Night vision has been a tool for action films since the development of the technology, which varies between thermal vision, and image-intensifying goggles that fight against the dark in military operations. The technology presented a new opportunity for action directors who had long sought new ways to enable characters to more plausibly see in the dark.While the technology was first used in World War IIby the German army, it wasn’t developed-enough to have a practical use in film until the early 80s, when directors like Michael Mann and Jonathan Demme found ways to incorporate the surreal view through the goggles to amp up their action films.
Once the technology became available on every camcorder in the 90s, then later many cell phone cameras,it could be used to tell stories in found-footage form, utilizing security cameras and handheld devices to support the visual narrative. Films likeParanormal Activityused this element to produce tremendously profitable outcomes, so enthralling and scary was the bathed-in-green look of the low-light technology.
Nowadays, both sides of the technology are still used, and the following are the best examples of night vision scenes in movies.
10Cliffhanger
InCliffhanger, Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) is hellbent on locating Gabe Walker (Sylvester Stallone), who’s found some of Qualen’s stolen loot, and plans to use it to bargain for his friend’s release. Qualen uses his henchmen to hunt Gabe down, sending a night-vision equipped goon to chase after the mountain man. As he uses his goggles to track Gabe and Jessie (Janine Turner), Gabe improvises a flare to thwart the goon. Apparently if you view a flare with night vision goggles on it fries your eyeballs, as the goon is left temporarily blinded, before Gabe rides him like a sled to his death. Awesome!
Related:Sylvester Stallone Refused to Say One of James Gunn’s uvenile Lines in Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3
9The Descent
InThe Descent, Sarah Carter (Shauna Macdonald) and her friends are forced into a harrowing adventure, when, while spelunking, the crew experience a cave-in. They are left with little but their supplies and a camcorder with a night vision setting to see in the dark. That comes in handy, given the presence of the freaky-looking bat-people known as “crawlers” in the Appallachian cave. The film’s scariest moment finds us peering through the camera’s night vision lens when a crawler, who looks like Voldemort’s much more primitive, animalistic cousin, pops out from behind Sarah, scaring the bejeesus out of their crew and leading to a stand-off.
8True Lies
InTrue Lies, Harry Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) lives a double life, operating as an agent for Omega Sector, but keeping his family in the dark about his life as a spy. It turns out Harry isn’t the only one living a double life, as his wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis) is bored with their marriage and looking to spice things up. Enter Simon (Bill Paxton), a pervy, narcissistic used car salesman who’s using his fake “cover” to trick Helen into sleeping with him. Not so fast Simon, as Arnold uses the full breadth of his agency’s might, including a night vision operation to make Simon reveal his sad identity and…well…wet himself. Tom Arnold gives some of his best comic relief in the scene as Gib, the poor sidekick to the volatile and muscle-bound Harry.
InSicario, FBI Special Agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) finds herself in a jurisdictional nightmare, as her task force battles with the CIA over operating within US borders, a key strategic point as the cartel is using a tunnel on the Nogales border. A night raid of the tunnel is the only solution, with Macer being subject to misogyny by other agents and officers as they descend into the drug and human trafficking tunnel for a night vision showdown.
Macer, it turns out, is merely a pawn in the FBI and Alejandro Gillick’s (Benicio Del Toro) game, as the agency is unleashing the unhinged widower with no consideration of collateral damage. When Gillick gets confronted by Agent Macer, he subdues her with a shot to her armored vest, a man so intent on avenging his murdered family’s death, he will break every rule necessary to do so.
6Black Hawk Down
InBlack Hawk Down, a warts-and-all retelling of the chaos of 1993’s Battle of Mogadishu, we get a front-row seat to one of the U.S. military’s biggest calamities, which for some became a triumph. The film centers around a large group of Marines and Army Rangers, who engage civilly warring factions in Somalia in a street fight that tests the military might of new defense technology. One such innovation are the updated night vision goggles used by Norm “Hoot” Gibson (Eric Bana), a Sargeant First Class who, after an all day machine gun battle, decides to don the goggles and re-enter the engaged war zone at night.
