Car Movies

Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The movie takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment. The screenplay is based on the short story “The Racer” by Ib Melchior.

Plot

In the year 2000 the United States has been destroyed by a financial crisis and a military coup. Political parties have collapsed into a single Bipartisan Party, which also fulfills the religious functions of a unified church and state. The resulting fascist police state, the United Provinces, is headed by the cult figure “Mr President” (Sandy McCallum). The people are kept satisfied through a stream of gory gladiatorial entertainment, which includes the bloody spectacle the Transcontinental Road Race, depicted as a symbol of American values and way of life.

The race is held in three segments from east coast to west, and scored both by traditional methods of timed checkpoints, and also by the fatalities (“scores”) achieved by the drivers, including spectators, drivers and race crew. Scoring is 10 points for women of child-bearing age, 40 for teenagers, 70 for children under twelve and 100 for folks over 75. The winner of the race is the one who runs over the most pedestrians rather than the first to cross the finish line. The cars are equipped to kill, bearing anti-personnel weaponry ranging from blades to rockets, and the drivers and their cars are themed in a manner reminiscent of the Hanna-Barbera animated series Wacky Races of the late 1960s.

Frankenstein (David Carradine) is the most celebrated racer and is the government’s champion. He is reputed to be part machine, rebuilt after many crashes. He regularly battles with the other teams, particularly “Machine Gun” Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone), who hates being second.

During the race, a Resistance group led Thomasina Paine (Harriet Medin), a lineal descendant of Thomas Paine, one of the original American revolutionaries of the 1770s, is attempting to assassinate Frankenstein and replace him with one of their agents. The Resistance is assisted by Paine’s granddaughter Annie (Simone Griffeth), Frankenstein’s co-driver, who is intending to lure him into a planned ambush where he is to be replaced by a double. Disruption of the race by the resistance is blamed on the French by the state, who are also blamed for ruining the country’s economy and telephone system.

It emerges that Frankenstein is not a willing government stooge, nor is there a single Frankenstein. The current Frankenstein is simply one of many people specially trained to race in the role. “When one is used up, they bring in another”, he tells Annie. The current Frankenstein also has his own plan to end the tyranny: win the race and shake hands with Mr President, detonating a grenade which has been implanted in his prosthetic right hand.

Frankenstein successfully outmaneuvers both the rival drivers and the Resistance, and is declared the winner and sole survivor. Wounded and unable to carry out his original grenade attack plan, Annie dons Frankenstein’s disguise as she plans to stab the President on the victory podium. As she greets the president as he congratulates Frankenstein while declaring war on the French, Annie is mistakenly shot and wounded by her grandmother. Frankenstein finally succeeds in killing the President by ramming the podium with his car.

In an epilogue, Annie and Frankenstein are wedded, and Frankenstein, now President, abolishes the race and the perverse laws of the Provinces, though he does make a point of running over an objecting (and objectionable) reporter.

Coming Soon With More Information.

Casey Owens (James Darren), a young mechanic, has developed a design for a turbine car engine, paving the way for a jet-powered auto certain to set a new land speed record. Wealthy playboy Stanford Rogers (Peter Mann) hires Casey to build the car for him to race in the Tri-State Endurance Run. Chuck Manning (Doug McClure), an engineering student Casey met in a drag race, discovers potential flaws in the car’s design. After an unsuccessful test run, Rogers abandons the turbine-powered car for a traditional racing model, but Casey and Chuck rework the turbine vehicle to compete with Rogers in the endurance run. Pamela Tiffin plays Eadie, Chuck’s sister who becomes Casey’s love interest

The French Connection is a 1971 Hollywood crime film directed by William Friedkin. The film was adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from the non-fiction book by Robin Moore. It tells the story of two New York City policemen who are trying to intercept a heroin shipment coming in from France. It is based on the actual, infamous “French Connection” trafficking scheme. It stars Gene Hackman (as pork pie hat-wearing New York City police detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle), Fernando Rey (as the villain French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier) and Roy Scheider (as Jimmy’s partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo). It also features Eddie Egan and Sonny “Cloudy” Grosso, the real-life police detectives on whom Hackman’s and Scheider’s characters were based.

