10 GENIUS Ways Recent Movies Pulled Off Insane Scenes
4. Yelena Takes Flight - Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts* kicks off with an electric action sequence where Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh) leaps off a skyscraper in order to access an adjacent rooftop.
And while you'd reasonably assume that the scene was achieved through green screen trickery, the simple truth is that Pugh actually did the jump herself. Well, the start of it, anyway.
When Pugh found out that Yelena would be jumping off Malaysia's Merdeka 118 skyscraper - the second-tallest building in the world - she lobbied Marvel Studios to allow her to walk off the edge herself.
And though they initially pushed back for insurance reasons, Pugh continually brought the subject up, even going to producer Kevin Feige, until she got the go-ahead.
A behind-the-scenes featurette shows Pugh walking off the edge of the skyscraper, and though she's hooked up to safety wires which were digitally erased in post, the mind-over-matter aspect of hurling yourself off one of the tallest structures in the world speaks for itself.
It's reasonable to assume that the wide shot of Yelena soaring through the air was achieved with a stunt double, but still, it's neat to see Marvel doing something like this practically rather than just shooting it all against a green screen.