The new Netflix series “3 Body Problem” is the adaptation of a Chinese novel. The creators of the series faced the challenge of adapting a particularly difficult scene from the novel: In the “boat scene”, a ship traveling through the Panama Canal is cut apart by nanofibers. It slices through all aboard, thousands of people. The developers imagined the scene like a cake on a serving cart.
Body Problem.
This is the ship scene: We already talked about the boat scene on MeinMMO on March 25, which reminded us of the opening scene of the horror movie “Ghost Ship”:
- The “ship scene” is the central scene of episode 5 and is likely the scene that will stick in the minds of most viewers of “3 Body Problem”. It is visually and dramatically an impressive scene.
- A ship travels through the Panama Canal and is dismantled by tightly stretched, invisible nanofibers. The nanofibers come from scientist Auggie, one of the main characters of the series. The sinister government man Wade (cover image) is leading the operation.
- The all-cutting effect of the nanofibers and how they slowly, but relentlessly cut through the boat and the passengers are impressively portrayed.
The scene builds up further and further: While the deadly fibers silently cut through the boat, many victims do not realize the danger they are in. But even the few who see the disaster coming are doomed to helplessness.
The scene becomes particularly powerful because not only is there an oil billionaire and his assistants on the boat, but also children, who share the same fate as the intended targets of the operation.
More terrifying than in the book
This is what the creators say: David Benioff, known as the creator of Game of Thrones, told journalists in a discussion about the scene:
“We wanted to show it, we didn’t want to skirt around it. I think that seeing something on the screen is more terrifying than in the book. You read these descriptions, but you don’t see the blood. You don’t see children running away. You don’t see children’s backpacks being ripped in half.”
What most readers remember
Executive producer Alexander Woo explains how intricate it was to capture the scene as it is seen in episode 5. The filmmakers saw it as their duty to do justice to the source material and show at least what the readers envisioned in their minds:
“Even in the novels, it is described very clearly. For most readers, it is what they remember the most: the task was for us to achieve or even surpass what the readers imagined. We want to give them everything that the scene implies: just the logistics probably cost us more hours of blood and sweat per frame than any other sequence in the show.”
Where was it filmed? The actual Panama Canal was not used for filming. According to the creators, it was impossible after the Ever Given
incident at the Suez Canal.
Ultimately, they filmed at an Olympic rowing venue outside of London and made the scene “somewhat more tropical” in post-production.
Like a cake on a serving cart
This is how the creators envisioned the scene: Steffen Fangmeier, VFX supervisor, has an interesting comparison for the scene:
“Imagine you have a large cake that is being cut into all the different layers, on a serving cart, and you are pushing the cart. When it hits the wall, that is the moment when the layers begin to fall apart. The point of resistance stops the forward momentum and all the pieces suddenly realize: ‘Oh, I am still moving forward because I am no longer actually connected to anything.’
And that’s how we clarified it visually: The top layer goes first and thus relieves pressure from the lower layers and everything starts to slide.”
It’s nice to cut into bodies
How bloody should the scene be? This was an important topic for the creators of 3 Body Problem. Fangmeier says:
It’s nice to cut into bodies. Maybe just below the head. It got a bit gruesome, but not too much. It wasn’t too explicit – [not] like in Kill Bill 2. I still remember the scene: all arms are cut off. Blood is spraying. It got really graphic. And we definitely did not want that.
Judgement Day.
The good guys
kill thousands of people
What was dramaturgically important to the developers? The creators of the new Netflix series say it was important to show the emotional impact of the attack on “Judgement Day”, because ultimately it is “the good guys” here killing thousands of people. Therefore, it was significant to show the viewers what is happening: that thousands are being sliced apart.
For the scene to have the necessary dramatic effect, the impact on the main characters had to be shown:
“It was important to see Auggie’s reaction to what her technology, which she developed for good, has now done. We had to see Raj, who signed up for something without knowing what it was, and we had to see Wade, who I think was quite satisfied with what was happening.”
More about the ship scene
from 3 Body Problem and its impacts:
The new hit series on Netflix makes the best opening scene of a horror film even better
