Severance Season 2’s Disorienting Opening Scene Took Months to Create

Severance is back, and though season two is just one episode in, fans are already formulating theories about what’s really going on as Apple TV+’s sci-fi thriller enters its next chapter. We’ll have to be patient as the puzzle pieces drop in the weekly release, but the season premiere’s opening scene sets up the breathless, disorienting path that the characters—especially Adam Scott’s Mark S.—will be traveling as they seek to unravel the mysteries behind Lumon Industries.

In a new video from Vanity Fair, executive producer Ben Stiller, who also directed season premiere “Hello, Ms. Cobel,” and star Scott go behind the scenes of that frantic sequence. It took four to five months to complete and involved more special effects and logistical maneuvering than Severance usually requires.

As the pair explains, Mark takes off running as soon as he steps off the elevator—back in his “innie” mindspace for the first time since realizing his Lumon co-worker Ms. Casey is actually Gemma, the wife his “outie” believes was killed in a car crash—because his first impulse is to find Ms. Casey and share this incredible discovery with her.

But the route to the wellness room proves far more of a journey than the viewer has ever realized. Lumon’s severed floor feels like a miles-long maze of stark white corridors and right-angle turns.

While Mark’s so confident he knows the way he’s able to sprint there, capturing his mad dash was far more technically challenging than simply following Scott around with a Steadicam. It involved a bulky piece of camera equipment called a “bolt arm,” as well as a patchwork of shots of the hallway set whenever it was set up to support the sequence—and a treadmill for Scott in certain places.

“We don’t like to use visual effects too much in the show in terms of creating backgrounds and environments,” Stiller says. “But we needed to for this shot because of the bolt arm taking up all the space.”

The video goes on to explain why Stiller didn’t use a Steadicam (it would have been “too cumbersome” for the operator to use while keeping up with Mark’s escalating pace), as well as how Scott knew whenever he’d be filming a portion of the high-intensity scene when he was asked which flavor of Gatorade he preferred.

“We always felt that we really wanted to kick off the season in a way that would be exciting and fun, and kind of give an indication of where we were going for season two,” Stiller says. “[The shot] felt like, ‘All right, we’re gonna indicate to the audience that this is some new stuff happening.”

Oh, and that dude who pops up behind Mark once he reaches the former wellness room? Scott and Stiller point him out in the video, but don’t reveal anything more about his identity. Add that to your ever-growing list of theories! New episodes of Severance arrive Fridays on Apple TV+.

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