You’ve probably spotted an Audi car featured during a movie, more times than you can count! The Audi brand has had many product placements in various films over the years. For car enthusiasts out there, we got a read for you… Here’s our guide to some of the German brand’s most memorable appearances in movies over the last number of years.
Marvel films
The Marvel Cinematic Universe must be considered one of the most successful movie franchises ever, if not the undisputed champion of this honor. There have been 20 films released already — the most recent being Ant-Man and the Wasp — and at least a dozen more in the pipeline.
As well as seeing all your favorite superheroes in action throughout these movies, many of them also feature a collection of sporty and stylish cars from Audi.
In fact, there’s been at least one Audi in every standalone film of the Iron Man trilogy — a 2007 R8 and S5 B8 can be found in the first movie, a 2009 A8 LD3 and 2010 R8 Spyder are spotted in the sequel, and a 2012 S7 and R8 e-tron both feature in Iron Man 3. The R8 e-tron also turned up at a VIP screening of Iron Man 3 at London’s Leicester Square a few days before the movie’s general release!
There were almost as many Audi cars seen across the three Iron Man movies as there was in Captain America: Civil War movie too. Within its two hours and 27 minutes runtime, you can see the 2017 Audi R8 V10 Plus, the 2017 SQ7, the 2017 A4, the 2016 A7 Sportback and even the Audi prologue concept car — a vehicle hailed as “a ‘signature car’ for Audi” by Prof. Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg, Board Member for Development at Audi.
That’s not all, though. Be on the lookout for an Audi R8, A6 Hybrid and A3 as you watch the excitement unfold in Avengers: Age of Ultron, as well as an Audi TTS Roadster, R8 Spyder, Q7 and A8 during Spider-Man Homecoming — the first standalone film by our favorite web-slinger since he became involved in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Even when we’re not focusing our efforts on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Audi can still be found in movie adaptations of some of our most iconic comic book heroes. An R8 Spyder features in Wolverine — the titular protagonist’s actor Hugh Jackman even turned up at the London Leicester Square premiere of the film in the same car — and an A8 plays a role in the 2015 big screen edition of Fantastic Four.
In short, there’s a very good chance that you’ll be tempted to visit an Audi dealer to check out the current range of new cars available from the German manufacturer after the credits roll on a Marvel movie.
The Fifty Shades trilogy
Another movie series where Audi cars feature throughout is the Fifty Shades trilogy, with the German manufacturer having a presence in all three film adaptations of E.L. James’ novels which follow the relationship of business magnate Christian Grey and college graduate Anastasia Steele.
The brand’s multiple appearances came as a result of a partnership which was set up between Audi and Universal Pictures — a deal that Audi no doubt has relished seeing as though the movie series has grossed over $1 billion across the globe to date!
In Fifty Shades of Grey, the first film of the trilogy, viewers will be able to spot an Audi S8 D4, a 2017 S7 and a R8 Spyder. In the sequel Fifty Shades Darker, a set of Audi Q7 cars and an A3 took center stage, with both the R8 and Q7 returning when the franchise wrapped up earlier this year with Fifty Shades Freed.
Mission Impossible II
Fans of action films will surely just be getting over the adrenaline rush that Mission: Impossible — Fallout provided them with, as one of the blockbusters of the summer has only just been released in cinemas.
However, we want to take a moment to rewind back to the year 2000 and Mission: Impossible 2 to showcase how Audi has been featured in the hit movie series that has always starred Tom Cruise in the lead role of Ethan Hunt.
During Hunt’s mission to find and destroy the dangerous biological weapon deemed ‘Chimera’, the IMF agent gets in a thrilling car chase with international thief Nyah Nordoff-Hall. Hunt is behind the wheel of a Porsche Boxster and Nordoff-Hall tries to hold him off while driving an Audi TT — suffice to say that the pursuit between the two German-made cars into oncoming traffic is filled with nail-biting and edge-of-your-seat drama!
Furious 7
An article about cars from the movies would seem a bit odd without at least one mention of the Fast and the Furious franchise. After all, this is a series which features street racing, heists and espionage using all manners of vehicles and has so far spanned eight main series entries and two additional short films — grossing in excess of $5 billion to date!
The franchise is so popular, in fact, that a spin-off movie called Hobbs & Shaw is due for release in 2019 and there’s now even a worldwide live show titled Fast & Furious Live, which includes stunt driving, projection mapping and pyrotechnics.
Back to the main films though and specifically Furious 7 — a movie that clutched at the heartstrings as it was the final one to feature an appearance by series regular Paul Walker due to the actor being killed while the movie was still being filmed — is where you can see Audi appearing in the franchise.
It was the German manufacturer’s Audi R8 that appears, when it competes in an exciting quarter mile race against a classic Plymouth Barracuda in the early moments of the film.
I, ROBOT
All of the cars which have been featured so far in this article have been cars that you can expect to already see on the roads or being released in some sort of guise soon in the case of the Audi prologue show car. With I, ROBOT though, car enthusiasts were given the opportunity to see what Audi cars may look like in the future — the year 2035, to be exact.
Deemed the Audi RSQ, this concept vehicle represented the first time that Audi had ever developed a car that was to be specifically used in a major Hollywood motion picture.
The result was a vehicle that boasted piloted driving, which allowed Will Smith’s Chicago police detective character Del Spooner to press a button to enable the car to take control of the driving — no doubt an early vision of the autonomous driving concept that we are only just starting to see being trialled in real life.
Sideways and diagonal driving can also be achieved in the RSQ, while the use of balls instead of wheels was a quirky design touch. However, the typical single-frame grille and the presence of those four instantly recognisable silver rings let viewers clearly know that this car was without question an Audi.
Sources:
https://productplacementblog.com/tag/audi/page/6/
https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/movie-partnerships-4526
https://www.audiworld.com/how-tos/slideshows/7-movies-that-made-you-want-to-buy-an-audi-439422#7-fifty-shades-of-grey
https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/press-releases/the-audi-prologue-show-car-launching-into-a-new-design-era-1216
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_(film_series)
http://www.india.com/auto/car-news/audi-tts-history-with-hollywood-first-tt-roadster-featured-in-mission-impossible-ii-6385/
https://blog.audi.de/why-the-shark-car-and-audi-rsq-never-made-it-to-production/?lang=en
https://www.supercars.net/blog/2004-audi-rsq-concept-2/
Image: Marvel