More than 15 years after the original F-150 Raptor arrived, Ford is celebrating its origins with a new video directed by Ben Affleck and starring Jon Bernthal.
Hollywood and Ford: Together Again
Some know Jon Bernthal from his turn as Marvel’s “Punisher” or his time on “The Walking Dead”, but many also remember his performance in “Ford v. Ferrari” as legendary automotive trailblazer, Lee Iacocca. Ben Affleck likely needs no introduction and has been a prominent figure in Hollywood for decades. Both men, it turns out, are huge fans of the Raptor, and lent their talents to a short video highlighting the development of the off-roader.
Making A Monster
The new Affleck-directed video from Ford Racing debuted on October 23rd during Apple TV’s coverage of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas. In it, Bernthal poses the question, “how do you make a monster?” from behind the wheel of a Raptor. From there he tells a brief story of the Ford racing engineers who began the Raptor project in 2006, while the video cuts between engineers Derek Bier, Tim Smith, and Chris Paiva and shots of Raptors being put through their paces on both a desert course and in the garage. Bernthal points out that the Raptor is the same basic truck that Ford races in the Baja 1000.
Unkillable
The Raptor project, Bernthal notes, was canceled six times but engineers continued developing the now beloved Raptor. “They kept improving, tightening, testing, racing with it, breaking it,” until finally the Raptor package was released as a 2010 F-150. For their part, he and Affleck are both Raptor owners, with Bernthal owning three of them, including an original P415.
Against All Odds
The Raptor was developed at a time when most of the US auto industry was reeling from economic woes. Taking chances was definitely not something that Ford’s management was necessarily eager to do, particularly when the recession of 2008 hit and the federal government was bailing out Ford’s competition. There was no guarantee that a market for Ford’s proposed performance off-road truck existed.
One for the History Books
In answer to his own question, Bernthal says that “11 times out of 10” you make a monster through “relentlessness.” The rest, as they say, is history. The video is currently available on YouTube and the Raptor, of course, is still with us and available to purchase. While there are no signs that the Raptor is going to get the full “Ford v. Ferrari” treatment in Hollywood, it’s a film we’d certainly like to see if it ever saw the light of day.
