Must Watch: Brett Rheeder's Return to Earth Segment & Photo Epic

Jul 16, 2019
by Anthill Films  

Watch the full film now.

bigquotesI think time should be used in a conscious way. I’d say most people can probably remember those experiences; where we’re living in a moment where time seems to slow down and we can describe every detail of that experience. And I think we hunt for those moments without often realizing it. Entire days of our lives, they can pass without meaning. Yet in those moments of absolute clarity, there’s an entire lifetime worth remembering.Return to Earth

brett rheeder in big water utah filming his segment for return to earth with Anthill Films

**Director's Note** Below one will find a large collection of high-grade, mountain cycling images by Sterling Lorence, commonly referred to as "nugs". Please take your time and enjoy slowly, preferably with a large screen.

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Brett Rheeder filming for Return to Earth in Big Water Utah. Photo by Sterling Lorence

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Brett Rheeder fully clicked off a natural rock quarter lit by overhead drone strobe during the filming of his segment in Big Water Utah for Return to Earth by Anthill Films.


All photos by Sterling Lorence (@eyeroam)

Return to Earth. AVAILABLE NOW on Apple TV, Google Play, Amazon Prime and Vimeo.

Starring Brett Rheeder, Thomas Vanderham, CaseyBrown, Matt Hunter, Reed Boggs, Ryan Howard, Joey Schusler, Thomas Genon, Brandon Semenuk, Carson Storch, Emil Johansson, Jackson Goldstone, Jakob Jewett and friends.

Brought to you by Shimano and Trek Bicycles. In association with Pinkbike, Trailforks, Evoc, Clif Bar, Sony, Whistler Mountain Bike Park and Freehub Magazine with additional support from Bike Park Lenzerheide, Spawn Cycles, Rocky Mountain Cycles. A new 4K film by Anthill Films with art direction and creative by Good Fortune Collective.

#returntoearth
returntoearth.movie


Author Info:
anthill avatar

Member since May 17, 2009
178 articles

122 Comments
  • 112 1
 Incredible work by everyone involved, but a special mention to the build crew! Blown away by what you guys created out there.
  • 25 0
 Thanks Scott! And yes - huge thanks to the Loft Parks crew and the rest of the builders. Doing that kind of building on the desert was a first for us and the guys absolutely killed it!
  • 13 1
 God: “Green River turned out a little rough...”
Anthill: “It’ll buff out.”
  • 1 0
 How many times is too many to watch that "look back" back flip move after the first raven.....
  • 1 0
 as a Utah local I'm a little sad to see that amount of building going on in our protected lands I'm all for freeride all over the dessert, but stuff this big is going to attract the attention of grumpy locals a lot more than a few cheese wedges or skid marks. I'd hope this was all on private land, but then I also hope it wasn't, cuz that track really does look lit and i wanna go find it now
  • 52 3
 Brendog was robbed.
  • 2 0
 Lol man it's actually so long since I've heard that line that it's funny again !
  • 2 0
 You mean at Les Gets? JK
  • 1 7
flag vinay FL (Jul 17, 2019 at 0:01) (Below Threshold)
 @robito: That wasn't robbery really, was it? Brendog was quick and impressive, five others much later that race were quicker. I'm just glad he remained that long in the hot seat, definitely got him some well deserved exposure. Amaury may have won the race, but he didn't get to sit in the hot seat Wink .
  • 7 0
 @vinay: it
Was
A
Joke
  • 3 0
 @bigburd: Sorry man, this is way too early. Robbing Brendog is no joke. I'm still trying to get over this.
  • 1 0
 @vinay: habha, good morning to you, I hope you recover from this robbery, thoughts and prayers
  • 2 0
 @bigburd: Thanks. Please no prayers nor flowers. A small donation to a good cause is most welcome. Thank you.
  • 31 0
 The amount of flat rocks stacked for that first take off is crazy and a work of art Id happily have in the back yard! Amazing build, amazing video and amazing riding!
  • 4 0
 Thanks!
  • 14 0
 Damn those Photos are amazing
  • 9 0
 An epic photo epic...
  • 16 0
 Yeah pretty lucky that Sterling included almost all his best shots. You used to have to buy multiple magazines to see photos like this and now they are all there with one click. Glad you enjoyed them!
  • 1 0
 @anthill: I've got your older work on dvd but haven't yet bought anything from Vimeo any of these streaming services. If I buy the video, does it still come with a Sterling Lorence (@sterlinglorence) slideshow over Phontaine music? It used to be one of my favorite things to watch after a good ride, just before going to sleep. So good!
  • 2 0
 @vinay: the iTunes download is full of a ton of extra features, including Sterl's and Margus' full slideshow from the film.
  • 13 0
 yo that was nasty! Bravo, Brett!
  • 9 0
 What model are those 5.10 with integrated sock?
  • 6 0
 They are labeled "prototype" on the side.
  • 8 0
 I've got B roll boner right now.
  • 17 12
 Imo that song doesn't fit the shoots and Brett Rheeder at all. He is always riding everything smooth and perfect, the opposite of wild. But maybe I just don't get it. Other than that, nice riding and building
  • 4 8
flag catweasel (Jul 16, 2019 at 3:56) (Below Threshold)
 Should have been riding an E-Bike
  • 3 2
 I agree.
  • 6 3
 Back flipping off cliffs and jumping over huge bolders is not wild ?
  • 2 1
 I was referring to the song line "get your motor running" not trying to be dick about EBikes lol
  • 6 0
 what an astonishing combo of natural and built features, the riding was just unreal but features were beautiful. uber creative, just wow!
  • 2 0
 Thanks so much! Glad you liked it!
  • 3 0
 I know I'm going to get mocked for asking this, but what are the chances of this being released on BluRay? I have been collecting mountain bike videos since "Tread" was released on VHS, and love building the collection. Let the downvoting commence!
  • 1 0
 Chances are pretty slim unfortunately. The number of people who purchase hard copies and the costs to create don't add up anymore. It's a sad fact for us as well... as we grew up with vhs tapes of our favourite bike, ski and snowboard films.
  • 7 1
 Congrats to the audio people. The breathing at the beginning was spot on as was a lot of the foley throughout. Nice work!
  • 12 1
 Thanks I'll let our sound engineer know. He was on every shoot and put a ton of time into the mix of the film, so your comment will really be appreciated,
  • 3 1
 Watched every bike movies since 1994. This has got to be the greatest mtb cinematographic piece of all time. The images. The creativity. The planning. Tye build. Beyond Hollywood material. Can't imagine the amount of work that went into this.

