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LMGI COMPASS
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Winter 2026
places. And we would try to have everything available at once. But
if we wanted to turn around and go the other direction or move
locations within the road system that we had permitted—to take
that down and set another one up can be an hour. And we'd of
course, need it done in, like, 15 minutes."
Communication was complicated by the fact that cellphone
service didn't exist on most of the route. The team resorted to
satellite phones and runners. Even California Highway Patrol (CHP)
could only support one traffic closure at a time. Temperatures
surged into triple digits and crew hydration protocols became
as critical as camera movement. The smallest delay threatened
safety.
"It wasn't easy—at all," Glaser says. "I mean there is an
expectation that the closure can just happen, and it doesn't work
like that. Some of these re-routes we were doing were like 20
miles, so imagine you're on your way to work in the morning and
animal … a stalled car in the road and you're done for.''
Finally, having reached the end of the "river" run, the team
eventually discovered what is known, coincidentally enough, as
the "Texas dip," about one hour and 45 minutes away. And, with
that, Anderson had his ending.
"It was one of those lucky moments," said Anderson, "where
you're sitting in a car for four hours and going, 'God, I'll never go
on a location scout again,' but then you come across this and you
go, 'forget what I just said, this is why you get in the van to location
scout, because the discoveries are there.'"
Paul wrote the sequence, then designed it; the team mapped it
all out and started creating the scenario that leads to the end of
the film.
"I think the desert was the biggest logistical nightmare," Glaser
says. "Some of the driving sequence or Bob driving around
searching for Willa is actually made up of pieces of a lot of different
"…you realized it's very scary to drive those hills because you're going 65 MPH, 75 MPH and you think
there's no one around, but you're just blind coming up over these ridges. As you hit the crest of each
hill, you're absolutely at risk. An animal … a stalled car in the road and you're done for."
–Director Paul Thomas Anderson at a DGA screening
