10 More CGI Movie Shots You Never Noticed
8. The Sand Was Digitally Altered For Keanu Reeves' Horse Ride - John Wick: Chapter 4
Another star who typically likes to get his hands dirty when it comes to a movie's various stunts, Keanu Reeves once again kicked all of the ass and saddled up for real during the making of John Wick: Chapter 4.
However, while that is certainly the John Wick actor himself on the back of a horse during the opening desert sequence - shot in Jordan - there was still a little bit of digital tinkering on show as he galloped after his enemies.
You see, as explained by the film's visual effects supervisors Jonathan Rothbart and Janelle Croshaw Ralla (via before & afters), sand can be a bit of a pain in the ass during shooting. So, despite filming on location for this moment, the team ended up "replacing a lot of that sand digitally just to hide all of the tracks and the machinery."
Perhaps the most impressive CGI moment to go down in this opening stretch, though, can be seen as Reeves makes his steed skid to a stop. The actor did this for real during the pick-up shoot in Los Angeles. All that sandy Jordan footage was then ultimately given to Light VFX who created an entirely CG environment to throw the real dusty stop into.
The end results are about as convincing as it gets, with just about nobody watching on assuming there was anything digital about Wick's awesome desert skid in the feature.