Chain Reaction

Chain Reaction (1996)

Timing: 1:47 (107 min)

5.807/10
1203

6.258/10
10349

5.7/10
60000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 42

Actors and characters

Release date

1996-08-02

Country

United States

Production

20th Century Fox, 3 Arts Entertainment, The Zanuck Company, Chicago Pacific Entertainment

Genre

Science Fiction, Action, Drama, Thriller

Budget

$50 000 000

Revenue

$60 209 334

Website

Director

Andrew Davis

Actors

Keanu Reeves, Morgan Freeman, Rachel Weisz, Fred Ward, Kevin Dunn, Brian Cox, Joanna Cassidy, Chelcie Ross, Nicholas Rudall, Tzi Ma
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Arne Schmidt, Andrew Davis, Richard D. Zanuck, Erwin Stoff

Operator

Frank Tidy

Composer

Jerry Goldsmith

Artist

Ann Harris

Audition

Editing

Arthur Schmidt, Mark Stevens, Dov Hoenig
All team (147)

• The drawbridge scene, where Keanu Reeves' character flees from police, FBI agents, and Brian Cox's henchmen, was filmed over nearly a week at night in sub-zero temperatures.
• The explosion at the beginning of the film, resulting from a failed cold fusion experiment, was filmed using miniatures at an abandoned steel mill.
• The scene in which Keanu Reeves' character dodges a motorcycle at the last second was filmed mostly against blue screens, and the explosion effect was added during post-production. In some scenes, the actor was filmed in close-ups on a motorcycle attached to a truck.
• Shortly before filming began, Keanu Reeves suffered neck and back injuries while playing hockey in his native Canada. Due to these injuries, he gained some weight, which did not go unnoticed by the audience.
• Brian Cox later recalled that during the filming of one scene, director Andrew Davis told him and Morgan Freeman (who played Paul Shannon) to improvise, as no lines had been written for the scene. At that point, Freeman was so tired of the constant script rewrites and last-minute plot changes that he categorically refused. Cox made up a line and then simply started singing. The scene was later reshot.
• Nick Offerman had a cameo, but both scenes featuring his character were cut during editing (which he only discovered at the film's premiere); otherwise, 'Chain Reaction' would have been one of the first films in the actor's career.
• Scenes filmed in two Chicago museums (which are actually several kilometers apart) were combined during editing to present the viewer with a fictional museum located near Washington.
• The film features a 1976 Kawasaki KZ1000, a make and model chosen by Keanu Reeves himself. A total of five such motorcycles were purchased for filming and painted matte black to prevent glare.
• Mira Sorvino was initially cast as Dr. Lily Sinclair, but she left the project to film Ted Demme's melodrama 'Beautiful Girls' (1996). Rachel Weisz was cast in the role instead of Sorvino.
• Initially, Tommy Lee Jones was intended for the role eventually played by Brian Cox.
• In the shots of the drawbridge, immediately after the stuntman playing the police officer descends, the mats he landed on can be seen being pulled away.