Chris Pratt may have started out as a comedic actor, but he's since branched out to an array of other genres. After starring in Parks & Recreation, Pratt became a household name with his starring role as Star Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, most recently playing the character in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2023. He's also had a number of significant roles outside the MCU, both in other major franchises and beyond.

Pratt played Owen Grady in three Jurassic World movies, departing that franchise with Jurassic World Dominion in 2022. He also recently starred in sci-fi action flick The Tomorrow War (2021), which has a sequel in development. Pratt has also taken on far more serious military roles, including in Prime Video's The Terminal List series, but his first major venture into this arena actually came in 2012 with the release of a political thriller based on real events.

How Zero Dark Thirty's Stealth Helicopter Was Created

Corridor Crew VFX Artists Break Down The Major Challenges Involved

VFX artists analyze scenes from Zero Dark Thirty (2012), explaining how the movie recreated a top-secret military helicopter. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow as her follow-up to The Hurt Locker (2008), the political thriller/ war drama chronicles the CIA's decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden following 9/11. The film mostly follows Jessica Chastain's Maya, an obsessed CIA analyst, but Pratt plays an important role in Zero Dark Thirty as Justin, an operator in the SEAL Team Six squad that kills the terrorist leader during an intense nighttime raid.

During a recent installment of their "VFX Artists React" YouTube series, the VFX artists at Corridor Crew break down how the stealth helicopters were created for Zero Dark Thirty's ending raid on the bin Laden compound. Artist Wren Weichman explains that these helicopters have never actually been officially revealed to the public, and the only hint that exists regarding their appearance is one photograph that allegedly shows the tail rotor of the one that crashed during the raid. As Wren reveals, the production seemingly used this image and then worked backwards to create the final design:

So the design is more or less inspired by the one photo of the trail rotor and they fabricated everything. And the helicopters in this movie actually look really dope. I’m a big fan of stealth design […]

Let’s say you’re the visual effects supervisor of this movie and you’re handed these sequences where it’s like all right, we need to have these fictional helicopters. What’s the best way to do it? Well, coming hot off the presses of doing Elysium, they’re like, “You should film real helicopters.” And that’s what they did. They actually filmed all these sequences with Black Hawks and replaced them with Stealth Hawks.

All the smoke, all the dust, that’s all being generated in the plate photography and they’re having to composite in the Stealth Hawk over the top of that. But they already immediately have reference for how the helicopter should move, they just match that.

Though the flying scenes for the Stealth Hawk were mostly accomplished using CGI, Wren explains that Zero Dark Thirty did build practical helicopters for select moments to create an added sense of realism:

They also did build a full-scale version of the Stealth Hawk. All of the shots where they’re getting into the helicopter and all that, that’s all real. They actually have a physical Stealth Hawk that they’re using. And they put one on this crane, so they actually did the physical crashing of it, that they ended up deeming too slow and they ended up just replacing it all in CG anyway.

Our Take On The Stealth Helicopter Design In Zero Dark Thirty

Why The Design Works So Well

The movie's reviews were generally positive at the time of release and the film ended up grossing $133 million worldwide. Chastain's performance was widely praised, as was Bigelow's unflinching portrayal of real-life events. The nighttime raid serves as Zero Dark Thirty's climax, and the assault is recreated with a jaw-dropping sense of realism. Even though it's not clear how accurate the Stealth Hawk design in Zero Dark Thirty actually is, it feels real in the movie, and that's ultimately what's most important.

The angular design of the stealth helicopter in Zero Dark Thirty mirrors the design of the F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighter plane, adding another layer of realism.

The darkness in Zero Dark Thirty also worked in the Stealth Hawk design's favor, as it's hard to actually see the helicopter in action and any flaws it may have. In fact, it could be argued that the darkness, despite mirroring the real-life circumstances of the raid, is actually too extreme as it makes it challenging for viewers to tell what's going on. Still, Zero Dark Thirty remains an interesting achievement, and the Stealth Hawk design still holds up.

Source: Corridor Crew