Just when you thought you've seen enough quarantine-related videos to last you through the ongoing pandemic, a gathering of talented stunt performers have arrived with a new video challenge that is going to kick your ass nine ways to Sunday.
The video that is now going viral across the net hails from France's Campus Univers Cascades, a school that specializes in training stunt workers for film and television. For the video, dozens of stuntment and stuntwomen got together for the #CUCchallenge, which sees them fighting one another for a seamlessly-edited display of fisticuffs, forward kicks, and found objects that quickly become weapons of destruction. The video currently has over 343,000 views, and has even attracted the adoration of action-comedy filmmaker Edgar Wright.
You can check out the video that before long will have you spitting your teeth out like Chiclets below:
Without a doubt, this no-holds-barred video shows just how talented stuntmen and stuntwomen truly are. What would most movies even be without these talented individuals, each one of them ready to take a punch or escape from a fiery explosion for our amusement? Over the past several years, online groups as well as celebrities have been advocating for stunt performers to be recognized at the Academy Awards. Even Mission: Impossible filmmaker Chris McQuarrie has voiced his support for their inclusion by saying: “[Stunts] are an art, that’s a skill, that’s a craft,” said McQuarrie while speaking with Collider back in November of 2016. “Those are people risking their lives and doing things that are absolutely and utterly truly amazing and are so much a part of an experience like that. You go look at ‘Hell or High Water.’ ‘Lone Survivor.’ The stunts in that movie were absolutely incredible. In terms of a new category, I think you need to do that.”
While Stunt coordinator Jake Gill has been lobbying for years to get the Academy to create a Best Stunt Coordination award, the organization has yet to introduce a category that would celebrate the work of stunt performers in Hollywood and beyond.
Do you think stunt performers should be recognized by the Academy? What do you think of the above video? Let us hear your thoughts in the comments section below.