Thomas Chaser
Tribune
There are some caveats to the results.And what was the verdict? Which one did she claim to be the most painful?
In the traditional crux position, she had a small footrest to stand on to help hold her weight. Not my idea to have a footrest. I think it was a concession during production. I think it spoiled the scene, but I could do nothing. I'd rather have 10 seconds of true crucifixion than 5 minutes on a footrest, but I'm not the one up on the frame.
In the T-crux with legs apart, her arms bore most of the weight and really hurt.
In the inverted X-crux position, she had two things: blood rushing to her head and body weight on her arms. This is the one that she had to take a break to recover before finishing. You can see she is bending her right arm to support her weight. Had her ankles been better bound, she could have endured longer.
In the upright X-crux position, the weight was on her feet and eventually the ropes dug into her soles and had pressure on her foot bones.
In the film, the upright X-crux is scripted as being the most painful so that I could use a fake urine scene to signal how close to death she was. In reality, it was the inverted X-crux but I think that was mostly due to how she was tied rather than the position itself. So, for the sake of science, I must do the experiment again!