It was the first R-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture since the introduction of the MPAA film rating system. It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Ernest Tidyman). It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Roy Scheider), Best Cinematography, and Best Sound. Tidyman also received a Golden Globe Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award for his screenplay.

In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

Plot

The film revolves around the smuggling of narcotics between Marseilles, France and New York City. The film opens in Marseilles with a policeman staking out Alain Charnier, a French criminal who ostensibly works as a former stevedore-turned-shipping executive but is in fact involved in smuggling heroin from France to the United States. The French policeman is eventually killed by Charnier’s henchman, Pierre Nicoli.

In New York City, detectives James “Popeye” Doyle and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo are also performing an undercover stakeout, with Doyle dressed as Santa Claus and Russo pretending to be a hot dog stand vendor. Eventually the suspect they are waiting for makes a break for it, and the detectives pursue him on foot. After catching up with their suspect and delivering a severe beating after the suspect cuts Russo on the arm with a knife, the detectives aggressively interrogate the man and eventually force him to reveal where his “connection” is based.

After Russo’s arm injury is treated, Doyle convinces him to go out for a drink. At the nightclub they go to, Doyle becomes interested in two people: Salvatore “Sal” Boca and his beautiful young wife, Angie, who are lavishly entertaining several known Mob members involved in narcotics. Doyle persuades his partner to come along as they tail the couple; several scenes are shown establishing the fact that although the Bocas run a modest newsstand diner, their extravagant lifestyle includes nearly nightly trips to several nightclubs, as well as driving several different new cars, which indicates they may be involved in some sort of criminal activity. Eventually there is a link established between the Bocas and well-to-do lawyer Joel Weinstock, who is rumored to have extensive connections in the narcotics underworld (in a voice over exchange Popeye and Cloudy allude to a drug shipment from Mexico bankrolled by Weinstock).

Doyle and Russo then roust an African American bar in Bedford Stuyvesant where the majority of the patrons are in possession of low quality marijuana and other minor drugs. The rousting is a stunt for Doyle to find an informant (who he physically assaults to keep his cover) whom he then questions about an apparent shortage of hard drugs on the street; Doyle is told that there is word a major shipment of heroin is on its way. The detectives convince their supervisor, Walt Simonson, to pursue wiretapping the Bocas’ phones and use several ruses to try to obtain more information on their subjects.

The film now centers on three main points: the criminals’ efforts to smuggle drugs into the U.S. which is made easier when Charnier dupes his friend Henri Devereaux into importing an automobile into the U.S. (unbeknownst to Devereaux, the drugs are carefully concealed within the vehicle) and the eventual sale of the drugs to Weinstock and Sal Boca; the efforts of Doyle and Russo to shadow Boca and Charnier; and the conflicts the two detectives have with both Simonson (their superior) and a federal agent named Mulderig. Both Doyle and Mulderig openly dislike each other; Russo and Doyle feel that they can handle the bust without the government’s help; and Mulderig never hesitates to criticize Doyle on items ranging from trivialities like Doyle’s appearance to an incident in the past where a policeman was killed and Mulderig clearly holds Doyle responsible for it; when Mulderig caustically states, “the last time you were dead certain, we had a dead cop,” Doyle comes to blows with Mulderig and the two must be separated by Simonson and Russo.

Charnier soon “makes” Doyle and decides he has to be eliminated. Charnier’s henchman Nicoli, who assassinated the French detective, offers to do the job and tries to kill Doyle from a rooftop with a rifle. He botches the job and a cat-and-mouse pursuit underneath the BMT West End Line begins, which eventually leads up to the car chase scene described below. The chase ends when the elevated train Nicoli has hijacked crashes into another train; when Doyle catches up with Nicoli, he shoots Nicoli in the back while he attempts to escape by running back up the stairs leading to the train platform. The car containing the drugs that Devereaux imported into the U.S. is eventually staked out by the police and impounded when some young thieves try to strip the car of its valuables. Doyle and Russo then rip the car apart in an hours-long search, before eventually finding the narcotics after the mechanic states that he has stripped everything on the car except the rocker panels.

