Earlier this year, I was up in Michigan with David Tracy, filming a silly, messy video (stay tuned for that!) and working on, you know, Autopian stuff. One night after a hard day of shooting, going to the junkyard for David’s complicated and confusing religious practices, and probably some wrenching, we flopped down into some of the piles of cardboard and old rags that make up David’s furniture. “Hey,” said a voice that I assume was David’s from one of the piles, “Let’s watch a movie.” At that moment I didn’t realize I was about to be confronted with one of the most baffling automotive appearances in any movie, ever.
David’s suggesting a movie at all is unusual; his cultural upbringing is something like what you’d expect from an Amish kid, minus the Rumspringa experience. So, as you can expect, I was curious. The movie he suggested was the 2014 comedy 22 Jump Street, a Channing Tatum/Jonah Hill buddy-cop movie, the specifics of which aren’t really important, except for the details of one specific scene, a scene that takes place in Mexico, and includes a car chase that features a few shots of this vehicle:
What the hell am I looking at, here? The car appears to be a mid-’90s Isuzu Rodeo, as you can see here:
It’s clearly an Isuzu. And yet, somehow, staring right at us from dead center in that grille, is the blue Ford oval. What the hell is going on?
I checked with the fantastic Internet Movie Cars Database, and sure enough, they had the car listed as a 1994 Isuzu Rodeo, and the few commenters on the page were as baffled as I was about the Ford badge. 
Let me explain, slowly and clearly, why everything about this is so damn puzzling:
- There never was a Ford-badged Isuzu of any kind. Isuzu is mostly owned by GM; they have never been badge-engineered Fords in any market I’m aware of, and the logistics that would possibly even cause such a thing to happen would have to be absolutely Byzantine. This is not a thing that exists.
- The re-badge is clearly deliberate. This isn’t something accidental that happened; that badge has been deliberately sourced, the original Isuzu badge has been removed, and the Ford badge has been affixed to the grille. There was effort required for each of these steps.
- There’s no clear reason in the movie’s plot for this to be needed. It’s not like this car was ever referenced as a Ford somewhere in the dialog, or even, if I recall, referenced at all. The badging of this car in the movie shouldn’t matter one bit. It’s also not just some random car in the background; it’s enough a part of the scene that it had to be sourced by the movie’s production, and is likely driven by a professional driver who works for the production.
- There’s no behind the scenes reason that makes sense for the Ford badge. If the movie was, say, sponsored by Ford, there is no way in hell they’d be fine with just slapping a Ford Badge on an old Isuzu. If the movie production didn’t want to deal with Isuzu branding being shot, they could have just pulled off the ISUZU badge and left a blank grille, and no one would have cared.
Nothing makes sense! Why is this Rodeo badged as a Ford? Was it the personal preference of someone involved in the movie? Did the stunt driver make some childhood pledge to Edsel Ford never to drive anything that wasn’t sporting a blue oval?
So far, I have yet to find any reference to this beyond the IMCDB page, and, shockingly, the internet seems to not be concerned, somehow, about what all this may mean. Someone out there, though, must know something.
Someone made a choice. Someone involved in the production of this movie made a decision to have a Ford-badged Isuzu take a prominent, visible role in a car chase scene, and there has to be some sort of reason why. Ford badges don’t just adhere to cars by accident. Choices were made.
Please, help me understand! I’m open to any and all theories. Let’s get to the bottom of this, once and for all.
No way this swap was done by the production of the movie, this is the work of someone in the ownership chain.
It doesn’t help that this car is the most anonymous shape possible, by the time you see the rear you already forgot what the front looked like – so a Ford badge on the front, an Isuzu one on the side and a Volkswagen one at the back shouldn’t raise any eyebrows for most people.
That being said, the badge looks a bit distorted, probably by the image resolution. But, if this is not the case, could it be some sort of joke badge playing on Ford design?
My guess is it’s something minor. For example, the Isuzu badge was missing or busted and the props guy was told, “That looks weird. Fix it.” and a Ford badge was handy.
It’s Mexico, anything goes.
