THE LAST VIPER: Dodge Viper-Pennzoil Short Film Says Goodbye To The Legend
The Dodge Viper is about to meet with a dignified death soon and Pennzoil made a fabulous short film to bid farewell to the iconic American car.
Bob Lutz once told Road & Track that the Dodge Viper was being killed off after a span of 25 years because the car had run out of reasons to live. Maybe he is right. The competition is stiff and brutal than ever. The Corvette is surging forward with more bonkers versions and despite a major overhaul the Viper just couldn’t keep up with the Vette. It was time to put the car to rest and the decision was taken with August 31, 2017 being the day on which the curtains will fall.
Dodge’s long-time partner Pennzoil has made a sensational action-packed short film which says goodbye to the car in the most appropriate manner possible. They threw the final Dodge Viper ACR, ace stunt driver Rhys Millen and renowned creative agency JWT Atlanta into a blender and flipped the switch on. The smoothie which came out of it was THE LAST VIPER – a 2:30 minute short film which unleashes the fury and aggression of the hardcore American sports car.
Shot in Miami, THE LAST VIPER is all about how a stolen Dodge Viper ACR – the last one of its kind – is recovered from car thieves by a “driver for hire” on behalf of the car’s owner. The owner in question seems to be an avid Viper-lover as we see two more examples of Dodge’s iconic sports car in his garage.
All stunts in this video were performed in closed and controlled environments, under the watchful eyes of Miami’s finest, emergency response units and with a professional motorsports/movie stunt driver behind the wheel.
Directed by Ozan Biron, THE LAST VIPER showcases the short film-director’s signature raw and aggressive shooting style. More of that can be seen in the Behind the Scenes video below which features quick interviews with the crew and more footage of the Dodge Viper ACR shredding rubber, dancing amidst tire smoke, spitting fire from its exhausts, letting out the thunderous roar of its 645 hp, 8.4L V10 all-aluminum, naturally aspirated engine and our personal favorite – getting airborne, for real.
Speaking to AdWeek, JWT executive creative director Jeremy Jones said,
"We’re trying to reach the same audience as Fast and Furious, but this is rooted in realism."
The clip is clearly meant for The Fast and the Furious fans. But the creative choice that was taken to use CGI only for clean-up and not for setting up sequences is one which deserves appreciation. So all that you see in there is good-old stunt driving enhanced by some innovative, kinetic shooting techniques.
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More of Rhys Millen’s stunt driving antics are on display in a handful of movies from The Fast and the Furious franchise.
We wonder how many sets of tires were consumed during the making of this film. One of the shots in the BTS video shows lumps of rubber being torn off the Viper’s rear tires as Rhys Millen mercilessly drifts the car through a corner. The man is a legend of sorts in both the drifting and movie stunt driving circles and having him on board was the best thing that the creative team could have ever wished for.
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The clip ends with the “driver for hire” delivering the car to its rightful owner and receiving a text which reads, “How are you at exorcising demons?”. The closing card reads, “To be continued”. So, is Pennzoil going to make a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon tribute video soon? Fingers crossed for that.
Oh… and that “V8 EATR” license plate… Spot On!