Christine (1983) on Netflix
Bullied high school senior Arnie Cunningham buys a dilapidated 1958 Plymouth Fury he names Christine and restores it at Will Darnell's garage. The work turns him arrogant and rebellious.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.8/10103,902 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes72%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1957 Detroit, a newly built red 1958 Plymouth Fury shuts its hood on a worker's hand on the assembly line, and another worker is found dead inside it. Twenty-one years later in Rockbridge, California, high school senior Arnie Cunningham is bullied by Buddy Repperton and his gang on the first day of school. His only friend, Dennis Guilder, steps in, and Buddy is expelled for carrying a switchblade. Later, Arnie and Dennis find the same Fury, now dilapidated, for sale at George LeBay's house; the car's name, he tells them, is Christine. Arnie buys it over Dennis's objections. His strict parents refuse to keep it in their driveway, so Arnie restores Christine at Will Darnell's garage, where Darnell gives him part-time work. As Arnie works on the restoration, he turns arrogant and rebellious.
In these lists: The Best Horror Movies of the 1980s
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Christine (1983)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- John Carpenter placed ads throughout Southern California searching for the car and bought twenty-four of them in various states of disrepair, which were used to build a total of seventeen copies of the film car, all two door hardtops.
- Alexandra Paul's identical twin sister wrote that the two pulled a prank during filming, sending the sister on set in Alexandra's place without telling Carpenter until after he had shot a scene; as she put it, "My highly skilled clutch-pushing actually made it into the movie."
- Total production of the 1958 Plymouth Fury was only 5,303, and the real-life Furys came in one color, Sandstone White with a Buckskin Beige interior, while the car in King's novel was ordered with a red-and-white custom paint job.
- The film's stunts were primarily completed by stunt coordinator Terry Leonard, who was behind the wheel during the high-speed chase scenes and the scene in which the car drives down a highway engulfed in flames, wearing a Nomex firefighter's suit with breathing apparatus.
- According to Carpenter, Christine was not a film he had planned on directing, and he took it as "a job" as opposed to a "personal project". He had previously directed The Thing, which had done poorly at the box office and led to critical backlash.
- While promoting Dreamcatcher in 2003, Stephen King mentioned Christine as one of two film adaptations of his work that had "bored" him, the other being The Shining.
- Kevin Bacon auditioned for a role in Christine, but he opted out of the film when he was offered the lead in Footloose, released in 1984.
- Filming began in April 1983, only days after the King novel on which the film is based had been published.
