Look closely at the invasion scene in “Flags of Our Fathers” and you will see a Jeep fly off the ramp of a Higgins boat and narrowly miss two Marines. The guy behind the wheel of that Jeep is the same guy who is often behind the counter at Zuma Jay’s surf shop.
In August of 2005, Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner spent five and a half weeks on the $100 million-plus production of “Flags of Our Fathers,” directed by Clint Eastwood. Wagner earned a stunt credit for flying that Jeep off the ramp, driving Sherman tanks and other vehicular acts, but he was also on the artillery unit, responsible for the safe and accurate firing of dozens of pieces of World War II-era artillery-from mortars to 105’s to an eight-inch Japanese cannon weighing several tons.
During his time on the shoot, Wagner had access to surprisingly good waves along the beach where the invasion was recreated. But they weren’t tropical waves in the middle of the South Pacific, because Jay spent the entire five weeks in Iceland-where big swells threatened to swamp some of the invasion scenes, and water temperatures were a consistent 40 degrees.
The production headed to Sandvik, Iceland in August of 2005.
“I got the call because I was the only one licensed to transport the artillery who also had an A.T.F ‘3’ Gun Card and a ‘One Card,’ which is an effects card that allows me to arm and operate the big artillery,” Wagner said. “On this shoot they brought 15 full-sized guns-75s, Pachs, 105s and 155s. The lightest one weighed about a ton, which could be disassembled and moved around on a Jeep. The biggest was an authentic Japanese eight-inch cannon they found in Brazil or Argentina. They shipped the whole thing over in a 40-foot container and had to move it around with a tank or a half-track. Clint and Steven Spielberg both wanted absolute realism in this movie, and they got it.”
Wagner didn’t bring a surfboard with him but he did bring a full wetsuit, booties, gloves and a hood, and as it turned out, the beach where they shot the invasion scenes was also the main surfing beach in Iceland.
“Sandvik was set up exactly like the invasion beach at Iwo Jima. The cliffs were in the right place at the right angle. It was perfect. At one end of the beach there was a right point and at another a left point, and in the middle there were beach breaks and there was a lot of swell.”
Enough swell for Wagner and some of the other surfers on the set, but almost too much for the production: “The swell came up during one of the invasion scenes until it was like double overhead,” Wagner said. “But they had a thousand extras suited up and ready, and they had rented Navy ships from the Swedish or the Norwegians for $250,000 a day, so they were rolling. They had several authentic Higgins Boats imported for the show and those things handle medium surf pretty well, but they managed to wreck one of them when it collided with a transport. Those Higgins boats were made of wood and fiberglass, so when it was left overnight it was demolished by wave action.”
Wagner has worn many different hats in his life, and one of them was the cowboy hat of a Marlboro Man-he was the model for the cigarette company for many years. Tall and lean, he looks a great deal like Eastwood. In fact, he has stood in for Eastwood in commercials overseas and posed in ads as a look-alike, and they know each other from other shows. Wagner said what all people say about working with Eastwood: he’s efficient, professional, low-key and a gentleman.
“When I did that stunt in the Jeep out of the Higgins, it was a little dangerous, but we did it in two takes, got it, moved on,” Wagner said. “That is how Clint operates. He is always prepared and very professional and he gets it done and moves along. And Clint was usually around, rain or shine, wind and sleet. On some of those lunch calls there were more than a thousand extras, but Clint stood in line like everyone else, taking his chow behind some $100-a-day extra. He never raises his voice like some other big-time directors. He doesn’t even have a megaphone on the set. He is a pleasure to work with.”
While Wagner worked hard on most days, he did have the leisure to surf.
“The water captain took the water temperature every day, and every day the water was 40 degrees,” he said. “It was cold, but I had a 4/3 millimiter with sealed seams and could surf for a couple of hours a day. Some of the actors had boards but they weren’t allowed to surf during the shoot because of contract stipulations, so I would sneak into their trailers, borrow their boards, ride them and return them. Those guys couldn’t figure out why their boards were wet all the time.”