♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
(GRUNTING)
Episode three was... Oh, my God.
As a fan I thought, "Wow."
As a DP, I thought, "Fuck."
(CHUCKLES)
 If you take Hardhome
and you take Bob,
and to take the lake,
 and you add them together,
 add a five-by-four,
you have episode three.
DUNCAN MUGGOCH:
 We had 11 weeks
 of night shooting,
so that was quite a feat
for any crew to go through.
DAVID BENIOFF:
 We knew this episode was gonna
 be almost entirely battle.
 It's well over an hour
 and it's mostly action.
And part of what we cared
about a lot here
was getting Miguel on board
 and forcing him to shoot
 55 straight nights.
Look at it this way:
I never ever
want to do that again.
I don't think anybody
who did that
ever wants to do it again.
 Yeah, that was tough.
 And I don't think
 it was something
that anybody really realized
just how hard it was gonna be.
EMILIA CLARKE:
 "The Long Night."
 When I was doing it,
 it was minus 14.
Just chilling. Minus 14.
 In a field.
You know, it's too cold to snow.
When it's too cold to snow,
you know you got trouble.
BERNADETTE CAULFIELD:
Chris and the rest of the team,
they were there day in, day out.
We would start your evening
at six o'clock at night,
and then you'd go home
at five o'clock in the morning
and it just-- That's brutal.
Your body never acclimates
to that 100 percent.
JACOB ANDERSON:
 By, like, week three, they...
people looked
slightly haunted.
 The cast, stunts,
 background, crew,
everybody just looked like,
this is...
This is, like, getting into us.
(CHUCKLES)
This is, like,
getting into our spirits.
I-- I'm not gonna lie,
it was horrible.
(CHUCKLES)
 We enjoyed the work
 and I said to my guys,
 "You know, you might not
 want to do it again,
 but you won't regret
 doing it the first time,
because the product,
what you've achieved,
is amazing."
CHRIS NEWMAN:
 I think the crew,
 they enjoyed the--
 The result is, you know,
 you didn't do
 all this and think,
"That's not really impressive."
There's no doubt about it.
It's really
an impressive sequence.
 And I think the nights
 are just one of the things
 we're gonna get through this.
 It's just another notch
 in the belt
 of the crew on Game of Thrones
 that they'd done things
 that feel quite unique.
MAISIE WILLIAMS:
 I'm proud of everyone.
I'm proud of the work
that was put in.
I think it was a mammoth task
that we were faced with.
 And we did it,
 and it just feels incredible.
That first week
after night shoots,
seeing the crew, like,
smiling at the sun.
What they went through
was pretty stunning,
and, look, it's not--
You know,
there's no special prize
for being the toughest crew,
but there probably should be.
D.B. WEISS:
 Working in the pitch dark
 in the rain, in the mud,
 it's a real testament
 to the entire Belfast crew,
who... gave us something
that no amount of money
could ever buy.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
The task that we had, which was
the primary task on three,
was how do we keep this
interesting?
 'Cause simply,
 battle fatigue, you know.
 You just get bored,
 you get exhausted.
We really wanted to make sure
we were telling
a coherent story
with the whole thing
and not just having...
 battle-beat, battle-beat,
 battle-beat.
There needs to be a shape to it
 and a propulsion to it.
DAVE HILL:
It became clear when we started
 planning it,
that the battle was gonna be
a series of concentric circles.
It would be
walls of defenses failing,
 and the dead getting closer
 and closer to the center,
 into the heart of Winterfell
 and taking over everything.
The way that I concepted
episode three visually,
 was to create a color scheme
 that developed throughout
 the whole episode.
 So, it starts with
 a moonlit night...
 because the Night King brings
 the storm and the clouds.
 The moon becomes dissipated
 and the moonlight takes over,
 but in a very diffused
 kind of way.
(SHOUTING)
And then the next stage would be
the trench going up.
(INDISTINCT DIALOGUE)
 We wanted the trench to be
 this overpowering light.
 And in prep for a long time,
 Miguel always mentioned
 hell to me.
It's turning into Hell
for each character.
 So the blood-red fire
 of the trench
 takes over the image and...
 completely drains out the blue
 of the moon until the end,
 because the trench
 is dying down.
 The moonlight suddenly
 gets introduced again.
 So that was kind of the way
 for me to...
To break it up into sections.
