Sinners

Earning the most Oscar nominations of any film in history, Sinners follows the story of twin brothers Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack” Moore (both played by Michael B. Jordan) as they return to their hometown to pursue their dream of opening their own juke joint. They discover a greater evil is waiting to welcome them back, both in the form of cruel inequalities in 1930s Mississippi and a vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell).

ILM contributed to the film for two key sequences: the near brush with death with the rattlesnake, and the train arriving at the Clarksdale depot, carrying Hailee Steinfeld’s pivotal character, Mary.

For the rattlesnake scene, in which the twins discover a reptile lying in wait in the back of their truck before Smoke stabs it and tosses it from the truckbed, the ILM team took a lot of instruction from writer/director Ryan Coogler. An avid snake collector, he knew a lot about their habits and appearances. ILM’s animation team spent a fair amount of time studying reference imagery of snakes to understand their attack form, allowing the team to nail the realistic movement as it strikes.

ILM’s work on the train arriving at the Mississippi station evolved from environment extensions of the Clarksdale train depot to creating an entirely CG train for the shot. The work required extensive research, with the production collaborating closely with the art department to design concepts that would then serve as the basis for the broader environment design, as well as poring over real-world photographs of the Clarksdale station in the 1930s.

ILM’s contribution to the film was recognized at the 24th annual VES awards, with a win for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature. The work was completed at ILM’s Vancouver studio, with the team led by ILM visual effects supervisor Nick Marshall, executive visual effects producer Michelle Eisenrich, and visual effects producer Alun Cummins, in partnership with production visual effects supervisor Michael Ralla and production visual effects producer James Alexander.

Sinners is available to watch on HBO Max.