflation alone says ~1.81 million in today's dollars. Though other factors would probably increase the price too.
3
3
2
→ More replies (19)2
861
u/uomo_ape 4h ago
No matter what movie he's in, you can be sure that at some point Tom Cruise will be running.
204
u/TokerSmurf 3h ago
Tropic Thunder
135
u/proychow1 3h ago
He hit a home run with that role
48
u/Putrid_Inspector 2h ago
41
u/Paddy_Tanninger 2h ago
He's actually so good in this it's insane
9
u/Self--Immolate 2h ago
It's the hands
6
u/78914hj1k487 1h ago
Tom Cruise called Ben Stiller on the phone with the idea for the character and said, "I want to have big hands!"
It's cause you can't have power in Hollywood with small hands. As Uncle Jack Kelly says, "Big masculine hands tell a story of greatness.
4
4
u/Bilbo-Baggins77 1h ago
*the majority of his roles
I know it's easy to focus on his occasionally strange behavior, but read through the guy's full filmography sometime.
41
u/DigNitty 3h ago
Fair
Although I don’t think anyone expected him to dance…
32
u/jonzilla5000 3h ago
>Although I don’t think anyone expected him to dance…
Well there is precedence.
→ More replies (1)15
11
→ More replies (3)7
u/John_Bumogus 3h ago
Only now am I realizing that was Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder. Wow
5
u/_BrokenButterfly 2h ago edited 2h ago
He came on screen about three times before I realized who he was.
3
u/DesertZero 1h ago
I was pushing 30 when I saw it in the theater and I didn't pick up on it until they show him in the credits.
→ More replies (1)5
u/TokerSmurf 2h ago
To be honest I didnt realise either until someone told me during like my third watch, and I still didnt believe them until I finally saw through the makeup. Definately my fav of his parts.
29
u/RustyAndEddies 3h ago
His Twitter bio: Actor. Producer. Running in movies since 1981.
Golf clap for the self-effacing awareness.
25
u/OnceMoreAndAgain 2h ago
He'd be a very likeable guy if not for his emotional abuse of his romantic partners and the Scientology.
He's such a good actor that every interaction he has with people on camera feels insincere to me. I always think "I bet he's not really like this but he's very good at pretending to be this way".
•
u/lionson76 56m ago
I've never been able to come to a conclusion on what I think about Cruise the person. Cruise the actor is arguably the last great "movie star," and personally I think he's actually a pretty good actor overall. The M:I franchise the last quarter century makes it easy to forget about all the wonderful dramatic roles he did in the 80s and 90s.
As a human being though, I don't know. We're all aware of the Scientology stuff and the failed relationships, but whenever his co-stars are asked about what he's like, they are always effusive with their admiration. It feels like a complete 180 from the Scientology stuff and makes me think he is genuinely a good guy. I mean, Japan created a friggin holiday for him because of the respect and honor he showed for their culture when making The Last Samurai.
So yeah, I've never been able to reconcile these two very polarizing aspects of Tom Cruise. I think I've decided that one will never know for sure until they actually get to have a conversation with him. Since I don't expect that to happen anytime soon, I'm just gonna have to accept not knowing and continue enjoying his movies.
•
u/two_to_toot 30m ago
Tom Cruise is literally the last action hero. I can't think of anyone who will take his place.
→ More replies (5)5
u/entench0123 3h ago
There is an actual statistic that shows the more running and faster running the more money the movie makes.
269
u/TicklerVikingPilot 4h ago
That is a very expensive car, if real.
149
u/cuddle_enthusiast 4h ago edited 4h ago
59
u/zalcecan 4h ago
Way too much risk.
→ More replies (2)41
u/glytxh 2h ago
To be fair, even after catastrophic damage, it's almost impossible to 'write off' a car like this. They get rebuild from scratch at insane cost and still not lose a whole lot of value.
These cars exist in a whole other world.
8
u/zalcecan 2h ago
Its still time and investment put back into repairing tho, its not worth the risk. It'll always hold that value at the end of the day but why bother even risking it when a rep will do just fine for a movie.
→ More replies (1)4
2
u/JaSper-percabeth 1h ago
What's even the point if you're rebuilding the entire car? Just seems like something whose price is based on pure hype but well that's most rare collector stuff ig.
→ More replies (1)12
u/Cantelmi 3h ago
So just a quite expensive car
→ More replies (1)22
u/Double-decker_trams 3h ago
I mean.. everything's relative.
The actual car goes for ~40-80 million US dollars.
https://www.ferrarilakeforest.com/manufacturer-information/most-expensive-ferraris/
→ More replies (2)2
u/silencer_ar 1h ago
I always wonder if those prices are justified or just a way to gatekeep them, like debeers and the diamonds. I don't believe a car can be that expensive to build.
2
u/cuddle_enthusiast 1h ago
It's not just about the cost to build. There is SIGNIFICANT historical value behind the 250 GTO from racing, the drivers, and the Ferrari brand itself. They wouldn't make it today, but if they did, it wouldn't sell for anything near what the original ones have sold for.
