See how they Built a Cyborg Skeleton for Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell

With Ghost in the Shell set to premiere on March 31, Paramount is sharing a lot of great stuff from Rupert Sanders adaptation of this iconic, and very surreal, sci-fi film. We’ve already shared with you the incredible work that Peter Jackson’s effects shop Weta did to create the robotic geisha masks that have been one of the most talked about images from the trailers. In fact, every new spot boasts images that show how hard Sanders and his team worked to honor the Mamoru Oshii’s beloved 1996 animated feature.

These latest spots show three very promising aspects of the upcoming film. The first is the “water fight” that’s been glimpsed in nearly all the teasers and trailers, showing Scarlett Johansson’s Major, a one-of-a-kind human-cyborg hybrid, kicking the crap out of some goon in a fountain. The eye-popping part is how Major is all but invisible for much of the fight, finally revealing herself to deliver a finishing kick to his solar plexus. 

In the next spot, we’re giving a behind-the-scenes look at Sanders’ vision for the film, which was, in part, an effort to create a film that lived up to expectations of fans of the original Manga series and Oshii’s film, while making sure he left plenty of room for his own vision. One of the intriguing aspects revealed here is how in Sanders vision of the future, you have a hodgepodge of artifacts from different eras. Cars from 1980s, machine guns from the 1990s, and cyborgs and robots from the future. 

In this final spot, we’re given a look at how the filmmakers shot a very iconic moment from the manga series and anime film, the “shelling sequence,” when the Major’s character comes to life. As they did with the robotic geisha masks, the shelling sequence involves as much practical effects as they could pull off, creating an actual skeleton based on Johansson’s body, with 1,400 individual pieces. 

Ghost in the Shell hits theaters on March 31.

Featured image: Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell. Courtesy Paramount Pictures.