FAQ for
Death Proof (2007) More at IMDbPro »

In the opening credits, the camera lingers on a set of feet lying on the dashboard. The feet belong to Shannon Hazlett, but they are meant to belong to the character Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito).

Later, Tarantino devotes screen time to the feet of Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier).

Stuntman Mike had a 1970 Chevy Nova (for the first half of the movie) and a 1969 Dodge Charger (the second half of the movie), Kim had a 1972 Mustang Grande, and the girls were test driving a 1970 Dodge Challenger 440 Magnum at the end of the film.

The Mustang was a Kill Bill "Pussy Wagon" inspired custom job, looking at the paint/interior. The longer "Grande" model also would originally have had a vinyl top, but this is nowhere to be seen in the film. The Mustang also appears to be the only muscle car in the film without a roll cage installed.

The Challenger is referenced in the film as the car driven by Barry Newman in "Vanishing Point." If the Challenger was actually supposed to be the "Vanishing Point" car, it should be supercharged (according to that film). The Challenger was modified in this film to add in the window posts that Zoe straps herself to, as no Challenger had enclosed windows in 1970.

No real mention is made of engines, besides the 440 in the Challenger, and, considering the highly modified appearances of all of the other cars, practically anything could be under the hoods of those beasts. Stock configurations, however, assuming all V8s, would be as follows:

Nova - either a 307 or a 350 (396 discontinued after 1970) Charger - 383, 426 Hemi, or 440 Magnum Mustang - 302 or 351 (Windsor, I believe) Challenger - 440 Magnum.

1. The opening conversation is longer (though one or two lines from Arlene, Jungle Julia and Shanna have been trimmed).

2. We see the girls drunkenly leave Guero's while Stuntman Mike watches and applies eyedrops.

3. The scene where Arlene spots the Chevy Nova outside the Chili Parlor is extended with a talk between Arlene and her "boyfriend."

4. Dov and Omar's making fun of Stuntman Mike is extended.

5. The first conversation between Stuntman Mike and Pam is extended.

6. A new scene where the girls get their Wild Turkey shots and Stuntman Mike orders his virgin Pina Colada (and a Cabo Wabo margarita for Pam).

7. The second conversation between Stuntman Mike and Pam is extended, ending with a close up of the rain hitting the pavement outside.

8. The "missing reel" is re-inserted, so we see the lap dance.

9. When Stuntman Mike tells Pam they're going left, he has a happier look on his face instead of his menacing look.

10. Pam's pleas to Stuntman Mike come off more scared and pathetic than they did in the original.

11. After the Chevy Nova crashes through the Honda's roof, a "Wilhelm scream" is added as the car crashes back onto the road.

12. The discussion between Earl and Edgar McGraw is extended (also explaining Pam's story as to how she got to the bar).

13. A lengthy black and white sequence introduces Abernathy, Kim, and Lee on their way to pick up Zoe. Stuntman Mike also meets these girls the first time, playing with Abernathy's hanging feet while she sleeps in the back seat. The scene later changes to color.

14. The airport stalking scene is extended.

15. The talk in the car between the ladies is extended (and trims a joke from Zoe).

16. After the first chase, some of Zoe's dialogue has been removed.

"Funky Fanfare" by Keith Mansfield - "Our Feature Presentation."

"The Last Race" by Jack Nitzsche - The opening credits; Abernathy, Zoë and Kim go after Stuntman Mike.

"Baby It's You" by Smith - The first appearance of the Chervy Nova; Jungle Julia dancing at the Texas Chili Parlor.

"Paranoia Prima" by Ennio Morricone - Arlene's theme whenever she sees the car.

"Jeepster" by T-Rex - Jungle Julia calls Lanna-Frank; the gang does Chartreuse shots with Warren.

"Sally & Jack" (from the motion picture "Blow Out (1981)" by Pino Donaggio - Jungle Julia texts Christian Simonson.

"Good Love, Bad Love" by Eddie Floyd - Dov and Omar order drinks for the girls; the gang does Wild Turkey shots.

"Staggolee" by Pacific Gas & Electric - Stuntman Mike eats nachos and studies his prey; Dov and Omar detail their plans to bed the girls and make fun of Stuntman Mike's appearance.

"The Love You Save (May Be Your Own)" by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch - Arlene dances and sees Stuntman Mike for the first time; Pam explains her disdain for Jungle Julia to Stuntman Mike.

"Down in Mexico" by The Coasters - Arlene gives Stuntman Mike his lapdance.

"Hold Tight" by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch - The build-up to the crash scene.

"It's So Easy" by Willy DeVille - Stuntman Mike's first appearance after the crash.

"Twisted Nerve" by Bernard Herrmann - Abernathy's ringtone.

"Unexpected Violence (Violenza in attesa)" by Ennio Morricone - Stuntman Mike stalks and photographs the second group of girls.

"Riot in Thunder Alley" by Eddie Beram - Stuntman Mike goes after Abernathy, Zoë and Kim.

"Gangster Story (from the motion picture "Piombo Rovente")" by Guido & Maurizio De Angelis - The first part of the final chase (the girls speeding behind Stuntman Mike as he flees).

"Italia a mano armata (from the motion picture "Italia a mano armata")" by Franco Micalizzi - The second part of the final chase (the chase down the freeway).

"La polizia sta a guardare" by Stelvio Cipriani - The finale of the final chase.

