Here’s a fantastic safety video from Air New Zealand: a takeoff of Lord of the Rings which, of course, was filmed largely in that country.
And the information from YouTube:
As the official airline of Middle-earth, Air New Zealand has gone all out to celebrate the third and final film in The Hobbit Trilogy – The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Starring Elijah Wood and Sir Peter Jackson; we’re thrilled to unveil The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made.
Special cameos by Sylvester McCoy, Dean O’Gorman and Weta Workshop co-founder Sir Richard Taylor. Directed by Taika Waititi. Enjoy!
You have to admit that it’s a pretty epic safety video, one that will make jaded passengers sit up and pay attention!
Also, doesn’t Elijah Wood bear a resemblance to a younger version of one of our favorite Horsemen?
This is not the first time that Air New Zealand produced unusual safety ads. One from 2009 features the pilot and cabin crew bedecked in nothing but body paint (all naughty bits are strategically hidden), while another from two years later features the bizarre Richard Simmons and a bunch of athletic passengers. But the Middle Earth one is the best.
~
Frodo-Sam. Yeah, I can see the headlines now:
Frodo in league with Dark Lord: last seen heading up Mount Doom. Clearly wishes to forge more One Rings.
Racist hobbit mistreats misunderstood Stoor and threatens him with stabbing Imperialist Elven sword.
Genocidal hobbit advocates wholesale slaughter of Mother Spiders. Denies her a decent meal by deliberately getting rescued by his allies the Orcs.
Ha ha! All those are great! How about, “Frodo: Fascist Foe of Freedom!”
I liked the Orc with the oxygen mask best. I also love Air NZ’s uniforms. They always look sharp and seem to take the comfort of their employees into consideration. My best flights have always been on Air NZ and it’s also where I’ve had the most amusing incidents happen.
Sam Harris has acknowledged his resemblance to Ben Stiller, though I think he is much better looking than Stiller. As for Elijah, maybe there is some resemblance around the ears.
Exactly! I’ve always thought that when Hollywood gets around to making that action movie about the debate between Harris and William Lane Craig it will star Ben Stiller as Harris and Ray Wise as WLC ( look him up)
Actually I had Seth Green pegged to star in the Sam Harris biopic.
Very funny.
In general, presenting stale old data in a new way is successful in getting people to pay attention to it. Which is why there is a whole industry of strained (oh, how strained sometimes!) “safety humour” struggling to get people’s attention.
Good point – which I’ve never seen on any other pre-flight video – are the demonstration of where the life jacket is stowed on each class of seat. (That’s a bit of a hostage to fortune for a carrier with multiple generations of planes, but by no means unmanageable with a modicum of planning before shoot/ edit time.)
Bad point : they show the passenger not tucking his feet under the seat while entering the brace position, but they don’t say what and why. As the Cougar Flight 491 case proved (in my industry; it was well known elsewhere), aircraft seats are designed to collapse under high vertical accelerations, reducing the likelihood of spinal damage to a survivor ; unfortunately, if the passenger has their feet tucked back under the seat in the brace position … two broken legs and somewhat inhibited mobility in consequence. Until that incident, our safety videos had people tucking their feet right back ; all videos were re-shot after that report came out, though it took some months to run through the process.
Preparing flight-safety videos is a job-for-life gig. There will always be a reason for a new set of videos.
I think I would like to sit next to you on my next flight. Now, where was that flotation device again?
Which class are we in? Either between your legs, under your left arm, behind your right shoulder, or in a locker behind your left calf. There was a 4th location too, but that slips my memory.
(Yes, I did only watch the video once. Short term memory, some filed into long-term memory.)
It’s always worthwhile noting the people in your vicinity who are checking their exit routes as you settle down for roll-back. They’re going to be the ones competing with you to get out.
That person checking the exits is probably me. I could, however, be also locating the washrooms & how close I am to each.
“Six Pees :”
Perfect
Planning
Prevents
Piss-
Poor
Performance
(Oft-repeated slogan of various groups, including, hilariously, many military organisations.)
I’m the one computing how many peoples’ heads I’m going to tread on (in the unlikely event the landing is survivable) as I scramble to get to the door before the whole thing bursts into flames…
Contrary to the various aviation authorities public pronouncements, in the event, it gets very physical. Old people and children get trampled ; coordinated parties plough violently through panicking masses.
