G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013) - full transcript

The G.I. Joe team is framed for crimes against the country by Zartan, disguised as the President, and Cobra Commander has all the world leaders under his influence, with their advanced warheads headed towards innocent populaces around the world. Outnumbered and outgunned, the surviving team members form a plan with their original leader, General Joseph Colton, to rescue the President and face off Cobra Commander, his accomplices and the world leaders.

And this is Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

the producer.

Ethan and John. they did all the ninia

star sounds for those stars right there.

lt's always hard to deal

with these multiple logos.

So many companies.

gets to create a little mood atmosphere

as you sit down in the movie and relax.

who l actually went to college with.

it was raining so hard

you couldn't even get out of the car?

And we were desperately looking for

a location we could actually afford.

And we had to build that giant.

giant fence that went all the way back.

There's a scene that comes in

right after this that we always loved.

And l think for Jon and l

it's always a little bittersweet

"how to get that other scene in"

you know?

lt started with them on the grass

whispering to each other.

and we were like

right intimate with them.

Well. it was a cool scene in that

in an action stealth mode.

and sort of figure out who they are

on the fly. you know.

There's no tower there.

building it from the ground up.

Actually. in many ways. this movie

couldn't have gotten made at the scale

because we had this insane facility.

Yeah. like the rockets. basically.

for the shuttles.

this gigantic space they had

for transporting these things.

Yeah.

500/o of the movie within a 5-mile range.

- Yeah. A couple miles.

- Yeah. It's crazy.

When we first went in it. we were like.

"You guys are kidding. right?

We drove through it.

They say that building is so big

that it would rain indoors.

There's a lot of characters in G.l. Joe,

and it's one of the strengths.

because you don't have

enough time. really.

So this opening sequence here

was designed

of who the characters are. what they do.

and we could get

into the actual character motivations.

what are their goals.

when we came up with this idea.

and reintroducing these characters to

people who didn't watch the first movie.

as well as pushing

new information forward

This scene. l always loved this surprise.

And it also firmly established what great

chemisty these two guys had together.

because they had such a naturalistic

attitude with one another.

l remember watching the first take of it

and going.

- Yeah.

- You know?

Usually you replace screens.

any TV screens or stuff.

that we actually recorded

the video game prior.

And then we'd play back

while they were in the scene.

That's actually real timing.

which gets tricky.

- Yeah. yeah.

- Yeah.

and being incredibly accessible.

and funny.

That's a really rare thing

for two movie stars

As different as they are. they also have

those same qualities amongst them.

And l remember we needed to

give the audience permission to laugh.

and that helped. that scene itself helped

to not take ourselves too seriously.

they could turn around

and save the world.

This idea that our writers came up with.

Reese and Wernick.

l think it gives the movie

a sort of gravity that's unusual

And it's amazing when you do

something on a purely creative level

when you see events occur.

there's a lot of things you're

suddenly going. "Wow" you know?

and suddenly has

an additional weight to it.

'cause you had to be on a gimbal.

It has to...

but it was fun to do.

In fact. all the guns...

They're so expensive.

and they're so time-consuming.

"You can iust fake it.

You can just shake the camera."

and it actually makes

a big. big difference.

is that we once had The Rock

doing a Patton quote.

and get a sense

of how contemporay it could be.

What's interesting is. you know.

they cary different weights.

l think as a filmmaker.

You iust end up with a choice

where you emotionally think

The Patton quote had

a lot of strengths to it

But the Jay-Z quote had

a contemporay thing

You're not seeing where it's coming.

go to Duke as he says

he accepts his fate.

lt wasn't in the script.

It wasn't purposely done.

And that building. actually.

is part of the NASA facility. too.

Yeah.

we were given a lot of money.

a lot of the big tentpole movies

have been given.

So a lot of our creative energy

was put to.

And this building kept being

our advantage. l mean. this is...

is actually the fuel tank

that they put on the shuttle.

l mean. Iook at the scale of this thing.

which is crazy.

which we'll talk a lot about.

is a guy named Paul Borne.

But he was an amazing rock climber.

and a great rigger and stuntman.

that we would not have felt without

a guy like that onboard. you know?

And the actors need to feel comfortable

suddenly going down...

Yeah.

The height of that.

that's all 'cause he's rigged up.

One of the ideas. Jon. l think you had.

was. "How do you differentiate him?"

So he really fully went after it.

We had a bunch of Na_ SEALs

on the movie.

They hold guns in a certain way.

l think that's actually almost more

important than anything.

And it's iust a detail. too.

"Hey. how do you get from Place A

to Place B?"

and then the other actors would watch

and learn from that.

Details that l wouldn't

ever know even. so...

which is kind of where l learnt it.

because. l mean. what they go through

is so much harder than what we do.

We may go.

"Christ. we're working 12-14-hour days."

A debate that we had

from the vey beginning was.

"What kind of uniforms do they have?"

so we gave them

different camo patterns.

if you're going into a place

to have different camo patterns.

- lndividuality. yeah.

- Exactly.

And the Joes are a conglomeration.

which is part of what we were doing.

and that they all come

from different places.

And they all had their own personalities.

and it was like an all-star team.

Again. there's an actual firing range

on the NASA facility

We were like.

