| Days of Thunder | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Tony Scott |
| Screenplay by | Robert Towne |
| Story by |
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| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Ward Russell |
| Edited by | |
| Music by | Hans Zimmer |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $60 million[1][2] |
| Box office | $157.9 million |
Days of Thunder is a 1990 Americansportsaction drama film produced byDon Simpson andJerry Bruckheimer and directed byTony Scott. The film starsTom Cruise,Robert Duvall,Randy Quaid,Nicole Kidman andCary Elwes. It also features appearances by real lifeNASCAR racers, such asRichard Petty,Rusty Wallace,Neil Bonnett, andHarry Gant. Commentator Dr.Jerry Punch, ofESPN, has acameo appearance, as does co-producer Don Simpson.
Days of Thunder was released in the United States on June 27, 1990, byParamount Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised its racing sequences,Hans Zimmer'smusical score, and the performances of Cruise and Duvall, but criticized its lack of originality compared to Scott's previous filmTop Gun, and grossed $157.9 million worldwide against a production budget of $60 million. As of November 2024, a sequel is in development.
YoungUSAC racer Cole Trickle is recruited byChevrolet dealership tycoon Tim Daland to race for his team in theNASCAR Winston Cup Series, bringing former crew chief and car builder Harry Hogge out of retirement to lead Cole's pit crew (Harry had left NASCAR a year prior to avoid investigation involving the death of driver Buddy Bretherton). After Cole sets a fast time in a private test atCharlotte Motor Speedway, Harry builds him a new chassis and hires him onto his team.
Cole makes his first start atPhoenix, where he has difficulty adjusting to the larger NASCAR stock cars and communicating with his crew, while being intimidated on the track by Winston Cup Champion and dirty driver Rowdy Burns; these obstacles, combined with numerous crashes and blown engines, prevent Cole from finishing the next three races atBristol,Dover, andRockingham. Cole confesses to Harry that he does not understand any common NASCAR terminology, leading Harry to put him through rigorous training. This pays off atDarlington, when Cole uses aslingshot maneuver from the outside line to overtake Rowdy and win his first race.
The rivalry between Cole and Rowdy intensifies throughout the season until theFirecracker 400 atDaytona, where both drivers are seriously injured after being caught ina massive crash. Recovering inDaytona Beach, Cole develops a romantic relationship with Dr. Claire Lewicki, aneurosurgeon at a local hospital. NASCAR President Big John brings Rowdy and Cole together in a meeting and warns them that he and his sport will no longer tolerate any misbehavior from the two rivals. The two bitter rivals soon become close friends after having dinner and settling their differences by smashing rental cars in a race on the beach, per Big John's persuasion.
Daland hires another hotshot rookie, Russ Wheeler, to fill Cole's seat until Cole returns, and then expands his team, with Daland now fielding two cars – the second car driven by Russ, despite Harry's disapproval. Though Cole shows signs of his old self, he falls into a new rivalry with Russ, leading to an engine failure atAtlanta. Daland offers no help to Cole or his crew, as he is defensive of his newest driver. AtNorth Wilkesboro, Russ blocks Cole's path during their pit stop, and later forces Cole into the outside wall on the last lap to win the race. Cole retaliates by crashing into Russ' car after the race, leading to a fight between Harry, Daland, and both of Cole and Russ's pit crews, with Daland firing both Cole and Harry in the process.
Rowdy learns he has to undergo brain surgery to fix a broken blood vessel, and asks Cole to drive his car at theDaytona 500 so his sponsor will pay for the year. Cole reluctantly agrees and convinces Harry to return as his crew chief. Hours prior to the race, Harry discovers metal in the oil pan, a sign of engine failure, and manages to procure a new engine from Daland, who still believes in his former driver's promise. During the race, Cole's car is spun out by Russ and suffers a malfunctioning transmission, but the combined efforts of Harry's and Daland's pit crews manage to fix the problem and get Cole back on the lead lap. On the final lap, Russ predicts that Cole will attempt his signature slingshot maneuver from outside, but Cole tricks him with a crossover, overtaking him from the inside to win his first Daytona 500.