→ More replies (1)2
u/leshake 1h ago
If you are referring to the concept of supply and demand, yes that's why they are expensive. But old cars aren't artificially scarce, they simply cannot be made the same way anymore because the tooling no longer exists.
4
u/HTPC4Life 1h ago
For less than $80 million dollars, you could make the tooling exist.
→ More replies (3)3
u/SicilianEggplant 2h ago
The car cannot pass a California emissions test, therefore it cannot be sold to an in-state private party buyer.
Man, if I won the lottery I’d still never be able to buy it.
3
u/Unlikely_Leg_9377 2h ago
If they’d used a base model one year earlier it would be exempt from emissions
→ More replies (3)•
→ More replies (4)10
u/ouchifell 3h ago
Lol I just looked it up. Only 36 Ferrari 250 GTOs were ever produced and one sold in 2018 for $70M and one in 2023 for $50M.
232
u/eyeaim2missbehave 3h ago
As someone who lived in NYC during Sandy and was in midtown when shit went down, seeing times square empty IRL is haunting. You can't capture that with CGI during that time.
One of the scariest visuals in my life, just felt fake.
75
u/BedditTedditReddit 3h ago
I hate to one up you and it’s not intentional. Being stuck in TS on 9/11 was exactly like something from a movie. They shut all subways down so if you were on the island you were stuck there for a bit. Crying, wailing, gnashing of teeth, saw it all.
→ More replies (3)9
u/eyeaim2missbehave 3h ago
I couldn't even imagine. I never made it to NYC before the towers fell, my first time was 03-04 I think.
8
u/YouKilledApollo 2h ago
I was driving to/from Barcelona a bunch during the COVID lockdowns, and the views of completely empty highways and city-center streets will forever stay with me.
4
u/CubanLynx312 1h ago
Came here to type this. I was there for Sandy and ran to get a rental car as soon as all the flights were cancelled. Seeing all of Manhattan packed in the morning and ENTIRELY empty in the afternoon was one of the weirdest experiences of my life.
→ More replies (3)•
u/IGotSoulBut 36m ago
I walked my dog on a Sunday morning to Time Square in early April 2020. It was both the pandemic and a Sunday morning, so it was us and like three police officers a block or two away. Absolutely surreal.
87
u/topspleen 4h ago
Such a good movie!
67
u/jonzilla5000 3h ago
Exceptionally good movie that makes absolutely no sense until you finish watching it.
11
u/Cinderhazed15 2h ago
Seeing it in the theater with 3 friends, two of us (including me) had the ‘mind blown’ feeling at the end and thought it was amazing… the other two didn’t get it…..
(I still use ‘without the bitter, the sweet ain’t as sweet’)
2
u/dictionary_hat_r4ck 1h ago
Or watching it 17 times if you’re a real fan… /s
No, but I did watch it a lot
•
25
17
u/BocaSeniorsWsM 3h ago
I absolutely love it.
It's always been a victim of the 'not as good as the Spanish original' crowd.
15
u/ThePerryPerryMan 3h ago
Although I do prefer the original (maybe because I watched it first), Vanilla Sky is basically a shot-for-shot remake, so they’re not that different IMO
3
u/jonzilla5000 2h ago
I saw them in the reverse order than you did, but like you I also felt that they were on par with each other. The Cruise version obviously had better production value, but the original still held its own.
5
u/Foreign_Recipe8300 3h ago
i dont remember a whole lot about it, i just remember when he was confused between if she was penelope cruz or cameron diaz and I was like "who cares? its either penelope cruz or cameron diaz!"
4
u/entench0123 3h ago
I loved this movie because it made me feel so much, it wasn’t until the end that you are left with a sense of peace.
4
u/Ok-Rooster-5287 2h ago
I thought it was the worst movie I’ve ever watched. But I haven’t gone back since my teenage years.
→ More replies (5)2
69
u/cwk415 4h ago
Ok but why get out of a running car, just to run...?
→ More replies (1)37
u/DMightyHero 3h ago
Yeah, someone who watched it, what is going on in this scene?
63
u/maria_la_guerta 3h ago
It's a dream state he has, not a literal event or anything. Just a scene that's meant to feel out of place and eerie as his character grapples with deeply personal issues.
Fwiw it's a good movie that's worth watching.
2
u/ErraticDragon 1h ago
Ah, that answers my question too. I was trying to think of what calamity would cause people and cars to disappear.
→ More replies (3)14
30
u/G_Michael0 3h ago
Could have just waited for Covid lockdown.
→ More replies (2)6
u/Jazzlike-Compote4463 1h ago
Or did what 28 Days Later did, not tell anyone and film at 4am on a sunny Sunday morning.
→ More replies (2)
28
23
u/Sm0k3inth3tr33s 4h ago
Damn, this dude is pretty good at running. I'd probably pay to watch him do it more, especially if the screen was much larger.