"Where the hell are we gonna do this?"

Yeah. literally.

Yeah. l think we had

a couple of them that...

You know. it's so about the kind of fun

And it was a really important thing

to really fall in love

because what's about to happen

is really grim.

after really falling in love with them.

This is the real gun range where we

would go to train our actors and stuff.

You can see all the hills behind them

are all CG.

- The magic of Holl_ood.

- Yeah.

- Yes.

- We kept thinking.

lt's iust funny.

And to fire it. you can see

how it pushes back on Dwayne.

- And the barrel gets so hot.

- Remember how hea_ it was?

Exactly.

but there's also a lot improvised.

and had real fun

giving each other a hard time.

that they were doing at each other.

Jonathan Pyce. though. boy. huh?

because obviously his role in the movie

is so important on both fronts.

There was actually a scene

right in between there.

to get to the door. but there was a...

...come in and...

lt's one of those ones where sometimes

Yes.

How did the process go for you

as you were tying to visualise it?

This was like a motion-control rig

that you shoot one part at a time.

And then you move the camera

the way you need.

And then once you pick

your take that you like.

And he has to dress up as the other guy.

and it has to be exactly the same.

And it's a really crazy process.

you have to make decisions on the set.

And you have to be pe_ect.

you can't go back to shoot this stuff.

Jonathan's such a good actor.

- without the other half.

- Yes.

And then he turns around and does it.

lt's not a sequence that we had to

cut around pe_ormance.

in this case him.

it can be tricky to time it.

lt was bizarre how easily it cut together.

And you wanted to show that

we weren't cheating it too much.

You wanted to see him

walk all the way around.

and to show that

these are two different people.

There's a lot of iokes he made

about the President's wife.

And "the quicker blower-upper. baby."

And talks about interns.

bringing back the interns.

"What would a President have

underneath his building?

"Would it be..." Like. what is it?

For such a simple space.

lt was. "Exactly who

is flying these helicopters?"

"Are they Cobra soldiers

that are flying it? What are they?

lt was a big conversation piece

by the studio.

And eveybody... We all kind of...

lt kind of went around and around.

l think.

because it was iust...

Yeah.

this area is actually a sandpit in...

- lt was in St Francisville.

- St Francisville. there you go.

- we found this huge sandpit.

- Baton Rouge.

which was one of the things

when we first went there. we're like.

'Cause that's not your vision of it.

You know. your vision is bayou.

- God. it was miserable.

- And my first action movie.

That Hummer is a real blowup

of a Hummer.

lt was a big rig.

Eveyone's super nervous.

And you have over 300 e_ras

running around.

You can't step in the wrong place.

lt's funny how you bring different things.

"All right. that thing's gonna go

over there" you know.

But you know.

one of the things about this was.

That ain't makeup.

We're in a hot desert environment.

- At night it was 100 degrees.

- Yeah. It was insane.

And they're in this full battle gear.

and they couldn't have been hotter.

who was iust so determined

that nobody would faint

l don't think l ever saw her without

30 bottles of water in her hand.

And this is amazing. this well.

The well in the real world. on the top.

And we had to tie that all together.

And you could be at any part of the well.

And it was pretty awesome to

shoot in a tank like that.

l think if you don't know its complication.

it doesn't seem all that complicated.

and how do you go underwater.

the ability to

move the camera an_here.

And that really was. you know.

- Andrew Menzies. our...

- Our production designer.

something that gave you

the ability to shoot it in a way that

'Cause we had to

fit a whole crew down there.

And he literally gave us space

to be able to do all that.

There's one shot

where he jumps into the well.

as if it's like _lice in Wonderland,

a camera right below him.

When he iumped.

he dropped the camera with him.

ln fact.

where they're about to walk up to.

But we made an identical set

across the way.

and then destroy it. and then redress it.

for the explosions

to show the aftermath.

you need a tunnel that high so

you can fit your crew and eveyone in.

it gives you a sense of reality.

We didn't create...

That's not a green screen effect.

'cause we have all these guys and girls

And we're like.

"Well. we just need to make it simple

And the effects that you put on.

and the filters.

And that move. you know. that was...

for when they would go up the well

to be back-to-back like that.

But it's actually really cool.

It shows strategy.

lt communicates something. you know.

about. yeah. both the strategy.

- They're not gonna make it alone.

- Yes.

was take these people who are

going to be the heroes of the movie.

ln fact. and disgrace them.

You know. this moment of realisation

as they're looking out. they're going.

There's anger. there's sadness.

there's a lot of emotions.

you felt for them.

and you were behind them.

And those people dead in the desert.

They're not mannequins.

Those are real people lying in that.

This is probably like

120 degrees at this point.

'Cause it was

our first week of shooting again.

We really wanted to feel that.

having all those little errors.

all those little te_ures to it

One of the things when you came on.

which l so related to.

and who to make it with. is. you know.

Like you can see how The Rock's

armour has been used before.

lt's got hea_-duty stuff

that's gone through it.

communicated a toughness

to the movie.

And l think that there was a lot of other

things that were related to that.

of what these people look like

really influenced how you feel about it.

There was parts where this was gone.

'cause it was

a little confusing for people

lf you didn't know the lore.

this might be confusing.

