In this Paramount Pictures thriller, a homicide investigator (Tom Cruise) digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper who shot five random victims. SFX Department head Kevin Hannigan and shot right on the heels of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises. most of the Pittsburgh local SFX crew consisted of many of the same artists.
Under the coordination of SFX Department Head Kevin Hannigan, Tolin led a team of artsits to create SFX for the film that bordered work that typically would be handled by FX Makeup or Props. Our little team got to create some really cool pieces over the course of the show. We created melted ice cream cones and silicone blood puddles on the sidewalk, Kevlar armor for Tom Cruise while driving the stunt car, padded replica car interior panels for the same reason, thousands of stearic acid and plaster tiles, toilets, and tubs for 10 duplicate bathrooms that gets smashed to bits, and “rock prosthetics” for boulders that Hannigan’s pyro techs could put squibs under instead of shooting dust paintballs at Tom Cruise. We also created a rig to repeatedly create the illusion that Cruise was breaking an assailant’s leg. Tolin also had a chance to create FX on set throughout the filming.
FX Technician
Steve Tolin
