WINM Forums :: The Films of Keanu Reeves :: Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction
inkhuldra
2011-10-28 14:50


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OK, so this is my story about how I was an extra in Chain Reaction. It's the continuation of a post in a different forum, in case anyone reads this at a later time.

So I got to be an extra in Chain Reaction, in an evacuation scene towards the end of the film when a crowd of people run out of a lab building. You can't see me, though, because it was filmed from a distance. We spent all day there, standing outside in the freezing cold, doing multiple takes, and we were supposed to look like lab people who were getting out in a hurry before the building explodes, so they wanted us to wear lab coats and no winter coats over that. We said f*** that, we're not freezing to death here.

This was all taking place at the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago http://www.anl.gov/Administration/index.html. If you look at the picture, there's a circular structure at top left. That's an atomic particle accelerator, and it is situated in a circular tunnel under the structure. We were filming in a building close to it.

So, there were several employees in the crew of extras, and somehow I got to talking with a couple of them. They turned out to be scientists who worked at the actual accelerator. One of them told me that Keanu was shooting a scene down in a tunnel that runs parallel to the accelerator. Next thing he says is: "Wanna go down and take a look?" You bet I did. So we went across a "skywalk", inside the building next to the one we were filming at, down the stairs to the basement, and there turned out to be some tunnels there, one of which connected the building to the accelerator.

So we went into a corridor, and the scientist told me that we would now go through a section that was no longer in use -- because of the high radiation levels. Oh brilliant. So we *jogged* through there, and after going though a red door that was actually a prop for the movie we got to a room that was adjacent to where they were filming. We got there between takes, and we stood in the doorway and watched them set up the next shot. Keanu sat at the far end of the set, all by himself and looking down with a "do not disturb" aura around him.

We stood there for a few minutes but nothing more happened, and I was getting nervous about not having an access pass. So we left and went back to our own shoot. The crowd of extras was so big that nobody had noticed us missing.

Anyway, nothing more happened after that. We finished the scene, and me and the other Gardener who was there (and who got me on the set) returned to the city.

Edit: here's a pic I just found of the building where we were filming. We were on the opposite side of the circular building, running down a ramp towards the parking lot. http://www.flickr.com/photos/argonne/3399186037/in/set-72157626978429514. I thought the building and the accelerator building were further apart, so the tunnels couldn't have gone directly from one building to another.

LucaM
2011-10-29 01:24


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inkhuldra... this is quite something :)

thanks for sharing the story :)

ARYA
2011-10-29 03:46


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That is very interesting and yet again the fan got educated through the fandom. Maybe something you never would have been interested in the first place if not for Reeves. Am I right inkhuldra?
I have seen that "do not disturb aura" too. But since I was just innocently walking by and it was a public street in Tarrytown NY the words 'Keanu, nice to see you here' sort of, quietly, leapt from my mouth. He has no hearing disorder I can tell you that. He looked up and with his coffee cup gave me the exact same gesture as the one Constantine does, with the bottle, to Midnight when he's in the electric chair. Yall know the one I mean? No one should interrupt when he's working but in my defence, I just kept walking. :)
ARYA
2011-10-29 03:51


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I know a little story from another extra in CR. She said she observed him doing a bit of Ted Theodore Logan just to entertain the people on set. Sounded fun that he could just morph into Ted at will but I guess that should be no surprise to me. :)
LucaM
2011-10-29 04:05


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the exact same gesture as the one Constantine does, with the bottle, to Midnight when he's in the electric chair. Yall know the one I mean?

yeah ;)

ARYA
2013-05-07 07:23


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http://youtu.be/CsWLFssykdk


http://youtu.be/CsWLFssykdk



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