Process: Shoot-out at the Guggenheim

(Photo: Richard B. Levine/Newscom)

The Goal
The stunning sequence pits Owen against a mob of gunmen. Tykwer was going for a set piece “at once orchestrated and experimental.”

(Photo: Jay Maidment/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment)

The Challenge
Tykwer shot exteriors at the Guggenheim but couldn’t close the museum long enough to shoot the action, which was to take six weeks.

(Photo: K.C. Bailey/Courtesy of Sony Pictures Entertainment)

The Set
So the director created a life-size replica of the interior of the iconic building—built in two halves over sixteen weeks—in an empty Berlin railway roundhouse.

(Photo: Larry Levine/AP)

The Action
The fight rages for fourteen minutes. “The spiral exerts a vertigo effect on everyone,” says Tykwer, and amplifies the disorientation of Owen’s character.

Related:

• Archive: “Movie Features”
• Articles by Logan Hill
• Table of Contents: Feb 23, 2009 issue of New York | Subscribe!