Japanese Cars on film?

ben · **Posted:** Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:07 pm

Tosco_Power's revelation that Magnum PI actually featured a burgundy with silver hood Datsun S130 got me thinking... what other TV shows featured the cars we all love?

I know of a red Toyota 2000GT that was in an episode of Hawaii Five-O (one of the best shows ever in my opinion)

A gold 2000GT was in a UK show called The Ugliest Girl in Town or something to that effect.

Of course, Pulp Fiction had the little white Honda Civic that got T-boned by a Camaro, perhaps later reincarnated as the Wolf's silver NSX.

Another red S130 was in Boogie Nights

that movie with The Rock ans Stifler, the name escapes me at the moment, had an old Land Cruiser that plunged over a cliff.

Toy Story had that old Toyota pickup pizza delivery truck

another animated movie, Open Season, also had what seemed to be a Land Cruiser.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head right now... Anyone else?

daddsun · **Posted:** Wed Feb 28, 2007 10:45 pm

Ben,
At the moment I can think of a movie that we all have probably seen at least 5 times: Back to the Future which was released in 1985.

Over the years there has been an increasing amount of old (relatively speaking) Japanese cars in the background of that movie.

Here is my short list of noticed cars:

1974 Datsun 260Z (orange with skinny bumpers--appears in multiple scenes at the beginning of the movie with hot girlffriend)
1984 or 1985 Toyota Supra (light blue and later style taillights--pretty new at the time--this one also shows up in multiple scenes and at night when the Delorean comes back to 1985 via the movie theater)
Yellow 1st gen. Honda Civic
Green Datsun B210 hatchback
The new black Toyota Truck which was a gift to Michael J. Fox at the end of the movie.

Some more of my favorites from way back:

The Bionic Woman (Lindsay Wagner) drove a silver Datsun 280Z (either '75 or '76 by the bumpers) in tht show and she was my dream woman back then. How funny.

Then came Charlie's Angels and my father had a black and gold Cobra II so my loyalties went with the blue oval for awhile until he redeemed himself and bought a brand new burgundy '78 280Z in February of 1978.

The Incredible Hulk --he does a bad thing to the poor silver '73 or '74 Celica while changing the tire in the rain. This sequence always got repeated in the opening credits. Shame on the Hulk.

The movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High features a brown '79 to '81 Datsun 280ZX hardtop with four spoke alloys and the cloth tombstone buckets. The car is filmed at night when slimy record store salesman takes Jennifer Jason Leigh out for a date.

There was an old show I think it was called McMillan and Wife and in one episode a Datsun 240Z (orange) is sabotaged on a road rally--shame on them for destroying the Z.

Also in Boogie Nights don't forget the old Celica parked in the driveway before the orange S130 2+2 gets to the party.

That's all I can think of for now.

dan · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:40 am

ben wrote:

that movie with The Rock ans Stifler, the name escapes me at the moment, had an old Land Cruiser that plunged over a cliff.

I believe that was "The Rundown"

Also, check out this site, it's basically IMDB for cars:
http://www.imcdb.org/

kingtoy · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:51 am

Well I can probably think of a ton but here are a few off the top of my head.

James Bond - You Only live Twice - japanese spy car was a convertable 2000GT, only two ever made both were for the movie. Also countless 60's japanese cars with a couple of american ones sprinkled around

Original Gone in 60 Seconds - tons and tons of 60's and 70's japanese cars and trucks, too many to individually list. Just don't cry over what they do to a 70's mazda dealership.

Mother, Jugs and Speed - Bill cosby, Harvey Kitel, Rachel Welch, 70's comedy about ambulance drivers, lots of 70's japanese cars in there

Wedding Singer - I think I saw a couple in there, I know there is a 1st gen MR2 and I think a supra

Cannonball Run - who could forget the subaru the japanese team was running, there was also a 280z if i remember correctly. Also at the end of the movie at the harbor there are a couple of 70's imprt trucks in the parking lot, I think a 720 and a hilux

Running Scared - 80's version with billy crystal - at one point in the movie when gregory hines takes his girlfriend into his apartment there is a 80 - 81 black corolla sport coupe in front of them, I remember this because I have a car the same body style

I will have to dig up more and post them here, thanks guys this was fun

kingtoy · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:56 am

I just remembered one more

Dazed and Confused - when they are out driving around in the GTO they are going through neighbor hoods and they tell the kid to chuck this bowling ball out the window. It lands in the back window of a late 70's corolla, still makes me mad to think about it.

810-again · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:39 am

In the 1980 movie 'Gloria', a Datsun 810 was used as a getaway car.

ben · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:15 pm

Yes, how could I forget Back to the Future and Cannonball Run! It was late when I posted, at least that's my excuse

I've been meaning to watch the entire original Gone in 60 Seconds forever... I saw about half of it a while ago, didn't catch Mazda dealership part, but I can only imagine the horror... from what I saw, the destruction of all the classic American iron, especially the Lincoln Continental, was too much to bear already! :cry:

I just thought of a couple more:

On That 70s Show, the family has an orange Corolla in their garage

In Speed with Keanu Reeves, the bus slams into a Z car being loaded up onto a flatbed, launching it over the cab.

And not exactly a classic, but Last Action Hero has probably what is the only chase scene involving a Toyota Previa equipped with a machine gun.

daddsun · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:55 pm

I forgot about the original 'Gone in 60 Seconds' film. There is a shot of the original Eleanor going in the direction of Nissan U.S.A.'s old HQ building in Gardena only the name on the building read 'Datsun'.