PS: Did B.S. ride some of these segments ? Wink
  • 2 1
 Wow thanks so much! That's a huge compliment! Brandon is in the film - in both the closing shot and the Squamish Community section. Unfortunately, an injury prevented him from having a more prominent role in the final segment of the film.
  • 6 1
 Those Five Tens look interesting, what model is that?
  • 3 1
 There's a "prototype" sign on the side. Let's hope these make it to production.
  • 2 1
 @paja-tousek: I would totally love those, no more small stones and debris in the shoes.
  • 6 5
 Behind the scenes photos like this always leave me with some serious cognitive dissonance. I tend to think of mountain biking as a grass roots kind of thing. But thousands upon thousands of dollars of cameras and audio equipment, massive steady-cam, high-end drone, the backup bikes, an excavator, etc points to serious money behind this all. I'm ok with that, because it's how we get awesome, high-quality films like this. But it still leaves me confused about what I think mountain biking is
  • 12 2
 I think it depends on what aspect of the sport you are talking about. There are scenes in the film that we shot with a small two-person crew showing local shredders on their trails. This segment was about trying to capture the progression of Brett's riding and the perfect moments when all his hard work and training come together. That takes a big team. Just like it takes a big team to support a winning run on the world cup. But relatively speaking, the sport and the film shoots we do are still very grassroots. There is no way we could pull off what we do with out the help of locals in every location we shoot.
  • 8 12
flag syncro (Jul 16, 2019 at 11:15) (Below Threshold)
 @anthill: I’m a big fan of you guys work from even before Anthill and Collective and even Darcy’s work back in the early 2000 with snowboarding etc... but there’s one thing I’m not sure how to feel about is changing, and leaving scars on a natural landscape that took millions of years to get to that level of beauty. Can you tell me what’s your view point on that matter ?
  • 5 4
 @syncro: Are you kidding? Better care about oil sands scars in Canada...

