“Fast X” features a scene that recreates one of the “Fast” franchise’s greatest moments, wherein Jason Momoa’s Dante sends a giant bomb rolling through the streets of Rome in an insane plot to blow up the Vatican. It makes for exactly the kind of outrageous set piece we’ve come to expect from this franchise, and if you think the “Fast X” crew didn’t actually roll a 2-ton ball through Rome and set it on fire, you’re wrong.
The film’s visual effects supervisor Peter Chiang told Indiewire how he did just that, revealing that he, production designer Jan Roelfs, second unit stunt coordinator Andy Gill, and special effects supervisor Alistair Williams constructed a giant steel ball coated in perspex and fiberglass. Chiang added:
“When I did the animation tests, I wanted the bomb to be 10 tons. That lends itself to a particular type of movement and speed, but there was no way that special effects could make a 10-ton bomb move down a street in Italy with all of this fragile architecture and be controllable.”
Settling for a 2-ton practical version, Chiang and co. had to be able to control their creation. To do so, they built an axle into the steel ball which was connected to overhead wires and, according to Gill, a winch, “designed to tow gliders up into the air.” He continued:
“In our testing, we were able to get it up to about 35 miles an hour and start and stop it anywhere we wanted. Knowing that we had control, we were able to put the ball in places that we thought weren’t going to be possible […] we could drive cars around it, we could jump it, we could do anything we wanted to.”
“Fast X” is currently playing in theaters.