It’s just a Ford badge on an Isuzu. I don’t even think it’s the most baffling automotive mystery on IMCDb.
The one that keeps me up at nights is the “Lancia Voyager” in The Big Bang Theory: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_971671-Lancia-Voyager-RT-2012.html
I assume we all remember that the Chrysler Town & Country was briefly sold as a Lancia in Europe, but what is one doing in a television series filmed in Los Angeles?
It makes no sense. If it were product placement, Chrysler could have just loaned the show a Town & Country. BBT was at the height of its popularity, so product placement could be good business, except that the episode was the old riff on how uncool minivans are; that might not be the message Chrysler wanted to send.
If it’s not product placement, it’s typical for filmmakers to just cover up badges to genericize the car. But the van in question has had the Chrysler badges replaced with Lancia badges, and then covered up the Lancia badges.
The suggestion that a prop company acquired a pre-production test vehicle doesn’t feel right to me either.
I’m at a loss, and it’s not an isolated incident because another one just turned up in S.W.A.T.: http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_1715982-Lancia-Voyager-RT-2012.html
it looks like all the chrysler minivans wre built in the US, so it wouldn’t surprise me the lancia version was a flop, and the factory had a bunch of unused grilles and badges left in stock.
the props guys phone up the FCA reps and ask them “hey, can we have those lancia grilles and badges since they look more generic?”
the parts never actually left the US, and they’re stuck on a USDM van.
the props department doesn’t have to go to the effort of making fake badges, and they don’t have a car that looks awkwardly debadged.
kind of reminds me of some rare holden commodore trim levels only offered to holden employees that came with GTO/G8/chev SS bits not found on normal AUDM holdens.
They sourced the car locally in Mexico, and the prior owner had already slapped the Ford badge on there for reasons known to him, and there was no reason for the production staff to bother changing it back, so they just left the car as found
The scene was actually filmed in Puerto Rico, so sub that in for Mexico, but I do think this is the most likely explanation.
Wild guess: the casting request read something like “…and a Ford Explorer, or similar, preferably red”. They already had the Honda Passport (we established that it is a Passport, right?) sitting around, so…
Yes, it’s a Honda Passport, but I don’t think everyone saw that until surfbeetle and you posted it. Here’s one in this exact configuration (minus Ford badge) for evidence:
https://www.liveauctionworld.com/HONDA-PASSPORT-1994-SALV-T-DONATION_i25652812
My wife and I had a 96 Rodeo. Rodeos usually had painted black bumpers and the rear pillar was always black. The Honda Passport version were more upscale, had the chrome bumpers and the rear pillar was always painted to match the body color. So the question we should be asking is why the Honda was rebadged as a Ford? Either way it’s too funny.
Here in San Diego, there was a guy with a white Honda Accord that had rebadged it with BMW badges. 10News was doing a ride along with San Diego PD when they happened upon this dude and pulled him over for having license plates from Honda on a BMW cause the officer thought the car was a BMW based on the badges.
You and The Argentine Utop cracked it. Definitely a Honda Passport. The chrome bumper with the light undercarriage was the giveaway. Couldn’t find that configuration on any Rodeos, but here’s the ’94 Honda Passport that looks exactly like this:
https://www.liveauctionworld.com/HONDA-PASSPORT-1994-SALV-T-DONATION_i25652812
Congratulations!
I’m going with; they sourced from someone who swapped the logo so he could tell his wife she had an Explorer (like Ari Gold sticking S600 badges on his wife’s Mercedes-Benz S500 in Entourage)
What about the fact that the oval looks wrong too? Look again, the sides of the silver look elongated….thicker on the outside than the top or bottom. I don’t ever recall seeing a ford logo where the silver wasn’t uniform width all the way around. Google image search and…..nada.
It appears the mysterious Ford oval isn’t even a real Ford oval…..
My dad’s buddy had an old Ford truck. Across the front of the hood were four badges, F-O-R-D. He swapped the first and last letters so it said “DORF”, and he was proud of that.
Wasn’t Dorf the main character of those “comedies” that used to be advertised on tv in the 90’s featuring that little guy? Like, “Dorf Goes Fishing” and whatever else?
