Look Upon The Unsettlingly Realistic Chris Pratt Dummy From Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 And Despair
It seems like we've all been complaining about the overuse of CGI for so long that we might just be witnessing the teeniest tiniest shift in how Hollywood approaches visual effects. The clickers in "The Last of Us" were just a little too practical for star Pedro Pascal, and the new "Dungeons and Dragons" movie was full of practical creatures built by the team behind Grogu. Then there was that terrifying rat queen in Guillermo Del Toro's "Cabinet Of Curiosities," which was an actual functioning puppet. And now, with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" finally hitting theaters, we have the impressive abomination that is the ultra-realistic Chris Pratt doll.
Built by the prolific Legacy Effects, who've worked on everything from "Avatar: The Way of Water" to "The Revenant," the life-sized prop was constructed to allow Nebula actor Karen Gillan to look as though she was carrying Star-Lord with ease in the movie — a shot of which appeared in the "Vol. 3" trailer. The doll itself gained attention when Gillan revealed its existence during the film's press tour, and Pom Klementieff, who plays Mantis in the "Guardians" films, also spoke about how "incredibly realistic" the ungodly creation was, adding that she "could barely look at it because it looked like [Pratt] was actually dead. Really dead."
Now we've gotten a much better look at the thing, thanks to director James Gunn's social media addiction. The new co-head of DC Studios posted three behind-the-scenes videos of the Chris Pratt doll to Instagram, which provide a real insight into just how realistic the creation was — and yes, it's just as terrifying as they made it sound.
This thing is next-level disturbing ... and also kinda cool
The videos show Karen Gillan and Chris Pratt seeing the doll for the first time and seeming genuinely taken aback by just how realistic it is. They also reveal that the fake Pratt weighed just 35 pounds, allowing Gillan to carry it with relative ease. And beside the insanely detailed facial design, which features stubble and freckles, perhaps the most unsettling part of the whole thing is the fact that the doll is able to "breathe." That, and the troubling way the thing gently bounces as Gillan walks towards the camera, mimicking the lifeless weight of a deceased Pratt with alarming accuracy. Check out the videos below.
These videos of the Chris Pratt doll (you can watch them with sound over on TikTok) are more than just a terrifying glimpse into a dim netherworld where hope itself has perished. While we've all been preoccupied with conversations about how digital effects have progressed, and being all "sub-surface scattering this" and "ray tracing that," practical effects artists have been stepping their game up, too. The Pratt doll really does look perfectly lifelike, demonstrating just how far we've come since those jarring shots of a fake Arnie head in "The Terminator."
It's also nice to see Gunn and company making use of practical effects in a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie — especially one that's otherwise laden with digital VFX. Let's hope we see more of this in the future (but in a less soul-shattering form), and maybe we can avoid seeing the god-awful CGI of a film like "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" ever again.