2007 | Dir. Quentin Tarantino | 113 Minutes
"I'm afraid you're gonna have to start getting scared... immediately."
A homicidal stuntman driving a reinforced car targets young women. He soon finds that his latest targets are more than he bargained for as the pair stuntwomen and their friend chase him down in a specific white 1970 Dodge Challenger.
Death Proof is more of a genre mash-up experiment than a fully-realized feature. Its first half is an homage to grindhouse slasher flicks complete with sloppy editing and deliberate scratches on the picture. Naturally, the leads during the opening stretch are modeled after the disposable horror movie characters, sexually active drug-friendly young women unsuspecting of the stalker in their midst. Though they are perhaps afforded more internal lives than the average slasher victim archetype, their subplots revolving around radio DJ Jungle Julia's secret heartbreak and Arlene's lame relationship with whiny dud Nate only serve as elaborate window dressing as they are swiftly discarded, dashed away when the deranged Stuntman Mike comes out to play.
The aesthetic style of the movie completely changes when Death Proof enters its back half, and the intentional film damage completely disappears. The film quickly establishes a fun new set of heroines, savvy film industry workers with a strong appreciation for practical stunt work and a knack for humorous banter. The remainder of the feature ramps up to a technically impressive showdown on the road. While the rest of the movie is entertaining on visceral level, it becomes clear that Death Proof pulled an odd bait-and-switch, abandoning horror in favor of over-the-top action spectacle. The shift comes off as clumsy, and unfortunately does little to serve the horror or the muscle car genres.
Kurt Russell is the very best thing about the picture, clearly having the time of his life as the evil and perverted stuntman, really selling his smugness and the sniveling cowardice just under the surface. Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Vanessa Ferlito, Jordan Ladd, and Rose McGowan are fine as Stuntman Mike's victims, though their performances are only as good as the incomplete arcs of their characters. Tarantino's favorite stuntwoman Zoë Bell plays a heightened version of herself, naturally hilarious and impressively performing the most dangerous acts of the movie with. Tracie Thoms stands out as opinionated stunt driver Kim, delivering a fun performance that really pops. Always a welcome sight, Rosario Dawson serves as the perfect audience surrogate playing make-up artist Abernathy. The cast also features Mary Elizabeth Winstead, horror director Eli Roth, Omar Doom, and Michael Bacall in bit parts.
Trashy entertainment devoid of narrative depth, Death Proof is an uneven roller coaster ride that switches from conceptually off-beat slasher film to extended muscle car stunt show. A good time is in store for those willing to appropriately temper their expectations and relish in the simple pleasure of watching a psychopath get his comeuppance.
ANOTHER VERSION
During its initial US theatrical run, a significantly pared down cut of Death Proof and a slightly shorter version Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror was released in theaters as a double feature entitled Grindhouse, complete with a set of parody movie trailers directed by Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, and Eli Roth running between the two films. The Grindhouse version of Death Proof is missing several minor character moments with the Stuntman Mike's victims, the lap dance scene is absent with a humorous "Reel Missing" notice in its place, the hospital scene cuts straight to Zoë's friends picking her up at the airport completely excising the convenience store sequence, and it features alternate takes throughout.
THE STORY BEHIND THE TITLE
The title Quentin Tarantino's Thunder Bolt appears during the opening sequence before it is quickly replaced by a drab white text on black Death Proof title card. This is in reference to the common practice for exploitation movie distributors to re-title their films for any number of unscrupulous reasons.
QUENTIN TARANTINO AS...
- Warren the bartender
RED APPLE CIGARETTES
- Abernathy asked Kim to buy her a pack of Red Apple Tans
FOOT STUFF
- The first shots of the opening title sequence are of a woman's bare feet on the passenger side dashboard of a car
- The camera constantly lingers on Jungle Julia's bare legs and feet
- Stuntman Mike creepily touches Abernathy's feet while she is asleep in the backseat of a parked car
NOTABLE NEEDLE DROPS
- American rock band Smith's cover of "Baby It's You" is a damn good jukebox tune and Mary Elizabeth Winstead's acapella rendition in the parking lot isn't too shabby either
- The grimly ironic use of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich's "Hold Tight!" during Stuntman Mike's vehicular murder of Jungle Julia and her friends is masterful in how well it complements the tension in that sequence
- Playing over the end credits, April March's cover of "Laisse Tomber Les Filles" mixed with her English version of the song "Chick Habit", is both grating but so infectiously catchy
FRAGMENTS
- The film opens with a vintage movie theater feature presentation clip, an animated restricted rating notice from the 1970s, and the logo of long-defunct exploitation film studio Dimension Pictures
- The poem to be recited to Arlene in exchange for a lap dance is an excerpt from Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
- The Crazy Babysitter Twins played by Electra and Elise Avellan and Dakota Block played by Marley Shelton from Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror appear briefly
- Michael Parks' Earl McGraw first appeared in Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn, and also appears in Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror and in Kill Bill alongside James Parks' Edgar McGraw
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Kurt Russell (Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Kurt Russell (Ego in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2)