Tim Conway. I think that started as a running gag on one of the variety shows he was regular on (probably NOT Carol Burnett’s, but I could be wrong).
It was actually Tim Conway. He had a set where it appeared that his knees were his feet. So he had a really short lower body and a normal sized torso. Because of where his knees were he could do crazy things and bend in ways a normal person wouldn’t. It was amusing when I was about 8. I’m guessing it wouldn’t have the same charm anymore.
Yes played by Tim Conway. Dorfman on sports, Dork on golf. Usually spoofs but I do believe they did make one.
Speaking of tacked-on badges, I screwed with my buddy one time and put a magnetic “Texas Edition” badge on the back of his F-150. He didn’t notice it until he walked out of a store and was looking for his truck, only to find a”Texas Edition” which he didn’t think he owned. I love little subtle gags that make people question their sanity for a split second or two.
A friend of mine had a magnetic Decepticons logo we would steal off each other’s car back and forth for years….until my black truck sat parked in the sun for a whole summer, and the magnet fused to the hood.
OMG yes!
“Hi my name is Jeff”
You want Ford F-150? We have Ford F-150 at home.
I mean I have no idea but who was in charge of props for the movie? That’s the person to ask and that should be easy information to obtain.
I agree the most likely reason is some rando badge swap to be funny or whatever by the previous or current owner of the car, and movie guys sourcing vehicles didn’t know or care. Considering all the times I have seen a period piece movie with a car from the wrong era (future) or with aftermarket wheels or accessories it never would have had back in the day, I am firmly convinced that the overlap on the Venn diagram of movie production people and car people is a very small sliver.
My alternative theory is that there was a requirement for Ford product placement for x-number of minutes of the movie. The contract language said “vehicle with Ford badge visible”. Someone who tracks such things realized they weren’t going through meet the requirement, and for whatever reason swapped in a Ford badge on the vehicle already chosen for the shoot (rather than go out and find a real Ford). Doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that is why we are here, Ford badged Isuzu doesn’t make sense either.
Agree with your first theory. It had to be some kind of dumb gag by the previous owner. Kinda like the generic “V8” badges and such I see on old 4 cylinder economy cars.
Here is a list of every badge engineered version of the Isuzu Mu (Rodeo)
Isuzu Rodeo United States
also as Isuzu MU Wizard Japan
also as Isuzu Cameo Thailand
also as Isuzu Vega Thailand
also as Chevrolet Frontera Egypt
also as Chevrolet Rodeo South America
also as Holden Frontera Australia
also as Honda Jazz Japan
also as Honda Passport United States
also as Opel Frontera Europe
also as Vauxhall Frontera United Kingdom
Talk about a utility player!
a mysterious utility player?
I just call it product/name placement as done in almost every movie
I Don’t know…The whole point of product placement is to showcase a product you actually make.
Exactly I’d guess it was to delete the Isuzu for some reason rather than promoting Ford. Of course it’s better than anything Ford made in that era.
Were the scenes in Mexico filmed in Mexico? Because I’ve seen some strange badge swaps down there without any rhyme or reason other than the owner liked it. If they sourced cars down there its probably just what they ended up with.
Yeah, maybe a previous owner worked at one of the Ford plants and wanted to park in the Ford-only lot.
This. If the scene was filmed in Mexico it was probably done by the owner at some point and nobody on the production team noticed or cared.
Could also be in SoCal or something. Not hard to drive a Forsuzu across the border.
Filmed in Puerto Rico.
Perhaps there was a scene where someone said that they are in a ford that was filmed before they shot the scene with the Isuzu so they had to put a ford badge on it. Then that scene got cut.
Or maybe there is a scene where someone explains that the ford badge is some sort of ruse to escape detection and that scene got cut.
Is there an interior shot of the Ford Rodeo? If they filmed an interior shot that showed a Ford steering wheel but got stuck with the Rodeo for the exterior, they could have slapped the blue oval on for continuity.
I’ve admittedly seen this movie more than I care to admit and I don’t recall there being an interior shot as the main character basically just runs past it.
