Inflatable Plastic Crowd in Movies

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) is expensive and extras are difficult to handle, besides costing money. The Inflatable Crowd Company offers the alternative – plastic, inflatable mannequins, thirty thousands of them for use in movies where large crowd is required. The company was formed in 2002 for creating crowd scenes for the Hollywood movie Sea Biscuit. Their inflatable crowd have since appeared in over 80 feature films including many memorable ones like The King’s Speech, Frost/Nixon, American Gangster, Spiderman 3 and many more. These plastic men and women were featured in many TV shows and commercials as well.

Here are some pictures of the crowd up close, and as they appear in the movies.


Blow up dolls are taken from their boxes and inflated for shooting in a commercial.

The dolls are then dressed. They still don’t have faces. These along with wig, hat etc. are fitted later.






Up close they look shabby and horribly fake, but under the correct lighting and camera angle, they pass on pretty good.

A scene on the sets of the movie American Gangster with 1,500 Inflatables.


A scene on the sets of the movie Cinderella Man with 11,000 Inflatables

A scene on the sets of the movie We Are Marshall with 2,400 Inflatables

A scene on the sets of the movie The Changeling with 400 Inflatables

A scene on the sets of the movie Glory Road with 4,000 Inflatables

550 inflatable dolls getting prepared for a scene in the movie Angels & Demons.
Photos: 7-how-7, The Inflatable Crowd Company