As I watched the movie Death Proof when it first came out in the theaters in 2007, I thought it was the most boring movie ever made. That is until it got around to the car scene during the second half which was the best part of the movie and maybe the best car chase in years. Not too many special effects. And it highlighted the muscle cars, one of which (the one Kurt Russel drove) was a 1969 Dodge Charger RT.
The movie which I thought was pretty simple. It's an homage by Quentin Tarantino to the great car movies such as Bullitt (1968) and Gone in 60 Seconds (1974). In Death Proof, Stuntman Mike played by Kurt Russell was a nutcase who used his car to kill women by crashing into them in high speed chases. He survived these crashes because he reinforced his cars, making it "death proof" for collision.
The storyline was flimsy and the characters were annoying, but the car scenes were awesome. Stuntman Mike used two cars in the movie which to me were the stars, a Chevy Nova when he killed the first set of girls (Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, Sydney Poitier, and Rose McGowan) and a 1969 Dodge Charger which he pitted in a long car chase against a 1970 Dodge Challenger driven and ridden by the second group of girls (Tracie Thoms, Rosario Dawson, and Zoe Bell).
Now check out this short video clip of a 1969 Dodge Charger R/T burning rubber on an empty country road. So cool!
1969 Dodge Charger: True star of the show
The 1969 models were well received and considered a classic by any car buff. The RT stood for the Road and Track badge given to it because of the high performance configuration. The 1969 Dodge Charger RT comes standard with a V8 440 Magnum rated at 375 hp. There's also the Special Edition (SE) model dubbed the "slant six" because of, you guessed it, a V6 engine. That one is not as popular.
It was Death Proof that planted the seed in my mind to blog about cars used in movies. Well, TV shows too, because you can't mention Dodge Chargers without talking about the most famous car of all, the General Lee.
Now, I'm fond of the Charger because of the General Lee, perhaps that's why the Dodge Charger is the first post. In Death Proof, it was black with a skull and crossbone painted on the hood. Badass! Even for a muscle car.
If you've seen enough movies with car chases, you ought to know by now that the chase almost always end up in a spectacular crash or the cars getting trashed somehow. Luckily, Death Proof spared the Charger ON SCREEN. But I read somewhere that they used up to 10 Dodge R/T Chargers to film the movie.
Pics of 1969 Dodge Charger RT
Trouble ahead for Dodge Chargers
With Chrysler in bankruptcy and the movement towards hybrid / electriic engines, will definitely sunset the gasoline-powered muscle cars in general. Of course, fuel efficient muscle cars will rule the streets. We're just that kind of society -- muscle powered! Let's hope that Fiat, the expected new owners of Chrysler Dodge continues the Charger legacy, but it's on the bubble.
Other movies or TV shows with Dodge Chargers include The Dukes of Hazzard (1969 2-door Dodge Charger RT): the famous General Lee, Blade series (1968 Dodge Charger): it's Blade's car, The Fast and the Furious (1970 Dodge Charger): last scenes when Vin Diesel tried to get away, and many, many more.
Sorry dude, but the DeathProof charger doesn't have the skull on the hood. That was just the Nova.
ReplyDeleteJust making a correction.