Tag Archives: Yuen Woo-Ping

1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, Stunts

Best Movie Stunts of the Year List 1990-1999

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Here is the list for the Best Movie Stunts for the Decade 1990-1999 as listed in the book, 100 Years of the Best Movie Stunts!

1990 – The Rookietherookie1990

It was reported that over eighty stuntmen worked on this film. There were way more stuntmen on this film than there were actors! It’s no wonder when you have legends Terry Leonard as the stunt coordinator and Buddy Van Horn as the 2nd Unit Director.  Great action film directed by Clint Eastwood himself.

1991 – Terminator 2: Judgement DayT2

Another great Director that loves to do live stunts is James Cameron.  The action summer blockbuster is on full force with this one.  A great little stunt by Peter Kent  doubling for Arnold Schwarzenegger as he jumps a Harley into a canal.

1992 – SupercopSupercop_003-550w1

It’s not Jackie Chan who gets the nod on this one (although, he does some great stunts in it too), it’s Michelle Yeoh who does some fantastic stunts on a motorcycle and on the hood of a little red convertible.

1993 – CliffhangerCliffhanger-Airplane

Obviously, this film has some great climbing sequences, but it’s a plane to plane transfer by Simon Crane that really wows the audience. These days we would just do this in a computer, they decided to do this as a practical stunt. With Jets.

1994 – True LiesJamie Lee Curtis hangs from a helicopter in True Lies

Another great action film by James Cameron, and he manages to talk Jamie Lee Curtis to hang underneath a helicopter for a few slow-mo shots.  On her birthday none-the-less.[fliiby]https://flii.by/file/rqswtlvck7y/[/fliiby]

1995 – GoldeneyeGoldeneye2-1024x768

James bond does it again, this time Pierce Brosnan as 007.  The opening jump from a dam was performed by Wayne Michaels doubling for Brosnan however, and it’s a fun one to open the movie with.

1996 – Mission: Impossiblemission_impossible

Tom Cruise is the finest actor ever to do his own stunts and he proves it time and time again.  He’s got nerves of steel.  In this film I count at least 3 stunts that he performs himself that most stunt performers themselves would turn down.

1997 – Titanictitanic_ship-HD

The 3rd movie this decade directed by James Cameron on the list. It’s a wonder he has time for anything else. There are a lot of special effects in this one, but there are a lot of practical and dangerous work done throughout by the cast and crew as a whole.  It won Best Picture at the Academy Awards that year, and if there was an Oscar for Stunts, it should have won that too.

1998 – Ronanroninlc

Fantastic car chase sequence, right at home in a Bourne movie, John Frankenheimer hits the list again 32 years apart! The first time was with James Garner in Grand Prix, another movie with great car stunt driving.

1999 – The Matrixmatrix-logo

The Wachowski Brothers revolutionized the Action film with this one and studios scrambled to make films like this for years after. The actors worked very closely with the stunt performers in this film and Yuen Woo-Ping made sure they were ready with months and months of training beforehand.

Check out our new Book, 100 Years of the Best Movie Stunts!Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 8.23.28 PM

1999, Stunts

Actors and Stunt Team for The Matrix

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When a film goes into production, a lot of preparation goes on during pre-production to make sure everyone is fully prepared for when the cameras start rolling. The stunt team works very closely with the actors, with fight choreography and daily workouts for up to months sometimes leading up to the first day of shooting. Training for The Matrix was unusually grueling for four months before production, with Keanu Reeves himself training for up to ten hours every day.matrix12
To prepare, the Wachowski Brothers hired Yuen Woo-Ping to get the actors ready. Yuen let their body style develop and then worked with each actor’s strength. He built on Reeves’ diligence, Fishburne’s resilience, Weaving’s precision, and Moss’s feminine grace. This all paid off in the end to create one of the best action and fight movies ever put to film.  It’s become so iconic in the history of film, that it’s been replicated for years since the movie was released. It wasn’t an easy shoot, several of the actors were dinged up during production; Carrie-Anne Moss twisted an ankle, Hugo Weaving hurt his leg and required surgery and all the actors and stunt performers had their share of bumps and bruises.matrix 2
It’s also a sign of how heavy the action is in a film when you go into scheduling. A simple fight scene on a normal movie takes an afternoon or one day to shoot, whereas with The Matrix, they literally spent weeks on some action sequences.  A good example, the subway fight scene actually went 10 days over schedule. The opening action scene took four days to shoot, the lobby shootout took 10 days to shoot, the helicopter rescue of Morpheus took six months to plan and a week to execute. Overall, the principal photography on this film lasted for 25 weeks.

Things to look up (go to IMDB):

  • The Matrix
  • Wachowski Brothers
  • Yuen Woo-Ping
  • Keanu Reeves
  • Hugo Weaving
  • Carrie-Anne Moss
Check out our new Book, 100 Years of the Best Movie Stunts!
Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 8.23.28 PM