Christine (film)

Christine
Directed by	John Carpenter
Produced by	Richard Kobritz Larry J. Franco
Written by	Novel: Stephen King Screenplay: Bill Phillips
Starring	Keith Gordon John Stockwell Alexandra Paul
Music by	John Carpenter Alan Howarth
Cinematography	Donald M. Morgan
Editing by	Marion Rothman
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	1983-12-09
Running time	110 min.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Christine (also known as John Carpenter's Christine) is a 1983 horror film about a supernaturally malevolent automobile and its effects on the teenager who owns it, adapted from a novel written by Stephen King. The film was directed by John Carpenter.

Plot

The last "survivor" of the many red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury stunt cars used in Christine now rests in a museum in Hollywood, California.

The movie stars Keith Gordon as Arnie Cunningham, a typical high school nerd with only a few friends. His life changes when he discovers Christine, a red 1958 Plymouth Fury in serious need of repair. Arnie begins to restore Christine to her original beauty, but as he spends more and more of his time repairing her, those in his life notice that he is changing as well. Formerly shy, Arnie develops a cocky arrogance. Arnie's girlfriend Leigh Cabot, played by Alexandra Paul, and his best friend Dennis Guilder, played by John Stockwell, discover that the car has a deadly past. The previous owner, Roland LeBay, became consumed with Christine and paid for it with his life. Leigh and Dennis try to save Arnie from a similar fate. They realize that the only way to save Arnie is by destroying Christine. Christine, however, isn't ready to give up Arnie without a fight. In the book, it is unclear whether Christine is evil or Roland LeBay is possessing her. In the movie, all mystery is taken away when Christine murders one man and injures another while on the assembly line. The movie also removes the possession plotline. Christine is not possessed but simply an evil car. Arnie pays the ultimate price after being killed in a freak accident when Christine crashes into Darnell's office in an attempt to kill Leigh. After Dennis and Leigh destroy Christine, the car is compacted into a cube and tossed into a junkyard. As the camera zooms in on the crushed cube that was formerly Christine, a small piece of the fender moves slightly, leading the viewer to wonder if Christine was or can ever be truly destroyed.

Cast

Differences between book and film

There are a number of changes made from the original Stephen King book, including the following:

• The book is set in Libertyville, Pennsylvania. The film takes place in Rockbridge, California.
• The book has Arnie purchasing Christine from Roland D. LeBay himself, who dies a few weeks later. The film has Arnie purchasing it from Roland's brother, George LeBay. George tells Arnie and Dennis that his "asshole brother" has recently died, and he is selling the car for him (although the character in the film is named George, he is wearing a rotten back brace, just like Roland in the book).
• The book details that the corpse of Roland LeBay appears in front of Arnie several times, and that LeBay's spirit has possessed Arnie, causing his personality to change. It is revealed later in the book that it is the spirit of LeBay that takes control of the car to commit the gruesome murders. The film dispenses with LeBay completely and concentrates on the car itself being evil (director John Carpenter points out in the DVD commentary that this change streamlined the plot, and he felt that the corpse appearing was too similar to scenes in An American Werewolf in London, a film that had recently been released in theaters).
• Many scenes are out of order, such as the fight with Buddy Repperton that happens near the middle of the book but appears at the beginning of the film.
• In the book, when Christine nearly kills Leigh inside Darnell's Garage, the corpse of Arnie's dad, Michael Cunningham, killed by carbon monoxide poisoning, lands in front of her, not Arnie. Later, when Dennis wakes up in the hospital, he finds out that Arnie and his mother were driving home when Roland LeBay's ghost appeared and fought with them, causing them to crash into a truck. In the film, Arnie is killed after flying through Christine's windshield when the car crashed into Darnell's office in an attempt to kill Leigh. A thick shard of glass pierced his stomach causing internal bleeding.
• In the book Christine is apparently restored four years after being "killed" inside Darnell's Do-It-Yourself Garage, as Sandy Galton in California (one of the bullies responsible for vandalizing her) was murdered by a car that smashed through the theater where he worked. Reading the headline, Dennis suspects the nightmare is not over. He fears Christine (or LeBay) will go for Roland's living siblings, Leigh, then Dennis. This was left out of the film, but in the movie after Christine is run through the car crusher, the block of metal is shown to be twitching, as if it is still alive.
• In the book, Dennis and Leigh attack Christine using a tank truck named Petunia. In the movie, they use a bulldozer. According to Stephen King himself, the idea of the final showdown of the book was something like "a duel between two ladies on wheels", in which Christine (the evil lady) was faced and defeated by a large tank truck also baptized after a female name - Petunia (the good lady).
• In the book, Christine's license plate is a 1978 Pennsylvania plate with HY-6241-J as the number. In the movie, the license plate is a black-on-yellow 1956 California plate with CQB-241 as the number and a (presumably) 1978 sticker on the rear in most shots.

Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• The book that Dennis pulls off the shelf in the library before asking Leigh out is Christine by Stephen King.
• Arnie's nemesis, Detective Rudolph Junkins, also drives a Plymouth Fury. Junkins's blue car, which can be seen when he meets Arnie in the high school parking lot, is a 1977/1978 Plymouth Fury - a popular police car of the late 1970s.
• As a joke on director John Carpenter, Alexandra Paul's twin sister Caroline Paul stood in for her during some scenes, most notably the ride on the bulldozer.
• To simulate the car regenerating itself, hydraulic pumps were installed on the inside of some of the film's numerous Plymouth Fury "stunt doubles". These pumps were attached to the cars' bodywork, and when they compressed, they would "suck" the paneling inwards. Footage of the inward crumpling body was then reversed, and hence gave the appearance of the car spontaneously retaking form.
• It was speculated that Christine was driven at a distance by using some type of remote controlling system, but the truth is completely different: according to director John Carpenter, when Christine was on her "evil personality" its windows were painted solid black - save for the whole left half of the windshield, which was covered only with dark purple tint so that the stunt driver could see outside without being focused by anyone out of the car. Indeed, the stunt driver had only half of his frontal view, no rear or side views, and night driving was even more difficult. Additionally, in order to film the "Arnie's death" scene at the end of the movie, the car was hooked up to cables and pulled strongly towards the wall. A stunt double dressed as Arnie went through the dark windshield - a fake glass screen made with sugar and black paint - and only after this the real Arnie (Gordon) would be focused lying on the ground with the fake glass shard "piercing" through his body.
• Stephen King's popularity was such at the time that the film went into production before the book was even published.
• One of the stunt Furys used in the film - the one that smashes and kills Moochie Welch inside the narrow space in the forklift docking area - had a rubber front end. The car was destined for the salvage yard, and has been restored using parts from the other "stunt" vehicles. This vehicle now belongs to private hands - more specifically, since 1984 it is the property of Spanish-American antique cars collector Martin Sanchez.^[1]
• The movie playing at the drive-in scene is Thank God It's Friday (1978).
• Kevin Bacon was offered the lead role but ended up choosing Footloose (1984) instead.
• Various scenes were shot in Valencia, California. The scene where the gas station explodes was located on a vacant lot on the corner of McBean Parkway and Valencia Blvd. A full-size gas station set with fake gas pumps and garage bays was constructed and then blown up.
• The "Mobico" oil company is completely fictional, the name is reminiscent of a combination of Mobil and either Amoco, Sunoco, Texaco or Conoco, and the colors and design of the station are highly reminiscent of a Sinclair station.
• According to a commentary on the DVD, the car used in the scene in which the flame-engulfed Christine chases down Buddy Repperton stalled during an attempt to film the vehicle first backing out of the burning gas station. Fire crews (presumably on-hand for the shooting considering the nature of the scene) had to be called in to put out the burning car and get the stunt driver (who was wearing a full fireproof suit for protection) out.
• In the Futurama episode "Anthology of Interest II", the short story "Wizzin'" features Fry attempted to scare a crow by reading Christine. Also, in the episode "The Honking", Bender is run over by Project Satan, a cursed automobile - strongly resembling a red and white 1958 Plymouth Fury just like Christine - which infects him with the curse of "were-car", and at midnight Bender turns into the evil car with a penchant for killing people.
• Christine is seen as the polar opposite to Herbie The Love Bug, often prompting online discussions between fans of the two cars as to who would win in a race... or a fight.
• In the Quantum Leap episode "Boogeyman", Sam Beckett's "kiss with destiny" inspires "Stevie" (King) with ideas for Carrie and shows Stevie driving off in an aquamarine 1958 Plymouth Fury, after petting his St. Bernard, "Cujo."
• In the Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide episode "Woodshop", Cookie believes a green mechanical saw named Christine is trying to kill him. This is a spoof on the car Christine.
• Buddy's blue Camaro which Christine crashes onto and drags backwards at the gas station scene is actually a stunt - full-attention viewers can run the film in slow motion and notice the car has no engine or inside dashboards. The real Camaro was parked offscreen and the stunt was replacing it to the crash moment.
• At the end of the movie, the white car in which Christine crashes on then flings aside has small rollers installed under it - when this car is thrown aside by Christine, the commented rollers can be clearly seen under it, actually being a continuity error.
• In the Disney/Pixar movie Cars, Christine (or a car very much like her) makes a small cameo appearance, in the "Our Town" segment when we see old cars entering and leaving the town, she is one of the cars leaving.
• Christine makes a very brief cameo in the It miniseries when Ben leaves school for the first time. There is also an appearance in the book after Henry attacks Mike in the library.
• Christine can be seen briefly in the South Park in the episode of "Imaginationland Episode II", after the wall that separates Good Imgainationland and Bad Imaginationland is destroyed and fictional characters from Bad Imaginationland enter.
• The song "Christine" by the metal band Malice is based on the film/novel.

References

External links

• Christine at the Internet Movie Database