With possibly the greatest opening scene of any show this year, Euphoria’s season three features actress Zendaya off-roading the iconic Jeep Cherokee XJ through the Mexican desert before ascending a steep ramp leaned up against a U.S. border wall. Things don’t go well for Zendaya’s character or the Jeep, but it didn’t have to be this way. You see, Zendaya’s character made a huge mistake behind the wheel.
“Somewhere In Chihuahua,” the screen reads as Zendaya’s character Rue Bennett finishes up saying: “A lot of people asked what I’ve been up to since high school. Honestly? Nothing good.”
The first scene shows Zendaya behind the wheel of a 1990-ish Jeep Cherokee XJ stuck in some dirt, with a group of Mexican men trying to push the vehicle out.
After the men successfully free the Jeep, Zendaya blasts Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like The Wind” as she has fun bashing the Jeep through the desert at high speeds, a grin from ear to ear.
After the fun in the desert, Zendaya reaches the border wall, against which ramps are being leaned so she can drive her Jeep up and over. (As I understand, Zendaya is a drug mule in this show, hence the situation she’s in here).
Unfortunately, this ends up happening:
Zendaya’s character gets the Jeep stuck at the top of the wall, forcing her to walk down the ramp into the United States.
This Scene Was Based On A Real Life Event
When my wife first showed me this scene, I knew this had been cribbed from a real life news story.
Back in the fall of 2012, suspected smugglers had gotten that very same vehicle from Euphoria — a Jeep Cherokee XJ — stuck on a border wall that looked just like the one in the show. The Spokesman-Review out of Spokane, Washington covered it at the time, writing:
Agents patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border near the Imperial Sand Dunes in California’s southeast corner spotted the Jeep Cherokee teetering atop the fence early Tuesday, Border Patrol spokesman Spencer Tippets said. The vehicle was perched about five miles west of the Colorado River and the Arizona state line.
Two smugglers on the Mexican side of the border were trying to free the Jeep when the agents approached, Tippets said. They ran further into Mexico and escaped.
The Jeep was empty, but agents said it was probably filled with contraband like bales of marijuana before it got high-centered atop the fence.
Could Zendaya’s Character Have Gotten The Jeep Over The Wall? Probably
The first thing I noticed upon watching the scene was that, when the group of Mexican gentleman were trying to free Zendaya’s Jeep, the only tires shown spinning were the rears.
“It’s a four-wheel drive Jeep,” I thought. “Why aren’t you showing the fronts spinning?” I figured maybe the front left tire was spinning and we just couldn’t see it. But then I noticed something:
When the camera shows the Jeep’s interior as Zendaya mashes the gas pedal to try to get the Jeep unstuck, we are shown the four-wheel drive shifter. It’s in two-wheel drive!
And then later, after Rue Bennett pays the person who put the ramps up on the U.S. side, she hops into the Jeep and puts it into gear to head up the grade (She is shown putting the Jeep into reverse, but she drive forward?). Once again — the shifter was still in two-wheel drive!
I know this because I own four vehicles with this same four-wheel drive system, including the exact Jeep model shown in the scene — an early 1990s Jeep XJ. When in two-wheel drive, the shifter is level and all the way forward, as shown in the show (and in the Bring a Trailer listing’s image below). To get the vehicle into four-wheel drive, you pull the shifter backwards, which gives the shifter handle a bit of an upward pitch.
What a crazy mistake to make! You’re in the desert, a bunch of guys are trying to push you out of a mud hole, and you forget to go into four-wheel drive?! And then, as you prepare to get over the wall, you still forget to pull the lever!
Zendaya’s character is shown trying to rock the Jeep back so its rear tires reach the ramp for traction, but the scene clearly shows the nose on the ramp. In four-wheel drive, these front wheels might have pulled the Jeep up and over:
There were other issues with how Zendaya approached the apex of the border wall: As she noticed the scraping of her underbody skidplate on the top of the border wall, she should have stopped right there and reversed. On that ascent, the Jeep simply does not have enough forward momentum to overcome any significant friction between that wall and the bottom of the Jeep. While four-wheel drive would have helped her some, the name of the game when it comes to avoiding high-centering is momentum.
