Summary
Eli Roth’sBorderlandsis the film adaptation of the wildly popular video game of the same name. It is set in a dystopian world where treasure-crazed vault hunters are willing to do whatever it takes to unlock the secrets of the planet Pandora. The movie follows a ragtag group of misfits made up of characters from the game, as they try to find a way to unlock unimaginable power.
Borderlandsis packed with incredible action sequences, including an epic one-shot that was filmed in underground beer tunnels. Stunt Coordinator Jimmy O’Dee was the perfect choice for this job, as his resume is stacked with films likeFast X,Enola Holmes 2,Kick Ass 2, andX-Men: First Class. He is also the Stunt Coordinator on the upcoming film,Speak No Evil.
Borderlands Ending Explained: Lilith’s Transformation & The Franchise’s Future
The ending of Borderlands remixes the final stretch of the original game, empowering one of the leads and uniting the heroes for a firery conclusion.
Screen Rantspoke with Jimmy O’Dee about his efforts onBorderlands. He discusses the one-shot sequence in detail, revealing that they filmed it in just seven hours, which impressedJamie Lee Curtisso much she wrote him an email about it. Jimmy talks about working closely with Director Eli Roth, as well as the talented Ariana Greenblatt. He also teases a little bit about his time onSpeak No Eviland working with James McAvoy again.
Borderlands Was A Collaborative Effort
Screen Rant: Watching the movie felt like I was in the games between the costumes and the sets. Did you play the games at all before taking on this job?
Jimmy O’Dee: No, do you know what? I must confess, I wasn’t a big gamer of that game, but as soon as I got involved, I immersed myself fully. It’s a great world. I mean, it was such a fun world to be involved with, and, of course, with great collaborators like Eli and Harry and the whole studio. It was just such a fun experience.
Screen Rant: Everyone I have spoken with has talked about how collaborative this movie was.
Jimmy O’Dee: Yeah, it was. I came in slightly late to the show, but it was like I knew everybody. You know when you meet someone, and you think you’ve known them all your life, it was like that. Both Eli Roth and I are enthusiastic. I’m like a dog with a wagging tail when I go to work anyway. I love what I do and when you’ve got great characters - we had Randy Pritchard on hand to say, “Well, this is what happens in the game. Let’s see how we can make this.”
You’ve got Cate Blanchett. What can you say about Cate? She’s amazing. Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Hart, the great Ariana Greenblatt, who’s going to be an amazing star in the future. And Florian was just so, he is a massive gamer. He was so immersed in the game. So, you felt an insight from a gamer point of view [with him]. No ideas were off the table. Let’s see what we can do, how we can do it. It got to the point where we had so many ideas, we didn’t know which ones to choose, sometimes. We wanted to do all of them, but then it was like, “Oh, save that for the next movie.” It was great. I had such a good time on that film, I have to say.
They Filmed The One-Shot Action Sequence In Just 7 Hours
Screen Rant: There are some incredible action sequences in this film. Can you talk about the one-shot in the tunnel?
Jimmy O’Dee: You wouldn’t believe that we shot that in seven hours. We prepped so much for it. Jamie Lee Curtis wrote an email to us the next day saying, “I had no idea we could have got that shot in seven hours.” We prepped it. Obviously, we’d rehearsed it for a long time. What was really key in that was we had to get the camera in the right position with the actors, and then we had to get the stunt guys exactly at the right spot to have a shot. So it was choreography of the camera, the actors, the stunt performers.
Those stunt guys were amazing, all of them, because they’ve got these masks on. It’s dark, it’s cold, it’s wet. They’ve got no clothes on. We’re in the beer tunnels, which I was wearing three or four layers and still cold. It was incredible. And they had to take falls, hard to the floor, with their pads on. We did what we could, but it was just so good. So basically, Eli was really keen to have this as one-shot. He really wanted to feel like there was a constant stream of psychos. There’s barelling water and they’re going to drown soon, so we wanted to get this sense that they had to drive through this tunnel, and so that’s what we set out to do. And when we actually came to shoot it, we shot the whole thing in seven hours. It was incredible. Really, hats off to everyone involved, but I’m really looking forward to seeing it, because I haven’t seen the film yet. I’m going tomorrow morning.
Screen Rant: Speaking of this stream of psychos, did you repeat people? Were they running around and coming back in?
Jimmy O’Dee: It was a bit of that on ceratin things. We wanted it to feel like, you know in The Mummy when you have all these scarabs pouring in from every hole that’s in the wall? We had people literally crouching in there, and then they would get a specific queue, and they would jump out. And again, their vision was so impaired. So there was a lot of faith that there will be a mat there for them when they land, because they can’t see that. It was an incredible, incredible team. It was a joy to do.
