ALAN TAYLOR: Hello, folks. Um...
This is Alan Taylor, director of Thor: The Dark World.
And I 'm here with Kramer Morgenthau, our brilliant DP... Uh...
KRAMER MORGENTHAU: Hello, this is Kramer.
KEVIN FEIGE: Hello, everyone, I 'm Kevin Feige,
producer of Thor: The Dark World,
president of Marvel Studios.
What you're looking at here is our brand-new logo.
This was the first film in Marvel Studios' history
that only has the Marvel Studios logo on it.
So we wanted to keep the traditional flip logo, as we call it,
but update it a little bit and give it a new fanfare by Brian Tyler.
TOM HIDDLESTON: Hello, everyone, I'm Tom Hiddleston
and I play Loki in the Marvel movies.
FEIGE: We're starting this film as we started the first film,
with a prologue, narrated by Odin himself.
Introducing Chris Eccleston here as Malekith.
The plan was not always to have a prologue.
We had written a script
and, in fact, shot a film that did not include a prologue.
We tested that film and shared it with audiences,
and while they enjoyed much of it,
they wanted to know more about Malekith.
And there were some audience members that went,
Asgard ' s forces are upon us.
"Well, hang on, Thor movies start with a prologue."
And I thought, "What do you mean Thor movies? We've only made one."
But I liked that that structure had landed with people
and they had said, "Well, no, of course, a Thor movie starts with a prologue."
So, midway through post-production
we mounted this spectacularly large prologue,
which was entirely completed and accomplished
by Tim Miller and his folks at Blur.
And this is an entirely computer-generated prologue,
Send in the Kursed!
With the exception of Adewale and Chris Eccleston.
And the actor who plays Bor, Odin's father.
TAYLOR: Right, right, we had a color palette for all the major forces.
The Elves wound up being black, obviously, for being Dark Elves,
with a kind of silvery mother of pearl finish
to their weaponry and their armor, and their masks.
And then their key technology color was red,
which we stuck with throughout.
FEIGE: You know, we thought that this would, the battle that the Einherjar,
the warriors of Asgard, do in this sequence,
and the Dark Elves themselves do,
set up not only the evil that they do,
but also, frankly, their action ability and their fighting ability.
So that when we see them later, um...
You know, we landed on this design, which was scary,
which was frightening, but in its simplicity.
The big round eyes.
- The non-moving mouth. - HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
FEIGE: Um... But we wanted to make sure
they also knew that they could kick all sorts of ass,
which is one of the many reasons we added this opening.
HIDDLESTON: It's not easy being the bad guy.
-(FEIGE CHUCKLES) -(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
TAYLOR: (STAMMERING) The Elves have two ships in our film,
you know, like, all the Elven technology was really fun to create,
really fun to envision. Um...
A lot of collaboration with Charlie Wood, our designer,
Their deaths will mean our survival.
Who turned out to be one of the real strong elements of making this movie.
This one we took to calling the Ark, the large one.
And the smaller ones you see later we were calling the Harrow ships.
But designed by Charlie and his team to be threatening.
FEIGE: The character of Bor, you will notice his signature helmet,
which is of course taken from the comics,
and you will see a little bit later in the movie when we see a statue of Bor.
HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
TAYLOR: Here's a detail. This is Tony Curran playing Bor,
who is the father of Odin, who is the father of Thor.
And he's wearing an entirely CG! helmet,
because we hadn't designed his helmet at the time that we shot him,
so it's pan' of the wonder of cinema
that we could put that helmet on long after we shot the actor.
There's our title, which again came up halfway through making the film,
as we started to realize that we were more and more focused
on darkening the story from Thor.
HIDDLESTON: Chained. Public enemy number one.
I always thought it was important to have this scene
because Loki and Odin haven't seen each other,
and Frigga, as you just see, played by the beautiful Rene Russo,
these three people haven't seen each other
since the end of the first Thor film.
And Odin and Loki have many, many things to talk about.
The events of The Avengers, the Battle for New York,
his attempt at tyranny and takeover of an entire planet,
father and son...
FEIGE: This was another scene that was not in early drafts of the script.
Nor was it in the principal photography section of our production.
Tom, as he said,
had mentioned son' of wanting to see the scene years ago, really.
HIDDLESTONI Mmm. Yeah.
FEIGE: I had forgotten about it.
We thought it might be important to meet Loki for the first time
in the dungeon, as we end up meeting him later.
But our executive producer, Craig Kyle, and our co-writer, Chris Yost,
-had written a tie-in comic. - HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
FEIGE: You know, at Marvel we like to have tie-in comics
that relate somewhat to the movies.
And it was a prequel comic
that told the non-Avengers portions of the storyline
that occurs between Thor and Thor: The Dark World.
And a version of this scene was included.
And that was published
only a few months ago from this point where we 're recording.
And I looked at it and I went, "We have to have this in the movie.
"We have to have this in the movie."
And we contacted Tom, and he goes, "Don't you remember?
-"I told you this years ago." -(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
And thankfully he was available
and we came in with Sir Anthony Hopkins and shot it.
And now of course I can't imagine opening this movie any other way.
HIDDLESTON: It was amazing to work with Tony again.
He's one of the greatest actors working today,
and a formidable presence.
And what I love about the scene is that it's as emotional
and son' of wrought as it was in the first Thor film,
but Loki's response is very, very different.
He's not as vulnerable as he used to be.
He will be king.
TAYLOR: Which will take us to our first real battle scene,
which I'm really proud of.
This is one of the first things we shot actually. This is...
I remember thinking at the time,
this was Kramer and me showing what this movie was gonna look like.
'Cause it was dirtier and denser
and this was the way we wanted to portray violence,
and this is the way we wanted to show battle.
And I love Thor's entrance into the movie here.
FEIGE: And what I have to say, and all credit to Alan Taylor,
is the best intro of any hero in any of our films.
HIDDLESTON: There he is, the mighty Chris Hemsworth.
My brother from another mother
FEIGE: This very shot, when Chris was leaping through the air,
I was not in England, we were filming this scene
and I got an email that day from Chris
with a still-frame from the playback monitor of that moment,
just saying, "Poster idea, " question mark.
-(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES) - And if people remember
when they were driving around before this film opened
they saw perhaps billboards throughout their town
with an image very, very similar to that.
TAYLOR: We introduced all of our Warriors Three,
who were in the first film,
but here we get a chance to see them being real warriors.
Volstagg, Hogun and Fandral, and of course Lady Sif.
The reason for this particular take on this village
is that we decided this was Hogun's home world
and so, it's a culture that he might have come from.
FEIGE: The comics of Thor obviously take place on many different worlds,
all of the nine worlds.
And one of the things we talked about when we started developing this film
was wanting to see more of them.
And Vanaheim of course is what this world is.
And seeing the rock monster, Korg.
Who, uh... Fans may know
this character is also known as the Stone Man from Saturn.
The Stone Men from Saturn of course
were the very first bad guys that Thor fought in his very first issue.
They didn't quite look exactly like that,
but that was our nod to his very first appearance.
Hello.
(GROWLING)
I accept your surrender.
HIDDLESTON: I love that moment.
I think Chris has an amazing charm as Thor.
(STAMMERING) And I think pan of what
I've always admired about his performance
is he's able to bring the thunder, no pun intended.
He's able to... He has an innate nobility and a presence,
but he's also incredibly charming.
MORGENTHAU: I think also, a lot of kudos to the special effects team.
There was all that atmosphere in the air, and those explosions.
TAYLOR: Yeah, those are all real effects,
which is always, for me, more fun to work with.
And in a kind of nerdy way it was fun to have them come in every day
and show me something new they could blow up,
and the different combination of chemicals
that would lead to a different balance between flame and smoke.
FEIGE: In our story time,
we have always figured that Thor has spent about a year
going from planet to planet with his Warriors Three and Sif
cleaning up the fires that have burned across the universe.
Not only in light of what Loki had done on Earth in Avengers,
but also the fact that Thor had to destroy the Bifrost Bridge
at the end of his first movie.
And the Asgardians couldn't police the galaxies as they traditionally did.
And it's a little quiet moment
as we leave Hogun for the rest of the movie here with his family.
And right about now is as good a moment as any
to talk about our composer on this film, Brian Tyler.
Brian did amazing work for us on Iron Man 3.
It was the first time we worked with him.
And we were very happy with what he did for us.
Gave Iron Man a triumphant theme.
And we asked if he would be interested in coming on to this film,
and he frankly geeked out over it immensely
and worked very, very hard delivering one of the best scores
that we've ever had at Marvel Studios.
HIDDLESTON: I want to give a public salute to Jake Morrison,
our leading visual effects artist,
and I think he makes Asgard look absolutely extraordinary.
FEIGE: Bo Welch had designed Asgard for us on the first Thor film
and when we knew we had the opportunity to make another one,
we wanted to build off of that.
And we wanted to make it seem a little more lived in.
You see here they're down in the lower parts of the city in the training grounds
where there's more stone, some wood structures,
not just the gold gleaming, which of course is there as well.
And Charlie Wood, our production designer on this film,
did a tremendous job building not only all those sets of Asgard,
but designing the worlds as you will see it in this film.
HIDDLESTON: This is a new father-son dynamic
between Odin and Thor, too.
You see, I think that Thor is a more mature prince than he once was.
And his relationship with his own father has become more complicated.
His father is older
and they're much more evenly matched in this film, I think.
FEIGE: Worth noting, Thor doesn't have a shin' on here.
(FEIGE AND HIDDLESTON CHUCKLE)
TAYLOR: I've actually heard some audience members speculate
that he was being enhanced with visual effects here.
Nope, this is just Chris Hemsworth on an average day.
FEIGE: It was pointed out to us
when we shot a version of this movie that didn't include that moment.
HIDDLESTON: Really?
FEIGE: (STAMMERS) And there was an outcry
amongst a certain segment of the population
to perhaps include that moment.
And we put it there hoping that it would at least somewhat fit into the storyline
of a character who's lamenting his current circumstance.
And he needed to wash his hands at the very least.
Another!
(ALL CHEERING AND LAUGHING)
HIDDLESTON: This Thor is introverted, solitary, reflective.
There was a time when you would celebrate for weeks.
HIDDLESTON: This is a really beautiful moment from Jaimie Alexander, I think.
FEIGE: She's wonderful in this scene.
HIDDLESTON: The idea that she'd always developed
from the very first film
that somewhere in Sif's heart was a very deep affection for Thor.
And it was a spark that he hadn't yet recognized.