At the film’s climax, it seems like the drug deal which takes place at an abandoned factory on Ward’s Island has been a major success; Boca and Weinstock’s resident heroin expert tests the substance and declares it to be of top quality. In return, using an old car that Sal Boca’s brother Lou picked out, the criminals stash the money in almost the same hiding place that was used on the car Devereaux brought in. The car is to be imported into France, where Charnier will then retrieve the money. Charnier and Sal Boca drive off and only moments later run into a roadblock consisting of a large force of police officers, led by Doyle. The police chase Charnier and Sal Boca back to the factory grounds, where Sal is killed during a shootout with the police and almost all of the others surrender after tear gas is fired by the police.

Charnier escapes into the warehouse and a tense sequence ensues as Doyle hunts for Charnier. Russo joins him in the search, which takes a sudden shocking turn as Doyle, trigger-happy and high on adrenaline, sees a shadowy figure in the distance and empties his revolver at it only a split-second after shouting a warning. To Russo’s horror, the man Doyle kills is not Charnier, but Mulderig. Doyle seems unfazed by this and vows to capture Charnier, reloading his gun and running off into another room in the distance. The last sound heard in the film is a single gunshot.

Title cards before the closing credits note that of the people arrested and tried, only Joel Weinstock and Angie Boca got away without any prison time while the case against Weinstock was dismissed, and Angie received a suspended sentence. Alain Charnier was never found or tried in America. It also states that both Doyle and Russo were transferred out of the narcotics division.

To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) is a American thriller film directed by William Friedkin and based on the novel written by former Secret Service agent Gerald Petievich, who co-wrote the screenplay with Friedkin. The drama features William L. Petersen, Willem Dafoe, John Turturro, John Pankow, among others. Wang Chung composed and performed the original music soundtrack. The film tells the story of the lengths to which two Secret Service agents go to arrest a counterfeiter.

Plot

Richard Chance (Petersen) is a Secret Service agent for the U.S. Treasury with a reputation in the department for reckless behavior. His partner, Jimmy Hart (Michael Greene) is days away from retirement, but takes on one last mission to investigate counterfeiter Rick Masters (Dafoe). After Hart is killed by Masters’ bodyguard, Chance is outraged and seeks revenge. Chance explains his outlook to his new partner, John Vukovich (Pankow) this way:

Let me tell you something, amigo. I’m gonna bag Masters, and I don’t give a shit how I do it.

The two T-men try to track down Masters, to no avail. Chance and Vukovich finally engage Masters by posing as potential counterfeiting clients interested in Masters’ services.

Chance and Vukovich eventually break the law in their relentless pursuit of Masters. In order to get enough money to convince Masters that they are “real” clients, they kidnap and steal the money from a man who, unbeknownst to them, is an undercover F.B.I. agent. In a wild chase through the streets and freeways of Los Angeles, the F.B.I. agent is accidentally shot to death by his own men.

Later, Chance once again meets with Masters, and pays him the “front money” that Masters has requested. The two agents go through with the transaction, even when Masters implies that he knows they stole the money from the F.B.I. undercover agent. During a set-up transaction, Chance tries to arrest Masters and his bodyguard, but the bodyguard pulls a shotgun from a locker and shoots Chance in the face, at the same time Chance shoots the bodyguard in the chest. They both die.

Masters briefly gets away, but Vukovich gives chase, eventually locating Masters at a warehouse Masters uses to produce his counterfeit money. At the time of Vukovich’s arrival, Masters has already set fire to the contents of the warehouse. Vukovich confronts Masters and during a brief struggle, Vukovich is knocked unconscious. Masters covers Vukovich with shredded paper and just before Masters lights Vukovich on fire, Vukovich recovers and shoots Masters, who then drops his lighter and lights himself ablaze in the process. Vukovich survives and Masters perishes in the blaze.

