The DeLorean from Back to the Future is an iconic car that, sadly, never really took off as real-world vehicle. Tesla’s new, insane-looking Cybertruck, on the other hand, is getting primed for mass production, where it may or may not shatter sales records like it did windows. So it kind of makes sense that the latter futuristic ride would work so well in stead of the former in this little twist on an iconic scene from Back to the Future featuring the cyberpunk pickup.
The video was created by the Toronto-based visual effects studio, Forty York, whose website has an awesome array of its work up, which is great, because their stuff is awesome. Check out the company’s spot for Magic: The Gathering Arena, for example. It features Carl Weathers launching lightning bolts like Zeus, and if that’s not a dream come true then we don’t know what is. (Why isn’t Carl Weathers in more things?!)
Forty York’s animation team definitely delivered with this spot as well, although it’s almost guaranteed they made it without any funding from the electric car company, which has no marketing budget. Nevertheless, Tesla’s cold-rolled stainless steel Cybertruck—which may or may not become the official truck of Mars—fills in perfectly for the DeLorean, without any sign of the original car being there at all. The whole time the 5,000-plus-pound Cybertruck is blasting its way to 88 miles per hour, it looks quite realistic; the way the truck is blasted with time-warping electric bolts or whatever they are is even flawless.
Tesla’s Cybertruck just before it takes off in Forty York’s version of the iconic time-warping scene. Elon McFly
Just after the Cybertruck leaves behind its flaming skid marks, along the parking lot and between Doc Brown and Marty’s legs, the license plate that drops to the ground reads “LOL GAS.” This makes sense because Tesla’s cars are all-electric, although it’s also a popular hashtag on twitter. (Nearly all of the cars that show up when the hashtag is searched are Teslas, however.)
And as far as the possibility that this little bit of VFX magic is somehow a defacement of the original Back to the Future movie, we can see that argument making some sense. At the same time, however, there’s no question we’re going to see more and more of this kind of surreal interchanging of original objects or characters with digitally created ones in films more and more often. If programmers can already “upscale” film from 1896 to 4K 60FPS video utilizing artificial neural networks, there’s no question this kind of technology is going to become completely seamless in the near future—when fleets of Cybertrucks may or may not roam the streets.
What do you think about this super-realistic mashup video between the iconic DeLorean time machine demonstration scene from Back to the Future and Tesla’s completely bonkers Cybertruck? Is this an awesome display of visual effects mastery, or an affront to Robert Zemeckis’ masterpiece? Give us your most angular and futuristic thoughts in the comments!
Featured Image: Elon McFly
