Sheer Brilliance

Remember that scene from the 2005 Tom Cruise movie War of the Worlds? If you have seen that movie, you may also remember that in one of the scenes... a Boeing 747 crashes in a neighborhood. What a scene... what conceptualization... and what picturization... it sure makes one wonder!

On the first instincts, one may think that director Steven Spielberg must have shot the scene through CGI effects and with the aide of miniature props.

Think again, it wasn't just CGI effects. And it wasn't miniature props either. Our director extraordinaire had the sheer brilliance and thought of bringing in a real Boeing 747 and breaking it down to look like a crash to shoot the scene!

Wow! I had gasped when saw the set still intact and preserved in the back lot of the Universal Studios, Los Angeles. I could have never thought that it was a real plane... ripped apart with every detail to make the scene look real and believable. No wonder why a Spielberg movie is a must see!

The plane in the crash scene is an All Nippon Airways (Japan) plane. Its' tail fin was repainted in a flat grey tone because it originally bore the colors and logo of a real airline. Pilots flying over the Universal back lot apparently saw the staged wreckage, recognized the colors and symbol on the tail and began calling in plane crash reports to the FAA. The plane parts were then repainted and disguised in order to discourage further false alarms.

Interesting...isn't it?