Isuzu Gemini

December 30, 2005 8:28 PM

Ads (*.wmv) for the Isuzu Gemini. Shot without special effects.
posted by driveler (59 comments total)

I was all set to be disappointed, then... wow.
posted by sdrawkcab at 8:35 PM on December 30, 2005

That's amazing. How did they do the trick from 1:05 to 1:13 where the four cars spin around a central axis?

Also, how do they do the trick at :57 where the back of the car goes up?
posted by bshort at 8:43 PM on December 30, 2005

Yes, but can they parallel park downtown on a busy day?

Seriously though, whoa. The sliding spinning together thing at the end was amazing.
posted by Zinger at 8:48 PM on December 30, 2005

Wonderful. Now, if they had paid less to their advertising department and more to their car-design department, they might not be up shit creek.
posted by Protocols of the Elders of Awesome at 8:52 PM on December 30, 2005

That was so cool! (But seriously - is that actually a new car? Or did it drive itself in from 1987?)
posted by Kololo at 8:55 PM on December 30, 2005

Awe-fucking-some. Yes, that has to be an old commercial for an old model. They haven't made any Gemini since 1999 and the ones in the ad look similar to the 1985 model shown here.

This model was marketed as the Pontiac Sunburst in Canada. I remember the ads for the Sunburst a few years back showing some slightly fancy formation driving and sliding in parking lots. (Or was it another Pontiac? Can't be sure.) But nothing like this. Holy crap.
posted by maudlin at 9:00 PM on December 30, 2005

Pepsi Blusuzu

aw hell, that was cool...
posted by Robot Johnny at 9:08 PM on December 30, 2005

Aha! The (neat but much less showy) Canadian ads were for the Pontiac Sunfire ca. 1995. It replaced the Sunbird and was not related to the Gemini (that was the Asuna Sunfire), but it is interesting that the Pontiac/Isuzu people so loved showing off their little cars' agility in their ads.
posted by maudlin at 9:13 PM on December 30, 2005

Who does that song? I might put it on my running mix.
posted by Brian James at 9:19 PM on December 30, 2005

Holy fucking shit. I'm not a huge fan of cars, but holy fucking shit. The batshitinsane tag needs to be added to this post. Go on. You have my blessing.

How many cars did they wreck filming that? That was not a one take, one set of cars filming. People probably fucking died filming that. It's Jackie Chan shit.

How heavily modified were some of them? You would have to modify some of them for at least some of those stunts - if you tried most of those stunts with that car, it'd fucking explode like a kiloton of TNT.

I would make a reasonable wager that there were some sturdy mechanical linkages between cars for a small number of the stunts. A reasonable wager, but not a confident one.


And last question, but the most important one: Exactly how much fucking pure Bolivian flake cocaine were the ad execs consuming on an hourly basis, in metric tons? The film crew? The Isuzu execs?

Apparently the stunt driving crew didn't need any as they were operating on a multi-month long high of pure, uncut adrenalin from batshitinsane driving and amplified by some kind of black ops military research electrical adrenal gland stimulator that was undoubtably hardwired into the cars control circuits and linkages.
posted by loquacious at 9:23 PM on December 30, 2005

Very cool. But what's the expression about a pig in a dress? Are Isuzus still even sold in the US? Fascinating how the Trooper was so hot in, what, the 1980's, only to fade or disappear?
posted by ParisParamus at 9:23 PM on December 30, 2005

Welcome to drifting culture.

It wasn't the entire clip, but many parts (where the cars are slip slidin' and generally enjoying themselves.) There's much fun to be had when you explore driving, balancing at the threshold of what your machine can do, and what the limits of traction will actually allow you to. :)
posted by just a monkey at 9:42 PM on December 30, 2005

Who does that song? I might put it on my running mix.

I'm ashamed I know this. It's Karaja - She Moves (La La La) [Oscar Salguero Club Edit]

? You would have to modify some of them for at least some of those stunts - if you tried most of those stunts with that car, it'd fucking explode like a kiloton of TNT.

Actually, it's pretty hard to make a car explode. A fuel cell will make it near impossible. Though to be fair, I bet they changed out some suspension components, and replaced a lot of sheet metal.

Welcome to drifting culture.

The sport invented by tire companies, for tire companies.
posted by I Love Tacos at 9:46 PM on December 30, 2005

Are the cars crapboxes? Perhaps. Do we have enough of them to employ Choreography? Yes!
posted by longsleeves at 10:01 PM on December 30, 2005

Isuzu Gemini: it looks cool when driven by professionals.
posted by Citizen Premier at 10:05 PM on December 30, 2005

The hopping bit on the bridge was pure joy.

The part where they jumped onto the roof of the boat looked a bit off.
posted by smackfu at 10:10 PM on December 30, 2005

Related, but not as intricate:
Saab Suite.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 10:11 PM on December 30, 2005

Saab Suite.