Cole drives into Victory Lane, where he and his pit crew celebrate with Claire. He approaches Harry, sitting alone, who is impressed by Cole's performance. Cole asks Harry to walk with him and Harry agrees, challenging him to a foot race to Victory Lane.
Richard Petty,Rusty Wallace,Neil Bonnett,Harry Gant, andDr. Jerry Punch all appear in cameo roles as themselves.Bob Jenkins had a voice-over role as a public address announcer, and hisESPN colleaguesBenny Parsons andNed Jarrett portray radio announcers.
In addition, esteemed character actressMargo Martindale is seen in her first film role, as Harry's timekeeper, whileDon Simpson, one of the film's producers, has a cameo as driver Aldo Bennedetti, patterned afterMario Andretti and using his twin brotherAldo Andretti's first name.
Principal photography took place in late 1989 and early 1990 in and aroundCharlotte andDaytona Beach. It was plagued with delays due to frequent arguments on set between Don Simpson, Jerry Bruckheimer, Tony Scott, and sometimes Robert Towne over how to set up a shot. Crew members sat idle for long hours; some later said they had accumulated enoughovertime pay to go on vacation for a full four months after filming was completed. The completion date was pushed back many times, with filming being completed in early May,[6] three months later than it had originally been scheduled. At one point, following the third revision of the shooting schedule in a single day, theunit production manager, who represents the studio on the set or location, confronted Simpson and Bruckheimer and was told bluntly that the schedule no longer mattered.[7]
In Daytona, Simpson and Bruckheimer spent $400,000 to have a vacant storefront in their hotel converted into their private gym, with a large neon sign reading "Days of Thunder". Simpson also kept a closet full ofDonna Karan dresses to offer the attractive women his assistants found on the beach, and held private parties with friends like rapperTone Lōc.[8] Towne also played a role in the film's increasing cost by scrapping more barn scenes when he did not like either of two barns built to his specifications. The film's original budget of $35 million nearly doubled; at that level it would have had to make at least $100 million, a rare gross at that time, to break even.[7] In addition, when Tom Cruiselost theOscar forBorn on the Fourth of July, some additional budget was cut.[9] Despite thebudget overruns and delays, reportedly it was only after shooting was finished that the filmmakers discovered they had neglected to film Cole Trickle's car crossing the finish line at Daytona.[8] Nine million dollars of the film's budget plus gross percentage went to star Tom Cruise.[1][2]
With the delay in completion of filming and no delay in release date, post production had to be completed in five weeks rather than the five months it would normally take for such a film.[10]
The cars used as those of Cole Trickle, Rowdy Burns, and Russ Wheeler, being the 1989Chevrolet Lumina Stock Car used byDale Earnhardt during his last races, were provided byHendrick Motorsports, with racersGreg Sacks,Tommy Ellis,Bobby Hamilton, andHut Stricklin as the stand-in drivers. In order to provide authentic race footage involving the cars, these cars were actually raced on three occasions. In late1989, Hamilton and Sacks raced atPhoenix.[11] Hamilton officially qualified fifth and led a lap before his engine blew. In 1990, the cars were raced again at Daytona and Darlington. Sacks drove a car during theBusch Clash, while Hamilton and Ellis drove unscored entries in theDaytona 500.[12] At Darlington, Stricklin and Sacks drove two of the cars, but both were pulled from the race early after Sacks broke a crankshaft. Cole's first car in the film is sponsored by City Chevrolet, a real-life car dealership inCharlotte, North Carolina, owned byRick Hendrick.[13]
The score forDays of Thunder was composed byHans Zimmer, withJeff Beck featured on guitar. Zimmer had this to say about Jeff Beck "I think he is the most amazing musician I've ever worked with. The whole reason I did 'Days of Thunder' was a subterfuge to work with Jeff Beck, it was as simple as that. There's Jeff Beck and then there's everybody else.".[5] This was the first of an ongoing list of films in which Zimmer would compose the score for aJerry Bruckheimer production. An official score album was not released until 2013, by La-La Land Records.[14] The film's theme song "The Last Note of Freedom" was sung byDavid Coverdale of the bandWhitesnake at the request ofTom Cruise himself. Coverdale's vocal parts were recorded in 1990 in Los Angeles during a day off of the WhitesnakeSlip of the Tongue Liquor and Poker world tour.[15] "Show Me Heaven", written and sung byMaria McKee, reached number one in the music charts of the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway.