By the way, water and wind remove their traces in a few years.
  • 4 5
 @yoobee: trails stick around in the desert for a very long time.
  • 1 1
 @BiNARYBiKE: Yes, but this is no desert. I had been experiencing heavy thunderstorms in Utah. You can even see the washes on some pictures above.
  • 2 4
 @yoobee: you’re right about the thunderstorms but this is still a desert. Most of the desert Southwest has periodic massive thunderstorms in the late summer, sometimes with flooding, but very little overall annual precipitation. Hence the lack of plant life. While the storms can alter parts of trails, whole trails remain visible and largely unchanged for decades in the desert. To be fair I don’t have experience with this exact location, but I’ve seen trails in southern Utah and Arizona go 10+ years without seeing work and be basically unchanged upon return. So I’m definitely curious about the shelf-life of their work in Green River. Not saying it’s wrong to build there, but it’ll take a lot of summer thunderstorms to reclaim such elaborate work.
  • 1 1
 Mountainbiking is whem you see that, get this certain feeling, grab your bike, go for a ride (quick, epic, rad, recreational, you name it) and come back with a smile in your face. That's Mountainbiking. At least to me Wink
  • 1 1
 @syncro: Its a recreational area.... plenty of people tearing up the hillsides for years in Big Water with motorized vehicles and it seems to be holding up just fine. At least here, future riders can enjoy the features.
  • 1 1
 @BiNARYBiKE: This isn't Green River.
  • 2 1
 @scott-townes: my bad, thought I read Green River somewhere. Re. trails in the desert: I’m not saying they shouldn’t do it, I’m just saying it doesn’t disappear all that quickly.
  • 1 1
 @syncro: you don't bike trails??? Why are you even on this site?
  • 1 1
 @anthill: the cognitive dissonance @showmethemountains is experiencing is the common lack of understanding of what it takes to capture something like this on video at this quality. It doesn't actually have anything to do with mountain biking. It is just professional video production. It would have taken more equipment than this and two years for this crew to capture a couple of minutes of a Siberian tiger in the wild, for example.
  • 2 1
 @Rubberelli: Of course I ride trails, I’m also a trail builder. I was just asking Anthill for their view point.... To answer your second question; I’m on this site because like you biking is my passion. Like I said I’m a big fan of Anthill’s work. Hope we can shred together some day!
Cheers!
  • 1 1
 @Rubberelli: You have a good point, though I'd like to think that I understand that to some degree. Since mountain biking still has some degree of grassroots feel (at-least to me) then from that perspective I am aware that I make sometimes wrong assumptions that videos are also shot more grassroots with GoPros and $2,000 DSLRs, not $20,000 movie cameras plus extras. A 4k DSLR can still make really high quality video, right? I think it's awesome that they are aiming for even better than that, but that's when I realize you can't shoot that high without the right funding

