By now Carpenter had made of the best horror films of the 1970's, and what would be later regarded as one of the best of the 1980's. There was also a trend of this point of having major studios hiring the low budget guys and having them work with the studio money. Pair him up with Stephan King, and surely the results would be perfect, right?
1957 and Chrysler is unrolling its newest model-the Fury. As one model is rolling down the assembly line, a worker nearly losses his hand when the hood suddenly slams down. Another worker sits in the front with a big cigar, dumping ash over the front seat. His dead body is later pulled out, a look of horror on his face...
Jump ahead to 1978. Arnold Cunningham (Keith Gordon) is pretty much the nerdist nerd short of Eddie Deezen. Thick glasses, bad skin, and a total lack of anything deemed manly. All of this makes him the perfect target for local bully Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander), but thankfully Arnold is best friends with football star and big man on campus Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell) who saves his bacon.
This last time is especially bad, as Buddy comes to class armed and corners Arnold in shop class. Thankfully a teacher actually does what he's supposed to do and expels Buddy. Later, as Dennis drives Arnold home, Arnold sees something.
A 1958 Plymouth Fury. It's a wreck, rusted out in spots, and generally looks like it hasn't moved a foot since 1959. The owner of said car, George LeBay (Roberts Blossom), is almost as dilapidated as the car, but he's willing to sell for a few hundred bucks. It isn't his car though, not really. It belonged to his brother Roland. Yup, no shitter ever got between him and his car, rode it through hell and back right before running a hose inside and punching his own ticket.
Of course Arnold doesn't know that at this point. No, his biggest concern is hanging onto it as his parents have it clear he isn't to bring the smoking wreck within two blocks of their white picketed home. Arnold doesn't care though and parks it at a local garage/junk yard run by Darnell (Robert Prosky), who treats the teen as being slightly worse than the car.
Speaking of the car, Arnold has a talent for repairs but the rate at which he fixes Christine (the car's name as told by LeBay) is almost supernatural. Soon the cherry red chariot is tooling around the main drag and Arnold is changing too. His skin clears up and he has confidence to court cheerleader Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul). She even agrees to go out with him, something that distracts Dennis so much he gets tackled and put out of commission for a few months , thus he misses the most dramatic change.
Taking Leigh to the local drive in, Arnold leaves her in the front seat where she nearly chokes to death on her popcorn while the radio blares music and the doors refuse to open. After that Leigh delivers the message either the car goes or she does. Arnold doesn't care and drives off. Another thing happens involving Christine.
Remember Buddy? Yeah, he remembers Arnold too. He's been fuming for the past few months and when he finds out where Christine is kept he pays the car a visit and smashes it up with his friends. Arnold vows to fix it and he does, at a rate that shouldn't be possible. Also, Christine takes to driving herself around town and running down Buddy and all his friends.
This brings in Detective Junkins (Harry Dean Stanton) who figures Arnold has something to do with all the hit and runs, but can he figure out the truth in time?
There are plenty of differences between the book and the film, but Carpenter did gut most of Christine's backstory and the influence of Roland LeBay, but on its own I think did a fair job. One of the major changes is the cutting down on the relationship between Arnold and Dennis. The book goes into more detail, but while the performances are fine the finer details are removed. Arnold goes through a great transformation from geek to greaser but the details are removed.
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