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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38 • LMGI COMPASS | Spring 2021 Below: Dimple Kapadia (middle) and John David Washington (right) in Mumbai. Opposite page: The 23-story Neelam Shree Vardhan Tower Apartments in Mumbai, chosen for a rappelling sequence. where perhaps the most astonishing set piece in the film would take place—and lastly, the rooftop of the opera house in the Bjørvika neighborhood of Oslo. "For me, the plane sequence is probably the most amazing thing we were able to do," says Polley, "I mean, the Amalfi Coast is beautiful, the building in Mumbai was great, bringing Linnahall back to its former glory on screen, all incredible. London? Copenhagen? All great. But you know, they're there. Crashing an actual plane into a hangar? That's extraordinary." Knowing the sequence would need to be accomplished without the use of models or CGI, Hayslip began searching for a 747 the production could buy, ultimately finding one being sold at the Victorville Airport. "We were going by helicopter to scout our 'Stalag 12' location which we ended up finding at defunct iron mine in the desert ghost town of Eagle Mountain, California, of all places," Hayslip says, "so I suggested we fly over Victorville because I'd already been in contact with them." They flew down, scouted the plane and quickly realized Victorville would work as a match for the other pieces of the location puzzle. "Once we locked in a deal for the plane, we had to make Victorville Airport the location," says Hayslip. That put a tremendous amount of pressure on the location team to work it all out because they couldn't actually move the plane the production was going to buy—at least not by air. "Yeah, when you have what was probably the biggest picture vehicle ever in a film but you can't move it? It gets tricky," laughs Polley. "Obviously, Victorville Airport was very accommodating." Polley had worked at Victorville Airport years earlier for the opening of John Woo's Face/Off, but working with planes in 1996 is a little different than working with planes in 2020. Making things more complicated was the fact that the hangar next door was the hub for a major air carrier—one that had recently ground its airliners due to several fatal crashes—and the hangar on the opposite side happened to be where the President of Mexico stores his plane while in the United States. "It's also an active airport," says Polley, "so there are planes everywhere and it's not as simple as just saying, 'hey, can you just move that one around the corner?'" Even if they wanted to, the airport doesn't have permission to move any aircraft on their own. Doing so would require the permission of a corporation or perhaps even an entire government! "That's when Janice, Julie and the team really shine. They put in the work to build trust and create those interpersonal relationships that make things happen," says Hayslip. In the end, Polley was eager to share credit with the studio for pulling it off. "It really took all the power of Warner Bros. to make that happen," she says. "But we did it and the resulting sequence is just spectacular." The Mumbai Scenario Tenet is quite possibly one of the most logistically difficult films ever made, and to accomplish what Christopher Nolan wanted to do in Mumbai would certainly fall within that scope. Polley tasked Colin McDougall with heading up the effort. The first hurdle was securing the Royal Bombay Yacht Club for a brief sequence in which The Protagonist and Neil share a drink while talking over their next move. Founded in 1846, the private club had never allowed a film company to shoot there in its more than 100-plus-year history.