And she plays this particularly delicate strain very, very, very well.
TAYLOR: I was glad that she got...
There's not enough time to service all the characters that you love,
but she at least got a couple of strong moments in this movie, too,
in terms of action, but also in terms of the emotional thread
between her and Thor that runs in the comics as well.
FEIGE: And on that look we cut to London. To Earth for the first time.
HIDDLESTON: To the woman that he misses. And Chris O'Dowd.
FEIGE: This is a small but important role in the film of Richard,
on the blind date with Jane.
And we 're very, very excited that Chris agreed to come do this cameo for us.
TAYLOR: And he's just one of those actors
who, you know, just exudes son' of a real earthy charm,
so you sort of like him immediately, which is really important
when you only have a limited amount of time to establish a character.
So, he's a delight. And the two of them got along really well.
It was one of those days people were laughing all day long.
HIDDLESTON: I think, Kevin, the films that you made,
the films that Marvel have made always have a sense of humor.
And you have these huge characters who exist in their own universes,
and of course superhero films, um, they are spectacular
and they're full of tension and heroics,
but the thing that distinguishes these films, I think,
is that they are funny.
And the introduction of Chris O'Dowd here
and of course the great Kat Dennings.
TAYLOR: Who is about as fun to be around and as fun on set
as she seems to be on-screen.
She's one of these people who seems to enjoy the whole process
and she's really funny.
(CLEARS THROAT) You know who.
FEIGE: I think one of the very unusual things about the Thor films,
and one of the things that we love about it,
is that, yes, we've had a scene, that you just saw,
took place 5,000 years ago
between Dark Elves and Asgardian armies.
Then we saw a prince being led in chains
-to the royal dungeons. - HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
FEIGE: And a hero battling marauders on a foreign planet.
And now we're in a blind-date scene. On Earth.
I love that counterbalance,
which of course will end up intersecting in the finale.
Erik, referring to Erik Selvig, Ste/Ian SkarsgÃ¥rd,
who appeared in the first Thor and Avengers.
And in Avengers, of course, Loki took over his mind,
and he's now banana balls.
(ALL CHUCKLING)
MORGENTHAU: I think Natalie's character, uh,
brings, I think, something fresh to a female heroine in the picture.
And she's an intelligent scientist. And, uh...
TAYLOR: (STAMMERS) She advances the action.
She's actually really integrated into the action,
but the funny thing about her, I remember meeting her for the first time
and thinking, "Okay, Academy Award-winning actress.
"She must be very serious. She does beautiful, serious movies."
And I realized that what she really wanted to know was that
she was going to be funny as well, this time,
because I think...
And it son' of goes to what you were saying,
that the role of a female character is not just to give them strong characters
and to involve them in the action,
but you have to involve them in all the best parts of the movie.
And humor is one of the best parts of the movie,
so they aren't fully participating as characters
unless they're also pan' of that, so I think the humor is spread around.
MORGENTHAU: I think the first day she came to work and we were...
You know, here's this serious actress and she had to do this scene
where it was literally, like, rolling in the mud.
- TAYLOR: Rolling around, yeah. -(ALL CHUCKLING)
In the gravel. Yeah, yeah.
MORGENTHAU: And she was a total trouper, just totally into it.
DARCY: I have totally mastered driving in London.
Hi, Erik. It's me again. Where are you?
I came here because you said you were onto something, and then you vanish.
I'm here at Stonehenge...
FEIGE: This was the very first scene that we shot for the film.
It's always fun when your very first scene in a movie
can involve a naked Ste/Ian SkarsgÃ¥rd running around a historic landmark.
N EWS CASTE R: . . . terrorize tourists there with scientific equipment...
HIDDLESTON: Ste/Ian is such an extraordinary actor
He's made so many films as so many different people.
He has such an incredible and easy gift,
and I love how game he is in these films.
He just has, um, no vanity at all.
He puts 100% into everything.
He's so committed and such an easy guy to get along with.
TAYLOR: This is a wonderful location. I love the abandoned industrial stuff.
There's a little thing there not many people will notice,
but the kids have been playing in this zone, messing with gravity effects,
'cause they're the first ones to discover that gravity is acting a little weird,
so they built themselves a little Stonehenge with the container boxes,
which is what humans tend to do.
When gravity goes down
you pick up big things and stack them like children would do.
So that's a little inside reference to Stonehenge.
Later on, Selvig says that 5,000 years ago,
all the great constructions, including Stonehenge, the pyramids,
all of which tended to happen around the same time historically,
happened because gravity was acting weird during the last Convergence.
So, that's sort of an inside reference for those who notice the details.
MORGENTHAU: Speaking of great constructions,
-this was an EMI record factory. - TAYLOR: That's right.
MORGENTHAU: Just sort of homage to it.
TAYLOR: Piece of history. MORGENTHAU: Yeah.
TAYLOR: Where they used to press all the vinyl.
I always love this image. Love this interior. Love this location.
Love what Kramer did with it, how it's lit.
Love this actor. (CHUCKLES) Um...
To me, this tone of wonder of seeing things through a kid's eyes
and having magical things happen was one of the pleasant tones in the movie.
FEIGE: That is a real cement truck turning around there.
There was a colossal rig behind it doing it, which we've taken out.
And this is one of my favorite scenes in the movie
because it's relatively simple.
A bottle dropping in and out of worlds.
HIDDLESTON: And it introduces the idea of the Convergence.
That every so many thousand years,
the realms that make up the universe,
the Nine Realms, come into alignment
and the walls between worlds become more porous and connected.
JANE: That's...
That's incredible!
TAYLOR: These kids, none of them had performed before on film.
They were all cast partly because they were wonderful actors,
but also because they could speak Farsi.
Because in the original version of their material
we see them hanging out earlier in the film
and they're speaking their language.
I wanted to try and capture that feeling of an immigrants' London,
cosmopolitan London, which is very much
what you see and feel when you go there today.
I haven't seen readings like this since...
Since...
New Mexico?
Don't touch anything!
TAYLOR: Okay. So she's off and chasing
because she realizes that this is all reminding her
of when she last discovered Thor and so she's getting excited
that maybe this is going to lead back to Thor.
FEIGE: There's a gag coming up, which always played so well.
We were screening the film early on,
the fact that people laughed at this joke coming up
made us think, "Okay, here we go with the keys."
The fact that they laughed at that joke, they understood,
"Okay, sometimes things come back, sometimes they don't.
"These are going to other worlds. "
And we knew that that some of these crazy concepts
were actually landing with audiences.
And what's great is Darcy's line about the shoes
ends up playing back much later in the film as a joke.
- As we will see. - HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
Also worth mentioning Jonathan Howard,
who plays Ian, um, who is Darcy's intern.
And is often referred to simply as, "intern. "
This is Jonathan's very first professional job.
FEIGE: Incredible. I thought it was his first film. It was his first job?
HIDDLESTON: His firstjob. He just left drama school.
FEIGE: He's really, really good and very funny.
Darcy!
FEIGE: And now we're about to see something we saw in the prologue.
The plinth with the Aether inside it.
HIDDLESTON: And the Aether in the prologue already establishes
a kind of nuclear weapon of the Dark Elves.
A weapon which has the ability to disintegrate matter
and turn it into anti-matter. Darkness. Anti-life.
Very, very dangerous indeed.
(SCREECHING)
FEIGE: This was our little horror movie moments
in this Aether Chamber, as we called it.
Oh!
FEIGE: And you hear the sound design.
(SCREAMS)
Sort of monstrous roars and cries to give a tiny bit of that horror movie vibe.
And endangering Jane, and making it very important that Thor find her.
That might be my favorite transition in the whole movie.
HIDDLESTONI Mmm.
FEIGE: To go from Earth to this strange occurrence with Jane,
to a giant spaceship in an asteroid field.
HIDDLESTON: This is one of the favorite things
about watching these movies, for me,
is when you're making them, as an actor,
it's amazing when someone like Charlie Wood
can build you a physical set,
because that gives you a context, it gives you something to respond to.
But so often we are responding to, um, a green screen.
We're surrounded by a cyclorama of green or blue screen
and acting becomes an act of imagination.
You're having to imagine the spaceship.
Imagine the things around you
that, of course, don't exist in our physical world.
And the excitement of watching these films
is suddenly when you see the work of the visual effects artist,
The Convergence returns.
And the contribution of Brian Tyler's score,
and the grade, and to see a shot like that is so gratifying
because it's better and more beautiful
than you could possibly have imagined.
TAYLOR: This was one of the things
that we changed the least from the first film.
It was considered very successful the first time around.
The observatory that Idris Elba's character, Heimdall, hangs out in.
And it was one of the few times where getting gold and shiny seemed
like the right thing to do.
FEIGE: We loved ldris and his character, Heimdall,
wanted him to have a little bit more to do in this film.
And as you will see he does get some more to do.
The observatory, newly built.
We don't spell that out in the movie,
but this is a newly constructed Bifrost after the last one was destroyed.
And people playing along at home will notice it's a little different.
That much larger open iris there.
The gears, internal gears twisting and turning as the entire things lower.
TAYLOR: And then we do Heimdall's vision. This is son' of how you do it.
You go close in his eye and try and get a sense of what he is seeing,
rather than portraying the actual point of view.
Heimdall's uniform was adapted for our film.
Bit more texture, a bit more sense of history.
How is she?
HIDDLESTON: I remember making the first film with Kenneth Branagh.
(STAMMERS) This was a real physical set
and the last time I saw the observatory,
Chris and I were, um, kicking ten bells out of each other
in the fight at the end of Thor.
MORGENTHAU: These shots were done with Natalie against green screen
with a Phantom camera, which was super high speed.
TAYLOR: How many frames do you think you were shooting per...
MO RG E NTHAU: Two thousand.
TAYLOR: Wow. Two thousand frames a second.
With a wind machine and suspended from wires.
And then of course all the Aether wrapped around her
by our visual effects people.
FEIGE: These Aether visions were
an idea that our editor, Dan Lebental, had,
which really was effective in letting the audience know
that something bad was happening to Jane,
that something very strange was occurring,
and we replay those a handful of times over the course of the movie.
HIDDLESTON: There is a detail. Those are English police cars.
And that sounds like a crazy thing to say,
but sometimes you see films set in England,
and they have American police cars.
So, I just love the attention to detail. It makes me very proud as a Brit.
FEIGE: The sequence progresses, as we're about to see,
with Thor arriving, and the Aether lashing out of Jane.