Days of Thunder was released on Wednesday, June 27, 1990, on 2,307 screens in the United States and Canada and grossed $21,502,162 in its first five days.[6] It opened on 170 screens in Japan on June 29 and grossed $2,105,932 for the weekend.[16] The film was a financial success grossing a total of $157,920,733.[17][18] The film was also successful on home video.[19]
Having been previously released onVHS and thenDVD,Days of Thunder was released as the fifth film entry in the Paramount Presents series on remasteredBlu-ray in May 2020. A4K Ultra HD Blu-ray was also released the same day. Extra features include a new Isolated Score and a six-minute featurette - Filmmaker Focus: Days of Thunder with Producer Jerry Bruckheimer.[20]
The film received mixed reviews from critics who mostly shrugged off the sometimes over-the-top special effects and plot which greatly resembled the earlier Bruckheimer, Simpson, Scott and Cruise vehicleTop Gun, which had been hugely successful four years earlier.[21][22]Halliwell's Film Guide dismissedDays of Thunder as "An over familiar story rendered no more interestingly than usual",[23] while theMonthly Film Bulletin described it as "simply a flashy, noisy star vehicle for Tom Cruise, one which – like the stock car he drives – goes around in circles getting nowhere".[23] It holds a rating of 37% onRotten Tomatoes based on 67 reviews, with an average rating of 5/10. The site's consensus reads: "Days of Thunder has Tom Cruise and plenty of flash going for it, but they aren't enough to compensate for the stock plot, two-dimensional characters, and poorly written dialogue."[24]Metacritic gave it a score of 60 out of 100 based on 16 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.
Following Tony Scott's death in 2012,[25] film criticStephen Metcalf argued that the film marked an important turning point in the history of the American film industry. "The best film he made may well have beenCrimson Tide," he wrote inSlate, "but the most important film he made wasDays of Thunder." The excesses of its production and its failure to equalTop Gun's magnitude of box-office success, he argues, helped end the era[26] that had followed the failure ofHeaven's Gate ten years earlier. The studio's willingness to indulge directorMichael Cimino on that film, as other studios had been doing up to that point, led to a backlash where studios favored producers like Simpson and Bruckheimer whose films bore far more of their imprint than any director who worked for them.Crimson Tide, made several years afterDays of Thunder, was the critical and commercial success it was, Metcalf says, because after similar excesses on the producers' part like those that occurred onThunder directors were allowed to reassert themselves.[8]
Quentin Tarantino said the film was his favorite big budget racing movie:
Yeah, yeah, you laugh but seriously I'm a big fan. To meDays of Thunder is the movieGrand Prix andLe Mans should have been. Sure, it had a big budget, big stars and a big director in Tony Scott, but it had the fun of those earlyAIP movies. I just don't think it works if you take the whole thing too seriously.[27]
In 2024, Producer Jerry Bruckheimer also praised the film: "[It] was a terrific film. Tom was great in it."[28]
While the film was neither based on a true story, nor abiographical film, the main character Cole Trickle was very loosely based on the careers ofTim Richmond andGeoff Bodine,[29][30] and several scenes reenacted or referenced real-life stories and personalities fromNASCAR history.[29] The scene where Big John tells Cole and Rowdy they will drive to dinner together is based on an actual meetingBill France Jr. had in the 1980s betweenDale Earnhardt Sr. andGeoff Bodine.[29]Richard Childress andDale Earnhardt Jr. discussed howDays of Thunder was based on the rivalry between Earnhardt Sr. and Bodine. One scene in which Cole deliberately blows his engine by over-revving it reflects upon an incident in which Tim Richmond was said to have done at Michigan in 1987 in his final race.