Before the advent of CGI, film sets often had millions of pounds invested in them only to be abandoned after shooting. This was the case for the 1993 blockbuster The Fugitive, featuring Harrison Ford.
In one memorable scene, Ford’s character leaps off a waterfall, but it’s his dramatic escape sequence that truly stands out. Here, a freight train collides with fugitive Richard Kimble’s transport bus, resulting in utter devastation.
Remarkably, this wreckage was never cleared away and remains as a frozen snapshot in time in the Great Smoky Mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina. The scene was filmed on a section of the Smoky Mountain Railroad using a real train and bus, along with life-sized props instead of miniatures.
The process was straightforward – filmmakers positioned a full-size bus in the path of an approaching freight train and let nature take its course. The impact nearly split the bus in two and caused the train to derail.
Despite the destruction, Richard miraculously survives and continues his quest to find his wife’s true killer. Today, the expensive film set has decayed into something resembling a post-apocalyptic landscape, reports the Mirror.
The train, still bearing the “Illinois Southern” logo, and the bus, made to look like Corrections transportation, haven’t budged an inch and are likely to outlast the film’s cast.
One Reddit user said: “Long before CGI effects were common, they did it the old school way. The train collided with a bus and nearly tore it in half from the impact.
“You can watch the clip on YouTube if you haven’t seen the film. It was all left behind on the Great Smoky Railroad including other “Illinois Southern” trains as well as a back-up Chicago “Department of Corrections” bus.”
In the movie, the locomotive strikes a prison transport vehicle mere moments after Ford flees from it.
The sequence, lasting just sixty seconds, required an eye-watering £1.18million to film.
Nevertheless, the expense proved worthwhile when the picture became a cinema sensation, earning over £290m worldwide.
Another user noted: “To be fair, the finished shot does have digital effects as well, because Harrison Ford is not actually jumping from the bus seconds before impact. The shot was filmed live, like you said, but the end result also includes green screen shots of the jump, as well as CGI explosions and fire to boost the look.”