But Walt Goggins is iust brilliant.

Well. really. that opening sequence

was really what saved this.

understand the trick we were gonna do

in this sequence.

'Cause not only was Walt brilliant in it.

but he's a fun guy to be with.

So Jon and l were both so incredibly...

Yes. And l love that Walt's

in his casual wear today.

- That's right. yeah.

- And that building. we actually built.

Yeah. a golf course.

So there's nothing there. It's just a field.

That was insane for me to come into

a movie where you could build like that.

l remember when we were

scouting that other location

l looked at you and l said.

"l don't care how good this place is.

Yes. l do.

That was a cool place. though.

- l can't believe we could recreate that.

- l know.

that these walls are not real.

None of this stuff.

and that's not gonna get eveyone sick.

- That was...

- That was a lot of safety stuff.

Even if you've worked on a lot of movies.

you don't realise that

how the little things are

where we really can get hurt.

So l know you love these tubes.

and l'm glad it paid off.

the science of it.

and then the safety of it on top of it.

l love that that's...

before he becomes Cobra

with the silver mask.

God. l don't know. l mean. come on.

there's like 45 versions

Not even the visor. The visor.

there's got to be 100. l don't know.

iust the way it has a little brow furrow.

l think it's funny. 'cause you and l had

so many debates about both

And Jon having grown up with the Joe...

so was determined to keep Cobra cool.

This whole section here

was so interesting.

And then Destro. Ieaving him behind.

'cause if you don't know the first movie.

you come into this movie.

The fact that we even brought him up.

we really wanted to do that for the fans.

because there's

a lot of people out there who did.

This is literally probably

our fourth shot of the whole movie.

Yeah. we chose the easy stuff first.

And that gear is not easy.

"How much gear would they keep on

at this point?

"Would they even be sweating?

There were so many debates

of all those things.

Yeah. no. l know.

That's one of the great things.

is a guy named Hary Humphries.

And you have real service men now

who can tell you

That's exactly what they would wear.

l'm sure there's

a few Holl_ood cut corners.

What would they keep.

and what would they abandon.

this is what soldiers would actually do.

which is nice.

lt's both safe

for an actor to have on underwater.

We're always gonna miss

this motorcycle. though.

- l think it was in the script.

- Yeah. it was.

that the studio

just could not get their head around.

And we were like.

"We don't know. but it's cool."

And it was weirdly a huge

argument point that became this thing.

And evey time l see it. l go.

"God. that three-wheel was cool."

But iust to make a motorcycle

that has the Cobra symbol on it.

l love that idea you had about

- The charge bar.

- Yeah. the charge bar.

lnterestingly enough. l think Firefly.

and didn't have in the script.

There was iust something about the way

they rendered him.

and then his opening lines with Cobra.

Ray really embodied

a great version of that character. too.

And at first l was a little bit like.

"lt'll be interesting to

see how this develops."

about how Firefly saw things exploding

as creation. not destruction.

and that redistributing energy was art.

And so we went with it.

This sequence is amazing. because

right from the beginning right here

"he's gonna pull him upside down.

which is already an odd thing.

And suddenly he's right side up.

And what's great about having him

as Storm Shadow.

But he's also

this incredible physical specimen.

And there was a huge difference

between making the first movie with him

he was iust beginning to learn English.

They didn't iust come

from a natural place.

was iust sort of in the vey first scene.

when you were shooting him. l was like.

And because he owned the language.

you know?

and not the least of which

Iook how built he is.

His dedication to learning English

really helped us.

Bringing the rage into Storm Shadow.

He wanted a little more craziness.

which was nice to have.

That sense of betrayal is like.

- You'd get increasingly crazy about it.

- Yeah.

That road is literally... We created it.

And then do this rig where he iumps

off of the ramp.

You cannot do a big...

You have to be going e_remely fast.

Which was scripted. actually.

Those explosions are real.

We don't CG those explosions.

Which l think was a big aesthetic

change we wanted to do in this movie

power of the explosions. the debris.

the water. all sorts of environments.

That this was happening in real life.

We had switched actors

playing this character.

and yet this moment.

on a physical level.

Luke Bracey.

who plays Cobra Commander.

You can see his stature.

the way he walks.

which is really. really cool.

And the voice. Robert Baker.

who does the voice.

We got to add this sort of hissing.

breathing thing.

and he's always e_ending his S's.

So we went with more of this

breathing mechanism. it had this rattle.

and what he's saying.

So you'll hear it throughout the movie

Yeah. l think also.

the trick was also not to be Darth Vader.

That was always the hardest thing.

Gets you there first.

- lt took up a big area of that space.

- Yup.

And his iacket. His iacket is so insane.

lt's like bedazzled...

And that scar on his head.

that was an idea that Ray brought.

And the idea of it was it was

an explosion gone bad. right?

lt did. it gave the character...

We immediately saw it.

This was a big debate.

lt's pretty bad-looking.

You gotta get him to the healer.

And. of course. Snake Eyes' vision

through there was really fun.

All the reticules became

really fun to design.

l think one of the amazing things.

actually. about that conversion was.

both Jon and l had gone through

experiences with 3-D.

we were so. so focused on.

"How do we do this the right way?"

in terms of how you saw it.

in terms of how Steve Windon

shot the movie.

