“Something bigger than us.” That was the theme evoked again and again by the cast and crew of the new firefighter film, Ladder 49. With a marquee led by the recently A-listed Joaquin Phoenix and buoyed by screen veteran John Travolta, the movie captures a lifetime’s passage of firefighting for the members of one ladder in the Baltimore Fire Department as seen through the eyes of Phoenix’s character, Jack Morrison. A sweeping timeline highlights the brotherly bond formed by the men in the firehouse, where duty takes precedence, but often clashes with their lives out of the uniform.

For a production in which spectacular recreations of buildings aflame were so crucial, the budget was surprisingly moderate. Shot entirely on location in Baltimore for three months, the most elaborate scenes focus on both house and commercial fires. Firemen and pyrotechnic technicians were on hand to advise on the accuracy of scenarios and contain the large, visceral blazes, which highlighted concerns about the heavy risks that define a firefighter’s life.

“Once you go in that door with the smoke, you look back and you don’t even know where you came from,” says actor Kevin Chapman, who plays firefighter Frank McKinney. “And that’s a terrifying feeling.” But from donning the fireman’s suit to rigging in the water hose, authenticity was pursued with dogmatic scrutiny from inception to wrap.

“It had to be absolutely real,” director Jay Russell comments, who originally turned down the script because he was hesitant to assume responsibility for an accurate portrayal of firefighting under the shadow of 9/11. But heartened by the memories of a father and best friend who had served on the force, he resolved to approach the script with a focus on realism, a process that began with careful casting.

“This is why Joaquin was perfect for the role, because the number of actors that are willing to commit themselves to such a level of intensity, for his generation, are very few,” says Russell. “We needed a character who was willing not to look heroic all the time.”

Travolta was also a natural choice for Russell as the tempered Captain Mike Kennedy, who was inspired by a lieutenant that the actor trained with in the six weeks prior to shooting.

“I saw that this man managed his group with care, with order and with laughter—but he was strong,” says Travolta. “And I thought if I could take all of those and combine them, that would be a leader.” But the largest commitment to truth for most of the actors came from the firemen themselves once the cameras began to roll.

“They let us know real quickly that they have not liked the past movies portraying them,” says actor Morris Chestnut. “They didn’t want the cheesy, heroic things. Just a real day to show ‘what we go through.’”

Responding to pressure from firemen wanting their craft portrayed accurately, Travolta voices the general sentiment of the actors, admitting that “it was nice to have that boundary, to have them check us and know when we had to do a scene again because it wasn’t the real way.”

To carry out their mission of accuracy, the cast spent up to a month preparing with the Baltimore Fire Department, both in the firehouse and in their homes. Jacinda Barrett, who plays Phoenix’s wife Linda Morrison, spent time talking with the wives. As a daughter of an Australian fireman, she observed that the worry of a child is untranslatable to that of a wife’s.

“My parents really shielded me from the dangers of my father’s job,” says Barrett. “In the movie, the firefighters are so connected with each others’ families that they bring the work home with them, and [as a wife] you can’t help your fears.”

Besides emotional prep and character study, the men underwent firemen’s training in order to sustain the physical demands of the role. Chapman spent his days in the academy and his nights running with the firefighters, which culminated in experiencing firsthand the horrors of the job.

“The captain told me, ‘Okay, go in there, there’s a [dummy] baby you have to find,’” he recounts. “I went in there, tore that place apart. You have about three inches of visibility once you’re in smoke, and I couldn’t find it. The captain took me back in and showed me the door I had smashed to get into the apartment. The baby was right behind there. And my daughter had just been born 9 months before, so when I saw that my heart just cracked.”

But Chapman admits that Phoenix bore the brunt of the training, alongside other cast members Robert Patrick, Jay Hernandez, Billy Burke and Balthazar Getty, who trained on the engine, in the firehouse and in simulated fires.

Despite the gravity inherent to the job, the training wasn’t without its antics. “You’re away from your family three to five months out of the year,” says Chapman. “You get a little giddy.”