Chris Pratt may have started out as a comedic actor, but he has since branched out into a number of other genres. After starring Parks and Recreation, Pratt became a household name with his role as Star Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy filmsmost recently playing the character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2023. He's also had a number of significant roles outside of the MCU, both in other major franchises and beyond.
Pratt played Owen Grady in three Jurassic World films, leaving this franchise with Jurassic World Dominion in 2022. He also recently starred in a sci-fi action film Tomorrow's War (2021), which has a sequel in development. Pratt also took on much more serious military dutiesincluding on Prime Video The list of terminals series, but his first major venture in this area came in 2012 with the release of a political thriller based on true events.
How Zero Dark Thirty's Stealth Helicopter Was Created
VFX artists from the corridor team analyze the main challenges involved
VFX artists analyze scenes from Zero Dark Thirty (2012), explaining how the film recreated a top-secret military helicopter. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow as a sequel to The Wounded Closet (2008), political thriller/war drama chronicles the CIA's decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden after 9/11. The film primarily follows Jessica Chastain's Maya, an obsessed CIA analyst, but Pratt plays a major role in Zero Dark Thirty as Justin, a SEAL Team Six squad operator who kills the terrorist leader during an intense nighttime raid.
During a recent edition of the "VFX Artists React" series on YouTube, VFX artists from Runner Crew explain how stealth helicopters were created to Zero Dark Thirtythe end of the attack on bin Laden's compound. Artist Wren Weichman explains that These helicopters were never officially revealed to the public, and the only clue that exists as to their appearance is a photograph that supposedly shows the tail rotor. of the one who fell during the attack. As Wren reveals, the production apparently used this image and then worked backwards to create the final design:
So the design is more or less inspired by that photo of the trail rotor and they manufactured the whole thing. And the helicopters in this movie actually look really amazing. I'm a big fan of stealthy design […]
Let's say you're the visual effects supervisor on this movie and you get these sequences where it's okay, we need these fictional helicopters. What is the best way to do this? Well, coming out of the press to make Elysium, they say, “You should film real helicopters.” And that's what they did. In fact, they filmed all of these sequences with Black Hawks and replaced them with Stealth Hawks.
All the smoke, all the dust, all of that is being generated in the plate photography and they're having to composite in the Stealth Hawk over that. But they already have an immediate reference for how the helicopter should move, they simply match it.
Although the Stealth Hawk's flight scenes were performed primarily using CGI, Wren explains that Zero Dark Thirty built practical helicopters for selected moments to create an added sense of realism:
They also built a full-scale version of the Stealth Hawk. All the scenes where they're getting into the helicopter and everything are real. In fact, they have a physical Stealth Hawk that they are using. And they put one on this crane, so they actually did the physical locking on it, which they ended up finding really slow and ended up replacing it all in CG anyway.
Our Take on the Stealth Helicopter Design in Zero Dark Thirty
Why design works so well
Reviews for the film were generally positive at the time of release. Chastain's performance was widely praised, as was Bigelow's unflinching portrayal of real-life events. The night attack serves as Zero Dark Thirtyis the climax, and the attack is recreated with a jaw-dropping sense of realism. Even though it's unclear how accurate the Stealth Hawk's design is in Zero Dark Thirty actually it is, It looks real in the film, and that's the most important thing.
The darkness in Zero Dark Thirty also worked in favor of the Stealth Hawk designas it is difficult to see the helicopter in action and any faults it may have. In fact, it could be argued that the darkness, despite reflecting the real-life circumstances of the attack, is actually too extreme, as it makes it difficult for bystanders to know what is happening. Yet, Zero Dark Thirty remains an interesting achievement, and the Stealth Hawk design still holds up.
Source: Runner Crew