In Popular Media
Autobot leader Optimus Prime's alternate mode for the first three installments of the live-action Transformers (film series) is a Peterbilt Model-379 truck. Three modified 379s were used interchangeably. There was much controversy over this in the Transformers fan community because Optimus Prime is almost always portrayed in the various cartoon series as a flat-nose cab over semi-trailer truck (or later as a fire engine); his movie incarnation would be the second with an extended nose conventional cab. The filmmakers have said that, ignoring the fan-termed "mass shifting" associated with the series, Optimus's final official height of 32 feet (9.8 m) in robot mode would not have been possible to allow for all of the mechanics of the CGI model if they had gone with a cab-over, which would have dropped him instead to a smaller 20 feet (6.1 m).
A Peterbilt 379 was used in a 1998 film, Black Dog, and made the truck model more popular.
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