MIGUEL SAPOCHNIK:
 So, you have something
 that's visually different,
 so it's refreshing
 in that respect.
But how do we take it
one step further?
So, what we decided was to
give each act a genre.
 So, basically Act I
 is suspense
 and it's buildup.
 And the best way to do
 buildup is--
 In any sort of
 kinda monster movie,
 which is what this is,
 is to not see the monster.
 Act II is actually,
 from the moment that Arya
 is on the back foot
 and enters into the castle,
 that's the horror movie.
 And then Act III
 is an action movie.
(GRUNTING)
And so,
by breaking it into genres,
 it allowed us to change rhythm
 and go off on tangents
 when we followed
 specific characters
for a longer period of time
rather than worried about
what was happening
to everyone else.
NEWMAN:
 The core of it is the people
 you care about.
 You wanna care about
 the people fighting,
so every effort is made
to make sure that
you center that conflicts
around the people you know.
BENIOFF: So, whether
 it's Arya's storyline,
 or Sansa and Tyrion
 down in the crypt,
 or Jon Snow and Dany
 up on the dragons,
it's kinda like all these
separate little battles
within the greater battle.
(YELLING)
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
(INDISTINCT DIALOGUE)
Light the trench!
Light the trench!
Ah, fuck!
(CHUCKLES)
Sorry, I'm really sorry.
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
BENIOFF:
 The living do have some time
 to prepare for this battle.
And one of the things they know
going into it
is that they're gonna be
outnumbered,
and another thing they know
is that the wights
don't like fire.
 So, they dig a massive trench
 around the entire castle,
 and fill it with kindling.
DEBORAH RILEY: To read
 the word "trench" on the page
 doesn't sound like anything,
but it took such a lot of work
to try and resolve it to a point
that it was a convincing method
of defense.
 It was important
 that this trench
 not be something that anybody
 could jump over.
 So, we needed to construct
 these bridges
 that would then collapse
 and create another barrier.
The trench had
real wooden spikes,
real wooden logs lining
throughout the trench.
Then the real logs were replaced
 by steel logs
 that could burn
 over a number of weeks
 without burning away.
 We had to accommodate
 a whole special effects rig.
So, the considerations
are enormous.
 Then, yeah, the trench
 sort of encompasses...
 pretty much the whole
 of the castle.
As trenches go,
it was a good trench.
(LAUGHS)
And I've done some trenches.
(CHUCKLES)
MAN: Light the trenches!
And then the reality
of how do we light a...
 nine-hundred foot-long thing
 full of bitumen,
 with hundreds of people
 running at it
 and stunt people in it.
Oh, I mean...
♪ (ROCK MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
So... (LAUGHS)
The complicated process
of the trenches began
with the concept of it
being a first line of defense.
 Therefore,
 it had to be impressive,
 it had to be very big.
 So, we had to devise a way
 we could produce a flame
 which is big enough
 for the outside environment.
So we came up with a system,
which is just a simple
water trough.
 It makes the most economical
 flame out of propane.
And then, of course,
you've got to think
about the consumable part of it.
 You can't have
 real logs in there,
 it has to be a steel thing.
 It has to be able to endure
 the heat and the fire.
I think we did 900 steel logs,
and we did 16 steel troughs.
 And then you have to work out
 how you get that amount of gas
 to each trough.
We've got one four-ton tanker
with a mobile unit,
which is five ton.
So, with the combination
of the two,
we convert liquid
into the gas,
and that's what gives us
our gas of life.
 We run it off an electronic
 valve system that's
 tied in with a firing box.
 And each one is ignited
 by an individual gas bank
 in a sequence.
It uses a lot of gas.
A lot of gas.
-Got your gas bill yet?
-Haven't got my gas bill.
Dreading that one.
(BOTH LAUGH)
When you see the Red Priestess
come out and light that trench,
 that that would be such an
 extraordinary moment,
 as it just... (BLOWS)
 ...lights around Winterfell.
 In terms of imagery,
 I always thought that was
 such a fantastic thing.
So, you really were seeing
for the first time
the ice and fire meeting.
So, that was something that
I thought was a really
lovely image to establish.
-(FIRE ROARING)
-(SNARLING)
(SNARLING)
WILLIAMS: I got a call
 from Miguel, like, a year
 before we started shooting.
 Basically, he was like,
 "I can't tell you anything
but get your endurance up now,
I want you to be training.
