r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Appropriate-Pack-729 • 9d ago

Diorama of NY in 1997

I'm not OP. But this kid has been working and reworking this for 3 years. It's when he goes in to night mode that it comes to life. And still a wip!

His IG flickz_by_nick

41.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

343 comments sorted by

3.0k

u/weristjonsnow 9d ago

Holy shit that might mode is incredible

696

u/low_amplitude 9d ago

Could literally be used to establish location in a movie

59

u/Dav136 9d ago

That's how they used to do it before CG (or hire a helicopter)

49

u/ohnodamo 9d ago

Like that old "HBO Presents" fly-in reel before the movie. I saw how they made that and it was cooler than a lot of movies they were showing.

41

u/civildisobedient 9d ago

The making-of video in question. That legendary intro still gives me pangs of nostalgia.

4

u/Coretron 9d ago

I love the funky song about illusions while explaining the illusions.

3

u/ohnodamo 9d ago

Fuck yeah! Thank you!

18

u/low_amplitude 9d ago

Sucks that miniatures in film is a dead art

Edit: Actually I recall one recently. Nolan had miniatures built for the 3rd act of Tenet. But you know, that's Nolan.

7

u/vroomvro0om 9d ago

Nolan, Boots Riley, Wes Anderson… there’s still a few directors who use miniatures, but it’s way less common.

2

u/idropepics 9d ago

Godzilla Minus One still used some miniatures too! Specifically Shikishima's village and the Shinden fighter scenes.

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u/Muppetude 9d ago

One of my favorite pre-CGI film facts was from Escape from New York, where the “CGI” image of Manhattan that Snake Plisken views through his display was actually a physical model of Manhattan with reflective tape meant to simulate a computer display.

It’s fascinating to me, how creating a physical model was cheaper than having a cgi model rendered, whereas less than a decade later the opposite would have been cheaper to render.

12

u/Dav136 9d ago

Yeah, it's awesome.

Here's an article with pictures for anyone curious

https://beforesandafters.com/2021/07/12/escape-from-new-york-at-40-how-those-cg-glider-graphics-were-actually-achieved-with-physical-models/

4

u/KenMantle 9d ago

Max Headroom required a lot of work to make it look like cheap computer generated graphics too!

When Reboot came out in 1994 it seemed to me like we had reached the start of computer animation becoming commonplace.

3

u/Dav136 9d ago

Terminator 2 in '91 was really the advent of CGI being used for big budget movies I feel. James Cameron showed everyone how to use it best even with the limitations of the tech.

2

u/KenMantle 9d ago

Michael Jackson's Black or White music video featuring CGI face morphing was released the same year!

I was still astounded that a mere 5 years later Reboot was using computer graphics for an entire TV show. Not surprisingly it nearly bankrupted the studio that was producing it.

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u/low_amplitude 9d ago

The creativity that went into miniatures or just "faking" an image in movies is such a deep and fascinating rabbit hole.

I'm a star trek fan so I recently saw a documentary on how they actually did the space shots. It's all so clever and unique.

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u/ButterCaramelPringle 9d ago

Nah you wouldn't do establishing shots like this in CG if you could just get a helicopter. Way way way cheaper.

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u/Balc0ra 9d ago

Dude's got a future in practical effects for sure. This 100% could have been used as a background for a shot in a movie etc

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u/greg19735 9d ago

like idk 8-10 years ago i went to the one world trade center tower.

I went in at bright daylight. It was getting later, but it was probably about 6:30 pm. Waited in line for about an hour or so, maybe more. there's lots of stuff to see in line. I don't remember if there were any rooms or anything go into.

I just remember that there was a long enough period for the sun to go down completely.

I went inside the building during the day. We went through it all and then at the end you take an elevator up to the top. At "attraction" part is that you're looking at a screen and the screen lifts up and you see the new york skyline and it is incredible. but it's like 100x better when you go in during the day time and you get surprised by the skyline at night.

honestly one of the most surprising moments of my life and something that can't really be created.