And in the script, the London police officers all pulled guns
and son' of said, "Stand back, you're in trouble."
And it was like that in the script for a long time,
and we just sort of took that for granted,
and the day before we started filming it, or maybe a few weeks before,
as we were prepping the sequence, all of the London crew said,
"Hold on a minute. London police do not have guns."
HIDDLESTON: Mmm. True.
FEIGE: Which is why you'll see them...
What do they have? Do they have staffs? They have Tasers, maybe?
HIDDLESTON: (STAMMERS) Well, they have batons, I think, still.
Um... But we're very, um...
And this country is not... There's very strict gun laws here.
It's a different kind of thing.
FEIGE: So, you'll see the police officer calls in for an armed response unit,
-instead of pulling guns. - HIDDLESTON: That's right.
FEIGE: So, even more authentic.
And the reunion, of course, between Jane and Thor,
that we spent a long time thinking about after it had been two years,
and we wanted to subvert expectations.
And, actually, Natalie had the idea
that they don't just run across a romantic beach and embrace,
that she's got a beef, and slaps him. Twice.
HIDDLESTON: She's got a thing about slapping, that Jane Foster.
FEIGE: You experienced that. Was that a slap or a punch?
HIDDLESTON: It was kind of a right hook, in the end.
FEIGE: Right, that's What I thought. HIDDLESTON: Yeah.
Chris was telling me about this scene.
At first, Natalie wasn't actually going to hit him.
(CHUCKLES) And they did it a couple of times, and it wasn't really working.
And the first couple of times she was worried about hurting him.
Then, like, 30 takes later, she was really packing a punch.
Is this you?
MORGENTHAU: I think there's something great
about this romantic interlude
in this industrial background.
Hold that thought.
TAYLOR: A very classic Darcy moment, here.
How's space?
Space is fine.
JANE: Excuse me.
- Are you Jane Foster? - Yes.
Do you know this man?
He's my intern.
TAYLOR: Okay, we're about to see the Aether do what it does,
which required lots of stuntmen on wires on the day
and blowing out glass simultaneously in the cars
and laying in the visual effects later.
MORGENTHAU: And interactive lightning effects and the Bifrost as well,
which is about to happen.
A massive tower of light of lntellabeams above them
that creates this hot source,
and then of course, visual effects takes it to the next dimension.
FEIGE: And now, for the first time, we get to see a human character
take a journey on the Bifrost.
And Jane Foster, being an astrophysicist, loves it.
TAYLOR: I love seeing Natalie thrilled to see, you know...
Jane, I mean, thrilled to see the things she's been studying all her life
as a kind of scientific phenomenon. Now she's experiencing it.
We have to do that again.
Hi.
Welcome to Asgard.
TAYLOR: This is Iceland. MORGENTHAU: Iceland.
TAYLOR: Iceland. We loved being here.
This is a volcanic valley, volcanic rock. Everything there was real.
It was one of my favorite shots, that wide shot.
(MALEKITH SPEAKING ELVEN LANGUAGE)
Look upon my legacy, Algrim.
I can barely remember a time before the light.
MORGENTHAU: It's really a magical location
Our survival will be your legacy.
That makes you feel like you've been transported to another planet.
TAYLOR: Another planet, another time.
The Asgardians will suffer as we have suffered.
I still haven't quite figured out why it's so powerful.
[will restore our world.
Kramer and I shot there for Game of Thrones.
I mean, Game of Thrones was shot there.
But we always used the winter footage, or the winter locations,
like on the glaciers.
This was the first time that we got to shoot
the black volcanic fields of the, son' of, late summer.
This is not of Earth. What is it?
We do not know.
TAYLOR: This is Asgardian technology,
so, again, it's kind of the golden color
that distinguishes Asgardian technology from Elven.
Picking up on the idea of Asgard being the golden city.
It's a soul forge.
MORGENTHAU: And from a lighting perspective, it's interesting,
seeing where you've got ultra-high-tech with ultra-low-tech fire
and sources in the background,
and high-tech operating table, and...
TAYLOR: Again, it's everybody, all the departments pulling together,
trying to make it coherent when you basically got
a scientific medical facility, but in a fantastical medieval realm.
I think Wendy Partridge did a great job
on the uniforms of Eir and the other doctors.
It feels within the vocabulary of Asgard,
but it still feels like a medical uniform of some kind.
And then the glowing table
was something that we worked up together with Charlie Wood,
so you had that kind of cold, scientific light.
HIDDLESTON: I love the reversal here, too,
that in Kenneth Branagh's Thor,
Chris Hemsworth was the fish out of water.
And now, Jane Foster is the fish out of water.
FEIGE: What you're seeing here is one of the main reasons
we wanted to have Jane Foster go to Asgard,
so that Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins
could share the screen together,
which, of course, they couldn't at all in the first film.
It's defending itself.
ODIN: Come with me.
There are relics that pre-date the universe itself.
FEIGE: Now we see the Hall of Science for the first time.
A replica of Yggdrasil, the world tree.
All the Nine Realms represented there.
Odin just said something, and he's about to say something,
which is very important for Marvel fans
and for people interested in Marvel mythology,
about relics that pre-date the universe.
And you'll hear him, in a minute, say that most of those relics
come in the shape of stones, but that the Aether itself is fluid.
And we later reveal in this movie
that these are very well-known objects from the comics,
which, in the comics, are called Infinity Gems,
we called Infinity Stones.
TAYLOR: I love the imagery that we created for the book.
I like the idea that Odin is telling a story that's so old
that he goes back to, not some hologram somewhere,
or some scientific rendering,
but to something that looks like an illuminated manuscript.
And they did a brilliant job of capturing
the aesthetic of an illuminated manuscript,
but with the imagery that we created of the Dark Elves.
It's one of my favorite props in the movie,
you know, this ancient man, this ancient god, Odin,
is telling us a story that's so old that he has to go back
to the dustiest wing of his library.
And, again, I liked Thor's line, saying,
"We used to hear these stories as children."
HIDDLESTON: It's worth saying it is an amazing thing,
and we've talked about it, Chris and Natalie and myself,
is having the chance to work with Anthony Hopkins.
He's an extraordinary actor And, um...
Just watching him here with an eye patch on,
he's able to convey so much meaning and history with so little,
The worlds are nearly aligned.
And it's been a privilege to work with him.
Chris Eccleston's an actor I've respected
since long before I decided to become an actor.
It is no less than our people did,
And I think it's worth saying, having been a villain in these films,
there is a responsibility about it when you're a villain.
The stakes of the film, the drama of the film,
You will become darkness,
comes from your need, and, um,
cursed to this existence until it consumes you.
And Chris Eccleston owns that responsibility brilliantly, I think.
Until then, no power our enemies possess can stop you.
FEIGE: What I love about both Chris and Adewale in this scene
is that they're not twisting their mustaches.
[will tear down their defenses and ensure your return to a universe reborn.
Their universe has been ravaged by the creation of our universe,
and they want to undo it, and they want to get their world back.
HIDDLESTON: They want vengeance. FEIGE: I love that that comes across.
TAYLOR: Now, if we 're paying attention,
we see this is Algrim sneaking in, disguised in that helmet.
FANDRAL: If they were beneath you, my rotund friend, they'd all be dead.
HIDDLESTON: The Warriors Three bringing back
the prisoners from Vanaheim,
taking them down into the dungeons of Asgard.
FEIGE: Where we will meet somebody else in the dungeons.
(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
TAYLOR: One of my favorite sets is the prison.
This is all practical, beautiful plaster work by Charlie.
The case where we were trying very overtly
to show the ancient up against the futuristic,
so we went for these very, very clean interiors
against this ancient, ancient material.
HIDDLESTON: This is the first scene I shot on this film, with Rene Russo,
and it's an amazing scene, I think,
and very beautifully written
because it has so many references back to the first film,
and so many subtleties and complications.
Loki found out that he was not related to Thor,
not related to Odin, not related to Frigga.
He was adopted, left to die on the frozen wastes of Jotunheim,
and taken into the family
and he's furious with Odin.
And Frigga, his adoptive mother, is the only one who still cares.
FEIGE: I love that little outburst you just had there, Tom,
because that was exactly what you were holding back
and not letting Odin see in your first scene.
HIDDLESTON: And Rene is so delicate,
and we always talked about this special bond
that Loki and Frigga had,
especially when Thor and Loki were children,
that Thor was a chip off the old block.
He was the quarterback. He was the son that Odin understood.
And Loki was the student, um, an artist,
someone who was more sensitive, more delicate.
And Frigga understood that and nurtured that,
and taught him all of her magic.
And that bond, which is in Kenneth Branagh's Thor,
and is beautifully expounded by Alan Taylor,
was something that was a privilege to play.
That here is this character, Loki,
who is now condemned, imprisoned for eternity, to be forgotten,
written out of history and haunted by his demons.
The only person who still cares in the entire universe is his mother
FEIGE: In that scene, and when we just saw her disappear,
she wasn't really in the cell.
She was projecting her image down there.
And we used the same visual effect
that we used when Loki cast his illusions in Avengers,
and when he cast his illusions in Thor.
So that's the first time that we begin to see
that that's where he learned that from, was from Frigga.
TAYLOR: And at the center of all the action,
and the galaxy, and blowing things up,
there's a very simple story about a boy bringing his girl back home
and meeting Mom and meeting Dad and not getting along with his brother.
It's that small human stuff that keeps these movies relatable, I think.
Queen of Asgard, and my mother.
HIDDLESTON: Another thing I'm very proud of about the Thor films is that
the scale of it is enormous.
It's about gods and monsters, but ultimately it's about family.
I just want to say that moment with me throwing up the glass,
these scenes were shot from my perspective
with the second unit director, John Mahaffie.
And it was a wonderful moment.
We both talked about Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
When Steve McQueen is locked up in the cooler,
he's got his baseball glove and his baseball mitt,
and it's his way of passing the time.
So, that's my little nod to Steve McQueen.
FEIGEI I didn '1' know that.
I just learned something in this audio commentary.
- I love that. - HIDDLESTON: There you go.
- We just made it up on the day. - FEIGE: That's great.
HIDDLESTON: I thought, "What could Loki be doing?"
He could be reading a book.
He could be doing something.
I thought, maybe he's just lying in bed, ruminating on his future.
FEIGE: You'll be happy to know that Lou D'Esposito,
our executive producer and co-president at the studio,
whose creative fingerprints are all over this film, in the, uh,
on the mix stage, had a lot of notes, making sure that
the sound of that cup flipping up in the air
and landing back in your hand was just right.
