Dramatic film making with 2000mm Nikkor lens

[pluton]

To be accurate, the blogger Mr. Nedomansky stated that he did not know what lens was actually used for the movie shot.
I'm still looking for info about what lens was used.

[pluton]

UPDATE:  By good luck and random chance, I happened upon Hoyte van Hoytema, the man who was the cinematographer of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" today, while he is shooting a new outer space-set movie called "Ad Astra" here in L.A.
He cheerfully answered my question about the famous telephoto shot.
It was a real shot, not green-screen composite, it was a 2000mm lens, it was not the Reflex-Nikkor.  He recalled that it was a Century Optics 2000mm, a line of super tele lenses marketed specifically for cinematography.
The format that movie was shot on(3-perf Super 35 with 2.4:1 A.R.) uses a frame size of about 10.4 by 24.8mm...similar to shooting DX and extracting a 2.4:1 widescreen image from the DX frame.  Suffice it to say that 2000mm yields a very narrow field of view on that camera format!

[Jakov Minić]

Kieth, thank you so much for reveling this mystery!
2000mm on a DX like frame shows the skills of the cinematographer!!!

[pluton]

You're welcome, Jakov!
The main concern at that focal length is steadiness...not to have the shot shaky.  They must have used an extremely robust camera mounting: either a heavy tripod or heavy dolly(typically 420 kg) and big heavy pan head(like a Sachtler Video 90).

The shot is very steady, but at the end there is a bit of movement, possibly caused by wind turbulence reaching the camera position.

[Akira]

Keith, thanks for the exciting info!  This is amazing!  The guy doing the most challenging job in this particular scene could be the pilot.

Video 90 is a 12,800 USD head!  It well deserves as the support for the 100,000+ camera and lens...   

[John Geerts]

Thanks for the update, Keith. Very interesting.  They used that heavy setup only for one scene?

[Erik Lund]

Thanks for the update! How wonderful your were able to talk directly to the source 2000mm it is Super!

[pluton]

Thanks for the update, Keith. Very interesting.  They used that heavy setup only for one scene?

I don't know the details of the camera equipment package that was carried throughout the production.  The commonly available lenses from their rental house (Panavision) go from super-wides to about 500mm at the long end of a zoom.
Often, a well-financed movie camera department carries a large range of camera- and camera support gear: often multiple camera bodies, lenses, tripods, several different sized dollies, and hundreds of bits and pieces of camera related gear.  It is also possible that this production arranged to rent the super-long lens gear just for the few days it was actually needed. 

[pluton]

Keith, thanks for the exciting info!  This is amazing!  The guy doing the most challenging job in this particular scene could be the pilot.

Video 90 is a 12,800 USD head!  It well deserves as the support for the 100,000+ camera and lens...   

The pilot had the job with the most serious responsibility, I agree.  I'd guess that the plane stopped no closer than 20 meters...might have been farther away than that.

[MFloyd]

Keith, thanks for your insights 😊