You have a lot to do.
It's gonna be night shoots.
We're gonna do three months
of night shoots."
And I was just like, "Okay!"
Like, I think I was in Boston
at the time,
like, eating cheese fries,
like, "Cool!" (CHUCKLES)
(YELLING)
(GRUNTING)
Her entire fight through
the battlements
was just a real great moment,
 and everything
 that I have learned
 really did come down to that
 and I did use every sort
 of skill that I'd learned
 in that fight.
ROWLEY IRLAM:
 It's one thing to go
 on the battlements,
but then over the top
of Winterfell,
you've got these two staircases
that go up to the middle section
of castellation.
 So, we thought it would be
 really claustrophobic
and dark and scary to be
in there with wights,
but that's when the full staff
doesn't really work.
We all know these tunnels
are very small
and the last thing you want
is a five-and-a-half
or a six-foot quarter staff
going through
small, little alleyways.
 So, what I decided to do
 on this one,
 be able to cut it in half
 so it'd be able to disassemble
 within the fight sequence,
 and then have two,
 -so she could use both
 in each hand.
-(GRUNTING)
Which is great, and it gave
Arya then the stunts,
something else to play with
and to train with.
Yeah, 'cause if I concentrate
on doing the move,
one of them does it,
and then the other one doesn't.
And it's like...
One of the incredible things
about Maisie
is that she's a righty.
Because Arya in the books
is left-handed,
she decided she was gonna learn
how to fight left-handed.
 So, in season one,
 when she's training
 with Syrio Forel,
 she's training
 with her left hand
and it was incredibly
challenging,
but what it does mean was that
she's learned how to fight
left-handed
and she's actually right-handed,
so she's become
an ambidextrous fighter.
 Maisie does almost
 all of this stuff on her own.
She has an excellent stuntwoman
 for the dangerous stuff,
 but most of it is actually
 Maisie.
Her coordination
and she's really quick.
(CLICKS FINGERS)
You know, can make changes
on the spot and it actually--
She's really easy to work with.
It's one thing practicing
a fight,
which is like a spar,
a sparring fight, you know.
But then when you're actually
fighting for your life...
(YELLING)
 ...with loads of stuntmen
 who, like, do this day-to-day
and are not scared of anything,
 and they're covered
 in this crazy makeup
and they're coming at you
like... (GROWLS)
It's just a completely
different ballgame.
And I think I probably
hold the record
for the most apologies on set.
(WILLIAMS GASPS)
-Fucking hell! I'm so sorry.
-(LAUGHTER)
-(GROWLING)
-Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!
Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!
Sorry, guys!
MAN: They're fine,
they got pads on.
WEISS:
 We knew any situation where
 lots of people are fighting,
 Arya needs to play
 a central role
 'cause she's
 one of the best at it.
That's amazing,
and it's a lot of fun to watch,
but it's also-- It's one note
and to try to play that note
through the whole episode,
it wouldn't have worked.
So, having her wounded,
and having her almost taken out
 of commission
 and almost rewinding the clock
 on who Arya Stark is,
 would really be interesting.
It would also give us a chance
to change up the nature
of the story we were telling.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
SAPOCHNIK:
 The library sequence was
 built around the idea of:
 I need to have a marked shift,
where the audience, instead
of coming back and going,
"And more battle,"
they come back and they go, "Oh.
Change in style."
 Hopefully, what it does
 is it refreshes the audience,
 and they're like, you know,
 "We wanna know what's going on
 outside, but we're okay
 to be inside for a minute
 and slow things down.
 And we're also okay to be
 with Arya," who's suddenly,
from being this incredibly
confident character
that she's been now
for quite some time,
is completely traumatized
by what's happened to her.
 One of the things we did
 when we shot that sequence is
 we designed the library
 in a certain way,
and then I took Maisie in there,
 and I got nine wights
 or something in there,
 and I gave them all a path
 and then I told her
 she had to make her way
 through it without being seen.
And we figured out
this whole choreographed piece
where everything was a near miss
 and everything was just about
 not seeing her,
and everything had to be silent.
And it was really fun to do.
(SHUFFLING)
WILLIAMS:
Oh, my God, that was so scary.
(LAUGHTER)
BARRIE GOWER: So the hero wights
 in the library.
 Miguel, he was after somebody
 who could get themselves
into quite
an interesting position,
but have the physique which
would be a little bit unworldly,
 which would suggest
 they're dead basically.
