From mobile phones to beer brands, product placement is rife in modern films. It’s not hugely often we see it happen with motorcycles, though, which is why Heart of Stone - a new spy thriller on Netflix - caught our attention.
It prominently features the Triumph Speed Triple 1200 RR in two sequences. Admittedly, rather heavy handily - the glossy scenes have the feel of adverts at some points, and also, the CGI-assisted onboard shots featuring lead star Gal Gadot look a touch shonky. But hey - it’s always good to see a cool new bike in a film, especially when the right kind of exhaust noise is used as opposed to lazily-dubbed stock inline-four bike sounds regardless of the engine configuration used by the bike on screen. (That’s a rant for another day).
The Triumph is even shown right at the beginning of the trailer, albeit using footage not shown in the final cut of the film. Or as Triumph puts it in a press release coinciding with the film’s release: “The unmistakable crafted cockpit fairing of the Speed Triple 1200 RR dominates the opening sequence in the film's trailer.”
The film is decent enough as far as Netflix’s generic, cookie-cutter action films go, but if you can’t be bothered to commit two hours and five minutes of your life to watching it all, you can see the Speed Triple RR during one sequence starting from 1:31:29, and in a chase scene from 1:40:40. Spare a thought for the baddie, who doesn’t get something quite as new or exotic in the latter sequence, instead having to make do with what looks to be an old Suzuki GSX-650F. Hardly seems fair.
As for the Speed Triple RR, it’s a bike we enjoyed immensely when we rode it for the first time on the international launch. The premium over a Speed Triple RS is fairly chunky, but it justifies the additional cost with fancy parts including Öhlins semi-active suspension, more aggressive riding position and - of course - that retro-styled half fairing. It costs from £17,950.
Heart of Stone, meanwhile, was released for streaming on Netflix on 11 August.
