Recoil Reloaded: Sand & Sky

Black Rifle Coffee Company — train sequences filmed at Campo in May 2022

Black Rifle Coffee Company off-road trophy truck — B.J. Baldwin's Black Rifle Coffee Company trophy truck.

Production: Black Rifle Coffee Company / Sweatpants Media
Title: Recoil Reloaded: Sand & Sky
Driver: B.J. Baldwin
Featuring: Mat Best
Campo shoot: May 12, 2022
Release: March 7, 2023
Location: Campo, California

Recoil Reloaded: Sand & Sky revived B.J. Baldwin's Recoil action-film series in collaboration with Black Rifle Coffee Company. The finished production follows Baldwin and Black Rifle Coffee co-founder Mat Best in a comic pursuit of stolen coffee, with Baldwin driving both his Porsche 911 Turbo S and his off-road trophy truck.

The Campo sequence supplied one of the film's signature stunts: Baldwin launched the trophy truck over a train at the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum. Contemporary coverage later reported that the truck reached roughly 35 feet in the air; Baldwin said the train jump was performed only once.

Production story Sand & Sky feature Return to Filmography

The Campo Shoot

Planning began after San Diego-area location scout Welton Jones contacted the Museum on behalf of Sweatpants Media. An early concept involved the Goat Canyon Trestle, but the project evolved into a sequence in which Baldwin's truck would race alongside a freight train and then jump completely over it. Museum representatives Greg Zorbas and Steven Hager handled negotiations with the production company, with arrangements also involving MTS.

Site preparation began May 10. A three-yard loader moved dirt from “Rail Buff Bluff” to form the landing area north of Track 1, while a prefabricated steel launch ramp was erected on the south side. Trailers and motorhomes around the work-camper pad were moved or repositioned to clear Baldwin's approach. The production company arrived on May 12 with a crew estimated at about 60 people, a camera boom vehicle, handheld cameras and multiple drones.

The day's consist, west to east, was SSW caboose, Kaiser caboose, 6700, GATX tank car, GARX flat, PSRM flat, HOKX tank car, UP 43009 and SP 3873. Two Black Rifle Coffee-decorated automobiles were loaded onto the flat cars with a forklift. The production first filmed the train moving east while vehicles paced it, using several runs at requested speeds of approximately 5, 10 and 7 mph.

For the jump, the train was spotted stationary on Track 1 between the Display Building and Section House. Baldwin accelerated through the work-camper area, descended past the Section House and hit the launch ramp at speed. The stunt was completed in a single take. The truck cleared the two loaded flat cars—and overshot the prepared dirt landing ramp—before landing hard beyond it without reported damage.

A final sequence was photographed near the Highway 94 crossing around sundown. The train moved east while Baldwin drove parallel to it on the adjacent road and a camera car traveled in the opposite direction. Three runs were made before the production wrapped near dark. The loader crew then spent Friday and part of Saturday relocating the ramp dirt to an area already planned for fill by the Museum.