 I knew of this performer,
 Spanish performer,
 called Javier Botet,
and he's double, triple jointed.
 He can do the most ridiculous
 things with his body,
and he's been covered
in prosthetics
pretty much all his career,
so I knew he was the guy
 that could pretty much sell it
 for us.
 And from a prosthetics
 point of view,
he's got a couple of little bits
 and pieces.
He's got some little cheek bone
 appliances.
 We got a few little scrapes
and wounds, and then we just did
 this sort of airbrushed
 body painting on him as well,
 and just really accentuated
 all his sort of shadows
and all his muscles
and his bone structure
and his movement just sold it
for us.
(CRACKLING)
(SNARLING)
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
JOE BAUER: We're all in love
 with Lyanna Mormont.
I think the whole world is,
so we wanted this to be
her absolute heroic moment.
BELLA RAMSEY: Oh,
 when I found out I was dying,
 it was, like,
 it was the best thing, really.
It sounds strange,
but I either decided
I'd be happy
if I ended up on the throne,
which I thought
was very, very unlikely,
or I had a great death,
so I'm very happy.
 And the whole giant thing,
 that's just really cool.
-Bang.
-(THUD)
ERIC CARNEY: All the shots
 with Lyanna and Krum...
were all really
pretty complicated,
and they all had lots of pieces
to them.
 So, it started out at tomb,
 where we shot
 the Winterfell set,
 and we shot a lot of
 the backgrounds for the shots,
and where we wanted to frame
for the giant,
 we used this technology
 called INCAM,
and this allowed us to playback
 sort of an animation
of what the giant's performance
 would be that was synced
 to the camera.
And so that when Sean Savage,
who's the A camera operator,
is operating on the day,
he can actually see the giant
at its proper scale in the set.
So, they were able to operate it
 as if it was a real thing.
We got it.
Yeah, that better, boys.
Let's move that out.
The giant is real.
He could be 3D,
but we prefer to shoot real,
organic live photograph people
wherever we can.
Our giant performer, Ian White,
 who's seven-foot five,
 I believe,
 he performed all the actions
 of the giant
in front of green screen,
but we shot him in a way
to double his scale.
 For the shots where he had
 to pick up Lyanna,
 we put tracking markers on
a green doll that he picked up,
and we motion captured that
and would use it to drive
a robotic arm, basically,
to pick up our actress, Bella,
 and that would move her around
as if she's being held by Krum.
 You know,
 for some of those shots,
 there's at least four or five
 elements that we photographed
at different times that will all
go into making that final shot.
Really, it's just bringing
the lowest techs,
miniature props approach,
and the very highest tech,
 digital scaling
 and digital handoffs.
-(SCREAMS)
-(ROARS)
RAMSAY: Yeah, I think it's
very fitting for Lyanna to die,
like, doing something like that,
 stabbing a giant in the eye.
 It's a bit like--
 I realized today,
it's a bit
like David and Goliath.
The same sort of thing...
that just
a stab in eye kills him.
(CHUCKLES)
With this little Lyanna Mormont.
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
PETER DINKLAGE:
 Down in the crypt becomes
 just a complete horror movie.
It's terrifying down there.
We're in a crypt.
Nobody thought of that.
He's bringing all
the dead people back to life.
And they've put women
and children in a crypt
with all the dead people,
so.... (GROWLS)
Tyrion is smart,
but I guess not that smart.
SOPHIE TURNER: Yeah, the whole
 action was really fun,
 'cause I never get to do
 any action.
In between setups, Peter and I
would be joking around,
like, with our guns, like,
running between podium to podium
trying to catch a wight.
 We felt like action stars,
 even though
 we're probably
 around, like, five meters.
GOWER:
 With the wights in the crypt,
 for us, that was exciting,
 'cause we realized we could do
 some really cool mummified,
and dried husky sort of,
um, wights.
 We referenced ancient mummies.
 We looked at corpses
 and there are some tombs which
have got these figures which are
 exactly the inspiration
 we were looking for
 and they're these dried,
 wizened bodies
which still have dried
encrusted skin all over them.
They still have hair,
and they're hundreds
and hundreds of years old.
 They have their teeth.
 Really, really dusty,
 and completely different
 to what we'd seen before.