So the conversion process. l think.

had less pressure on it.

This is a gigantic space

we're shooting in.

l think one of the real triumphs for us.

l know l feel that way. is that

The 3-D is incredibly appreciated.

Yup.

was when Paramount called us

and said.

lt was. "Whoa! Really? Why?

That's all the things you go through

in your head right away.

"we actually think

there's bigger upside if we go to 3-D."

after having the moment

of emotional recovey of.

Now we're like. "Okay. stop."

You know. when a studio wants to

spend more money on a movie.

And as it's turned out.

it was a great move.

l think if we didn't have those moments.

it wouldn't have been a choice for us.

But because there's

just so many moments...

where we're pushing

through the satellite.

And stuff like this in 3-D

is beautiful and gorgeous.

All these things.

the language is already in there.

Elodie Yung is amazing.

Yeah. Well. the hardest thing. l think.

when you make.

is the audience is vey tough

on female action characters.

And Elodie in Distr9ct 13: Ultimatum,

wasn't that what it was called?

she's got the grace

of being a beautiful woman.

and then this ferocity in her

is really crazy good.

She really brought it to life. the feeling

of wanting to be part of something.

l mean. she learnt those swords

from the ground up.

l mean. evey time you see an actor

actually learn it and do it.

lt's more believable.

There's an organic nature to it.

But we knew his love of kung fu

and the lore of it.

he was iust for us sort of a special treat.

iust mess with your expectations

of these characters.

But going from there to here.

to the streets of Washington. D.C..

lt's really fun.

is both incredibly liberating.

and. actually. really. really dangerous.

and keep it moving in

the same direction. you know?

Miley Cyrus and Ryan Seacrest.

that's such a fine line.

And l think it was actually important

that it does fit into our world.

lt's also one of those things

where you go to that first preview.

if they don't laugh at that

it's coming out of the movie.

l always wanted a scene here

where at the end of the movie.

and it's iust destroyed.

'Cause the reality is they get a car

from him and they just destroy it.

He iust came in.

he riffed a lot of the stuff.

And it's all gotta establish.

really. Roadblock's backstoy

Why this place would these guys

choose to hide?

That one line.

"Home is where the help is." That's it.

That he's coming back to his origins

to build up again.

no tons of weapons.

just back to where he started.

make up the stuff that they figure out

all the DNA things from later.

you could see that

Roadblock grew up in this place.

l love those little trophies back there.

- lt's such a sort of sports feeling.

- Yeah.

in those frames. which is cool.

Yup. yup.

That thing's so fun to iump in.

and this tension that exists

between Flint and Roadblock of.

"l got my own set of..."

And he's really on program.

but at the same time.

You know. he can't sort of help it.

especially from the new guy Flint.

'cause he's not there yet.

and that they can debate that.

We don't get fully into it.

but we get to play just a little bit.

what would convince somebody

that a guy was an imposter.

'Cause people do cross their thumbs.

as you'll see him shortly.

and they always do that move

Yeah. and if you ty it.

you feel like one way feels natural.

Even if you do it both ways.

one of them feels more natural.

You forget how simple it is.

to create the Ul for a computer system

in any scene.

Like. "How high-tech do they have it?

What era we are in.

And going through even iust the sound.

iust because we wanted to give them

a little edge to it.

Things that you'd never think...

This was a tricky moment. you know?

that these guys can

Ieap to this conclusion?

lt's actually set up in the desert.

"l voted for him" you know.

so how long can you actually draw it out

before you're like. "Come on. guys."

the introduction of his character.

is a really interesting thing.

at first blush. the idea that he's

gonna call her by her wrong name.

You know. that was really Bruce's idea.

that was not a scripted idea.

and even this. sort of.

Girl Scout reference here

And it's one of the things. l think.

you realise why they're movie stars.

and they know what they do well. too.

"Shut your mouth. Brenda" is so rough.

"How are women

gonna feel about this?"

And l remember Adrianne.

lt started at the dinner. yeah.

But it was funny. because

it started to get under her nerves.

l think l got it about halfway

out of my mouth.

lt only works for Bruce.

Bruce even brought this up. he's like.

"At some point she needs to punch me."

'Cause it would've happened at the end.

when they're attacking the President.

But l always... You do. You want her

to punch him at some point.

with what could be

a vey unsympathetic thing

Yes. That's the power of Bruce.

that Jon and l talked a lot

about this character. Joe Colton.

is the embodiment of the original

G.l. Joe ethos. if you would.

And that's the Joe l grew up with.

Single character. not a fantasy.

not all that stuff. the guy.

it was actually one of

the easiest pitches l've ever had.

And l turned to him.

and l called him up and said.

He goes. "l get to play the original Joe?

"Putting firecrackers on my Joe.

and throwing him off the roof."

And so it was this kind of funny moment.

is now in this movie.

we succeeded in the first movie

of doing.

that we could bring that to this table.

Which is pretty awesome.

'cause it has...

So when they're all in the same room.

it's the only person...

Roadblock in the face. and say.

"You don't need a tank. and a laser...

Laser guns to be a soldier.

And l thought that was

the important part for our team.

'Cause l remember

Iooking at the crew members

"We're professionals doing our iobs.

