Narrator: This is what that scene looked like behind the scenes. And that's not a stunt double.
Tom Holland got hit by this car replica 17 times, then had to lunge himself forward to remain horizontal for the rest of the stunt. And it's not the first time Tom has done his own stunts.
As a trained acrobat and gymnast, he's dropped hundreds of feet in the air and has back flipped off a replica of the Washington Monument.
Here are five dangerous stunts Tom performed himself.
[grunts] So fun!
Narrator: For 2019's "Spider-Man: Far from Home," Tom trained with stunt coordinator George Cottle for five weeks to prepare for all of the film's stunts.
But the most intense was this web-swinging sequence with MJ, played by Zendaya. Spider-Man's iconic skyscraper swings have been a consistent challenge in the franchise, predominately created using CGI in the earlier films.
But for Tom, the filmmakers leaned into practical stunts as much as possible. Tom had a bodycam attached to him, and both actors were raised by a crane with a wire rig to over 100 feet. The two were then dropped and swung in an arc, with cardboard boxes placed below them as a safety precaution. To capture the landing and takeoff, they were lifted by cranes to different heights outside of Grand Central Station and Madison Square Garden.
And for close-up shots of them in midair, a large blue screen and wind fans were set up in the parking lot of a Brooklyn school, the interior of which was used for Peter Parker's high school. According to Zendaya, the shot from the 100-foot-high swing wasn't included in the final cut, but the final shot combined in-camera practical stunts with digi-doubles for seamless movements like never before in the series.
You might think the Washington Monument scene in 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming" was all CGI, but that was really Tom climbing and leaping around to save his friends. Various sections of the monument were replicated and built on a soundstage in Atlanta. Specifically, the side of the monument was built at an angle for the initial ascent. Then wires assisted Tom in the practical climb. With clever camera angles, the filmmakers created the illusion that the building was actually vertical. Tom then had to perform various jumps off another replica that represented the very top and the sides of the building. Here he is doing a backflip off the top into the air, assisted with cables.
And in this shot he's doing a backflip into what's known in the stunt world as a face-off, which prevents injury upon impact by landing flat on his back. For stunts that were impossible or too dangerous to perform, like swinging from the helicopter, the filmmakers used CG. But the movements were based on motion-captured footage of Tom's actual stunt work. This made the final CG shots appear even more realistic and in Tom's signature style.
Later in the same monument scene of "Homecoming," Spider-Man is pulled headfirst into an elevator shaft. Tom considered this scene one of his wildest stunts for "Homecoming." It required him to have his legs in a split position and then nose-dive off a ledge, suspended with wires. Tom was initially hesitant about doing this himself, according to his stunt double Chris Silcox. On top of his nerves, Tom had to wear a corset harness, which was so tight he was worried about throwing up in his mask. In the end, Tom decided to attempt the stunt without using the stunt double.
[crew cheering]
In "Spider-Man: Far From Home," Tom wasn't dealing with just heights, but water as well. He needed to navigate quickly in and out of both the canals and boats during this battle with the Elementals. The crew recreated Venice as a soundstage near London with exact replicas of the Rialto Bridge. They also recreated restaurants and blue-green canal water.
To pull off this sequence safely, Tom practiced leaping across wider platforms in a clip he shared on his Instagram. For the actual stunt, he was attached to a wire while he ran across a row of poles in the canal and finally pole-vaulted onto the bridge. Tom later said he regretted not wearing shin guards like the stunt coordinator suggested. The water was practically manipulated to create massive waves slamming into Tom as he fought the Elementals.
At one point, he was rigged to a ratchet and pulled backwards into the wall of the bridge, then soaked with thousands of gallons of water. He had to perform this stunt twice. His stunt double Greg Townley stood for a few takes when the wave initially struck Tom on the bridge, which Tom poked fun at on his Instagram.
Tom described this stunt in 2022's "Uncharted" as the most difficult of his career, and for good reason. The scene required him to jump through midair from one set of flying cargo containers to the next, then get hit by a car and ejected from a plane. The crew built a blue-screen set in the parking lot of the studio to help capture natural daylight.
This scene using crates was shot in two separate sequences. For the first sequence, when Tom falls out of the plane, supervising stunt coordinator Scott Rogers decided to stage the action vertically to better simulate flying through the air. The special effects team used giant robotic arms to safely hold and move the boxes, and Tom was secured with wires as he hung onto the crates and flew through the air.
For the second sequence, when Tom is climbing back into the plane and jumping crate to crate, the boxes were held more horizontally.
And for this final collision with the car
"... Ah, crap!"
Narrator: The team built the front section of a fake vehicle, which was replaced by a CGI car in the final cut.
Tom and the fake car were attached to the same rig, with the actor wearing sets of wires to stabilize him. The rig pulled the fake hood towards Tom, knocking him backwards. He then needed to remain horizontal while flying out of the plane.
To get this shot, Tom had to be fake-hit around 17 times, with this entire scene taking several weeks to complete.
The result? A realistic stunt that matches the excitement from the popular video-game scene it was pulled from.
[Nathan screams]
