(dramatic music)
- Let's do it.
- Anytime you're ready.
- Now!
(gun fires)
(man gasps)
(body thuds)
- [Announcer] Ladies and gentlemen the Universal stunt team!
(audience applauds)
- [Richard Hart/Narrator] At the Universal Tour,
a series of spectacular live shows
provide visitors with a firsthand look
at movie magic brought to life.
(exciting synth music)
(explosion sounding)
- [Trainer] Turn, hold it.
(fist strikes)
(bottle breaks)
(body crashes)
- How do you feel? - Fine.
- Bad fall, real bad fall. (laughs)
- [Lance Rimmer] I think an audience
appreciates a live show,
where we have to depend on everything working,
'Cause if we goof,
and that has happened in the show,
then the audience sees that,
so it keeps us pretty much alert.
- Bang!
(gun fires)
(man laughs)
- [Narrator] In a movie,
a stunt performance involves substituting your body
for someone else's for dangerous bits of business.
(fist strikes)
In this show, the performers have to master a wide range
of difficult stunts and know how to do the acting as well.
And on top of that
they have to be funny on cue.
- Wrong door!
The most important thing
and the most basic thing is timing.
(bottle breaking)
(gun fires)
(audience laughs)
I think I shot the wrong guy! (laughs)
(audience laughs)
Boy, is he gonna be mad!
(audience laughs)
Don't turn around!
(gun fires)
(man gasps)
(audience gasps)
[Steve Gilliam] I've always tried to approach this
as sort of a long running play.
I mean, who knows?
With the acting experience,
I'm learning day by day
maybe I'll become the next John Wayne.
You don't believe that though, do you? (laughs)
- [Narrator] Being the next John Wayne
is every actor's dream.
And speaking of actors, actors?
It's true, in the land of show business make-believe,
animals are actors, too.
(comical music)
- [Trainer] Pick up the money and bring it back.
- [Narrator] Of course, every actor needs rehearsal.
- Go.
(comical music)
Flip.
(comical music)
Walk up.
(comical music)
This is how we do it in a movie situation.
Roll, good.
But in front of a live audience,
you only get one chance.
- [Announcer] Mickey the monkey!
(audience applauds)
- (indistinct) pig.
[Trainer] Jump up there and say hello.
(dog barks)
[Trainer] Sunshine, can you believe this?
How about a big hand for the martial eagle?
- [Narrator] But when you get right down to it,
no matter how different animal actors are
from their human counterparts,
when they do their jobs right,
the reward is just as sweet.
- [Announcer] How about a big round of applause
for trainer Mack Emery and all of the fine animal actors!
- Thank you, folks!
(audience applause)
(menacing music)
- [Narrator] In addition to all the classic
kinds of entertainment showcased at Universal,
a new generation of presentations
is combining the look
of today's spectacular movie special effects
with the impact of living, breathing reality,
The Adventures of Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular.
This, for example, combines live theater
with millions of dollars worth of technology,
to create a dramatic spectacle
of unprecedented proportions.
(exciting synth music)
- [Peter Alexander] What Conan is, is a compilation
of every single live special effect that you can do.
It's got all these various effects,
lasers, fire, pyro, magic.
It's got CO2, it's got smoke, it's got animation,
all these things in one place.
So from that standpoint,
it is the state-of-the-art kind of show.
- [Narrator] Conan's huge stage setting
conceals an even larger collection of high tech equipment,
including a massive Sensurround audio system
that can bring a dragon's howl to life.
(dragon howling)
(ominous music)
Plus a complicated system of lasers
that weave a web of high-powered visuals,
including a hidden super beam
that uses 4,000 watts of power per square centimeter,
to trigger a volley of onstage pyrotechnic explosions.
(explosion sounding)
But this is more than a hardware show.
It's live theater.
And the actors in the show have discovered
a whole new meaning for the term "stage fright".
(actor grunts)
- {Actor] One time I came out,
I make an appearance,
and it's supposed to be smoke then fire.
What happened was is fire and then smoke.
And what happened was that all this burned up,
and I just had a little string here.
My wig burned up.
Fortunately, it's fireproof retardant,
so I didn't burn my hair or anything else.
(pyrotechnic exploding)
(man screaming)
Ah, the magic of the theater.
(exciting synth music)
- [Narrator] In what may amount
to the ultimate combination of ingredients,
the Conan spectacular
has applied the skills of advanced designers
with the tools of tomorrow's technology,
to create a character
bigger than any human performer has ever played.
