Many of you will have seen the estimable Mr. Copperfield, illusionist and former ‘beau’ of Claudia Schiffer (???), make a train car from the Orient Express disappear.
How did he do it? Does anyone know?
The same way the little bugger made the statue of liberty and jet disappear. [note to David: get a new trick, will ya?] The key is to limit the audience’s (or even easier: the camera’s) field of vision. The object never moves, but the area that the viewer can see shifts unbeknownst to them, usually accompanied by a distraction, giving the illusion that the object has disappeared.
Google is smarter than all of us:
http://www.totse.com/en/media/televisionary_film_vidiots/statue.html
The Straight Dope Advisory Board is even smarter than google.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mliberty.html
hammos always search the archive before posting in GQ. A search for the word, “copperfield” brought this up. Then again, if you thought it was different than Statue of Liberty…
Sorry, I should have made this clear: I am merely an idiot. I am not, on the other hand, a complete idiot.
Statue of Liberty, Lear Jet… yeah, yeah, easily explained.
The Orient Express trick is more impressive than those, however:
The train is not hidden behind a rigid screen, but covered with a (seemingly) loose sheet. The covered train is then lifted into the air, the sheet pulled off, and the train has disappeared.
The trick appeared to take place inside a very large aircraft hangar or similar (anyone know where this was?)- if you have seen the stunt, you’ll know what I mean. This is not the same trick as the Statue of Libery or Lear Jet, unless they moved a whole hangar.
Even assuming the usual Copperfield conditions (viz. total complicity of all audience members, unlimited rehearsals, money and prep time virtually no object) this is still a nifty stunt.
The train’s actual disappearance is not too hard- it could have been rolled off, or descended on a platform. What I was hoping you guys might explain, is how the sheet kept its shape after the train was removed, and how it was possible for DC to pull down the sheet with his hand and have it slide off over the train’s shape, very convincingly, but reveal nothing underneath.
I’m guessing some kind of wire mesh frame was originally surrounding the train car, and it was this that was lifted off with the sheet covering it. With all the lights, dry ice, and DC’s hair to distract, I believe this could be concealed. Doesn’t explain how the sheet could slide off so neatly (what about the wires lifting the frame- wouldn’t these have impeded the sheet?)
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen the trick performed.
One way to do what it sounds to me like you are describing is this: Sew into your covering material two parallel rods. By suspending the sheet by the ends of the rods and pulling out slightly, you create rectangular lines that look like a box. Then, when you pull the cover off, the bars just dangle in the cover and look like ordinary folds. Could this explain it?
Are you sure you’re remembering this detail correctly? I’m not a professional magician, but I used to do some amateur magic back in college. Often people’s recollection of a trick was very different from what actually happened. Usually the way they remember it was more impressive than the actual trick. I’d say JSexton’s explanation is most likely correct.
My theory for what kept the sheet up: blown air.
Basically, the sheet was specially made to keep the shape of a train car when air was blown into it from below. After they put the sheet over the train car, they started blowing air into the space between the car and sheet from numerous holes in the stage. This puffed the sheet up, but it stayed in the shape of a slightly larger than normal train car. Then, they just lowered the train car down below the stage and either rolled it off the platform and raised the platform back up, or else put a fake floor on top of the lowered train car.
-Ben
I think that hammos1 description is fairly correctly. This is the trick as I remember it. Some minor details may be off though 
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A large metal circle (kind of like Stonehenge) supporting the lights surrounded a train track. The train car was wheeled in to the center of the circle. The track supposedly exists on a cement block several feet thick.
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Audience members joined hands forming a circle around the train car.
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DC walks through the car to show that it is real.
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The sheet is pulled over the car. It is a very light tan color.
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Lights shine through the sheet showing the form of the train car exists under the sheet.
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DC concentrates and the sheet raises up, with the form still showing through the sheet.
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After a little bit, David pulls the sheet off. The form of the car stays stationery as the sheet is pulled off.
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Everyone is amazed.
The fact that a light is shinning casting shadows of the form of the train car on the sheet is your first clue that the train is no longer under the sheet. There are two possibilities that I can see: First, the entire audience was in on it and the car was rolled off set while the camera was at a certain angle. Second, if the car was not rolled out, then in order for it to disappear, it could not have gone up or sideways, so it must have gone down through the supposedly solid cement. From what I have heard, the first explanation seems more likely.
Once the car has been removed from the set, lights under the car are turned on that cast shadows inside the sheet. Strings or wires connected from certain semi-rigid points on the sheet to points on the stonehenge like surroundings are pulled taunt, causing the sheet to rise.
When DC pulls the sheet off the form of the car seems to stay as it is due to the shadows being cast have not moved.
Of course, that’s all theory
It was done in a WW2 blimp hanger in Tillamook Oregon. The 80 plus people surrounding the car were employees of a company rebuilding passenger cars in conjunction with the car builders of The Orient Express. Where the rail was placed in the hanger there was no movable floor mechanisms, just solid concrete. The ‘rail’ was cold rolled 2" square stock steel anchored to the concrete. These points I know as facts. The rest is swag system thinking, (scientific wild ass guess versus pure wild ass guess)
There may have been as many as fifty people in that car. Disguise one end of the sheet to hide an opening and push the car out. Very hard to do anything else. You would need a mechanism capable of supporting 2,000,000 pounds to lift or lower that 90’ long, 11.5’ wide and 16+’ tall passenger car. Can be done but the cost of that lift table is prohibitive. There may be other ways to do this but they are unknown to me.
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Here’s a Youtube video of the trick (it starts at 1.40.)
