Winners and Nominees 2022

Two sisters who are assassins fight each other because of past differences. Weapons are disarmed and the fight continues using anything reachable to smash into or through. They eventually end up in dual chokeholds and call a truce.

Shot over the course of 2 nights in extremely tight quarters, the stunt performers perform a hand-to-hand fight scene against the lead actor inside a bus. Stunt performers were smashing candy glass bottles over heads, getting thrown around, choked with wire straps from a purse, kicked into as well as had chairs and poles thrown. Lead actor stunt double was thrown out the bus window through tempered glass and onto concrete.

Harley Quinn combats dozens of soldiers as she makes her way through multiple rooms in an enemy stronghold. This sequence was spread over 5 rooms and uses an array of weapons, hand to hand combat and acrobatics. One attacker is 360-garrote whipped with a piece of skirt into an oncoming soldier. In another part of the sequence Harley dispatches 7 guards and turns their own weapons back on them. She tears a strip of her skirt to block, trap and bind attacks as well as flip a guard over her shoulder into an oncoming guard. One wire gag was used for the flip. A second wire gag was used when the stunt double uses the javelin like a pole vault to run along and leap off the wall while striking guards.

This clip includes the section of the stunt sequence after the joust. The ground fight starts when Le Gris’ stunt double is trapped underneath a live horse. The horse gets up and the fight develops. The weapons used start with Le Gris using a stirrup iron, stirrup leather and a sword to battle his opponent who has a small battle axe. As the fight continues both stunt performers fight with broad swords which then develops into a disarm and fall and becomes a ground fight. This section of the fight involves hand to hand combat, and both performers have daggers and were wearing simulated chain mail.

The parachute spiraling to the ground and crash landing included having a stunt double hang 100 feet from the ground and upside down. The performer took a nosedive to create a skydive imitation using a decelerator. Performer had to balance from two hip points to create the realistic look. For the parachute gag, height was 120 feet, the two performers quick released to deploy their own shoots. One of the toggles pre-tensioned to put them into a spin and a self-adjusting descender rig was used to land the pair safely to the ground. As a whole, this sequence used a combination of practical skydiving, open air wind tunnel, Moco rig and wires (winches, ratchets, hand pulls and descender). There was a total of 61 hidden parachute jumps to shoot the entire sequence including the parachute transfer from one character to another and for the tandem jumps under the canopy. The hard costumes on the soldiers made the hidden parachute design an exceptional feat while keeping the stunt safe. CGI was used to create the debris throughout the skydiving, wind tunnel and wire work, and it was used to smooth out the “humps” created by the hidden parachutes.

Stunt performer jumps out of a 30-foot window onto a moving bus. From there the performer transfers onto another moving vehicle going in the opposite direction. They land with a baseball slide. Then they transfer to a city bus and then to another bus where the stunt performer is tackled from behind falling 60 feet onto another vehicle. After that fall they are chucked off onto the pavement. The performer then recovers and jumps into a car. This stunt was a physical stunt with wire work.

Neo and Trinity jump off of a 600-foot-tall skyscraper at sunrise. Performers leapt off a building and then “fell/flew” approximately 50 feet below the roof of the building. They hovered between the buildings for dialog then when a helicopter arrived, they flew away. The entire scene from the jump to flying out of the shot was a continuous rig with no breaks or cuts. A multiple high speed winch system with a fully integrated duel high line traveler was specially designed and then rigged between two buildings. Each performers lines had a “hand pull” aspect integrated into their system to “puppeteer” them so that they could go from running upright to “flying/falling” prone to upright again when they fly out. The specially designed traveler allowed the lines to be cross connected as a multiple redundant safety system. CGI was used for wire removal only.

Three stunt performers dressed as smoke jumpers skydive from a helicopter into a small treacherous landing zone at 8,000 feet. The landing zone was small, uneven and located on the side of a hill. Margin for error was limited as the zone was littered with trees, stumps and remnants of burned tree trunks that effectively made skewers to impale the jumpers. This was a practical skydive into an area where people do not skydive. The only VFX used were for the purpose of making it look like a burned forest. The landing zone itself was 8,000 feet above sea level, thin air, less control which meant they left the helicopter at nearly 15,000 feet above sea level. Smoke jumping equipment provided a challenge for the free fall because it is very heavy and fire jumpers are usually not able to navigate a specific landing zone. No rehearsal into the final landing zone was done because it was too dangerous. The jump on camera is the first time they landed on the hero location.

