Director Report Card: Tony Scott (1990) - Part Two

5. Days of Thunder

Tony Scott's first release of 1990, “Revenge,” would do mediocre business at the box office. Luckily, the director already had another high-profile gig lined-up by the time his previous movie came out. “Days of Thunder” would see the director reteaming with Tom Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, the same superstar team that would make “Top Gun” the biggest movie of 1986. What should've been a sure shot was hampered by a fraught production. Filming began without a finished script. Scott would frequently feud with Bruckheimer and other producer Don Simpsons. (Whose excesses reportedly including a private gym and wardrobe, that he used to seduce women.) This would cause production to drag on, the movie going way over budget. “Days of Thunder” then had to rushed through post to make its summer release date. At the end of such a tumultuous shoot, everyone involved surely had to ask themselves “Was it worth it?” Thirty years after the checkered flag waved, we can answer that question for sure.

Car builder Harry Hogge is lured out of his farm-based retirement to design a race car for an up-and-coming driver: Cole Trickle, a successful open-wheel racer who is looking to break into NASCAR. Cole is talented but undisciplined and Hogge and his pit crew endeavor to make him a more well-rounded driver. Soon, Trickle forms a rivalry and eventual friendship with Rowdy Burns, another racer. He also develops a romance with neurologist Claire Lewicki. Cole navigates injuries and honor on his way to the Daytona 500. 

Watching "Days of Thunder," it's impossible not to think of "Top Gun." Not just because the movies share a director and star. In both movies, Tom Cruise plays a supremely talented, but egotistic, pilot of vehicles that go fast. In both, his speedy ways earn him the scorn of a similarly fast rival. Eventually, he earns the friendship and respect of this man. In both, an accident and a friend being harmed causes Cruise to consider giving up his passion. (Though the rival and friend are combined here and ultimately survive.) "Days of Thunder" even employs a lot of the same visuals. Like beginning with dramatic silhouettes of its fast vehicles behind a sunrise. Or having its hero ride around on a motorcycle. 

Another thing "Days of Thunder" has in common with "Top Gun" is that both movies are propaganda. This movie isn't military propaganda, unless the army has a secret race car division I don't know about. Instead, "Days of Thunder" is corporate propaganda. By setting the story in the world of car racing, where vehicles are already plastered with ads from companies, the movie allows for constant product placement. The Chevrolet and Mello Yello logo appear so often that they might as well have star-billing. Moreover, "Days of Thunder" features cameos from numerous real NASCAR drivers. I don't think it's a coincidence that NASCAR experienced a huge boost of popularity in the nineties, after a high-profile movie set in this world. The movie definitely feels like a feature length advertisement for the sport, to combat the public perception that NASCAR is nothing more than cars driving around in a circle.

Yet "Days of Thunder" is actually a little better written than the previous Scott/Cruise collaboration. Both Maverick and Cole are defined largely by their "need for speed." Yet a later monologue clarifies that Cole's driving motivation is to master the unmasterable chaos of going fast. The movie is about him learning that some things can not be controlled, such as the unpredictable ebb-and-flow of life. After much scolding from his girlfriend and mentor, he discovers the balance in going fast and going with the flow. In a way, this ends up subverting the "need for speed" ethos of both this movie and "Top Gun."

But don't think that this script is anything but strictly formula. (But not Formula 1. That's a different kind of race car.) It's a story awash with familiar characters, like the greedy team owner, and story beats, like a required break from racing before a successful return. You can predict that Cole's path to racing victory will eventually be interrupted by an injury, following a highly cinematic crash. We know that his mentor and girlfriend will challenge his philosophies and cause him to grow into a better man. No matter how much it might seem like he could loose the race, obviously he's going to cross the finish line before anyone else. There's never any doubt where "Days of Thunder" will go next or where it'll end up,

The cheesiest plot point arises out of Cole and Rowdy's friendship. Their progression from rivals to friends probably should've taken some more time. Rowdy is naturally skeptical of this outsider, no matter how fast he is. I was really expecting Rowdy to be the antagonist throughout the film but it's not long before the two become more good-natured competitors. That's because "Days of Thunder" has to set up its most dramatic plot point: Rowdy almost dies in a crash and is left with a brain injury that prevents him from racing. He asks Cole to win the race for him. Everyone tells Cole not to do it, because of his own injury, but he speeds ahead. Because sometimes you gotta defy your doctor's advice and do it for your bro! It's a "win one for the Gipper" style plot that you've seen before in other, better sports movies.

