Million dollar Harrison Ford film set left to rot with eerie abandoned train
One film set where Harrison Ford's character narrowly escaped with his life is still in place in the Smoky Mountains of America, costing a whopping £1.18m for less than a minute of film/
Before CGI left its indelible mark on the film industry, many a film set had millions of dollars sunk into it before being left for dead.
This is the case for the 1993 film The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford. Ford jumps off a waterfall in one scene but the most iconic scene is his chaotic escape sequence.
In this, a freight train smashes into fugitive Richard Kimble's transport bus, leaving carnage in its wake. However, this carnage was never cleaned up and now stands frozen in time in the Great Smoky Mountains between Tennessee and North Carolina.
The scene, shot on a stretch of the Smoky Mountain Railroad using a real train and a real bus, used life-sized props instead of miniatures.
The method was simple - filmmakers placed a full-size bus in the path of an oncoming freight train, and let physics do the rest. The bus was nearly torn in half by the impact, and the train was made to derail after the collision.
In the film, fugitive Richard miraculously survives the destruction, going on to find the man who really killed his wife. Now the pricey film set has rusted into something resembling an a post-apocalyptic scene. The train, still bearing the logo of "Illinois Southern," and the bus, dressed to look like Corrections transportation, haven’t moved an inch, and are both likely to outlive the cast of the film itself.
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 film the train hits a prison transport bus just moments after Ford escapes from the vehicle. The scene, which lasts for just one minute, cost a staggering £1.18million to shoot. However, the price tag paid itself off when the film became a box office hit, grossing more than £290m.
Another added: “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.”