The best attempt ever at a car based slasher movie. The car in this film is essentially like any slasher weapon with the same Freudian sexuality to it between the driver of the car and the victims. This is for the most part a Tarantino hangout movie, split into two halves like From Dusk Till Dawn. Just like in that movie he does something different in both halves. The first half ends with a climactic car accident that is one of the best 10 minute stretches of any horror movie ever. Honestly as soon as Stuntman Mike gets in the car with Rose McGowan that is one of the scariest sequences in any horror movie ever. The second half ends with a car chase that is a modern day version of one you would see in a Eurocrime movie. Stuntman Mike is one of the more interesting villains in 21st century cinema. Conspicuously charming and quirky but under the surface cunning and bloodthirsty. His reason for doing what he does is some twisted way of being a stuntman again or maybe even getting to be one for the first time.
The movie starts off with some interesting credits. I enjoy the first person view of the car along the winding rural roads with the credits. That is something out of a Eurocrime movie. The movie first follows three women: Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), radio DJ "Jungle" Julia (Sydney Tamila Poitier), and Shanna "Banana" (Jordan Ladd). The three women, similar to female characters in a slasher movie talk about their sexuality and conquests. The three women talk about going to a lake house together after they go to a bar that night. They set rules about only making out and no hooking up because they can't bring boys to the lake house. Meanwhile Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) is shown to be following them and spots Arlene outside of the first bar they go to. Julia tells Arlene that she offered a lap dance from her on the radio to any man who offers to buy her a drink, call her butterfly, and reads her "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening."
A look at all of the women and actresses in this movie. First half on the left and second half on the right.
The three women go to another bar to celebrate Julia's birthday. There they meet with Dov (Eli Roth), Nate (Omar Doom), and Omar (Michael Bacall). Dov and Nate have a side conversation about getting the women their preferred shots so get them more loose so they might invite them to the lake house. Meanwhile Stuntman Mike is seen eating at the bar. He finally says something after Pam (Rose McGowan) says something about needing a ride home. He says when he is ready to leave Pam will be the first to know. Stuntman Mike introduces himself to Arlene and convinces her to give him a lap dance after he pulls out a notepad where he talks about the saying "you're okay in my book," and says everyone he meets goes in the book and he will have to file her under "chickenshit" if she doesn't do the lap dance. She agrees to do it. At this point Mike is ready to leave and offers Pam a ride home...
A look at Kurt Russell as Stuntman Mike and his scarred appearance. This is the scene when he breaks the fourth wall and looks at the camera and winks.
I love so many things about this movie. Since this is connected to Grindhouse some of the film grain blemishes, like the white dots on the screen are cool. The skipping the frame where certain moments are repeated is cool too. It adds to the experience. Tarantino is a master of dialogue and there are so many individual conversations, let alone lines that are memorable in this. The whole conversation between Dov and Nate where they talk about the shots is great and seems like a real conversation men would have about women at a bar. The aside Nate has with Arlene about making out in her car is great as well. Later when we are introduced to new characters I enjoy the fascination with Allure magazine and Italian Vogue. The conversations Zoe Bell and Tracie Thoms have about playing ship's mast are fun as well. Everything feels real, but also cinematic. That is why I love Tarantino so much is he combines cinematic and real perfectly. I enjoy some of the music as well. There is a scene where Stuntman Mike takes pictures and the music is Ennio Morricone from Cat O' Nine Tails. There is another chase scene where music from Franco Micalizzi's score to The Tough Ones AKA Rome Armed to the Teeth is played. So those Italian movie connections that I know are fun to me. The FX by Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger, which are mostly during the first chase and car accident scene are great.
Spoiler Section
I enjoy the fourth wall break that Stuntman Mike does as soon as he gets in the car with Pam. Before that there is an interesting scene where he tells her the car is "Death Proof," and what goes into that. She has to side in the passenger side without a seatbelt that is basically a box where the camera would go in a Stuntman's car. Again Stuntman Mike is charming and that is why she gets into the car. She thinks nothing bad could happen. We as the audience had seen Mike with the pictures of the three women in his car so we know he has more nefarious motives. Mike asks her which way is she going left or right. She says right and he says that's too bad. He says that there was a 50 percent change of her going left and that if she did she would've gotten frightened far less sooner. Mike starts driving fast and doing spins to throw her around. At first she is angry but that anger quickly gives way to resignation and she pleads for her life. Great acting here by Rose McGowan and because of that we are more scared. Mike then says "This car is 100% death proof. Only to get the benefit of it, honey, you really need to be sitting in my seat." Mike then slams on the breaks and Pam hits face first on the dashboard and dies of her injuries.
