Anyone who’s ever played a single game of Assassin’s Creed or watched the 2016 movie, surely knows the famous leap of faith. The dangerous acrobatic maneuver is featured in every single Assassin’s Creed game and movie has become something of the franchise’s trademark. Due to its cult status, many wonder whether it is possible to actually a perform leap of faith in real-life. Instead of wondering, a dauntless quartet from Slovenia decided to try it out for real. Check out DD Squad’s attempt at the leap of faith from 17 meters, protected only by a single haystack.
Bringing a Video Game to Life
There’s arguably no Assassin’s Creed fan that’s not familiar with the famous leap of faith. This acrobatic maneuver that’s “one of the Brotherhood’s most sacred rites”, features a person diving off a high structure and landing unharmed on a cushioning material such as hay. It may sound unlikely that a stunt this dangerous could be pulled off in real life, but dauntless daredevils from DD Squad proved that it is, indeed, possible. Inspired by the famous franchise, this group of acrobats set off to one of the most fairytale-like castles in Slovenia and set up a scene straight from Assassin’s Creed.
4 Tons of Hay
DD Squad have jumped from many dizzying heights, but never have they tried landing in a mere stack of hay. To ensure a soft landing (and zero injuries), they provided a whopping 4 tons of hay! Despite the stack being the size of a school bus, the landing zone was relatively narrow, which called for extreme precision. Before making their first attempts at the leap of faith, the acrobats jumped from various heights, slowly making their way up the castle. The ultimate goal was to dive off a 17-meter crane, which proved to be anything but simple. The top of the crane was wobbly and swayed from side to side, so performing the perfect leap of faith required a lot of precision. Luckily, Matevž Pogačar rose to the challenge and executed the perfect leap of faith from 17 meters, thus bringing this cult Assassin’s Creed maneuver to life.
20 Million Views on TikTok
Prior to the premiere of their latest episode, DD Squad had already shared a few short clips with their fans on TikTok. Needless to say, their followers were completely blown away by the quartet’s unbelievable feat. Thus far, the clips have amassed more than 20 million views!
TikTok behind-the-scenes clips:
- “Water Bucket Challange” haystack jump | 13.5 million views“Reverse Speed” haystack jump | 1.8 million views
- “Reverse Speed” haystack jump | 1.8 milion views
Comments
Matevž Pogačar, Dunking Devils acrobat and member of DD Squad
“We’d been thinking about swapping an airbag for a haystack for some time. Despite not being sure whether we’d be able to jump off the desired height, I must admit hay proved to be very comfortable! But in order to make it comfortable, we had to put in quite a bit of work to pile it high enough. As the haystack flattened after each landing, we had to repeat this process before every single jump. We progressively increased the height of our jumps – we started at 4 meters and continued going a bit higher every single time, until we achieved our goal – 17 meters. Performing the leap of faith from this height was quite scary, because the crane was constantly swaying. Even though the haystack was huge, the landing zone was really narrow, so the jump had to be extremely precise …”
Maks Veselko, Dunking Devils acrobat and member of DD Squad:
“Assassin’s Creed was our main inspiration for this stunt. One of our role models, Damien Walters, performed the leap of faith in the 2016 Assassin’s Creed movie, and that really motivated us to try and do it ourselves. We picked Snežnik Castle due to its gorgeous location and the fact that it fits really well into the whole Assassin’s Creed atmosphere that we wanted to create. This was yet another amazing project that we pulled off with our team and I’m looking forward to many more like it!”
