MovieChat Forums > Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) Discussion > Wheel flying off Crazy Driver's car is N...

Wheel flying off Crazy Driver's car is NOT necessarily a movie mistake.

posted 11 years ago by SunCanyonRoad
9 replies | jump to latest

Okay, there has been a lot of picking at this great Eastwood/Bridges classic. Some justified (like the dummy in the Riveria or the camera on the hood of the Trans Am) but some of it is not 100% fair or even rational. For instance the wheel obviously flying off the Crazy Driver's car as it flips over. Later Thunderbolt and Lightfoot are driving the damaged car and the wheel is back on the car. I say to that, SO WHAT!?!?

The car lost it's wheel in the roll over, NOT an axle, NOT a wheel bearing, NOT a rear-end, but a simple wheel with tire. It isn't far fetched to believe the car had a factory bumper jack mounted in the trunk, especially since the car was fairly new (it's a 1973 Plymouth Fury coupe). Who is to say Thunderbolt and Lightfoot didn't take the jack from the trunk, jack up the car and simply put the wheel back on? They wouldn't even need to look for lost lug nuts on the ground as they could simply take one lug nut from each of the three other wheels and use them. Five lug bolt pattern cars can drive with only 3 tightened lug nuts on one wheel and 4 on the other three is still rather safe so long as they are tightened. A smart audience doesn't need to see Thunderbolt and Lightfoot actually place the tire on the car to believe this as it's not irrational to think. Just like we don't need to see where Thunderbolt got the safe dials, keys to the bar bathroom's padlocked window or whether or not Lightfoot's leather pants are actually in the bundle of clothes he carries.

There have been other, easily explainable nit-picks and questions over things in this film posted here on this board that are really easily explained but oh well. For example, I'm surprised no one has questioned why the car salesman had the keys already in the Trans Am's ignition at the used car lot, even though it used to be a very common practice.

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!"
- Lightfoot

[–] herbertanchovy 11 years ago

I agree, although chrysler's '73 model year only option of a "psycho option pack" of a trunkfull of rabbits and a shotgun proved less than successful

[–] SunCanyonRoad 11 years ago

Don't forget the skyjackers on the rear... though from the looks of the Crazy Driver, he probably just jacked the car up as high as it would go without the tires coming off the ground, then placed muffler clamps around the shocks to hold it there... old school demo derby style.

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

[–] slayer409 11 years ago

All 5 lug nuts didn't just neatly unscrew themselves in the crash. Something broke. Either the lug studs were sheared off, the center of the wheel broke out, or the axle shaft snapped off at the flange.

If the axle broke they're done. Not going anywhere. In my opinion this is what likely happened.

If the wheel broke, how likely is it there's another N50 and 15x10 wheel in that trunk with the rabbits?

If the lug studs broke off, they could take 2 studs from the other side with some basic tools, and continue on with 3 lugs on one side and 2 on the other. Not ideal but would work for the short term.

[–] SunCanyonRoad 11 years ago

"neatly unscrew???" Come on man, think of this in the context of the character and ALSO, this sorta crap happens more often than you think through stupidity and human error. Heck, comedian Ron White does an entire bit on how SEARS forgot to tighten the lugs on his van and the wheel fell off!

This guy in the Plymouth was a high as a kite nut job who heavily modified the suspension, wheels and tires on his car. You trust his work? I wouldn't. If he's messing around with the wheels [those weren't the stock factory wheels on the back] that means he's been messing around with the lugs and it isn't far fetched to think he didn't tighten them properly. And YES, untightened wheels CAN eventually unscrew and come off through friction and centrifical force during normal, everyday driving.

I used to own this exact make and model of car. They came with either 14x7 -or- 15x8 stock wheels, not 15x10's. Yes, those big beasts "could" come with teeny weeny 14 inch wheels depending on your wheel package. Typically if the car came with a 6 cylinder or 318 small block it had the 14x7's and if it had the 400 or 440 big block with the beefier suspension it had the 15x8's. The spare tire came bolted down in the rear of the trunk over the axle "hump" but that is irrelevant since [it appears] they used the SAME WHEEL/TIRE that was thrown in the roll over. It's not as if the wheel was broke or lost forever. It was just thrown off to the side. So the idea that Thunderbolt and Lightfoot put the tire back on the car isn't far fetched.

Your technical assessment of what most likely happened to the wheel is probably right but it's not actually seen on the film. The only thing that is seen and "known" is that a wheel comes off. And I'm using the "context" of the character of the crazy driver and not what [most likely] happened in the filming of a one take roll over stunt to say the loss of said tire ISN'T NECESSARILY a movie mistake and those who say it is are nitpicking. Now if one of the Eastwood/Bridges dummies was thrown from the car in the roll over and later we see them unscratched driving away, I'd say definite movie mistake. But again, like the title of the thread states, the wheel flying off the crazy driver's car is NOT necessarily a movie mistake.

Heck, with a trunk full of bunnies, exhaust funneled into the interior, a caged raccoon complete with poop in the front seat, the rear-end jacked sky high and a toothless, incoherent nut job behind the wheel, the idea of losing a wheel in a roll over crash is nothing. It's probably just another day in that dudes life.

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

[–] mikey1969 11 years ago

Yeah, I'm getting sick and tired of the crap that makes it to the "Goofs" section of IMDB. Considering that it tooks me something like a year and a half and about 5 emails to get the high school location changed to the correct high school for Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, I don't have all that much faith in IMDB's moderators. They put in some of the most nitpicky stuff(Bolt, an animated film, had an "incorrect" train locomotive, although it never really says WHERE the train is going to or coming from, etc... It's also annoying when they don't pay enough attention and there are duplicate "goofs" or trivia points. If it's this hard to fix something incorrect, it would seem to imply that they actually thoroughly vet the stuff that gets added...

Yeah, it's like people haven't heard of a lug wrench and jack around here...

[–] Lokisgodhi 10 years ago

The wheel didn't fly off, the tire came off the rim. Duh.

[–] SunCanyonRoad 10 years ago

I have the bluray, in high def it is CLEAR that the wheel AND tire come off in 1 piece. Not sure that backs up my original "not necessarily" a movie mistake post, but the wheel and tire were together.

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

[–] drunkbear 8 years ago

I'm going to start off by saying that I don't have a problem suspending disbelief about the wheel coming off; it doesn't detract from the movie, for me. I would classify it as a 'revealing error,' since the wheel problem was not a part of the story; it just pointed up that yes, you are watching a movie, and sometimes accidents happen.

However, if the wheel and tire came off in one piece, odds are that the axle shaft WAS broken. I've seen - and driven in - enough demolition derbies to know that an impact is much more likely to break an axle shaft than to break ALL the lug nuts, or tear the wheel off OVER the lugs.

Still, though: nobody said, 'Oh, damn, broken axle!' in the movie, then drove off with it intact in the next scene, so it's not a major continuity error, in my opinion.

- Crazy. All crazy but I'm.

[–] nutsberryfarm 8 years ago

it happens. 

🌴"I'm not making art, I'm making sushi." Masaharu Morimoto🌴