A crew of amateur filmmakers and one brave stunt driver were busy at work driving a Lada Niva off a building and capturing the footage for the world to see. Well, the crew and stunt driver were trying to jump off the roof of one building onto another, driving the notoriously slow but hearty Niva off a ramp. As you can guess, the Michael Bay stunt went less successfully than the crew intended.
Not only was the stunt driver unable to pick up enough speed to jump over the clearing, but the driver failed to keep the Lada securely over the wooden planks meant to be used as a platform as he jettisoned the Niva off the ramp safely. The Lada seems precariously placed over the ramp, sliding off the planks just as the driver tries to go airborne as the footage from Twitter — ahem, X — shows:
I’m using words like “stunt driver,” “crew” and “safely” pretty loosely, by the way, because nothing about this jump was sanctioned nor safe. It’s madness through and through, and yet it’s cheerful madness in the end.
Up to and through the jump, things seem to be under control for the crew. Absolutely no one seems to have stopped long enough to consider the possibility the Lada might not make it across to the other roof. One Twitter user even wondered how they get the Lada up on the roof in the first place. How, indeed.
It’s likely that the crew drove the Lada into the abandoned (or derelict, or incomplete) building through a large opening at the base level and drove it right up the stairs. Or something. The drab but colorful buildings lend the scene a bit of Wes Anderson’s aesthetic — especially when the footage is seen from a distance. I never knew just how much I needed a Wes Anderson and Michael Bay crossover until now.
But mostly, I’m surprised that no one seems to have been harmed or seriously injured in the stunt. The Lada narrowly missed smashing the driver’s side when the car struck the building face first, but then it lands on the driver’s side after falling four stories to the ground. And, still, the driver miraculously emerges from the front of the crushed car without any physical assistance. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.