[31] In another scene, Trickle is told he cannot pit because the crew is too busy eatingice cream. This incident actually occurred at the 1987Southern 500 involving the Hendrick Motorsports No. 35 team with crew chiefHarry Hyde and Richmond's replacement driverBenny Parsons.[32] The scene where Cole and Rowdy destroy a pair of rental cars by racing them through the city streets loosely referenced early 1950s NASCAR superstarsJoe Weatherly andCurtis Turner, each of whom were known to rent cars, race, and crash them with abandon.[33][34]
A year after the film's release, the fictionalMello Yello sponsorship depicted on Trickle's No. 51 car was followed by a real-life sponsorship arrangement. The No. 42 Pontiac ofSABCO Racing driven byKyle Petty carried the paint scheme from 1991 to 1994. Mello Yello also sponsored thefall race at Charlotte from 1990 to 1994. At the 2013Subway Firecracker 250, driverKurt Busch had his unsponsored No. 1Phoenix Racing Chevy painted to resemble Cole Trickle's No. 46 City Chevrolet car as part of an awareness campaign for theArmed Forces Foundation.[35]
The Darlington throwback race weekend has also seen drivers race with paint schemes based on those from the film. The2015 Bojangles' Southern 500 saw the Mello Yello car on the No. 42 Chevy ofKyle Larson.[36]Rick Ware Racing executed the throwback in2017 forCody Ware's No. 51, but with a "Pray for Texas" message in support of the survivors ofHurricane Harvey.[37] At thefollowing year's race, RWR's No. 51 forB. J. McLeod resembled Russ Wheeler's No. 18Hardee's car, but with Jacob Companies as the sponsor.[38] In2019, the City Chevrolet paint scheme returned on the No. 24Hendrick Motorsports car ofWilliam Byron.[39] TheNASCAR Xfinity Series' 2019 Darlington race saw the No. 51 ofJeremy Clements use a paint scheme resembling Rowdy Burns'Exxon car, but with RepairableVehicles.com as the sponsor.[40]
The 1991Simpsons episode "Saturdays of Thunder" is named after the film.[26]
In 2015,M&M's released a promo video onYouTube to commemorate the 25th anniversary ofDays of Thunder and to promote M&M's Crispy. The video features driverKyle Busch and crew chiefAdam Stevens parodying scenes from the film.[41]
The film was nominated for theAcademy Award forBest Sound (Charles M. Wilborn,Donald O. Mitchell,Rick Kline andKevin O'Connell).[42][43]
In 1990,Mindscape released a video game adaptation of the film for multiple platforms such as the PC,NES andAmiga. AGame Boy version was released in 1992. The game was available for thePlayStation Network andiOS. Paramount Digital Entertainment released a new video game based on the film for theiOS,PlayStation 3,Xbox 360 andPlayStation Portable. iOS version was released in 2009 and other versions were released in 2011. The game includes 12 NASCAR sanctioned tracks—includingDaytona International Speedway andTalladega Superspeedway—and the film characters Cole Trickle, Rowdy Burns, and Russ Wheeler. The PS3 version, labeledDays of Thunder: NASCAR Edition has more than 12 selectNASCAR Sprint Cup drivers, includingDenny Hamlin,Ryan Newman andTony Stewart.
In November 2024, it was reported that Tom Cruise was in final talks to star in and produce aDays of Thunder sequel.[44] It is being developed concurrently with an untitledTop Gun: Maverick sequel.[45]
In June 2025,Joseph Kosinski toldGQ Magazine that his dream pitch is a crossover between Days of Thunder andF1 withBrad Pitt as Kosinski said “Right now, it’d be Cole Trickle [Cruise’s Days of Thunder character]. We find out that he and Sonny Hayes [Pitt’s character in the F1 movie] have a past. They were rivals at some point, maybe crossed paths… I heard about this epic go-kart battle on Interview with the Vampire that Brad and Tom had, and who wouldn’t pay to see those two go head-to-head on the track?”
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