Needless to say, it’s incredibly easy for things to go wrong when it comes to a big-budget movie that uses props as complex as vintage locomotives, as director James Mangold discovered firsthand when filming his brilliant remake of the classic Western 3:10 to Yuma.
At the climax of the film, the title train pulls into town and a shootout ensues involving most of the main characters, all while the aforementioned vehicle continues to slowly move forward in the background.
But that wasn’t the original plan: In the DVD commentary, Mangold confirmed that the weather was extremely cold while the sequence was being filmed, posing a serious risk that the train’s engine would freeze up and refuse to start again if it was turned off.
And so Mangold had to keep the train running in the same spot throughout the entire shoot to keep it warm.
And rather than digitally erase the steam at great expense in post-production, Mangold went for it, asking his sound design team to add a hypnotic, heartbeat-like sound of the idling train in the background, underscoring the entire scene.
Given that the film received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Mixing, it was clearly the right choice.