HIDDLESTON: Fantastic.
I actually... (CHUCKLES)
(STAMMERING) Somewhere in the outtakes, there's a...
Because when you're lying on a bed and tossing a cup up,
it sort of alters your perception of the horizontal axis.
And most times I was able to
flip up the cup and catch it in front of my face,
and then, on one particular occasion, I just missed,
and a steel mug slammed me right in the forehead.
FEIGE: Oh, no.
- While we were filming? - HIDDLESTON: While we were filming.
FEIGE: That's not on the gag reel.
HIDDLESTON: I love this moment. Adewale was absolutely amazing.
There was a moment where,
here are these two titanic villains in the Thor universe,
sizing each other up.
And it felt very real.
This is a real costume. This isn't a visual effect he's wearing.
It was all prosthetic, and he wore it very patiently.
And it was like staring into the eyes of an ancient animal or something.
FEIGE: The discipline required to,
frankly, put up with that level of makeup and that level of costume,
is a testament to his acting skill,
and what he was able to do with it is amazing.
I mean, both his Algrim and his Kurse,
Walt Simonson creations from the comics,
he did such a great job.
HIDDLESTON: That's the coolest shot in the movie.
FEIGEI IS that it?
- It's all downhill from there? -(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
HIDDLESTON: That's one I love. FEIGE: It's a great one.
- There's no pleasing some creatures. -(GROANS)
HIDDLESTON: I take my hat off... I love that shot.
FEIGE: That's my favorite shot.
HIDDLESTON: That's a John Mahaffie idea.
Loki's just sitting there reading,
very publicly ignoring the chaos that's outside his cell.
FEIGE: I think he notices it, but won't give them the satisfaction of looking.
HIDDLESTON: That's right. FEIGE: What do you think of that?
HIDDLESTON: Hats off here to the stunt team, Steve Dent, Ben Cooke.
They are an amazing, amazing group of people,
who, every single time there was a fight,
the discipline and the rigor required
to commit physically to those fight sequences is amazing,
and we depend upon them.
FEIGE: One of my favorite glances in the film, there.
It says so much without saying a word at all.
Sif, seeing the woman that Thor loves.
That's one of my favorite moves Rene does in the movie, too,
snagging that sword.
Yes, ma'am.
TAYLOR: This was one of the earliest sequences we ever designed,
because there's so much visual effects work in it.
It was fun for me because
Heimdall didn't get a chance to be very active in the first movie,
and so it was good to see him have a son' of action beat here,
where he gets to show off.
FEIGE: There is the crack.
That is the one moment in the movie that we see the crack
of where Bifrost was repaired from Thor smashing it in the first film.
HIDDLESTONI This is amazing.
FEIGE: The stunt team, again. Steve Dent, our second unit team,
and of course, ldris, doing much of this himself.
Taking down a ship single-handedly.
HIDDLESTON: Who designs those spaceships?
Kevin.
FEIGE: It was Charles Wood's team.
Yeah, we called the big one the Ark, and the small ones the Harrows.
And this is one of my favorite sequences in the film.
We get to see so much of Asgard
and so much of the deadly precision of the Dark Elves.
TAYLOR: And the ships that we designed, we tried various versions
and finally wound up with these things which are like blades that swing.
Wound up being fun to do choreography with.
HIDDLESTON: This is where I just watch in awe
because all of this work is done long after I finish filming.
FEIGE: Seeing Asgardian skiffs this time around,
seeing flying vehicles in Asgard.
We didn't see any of those in the first film.
But, again, clearly they have that technology,
merging the ancient and the modern.
- And the awesome. -(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
And the first time seeing more of
Heimdall's tools to protect the kingdom,
with the Asgardian shields going over the palace.
The same technology and shielding, of course,
that is keeping the prisoners in the dungeons.
TAYLOR: Again, some of the sort of Celtic imagery in the force field itself,
to keep it grounded in the mythology.
HIDDLESTON: ThatAdewale again.
It's true, on set he moved like an animal inside that costume.
It was an amazing physical commitment.
We depend so much upon the visual effects in these films.
And, um...
And we would be lost without them.
So, I just want to publicly applaud them.
FEIGE: It is a tremendous amount of work
that continues for almost two years straight.
And you've mentioned Jake.
We'll mention Di, Victoria Alonso, our executive producer,
without whom none of this would have come together.
TAYLOR: Again, I liked getting into the dirtier parts of Asgard,
and when we went into the cleaner parts, like the palace,
getting to dirty them up.
And nothing dirties up a room like flying an Elven Harrow ship into it.
HIDDLESTON: This was a real set,
the throne room, with its collapsed columns,
with the Harrow embedded inside it.
It was an amazing set to walk onto that.
This one, here.
FEIGE: Where we've been lucky enough to shoot
a number of scenes from our films.
And the first time was Captain America: The First Avenger.
We shot a big HYDRA facility on that stage,
and I wondered, "What else had shot on this stage?"
And it's where the medal ceremony from Star Wars was shot.
And the monolith on the moon in 2001.
That's the history of filmmaking you get in London.
These gravity grenades, again, were in development for at least a year
to try to get the look just right.
This was the test shot for that sequence.
We see a little bit more Asgardian tech over the course of this movie,
including the way the swords and shields have an energy surge to them
as they're swung.
HIDDLESTON: That's a fantastic entrance from Chris Eccleston.
Towering presence.
3:00 in the morning, Chris had to get up to sit in his makeup chair,
to walk on set for 10:00.
Something is rotten in the state of Asgard.
TAYLOR: Loki's starting to suspect that maybe things are not...
That he may have set things in motion he didn't mean to set in motion,
which leads us to...
Fï¬‚gga.
TAYLO RI That word.
Again, another one of Charlie's beautiful sets
that we kept repurposing.
MORGENTHAU: Yeah, one of my favorite sets, here.
FEIGE: That's my favorite shot of Rene in the whole movie.
She looks so badass there.
HIDDLESTON: She certainly does.
Who are you?
HIDDLESTON: I can't remember who said it, but that very famous line,
"Behind every great man is an even greater woman."
(GRUNTS)
FEIGE: We talked about this scene early on,
when we were putting the script together,
because we wanted to give Rene the opportunity
to show that swagger and to kick some ass,
which she's incredibly good at.
And she ultimately pays the price for it, but it's, uh...
It was fun while it lasted.
You have taken something, child.
Give it back.
TAYLOR: And here we realize that Frigga's also smart,
because the whole thing's been a trick to distract him.
Witch!
Where is the Aether?
HIDDLESTON: I love that you get the sense that
you see directly the link between Frigga and Loki there.
They're both in possession of the powers of magic,
but the reason Kurse knew how to find her
was because Loki told him the way.
And that knowledge, which Loki will find out later,
is a source of immense grief.
FEIGE: That might be my favorite shot of Mr. Hemsworth in this movie.
Nobody catches and throws a hammer like he does.
And the pain and the rage.
I'll also shout out again to our editor, Dan Lebental,
and to Wyatt Smith, and to our composer, Brian Tyler,
for constructing this sequence in such a beautiful way.
So that you understand, the minute she's stabbed,
that it's not an action scene to come.
It is a scene of tragedy.
TAYLOR: So, it was decided very early on that we were going to kill
Thor's mother, Loki's mother,
as being the one thing that could make these two guys believably collaborate.
HIDDLESTON: It's a huge thing to sacrifice Frigga in this film,
and I think it's a huge pan' of why Alan wanted to call it The Dark World.
Suddenly, every single character in the film has something to fight for.
MORGENTHAU: I think this funeral sequence is something that
Alan really brought to the picture,
and really, really wanted to have as pan' of the narrative.
It's really nice to have a thoughtful sort of breathing point in the picture.
TAYLOR: I liked it so much that, in fact, I wanted to be this guy.
(CHUCKLES) I even got... Remember! got into uniform?
I was gonna be the guy. I do archery,
so I was gonna be the guy shooting the flaming arrow.
And the first problem was that our line producer in London sensibly said
he couldn't insure me if I was going to be waving burning weapons around.
So he shut it down. I got mad at him,
and then, as it turned out, we ran out of time that day anyway to shoot it.
(CHUCKLING) But I spent half the day dressed as an Einherjar,
waiting for my big moment that never came.
HIDDLESTON: This is a beautiful sequence. Just stunning.
And in the script, I knew that this section of Frigga's funeral
was going to be, um, a grand sequence
where you saw reflections of grief
across the faces of all the major characters.
TAYLOR: And this is classic imagery
from a lot of different rituals around the globe
that do the same kind of thing,
but it seems nice to finish it with these rising spheres
that sort of echo her ascending to the heavens.
This is one of my favorite shots in the movie. Uh...
Kramer did a beautiful job, I think,
and we don't throw focus to the messenger
who's come to tell Loki the fact that...
Tom plays it like this with almost no visual effect at all.
And the fact that we sort of indicate his emotional turmoil in a Loki way.
MORGENTHAU: I think this frame there of him in his cell,
and this frame within a frame
is a great use of the anamorphic aspect ratio that we...
TAYLOR: Yeah, from the very beginning, I think you, Kramer,
were saying you wanted to shoot anamorphic,
and you wanted to shoot traditional anamorphic,
using son' of optical anamorphic, like,
not using actual lenses and stuff like that.
FEIGE: That establishing shot of London was done by our
Guardians of the Galaxy second unit crew,
when they were going up to do some helicopter footage,
and we thought we needed a few more wide shots of London,
particularly for this transition, going from
the tragedy of Frigga's funeral
to, obviously, Stellan, telling us
some scientific facts, but in a humorous fashion.
We needed a little more breathing room.
That's one of the advantages of having multiple films shooting in the same city.
HIDDLESTONI Hmm.
FEIGE: And, of course, coming up, the traditional and important cameo.
Any questions?
Yeah.
Can I have my shoe back?
(COMMENTATORS CHUCKLING)
FEIGE: While we shot the majority of the movie in London,
that scene was shot in Los Angeles.
Which makes it much easier for Stan to come in and do his cameo.
Heal. You will need your strength to reclaim the Aether.
(KURSE SPEAKING ELVEN LANGUAGE)
And when you wake, we will kill them all.
HIDDLESTON: This is a really good example
of Natalie's experience with visual effects. (STAMMERS)
Of course, all of this stuff that she's looking at in this scene
doesn't exist to look at.
So, it has to exist in her mind alone.
TYR: Jane Foster?
You need to come with us.
We are still unable to restore the palace shields.
Our artillery cannot detect...
