Warning: Mild spoilers for Happy Death Day 2U ahead.
If you're not aware, Happy Death Day 2U has finally arrived to deliver more laughs and campy deaths than ever before. In the burgeoning franchise's second go-round, there are all sorts of twists and turns that will have you creeping toward the edge of your seat. And perhaps one of the best (and most fun) twists is a montage of bonkers, over-the-top deaths that range from jumping into a wood chipper, dropping a live hair dryer into a bathtub, and ramming a car into an electrical plant. But the most ridiculous death of all comes when Tree skydives out of an airplane . . . in a bikini.
During our recent interview with Jessica Rothe, the film's star talked all about the many mechanics that went into that one spectacular death. When it came to that epic free fall out of the plane, Rothe admitted she really had to psyche herself up to just fall into a big cushioned mat. "It was a trust fall," she said, "because I was just up in a plane shell, and they had mats below me, and I just had to not scream too much."
What you don't see in the film's hilarious trailer is the aftermath of that jump. Tree plummets to the ground, and we're an ultra slow-motion money shot: she's horizontal, just two or three feet off the ground, flipping off the camera with both hands, tongue out, somehow smiling. When time speeds up again, she sticks the landing (so to speak) and hits the ground with a sickening splat.
As it turns out, this part of the death was the hardest one to pull off."I couldn't be on a harness because I was wearing a bikini, so the only way they could get me to do it was by building this platform," Rothe recalled. "I was on it, and they had to drop me. They had to almost dunk tank me off the platform. But in order to get the pose, I had to strike it before they dropped me, even though I was being dropped seven or eight feet. So I had to tense my body, and flip off, and make a crazy face, and then they'd count, 'Three, two, one,' and the floor would just drop out from under me, and I'd land on a bunch of pads, but it was oddly difficult."
I know it's a lot to wrap your mind around if you haven't seen the movie, but trust us. It truly is a sight to behold. We'd like to seize this opportunity to well and truly commend Rothe for her flexing efforts.
