Jay Baruchel Stars in The Stunt Driver as Canadian Daredevil

The Stunt Driver brings the legendary and chaotic life of Canadian daredevil Ken Carter to the screen through a new tragicomic feature film starring Jay Baruchel. The production famously required shooting interior vehicle scenes after the replica rocket car had already been submerged in a lake.

"We put our car in the drink with scenes left to shoot inside it," said Jay Baruchel regarding the demanding production schedule. "All my closeups inside the car were after it was in the fucking lake, and it just smelled like shit and old tuna."

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Directed by Michael Dowse, the film chronicles Carter's audacious ambitions, including his infamous plan to jump a winged, rocket-powered 1970s Lincoln Continental across the St. Lawrence River. Recreating the iconic vehicle proved to be an arduous hurdle for the production crew due to a lack of original technical schematics.

Fortunately, the documentarian behind Carter's original in-period film, The Devil at Your Heels, possessed a small fragment of the original car's colored exterior fiberglass. This artifact allowed designers to color-match the paint code at a local hardware store to ensure historical accuracy on screen.

Recreating the Legendary Rocket Car for the Screen

Although Baruchel never actually drove the non-motorized prop car used for static scenes, both the actor and director received authentic pieces of the original wreckage from enthusiasts during the film's premiere afterparty.

The film blends high-octane automotive history with dark humor, highlighting the eccentric personalities and perilous stunts that defined an unforgettable era of daredevil showmanship.

Recreating the rocket-powered Lincoln Continental for The Stunt Driver demanded extensive resourcefulness from production designer Jean-André Carrière. Because original blueprints were lost to history, the team had to piece together historical photographs and documentary footage.

"Jean just pieced it together, finding every single historical photo he could," noted director Michael Dowse while detailing the meticulous vehicle fabrication process.