Do you suppose they crashed older trains they were going to scrap anyways? I can't imagine old movies had the budgets required to trash perfectly good locomotives.
Disney and other companies have crashed entire completed and released movies for tax write offs, you think they didn't have ways of doing that back then too?
Maybe, but that doesn't mean they didn't find weird scams and schemes to run. I mean it was the most like our current times income inequality ways as ours.
I don't agree, I think they used trains in those films bc they were threatening and fast moving and before these films noone saw them inside a room, people used to coward and run away from the projectors, so to their contemporary eyes it would be a... horror movie? I guess?
Yeah man, now you know how 15 year old me felt the first time he told me about the specs on the train that killed his brother. I guess it was a pretty average diesel train...
I don't think he broke his arm there; however, while filming another movie he broke his neck falling onto a railroad tie. He completed the scene and used the take, but didn't know he had broken his neck until he had x-rays years later.
Fucktons of special effects, all of it in camera. You see it, they fucking filmed it. And filmed it in reverse, rehearsals out the butt, a lot of miniatures, matting the screen... a sample https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBSpuZDKaKI
Playing it at a frame rate higher than it was filmed at is literally speeding it up, though. It would be very easy to have the video play at the proper low frame rate
Splittmark
Can add music but not voice overs? Can add text but cant overlay it? Old movies man
hergurh
They were actually just trying to film normally and the trains kept interfering
Recursiv3
"hey you wanna crash your train through a bunch of shit and film it?" "Yup!" "Did we just become best friends?" "Yup!"
MadeThisAccountToAnswerQuestions
Have you seen what they've been doing with trains nowadays? They've been overturning them everywhere lately!
TotallyNotSarcastic
Fun fact: OSHA was not formed until 1971.
RetroBlast
Ah yes, it ends with the train crash from The General. A hugely expensive stunt, and spectacular even to this day...
2fligh2high
destinychopsticks
I understand Keaton was known to have said something along the lines of “Keep filming until we have the cut or until I’m dead”.
natachan
No CGI either, thems either real trains or forced perspective miniatures (I think)
zFUBARz
Some of it is angles and film speed and reversing and such too. but still a lot of insanity.
DrDadJokes
They were into trains
lukeleider
Half of these is Buster Keaton alone
TheHolyFatman
This reminds me of the opening for headbangers ball. Fuck, I'm old.
StarscreamAndHutch
Out of all of these, the one with Buster Keaton? on the cowcatcher with the railroad ties scares me the most.
Hutchy01
It's Keaton, it's from The General (1926)
WoopDeFrickenDoo
These are probably 90% Buster Keaton
laxpatrol
Now we can do these scenes with a simple AI prompt. 100 years later.
ihaveantsforhands
That’s some crazy impressive stunt work
VicLegion
ah yes, when the art involved the threat of bodily harm, and outrageous amounts of property damage.
SlidinDownTheLannisters
Tom Cruise ain't got nothing on these OG's
cbale2000
Do you suppose they crashed older trains they were going to scrap anyways? I can't imagine old movies had the budgets required to trash perfectly good locomotives.
zFUBARz
Disney and other companies have crashed entire completed and released movies for tax write offs, you think they didn't have ways of doing that back then too?
cbale2000
I'm pretty sure the tax code was far less convoluted back in the 1920s, yes.
zFUBARz
Maybe, but that doesn't mean they didn't find weird scams and schemes to run. I mean it was the most like our current times income inequality ways as ours.
vakler
Death by locomotive is a lot less intimidating when you cannot hear it or it's accompanied by a jaunty piano tune at your local theatre.
NivalisAngelus
To be fair, if you didn't hear it or were enjoying a nice song, you probably didn't realize you were dead.
ArtOfKarolMichalec
I don't agree, I think they used trains in those films bc they were threatening and fast moving and before these films noone saw them inside a room, people used to coward and run away from the projectors, so to their contemporary eyes it would be a... horror movie? I guess?
Rivalyn
It's an action-thriller, much like a movie with trains imperiling the protagonists would be today.
UndeadGopher
A friend of mine growing up, his brother got drunk and got hit by a train. He developed a childlike love for trains after that. Pretty wild
Shnkthemartian
The friend or the brother?
UndeadGopher
Yeah i just reread that, shoulda been more specific. Brother got way dead and my friend had the childlike fascination with trains.
Shnkthemartian
That sucks man. Do you still talk with the friend? Is he doing alright?
heartlessninja6
I don’t know how to take this information.
UndeadGopher
Yeah man, now you know how 15 year old me felt the first time he told me about the specs on the train that killed his brother. I guess it was a pretty average diesel train...
tempmike
You can tell that last shot is fake because the train didn't explode in a fireball /s
six2midnight
Pffh. It's all CGI. Like the moon landing.
Housemaster
Pffff... you belive the moon is *real*?
zFUBARz
Pffft I've got some realtime footage of the landing, why would I not believe it?
MotherEffinSatan
TALKIES!!
AlysObv
What a train wreck!
maplebranchmark
Jordan7831
princessTrufflePuff
PlacentaEaters
TheFastpaws
He just wanted to keep you safe!
vakler
redpandabanana
PlacentaEaters
redpandabanana
DukePhelan
These early actors were nuts, this a whole side of a house just missing Buster Keaton. I heard it broke his arm but can't find anything to confirm it.
Jimmah1
The grim reaper hated that guy for years.
Atticus85
I don't think he broke his arm there; however, while filming another movie he broke his neck falling onto a railroad tie. He completed the scene and used the take, but didn't know he had broken his neck until he had x-rays years later.
SigneowTheCat
You can see it in the footage there, actually. His arm moves after the window clips it.
DarkBusterBaron
WhoToldYouLifeWasFair
Keep in mind... NO special effects. Timing, planning and humungous cajones.
10001110101periodictablewithasantapieceofmind
And no SAG or OSHA
Khornight
At least one of the shots in this sequence was reversed and sped up.
bippityboppitybuttsex
Fucktons of special effects, all of it in camera. You see it, they fucking filmed it. And filmed it in reverse, rehearsals out the butt, a lot of miniatures, matting the screen... a sample https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBSpuZDKaKI
Grimleaper
Cojones*
WhoToldYouLifeWasFair
Gracias.
BTanner13000
They invented a lot of the stuff still used today. They were crazy, but not that crazy.
navagon
They had special effects. Just not of the CGI variety.
zFUBARz
Honestly incredibly impressive ones too. what they could do with lighting, panes of glass and some talented painters was incredible.
navagon
What they achieved with what they had was highly inventive and impressive.
GadenKerensky
And the sheer amount of perspective trickery.
OliverClothesoff70
...and an occasional dead guy.
bippityboppitybuttsex
Buster Keaton did break his neck once by dumping 10,000 gallons of water on him...
studiomurph
Speeding up the film also helps
WeatherWiz
Was just about to say, this is sped up due to the frame rate at the time
bippityboppitybuttsex
They didn't speed up the film... they filmed (and projected) at a lower frame rate... we play it back too fast.
BTanner13000
It's a bit of both
vcgetdown
Playing it at a frame rate higher than it was filmed at is literally speeding it up, though. It would be very easy to have the video play at the proper low frame rate
Scuzzellbutt
Were any of them model trains?
studiomurph
The last one in the loop where the bridge collapses, I’m pretty sure that’s a model.
ThePunishersVengefulBrother
Nope. It was a huge expense. There's an Imgur post about it.
ThePunishersVengefulBrother
I found it. /gallery/SWbTkai
studiomurph
Well shit. I stand rightly corrected.
likeabowser