The Dark Knight - Joker’s Semi Flip Being Filmed (Fair Use)

Ground-level footage from July 2007 of the filming of the flipping/rolling of a 52 foot articulated tractor-trailer on the streets of Chicago for the movie “The Dark Knight“, in theaters and IMAX now. If you are curious how they did it, it was pretty simple (making it flip it stay together required other steps). They installed a powerful ram/piston on the bottom of the trailer, seen here: The piston slams into the ground, propelling the trailer into the air. To get it to roll forward rather than just bounce/flip/crash into buildings, a pair of gear-like plates are welded to the front of the tractor. They go all the way down to just a couple of inches from the ground. Here’s a picture of the teeth on the semi: Or here for a smaller and color-corrected picture: