What is that weird thing Chris Hemsworth is driving?

Hollywood is a land of plenty. The films are shot here and a lot of money ends up there. This industry has created all sorts of innovative solutions to weird problems, like that weird car-like thing Chris Hemsworth drives. Or he doesn’t drive, depending on the situation!

This week, an Instagram user named dnk530 took to the site to post a strange video. It shows a well-dressed Chris Hemsworth behind the wheel of a Chrysler 300C completely covered in cameras. Except his car is parked on a strange six-wheeled transport cart that appears to be driven by a man hanging off the side. Based on the context, we can assume that the scene filmed is his upcoming film. Crime 101, Publication is scheduled for 2025.

As it turns out, this is one of those unique Hollywood creations designed to solve a real Hollywood problem. Meet the rig called Biscuit Jr.!

Hollywood problems

The thing about acting is that it is a complex task. Transforming yourself into someone else, delivering perfect lyrics, and conveying the relevant emotional states requires a certain level of brain power. The problem? Driving a car is also a complex task! Without the driver’s full concentration and attention, cars have a tendency to crash into walls or flip upside down, and that’s something no one wants to see on a movie set (aside from pre-planned stunts, of course).

Long story short, it’s bad practice when people want to act and drive at the same time. And yet Hollywood has to make films in which actors get up to all sorts of mischief in cars! There are a variety of solutions. For example, in scenes where the characters are simply getting from point A to point B, it might be easy enough to just throw a car on a trailer or do some creative green screen work. However, for automotive action scenes with sideways cars and all that jazz, that’s often not enough.

As covered by Filmmaker magazine In 2013, this problem was solved with the Biscuit Jr. drilling rig. It is the creation of Allen Padelford and Robert Nagle, an experienced duo who work on complicated vehicular action scenes. If you are shooting a movie, you can rent this device from Allen Padelford Camera Cars to shoot your action scenes if required.

At its core, the Biscuit Jr. is a powerful six-wheeled platform designed to transport a car for filming action scenes. The actors sit in the car and do their thing. Meanwhile, a stunt driver sits alongside Biscuit Jr., controlling him from a small cabin equipped with pedals and a steering wheel. The stunt driver does the driving while the actor sits in the car and fully concentrates on his performance.

Spacers

Biscuit Jr. was behind some of the actions in “Baby Driver.”

The car was originally equipped with a Cadillac Northstar V8 that delivered 400 horsepower to the front wheels. A surprising choice perhaps, but it’s nice to see that the unloved GM engine has finally found a home where it’s truly appreciated. The combination has two axles at the rear to support the weight of the star vehicle on the loading area. However, an additional axle was temporarily added to provide more capacity when required.

The key to the Biscuit Jr. is its modularity. The driving pod can be moved to different parts of the vehicle, allowing the stunt driver to be kept out of shot if necessary. To make this easier, all controls are remote controlled. For example, the steering wheel is hydraulically articulated and not via a direct mechanical connection like a steering column.

The advantages of the Biscuit Jr. lie in its performance. “You can drive it over 100 miles per hour,” Nagle said Filmmaker magazine. “We can cut through traffic at high speeds, we can push it, we can turn it.” That’s a wild statement for a huge six-wheeled vehicle that carries an entire car in the back, but that’s what the Biscuit Jr. was built for. “It’s heavy, it’s not particularly responsive, but it handles extremely well… it’s very fast,” Nagle said.

The name comes from an interesting place. It is apparently named after the original “Biscuit” rig developed by Padelford and used in the film Sea biscuit. The original Biscuit was a wheeled platform that carried mechanical horses and was used to film actors doing horse racing scenes up close – you can see it in action in the video below. This rig was later used to house an aircraft fuselage for the XF-11 crash scene The aviator, before it was destroyed in a bushfire.

When you click on it, the video jumps to the Seabiscuit horse rig.

The Biscuit Jr. is not suitable for everything. It is not used for exterior shots in an action sequence as the rig would be obvious and get in the way. It is used to capture the actor’s performance in the vehicle and to take shots from inside the vehicle with a view outside.

If you’ve watched car movies from the last decade or so, you’ve probably seen more than a few scenes filmed with the Biscuit Jr. The rig was used intensively during filming Drive And baby driver, as well as titles like Live free or die hard, soldier, And Cowboys and aliens.

Ultimately, the Biscuit Jr. is an obvious solution to a very unique problem. Its continued presence in Hollywood is a testament to how well it works. It might seem like a strange and unwieldy thing, but if you want to capture the authentic performance of a car at high speed, it might be just the thing The Tool for the job.

Photo credit: via YouTube screenshot, dnk530 via Instagram screenshot