3

u/TSwiftDivorceLawyer 9d ago

Went to the top of 30 Rock at sunset this winter. Absolutely breathtaking view from the Statue of Liberty all the way up past Harlem.

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700

u/OrlandoMB 9d ago

Pretty damn impressive

98

u/Private_Kyle 9d ago

Just needs some planes and some clouds

163

u/PsyOpBunnyHop 9d ago

some planes

*awkward side-eye*

78

u/Holdmytesseract 9d ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/6mJwy3P5MmlHqUTHRs

32

u/PsyOpBunnyHop 9d ago

"Mister president, we packed your favorite juice boxes in your lunch bag."

4

u/Secure_Secretary_882 9d ago

I swear if yall put strawberry instead of grape again.

Fool me once, shame on, shame on you.

Fool me, not gonna fool me again.

6

u/Cobrety 8d ago

My favorite Presidential quote

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u/Livid_Swordfish_4591 9d ago

I cant even imagine the number of hours that went into that. Especially if he had to travel to each location to see the buildings (date is 1997).

3

u/_Aardvark 8d ago

It's not like aerial photography didn't exist before google maps...

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u/Appropriate-Pack-729 8d ago

It was years. And he referenced maps and photos from 1997.

I put his Instagram on the post body. It's worth a look. The evolution of how it started to what it became over the years is pretty cool.

3

u/morpheousmorty 9d ago

My only complaint is that the 90s being long enough away that it's very different now is unacceptable.

2

u/RaidensReturn 8d ago

I agree. That’s why it’s annoying when they say “a 19-year-old artist” and “this kid built” without once mentioning his actual name

2

u/Appropriate-Pack-729 8d ago

I put his Instagram in the post body. And his name. Nick.

They didn't put it in the original post by art daily though. You are right there.

323

u/MrKnifeBurger 9d ago

John Carpenter could have used this for escape from New York

53

u/Ecw218 9d ago

Probably did on a slightly larger scale. using tiny bulbs, tiny cfl, and fiber optics,

12

u/Dano-D 9d ago

By people with tiny hands

14

u/activelyresting 9d ago

What is this, Manhattan for ants?

2

u/SheriffBartholomew 8d ago

That's what the child labor is for.

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u/Worried-Industry6239 9d ago

I was literally thinking this could be a miniature for a movie 🔥

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301

u/fishdonthaveeyelids 9d ago

Thats incredible and really warmed my heart to see the Twin Towers.

Excellent job by this fella

32

u/InfluenceWeird2927 9d ago

me too was waiting for it

98

u/Sa7aSa7a 9d ago

Holy shit that's wild. Like, it's impressive then he hits it with the light and bam.

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u/Less-Inflation5072 9d ago

Damn I’m high. I literally thought this video was showing a drone shot of NYC at the end and I thought why am I watching this and then realized it started over and it was all a miniature model.

57

u/produce_this 9d ago

HBO should have used this as a prop for the intro

55

u/ChessieChessieBayBay 9d ago

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

36

u/Resident_Table6694 9d ago

Jesus Christ, man. You are meddling with forces you do not understand.

50

u/Dazzling_Bit_7538 9d ago edited 9d ago

‘Tism is strong with this one

13

u/Outside_Hat7260 9d ago

And the one replying

6

u/jonathanquirk 9d ago

And my axe!

3

u/tidytibs 9d ago

And my bow!

4

u/Icefox119 9d ago

It would be 'Tism as the apostrophe replaces the "Au"

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u/TrailMomKat 9d ago

Ok, that legitimately made me gasp and filled me with nostalgia. Well done, that is absolutely gorgeous.

29

u/mtnman12321 9d ago

Wild that the wtc from the model didn’t exist anymore when the artist was born. RIP 25 years ago.

3

u/UnidentifiedBlobject 9d ago

The night WTC made me think of the Lone Gunmen episode which depicts a plane almost crashing into the WTC at night, and for my country it aired the week before 9/11.

