Soon afterward, school bully Buddy Repperton - angry with Arnie over being expelled after a confrontation in shop class - vandalizes Christine with the help of his gang. I remember a battleship gray 58 Belvedere, followed by a beige 61, and then a turquoise 64. When he gets out to fix it, Leigh begins to choke on a hamburger. [5] Kobritz and Carpenter had previously collaborated in the 1978 television film Someone's Watching Me!. [4] In retrospect, Carpenter stated that upon reading Christine, he felt that "It just wasn't very frightening. [19] On March 12, 2013, Twilight Time video released the film on Blu-ray for the first time in a limited edition run numbered at 3,000 copies. [2], On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Christine holds a 69% approval rating based on 29 reviews, with an average rating of 5.94/10. THX Lucasfilms LTD (with titles "Digitally Mastered"). Dennis and Leigh attack Christine with the bulldozer, but the car continually repairs itself and strikes back. Another worker climbs in to sit behind the wheel, letting the ash from his cigar fall on the front seat. The next day, Dennis, Leigh and Junkins watch as Christine's remains are compacted by a car crusher in a junkyard and dropped on the ground as a solid block. The Volare and Aspen used the same engines as the Valiant, Duster, and Dart (225, 318, and 360). Our next-door neighbor back in the day, Mr. Cirbus, was a Plymouth man. Unbeknownst to Arnie, Dennis learned from Arnie's mother that Roland actually committed suicide in the car. George forced Roland to get rid of Christine after Roland's wife's death, but the car returned to him after three weeks. Bringing in $1,316,835 in its sixth weekend, the film dropped out of the box office top ten to twelfth place. George tells Arnie several details about the car, including its name: "Christine". However, production delays on these projects allowed Carpenter to accept the director position for Christine. However, he has no direct evidence to implicate Arnie, who has an alibi. Twenty-one years later, in September 1978, Arnold "Arnie" Cunningham is an awkward and unpopular teenager in Rockbridge, California, with only one friend, football player Dennis Guilder. Arnie – who has been driving the car himself – is thrown through the windshield and impaled on a shard of glass, which kills him. '59 Plymouth Fury '64 Mercury Marauder '55 Chevrolet BelAir '57 Plymouth Fury - RARE '55 Chevrolet 210 2door post '79 Pontiac T/A NASCAR Award '57 Chevrolet BelAir '35 Ford Custom Pickup '33 Chevrolet Sedan Custom '38 Chevrolet Master Coupe '00 Chevrolet Custom Silverado [9] An abandoned furniture factory in Irwindale was used for the opening scene. Since his parents will not let him keep the car at their house, Arnie begins to restore it at a do-it-yourself garage and junkyard owned by Will Darnell. At least one '57 Savoy was used, its front end modified to look like a '58. Related: plymouth road runner plymouth barracuda dodge coronet dodge charger plymouth satellite dodge challenger plymouth duster plymouth fury chevrolet camaro dodge dart chevrolet chevelle plymouth ⦠[citation needed], Christine was released in North America on December 9, 1983, to 1,045 theaters. Regular price $1,500.00 Regular price Sale price $1,500.00 Sale. They set a trap for it at Darnell's garage: Dennis waits at the controls of a Caterpillar EROPS 955L Track Loader while Leigh stands ready to close the garage doors and cut off Christine's retreat once it enters. Unfortunately, the later part of the film is slow in developing, and it unfolds in predictable ways. Unit price ... Unit price / per . As Arnie spends more of his time working on the car, he discards his glasses, dresses more like a 1950s greaser, and develops an arrogant, paranoid personality. [4], Nineteen-year-old Alexandra Paul was cast in the film after audition in New York City; according to Carpenter, Paul was an "untrained, young actress" at the time, but brought a "great quality" about the character of Leigh. "[8], Initially, Columbia Pictures had wanted to cast Brooke Shields in the role of Leigh due to her publicity after the release of The Blue Lagoon (1981), and Scott Baio as Arnie. Could you at least tell me what Mopar called it lol. Unit price / per . 58 Plymouth Belvedere. Directed by John Carpenter. I realized that was your real question @tallhair but i am not aware of any names that Chrysler's Plymouth Division attached to ⦠Some of King's details about the evil car were incorrect in the novel. Heâd buy a new 4-door sedan every 2-3 years, at least until he retired. One of the cars was stripped of its engine to accommodate internally-mounted hydraulics that pulled the framework inward, crumpling the car, with the shot then run backwards in the final film. The film received mostly positive reviews from critics and has since become a cult classic.[3]. Through producing the miniseries, Kobritz became acquainted with King, who sent him manuscripts of two of his novels, Cujo, and Christine. At the end of the shift, the line supervisor notices the car's radio is playing music; when he opens the door to shut it off, the worker's corpse falls out onto the floor. Following the choking incident and Christine's initial vandalization, Leigh breaks up with Arnie. This time it’s a fire-engine red, 1958 Plymouth Fury that’s possessed by the Devil, and this deja-vu premise [from the novel by Stephen King] combined with the crazed-vehicle format, makes Christine appear pretty shop worn. She wrote, "My highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie."[10]. "[16] Variety gave the film a negative review, stating: "Christine seems like a retread. Confronted by Dennis, George admits that Roland's daughter had choked to death in the car and that his wife also committed suicide in it. Christine (titled onscreen as John Carpenter's Christine) is a 1983 American supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter and starring Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky and Harry Dean Stanton. Total production for the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and they were difficult to find and expensive to buy at the time. Arnie's life begins to change when he buys the used, dilapidated Fury from George LeBay, whose late brother Roland had originally owned it. Plymouth Belvedere is a series of American automobile models made by Chrysler from 1954 to 1970 that were marketed under the Plymouth brand.. This is the kind of movie where you walk out with a silly grin, get in your car, and lay rubber halfway down the Eisenhower. But it was something I needed to do at that time for my career. [20] On September 29, 2015, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment re-released the film on Blu-ray. [5] According to Carpenter, Christine was not a film he had planned on directing, saying that he directed the film as "a job" as opposed to a "personal project. Joined: Oct 28, 2015 Location: long island, new york. Chrysler, Plymouth, DeSoto and Dodge vehicles of this era were not equipped with such buttons. Alexandra Paul's identical twin sister Caroline Paul wrote that she and her sister pulled a prank during filming, sending Caroline on set in place of Alexandra without telling Carpenter that they had made the switch until after he had shot a scene. The film was released on VHS by Columbia Pictures, and later in a special edition DVD in 2004. The next morning, Christine is back in its slot and fully repaired. Christine crashes through Darnell's office in an attempt to get at Leigh. The doors lock themselves, leaving Arnie unable to help her, but she frees herself and is saved when a man in a nearby car administers the Heimlich maneuver. "[18], The film was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on August 4, 1998. The soundtrack album containing songs used in the film was entitled Christine: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and was released on LP and cassette on Motown Records. [22], Two soundtracks were released, one consisting purely of the music written and composed by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, the other consisting of the contemporary pop songs used in the film.[23]. Several vehicles were unfortunately destroyed during filming, but most of the cars were Savoy and Belvedere models just dressed to look like the Fury. Originally, Carpenter had not planned to film the car's regeneration scenes, but gave special effects supervisor Roy Arbogast three weeks to devise a way for the car to rebuild itself. The 1956-1958 Plymouth Fury was only available as a two-door coupe, while the book falsely described it as a four-door sedan, which would have actually made it a Savoy or Belvedere model. 57 Plymouth Fury. As the camera zooms in slowly on the remains, a portion of the front grill begins to twitch. In its seventh and final weekend, the film brought in $819,972 landing at #14, bringing the total gross for Christine to $21,017,849. The film also features supporting performances from Roberts Blossom and Kelly Preston. I bet you see a 727 when you take a look underneath. Arnie is devastated and determined to repair Christine but is surprised to see her quickly restore herself. Although the car in the film is identified as a 1958 Plymouth Fury[11] – and in 1983 radio ads promoting the film, voiceover artists announced, "she's a '57 Fury" – two other Plymouth models, the Belvedere and the Savoy, were also used to portray the malevolent automobile onscreen. The film dropped 39.6% in its second weekend, grossing $2,058,517 slipping from fourth to eighth place. A nerdish boy buys a strange car with an evil mind ⦠1960-76 Plymouth Complete Front Disc Brake Wheel Kit: 1964 Plymouth Sport Fury Front and rear Disc brake conversion: 65 Plymouth Fury Custom Brake kit Front with ⦠"[6], King's novel, the source material for Carpenter's film, made it clear that the car was possessed by the evil spirit of its previous owner, Roland D. LeBay, whereas the film version of the story shows that the evil spirit of the car manifested itself on the day it was built. In order to bypass the problem of obtaining the rare trim, the cars featured the more common Belvedere "Dartline" trim. The 1956-1958 Plymouth Fury was only available as a two-door coupe, while the book falsely described it as a four-door sedan, which would have actually made it a Savoy or Belvedere model. Dennis and Leigh conclude the only way to save Arnie is to destroy Christine. With Keith Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky. "[6] He had previously directed The Thing, which had done poorly at the box office and led to critical backlash. [4] According to Paul, she had not read any of King's books or seen Carpenter's films, and read the novel in preparation.[4]. Kevin Bacon auditioned for the role, but opted out when offered a part in Footloose (1984). However, Christine has been lying in wait under a pile of debris in the garage the entire time, and it strikes when Leigh takes up her position at the door controls. [8], Of the twenty-three cars used in the film, the best known surviving vehicle was rescued from a junkyard and restored by collector Bill Gibson of Pensacola, Florida. Für die Dreharbeiten wurde allerdings aus Beschaffungsgründen überwiegend das ähnliche Schwestermodell Belvedere verwendet. [4] Kobritz purchased the rights to Christine after finding himself attracted to the novel's "celebration of America's obsession with the motorcar. Please take a moment and Register today. King also mentions a gear shift lever for the automatic transmission, but in real life it instead had push-button transmission controls. [8] Filming began in April 1983, merely days after the King novel had been published.