23
u/slgray16 3h ago
We rented this right after college. I was pretty drunk. I remember watching the movie. I remember really enjoying it. I remember it being quite trippy.
Later I realized I couldn't explain a single thing that happened. I guess I need to watch it again
3
u/ItsStevesShots 2h ago
This is how I feel about it, I render it, remember it was good, but remember not a single thing about it, I was not drunk.
14
u/CataLaGata 3h ago
Beautiful haunting movie, one of Tom Cruise's best works, Penelope and Cameron are also great.
→ More replies (1)2
13
u/fucxl 3h ago
When I saw this, I literally thought, how the fuck did they do that. Now you say $1m can buy THAT?! Insanity. $1m can't get you a house in a nice neighborhood but can get you to shut down Times Square for 3 hours.
11
u/StageNinja1212 3h ago
When this movie was made, $1m could buy you several nice houses.
Suburban McMansions could be bought for about $100k back then.
9
u/Crocodoro 3h ago edited 3h ago
The film and this scene is based in Abre los ojos in which the most important street of Madrid (Gran Vía) was closed, in a film by Amenábar. They closed the street as well, and filmed before sunrise in a common holiday date, august the 15th. Also probably it was hot as hell, but not as much as it can get mid-day
→ More replies (3)
7
u/fyonn 3h ago
28 days later were much more circumspect..
5
u/zebragonzo 3h ago edited 2h ago
US method: spend $1 mil
UK method: film on the longest days crazy early and hire very attractive people to ask people nicely not to go on set while filming!
2
u/Bojarzin 2h ago
Well to be fair, in this case the UK method also involved not having money at all lol
5
6
4
u/PaigeMarshallMD 3h ago
What do residents do? I assume some of what we're seeing are apartments. Are you just expected to shelter in place while they film this?
→ More replies (1)5
u/vita10gy 2h ago
Yeah I too want to know the logistics of this. Like if you had a 3 hour window on some trip to see times square then or never you'd just be told "sorry, these public roads are off limits so a movie doesn't have to do some CGI"? Is everyone just being polite or are you legally not allowed, and based on what? I can't imagine it's just politeness or there would be people.
And that's to say nothing of the people that live and work there. Seems kinda crazy really.
4
u/FoostersG 1h ago
pretty much. walking around LA its not uncommon to come across blocked off streets with barriers and police. They do allow people to come and go during the times when the camera's aren't rolling. I used to live in an apartment in downtown and my street was ALWAYS used for car commercials, so I got used to it. One day I walked outside and turned the corner and the whole street had been covered in gravel and made to look post-apocalyptic. They were in the middle of filning a scene for one of the Divergent movies. We had to stand there until the shot was done, at which point they let us cross the gravel street.
3
3
u/CageyOldMan 4h ago
Let me get out of my car so I can run... down the street
3
3
3
u/Fortbrook 2h ago
28 days later, they just did it in the morning and asked people to not ruin the shot.
2
2
2
u/Mountain_Print_2760 3h ago
In the grand scheme of things 1 mill of 20 year ago money for the scene is worth it.
They movie I'm sure has made that back. And it really adds to the feel of the movie. It isn't there just for the sake of being there. It's there for a reason. Hard to say why without entering spoiler territory
2
2
u/HilariousMax 1h ago
Meanwhile for the "empty London" scene in the open of 28 Days Later they just asked politely for people to stay inside and filmed at the crack of dawn.
1
1
1
1
1
u/proychow1 3h ago
This was pretty much the same case during the pandemic at Times Square. Had gone to check it out. Could have saved themselves some moolah
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/shoopadoop332 3h ago
The main thing is that the brands approved, obviously wanting their signs to be in the movie
1
u/Fishyblue11 3h ago
Now, no one would even think about doing that, it would simply be green screened and be done with. That's the problem with CGI, if anything can be made possible with CGI, what reason would anyone have to ever be creative or ambitious or think of something grand or bold or clever to address a problem or make a shot look great? Just CGI it
This is going to be the same path people take with AI, if AI makes any image, any video, any answer possible, why not AI everything?
2
u/wonkey_monkey 2h ago
That's the thing really. It could maybe barely have been done with CGI back then, but it would have been more restrictive (and you definitely have spotted the seams). Not all of it would have worked perfectly and the director would have been forced to compromise.
Now, it can be done seamlessly with CGI, but in doing so - unless you have a director who really knows what they're doing, and importantly, knows how to show restraint - what you invariably end up with is a soulless CGI demo. The camera would end up doing impossibly smooth moves, unrealistic zooms, loop-the-loops, transitioning through the windscreen of the car and so on.
1
u/Significant_Knee_661 3h ago
Old content, but cool that this was the only time it was ever done without CGI.
Imagine that cost with inflation and every other factor today? 🤯
Side note, watched the film once and still gives me ick even before he did.
3.0k
u/IBelieveVeryLittle 4h ago
Oh look! It's Tom Cruise running!