Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

"What the hell is this?" director George Miller exclaimed in surprise.

Although he is the director, he is not familiar with every single detail.

That's how it is when you're filming a movie with Lin Yuan. The director still has the power to make decisions about the script, art direction, shooting, and editing. But when it comes to the action scenes, director Miller only knows that there is a very thrilling quicksand fighting scene.

The specific location and filming plan were ultimately decided by Lin Yuan and Meng Tao.

After all, when it comes to action scenes, no director would think they have more say than these two.

In fact, the filming location chosen by Meng Tao far exceeded director Miller's expectations.

Before collaborating with Lin Yuan, even his wildest imaginations seemed petty.

Director Miller couldn't have imagined that creating a quicksand fighting arena wouldn't be enough, there would also be something that sprays white smoke. What's going on here?
"This is high-pressure water vapor erupting from underground," Meng Tao replied.

"High-pressure steam?" Director Miller already sensed something was wrong.

"As I just mentioned, beneath this area of ​​quicksand lies the remains of an ancient underground salt lake, right? The reason the underground salt dissolved to form the quicksand lake is because several geothermal wells at the bottom of the lake ruptured, releasing enormous amounts of heat," Meng Tao said.

"You...you said these water vapor columns are high-temperature, high-pressure water vapor?" Director Miller asked incredulously.

"Yes, the temperature is around 110℃." Meng Tao nodded in reply: "According to the filming plan, Lin Yuan's opponent was wearing full armor because he cheated, so he couldn't be knocked down with his bare hands. Therefore, he used steam to win in the end."

Director Miller: "..."

All he could think to himself was, "Are you all crazy?"
How could they approve such a dangerous filming plan?

In less than two minutes, he witnessed no fewer than 10 bursts of water vapor.

Each eruption produces a column of air with a diameter exceeding 1 meter and a height reaching 7 or 8 meters!

Such a large amount of water vapor, especially high-temperature, high-pressure water vapor at 110℃, if it were sprayed directly onto a person...

The damage caused is more serious than having a large basin of boiling water poured directly on a person.

It's not impossible that this could cause extensive burns, leading to acute burn shock and death.

Too dangerous!

Meng Tao noticed the director's concern and explained, "For the actor who fights Lin Yuan, we will add a special heat-resistant layer inside his full-body armor, so you don't need to worry."

“What I’m worried about is Lin Yuan. According to the plot, Lin Yuan is a wanderer and a prisoner, wearing only shorts and with his back bare. What if he gets sprayed with water vapor?” Director Miller asked.

“Don’t worry, watch closely. Before the steam column erupts, a slight bulge will form on the ground. The eruption will occur approximately every 0.5 to 0.75 seconds. That’s enough time for Lin Yuan to spot and take evasive action,” Meng Tao explained.

Director Miller: "..."

0.5 to 0.75 seconds is enough?

For him, it was just a blink of an eye; even if he noticed something was wrong, there wasn't time to react.

Okay, if you say that's enough, then that's enough. After all, you're Lin Yuan.

"Please explain again, after Lin Yuan defeated his opponent, why did the iron cage continue to sink? What's going on here?" Director Miller continued to ask.

Looking at the shooting plan in his hand, he felt an unbearable headache. It was as if he was courting death, and he couldn't believe that he could do such a thing.

"According to the plot, Immortal Joe never expected that his most powerful subordinate would be defeated by Lin Yuan in this way. So he deliberately pretended to forget to give the order to lift the iron cage, hoping to suffocate Lin Yuan with the quicksand," Meng Tao said.

"So, Lin Yuan is going to be immersed deep in the quicksand?" Director Miller asked.

"Yes, it will be submerged to a depth of about 15 meters for 10 minutes," Meng Tao nodded in confirmation.

"You guys have explored everything from the sky to the sea, and now you're preparing to go underground, right?" Director Miller said helplessly.

He knew, of course, that this scene was dangerous. It wasn't an ordinary layer of quicksand, but a layer of quicksand covering boiling water!
The ruptured geothermal well beneath the quicksand layer resembles boiling water, while the sand layer above it looks like the lid of a pressure cooker.

When the pressure becomes unbearable, a jet of hot water vapor is released to relieve it.

Could this place be just an ordinary layer of quicksand?

Moreover, the sand layer is only 30 meters deep, but the plan is to sink it to a depth of 15 meters.

