A smart move for Jeep

Being a car nut, I automatically take note of any car that appears in a movie. Sometimes this is anticipated because of the hype from a marketing tie-up - James Bond in BMWs, Tony Stark in an Audi, and the Terminator in the third film riding a Toyota Tundra pickup (I know, the last one didn't sound right). But tie-up or not, I remember the cars anyway. I just finished watching the latest installment in the Terminator franchise -Terminator Salvation. As I watched a teenage Kyle Reese evade Skynet's robots, I thought that the Jeep Wrangler he was driving was so cool, and how tough it must have been to survive Judgment Day. As I was reading the movie's reviews online (I read reviews after I see a film), I wondered why Jeep didn't tie-up with the movie's producers. It turns out they did. It's possible parent company Chrysler's bankrupt proceedings affected the marketing budget. If anything, it's a good reason for Chrysler to pull itself out of this financial quagmire. It still has cool products like the Jeep Wrangler. I've always liked this truck. If I ever get the chance to own a hardcore off-road machine in the future, I'd get this over a Land Rover Defender. The latter may have more history and prestige, but the Jeep Wrangler seems friendlier and easier to drive. Plus I can't see myself perennially wearing khaki. As I thought about the Jeep Wrangler and the Terminator franchise some more, I realized there was something familiar about all of this. Then it clicked: In the closing scene of the very first Terminator movie, Sarah Connor was recording a message to her son while driving a Jeep Wrangler. Remember that? There was both brilliance and negligence in this tie-up. It was brilliant because in using the same vehicle at the end of the first movie and in the first movie of a new trilogy (that's what I heard), there's a sense of coming in full circle, yet it's subtle and not in your face. It's negligent because this could have all been angled better for maximum publicity. I shouldn't have to stumble on it while surfing the internet for trivia about the movie. Then again, the serendipity of finding this out was a pleasant surprise. Maybe things do work out in the end. Let's hope it works out better for Chrysler overall if they want to be around for Terminator 5.

A smart move for Jeep

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