(ominous synth music)
(dragon howling)
This 18-foot tall, snarling, fire-breathing beast
has to perform just as precisely
as everyone else in this production.
(dragon howls)
- [Peter] We computer program him
so that he goes through a certain series of movements
and he comes up,
and he does the same thing for every single show.
He's basically got to be in the right place
to fire his laser eyes
and to fire, the fire out of his mouth, every single time,
so that the actors know what to expect.
(fire firing)
- [Narrator] If technology is one of the players in Conan,
there's another mega attraction at Universal
that's made technology king, King Kong.
(King Kong Roars)
This beast's sheer size, realistic expressions
and hot winds of banana breath
are just some of its many remarkable features.
But what's most remarkable is the entire concept
behind this new approach to how to treat an audience.
- [Robert Ward] In essence,
we've now got the guests eye to eye,
just feet away from King Kong,
and they're actually participating,
with him, swinging the bridge back and forth for
it's got to be sure imminent disaster.
We escape out of there, needless to say
to live and tell the story over and over again.
And that's just a bit of movie magic
that happens in two minutes and 20 seconds, resets
and essentially happens every three minutes all day long.
(subway car screeching)
- [Narrator] Unlike Conan or King Kong,
the newest attraction
created by Universal's special effects wizards
isn't based on fantasy,
but on one of reality's most terrifying events.
If you think being in an earthquake is eye-opening,
look at what it takes to make one happen.
To begin with, you'll need to build
one of the largest sound stages on earth,
then add an unprecedented list of special effects,
including 2 million volts of man-made lightning
an 11,000 pound concrete slab
that can collapse 200 times a day
an out of control tractor trailer,
a 40-mile-an-hour subway crash.
And on top of all that, literally a 60,000 gallon
15-foot high wall of water.
- [Larry Lester] We have three-dimensional moving objects
or animated objects,
which are some of the largest animated objects
in any show that's ever been made.
- [Narrator] Where else, but in the world of special effects
can you experience a devastating 8.3 earthquake
and know you'll come through without so much as a scratch?
- [Robert] On this set, we're going to have a lot
of overlapping action that will be seen
from a variety of point of views.
- [Narrator] Behind this new generation
of powerhouse entertainment
is a powerhouse team of design and engineering talents.
- [Robert] Everything that happens for MCA Recreation
and Universal Studios and the tour originates here,
and we're responsible
for guiding it all along the way.
Initially, what happens when you develop a project,
you start off with some real quick sketches,
so that you have a common denominator
that everyone can work from.
Okay, the most distinct difference between--
- [Narrator] For Universal's special effects design team,
impossible challenges are a way of life.
These planners are creating the most explosive display
of danger every seen by a live audience,
the Miami Vice: Action Spectacular.
- [Man] We want to do, if we can
is get a lot of the action real close to all these people,
so that they can really experience all the explosions
and all the tremendous kind of special effects, real close.
That's the one thing you can't do when you see a film.
- [Narrator] Seeing ideas like those
being translated into reality
is a show in and of itself.
- Action!
(body thuds)
(tractor moving)
(water pumping)
(machine rattling)
- Grab one of those (indistinct).
- [Larry] I've probably got 15 contractors out there right now
working just on the effects stuff.
Can I get those plywood out of there?
- [Narrator] Watching this crew mount a show about a battle
is an example of life imitating art.
- I need to get that plywood out of the control room!
- Oh!
(man gasps)
- There's gonna be 50 stunts in 18 minutes
and it will be radical.
- One, two, three!
- [Alex Plasschaert] Everything that you see that we're doing
has double and triple thoughts about safety.
We just have to be safe in everything we do.
Action!
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12!
- Believe me, if your timing is off,
you can make one mistake
and you have the end result of this.
- [Narrator] But when it all works right,
which is almost all the time,
you have an end result
that looks like no other live show you've ever seen.
(exciting synth music)
(explosion sounding)
(exciting synth music)
(explosion sounding)
(audience applauds)
(explosion sounding)
(gun firing)
(explosion sounding)
(light synth music)
[Narrator] It's the end of another long and busy day.
like most in this city within a city
called Universal Studios.
(light synth music)
Thousands of guests leave with their mementos
of a visit behind the scenes,
a snapshot, a tee-shirt,
or a memory of something unforgettable.
(light synth music)
Designers, builders and other movie-makers head for home,
to rest up for another day of making dreams come true.
(light synth music)