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Days of Thunder
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Days of Thunder (1990)

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User Rating: 5.4/10 (19,127 votes)
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Overview

Director:
Tony Scott
Writers (WGA):
Robert Towne (story) and
Tom Cruise (story) ...
more
Release Date:
27 June 1990 (USA) more
Genre:
Action | Drama | Romance | Sport more
Tagline:
You can't stop the thunder. more
Plot:
A young hot-shot stock car driver gets his chance to compete at the top level. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win more
User Comments:
Painting by numbers produces an average film despite the cast more

Cast

 (Cast overview, first billed only)

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 ... Jennie Burns

Donna W. Scott ... Darlene (as Donna Wilson)

Chris Ellis ... Harlem Hoogerhyde

Peter Appel ... Cole's Crew
Stephen Michael Ayers ... Crewmember
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Create a character page for: ?

Additional Details

Runtime:
107 min
Country:
USA
Language:
French | English
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
70 mm 6-Track (analog 70 mm prints) | CDS (digital 35 mm and 70 mm prints) | Dolby SR (analog 35 mm prints)
Certification:
Iceland:L | Brazil:Livre | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Chile:TE | Finland:K-10 | Netherlands:MG6 | Norway:10 | Peru:PT | Singapore:PG | Sweden:Btl | UK:12 (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating) (1991) | USA:PG-13 | West Germany:12 (w) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia)
Filming Locations:
Bristol, Tennessee, USA more
MOVIEmeter: ?
V 40% since last week why?

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Tom Cruise received a speeding ticket for doing 85 in a 55 mph zone while working on this movie. more
Goofs:
Continuity: At the Dover, Delaware race, Cole enters pit road when another car pulls out in front of him. Cole has to slam on his brakes and then looses control. He is then seen wearing a white with red and blue trim fire suit as he says, "Oh, this gonna hurt." When he strikes the wall, it shows him in a fire suit with his team colors (green and black). more
Quotes:
Tim Daland: If you're from California, you're not a Yankee. You're not really anything.
Harry Hogge: You said it.
[chuckles]
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in "I Love the '90s: Part Deux" (2005) more
Soundtrack:
LONG LIVE THE NIGHT more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
12 out of 25 people found the following comment useful:-
Painting by numbers produces an average film despite the cast, 23 August 2004
Author: bob the moo from Birmingham, UK

Eager for a winning formula, team owner Tim Daland puts together the inexperienced but naturally talented Cole Trickle and the retired but skilled mechanic Harry Hogge to hopefully bounce off each other to create a winning combination. After the expected bumps and friction between the two, they seem to blend well and start winning races. However, a major accident between Cole and his main rival, Rowdy Burns, puts them both in the hospital under the care of the professional and leggy Dr Lewicki. But will Cole be able to overcome the physical and mental scars that he got.

The comedian Rich Hall did a great routine once where he summed up the films of Tom Cruise by basically saying that each of them involves him being great at his job (pilot, bartender, driver) before suffering a crisis of confidence but meeting a beautiful lady who helps him over it in time to come good – hilarious in the telling because he was right and, true to form, Days of Thunder sets its stall out in the same way. That the plot is formulaic (father/son stuff, macho posturing, love interest, final big race etc) and it is a bit tiring at times because it is nothing new and it produces large sags during the film. The father/son stuff is OK if hackneyed but the romance is so sudden and fake that it left me cool and never engaged once. The racing stuff is fun, noisy and fast which I suppose is what most of its audience want; but this is still not a great action movie but kudos to Scott for managing to make a load of cars going round a circular track appear exciting.

The cast is more impressive on paper than they are in reality. Cruise plays his usual character and does it with no real charm or ability. He is trading off his fame here and his macho nonsense is rather tiresome. Kidman may have been Cruise's offscreen partner but viewers of this film will have seen their divorce coming because they have zero chemistry and she is poor throughout. It's not all her fault though, the script gives her nothing to work with. Thank god then, for Robert Duvall; he may be playing a fairly clichéd character but he does it well and steals every scene from his pretty but empty co-star. Support is good from Quaid and Rooker but Ewles is given too little time to make anything but a negative impression and Reilly had yet to prove his versatility and doesn't do it here.

Overall this is very much painting by the numbers in many regards. The plot is easy and lacks any sort of spark or innovation meaning that, when the cars are off the screen, it is easy for the film to get dull. The action scenes are OK but, as with F1, I find many motor sports to be dull and didn't get drawn into the predictable races as much as I wanted to. The script gives the cast nothing to really work with, and only Duvall comes out with any real dignity even if he has a cliché as opposed to a real person to play. This has all the failings you would expect and the end result of so little imagination is an average film that is watchable but no more than that.

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