Bond leaps from a 130-foot-high bridge in Italy. The stunt performer jumped with 60 feet of slack into a Gold Tail decelerator, and then swung under the bridge.

Bamboo fight in the forest between The Mandarin and Ying Li. The wire team worked with multiple systems including, a spin ring/lollipop system, ratchets, slack lines and single point rigs, all at the same time to meld the sequence together. Eighty percent of the scene was performed on wires and the actors were able to perform in the rigs for transitions when needed.

A mugger gets mugged by Venom and tries to run away. Venom grabs him and drags him back 50 feet then lifts him 25 feet in the air. The stunt performer is then thrown on a highspeed winch 110 feet reaching 40 feet of height at the apex, crashes into a wall, and falls into a dumpster. Winches were used to motivate the stunt performer and CGI was used to create Venom and remove the wires.

Carnage shreds his way through a prison killing several guards and then finally the warden. Rigs were done practically in this stunt that included lifting the guards and slamming them through breakaway rails, support pipes, and whipping them into a cell just over the Wardens head. Guards were slammed into walls, railings and dropped off upper levels. The Warden was dragged on a table and then sent flying into a tornado. CGI was used to create Carnage and required set extensions and to remove wires and effects.

Four police cars are giving chase and drive into downed power lines. This causes the four police cars to all simultaneously do cannons, both traditional and endo flips. All of the car work was practical. To make it look like the cars were caught up in the fallen wires we set up two cannons and two flips with one drive into the end of a cable. We put cables on the nose of each car and each cable went back to a 1200lb K-rail. The cable length was calculated to grab the front of the cars as they were about half way into their flips. This would cause the cars to change direction abruptly so it looked like the wires were grabbing them. CGI was used to add telephone poles and wires.

James Bond jumps a motorcycle 40 feet up a 65-foot wall. This stunt was performed at an extremely steep angle and with a high level of difficulty. The run up and the wind on the day of the shoot presented challenges. The stunt involved all practical riding and CGI was only used for face replacement and to replace the stunt doubles helmet.

James Bond is chased through the streets of Matera, Italy while driving an Aston Martin DB5. CGI was used for set minimal and set extensions.

A prison transport driver was killed causing the vehicle to careen out of control through traffic causing multiple crashes and near misses. The prison van was driven from a hidden driver positioned to allow the dead driver to be in the driver’s seat for the chase. An oncoming tractor trailer jack knifes and the prison van impacts it and deflects off the road and rolls multiple times down an embankment. All of the stunts were practical and with no CG.

In this scene a witch is set on fire by a child. The witch ignites, then runs around the back of the barn and into the woods. Traditional fire burn prep was used for this sequence along with gelled CarbonX under a natural fiber wardrobe. We shot a medium shot of the child actress making a motion with her torch, then cut to an insert of the torch that was being held by the stunt performer. We fueled a smaller portion of the stunt performer’s cape just below the shoulders. We then lit smaller fire burns on the stunt performer to get the camera shot of the face. Fire burn lasted 6-7 seconds and second burn lasted 12 seconds. The use of the witch’s cap made it possible to get a great dynamic burn without any need for added flames or digital FX in post.

Three helicopters were involved in an extensive chase scene through the streets of San Francisco. Two picture Helicopters and a Camera Ship were flown in formation approximately 30 feet off the deck down the very narrow streets of the financial district. Certain areas only allowed for about 5 feet of blade clearance from the buildings. Extensive explosions, fire and smoke further complicated the night time scene by greatly reducing the pilot’s visibility. VFX were only used to add the muzzle flash to the practical guns that were installed on the aircraft.

Four characters are hurled around an office by torrents of water as a huge indoor aquarium collapsed. A floor of an office block was built in a studio complete with cubicles, office equipment etc. Centered above this was a giant SFX dump tank to flood the set in a matter of seconds and propel the stunt performers out through secondary dump chute. The water rapidly dumped to fill the office block because of an explosion that tilts the building and sends all the water along with everything else on set sliding toward the hole created by the explosion. Two characters are washed out of the block entirely, one performer survives by grabbing office cables and the other by being washed against the wall. Three out of four performers were on wires for safety. Complex timing was required between stunts, SFX, camera and water safety to ensure the stunt happened safely and all camera shots were achieved. CGI was used to enhance the wake and splash of the water but stunts provided a proxy stunt double for water interaction.