After Masters’ death, Masters’ attorney gives his estate to his girlfriend, Bianca. Without showing much remorse, she rides away in Masters’ black Ferrari with her new companion, a woman named Serena given to her as a present by Masters.

In the last scene, Vukovich pays Chance’s informant, Ruth, a visit just as she’s packing up to leave L.A. for good. He mentions Chance’s death, that she had known that the man they stole the advance money from was FBI, and that Chance had left her with the leftover front money that his agency now wants back. All this leads to a surprise for Ruth: “You’re working for me now”. And with that, Chance lives on through Vukovich.

Viva Las Vegas (1964) is an American romantic musical motion picture co-starring American singers Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. The movie is regarded by fans as one of Presley’s best and is noted for the on-screen chemistry between Presley and Ann-Margret. However, according to a contemporary review in the New York Times, “Viva Las Vegas the new Elvis Presley vehicle, is about as pleasant and unimportant as a banana split.” Notwithstanding, “Viva Las Vegas” has become one of Presley’s most iconic phrases.

The chemistry between the two stars was apparently real during the filming. Presley and Ann-Margret allegedly began an affair which received considerable attention from gossip columnists and led to a showdown with a worried Priscilla Beaulieu. In her 1985 book, Elvis and Me, Priscilla described the difficulties she experienced when the press announced that Ann-Marget and Elvis were engaged to be married. However, there may have been other reasons for the great publicity campaign about the romance between Elvis and Ann-Margret during the filming of Viva Las Vegas and the following weeks. It primarily helped to increase the popularity of the young Hollywood beauty. In her memoir, Ann-Margret only refers to Presley as her “soulmate”, but very little is revealed about their long-rumored romance. In his critical study on the “dream machine” that publicists, tabloid newspapers, journalists, and TV interviewers use to create semi-fictional icons, often playing with inauthenticity, Joshua Gamson cites a press agent “saying that his client, Ann-Margret, could initially have been “sold … as anything”; “She was a new product. We felt there was a need in The Industry for a female Elvis Presley.”

In addition, the filming produced unusually-heated exchanges between Presley’s manager Colonel Tom Parker (who is not shown as “Technical Advisor” in the opening credits for this film) and the movie’s director, the highly experienced George Sidney, concerning the time and effort allotted by the cinematographer, ostensibly on Sidney’s orders, to the musical scenes involving Ann Margret, which included views from many different angles, re-takes and the use of several cameras for each shot.

Presley’s screen charisma was nevertheless there for anyone to see. The scene in which he delivers the title song remains the only one in his career to depict him performing an entire song, in one uncut take, and as shot by the lens of a single camera.

Plot summary

Lucky Jackson (Elvis Presley) goes to Las Vegas, Nevada to participate in the city’s first annual Grand Prix. However, his race car is in need of a new engine in order to compete. Jackson raises the money but mislays it when distracted by Rusty Martin (Ann-Margret). Soon, Jackson’s main competition, Count Elmo Mancini (Cesare Danova), enters the picture to steal both the race and Rusty.

Ronin is a 1998 action-thriller film written by J.D. Zeik and David Mamet and directed by John Frankenheimer. It stars Robert De Niro and Jean Reno as two of several former special forces and intelligence agents who team up to steal a mysterious, heavily guarded suitcase while navigating a maze of shifting loyalties and alliances. The film is noted for its sensational car chases.