In honor of that here is my '82 visiting Nissan's U.S.A. HQ building in March of 2005. I snapped this photo before heading out across country to South Florida:

veritech-z · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:57 pm

There is an episode of Knight Rider that has a female investigative reporter getting blown up by an attack helicopter (read: news helicopter with gun strapped to one of the legs) in a white S30 Z car at the beginning, probably a 280 (I don't remember the scene that well). I think it was the first of the two part Goliath story arc, but once again, I'm not 100%. I saw it on Sleuth network a few months back. In the background of The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift during some of the parking garage scenes, there is an AE86 Carrolla, and one of the characters mentions racing for a Hakosuka skyline but we never actually get to see it.

Stickerman · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:38 pm

daddsun,

I went to your photo site and found this photo

See the good looking guy with sunglassess on the left? That's me sitting in my 1500 getting ready to leave!

On topic: The Incredibles animated film has a lot of older imports, including Datsun Roadsters

To get a complete listing of cars in movies go here
http://www.imcdb.org/

colhogen · **Posted:** Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:16 pm

I think i just saw a honda z600 being crushed on that show "future car"

Tosco_Power · **Joined:** Sun Feb 04, 2007 7:41 pm **Posts:** 110

This exact topic has been thrown around for a long time on cc.com... so heres a taste of what we've established so far from our end:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vZ21sb067U

poor lil gt...

the hulk destroying his rather nice flatlight...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=x5NHv-nA2XI

I'd give my left nut for a brand new flatlight like that one prolly was!

Theres a ton more... and somewhere in our gallery theres a vid of a RA21 in a potato stabbing contest.. it was on AFV

http://www.classic-celica.com/modules.p ... ic&t=12063

http://classic-celica.com/modules.php?n ... ic&t=8331&

http://classic-celica.com/modules.php?n ... ic&t=7068&

daddsun · **Posted:** Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:04 am

Stickerman wrote:

daddsun,

I went to your photo site and found this photo

See the good looking guy with sunglassess on the left? That's me sitting in my 1500 getting ready to leave!

On topic: The Incredibles animated film has a lot of older imports, including Datsun Roadsters

To get a complete listing of cars in movies go here
http://www.imcdb.org/

Mark,
That Roadster of yours is beautiful! I have noticed at a few shows over the past few years. BTW, I removed those big ass Enkei's and re-installed the factory alloys on my '77 280Z. Those wheels have to be re-drilled for the right bolt pattern so that I can ditch the 1" wide spacers.

daddsun · **Posted:** Fri Mar 02, 2007 8:07 am

Tosco_Power,
I can't believe you found a snapshot of the Hulk destroying his Celica! That series came to T.V. in late '77 or early '78 so that Celica was only maybe three to four years old when they filmed that sequence? What a shame?

I guess it fit into the story line because you wouldn't expect a smart Dr. type to be driving a Ford Maverick?

Tosco_Power · **Joined:** Sun Feb 04, 2007 7:41 pm **Posts:** 110

yes that snapshot was not easy to get. I had looked a long time ago, but since the invention of youtube I had a great idea! I just looked up the intro for "The Incredible hulk." After I found it I used print screen to take a few snapshots :mrgreen:

So now its documented

Evil bastard too, that was a flatlight!

I wish I had a flatlight...
-Jeff

edit: One more that i forgot to post... this one I spotted a long time ago on MTV (well actually MMM but you guys prolly arent familiar with...) anywho...
every body hurts... sometimes...

blue RA29 sitting under the overpass

cannot for the life of me seem to find this music vid on youtube... :s how is that possible?

toyotageek · **Posted:** Sat Mar 03, 2007 12:48 pm

There is an episode of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION (or maybe Voyager?), where they go into the past and there are several scenes with on old junked Corona, I think some guy they are searching for lives in the car - haha!

A few years ago, my friend Steve had some of his cars in an M&M commercial (filmed in Los Angeles) - "Yellow attacks Tokyo" or something like that - A Giant M&M rampages through Tokyo. Steve supplied several cars, a Toyota firetruck, and some scooters. Anyway, here are a few behind the scene shots of the filming. After a whole day of shooting, you see maybe 1 second of the red Publica in the actual commerical.

626coupe · **Posted:** Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:12 am

Amongst a number of other fleeting appearances in films such as No Man's Land, the Mazda 626 GLX Coupe has appeared in Knight Rider on more than one occasion and was one of the main cars in Tatort a German TV Movie

88tsi_rob · **Posted:** Mon Mar 12, 2007 3:33 pm

Tosco_Power wrote:

edit: One more that i forgot to post... this one I spotted a long time ago on MTV (well actually MMM but you guys prolly arent familiar with...) anywho...
every body hurts... sometimes...

blue RA29 sitting under the overpass

cannot for the life of me seem to find this music vid on youtube... :s how is that possible?

Wow, that's a good eye you have there! I've seen that video several times and never noticed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91euxMQ0Zyg

Cannonball Run was mentioned, the sequel had an '83 Starion.

I bet the Godzilla movies would be another great source for various cars as well.

Snoozin · **Posted:** Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:12 pm

I was pleasantly surprised to see the blue Mk2 Supra in The Butterfly Effect.... although it somewhat confused the folk I was with when I got all enthused over the car :lol:

Tosco_Power · **Joined:** Sun Feb 04, 2007 7:41 pm **Posts:** 110

Snoozin wrote:

I was pleasantly surprised to see the blue Mk2 Supra in The Butterfly Effect.... although it somewhat confused the folk I was with when I got all enthused over the car :lol:

lol ya its a third gen celica actually :wink:

Just a different motor and fenders. All my friends thought it was a pretty big deal, but they are all freaks like me... except maybe not quite as bad... lol

Japanese Cars on film?

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