TAYLOR: Zach Levi as Fandral, giving us the bad news.
HIDDLESTONI Isn't if right, Kevin,
that Zach Levi was initially considered for Fandral in the first film,
a long time ago?
But, I think he was previously contracted to his TV series, Chuck.
FEIGE: Yes, his TV series, Chuck.
That's 100% right.
And it was a long time he was gonna be Fandral,
and we kept thinking that we would be able to work out the schedule
and, unfortunately, uh, we weren't.
But fortunately we found Josh Dallas, who did a great job.
HIDDLESTON: He was fantastic.
FEIGE: The irony, of course, was he did such a great job
that he got another job after that for a television show,
and made him unavailable for this one.
And, thankfully, Zach, by that point, was available,
and, thankfully, still very much interested.
HIDDLESTON: Both of them great singers, incidentally, Josh and Zach.
FEIGE: Do you think there's a Fandral duet at some point in the future?
HIDDLESTON: There may be, somewhere in time.
(FEIGE AND HIDDLESTON CHUCKUNG)
When you get up very early in the morning
to sit in the hair and makeup chair on these films,
it's always nice to, you know, start the day well and in good spirits.
And our makeup girls had a great playlist,
and Zach and I were often known
to pain their eardrums with howling renditions
of George Michael and Elton John duets.
Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me.
We'll always have that, Zach.
FEIGE: Worth pointing out that this scene
we looked at as a counterpoint to the scene in the first film,
in the observatory where Odin banishes Thor,
as Thor is screaming at him, "You're an old man and a fool. "
And we wanted them to have conflict again in this movie,
but not have Thor act in that same arrogant and brash manner.
HIDDLESTON: I love this scene.
It represents Thor's supersession of his father,
that, in fact, the son is now becoming
wiser than the father.
TAYLOR: Now here, we're back in Darcy's apartment.
Another great set built by Charlie Wood.
Practical even to the point of being able to rain all over it if we wanted to.
Um... And we see some of the footage from Stonehenge
in its intended use as TV footage.
I've had a chance to watch this film a couple times with audiences
and it's funny.
You can just keep cutting to Ste/Ian SkarsgÃ¥rd with no pants on,
and it's a crowd pleaser.
(ALL CHUCKLING)
He was later taken into police custody...
TAYLOR: I do like the freeze-frame that we end up with here as he pauses it.
(MORGENTHAU CHUCKLES)
HIDDLESTONI Stellan in this...
There's such a wonderful embracing of the silliness of his character.
He's so... He's so game for a laugh.
TAYLOR: Again, back on one of my favorite sets, the pub exterior sets,
so we can see outside.
Two of the handsomest men in motion pictures,
sitting down to have a conversation.
Again, it meant a lot to me.
We got to take off Heimdall's helmet and finally see ldris Elba
as a man-god.
FEIGE: This is a great example of the other side of Asgard,
(STAMMERING)
the section where people live,
which we didn't get to see necessarily in the first film.
TAYLOR: And this is, to me, classic Kramer Morgenthau lighting.
Just beautiful, the way it slashes across them in sort of, you know...
Their faces glow, but feel lit almost inadvertently but beautifully.
FEIGE: This was a gigantic set, called the Medina,
built out at Longcross Studios in London.
And this sequence we call the pub scene was shot here.
The scene earlier, where Frigga met Jane for the first time, was shot here.
The scene with Sif in the earlier pub scene was shot there.
We got a lot of different looks out of that one set.
TAYLOR: And here, we set up a kind of phase of the movie
which is very consciously a kind of heist storytelling.
The classic device of the voiceover
telling us what's going to happen as we watch it.
And then the crosscutting between the planning stage
and the playing out of the heist.
You've seen it in a million movies, but it's really fun to quote that genre.
So, our Warriors Three, plus Sif, and now with Heimdall,
actually going against his sworn duty to be of assistance,
working together to break out of Asgard
so that they can try and bring Malekith to justice.
HIDDLESTON: The first time you see the two brothers back
in the same frame,
and Loki still playing the trickster.
Loki, enough.
No more illusions.
HIDDLESTON: And Thor demands that Loki play his true hand.
Now you see me, brother.
HIDDLESTON: I think, perhaps, for the first time
since Loki discovered his true lineage,
you see him authentically
show his emotions.
Go on.
I know you seek vengeance as much as I do.
HIDDLESTON: It was really important to me with Loki that,
having been the antagonist,
as a character who's always in control of his emotions,
who's charming and playful and a master manipulator,
a chessmaster with people,
that we break him down spiritually.
And Frigga's death is something that absolutely shatters him.
And this is the first time you ever see Thor withdraw his affection.
And when Thor says it, he means it.
TAYLOR: I think that when Loki says,
"What makes you think you can trust me?"
And Chris, Thor says, "I don't. Mother did,"
you actually see it getting to Loki.
It's pan' of the really crucial work
of making us believe that maybe we can trust this guy this time.
He does have feelings.
You can hurt this guy.
FEIGE: I love it. So many thoughts going through Loki's mind.
- But that's all he says. - TAYLOR: Mmm.
This is so unlike you, brother.
So clandestine.
FEIGE: And this, of course, the shape-shifting sequence,
with a few surprises.
HIDDLESTON: Perhaps the most fun I've ever had.
Is this better?
HIDDLESTON: Introducing my alter ego as an Einherjar guard.
You'll see him again.
Mmm, brother, you look ravishing.
HIDDLESTON: Remember, when we shot this,
we actually played the whole thing out.
So, Chris played Sif for a while,
and in this particular transformation,
I had the privilege of donning Captain America's costume.
I'm pleased to say it fits like a glove.
(FEIGE LAUGHS)
And somewhere on this DVD you'll be able to see me do it.
Um... And, um...
And Chris Evans is... I take my hat off to him, he's so game.
I put his costume on and I did a crude impression of Captain America,
and then later, he watched me do it,
and so, that performance that you see
is Chris Evans doing an impression of me doing an impression of him.
FEIGE: That was shot on a day that we were also shooting
Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
So Chris had been fighting all day in a different outfit,
and, thankfully, agreed to come down where we were filming this,
put on the old outfit and, yes, watch your performance.
He watched it once and said he got it,
and he started running through and he started having a good time.
And he said, "I've spent over two years now, three years,
"not letting Steve Rogers be like this,
"not letting Steve Rogers have that over-the-top attitude."
But he did it very well, in about three takes.
HIDDLESTON: This is one of my favorite moments in the film.
Loki and Jane Foster meet for the first time.
That was for New York.
I like her.
HIDDLESTON: And she hit me.
Four takes, she missed.
On the fifth take... (CLICKS TONGUE)
You called me here on an urgent matter.
What is it?
HIDDLESTON: I always liked the idea because at the end of Thor,
Kenneth Branagh's film,
you hear Loki say to Thor,
"What happened to you on Earth that turned you so soft?
"Don't tell me it was that woman."
And, um...
And Thor smarts and Loki responds, "Oh. It was.
"Well, maybe when we're finished here I'll pay her a visit myself. "
FEIGE: And that's what sets him off. HIDDLESTON: Yep.
Even in the background you can see them eyeing each other up.
TAYLOR: The beginning of a running joke here
where everybody is threatening Loki.
HIDDLESTON: Loki and Sif haven't seen each other
since Loki was sat on the throne, I think, in Kenneth Branagh's Thor.
TAYLOR: There was an intention to do this structure early in the script,
and then we son' of moved away from it, and then we came back to it,
so we wound up shooting that scene
where they're all discussing the plan quite late,
um, on a little smidgen of set we had left over,
because we liked the idea,
and realized it gave more energy to this whole sequence.
HIDDLESTON: It's worth saying that, actually, in the wide shot
when you see the three of us,
Thor, Loki and Jane Foster walking towards Volstagg, um,
Natalie actually hadn't arrived on set and that was a body double.
Just about four days before she arrived,
and then we did it again with her when she arrived.
'Cause she'd just been finishing shooting a film with Terrence Malick.
I thought you said you knew how to fly this thing.
I said, "How hard could it be?"
HIDDLESTON: This scene in the spaceship
was shot about three days before Christmas
and was incredibly entertaining because, of course,
the spaceship doesn't move and it stands still.
And so, this is where you talk about this kind of blue-screen acting,
we had to imagine all of this.
I'm pressing it gently, it's networking!
HIDDLESTON: And also, Chris and I talked about
the eternal relationship between all siblings is,
if you're in the back of the car with your brothers,
(HIDDLESTON STAMMERS)
you're always going to have a competition about who gets to drive.
(FEIGE CHUCKLES)
FEIGE: And that's what's so great, it's obviously a huge effects sequence,
-but it really is about you two bickering. - HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
It was something we'd always talked about,
that Thor and Loki have this history,
that they've always, always competed and always had a kind of playful rivalry
that, of course, gets darker and more antagonistic when the stakes go up.
But in this scene, Loki is the worst passenger imaginable.
I'm clearly the better pilot.
Is that right? Well, out of the two of us,
which one can actually fly?
HIDDLESTON: Yeah, but only with your hammer.
(FEIGE CHUCKLES)
(CHUCKUNG)
Oh, dear. Is she dead?
Jane.
HIDDLESTON: I always loved that line.
FEIGE: As we were cutting this sequence together,
the exterior shots here are so dynamic, amazing.
Then we go inside, and initially,
as wonderful as you two are, it felt very static.
HIDDLESTON: Mmm. FEIGE: And it was Jake Morrison
working with Double Negative, our visual effects vendor,
that had this idea to add this overlay of this holographic display
which, for us, ties it all together.
There's Bar's helmet again.
HIDDLESTON: That's a very good idea, 'cause actually when you're shooting,
of course, Chris and I know that we have to act,
physically act that the spaceship is in motion
and that we're being shot at
and that we're ducking and diving and rolling.
But, (STAMMERS) you know, you're so keen not to overplay it,
you don't want to look like you're in some terrible simulator,
you're trying to measure that kind of thing evenly.
(CHUCKLES) And in that moment, there was a mat outside the set,
and I did a nice high jump outside the gap there.
TAYLOR: And this was important to us, just in terms of storytelling,
that we wanted Thor not just to be the hammer-wielding guy,
but to show that he is becoming a real leader.
He is a thinker, he actually had this all thought out ahead of time,
had even lied to his brother about it
'cause he knew he can't quite trust his brother.
But had this idea of sending the troops off on a wild goose chase
as a way of getting out of Asgard.
And take us to your secret pathway.