Plot

In a Paris café, an Irish woman named Deirdre (Natascha McElhone) meets five men, taking them to a warehouse and briefing them on a mission. The men, Spence (Sean Bean), Larry (Skipp Sudduth), Gregor (Stellan Skarsgård), Vincent (Jean Reno) and Sam (Robert De Niro), are all former special forces soldiers or intelligence operatives now working as mercenaries. Sam is most likely portraying a paramilitary officer from the CIA’s elite Special Activities Division. Deirdre orders the team to attack a heavily-armed convoy and steal a suitcase, though does not reveal its contents. Following the briefing, the team begins assembling their equipment. Deirdre meets with her handler Seamus (Jonathan Pryce), who reveals that Russian gangsters are bidding for the case and that the team must act quickly to intercept it. Later at the warehouse, Spence is exposed as a fraud and is summarily released from the team, who then depart for Nice, where for the next several days they observe the convoy and plan an ambush. The team engages the convoy and pursue the survivors through the surrounding highways in the country. After a lengthy car chase and gun battle, they successfully obtain the case, but Gregor betrays the team and steals the case for himself before disappearing, leaving a fake case that explodes, seriously injuring Larry.

Gregor attempts to sell the case to the Russians but shoots his contact when he attempts betrayal. Gregor contacts Mikhi, the leader of the gangsters and threatens to sell the case to the Irish unless Mikhi pays a grossly inflated price for it, which Mikhi agrees to. Meanwhile, the rest of the team track Gregor through one of Sam’s old CIA contacts and corner him in the Roman arena in Arles. Following a tense standoff and hectic gunfight with Gregor and the Russians negotiating with him, Gregor escapes the coliseum but is kidnapped by Seamus, who kills Larry and escapes with Deirdre just as Sam and Vincent emerge from the coliseum. Sam, seriously wounded from the fight, is taken by Vincent to his friend Jean-Pierre (Michael Lonsdale) in a villa in rural France. After removing the bullet and allowing Sam time to recuperate, Vincent asks Jean-Pierre to help him locate Gregor, Deirdre and Seamus. Meanwhile, in a Paris slum, Seamus learns that Gregor has mailed the case to himself at a post office in Paris. Later, as they retrieve the case, they are ambushed by Vincent and Sam. Following a high-speed chase through the streets and tunnels of Paris, Vincent shoots out Deirdre’s tires and sends her car over a highway overpass. The three are pulled from the car by construction workers shortly before it explodes, and Gregor once again escapes with the case.

Vincent and Sam, considering their options, discover that the case is identical to one used by figure skaters. Intelligence gleaned from Jean-Pierre’s contacts also suggest the Russians are involved with figure skater Natacha Kirilova (Katarina Witt), the protégé of Mikhi, who is performing a show at the local arena that night. Vincent and Sam appear at the arena as Mikhi, already there with Natacha, receives a call from Gregor, who demands to meet in a backstage dressing room. At the meet, Mikhi exchanges money for the case when Gregor, prepared to leave, reveals that he has positioned a sniper somewhere in the arena that will shoot Natacha if Gregor is betrayed. Mikhi shoots Gregor regardless, allowing Natacha to be killed, and Mikhi prepares to leave with the case and his money. Meanwhile, Vincent and Sam follow the panicked crowd out of the arena in time to see Seamus ambush and shoot Mikhi before stealing the case. Sam runs ahead of Seamus and finds Deirdre sitting in the getaway car, where he asks her to leave the scene, revealing himself as an agent of the CIA currently pursuing Seamus. Deirdre flees, leaving Seamus to shoot his way past Vincent and escape through the crowd back to the arena with Sam in pursuit. In the final gunfight, Seamus wounds Sam and prepares to kill him when Vincent opens fire from the scaffolding, killing Seamus before collapsing due to his own wounds.

Some time later radio broadcasts reveal a peace agreement has been reached between Sinn Féin and the British as a result of Seamus’s death. Sam and Vincent share a drink in the same Montmartre café from the first scene and part as friends before Sam drives off with his CIA contact, Vincent disappears up a nearby staircase into gloomy Paris.

