If Some Classic Films Were Filmed Today, What Car Would The Protagonists Drive?

[Junkman]

For example, before the Clint Eastwood film, but after the cheezoid TV show, the most well-known Ford Gran Torino in cinema history was the beater ’73 driven by Jeff Bridges’ character in The Big Lebowski.
 


This film, which took quite a while to go from box-office dud to sacred document of the Lebowski Jihad, was released in 1998 and was set in late 1990 or early 1991.
The choice of a ’73 Gran Torino by the Coen Brothers makes some interesting statements for those who obsess about movie cars, and Friday is always the best day to discuss such things.

Looking at 1990/1991 from the perspective of 1998, you’ve got a nasty recession being observed via dot-com boom-tinted glasses, the first one-sided ass-kicking dished out by the US military since Vietnam from the point of view of an ascendant hyperpower, and so forth. At the same time, the latter years of the 1990s saw cars that could knock off 200,000 miles becoming commonplace, with carburetters and mechanical ignition systems dead as global Marxism-Leninism.
With all that in mind, The Dude’s car had to be something from the Malaise Era, for symbolic location along the Malaise-Gulf War-Hyperpower continuum as well as for the fact, that unemployable Los Angeles loadies could be expected to drive 18-year-old midsize saloons.

So the question here is: What would be this car’s equivalent today? If you’re just going by straight model years, a 2014 movie set in 2006 with the protagonist driving an 18-year-old midsize Ford saloon would give us a 1988 Taurus - and it’s easy to picture the 2006 Dude clanking along in a hooptified MK1 Taurus.

However, the runup in global commodities prices in the second half of the first decade of the century meant that larger cars were worth a fair amount at the scrappie,
which means that even the ugliest Taurus floated a bit above the very bottom of the car-value barrel. That’s why I think that The Dude of 2006 would drive an early Hyundai Excel.

What do you think?

And what other film character - car combinations can you think of if the films were made nowadays?

The Blues Brothers in a battered 2009 Dodge Charger?

 

[barefoot]

Postman pat would drive an S-Cargo.

[John F]

Noddy - Nissan Figaro

Toad of Toad Hall - Range Rover Evoque

[martc]

They couldn't remake the Italian Job without widening the sewers in Turin.

[vulgalour]

I reckon for a remake of the Italian Job you'd not even think about using a modern Mini.  When the film was made, the Mini was a tiny, basic car that was a little bit silly, very quirky and nippy round town if not on the motorway.  I reckon for a 2015 remake to be proper you'd want to be using Aixams and lots of editing.

 

 

Then you'd need a slightly aging coach to load them into that people wouldn't really think twice about, so you want a Setra like this.

[red5]

They couldn't remake the Italian Job without widening the sewers in Turin.

 

You mean Coventry.

[HMC]

Withnail and I is a tricky one as its an 87 film set in the late 60s ( though if you look carefully in the background there's more than the odd 80s hatch lurking) I Picture the pair smoking around in a ratty xj40 or perhaps early x300 with various battle scars.

[Junkman]

That's a though one indeed and I was thinking about this long and hard.

However, my conslusion is, that the spiritual successor to the Jag MKII would be the S-Type.

[phil_lihp]

The Italian Job would have to be done with Smart ForTwos to fit the trendy-small-car bill.

 

Duel is such a timeless film I reckon it wouldn't bear up much to a remake but I suppose the modern equivalent to a Plymouth Valiant would have to be something like a Chevrolet Cruze.  

 

 

No idea what'd replace the Peterbilt truck though.

[Junkman]

Also difficult to imagine is what the DS serial killers a'la the characters often played by Alain Delon would drive today.

I'm somehow unable to picture them in a C5.

[Junkman]

No idea what'd replace the Peterbilt truck though.

 

A Lonestar.

 

[phil_lihp]

Ye gods, is that even a real thing?  It's hideous.

 

Perfect for the role.

[vulgalour]

The Duel Peterbilt is an easy one, just use a slightly newer Peterbilt.

 

[mercrocker]

This thread is making me think horrible things. I just tried it with American Graffiti. Milner in an '84 Taurus with no front wings. Carry on Cabby? Don't even go there.

