Movie Cars: From Daily Drivers to Icons.

We all know of at least one film that centers its story around a car. From iconic movies like James Bond, Herbie the Love Bug, and Christine, cars have played an important role both in and out of cinema. The presence of cars as part of the story line has made these automobiles nearly as much of a star as the people who star alongside them. These cars have gained a reputation, and that reputation has made them anything from best-selling cars to collectors’ items. Some of the most iconic movie cars are ones that I’m sure that you’d be able to recognize in a line up.

1963 Pontiac Tempest

1964 Buick Skylark

One of the most famous films that centers around automobiles is the film “My Cousin Vinny”. This film won several awards for its human cast, but the cars featured in the film were equally iconic. The film features a murder trial that envelopes two young college students due to circumstantial evidence. The evidence that ends up getting the two students acquitted involved the car that they were driving. The car that the film focuses on is a 1964 Buick Skylark convertible which was said to be the getaway car from a robbery. The defense uncovers evidence that the Buick could not have been the one that peeled away from the store in a panic, proving the innocence of the defense. It was instead discovered that the actual getaway car was a 1963 Pontiac Tempest that had a similar body style to the car driven by the defendants. The Buick featured in the film was not a well-known, and was a rather obscure car that was not a big seller even when it was new. The Skylark, as well as the Cadillac also featured in the film, ultimately gained popularity because of their role in the film, and their resulting selling value rose from. This however, is an obscure example of how a car featured in a film can gain popularity.     

The 1968 and 2019 Mustang Bullitts

One of the most iconic film cars is the Mustang featured in the Steve McQueen film “Bullitt”. This film focuses around the workings of a police officer in San Francisco and his dark green 1968 Mustang. The film is known for having one of the most iconic and famous car chase scenes in cinematic history, featuring the green Mustang driven by “Bullitt”. The Mustang had always been a relatively well selling sports car line for the Ford Motor Company. Since its introduction in 1964, the Ford Mustang gained incredibly popularity as an affordable sports car, and aided in the ushering in of the “Muscle Car” era in the American Auto Industry. The popularity of the brand skyrocketed as it began to be featured in more and more American films. One of the most notable films that featured a Mustang in its cast is the film Bullitt. The film made the car such an icon, that the Ford Motor Company has actually reintroduced a special “Bullitt” package of the 2019 Mustang.  The movie has also added to the 1968 Mustang GT resale value so much that the car featured in the film was tracked down by Ford and restored to original spec for the reveal of the 2019 tribute. The price for the average 1968 Mustang Fastback GT has also gone up because of its association with the movie. The car originally cost $2689, and now costs as much as $130,000.  Another car that gained popularity due to its role in film is the 1958 Plymouth coupe.

The package features the iconic dark green paint color, a large performance motor so the car can pull off the iconic burn outs and a custom interior to make the entire package a special tribute to the film.

When asked to name a car that was popular in the 1950’s, many will name the Chevrolet Bel Air, the Cadillac Coupe Deville, or the Chrysler 300. These cars are iconic for their large and intimidating stance, large and high horsepower engines, chrome trim, and tail fins sprouting off of the trunks of the cars. These cars are icons due to their heavy presence in American media as well as their high sales and production numbers over the course of the 1950’s. However, there is one lesser known car from this era that gained an incredible amount of popularity when it made its literary and film debut in the 1980’s. That car would be the 1957 and 1958 Plymouth Fury. Plymouth had been a relatively low volume producer of cars under the overwhelming wing of the Chrysler Corporation. The brand was seen as a cheap and mundane alternative to spending the money on a large and luxurious Chrysler automobile. Buying a Plymouth was essentially the equivalent of buying an import in today’s car market. They were cheap, cookie-cutter, and were built off of the reliable Chrysler powertrain that had made the company such a competitor in the 1950’s. However, this all changed when the 1957 model year debuted at auto shows across the nation. The mundane and dreary Plymouth had gotten a sleek and stylish make over, and was marketed under the slogan “It’s1960 Today”.

Plymouth Lineup in 1957

The new design featured a very wide stance and an expansive front profile dotted with chrome and gold accessories. The flank of the car was now sleekly sculpted in an upward swoop from the front of the car upwards towards the trunk to form two massive stabilizer fins that gave Cadillac a run for its money. The new model year also featured chrome trim, two-tone paint, power steering, power brakes, AM/FM radio, air conditioning and an updated power train featuring Chrysler’s futuristic push-button gear selection system. The drastic change from the designs of the past made the next two years some of the highest gross selling years for the Plymouth brand. Dealerships struggled to keep cars in stock, and factories likewise struggle to produce the cars fast enough to meet demands. However, despite this boom in popularity, the car never became as popular as its counterparts and soon Plymouth would again sink back to mediocrity until its next bold move in the 1960’s.

However, this was not the end of the redesigned Plymouth’s story. The car’s glamorous looks and big personality attracted the attention of a young writer who would later go on to become one of the most notable novelists in history. Stephen King noticed the car as a young boy, and chose to make the sparsely known automobile the star of his novel “Christine”. The novel revolves around the premise that the Plymouth is a living being that envelopes its owners into an obsession, and kills anybody who tries to get in its way or harm its owner. The novel quickly became a best seller and was adapted into film in 1983 under well respected Director John Carpenter. The red and white coupe featured in the film soon became a cult icon, and Plymouths were soon being plucked from junkyards and car lots to be transformed into “Christine”.

The Plymouth featured in the film "Christine"

This surge in demand for the cars of course caused a corresponding surge in the price of them, and ultimately made the 1957 and 1958 Plymouth a collector’s item. The original price for a 1958 Plymouth Coupe with the highest available trim package was $3032, and has since increased to an average of $33,000 with a high of $70,000. This jump in value has carried to today all the way from 1983 when the movie premiered. The cult popularity of the car has also endured since the release of the movie, and has kept the inflated values of the car’s resale value high. The impact that cinema has had on the popularity of a car is most accurately portrayed by the revival of the 1957 and 1958 Plymouth model years, as well as the other cars mentioned above. This trend begs the question, what will be the next car to become an icon due to the influence of cinema?