Neon and Napalm: cult movies

Tuesday, 8 March 2022

Someone Paid $1.9 Million for Tom Cruises Porsche 928 From Risky Business

Sliding into 80's pop culture (and movie history) in nothing more than a pair of RayBansand underwear to the tune of Bob Segers 'Old Time Rock and Roll', Tom Cruise took us all on a wild weekend with the 1983 movie Risky Business. While both his parents were away Joel (Tom Cruise) upsets a pimp, rents his house out as a brothel and almost totals his dads Porsche. A key scene in the movie is Joel (Tom Cruise) taking his dads car out for a joyride to show off the cars capabilities and to impress girls - if you ever wondered where the tagline "Porsche, there is no substitute" came from, it was this movie. Joel's joyride comes to a watery halt when the car plummets through a wooden pier into lake Michigan after the cars handbrake is accidentally released with Joel trying to save the car in a blind panic as it rolls towards the pier.

The car in question was a 1979 Porsche 928, which was originally green but repainted gold for the movie (The primary driver car was a pre-1981 model, it didn't come with factory Platinum Metallic skin, and thus had to be repainted to match the other cars also used in the movie), 5 Porsche 928's appeared in the movie with a stripped out version 'stunt car' used for the pier lake dunking scene when it crashes through the pier into the lake. The car became a cultural icon from the movie, to such an extent that a fan by the name of Lewis Johnsen made a short film about his quest to locate the car in the 1990's titled The Quest For RB928.Since there were different variations of the car, he was keen to track down the primary car which had been supplied by Lee Klinger Porsche in Chicago which was the dealership that also appeared in the film.

The actual Porsche that Tom Cruise learned to drive with a manual gearbox was fully restored and recently went on sale at the famous Barrett Jackson auction house in Houston, Texas in Sept 2021 for $1.98 Million, setting a world record for that particular make and model. The car has a distinctive look, with large 'phone dial' alloys and bulbous back end, and then there's those distinctive pop up headlights.

There's some great detail about all the 928's used in the film over at the 928 Owners Club website here which also details more history about the actual car, how the long shooting days took its toll on the engine and the various owners that drove it.

Risky Business was one of Tom Cruises earlier films and was made for a budget of around $6.2 Million, it went on to box office success taking an impressive $63.5 Million domestically, the film also holds a distinctive "Certified Fresh" 92% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Not only that, its rumoured that the film also boosted the sales of RayBan Wayfarer sunglasses by 2000 %.

Friday, 8 October 2021

Escape From New York: Art of the Poster

John Carpenters futuristic nightmare Sci-Fi thriller, Escape From New York turned 40 years old this year, released in the summer of 1981 and made for a mere $6 Million it went on to quadruple its production budget in box office profits that year.

Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell became the perfect anti-hero for the early 80's with his imposing eye patch, shiny back vest top, shoot first ask questions later manner and raspy voice.

Celebrating 40 years of one of the best sci-fi movies ever made I picked out a few of the best posters and art honouring the film.

What's really interesting in some of the posters is the interpretation of Plissken's weapons which vary, I guess as a form of artistic license and whatever makes him look cooler from a marketing perspective, (the Italian one sheet by Renato Casaro is a prime example). In the film Kurt Russell was armed with an Ingram MAC 10 fitted with a rifle scope, his sidearm was a Smith & Wesson Model 67.