It seems as though the world of Deepfakes just keeps getting more and more uncanny with every new crack at it. A particularly popular theme lately involves replacing the face of a character's recent iteration with that of an actor who had previously played them, such as putting Harrison Ford into Solo: A Star Wars Story. In that same spirit (and from the same uploader, no less), now it's time for Mad Max: Fury Road to get a similar treatment.
YouTube channel Shamook is at it again with their surprisingly lifelike Deepfakes, and their latest effort may be their best yet. Taking a couple of small scenes from the always enjoyable Mad Max: Fury Road, the tech wiz expertly inserted past Mad Max star Mel Gibson into shots featuring the franchise's current titular lead, Tom Hardy. The effect is nearly seamless and really goes a long way in selling the potential of Deepfake technology in barely over a minute. Like the VFX studio who attempted to outdo The Mandalorian with their Deepfake, some people are really taking the tech to new places.
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Taking place during a scene between the film's leads, Max and Furiosa, the camera cuts between shots of Furiosa, the women he had spent the movie rescuing, and the newly "recast" Max. The effort put into the Deepfake is apparent due to how, well, not apparent it is. With each cut to Max, there's a likelihood that viewers will simply forget they're looking at doctored footage due to how well Gibson's face is integrated into any given shot. Unlike many attempts at the effect, such as the unexpected appearance of Danny Trejo as Wonder Woman herself, there isn't a clear difference in lighting between the source material and the digitally inserted face. It's remarkably well done, for the most part.
Of course, the technology still isn't perfect, and that becomes slightly apparent once Max begins speaking. Whether the viewer is familiar with Gibson's work or not, it's jarring seeing Hardy's voice come out of his rather stiffly moving mouth (which is a comment on the Deepfake itself, not Mad Max: Fury Road, for the record). That seems to be one of the most notorious setbacks when it comes to Deepfakes since it's nearly impossible to completely replicate a subtle physical performance in someone's face. Considering how that's really the only less than flawless aspect to this video, however, it just goes to prove Shamook's aptitude at the art.
Coming back to the performance aspect, it's pretty clear why keeping such things intact is so difficult. For all its technological advancement, Deepfakes are still effectively masks, and a mask will always restrict movement to a degree. In this case, the mask is countless shots of Gibson's face all scanned into a computer. But no matter how many shots they have, odds are there will always be a few expressions Hardy pulls off that Gibson never has. Without that perfect recreation, it's impossible to get a true 1:1 replacement, as also shown in the same channel's attempt to replace Mark Hamill with Sebastian Stan in Return of the Jedi.
Even so, this video proves the tech is clearly good enough to fool people at a glance, and even under slightly close scrutiny. The ethical issues and implications aside, it's truly fascinating to see the birth and establishment of what will surely be an important aspect of technology. Though maybe it should be kept out of home movies for the time being.
Mad Max: Fury Road is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
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Source: Shamook/YouTube