His Subway Phone Stunt Went Viral, Then AI Took Over

TikTok creator Ollie Muhl has turned a New York City subway platform into his personal film set. The twenty-two-year-old tapes his phone to the outside of a subway car window, then runs after the train as it pulls out of the station. Because the phone stays fixed to the glass, the footage looks like Muhl is racing the train itself, the city flying past behind him while Dua Lipa's "Training Season," the live recording from Royal Albert Hall, plays over the top. It is a simple trick, and that is exactly why the subway phone stunt keeps spreading across feeds that never touch a subway.

How the subway phone stunt actually works

The setup is almost embarrassingly low-tech. Muhl tapes his phone to the train window before the doors close, then sprints alongside as the car rolls out. From the phone's point of view, he is chasing down a moving train. From the viewer's point of view, he is somehow outrunning it. The result looks cinematic for a video that cost a strip of tape, and the NYC scenery doing the background work does not hurt. It is part of why the subway phone stunt travels so well: the effort is small and the payoff looks big. A popular YouTube Short of the stunt, credited to Muhl's own TikTok account, shows the final footage looking far more expensive than it was, which is part of the appeal. The format is easy to copy, hard to mess up, and endlessly watchable, a combination that tends to define TikTok hits like the Two Fishes trend before it.

Just Jared reported that most of Muhl's subway videos use the same soundtrack, Dua Lipa's live "Training Season" from Royal Albert Hall. The repetition matters. A recognizable song acts like a brand for a trend, telling viewers what they are about to see before the first frame finishes loading. Hear the horns, see a subway platform, and the brain files it under the subway phone stunt before Muhl has taken a few steps. That loop of recognition is what turned a one-off gag into a series, and the series into a signature.

First the copycats came, then the AI clones

A trend this simple was never going to stay one person's. Recreations of the subway phone stunt started appearing from other creators, everyone with tape and a platform ticket attempting the same chase. But then the copies went past imitation into something stranger. According to Just Jared, AI-generated versions of the video started circulating, and the cast of characters got surreal fast. One version had a dog "making" the video. Others had Lionel Messi and Neymar doing the trend. Another had Peter Griffin from Family Guy chasing after subways. He is a cartoon character who has never stood on a platform, and he is now part of the subway phone stunt canon.

The dog version was the one that finally made Muhl speak up. On Thursday, October 15, he posted an Instagram Story addressing the pileup of copies, and Just Jared reported his reaction was more amused than angry. He joked that AI was taking his content and he would be unemployed soon, then laughed about the dog. The Messi and Neymar versions got a mention too, but the Family Guy one seemed to tickle him most: a cartoon character now runs his routine. It is a strange milestone for a twenty-two-year-old whose content requires being in great shape and standing very close to moving trains.

The fame part came free with the trick

The subway phone stunt did more than rack up views. Just Jared reported that Muhl's TikTok popularity has put him front row at fashion shows and on red carpets around the world. That is how a video format becomes a calling card, and the calling card opens doors that have nothing to do with subway platforms. Muhl turns twenty-three next week, and his most famous asset remains a running gag, literally, that anyone with tape can attempt but nobody else owns.

The AI versions raise the same uncomfortable question sitting behind a lot of viral video right now. When a creator's signature bit can be regenerated with anyone, or anything, in the starring role, what exactly belongs to the creator? A deepfake version of a real person's stunt lands differently than the parody versions, and the site's own coverage of AI-edited imagery shows how fast audiences stop asking what is real. Muhl seems unbothered so far. He joked that he cannot be made unemployed since he technically never had a job, and he said the dog video made him laugh. For now, the copies are free promotion, and the original still has the one thing the AI versions lack: a real person who will actually sprint after a train for the shot.

Trends like this tend to burn bright and short, but the subway phone stunt has something most viral bits do not, a barrier to entry measured in pocket change and lung capacity. As long as phones have cameras and trains have schedules, someone will be taping one to the other. Muhl just got there first, and the copycats, human and artificial, are still running behind him, which is exactly where the camera wants them. TikTok has a habit of turning ordinary moments into careers, as one viral nursing video showed this month, and Muhl's subway run is the latest entry in that particular genre.