Diksha Sundriyal
Based on the book of the same name by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett, Prime Video’s ‘Good Omens’ follows the story of Aziraphale and Crowley. The angel and demon have known each other since the beginning of time and have developed a friendship that is scorned by Heaven and Hell. Despite their different personalities and different approach to solving a crisis, Aziraphale and Crowley become each other’s best friends and most trusted confidantes. No matter their differences, they always find a way to make things work, which makes them a perfect team.
While Aziraphale is defined by his love for books, food, and wine, Crowley’s trademark is his car, which is his most prized possession in the entire universe. It’s more than just a car and a character in itself, proving incredibly useful in several situations. This naturally makes one wonder about the build of the vehicle. Here’s everything you need to know about it. SPOILERS AHEAD
Crowley Drives a 1933 Bentley
In Prime Video’s ‘Good Omens,’ Crowley drives a 1933 Bentley. In the books, he drives a 1926 Bentley, which Gaiman explained they came up with without actually knowing what the car looked like. “It was in the days before Google,” Gaiman said, explaining that ’26 Bentley sounded right when they were working on the novel. When it came to bringing the car onto the screen, the creators wanted something that would be in the same spirit as the car in the books, and the ’33 Bentley sounded like a great option.
Because the car is such an essential part of Crowley’s character, the creators of the show knew that it had to look real. One of the things that the car does is drive at a great speed, which is how Crowley loves it. It was supposed to go 90 miles an hour in the show, something the Bentley of that time could not do. This made sense according to the story because Crowley’s car is not an ordinary car and bends to his will, doing whatever he wants.
To bring such a car to the screen required a lot of work and a little bit of CGI. For the high-speed scenes, director Douglas MacKinnon used a complete CGI version of the car. However, when the time came to blow it up, they filmed the scene with a real car. For this, the car’s interiors were removed entirely before it was set on fire.
NIAT RUC Explained
One of the interesting things to note about the car is its license plate, “NIAT RUC.” On the surface, it sounds like a spell that a demon would cast on someone, which suits it because Crowley is a demon. However, this word has a deeper meaning and is actually an Easter egg and a reference to ‘Monty Python.’
It is “curtain” spelled backward and is pulled out of ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life,’ referring to the writing on the mausoleum in the suicidal leaves section. “Curtain backwards, like it’s the final curtain,” MacKinnon said. The license plate is also a nod to Terry Gilliam, who wrote and worked on the animation of ‘Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life’ and was involved with an unrealized project to adapt ‘Good Omens’ into a film.
The use of “final curtain” as the license plate also works well with the theme of the first season, which deals with the impending Armageddon as Crowley and Aziraphale try to stop it and save the world. Had they failed at their task and things happened the way Heaven and Hell wanted, it would have been the final curtain for the story of the Earth.
Read More: Do Aziraphale and Crowley End Up Together?