If nothing else, Tony Scott in the director's chair insures that "Days of Thunder" is nice to look at. The filmmaker revisited many of his trademark visuals. Such as the aforementioned, sun-draped morning and evening shots. Or Cruise dramatically emerging from a wall of smoke. (Though there's not a single billowing curtain in sight, which feels like a missed opportunity.) Scott definitely knows how to frame and edit a car race too. The racing, and crashing, scenes in "Days of Thunder" are smoothly assembled in such a way as to suggest and excitement. Visuals of cars spinning through the air, amid flames and twisted chrome, are exciting to watch unfold. There's a reason Scott was among the top action directors of this time. Dude knew his stuff. 

The biggest obstacle that prevented me from enjoying "Top Gun" more was Cruise's Maverick being such a swaggering, egotistic douchebag. "Days of Thunder" does do better than that. Cole is still naturally gifted in the ways of going fast. Yet his cocky exterior is punctured early on, as he quickly learns that Hogge and Rowdy do know more than him about this subject. We're only about a half-hour in before we get to the scene of Cole admitting he's been humbled and asking Hogge for help. This makes the character a lot more believable, making the dramatic incidents later in the script easier to swallow. It also helps humanize Tom Cruise's superhuman image, which ensures the actor's presence is more charismatic than uncanny. 

This does not prevent the romantic subplot, much like in "Top Gun," being hard to believe. Cruise and Nicole Kidman, as Claire, do have more chemistry than the star did with Kelly McGinnis. The two were dating at the time and would be married by the end of the year. Yet the romance still comes off as utterly contrived. Claire has no agency of her own. Despite her stern words of warning, she still appears at the end of the movie to congratulate Cole on his victory. She is a simply a plot device that exists to further the protagonist's character arc. It's also hard to believe these two fall in love, considering their meet-cute is Cole mistaking her for a stripper and shoving her hand on his dick. Not the most romantic introduction.

Kidman and Cruise are fine in their roles, even if neither can surpass the simplistic writing. Cole is totally within Cruise's wheelhouse of hyper-macho, overconfident superhumans while Kidman is mostly limited to looking glamourous and trading emotional dialogue with her then-boyfriend. Unsurprising, it's the character actors in the supporting roles who are able to bring more life to such routine material. Robert Duvall adds a lot more humor and warmth to Hogge than was probably necessary. We're so used to seeing Michael Rooker as psychoses and rednecks that it's surprising he's so charming as Rowdy. Rooker creates not a one-dimensional asshole but someone rightly skeptical of Cole's intrusion into his world. Though I do wish Cary Elwes, who plays Cole's adversary in the final race, was given more to do. The same goes for Randy Quaid and John C Reilly, who are stuck in small roles as a race team owner and mechanic. 

If there's one element of "Days of Thunder" that isn't strictly routine, aside from Scott's visuals, it's the music. There wasn't much of an attempt to replicate "Top Gun's" hit soundtrack. Though there is still a blood-pumping rock song and a sappy love ballad, provided by the guy from Whitesnake and Maria McKee respectively. Neither are very memorable. Instead, it's Hans Zimmer's score that really powers things here. Zimmer combines wailing guitars – to invoke the revving of the motors – and soaring orchestral melodies with simpler, pretty piano pieces. The resulting is a truly exciting theme, that gets the audience far more pumped-up than any of the events in the actual story does. 

"Days of Thunder" was primed to be a summer blockbuster. It had all the usual tie-ins, like a suite of video games. (Though, weirdly, one of these game versions didn't come out until twenty years later.) This also included a motion simulator theme park ride at Kings' Dominion three years later, which is probably the thing about the movie I remember most vividly. Yet "Days of Thunder's" ugly production gave it a 60 million dollar price tag that was hard to overtake in 1990 dollars. The film would top the box office its first weekend but quickly fell down the charts, ultimately making it a financial disappointment. I want to say the movie is largely forgotten by the public, but there was that video game and an ESPN retrospective documentary. So I guess the movie is still remembered by people who give a shit about auto-racing. Either way, "Days of Thunder" struck me as a fairly standard ride. [Grade: C]