TURNER: There was one point
 where I had to, like,
 run through a crowd of people,
 and wights were coming out,
and one came up to me,
and I actually started crying,
I was so scared, like--
(CHUCKLES)
Whenever I get scared,
I just cry and it was so awful.
Those wights are horrible.
Just as scary in real life.
I hate them.
DINKLAGE: They're around
dark corners, and you're like--
You don't fully know
where they're all coming from.
I mean, everything's safe
and mapped out,
but it's still--
You get into it.
 And you're just going
 by candlelight,
we don't have any other lighting
 sources down there, really.
It's creepy. It was fun.
A week underground
with dead people.
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
Think we're such nice people,
but, you know, we--
It's just such violence
that we're portraying,
and, uh, I've often said,
"How did we end up here?"
 I think the lesson
 that we learned
 on Battle of the Bastards
 was just how difficult it is
to work with dead bodies,
to work with these prop bodies.
How expensive it is,
 how difficult they are
 to move around...
so Rob Cameron and Gavin Jones,
our prop maker, came up
with the idea of molding
these bodies into these disks.
The brief was to try and create
a lightweight version of bodies
 as a sort of relief.
 We would get eight or nine
dummies dressed in their armor,
 and then we would make
 a huge mold of that.
 So, our mold could capture
 all of the detail,
 the limbs and the fabric
 and the armor.
KEVIN FRASER: We had, I think,
 probably about 300 body piles,
which we would've painted
up in different elements,
 you know,
 give them some skin tone,
 give them a bit of a palette,
 and individually pull out
 each body.
ROB CAMERON: And the good thing
about these, the weight of them,
we can actually mound them up,
so the prop boys came up
with this great idea of wedges
 and then building them up,
 so it's total carnage
 and devastation, really.
 It looks great.
I've got to say, they work
really, really, well.
 The prop guys
 will never wanna see
 another one
 of these disks again,
 because they spent a hell
 of a lot of their time
walking them around, moving them
 from the right flank.
 Okay, now we've gotta dress
 the left flank.
 So, all the bodies have to
 move across to the left flank.
Fucking hell!
PAUL GHIRARDANI:
 For close up stuff,
 interspersed with that,
 would be live people
 dressed as dead bodies.
When you walk on set sometimes,
 and they're about to shoot,
suddenly one of them will twitch
 or sort of move or something
 and it's like, "Oh, my God!"
because that's actually an extra
 who's been dressed
 as a dead body.
 And will sort of be in there
 amongst the ones we put in.
Yeah, it's very disconcerting.
(CHUCKLES)
It's a strange place to be.
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
SAPOCHNIK:
 The last third of the movie
 where we move
 into an action film,
Jon realizes that the real task
still at hand
is to, essentially,
protect Bran.
-Bran!
-BRAN: Go!
SAPOCHNIK:
And so, he heads into Winterfell
and we follow him on a journey.
SEAN SAVAGE:
 We've used Automus Maxima,
 it's a handheld device
either the camera operator
or the grip can carry it,
 and then one
 of the camera operators
 will operate it remotely.
 You know, it's like...
 It's like a remote control
 steady cam, really.
 It's very clever.
 The camera flows through
 the castle,
 and stays with the character.
 I think the audience
 is gonna feel like
 they're traveling with them,
 and right up front with them.
That was the real kind of heart
of, I think, that episode,
is that long sequence with all
those different characters.
SAPOCHNIK: We needed Jon to make
 his way through the courtyard,
and bear witness to all
of the characters
that we know and we care about,
that he knows and he cares
about, being overwhelmed.
 What we essentially did
 is we took
 each group of people
 and gave them all a fight,
 and they learn the fight,
 and we shot the fight,
and we use little pieces of it.
 They were all losing battles.
ANDERSON: I got to do,
 like, a flippy move.
Got to fling my spear,
like, around my head,
I like doing that stuff.
A bit of flair.
-(GRUNTING)
-(SNARLING)
GWENDOLINE CHRISTIE: I loved,
 loved, filming the sequence
where we are really up
against it
and it is overwhelming
for Brienne,
and Brienne is in battle mode.
 It was really all-encompassing
 that night.
Being there was so intimidating
and so, you know,
we were all really panicked
by how claustrophobic it was,
 and I think that really adds
 to the work.
One of my highlights
from that episode is standing
on the pile of bodies
and fighting for my life.
