One of the most remarkable film sequences involved one seamless take, during which Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken board a glass-walled elevator, and ride 35 floors to the top of Los Angeles' Bonaventure hotel. Crammed into the confines of the elevator with the actors were director John Badham, cinematographer Roy H. Wagner, focus-puller Todd Slyapich, sound mixer Willie D. Burton, boom operator Marvin E. Lewis, and script supervisor Barbara Thaxton. Given the fact that the elevator was glass from top to bottom, was lit by eight Kino Flo lamps, ensuring that camera and crew reflections were not captured on film, was quite an exercise in and of itself.
The plot unfolds in real time.
The bulk of the movie was shot almost entirely hand-held, using combinations of multi-camera and Steadicam set-ups. Even during the few actual dolly tracking sequences, the camera was hand-held, and operated from a dolly by a seated cameraman.
Many of the actors and actresses used very little, or no make-up during filming.
Unusual for a feature, the film has only one major establishing shot.