Yes.

Yes. there were.

That was a vey popular day.

There might have been.

She'll give it right back at you.

She's like. "l need to

get punched in this scene."

And she's like. "Jon. l have to be

as tough as eveyone else.

And it made complete sense.

So we never treated her differently

in all this stuff.

which also conveys

that sense of toughness.

And. actually. it's one of the tricks

l think that...

how you cary yourself

conveys a lot about your physicality.

We shot this in the...

Whistler area.

l think it's probably our most highly

complimented sequence in the movie.

they were fans of the comic book.

l think it was originally

two and a half pages.

Something like that.

So you won't hear

any conversation. anything.

And we kept saying to ourselves.

"Are we gonna get away with that?

We kept feeling like.

"There's always the out"

We can always have him

say something.

l know you were a huge fan

of the comic book.

Yeah. And Issue 21 that Lary Hama did

that had no dialogue in it

Before that it was like.

"lt's just to sell toys."

And that's what we really wanted

to capture in the movie. too.

and more of the comic book feel to it.

At least some of the reality of it.

the te_ure.

l always thought this was

one of the coolest moments.

There's Cobra symbols

carved into the ninja stars.

No music. l remember

we used to have big music here.

- lt was cool to hear the silence.

- Yeah.

We iust tried it to hear and we were like.

Just the fact that Snake Eyes iust

punches through a column is awesome.

Thank God Byung-Hun and Ray

are such great athletes.

So that's the mother

of one of our stunt guys.

And so she'd never been in a movie.

l was iust drawn into her.

'cause she was so tough.

And so called her up.

said if she'd ever come down.

all those things are really her.

She'd never done a movie with her son.

Travis Wong is the stunt guy.

and he's one of the Red Ninjas.

And l loved that Jinx has that

sort of Bruce Lee ninja outfit on.

You can see it. even iust

passing out here he's so intense.

lt was scaring me

when we were shooting.

But he iust gives it all. sells it.

was again a Reese and Wernick idea

that then we had to figure out.

This was such a huge team effort

to our pre-viz guys. to our stunt guys.

to George. who did our second unit...

lt was amazing.

eveyone came together for this one.

l don't know. how many months

went into this planning?

And this sequence wouldn't work

without Paul.

How you would pendulum something.

And being a stuntman. a rigger.

a world-class climber.

A lot of this sequence. you know...

That he had to rig up.

which is really cool.

- A thousand feet?

- Yeah.

And. Paul. from the vey beginning...

he came to my office and we worked out

We got out our ninia action figures

from Hasbro and started planning it out.

"so it doesn't feel

like we're in a video game."

You know that

this could actually happen.

And for me.

l'd used him in a lot of movies.

l knew we were in good hands

to be able to execute it.

l always loved this.

- And l loved the posturing...

- The joust.

The pause right here.

it's such a great idea.

lt was really

one of the most dramatic things.

lt really conveyed a lot of attitude.

And l was like.

when they're hanging on the side.

and they pull out their swords.

it's so cool.

There are real people with real weight.

But these. you feel the weight.

That guy. when he falls off the line

is not real.

- Yes.

- Now it's a real fake rock.

then we had this gigantic green screen

built in our facility

- l don't know. five weeks?

- A lot.

l don't know.

probably in total this thing is

At least. And we did great.

as they're swinging that fast.

or getting things out of focus.

There's some really fun details

that eveybody contributed to.

Jim May and Roger Barton.

who were our editors.

We had to be done with this

while we were shooting

They had to figure it out.

Especially Roger.

When you shoot all these pieces.

how does it all come together.

And so that was really fun to see.

l mean. he's like the unofficial mayor.

maybe it's even official now.

But there's something about

the political veracity of that

There he is.

He's such a great face.

l didn't know how he would...

He was the most welcoming.

he was like.

He was literally like the mayor.

to a city still recovering from Katrina

meant a lot to the city.

was he felt like.

well. he could help us help the city.

That dress was always a winner.

That might have been

the first dress she showed us.

Right when you saw it.

you couldn't deny it.

"Move on. another decision."

- She's a fashion fan.

- Yeah.

'cause then we could say.

"No. you have to have that mask"

And she would put up a fight.

And then you would look at it.

but in the way that it needed to be.

She iust understood. she got it.

lmmediately when l see her

walking through. l think Matrix.

l'm sure that wasn't Louise's intention.

Yes. and then there was no one else

we wanted to put in red.

- Let her stick out.

- Yep.

and they're like dancing. all this stuff.

Who was great. too. she was great.

You really fall in love with certain things.

and then the ne_ thing you know.

At a certain point

we needed the tension.

- And the pacing.

- Yeah.

- As evey Joe should.

- Of course. of course.

To work with the graphics people

to create how it scans.

l also remember this moment.

in comes something

that's a direct call back to...

But this moment with The Rock

that's about to come up.

about. "Should we see the Firefly.

should we not see the Firefly?"

this character wouldn't react

the way he reacts.

We had a long debate about this.

remember. Jon?

At one point he was doing it.

He'd gone rogue from the others.

And so there was a lot of debate

"What. strategically.

are they tying to do?"

that the G.l. Joes had to

assassinate the fake President.

So this moment would be

that moment. you're like.

