Nike Football just took the wraps off their latest ad — short film, truly — The Last Game, and, well, I think we have our marquee spot leading up to the World Cup.
The five-minute animated cinematic experience sees the game’s biggest stars — everyone from Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar, to Wayne Rooney and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, each with their own respective voices — replaced by clones; clones who play the game perfectly thanks to never taking a risk. Eventually the football becomes dull thanks to the efficient but spiritless style of the clones, and the sport’s existence is threatened.
Our heroes, having spent the requisite time away from the sport, partaking in their back-up professions, are recruited to take on the clones one last time, with the winner deciding the fate of football.
Check out the full five-minute film below. It’s well worth the time; an absolute masterpiece of abbreviated storytelling.
Or watch that episode of Tale Spin in which all the pilots are replaced by robots after one of them beats Baloo in a race, culminating with Baloo needing to exploit the weaknesses of artificial intelligence to prove whether the best pilots are flesh and blood or metal and motherboard. Regardless of what you watch, the theme remains: Risk everything.