Life in the big city can be tough. It’s even tougher when the city is trying to eat other cities for lunch. That’s the premise behind the new film “Mortal Engines.” City slicker Chris Van Vliet is here to explain.
In real estate, they say it’s all about location, location, location. Well in “Mortal Engines,” you don’t just move, the entire city moves with you. I moved myself over to L.A. for the weekend to talk to the cast.
In “Mortal Engines,” the world looks a lot different than we’re used to. It’s a few hundred years after civilization is nearly wiped out completely and those that are left have adapted to putting their cities on wheels.
Hugo Weaving, actor: “The people who did survive the cataclysmic event had to start moving and this idea of not just the survival of the fittest, but the survival of the fastest.”
Hugo Weaving (as Thaddeus Valentine): “The man who controls this controls the world.”
Hugo Weaving plays Thaddeus Valentine and he has his own plans for these predator cities, plans that don’t help anyone but him. It’s up to our heroine, played by Hera Hilmar.
Hera Hilmar, actress: “I think it’s her fierceness more than her physical power that is her strength, and that’s where I spent the most time researching her.”
The scope of this movie is massive, I mean, these are huge cities that are able to cover a lot of ground very quickly.
Chris Van Vliet: “When you walked on the set for the very first time, what was going through your mind?”
Hera Hilmar: “Woah, like that kind of a woah. Not like wow. It’s just like…”
Jihae Kim, actress: “…Jaw dropping!”
Robert Sheehan, actor: “They went to town with the sets, man. Huge complex things!”
Hugo Weaving (as Thaddeus Valentine): “In the great game of survival, this is checkmate.”
The movie is set thousands of years in the future and because of that, they call the technology we have today old tech.
Chris Van Vliet: “What piece of technology that we have right now do you think that we would look at in the future and go, ‘That thing was ridiculous.'”
Robert Sheehan: “A whisk!”
Leila George D’Onofrio: “Do you not think that people will eat eggs in the future?”
Robert Sheehan: “Eggs will be banned!”
Stephen Lang: “Do you know how when you buy cheese and they individually wrap every slice?”
Chris Van Vliet: “Yeah.”
Stephen Lang: “I don’t get that at all.”
Hera Hilmar and Jihae Kim: “Segways.”
Hera Hilmar: “Cellphones, I think, are the more dangerous one, but the Segways can kill you too.”
Chris Van Vliet: “Segways and cellphones.”
“Mortal Engines” is out in theaters on Friday.
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