[Junkman]

I'd say Milner would still drive a Deuce Coupe and Curt would still have his 2CV.

It's all the other cars in the film I'm worried about. Like the Pharaohs' Mercury would be a barryboyed Focus, or something.

 

 

Or Steve Bolander's '58 Impala a '10 Impala.

[mercrocker]

It has, indeed, been going downhill ever since Buddy Holly died.

[John F]

Z cars - Astra diesels

On The Buses - Optares / bendy buses

Restless Natives - Lapsang Binglybong 125 Happy Warrior

Ice Cold in Alex - LR Defender Wolf (or 130) with ambulance body

Father Ted - Mk 1 Mondeo

[Junkman]

The Prisoner - Ariel Atom and Aixam Mac

[PhilA]

Bullitt? Those were fairly new cars at the time. New Mustang and new Charger?

 

That'd be a bit dull to my eyes. They're both well-handling cars, fast, look good.. but, eh.

 

--Phil

[Junkman]

I'm also having a though time with Bullitt and Kowalski.

To just replant them into newfangled Mustangs and Challengers just doesn't really cut it.

Then again, what does nowadays?

 

And what would Popeye Doyle smash to smithereens in 2014 NYC?

[PhilA]

You could always remake it "in the past" a little, in a different place.

 

A mk3 Escort being chased by a Chrysler Alpine around Dundee, maybe

 

--Phil

[2MB]

I would like to re enact the parking garage bit of 'The Driver' with a modern Merc C-class, if any movie execs are reading this

[junkyarddog]

 what would Popeye Doyle smash to smithereens in 2014 NYC?

What ever it would be,would be rendered useless after the first impact.

Multiple airbags would be deployed along with the fuel cut-off switch,

rendering our hapless hero stranded.

[mercrocker]

Chrysler 300 hopefully....

[RoadworkUK]

I think Christine should be remade with a '58 Plymouth Fury.

 

Ideally with a 20 year old Alexandra Paul in a starring role.

[cms206]

The SVM have oft discussed a remake of Smokey and the Bandit called Smokies and the Bandit; a Marina TC coupe and a Rolls Royce-powered Leyland Marathon being pursued from the Arbroath to London and back with a load of Arbroath smokies in 24 hours, with a hapless police sargent and his son pursuing in a Mk2 Escort 1300L.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Would Ronin work with a JRG W140 600sel destroying 607s and C6s? The S8 role would be taken by an RS6 although I don't think any 508 would see which way a modern M5 had gone. The one thing that shouldn't be changed is Natascha McElhone , if anything she's even fitter now.

 

In Get Carter, Carter's mk2 Cortina should now be an Insignia rather than a Mondeo, I think. The Vauxhall is a more typical company rep/rental car.

The Jag that the heavies from London use would have to be the current stereotype gangster car- a Range Rover.

Probably a tarted up P38 so they can rip the door off without blowing the budget.

When Brumby takes a flyer off the carpark , he should land on a Nissan Juke not a mk3 Zephyr. Not only a local product,but it would improve the styling*.

[MrDuke]

Mad Max 1 should be remade in rural Norfolk, with the Toecutter's gang riding Chinese CG125 copies, the cops in Mk4 'Tina pursuit cars, and Max driving a Granada coupe with a homemade droop-snoot ("it's the l-l-l-last of the V6s!")

[Albert Ross]

Uncle Buck.  Skoda Octavia ex-Taxi, which grenades itself at every opportunity by sucking it's own engine oil up....

[AndyW201]

If Brannigan was made for today, surely the young, slightly hooray-ish guy who gets his yellow mk2 Capri GT commandeered by 'The Duke' would today be driving a white BMW 4 series with M sport pack on a 3 year lease. (In which case, jumping Tower Bridge and being unceremoniously dumped in a skip would be a fitting end).

In said chase Charlie-the-handle's ratty S type would nowadays be a smoky X type diesel, possibly a tired MG ZT or E39 5 series.

Hitman Gorman could be in a black early Audi RS4 to give an equally evil soundtrack to the E type (and a borked DSG transmission for a similar amount of gearchanges...).

Larkin's bent solicitor would probably nowadays be driving a Discovery 4.

And Dickie Attenborough's police commander would be driven around in a Jag XF.