"Score" (from the motion picture "Dragon's Claws")" by Chen Tsun-Chi & Chow Fook-Leung - Zoë's roundhouse kick sends Stuntman Mike crashing to the pavement.

"Chick Habit" by April March - The first half of the end credits.

"Laisse Tomber Les Filles" by April March - The second half of the end credits.

Stuntman Mike was very clever on how to stay clear of charges.

He didn't smoke any weed when offered, and he didn't drink any alcohol while at the bar. While driving head-on at the girls, he turns his headlights off. Then seconds before he crashes into them, he turns them back on. This was done so that they wouldn't see him until it was too late, and also so that when forensics investigates, they will see that he had his headlights on during the crash.

As pointed out by Earl McGraw, Stuntman Mike comes out clean as a whistle, while all the girls are drunk and high.

Any evidence towards Stuntman Mike would be circumstancial. The fact that he drives a stunt car, and was the one speeding, doesn't mean he was the one that crashed into them. The evidence contradicting this would be more overwhelming.

Yes; look for the black shirted man when the camera does a 360.

Many fans debate what happened to Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) after she was left at Jasper's while Kim, Zoe and Abernathy took the car out to play Ship's Mast. Since Jasper was depicted as a rapist during the events of Kill Bill Vol. 1, it is generally thought that she was raped by him. Again, Tarantino leaves many questions unanswered in his films (e.g., Who shot Nice Guy Eddie?), so we'll probably never know for sure.

Tarantino is on record saying that Jasper is the same character as the truck driver in Kill Bill. However, it could be argued that he would unlikely to rape Lee due to the fact that her three friends would be returning. Also, Lee had Kim's Mustang, so she could have easily driven away if Jasper was making her uncomfortable.

In closing, the whole scene was just meant to be comical, and some people are looking way too deeply into it. What happened between Jasper and Lee is up to the individual viewer to personally decide.

In the first half of the film, Stuntman Mike plotted out the deaths of the first group, but then has no plan when he attacks the second group.

His decision to go after them appears to be a random decision based on opportunity, so he didn't have time to plan anything, but likely was expecting little difficulty.

Also, the thrill of attacking them with one of the girls on the hood of the car would have been too much for him to resist. It would have been a fun game for Mike to try and smash into them to get Zoe to fall off the hood and kill her, which is why after they wipe out during the first chase, Zoe is presumed dead. Mike is laughing and saying "Ladies! That was fun!" and then says "Well....adios!" just as Kim shoots at him. Him saying "adios" implied he was done chasing them and was going to leave the other two alive.

When two vehicles are moving at the same speed, say fifty miles per hour, and one is sideswiping the other, the only force behind the impact is that imparted by the lateral (i.e. side-to-side) motion, which is perhaps only ten miles per hour. If they had slowed the car, the impacts from Stuntman Mike's car would have drastically increased in force: doubling the velocity quadruples the impact. So if they had dropped to, say, thirty miles per hour, while Stuntman Mike's car held at fifty, he'd have hit them at the equivalent of twenty miles per hour, or four times as hard. This would make slowing the car a far more dangerous tactic. In addition, the car would have had to have slowed down very gradually to keep the inertia from hurling Zoe off of the hood, during which time they'd have been more vulnerable to being forced into a crash.

Another explanation is that, given the fact that the movie is an homage to the '70s exploitation movies, the movie was written this way on purpose. A lot of '70s exploitation movies had weird dialogue, thin plotlines, a lot of inconsistencies and a general B movie-like feel. Therefore, a goof like this was not uncommon in those movies.

Stuntman Mike was a bully who picked on who he thought were weak and helpless young women, and enjoyed scaring them before killing them. Most bullies get off on knowing they are scaring who they think are weak people because they're insecure and have low self-esteem, but once one of their targets shows they're not scared of them, and stand up for themselves, bullies will quickly turn into cowards.

Remember when Scott Farkus, the mean school bully from The Christmas Story loved scaring kids and chasing them, and laughed whenever they ran away from him, but then turned into a screaming, crying wimp when Ralphie stood up to him, and started beating him up? Then the other bully, Grover Gill, tried to stop him, only to get pushed away by Ralphie, and how did he react? "I'm tellin' my Dad!" and ran away. It's the same thing with the ending in Death Proof.

Kurt Russell himself has also compared the character of Stuntman Mike to the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, and has talked before in interviews about how shocked he was when he first saw the lion go from being a scary, trash-talking, dog-chasing and ferocious beast to a crying coward, all because he got a small slap to the nose, thus Russell's inspiration to turn Stuntman Mike into a crying sissy after he gets shot in the arm. The original script implies that that is how Stuntman Mike reacts to the bullet, but it was Russell who went all out with it.

Quentin Tarantino said he'd like to do a sequel, possibly with Jasper the mechanic as the main character. However, that was largely based on how successful Grindhouse was, and unfortunately Grindhouse was a major flop at the box office, so there won't likely ever be a part II.

The faces that appear during the credits are from film color tests. The card with the colors that appears in them is a way for the color corrector to get the best possible image out of the film. But as for who the girls are, no one knows.

Some fans believe that the girls in the pictures are Stuntman Mike's former victims, as he always kept pictures of them on his visor and was seen taking pictures of his victims.

They are seen in the bar in the beginning. They are the laughing girls who are seen entering Warren's Bar when we first see it. Look for them in the lapdance sequence (white and green shirts with matching skirts, holding drinks, and dancing quite distractingly in the background to the song).