I do quite a lot of wire falls. Or they’ll CG the guy. So to actually get the chance to do it for real was really cool. We rehearsed at the location the day before, and got up to 100ft in rehearsal. And then the next day, we got even higher. We started at 70ft, went to 80, 90, 100, 110 and then 125. When I did the 110ft, Justin was like, ‘You don’t need to go to 125ft if you don’t want to.’
I went, ‘No, it’s fine. I’m happy.’ He was like, ‘Well, if you’re happy, let’s do it.’ I even wanted to go a bit higher when we did that. I think the next one would be very cool if we did a higher jump, but off the real churches.
The real challenge here? Not only the leap itself, but the body language that goes with it as Assassin’s Creed
game characters usually adopt
a very rigid shape during the
execution of that move. “The
character in the game doesn’t
change shape, he holds that
shape for as long as possible,”
Walters said.
The problem with that
is there’s no adjusting
in the air, so you’ve
got to guess as soon
as you take off how
much rotation to put
in, and the higher you
go, the more of a
guess it is. As soon
as you hit the bag,
it’s a lot of speed
to stop within two
metres. You’ve
got to spread
your weight as
much as possible.
If you land on your feet you’re just going to crumple into a big heap.
The biggest danger is landing wrong on the bag. It’s not about missing the bag. It’s 10 x 10m, so you shouldn’t miss it if you’ve got any ability about you. It’s the fact that you have to land flat on your back. On the 90ft jump I landed a little top-heavy. I’ve got a little bump on the back of my head. It’s quite tight, the bag, so if you land slightly wrong you get a big whack. Even when you land properly, you get a fair whack in the back.
The wind’s a big issue. The bag is three–and-a-half metres high, so the wind can pick one side up and put the other side down. We had to park a truck in front to try and stop the wind from hitting the side of the bag. That’s something you
don’t really want to think about when
you’re up there. It’s like, ‘I hope that
bag’s going to be there when I land.
I’m a big fan of traditional stunts and p ractical work in movies. No matter h how real istic your CGI is, it’ll always
pale in comparison to knowing
that someone risked life
and limb for a two-second
shot that could have very
nearly ended them.
The movie drops on
December 21 this year.
J ust stand clear of the
wagon full of hay that is
marked conveniently
under the tall building.