Mike catches up with the three women plus Lanna Frank (Monica Scaggs) Julia's friend whom met them at the bar and is now driving. While they all listen to music, Mike speeds past them and turns his lights off puts them on as he drives right toward them for a collision. The movie shows from different camera perspectives how each person was killed which is awesome. Each is a gory and grisly death that feels just as much of a real car accident as it does something amusing. The idea of a car slasher movie actually seems intriguing but when done right is terrifying. The idea of driving fast and having someone come right at you for a collision is scary. Of course Stuntman Mike survives this with only minor injuries. We get a scene with Ranger Earl McCraw (Michael Parks) and his son Ranger Edgar McGraw (James Parks) about how Mike cannot be charged because the women were drinking and Mike wasn't. Something highlighted during the bar scene earlier where Mike is drinking club soda and virgin pina coladas. This connects this movie to Planet Terror and other movies in the Tarantino-Rodriguez universe as Dr. Block (Marley Shelton) also shows up here.
The movie then transitions to stuntwoman Zoe Bell playing herself, Tracie Thoms playing Kim another stuntwoman, up and coming actress Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and makeup effects artist Abernathy (Rosario Dawson). Mike spots them at a gas station and takes pictures of them. They meet with Zoe at a diner and she wants to drive a 1970 Dodge Challenger with a white paint job. The same car from Vanishing Point. She had been scouting the local car sales parts of the newspaper in Lebanon, Tennessee knowing they would be there. They go to a rural farm to buy the car sold by Jasper (Jonathan Loughram). They make a scheme to not buy the car but take it for a test drive and they leave Lee alone with Jasper. Kim and Zoe have that conversation about playing Ship's mast as I talked about earlier. A game where Zoe hangs on the hood of the car while hanging on with ropes going full speed.
Stuntman Mike spots them on his binoculars and catches up to them and rams their car repeatedly while going full speed. Mike eventually pulls over after a long chase and says that was fun and Kim shoots him in the arm. They resolve to chase Mike down and kill him. My descriptions of the car chase cannot do it justice but one thing I love about car chases is those that switch settings and locales. I like how they go from dirt roads to freeways to rural side streets near the main road. There is something interesting where Mike goes from hunter to prey of sorts here. It only connects with the slasher elements in this movie. Mike even says during the first car chase "such on this!" While during the second car chase Kim talks about "tapping that ass," almost alluding to pegging or something. It connects with how slasher weapons are really some Freudian penile thing and how the women are being killed by such objects. This one makes it more overt than an a normal slasher movie. Mike in his way is actually trying to relive his prime days whether he was a real stuntman or not. You see in the bar scene all the people not knowing his work at movies he is in. That also feels like Tarantino showing his knowledge and how people may not know some of the stuff he talks about when he makes certain movie references. So there is a way of making it work within the movie but also from some meta angle. In a great end to the chase, they up end Mike's car by hitting the bottom of it. At this point Mike is also acting scared, screaming and pleading for his life while the women all take turns punching him out before Zoe roundhouse kicks him into tomorrow. Abernathy curb stomps him to end it.
I enjoy so many things about this movie. I could talk about the car chase forever. I enjoy the scenes of the women together as well and I like all the different qualities to each character. I like the bar setting and the gas station setting. I'm not sure but I think Quentin may have had some influence from things like Bay of Blood or Torso. Torso has two different halves where it switches from giallo to slasher but it also follows women who are not shy about their sexuality like the characters here. Bay of Blood has a slasher sequence separate from the rest of the movie similar to this. Quentin wanted to make a car chase move, slasher movie, and some interesting 70s road movie to me all in one. He did that almost perfectly. I think this movie could have been more concise. As much as I like seeing Mary Elizabeth Winstead in a cheering outfit I think leaving her behind goes nowhere. It would have been interesting to see an alternate version of this where we get both the chase and Stuntman Mike turning into an actual slasher and killing Jasper and Lee while the other women are driving. Or maybe Jasper and Lee getting into it. I like getting to know all the characters but at almost two hours there is something lost in the flow between the transitions here so that is the reason for the less than perfect rating because I love this movie.
Rating: 9/10
Trivia: Tarantino came up with the idea for this film while having a drinking night with Sean Penn. Tarantino talked about buying a Volvo because he didn't want to die in a car accident. Penn talked about getting the car death proofed for $10,000 or more like Stuntmen do. The phrase and the idea stuck with him after that.
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