TAYLOR: As always, it's a delight to see
how much Tom, Loki, enjoys what he's doing.
Small side story.
My 9-year-old daughter was cast as Loki in her school play
and Tom volunteered to give her advice on how to play Loki.
And he shot a little video on his iPhone and sent it to her,
said a lot of things about the character,
but the most important thing he said was
to always remember that Loki is never not having fun.
So, in moments like this, when their lives are at stake,
you can just see he just gets such a kick out of it.
He loves chaos.
Fandral, Zach Levi, showing that
he deserves the title (STAMMERING) of one of the Warriors Three.
What we 're doing is going through what we called the back-door Bifrost,
which was that Loki alone knows about these magical places
that have some of the same materials that are built into the Rainbow Bridge,
with the idea that he knows how to do a kind of on-the-cheap Bifrost travel.
And so you see,
in the rock seams is the material that was used in the Rainbow Bridge,
with the idea that he can Wormhole
in surprising ways that not everybody else knows about.
It's on the fly as they land,
but that little, "Ta-da, " that Tom Hiddleston gives us, um,
We must strike now.
(SPEAKING ELVEN LANGUAGE)
No.
Asgard is meaningless.
HIDDLESTON: Worth talking about this language, um,
The Aether has found its way home.
That they speak in an Elven language.
I believe it's, uh...
Alan wanted it to sound ancient and foreign.
FEIGE: Yes, and Alan knew the linguist from Game of Thrones,
who came on board to create the Dark Elf language for us.
HIDDLESTON: This scene is one of my favorites.
It was certainly one of my favorites to play in.
It's one of the last scenes I shot. Um...
it feels like a conversation that Thor and Loki have always wanted to have.
LOKI: This day, the next, a hundred years, it's nothing.
It's a heartbeat.
You'll never be ready.
HIDDLESTON: The conversation about power,
conversation about the difference of their perspectives.
"Satisfaction is not in my nature."
What does Loki want?
Does Loki want to win the game,
or is it the game itself that he enjoys playing?
You had her tricks, but I had her trust.
Trust?
HIDDLESTON: And now they get into it.
Trust? When you let her die?
- What help were you in your cell? - Who put me there?
F E I G E: Production-wise, it's worth pointing out that
there were colossal fans blowing on you two in this sequence.
So not only are you giving an amazing performance,
but you're doing it with these giant fans.
But what that meant, of course, was we couldn't use any of the sound.
HIDDLESTON: Right. I remember.
FEIGE: So you had to come in and speak, I think,
maybe in this very room...
- HIDDLESTON: In this room. -...and do the entire scene again.
HIDDLESTONI Yeah, we dubbed it.
FEIGE: And I don't think anybody would have known that
-if I didn't point it out, - HIDDLESTON: No.
Because you and Chris did such a spectacular job
at making it feel incredibly natural.
HIDDLESTON: This next exchange is one I love.
Trust my rage.
HIDDLESTON: It feels like the whole relationship
between Thor and Loki is about trust,
that Loki feels betrayed, he feels like he can't trust his family,
he can't trust Odin or Thor, because the narrative of his life was a lie,
and Thor feels so betrayed by Loki
because he's rejected every olive branch that's been proffered to him.
And up on that skiff they have an argument,
a heated, passionate argument about the nature of trust.
Who has betrayed whom?
And whose fault was it that they lost their mother?
TAYLOR: I think we shot this in the holding area
for the Victoria and Albert Museum,
which is what this is with these wonderful tiles.
We thought it worked as a kind of...
We weren't really saying whether we were in a police station...
I guess we 're in a police station,
but it's also son' of a holding pen for crazy people.
But the institutional look of the ceramic brick and everything was great.
And the exterior was the same building,
that beautiful Victorian red brick.
FEIGE: And again, going to Earth,
setting up those gravity spikes, setting up the Convergence
as it is coming closer,
having a balance of the drama that we just saw in the skiff,
and now the humor with Selvig.
But also, every time you see Selvig,
we 're recommended that he had a god in his brain.
(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
FEIGE: So, as we know, we 're torn in our love for Loki
because he's so engaging and because we care about him so much.
And yet, cutting back to Selvig and realizing,
"Look what that guy did to him," in the events of The Avengers.
HIDDLESTONI Mmm.
TAYLOR: And now one of my favorite images in the movie, uh,
using the birds to show that the portals are starting to open up
and things are starting to get weird in London.
MORGENTHAU: Something that ties into the early part of the film
with the kids and the cement truck.
(DARCY SCREAMING)
HIDDLESTON: That's a nod to Hitchcock in that shot.
FEIGE: It is. Those birds are actually descendants
from the birds that were trained for the Hitchcock film.
- And, uh... -(HIDDLESTON LAUGHS)
FEIGE: And it took a few dozen takes to get them to do that,
but it was not bad.
TAYLOR: So, Selvig isn't going to get sane,
but he's son' of learning to embrace his craziness
and he's going to stop taking his medication.
HIDDLESTON: Now this next sequence is interesting because
it was actually shot across four separate weeks.
The wide shots were shot in Iceland,
and the close-ups were picked up two weeks later
at Longcross Studios, just outside the M25 in London.
So it was a very complicated jigsaw puzzle to put together,
but one, I think, which works brilliantly.
This shot, for example, is on a volcano in Iceland,
one of the most thrilling moments of playing Loki for me,
and for Chris Hemsworth playing Thor.
We're two characters
who've come out of the popular consciousness in Norse mythology
on the landmass of Iceland,
which is where these characters were invented.
That shot is Chris and myself standing on that mountain in Iceland.
Worth noting also that the sky in these shots
is something that is painted in in post-production.
You still don't trust me, brother?
Would you?
HIDDLESTON: Again, the theme of trust is recurring.
Can these two brothers ever trust each other?
No, I wouldn't.
HIDDLESTON: Just like in Avengers.
JANE: Thor!
FEIGE: And this moment providing the first "I knew it" moment,
in which Loki betrays Thor, seemingly.
HIDDLESTON: Loki was brought along on the journey
because he's a strategist,
and this is his greatest trick of all.
LOKI: All I ever wanted
was you and Odin
dead at my feet!
HIDDLESTON: The biggest surprise to come.
(SCREAMS)
HIDDLESTON: Loki may not be worthy to lift the hammer,
but he has other ways and other means.
Malekith!
FEIGE: We teased that moment at Comic-Con this year
and it was fun to see people try to figure out exactly
what was gonna happen with Thor's hand...
- HIDDLESTON: Mmm. -. . . and with Loki's intentions.
He is an enemy of Asgard.
Malekith now having the half-black, half-white face,
He was a prisoner in their dungeons.
Which is his signature look in the original comic series.
HIDDLESTON: Technically, this was a very challenging thing to film
because of course, as you'll see,
Natalie Portman as Jane Foster is lifted and elevated into the air,
which is on a separate shot as a separate plate.
So she's suspended on wires, which are attached to a harness
that Natalie was wearing underneath her costume.
And Chris Hemsworth, Chris Eccleston and myself
are looking up at the sky, imagining these things happening to her.
TAYLOR: Now because of the link through the Aether,
Jane is seeing Malekith's intentions,
which allows her to have insight into what he has in mind
so that later on they use that to battle, to sort of try and prevent him from...
Not destroying the universe,
that's not the way he would describe it. He's basically restoring the universe.
As far as the Elves are concerned,
it's all been downhill since the Big Bang.
So he's gonna put things back the way they were meant to be
once he gets his hands on the Aether, which he's about to do.
FEIGE: It's one of, actually, a number of shots in this movie
that have elements from at least three different continents.
HIDDLESTON: Mmm-hmm.
FEIGE: Iceland, London, California.
HIDDLESTON: It's a jigsaw puzzle.
FEIGE: I love this image coming up of Loki protecting Jane
and realizing he's not all bad.
HIDDLESTON: Redemption.
Again, these closer shots were photographed
at Longcross Studios in London.
And the high, wide shots were photographed in Iceland.
FEIGE: Malekith finally gets what he wants.
And then son' of just turns and goes.
He has no more time to mess with you two.
HIDDLESTON: So Thor and Loki's plan hasn't worked.
And now these two princes of Asgard who've committed treason
by going against the wishes of Odin, are going it alone.
Again, suspended on wires,
saved by my brother.
FEIGE: I love that shot.
Two brothers back to back.
HIDDLESTON: That's something that you and I
talked about a long time ago, I remember.
After Thor and after Avengers
where you'd see Thor and Loki fight each other,
they're fighting in antagonism for two films,
and talking about the thrill of seeing them back to back,
teamed up and fighting the bad guys.
FEIGE: There's a cover of a Walt Simonson comic
with Odin and Thor and Loki all together,
fighting for the same cause,
and we've always said, "Boy, we'd love to see that moment.
"We'd love to get a little bit of that in this sequence here."
Wyatt Smith, the editor who cut this sequence together,
brought a lot of ideas to this sequence as we were piecing it together.
Wyatt is a huge lifelong Marvel fan
and would engage you in conversations
as to who was stronger and exactly what power levels each character had.
And he ended up making this sequence much more brutal,
and having Kurse come very, very close to pummeling Thor,
and even doing things like this.
Nobody can lift the hammer if they're not worthy,
but that doesn't mean they can't knock it aside off its course.
(GRUNTING)
HIDDLESTON: Thor saved Loki's life,
Loki saves Thor's life in return.
But at a cost.
TAYLOR: Well, something I noticed with Adewale,
the first time I worked with him,
he created a whole physical language for his character on Oz.
If you just look at the way the guy moves, stands, dresses.
When I first met him I didn't realize
he was as different as he is from that character
'cause he'd embodied it so much. And the same thing here,
he found a way to bring that character to physical life.
Frequently, the character, once he becomes Kurse,
doesn't have much to say, so it's almost all body language.
Anyway, this of course is one of the major moments in the movie.
HIDDLESTON: This next sequence
was one of the most fulfilling days I had on the film.
Because it was a good old-fashioned death scene.
- I'm sorry. I'm sorry. - Shh...
FEIGE: I always like that Loki's apologizing for things he's done
and perhaps things he's going to do.
I'll tell Father what you did here today.
I didn't do it for him.
HIDDLESTON: Again, an amazing line.
And the complexity of it, the ambiguity of it is something I always appreciated.
He didn't do it for Odin, but who did he do it for?
For his mother? His brother? For himself?
That shot was photographed at sunset in Iceland.
And we had about 20 minutes to get it.
The end of Loki.
So far.
