“One Chicago” creators finally got their long-held dream to feature a passenger plane in the TV action franchise — but a polar vortex nearly froze the plan.
The Boeing 737-800 flies into the three-part crossover episode between “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago Med,” and “Chicago P.D.” that aired Wednesday, March 4 (now streaming on Peacock). But it was a bumpy flight when the production was halted due to the dangerous Chicago cold, and the plane flew off.
“All of a sudden, it was like -20 degrees below windchill, and we had to stop shooting,” says “Chicago Fire” executive producer and showrunner Andrea Newman. “That plane had other jobs where it was warmer; it wasn’t going to sit around. So we took a break, then we had to get the plane back. It was madness that it all came together.”
The plane has been a dream of the “One Chicago” franchise, with Newman previously shooting down the expensive request because it was too risky for a multi-episode TV show with tight shooting windows — and unpredictable Chicago weather.
“We have been talking about a plane for three years, and I was always the one to say, ‘No way!’ We’re not a movie,’ says Newman. “It was a risky venture all around.”
The plane returned, and the shooting resumed, even if the temperature was still downright arctic. All of the stoic firefighters waiting on the frozen runway at Chicago’s DuPage Airport look absolutely freezing — well, except for Pennsylvania-born Taylor Kinney (Kelly Severide).
“I don’t know what kind of blood temperature Taylor has, but he never looks cold,” says Newman. “It was zero degrees literally when we were filming. But this cast and crew live in Chicago year-round. So this is 14 years of them being outside in Chicago’s winter.”
Planes can be difficult to handle on the ground. “You can’t just move it if it’s out of place. It’s a beast,” says Newman. “And anything you do to it needs to be undone.”
So that scene where Joe Cruz (Joe Miñoso) pulls out the K-12 firefighter saw and zaps open the plane door required some Hollywood magic. “They put in a fake door, and they destroyed that,” says Newman. “Then they put the real door back. You have to do that cautiously because that thing has got to fly again.”
What horrors do the ‘Chicago Fire’ team find on the plane?
The “One Chicago” team incorporated solid TV action material with the 737 plane, including an air traffic controller scene that pays homage to the classic opening of “Close Encounters of a Third Kind.”
In this case, the 737 lands and firefighters make a gruesome discovery — 110 passengers dead in their (mostly economy) seats with sickly pink froth coming from their mouths.
To create the mysterious mayhem, 10 makeup artists were required to place 400 prosthetics of varying sizes and intensities on the faces of the extras playing the deceased passengers. For the mouth foam, each passenger actor received gelatin capsules filled with sodium bicarbonate and citric acid (the fizzing ingredients in antacid tablets), which had red powdered Kool-Aid to add a pinkish color.
“The extras have froth coming from their mouth along with these special prosthetics, and our director is able to move the camera in this tight space to make it look real,” says Newman.
A wild ‘Chicago Med’ birth for Dr. Hannah Asher
One pregnant passenger survives the plane mayhem, and is taken to Gaffney Chicago Medical Center by ambulance while going into labor. Dr. Hannah Asher (Jessy Schram), who is pregnant herself, is compelled to jump into the stalled ambulance, wearing a protective suit, to deliver the baby by dramatic C-section.
It was a wild TV experience even for “Chicago Med” veteran Schram.
“Working in a hazmat suit inside an ambulance while doing an impromptu C-section on a woman we’re hoping to also save would be the most intense delivery we’ve had to date,” says Schram. “And this comes as my character is pregnant too.”
Due to the extreme cold weather, the ambulance was brought into a soundstage. But the scene was still shot in the cramped space, with five actors, a camera operator and a special effects person expertly pumping the required blood and fluids through the prosthetics attached to the pregnant patient (“One Chicago” stunt performer Leah Hudspeth).
Schram cut through the complex prosthetics expertly in one take to successfully remove the dummy baby.
“These prosthetics are so deeply important, so it’s high stakes,” says Schram. “I’m given a lot of responsibility with where and how to cut. A lot of times we get one shot, because we have one full set of prosthetics.”
While her newborn lived (a real baby was swapped into the scene), the new mother died. Dr. Asher, who is medically cleared after the incident, is changed.
“This woke Hannah up to the fact that she is pregnant, because she has been in denial all season,” says Schram. “But she’ll still be there for her patients.”