 And the funny thing was that
 we said to the stunt guys,
 if you manage to get me down,
 take me down,
so on some takes, I died...
(CHUCKLES)
...or Tormund died.
(GRUNTING)
 I was really fighting
 for my life.
Kristofer's life.
(LAUGHS)
(GRUNTS)
(LAUGHS)
Strong arms, that.
(GRUNTING)
(SCREAMING)
BENIOFF: One of the shots
 that I really love there
is Jon looks over at his best--
 Sees his best friend
 being attacked
 by all these wights,
and in any other circumstance,
Jon would, of course, rush over
to try to help Samwell.
It was great,
because it was this idea of...
Sam being one person
Jon has always gone back for,
 has always relied on,
has always been his true friend,
 and he had to sacrifice him
 to go after the Night King,
 and then it was finalized
 with a moment where...
 at some point, we just ran out
 of stunt guys to throw at Sam,
and so he sat there, and he just
started crying and it was great,
 because it truly was crying
 amidst all this violence.
So seeing John do that
with Sam,
I thought it was really,
really great.
Again, he felt true
to the character.
JOHN BRADLEY: If you're involved
 in a battle scene,
 you like to see yourself
 as a fighter,
and you like to make it look
as good as you possibly can,
and Miguel was the one who has
to keep reigning me in and say,
 "Remember, you're playing
 Samwell Tarly,
 and Samwell Tarly
 is not a fighter."
The reason that Sam is in there
is because he's not a fighter,
and it's because he can show
how normal people would cope.
IRLAM: So we had to
 really dial him down
and we just make it
in such a way
that we wouldn't allow him
to be cool.
 We just put him
 under so much pressure,
which is not fair to him
as a person,
because we could pr-- We could
do it to everybody else too,
but we just don't. We made Kit
look really cool. We do.
You know, it's like--
All right,
 what can we do to make Kit
 look cooler?
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
(VISERION ROARS)
SAVAGE: So, one of the most
 challenging shots
 was when we traveled through
 the courtyard extensively
 and then we head down to what
we used to call the old kennels,
and as he's running down
this very long, dark corridor,
we had to coordinate
about 15 stuntmen
 dropping out of the roof
 around him.
 They're obviously going
 to arrive in a certain zone,
-certain moment, certain second.
-(GRUNTS)
Which...
between the stunt guys and Kit,
they had to
coordinate perfectly.
...against the wall.
Now put it on his neck,
and then drag it out.
But take your time.
I wouldn't kill him...
I wouldn't kill him
until you see the next guy.
(GRUNTING)
SAPOCHNIK:
And everything was really based
 around the idea of, like,
how can we make it feel
as messy as possible?
SAVAGE: Well, then we had to
 obviously put
one of our stabilized
handheld rigs behind him,
and still stay
really close to him
to make the audience
feel that jeopardy,
 the danger
 of what was happening.
After we've choreographed it
and rehearsed it, what have you,
and when we're shooting it,
my job is the safety of it
 and making sure it all works.
Then I'm queuing,
because, obviously,
 we all need to be in sync.
(SHOUTING COMMANDS)
-Now!
-MAN: Good!
SAVAGE: That was probably
one of the greatest challenges,
just to be in the right time
and right place.
And it had to be in, you know,
fractions of seconds to do it.
 And the camera did
 a 180 around him
 at one point
 during all this chaos.
 Um... And we run backwards
 at that point
 until the great big
 steel door is--
 on-- on railings is shot
 right in front of these guys
 near the last second.
And it feels like Jon Snow's
just got through there,
as has just-- the camera's
just got through as well.
So, yeah. It's a very cool shot.
IRLAM: (YELLS)
Go, go, go, go, go!
-HARRINGTON: That's gotta be it.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
Just 'cause we fancy
making you do it again. (LAUGHS)
But ultimately,
the key thing there
was to give Kit
the fight of his life
and then, at the end of it,
present him with
 a... insurmountable odd,
 which is...
 a dead dragon.
Or an undead one.
Or not-dead.
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
STEVE KULLBACK:
 The zombie dragon lands,
 having his face
 been torn off,
 can't exactly see,
smashes through the ravenry.
Just an insane fight where
Jon is ducking
behind these pieces of set
as this icy blue fire
is blasting over the top of him.
JOE BAUER: But the fun thing is
 that Viserion is so damaged
by this point, he already has
a hole through his neck
from being taken down
by the Night King.