FEIGE: I remember you had an idea to go back,
we'd finished that death scene
and you wanted to shoot one more close-up.
HIDDLESTON: I did. FEIGEI And, uh...
And, uh, there's never enough time in a day
and there's never enough days in the schedule,
but you clearly were onto something there
and we mounted a little insert unit.
And I think that's what's in, right? I mean, that's what's in the movie.
TAYLOR: One of my favorite moments, 'cause it's sort of
one of the darkest hours in the movie,
not just because we've lost a character that we've come to really invest in,
but also because Jane is basically laying it out for us,
the universe is gonna be destroyed and there's nothing we can do about it.
They're at an all-time low.
Now we're trapped here.
TAYLOR: Helpless. Cast away on a distant planet.
And then...
It's not me.
TAYLOR: (CHUCKLES) And Chris is so good with humor.
People son' of think of him as a serious leading man,
but he's so good at the humor.
It's been a crazy day...
TAYLOR: Great. It's partly 'cause you realize,
"Okay, the movie's gonna come back to life now.
"We're gonna live to fight again."
And it's Chris O'Dowd who's bringing us that message,
which is really great 'cause you get his charisma to son' of carry it along.
(TAYLOR LAUGHS)
This was shot very late.
I just love the fact that we get a chance to see
Thor being the jealous boyfriend in the background.
(TAYLOR CHUCKLES)
Yeah, I will.
On, my God. (GASPS)
TAYLOR: And hopefully people pick up on what exactly is going on.
These are the objects we saw thrown through the portals
at the beginning that disappeared.
One of my favorite lines was the little girl saying,
"Sometimes they come back, sometimes they don't."
And now we realize what happens to them when they don't come back.
They stayed stranded in Svartalfheim.
I'll just text her.
(KEYS JANGLING)
(ENGINE STARTING)
FEIGE: I want to point out we've just seen the cell phone gag
where Thor and Jane are lost, seeming all hope is gone,
and out of nowhere her cell phone rings.
And that was an idea that Don Payne, who is a wonderful, wonderful writer,
was basically our primary writer on the first Thor,
was our first writer on this one.
He very tragically passed away recently,
and this film is, in fact, dedicated to him.
But that joke of Jane Foster's cell phone ringing on another planet
was in his very first draft of this film.
And every time audiences laugh at it and talk about it aften/vards,
I bow my head in remembrance of the wonderful writer Don Payne.
Loki is dead.
Oh, thank God!
I... I meant, I'm so sorry.
Thank you.
HIDDLESTON: He was a great man, Don.
He had the most wonderful sense of humor.
And he loved these characters
and he was so instrumental in instilling all of us
with such a passion for them on that first film.
FEIGE: The tone of these movies that people recognize as so unique
is due in large pan' because of Don, because of his love for the characters,
his love for Marvel, and also his sense of humor.
He was one of the primary writers on The Simpsons...
- HIDDLESTON: Mmm. -...for many, many, many years.
What?
FEIGE: You know, we make these films hoping
that they will be worth watching and re-watching,
and this is one of the scenes that
when you watch it a second time, a third time,
and Odin says, "Loki," the question is...
Is he asking about him, is he guessing that's who he's found,
or does he recognize that that's who's standing in front of him?
For each additional world,
the power will increase exponentially.
FEIGE: Here's another amazing example of the talent of Stellan,
not just the humor, but here he is with, frankly, a mouthful of exposition,
and he sells it.
It's important 'cause it's setting up the stakes,
and the ground rules of what we 're about to witness.
And he does it with no pants on.
...the Mayans, the Chinese, the Egyptians.
They made use of the gravitational effects of the Convergence.
And they left us a map.
Stonehenge...
FEIGE: This was one of the reasons we wanted this film
to take place in London.
Number one, we wanted to actually shoot
in the city that the story took place in,
and we wanted to be able to tie the ancient Convergence
and what Malekith was doing thousands of years ago
with the history of London and Stonehenge
and the Celtic connection to the Norse myths.
The very fabric of reality is going to be torn apart.
I better get my pants.
DARCY: Focus! This is important.
We have to hammer them in all around the site
and then Jane and Erik will activate them from the tower.
-(BEEPING) - They're taped together.
Do you even know what these things do?
Uh... No.
Neither do I.
(JAN E'S SHOES SQUEAKING)
Shh!
FEIGE: This is all shot on location in Greenwich.
We were just inside the Painted Hall,
which has history going back hundreds and hundreds of years.
HIDDLESTON: Certainly does.
Holy...
IAN: Shit.
FEIGE: This was a shot that was added much later
at the suggestion of the talented animators at Double Negative.
HIDDLESTON: It's an extraordinary shot, actually.
TAYLOR: The reason it's this location was because
we knew our final battle was gonna be so chaotic
that I liked the idea of having a great formalism in the space
that we were staging it in to sort of play against each other.
It's also, for me, fun that all the lines intersect
on the map to bring us to this place,
and if you were to draw the last line it would be the prime meridian,
which cuts right through the center of Greenwich
because the Greenwich Observatory is at longitude zero on the map.
And this elevator idea was late in the game, trying to figure out,
"How the heck do you get down to the bottom of the ship?"
I really love what they did, it's quite sinister looking
and very tech-y looking.
FEIGE: Malekith now transforming even further due to the power of the Aether.
In Jane, it just made her a little light-headed, it was under the surface,
but Malekith knows how to use it and how to harness all its power.
You needn't have come so far, Asgardian.
Death would've come to you soon enough.
Not by your hand.
Your universe was never meant to be.
FEIGE: Whenever we film on exterior locations
with our characters in full makeup and full costume,
we know that the public is going to be there
and that the public is going to take some photos.
And there were some, frankly, spectacular photos
that came out of those days of photography.
And that ultimately was the original reveal of Thor's new costume,
of the Dark Elves' look, of Malekith's look.
But thankfully they were pretty good pictures.
HIDDLESTONI Hmm.
You know, with all that power,
I thought you'd hit harder.
(GRUNTS)
(GRUNTING)
HIDDLESTON: Worth talking here, I think, about Chris.
There is so much physical work he does as his character,
and I remember on Avengers there was a lot of talk about,
uh, everyone playing superheroes,
but Chris Hemsworth is one of the only people
who does 99% of his superhero work.
He is such a gifted athlete,
he has such physical commitment, such stamina.
To do days like this where you're outside and the costume's heavy,
and a sequence like this maybe takes a week or 10 days.
And, you know, he gets beaten up on this film,
and when he hits the deck, that's Chris hitting the deck.
And every day, gets up,
dusts himself off and goes back into the ring.
- What the hell just happened? -(CAR ALARM BEEPING)
-(SCREAMS) - Move!
HIDDLESTON: I remember Chris saying he went through 30 costumes
because they all got so ripped and torn and smashed to pieces.
FEIGEI Well, they did, (STAMMERING)
and what we just saw of Chris landing on the Mercedes and smashing it,
that was his idea two or three days beforehand,
and we rigged it to do that.
That's an example of this guy who's already beat up,
based on all the stunts he's doing,
and then has ideas for even further ways
for him to have to perform these amazing feats.
TAYLOR: The portals were set up with the idea that here, they start to pay off,
that a punch can throw you out of London
and onto the slopes of Svartalfheim.
You can drop out of one place and fly somewhere else,
so that it's really just two guys fighting,
but it's got the scale of the Nine Realms behind it
as we start to get crazier and crazier with our jumping around.
FEIGE: And now we have Thor and Malekith and his hammer
going back and forth between worlds.
Mjolnir, of course, going back to Thor,
trying to take the direct route through space.
We were finishing Avengers as we were prepping this movie,
and Alan saw a... Not final cut but a near-final cut of Avengers,
and of course, the final battle on that film is very, very large
with the aliens coming out of the portal in New York.
And he was very smart to say, "Let's not compete with that.
"Let's not have this be about armies of Dark Elves
"versus armies of Asgardians.
"Let's find something else that we can make just as spectacular,
"but very different, and much more clever and unique to this franchise."
So that was one of the reasons
the Convergence came up in the storyline,
which allowed us to do things like this
which we've never seen before in our action scenes,
going between these worlds.
What are you doing?
My signal's not connecting.
Jane!
Come on.
H I D D LESTO NI Jotunheim.
FEIGE: A surprise return to Jotunheim.
And a miniature version, a baby version
of the frost creature that we saw in the first film.
TAYLOR: Who not only becomes pan' of the mix here,
but if you stick around through all the credits
there's a final shot where he gets...
One of my favorite beats in the movie
involves this guy.
FEIGE: And a call back to the floating truck at the beginning of the film,
allowing Ian to have his heroic moment.
HIDDLESTONI With a Mini.
A good British product.
FEIGE: On each of our movies we like to do wrap gifts at the end of the movie.
Sometimes we give them out during post.
And we commission an artist to do an original poster,
and it's not ever something that's actually used in marketing,
it's just used for these gifts.
And the artist's name, Olly Moss, did it on the first Thor film
and again for us on Thor: The Dark World.
And what he did on this one was unique.
He made a primary one for the majority of the department heads
that featured Thor in the center of it.
But what he did for each of the individual cast was customize it.
So, you remember, you got one with Loki in the center,
Natalie got one with Jane in the center,
and Jonathan, who plays Ian,
got one with himself holding a Mini Cooper over his head
-in the center of it. -(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
That's Vanaheim, that's Jotunheim, that's Asgard,
and for the very first time, although we never say it, is Hel.
Seeing more of the Nine Realms than we've ever seen before.
That's Hel with one "L," Tom.
HIDDLESTON: Indeed.
FEIGE: There it is again.
HIDDLESTON: Do you think we'll see more of it one day, Kevin?
FEIGE: I think we could.
I think these little seeds are put into films
to see if the audience wants us to feed them and have them grow.
And this of course is showing the Aether not just endangering Earth,
but endangering all of the Nine Realms, as is Malekith's plan.
This shot to show Asgard in trouble,
but also to show that the Bifrost is offline
to explain why the Asgardians can't just beam... Zap Malekith up,
and out of harm's way, the way that happened at the very opening.
This shot, interesting because
it is composed of elements from three continents.
The background was Greenwich,
Chris was in Hong Kong, and Natalie and Ste/Ian were in Los Angeles.
HIDDLESTON: You'd never know.
FEIGE: And we changed this ending from what we had initially envisioned.
The face-off with Malekith is the same.
Thor going into this Aether dome, as we called it, is the same.
Putting himself into harm's way and willing to sacrifice himself is the same.
