Michael Bay says he saved money on Ambulance by sweet-talking police

Michael Bay’s films are not low-key. His latest movie, however, was made with just $40 million. Ambulance, His five Transformers films, and even his Netflix series, are a bit more relatable than his stoic, down-to-earth style. 6 Underground. Bay used his smaller budget to the best advantage. Ambulance It is full of car chases and explosions as well as action. Bay’s budget was not only stretched by his clever filmmaking. According to Bay, he claims to have a secret talent that allowed him to get amazing shots while saving money.

“Listen, one great skill I have is talking to cops. My movies are loved by cops all over the globe. From Italy to Paris I’m referring to all of them. They would give me a lot,” Bay told Polygon during a phone interview.

Bay had the opportunity to demonstrate this skill in one of Ambulance’s first days of shooting. Two desperate criminals, and two hostages, race around Los Angeles riding in an ambulance that is becoming increasingly damaged. The FBI and LAPD pursue them. A small crew of film crews was filming the ambulance speeding along a freeway. Several police officers followed them. Bay explained that this was an escort team, but also an opportunity.

Universal Pictures

“I’m like, ‘Hey, I would love to put you in the movie. What do you do when you’re chasing an ambulance? What if you’re chasing an ambulance?’” Bay said. “And then they — well, first they wanted pictures. Second, they said they’d love to be in the movie. I was literally blocked by them and they would do a rolling block. At 90 MPH, we travelled down an open highway at 90 MPH. This would have taken two months to plan and cost 350,000 dollars for a regular movie. Because it’s on a freeway and is moving so fast, it looks very real. So that’s, like, free stuff.”

Ambulance producer and New Republic Pictures president Brad Fischer wasn’t on set for the incident, since it was so early in the shoot, but he wasn’t surprised to learn about it at all.

“He’s always had a wonderful relationship with law enforcement,” Fischer says of Bay in a phone interview with Polygon. “I mean, look, that’s the kind of thing that it takes sometimes. It takes intelligence, good relationships, and the ability to do things safely and correctly. […] I think his experience working with the police definitely came in handy.”

Universal Pictures

According to Fischer, using real police officers isn’t uncommon for Bay at all. Fischer claims that Bay is an expert in law enforcement. It’s part of how he adds the realism that grounds some of his most bombastic action movies.

“Even from just an authenticity standpoint,” Fischer says, “it’s obviously a lot easier if you don’t have to explain to an actor. Cops know how to carry themselves. They’re just the real deal. It doesn’t always work, but if you look at the tactical stuff they do, it looks real because it is real. […] He knows the difference between when they’re surveilling a group of criminals and when they’re gonna intervene. All of those details were part of the polish that Michael did on the script, and you can identify it onscreen.”

Universal Pictures

Of course, while a bit of healthy realism and the ability to ground some of the most ridiculous practical explosions and action scenes of the last seven years is certainly a useful quality when you’re making a movie like Ambulance, it turns out knowing who to take photos with to save a few hundred thousand dollars doesn’t hurt either.