Warning: This article includes spoilers for Carry-On.
For an action movie predominantly set in an airport, Carry-On’s most memorable fight sequence occurs in a moving vehicle cruising on the highway. Stunt coordinator Dave Macomber had experience choreographing combat scenes in parked cars, but never ones that were moving.
“That one in particular was challenging,” Macomber told Digital Trends about the car crash sequence. “It came from the very specific demand that it be an unbroken shot in a moving vehicle going down a road.”
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Carry-On stars Taron Egerton as Ethan Kopek, a TSA agent assigned to work the security line on Christmas Eve. A mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman) blackmails Ethan into letting a potentially dangerous package slip through TSA and make its way onto a plane. If Ethan fails to comply, the traveler will kill his pregnant girlfriend, Nora (Sofia Carson).
In the car scene, Detective Elena Cole (Danielle Deadwyler) and Agent Alcott (Logan Marshall-Green) are heading to the airport to investigate a potential crisis involving Kopek. After discovering Alcott’s lies about his identity, Cole pulls out her gun and demands answers. Realizing his cover has been blown, Alcott attacks Cole, leading to an explosive fight sequence with the two characters battling for control of the gun.
Collet-Serra, an experienced filmmaker in this genre, tasked Macomber with staging an unbroken shot of a tight-quarters fight within a moving vehicle. For Macomber, there’s no better way to plan a fight than by re-creating it yourself.
“The first thing that I got going on was doing a mo-cap (motion capture) version of that here at my house,” Macomber said. “I have a couple of motion-capture suits and designed the fight in such a way that it would guide the viewer’s eye to be able to see the things that were happening outside of the car at the appropriate times.”
“There was a process that we went through where we did all the motion capture and sent it to Jaume. Then he gave notes, and then we continued to revise,” Macomber added.
Macomber is no stranger to executing massive stunts for action movies. The veteran stunt coordinator has worked on several action projects, including Avengers: Endgame, Jungle Cruise, and Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Macomber added another title, second unit director, to his resume on Carry-On. Taking on more responsibility is a privilege Macomber does not take lightly.
“I’m in a responsible position for people that are friends of mine that are potentially in danger all the time. I’ll be honest with you, that’s kind of a motivation to be in the position in the first place because I’ve seen enough things go sideways that I don’t want that to happen to my friends,” Macomber said. “At the same time, I’ve managed, on the projects that I’ve been on, to surround myself with people that I really enjoy, so it’s been great.”
Many former stunt performers, such as Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, and Sam Hargrave, have found success behind the cameras as action directors. Macomber credits a stunt performer’s versatility as to why they make for a great director.
“People like Chad, Dave, and Sam, they all have a great wealth of information at their disposal,” Macomber said. “When it comes time for them to sit in the main chair, they’re really well-trained because they’ve been doing it behind the scenes for a long time.”
Does Macomber want to add his name to the list of stunt performers who move on to direct feature films?
“I do,” Macomber said. “There’s a lot of us these days that are watching the success of those guys and saying, ‘Wow.’ It’s so cool to see people have those kinds of opportunities.”
Carry-On is now streaming on Netflix.