Star Trek: Generations (1994)
Animal Action
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Animal action is simple in this film and includes the use of a cat, a dog and horses. In several scenes on board the Enterprise D, we see the ship’s mascot, Spot the cat. He jumps up onto a table and proceeds to get stroked by members of the crew. In the final scenes of the film we see Data searching through the wreckage of the Enterprise to find Spot. Data lifts a piece of the debris and finds Spot huddled in a box-like space and he lifts the cat up and hugs him. For this scene the trainer placed the cat just prior to shooting and gave the cat a verbal command to stay since the cat was never actually confined in the space. When Picard discovers the idyllic home of Kirk within the Nexus, we encounter Kirk’s dog, Butler. The dog walks into the kitchen from outside and Kirk strokes him. For this, the dog responded to the trainer’s verbal commands. Later Picard and Kirk saddle up two horses and ride out into the mountains. Kirk realizes that life in the Nexus is not reality when he jumps his horse over a ravine, then jumps back again without any fear. This jump had been something he had always feared in his life prior to this and it becomes the test that convinces him to join Picard. For this scene a trained jumping horse was used and an experienced wrangler acted as a stunt double for Kirk. Because of the camera angle, the jump which was a very mild jump over a ditch, was made to look like a more dangerous stunt. The camera angle was low and pointing into the sun, which created a lens flare and made it difficult to discern specifics such as the depth of the ditch and the distance covered by the jump. The other horses in the scene are ridden by Picard and Antonia, but this action is very mild with the horses merely going A to B at a slow pace.