by C. A. Taylor
The “Battle for the Wall” in Episode 409 was the most ambitious scene in the series to date, and director Neil Marshall returned to lead the charge. Filmed on three separate sets and with one being the largest set built to date, the action took place on every possible level.
While one whole cell of the Paint Hall was filled completely by the set for the top of the Wall, two more sets were to be found in the depths of Magheramorne quarry—Castle Black and the base of the Wall.
At night the base of the Wall was besieged by CGI mammoths and prosthetic giants, while the courtyard of Castle Black, perched high above, echoed with the sounds of battle as hundreds of extras, stuntmen, and cast fought for survival and the future of Westeros.
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NEIL MARSHALL (DIRECTOR): There was no way around the need for the set of the top of the Wall. We simply couldn’t achieve what we needed in some hole dug out of the ground. It needed to be all snow and ice, so it made sense to be built from scratch. We deliberately created something that was going to be horrible to fight in. We ended up with a huge set twenty-five feet off the ground. So if you weren’t about to fall off the edge, you were crushed into these tight trenches. Logistically, it was a nightmare to film on because the space is so tight. We didn’t make it easy for ourselves, but the effect looks amazing.
DEB RILEY (PRODUCTION DESIGNER): With the top of the Wall, the art department reference was the Somme. It’s something people are familiar with when they think of the horrors of war, so there’s a sort of instant recognition. It was interesting and humbling to see the way the men fought in the trenches and then made it their own—then play with how that might be done in the snow. I was also fascinated by the scale—the Wall is over seven hundred feet high, but how wide is it? What direction do certain things face? I also wanted to include the nonlinear lines of the zig-zag trenches, giving you an opportunity to be surprised by what’s around the corner.
TOM MARTIN (CONSTRUCTION MANAGER): This was by far one of the most challenging sets to complete. The set itself took up most of the space in the stage, built on top of a fourteen-foot steel frame that towered above the floor. Sculpted out of over four hundred blocks of fireproof polystyrene, it took twelve modelers six weeks to complete. Once the set was finished and plastered, over five tons of hot wax were sprayed on the walls, creating the same ice effect as in season three. To make the set look as real as possible, we used reclaimed timber to act as the supports in the trenches.
The size of the set also required one of the largest hand-painted scenic backing ever created in Europe—measuring sixty-five-feet high and over-three-hundred-feet long.
NEIL MARSHALL (DIRECTOR): Moving to the exterior location meant there was more scope for SFX. I like to be the person who pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved on a set. I wanted the scale of the stunts with the fire at the base of the Wall to be big. Ultimately, these guys are getting barrels of boiling oil dropped on them and that would be pretty nasty. We had amazing stuntmen who were able to be in the middle of an actual explosion and engulfed in flames. We only did it twice, but that was all that was needed.
STUART BRISDON (SFX SUPERVISOR): The explosion of the burning oil onto the mammoth was something that I worked on personally. After seemingly endless tests over two weeks, what we came up with was propelling the fuel forward and up from three separate points to create a wall of fire. Each point held within it three “mortar” pots holding 1.5 liters of fuel and a separate charge (nine all together). In addition we had three buried lots of a thickened fuel slurry, so that after it began to fall, you would have the flames falling through the air and littering the ground. This season we have reached new levels with the action sequences.
NEIL MARSHALL (DIRECTOR): From the beginning this was a much more complex proposition. “Blackwater” [Episode 209] was really one army getting in ships, landing on the beaches, and running for the gate—it was quite linear. The battle for the Wall is on two fronts: you have characters south of the Wall fighting a battle, an army to the north, and stuck in between are the defending forces. It’s really three separate groups to keep connected, but the distances are so vast. For instance, the Wall is supposed to be over seven hundred feet high, so no bow could reach the top—it keeps that group quite isolated. No one would be at risk. By giving the giants bows, it’s like bringing in the heavy artillery. They bring everything together. I have it so that a giant fires his bow, and the arrow is so powerful that it picks a guy up from the top of the Wall and deposits him in the courtyard of Castle Black in the middle of the fight there.
KIT HARINGTON (JON SNOW): To talk about the battle means to talk about how amazing the stuntmen on the show really are. The set pieces they come up with are remarkable. [Sword master] C. C. Smiff is so patient and enthusiastic. He knows there is no point in having a scene where the background actors are running around like headless chickens. He gives a huge amount of attention to the crowd performers. That’s as it should be in my mind—we are an ensemble.
NEIL MARSHALL (DIRECTOR): Kit had just come off a feature where he had spent months training in fighting techniques and was in peak physical condition. He’s got such a natural fluid ability, anyway; he’s like a young Errol Flynn. In terms of his character, I felt like we had spent three years building up Jon as a great fighter, so it had to be good. It was amazing being able to cut any restraints and see what he’s truly capable of.
DAVID BENIOFF AND D. B. WEISS (CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS AND WRITERS): We give Neil Marshall a limited budget and production schedule, and he somehow crafts a full-on cinematic experience. And he gets wonderful, emotional performances on top of it. The 360 shot. The Giant’s arrow carrying a hapless Night’s Watchman off the top of the Wall and into the courtyard. The dropping of the Scythe. The mammoth pulling the gates. Mag the Mighty charging through the tunnel. The shot of Jon Snow holding Ygritte in his arms. This may not be an action shot, but it may be our favorite shot of the entire season.