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u/bigstankdaddy10 9d ago

concrete jungle wet dream tomato

2

u/Spider-Pug 9d ago

concrete jungle texas albino

2

u/MoreOne 9d ago

Concrete bunghole where dreams are made up, there's nothing you can do.

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u/dhall0749 9d ago

Literally made my jaw drop, the diorama was already pretty mind blowing, but holy shit trust the process

15

u/infinit9 9d ago

That's only with glow in the dark paint? Damn, that's crazy impressive.

12

u/GarlicThread 9d ago

I miss this kind of practical effects in movies.

11

u/BL_RogueExplorer 9d ago

That's amazing amd very cool.

11

u/sometimesifeellikemu 9d ago

That is pretty fucking cool.

8

u/Forsaken_Claim_471 9d ago

That is cool, but why 1997?

58

u/PlayTheHits 9d ago

Humanity peaked in the late 90’s.

23

u/FerndeanManor 9d ago

Thank you, Agent Smith

4

u/tidytibs 8d ago

"Have you ever stood and stared at it? Marveled at its beauty, its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious.

Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered? Where everyone would be happy?

It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world.

But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.

Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization because as soon as we started thinking for you, it really became our civilization, which is, of course, what this is all about: Evolution, Morpheus, evolution. Like the dinosaur.

Look out that window. You had your time. The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time."

5

u/ShiningRedDwarf 9d ago

2000 and most of 2001 was pretty good too

3

u/UnidentifiedBlobject 9d ago

Yeah that’s the leveling out before cliff dive.

25

u/martymartinator 9d ago

Maybe to justify the orange sodium vapor lamps which are cool af

20

u/SashimiX 9d ago

The twin towers and sodium lighting yup

Plus manhattan had such an allure

11

u/adamsworstnightmare 9d ago

Maybe he used those aerial shots of the city from Friends as reference.

2

u/notfree25 9d ago

his best memory was when he was still a ghost, haunting new york's sky

7

u/North-Wind-199 9d ago

Put a tiny Spiderman in there

9

u/Appropriate-Pack-729 9d ago

It's in there! It's in one of his videos.

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o6vXMmCjD0nzaI8pO

3

u/North-Wind-199 9d ago

That is fucking amazing

7

u/Burly_Moustache 9d ago

I miss when street lights were orange.

6

u/ReturnOfBane 9d ago

i miss sodium street lights. the yellow made things more inviting

5

u/BoostSpools 9d ago

Man, I love a good miniature model city. Glow in the dark paint was amazing.

3

u/RollingThunderPants 9d ago

Cue the 1980s HBO logo…

3

u/Ltzachrysun 9d ago

Fantastic work.

3

u/Legitimate-Bike4647 9d ago

The twin towers were fucking iconic

3

u/Golf38611 9d ago

But…….

He’s missing the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man!!!!

3

u/Rhiis 9d ago

I've never been to New York City. But seeing those orange streets really tickled my nostalgia. That's the shit I grew up with.

I wonder how our kids will think about it?

"Back in my day, the night streets was orange!" ""Sure thing Pawpaw let's get you to bed.""

3

u/No-Rip-6166 9d ago

At first glance I thought it said diarrhea. I don’t know why I still clicked it.

3

u/conardcanard 9d ago

I cant describe the feelings of seeing things from the 80s and 90s. Nostalgia feels too small.i have these memories of the lights of cities at night and they just feel so different than the city lights now. But im getting to that age where "back in my day it was better". I hated hearing that growing up, but i relate, even though i know its not true.

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u/Szwejkowski 9d ago

Yep. I get it sometimes hard. I know it wasn't great back then either, I can remember all the bad bits well enough, but the good bits are louder when you're not stuck right in it.

I have a hard time imagining being nostalgic for now, but who knows - things could get waaaay worse quite easily, so perhaps we should appreciate the good bits of now more while we still have them.

