Stunts › Sequences › Skyfall (2012) ›
Train rooftop pursuit (pre-titles)
The pre-titles foot-pursuit and fight on top of a moving train through Istanbul. Performers ran across the carriage roofs at speed with magnetised footwear and a low-profile safety harness running on a continuous cable along the train length. The cable was hidden in the rendering by careful camera placement and post-clean; the harness was rated for fall arrest at the train's 50-mph cruising speed.
Credits
Stunt team
Coordinator
Rigging
Equipment + technique
Continuous-cable safety line
Run along the carriage roof centreline; performer harness clipped via low-profile sliding ring.
Magnetised footwear
Steel inserts in performer boots paired with magnet plates on the carriage roof at key blocking marks.
Decelerator harness
Fall-arrest harness rated for the train's cruising speed; never visible to the camera frame.
Vehicles
Picture car + tow rig
Picture car
Modifications
- ·centreline safety cable
- ·magnet plates
- ·reinforced roof skin
Towing rig
Self-Driven (Live Train At Cruising Speed)
Safety
Officer + bulletins
Bulletins observed
- SAG-AFTRA Bulletin #20 (Working at Heights)
- SAG-AFTRA Bulletin #19 (Vehicles)
Rigging glossary
8 rigs used in this sequence
Each entry explains how the rig works mechanically and the safety bulletin that governs it. Click through for the full glossary detail.
wire
Wire-flying rig
The harness-and-pulley system that lifts a performer through prolonged airborne action — the workhorse rig of the post-Crouching Tiger martial-arts era.
wire
Descender wire (controlled rappel)
The single-line rig used for sustained vertical descents at narrative speed — the rig under most "elevator shaft" and "skyscraper window" frames.
vehicle
Cannon-roll
The pyrotechnic-driven barrel roll that sends a picture-car flipping end-over-end. The signature shot of the Bond and Mission: Impossible chase tradition.
vehicle
Pipe-ramp
The buried steel-ramp gag that lifts a moving vehicle into a barrel-roll without a cannon. Lower-budget cousin of the cannon-roll, used for chases where the rotation is less violent.
References
Further reading
- Skyfall: Gary Powell on the Istanbul openingVarietyinterview