Christopher Nolan used real planes in The Dark Knight Rises and real fighter jets and ships in Dunkirk. The director has apparently topped those feats now by using a real 747 aircraft for an explosive action sequence in his latest spy thriller-science fiction hybrid, Tenet, which many expect will be the first blockbuster once theatres reopen.

In an interview with Total Film, Nolan revealed that he neither went for a fiberglass replica nor computer-generated imagery (CGI) to execute the sequence. “I planned to do it using miniatures and set-piece builds and a combination of visual effects and all the rest,” Nolan told the magazine, adding that he changed his mind when his team stumbled upon the idea of using old planes while location-scouting in California.

“We started to run the numbers... It became apparent that it would actually be more efficient to buy a real plane of the real size, and perform this sequence for real in-camera, rather than build miniatures or go the CG route,” he said. “It’s a strange thing to talk about – a kind of impulse buying, I suppose. But we kind of did, and it worked very well, with Scott Fisher, our special-effects supervisor, and Nathan Crowley, the production designer, figuring out how to pull off this big sequence in camera. It was a very exciting thing to be a part of.”