Gibson’s penetration of the Somalian metropolis helped aid a stranded group of soldiers led by SSG Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), utilizing the useful technology to cut their already huge losses. Ridley Scott has long been a proponent of the night vision scene, using them in several of his films.
5Paranormal Activity
Paranormal Activityis the only film shot almost entirely in night vision, utilizing the technology in security cameras to create a found footage feel to the supernatural horror film. The film utilized night vision to the greatest profit margin of any film, earning $194.2 million against a production budget of — gasp — $15,000. Eat your heart out, Robert Rodriguez (who literally wrote the book on low-budget films).
The success of this film createdBlumhouse’s templatefor underfunding horror films' production budgets, overfunding their advertising and banking on the huge back end profits for scary movies in the streaming era. This rubric introduced the world to the directing talents of Jordan Peele, and made producer Jason Blum and Blumhouse a more legitimate version of Roger Corman, occupying the B-Movie mantle in terms of budgets, but offering decidedly A-level content.
Related:James McAvoy Returns to Blumhouse for New Horror Movie Speak No Evil
4Jurassic Park
InJurassic Park, we learn that night vision goggles are expensive hardware, as Tim Murphy (Joseph Mazzello) uncovers a set while marooned near the T. Rex paddock. Despite sleazy lawyer Donald Gennaro’s proclamation that the goggles are expensive due to their heavy weight, Tim couldn’t resist the temptation to try them on for size. Unfortunately, this leads to the harrowing discovery that a nearby goat has been gobbled from his bait station, an omen of a nearby Tyrannosaur. One can only imagine what an original set ofJurassic ParkNight Vision Goggles would go for at auction, especially after being tossed around in a T. Rex confrontation in one of themost thrilling scenes of the ’90s.
3Zero Dark Thirty
Zero Dark Thirtydidn’t sugar coat anything about the military operation that brought Osama bin Laden to justice, showing in accurate reenactment the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan by American Navy SEALs, including all the setbacks. Two crucial components were the landing of compact helicopters with pinpoint accuracy within the compound’s walls, and the storming of the fortified house using night vision.
Director Kathryn Bigelow drew on her extensive experience filmingmilitary scenes, having won an Oscar for Best Director forThe Hurt Lockerfour years earlier. When the SEALs don their goggles, the audience gets an eerie look into bin Laden’s world, as the surrounding families are coldly dispatched of with silenced rifles, before Bin Laden himself ends up in a body bag.
Detective Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) is in cold pursuit of Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) and his heist crew, looking to catch them in the act of a big enough crime to put them away for good inHeat. On one such outing, Hanna and his task force rig some night vision cameras at a storage facility where they know McCauley’s looking to pull off a heist. Sure enough, McCauley and his safecracker Chris Shiherlis (Val Kilmer) are about to hit pay dirt, when McCauley, while keeping watch out front hears a noise. We then get an otherwordly night vision shot of McCauley, who gets spooked and tells Shiherlis “We walk.” ‘Nuff said, Neil. Hanna is left without sufficient charges for an arrest and Neil’s crew lives to heist another day, setting up the film’s unparalleled Downtown LA shootout.
1Silence of the Lambs
No scene made better use of night vision for suspense thanThe Silence of the Lambs, when Clarisse Starling (Jodie Foster) corners Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) in his basement dungeon, only to have the sadistic serial killer cut the lights on her. This was Jonathan Demme at his best, heightening the scene as Bill aka Jame Gumb dons the goggles, and toys with Clarisse as she grasps at the darkness, unaware that he’s right in front of her. Demme makes the audience the killer, forcing us to be part of Gumb’s game by placing us in his POV of Starling. The effect made for one of the greatest crescendos ever in an action film, and remains the most memorable night vision scene ever filmed.
