"Uphill"

12 June 2025

60s

Not a slope in hell.

Christoph Waltz narrates a slant-tastic commercial for German software company SAP, who aims to help people innovate when the world is against them. Take director Adam Berg's protagonist—a car designer who thinks she's made a breakthrough, only for her office to tilt up like the business end of a seesaw. As colleagues, furniture, and stationary slide down the slope, she resolves to walk up it.

She now has an actual hill to climb, as well as a host of physical obstacles to avoid. Waltz notes how innovation invites regulations, lawyers ("So many lawyers!"), supply chain upheaval, et cetera, and they all threaten to send her back down the hill with a vengeance. Maybe the Duke of Edinburgh's Award should teach kids how to dodge SUVs from now on.

She makes it to the top, however, thanks in large part to Joule, an AI lackey—co-pilot is far too generous—that lets the protagonist focus on what she's best at. It's always been an uphill battle to make business software compelling, but Berg and his crew make a damn good fist of it.

USA

Computer Software