It’s why I’m much more comfortable in inherently unstable rotorcraft, with people whose training I know is up to a certain standard. The fact that I can walk into town and within a couple of hours meet 4 people I know who have all survived helicopter crashes comments on several interrelated points : the frequency of such crashes ; the relatively low speeds involved (a good proxy for “survivability”) ; the fact that they’re almost always on potentially lethal water ; and the fact that evacuations are drilled and practised regularly. That last point is the one that we can control most by our own actions.
There’s a re-training programme going on at the moment to re-train everyone to be competent using small SCUBA systems for underwater escape. It’s estimated to improve survivability, if properly deployed, by several percent. We’ll know within a decade or so.
On the other hand I have read of an accident (can’t remember the details) where the plane landed in one piece and caught fire, and the pax just sat there like dummies regardless of the cabin crew screaming at them to move. And most died of smoke inhalation.
I have to say, seeing how long it takes to get the plane unloaded at the terminal, with all lights working and no panic, I think the best strategy to survive an air accident is to be somewhere else at the time.
I don’t recognise that one from the description. There were substantial changes in regulations on things like seat material flammability and floor lighting after the 1985 Manchester crash, flight 28M, but many of the people who died in their seats there did so by smoke inhalation while the aircraft was still rolling to a standstill.
In cave diving terminology, this is known as an attack of the OUTBEs :
Overwhelming
Urge
To
Be
Elsewhere.
It’s a brilliant safety video – though as a Kiwi who lives in the city where these movies were mostly made, I might JUST be biased! The conceptual ‘angle’ Air NZ took on this one pretty much sums up the way New Zealanders think…
Nice once. Like most Air NZ safety vids they become extremely irritating after the third or fourth time in a week.
Yes, I’m sure. But by paying attention a couple of times in a year, when the new ones come out, you’re probably in a better position than many fliers on other carriers.
The aviation industry makes a claim (quietly) that “safety does not sell” ; I’m pretty dubious of that claim. It seems that Kiwi Flight (or whatever they’re called?) are doing their bit to subvert the claim too.
When I first saw Sam Harris talk on youtube, I thought wow that BEN STILLER sure is much more intellectual than I thought
🙂 🙂 🙂
Yeah, I think Sam bears more of a resemblance to Ben Stiller than to Elijah Wood.
Sub
Great safety video. Sylvester McCoy, one of my favorite doctors.
Dr Who AND LOTR! How could he miss! 🙂
Air New Zealand also produced
this
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Undoubtedly gets passengers’ attention, though I can’t help wondering how much of the safety facts get remembered. I think it’s about advertising as much as safety. OTOH, if you are about to hit a mountain at full speed**, it doesn’t really matter what you do.
(**Sour grapes comment, I fly on anybody else in preference to Air New Zealand, to know why just google Mt Erebus, Mahon Report and ‘preconcerted litany of lies’… sometimes I wonder if my memory is too long…)
First time I saw a picture of Sam Harris I thought he looked like Bradley Cooper.
Yes!
On the Sam Harris/Ben Stiller thing…
I’ve always found that a reach. Yeah, they both have dark hair, similar hair-cut, and a sort of similar shape to their head, but to me there is little actual resemblance. Some people who resemble celebrities look like they could have come from the same genes. But in the details, Sam doesn’t really look like Stiller, any more than the average guy putting no a black pompadour looks like Elvis.
To me, anyway.
The faces are the same but the hair is notably different. On the other hand, the sinister Morden from the TV series “Babylon 5” has pretty much the same hair.
http://www.planet-zhadum.com/morden2.jpg
Cross Morden’s hair with Frodo’s face, I think you have a better match.
I think Harris looks more like Ben Stiller.
This is another reason why I love my country – our national airline does stuff like this.
I call my national airline “Total Bastard Airlines” after the SNL skit. 🙂
Me too 🙂
By the way, America needs Ceiling Cat’s prayers – the All Blacks (NZ rugby team for the ignorant) are in Chicago right now. They’re going to play the American Eagles on Saturday. Prayers, of course, won’t help. The All Blacks will win.
I think the game has been sold out for a while, so it might be too late to get seats.
Rugby is a better game than soccer or American Football. There’s lots of scoring and lots of action.
I will of course be rooting for USA. Not that I’m normally pro-American, you understand, but any team opposing the All Blacks gets my automatic support…
Oh dear! Poor American rugby players.
What a pity!
Never. Mind.
Did someone book them a hospital suite together?
I’m just having a mental image of a bar full of rednecks saying the wrong thing, then not recognising a haka when introduced to one.