♪ (UNSETTLING MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
♪ (DISCORDANT MUSIC) ♪
(HEAVY BREATHING)
It was a real back and forth
about who would be
on this mission,
who wouldn't be on this mission.
The Dirty Dozen obviously
 came to mind.
Everybody has a good reason
to hate everybody else.
DAVID BENIOFF: I mean,
 it's definitely got that,
you know, gathering together
these kind of misfits.
A bunch of our
favorite characters,
many of whom have never been
onscreen together,
 but who all find themselves
 at the end of the world
 for one reason or another.
 So, getting Tormund back
 in the picture, The Hound,
and Jon and Beric and Jorah, uh,
it's a fun group.
D.B. WEISS:
 The sequence of it is so
well-conceived on a visual level
by Alan and his team.
 To do that with hundreds
 of people and weather
 and visual effects and fire,
 with lots of moving parts
 and still... have that sense
 of artistry about it,
 takes a different level
 of directing it.
ALAN TAYLOR:
 Three, two, one... action!
TAYLOR: Our story
 is seven guys on a rock,
 being attacked by Whites,
 and trying to tell
 a clear story of...
you know, your task is to defend
the perimeter and as you lose,
 your perimeter is gonna
 fall back and fall back.
 And how do you kind
 of hold order
against just pure chaos?
It's, you know, hurting kittens.
It's, um... (LAUGHS)
 You can't see anything except
 people whacking each other,
 um, and it takes
 some effort to...
talk to the cast to sort of say,
"No. The story is, here's a line
and we have to show that
it's not being broken,
 or that it is being broken.
It was important to create
a situation where you,
 I'm hoping,
 the audience will think
 that one of our
beloved characters is gonna die.
I mean, we wrote it and we were
watching it, and I was thinking,
I was like, "Holy shit!
Tormund's gonna die."
But it, somehow, he managed
to override my rational brain
and make me think that Tormund
was gonna die.
No matter how great your
visual effects are,
or your... your art department
and everything,
there's just nothing quite like
 the real thing,
 if you can find it.
Iceland exists and it's real
and it's cold as hell
 and it's beautiful and...
there's just nothing like having
 that reality onscreen.
WEISS: It doesn't look like
 anywhere else.
 Half the time,
 it doesn't even look real
and I worry that people
are gonna think
the blues of those glaciers are
 some kind of cheap
 special effect.
The more spectacular-
looking it is,
 the more difficult it is
 to shoot there.
KIT HARINGTON:
 I think there's, um...
it's a sort of kick-bollocks
scrambleness to...
 filming out here where you,
you have such limited daylight.
And you have conditions which
are like this or worse.
 It just gives it a sense
 of reality, you know.
In the world of Thrones,
it's great coming into
these landscapes
 that just really kind of...
 are back in time
and take you to something very,
very brutal and barren.
There's an extent to which
nothing ever surprises you
on this job anymore.
But this, you still can't help
but be impressed by this.
I mean, it's nuts.
You can't get to this location
without literally monster jeeps.
 It's a hell of a way
 to go to work.
The Icelandic technical crew,
setting up the base camp,
 have to have everything,
 uh, ready
 and they have to do that,
 obviously,
 under cover of darkness.
So, the crew, when they arrive,
 everything is ready to go.
BENIOFF:
 We're shooting the glacier,
 everyone's got the crampons
strapped onto their boots
because otherwise, you'll slip
and, even with the crampons,
we had a bunch of guys falling
 and banging themselves up,
but luckily no major injuries
this year.
TAYLOR:
Three, two one, action!
What we had to go through
to get the zombie polar bear
was writing the zombie
polar bear into every season
of the show for about
four seasons.
We thought they'd be so excited
to do a zombie bear. And uh...
And it was kind of like,
"Oh, my God, they're serious
about doing this
fucking zombie bear."
Only to have Bernie and
the visual effects guys tell us,
in the nicest possible way,
"Fuck you. We cannot afford
a zombie polar bear."
 This year made perfect sense
 that you could have
 one of these things out there,
 and we really put
our four feet down and we said,
"Goddammit,
we want a zombie polar bear."
-(GROWLING)
-(MAN SCREAMING)
RICHARD BRADSHAW: We looked
 at some of the, uh, the...
 the beats,
 the way the polar bear...
in the... in the previews that
we've got,
 how it swats the guys away,
 how it picks someone up
 and shakes him around, um...
and then we get our wires in
and start rehearsing with guys,
 using different methods
 to pull some around
and get me the right body shapes
 and the right energy.
Everything's made sure
it's super safe first.
We test everything over
and over again, um...
 usually with a white badge
 and when we're happy
 that it's safe to have
someone on, we get someone on...
-(ZOMBIE POLAR BEAR GROWLING)
-(SWORDS CLANGING)
BRADSHAW: We were holding
 the flaming sword in the jaws
 of this thing,
 so the big guy was able
 to move the head around,
 which was something
 for our actor on the floor
 to work against.
I've never really worked
with this...
 ping pong ball thing and
 pretend that's a bear and...
 I've had people going,
 "Oh, when I come towards you,
 I'm a bear."
No, you're not. (LAUGHS)
Your name is Toby.
TAYLOR: And... action!
(ZOMBIE POLAR BEAR WINCING)
Most of the heavy-lifting
of the sequence,
that was all in Wolf Hill Quarry
 in Belfast.
It's one of those things where,
you know,
when you film something
in another location,
 then you're responsible for
 finishing that location
 off somewhere else.
 You have to really do
 your homework and try
 and make sure that you match
 it as best you can
 so that then Alan would have
an entrance for the characters.
 When you stand up on the top
 and look down,
it was like we were building,
I don't know, an airport
or something.
