MovieChat Forums > Innerspace (1987) Discussion > The scene of Meg Ryan seeing the Cowboy ...

The scene of Meg Ryan seeing the Cowboy in the tub.

posted 9 years ago by tyrexden
3 replies | jump to latest

This was beautifully constructed. Picardo, the actor playing the Cowboy, is shown talking to Meg Ryan..... She backs away slowly, into the bathroom, and sees the Cowboy's other body in the tub. All one single take.

Unless that actor has a twin brother, i believe they cunningly had the 1st Picardo back out of the shot, then hidden from camera, remove all his clothes, run through a hidden backdoor on the set leading to the bathroom, and jump into the tub.

These days, doing this with CGI would've been a snap.... But it was fantastic to see a completely effective shot done practically, with real life elements.

[–] CravenCarp55 9 years ago

Good call. Just watched the shot. Joe Dante is pretty old school so I wouldnt be surprised if they pulled it off exactly how you said.

[–] avortac4 (3746) 4 years ago

This is one of the 'miracle shots' of this unique movie, really well done.

I remember reading about how they did it, and they pulled every trick in the book to make it in time; if memory serves, they used another actor for the hands immediately when the face is out of the frame, and still they barely made it in time.

I am sure they had to practice this a lot before getting it right.

It's amazingly done, and extremely effective. This is the type of stuff that creates real 'movie magic', as opposed to a computer rendering the frames for you.

[–] liscarkat (18596) 4 years ago

You know, don't you, that they can edit film. They have been able to do this since about the 1890s.