Pirates of the caribbean: at world's end - Disney

THE MAELSTROM
a long shot or closeup.
“Because of the size of the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman, we were probably pumping somewhere
around 25,000 gallons of water a minute. This is more rain than has ever been created on a motion picture
soundstage. We put tanks outside of the hangar, hooked up the pumps, filtered and heated the water, so
basically what we have is this big revolving waterslide. We pump the water in, it goes up 80 feet, rains
down on the set, hits the stage floor, goes into the utility corridors that were originally built into the floors,
back into the tanks that we have outside, and, recycled, back in again.”
Gore Verbinski and his crew donned protective gear to allow the water to roll off their backs, as much
as possible anyway. The stars and stunt players weren’t so fortunate. Says Keira Knightley, “You get into
costume. You’ve got a wet suit on underneath, which obviously makes going to the toilet really tricky.
Then they turn the rain on, and you’re drenched within 10 seconds. I just feel sorry for the crew because
they’re in it all day long. The rain is so heavy at times that you literally cannot see. When the Black Pearl
and Flying Dutchman are side by side, we’re working on a 15-percent slope, in which you’re running
uphill doing a swordfight in torrential rain, with an entire camera crew coming at you. It’ll look great, but
it’s definitely a hard one to work on.”
“I wouldn’t call it acting, I call it
survival,” laughs Orlando Bloom.
“It’s kind of brutal to stay wet from
eight in the morning until eight at
night. Even though they turn off the
rain machines between takes, you’re
still soaked all the way through, and
I’d be lying if I said it was fun. But
it’s hard on everyone, not just the
actors. And ultimately, we all have a
lot of confidence in the destination,
and know that it’s worth the effort.”
“The Maelstrom is like the
biblical whirlpool from hell, and
we’re shooting it the way Cecil B. DeMille probably would have,” says Geoffrey Rush. “It’s absolutely
massive.”
“We were running away from hurricanes in the Bahamas,” adds Johnny Depp, “shooting in Dominica
during the rainy season in a rain forest, and then we went to the desert, in Palmdale, filming in a torrential
downpour and about 75 knots of wind inside of a massive facility on a ship tilted to a 15-percent rake on
the gimbal.
“Once again, this is another one of those situations where it’s so weird that you just don’t question it
anymore. ‘Johnny, we’re going to drive you an hour and a half up to the desert, you’re going to climb
aboard the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman built on gigantic rigs, and we’re going to drench you in high
winds while you swordfight at a steep angle.’
“And you just kind of go, ‘Okay, fine. No problem.’”
One aspect of the Maelstrom shoot—which lasted for nearly four months—was the change in weather
outside of the hangar in desert Palmdale…from the raging 110-degree heat of mid-September to the 20degree
nighttime chill of early December. Not so bad if one could stay indoors all day, but basecamp was
outside, which one had to pass through to a second hangar which housed 50 makeup stations for
background players, as well as seating for meals. Sooner or later, the drenched actors, stunt and
background players had to expose themselves to the elements, whether hellishly hot or bone-chillingly
cold, not to mention the sometimes-fierce desert winds whipping across the landscape.
“Obviously, the Maelstrom climax was the most spectacular and challenging for us on AT WORLD’S
END,” notes stunt coordinator George Marshall Ruge. “All of the principal cast were involved, and there
were multiple storylines being played out within the epic action.” For this massive, final ship-to-ship
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