 The scale of it is enormous.
We built nature. (LAUGHS)
 You know, sometimes I walk
 out there and think
 we're crazy people.
We had a very tricky time
trying to work out
what a frozen lake looks like,
and how we can achieve that.
 And that went from compacted
 quarry floor to...
putting concrete down, to nice,
 flat finish,
 and then there had
 to be hues of color
 that were added to that.
 Then we had to work out
 how the ice would look,
 trying to make that look
 three-dimensional,
 and as if it was
 transparent ice.
 All these things were
 really, really tricky.
(ICE CRACKING)
Stop!
(PANTING)
(ICE CRACKING)
We paint the cliffs
a little bit,
and then we snow
the cliffs a lot.
Three and a half thousand
bags of snow
through six machines
with 15 guys.
 We're constantly re-dressing
 it and adding to it,
and every day we have to scrape
 it off and start again
 the next day and...
 Yeah, it's full-on.
It's a really cool set.
Like, it's a bit-- It's
an amazing set.
They... They cemented
a whole quarry to flatten out
 to make it look
 like an ice lake.
The amount of workmanship
is incredible.
and I mean it really...
We've had to run across the ice.
 It just looks so real,
 it's fantastic.
I thought it was a real lake,
and then I understood that
 they have made this
 for this sequence.
I-- It blew my mind.
This amount of people...
When... When the camera rolls,
everything just sort of
 comes together precisely
 at the right time.
JOE BAUER:
 Original intention was to
 dig out the areas on location
 where people would need
 to fall through the ice,
and then it became clear
to everyone that probably
the temperatures were gonna
be so terribly cold.
We figured out if we use
motion control,
 then we could achieve it
 on stage.
When the Whites fall through
the ice, we-- we're doing it
 as a separate set pieces,
 and then building rigs
 to drop underneath the ice
 to take away the actors
 and then allowing them
 to drop through.
BAUER: You know, even though
 we've got ten guys falling in
 while the camera is moving,
 by the time we're finished,
we've got a hundred guys falling
 in and the camera's moving
 five times as far.
Everyone's always like,
"Aw, you get to shoot
in a tank. Great!"
 No. It's end of the season
 and I get plunged
 into cold water
 with full costume on.
 It's been miserable.
(LAUGHS)
(GRUNTING, GROANING)
KRISTOFER HIVJU:
 When you're in the middle
 of a fight, you need
 to have all your adrenaline
 on a maximum,
so I had to keep pumped up
and ready, uh,
in five to ten seconds,
and then calm the fuck down
very fast.
(LAUGHS)
You've got to loosen up.
You got to be ready for a fight
with a big Norwegian.
They were both looking...
(SCREAMS)
(GRUNTS, GROWLS)
Even the actors were so into it.
They were... (GRUNTS, GROWLS).
(LAUGHS)
One of our heroes gets
chased to the top of the island.
 The higher edge is
 about eleven foot
 from the frozen lake.
Big trust thing goes on,
falling into the guys,
the guys are catching me
off the end of the rock,
 opposed to, uh, where you'd
 normally be falling
 into boxes or an airbag.
(SNARLING)
(ROARS)
STEVE KULLBACK:
 Well, it's funny how times
 have changed.
 In season two, the dragon
 was riding on Dany's shoulder,
and now Dany's riding
on the dragon's shoulder.
And when Dany gets on and off
the dragon,
it's sort of like wheeling
up the stairs to a 747.
 We've modelled the dragon
 and then laser-cut
 this full-scale, giant piece
 of polystyrene to create
a section of the dragon's
back that is living
 on the island
 at the frozen lake.
I've got a bit of claiming
to do on that contraption,
 with a person on my shoulder,
 and I just thought
I can do it.
 Well, I've never flown
 a dragon before.
 I'm sure we're fine.
 Just hang on.
(GRUNTING)
KULLBACK: This year,
things are a little bit beefier.
We have a bigger motion base,
we have a bigger bot.
WEISS: It's a lot harder,
 especially for Emilia.
It's one thing to act
in a room with somebody,
and to draw on this--
your considerable resources
 as an actor.
 It's another thing
 to have a situation that's
supposed to incorporate
the same level of emotion,
but in the most
artificial environment
 you can possible imagine.
 It's the opposite of walking
 in costume through Iceland.
EMILIA CLARKE: You know,
the harder the challenge,
the more I relish it.
But this...
This, really, you're like,
"Can I just even maybe have,
like, you know...
like a screen...
with, like, clouds
or something?"
 Like, I've never flown
 on a dragon!
And to just harness that power.
I mean, can you even imagine?
BAUER: The fire column
 slicing the ice,
 we wanted to make sure
 that it looked like
 a cutting torch,
 and it's exploding the ice,
 um, atomizing the ice
 immediately, so we worked
 with Sam's team again,
 and when you see it,
 you know, it really...
 is awesome.
(DRAGON WHIMPERING)
(DRAGON GROWLS)
We knew that the Night King
would see and seize
this opportunity,
and like to think that
when the dragon dies,
 that it's kind of
 a nice 1-2 punch.
 Because on the one hand,
 you're just seeing the horror
of one of those three...
The three only unique,
amazing beings like this
in the world, uh...
going under the water
and not coming up again,
 and you're processing that,
 then you're processing
 something that's even worse,
 which is when it comes
back out from the water again,
the eyes of the White Walkers
 and the Whites have been
 such a prominent feature
of the show, and a lot of work
has gone into the specifics
 of how the eyes look, and...
And to see that hopefully
iconic image, at this point,
 blown up to the size
 of, you know, a beach ball,
 uh, that seemed like it was
an inherently, crowd-pleasingly
 "Oh shit!" moment
 for everybody.
