Van Damme gives Volvo ad campaign a real leg-up

Volvo has enlisted the services of eighties action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme to help illustrate a clever new active steering system used on its truck. Actually, illustrate rather under-sells what is an astonishing video clip, which shows the Belgian actor perform one of his famous full splits while suspended between two Volvo trucks as they reverse and steer apart.

The stunt, which was filmed for real and without any recourse to CGI or special effects, was designed to showcase a new system called Volvo Dynamic Steering which helps drivers to compensate for road surface changes, side winds and the like, making handling a big rig easier and smoother.

That must have been some relief to Mr Van Damme, who could only rely on his own strength, a couple of ledges attached to the trucks’ mirrors and an emergency harness to save him if it all went wrong.

Astonishingly, the finished film was only shot once, after three days of rehearsals.

"The stunt is real and is performed in just one take," said Anders Vilhelmsson, public relations manager for the Volvo Trucks brand.
"It's a daring stunt but we had full control. There was never any real danger
involved. We had him rigged so that if he would fall off he wouldn't die, obviously. We didn't want to be responsible for killing the Muscles from Brussels."