Ygritte dies in the arms of her crow.
NEIL MARSHALL (DIRECTOR): The 360 shot was something I wanted from the moment that I set foot in the Castle Black courtyard. To have something that is all-encompassing is much more visually interesting. I decided that the action would be choreographed around the edges, with some fighting in the middle. Similar to the giant’s arrow, I used the shot to track the positions of the main characters within the battle. Up until this point, we had seen them all individually, so essentially this tied them together geographically. We were incredibly fortunate. On the night of the shoot, we spent an hour rehearsing before getting it in seven takes.
BRYAN COGMAN (CO-PRODUCER AND WRITER): The ninth episode of season four is arguably our most action-packed episode yet, but it’s an emotional sucker punch as well with the death of Ygritte. From a story standpoint, I love it because it finally delivers on something we’ve been slowly teasing since the first episode: Jon Snow as hero. He really comes into his own. And it’s a major hour for Samwell Tarly, too, with John Bradley giving a knockout performance as Sam. But, in the end, this episode is a testament to our incredible, dedicated, tireless crew, who are the best in the business, period.
JOHN BRADLEY (SAMWELL TARLY): Sam’s journey with Gilly back to the Wall and escaping the White Walkers has put him in a real position of power with certain members of the Night’s Watch because he’s got all this knowledge. It’s as if he’s discovered his value, and it’s quite a unique value at that. Fighting is something that any number of people can do relatively well, but the academic elements are not.
KIT HARINGTON (JON SNOW): Jon’s never had much to lose, but by this battle he’s basically got nothing. He knows what he has to do to protect the people south of the Wall, and he starts to recognize that his love of the men and his ability to lead could allow him to follow on from Commander Mormont, even if it is out of necessity rather than desire.
JOHN BRADLEY (SAMWELL TARLY): When Sam first arrived, you couldn’t imagine him protecting anyone, but he’s tak
en care of Gilly and now Pyp turns to Sam for comfort and advice. Sam knows the odds are stacked against them, but he offers a sort of fatherly arm to reassure him. The instinctive feeling Sam has to take over rather than be deterred by his own lack of confidence is when he really shines.
The wildlings are engulfed in flames during the attack on the Wall.
CHILDREN OF THE FOREST: A BRIEF HISTORY
“The First Men called us the Children. We were born long before them.”
—Child of the Forest
The Child guides Bran and his party into the cave.
little is known of the “dawn age,” the time when Westeros was home to the Children of the Forest. For untold thousands of years they lived amongst the trees and worshipped the Old Gods, in the godswood, carving faces into the weirwood trees and living in harmony with nature.
Then, over twelve thousand years ago, the First Men crossed a land bridge from Essos and spread across Westeros. As the First Men cut down the trees for their settlements, they sparked a war with the Children of the Forest. For centuries, the invaders’ bronze swords clashed with the Children’s obsidian blades until a truce was brokered, and the two people signed an accord known as the Pact on the Isle of Faces. Peace reigned, ushering in the Age of Heroes, during which the First Men adopted the Old Gods as their own. Then, about eight thousand years ago, when the Long Night descended and the White Walkers invaded Westeros, the Children of the Forest and the First Men fought together to drive the undead wights back into the uncharted Lands of Always Winter.
A period of peace followed until the invasion of the Andals, who arrived about six thousand years ago. The Andals drove the First Men from every part of Westeros and brought with them the religion of the Seven, conquering all but the North and massacring the Children, who were seen as abominations. Believed to have been exterminated, all that seemed to remain of the Children was the faith of the Old Gods and stories of magic retained by the North and its people.
BRAN’S VISIONS
“He’s waiting for you. We have to find it. You need to make it.”
—Jojen Reed to Bran Stark
Ever since Jojen Reed first appeared with his sister, Meera, he has been helping guide Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) to follow his visions. The trio escape north of the Wall, but the small group’s battles are far from over—Jojen is weakening, and they have no clear destination. Bran is torn between the freedom he experiences when he wargs and inhabits his direwolf and the stark warnings from Jojen that Bran is losing his humanity by doing so. Then, in one moment, everything changes. While stopping to rest in a forest, Bran touches a weirwood and his visions descend—the past and present collide, along with a glimpse of the future. Bran is left with one final, frightening image: he now knows both the location they must travel to in order to meet his destiny as well as the sacrifice it will take to get there. The image he sees is of two distinctive, massive weirwood trees growing amongst four clear peaks.
When they finally reach their destination, it seems like the group might find refuge until, at the last moment, wights attack with a violence not seen before. To escape to safety, Bran must warg into Hodor’s mind once more to aid Meera in the fight, but Jojen cannot be saved and to prevent him from turning, Meera has no choice but to grant her beloved brother the only mercy left, a swift and clean death.
Bran’s visions and his powers become prolific.
