Take a Look Inside the VFX of ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’s Crazy Midair Plane Battle
One constant in every Marvel movie is the crazy battle sequences on top of objects that have no business being jumped all over. In Spider-Man: Homecoming, that was the scene on top of the invisible plane during which the Vulture tries everything he can to knock Peter Parker into the air while they’re both being buffeted by wind and parts of the plane’s engines. A new VFX video from Imageworks, the studio behind Homecoming’s special effects, breaks down the mechanics of the battle and how they made that invisible plane look so realistic.
One cool thing about this Spider-Man movie in particular is how realistic everyone’s movements look — even someone like Vulture, who’s constantly hampered by those giant wings of his. While I personally have never seen two people duking it out on top of an airplane before, it’s easy to convince yourself this sequence is taking place hundreds of feet in the air; it barely looks like any CGI was added.
The video also goes into how they came up with the design for the plane, using today’s cloaking technology to draw up a vehicle with a surface made out of interlocking LED displays, each attached to feed from a number of cameras mounted on its surface. Having an invisible plane in a movie is one thing, but having an invisible plane that looks like it could actually be the real deal is way cooler.