Reborn Action Star: Starting in Hollywood

"Cut!"

Director Miller's roar almost tore through the desert heatwave.

The old director suddenly stood up from in front of the monitor, his folding chair overturned on the sand.

His hands trembled slightly, and his gray beard was still stained with coffee from the earlier splashes.

Not only him, but the entire crew was incredibly excited.

The entire set fell silent for a moment, followed by thunderous applause that exploded like a storm.

Everyone had only one thought in their minds:
Did I really film these explosive action scenes?

They are all elites who have worked in the film and television industry for many years, but when have they ever made such a wonderful film?

"Holy fucking shit!" Old Bill, the cinematographer, excitedly picked up the lens hood and waved it around. "Do you think I could win an Oscar for Best Cinematography with this scene?"

"Cinematography?" the special effects director said, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Besides Lin Yuan's brilliant performance, shouldn't our special effects department be the second biggest contributor to this scene? You want the Best Cinematography award, so we should at least get the Best Special Effects award, right?"

The assistant director shrugged and said helplessly, "Have you forgotten? Lin Yuan has already said that he will no longer participate in any award selections."

Old Bill and the stunt coordinator chuckled awkwardly, then said in unison, "We don't care about awards. With this one scene, we're already uncrowned kings."

Director Miller watched his team fooling around with a smile, and he was in a great mood.

The first scene was filmed to a level that far exceeded expectations, which boosted the morale of the entire team to an all-time high. If they can maintain this momentum, then this film will undoubtedly be the pinnacle of his career.

As a filmmaker, who wouldn't want to leave behind a masterpiece that will stand the test of time?

Director Miller waved his hand, and the crew members immediately sprang into action.

At that moment, on the filming location, Lin Yuan pulled Ryan up from the ground.

"Are you OK?"

Ryan's face was quite horrifying, after all, he looked like he had been "scalded to death" by steam.

Matching his terrifying appearance, Ryan's voice was restrained yet tinged with barely suppressed excitement:
"I'm fine, Mr. Lin. The insulation layer inside the armor works very well."

Thank you for giving an ordinary actor like me the opportunity to perform in such a wonderful scene.

Ryan's words were not just polite words, but a heartfelt expression of gratitude.

For an actor, the most important thing is to have a classic screen image that the audience can remember. Otherwise, no matter how many movies they have acted in, they will ultimately just be extras.

Ryan was certain that, thanks to this scene today, whenever someone mentioned his name in the future, they would slap their forehead and say, "I know him! He's Bloodfang Gam, right? His fight scene with Lin Yuan was fantastic!"

For Ryan, this is an asset he can use for a lifetime.

Lin Yuan patted him on the shoulder with a smile: "No need to thank me, you deserve it. Take off your armor, the next scene is about to begin!"

Ryan was taken aback for a moment, then understood—the filming schedule was like water in the desert, not a moment could be wasted.

So he began to remove his armor, and Lin Yuan stepped forward to help him.

"Be careful, this 'cooked meat makeup' look is the result of the art team working three sleepless nights," Lin Yuan said with a smile.

Ryan struggled to grip the edge of the deformed breastplate: "Damn it, the hydraulic joints are jammed!"

“I’ll do it.” Lin Yuan stepped forward and precisely located the emergency release valve on the exoskeleton.

With a hissing sound of pressure release, the armor peeled off layer by layer, like skin molting.

At this moment, the crew members also started working like precision machinery:

The gantry crane's engine roared, tightening the chains to stabilize the sinking cage at the critical point. The next scene would need to connect with the current degree of cage sinking, so it had to be maintained.

Six stagehands rushed over carrying pressure relief panels and laid out a safe passage on the quicksand.

The prop team pushed a specially made dummy at breakneck speed, the "corpse" still steaming from the cooked meat effect, and headed straight for the iron cage along the passage laid out by the stage crew.

"Change your makeup in one minute!" the makeup team leader roared as she rushed forward, still holding an airbrush for touch-ups.

She gasped as she pulled off Ryan's costume—even with the heat insulation layer, she still managed to burn several blisters on Ryan's back.

Ryan grinned. "This is hardly an injury. You should be more concerned about Lin Yuan than what he'll face later."

Lin Yuan smiled and waved, then took the oxygen cylinder handed to him by the staff and began preparing to inhale oxygen.