ISAAC HEMPSTEAD-WRIGHT (BRAN STARK): I think the sad thing for Bran is that he would have known that this had to happen. As devastating and tragic as Jojen’s death is, it’s not something unexpected in this world, where so much requires sacrifice. He’s had to move on from his brother Rickon and leave Jon behind at Craster’s to reach this place. He knows he has to get to the place he has foreseen.
ALEX GRAVES (DIRECTOR): It was important to me that this scene be truly awful. The added element of having Meera kill her own brother to save the group, to have them running through the caves with this shadow over them, was great drama.
DAVID BENIOFF AND D. B. WEISS (CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS AND WRITERS): We don’t want to get into too much detail about why these are different, because . . . well, those are questions that the show itself will answer down the road. But yes, when he lost his legs, he gained something else. And that something else makes him a very important person.
— building the cave of roots —
To reach the end of the journey, Bran must continue alone.
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After a monumental struggle through the unforgiving landscape of the North, Bran Stark and his companions finally reach the home of his visions and the location of a mysterious power, found within the Cave of Roots. As they approach, the group is beset by wights, older and more grotesque than ever before, and the skirmish costs Jojen Reed his life. Afterward, the group is ushered into the cave by a Child of the Forest and guided to Bran’s destiny—to meet the Three-Eyed Raven.
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DEB RILEY (PRODUCTION DESIGNER): David and Dan really know what they want. It’s all about finding the right tone. We started by introducing a light source within the cave, but ultimately it looked too sci-fi, so we had to take it out. We have to keep the base of reality, the gritty, dirty feel of the cave—even though it is inhabited by a man woven into the roots.
TOM MARTIN (CONSTRUCTION MANAGER): This was a very interesting build that started on location in a quarry north of Belfast. We excavated hundreds of tons of earth to build the approach and the entrance to the cave. Then in the studio we built the tunnels leading to the main part of the cave. The tunnels themselves were over eighty feet long and built on different levels with a very wet and organic feel to the walls and floor. Our fantastic greens department spent weeks stripping and wire brushing thousands of individual roots before securing them to the walls and heavy-duty rigs hung from the stage roof. Once all of this was in place, the roots had to be individually painted to give a natural organic feeling to the set, but also to allow light to reflect off the roots, giving everything a fantastical look. The floor was then covered in a mixture of clay and compost and dressed with dozens of skulls and hundreds of bones.
MIKE GIBSON (GREENS DEPARTMENT): There was a bit of a struggle to find the right material—we could have created foam roots, but the cost would have been prohibitive especially given the size of the set. We discovered that rhododendron branches were perfect for creating the gnarled and twisted feel we were looking for. Rhododendron can be quite invasive to woodlands and has to be cleared. The site for another set gave us permission to take away some of their cleared branches. The next challenge was how these branches would be fixed onto the set as it was built. Basically, we suspended everything from the massive scaffolding that construction had built around the set. For three weeks, we had three guys and a truck driver collecting and delivering branches constantly from three different forests. Each of the roots was individually sanded, placed, and painted. The screws alone cost around a thousand pounds. On top of all that, the cave was then finished with twenty tons of soil and ten tons of rock.
ISAAC HEMPSTEAD-WRIGHT (BRAN STARK): That set is spectacular. Crawling through the bones was the coolest thing ever. I felt like I was on a heavy-metal music video set. It was one of my favorite moments of the season.
Bran and his party enter the Cave of Roots.
The Three-Eyed Raven woven in the roots.
— creating the three-eyed raven —
“I’ve been many things. Now I am what you see.”
—The Three-Eyed Raven
The weirwood tree—the end point of the journey of Bran’s visions.
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For as long as Bran Stark has had visions, he has been visited by the power behind the visions of the Three-Eyed Raven, which seems to guide him ever closer to a fate untold. Bran hoped that upon meeting the Raven, he might have the power to restore his ability to walk, but it is not to be. The only promise he makes to Bran is that one day he will fly.
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&nbs
p; BARRIE GOWER (PROSTHETICS SUPERVISOR): From the beginning, this character really got my juices flowing. I knew it was going to need the most collaboration between the departments because we were building this character into a set. The character is effectively suspended in a lattice of roots, so we needed to be able to keep the actor safe, but also make it possible for him to get in and out fairly easily between takes.
Early on, I was thinking about the work that Tom Savini did on all these classic 1980s horror movies, like Friday the 13th and Dawn of the Dead. Someone would be decapitated, or lying on a slab with their organs coming out, and the way that was achieved was to have a false body with a board positioned either under or behind. All the actor needed to do was put his head through a well-positioned gap. That’s what we ended up doing—the actor used his head, shoulders, and arms, but the rest of the body was fabricated and incorporated into the set. Our actor then climbed a ladder and slid into position. All we had to do was dress final branches around his body.
The set itself was one of the most gob-smacking sets I have ever been on. To be there, incorporating our work into it, was a huge moment for us. It can be a challenge to have to match something that is real, but on the day of the shoot, people were stepping around all the roots unsure of what was real or fake—it felt like a real success. The set was lit perfectly, and when they started to pump in the dry ice, it was like being in another world.