Eli was like, no ideas are off the table. Go as big as you’re able to with it. We specifically wanted the gamers, because they are a tough audience, we really wanted to ensure that the gamers were going to be happy. We’re not making the game, that was something we were saying. We’re making an adaptation of the world. We really wanted to make sure that they were going to be happy with the amount of carnage that we were going to throw upon you.
Borderlands Was Shot As An R-Rated Movie
Screen Rant: I would have loved an R rating. Was it difficult for you to reign things back?
Jimmy O’Dee: We were shooting an R-rated movie, when we did it. We always knew that we were going to go either 15 or R rating, it’s 15 in UK, for a slightly mature audience. So, we were blowing people’s heads off. And we were cutting feet off. We were doing all of that. But then, you know, a lot happens. We shot that nearly three years ago, or we just finished it. So, I guess a lot happens in post, and they see where it’s going to go and what market they’re aiming for. But literally the idea and the brief was carnage, head cutting off, feet cutting off. Go for it and then we’ll sort it out in post. It was that kind of thing.
And of course, Eli loves horror. He loves horror. It was funny, he was on the second unit, he came over, and he was like, “Uh.. just cut the ankles off. Yeah, you get the knife and cut the ankles and we will leave these stubs.” It was kind of like there wasn’t enough gore for him sometimes. Eli was all over that kind of stuff. He was great to work with. It was such a fun time with him. We’ve been talking all week, actually, because I was supposed to go to Hollywood on Tuesday for the premiere, but I’ve just started another show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get away.
Screen Rant: It’s a good thing that you are working though!
Jimmy O’Dee: The industry’s been pretty slow since the strike in the industry. I don’t know what it’s like in the States, but it’s been quite quiet over here. But I’m back back with Kenneth Branagh. It’s my seventh film with him now, so I’m back with him on a film at the moment. It’s great fun.
Ariana Greenblatt Did As Many Of Her Stunts As She Could
Screen Rant: Ariana Greenblatt is great as Tiny Tina. How many of her own stunts did she do, because she feels to me like someone who wants to do as much as she can?
Jimmy O’Dee: Oh, she was, she was like that. Literally, I had to reign her back. She was someone who, not only is she an incredible professional. What I was so struck with, is she reminded me of Chloe Grace Moretz, who I worked with when she was very young. She had this maturity as a young actor. And you go, Ariana has got that absolute professionalism. She had this saying. It was three words. It was something like, there was an acronym, don’t hold the studio up or something. And she kept saying it. I don’t know what it was, but she was so professional.
She made sure she was ready. You never had to wait for her. She was the first on set. She was like, “Can I do this?” I said, “Well, you can go up to this point, at which point Chelsea will take over.” Who is her stunt double, who I gave her first job on Kick Ass 2, actually. Certainly, all the wire work we were doing with her, we were flying her around the place. She was doing handsprings. She was up high as well, on high platforms. I mean, Ariana was really just up for anything. But so mature. That was what really struck me about her, how mature she was.
And what a character? Tiny Tina is an unbelievable character. There’s so much scope to her. When I first started talking to Eli, we talked about, how did these people get to where they are in this movie? What was Tina’s history? How did she become Tiny Tina? When you look into her parents and all the rest of it, and how she became slightly disturbed. Eli was really looking at details of, like, Krieg was married with a child at one point. And then he took part in this super soldier test and eventually, he didn’t quite completely go psycho, a bit of him remains.
So we were exploring that in the film as well. How Roland became disenchanted with the Crimson Raiders. We looked at everybody’s stories and how we found them together at this point, and that made it, from the actor’s point of view, particularly Cate, who’s someone who’s so deep into the way she gets when she takes on a role. It was important for them to not just put on a wig and a gun and go and shoot some psychos. It’s a story to them.
Being A Director Has Helped Jimmy With Stunt Coordinating
Screen Rant: As someone who has done some directing yourself, does that help you as a stunt coordinator?
Jimmy O’Dee: Yes, definitely. I’m hopefully going into more main unit directing. I’ve directed a couple of shorts. I have also been the second unit director, where my job is really to help facilitate the vision of the main unit director, so we can make the same movie alongside each other. I trained as an actor as well. I’ve been an actor before, and so I understand story is everything. A film without story is, well, it’s just not really a film, is it? You need story. You need to feel where the characters are going. You want to feel jeopardy for them. You want to feel triumphant for them. You want to feel sad for them.
