Tyler Rake 2: how the incredible 21-minute sequence shot was designed

Sam Hargrave, the director of the film, recounts the shooting conditions of this long action scene with Chris Hemsworth in Prague.

For Tyler Rake 2, Sam Hargrave went into overdrive. The first part already contained a long sequence shot of 12 minutes, for the second, it will be (practically) twice as much. One of the first scenes of the film is indeed spread over 21 intense minutes during which Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) breaks into a prison to free the family of a dangerous gang member. Between car chase, infiltration in a train and fight with gangsters who attack him from a helicopter… The sequence does not lack action, as shown in the teaser (to see at the bottom of the article).

“A lot of our energy was focused on this sequence shot (…) we had a real train with actors on the roof, and several helicopters. It had to be meticulously choreographed and planned”explained Sam Hargrave to Variety.

The footage was shot outdoors in Prague over 29 days. The images of the train alone required a whole week of shooting, and a lot of concentration. “With high-speed trains, it can quickly go from ‘everything’s good’ to a potential death situation”, says the director. To avoid any accident, a security team was on site. The filming location being quite remote, the hospitals were not nearby. Better to have qualified people on site, then.

Although already impressive, this scene had to be even more spectacular:

“At the beginning, there were supposed to be two trains going off the rails, but when we started to think about logistics, we realized that only one train was already going to give us a hard time”admits Sam Hargrave.

The scene required the presence of 400 people, 75 stuntmen who interact directly with Chris Hemsworth, and others performing fight scenes in the background. In terms of decor, everything was authentic: “it was a real helicopter, with five stuntmen jumping out of it, and landing on a real train in a real setting”.

On the other hand, one suspects it, the filmmaker had to make cuts in the editing, while giving the illusion of never turning off the camera. But then, how many are there? The director does not give the exact figure, but one thing is certain: there are more than fifty.

“I wanted the scene to be immersive and intense. Granted, I’m sure many people could have done it in one take, and it would have been even more impressive. But for me, the most important thing was safety. As long as you get home alive and can go to work the next day, that’s fine with me.” he concludes.