Halfway there, Uncle Wolf suddenly flashed an awkward smile at Mavi and said, "Good afternoon, Chairman Mavi! I'm Hugh Jackman, it's great to meet you!"
In this life, Mavi's status and position were vastly different from his previous one. So he could completely and calmly chat with Uncle Wolf and Stephen Chow for a few sentences, without the excitement of an ordinary person who would rush up for a photo or autograph upon seeing a movie star.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Stephen Chow, Mr. Hugh Jackman, welcome everyone to Russia. This is the filming location for the X-Men promotional video. We'll start shooting shortly." After Mavi finished speaking, the Marvel Studios crew, along with their equipment, quickly and busily entered the set.
At the same time, Mavi's Russian bodyguards, wearing high-temperature fire-resistant suits and carrying flamethrowers and flame grenade launchers, also entered the set. That scene, just one set of Iron Man armor short, would have been invincible. It made Stephen Chow and his company employees, and even Uncle Wolf, who plays Wolverine, noticeably freeze up again!
"Fire? Flamethrowers? What are they going to do? They're not going to burn an American M1A1 main battle tank, are they?" a male executive from Xinghui Company asked in surprise from the crowd.
From the expression on his face, it was clear he was asking, "Is this how Marvel's special effects blockbusters are actually shot with real stuff?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Stephen Chow, Uncle Wolf, and the others standing around all wore stunned expressions as if they had never seen anything like it in their lives.
The flamethrowers carried by the Russian bodyguards used a four-tube launcher with one cylinder, loaded with 88mm incendiary rockets containing 0.89 kg of TPA (thickened triethylaluminum), with an effective range of 220 meters. A four-shot salvo could cover a burning area of 500 square meters and instantly shoot out high-temperature flames of 1650 degrees! This is enough to melt steel! (The melting point of ordinary steel is around 1500 degrees).
As for the Russian-made "flame grenade launcher," its power was even more ferocious! It was equivalent to an M14 incendiary grenade! Through an improved thermite mixture, this grenade could burn at temperatures above 2300 degrees! It could burn through several centimeters of homogeneous steel plate. It could even burn underwater, posing no problem for dealing with German Tiger II tanks.
"Alright everyone, please follow me and retreat to a safe distance. The following shooting may be somewhat dangerous. Please be sure not to run around. And also put on the sunglasses provided for viewing." Mavi said, gesturing for everyone to retreat behind the safety line. He had sunglasses prepared for everyone there.
The reason for using flamethrowers was that in X-Men, there are mutant humans who can control fire. A real tank engulfed in flames would definitely be a major highlight of the trailer, attracting viewers.
Upon hearing Mavi's words, everyone followed him instinctively and quickly left the scene as if their souls had been taken. This wasn't just "somewhat" dangerous! It was clearly extremely dangerous! Very dangerous! Are Russians all this tough... They're truly called the "Combat Nation" for a reason...
When everyone had retreated to the safe area, the promotional video for X-Men officially began shooting. Mavi, wearing sunglasses, saw the bodyguard in a silver high-temperature fire-resistant suit open the manhole cover of the flamethrower on his shoulder. He was waiting for Mavi's command to immediately start spraying and burn the tank.
At this point, Mavi took the walkie-talkie handed to him by a bodyguard and gave instructions to the set, "Okay, let's start."
As soon as he finished speaking, the fire-resistant suit bodyguard standing at the other end gave Mavi an OK gesture. Then everyone saw a huge, fiery red stream of flame shoot out from the flamethrower! It instantly surged towards the M1A1 main battle tank in front of it!
The terrifying image of the raging fire was like a Western dragon breathing flames! It heated the surrounding air to the point of distortion!
The 1600-degree high-temperature flames burned the steel on the M1A1's gun barrel bright red. After a short while, the points of contact with the flames gradually began to melt. The whole process looked like a softened rubber hose, making everyone subconsciously think that what was being burned wasn't steel, but something else...
Although Stephen Chow, Uncle Wolf, and the others were wearing sunglasses, judging from their facial expressions and slightly open mouths, they were clearly quite startled by Mavi's special filming method.
After a whole round of flamethrowing, the M1A1 main battle tank's originally straight and imposing steel barrel was completely burned into a limp, bent shape, no longer able to stand erect...
The scene was something that made you want to laugh but couldn't. On one hand, everyone was horrified by the powerful might of the flamethrower. On the other hand, they were amused by the limp, red-hot steel barrel to the point of being unable to look away.
Some of the men present even had the sudden thought of what would happen if "that part" of them was hit by a flamethrower... it probably wouldn't even be a roasted sausage, it would be directly cremated into ash... and gone forever.
Thinking of this, many men present felt a chill down their spines. They then watched as the red-hot softened steel barrel slowly turned from red to black, becoming solid again. The air was filled with a strange, acrid smell that none of them had ever smelled before.
"How's the footage recording?" Mavi asked into the walkie-talkie to the anti-riot photography team.
"Perfect, boss," came the reply two seconds later.
"Alright, then let's continue with the next round of shooting. Flame grenade launcher, prepare!" Mavi ordered through the walkie-talkie. Hearing this, Stephen Chow, Uncle Wolf, and the Xinghui Company employees standing nearby truly felt like a new world had opened up to them!
"This M1A1 main battle tank costs at least two million US dollars per vehicle, right!? Converted to Hong Kong dollars, that's 16 million! And they just melted it for a promotional video... How much did that cost!?" The Xinghui Company employees were absolutely amazed by Mavi's money-burning filming methods.
"Five main battle tanks are almost 10 million US dollars! That's already comparable to what we spent on Shaolin Soccer...?" a male company executive suddenly recalled and whispered to everyone.
Their Xinghui Company's investment in filming Shaolin Soccer, including actor salaries, only cost a total of 10 million US dollars (it wasn't released in mainland China at the time, so the box office results weren't ideal, and they didn't make much money). And the cost of the tanks for Mavi's movie promotional video was the same as their entire film's production cost... This is truly a case of comparing people and getting infuriated, making it unbearable to live...
What everyone didn't know was that these five M1A1 main battle tanks were purchased by Mavi at a low price from the Americans through his connections. They didn't cost him much money.
They were used at the filming location mainly because he wanted to see what it would look like when a tank is hit by thermite flames and a grenade launcher. Anyway, they would be used for the movie promotional video.
...
(End of this chapter)