"Throughout the years, the look of the Helicarrier has evolved in the comics, but it was always the idea of this floating fortress," says director Joss Whedon. "It was part of the bargain in writing the script that it had to be included, and I wasn't about to say no."
The first order of business on the set of Marvel’s The Avengers was shooting scenes on the biggest and most iconic set of the film, the Helicarrier, headquarters for S.H.I.E.L.D. “It’s basically an aircraft carrier in the sky,” says director Joss Whedon. “Throughout the years, the look of the Helicarrier has evolved in the comics, but it was always the idea of this floating fortress. It was part of the bargain in writing the script that it had to be included, and I wasn’t about to say no. We had a lot of discussions on figuring out how to make it work, but the streamlined design that our production designer James Chinlund came up with was very sleek and cool, but it also toed the line between fantasy and reality very well.”
The director continues, “The Helicarrier had to be state of the art and visually stunning because it elevates S.H.I.E.L.D. to something other than a bunch of guys in a cave with banks and banks of computers. A good portion of the movie takes place on the Helicarrier, and it’s the only place that makes sense when having all of the Avengers there.”
“It’s such a beautiful set to work with, and Joss really wanted to explore the architecture of this set as well as the placement with the lighting design,” says cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. “We’ve also tried to give him as much freedom and movement as possible to accommodate all of the cast as they interacted on the Helicarrier. The set was predominantly lit with a lot of practical sources. All of the technician areas are accented with lights on the consoles and some architectural accents along the outer edges.”
"It's a pretty awesome set!" exclaims Samuel L. Jackson. "To have my own place of power, where I actually control the ship and control everything that happens on it, is a pretty great feeling."
“What initially attracted me to my cinematographer Seamus McGarvey was the film he did called Atonement,” Joss Whedon explains. “It was very studied and everyone’s character in the film had this extremely lovely glow about them that was a bit artificial because the movie has to do with memory and lies. We didn’t want any of that in The Avengers, but I wanted a cinematographer who would push me toward something that was more beautiful and elegant. When I say ‘push,’ I mean that he had great ideas. We would discuss lighting setups in very general terms, and then he would just make it happen. He just was so dialed in, and he could feel the life force of the characters and bring out their internal radiance.”
For the filmmaking team, having the Helicarrier be both functional in the air as well as underwater made the S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters more plausible as they monitor the world’s safety. “One of the things that was bumping for us early on was the idea that the Helicarrier had been flying around the whole time in the film,” says producer Kevin Feige. “If there’s an object the size of an aircraft carrier floating above Manhattan, I think the world would know about it, and I think Nick Fury would have acknowledged it in our earlier films.”
The producer continues, “There’s already so much we’re throwing at the audience with the idea of S.H.I.E.L.D., the idea of Loki and Thor in Manhattan, the idea of invading evil forces, so we can’t just say, ‘Oh, and on top of that, this whole time there has been this large ship flying around in the sky keeping track of everything.’ So we decided S.H.I.E.L.D. is a crisis response team, and we should see the Helicarrier rise up out of the water in a big moment in the film.”
"It's such a beautiful set to work with, and Joss really wanted to explore the architecture of this set as well as the placement with the lighting design," says cinematographer Seamus McGarvey.
Bringing the massive Helicarrier set to life fell squarely on the plate of production designer Chinlund, who explains the approach he and his team took in updating the iconic S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters and adapting it for its big screen debut. “We spent a lot of time trying to distill the essence of the Helicarrier from the various versions throughout the Marvel Universe,” he explains. “Ultimately, the goal was to create a ship that was completely mind-blowing and massive in its scale, but was also believable as a vehicle that could plausibly exist in today’s military. It was a real challenge creating a vehicle that occupied one-quarter mile of airspace and have the audience accept it as a viable piece of military equipment.”
“The bridge of the Helicarrier is one of the most iconic locations in all of the Marvel Universe, and James Chinlund did a spectacular job creating it,” says producer Feige. “It is one of the largest sets we have ever created on stage because we wanted something that stood apart from anything we had done. We wanted audiences to be able to feel the hustle and bustle of being on a massive ship that is essentially the command center for all of S.H.I.E.L.D. James infused a unique look and feel to it, which really made it feel original.”
“It’s a pretty awesome set!” exclaims Samuel L. Jackson. “To have my own place of power, where I actually control the ship and control everything that happens on it, is a pretty great feeling. It’s spectacular; it’s kind of wonderful. A lot of people are there running around doing stuff all the time, so it gives me a sense of power and the sense of urgency and business that a big ship like that would have, with all the intelligence gathering and capacities there too.”
Another classic Marvel vehicle, the Quinjet, is also making an appearance in the movie. The Quinjet is essentially the jump jet that the Avengers use to go to and from the Helicarrier and to go into battle. The Quinjet design fits in with the Helicarrier; the same technology that allows the Helicarrier to work has been incorporated into the Quinjet. But at the same time, the silhouette of the Quinjet, the cockpit, the engines on the back, and the weaponry make it feel as though it could actually exist.