What is that convertible doing? They show it three or four times for emphasis, but I have no idea.
posted by rafter at 10:26 PM on December 30, 2005

How do you know that there were no special effects? Do you mean computer generated imagery?
posted by popechunk at 10:31 PM on December 30, 2005

for sure that bit at 1:30 where the cars just kinda "rise up" onto two wheels was "special" something. Skip Barber couldn't do that.

I'm not denegrating the video, though, because like everyone else said, it was pretty awesome.
posted by popechunk at 10:38 PM on December 30, 2005

That ad gave me shivers. The good kind. And yes, song added to workout playlist. :)
posted by blackturtleneck at 10:38 PM on December 30, 2005

Awesome driving, although I have a hard time imagining Steve McQueen driving one of those in Bullitt...
posted by twsf at 10:39 PM on December 30, 2005

One car + two guys = 20 toes?
posted by cenoxo at 10:50 PM on December 30, 2005

See if you can view the video for the Holden Precision Driving Team. They're pretty fun to watch, and I've seen them live -- no tricks there.
posted by 5MeoCMP at 10:52 PM on December 30, 2005

When I saw "Isuzu" and "without special effects" together I immediately thought "why would they film a bunch of cars breaking down?"

Japanese cars are generally known as good quality, but not Isuzu (or Mitsubishi for that matter)...
posted by clevershark at 10:57 PM on December 30, 2005

"How did they do the trick from 1:05 to 1:13 where the four cars spin around a central axis?"

Once the cars are wedged together you could have the ones in the middle in neutral and the ones on the outside moving in opposite directions.

I have no idea how they made them "stick" together though.
posted by bdk3clash at 10:57 PM on December 30, 2005

Oh my God. Oh my fucking God. I can die now, having watched that ad. How the fuck did they accomplish the thing with the squirrel and the accordion and the calamari?

Okay, I haven't watched it yet.
posted by fungible at 11:05 PM on December 30, 2005

!
posted by nostrada at 11:24 PM on December 30, 2005

That Holden Precision Driving Team, not to descredit what they do, look like a buncha toddlers in a strobe-lit sand box compared to the Isuzu commercial. Not to mention, could they have picked larger, clunkier cars? Sheesh. If they are going for precision driving then maybe they shouldn't be driving 1 gajillaton utility vehicles. Just a thought. And the butt-rock soundtrack doesn't help their case either.
posted by RobertFrost at 11:36 PM on December 30, 2005

Actually, it's pretty hard to make a car explode.

Err. Well, while that was a joke and hopefully obvious hyperbole meant to allude to the generally shitty composition of Isuzu vehicles; No. No, it's not hard at all.

You just need the right toys and ingredients. They blow up quite nicely. They're perfectly frangible, what, being made mostly out of tin foil, cardboard, styrofoam and plastic.

Video proof is readily available at various low brow video hosting sites all over the internet.

However, if I could, it is here that I would vastly enjoy linking to Negativland's classic hit Car Bomb turned up to, err, eleven.

Eleven.
posted by loquacious at 12:03 AM on December 31, 2005

I must express doubt about those being unmodified cars. The thing where there are four of them spinning together is particularly questionable, as is the scene with two cars spinning in tandem.

I think there was more involved than just cars. I strongly suspect they were physically linked in some way. The shots are carefully designed to hide the spots where such linkages would presumably exist, so I'm going to run with that theory until proven wrong.

[short break before posting]

Actually, I just went and looked frame-by-frame of the two cars in tandem, and they definitely appear to be physically linked. Given that trickery, the whole video is pretty questionable.

Still fun to watch, but... it's not a documentary. :)
posted by Malor at 12:03 AM on December 31, 2005

Translations...

1.特別仕様車 = special specification car
2.シートベルトをしめて安全運転 = fasten seatbelt for safe drive
3.街の遊撃手 = street commando
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:21 AM on December 31, 2005

well, damn, wikipedia says 遊撃手 = 'shortstop', not 'commando'. Oh well. 遊撃 = 'play-war', and is used for insurgency and special forces.
posted by Heywood Mogroot at 12:37 AM on December 31, 2005

Link is dead. Anyone got a mirror.
posted by dobbs at 12:38 AM on December 31, 2005

Umm.
The link's borked.

Anyone have a mirror?
posted by slimepuppy at 12:38 AM on December 31, 2005

Jinx.
posted by dobbs at 12:43 AM on December 31, 2005

Here's the Google Video version.
posted by bwilms at 12:45 AM on December 31, 2005

Thanks bwilms.
posted by dobbs at 1:03 AM on December 31, 2005

Awesome. Reminds me of the Saab Performance Driving Team (google video of a demo).
posted by mathowie at 1:09 AM on December 31, 2005

Wow!
posted by ramix at 2:57 AM on December 31, 2005

The music in that Saab video... anyone?
posted by rxrfrx at 5:37 AM on December 31, 2005

I drove those cars. My real name is Joe Isuzu.
posted by yhbc at 6:18 AM on December 31, 2005

I'm guessing Insomnia by Faithless. Don't know which mix though.
posted by ikalliom at 6:59 AM on December 31, 2005

The back of the cars pop up at one point. A couple flip up on two wheels. And there's a lot of airborne activity. "Shot without special effects"? I declare shenanigans.
posted by cribcage at 7:18 AM on December 31, 2005

I strongly suspect they were physically linked in some way.

