Big Bob

**Big Bob** was the affectionate name given to the female Goliath Bird Eater tarantula (and associated animatronic models) that were used to portray the General spider in *Arachnophobia*. The tarantula's name was a reference to *Back to the Future* director Robert Zemeckis, who provided some advice to director Frank Marshall.

## Biography

Big Bob was obtained from Reptile Rentals in Los Angeles. Animal trainer Jules Sylvester of Reptile Rentals was hired to work with the tarantula after he displayed an aggressive Malaysian earthtiger tarantula to Marshall and producer Richard Vane, which solicited intense reactions from the crew. To Sylvester, Big Bob was quite naturally an aggressive spider, with a hiss like "sizzling bacon"; he noted that the bite hurts no more than a bee sting, but it could penetrate fingers down to the bones. According to Daniels, Big Bob was fed a rat every weekend and treated as part of the cast—"it was almost like they brought him in and took his robe off." She was already quite old at the time of shooting and died within a few years from the film's release.

Already impressive in size, a bulkier strap-on abdomen was affixed to Big Bob's back, and she was painted with off-color markings. Filmmakers found that the use of Big Bob posed unique challenges; the tarantula often required extended periods of rest and would sometimes behave seemingly erratically. Director Frank Marshall said, "You can't yell at spiders. You can't fire them. All you can do is prey that they do what you want them to do." Daniels jokingly said in an interview with *Entertainment Weekly* that he and the spider "had no rapport" and that he "had a problem" working with it, given the apparent cautiousness of the spider wranglers. He also said, in a behind-the-scenes interview, "I don't care who you are, you get a nine-inch Amazon spider coming towards you, I mean, yeah, sure I'm scared. Fine, you know."

The finale—in which Daniels' character battles the General in his wine cellar—was the only scene which Marshall storyboarded. "In this type of movie," he said, "like *Jaws* or *The Birds* or even *King Kong*, you have to end with a big confrontation between the main character and their nemesis or phobia." He conceived of the nail gun as the method whereby the General would be ultimately killed. The finale was filmed last and with the remainder of the cast dismissed, and it took two weeks of 13-hour days to complete. Two of those days were spent merely on the sequence in which Jennings remains trapped under a wine rack throwing wine bottles at his arachnid aggressor. Big Bob was used in many of these shots; according to Marshall, "there probably wasn't a lot of acting going on in that scene." While filming the climactic battle, Sylvester stood by with leather gloves and assured Daniels that, while the spider was perfectly safe, he would quickly retrieve the tarantula were it to advance on him.

## Animatronic models

Articulated animatronic models, also called "Bobs," were used for other shots. Marshall had already worked with noted special effects artist Chris Walas on the film *Gremlins*, so the two already had an amicable working relationship. When the director commissioned Walas to create an animatronic Big Bob, he was at first a little hesitant to get involved, due to the inherent difficulty—although in an interview with *Empire* he recalled that his work on *Gremlins* was significantly tougher. Walas built at least three models of varying sizes—a "normal-sized" Bob with a ten-inch legspan, a a mid-sized spider with a two-foot legspan, and a "close-up Bob" with a six-foot legspan. Several different rigs were created for both Bob and his similarly-sized Queen, for different kinds of shots, including crawling, falling, or descending by web.

Said Walas: "We've come up with fascinating cable-controlled systems with compound movement and and sync elements built into them. We've also incorporated some tiny internal drive mechanisms that we switch on to make the spiders walk away." The greatest difficulty, according to Walas, was locating batteries small enough to fit inside the spider models. Jamie Hyneman, of *MythBusters* fame, worked on the animatronic models; he would later state in *Popular Mechanics* that *Arachnophobia* was one of the first movies he worked on and that he often relied on simple magnets for several of the effects.

## Toy

A toy figure of Big Bob was produced, the packaging promising that the owner can hold eight legs, two fangs and attitude in the palm of his or her hand. Further figures capable of remote-control were planned, but these never entered production.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 de Samlyen, Nick. *Into the Spider-Verse.* Empire magazine. Dec. 2020.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Gregg Kilday, Charles Fleming, and Benjamin Svetkey. "*Arachnophobia.*" *Entertainment Weekly.* No. 24. July 27, 1990.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 *Arachnophobia* (1990) at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Turan, Kenneth. Film; Don't Look Now, But the Spiders Are Coming! *The New York Times.* April 15, 1990.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 *Thrills, Chills & Spiders: The Making of* Arachnophobia ( Available on YouTube)
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Awalt, Steven. Along Came a Director: Frank Marshall on the Making of 'Arachnophobia'. Amblin Entertainment. July 17, 2020.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Actor Found 'Arachnophobia' Co-Stars No Big Hairy Deal. *Orlando Sentinel*. July 20, 1990.
8. ↑ Mitchell, Sean. How They Got the Bugs Out: Insects: When they needed spiders for ‘Arachnophobia,’ a species from New Zealand answered the casting call. *Los Angeles Times.* July 18, 1990.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Shapiro, Marc. *Arachnophobia Spins Its Web.*. *Fangoria*. No. 95. August 1990.
10. ↑ *Popular Mechanics*. Nov. 2006.