This article is about the film. For the general idea of a used car, see
Used car.
Used Cars is a 1980 comedy satire film. It stars Kurt Russell, Jack Warden (in a dual role), Deborah Harmon, and Gerrit Graham.
Kurt Russell portrays a devious car salesman working for affable but monumentally unsuccessful used car dealer Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden). Luke's principal rival, located directly across the street, is his more prosperous younger brother, Roy L. Fuchs (also played by Warden), who is scheming to take over Luke's lot.
The supporting cast includes Frank McRae, David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Al Lewis, Dub Taylor, Dick Miller, and Sarah Wills.
The movie was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and his long-time writing partner Bob Gale with Steven Spielberg and John Milius as executive producers. The original music score was composed by Patrick Williams.
Filmed primarily in Mesa, Arizona, the movie was released on July 11, 1980. Although not a box-office success at the time, it has since developed cult film status[citation needed] due to its dark, cynical humor and the Zemeckis style. It is also marketed with the tagline "Like new, great looking and fully loaded with laughs."
The film is rated R for violence, brief nudity, adult language and adult situations and humor.
Synopsis
When elderly Luke Fuchs (Jack Warden), owner of the struggling New Deal Used Car lot dies of a heart attack, hot-shot salesman (and aspiring senator) Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell), decides to save the property from falling into the hands of Luke's ruthless younger brother and used-car rival Roy L. Fuchs (also Warden), whose own used car lot is under threat of demolition to facilitate the construction of a proposed new freeway exit. An all-out war breaks out between the competing car lots with Russo resorting to extremely outrageous customer-getting schemes in order to save Luke's lot, complicated even more with the arrival of Luke's daughter Barbara Jane Fuchs.
Plot
Rudy Russo (Kurt Russell) is the unscrupulous sales manager of New Deal Used Cars, owned by the kindly Luke Fuchs, whose brother Roy L. Fuchs (Jack Warden) is trying to put him out of business. Roy has been unsuccessful in buying out his brother, and has resorted to setting consumer agencies on him to try and force him out. Unknown to everyone but Roy, a new freeway exit ramp is coming through the area and will take Roy's lot through eminent domain.
Rudy also wishes to get elected to the Arizona state Senate. Having saved about $40,000 to buy the nomination, Luke agrees to loan him the remaining $10,000 he needs to raise. Luke also asks Rudy to promise him that he'll do what he can to keep Roy's hands off his lot.
Luke also suffers from heart arrythmia, which is treated orally by nitroglycerin tablets. With time running short to drive his brother out of business, Roy recruits one of his mechanics, Mickey, to pose as a potential customer and destroy one of Luke's prize cars. Mickey, also a former demolition derby driver, takes a 1957 Chevy Bel Air off the lot and through his reckless driving (with Luke fearfully riding shotgun), manages to totally wreck the car, parking the wreck in front of the lot.
Luke makes his way back to his office, where Rudy, seeing that Luke has lost his pills (they flew out the window when Mickey intentionally jerks the wheel), frantically tries to revive Luke, but without success. Rudy realizes that if he calls the authorities, Roy will inherit the lot as Luke is widowed and his daughter has been gone for years to points unknown, leaving Luke with no other immediate family. Remembering his promise, he decides to bury Luke in his old green and white Edsel on the lot and tells Roy (who saw Luke collapse in the office) that Luke is on a fishing charter in Miami Beach.
Rudy manages to keep the lot going through a number of gimmicks, including a disco promotion, complete with strippers. Meanwhile, Luke's daughter Barbara returns home (she had called Luke on the night he died) looking for her father. Though the lot is rightfully hers, Rudy is reluctant to tell her about her father, knowing that Barbara's lack of business acumen could lose the lot.
After Roy smears Rudy and the lot using a television camera crew capturing the stripper promotion, Rudy hires two electronics whizkids, Freddie and Eddie (David L. Lander and Michael McKean, respectively) to jam President Jimmy Carter's televised address, and replace it with a commercial. In the commercial, Jeff, the other New Deal Used Car salesman, wearing a disguise, shoots two of Roy's higher-end cars with a rifle, and blows up a prized Mercedes with dynamite.
Roy, watching the presidential address and seeing his cars destroyed, drives down to the New Deal dealership, where he confronts Jeff. An all-out brawl erupts between the two, with Roy smashing a framed photo to use glass from it to cut Jeff. As he stares at the picture, he realizes that the grease pit on the lot is no longer there. He rushes to the pit's location and uncovers some dirt, finding the top of the Edsel's roof.
Luke's dog Toby, which has witnessed Roy's discovery, races to the garage and wakes the napping mechanic Jim (Frank McRae) by urinating on him. An irate Jim chases Toby, who stops at the car. A shocked Jim immediately calls Rudy (who has finished making love to Barbara) informing him of the situation. Rudy pulls his clothes on and rushes to the lot, telling her he'll be back soon.
Barbara chooses to wait up for Rudy, and when dawn approaches, she becomes concerned. She sees that Rudy's answering machine has recorded the call from Jim. Though hesitant at first, Barbara rewinds the tape and plays it back. She learns the true nature of Jim's message and now knows that her father is dead.
Later, Roy and his attorney Sam Slaton appear with sheriff's deputies who are armed with a search warrant. Rudy tells everyone that Luke returned from Florida hours earlier and had run out to get breakfast before returning. In reality, the exhumed Edsel with Luke's body inside is parked behind the garage, with Jim dousing the car and Luke's body with gasoline before he drops the back of the running car from a tow truck, with the car accelerating and in the drive position.
The spectators who have gathered for proof of Luke still living are satisfied when they see him in the Edsel. However, everyone notices that he's not only speeding, but that he's headed for a power transformer across the street from the lot. The car hits the transformer and explodes in a raging fireball, destroying all evidence of the cover-up.
