INDEX
1. INSPIRATION FOR GRINDHOUSE
2. PLANET TERROR SYNOPSIS
3. ABOUT PLANET TERROR
4. SICKOS, SHORT SKIRTS, EXPLOSIONS AND BLOOD
5. DEATH PROOF SYNOPSIS
6. ABOUT DEATH PROOF
7. STUNTMAN MIKE
8. NOVA/CIVIC
9. AFTERMATH
10. MUSTANG/CHALLENGER/CHARGER
11. THE WAR OF THE DODGES
12. CLOTHES AND CRIME SCENES
13. SHOOT TO KILL

THE WAR OF THE DODGES

For the film’s white-knuckle chase scene, the production relocated from Austin to the Santa Ynez Valley, just north of Santa Barbara. The towns of Buellton, Los Olivos, Lompoc and Solvang hosted the final chase scene between Stuntman Mike and Zoë, Kim and Abernathy. The area is meant to double Tennessee, where Kim, Lee, Zoë and Abernathy are working on a movie called CHEER UP IN TEXAS.

If Tennessee can double for Texas, then California can double for Tennessee doubling for Texas. But the background, or lack of a specificity of a background, is important to this chase. Quentin Tarantino explains: “When you become knowledgeable enough as a filmmaker to figure how stuff is done, you can start looking at stuff like chase scenes and dissect them, and see the qualities of this one versus the qualities of that one.

One of the things that I realized fairly quickly was that there are four different types of chases: You have the chase where the hero is being chased which is the case almost eighty percent of the time. There’s twenty percent of the time where the hero is doing the chasing. The funny thing about that is those are always the most dramatically engaging.

If you don’t like the bad guy, if you want them to really catch him, those are the ones that are actually the most emotionally involving. It’s not getting away from the cops, not getting away from an army of cops, but getting the fucking guy that’s responsible for everything. Those are really emotional chases.”

“We kind of have both in our big chase,” he remarks. “But the other thing that I noticed is that there are the chases that existed before George Miller and the Aussies got into it and the ones after,” Tarantino adds, referring to MAD MAX and ROAD WARRIOR.

“The big difference between them is the ones that we did in America, or the ones they did in Italy were very location-oriented. San Francisco was another character in the chase in BULLITT. In Dennis Hopper’s chase in COLORS, it’s a big deal that the chase takes places through Watts. They’re very location-oriented. But then when the Aussies came out with their stuff it wasn’t about location. Everything looked like the fuckin’ outback. Everything just looked like generic Australian desert. It was about being in the chase. You’re not sitting off at the side of the road watching drive-bys. You’re not taking helicopter shots because that takes you out of it. It’s all about you are in the chase for the entire time that the chase is going on. You’re never on the side of the road watching it drive past you’re in it all the time. And that’s where my chase is.

“It was like generic country road, generic country, and you’re inside the chase. But now if you’re going to do that, if you’re going to ignore the background—not to say that our background isn’t good, but if you’re not going to make it another character.”

Though the background may not have had its own distinct landmarks, Tarantino believes that the cars had their own distinguishing qualities.

“The cars have got to be real characters,” Tarantino says. “Stuntman Mike has two cars in the movie actually, and they’re both very individualistic as themselves, but when the girls get in the chase with him, they’re not driving any car -- They’re driving the 1970 Dodge Challenger made to look like Kowalski’s car from VANISHING POINT. That’s a very specific thing.”

“It’s almost like VANISHING POINT is a guest star in the movie by using the exact same car. It was funny because we were shooting the chase and from time to time—this actually happened about three different times, passersby would drive by and say, ‘Are you guys doing a remake of VANISHING POINT?’ It’s the VANISHING POINT car. You also have the Dodge Charger versus the Dodge Challenger. The War of the Dodges.”

Behind the wheels of these machines are a team of very qualified (and sometimes very scared and excited) actors and stunt people. Thoms owes her driving abilities to a stunt school driving course.

“I had one-on-one instruction,” Thoms says. “I had a driving instructor in my car to teach me techniques -- how to do all this cool stuff that I’ve always wanted to know how to do. Apparently, I was pretty good at it. We learned one-eighties, and how to follow cars, how to follow really closely, and how to stop on the mark. It was just a blast, and I had probably a little bit too much fun.” Zoë Bell accompanied her for the program.

“Zoë came to stunt school with me. She came so she was in the car with me doing all the stunts, and just supporting me. That just adds to it.”

But when the cameras began rolling, her insecurities started to get the best of her. Driving on an existing country road is very different from operating on a closed course with an instructor. Thoms’ confidence came into question when she was surrounded by a film crew and her co-stars: “I’m in the car thinking, ‘Should I actually be doing this? Is this okay?’ I’ve gotten to ride on dirt roads next to cliffs. There have been times I’ve been a little afraid but I just kind of push through it. I tell myself: ‘No, no. I’m a soldier. I can do this. I’m a soldier.’ and I get through it,” she jokes. As with Zoë Bell, Thoms knew how important authenticity was to Tarantino.