Now he's missing half his face,
so he's leaking.
-(YELLS)
 -So, you know, this blue fire
 is kind of leaking
 and shooting around.
KULLBACK: There's fire blasting
 all over the place,
which we shoot photographically,
for real,
using
a 3D motion control camera,
 blasting fire
 in a darkened stage.
BAUER:  We actually did
 laser cuts for Viserion
 from the digital model
 of those openings.
And then bronze casts were made
 and then fitted
 by Sam Conway and his team
 with fire jets.
 And then that was put onto
 this robot with a quick arm
 so that the fire
 would leak out of openings
 that were accurate
 to the dragon.
And there were so many
moving parts in this scene,
because you've got
the environment he's living in,
 which is partially
 the courtyard dressed
 and largely virtual
 because of the destruction
 that's needed to be created.
 And there's shooting Kit
 in the set piece,
 so that he's got something
 to really duck behind
 and have interactive lighting
 wrap around him.
-Fire!
-(KIT YELLS)
GHIRARDANI: We did a lot of
 destruction in that courtyard.
We like building things,
but equally,
we like destroying things.
That's always quite fun.
 So we go at it
 with flamethrowers, paint,
earth, mud, you name it,
we just...
take it in there and do whatever
it takes to destroy the thing.
 I asked for a load of wood
 to be removed.
We made a huge bonfire of it.
We burned it for about a day
 until it's charcoaled,
 it's almost destroyed.
Then actually, we get something
 rather beautiful.
 It's rather wonderful.
Just when you think
that it's all over,
just when you think that
Jon Snow's gonna be the hero,
again, we realize...
that Arya appears
through the mist.
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
I mean, you're like,
"Ooh, maybe I'll get him!
I'm not gonna get him."
And then you're reading,
you're like, "Ooh,
maybe Jon's gonna get him!
Wait, he's not gonna--"
And I remember
actually being like, "Whoa!"
And kind of applauding
in my head,
and you know, "Yeah!"
And then in the read-through
when, like,
when Maisie was doing it,
and we were all just like
wooping and cheering.
(LAUGHS)
Yeah, it's amazing.
I think Maisie
thought it was super cool.
She's like, "Yeah,
I'm gonna kill him."
Um... Kit
was really fine with it.
I was pissed.
I was pissed that it wasn't me
killing the Night King.
I could've-- I would've sw--
I would've given you, like--
I'd have bet you thousands.
 Before we read the finals,
 I was like,
 "Yeah, it's definitely me."
 And then they lead you on,
 Jon's chasing the Night King.
BENIOFF:  Jon Snow has always
 been the hero,
the one who's been the savior,
but... it just didn't seem right
to us for this moment.
 It's probably three years now,
 or something, we've known
 that it was gonna be Arya
 who delivers that fatal blow.
Dan and David let me break
all the Game of Thrones  rules
for that sequence.
 Majority of it is shot
 96 frames a second,
 it's all super-slow motion,
 it's all heightened reality,
which is not what
they usually do.
It's a surreal nightmare.
Finally, the Night King and Bran
are finding each other.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
 The music plays a big part
 in creating
 that sense of despair that
 should exist in that moment.
And you're intercutting
with Jon,
who's clearly
not going to make it.
 And you're intercutting
 with all our other characters,
 where they're just--
 they're so fucked.
 Everybody's fucked.
I mean, that was literally--
that was the phrase
we kept using.
It's like, "Let's do
the "it's fucked" shot."
And then everyone
would shoot a shot
where it just feels like
there's no escape.
Everyone's going to die
right now.
You know they're not,
but we want you to feel
that same feeling
of, "Oh, my God. It's...
We can't. What's the recovery?
How do we come back from this?"
And we've all forgotten about,
you know,
that little innocent girl
from all those years ago
who's turned into
a trained killer,
who's coming out of nowhere.
♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
'Cause essentially,
she does jump out of nowhere,
and that's a wire rig.
 It's a wire rig
 we did on the location,
but the location wasn't ideal.
 It was really hard
 to get a crane in there,
 and we've obviously got
 the weirwood tree.
So it was tricky to do it there,
and we did
a version of it there,
but then we had to redo it
 because we didn't have
 the ability to control it
 as much as we'd hoped.
And it needed to be a real
"boom, out of nowhere" moment
and a real-- you know,
a locking together
of these two characters.