And the real moment of dissonance for me is actually the next step beyond the filming budget. When I think about the level of financial investment the film company and sponsors are putting into a bike film it snaps me out from the niche hobby that I do with a few buddies, past the myriad pro riders who barely make a middle-class living, to the huge industry that actually drives it all.
  • 5 1
 @syncro: This is a really good question and all the comments below show what a sensitive topic this is. That's why for this segment we shot on a piece of private land that had already been heavily used by motos, bikes, atvs, etc... It was not a pristine landscape. The fact that it looks so pristine is because of the very careful eyes of the filmers/photog and a ton of hard work by the builders. We actual created a special way to "rake" the dirt in shots to remove the tracks from past users to make it feel untouched. Definitely lifting the curtain a bit behind the movie by telling you all this. But I think it shows how important it is to us to avoid damaging the natural landscapes we all appreciate so much.
  • 1 1
 @showmethemountains: you can film a video with your iPhone if you like, and it will look like it was shot with a phone. You can shoot with a $4k DSLR, but a still photography camera has limited tracking shot capability, without servos to smooth the zoom and it won't be able to auto focus as well on a moving subject, as a high end video camera will. If you have gone to the expense of shooting at such a location as this, you might as well shoot it right.
  • 1 0
 @anthill: Thanks for your honest response, like I said I was not judging your work, just curious of your view point. Cheers!
  • 1 0
 @anthill: @anthill: that’s awesome. Glad you guys care about it as much as locals do. It’s a sensitive landscape, and people trash it without much care and scar it for decades. Glad you guys don’t contribute to that, and are open in your response, which hopefully will discourage others from skidding down hillsides and building dumb jumps for instas.
  • 4 1
 Paint job on that Session is crazy. I kept thinking it was just a muddy, white frame but then kept thinking maybe Real Tree camo sublimation on the frame. Not sure, but sick.
  • 4 1
 Is this the best segment ever... EVER? Holy cow. Exceptional filming, beast of a rider. RHEEDER!!!
  • 2 1
 Thanks!
  • 1 0
 Awesome filming and incredible riding! Brett is so smooth!!! I could watch this edit over and over again. That flat drop back flip was insane. The entire rear suspension was compressed!!!!
  • 1 1
 Even though I will definitely be watching this via my regular Streaming services, I'd also love to own this on BluRay. Are there any plans to make physical copy for sale? I don't see any on the website linked above.
  • 2 1
 Unfortunately there are no hard copies in the plans. Quality BlueRays are quite expensive to set up and there isn't enough demand for us to make our money back.
  • 1 1
 At 2:24 it really messed my head up. I thought because of all the other stuff in the video that that rock was massive and when he came riding in the screen it wasnt that big. Really threw me off. Awesome video though!
  • 1 1
 I wonder why you need 2 DH rigs...? I guess if you flatten one or destroy some part... and you are on those precious golden light moments?? But they are different colour bikes... so??
  • 5 2
 One has a single crown fork...for bar spinnys
  • 3 1
 @unrooted: No they booth have double crown, just checked.
  • 9 1
 That's some crazy terrain and it's always good to have a back up bike in case something happens. Especially on a film shoot when there is a limited time window.
  • 1 1
 @anthill: thx for a grate job! but i still can`t download it from google play market(
  • 1 1
 @anthill: Exactly what I thought. Luckly you didn´t infringe in atretzo colours... some pinkbikers would be here complainning sure... Wink
  • 1 3
 Absolutely stunning, looks like man has gone back to the moon finally, you could swear Brendon was on the moon with a landscape like that, if anyone could actually ride in outer space I'm sure he would be one guy that could, 1 small jump for Brandon 1 big jump for man kind ???? credit to all involved from the riding to the cinematography to the mind blowing trail builders, this is on another level
  • 4 1
 Thanks! For reference Brett Rheeder is the rider in the segment.
  • 3 1
 Mind. Blown. That's all.
  • 2 1
 4th. Not bad
  • 1 1
 @emilebennett: Aiming to be the new Waki.
  • 1 1
 Thanks!
  • 3 1
 A tall Modelo in a world of 12oz Coors!
  • 3 1
 The color grading... just wow. It's so good.
  • 3 1
 thanks!
  • 2 1
 What in the world was that last trick? A back roll? A corked flat drop backflip?
  • 1 1
 @anthill You guys are bringing me the most inspiration to get my bike I ride it till the sun goes down. Not disappointed again. Amazing work from you guys. Thank you!
  • 2 1
 Thanks so much!
  • 2 1
 Wow...…….amazing video.
  • 1 0
 i liked photos even more than video
  • 2 1
 That is one beautiful looking Session
  • 1 1
 Could we get a playlist of the soundtrack from the film? Loved the music!!!
  • 1 1
 Good all - we will put that together.
  • 2 2
 Damn. This is on a level with semenuks one shot. Very different. But simply breathtaking
  • 2 0
 An instant classic!
  • 1 1
 Last shot with the drone off-camera flash - PICTURE OF THE YEAR. Great job Sterling ????
  • 2 1
 Omg, this is absolutely insane! So gooood
  • 2 1
 the physics of that underflip are completely fucked
  • 1 0
 Thats insane! Beautiful and perfect...
  • 1 0
 Best section in the film hands down.
  • 1 0
 We win his Session for the 30 Day Ride Challenge, right?
  • 2 1
 That's some serious filming equipment!
  • 1 0
 Holy FU... I just finished
  • 2 1
 Riding and filming as good as it gets!! *thumbsup* Well, the music...
  • 2 1
 Your reigning Redbull Rampage winner right there. How crazy is that?
  • 1 0
 Let's build a bike park in a canyon, said no one ever. Sick build!
  • 2 0
 LOFT Parks are miracle workers
  • 1 0
 Suck good definition!! I loved it!!
  • 1 1
 He should make clips of him training n just put a song on them n I bet Brandon would have his rival back but in a new field
  • 1 0
 Whole film was amazing!! Those Groms absolutely rip!
  • 1 0
 truly epic
  • 1 0
 Damn. That is all.
  • 1 0
 Born to be MILD
  • 1 0
 Brutalissimo!!!
  • 1 0
 Last photo, best photo!
  • 1 2
 What-fucking-ever! That was fantastic. Best clip I've seen in years.
  • 1 0
 Thanks!
  • 1 2
 4 bikes for 1 edit.......
  • 1 1
 Video part of the year.
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