DAMN! I got the "an error occured" so I can't watch the video - maybe Chuck Norris influenced YouTube with his mind!
Chuck Norris remembers his first acting gig as a child, playing The Big Bad Wolf in TheThree Little Pigs. - only using one lung due to bronchitis.
Saw the Van Damme video earlier...and, yes, it is an epic stunt (and a testament to the precision of the Volvo system).
I wonder if maybe they didn't START with him in full split and then get closer together - then reversed the video.
An eight year old girl can drive a combination vehicle in a straight line. It's harder to turn one correctly and much harder to back one perfectly straight over those kinds of distances, especially to your blind side. This ad is targeted at buyers that would know and recognize that the truck on the left, from our perspective, is essentially blind as it moves over, but it still does so safely and easily, while staying perfectly straight, because of the advertised greatest thing EVER!
Chuck Norris does a similar trick...using two jet fighters....at night....flying inverted...and low on fuel.......piloted by Stevie Wonder and an Asian woman.
I'd be very surprised if the whole thing isn't a special effect. We need the Mythbusters to get Van Dam and recreate it.
First, Mythbusters uses a nude Kari Byron spread eagle between two trucks just to get things rolling.
The video isn't in reverse. There's a documentary floating around that shows the planning and shooting of the commercial. The trucks are going backwards. I think the trucks are going in reverse so that if Van Damme were to fall, he would be less likely to go under the trucks' wheels. (I have no confirmation of this, but I have to believe that Van Damme had some kind of safety line on during this stunt...)
See @Elwood's post. While I've never driven a big rig I've hauled a trailer or two and moving forward (especially on an open track and going in a straight line) is easy. In reverse, one wrong move and you can jack knife, especially at the speeds they appear to be going.
I'm sure if we check Forbin's commute camera vids there's something similar going on at least a few times.
The credits says "Zolti <somebody>," so I don't think so. Watch Chuck's ankles, his left (our right) ankle looks fucked up as it goes into the splits, but the other one looks natural.