But eventually it became that

you wanted Roadblock to be in control.

You wanted it to be well thought out.

But it's brutal. because the hard thing is

And it was one of the things

we kept saying to ourselves.

"and actually make it believable?"

- Yes.

- And a great actor.

lt was one of those great things

that all came together.

but he was physically so daunting

that we wanted this moment.

and how some of the great action stars

have understood

And that's a tricky thing.

"can you really let a hero like Dwayne

get beaten?"

is that now it's the rematch.

l always imagined that was the

three-wheeled motorcycle going away.

Yeah. that would've been fun.

and we were intrigued by

One which is a sort of ninia stoy.

This is about past histoy that has

nothing to do with Dwayne's character.

This is a totally different stoy

that's going on.

that we're tying to

juggle these stoylines.

But when you have someone

like Byung-Hun Lee here.

it doesn't matter where you are.

what you're doing.

And you get into him. and you feel that

it's a guy struggling with

- you're immediately back in this.

- Yeah.

helped a lot with going back and forth.

Especially falling off cliffs.

Why not? Why not?

lt's actually something

we didn't talk about.

So she's really. in her life. has had to

of being the cousin of a traitor

in their minds.

The Blind Master's friend was killed.

And eveybody's got some grudge

in this scene.

l don't know if you knew this.

but we were literally...

they had casted. not little people.

but really small ninjas.

"We've gotta find bigger.

more warrior-like ninjas."

"Are you guys crazy

how big you've made this thing?

"Boy. you better make

a good thing out of this set."

l think one of the interesting things

about making movies is.

And so many decisions get made so fast

keep track of all the decisions.

Picking the right people to make the

right decisions is incredibly complex.

l remember iust looking at

the production designer. Andrew.

"You built this big...

How much does this set cost?"

"We're gonna need money

for the tank battle.

"Well. Jon loves the big ninias scene."

- We need all of it.

- Right.

- The TV became the most...

- Right.

this moment that dad does not take.

and that her motivation is

to get him to salute to her.

There's a lot of hostility

and anger in that. you know.

- Yeah.

- That he salutes her at the end.

To me. it makes their relationship

make all the sense in the world.

and l guess we'll get there.

we'll talk about it.

When he said. "l knew your dad"

you were like. "Whoa."

- He didn't even have to go there.

- Didn't have to do anything. He got it.

This was a matter of saving some time.

before it was getting boring.

and said what if you are the President

and look right at the camera.

We'd done a little bit of that

with the Cobra vision.

So we tried to find

fun ways to make it interesting.

l always loved Jonathan's look

on his face.

And the reflection in Cobra's mask

is hard.

That should be the camera.

So whenever you see his mask

you won't see the camera.

We had a lot of debate

about this briefcase. remember?

l remember looking at it going.

"What is this? What is this leather?"

But we were like. "That's what

a real nuclear football looks like."

- lt's true.

- And we started tearing stuff off of it.

- what's the right look for the football.

- Yeah.

and yet instantaneously recognisable

for the audience?

lf you don't understand.

you haven't seen an action movie

This was hard.

because it was really dark.

You wanted this rawness to it.

Always got a big laugh. that moment.

Yeah. l think it was when they added

the sound effect of the gun.

'Cause you don't necessarily

Iook down there.

He had a ton of things

that he kept saying that were hilarious.

And this was always hard to...

At what point...

they have mutual interest

in this one battle.

l remember the arguments...

Not the arguments. but. really. like.

- Really quickly.

- So that's all in pe_ormance.

Now we enter this scene.

l remember we were in New Orleans

right before you make a movie.

And l turned to the writers and l said.

'Cause l knew whatever it was.

it couldn't be too expensive. Right?

And they literally wrote in the script.

they put.

And then our editor.

when he got the dailies.

He read it and he was like.

"Okay. what song do they mean?"

to find the most obscure song

that they think we mean.

l remember when l walked in

and l saw...

And l looked at you like. "You guys

actually used The Four Horsemen."

You should've seen my face

when l walked in.

But it was so funny

that we had to show you.

l don't know. self-conscious.

or tying to be cool.

- "We're tying to have fun."

- Yes.

'cause it's almost so obscure

that you're like.

And it's probably Joe Colton.

AIthough, Rockin' Is Ma' Business

_cause business is good.

- Nice.

- We tried it.

- l think we tried it.

That was actually

And we would sometimes

bring a boom box out with us.

That's how l got turned on to them.

that l couldn't believe

l was doing a G.l. Joe movie.

Byung-Hun Lee. Ray Park. Adrianne.

D.J.. all these guys...

Elodie. these characters around a table.

it was just insane.

'Cause we've seen

a lot of these scenes.

And each of them

to have something to do.

Each one. like. "What's that character?

Yeah. yeah.

l never understood why nobody laughed

when he said "Rock solid."

Yes.

Don't know if we're actually making

a reference to The Rock or not.

l always loved this moment. too.

l remember. l think that was your...

l don't know whose idea it was.

- And he's like. "Nope."

- "Not gonna help you there."

But it also throws her as a character

or slightly. at least at a minimum. edgy.

has suddenly...

The tanks and the fan boat.

rebuilt it to make it a Cobra boat.

because it weighed too much.

remember?