The Jeep Cherokee features a breakover angle of 20.1 degrees. This represents the greatest deviation from horizontal that the Jeep can crest before “high-centering.”
I’ve off-roaded big-bellied vehicles many times over mounds whose deviation from horizontal was way higher than the vehicle’s breakover angle, and the way I did it was with the skinny pedal. Zendaya’s character was focused on staying on the ramps — which makes to total sense, as that’s a tough ascent on those thin ramps — but this focus led her to drive far too slowly to overcome her vehicle’s limited breakover angle.
What she should have done upon hearing the scraping was back up 10 feet and then accelerate with some gusto over that fence. This would have helped the Jeep “jump” a bit over the peak, and the momentum of that heavy engine under the hood would likely have pulled the rest of the vehicle up and over.
The Show Used A Dummy-Jeep On The Border Wall
The Jeep on the border wall had some interesting modifications. The first is the front skid plate (shown above with round holes in it), which is fastened at the bottom to… I’m not sure what. That axle moves up and down, so you wouldn’t fasten it to that. Who knows; maybe there’s a huge bracket coming off the frame.
What’s even stranger is a crossmember/hat channel that the top of the border wall gets caught in. That’s this:
To give you an idea of where that crossmember is, let’s look at just before the Jeep gets stuck, when a big underbody skid plate gets scraped up by the border wall:
A Great Scene, But Imperfect Tech And Imperfect Driving
I loved this scene despite its imperfections. Why didn’t Zendaya’s character put the Jeep into four-wheel drive? Maybe it had been converted to two-wheel drive for some reason? Why didn’t she approach the top of that wall with some more speed?
As for production issues, why did she put the Jeep into reverse, only to move forward? Why is the Jeep teetering about a point under the front doors when the crossmember that got hung up is clearly farther back where the rear driveshaft would be? What even is that crossmember? Why is that rear axle being driven by a belt that would almost certainly not be able to transmit enough torque to move the Jeep forward at an appreciable speed, much less climb a ramp?
Obviously, to someone who isn’t Jeep obsessed/a former Jeep engineer (like my wife), none of this matters. And to be honest, much of this is just how shows are made. But I couldn’t just let this go; I had to tell someone! Thank you for listening.
Topshot Image: HBO Max
When this episode came out I immediately thought of The Autopian while watching it. It was ridiculous but fun.
We’re honored!
Now I’m curious about how the real smugglers got their XJ stuck.
Is this just David’s audition for his new job – Jeep consultant to the stars?
I think that mystery crossmember provided a pivot point for balancing the Jeep atop the wall.
If she (stunt driver) hit the ramps with some speed I would expect a likely outcome where they move either sideways if everything is not perfectly aligned or they become displaced when they flex from the increased force of hitting them at speed and the Jeep ends up landing at a lateral rotational angle inconsistent with further driving.
That’s assuming a stunt driver at all and it wasn’t set up like a giant R/C car with a Zendaya dummy propped up in the driver’s seat.
The first take, the Jeep was in 4wd, and didn’t get stuck, so take 2 was 2wd to enable the storyline, obviously. Same with the ramp, must have made it over in 4wd, which didn’t work with the show. Sort of how some Bond movie in the past that had an Aston rollover wasn’t doable until some extra mechanism was added to the car to mechanically flip it, since the car wouldn’t roll on its own.
Same in the first Indiana Jones flick. The German truck that rolls over actually had a pole on one side that had an explosive charge to fire downwards to help it go
Don’t you Dare tell me my ION Nebulizer Pistol and VOX Communicator aren’t real!
I’m reminded of Mad Mad 1 and 2 where the blower on Max’s V8 Interceptor is fake and spun by an electric motor.
They must have had to seriously lighten that XJ to get it up there.
As a staunch supporter of Zendaya, I have to voice my displeasure with this blattant downgrade.
Come on girl! Spice was the real deal! What happened ?!?
Hard times I suppose