It probably has a shifter similar to the unit in the “Quantum Leap” reboot that got Jason all bothered.
Actually crap movie, need a car. Grab that one it’s handy. Wrong badge “Who gives a s#=t they aren’t paying me enough to shoot this movie. But that Quantum Leap shifter? I’m guess Hollywood idea of Easter eggs. Let’s see if anyone noticed. That remake shouldn’t last the season but a Hollywood that their best TV shows are crappy cheap reality shows or ripoffs of good shows who takes pride in that mess? Frankly they’d be better off with remakes of lousy movies and shows with a good premise. After all who wants to follow Springsteen?
Fair enough. That shifter did take some actual effort, whereas casting an Isuzu with a tacked on Ford badge showed a total lack thereof.
A crappy re-badged prop vehicle for a crappy re-badged movie to prop your DVD collection on the shelf.
The first one was great. I made sure not to watch this one.
This one wasn’t bad. Not as good as the first, but it’s funny and worth watching just for the end montage where they show fake clips of all the other future sequels.
The real answer is probably not as fun or as interesting as you’d hope, which is; someone sourcing cars for the movie probably didn’t put two and two together (Ford badge on an Izuzu). They needed a car and rented that for a quick shot, no modifications required. Who ever owned it outside of the production team slapped the badge on it as a joke. Kind of like how you see people with commuter cars rocking Ferrari badges, or something like Honda Diablo.
My guess is that the Ford badge scans as ‘normal’ and a non-car person would think no further. Whereas an unusual, foreign badge on the car would draw your attention to it, when the make isn’t part of the plot at all.
Why not just buy an old Explorer? Beats me. But as someone who mediates between the general public and technology, I can say that people get very worked up by things they don’t expect.
I mean, Isuzu was sold for decades in the U.S., hardly ‘foreign’ like perhaps Daihatsu or Ssangyong, and even in their absence on the passenger vehicle market the NPR and NQR are exceedingly popular light-duty cabovers and seen everywhere with ‘ISUZU’ on the nose.
Almost all of the below is thinking out loud. There may be gaps in the logic, there may be completely wrong things caused by those gaps or me incorrectly remembering things.
So, car casting. Sometimes that gets handled by a firm that owns a bunch of cars, but every now and then someone in charge deals with it like they deal with extras. “Hey John, go find a bunch of cars to fill in background shots.” and off John goes to find a bunch of 80s cars for Stranger Things, or poorly designed manual trans Econolines for a reboot, or whatever they’re filming.
I’ve followed a few threads on forums where people in the film industry have shown up and asked enthusiasts for cars to fill in the blanks. A couple of guys have had their cars rented for the day/week/whatever. There are sometimes different rates for parked cars and for mobile ones, other criteria exist as well.
I could easily see John not knowing what he’s looking at and getting someone’s project car that has the wrong badge (or even an engine swap, and the badge is an in-joke) and then for some reason the villain-car craps out on the production team and they have to find the closest thing to previously filmed scenes.
Enter the Ford Rally/Mercury Muster/Lincoln Roundup, an Isuzu with a Ford engine in it.
So, I’d find someone that works in film and ask them how closely they vet the guest vehicles they get from outside established firms.
Knew a plumber in Vancouver that rented out his white van on the weekends for movie and tv shoots- it never came back with ‘free candy’ spray painted on the side though
My van and I were extras in the movie Nomadland. Props rent for more than extras get paid. My van made more money than I did.
Makes sense. Everyone wants to be in a movie, not everyone wants to or is able to rent their vehicle out for a day/week/whatever it takes to get filming done.
The only thing my tiny brain can come up with is maybe they sourced a Rodeo that was totaled, or came without the front badge? I could see some set designer with no knowledge of cars thinking it was a Ford Explorer, slapping the blue oval on the front, and calling it a day.
Not my first go to but Hollywood for all it’s car movies aren’t really car people. They buy expensive cars they don’t know how to drive. Simple morons really, but worse the American public fawns all over them and follows and endorse their ignorant opinions.