Breaking Down the Fanny Pack-Fu in Everything Everywhere All at Once

Sometimes issues that make stereotypes ugly must be made highly effective. In Everything Everywhere All at Once, the Daniels (administrators Daniel Kwan and Daniel Shneirt) have confirmed that they don’t care about stereotypes, they usually could have you ever questioning why one thing as ubiquitous as a fanny pack turned a supply of ridicule.

“The fanny pack is such a derisive image for stereotypical Asian dad tourists, complete with the camera around his neck and high socks,” Kwan defined in an interview with io9. “And I saw that. That was my dad. That was his outfit any time we went to Disney World or to the beach, so [with this scene] we asked: why don’t we take the fanny pack and make it this amazing, powerful, fun weapon?”

In the arms of Waymond Wang (Ke Huy Quan), the fanny pack turns into lethal, thanks in no small half to Andy Le and Zak Stoltz. Le has labored on martial arts-heavy films like Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and is one-third of stunt group Martial Club alongside together with his brother, Brian Le, and Daniel Ma. Stolz is an business vet who was the visible results supervisor for Everything Everywhere, and coordinated between set and editorial. They sat down with io9 to speak concerning the fanny pack combat, which happens about half-hour into the movie.

It begins with Waymond wanting up, after which a sluggish pull again. “A lot of kung-fu films have these moments of realization,” Le says. He would know. He’s watched a whole lot of those movies, and he used all of them to assist construct out the combat scenes, working with the Daniels and the stunt coordinator to create choreography that will emphasize these references. “There’s a focus on the eyes and then this wider scope of the battlefield.”

A safety guard steps ahead to calm Waymond down—the guard’s performed by Brian Le, Andy’s brother. Waymond’s fanny pack comes unhooked and drops down into the body. It’s nearly like an anime scene, full with a bit fuzzy keychain. (Personally, I’m reminded of the early episode Naruto combat when Rock Lee drops his weights through the combat with Gaara.)

Then we get just a few knuckle cracks, one other traditional kung-fu homage, and really shortly Waymond snaps the fanny pack out, smacking Le’s character within the head. Stolz is sort sufficient to level out that he did “very little VFX work in this scene. Most of these fights were captured in-camera. A lot of the edits we did were extensions,” he makes a movement, spreading his arms, similar to Waymond does on display screen, “to make sure that the fanny pack actually hits people when it’s supposed to.”

“The way we went about this is by thinking about all the ways we could use a fanny pack as a weapon,” Le explains, as we get the primary few pictures of Waymond slinging the fanny pack, stepping backward as guards encompass him. Le is extremely gestural, transferring his arms and arms as if he has a pair of nunchucks in hand. “Over the shoulder, around the waist, around the neck… trying to turn it into something deadly.

“And here,” Le says, as we see Waymond holding the fanny pack in each arms, getting ready his horse stance, “is an homage to some other kung-fu films.” The digital camera is behind a safety guard as he unclips the holster to his weapon. “And we see this sort of wide shot all the time in samurai films that include a katana on the hip, and then we have this hard zoom in on the hero.”

This form of referential spin is emblematic of the movie. A nod to Wu-Tang movies right here, a Japanese samurai reference there, an anime reference in between. Everything Everywhere All at Once is an homage to all of these items, and extra. Even Le says of inspiration, “all these references are in my head. Hundreds of films. And I borrow from here, take from there and then put it all together with my own unique spin. I want to use everything I know to create a fun and exciting action scene.” After I point out that my life modified after I noticed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon after I was 10, he asks what references I noticed within the movie. I checklist Ip Man, Enter the Dragon, The Magnificent Butcher, Kill Bill. He appears glad that I do know not less than some kung-fu films, and I really feel a bit bit happy with myself.

Directly after the onerous zoom, a livid combat scene ensues through which Waymond takes on three guards directly. There’s one other strap extension that Stoltz factors out when he hits the feminine guard within the face. Le mentions that Quan did most of his personal stunts: “he would come in and practice with us for hours. He really wanted to get this perfect.”

There’s one other snap reduce the place Brian Le will get hit once more and there’s a little bit of a dust-up. “That’s added in,” Stoltz says, “just to add impact.” This is a number of what Stoltz and his workforce did, the tiny element work to make this scene look impactful. Relying on refined VFX makes this scene go from unimaginable to hermetic. The workforce is strolling a fragile stability between the film’s extravagance and the way managed all the things is once you seize it in-camera.

“Here’s a great example of how the Daniels have taken a series of classic shots we see in a lot of fight scenes and [made them] their own,” Le says. “There’s this moment where we get a view of a guard, the camera slides over to the gun on the ground, and then back up to [Quan].” It’s a slick digital camera pan, with no cuts between these glances, and it completely matches the narrative. We get this second of intense stress between these two characters and this object. Who brings a fanny pack to a gun combat?

“Every shot is catered to storytelling and efficiency,” co-director Kwan instructed io9 in a separate interview. “Whatever the punch is, whatever that moment of impact is, we have to reexamine it and think… ‘OK, what is the graphic novel version of this shot that will embrace and showcase this moment?’”

It’s simply after this excellent shot—when Quan jumps over a safety guard and lands on the bottom to do some fast kicking in a battle over the gun—that Le mentions he was the one doing that mid-air spin and a number of the tricker choreography with the safety guard. “There’s a face swap in there,” Sholtz says, “but a lot of the stuff on the ground was all wired. Quan did that second cut on a string, and we edited it out.”

There’s an ideal POV shot–the digital camera follows the fanny pack because it slings round safety guard Brian Le and wraps round his ankle. “Completely a Daniels shot,” Le says. A yank, a really glorious soar spin, some mud, and it’s over. Waymond steps again, slinging the fanny pack, as throughout him guards lie on the bottom, groaning in ache. And, lastly, a close-up on Quan as he channels a fully traditional Bruce Lee transfer from Enter the Dragon, slinging the fanny pack over his shoulder after which tucking it below, holding his hand out because the digital camera zooms in.

“We were so excited to get to do this on a slightly larger budget than what we’re used to,” Kwan mentioned. “The fun thing is that all those movies we loved growing up had no budgets either… so maybe the only version of this movie that could have worked is if we fully embraced old school techniques; low budget, but lots of creativity, thought, and care.”

“I think that the ability to unfilter yourself—to be unafraid to go wild with the props—like butt plugs, fanny packs, keyboards, is really what the Daniels get right about this film,” Le explains after we end watching the clip. “Old Hong Kong martial arts films are a spectacle. It’s rooted in Chinese opera, it’s theater. So you see in these old Hong Kong films, the camera would just pull back. It would be up to the actors to commit, regardless of the camera. There’s got to be a sharp rhythm to it. You can’t fake this kind of filmmaking.”

Everything Everywhere All at Once is in theaters now.

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