Color of Night (1994)

In one scene Bill goes to fetch the mail from the mailbox. When he opens the door of the mailbox, a rattlesnake sticks his head out, scaring Bill into falling over backwards. Bill slowly crawls out of the snake’s striking distance and grabs a nearby shovel. He strikes the mailbox, causing the snake to fly out, land on the ground and slither away. This scene was shot in several cuts. Both a real and a fake snake were used. The real snake was placed in the mailbox by his handler just prior to this scene being filmed and the handler is actually the one who opens the mailbox, revealing the snake. When Bill strikes the mailbox causing the snake to fly out, a fake rubber snake was used in place of the real snake. The real snake was then placed on the ground by his trainer and filmed when you see the snake slithering away. In an opening scene, Michelle is seen getting ready to go to her doctor’s appointment. She is feverishly looking for some undetermined object, tearing the cushions off her couch, which her cat happens to be resting on. When she begins to remove the cushions, the cat dismisses himself. The cat had merely followed verbal and hand commands from his trainer. In the scene when Michelle flings herself out of the window, she lands on the pavement in front of a policeman on horseback. Her landing causes the horse to rear up. A trained rearing horse was used for this brief scene. Other background and atmosphere animal scenes included pigeons flying, a horse being ridden in a park and a cat being held and petted.