Three stunt performers dressed as smoke jumpers skydive from a helicopter into a small treacherous landing zone at 8000 feet. The landing zone was small, uneven and located on the side of a hill. Margin for error was limited as the zone was littered with trees, stumps and remnants of burned tree trunks that effectively made skewers to impale the jumpers. This was a practical skydive into an area where people do not skydive. The only VFX used were for the purpose of making it look like a burned forest. The landing zone itself was 8000 feet above sea level, thin air, less control which meant they left the helicopter at nearly 15,000 feet above sea level. Smoke jumping equipment provided a challenge for the free fall because it is very heavy and fire jumpers are usually not able to navigate a specific landing zone. No rehearsal into the final landing zone was done because it was too dangerous. The jump on camera is the first time they landed on the hero location.

In this scene a witch is set on fire by a child. The witch ignites, then runs around the back of the barn and into the woods. Traditional fire burn prep was used for this sequence along with gelled CarbonX under a natural fiber wardrobe. We shot a medium shot of the child actress making a motion with her torch, then cut to an insert of the torch that was being held by the stunt performer. We fueled a smaller portion of the stunt performer’s cape just below the shoulders. We then lit smaller fire burns on the stunt performer to get the camera shot of the face. Fire burn lasted 6-7 seconds and second burn lasted 12 seconds. The use of the witch’s cap made it possible to get a great dynamic burn without any need for added flames or digital FX in post.

Stunt woman is fighting one of the characters using hand to hand combat. One performer is trying to “kill” the other performer in her own home. During the fight, the stunt woman uses bare hands, weapons and everyday items found in a house.

This is a fight sequence where the stunt woman is slammed into the ceiling by a male character before being dropped to the floor. The stunt woman is slammed into the ceiling, dropped to the floor, tackled out of a window onto a water tank, and then falls to the ground. Using a single point top line with two riggers motivating her with a hand pull. The stunt occurred during a longer fight sequence. CGI was used for wire removal.

Harley Quinn combats dozens of soldiers as she makes her way through multiple rooms in an enemy stronghold. This sequence was spread over 5 rooms and uses an array of weapons, hand to hand combat and acrobatics. One attacker is 360-garrote whipped with a piece of skirt into an oncoming soldier. In another part of the sequence Harley dispatches 7 guards and turns their own weapons back on them. She tears a strip of her skirt to block, trap and bind attacks as well as flip a guard over her shoulder into an oncoming guard. One wire gag was used for the flip. A second wire gag was used when the stunt double uses the javelin like a pole vault to run along and leap off the wall while striking guards.

The stunt performer in the fast attack vehicle pulls alongside the performer driving the motorcycle and transfers from the vehicle to the motorcycle. The motorcycle drags the stunt performer and then the driver on the motorcycle maneuvers the bike so the performer being dragged swings into a palm tree. This was all done practical. The stunt performer was wearing a harness with an overhead traveler rig to help him flair out as the bike came in and made the turn to miss the tree. A Deadman cable with a bit of deceleration in it was added and with the correct length the stunt player would just touch the tree and wrap his body around it as if he slammed it hard. The hit on the end of the cable was hard and was at a dead stop at 20 mph. CGI painted out the wires.

At the end of the nightclub fight the main character, Michael Bryce, notices a henchman aiming a pump shotgun at the female character, Sonia Kincaid. Bryce puts both hands-on Sonia’s chest, pushing her out of the way, before taking shotgun pellets causing him to fly backwards and smash into a wall covered in bottles. The stunt double for Bryce is on a wire and flies backwards approx. 14 feet into the wall. He bounces off and lands on his front on the hard floor.

This stunt requires the stunt performer to fall from the third level of a building, chip off the second level and land on the ground level. A rigging system with a single point top line was used for this sequence. The performer was connected to a gold tail that was used to decel his impacts with the two levels below. The performer was also gooch wrapped and this wrap was held in place by a quick release that was set up to release automatically at a set point right before the performer impacted the second level. As the performer was about to hit the second level there is a slight pinch of the gold tail and then the quick release automatically releases allowing the performer to start to unwrap. The performer completely unwraps and falls to the ground floor. The entire fall was 30 feet.

Performer was thrown in the air before being redirected back into the floor. Performer was attached to two separate lines; a top line with a gooch wrap and a second line that redirected his travel into the floor. Both lines were hand operated hand pulls. At the apex the performer is at 7 feet above floor height.