10 Practical Film Effects You Probably Thought Were CGI
6. The Flying Truck From Thor 2
The levitating truck from Thor: The Dark World is such a small part of the movie. Its only really there to signify that the portal Jane discovers is doing weird things to gravity. As this moment is so insignificant, you may have assumed that director Alan Taylor just asked Marvels CGI team to throw something together so he could get on with the more important scenes. But thats not what happened.
There was this weird moment in a production meeting where I said when the truck picks up and starts floating Ill need a large inflatable thing of the same colour for the secondary bounce , effects supervisor Jake Morrison told FX Guide after the film was released.
I swear, I looked up and it was as if I had grown another head, he continued. His colleagues asked him, Why do you want to make a CG truck?, and he retorted in surprise with Can you make a truck float? And yes, it turns out that they could.
In the end, the team built what Morrison describes as an unbelievable hydraulic rig attached to the back of - like a spit roast that special effects supervisor Paul Corbould controlled on set. A big metal bar went through the vehicle to help it rotate, and the entire rig was erased in post-production. It didnt make the film any better though, sadly.