But initially he was gonna do it
by pulling lightning from all of the Nine Realms.
These portals are open so he could theoretically use Mjolnir
to connect it to nine bolts of lightning,
we saw him use one bolt on Svartalfheim unsuccessfully,
and he thought maybe nine would do the job.
And while visually it was cool, it didn't tie the story together,
and it didn't give Natalie and Ste/Ian
and Darcy and Ian's characters
as much of a purpose in the finale, or even in the whole movie.
So the notion was changed to the use of these gravity spikes
and these portals that Jane and Erik have figured out how to connect
and we were very pleased with this change
and the notion that, uh,
and allowing us this big heroic leap and spike into his chest,
which ended up being much more thematically in line
with the rest of the movie
and incorporating the science of all the characters.
And that without that science and without Jane,
Thor would not have been able to defeat Malekith.
HIDDLESTON: I heard there was a nice story,
and perhaps, Kevin, you can tell me if this is true,
that at one point in the story,
more damage to St. Paul's had been planned.
But St. Paul's Cathedral requested that St. Paul's stay standing because
actually when London was under attack in the Second World War,
St. Paul's was one of the only buildings that remained standing
and that they wanted to preserve that legacy.
FEIGE: That is true. I think it was Thor and Malekith
were gonna smash through that dome, along with some of those cars,
and instead a car just simply grazes the top and bounces off,
and they instead go into the street.
We like the...
Coming full circle now,
Malekith, who had sacrificed his people
in that suicide run at the opening
as he forces them to turn off the power to all of their Arks
and they crash down onto the Asgardians,
and now he's in that same field
where so many of his people had perished at his hand,
and he faces the same fate with an Ark smashing on him.
Tom, do you want to tell our American listeners about Shreddies?
(HIDDLESTON LAUGHS)
HIDDLESTON: Shreddies is a favorite British cereal
should one choose cereal as a breakfast dish. Um...
Grew up on Shreddies as a child.
I'm not quite sure exactly how they're made,
but they're very, very tasty indeed.
FEIGE: This scene was shot in Los Angeles.
And I leave it to the eagle-eyed viewers
to tell me if that's actually a British box of Shreddies
or some son' of American version of it, because I can't tell.
ODIN: You once said there would never be a wiser king than me.
FEIGE: Odin referencing a line from the last scene
between the two of them in the first film.
HIDDLESTON: Interesting detail about this scene.
Uh...
Chris Hemsworth's photography is shot in Hong Kong, I believe.
And Anthony Hopkins shot in LA.
And because of the nature of the scheduling,
I was able to read Thor's lines for Sir Anthony Hopkins in this scene.
I'd rather be a good man than a great king.
Is this my son I hear, or the woman he loves?
When you speak, do I never hear Mother's voice?
FEIGE: Now let's presume that the people listening to this
have watched the movie already
and this is at least their second time watching it.
I hope you haven't watched the whole movie for the first time
listening to us talk over it.
But this scene needed to work for first-time viewers
and for second- and third- and fourth-time viewers.
And people who've seen the movie already know, of course,
this is not really Odin sitting on the throne. This is Loki.
And every demeanor, and every move that he makes,
needed to work both for people that thought it was Odin,
as first-time viewers would, and also people who knew that it was Loki.
And this moment here,
looking at the pause that Tony does when Thor holds up the hammer,
and he says "it's yours,"
because Loki of course realizes, "I'm not gonna be able to lift it.
-"Just keep the damn thing." - HIDDLESTON: Mmm.
FEIGE: And also questioning why Loki is being so nice to Thor here.
Because what Odin is saying right now
and Loki, it is really Loki saying it, is quite kind. And quite nice.
And is leaving Thor feeling good about his standing with his father.
So has he done that because of how much he cares for Thor?
Or has he done that because he knows that's the best way to get Thor to leave
for a long time?
No.
Thank you.
HIDDLESTON: "Only one of you may ascend to the throne,
"but you were both born to be kings."
FEIGE: So, at the completion of three films,
it is revealed that, in fact,
-it has been a Loki trilogy all along. -(HIDDLESTON CHUCKLES)
That the little boy who was promised that he was born to be a king
at the beginning of the first film...
And learns the hard way that that was not true
over the course of that first film,
and has to let go and fall into the abyss,
and have a miserably failed attempt to get his own throne in Avengers
now has figured out a way to take it all without anybody knowing.
What happens next, Tom?
HIDDLESTONI You fell me.
FEIGE: I want everybody to notice all of these names,
because they have done the tremendous work
that has built this film, over the course of two and a half years.
These credits were also done by the fine folks at Blur
when we made a deal for them to do our opening Svartalfheim prologue.
They also asked if they could bid for the main-on-end titles,
and they came up with this, which we absolutely love
and it's one of the most unique ones we've ever done.
With Brian Tyler's soaring score.
We did a similar thing in Iron Man 3, what we call the Curtain Call,
main-on-end credits, where you get to see images
and you get to see the people that you've just enjoyed
over the course of the movie.
HIDDLESTON: I think these credits are spectacular.
FEIGE: And we end them again with Loki on the throne.
And then, a surprise.
You know, the best of the Marvel tags, for us, can do two things.
It can tie up some loose ends from the movie you've just watched,
and it can set up something to come in the Marvel mythology.
And this, of course, does both of those things
by cleaning up the fate of the Aether.
Clearly, Volstagg and the Warriors Three
went back to Svartalfheim,
got this, collected it, this dangerous relic.
We always assumed that Heimdall was the one who has told him
that you can't keep both of them together.
So to go and give it to the Collector.
And the Collector, as portrayed by Benicio del Toro here,
is a main character in Guardians of the Galaxy.
And there's the Aether.
And it's exciting because it's the first time we've had
a new character, a new star appear in one of our tags
really since Sam Jackson showed up at the end of the first Iron Man film.
So people who know who Nick Fury is could get excited,
but people who had no idea who he was but knew who Sam Jackson was,
would be curious, and would want to know.
And in the same way we hope some people will know this is the Collector,
most people will simply know it's Benicio del Toro,
and go, "What the heck is this?" and "Where the heck is he?"
And be curious enough to seek out those answers, which will lead them
to the August 2014 release of Guardians of the Galaxy.
"One down, five to go,"
revealing the six Infinity Stones that will serve...
Also revealing for the first time that the Tesseract,
the MacGuffin that bonded all of our Phase One films together
was, in fact, an Infinity Stone.
So all sorts of Marvel mythology going on in our little tag.
HIDDLESTON: When I first saw the film
and I saw the Guardians of the Galaxy piece, I was, um...
I speak as one who doesn't know the comic books,
those particular characters that well.
I do know Benicio del Toro
and of course I'd seen the footage that you showed at Comic-Con.
That little piece made me so excited to see James Gunn's film.
I can't wait.
FEIGE: That was the intention.
And we hope that it works.
All of these names, we could spend hours
talking about each and every one of them,
and the amazing contributions that they had,
but the credits only run about five minutes,
so we won't have time to do that.
HIDDLESTON: Does go to show, though,
what a fascinating jigsaw puzzle these films are.
So many people
working so hard in their separate departments
with their different skill-sets to make a great film.
And one of the great joys, for me, of being in these films
is working with people that have such high skill levels
in their specific departments. Um...
You really are working with practitioners in the film business
at the very highest level.
Makeup, hair,
production designers, carpenters, set decorators, stuntmen,
the camera team, the sound team.
It's, um, it's a team game.
And when you watch these films for the first time,
you feel such, such pride
that so many people have worked so hard to make something.
It reminds me of when I was a child and I first fell in love with the movies.
It's magic.
FEIGE: One of the reasons I like putting little surprises or tags
at the end of the credits of our films
is A, I want people to look at these credits (STAMMERING)
and appreciate all of the hard work that all these names have done,
or more likely, want to be interested enough
to learn what they do, and learn how they do it,
because that's how I got very interested in making movies.
When I was a kid, I used to sit through the credits all the time.
And a few times... You may recall Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Ferris popped up at the end, and I thought,
-"Wow! That's cool." - HIDDLESTON: Mmm. Yeah. Yeah.
FEIGE: And I think probably I spent three years after that
watching all of the credits
to learn and to appreciate what they've done,
but also hoping that there 'd be a little surprise.
HIDDLESTON: There'd be something at the end.
FEIGE: And there almost never was. HIDDLESTON: Yeah.
FEIGE: And I was an idiot by myself in the theater.
HIDDLESTON: I was the same guy, man.
(FEIGE AND HIDDLESTON CHUCKLE)
HIDDLESTON: I'm trying to remember some of the best
post-credit sequences now.
When did it start, do you think?
Was Ferris Bueller the first one you saw?
FEIGE: Well, that's the first one I remember.
I'm sure there's something that I'm not aware of
that happened beforehand.
There should be a website dedicated to post-credit scenes.
Supervising digital color is Steven J. Scott.
His name is buried deep within the end credit crawl,
but like many of the people deep within the credit crawl,
he is incredibly key to the look of this film,
and to most of the Marvel Studios films.
He does what's called the DI, the digital intermediate,
and brings the work of the cinematographer to life.
And has an artist's eye.
He's a very, very...
- Have you met him, Tom? -HIDDLESTON: I never have, no.
FEIGE: You're gonna come visit next time.
He's an amazing guy.
Special thanks to Stephen Broussard, Brad Winderbaum,
Jeremy Latcham, Nate Moore.
Those are the other executive producers at Marvel Studios
who make up pan' of the brain trust,
who were very, very helpful in the development of this film,
and in particular during post-production on this film.
And we're back.
We wanted to answer the question of where Thor went,
but after the Loki reveal, it wasn't appropriate to go right to this.
We wanted that reveal and that twist to sink in with the audience
over the course of the main-on-end titles.
But we wanted people to know that they were getting back together,
and having a passionate kiss,
which, now that people have seen the movie more than once,
we 'll reveal that this was shot in Hong Kong
with Chris's wife, Elsa, in a Jane wig.
And one last little joke, one last little gag
showing that we haven't forgotten about the Frost creature,
and that he's still running around there somewhere.
TAYLOR: The final shot is something I find very charming
that brings back that beloved creature from Jotunheim. Um...
But thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed it.
MORGENTHAU: Thank you. Hope you enjoyed it.
FEIGE: That's the commentary. Thank you very much. Tom, thank you.
HIDDLESTON: Thank you very much, Kevin.
FEIGEI Thor Will return. Will Loki?
HIDDLESTON: Who knows. FEIGE: That's the question.