Even Henry, face-down with his face buried in the leather seat, heard the director's dissatisfied shout.
He could only pull himself out of his sprawled position, jump out of the car, and see what the director was unhappy about.
There was no need to ask. The director said excitedly, "You can't just dive out. You need to do a flip in midair, like you jumped too late and got blasted away with the car, then roll into the back seat of the other car."
This... Henry was left speechless. But the just as expected expressions on the people around him made him understand even better why the previous stuntman had quit.
Jumping out of a car during an explosion with safety measures that were barely reliable was dangerous enough, and now they wanted him to add a flip on top of that!
If I weren't a Kryptonian, I'd kill this director first!
But as one of Hollywood's most powerless bottom-tier actors, Henry obviously could not give up an opportunity he had fought for himself. Even if it meant doing it with tears in his eyes.
He was not going to cry, of course. Henry first put on an aggrieved expression. Then, encouraged and egged on by the director, he climbed onto the car window again, performed a forward flip, and landed in the back seat of the convertible.
This time, the director happily shouted, "Yes, yes, yes! That's it. Let's get ready to shoot."
Qian Ning hurriedly soothed him. "Wait, wait a moment, Director. Let's do a moving test jump and add the safety gear. You can stand at whichever camera position you want and see how it looks."
"Oh, okay. Let's do that. One more test." The director, whose brain had finally come back online, compromised.
For the moving test jump, the director took his place on the safety vehicle, standing in the bed of a pickup truck. Naturally, they strapped the safety cable onto Henry and adjusted it to the proper length.
Before setting off, the two safety crew members gave the cable a test pull to make sure they could hoist Henry up in an emergency rather than let him tumble across the road.
Qian Ning personally drove the brown car, while the convertible driven by the female lead was handled by her stunt double.
For a stunt performance that required the vehicles to maintain stable speed and direction, nobody took that decorative female lead seriously. It was much safer to let her dedicated double take the wheel.
That female stunt performer was part of Qian Ning's action team and specialized in doubling for female leads. Besides being able to perform all kinds of stunts, her driving skills were beyond question.
Unlike other teams, which did not have skilled female stunt performers. Most of the time, they had smaller male stunt performers put on women's clothes and stand in for the female lead during stunt shots.
Henry's moving test jump was the same as his stationary one. He did a forward flip and landed steadily in the convertible's back seat.
There was only one small problem: the safety cable. Since it started out slack, it could easily whip around in the air.
To avoid getting tangled in it midair, Henry waited a moment after the cars reached their set speed. He jumped at the right time, dodged the whipping cable, and flipped into the other car's back seat.
That brief wait made Qian Ning mistakenly think Henry was not fully confident. Even though the director was extremely excited after watching the complete sequence and said it was exactly what he wanted.
Before the real take, the action team's prop crew gathered around the brown car loaded with explosives, making final checks and adjustments, including the speed-control device and steering control.
The director also went around checking the camera placements to ensure every shot he wanted would be captured.
As the boss of the action team, Qian Ning quietly pulled Henry aside and said, "You hesitated just now. Are you sure you're okay?"
Henry did not think there was anything wrong and replied confidently, "No problem."
People in their line of work feared a lack of confidence most of all. Although nothing in Henry's expression suggested there was a problem, Qian Ning still said, "If you're not sure, use your own way to jump into the red car. Don't worry about the director's demand for a flip or anything.
"You only get one chance. Whatever footage he gets is all he can use to edit the movie. Even with safety measures in place, I don't want this to be our only time working together. Do you understand what I mean?"
"I understand. Don't worry, Boss Qian Ning."
Though that was what he said, Henry firmly believed this would probably be his only collaboration with Qian Ning's team.
Even if he wanted to perform stunts, he did not want to stay with this third-rate team. If he were not a Kryptonian, he truly would not have dared perform using the plan they had designed.
Thinking about similar collaborations in the future, he would rather obediently become a background extra. Staying under Qian Ning, the chances of his superpowers being exposed seemed a little too high.
Still, Qian Ning's willingness to say those things showed that he knew how to look after people.
After every aspect had been checked again and again, it was finally time for the real take. Henry was already sitting on the rear window frame of the driverless brown car.
"1, 2, 3, Action!"
At the director's command, the most expensive shot in this B-movie officially began filming.
The uncontrolled brown car rapidly accelerated to its target speed, while the red convertible, under the female stunt performer's control, smoothly drove alongside it.
Facing the wind, Henry quickly adjusted his posture, gripping the roof behind his back with both hands. Facing outward, he moved both feet onto the frame of the open window.
As they passed the first marked roadside tree, he suddenly leaped forward.
Just as his feet left the window frame, the vehicle passed the second marked tree. The demolition expert in the control center activated the wireless detonator.
At the same time, the ground-mounted launching mechanism had already activated when the front wheels rolled over it. When the rear wheels hit the device, the back of the car was immediately launched upward!
The explosives and flame devices beneath the back seat and in the trunk activated by remote control, blasting out a ball of fire.
At that moment, Henry lowered his head in midair, tensed his back and abdomen, and rolled forward. It was as if the car explosion had propelled him, sending him flying away.
That blast made Henry realize that movies showing a grenade blowing someone several meters away were absolutely exaggerated.
In any case, the large explosion behind him did not affect his posture in the air much. Just like during the test jump, he landed steadily in the convertible's back seat.
The only difference was that some burning fuel had splashed onto his pant leg, forcing Henry to hurriedly pat it out.
After getting clear of the brown car's blast radius, the red car braked sharply. Several people rushed over carrying fire extinguishers to put out the burning brown car, while another ran over to extinguish the flames around Henry's feet.
With that, the shot was complete. The director shouted in wild delight.
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