THX 1138 - Production

Production

THX 1138 was the first film made in a planned seven-picture slate commissioned by Warner Brothers from the 1969 incarnation of American Zoetrope. Lucas wrote the initial script draft himself based on his earlier short film, but Coppola and Lucas agreed it was unsatisfactory, and Murch assisted Lucas to write an improved, final draft. The script included, for some of SEN's dialogue in the film, excerpts from speeches by Richard Nixon.

The script required almost the entire cast to have shaven heads, either completely bald, or with a buzz cut. As a publicity stunt, several actors were filmed having their first haircuts/shaves at unusual venues, with the results used in a promotional featurette entitled Bald: The Making of THX 1138. Many of the shaven-headed extras seen in the film were recruited from the nearby addiction recovery program Synanon.

Filming began on September 22, 1969. The schedule was between 35 and 40 days, completing in November 1969. Lucas filmed THX 1138 in Techniscope.

Most locations for filming were in the San Francisco area, including the then unfinished tunnels of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) subway system, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkeley, the San Francisco International Airport and at a remote manipulator for a hot cell. Studio sequences were shot at stages in Los Angeles, including a white stage 100 feet long by 150 feet wide for the 'white limbo' sequences.

The chase scene featured Lola T70 Mk.IIIs with dummy turbine engines racing against Yamaha TA125/250cc 2-stroke race replica motorcycles through two San Francisco Bay Area automotive tunnels: the Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda, and the underwater Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda. According to Caleb Deschanel, cars drove at speeds of 140 mph whilst filming the chase.

The chase featured a spectacular motorcycle stunt: stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton (credited as Duffy Hamilton), rode his police bike full speed into a fallen paint stand (with a ramp built to Hambleton's specification), flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne bike, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car that Duvall's character had escaped in - evidently the subject of a comment by Lucas detailing a "motorcycle disaster" during the filming. According to the film's commentary, everyone at the location was stunned and immediately ran in to ensure Hambleton was OK. According to Lucas, it turned out Hambleton was perfectly fine, apart from being angry with the people who had run into the shot to check on him; he was worried that they might have ruined the amazing stunt he'd just performed by walking into frame.

THX's final climb out to the daylight was filmed (with the camera rotated 90 degrees) in the incomplete (and decidedly horizontal) BART Transbay Tube before installation of the track supports, with the actors using exposed reinforcing bars as a ladder. The end scene, of THX standing before the sunset, was shot at Port Hueneme, California, by a second unit of (additional uncredited photographer) Caleb Deschanel and Matthew Robbins, who played THX in this long shot.

After completion of photography, Coppola scheduled a year for Lucas to complete postproduction. Lucas edited the film on a KEM machine in his Mill Valley house by day, with Walter Murch editing sound at night; the two would compare notes when they changed over. Murch compiled and synched the sound montage, which includes all the "overhead" voices heard throughout the film (radio chatter, announcements, etc.). The bulk of the editing was finished by mid-1970.

On completion of editing of the film, producer Coppola took it to financiers Warner Brothers. Studio executives there disliked the film, and insisted that Coppola turn over the negative to an in-house Warners editor, who cut approximately 4 minutes of the film prior to release.