‘Doctor Strange’: Benedict Cumberbatch On The Interdimensional Travel Scene

The North American release of Marvel’s Doctor Strange is nearly upon us, but those lucky enough to have seen the film have since been praising the films mind-bending visuals. During the press tour for the film, Benedict Cumberbatch spoke to Cinemablend about one of the key sequences from the movie and how they filmed the spellbinding scene.

Stephen Strange’s first foray into the psychedelic corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe occurs when he is hurled through the multiverse by The Ancient One and he is given a glimpse of various alternate dimensions. Cumberbatch revealed that the technique used to shoot this scene was similar to those used for Alfonso Cuarón’s film Gravity.

“A lot of it was done in a Gravity rig, because his context is everything. His body is snapping and changing and multiplying, and just as myself it was bending, and being thrown around, and tumbling forward and backward and sideways, and all sorts of things. Respect to Sandra Bullock for pulling that off in Gravity! And in a spacesuit as well.”

Cumberbatch explained that the process was less than ideal, but expressed his gratitude to the talent crew who guided him through the experience.

“It is one of the most uncomfortable things you could ever do in life, but at the same time really thrilling, and once you’ve learned to manage your core strength, it’s the same as any other wire-work in the film – of which there was a lot. You just have to get into the mid-air aerobatics and gymnastics right, but I had the best people teaching me, and showing me, and test driving it. So I was very well looked-after, like you always are.”

It sounds as though the grueling task of filming the sequence was worth the effort as audiences are already praising the scene as one of the stand-out moments from the feature.

Marvel’s Doctor Strange follows the story of the talented neurosurgeon Doctor Stephen Strange who, after a tragic car accident, must put ego aside and learn the secrets of a hidden world of mysticism and alternate dimensions. Based in New York City’s Greenwich Village, Doctor Strange must act as an intermediary between the real world and what lies beyond, utilizing a vast array of metaphysical abilities and artifacts to protect the Marvel cinematic universe.

Directed by Scott Derrikson and written by C. Robert Cargill, Doctor Strange stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Michael Stuhlbarg, Benjamin Bratt, Scott Adkins, Mads Mikkelsen, and Tilda Swinton.

Doctor Strange opens in theaters across North America on November 4, 2016.

Source: CinemaBlend