Christopher Nolan Reveals He Bought A Real 747 Jet To Destroy In ‘Tenet’

By Corey Atad. Published: 27 May 2020 10:23 AM

When Christopher Nolan goes big, he goes really big.

Last week, when the new trailer for “Tenet” premiered, movie fans were stunned by a scene previewed in which a jumbo jet crashes into a building.

And as it turns out, that scene was all done for real, the director confirmed.

“I planned to do it using miniatures and set-piece builds and a combination of visual effects and all the rest,” Nolan said in an interview with TotalFilm, explaining that while scouting for locations the crew discovered a massive collection of old planes.”

“We started to run the numbers… It became apparent that it would actually be more efficient to buy a real plane of the real size, and perform this sequence for real in camera, rather than build miniatures or go the CG route,” the director said.

So an old Boeing 747 was bought to blow up.

“It’s a strange thing to talk about – a kind of impulse buying, I suppose,” he laughed. “But we kind of did, and it worked very well, with Scott Fisher, our special-effects supervisor, and Nathan Crowley, the production designer, figuring out how to pull off this big sequence in camera. It was a very exciting thing to be a part of.”

Star Robert Pattinson also talked about filming the enormous action sequence.

“You wouldn’t have thought there was any reality where you would be doing a scene where they just have an actual 747 to blow up!” he said. “It’s so bold to the point of ridiculousness… I remember, as we were shooting it, I was thinking, How many more times is this even going to be happening in a film at all?”