I do too in a few scenes. (notably the 4 in a line, rotating in less than the expected turning radius).

Regarding my inability to recognize humor... please enjoy this taco.

As for cars not blowing up... I meant without using explosives. A street car might catch fire, but exploding is still pretty tough unless you do something obscenely dumb. And seriously, if you want to keep a car from instantly incinerating, just install a fuel cell, aeroquip-type hoses with self-sealing breakaway ends, and strip the interior.
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:25 AM on December 31, 2005

cribcage: driving on two wheels just requires over-inflated tires on the side you'll be balancing on, and a ramp to lift the other side. That's a pretty standard "trick" driving maneuver.

I agree that the airborne stuff looks a bit fishy and possibly composited. I couldn't decide if it was strange lenses/perspectives, or what.
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:28 AM on December 31, 2005

Very considerate of them to use their blinkers when driving around in the subway...
posted by sad_otter at 8:31 AM on December 31, 2005

I agree re: exploding....I lived for a year in a section of town that seemed to be the designated "joyride, park here, torch car" area. I had no less than 5 car fires in front of my building in one month. None exploded, and the firemen who showed up to douse the fires didn't seem especially frightened of them blowing up. But they all smelled like hell and burned with really vicious looking black smoke that I'm pretty sure shortened my life-span by multiple years.

The cars, that is, not the firemen. They were all nice and really liked drinking coffee afterwards.
posted by nevercalm at 8:35 AM on December 31, 2005

I Love Tacos : But how do the cars get up on two wheels to begin with? There's no ramp. It's either been edited out or someone's been having huge ammounts of fun with under chassis rams.
posted by twine42 at 8:39 AM on December 31, 2005

I'm assuming "shot without special effects" means it was shot without any of the CG trickery we are used to seeing in contemporary media today. Most certainly there's a ton of on-site physical effect work being employed (the cars hopping across the bridge, for example. Shot at an angle to obscure the ramps placed on the bridge.)
I'm not seeing any overt compositing in these shots either. Stuff like overlays and travelling mattes are pretty easy to spot in film from that era. I will assume some minor optical work being done to remove or mask the presence of ramps (especially in the shots where the cars suddenly tilt onto two wheels) Otherwise, I pretty confident that this was all shot live and what you see is what you get.
These shots were obviously meticulously planned and co-ordinated. The framing set just right so as to obscure the special effects gimmickery.

One fucking wonderful set of ads. Thanks Driveler!
posted by Thorzdad at 8:58 AM on December 31, 2005

As an aside, I am reminded of the ad Chevrolet wanted to run a couple of years back to introduce the new Corvette C5. The theme was a boy and his dream car. It featured a Corvette performing some very similar aerial stunts as seen in the Isuzu ad. Unfortunately, several groups raised a stink about how such an ad would encourage kids to try to perform similar stunts in the family car. Chevy pulled the ad before it ever ran.
Fuckwits.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:04 AM on December 31, 2005

well, damn, wikipedia says 遊撃手 = 'shortstop', not 'commando'. Oh well. 遊撃 = 'play-war', and is used for insurgency and special forces.

It's more like "roving war". And 游擊手 means something more like "guerilla"; I think its use as "shortstop" is metaphorical.
posted by jiawen at 9:30 AM on December 31, 2005

Wow. That video is an amazing piece of work. It makes the driving from Ronin and The Italian Job (original version) look like breaking-in day at tricycle-riding training camp.
posted by soiled cowboy at 9:39 AM on December 31, 2005

this is really good.
I love seeing skill in the corporeal world.
CGIs great and all, but that jump across the Seine using the flatboat as a stopover is incredible to me.

a triumph of physics!
posted by Busithoth at 9:57 AM on December 31, 2005

don't really see the big deal...i drive like that all the time...

god bless my $200 car...Wheeee!
posted by sexyrobot at 12:13 PM on December 31, 2005

As Lord Sludge showed us a couple days ago, riding on two wheels without a ramp is possible. Maybe it just requires endless stretches of road through the desert...
posted by RobertFrost at 1:26 PM on December 31, 2005

I actually drove sexyrobot's $200 car last Thursday. I felt like I could have been in this Isuzu commercial.
posted by the_bone at 4:39 PM on December 31, 2005

If y'all go up a directory you'll find a load more car videos on the same site.
posted by polyglot at 5:52 AM on January 1, 2006

Man, I drove through a fountain with a Buick Century and they locked me up for the night. I'm fucking moving to Japan.
posted by uhnyuftz at 2:57 AM on January 2, 2006