He had to quickly increase the oxygen content of his red blood cells in order to cope with the rather dangerous filming that was about to begin.

Beside him, the special effects team put a silicone prosthesis on the still-warm armor, the prop master used quick-drying blood plasma to fill in the gaps and stuffed the tooth mold that had just fallen out into the mannequin's mouth.

The next scene to be filmed is:
After Lin Yuan defeated "Bloodfang Gam", "Immortal Joe" did not immediately order the iron cage to be hoisted up.

Instead, they let the iron cage continue to sink.

In this situation, Lin Yuan and the corpse of "Blood Fang Gam" were swallowed up by quicksand.

When filming this scene, it was impossible to keep Ryan lying in the cage and sinking into the quicksand with Lin Yuan, so a dummy had to be used instead.

With the crew working hard, preparations for filming were quickly completed.

"Action ready!" Ryan had already retreated to the safe zone when the assistant director shouted.

Lin Yuan also removed his oxygen mask and handed it to the staff.

He instinctively took a few deep breaths; the real challenge of the day was about to begin!
"Action!"

With the director's command, filming officially began.

The gantry crane immediately loosened the taut iron chains, and the entire iron cage began to sink again!
Turbid quicksand surged up from the bottom of the grid like countless yellowish-brown venomous snakes, instantly coiling around Lin Yuan's thigh.

"I won!" Lin Yuan roared, gripping the iron cage bars with both hands. "According to the rules, you should have hoisted me up and given me my freedom back!"

The camera then pans to the audience, where the war boys are seen arguing and fighting at the same time.

"He won! He should be set free according to the rules! I won too, it's time to claim my prize!"

"You wish! Who said Bloodfang lost? I didn't lose either!"

"Shameless! I challenge you to the quicksand fighting arena!"

"Come on, do you think I'm afraid of you?"

Everyone present had placed a bet; at that moment, the facts seemed unimportant, and interests determined one's stance.

Charlize Theron's character, Commander Furiosa, has white knuckles.

Her robotic arm's hydraulic hoses hissed, but she ultimately didn't get up.

As the camera pans across her taut jawline, you can see Immortal Joe's scepter resting against the back of her chair.

“Be patient, my child.” “Immortal Joe’s” voice came through the breathing mask, hissing like a viper:
"The battle isn't over yet. Bloodfang is just not moving. Who can be sure he's dead? Let's wait a few more minutes and see."

As soon as "Immortal Joe" spoke, the restless war boys consciously shut their mouths and stopped arguing.

But clearly some people were not convinced: anyone with eyes could see that Bloodtooth was dead, but you insist on saying that, isn't that cheating?
What? Wait a few more minutes? If you wait a few more minutes, both of them will be buried by quicksand.

Blood Fang is already dead, so there's nothing to fear, but Lin Yuan is probably going to be dead too.

At that point, could "Immortal Joe" simply declare a draw?

Commander Friosa guessed her boss's thoughts, but she couldn't object. In this territory, "Immortal Joe" was the supreme ruler, and no one could question him. Inside the iron cage, quicksand had rapidly crept up Lin Yuan's thighs to his waist.

This means that half of Lin Yuan's body has sunk into the quicksand.

If he could still try to pull his legs out of the sand before, he had completely lost his ability to resist at this moment.

He felt as if his legs were bound tightly by countless ropes, making it impossible for him to move.

"Let me out! You bunch of untrustworthy bastards. I've already won!" Lin Yuan roared hysterically.

The corpse of Bloodfang Gam beside him had long been swallowed by quicksand, and now only he could be seen standing alone inside the iron cage.

If this doesn't count as a win, then what counts as a win?
But the final interpretation right does not lie with him, but with "Immortal Joe".

"Immortal Joe" stared intently at Lin Yuan, but remained silent.

Within half a minute, the quicksand continued to climb upwards, covering Lin Yuan's ribs and reaching his chest.

It feels like having a 200-pound girlfriend sitting on your chest, making it hard to breathe.

Lin Yuan was panting heavily, feeling as if each breath was a struggle against a hydraulic press.

After a while, Lin Yuan felt as if countless ants were crawling into his body from his collar.

The fine sand had already covered his neck, and countless grains of sand were rushing in through the gaps in his clothes.

Lin Yuan was speechless. He stared intently at "Immortal Old Joe," uttering a silent accusation.