No. it sank.

So we tied the car that our crane was on

to pull it out.

So we have to cut the cord.

and to let it sink.

- lt knocked over our car.

- Yeah.

But those H.l.S.S. Tanks

are really about your passion.

And so l'm like.

"H.l.S.S. Tanks? Why is that so cool?"

"All right. l get it.

They turn into a Cobra."

So then we turned it into a tank battle.

And to actually have a tank live there

that was 30. 20 feet high.

lt was crazy. We got a tank somewhere.

l don't know where we got a tank from.

and built it in the H.l.S.S. Tank way.

and you could fire it in the warehouse.

This sequence was actually

originally scripted

And we didn't have the money to do it.

that even remotely looked like it

in New Orleans

lt's actually one of the things

that was so hard.

And we came up with this idea

of Fort Sumter being a symbol of war.

when the guy's gonna

talk about disarmament.

"we can actually do this ending

here in New Orleans"

gave us enough sense of grounding

and sense of purpose about it

l think l'll always miss the UN a little bit.

a sort of Dr. Strangeloye-esque

feel to it.

so they could use them

throughout the battle.

be in histoy and have. you know.

or shadows of the soldiers

from past wars above these guys.

Yes. Hary Humphries.

who was our militay advisor

He was part of the Joe Colton

old-guy crew.

Old-school. l'm an old guy.

l can say that.

l guess we iust put a sticker on that

thing. if it's from a different county.

l think it's almost the biggest laugh

in the whole movie.

l'm gonna put _ngy Birds

in evey one of my movies.

This was always

a controversial and crazy idea.

l remember when the studio first read it.

and Hasbro.

"You're gonna launch

evey nuclear weapon in the world?"

"This is cool. this is diabolically insane.

twisted logic.

l remember

when l read it for the first time

l was like. "What?

How do you get out of this one?"

lt was one of those ones. where

when you first read it. you were like.

We have so much cool footage

we couldn't put in.

- Especially of Elodie. l always miss that.

- Yeah.

And this ioke we used. l don't know.

how many times in marketing.

l had no idea

it was gonna work like that.

His pe_ormance. her pe_ormance

together are amazing.

He's like. "You gotta use my car.

it's awesome."

To have Joe Colton do that car.

the El Camino.

- lt was so much fun watching him do it.

- Yes.

is how do you cast a President

that's credible as a President?

So it's vey difficult. it's tricky.

So when you ty to cast

the President of the United States.

And Jonathan gave it

such a level of credibility and gravity.

that he held in that thing. you know?

lt used to be seeing iust dots go along.

But it really didn't.

when we came down to it.

And this is. again.

one of these things where.

'cause they're nuts. And he's nuts.

Yeah.

was those threats started

right about when we were releasing.

That's serious stuff.

"Okay. which city are we

going to blow up?"

gone through evey single thing.

And so. l think we all sat down.

we were like. "Let's do London.

lt's one of the most incredible shots

ILM did. though.

An amazing company.

but that shot is just something else.

you could pause that on any frame

and you can see how detailed...

Yeah. it's crazy.

and iust stare at that box

for the whole shot

So it was intense.

lt was interesting. it was definitely

a struggle for us. is that.

the handing off of leadership.

when you're establishing the movie.

And it took a lot of massaging

for us to figure that out.

Look at this shot. it's crazy.

Those buildings... l iust went to London

to premiere our movie there.

"l know what we did with this window."

It was pretty cool.

l love these shots. It's iust so fun to see.

We had actually more shots of them

taking over the Capitol.

The Supreme Court Justice.

rounding them up.

- ln one shot. it said eveything.

- Yeah.

We were like.

how fast should they fall. and...

- Who's releasing them?

- Who's releasing them? Yeah.

- l remember that debate.

- Yeah.

lt's one of the things

that's so interesting in filmmaking is.

that can tell a lot of stoy

in a really short period of time?

the rounding up

the Supreme Court Justices.

"l got it. This is bad."

- This thing. the Ripsaw tank.

- Ripsaw. yeah.

Of course Dwayne has to have it battling

these three giant H.l.S.S. Tanks.

lt drives through houses.

So it's fun to play around with that thing.

lt was fun to stage that.

and it was complicated to do that.

'cause we had this real thing.

Those are real H.l.S.S. Tanks to a point.

you have to create some of it.

- l love that one.

- Love that...

l think that was your idea.

And even the sound. having it go out.

But. again. that's another one of those

combo things. from our stunt guys.

to DD. who did the tanks.

all those things.

Yes.

Who would've thought?

l always loved them.

The yin and the yang

coming together in a swirl.

lt says eveything about who they are.

"Nope. l'm on your team."

Steve Windon. who is our DP.

That's what l love about Steve Windon.

but also iconic moments.

in the most comic book character way.

Yeah. l think it's one of the hardest

things to do in these big movies.

How do you keep that 5'10".

6-foot creature called humans

Both of us. when we saw fast fiye,

The dynamism of it. and yet

you never lost sense of the characters.

And when we were

debating about which DP.

that you and l both gravitated towards.

Yeah.

the fight with the President

and the Red Ninja.

But it iust became a distraction from

getting the actual suitcase throughout.

l love seeing Bruce fight here.

