LEFT Dr. Brody monitors the crisis at the Janjira facility. BELOW The Janjira nuclear power plant control room was a daunting design challenge—everything from switches and gauges to signage and paperwork had to be created and accurately reflect a period Japanese nuclear facility. This piece of concept art set the look of the facility.

OPPOSITE LEFT AND ABOVE Concept art depicting the Q-Zone. “The great thing about haze and fog is that you can create beautiful, dark foreground silhouettes,” says Edwards. “It really gives a sense of scale and scope.” OPPOSITE BOTTOM RIGHT Q-Zone set dressing showing a weathered radiation warning sign.

TOP Concept art strikes a melancholy mood as father and son return to the old neighborhood, now a graveyard of bitter memories. “This is a real location,” says Edwards. “The art department and the location guys would find real places that looked like they could work for us. This image is the art department sort of explaining what they planned to do before we filmed there, how they would destroy it all.” RIGHT Ford and Joe Brody encounter a stray dog in this still from the finished film.

RIGHT Concept art imagines the surreal effect of the giant monsters, such as this nuclear submarine dropped in the mountains. “I love this shot,” says Edwards. We struggled with trying to find a position for the submarine that didn’t feel too silly, but you could still read it from a distance. This is a shot that’s never in the film, they don’t actually approach it from the boat, but again, things get drawn just to give it flavor.”

BELOW AND OPPOSITE Storyboard sequence for the fiery HALO jump. “I just sat with Matt Allsopp and drew some really rough ideas for shots, and he turned them into these little works of art,” says Edwards. “The Third Floor turned it into this great little animation sequence, we whacked the music over it, put a little prayer on it from the guy inside the plane, and, even in its crude form, it gave me goose bumps. When the studio saw it, they felt the same way, and so it’s pretty much never changed from the first iteration—we just went and shot exactly what was prevized.”