DAYS OF THUNDER (1990)

MORGAN'S GRADE

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From the engine roar and fever bitch of professional stock car racing, Days of Thunder explodes with the most spectacular racing action ever captured on film. Tom Cruise plays race driver Cole Trickle, whose talent and ambition are surpassed only by his burning need to win. Discovered by businessman Tim Daland, Cole is teamed with legendary crew chief and car-builder Harry Hogge to race for the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500. A fiery crash nearly ends Cole's career and he must turn to a beautiful doctor to regain his nerve and the true courage needed to race, to win and to live.

Tom Cruise (Cole Trickle), Robert Duvall (Harry Hogge), Nicole Kidman (Dr. Claire Lewicki), Randy Quaid (Tim Daland), Cary Elwes (Russ Wheeler), Michael Rooker (Rowdy Burns), Fred Dalton Thompson (Big John), John C. Reilly (Buck Bretherton), J.C. Quinn (Waddell), Don Simpson (Aldo Bennedetti), Caroline Williams (Jennis Burns), Donna Wilson (Darlene), Chris Ellis (Harlem Hoogerhyde), Peter Appel (Cole's Crew), Stephen Michael Ayers (Cole's Crew), Mike Slattery (Cole's Crew), John Griesemer (Len Dortort), Barbara Garrick (Lauren Daland), Gerald R. Molen (Dr. Wilhaire), Tania Coleridge (Russ Wheeler's Girlfriend), Richard Petty (Himself).

YOU CAN'T STOP THE THUNDER!

FACTS

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

RELEASE DATE: June 27th, 1990 (USA)

DIRECTOR: Tony Scott (Top Gun).

BOX OFFICE OPENING: $15.4 million (USA)

WRITERS: Robert Towne and Tom Cruise.

BOX OFFICE RESULT: $82.6 million (USA)

PRODUCERS: Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson.

WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $165.9 million

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Gerald R. Molen.

BUDGET: $60 million (USA)

ORIGINAL MUSIC: Hans Zimmer.

- Many real-life NASCAR drivers appear in the film.

DISTRIBUTOR: Paramount Pictures.

- NASCAR driver Greg Sacks did most of Tom Cruise's stunt driving. Cruise wanted to do his own stunt driving, but wasn't allowed to for insurance reasons. The Chevrolets were prepared by Rick Hendrick's racing team, which later used some of the movie cars in real races. 35 cars were wrecked during filming.

QUOTES

Cole: Yeah, well the sonofabitch just slammed into me! Hogge: No, no, he didn't slam into you, he didn't bump you, he didn't nudge you...he rubbed you. And rubbin', son, is racin'.

(Cole is being searched by a female trooper who notices he has an erection.) Trooper: Looks like we found something. Male Trooper: What is it? Trooper: A concealed weapon.

- Cruise recieved a speeding ticket for doing 85 in a 55 mph zone while working on this movie.

- The scene where Tim appoaches Harry on a tractor was filmed on NASCAR legend Johnson, Junior's farm.

Dr. Claire Lewicki: You and Rowdy have the same illness, it's called denial and it's probably going to kill you both.

- The scene where Cole and Rowdy race rental cars on the beach shows birds scattering out of the way. The birds were lured onto the beach by birdseed, and in the first taken most of them were run over.

Tim Deland: And Harry, I know you're great, you know you're great, but if the guy in the car doesn't trust you, we're never gonna win a damn race.

- All cars used in the movie for the races had to pass inspection and qualify. Bobby Hamilton qualified one of the movie's cars in the top ten; they removed the cameras and he was allowed to entire the race.

Dr. Claire Lewicki: Tell me what you love so much about racing. Cole: Speed. To be able to control it. To know what I can control something that's out of control.

- It was during the filming of this movie that Tom Cruise, then married to Mimi Rogers, fell in love with Nicole Kidman. They were married later the same year and would later go on to appear in Far & Away and Eyes Wide Shut together.

Tim Daland: He's destroyed both my cars. He destroyed both my cars. He's fired! You're fired! You're all fired!

Cole: Claire, I'm more afraid of bein' nothing than I am of being hurt.

Dr. Claire Lewicki: Control is an illusion, you infantile ego-maniac. Nobody knows what's gonna happen next: not on a freeway, not in an airplane, not inside our own bodies and certainly not on a racetrack with 40 other infantile egomaniacs.

- Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

"Flashy, noisy race-car saga...viewer can savor crew chief Duvall's fine performance, revel in neurosugeon/ love interest Kidman's disdain for racing, sit back and soak up Cruise's charisma or count the cliches. Gives new meaning to the term Formula One." -- Leonard Maltin

Hogge: The drivers can't stand to be reminded of what can happen to 'em in a racecar. They, they don't go to hospitals, they don't go to funerals. You get a driver to a funeral before he's actually dead, you've made history, darlin'.

"Days of Thunder is an entertaining example of what we might as well call the Tom Cruise Picture, since it assembles most of the same elements that worked in Top Gun, The Color of Money and Cocktail and runs them through the formula once again." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

"Towne and Scott haven't a clue, and Scott doesn't even succeed in turning out a persuasive commerican for racing. Despite the millions wasted on visual and aural effects, a race track is race track, Daytona is Daytona, and one flaming car crash looks much like another." -- John Hartl, Film.Com