This Is It

Where you from?

I'm from Holland, and this is like...

Ten hours for me. It's, like, across the world.

I came here for this audition.

I told all my boys at home I'm coming to funk in front of Michael onstage.

I'm just gonna dance for him. I don't care if I make it or nothing.

Thank you, Michael. I'm excited.

You've inspired everything in my life. My energy.

You're why I dance.

I remember being a little girl and watching "Thriller" with my mom...

and thinking that was the coolest thing in the world.

I go to sleep and just wake up, and the first thing I do is not even eat.

I just start playing your music...

and start just dancing and moonwalking on a rug.

I was like, "What I would give to be onstage with you."

And the fact that I get to do that is amazing, so...

I'm from Australia...

And I got word of your audition two days before it was about to happen...

and I was on the next flight over.

It begins. This is the beginning. I'm not even onstage yet.

Like, I can't even imagine what's gonna happen backstage...

- that first show in London. - I'm looking even farther ahead.

I don't even know what I wanna do after this because this is Michael.

I wanted to dance, you know what I mean?

And that inspiration came from, you know, you.

And you've inspired me and given me a reason to want to inspire others.

Life is hard, right?

I've kind of been searching for something to shake me up a little bit...

and give me a kind of a meaning, to believe in something.

And this is it.

So we open the show, as you know, with all the lights down.

We're gonna create a spectacular opening with pyrotechnics.

And we want some sizzles and some cracks and some pops.

We have our video that is called "Glimpses and Flashes."

And that's where Light Man...

comes out on the gantry, floating above the stage...

and he'll just be dazzling in video information.

And piece by piece by piece by piece...

MJ is revealed, until he jumps out...

and on Michael's command, we begin.

You know I'm gonna want that more, right?

It's funkier.

I'm not feeling that part enough.

As in running next to him.

- It's not there. - Okay, it should be.

It should be. I know, it's all for love.

- It's coming there. - We'll get it there.

Jackson's ETA is 15 minutes.

Michael Jackson last performed live right here in London...

at the 2006 World Music Awards.

Michael Jackson's here. Go straight onstage.

This is it!

Yeah!

This is it. This is it.

I love you.

We love you!

I'll be performing the songs my fans wanna hear.

This is really it. This is the final curtain call.

Okay? And see you in July.

Good. Great. Good to see all of you. Thank you for being here.

The idea was get the big fish from all over and put them in the same pond.

The dancers in a Michael Jackson show...

are an extension of Michael Jackson.

They are an extension of the man.

Everything is bigger and more intense in his world.

First cut, thank you.

Next group. Ladies, brava.

Lean, gorgeous, hot.

Dancers that can rock it. But if you don't have that goo...

that ooze coming out of you, not gonna get the job.

She's the one.

And the Michael Jackson principal dancers for This Is It are:

Guys, those go over here.

Hey, guys? Those go over here, actually.

Truss moving.

Quite the eventful day because we got to be toasted.

There's elevator speed and toaster speed.

Part of this, guys, is anticipating the stop.

Keep your shoulders square, keep your center...

and just get right down into a nice, good squat position like that...

and you're gonna come up and-

- You feel that initial-? - Yeah, I do.

Yeah, that's the adrenaline, baby.

We're at Culver Studios, shooting green screen.

We're gonna do "The Drill" into "Cadence"...

into "They Don't Really Care About Us."

It's gonna be really cool because they're gonna multiply the guys.

So our existing 11 guys are gonna become 1100 guys...

and it'll be really, really cool.

So we're kind of excited. And Michael's coming today.

- There's the man. The man is here. - There's Michael.

So that we can give you this: A million people.

Michael, do you like this, first of all?

Yeah, that's a cool move, a cool move, but it spreads out too much to the end.

So we can just stop it whenever you hit the space bar.

You can go to infinity.

Yeah. As though there's no more than...

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10? Or maybe just your nine dancers?

- Ten. - Ten. Great.

What is that?

One more time. Six, seven, eight...

In what will go down in history...

as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Hold for applause, hold for applause.

Slow umbrella fade out.

- Yeah. Yeah. - Let's just go for it.

You sound great, MJ. You sound great.

Bam, something right there.

We're seconds away, Mike.

- Rolling. - Rolling.

And Gilda singing.

Bravo!

What's he doing here?

And cut. That was a good one.

Let's cut.

- Okay, Bruce? - Yes, sir?

Rehearsed, and Michael was great. We can do this.

- Ready to shoot? - Yup.

- Okay, guys, let's shoot this. - Here we go, ready. We are...

- rolling. - Action.

What do you want me to do? Count three like they do in the movies?

Guys, that's the cue.

I'm sorry, are we misunderstanding something here?

- No, we're not misunderstanding. - We're sizzling.

- He's sizzling. - I'm sizzling.

He's waiting for my point, it's coming.

Michael, I was telling them to start when you turn toward the audience.

Oh, no, I wanna turn first, face the audience with nothing.

- Okay. - And then when he gets my cue...

- then we go. - The only thing is...

how will you see the video change from the marquee to the city?

I gotta feel that. I'll feel it, the screen behind me.

All right. Now this is all sizzle, sizzle, sizzle. It says "Smooth Criminal."

The audience is going wild. The camera slowly starts to move...

over the marquee.

Pretty good... Pretty good.

You're gonna put that in?

It's really cool for me as a musical director...

because I need the artist to be hands-on...

and MJ is always hands-on with everything he does.

He knows all of his records. He knows all of his tempos.

He knows all of his keys of songs.

Just a little drag, a little bit more behind the beat.

Yeah. It's not the right sound.

Like you're dragging yourself out of bed.

Imagine this is the right sound. Check this.

Don't change so soon, though.

Don't wanna change over so soon yet. See, you're going:

Don't do that one. Don't do that one.

- Don't do that one yet? - No, no.

It should be simpler.

Yeah.

We'll get the sound, we'll get the sound.

We'll get the sound but that's not till tomorrow.

We gotta do a sound check tomorrow night.

That's what we need to do.

And don't start unless you do a sound check.

I know, that's why we doing it.

We need you to do the sound check...

because can't nobody hear what you need to hear.

Some people might not wanna have that bass-

I want it the way I wrote it. I mean-

Like the audience hears it.

So whatever the record's doing, that's how I want it to sound.

That's what it's gonna sound like, but you gotta get closer to what you want.

Then if you wanna hear a little more booty...

on something else, know what I mean?

Only you can say that. You know what I'm saying?

A little more booty.

That's funny.

But you knew what I meant though too.

I know exactly what you meant.

One more time from the top.

Try to get the same sound.

Good sound on that. Good sound.

No, no, not yet, Prince.

No. You gotta-

You gotta let it simmer.

It's got a moment where it has to simmer.

- That's right. - You're not letting it simmer.

Just bathe in the moonlight. You have to let it simmer a bit, you know?

All right, Prince? We're gonna add two bars after the:

Or at least a bar.

Yeah. MJ, check it from the top again. See what we got, simmer-wise.

One, two, three, four.

I gotta cue that. I gotta cue that.

- That shouldn't trigger on its own. - That's a special on our girl.

That can't trigger on its own.

I gotta cue that.

So you gotta watch me for that growl, okay?

One more time.

That's why we rehearse.

It's okay, it's okay. Right here on this one.

They wanted us to take those eight out so-

It's okay, it's okay, no. It was a little too soon.

- Yeah, I agree, Michael. - Yeah.

- I think let's add them back. - Just leave it.

You don't feel totally nourished by it, you know?

MJ, we'll also have a fan there, right there in the center.

I'm trying to hear you. Say it again?