Doesn't the temperature of the sand layer increase and the density of high-pressure water vapor increase in deeper areas?

Director Miller felt like he had fallen into a huge pit. He suddenly understood why his friend, director Nolan, never wanted to work with Lin Yuan again after their first collaboration.

On the one hand, because of working with Lin Yuan, even if the results are very good, everyone will think it's Lin Yuan's achievement, rather than the director's ability.

On the other hand, working with Lin Yuan is too dangerous. If Lin Yuan were to have an accident during filming, even if it wasn't the director's fault, he would still inevitably be criticized by the public.

It was a thankless task, and by the time director Miller realized this, it was too late.

Seeing director Miller's unpleasant expression, how could Lin Yuan not guess what he was thinking?

So he stepped forward and said, "Although filming this scene is a bit dangerous, it will greatly help the box office."

Upon hearing that it would greatly help the box office, director Miller's eyes lit up: as a director, he would receive a share of the box office revenue.

The better the movie's box office, the more he earns.

From this perspective, it's not entirely a thankless task.

"In the history of action movies, there has never been a film where an actor was truly swallowed by quicksand. The despair of being buried alive, with sand surging in from all directions and engulfing you, can shake the hearts of every viewer." Lin Yuan further explained the necessity, which is why he insisted on filming it this way.

"And it's not ordinary dry fine sand, but hot and humid quicksand. The moisture content at the bottom exceeds 50%, so calling it scalding hot mortar wouldn't be an exaggeration," Meng Tao added.

"After watching Lin Yuan's films, his peers will never think that they could do it too; they will only feel a sense of despair that it is out of reach."

Director Miller nodded: "I understand. This is why every Lin Yuan film is so popular."

I couldn't offer much help with the action scenes.

But I will do my best to shoot every shot well, so that Lin Yuan's efforts will not be in vain.

I'll go back and talk to the filming crew right now.

“Okay, let Coach Meng take you back first. I’ll stay and check the equipment again,” Lin Yuan replied.

Lin Yuan patted Meng Tao on the shoulder, telling him to take the director back first, leaving only him and Charlize Theron on set.

Charlize, who hadn't spoken until now, said, "You didn't tell the director the truth, or at least not the whole story."

"Is it that obvious?" Lin Yuan asked incredulously.

His acting was so convincing that even if he was lying, no one could see through it on the surface, but Charlize immediately pointed out that he had concealed some information.

“It’s not obvious, you can’t tell at all.” Charlize shook her head.

"Then how do you know?"

"Because I know you very well."

Lin Yuan: "..." As expected, you can't hide it from your partner.

Lin Yuan could only smile helplessly and say, "That's true. The actual filming situation was more dangerous than what Director Miller knew."

"Just some?"

“Okay, it’s several times more. He’s never worked with me before, and I’m worried that if I tell him the truth, the pressure will be too much and he’ll break down.”

Neither Lin Yuan nor Meng Tao told the truth just now, or rather, both of them consciously concealed most of the danger.

Is the real danger in this scene simply sinking into quicksand and facing suffocation and high temperatures?
Of course not, the real danger is the immense pressure.

Those who have been buried alive know that once a person is buried in the ground, even at a depth of less than 2 meters, the immense pressure from the soil will render them immobile, causing them to suffocate and die in despair.

If one were to sink to a depth of 15 meters in wet quicksand, the pressure would increase dozens of times, and the danger would be incalculable.

First, the lungs are compressed to their limit, making it impossible to breathe on their own, leading to instantaneous suffocation.

Secondly, there is systemic compression, which may cause bones to shatter and internal organs to rupture.

Finally, there is the hydrostatic effect; the high permeability of wet sand accelerates the entry of water into the respiratory tract, leading to drowning.

In 2002, a Saudi ExxonMobil drilling platform worker died after being buried by quicksand.

Even though the rescue was very timely, the accident was discovered immediately, and the employee was rescued in just 3 minutes, it was still too late to save him.

The autopsy revealed that his bones were comminuted and his lungs were torn by hydraulic pressure.

The terror of wet quicksand lies in the double blow of hydrostatic pressure and suffocation.

Buried by 15 meters of wet quicksand, the instantaneous, systemic pressure would cause a person to die as if crushed by a hydraulic press.

This is why quicksand is called "liquid tomb" in desert exploration.

