Weed is not the only thing that is smoked in the violent action-comedy “American Ultra,” due Friday. Jesse Eisenberg plays Mike Howell, a stoner who works at a convenience store and who has, without his knowledge, been programmed by the C.I.A. to be a lethal sleeper agent. His dormant killer instincts are activated in the middle of a government operation, letting Mike transform whatever items he has at hand into weapons. An early scene, from which this frame is taken, shows Mike’s skills when, in a 10-second burst of action, he takes down two men sent to kill him by using a cup of noodles, a spoon and the gun they pull on him. It’s a quick but energetic scene that will probably shock the viewer as much as it does the character. Here is a closer look at that scene with commentary from the film’s director, Nima Nourizadeh, and its stunt coordinator, Robert Alonzo.  It’s not often that a movie character uses a spoon as a weapon. As part of Mike’s self-defense programming, he takes the tools readily available and makes them deadly. Here, he first takes his hot cup of noodles and throws them in one assailant’s face. Then he jabs the spoon into the neck of another one. “You’re never going to expect a person to hurt anyone with some noodles and a spoon,” Mr. Nourizadeh said in a phone interview. “But when you do see it, you’re like, ‘Wow, that’s pretty graphic and skillful.’ I wanted it to feel like this real surprise.” He also wanted it fast. The original fight plan had Mr. Eisenberg struggling with the men for a more extended 20 seconds. But on the night of the shoot, Mr. Nourizadeh thought it would be too long. They tightened it up to get a more efficient explosion of action for the first time we see Mike get violent.  The two men who unexpectedly suffer at the hands of Mike were played by stunt performers with fighting backgrounds. “You realize why they get paid like they do,” Mr. Nourizadeh said. “They were hitting the ground hard every time. To be pretend shot in the head and actually sell that as being shot is hard to do.” He said they also had to be able to easily adapt to scene changes. But because they had fighting training, it was easier. “Selling punches, or any fighting, is really tough in a movie. It has a lot to do with the angles you shoot them from.” The stuntmen offered suggestions to Mr. Eisenberg, while working with Mr. Alonzo, on how to most effectively adjust their movements for the camera.  3. An Unlikely Action Hero  Mr. Eisenberg may not be the first actor who comes to mind when viewers think action hero, which is why Mr. Nourizadeh cast him.  “For the idea to work for me, you needed to go into the movie and be surprised,” Mr. Nourizadeh said. “I wanted it to be like a mate of yours who suddenly sprung into action. Jesse felt like the right guy, because you don’t see him playing roles like that.”  Mr. Eisenberg worked with Mr. Alonzo to get into fighting mode. “What I had him do was all practical, real-world, real-technique training,” Mr. Alonzo said. “So he was able to put his own sense of style and movement into the character instead of being trained to move in a specific way.” The actor learned fighting techniques and trained with eskrima sticks to get an action rhythm that felt more natural and not choreographed.  Having the right deserted setting for this sequence was crucial. The film takes place in West Virginia, but this scene was shot in Louisiana, in a town two hours from New Orleans. The filmmakers did little to the exterior of the convenience store. “This was one of the places I found that I thought was amazing,” Mr. Nourizadeh said. “The shop was empty, there was hardly anyone around. It felt so stuck in time. It also had this big parking lot, which I thought was great.” The size of the parking lot was helpful, because the filmmakers needed plenty of room to position Mike’s car. They wanted it far enough away from the store to create tension when he sees the men tinkering with it in the distance. They also had to be careful picking locations to make sure the spot looked like West Virginia and not Louisiana. But because of Louisiana’s flatness, in wide shots, they digitally added hills into the background.  A version of this article appears in print on August 16, 2015, on page AR13 of the New York edition with the headline: Stoner’s Weapon of Choice: Cup of Noodles. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
The film’s director and stunt coordinator explain how they transformed Mr. Eisenberg’s character from a stoner into a lethal C.I.A. agent.