There are plenty of video game trailers that look spectacular when they first release. Very few, however, become part of gaming culture themselves.
The Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer is one of those rare examples.
Originally released in 2021, the trailer has been making the rounds on social media again, with clips of its most ridiculous moments being shared across Reddit, YouTube and other platforms.
One scene in particular continues to steal the spotlight: the legendary RendeZook, a move that sees a player jump out of a moving aircraft, fire a rocket at an enemy plane and somehow get back into their own aircraft.
And the story behind that scene is arguably even better than the trick shot itself.
The Trick Shot That Became Battlefield History
The RendeZook is one of those classic Battlefield stunts that sounds completely made up until you actually see someone pull it off.
The maneuver involves a player flying a fighter jet, deliberately getting into a dangerous position, ejecting from the aircraft, and using a rocket launcher to destroy the enemy plane.
The player then has to get back into their own aircraft before it disappears from underneath them.
It is ridiculously difficult to execute. The maneuver has roots going back even further than Battlefield 3.
Similar aerial stunts, known as the LoopZook, were already being performed in Battlefield 1942.
However, the version most closely associated with the modern RendeZook became famous through Battlefield creator Stun_gravy, whose Battlefield 3 video helped turn the move into an iconic part of the franchise’s community culture.
The original Stun_gravy clip has accumulated more than 19 million YouTube views, showing just how famous the maneuver had become within the community.
So when DICE recreated the stunt for the Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer, longtime fans immediately recognized what they were seeing.
DICE Didn’t Just Make a Cool Scene, It Recreated a Community Moment
At roughly the three-minute mark of the trailer, a fighter jet is being chased by another aircraft.
The pilot suddenly pulls upward. Then comes the ridiculous part. The pilot ejects, pulls out a rocket launcher, and destroys the pursuing aircraft before somehow jumping back into the original jet.
For someone unfamiliar with Battlefield, it looks like an absurd Hollywood action sequence.
For longtime players, it was instantly recognizable. DICE was effectively saying: “We know what you guys do in these games.”
That was important because Battlefield has always been built around unscripted, chaotic moments.
Tanks launch cars into the air. Players destroy helicopters with absurd weapons. Jets crash into buildings. And occasionally, someone performs a maneuver that looks like it belongs in a Michael Bay movie.
The RendeZook became the perfect symbol of that philosophy.
The trailer scene was an homage to Stun_gravy and connected it to the wider “Only in Battlefield” identity that DICE wanted to showcase.
Then Came the Reaction
This is where the story gets even more wholesome.
Battlefield community member WARning! Schemov was streaming his reaction to the Battlefield 2042 announcement trailer.
He had no idea beforehand that the trailer would contain a reference to the RendeZook. So when the scene appeared on his screen, he immediately recognized it.
And his reaction was pure disbelief and excitement. Schemov became visibly emotional while watching the trailer, with his reaction spreading almost as quickly as the trailer itself.
He streamed his reaction without knowing that DICE would include the RendeZook reference.
The reaction became a viral clip in its own right. A Reddit post featuring the reaction later accumulated more than 100,000 upvotes, while YouTube compilations of gamers reacting to the RendeZook also attracted hundreds of thousands of views.
And this is an important detail: Schemov wasn’t the original creator of the famous RendeZook clip.
That distinction has been repeatedly confused online.
The trailer’s RendeZook is primarily associated with Stun_gravy’s famous Battlefield 3 footage, while Schemov was the streamer whose emotional reaction to seeing the maneuver recreated became another viral part of the story.
Stun_gravy Got His Own Moment Too
The actual creator associated with the famous clip, Stun_gravy, also reacted to the tribute.
His response was considerably shorter and more understated. He simply tweeted: “I’m famous again”
And honestly, that’s pretty much the perfect response.
A clip you uploaded years earlier had become famous enough that a major game developer recreated the moment in an official reveal trailer.
That’s the kind of gaming legacy most players could only dream about.
Why Is This Trailer Still So Popular?
The answer goes beyond nostalgia.
The Battlefield 2042 trailer essentially combined several things that social media loves.
1. It is instantly understandable
You don’t need to know the entire history of Battlefield to appreciate the RendeZook.
A guy jumps out of a fighter jet, fires a rocket, and jumps back in. That’s all the context you need.
The clip works perfectly as a short-form video because the payoff comes almost immediately.
2. Battlefield fans recognize the reference
For veteran players, they aren’t just watching a cool stunt, but, watching DICE recreate a moment that came from the community.
That makes the scene much more meaningful than a random piece of scripted trailer footage.
3. The reaction makes the story emotional
The RendeZook itself is cool. Watching someone realize that something from their gaming community has been immortalized by the developers makes it personal.
That’s why Schemov’s reaction continues to be reposted. People aren’t only sharing the trick shot, they’re sharing the feeling of seeing a piece of gaming history recognized by the developers.
Players have repeatedly described the reaction as wholesome, particularly because of how genuinely excited he appeared.
4. It represents the old Battlefield
There’s also a heavy nostalgia factor. For many players, Battlefield 3 and Battlefield 4 represent the era when the series was at its peak sandbox chaos.
The Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer appeared to promise a return to that philosophy. The RendeZook was practically a love letter to those players.
Ironically, the eventual reception of Battlefield 2042 made the trailer’s legacy even more complicated.
Players who loved the reveal later contrasted its spectacular “Only in Battlefield” moments with their experience of the finished game. That contrast has itself become part of the game’s internet history.
The Internet Has Basically Turned It Into a Meme
The RendeZook is now much bigger than the original clip.
Players have recreated it across different Battlefield games, posted tutorials, made compilations and used the maneuver as shorthand for the kind of ridiculous player-driven moments the series is famous for.
Even the word RendeZook became a recognizable term for performing a similar stunt in other games.
That makes the Battlefield 2042 trailer unusual. It wasn’t simply showing players what the developers had created. It was showing players that DICE had been watching them too.
A Trailer That Accidentally Became the Story
The funny thing about the Battlefield 2042 reveal trailer is that its biggest legacy might not be the game it was advertising.
The trailer promised massive maps, tornadoes, wingsuits, vehicle chaos and spectacular multiplayer battles.
But years later, one of its most memorable moments remains a tiny tribute to a player-created stunt from an older Battlefield game.
And then there is the reaction. A creator sees a stunt from his community’s history recreated on the biggest stage possible.
Another creator whose footage inspired the moment realizes his old clip has become part of an official trailer. Fans recognize the reference and start sharing it.
That is basically the perfect gaming-internet story.
A player creates something ridiculous. The community turns it into a legend. DICE turns the legend into a trailer moment. And the internet turns the trailer moment into a meme.
That’s why the Battlefield 2042 trailer keeps coming back. Not because people suddenly forgot what happened to the game.
But because, for a few seconds, it captured exactly what made Battlefield special in the first place: players doing something completely insane, and the developers saying, “Yep. That’s Battlefield.”
