The Chase For Carrera
The Chase For Carrera
The Chase For Carrera
To celebrate 60 years of the iconic TAG Heuer Carrera, the Swiss luxury watch brand have done something just as daring and maverick as the watch's design: launching a Hollywood action-comedy.
Starring TAG Heuer brand ambassador Ryan Gosling, the short film salutes the Carrera's storied racing heritage in a no-holds-barred chase thriller that encapsulates the TAG Heuer motto, "Don't crack under pressure" - and deserves to be watched with the lights out and popcorn at hand.
Also starring Vanessa Bayer (I Love That For You, Saturday Night Live), the offbeat chase thriller sees Gosling on the run from Bayer's Prop Master as she attempts to take his beloved TAG Heuer Carrera of his wrist - something he doesn't plan on letting her do.
Produced by David Leitch's 87 North - responsible for some of the most iconic action films of the last decade, from John Wick to Deadpool 2 and last year's Bullet Train - and directed by Nash Edgerton (Mr Inbetween), Gosling shot The Chase for Carrera while working with Leitch on feature The Fall Guy in Australia. Both Gosling and Leitch contributed to The Chase for Carrera's creative and the result is pure box office:
The film sees Gosling and Bayer battle it out in a high-octane style, as everything from iconic sports cars to heavy-duty trucks to electric production buddies are raced through various movie sets in a spectacle of blockbuster proportions. In a knowing nod to its film-within-a-film set up, Leitch plays himself as the on-screen director.
It's a fitting celebration of an iconic timepiece that was born on the racetrack when it was first created in 1963 by TAG Heuer's legendary former CEO Jack Heuer.
Named after the notoriously dangerous Carrera Panamericana race, it as designed with readability and simplicity in mind, vital for drivers navigating high-speed bends. The result was an icon - elegant and uncluttered, sporting and daring - that spoke to Heuer's love of mid-century design yet remains timeless six decades on.
What better way then to celebrate its 60th year then with a world-first action extravaganza that few would even think possible? The film even comes with its own Hollywood posters and timeless taglines. "How bad does he want that watch?" reads one. Answer: badly.
Yet it's not just the special effects that make the film so spectacular. Gosling first worked with Bayer when he hosted US comedy institution Saturday Night Live in 2015 and the two found they had an instant comic connection. The duo's duel is as hilarious as it is dramatic, with both actors improvising many of the film's best lines.
"Prop Master?" Gosling asks her when they come face-to-face. "How did you get that? Did you get a bachelor's first and work your way up to the masters?"
Just as the word "Carrera" itself doesn't have a single meaning - along with "race", it can also be translated as "career" or simply "path", the perfect name not just for the daring, but simply for those with independent spirits - so the film, too, contains multitudes.
Not only does it manage to be many movies in one - going from adrenaline-fueled chase film to slapstick comedy to mod drama to Western parody and back again - this mini blockbuster contains a range of easter eggs, each one a nod to the Carrera's illustrious past.
It opens in an art-deco hotel corridor as Gosling finds himself chased by sword-wielding gangsters. But the first people we see is an old lady about to enter one of the doors.
Eagle-eyes fans of racing history will notice that she is dressed in the distinctive white sunglasses of the legendary Jacqueline Evans de López, the British-born Mexican TV and film actress who was not only the first woman to compete in the infamous Panamericana race, but did so five years in a row, between 1950-1954, in her own Porsche.
She was truly a trailblazer that embodies the spirit of the TAG Heuer Carrera: someone, like the Carrera itself, who refused to go with the status quo.
There are five other hints and homages to the TAG Heuer Carrera’s rich history, including significant names, notable numbers, and a glimpse of another iconic figure. See how many you can spot.
It may be a Prop Master in the film who is desperately attempting to get the Carrera back, but in truth TAG Heuer’s most iconic chronograph is anything but a prop: it is the film’s headline star... along with TAG Heuer’s brand ambassador, of course.
“Okay, now tilt the watch to the light!” shouts Leitch, playing the director, at one point.
The iteration of the Carrera that Gosling is desperate to keep hold of is the new TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph. Topped with a “glassbox”, a sapphire crystal dome that flows seamlessly over the tachymeter scale that runs around the dial edge and into the case, it comes in a stunning signature blue dial on a blue calfskin leather strap. An icon never looked so modern – and no wonder Gosling is not about to give it up easily. This is one timepiece worth putting your foot down for – literally. Bayer’s Prop Master, meanwhile, is wearing the new TAG Heuer Carrera 36mm in pink.
It won’t be a one off for that iconic double-act – Gosling and his Carrera – as they will also be seen co-starring in director Leitch’s next major feature, The Fall Guy. While the TAG Heuer brand ambassador can be seen wearing the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph with signature blue dial here, in The Fall Guy, Gosling will be wearing the sportier black and silver “reverse panda” dial of the same edition.
It represents a world-first for a luxury brand, as Gosling will continue to wear different iterations of TAG Heuer Carreras in multiple iconic Hollywood roles. Last year, the actor could be seen wearing the minimalist TAG Heuer Carrera Three Hands as the unflappable Agent Six in the Netflix spy thriller The Gray Man. Proof, as if proof were needed, the Carrera is truly a global icon in its own right.
