The Epic Split

"The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Live Test)" is a 75-second-long commercial released in November 2013¹ by Swedish company Volvo Trucks, as the sixth commercial in their "Live Tests" advertising campaign. The commercial was made to demonstrate the stability of the Volvo FM trucks while using their implementation of dynamic steering response. It features Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme (then 52 or 53) performing a split on the wing mirrors between two backwards moving trucks set to the music "Only Time" by Irish singer Enya. The commercial was recorded in a single take at the inactive Ciudad Real International Airport in Spain during a sunrise. It was produced by the agency Forsman & Bodenfors and was directed by Andreas Nilsson. It has won several awards, and multiple parodies were based on the commercial.

"The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Live Test)" is a 75-second-long commercial released in November 2013 by Swedish company Volvo Trucks, as the sixth commercial in their "Live Tests" advertising campaign. The commercial was made to demonstrate the stability of the Volvo FM trucks while using their implementation of dynamic steering response. It features Belgian actor Jean-Claude Van Damme (then 52 or 53) performing a split on the wing mirrors between two backwards moving trucks set to the music "Only Time" by Irish singer Enya. The commercial was recorded in a single take at the inactive Ciudad Real International Airport in Spain during a sunrise. It was produced by the agency Forsman & Bodenfors and was directed by Andreas Nilsson. It has won several awards, and multiple parodies were based on the commercial.

Parodies

Less than a week after Volvo released the advert , a face-swapped variant was distributed, with Van Damme replaced by then-Mayor of Toronto Rob Ford. In November 2013, during the filming of 22 Jump Street, a parody was created with actor Channing Tatum performing the splits between two food trolleys. In December 2013, a parody was created showing Chuck Norris as Walker, Texas Ranger, performing a similar manoeuvre between two aircraft to the opening lines of Hamlet. As the camera pulls back eleven commandos are seen balancing on the character's head in the shape of an illuminated Christmas tree. Five years later, the director of Epic Split, Nilsson, would go on to film a commercial for Toyota Tacoma pickups featuring the real Chuck Norris. On April Fools' Day 2014, Bohemia Interactive released a parody of The Epic Split as part of a promotion for the fake "Arma 3: Karts" downloadable content pack for their 2013 video game Arma 3. The video depicts a major character from the game's story performing a similar stunt between two go-karts. Though intended as a mere joke, the video became so popular with fans that Bohemia released the Karts DLC on May 29, 2014, as Arma 3 's first paid DLC.

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Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1375014760 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.