SEOUL — A cool movie.
That’s how director Michael Bay (Bad Boys, The Rock, Transformers, etc.) describes 6 Underground, his latest movie now streaming on Netflix.
“It’s the toughest movie I’ve ever had to cut,” added Bay during a presscon for the movie at the Four Seasons Hotel, revealing that he consumed three million feet of film to create worlds, “one of those movies where you’ve got past, present, so you can move things around…a unique kind of style.”
6 Underground stars Ryan Reynolds as the enigmatic leader of six “untraceable agents” known only by number (with Ryan’s character as One) who undertakes a mission to make the world a safer place by fighting evil (such as a dictator, et al). They are tagged as a new kind of heroes who have to bury their past (find out how) so they can change the future. Claimed the movie’s teaser: What’s the best part of being “dead?” It isn’t escaping your boss, your ex or even erasing your criminal record. The best part about being dead …is the freedom.
Bay certainly lives up to his reputation as “a force of nature.” Those who have watched the movie will agree that, like us Asian journalists to the junket, they held their breath as the long-winding 45-plus-minute “all-time greatest car chase” opened the movie, taking the audience on a virtual joyride around the streets of Florence, Siena, Rome, Abu Dhabi and Budapest. Bay delivers what is touted as his most explosive movie yet with 6 Underground — “the globe-trotting, stunt-packed spy picture he was born to make.” As the movie’s Production Notes aptly put it, he’s a director who makes other directors wonder, “How the hell did he do that?”
Bay and Ian Bryce (the producer) were in Seoul for the junket, together with Ryan (as a billionaire with an appetite for justice) and co-stars Melanie Laurent (Two, a CIA dark operative) and Adria Arjona (Five, a doctor accustomed to battle conditions). Not present were Dave Franco, Corey Hawkins and Ben Hardy.
Here are excerpts from the presscon, the ”ambush” interview during the green-carpet premiere and the Production Notes
How is 6 Underground different from your previous work?
“When I approached Bad Boys 1, I was trying to come up with a style, which is a fast-cutting style. With this one, I wanted to improve upon that style. A normal movie has about 2,000, 2,500, 3,000 shots. This movie has about 7,000 shots, but it’s two hours and six minutes — my shortest movie in a decade and a half, if you want me to date myself. It’s got an interesting style to it. It just feels different.”
Was your goal to take action to the next level?
“Yeah. It starts out with a wicked car chase. The first 20 minutes of the movie, you say, ‘What the F is going on?’ Because it’s a rock ‘em sock ‘em into the movie kind of thing... It’s like you don’t know what the hell is going on. And that works to the style because they wanted the audience to try to figure it out. We wanted to drop right in the middle of it (the car chase). It’s an interesting action and character chase, a wicked-ass chase.
“One of the rare gifts I have is kissing ass to locations. I have this gift to get amazing locations, from (being) the only guy to ever shoot in the Space Shuttle twice, the only guy to shoot in 35 years on one of the pyramids, the only guy to ever shoot at the top of Petra. First person to ever shoot 10 Downing Street for a film. And I’m not even English! I wanted (to shoot on top of) the Duomo, so I go there to meet the Mayor, who is a nice guy.”
Is that one of the things that really sets you apart — the fact that you do these things for real, in camera?
“It’s a dying art, doing real stunts. And doing them in places where literally we are jumping two cars between a 600-year-old obelisk. Take the Medici Villa, 14th century, we built a fake glass window. I go to my stunt guy, give him that nice stern look, ‘Do not F up, all right? Meaning, you have a foot on either side of the wall.
“‘You hit the Medici Villa, you’re getting us kicked out of Italy!’ We shoot in these really sensitive places, but my rule is very tough with the crew. We leave it pristine, okay. There are many film companies that just don’t care, and I care to the utmost about leaving it as perfect as we found it.”
There’s great chemistry between Ryan and the rest of the 6 Underground team, how did that come together?
“It all takes place organically, really. I mean, I try to warm my actors up as much as possible, making the schedule so that you can build character.”
This is a spy picture. Was that a genre you were really wanting to tackle?
“I’ve always wanted to do the spy genre. It’s just one of the things that I love looking at. I love the real CIA stuff. I love the true stories. I’ve loved James Bond. I’ve loved (Jason) Bourne. (With this) you’re taking something like a Mission: Impossible, but making it funny, darker, twisting it. And people accept twisted (ideas) from Ryan more than most actors.”
What’s Ryan like on set?
“He’s fast and he likes getting it done. I’m a very fast shooter, so that style with us worked really well. He nails it.”
Ryan says that the opening will go down as one of the greatest car chases ever filmed. Was that your goal?
“Hey, listen, you don’t want to think, ‘Oh, I’m really the best!’ I don’t go in like that. I just said I wanted to make it feel different. I don’t think you can ever do best. I mean, okay, Spielberg, the Omaha Beach landing (in Saving Private Ryan), that’s the best! But I wasn’t setting out to do that. I was setting out to do different and have a different twist and vibe to it. And I don’t really remember a chase like this.”
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