The contents of the metal case are never revealed (see MacGuffin). Mamet has written that he believes revealing such details can be anticlimactic, that a director is wiser to allow the audience’s imagination to answer the question. This is a technique Mamet has used repeatedly in his films. In fact, in earlier versions of the script, the briefcase is destroyed at the climax. Sam observes that only the top men in the Russian mob and the IRA, plus a handful of men in the CIA knew what was in the case. In the DVD’s director’s commentary, Frankenheimer says that in the film, Seamus is the only person who actually needs to know what the case contains. As an aside, on the film’s web site when Ronin was in theatres, the public could suggest and vote for what they thought could be in the case. One of the popular suggestions was ‘Guinness.’

Against All Odds is a neo-noir 1984 film, a remake of Out of the Past. The movie was directed by Taylor Hackford and features Rachel Ward in a variation (with a different name) of Jane Greer’s original role, Jeff Bridges filling in for Robert Mitchum, and James Woods in a version of Kirk Douglas’s part. Supporting players include Alex Karras, Jane Greer (portraying the mother of her original character), Richard Widmark, and Dorian Harewood.

The movie’s soundtrack, nominated for a Grammy Award, featured songs from Big Country, Kid Creole & the Coconuts, Stevie Nicks, and Genesis breakout stars Mike Rutherford, Peter Gabriel, and Phil Collins. Collins sang the title song, which was also nominated for an Academy Award and was one of the top-selling singles of 1984.

Plot

Terry Brogan (Bridges), ex-professional football player is cut from his team ‘The L.A. Outlaws’. Aging, broke, and in need of money, Terry takes a job from an old acquaintance – shady nightclub owner Jake Wise (Woods) – to track down Jake’s girlfriend, Jessie Wyler (Ward) somewhere in Mexico. “Here’s $10,000 right now – and when you find her I’ll give you another Twenty…I just want you to find her Terry…,” says Jake Wise.

The search takes Terry to the clear blue skies and white sands of Cozumel. Terry and Jessie eventually meet on the tiny island, animal instinct overcomes the two as they unexpectedly fall in love. Terry tells Jake in phone calls that he hasn’t found her.

When Jake dispatches L.A. Outlaws trainer Sully (Karras) to the island to look for the two…”Sully? What the f— are you doing here? – Jake sent him here – What am I doing here? What are we doing here?…” Sully is immediately killed in a chaotic scene with Jessie being the shooter. In panic, Jessie flees the island leaving Terry and dead Sully behind. “Jessie it’s an accident…Go to the Mexican police with a body and a gun? – Are you crazy???, says Jessie

Looking for answers, Terry returns to L.A. to find that Jake’s hold on Jessie is something larger and more ominous involving various politicians, lawyers and environmentalists who seem to be converging on some sort of land deal.

Terry has more unfinished business with Jake, “I have another job for you…its a little dirty but not so dirty you wont be able to sleep at night…”

The job has Terry breaking into Kirsch’s office to get incriminating records involving Terry (betting on games), Kirsch (Terry’s agent) and others…

Christine is a horror novel by Stephen King, published in 1983. It tells the story of a vintage automobile apparently possessed by supernatural forces.

In 1983, the movie version of Christine directed by John Carpenter, and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, and Harry Dean Stanton was released to theaters.

Plot summary

The story revolves around teenage nerd Arnie Cunningham and his 1958 red and white Plymouth Fury, dubbed “Christine” by the previous owner. The story is set in Libertyville (supposedly a suburb of Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania between the summer of 1978 and the spring of 1979. The novel is divided into three parts, the first and third of which are written in first person, from the point of view of Dennis Guilder, Arnie’s best (and only) friend. The middle part of the book is written in the omniscient third person style (while Guilder is in the hospital, and thus removed from the action).

While driving home one evening from a summer job on a building site, Dennis Guilder and Arnie Cunningham drive past Christine, sitting on the dilapidated lawn of a small house on a suburban street. Arnie makes Dennis stop his car, and sets about examining the red 1958 Fury. Dennis initially thinks Arnie is joking with him, but soon realizes that he is deadly serious. The car’s owner, Roland D. LeBay, an elderly gentleman in a back support, comes out onto the lawn, and offers the car to Arnie for $250. Unable to pay the full amount, he settles on a $25 deposit (in which Arnie has $9 borrowed from Dennis) and agrees to come back the next day with the rest of the money.