Roy, knowing now for sure that his brother's dead, orders Rudy off the lot, which he presumes to have inherited. Rudy tells Roy the truth about Luke's daughter, and that she is the rightful heir. Barbara shows up and begs Rudy to tell her the truth about her father. Rudy at first makes an attempt, but was forced to form another lie when he sees Slaton standing nearby. Disgusted and unable to tolerate any more lies, Barbara angrily fires Rudy, Jeff and Jim.
Barbara tries to make a go of it on her own, even going so far as to buy some television airtime. When Roy learns that the freeway ramp is going to be announced the next day, he pays off someone at the TV station to doctor the tape, making her stumbled phrase "style of cars" to sound like "mile of cars", creating a case of false advertising against the lot.
The day the commercial airs at their favorite bar, Rudy wins a $40,000 football bet he placed to try and raise more campaign money, but only after the superstitious Jeff (who bet the other team) throws the game through a series of incidents like spilling salt, walking under a ladder, and breaking a mirror.
The following day, Rudy learns that the lot has been closed by court order, while in a car with the party chairman as he's preparing to give them the money to buy his nomination. When he hears that the judge is not going to be lenient with Barbara, he takes the money and bolts from the vehicle while in traffic, running to the courthouse.
Rudy arrives as Barbara, who looks at Rudy in discomfort when he first arrived in court, takes the stand. As she's questioned by Slaton, Rudy mouths to her to answer Slaton's questions in the affirmative, one being "Do you or do you not have a mile of cars on your lot?" When she reluctantly answers yes, Roy's attorney says that he can produce witnesses to testify that Barbara is lying. Rudy saves Barbara by shouting 'Why don't you see for yourself, judge?' This outburst suits Roy's attorney, and the judge allows Barbara to go, with the promise that he will visit the car lot the next day.
Rudy and Barbara take Rudy's $60,000 and head to Manuel, Rudy's inventory supplier of used cars. With the money, they buy 250 used cars at $200 apiece. With the help of 250 driver's ed students, they drive all the cars back into town. While on the highway, realizing that they're going to be a half hour late for court, Rudy tells all the students to wind it up to 75 miles an hour. Shortly after, a police cruiser pulls behind a girl towing another car. When she sees the police, she stomps on the brake, causing the police cruiser to crash and flip over onto the towed vehicle. Panicking, she drives up to join the rest of the group.
Jeff, who's running as a scout for the speeding convoy, sees a roadblock and radios Rudy, who's leading the pack with Barbara in the back of Jim's truck. While Jeff goes on ahead, Rudy and the rest of the cars take a shortcut through the desert. Mickey (Roy's mechanic) hears this on his police scanner, and tells Roy, who gathers both Mickey and Carmine (one of Roy's top salesmen) and heads out to stop them. When they get to the police roadblock, and the cars haven't arrived yet, Mickey says "That the only way they'll make it is to drive as the crow flies". Realizing they must've gone through the desert, they back up and head after them. After a brief fight scene taking place in the back of Jim and Roy's trucks, Rudy and Jim manage to ward off the trio and make it to the dealership, just before the judge, along with Slaton and the rest of the court officials, get there.
Meanwhile, Jeff drives past a water truck, which causes the water based paint on the car to wash off, revealing the fire engine red paint job underneath. Jeff (who, as mentioned before, is very superstitious and believes red cars are extreme bad luck), pulls over on the side of the road and stops.
Back at the lot, Slaton, not licked yet, orders every car measured. When the last one is measured, it's determined to be 18 feet short of a mile. Rudy radios Jeff, who tells him about the red car, shortly before a train whistle sounds, after which it it revealed that Jeff is on the wrong side of the tracks, and it's a long freight, meaning that he won't be able to make it to the dealership. Rudy convinces Jeff that underneath the red paint, that there is gray primer, making it not a red car.
Jeff finally gets back into the car, and tries to beat the train across the tracks. When that fails, he lowers the back of a tow truck, waiting to cross, and jumps the train, making it into town and speeding right back into the lot.
After Jeff's car is measured, it's determined that they're two inches short. Just arriving and hearing the verdict, a triumphant Roy slams his hand down on the trunk, causing the rear license plate door concealing the gas tank to drop down. The judge takes the tape measure to the end of the door, making it an even mile of cars. Case dismissed.
Roy, angry about the judges decision, argues with him, only to be arrested for contempt of court. Slaton tells Rudy that that was a great job he pulled, and if he ever needed a friend, he had one downtown. He also tells him and Barbara that when the new freeway ramp goes in, they could have the biggest dealership in the Southwest. After Slaton leaves, Barbara questions him about it, wondering if he knew the whole time (He found out in the party chairman's car, but claims this is the first he's heard about it), when a lady comes and asks Barbara if a car with yellow paint underneath used to be a taxi. Barbara, after looking at Rudy, tells her that it's yellow primer. Rudy then begins talking to the lady, trying to sell her the car, right as the credits begin to play.
Featured cast
Production notes
- The movie was filmed at the working Darner Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Mesa, Arizona. The actual dealership served as the setting for "Roy L. Fuchs Pre-owned Automobiles", while a vacant lot across the street served as the setting for "New Deal Used Cars". The vacant lot now has an apartment complex while the Chrysler Bankruptcy caused the Darner dealership to lose its Chrysler affiliation.[2]
- Kurt Russell produced some commercials for Darner's inviting customers to come in and shop while the movie was still being filmed.
- Jack Warden was already signed on to play Roy Fuchs. When he found out that no one had been cast to play Luke Fuchs, he told producers he wanted to play both roles.
References
External links
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Coordinates: 33°24′54″N 111°50′58.2″W / 33.415°N 111.8495°W / 33.415; -111.8495
