How they filmed that head-turning ‘Hawkeye’ chase scene
Fans of “Hawkeye” are buzzing about a high-speed, adrenaline-rush chase scene in Episode 3 of the Disney+ Marvel series starring Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld.
The seven-minute scene starts with Clint Barton/Hawkeye (Renner) and his protege Kate Bishop (Steinfeld) escaping from an abandoned warehouse, hijacking a car and then careening through the streets of Brooklyn toward the the Manhattan Bridge with Kazi and the Tracksuit Mafia in pursuit — as Kate leans out of the car firing her trademark trick until it all ends with a screeching-tires, explosive confrontation on the bridge.
“Hawkeye” is set in New York City and is predominantly shot in Brooklyn, but parts of the chase scene were filmed in Atlanta, episode directors Amber Finlayson and Katie Ellwood — known as Bert and Bertie — told The Post.
“We spent so much time crafting it and we made the decision early on that we wanted to get a lot of the car chase done practically,” Ellwood said. “We shot some of the season in New York, where ‘Hawkeye’ is set, but we couldn’t physically get on the streets [for that scene]; we’re shooting on a set in Brooklyn so we had to find less descriptive streets — and we were able to make the streets of Atlanta look very much like Brooklyn when adorned with effects and post-production.”
Ellwood said the directors’ priority, for dramatic purposes, was to keep the action focused on Barton and Kate to ramp up the high-stakes tension amidst the freewheeling action.
“The most important thing was to keep the camera in the car with the characters, so that we get the banter and what’s going on between them and to reveal the action in an interesting way,” she said. “We have this camera that moves, so all the action had to be choreographed to move at certain times and certain beats to meet with the camera and not miss it. There’s so much prep work that goes into organizing everything — making sure the truck comes up at the back of the car at the right time [and] the 180-degree handbrake turn needs to happen then.
“We did it for real and it was a little bit like theater,” she said. “It was exciting for everyone and Jeremy and Hailee were loving it since [Jeremy] was able to drive the car. It took about five takes, and I think the take we used was possibly [one from] quite early on — there was something about the dynamic between Barton and Bishop in that particular take that was just so explosive and dynamic.”
The more dangerous moments, of course, were handled by stunt drivers, Finlayson said.
They were everywhere. “There was a lot going on and you couldn’t do that with actors. The handbrake turn — you have to hit the mark exactly, so there’s a safety issue as well, although Jeremy was like, ‘Let me at it!’ Later on in the chase, when the car is flipped the other way around, we had stunt drivers, including a driver in the trunk of the car. He had a little driving rig in the trunk and he stuck his head out and was disguised, and he was driving forward so it looked like they were driving backwards.”
The scene’s climax on the Manhattan Bridge is seamless, thanks to the wonders of modern technology and deft editing.
“We would have liked to have done it for real. That was on a huge blue-screen set, but the driving on the set was real,” Ellwood said. “We had some of the best stunt drivers in the industry. When the car speeds in and skids to a perfect 90-degree angle to that little girl in the car on the bridge, they did that for real — not with the little girl in the car, but that’s precision driving and landing … at a level of skill that’s unbelievable.”
“It was like a jigsaw puzzle,” Finlayson said, “replacing bits of animated pre-visualization with stuff we shot so we could see it come together and adjust it accordingly.”