Arnie and Dennis return the following day, and LeBay invites Arnie into his house to sign over the car. While waiting for Arnie, Dennis decides to sit inside Christine, now parked in LeBay’s garage, and as he does so, he has a vision of the car and the surroundings as they would be in 1957 when the car was brand new. Frightened, Dennis gets out of Christine, and decides then and there that he does not like Arnie’s new car.

Arnie takes the car to Darnell’s, a local do-it-yourself auto repair facility. As he restores the automobile, he becomes withdrawn, yet more confident and self-assured. He becomes humorless and cynical. Dennis is scared of these changes, and of Christine’s changes. The car is repaired haphazardly (quote from the film: “Look how cock-eyed he works! He’s got… brand new windshield wipers for a busted windshield.”), and not all of the repairs seem to be done by Arnie. Also, Arnie’s appearance (e.g. his normally poor complexion) improves in tandem with Christine’s. When Roland LeBay dies, Dennis meets his younger brother, George, who relates to him Roland’s past destructive and violent behavior. He is also told that Roland’s young daughter choked to death on a hamburger in the back of the car, and then his wife, traumatized by this death, apparently committed suicide in the car by carbon monoxide poisoning. Dennis’s further investigations with others around town who had known Roland confirm to him that Arnie’s new personality is in alignment with that of his car’s former owner.

When Arnie is almost finished restoring Christine, Leigh Cabot transfers to his high school. Leigh is instantly popular and regarded as the most beautiful girl in school. It is a surprise to everyone when she decides to go out with Arnie. While on a date with Arnie, Leigh almost chokes to death on a hamburger. Leigh is certain that Christine was behind it when Arnie attempts to save her by hitting her on the back to try and save her and while she is choking she notices that the dashboard light on Christine seem to have turned into glaring green eyes. Leigh is only saved from death by a hitchhiker that Arnie picked up, who pulls her from the car and administers the Heimlich Maneuver. Despite Arnie’s protestations, Leigh continues to feel as though she is competing with Christine for Arnie’s affection. “Cars are girls”, she says.

Arnie brings Christine home from Darnell’s, but his mother, who has hated the car from day one, tells him that he cannot park it at the house. A severe argument ensues and Arnie storms out of the house. Arnie’s father, Michael, takes a drive with his son & treats him to a 30-day parking pass at the local airport, thinking Arnie will only use his car when absolutely necessary. Exiting Christine, Michael experiences a feeling of extreme dread.

Soon after Arnie begins parking at the airport Buddy Repperton, a vicious bully who Arnie and Dennis got expelled earlier in the story, visits Christine with his gang of thugs and severely vandalizes the car. Seeing Christine destroyed completely infuriates Arnie, resulting in the severance of his relationship with Leigh. Arnie dedicates all his free time to repair the car: Leigh grows closer to Dennis.

Mysterious murders occur in Libertyville. One by one, members of Buddy’s gang are killed by Christine. Others who were hostile to Arnie or Christine also turn up dead. The police investigate the murders and become suspicious of Arnie. However, Arnie has an airtight alibi for each of the murders, since the car apparently acts on its own.

Dennis and Leigh become suspicious not of Arnie, but of Christine. They try to find out as much as they can about the car and its previous owner. As their suspicions grow, they try to destroy the supernatural forces that appear to be in control of Christine and Arnie.

It is never quite clear as to whether Christine is evil or if it’s Roland LeBay possessing her. On one hand it is clear that Roland’s ghost is driving her during her climatic battle with Dennis and Leigh, and also during the climatic crash involving Buddy Repperton. But while Dennis is talking with Roland’s brother, there are hints to Christine’s past that indicate how the car’s supernatural abilities came to be: both his wife and daughter died in the car, and it is strongly hinted that their deaths were, in truth, a sacrifice to obtain immortality for both Roland D. LeBay and the car itself. George LeBay also makes clear, in a later conversation with Dennis, that Roland himself was violent and destructive from his early childhood. Pertaining to this Christine can fix herself without human help after denting and scratching herself in the murders of the bullies.

