MovieChat Forums > Thunder Road (1958) Discussion > Question.... please help.

Question.... please help.

posted 18 years ago by nosrednug
8 replies | jump to latest

...To anyone who has seen this movie recently.
possible spoilers...

At the end of this movie does Robert Mitchum crash into an electrical sub-station? This could be a movie that I'm trying to think of, and if that's how he meets his demise then I'm sure this is the movie.

In the movie I'm thinking of the 'shine runners spray oil onto the highway to crash the 'revenuers' that are chasing them. And it seems as though the cops had some sort of mechanical grip to grab the rear bumper of the car they were chasing. The runners had removable bumpers on their cars to counter this.

Anyway, could someone tell me if this is the movie I'm looking for. Thanks much.

[–] tmac396 18 years ago

Yes, that is this movie. At the first of the movie the Feds grab his rear bumper with a clamping device, but the bumper comes off. At the end Robert Mitchum does indeed crash into a power sub-station after he runs over a spike strip in the road. To this day whenever we pas a power sub-station, my wife and I look at each other and say "Robert Mitchum".

[–] nosrednug 18 years ago

Thank you much.

[–] mcgrabi 18 years ago

"At the first of the movie the Feds grab his rear bumper with a clamping device, but the bumper comes off."

This seemed way too unrealistic. The trouble, difficulty, expense, etc. to rig a device as shown in the movie are prohibitive. Even if it did get rigged up, the success of such a gadget would hinge on too many variables (bumper heigt, bumper size, clamping power, etc.

[–] benman3 18 years ago

The purpose to snatch the bumper off is so the Feds can obtain the license plate. Obviously its pointless because the license plate is not attached to the bumper to start with on the 50 Ford.

[–] gabrielle5076 17 years ago

They didn't "pull" the bumper off, Mitchum pulls a knob and detached the bumper to get away. The grabbing device is fairly simple to make and strong. It was intend to latch on making the feds car an anchor.

If you think it would have pulled off the bumper you've never owned a car from the 40s or 50s. Calling one a Tank is little exaggeration. I had a 59 Ford Fairlane, turquoise and white, many years ago. While parking it in a federal park I misjudged the distance from my front bumper to the 30" high 10"x10" post barriers and hit one - hard. I got out to see how badly I had smashed up the front of the Ford and to my surprise the 10x10 was snapped off at ground level. The only effect this had on my car was to clean the dust off the bumper. No damage at all - zero! And no, the post wasn't old. It was a new. Freshly creosoted and buried - no knots either.

Heavy metal! lol

[–] jondoe888 13 years ago

I always assumed that, too. But I once saw a doc about police in the 40's, and they had one of those grabbers. It was to hold the car from leaving.
Not sure how many cars actually had this gizmo...

[–] TerryThomasPhotos 16 years ago

I just watched the crash scene.

I believe it was the Fed played by Gene Barry who put out the spike strip with the help of another agent. The police radio was crackling with phrases like "Converge on Site K unless he changes his route". So the feds knew the Mitchum character was headed down that road and they laid out sheet metal spike strips covered with motor oil. Ohhh, nasty!

What I want to know is how the local police showed up seconds later yet didn't hit the spike strips since we didn't see anyone remove them.

Terry Thomas
Character Actor and Film Unit Stills Photographer
Atlanta, Georgia USA
www.TerryThomasPhotos.com

[–] jondoe888 13 years ago

It was the mobsters who placed them, and got fried when they tried to open the door. (or was it... the devil???)(that got the mountain boy)