I don't know much about these detestable creatures, but I once heard that a tarantula would not survive a drop onto the ground, even a short one.

Well, in the scene in the Hawaiian hotel room it shows the tarantula crawling out of Jan's tote bag, and then drops off the edge of the bed onto the floor. Only, you don't see it in one shot. I'm guessing that when it fell off the bedspread it was a goner. Then they got another one from the arachnoid actor's union to finish the scene.

What do you think? Does anyone have any knowledge on these abominations of nature? Maybe someone should call the ASPCA or something.

It had to be a fake spider. No animals (even bugs) are harmed on sets.

It looked like it was supposed to crawl down the bedspread but lost its grip because it fell completely out of the shot. It was definitely real. They could have just tossed it out the window at that point and pulled out another miniature monster to to the rest of the scenes.

Yeah, ok.

Someone could have had something there to catch it when it fell. You wouldn't see that in the scene. And some good editing.

It had to be a fake spider. No animals (even bugs) are harmed on sets.
I am sure in the film Starship Troopers that you see some kids stomping on cockroaches and they looked VERY real and then VERY dead once the kids were done with them.

Computer magic regarding Starship Troopers. I visited a set where they showed us how they make fake insects look real. They can even multiply the amount of bugs that are actually there. Arachnaphobia (the movie) is a good example of how bugs are carefully used on movie sets. They had many fake spiders and were careful with the live ones.

According to Barry's book, Growing Up Brady:

The spider was not deadly, but it had large fangs. Before shooting, the bug wrangler that they had on set put small pieces of protector gauze, (I think it was Styrofoam bits or tape.) over the fangs so that Chris wouldn't get bit when they did the scene.

Hopefully, they only had to do that scene once! Chris' fear in that scene sure looks genuine!

I'm surprised that to my knowledge no one has published any information about Chris' filming that scene. It would be a great read!

Jack

I'm surprise Chris let it get do close to him. Not only on his bed, but what up onto his shirt. He couldn't have been that afraid.