Considering the danger involved, Charlize couldn't help but offer a word of advice:
"I knew it would be like this! It's so dangerous, why did you still insist on going through with it?"

"Because it's worth the risk. There aren't many action scenes that would allow me to take such a risk these days..." Lin Yuan said with a hint of helplessness.

Charlize understood, even though Lin Yuan hadn't said everything.

Behind Lin Yuan's films repeatedly breaking box office records is also the ever-increasing threshold of audiences.

When he first started out, if he filmed a scene where he jumped off a car and fell from a high place, the audience would gasp and applaud, and he would buy tickets for the movie.

However, as things stand today, if Lin Yuan cannot provide audiences with a more thrilling and exciting experience, his reputation will decline and box office performance will suffer due to high audience expectations.

"Lin Yuan is becoming increasingly perfunctory; he's starting to decline."

Such comments will definitely appear in large numbers.

Even if it's just as thrilling as before, we still need to avoid repeating it, otherwise the public won't buy it:
"There's nothing new; they're just living off past ideas."

For Lin Yuan, sinking into the wet quicksand trap this time was a visually stimulating and thrilling action scene that was completely different from his previous ones.

That's why he said, "It's worth the risk."

Charlize said helplessly, "Once the iron cage sinks into the quicksand, even if we know you've had an accident down there, we won't be able to help you."

“I know, because the iron cage can’t be pulled up quickly, and the chains will break if they can’t withstand the tension,” Lin Yuan nodded in reply.

Once it has sunk deep into the sand, it is impossible to pull it up quickly in case of an accident.

This means that Lin Yuan must face a situation of isolation and helplessness.

All of this combined means that, as Lin Yuan said, the risks were many times greater than what director Miller knew.

Charlize didn't say anything more, but simply walked around the filming location, looking around.

Lin Yuan circled the filming location, then climbed onto the gantry crane to inspect the iron cage, chains, hooks, and other components before patting Charlize on the shoulder: "Let's go, stop looking. There won't be any problems."

I've survived so many brushes with death.

He reached out his large hand, pulled Charlize onto the camel, and headed towards the camp.

……

……

Back at the camp, Lin Yuan led Charlize to his quarters.

This is a temporary dwelling, converted from a decommissioned shipping container, located in a sheltered spot, its surface covered with scratches from wind and sand.

"You're back? Let me show you around our place for the next two months," GAKKI greeted with a smile.

Charlize forcibly pushed her worries to the back of her mind; no matter how much she worried, she could only endure it—this was the price she had to pay.

Charlize didn't say much about what she saw on set, keeping it to herself.

"Won't it be too cold at night in a house converted from a shipping container?"

Lin Yuan herself isn't too afraid of the cold, and GAKKI-chan won't get sick from the cold, but Charlize's body isn't so resilient.

"Don't worry, look!" GAKKI-chan said, pointing to the inside of the container.

"The outer wall is covered with aerogel felt derived from NASA technology, and the inner layer is lined with yak wool felt from the plateau. At night when the temperature is -25°C, the temperature inside the chamber can be maintained above 0°C by the body temperature alone."

"We were worried you'd get cold, so we prepared self-heating bed boards and thick down comforters, so your bottoms would even sweat from the heat."

GAKKI-chan smiled and pointed to a water tank not far away, saying, "By welding serpentine copper pipes to the top of the container and taking advantage of the 40°C temperature difference between day and night, we can condense 2.8 liters of dew every day. Adding the water stored in the vehicle's air conditioning condenser, we can obtain a total of 7.2 liters of domestic water every day."

Lin Yuan nodded; the conditions were better than expected.

The drinking water was transported by military trucks, and this 7.2 liters of domestic water could be used for washing.

While I can't afford a luxurious shower, normal brushing of teeth, washing my face, and wiping my body with water are sufficient.

This solved Lin Yuan's biggest worry: the problem of not being able to take a shower for two months.

After all, you feel sticky after doing something, so you always need to wash yourself off, otherwise the smell is really unbearable.

He originally thought that this living condition would be the worst he had ever experienced.

After all, it was an uninhabited area deep in the desert, and we were prepared to endure two months of hardship.

Now it seems that, under Meng Tao's arrangement, things are actually going quite well.

With my worries about life resolved, I can focus on my filming work with peace of mind.

Tomorrow... another life-threatening journey begins. (End of Chapter)