That was a big moment.

Bruce Willis walking on the set. huh?

l was nervous. but he was great.

and you look at the monitor. l forgot that

it was a movie that l was making.

lt's funny. 'cause when you're

working on these stunt action beats.

That's Steve Ritzi. actually.

our stunt coordinator.

And sometimes it comes from him.

sometimes it comes from Jon.

lt comes from all different people.

lt was such an interestingly

choreographed...

to distract the audience.

l remember

when Ritzi first pitched it to us.

That's kind of cool.

nobody's seen that in so long.

"What way have you

never entered a scene before?"

'Cause he could say.

"l did that. l did that. l did this."

'cause he knew evey single one.

l remember him

pointing to his shoulder.

or something crazy.

And. again. Byung-Hun Lee

giving a great pe_ormance here.

But you feel for a ninia. which is cool.

l remember this debate.

Remember this debate?

- But it's so cool.

- lt's pretty awesome.

And l think that was something that...

It was actually...

He was like.

"What if we just cut it in half?"

Again. it's so hard to tell if you're going

over the top or not with a movie like this.

as we were sort of going

and seeing cuts put together.

but you have to ground it.

all at the same time.

l'm so glad that came into the movie.

That was gone for a while.

And that helicopter... Oh. my gosh.

That thing is awesome.

Does that mean Cobra's

in the ne_ movie?

You never know. You never know.

Maybe Duke'll be alive.

This whole fort was really crazy.

With crocodiles in the moats

that we had to be careful of.

And this moment. l love it.

to finally get onto the tank

and just fire that gun.

- and misses the other guy.

- Misses the other guy.

- He'll get it.

- Exactly.

how many times were we like.

We had to find vey strategic places

that never bumped you

One of the good things about working

with Dwayne. he's so up for anything.

He's always prepared. totally on it.

So we had to like do a lot of tricks

to make it look fast.

then we built them. and we were like.

"These move really slowly.

- You remember that?

- Yeah.

l remember thinking

how cool fan boats were

l always wanted to do a fan boat

from that.

l can't remember.

Yeah. this is the big showdown.

Again. to me it was like

always e_ended brass knuckles.

We went back and forth with.

"How realistic is this?"

but that they're actually attacking.

So it didn't seem like...

ThanMully.

Ray and Dwayne are so game.

Look at how hardcore they're going at it.

l was always like. "l don't know. man.

how many bullets can go off here?"

Yeah. we did at one point.

But l love at the end here.

he's out of bullets.

Sees that suitcase.

Again. it was so hot here.

the flies were out.

because you iust see these bugs

flying eve_here. It was so disgusting.

lt was pretty disgusting.

and how were we gonna make sure

the audience is gonna react.

l think we had so many characters.

it was always a puzzle

But this moment here...

Actually. this was a Ritzi moment. too.

"He should iust walk away

and press the button.

lt's one of those classic moments.

lt's funny when you re-watch this scene.

And we were talking about it.

then you go back and look at it

- That one we always really relished.

- Yes.

Sometimes those moments are tricky.

the balance.

l always love

how uncompromising it is here

You know. it's not the way

you normally play in a movie like this.

- He is so not over his grudge.

- Yeah.

That has to keep going.

Plus. there's room to milk it.

G.l. Joes.

l love these kids.

Yeah. l think that there was

a moment of attaching that.

the head of the studio.

who had this idea of.

lt's good to see the President.

Here we are supposedly

at the edge of Arlington National.

- Again.

- Again.

Yeah. and the Washington Monument

back there.

lt's funny. even in the script

it made you get tears in your eyes.

- He iust...

- He killed it.

And you iust feel that.

he really understood this dynamic

in a way that we couldn't understand it.

Even at the moment.

l didn't quite get that.

and see what he's doing

underneath it all.

They're all Joes now.

l always thought this was fun. too.

Two generations of stars.

The respect they have for each other

is huge.

to see them together again

would be amazing.

Boom.

with this way of iust reminding us

of the adventure.

And How You Like Me Now?,

it's just that song is just pe_ect for it.

We never mentioned Hasbro either.

What's great about working with them is

And they were always constantly

coming to us with new ideas about.

That whole part of the sequence

we had to cut out.

That was crazy.

Yeah. go. Jinx.

And Heny did a great iob

doing the music.

and things that he found really well.

- Love that move.

- Yeah.

That's a great character introduction.

l gotta say.

She's really such a delight

to work with. too.

and evey single person

brought their own thing.

lt iust felt like

you could attach yourself to any of them

l could hang out with all those

guys and girls at a bar and be cool.

You want somebody

for each person to relate to. you know?

simply because they're

more possible for who you are.

- Way to go. buddy. Way to go.

- Good job to you. too.

- That's an awesome logo right there.

- Designed by Steven Soderbergh.

- ls that true? Wow.

- Yeah.

l had a clause in my contract that

And he's like.

"l don't like logos on my movie."

He goes.

"Because l don't like the logos."

And there was this long silence.

and he goes. "Are you serious?"

- And that's the logo.

- Nice. nice.

and he goes.

"l guess you really did like it. huh?"

- He didn't see it in 3-D.

- That's what he's gotta see.

The movie is still in theatres.