Air New Zealand has pulled out the stops for its latest in-flight air safety video, hiring Rip Torn and Frank the Pug from the Men in Black films to star alongside the country’s world championship rugby team.
The in-flight video, created in partnership with Men in Black‘s studio, Sony Pictures, has gone viral, with more than 2 million views on YouTube.
Set to the tune of Will Smith‘s Men in Black theme song, the video features Richie McCaw, the captain of the New Zealand rugby team — nicknamed the All Blacks — alongside New Zealand Sony Music recording artist Stan Walker, winner of the seventh season of Australian Idol, dancing and rapping about buckling up and switching your phones to airplane mode.
The video taps into fan excitement ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which kicks off in England Sept. 18. New Zealand is reigning world champions. Rugby fans will spot a few living legends of the sport, including David Campese, Martin Johnson and AgustinPichot in cameos as hapless aliens in the video.
This isn’t the first time Air New Zealand has put a Hollywood spin on in-flight safety. Last year, to commemorate the final film in the Hobbit trilogy, the airline produced a Middle Earth-themed safety video, featuring Peter Jackson and Elijah Wood. The “most epic safety video ever made” has been viewed more than 14.7 million times online.