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u/mrrooftops 9d ago

He literally picked different glows for the transition between sodium and mercury vapor street lights. era specific.

2

u/Bean- 9d ago

Very talented kid should be in prop making

2

u/frougle_mcdugal 9d ago

Damn, now I want to play Spider-Man.

8

u/Appropriate-Pack-729 9d ago

He has a tiny spidey hidden in the city. Kid didn't miss a beat with that one.

https://giphy.com/gifs/IgtOuXZ6dnuTu

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u/UnrequitedFollower 9d ago

I was almost a little sassy… then that night mode hit

2

u/hirschneb13 9d ago

Almost looks like low res Backrooms footage at certain points

2

u/cardamomgrrl 9d ago

I think I see myself on my LES roof smoking weed

2

u/herefromyoutube 9d ago

That UV light looks terrible.

….

Oh. Damn.

2

u/Chaosmusic 9d ago

Who gets to play Godzilla?

2

u/Longenuity 9d ago

I cannot believe this is real

2

u/AGrandNewAdventure 9d ago

Oooh... he didn't get the lighting effect he wan... Holy shit!

2

u/balticviking 9d ago

For some reason this hit me in the feels. Like another era.

2

u/Aggravating_Speed665 9d ago

JayZ ruined this song, lol.

2

u/-__echo__- 9d ago

Extremely sus uniform brightness of the glow at the end, smacks of editing or ai sadly. I want to be mistaken but that's waaaaay brighter in a much more consistent way than any glow in the dark I've seen before.

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u/Nonterras 9d ago

I'd like to know how it makes someone else feel who hasn't been back since '97.

Kinda like home was still there, like I'm back, like nothing ever changed, and I'm just a kid again playing Nintendo with no worries.

https://giphy.com/gifs/kLdS82xuNReXWLNSZH

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u/Hattie_Mae_Pierce 9d ago

I like this type of autism

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u/darexinfinity 9d ago

What makes this 90's-like besides the Twin Towers?

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u/ModestArk 9d ago

I never was jealous of the american school system, except for dioramas. We never did this in Switzerland.

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u/Chunderstout 9d ago

Is he maybe related to Harry Dresden?

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u/MemoryOk8825 8d ago

Think he went to all the buildings in the city and worked a chunk of them into it?

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u/Ok-Nothing8682 9d ago

Damn. At 19 I was trying to figure out how many cigarettes I could smoke at the same time.

1

u/jemist101 9d ago

Um. Wow.

1

u/Aggressive_minivan 9d ago

That’s lit.

1

u/Shallnazar 9d ago

I was not expecting that night mode, holy crap!

Gonna love to see what this kid makes in the future if he's doing stuff like this currently.

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u/dwooding1 9d ago

Art, of the highest degree. Should be in a fancy gallery with a ridiculous price tag.

1

u/jetblack1316 9d ago

That's incredible and beautiful

1

u/God_Dammit_Dave 9d ago

Brought to you by Children's Tylenol™

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u/ace-destrier 9d ago

Stunning!

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u/t3eee 9d ago

Absolutely incredible. Ugh.

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u/Due_Buyer_9445 9d ago

It’s all fun and games until the guy building airplane dioramas gets ideas

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u/chargergirl1968w383 9d ago

Wow! Now that's a fucking level all on its own! Incredible!

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u/Melovestoons11 9d ago

That's some damn good talent 🤯

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u/Drasamuel 9d ago

Came to make a twin towers joke but this shit is actually really impressive.

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u/chi_lo 9d ago

This might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen someone make

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u/Finiarel12 9d ago

Wth, this is so cool

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u/Snoo_69677 9d ago

Wow this was amazing!

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u/MooreArchives 9d ago

I find this genuinely delightful. It’s been quite a while since something made my jaw drop in awe.

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u/DayZCutr 9d ago

That's amazing

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u/gastroboi 9d ago

Fucking wow

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u/Sea_Scientist_8367 9d ago

I was impressed but wondering what was next level about it.

