ABERDEEN — Matthew Nelson grips the handlebars of a rumbling ATV, speeding through a thick, dark forest. A man dressed in orange leaps onto the back, and the two struggle to gain control. It weaves back and forth sporadically through the overgrowth until it tumbles over the guardrail of a 30-foot bridge suspended over a river. The man in orange is flipped onto the bridge on his back, while Nelson plunges into the water with the ATV causing a monstrous splash.
Luckily for Nelson, the accident wasn’t real. Nelson was performing a stunt in a scene from “GPS,” an independent suspense-thriller about geocaching, a treasure-hunting game in which participants use global positioning systems to find hidden objects. It’s set to be released on DVD next spring. Additionally, Nelson appears on the DVD extras reel describing his stuntwork.
Nelson, who moved to Aberdeen two months ago from Gig Harbor to begin a career as a police officer in Westport, used to be a stunt performer and coordinator. His role on the set was to figure out how to do the stunts without getting injured.
“It’s planned out step-by-step just like a dance,” Nelson said. “If someone forgets a step, that’s the time when it can become a danger.”
He says getting injured on the set is rare, but he remembers one incident when he was choreographing a fight sequence for another actor. The actor forgot a step, threw a punch at the wrong angle and boxed Nelson square in the face.
“A large man slapped me hard enough to make my ears ring,” Nelson said. “My nose was running and I had a big red handprint across my face.”
To prevent injuries from happening, Nelson has to “create the illusion of violence.” To do this, he helps choreograph fight sequences for actors and builds sets to ensure stunts go smoothly.
For example, Nelson constructed a ramp for crashing the ATV off the bridge in “GPS.” First, he swam in the river to determine the ramp’s size and where to place it. Next, he removed a piece of railing from the bridge and constructed the ramp he would have to drive over while a cinematographer lay beneath it.
“It took a lot of work because it was one of the most technical shots in the movie,” Nelson said. “You have to have a plan. You train and you follow the procedure. If you do it right, you eliminate the risk and you get the job done.”
Others’ safety was also a big part of Nelson’s job. In one scene, another stunt performer leaps off the side of a 50-foot waterfall. Nelson used scuba gear to determine the safest location for the stunt. He also waited underwater when the stunt was performed to make sure the performer resurfaced.
Hallie Shepherd, producer for “GPS,” was impressed with Nelson’s concern for others.
“He’s the perfect mixture of someone reliable and responsible,” Shepherd said. “He takes a lot of joy in the stuff he does because it carries to the set. He’s quiet, but he’s a fearless stuntman.”
Shepherd said Nelson and another stunt performer, Eric Johnson, did stunts for multiple characters and their versatility is what made the film come to life.
“They’re top notch,” Shepherd said. “They can get bruised up in the process, but they seem to love it.”
Nelson attended The United Stuntmen’s Association International Stunt School in Seattle — a school whose instructors have coordinated stunts for actors including Tommy Lee Jones, Denzel Washington, Jon Voight and Christopher Walken.
One of Nelson’s first stage-combat instructors, Jason Kehler, says Nelson was one of his star students.
“He struck me as a smart and mature guy,” said Kehler, who manages a mixed martial arts gym in Atlanta. “You get a lot of 18-year-old wannabees, but Matt was clearly cut from a different cloth.”
Kehler and Nelson keep in touch and always make a point to visit whenever Kehler’s in Seattle. Kehler has given his student a nickname, “Vlad,” because “he looks like he should be a Russian military guy who destroys rooms full of bad guys.”
From there, students can learn harder stunts such as high-falling, sword-fighting and getting set on fire, also known as fire-and-motion-capture.
Fire stunts are more complicated than others, according to Nelson. First, the actor is wrapped in flame-retardant clothes. Next, the whole body is smeared in a frigid, slimy gel that is kept in ice buckets. An actor can get ignited several times to get a shot, Nelson said. As the actor moves, the gel thins and has to be reapplied. Nelson’s never had any serious injuries with fire, but he has witnessed other actors who have.
“It looks dramatic, but if for some reason, the burn goes differently than it’s supposed to, the superheated gas can go in and out of your nose and it only takes a second to get burned.”
“High-risk” hobbies seemed to be a pattern with Nelson. When he was 6, he would climb trees to get on the roof of his family home just to see if he could. Throughout high school and most of his adulthood, he reveled in BMX racing, an extreme form of bicycle racing involving a series of jumps on an off-road, single-lap track. The sport was featured for the first time in the Beijing Olympics this year.
Nelson’s other hobbies include surfing, rock climbing and skiing and snowboarding.
“I wasn’t much of a ball-sport person,” Nelson said. “I liked speed.”
Nelson also enjoys speed in the air. He attended several Northwest flight schools.
He said flying was always an interest because several of his family members — his grandfather, an uncle and two cousins — flew planes.
“You can climb the clouds,” Nelson said.
Nelson had already earned his private pilot’s license, but the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, occurred a week before he was supposed to get his commercial license. Airports nationwide shut down. Even after airports started operating again, the general vibe of instability made it difficult to complete pilot training, according to Nelson.
“It was bad timing,” Nelson said with a laugh and a sigh. “I intended to do that as a job, but things in life change.”
Nelson says his most recent life change — becoming a police officer — is rewarding.
Evidence of his stunt days can still be seen around his Aberdeen home: photos of himself suspended in midair practicing a high fall, a DVD of his first major movie, “The Legend of Bloody Jack,” still in the original shrink wrap, a Western-style stage pistol and a leather bull whip he used in stunt school.
He takes pride in being a cop but says he’s open to doing more stunts in the future.
He no longer spends his days on movie sets. Instead, he drives a white squadcar at the Westport Police Department. He dresses in a uniform sporting police gear — a two-way radio, a notebook, a flashlight and a gun.
He’s the newest cop on the force and began police academy last week.
He patrols under the rotating supervision of other officers. Officer Mark Obermire sat in the seat next to Nelson on a recent patrol, offering an occasional critique.
They pulled into a marine supply shop on the corner of Wilson and Nyhus streets. They walked to the back of the building and found two plastic bags.
“Somebody left us a gift,” Nelson said.
He put on a pair of thick rubber gloves and opened the bags. Inside, he found a metal butterfly valve, some insulated wires and an uncooked tip roast.
“Sometimes you can find some pretty strange stuff,” Obermire said.
They brought the items to the station to get tagged and stored for 30 days to see if anyone comes forward to claim them.
Nelson threw the roast in a trash bin, taged the remaining items and sat at a computer to file the report.
Although Nelson’s crashed vehicles and been lit on fire, he says paperwork is tougher.
“I’m facing the biggest challenge of my life, which is learning how to type,” Nelson said. “Jumping from a quad was easy. Learning how to type is hard.”
Nelson and Obermire will continue patrolling, investigating every tip they receive. Obermire says Nelson is a fantastic rookie.
“He’s the first person I’ve had to train with no prior law enforcement experience, but he seems to be picking it up quite well.”
The day’s shift was pretty low-key, but since Nelson joined the force, he’s issued a search warrant, assisted with a child rape case, and several weeks ago, Nelson and Obermire were chased by vicious dogs while patrolling.
Nelson’s been able to apply some skills from stunt school to police work, but says there are some situations no amount of training could prepare himself for.
“On a set, you can control everything,” Nelson said. “But here you can come in with a plan, but that plan can change in an instant.”
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