Day 3

We are on location. The mini-bus takes us to a place up in the mountains. It is a semi-active Army base with miles and miles of empty space for shooting-in both senses of the word. When I arrive, First-unit shooting has already begun. We drive up a long path, which goes up a sharp incline. At the top is a large barbed-wire fence. There are some guards there and an enormous Chinese flag. Even with my grasp of geography, I realise we haven’t reached the Chinese/Kazakhstan border. When we get to the gate shooting is about to begin, so they do look angry that our bus has arrived. As we get waived through I almost check my papers and expect a mild beating.

Surveying the scene, our production people have built a dig site for an Archaeology sequence and a Chinese Army hut for two big stunts.

It is quite idyllic. It is October-the month the place is supposed to turn Siberian but lo and behold: We have sunshine and heat! We have an unblemished blue sky and a gentle breeze. I am circled by wild mountain puppies looking for scraps of food (honestly).
And we are here “to blow shit up!”


Our explosives man is a short guy called Vasko (helpfully people call him Vasko Boom!). He’s friendly, with a bushy grey beard-sort of an abbreviated Richard Attenborough; which is why he looks rather sweet with his rocket launchers, detonators and explosives.
His team are hard at work preparing the stunt bombs. These are a series of packages that look like Edam cheeses of various sizes. The biggest one is the size of a good melon. This baby is going to blow the Chinese officers’ hut: the money shot of the day.

Right now, I am waiting for instructions; they aren’t many extras on call (my main duty) so I am kicking my heels and the sun has made me mischievous. The action is being shot about half a mile away, over the hill. I get on the walkie-talkie the guy above me in the AD department:

“This is Johnny. Ok, so I have strapped all the explosives to my waist, what should I do next?”

“Er, just come here.”

He can’t have understood me. Perhaps I will get fired. Kylie is on the radio.