Canadian professional stuntman Mike Chute not only has one of the most exciting jobs for a
true adrenaline junky in the movie industry but, as a fan of superheroes…he is living out the dream of many fans by being in these hugely popular films. He has also managed to do what is forbidden for the stars of these movies. He is able to vacillate between both the Marvel and DC universes. With nearly thirty years in his professional career (no, he isn’t that old…he started young) Chute has credits that most Sci-Fi and Comic Book fans drool over. RoboCop, Pacific Rim, 300, Repo Men, the list goes on and on. While fans of these films wait in anticipation of the films, Mike has become immersed in their production. He not only interacts with the filmmakers and the stars of the film but often doubles them and is at the heart of the action which they take credit for. Because stuntmen like Mike are often “faceless” in these movies, this fact and his respected reputation in the industry has made him one of the most coveted stuntmen by both Marvel and DC franchises.
Although he will admit to not being a huge comic book fan, Mike openly professes his joy of the X-Men cartoon series (He also admits to being slightly offended by an inside joke in one of the films alluding to Wolverines yellow spandex suit from the early comic book and cartoon). In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mike played a member of the President’s security detail. The climactic scene shows Magneto transporting the metal bunker to the lawn of the White House for the movie’s final confrontation. Most of Chute’s actual fighting scenes took place in the previous scene with the sentinels attacking. The movie’s cast includes Oscar-nominee Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Oscar-nominee Michael Fassbender, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, and so many of the most respected names in Hollywood. The stuntmen like Chute help to create the believable action in this blockbuster (Grossing $723 MM worldwide).
true adrenaline junky in the movie industry but, as a fan of superheroes…he is living out the dream of many fans by being in these hugely popular films. He has also managed to do what is forbidden for the stars of these movies. He is able to vacillate between both the Marvel and DC universes. With nearly thirty years in his professional career (no, he isn’t that old…he started young) Chute has credits that most Sci-Fi and Comic Book fans drool over. RoboCop, Pacific Rim, 300, Repo Men, the list goes on and on. While fans of these films wait in anticipation of the films, Mike has become immersed in their production. He not only interacts with the filmmakers and the stars of the film but often doubles them and is at the heart of the action which they take credit for. Because stuntmen like Mike are often “faceless” in these movies, this fact and his respected reputation in the industry has made him one of the most coveted stuntmen by both Marvel and DC franchises.
Although he will admit to not being a huge comic book fan, Mike openly professes his joy of the X-Men cartoon series (He also admits to being slightly offended by an inside joke in one of the films alluding to Wolverines yellow spandex suit from the early comic book and cartoon). In X-Men: Days of Future Past, Mike played a member of the President’s security detail. The climactic scene shows Magneto transporting the metal bunker to the lawn of the White House for the movie’s final confrontation. Most of Chute’s actual fighting scenes took place in the previous scene with the sentinels attacking. The movie’s cast includes Oscar-nominee Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Oscar-nominee Michael Fassbender, Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, and so many of the most respected names in Hollywood. The stuntmen like Chute help to create the believable action in this blockbuster (Grossing $723 MM worldwide).
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Working with 4 time Emmy-nominated Director Bryan Singer (The Usual Suspects, Star Trek: Nemesis, Valkyrie, Superman Returns, and the X-Men movies, etc.) was one of Chute’s most educating experiences in film. Mike comments, “When you see him on set, it was surprising to see how he works. He gets things so quickly that you think there is no way that he has enough footage to make it work but he sees it in his head and the proof is there when the film comes out. To witness someone who truly has the big picture and knows exactly when they have the right moment, particularly when it is done so quickly and efficiently…it’s inspiring.” Stunt Coordinator Michael Scherer has a similar affinity for Mike Chute and his talents. Scherer has worked with Chute for over two decades and many films including X-Men: Apocalypse and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Commenting about Mike’s work on X-Men: Apocalypse, Sherer declares, “I brought Mike aboard because I needed a seasoned set of stunt performers who could both enact the stunts and also act in the same role to ensure the director captured all the coverage on a live set as well as for green screen…within just one or two takes. Mike is known in Hollywood as the ‘One Take King’ and he lived up to every bit of that name on our set.” The Oscar nominated X-Men: Days of Future Past also resulted in an SAG Award nomination for Chute for Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture.
One of the most agreeable parts of his vocation is the fact that Chute is allowed to play both sides of the same coin in the superhero movie world, as evidenced by Mike’s involvement in DC’s Suicide Squad. With a cast that is every beat the marquee name equal to its Marvel counterpart, Suicide Squad features; multiple Oscar-nominee Will Smith, Oscar-winner Jared Leto, Margot Robbie, and a host of talented cast and crew (Grossing $286MM worldwide in the first month of release). A large percentage of Mike’s work on the film focused on the scenes in which the alien creatures are running atop cars in the film. Chute notes, “It’s hard to imagine but we had a set with ten kilometers of wire hanging for all of the actors to be hooked into that allowed everyone to appear as if they were flying. It was one of the biggest productions I’ve ever been involved in.” The driving scenes involving the Batmobile were precarious due to the attributes of the iconic automobile. The Batmobile is thirteen feet wide with only a 30-degree span of vision to the front. There is no visibility for the driver to the sides or rear, meaning that the drivers alongside the Batmobile during the chase scenes must be highly attentive and maneuverable. Mike is amused when he recalls the secrecy that surrounded this big budget film stating, “Everyone signed NDA’s that was about twenty pages long. They decided to film on Young Street in Toronto which is the main boulevard. On the night that we filmed the big chase scene with the Batmobile there were ten thousand people watching, needless to say there were ten thousand cell phones filming what we were doing. It was a night shoot and we finished around 5 AM. By the time I got back to my hotel room to go to bed, it was already on the news.” Chute confirms that night shoots effect the circadian rhythm and increases the risk level for even the most professional of stuntmen.
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