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Phil Cory has been working on films for over 30
years. During that time he has created the "standard" type of
effects, rain, snow, wind, etc. and has been credited with creating some
of the most spectacular effects seen on the screen.
These pages contains some images of some on his more
recent films.
The Money Train | Die Hard With a
Vengeance | Drop Zone
Among the most challenging and death-defying
stunts ever filmed is the subway crash in Die Hard with a Vengeance. Not
wanting to settle for optics or models, the filmmakers searched in vain
for a New York stage large enough to accommodate the stunt.
They moved to Charleston, South Carolina to an
empty General Dynamics plant that is still the largest building in the
state. The crew built a true-to-life New York City subway station,
complete with real subway cars purchased from the New York City Transit
Authority and a quarter-mile of train track in the 10,000 sq. ft.
building.
Special effects coordinator Phil Cory's most
complicated task was to create an unprecedented stunt in which a detonated
bomb causes the last car of a train entering a subway station to derail
and speed onto a platform full of waiting commuters. The production had
every detail of the stunt worked out prior to filming, and McTiernan had
five cameras rolling.
Stunt personnel were warned that the train would
be traveling at 40 mph and that if they fell, very little could be done to
help them. "We had it controlled with a computer," explains Cory. "When
the train was flying around the station, we knew exactly where it was
going. We had programmed in the speed, and a set time when it was going to
swing around and where it was going to end."
The end result is a white-knuckle experience like
no other.
The Leaping Train
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The inside of the subway car.
Close to us is the pivot point. The 10" x 8'
shaft was a made of 1040 high tensile strength steel, made to
withstand the more than 1 million foot pounds of torque expected.
Hydraulic actuators were energized from charged accumulators, the
only way to get the 270gpm we needed, and stay mobile. |
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Inside the motion control subway car. On the
left is the MC system, using Kuper Controls RTMC48 card. On the
right are the joystick controls, used to teach the system what to
do. |
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Driving the tank, Richard Cory. The tank was
completely rebuilt and outfitted with new hydraulics to drive the
tank and deploy the bridge. The bridge was operated via joy stick. |
Mobile 3 axis gimbaled Cars
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Pictured L to R, (a couple of the masters of
Special Effects) Phil Cory, Paul Stewart, Billy Lee and Bill Shirmer.
Bill Shirmer designed this rear drive car, using Taxi, Police and
Mercedes bodies as needed. The rear drive car was used extensively in
the chase through Manhattan. |
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Mobile gimbals designed and
built by Richard Cory.
Electronic Hydraulic controls designed and built by Doug Calli. |
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A Taxi and Mercedes were set up to use this
gimbals.
The gimbals was pulled with a camera car. |
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Special Effects, Inc.