Harley-Davidsonâs LiveWire steals scenes in âAvengers: Age of Ultronâ
When Scarlett Johanssen, as Black Widow, drops out of the bottom of a jet fighter, astride a motorcycle, in the new âAvengers: Age of Ultron,â the weirdest thing about the scene is the bike sheâs riding.
Itâs a Harley-Davidson LiveWire, one of the few actual vehicles used in the filming of this CGI-driven sequel.
Itâs also a motorcycle that doesnât really exist -- yet.
The LiveWire -- a prototype of which we rode last year -- is Harleyâs bid to enter the nascent but growing electric motorcycle market. Itâs a high-performance, virtually silent streak of lightning that, when itâs perfected and on the market, could turn die-hard Harley freaks into electric motorcycle riders.
But, since itâs only a prototype, why is it doing the product placement turn in a Hollywood movie?
âWe saw this as an opportunity to build awareness about the technology, and a wonderful catalyst to move our industry forward in a positive way,â said Dino Bernacchi, Harleyâs director of U.S. marketing.
Harley goes way back with the âAvengers.â The first comic books featuring âAvengersâ team leader Captain America, published in the late 1940s, had the superhero riding a Harley-Davidson.
So, naturally, he rode a Harley in the 2011 movie that bore his name, and the 2014 sequel.
(And âCaptain Americaâ was the nickname given the chopper ridden by Peter Fonda in the motorcycle road movie âEasy Rider.â It, too, was a modified Harley.)
Bernacchi said Harley and the production team behind the 2015 âAvengersâ installment began discussing another partnership long before production began.
Writer-director Joss Whedon mentioned a scene in which a motorcycle drops out of the bottom of this super high-tech jet, Bernacchi said. âWe knew the motorcycle had to be as incredible as the jet,â he said. âSo we showed them what we had coming.â
That was the LiveWire, which was being developed at Harleyâs Milwaukee headquarters under tight security and had yet to be shown to the world.
Whedon and his team were impressed.
âThey said, âHoly crap! What is that? We need four of them,ââ Bernacchi said.
Harley shipped four of the gleaming LiveWires to the South Korean âAvengersâ set, where scenes featuring Johanssen -- in reality, French stunt woman Sarah Vignot -- made the most of the electric prototype.
The LiveWire isnât the only Harley product thatâs on display in the new movie. Captain America will again be astride a special Street 750.
But itâs the LiveWire that got the workout. Harley has taken the electric motorycle on a global road tour, and has invited thousands of potential customers to take a test ride. But, not like this.
âWe donât usually allow people to jump 40 feet in the air, and do wheelies,â Bernacchi said. âThe stunt riders learned what it can do, at the peak of its performance. No individual has ridden this like the stunt woman ride it. Itâs really been put through the paces.â
Like many electric motorcycles, the LiveWireâs Achillesâ heel is its range. The prototype being shown to test riders can go only about 50 miles between charges.
The real question Harley will face, as it gets closer to bringing the battery-powered bike to market, is if it can have the kind of legs on the highway that the âAvengersâ movies have had at the box office.
Twitter: @misterfleming