'Game Of Thrones' Dragon Scene Was Inspired By 'Apocalypse Now'

Game Of Thrones' 'Apocalypse Now'-Inspired Scene

The loot train attack in Game of Thrones' season seven episode 'The Spoils Of War' - in which Daenerys and her dragon swoop in on Jaime Lannister and his army to rain down fiery hell - is a masterpiece in itself, and its director has revealed that it was inspired by another one: Apocalypse Now.

Director Matt Shakman told Goldderby that he wanted the audience "to see what war is like when it changes forever, like when a new weapon is produced," and went back to the napalm sequences in Francis Ford Coppola's classic.

"A dragon comes into it and then all of a sudden everything changes forever. I looked a lot at Apocalypse Now, where you are down on the ground with these poor villagers as this fire and napalm takes over."

 Shakman also remembered how he came to realise the magnitude of the attack sequence. "They make you sign all these NDAs before you get your script. Then they deliver the scripts to you and it’s like Christmas morning," he said. "So I’m reading through and I get to the ‘loot train battle.’ I’m flipping page after page after page, and it’s still going on. I began to realise the task that was ahead of me, and also the opportunity."

Emilia Clarke

 Despite feeling a bit nervous about the scale of the scene, Shakman recalled that fellow Game of Thrones director David Nutter told him ahead of shooting that, "You’re about the keys to the best Ferrari you’ll ever drive, and all they want you to do is put the pedal to the metal".

Game of Thrones Season 7

"As a director, you live for the opportunity to work on that level and that scale," Shakman said. "But also you’re bringing this big action sequence to life that has all these wonderful characters that you’ve loved for years coming together for the first time. So it’s unusual that it’s not just about Transformers tearing up a city, but it’s got real heart and emotion at the centre of it."

The scene set a record for the most stuntmen set on fire - a solid 73 overall, with 20 on fire simultaneously - but that wasn't an intention, Shakman says. "It sort of just happened. A battle like that, especially when you have a big visual effects dragon, can quickly become something that feels unreal. I wanted it to always feel particularly visceral. People on fire: there’s nothing more visceral than that. It also is one of the most dangerous stunts you can do."

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