The Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) is the largest organization of Location Managers and Location Scouts in the motion picture, television, commercial and print production industries. Their membership plays a vital role in the creativ
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LMGI COMPASS | Spring 2021 • 37 The Heist: Pärnu Highway and Laagna Tee Nolan and Crowley guessed that, in order to pull off a heist sequence midway through the film, they'd need somewhere between 5 km and 7 km of roads leading into a highway with at least four lanes on either side. Three lanes for background and stunt vehicles and a fourth for the camera car. The heist is a huge set piece involving The Protagonist climbing from one moving vehicle onto another in order to steal something from an armored car. This leads to a high-speed chase—some of which involves inverted cars moving in reverse—explosions and, finally, culminates in a shootout on the streets between our heroes and a cadre of armed gunmen. "To get a four-lane highway you can totally shut down is very difficult," says Crowley, "so we knew what we were asking. We had the same problem on The Dark Knight." "Very difficult," may be putting it mildly. When Warner Bros. needed to shut down a section of highway back in the summer of 2001 for a massive sequence on The Matrix: Reloaded, the filmmakers ultimately had to build 4 km of highway on the runway of the former Alameda Naval Base in California— overpasses and all—but when Darrelmann and Piir took the team to the Pärnu Highway, the primary artery in Tallinn, they knew they had to shoot there. The team began negotiating with the local mayor straight away but things were off to a rocky start. "The first time we talked to the city about shutting it down, they basically laughed in our faces," says Piir. "There were many compromises because that 7 km runs through the most densely populated area of Tallinn in the heart of the city." Matters were further complicated when, halfway through negotiations, a new mayor took over and was unenthused about having to work out the dynamics of re-routing more than 10 major bus lines through the city for several weeks. "They had a very hard time," says Crowley, "but we got the location and I have to say, the reason I wanted to contribute to this article is because Janice and her team are just very good at their jobs." Ultimately, they got just 10 days to shoot the bulk of the highway sequence but the shoot went incredibly smoothly and wrapped with both the film crew and local Tallinn government pleased with the outcome. A further nine pieces from the film shot in Tallinn over a total of 33 days, including several portions of the freeport sequence, some stage work in a converted warehouse, interiors at the Old Tallinn Courthouse and a walk-and-talk at the Maarjamäe Memorial. The Freeport Diversion For another sequence, The Protagonist and Neil have to infiltrate a heavily fortified freeport to steal a priceless piece of art. To do so, they need to create a massive diversion. Neil's plan? Crash an empty 747 jumbo jet into an airplane hangar. The fictional "Oslo Freeport" was pivotal to the story and was pieced together using four international locations—only one of which was actually in Oslo: The Paljassaare Port and the stunning Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, the Victorville Airport in California— Opposite page: Laagna Tee and explosion. Top photo by Klaus Darrelmann/LMGI. Above: Flming in Amalfi.