(ARYA SCREAMS)
Shooting that was tedious,
but...
so great to be able to perform
all these different beats
within maybe, like,
two seconds of footage.
(SCREAMING)
BENIOFF: We knew it had to be
 Valyrian steel.
 To the exact spot where
 the Child of the Forest
 put the dragonglass blade
 to create the Night King.
And that weapon has been one of
 the totemic pieces for us,
 and ultimately, we've known
 for a long, long time
that was gonna
end the Night King.
WEISS:  When Samwell's reading
 the book about dragonglass
 there is a picture
 of the dagger.
SAMWELL:
The Targaryens used dragonglass
to decorate their weapons
without even knowing
what the First Men used it for.
WEISS: It is very possible
 that the same thing
that created the Night King
is the thing that was necessary
to destroy the Night King,
or maybe it's Valyrian steel,
or...
Figure it out for yourself.
Not gonna say.
ISAAC: I think that's such a...
nice little full-circle thing
as well,
that that's the knife
that was destined to kill Bran,
and here it is, saving him.
(ICE CRACKLES)
That's, like, an iconic moment.
You know, the fall of the dead.
It's exactly what you need.
(LAUGHS) Like, oh, yeah!
She, like, takes him down!
It's so good. It's so good.
It's perfect.
I think it's, uh,
it's an inspired move.
Um... You've always been waiting
as to what purpose...
 Arya's assassin skills
 were gonna lead to.
 And it's for
 the most important purpose.
Reading what I get to achieve
 and Arya's whole purpose
 in this world
and everything she's trained for
comes down to this one episode.
 It's just amazing.
And it's just-- it's beautiful.
 It's poetry.
 And I'm grateful that
 it was me and not Kit.
(LAUGHS)
♪ (UP-BEAT MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
Think about Jorah.
From the first time we met him,
he was with Dany, you know.
And the first time you meet him
is at Dany's wedding,
 when he's giving her
the books of Westerosi history.
And from that time, he's been
mostly by her side.
 If Jorah could have chosen
 a way to die,
 it would have been
 protecting Dany.
SAPOCHNIK: There was a lot
 of input from Iain
 and from Emilia about
making sure their characters
stayed true to who they were.
 Not having Jorah
 lose sight of his goal,
 which is protect his queen
 at all costs.
Emilia didn't want to be
completely damsel-in-distress.
EMILIA: My hero.
She didn't feel
that her character
would be like that.
But then, we didn't--
 we've never seen her
 do anything in that vein,
 so we needed to make her
 not look like
she was completely ineffective
and disinterested
in saving Jorah.
And then you don't care
what happens to--
No, that's why I'm trying
to play up the "Waaah."
But also, this was
Iain's big moment.
(GRUNTING)
WEISS: We realized that
 all he ever wanted to do
 was to serve her.
 And all he ever wanted to do
was to-- was to fight
to protect her
and there'd never been a moment
where she more needed
someone to fight to protect her
than this moment.
And Iain himself, I think, was--
I think he was happy
to go down fighting,
'cause he's very good at it.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
My favorite scene to shoot
was my demise.
Yeah. Yeah.
Just-- just because
it required most of me.
 It was the most demanding
 and the most fulfilling scene.
And it felt the right conclusion
for Jorah's role.
And being given a good setting,
 a very kind of dramatic
 and telling setting.
BENIOFF:
Incredible performance from Iain
 and also from Emilia
 at the very end there
 as she's holding him
 in her arms, and just that--
you know, it's really hard
to fake that kind of...
of pure grief.
 And Emilia just really
 broadened those moments.
 I think part of it was 'cause
 she's such a good actress,
 but I think part of it
 is because
 she and Iain
 had been working together
for so, so long and have become
 very, very close,
and they've had
so many scenes together,
and it's all coming to an end,
you know.
Both their characters'
relationship on the show,
but also, our time together
working on the show.
It was really hard.
You know,
I just had to look at Iain's...
face, and it was like...
it's all there, it's all--
that's our relationship,
it's like, the whole...
You know, we've been
with these characters
for so many years.
We've been, like,
to hell and back with them.
It's been, uh, it's been...
It's been quite a journey.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
Can't find the words.
You know? It's just...
great fun and, uh...
yeah.
I'm so really,
very, very chuffed
to be a part of the whole
mad, wonderful thing of it all.
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
