While comparisons were quick to be made between the bloody battle that capped off this week’s "True Detective" episode "Down Will Come," and last year’s single-take setpiece "Who Goes There," it’s not a matter of one being "better" than another. The sequences were both pretty amazing technical feats and provided big thrills, with different character driven endgames. And that lost quality is key in keeping both scenes from become generic action scenes.
A new featurette has emerged about the sequence, highlighting the involvement of the Navy SEALs to help train the actors, in particular, Taylor Kitsch‘s war veteran Paul Woodrugh, who handles the carnage with some semblance of control. However, for Ray Velcoro and Ani Bezzerides, the realization that they were set up, coupled with the immense bodycount, nearly shatters them by the end of the scene. And even filming it had its consequences.
“That one took about five days,” Rachel McAdams told Variety. “That was pretty intense. I actually puked during that scene. When I was running and reloading my gun — it actually wound up being about 200 yards, it was like two football fields — and I was just going all out and we did it a couple of times.”
Watch the featurette along with the full scene below (you’ll have to click through to YouTube for the latter).
