The motorized taxiway used in Hollywood action films and known in the industry as “Russian Arm” has been renamed to honor the country where its creator is a native: Ukraine.
The gyro-stabilized system placed on the roof of a car is used to add a more dynamic perspective to scenes of car chases and stampedes, allowing the audience to step into the shoes of action heroes.
It is a widely used tool in big blockbusters such as “Fast and Furious”, “Black Widow”, or in virtually any movie starring Tom Cruise.
The mechanism was named the “Russian Arm” in the early 1990s when it was created by the Filmotechnic company, which originated in Kiev.
But in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine this has changed.
“The new official name of Filmotechnic's world-famous system is now U-CRANE”, as announced in February by the company's US subsidiary on Instagram. The new name is a play on words in English, the language in which the crane is called 'Crane'.
The change is “in honor of [his] country of origin [Ukraine] and his heroic battle against Russian aggression.”
“The system of this gyrostabilized crane was developed and built in Ukraine by Filmotechnic and will continue to be built in Kiev for many years to come!” , the company added.
According to Variety magazine, the first to report on the change, Filmotechnic has a payroll of about 250 people in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine currently under attack.
Kevin Descheemaeker, the company's representative in the United States, said the system was no longer called “Russian Arm” to pay tribute to the company's Ukrainian employees and the owner of Filmotechnic, Ukrainian engineer Anatoliy Kokush, who designed and won an Oscar for this mechanism.
“I wrote to our international group to remove all signage with that name from our vehicles and websites, and to stop using the #brazoruso hashtag,” Descheemaeker said in a statement.
“As a group we see U-CRANE as a more respectful alternative.”
Russian forces have been attacking Ukraine for three weeks, pushing millions of civilians to leave their homes, many of them having to flee to other countries.
The invading forces have been accused of attacking schools, hospitals and theaters, ignoring the rules of conflicts that state that civilians do not have to face the horrors of war.
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