Keanu Reeves’ stylish scenes from The Matrix were shot with the help of green screens and wirework from a martial arts legend. Naomi Watts’ interaction with the monstrous ape in King Kong never happened on the film’s set. The behind-the-scenes photos from many of the famous Hollywood productions tell a completely different story from the actual film.
Such BTS photos will probably change your perspective on how things actually worked in Hollywood. From the ‘master of suspense’ Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal work to the Wachowskis’ take on the cyberpunk genre, here are some of the BTS pics from classic films.
10. Psycho
Psycho is arguably Alfred Hitchcock‘s most famous work. The horror thriller about a psycho killer took the industry by storm and served as a framework for other films in the genre. Janet Leigh was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar and fans believe she was deserving of the award after her famous screaming-in-the-shower scene.
In a BTS photo from the scene, Hitchcock can be seen giving instructions to Leigh as she’s about to perform the legendary scene. Psycho is considered by the Library of Congress as a “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” film.
Psycho is now available for streaming on Prime Video.
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick‘s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a visionary film that was much ahead of its time. The film still sparks discussion among the fandom and one of the topics that often come up in these discussions is the human zoo in the film’s ending. The above pic shows Kubrick standing at the center of the human zoo set.
Kubrick did offer an explanation for the scene, which was not found until 2018. In the rediscovered interview, Kubrick shared about the human zoo (via The Telegraph):
The idea was supposed to be that he is taken in by god-like entities, creatures of pure energy and intelligence with no shape or form and they put him in what I suppose you could describe as a human zoo to study him, and his whole life passes from that point on in that room and he has no sense of time, it just seems to happen as it does in the film.
When they get finished with him, as happens in so many myths of all cultures in the world, he is transformed into some kind of superbeing and sent back to Earth. It is the pattern of a great deal of mythology, that was what we were trying to suggest.
2001: A Space Odyssey is now available for streaming on Max.
8. Raiders of the Lost Ark
Steven Spielberg‘s Raiders of the Lost Ark was a revolutionary film in the action-adventure genre. Fans are still amazed at how the Jaws director managed to create several of the scenes in the 1981 film. In the pic from the film’s set, Spielberg is seen exploring a miniature set for one of the film’s scenes.
The miniature set itself didn’t make it to the final film. Instead, Spielberg used it purely for informational purposes. The miniature helped him plan out the sequence — the layouts, the lighting, the number of extras required, etc.
Raiders of the Lost Ark is now available for streaming on Disney+.
7. The Empire Strikes Back
This pic from the second film in the Star Wars original trilogy, The Empire Strikes Back, shows the “grandfather of modern make-up design”. Stuart Freeborn was the brain behind most of the character makeup in the original trilogy, including Yoda and Chewbacca.
He based Yoda on his own face and created the design as well as the fabrication. The green humanoid alien went on to become an iconic character, even known beyond the Star Wars fandom.
The Empire Strikes Back is now available for streaming on Disney+.
6. The Shining
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was always considered to be an intense film set. The Stephen King novel adaptation explored the story of a mad husband trying to kill his wife and son. There were many behind-the-set stories from the film that painted a horrible work environment, especially involving the late Shelley Duvall.
However, this light-hearted pic, where Jack Nicholson poses for a photo that was actually of Kubrick and his daughter Vivian, shows a different fun side. It is proof that The Shining was not a crazy set as fans believed it to be.
The Shining is now available for rent on AppleTV+.
5. King Kong
Peter Jackson‘s King Kong was a remake of the 1976 film and starred Naomi Watts, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody. The film went overboard on the $150 million budget and was filmed extensively using a green screen, inflating the budget to $207 million (via Variety). King Kong went on to win the Best Visual Effects Oscar that year.
In the above shot from the film’s set, Watts is being held by some green-colored material, which was later edited to look like the monstrous ape’s hand in the film.
King Kong is now available for streaming on Starz.
4. Braveheart
The Oscar-winning film Braveheart featured Mel Gibson in the role of a 13th-century Scottish warrior Sir William Wallace. The historic drama came with the challenges of filming some epic war sequences and Gibson nailed these scenes as an actor and director. One of the popular scenes from the film involves Gibson’s Wallace telling his army of men to hold as the English cavalry approaches to attack them.
The photo from the set of the film revealed how the “Hold!” moment was filmed. It was one of the tension-building moments in the film and the BTS scene confirmed that Gibson’s Best Director Oscar for the film was deserving.
Braveheart is now available for streaming on Paramount+.
3. Kill Bill Vol. 1
Quentin Tarantino‘s films are known for their unique filming style and slick action choreography. Tarantino’s Kill Bill was inspired by the exploitation films of the ’70s and other martial arts films. In the final scene of Kill Bill Vol. 1, Uma Thurman‘s Bride fights against Lucy Liu‘s O-Ren and her Yakuza gang in her restaurant. The sequence ends with the Bride slicing off the top of O-Ren’s head.
Thurman and Liu in make-up look amazing in this shot from the movie’s set. Martial arts legend Yeun Woo-ping was roped in for both films and did remarkable work on the anime-style action choreography.
Kill Bill Vol. 1 is now available for streaming on Starz.
2. Titanic
James Cameron brought to screen one of the evergreen romantic tragedies in the history of cinema, Titanic, in 1997. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson and Kate Winslet as Rose Bukater, he set the story against the real-life incident of Titanic’s catastrophic sinking.
The BTS image is from the climax portion of the film. Cameron is seen fully immersed in water, giving instructions to DiCaprio and Winslet. For the final scene, the director constructed an almost full-scale replica of the ship’s exterior at Fox Baja Studios in Mexico (via IMDb). He also filmed in LA-based locations like Belmont Olympic Pool in Long Beach and SS Lane Victory in San Pedro.
Titanic is now available for streaming on Paramount+.
1. The Matrix
The Wachowskis‘ creative vision produced one of the best films in the cyberpunk genre of sci-fi films, The Matrix. The directors brought in martial arts legend Yuen Woo-ping to film some Hong Kong action styles in the film. Yeun introduced his style of wire work in the film, where actors were suspended from thin cables during their action scenes.
In this photo from the set, Keanu Reeves‘ Neo and Hugo Weaving‘s Agent Smith are seen filming the ‘bullet time’ scene with the help of Yeun’s wire work. All actors including Reeves, Weaving, Carrie-Anne Moss, and Laurence Fishburne underwent training for six months and performed their own stunts in the film.
The Matrix is now available for rent on AppleTV+.
