Bruce Willis movie offers glimpse of downtown Lynn

LYNN – Bruce Willis’ latest film, the futuristic sci-fi thriller “Surrogates”, opens nationwide today, offering local moviegoers a glimpse of scenes that were shot in Lynn just over a year ago.The Hollywood-style atmosphere was felt throughout the downtown business district where movie crews set up their cameras for car chases and action scenes. Munroe Street, parts of Market Street and all of Central Square were shut down some days to accommodate the filmmakers.JoAnn Power, communications manager at the Lynn Area Chamber of Commerce, recalled a couple of mornings during the shooting that actors and actresses walked back and forth along the Munroe Street sidewalks, part of a motorcycle chase scene.”We walked down to Central Square one day to see what was going on,” she said. “There was a lot of excitement.”John Olson, president of Columbia Insurance Agency in Central Square, rented storefronts to the movie crews for use as waiting, wardrobe changing and make-up areas.Lynn native Jack Noseworthy, who plays the villain Strickland, also helped give a local flavor to the filmmaking. Some of Noseworthy’s high school chums visited the set to watch him work.On many days, a crowd kept at bay by Lynn police gathered to see Willis and the other stars. During a particularly active May afternoon in 2008, Willis was seen walking from his trailer to the set. The actor waved and growled as fans cheered and called out his name. At one point, a pickup drove by during a lull in the action, the two guys inside shouting “Go Bruce” and “Die Hard.”The big scene that day was informally known as “the 40 percent” because it involves Willis shopping for a new robot or surrogate in a futuristic electronics store. One of the surrogates in the showroom that catches his eye is marked at 40 percent off.With each new take, Willis stood on the two-step entrance to the former bank at the corner of Central and Blake streets, then on command headed into the fake electronics store. Inside, the set resembled a store you might find in New York’s Times Square, only with a Brave New World twist. Vibrating recliners in white-and-black cow patterns and wrapped in clear plastic shared the showroom floor with an array of surrogates. The shelves were laden with merchandise that blinked and beeped.After departing Lynn, the movie crews continued shooting in the Boston area over the next two months. The cast and crew returned to the city a few weeks later to film the motorcycle chase scene on Munroe Street and an alley foot chase on Andrew Street, the latter involving helicopters that took off and landed from the Star Market parking lot on State Street.Greg Alpert, the film’s location manager, said he and another crew member were walking through Central Square on a Saturday morning in late 2007 when they came upon the former bank building. “The fact that it’s on a corner is attractive because it gives us more angles,” he said. “And it’s a great space inside.”The corner location also gives the filmmakers the ability to shoot straight down Munroe Street.Snippets and trailers on YouTube and other online sites offer a sense of what the action-packed thriller will provide, including some scenes in which the Lynn locations can be identified.The Internet Movie Data Base, an often-cited online reference of Hollywood film, describes the plot of Surrogates this way: People are living their lives remotely from the safety of their own homes via robotic surrogates ? sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves. It’s an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don’t exist. When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Greer, played by Willis, discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery.Radha Mitchell stars as Willis’ counterpart in the film.