The novel ends on an ambiguous note. Arnie’s father is found dead in Christine, apparently from the exhaust fumes. Arnie and his mother die in an auto accident: witnesses to the accident saw three people in the car before the crash, but only two bodies were found. In the mean time, Dennis and Leigh manage to destroy Christine in Darnell’s using a huge, pink-coloured septic tanker truck, named Petunia, and Dennis is informed by a police detective that the remains were fed into the crusher in the back of the garage by two police officers, adding that one received a bad cut that needed stitches, and said “it bit him”. Dennis ends the story proper with a salutation to his friend:

“Rest in peace, Arnie.

I love you, man.”

In the epilogue, set about four years later, Dennis reports that he and Leigh attended college together, consummated their relationship (“very satisfactorily”), but ultimately went their separate ways. Dennis is a teacher in New Jersey, Leigh a housewife in New Mexico. The last page details that, in Los Angeles, Sandy Galton (one of Buddy’s gang, who let them into the parking garage to trash Christine) has died a mysterious death when an unknown car burst through the wall of the theater where he was working, instantly killing him; the final words of the book convey Dennis’ horror as he contemplates the possibility of Christine having finally repaired herself and starting a campaign of revenge and ultimately coming for him.

Cobra is a 1986 action movie directed by George Pan Cosmatos, starring Sylvester Stallone, Reni Santoni and Brigitte Nielsen.

The movie was loosely based on the novel Fair Game by Paula Gosling, which was also filmed under that title in 1995; it also arose out of Stallone’s original ideas for the film Beverly Hills Cop. He had wanted to make a less comedic, more action-oriented film. When he left that project, Eddie Murphy was brought in to play the lead role.

Plot

Marion Cobretti, a rough Police officer with a reputation for doing “the dirty work” is called in to a hostage situation at a grocery store when negotiations fail. Cobretti kills the gunman himself after infiltrating the building, but before his death the criminal mumbles of a “New Order” in the world: a group of supremacists who believe in killing the weak and leaving only the strongest and themselves to live and rule the world.

The event at the supermarket is connected to a string of recent and seemingly unconnected acts of violence that have broken loose in Los Angeles. Unbeknownst to the general public, these murders are the work of the same supremacist group that the supermarket gunman spoke of.

After witnessing several individuals including the “Night Slasher”(the order’s leader) at the scene of one of the murders late at night, Nielsen’s character becomes the target of the group, and the only witness to their crimes. She is placed under the protective custody of Cobretti and his partner. After several attempts are made on their lives, it is decided that it would be safest that they relocate from the city.

Shortly after venturing out into the countryside, and Cobretti becoming romantically involved with the witness, one of the Order’s leaders (who is a police officer traveling alongside the Cobretti) reveals the location of Cobretti, the witness, and Cobretti’s partner. Despite Cobretti’s suspicions he does nothing. The Order moves in at dawn and besieges the small town that the three were staying in. With barely enough time to react the attackers storm the motel room Cobretti is in with the witness. Killing several but with more swarming into the town Cobretti and the witness escape in a Dodge Ram pick-up truck assuming his partner is dead. After the truck becomes severely damaged, the two bail out into a lemon grove and escape into a nearby factory. Most of the Order has been killed or disabled by Cobretti at this point, and only a few follow them. After eliminating every member aside from the night slasher himself, a huge muscle bound type played by Brian Thompson, Cobretti and the leader engage in a deadly hand-to-hand duel inside the steel mill, ending with the Order’s leader being impaled in the back by a large roaming hook and burned alive by Cobretti.

In the aftermath, Cobretti’s department has arrived and begun clean-up of the town, the Order is all but eliminated, and the ending credits begin with Stallone and Nielsen climbing onto one of the many motorcycles left by the Order and riding away.