Verhoeven wanted the lighting for Quaid and Richter's elevator fight to be "cathedral-like." About three hundred 12-volt brake-light bulbs were wrapped in half-blue color gels and mounted on magnets so they could be positioned anywhere on the miniature set. After Richter's defeat, Schwarzenegger was filmed in a full-scale elevator against a bluescreen. Three scale models were used (the elevator attached to a column, surrounded by other columns, and the tops of the columns), finished with a matte-painted ceiling. A wide shot of the elevator moving towards the reactor activation room was a matte painting with a small image of Schwarzenegger front-projected on a piece of paper with a "flawless" matte surface to keep the brightness of the projected image constant despite changing camera angles. Schwarzenegger leaned back at a 20-degree angle, suspended by a steel cable, to create the correct perspective.
