Production
THX 1138 was the first film of a planned seven-picture slate commissioned by Warner Bros. from the 1969 incarnation of American Zoetrope. George Lucas wrote the initial script draft based on his earlier short film, but Francis Ford Coppola and Lucas agreed that it was unsatisfactory. Walter Murch assisted Lucas in writing an improved final draft. For some of SEN's dialogue in the film, the script included excerpts from speeches by Richard Nixon.
The script required almost the entire cast to shave their heads, either completely bald or with buzz cuts. As a publicity stunt, several actors were filmed having their first haircuts and shaves at unusual venues, with the results used in a promotional featurette titled Bald: The Making of THX 1138. Many of the extras were recruited from the nearby Synanon, an addiction-recovery program that later became a violent cult.
Filming began on September 22, 1969. The schedule was planned for 35–40 days, completing in November 1969. Lucas filmed THX 1138 in Techniscope.
Most filming locations are in the San Francisco area, including the unfinished tunnels of the Bay Area Rapid Transit subway system, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the Marin County Civic Center in San Rafael designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley, the San Francisco International Airport and at a remote manipulator for a hot cell. Several scenes show one of the FAA 9020 IBM System/360 used for air traffic control multicomputer installation (the only version with a "360 Mode" button on the console). Studio sequences were shot at stages in Los Angeles, including a white stage 100 by 150 feet (30 by 46 m) for the "white limbo" sequences. Lucas used entirely natural light.
The chase scene features two Lola T70 Mk III race cars chased by Yamaha TA125/250 cc two-stroke, race-replica motorcycles through two San Francisco Bay Area automotive tunnels: the Caldecott Tunnel between Oakland and Orinda and the underwater Posey Tube between Oakland and Alameda. According to Caleb Deschanel, cars were driven at speeds of 140 miles per hour (230 km/h) while filming the chase. Other cars appearing in the film include custom-built Ferrari Thomassima cars, one of which is on display in the Ferrari museum in Modena, Italy.
The chase features a motorcycle stunt in which stuntman Ronald "Duffy" Hambleton (credited as Duffy Hamilton) rode his police motorcycle full speed into a fallen scaffold, with a ramp built to his specification. He flew over the handlebars, was hit by the airborne motorcycle, landed in the street on his back, and slammed into the crashed car in which Duvall's character had escaped. According to Lucas, Hambleton was uninjured but angry at the people who came to his aid, worried that they may have ruined the stunt by walking into frame.
THX's final climb out to the daylight was filmed (with the camera rotated 90°) in the incomplete (and decidedly horizontal) Bay Area Rapid Transit Transbay Tube before installation of the track supports, with the actors using exposed reinforcing bars on the floor of the tunnel as a ladder. The end scene in which THX stands before the sunset was shot at Port Hueneme, California, by a second unit of photographer Caleb Deschanel and Matthew Robbins, who played THX in this long shot.
After completion of photography, Coppola scheduled one year for Lucas to complete postproduction. Lucas edited the film on a German-made K-E-M flatbed editor in his Mill Valley house by day and Walter Murch edited sound at night, comparing notes as each session ended. Murch compiled and synchronized the sound montage, which includes elements such as the "overhead" voices, radio chatter, and announcements. The bulk of the editing was finished by mid-1970.
On completion of editing, Coppola took it to Warner Bros., the financiers. Studio executives disliked the film and insisted that Coppola provide the negative to an in-house editor, who cut about four minutes of the film prior to release.
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