“I think Quentin wanted to get me in a car as much as possible to sell it so that there’s a lot of times you think you’ve seen me driving a car. Actually I am driving a car, weaving in and out of traffic, and doing all kinds of cool shit.” When Thoms wasn’t behind the wheel, stunt driver Tracey Dashnaw would take over. Thoms points out that her character’s profession made her pay closer attention to the art of stunt driving.

“She’s fearless. She’s cautious but fearless at the same time,” Thoms says of Tracey Dashnaw. “It’s just the greatest balance. I watch how the stunt people approach things, and the amount of focus it takes to accomplish these stunts they’re doing. It’s really been a great lesson for playing Kim.”

Tracey Dashnaw is a remarkable driver who came to the production with some unusual and unique challenges: “I either have Zoë on the hood of the car, or I’m behind the Charger, and we’re on dirt roads so I can’t see, or the cameras are in front of me. It’s been challenging, but a blast.”

Kurt Russell did much of his own driving as well. “If a scene can be played at high speed, Kurt’s doing the driving,” Tarantino says. Stunt legend Buddy Joe Hooker takes over for Russell in the movie’s incredible action sequences.

“Buddy Joe Hooker’s always been a hero of mine,” Tarantino says. Hooker, a former child actor, has been a stunt coordinator and stunt performer for some of the most famous sequences in movie history, including HOOPER, THREE THE HARD WAY, SHARKY’S MACHINE, and SCARFACE. Part of Hooker’s success as a stunt driver is pragmatism.

“Buddy Joe does things with a car that it’s almost like the car is his coat. He can manipulate it in any way he wants. It was like an extension of himself,” Thoms says. “He flipped the car three times in a day. It’s just a day at the office for him. ‘I gotta go to work, flip a car three time, stand up, go home, have dinner, go to sleep, kiss my kids, my wife, go to bed.’”

Dawson notes that watching Buddy Joe Hooker and Tracey Dashnaw work is a thing of beauty: “I’m sitting in the car in the back seat with Tracey, or sometimes in the front seat with Tracey and she and Buddy Joe are going down these roads, and these hills and they’re literally an inch apart the whole way. It’s almost as if the cars were attached to each other and moving at the same time. They’re just that brilliant with each other, and it’s like watching someone who’s a great skateboarder, or a great surfer -- someone who really gets their instrument. It’s been awe-inspiring to see what someone’s decided to do with their life, and how great they are at it.”

The stunt scenes were coordinated by Jeff Dashnaw. Tarantino is quick to praise his stunt coordinator for assembling the industry’s greatest stunt performers and for creating safe, incredible execution of the stunts.

“The idea of seeing Tracey Dashnaw driving and Zoë Bell on the hood of the car, and Terry Leonard, and Buddy Joe Hooker all on one big stunt shot was fantastic.” Tarantino says. “Jeff was right along with me just pushing it,” he continues. “We wanted it to be scary, we wanted it to be real, but we wanted everyone to survive through it. It’s delicate ground when you’re trying to do that, and walked it really well.”

“I didn’t know how we were going to do it and we’d figure it out which is really exciting. It’s a very scary and exciting place to be. We were going this stuff off ‘70s style, and we watched car chases -- car chases done now, car chases done in the ‘90s, car chases done in the ‘80s, car chases done in the ‘70s. The ones done in the ‘70s just always killed. They just always were better. And there was a reason -- because they fucking did ‘em. My whole mantra was as far as my action was concerned, no CGI, and no under cranking.”

And they’re super excited doing these crazy jumps, and stunts we shot down—we shot down the 101 for seven minutes, which was brilliant. I mean we’ve done some crazy stuff on this film that’s actually really never been done before, that really got their hearts racing. Sitting on top of the car, then straddling the hood, is Zoë Bell – and only Zoë Bell.

It was during the screenings of DOUBLE DARE that Tarantino thought of creating a role that would appropriately showcase her capabilities: “I just thought, ‘Wow, this should be really exciting, casting a stunt person who knows what they’re doing, and they can actually do this wild stuff I’m coming up with on camera. No cheating. Zoë was very specific about that.”

“To do an action movie without Zoë as one of my leads just seems kind of foolhardy because I can just do anything with her,” Tarantino says. “I can just shoot like crazy, and she’s wonderful in the film, and you love her, and I think she’s going to turn out to be a big hero for young girls I think for like the next decade. Watching this movie they’re going to want to grow up and be Zoë.”

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CLOTHES AND CRIME SCENES
The hip, snug look of the clothes on the women of DEATH PROOF fuses a 70s and 00s sensibility. The washed out t-shirts and casual attire are a staple of both vintage and contemporary leisurewear. Nina Proctor, who designed the costumes for PLANET TERROR as well, created the sexy looks for the cast of DEATH PROOF...