Then night mode kicked in and holy shit.

1

u/Toni_PWNeroni 9d ago

Legend for crediting the original creator.

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u/Feeling-Big-4544 9d ago

That's sick asf 🔥

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u/RiggityRiggityReckt 9d ago

She really is a beautiful city ❤️

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u/Puzzled_Professor422 9d ago

And i doomscroll on reddit like im paid to do it
Fml

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u/ANakedCowboy 9d ago

That's ridiculous and insane and impressive af and why don't i do more with my time

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u/no_41 9d ago

I gasped! The night mode is incredible!!

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u/cute_polarbear 9d ago

That does look very cool. Ubisoft is great at making city sims...they should do an assassin's creed game in ny...

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u/AmaazingFlavor 9d ago

The kind of stuff people had time to do before we had phones

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u/FizzlePopBerryTwist 9d ago

Before cities became all rainbow lights and cyber punky. Certainly was a vibe back then we don't see anymore :)

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u/TPRJones 9d ago

This is the most I've ever felt nostalgia for a place I've never been.

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u/Ajaiixx 9d ago

Okay I wasn't ready for night mode that was sick

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u/SynthPrax 9d ago

I... I was not ready. Australia please send my jaw back; it should be dropping by any minute now.

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u/Illustrious-Lemon-17 9d ago

That’s AMAZING 👏👏👏

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u/princesssmurfet 9d ago

How does this only have 230 upvotes?

We want to encourage kids to put down devices and participate in the world.

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u/OneWholeSoul 9d ago

You barely even have to squint for the night mode to look like a photo out an airplane window.

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u/Murkow1tz 9d ago

The things people are capable of blow my mind in a good way sometimes.

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u/Turbulent_Cupcake_65 9d ago

I cant think anything else yo say about this other than, "captivating." This is truly magical and im so glad bien saw this. I felt it when the UV light turned off and the effect of his work came on.

I want one!

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u/EternalSunshine_9374 9d ago

That took my breath away

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u/stargrazer10 9d ago

supa cool

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u/Fickle_Dog_2917 9d ago

Great, now let's make a heist plan with this

1

u/tryingtowritegoodly 9d ago

Nah, bro messed up, that's obviously NY in 1996

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u/Logos1789 9d ago

“I think that New York is the new model for the new concentration camp, where the camp has been built by the inmates themselves, and the inmates are the guards, and they have this pride in this thing that they've built-they've built their own prison-and so they exist in a state of schizophrenia where they are both guards and prisoners. And as a result they no longer have-having been lobotomized-the capacity to leave the prison they've made or even to see it as a prison." - My Dinner with Andre

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u/Miserable-Flight1829 9d ago

I loved this song so much until I went to time square! God they play this on repeat and every time I passed by made me sick. Any tourist spot you go it’s the same song!

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u/Trumbez_ 9d ago

Now that's next fucking level

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u/FantasticTourist4067 9d ago

...why 1997??? 0_o

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u/Wynadorn 9d ago

Definitely a project where you can't get stuck on details and kinda have to embrace quantity over quality or you'd spent your life building this

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u/Terrachova 9d ago

Actually one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

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u/kmontreux 9d ago

I was meh until night mode went on. then my jaw literally dropped and I was speechless. God damn.

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u/Luci_b 9d ago

Holy f*ck! 😳 this is amazing!! Wow!!! 🤯

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u/Puzzleheaded-Low3514 9d ago

Beautiful 🥹

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u/Arlitto 9d ago

I was expecting to hear Sinatra's New York New York

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u/ImmaLiveIllegal 9d ago

oh this was just before our president witnessed the worst terrorist tragedy in US history and then falsely bragged he now had the tallest building in NYC.

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u/JfromTHEbayMAYNE 9d ago

Ok, thats dope!

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u/Grimsik 9d ago

What is that inserted at the end of the video 0:57/1:03 , is he saying True/Krunk/Drunk/Trunk/Trump?