A cargo plane, iron chains, and a secured airfield were part of the props when the brand-new Ford Ranger Raptor was unveiled earlier this year. The wild Ranger Raptor plays the lead role in the film, which can easily be confused with an action movie from Hollywood. In the film, you see the new Ford Ranger Raptor strapped into a cargo plane in the air over Europe when the engine of the rugged pickup suddenly turns on, and the car breaks out of the plane - in an impressive jump down on the runway.
The shoot took place over three days at a secure airstrip used initially for constructing and testing military jets, and it was preceded by over three months of planning. An animated storyboard was developed as a previsualization of the film's plot before the cast and crew set foot in the actual location. The creation of the animatic took over 200 hours of labor and served as a tool for gaining approval for each shot and as a guide for producing the final film.
Paul Swift, a 30-year veteran and international pioneer in precision stunt driving, created and performed all of the jumps and drifts. Swift got behind the wheel during Ford's live European reveal event for the 2023 Ford Ranger Raptor. He credited the fantastic antics he could pull off to his 3.0-liter EcoBoost V6 engine and advanced Fox suspension. Ford's engineers who worked on the video were so confident in the vehicle's capabilities that they used only stock footage throughout. Only the driver's safety harness was upgraded from the conventional seat belt to a multi-point system.
True to life, the film depicts the actual cargo plane's pilots, who are more accustomed to transporting freight across Africa than brand-new pickups. To film the dramatic escape of the Ranger Raptor from 22 meters of steel chain in the cargo hold, the script stipulated that the eight-person aircrew flies down the 1,800-meter runway at 200 km/h.
Drones, electric buggies, and a "Robo Arm" camera car were among the tools employed by the production team to capture the scenes. Imagination, a creative partner firm for Ford, spent hundreds of hours editing the final film into seven distinct versions for different distribution channels and target demographics.
