The Land Rover Defender, without doubt, cuts a certain figure. Distinctive and bold, Hollywood figured out a long time ago that this formidable truck shows up rather well on the big screen. Some cars just appear on screen as backdrops and extras that are not easy to identify. The Defender never blends into the scenery. Because of this, over the years, versions of the truck have shown up in hundreds of movies.

In recent times, Land Rover’s biggest starring role was in Daniel Craig’s version of James Bond and the movie Spectre. Land Rover actually created a custom 110 Defender for the 2015 picture, outfitting it with everything from an exterior roll cage to a super-charged roof rack, and rope-infused front grill (it is a Bond car after all). This wasn’t actually the first Bond movie to feature a Defender, or a Land Rover, as the trucks have made multiple appearances in the British film series over the years. Additionally, the iconic appearances of Defenders in top-rated film doesn’t stop there. East Coast Defender provided the original NAS 110 that appeared in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 2016.

That’s certainly not the only screen time Defenders or Series trucks have had:

• Defenders show up in The Expendables 2 & 3 in multiple car chase scenes.
• Clark Gable famously drove one (with style) in 1953’s Mogambo.
• They were staples of the 1966 British drama Born Free.
• 2001’s Angelina Jolie-powered Lara Croft: Tomb-Raider featured a specially designed and souped-up Defender 110 series.
• A Defender 110 was featured heavily in 2006’s popular The Da Vinci Code.
• When Helen Mirren played Queen Elizabeth II in 2006’s The Queen, obviously Land Rover Defenders had to be featured (a 110 was used).
• Action movies are the most common place to see a Defender, and this is just part of a very long list of films they can be found:
  • 2017 The Fate of the Furious, part of the Fast and Furious franchise
  • 2016 Underworld: Blood Wars
  • 2015 Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
  • 2015 Tomorrowland
  • 2013 Red 2
  • 2010 Green Zone
  • 1994 Highlander 3: The Final Dimension

What makes these trucks so attractive for Hollywood is not just their unique design, but the ability to contort and alter them in a variety of ways. Land Rover Defenders can look equally at home scaling a mountain as they can when being parked by Hugh Grant after a fancy (and delightfully clumsy) date. In many ways, the things that make Defenders sought after for the silver screen are the very same that attract legions of fans and dedicated drivers in the “real world.”