Volvo Trucks, Jean Claude Van Damme, and an Epic Split

The Internet is going nuts over a new online commercial that has gone viral since it debuted this past week. It stars martial arts and action movie legend Jean Claude Van Damme (his friends call him JCVD) and a pair of Volvo Trucks. The video, and the stunt performed in it, is, in a word, epic. Mind-blowing would also be a good way to describe it.

The video begins with a close-up of 53 year-old (!!) Van Damme, and then the camera pans out to show that Van Damme has a foot on one of each truck’s side view mirrors as the trucks are driving in reverse. A small platform was built on each of the trucks’ side view mirrors. While this is happening, Van Damme provides a voice-over that lets us know that “what you see is a body that has been crafted to perfection, a pair of legs engineered to defy the laws of physics, and a mindset to master the most epic of splits. Then the two trucks he is standing on begin to slowly drift further and further apart – while Enya’s Only Time plays in the background – forcing Van Damme to perform one of his classic splits. This one however, is beyond any you may have seen in Bloodsport, Kickboxer, or any other of JCVD’s great films.

Volvo is saying that what you see is completely legit, with the exception that he was hooked to safety wires that were digitally removed. His feet though were not secured to the mirrors whatsoever; he just had the safety harness attached just in case so that if he did fall off, he wouldn’t be seriously injured, or worse. Volvo didn’t want to be responsible obviously for the death of the legendary movie tough guy. Volvo also says that the stunt was done in one take (though they rehearsed the stunt for a few days prior), and that “the ad is designed to show off the trucks’ Volvo Dynamic Steering.”

If you haven’t watched it yet, do yourself a favor and hit the play button on the video below. You may end up watching it over and over again, like I have.

2 thoughts to “Volvo Trucks, Jean Claude Van Damme, and an Epic Split”

  1. Great share, Jesse! This commercial is bananas. Jean Claude Van Damme is amazing, and credit definitely goes to those truck drivers. There was another Volvo commercial with a wire walker going between the two trucks, and it was more intense than any commercial I’ve seen as of late. Thanks for the share!

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