How Plane Pulled Off Its One Take Fight, According To Gerard Butler

Gerard Butler is no stranger to the world of action flicks. As seen in movies like "Law Abiding Citizen," "300," and numerous others, he's had to punch and kick his way around quite a few sets during his career. However, one particular fight scene in 2023's "Plane" is a little different than the rest. This movie sees Brodie Torrance (Butler) and a militia soldier in quite the intense brawl, which is two minutes long, comprised of about 60 moves, and, impressively, shot in a single take. Typically, such fight scenes are broken down into a handful of moves and filmed in segments.

In a behind-the-scenes interview for Lionsgate, Butler said, "We just practiced it, and practiced it, and practiced it because every hit, every move had to be right for the one camera, and if you made one mistake, you had to start from scratch." Of course, it wasn't just Butler and his scene partner who had to hit their choreography perfectly. Butler also gave a shout-out to cameraman Eric Catelan in an interview with Inverse: "And that one camera had to be in the right place for every hit because if I got to kick you in the face and the camera's in the wrong place, it clearly is not a kick. None of it's usable."

For Gerard Butler, the challenge of filming the one-shot fight scene in "Plane" went beyond remembering a large number of moves. In addition to the physicality of it, he needed to exude the emotion of Brodie Torrance, a pilot desperate to save his passengers, who are being held hostage. He told Inverse, "And I'm fighting for my existence. I'm also fighting for the existence of everybody that I've left behind, all the passengers left at the plane."

As if all of this wasn't enough, Butler had to battle sweltering temperatures while filming this taxing fight scene. He revealed to Mashable that the heat index was 105 degrees, plus 100% humidity. Not surprisingly, this made it difficult for Butler to maintain his stamina throughout the numerous takes required to get the scene perfect. He said, "I could barely get through one take ... sometimes, it's literally just, 'God, give me strength. I just got to keep going.'"