Lady Gaga dropping like a spider on a silk string from the rooftop of NRG Stadium all the way down to the turf during last night’s Super Bowl halftime show was certainly impressive, but the stunt wasn’t exactly performed live. If you’ve been wondering how the Mother Monster hit Earth so fast after she pitched herself from the ceiling, it’s because the intro portion in which she sang on the stadium roof had to be prerecorded due to possible weather conditions. A representative for Intel, which provided the drones for the spectacle, told USA Today that despite their resiliency, they chose to play it safe and film ahead of time. Otherwise, the possibility that the Super Bowl halftime show just couldn’t work out because it was raining or a little too windy for 300 drones to properly execute their choreography commands — all while Gaga would simultaneously have to be on that roof singing, before dropping down all the way to the floor in a timely fashion — was far too risky.
But as far as where Gaga went after she closed her performance by leaping into an abyss? That answer is still unclear.