I think, as a director, it’s really important that you recognize each character’s path and how that is going to work within the action. Because to me, action is words, but just physical words. You’re describing it on the page, in the script, but through action, and that’s so important to me. I also feel a responsibility, and I also feel privileged to be doing the job, so I wanted to do justice to it. I’m very responsible in that respect. But yes, it all helps.
Jimmy O’Dee Almost Quit The Industry Before Taking The Borderlands Job
Screen Rant: It’s been a pleasure. I’m a big fan of your work.
Jimmy O’Dee: Thank you. I’ve been very lucky and blessed with some of the choices I’ve been given and I never seem to not get another job. I just enjoy what I’m doing, and hopefully the phone rings again. That’s what it has done. I like to do varied things as well. To go from Borderlands, to Speak No Evil, to Kenneth Branagh. So it’s a bit all over the place, but it’s because I’m interested in the work and the piece and Ken’s always great to work for. He challenges you a lot.
Screen Rant: It keeps things interesting, switching it up.
Jimmy O’Dee: Exactly. It really does. I’m a stuntman as well. A stuntman at heart. I love jumping off things, blowing up things, crashing things. But as you move through your life and your career, you move on to directing second unit, and that’s what I love, whether it be with Borderlands and 200 psychos. It was funny, when I did Borderlands, I just had just finished this show, which was really hard. It was a hard shoot. I remember going to Ireland, I got back, and I said to my wife, “Do you know I think I’m done with this business.” I’ve just had a really hard job, and I was like, I just need some time off. And the phone rang and it was Eli. I’m so glad I did it, because I had the best time. This was the best job in the world, ever. And totally rejuvenated my love for filmmaking. But it was also during covid, so it was a really difficult time to make films. But, yeah, look, I was blessed to be involved, and I can’t wait to see tomorrow.
Screen Rant: Do you feel like The Fall Guy helped people to understand the stunt community more?
Jimmy O’Dee: I think it could, you know. Dave Leitch is an old friend of mine from years ago, when we used to do stunts together. I’m so pleased for him and his career. He deserves it, and Chad, they’re great guys. But I think you’re right. I think The Fall Guy has a lot of people like, “Oh, is that how you do it?” “Oh, is that what that means?” There is a lot of inside jokes, I think, that a lot of people didn’t get unless you’re in the stunt world, which was kind of cool. That was a little tip of the hat to the stunt teams. But it does.
It’s an interesting world, the stunt world, and I think it’s not fully known what we do and what stages of a production we’re involved in. It’s not like you coming in in the morning, put a fight or mat in, and walk away. That’s part of the job, but that’s not what we do. I think Dave, he’s flying the flag for the stunt community by doing that. And I know that when he did that, they got the eight and a half rolls car record taken from Adam Curley. We’re going to have to get that back to Britain. Dave, so if you’re watching, we’re coming for you. No, no. But it’s a great movie. I really enjoyed it.
James McAvoy’s Speak No Evil Role Is “Literally Made For Him”
Screen Rant: Before we wrap, I have to tell you that I have seen Speak No Evil and I loved it. No spoilers, but there is some crazy action in that movie too. I don’t know what you can talk about.
Jimmy O’Dee: James Watkins is an old friend. I’ve done a few films with James, and I love him to bits. He’s a lovely person, and Tim Morris Jones is the DP. So, it felt really familiar. It just so happened, Tim was like, “You’re not available, are ya?” and I literally was. It was a great script, and it’s James McAvoy who I’d worked four or five times before, and I love him. James is one of these actors, who, with James it’s just so effortless, but this role is literally made for him. For me, when I read it, it was like, this is what we’re going to do. And it was based on the Danish version, but we’re going to change it. We’re going to mix it up.
James wanted to make it feel absolutely realistic. Absolutely nothing is not something that couldn’t happen in a physical world. We really wanted to feel the fear of the family being chased. I don’t want to give too much away, but yeah, it was just a joy. I mean, we shot that in Gloucestershire. We were a nice little self-contained unit in the middle of Gloucestershire
About Borderlands
Returning to her home planet, an infamous outlaw forms an unexpected alliance with a team of unlikely heroes. Together, they battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find a missing girl who holds the key to unimaginable power.
Borderlands
Cast
Based on the video game franchise, Borderlands is a sci-fi action-comedy film that follows Cate Blanchett as Lilith, a treasure hunter who returns to her home planet, Pandora, to find a tycoon’s missing daughter. Together with a group of unlikely allies, such as a soldier, a teenaged demolitions expert, a wise-cracking robot, and an eccentric scientist, the group will work together to save the girl - all while learning to deal with each other’s unyielding quirks.
