‘Caught Stealing’: How Darren Aronofsky Pulled Off the Film’s Epic Car Chase Through Flushing Meadows
Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky has a favorite shot in his latest film, “Caught Stealing.”
It’s the chase scene that takes place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, N.Y., site of the World’s Fair and home to the giant globe known as the Unisphere. In one remarkable moment, a drone shot flies directly through the iconic sphere to capture the action.
It’s never been done before. “I don’t know if we were fully permitted to do that,” Aronofsky tells Variety.
The director behind “Black Swan” and “Mother!” says, “Using a drone has changed filmmaking in the sense that it’s so easy to get an aerial shot.” He continues, “When we did ‘Noah,’ and I really needed a lot of aerial shots from the doves flying to the ark to the huge battle around the ark, we only had wire cams and helicopters, and you couldn’t really fly helicopters over people. There were incredible limitations.”
And while the use of drones has become commonplace in filming, Aronofsky knew that if he was going to use a drone, he wanted to do a cool shot.
Set in Manhattan’s gritty Lower East Village during the 1990s, “Caught Stealing,” in theaters now, features Austin Butler as Hank, a bartender blindsided by trouble when his neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), asks him to care for his cat. Events spiral as Russ’s entanglement with gangsters draws Hank into danger at the worst possible moment.
The car chase sequence comes in the film’s third act when Russ returns and the two find themselves on the run. They find themselves cornered at the Flushing Meadows site.
The high-tension sequences were made possible in cooperation with the New York City parks and a skilled drone operator named Dexter Kennedy.
In early conversations, the sequence was going to take place on New York’s FDR Drive. But it would be difficult to shut that down. The New York City Parks Department was collaborative, but shooting a chase on streets and on highways had Aronofsky rethinking the idea. Also, the modern-day aesthetic of the city was different. Aronofsky says, “The East River was being redone and remodeled, and everything that used to be there had just been recently torn down.”
That was when the Unisphere, the site of the 1964 World Fair, came to mind — perfect for a high-speed chase going around an iconic location. “We were super psyched,” Aronofsky says.
Aronofsky had his go-to collaborator, cinematographer Matthew Libatique, by his side. “Caught Stealing” marks their 10th collaboration.
Pulling off the chase was no easy task. Libatique who worked on “Mother!” and “Black Swan” says, “We usually shoot in controlled environments, but this is four days of shooting, in open sun, at a very big park, and we had to travel a large distance from the beginning of the scene, all the way to the Unisphere and then, ultimately, to Shea Stadium.”
If the performances looked real, that’s because they were.
The getaway car that Russ owns is a vintage Toyota Celica. Libatique explains, “We did things like put the Celica on a thing called a biscuit (a platform for the car to sit on with beefy tires driven by a person in a cage). We can get authentic performances in a situation. We also had a pod on the back of the SUV so that it looked like Regina was driving, and she could actually interact with them.”
Aronofsky and Libatique didn’t use a second unit crew. Instead, they captured the action themselves. And yes, Butler does all his stunts, including hanging off a fire escape ladder and driving the minivan.
This meant they didn’t have to cut away from the emotions on the actor’s faces; they could stay with the performance and seamlessly integrate the two. “I think that’s what makes it seem so impactful, plus the fact that we’re rotating around the Unisphere,” says Libatique. He goes on to say, “Keeping it in the situation is going to help the actors at all times; rather than being on a stage with a green screen or LED wall, it is going to put them in the place and the urgency of what we’re doing with the camera, and that they’re having as performers is infectious.”
Adding to the film is how Aronofsky and Libatique made the city of New York play a vivid role. Aronofsky says, “It became a real deep dive into what neighborhoods would work best for which scenes.”
Both have distinct memories of what the city looked like back then. “The locations rewrote some of the film and dictated the look of the film. Once we saw the locations, we understood the camera, and we understood the look and texture of the film,” says Aronofsky.
It’s the chase scene that takes place at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, N.Y., site of the World’s Fair and home to the giant globe known as the Unisphere. In one remarkable moment, a drone shot flies directly through the iconic sphere to capture the action.
It’s never been done before. “I don’t know if we were fully permitted to do that,” Aronofsky tells Variety.
The director behind “Black Swan” and “Mother!” says, “Using a drone has changed filmmaking in the sense that it’s so easy to get an aerial shot.” He continues, “When we did ‘Noah,’ and I really needed a lot of aerial shots from the doves flying to the ark to the huge battle around the ark, we only had wire cams and helicopters, and you couldn’t really fly helicopters over people. There were incredible limitations.”
And while the use of drones has become commonplace in filming, Aronofsky knew that if he was going to use a drone, he wanted to do a cool shot.
Set in Manhattan’s gritty Lower East Village during the 1990s, “Caught Stealing,” in theaters now, features Austin Butler as Hank, a bartender blindsided by trouble when his neighbor, Russ (Matt Smith), asks him to care for his cat. Events spiral as Russ’s entanglement with gangsters draws Hank into danger at the worst possible moment.
The car chase sequence comes in the film’s third act when Russ returns and the two find themselves on the run. They find themselves cornered at the Flushing Meadows site.
The high-tension sequences were made possible in cooperation with the New York City parks and a skilled drone operator named Dexter Kennedy.
In early conversations, the sequence was going to take place on New York’s FDR Drive. But it would be difficult to shut that down. The New York City Parks Department was collaborative, but shooting a chase on streets and on highways had Aronofsky rethinking the idea. Also, the modern-day aesthetic of the city was different. Aronofsky says, “The East River was being redone and remodeled, and everything that used to be there had just been recently torn down.”
That was when the Unisphere, the site of the 1964 World Fair, came to mind — perfect for a high-speed chase going around an iconic location. “We were super psyched,” Aronofsky says.
Aronofsky had his go-to collaborator, cinematographer Matthew Libatique, by his side. “Caught Stealing” marks their 10th collaboration.
Pulling off the chase was no easy task. Libatique who worked on “Mother!” and “Black Swan” says, “We usually shoot in controlled environments, but this is four days of shooting, in open sun, at a very big park, and we had to travel a large distance from the beginning of the scene, all the way to the Unisphere and then, ultimately, to Shea Stadium.”
If the performances looked real, that’s because they were.
The getaway car that Russ owns is a vintage Toyota Celica. Libatique explains, “We did things like put the Celica on a thing called a biscuit (a platform for the car to sit on with beefy tires driven by a person in a cage). We can get authentic performances in a situation. We also had a pod on the back of the SUV so that it looked like Regina was driving, and she could actually interact with them.”
Aronofsky and Libatique didn’t use a second unit crew. Instead, they captured the action themselves. And yes, Butler does all his stunts, including hanging off a fire escape ladder and driving the minivan.
This meant they didn’t have to cut away from the emotions on the actor’s faces; they could stay with the performance and seamlessly integrate the two. “I think that’s what makes it seem so impactful, plus the fact that we’re rotating around the Unisphere,” says Libatique. He goes on to say, “Keeping it in the situation is going to help the actors at all times; rather than being on a stage with a green screen or LED wall, it is going to put them in the place and the urgency of what we’re doing with the camera, and that they’re having as performers is infectious.”
Adding to the film is how Aronofsky and Libatique made the city of New York play a vivid role. Aronofsky says, “It became a real deep dive into what neighborhoods would work best for which scenes.”
Both have distinct memories of what the city looked like back then. “The locations rewrote some of the film and dictated the look of the film. Once we saw the locations, we understood the camera, and we understood the look and texture of the film,” says Aronofsky.