Death Proof
Three friends – Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd) and radio disc jockey “Jungle” Julia Lucai (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) – are driving down Colorado Street in Austin, Texas to celebrate Jungle Julia's birthday. While drinking at Güero’s Taco Bar, Jungle Julia reveals that she made a radio announcement earlier that morning, offering a free lap dance from Arlene in return for addressing her as “Butterfly,” buying her a drink and reciting a segment of the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” As the women bar crawl, the scarred “Stuntman” Mike (Kurt Russell), a Hollywood stunt double, quietly stalks them; only Arlene catches a quick glimpse of Mike’s souped-up, matte black, white skull-decorated 1970 Chevy Nova. When Pam (Rose McGowan) canvasses the bar patrons for a ride home, Mike offers to give her a ride, assuring her he is a teetotaler and a safe ride.
Mike spends the night chatting with Pam about Hollywood stuntwork and Julia, for whom Pam nurses a grade-school grudge and a low opinion. Mike flirts alternately with Pam and Julia and finally works his way to Arlene, calling her out for the lap dance promised by Julia. Arlene accuses Mike of following them, but Mike only admits to having seen Arlene once outside of Güero’s. Affecting a candid manner, Stuntman Mike threatens to call Arlene a coward for failing to live up to the offer. Arlene then orders Mike to pick a song on the jukebox and performs the dance. Arlene, Julia, Shanna, and their marijuana dealer, Lanna Frank (Monica Staggs), leave for Shanna’s father’s lake house, and Mike shows Pam to his Nova’s seatbeltless, enclosed, bare-metal-and-Plexiglas front passenger compartment. Mike explains that the interior film camera is usually set up in that area and assures her that his car is “death-proof.”
Stuntman Mike has seemed to be a normal, if overly intense, guy, but as he locks Pam into the passenger compartment, Mike looks directly into the camera and cheerfully smirks. Pulling out of the parking lot, he asks for directions, and when Pam says right he sighs and says they’re going left, and he wished she had said left so she wouldn’t get scared right away. He reveals himself to be a sadist, and begins to ride at extreme speeds and swerve the car around, thrashing Pam around the box. She pleads with Mike to let her out of the car, but Mike ignores her and informs her that the car is “100% death proof, but to get the benefit of it, honey, you really need to be sittin’ in my seat!” He then slams on the brakes, smashing her skull on the dashboard and killing her. Then it’s “time to find me my other girlfriends,” and he tosses his voyeur photographs of the girls out the window so the police will not find evidence of premeditation. Mike then chases after the other four girls. Finding their car on an empty road, he speeds past them and spins his car around. He proceeds to race at the girls’ car head-on at full speed with his headlights off, and turns them back on at the last moment. Mike crashes into them, killing them.
At the hospital, it is revealed that Mike suffered only minor injuries. Because the girls were driving while intoxicated and Mike had not consumed any alcohol or marijuana, he is cleared of all criminal charges (Pam’s death is likely attributed to the collision), angering Texas Ranger Earl McGraw (Michael Parks), who knows the stuntman is guilty, but decides not to investigate due to the lack of evidence and energy he thinks could be better spent elsewhere, such as following the NASCAR circuit. He vows to bring Mike down the next time he strikes in Texas, however due to barriers in cross-state police communication, Mike is soon in Tennessee looking for victims again without fear of being caught.
Fourteen months later, Lee Montgomery (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Abernathy Ross (Rosario Dawson), and Kim Mathis (Tracie Thoms) are traveling through Lebanon, Tennessee and stop at a convenience store where Mike has stationed himself. When Kim goes inside, Lee moves into the driver’s seat and starts listening to her iPod with Abernathy still trying to sleep in the backseat. Mike then gets out of his car and begins playing with Abernathy’s bare feet which are hanging out of the car window. When she wakes up, Mike pretends he bumped into her while looking for his car keys. He gets into his car and takes off. Abernathy catches one last glimpse of Mike’s car speeding off, which the other two don’t notice, before the three depart. The trio pick up their friend, stuntwoman Zoë Bell (playing herself), at the airport, who informs them she wants to test-drive a classic white 1970 Dodge Challenger. Later, she reveals her true motives: she wants to play a game called “Ship’s Mast,” in which she will hang onto the car's hood with two belts while someone else drives at high speeds. When the girls reach the barn where the Dodge is being sold, Kim reluctantly agrees to help with the stunt and Abernathy tags along, while Lee finds herself left behind to placate the car’s owner, Jasper (Jonathan Loughran).
During this game, Mike arrives suddenly, and targets them with his 1969 Dodge Charger, repeatedly crashing into them, and eventually Zoë is thrown from the hood. Kim, who carries a gun for protection, shoots Mike in the left arm, causing him to flee. Zoë, due to her training and agility, is unharmed except for a “bruise on her bum.” The three girls decide to take revenge against their attacker. At this point the character roles abruptly switch, as Stuntman Mike, having been wounded, becomes hysterical. His intended victims, on the other hand, become enraged in their pursuit, jeering and laughing at their foe's efforts. Stuntman Mike’s injury forces him to stop, unbuckle his safety harness and tend to his wound. Kim crashes into the back of his Charger and Zoë attacks him with a steel pipe, but Mike, still unbuckled, flees. An extended chase scene follows; just when he thinks he has escaped, Kim blindsides him and he crashes to a stop, breaking his right arm. Screaming in pain, he is hauled out of the car and the three women administer a vicious beating. Stuntman Mike is knocked to the ground, and the women leap in celebration, caught in a midair freeze-frame as the film ends. After a moment of credits, the film returns to show Abernathy delivering an axe-kick to Mike, crushing his head with her boot.