"Immortal Joe" looked at Lin Yuan with equal coldness: "How dare you win a duel I won't let you win!"

Finally, the quicksand covered Lin Yuan's head, like a giant beast opening its bloody maw, swallowing him and the entire iron cage.

When the last strand of black hair disappeared into the sand, the entire quicksand area suddenly erupted in excitement.

Such a large iron cage, containing a living person and a corpse, would inevitably create towering waves if it were thrown into the water.

But at this moment, it was swallowed up by this calm sea of ​​sand.

"Ccrunch! Crunch!"

The only sound that could be heard on the field was the screeching of chains.

This indicates that the iron cage is still sinking, dragging the chains down with it, as if it has fallen into the depths of hell.

The War Boys in the audience were stunned by what they saw.

The rioters who were roaring just moments ago now looked like chickens with their throats being choked.

Some people's gambling tickets quietly fell to the ground, while others had suspicious water stains seeping from under their trouser legs.

Even Immortal Joe's breathing mask stopped its usual toxic mist spraying.

No one spoke; they all involuntarily shut their mouths, gazing with complex expressions at the four iron chains driven into the ground in the quicksand area.

At this moment, no acting was needed at all; everyone's eyes instinctively revealed:

Surprise, worry, fear, anticipation...

If the actors managed to maintain a semblance of restraint, the crew members on the sidelines were completely out of control; it was like a pot had exploded.

"Are you alright? Is it really okay to film like this?"

"Lin Yuan has been swallowed up by quicksand!"

"According to the filming plan, the iron cage will be sunk 15 meters underground!"

"Are you crazy? The temperature and humidity are higher in the quicksand further down!"

"Come listen! Lin Yuan's situation is terrifying!"

As a staff member exclaimed, the crew members immediately rushed forward and surrounded the monitors.

The staff member said to listen, not to see, because they couldn't see anything and could only rely on listening.

Beside Lin Yuan were several microphones, and several others were strapped to his body.

A camera is useless in quicksand; if you place a camera there, you'll see nothing but sand in front of the lens.

This is unlike the underwater action scenes in "The Spy King 2," where seawater is translucent, but sand is not.

Director Miller already knew this, so he just wanted to record the sound.

Sometimes, the impact of sound is no less than that of visuals.

"Gulu gulu..."

This is the sound of sand getting into the ear canal—distorted, strange, and giving a feeling of extreme pain.

At first, there was a dull "buzzing" sound, like someone hitting a coffin lid with a hammer.

Then, the friction between the sand grains produced a strange, high-frequency hissing sound, like fingernails scraping glass.

The most terrifying thing was Lin Yuan's heartbeat—amplified tenfold inside his skull, each beat like a war drum, making his temples tingle.

(The props team installed a miniature bone conduction microphone in Lin Yuan's mouth, and the recorded sound gave the post-production team nightmares for three days.)

This was already driving the crew crazy, but what made them even more horrified was that Lin Yuan's chest was making a "clucking" sound as if his bones were screaming in agony.

The negative pressure generated by the quicksand made him feel like his internal organs were being squeezed, and every breath felt like he was fighting against a hydraulic press.

"Director, should we..."

"Director, what if..."

"director……"

Many crew members could no longer withstand the pressure. They seemed to see Lin Yuan struggling to survive underground, unable to move at all, and only able to slide into the abyss in despair.

Even Lin Yuan couldn't withstand such a desperate situation, could he?

Director Miller was clearly flustered, and he looked to Meng Tao for help.

But the moment he saw Meng Tao's expression, his heart sank—

There was no trace of composure left on Meng Tao's face.

The man who had been smoking a cigar and smiling since filming began now had a face as taut as an iron plate.

His pupils contracted slightly as he stared intently at the still-twitching chains on the monitor.

Director Miller's Adam's apple bobbed.

Meng Tao did not answer.

His right hand unconsciously gripped the walkie-talkie tightly, the plastic casing making a clicking sound under the strain on his fingers.

His left hand was pressed on the emergency brake button, his knuckles turning white from the force—but he ultimately did not press it.

A bead of cold sweat slid down his temple, carving a clear line down his dusty face.

(This scene was later included in the director's cut, with the caption: "At that moment, even 'Crazy Director Meng' wavered.") (End of Chapter)