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And here’s my explanation:
- all the spectators are in on the trick
- the spotlights are designed to stop you seeing the train carriage leaving on the far side from the camera position
- there’s a light framework just above the train carriage to hold the cloth in place as the train carriage leaves
I love magic, but I don’t like tricks where the ‘public’ are in fact all stooges.
I think I see it in that video. Just after he asks everyone to pick up their ropes, the top of the sheet lifts maybe 6 inches. He leaves the circle to do some Rockstar posing and the rolling stock leaves back and to the left like it’s JFK all over again.
That’s the way the Masked Magician did his version of the trick with a San Francisco trolley car, though I can’t find a link to the video.
Ah, they are sheds over a crane gantry.
They exist to be crane gantries.
The carraige was simply lifted up.
You can see in the video when that happens…
First the carraige goes up. The detail of the carriage, at the left side of your screen. remains visible during that raise.
Then the curtain is moved away from the carriage. why ? So that the details don’t obviously rise up the curtain…
But you can see the detail of the shape of the top of the carriage disappear at that point. The top of the carraige at the front becomes just a simple single line, rather than a bunch of lines.
And then the curtain moves back and the reveal…
So the carriage was raised up into the darkness …
Here’s a crane shed there
http://www.bendbugle.com/2004/05/to-save-or-not-crane-sheds-fate-in-panels-hands/
Even simpler: Everyone is in on the trick. At some point, they stopped the cameras, opened the circle of people, rolled the car out, and re-closed the circle. Then they re-started the cameras, and resumed the rest of the trick. While this may or may not have been the actual method that Copperfield used, there is absolutely nothing in the trick as seen that’s inconsistent with this explanation, which leaves the trick absolutely and utterly unimpressive.
At the very least, it’s a near-certainty that everyone present was in on the trick, because I can’t think of any other reason why everyone in the circle would continue looking straight ahead while the car is supposedly levitated above them.
This. Everyone, including the camera crew and all the spectators, is in on the trick. No false floors, no heavy lifting cranes are necessary. The camera crew films from such an angle that you don’t see the crew opening up the cover in the back, where they use a track mobile or something similar to simply roll the car out of the shot, and the spectators then fake looking surprised when the sheet is lifted to reveal the car gone.
The reaction (or lack thereof) of the people is very telling. No reaction when the “car” is first lifted. Nobody on the right appears interested in checking out the underside when it is practically overhead. The reaction only happens once the cloth is pulled back.
This is a well-instructed crowd. Who knows when and how the train was removed. You could tell the people to take 5 (or 10 or 20 or …), do whatever, and then start recording again.
Not only is this an easily faked using the magic of video editing, but it also shows how crappy Copperfield’s act is. What is his job here? A bunch of other people do all the real work. He removes the cover. Which is no more magical than putting it on, which the crew did. And you know someone else worked out all the details on how to do this. He’s just a guy with hair and wavy arms. No skill displayed.
A few years ago, the “Masked Magician” showed exactly how it was done. Hence my explanation above. No overhead cranes, no trap doors, no false floors. Once you accept that everyone present is in on the trick, anything is possible. This type of trick would seem to be primarily for TV audiences. A live audience would not be able to be seated broadside to the railcar, as they would see it being pulled out.
As he’s doing his “Rock Star Pose”, the light at the right combines with the dry ice fog to obscure that doorway just long enough for a quick escape. (about 4:15 - 4:20)
At about 4:21, there’s an area just to the left of the big doorway/light in question, the suddenly goes from dark to light. I’m sure this is part of the escape strategy.
Do you guys agree with me, or am I mistaken?
I remember thinking I had this one pretty much figured out when it first aired on TV. Still think I’m right about the basic method:
At 4:08, the curtain and whatever supporting frame under it rises slightly. I don’t think that was supposed to be perceptible but it has to rise enough for the car to be pulled out without moving the fabric.
The car is pulled away to the right from 4:09 to 4:15. Look carefully at the curtain and how it ripples. Along the left third of the curtain there’s a ripple, looking like a vertical line, that moves from left to right in motion with the car being pulled out underneath. There is other motion with the fabric, some of which may be caused by the car moving.
The rest is just showmanship. Whatever is supporting the curtain is made to collapse as he pulls on the curtain. Some sort of wire support would work, but I’ve also wondered about inflatable tubes that become rigid when filled with air, and then can collapse quickly.
Note that the curtain just releases and falls straight down. It does not slide off the shape of the car.
It’s a crappy trick because it is uses all the magician’s cheap moves: stooges, camera angles, and spotlights. Blinding the audience with a light from the back of the stage is one of the cheapest ways to hide whatever you’re doing. Look at 4:17 and how the lights completely obscure the area at the right end of the train car. Because that’s where the car went out and there was an open door or curtain that had to be secured again.
And notice that just as Copperfield reaches to pull the curtain, the very top portion of the curtain and frame support (especially on the left where you could see the curved roof) merge into complete blackness, possibly obscuring something that happens with the framework.
That’s all a fairly simple way to do the trick and far easier than a crane or trapdoor mechanism. As for how the train car was removed, I’m guessing there was a big ass tow truck on the other side of the wall on the right with engine revving and ready to yank that thing out on cue. If it was done at a blimp hangar, I’m sure there was plenty of open tarmac or ground to use for slowing and stopping. I’d assume they just installed enough rail to roll out the car and brake it.
Agree. Also, note that around 4:05 the cameraman does a seemingly completely gratuitous down-and-back-up move, which actually isn’t unnecessary, as it makes it much harder to see that the curtain is rising right then. I didn’t notice the ripples the first time, but the funky changing lights at the far right were pretty obvious, as is the way the curtain after that is now curving inward as it hangs, rather than draping around the curve of the roof of the (now gone) car.