Movies - TV
How Pillow Fights Helped The Road House Remake Sell Its Brutal Punches
By RYAN SCOTT
The remake of the '80s classic “Road House” features Jake Gyllenhaal as Dalton, an ex-UFC fighter, with director Doug Liman using high-tech pillow fights to enhance action scenes.
Stunt coordinator Garrett Warren introduced the “Garrett shot,” involving staged punches followed by real impacts against pads, resulting in authentic reactions from the actors.
Warren described the method to Total Film magazine. After filming the scene with fake punches between actors, they would capture their natural expressions while hitting a pad.
The hitter is then swapped with the person receiving the blow to be filmed but they use the pad to hit them instead of a fist. The reaction is real, without damage.
"It's basically a glorified pillow fight. It'll look like a UFC fighter getting hit in the face and trying to keep their composure. It's wild," Warren explained.
The fight is also shot in slow-motion, as well as a "clean pass" of just the background scenery. Then, all the layers are stitched together to create the scene.