With Sony and Hasbro preparing to make a movie out of the Tonka toy range of trucks (no, we couldn’t believe it either!), CMME gives its run-down on five favourite scenes where the machine was definitely the star.
5. He was back: The Terminator 2 truck chase
Only Arnie could stop the Freightliner
Between filming the first Terminator movie and its sequal, Arnold Schwarzenegger had become an international movie phenomenom. However it was a Freightliner truck that stole the show in the movie’s most iconic scene. Rescuing future leader of the human resistance John Connor (Edward Furlong) the two are chased by the Terminator v2.0 upgrade, the T1000, down a flood control channel in the San Fernando Valley. Proving as impossible to kill off as its driver, the Frieghtliner is eventually killed off by the classic movie move of an exploding fuel tank.
4. JCB: Indahouse
JCB in Ali G: Indahouse. Best not to mention the promo campaign
Before Sacha Baron Cohen terrorised right-wing America as Borat, he was wannabe rapper Ali G. As part of the the promo campaign for Ali G: Indahouse, model Vanessa Perroncel was covered by mini-JCBs. Ten years after its release, CMME still doesn’t know why.
3. Don’t panic: JCB descends on Arthur Dent’s soon to be demolished home.
Ford Prefect convinces that Arthur Dent that he has bigger problems than JCB
Arthur Dent played by Martin Freeman wakes up to find out that a fleet of JCBs are about to tear down his house, that his best friend Ford Prefect (Mos Def) is from Betelgeuse, and that galatic contractors Vogons (with their giant construction fleet) are about to demolish the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. You can only imagine the size of the tender document for that job. The JCBs used included 8060 midi excavators, a JS200 wheeled excavator, a JS130 wheeled excavator, a 722 dump truck, a 456ZX wheeled loading shovel, a 4CX backhoe loader, a 3CX backhoe loader, a 411 wheeled loading shovel and a 532-120 Loadall telescopic handler.
2. Cat to the future: Ripley has her P-5000 license
Companies have been trying to emulate the ‘Cat’ power loader for three decades
Caterpillar machines have appeared in a number of films over the decades, but perhaps the one that no discerning machinery lover would like is the P-5000 Power Loader. James Cameron has always been a heavy machinery fan, and this futuristic forklift is a belter. Used by Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in her climatic fight with the Alien Queen. If you look carefully you can see Cat’s old pacman style logo on its legs.
1. A license to thrill: Linden Comansa swings into Casino Royale
Double-oh heaven, twin Linden Comansa cranes in the jaw dropping chase scene
The producers of Casino Royale turned to the Bahamas (doubling for Madagascar), where writer Ian Fleming wrote the Bond series, to film this stunning sequence set on a construction site. The newly annointed 007 (Daniel Craig) chases his lead Mollaka, played by parkour artist Sebastien Foucan up to the top of two cranes provided by Spain’s Linden Comansa. The two fight jumping from one crane to another before Mollaka leaps onto the roof of a nearby building, Bond takes off in hot pursuit. Literally. Look out for another brief cameo by a JLG access platform near the end of the sequence.