8 More Porsche Appearances in the Movies

Last month we featured five mainstream films that gave visual shout-outs to Porsche. The list barely scratched the surface of a car featured more than any other. We felt obligated to drop eight more films worth seeing not only for the Porsches that survived the casting couch but for the films themselves.

By Edsel Cooper - September 22, 2017

1. 48 HRS. (1982)

Directed by Walter Hill

Written by Roger Spottiswoode, Walter Hill, Larry Gross, and Steven E. de Souza

Starring Nick Nolte, Eddie Murphy, Annette O’Toole, and James Remar as Ganz

The boys are back in town. Nick Nolte is a cop. Eddie Murphy is a convict. They couldn't have liked each other less. They couldn't have needed each other more. And the last place they ever expected to be is on the same side. Even for... 48 HRS!

The make and model of Reggie Hammond (Eddie Murphy)'s car is said to be a Porsche in the film, meaning a Porsche 356 Speedster, but the vehicle, seen in both gray due to dust and once cleaned, black, actually is an Intermeccanica 356 A Speedster replica built by CMC (Classic Motor Carriage).


2. Arthur (1981)

Directed by Steve Gordon

Written by Steve Gordon

Starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, and Sir John Gielgud as Hobson

Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with. 

In the movie, Arthur drives a race-prepped Porsche 924 around a race track at Danbury Fair Racearena. In the scene, he asks Hobson if he’d like to take it for a spin, but Hobson is not interested. When Arthur gets out of the Porsche he takes a long swig from his flask. Then he looks at Hobson. “Hobson, do you know the worst part of being me?” Hobson dryly offers a guess. “I should imagine your breath.”


3. True Romance (1993)

Directed by Tony Scott

Written by Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary

Starring Christian Slater, Patricia Arquette, and Dennis Hopper

A comic-book-nerd and Elvis fanatic Clarence (Christian Slater) and a prostitute named Alabama (Patricia Arquette) fall in love. Clarence breaks the news to her pimp and ends up killing him. He grabs a suitcase of cocaine on his way out thinking it is Alabama's clothing. The two hit the road for California hoping to sell the cocaine, but the mob is soon after them.

Clarence wants to use an actor named Elliot (Bronson Pinchot) to sell the drugs to a film producer, Lee Donowitz (Saul Rubinek). Elliot, who has some of Clarence's cocaine with him in his 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabrio Flatnose, takes a joyride in it with an escort named Kandi (Maria Pitillo). When the cops come after him for speeding he tries to get Kandi to stuff the cocaine up her dress but the bag breaks and the powder winds up all over his face. Check it out here.


4. Doc Hollywood (1991)

Directed by Michael Caton-Jones

Written by Laurian Leggett, Jeffrey Price, Peter S. Seaman, and Daniel Pyne, based on the book by Neil B. Shulan

Starring Michael J. Fox, Julie Warner, and Woody Harrelson

A promising young surgeon driving to Beverly Hills for a new job crashes into a fence in the small town of Grady. He is sentenced to 32 hours of community service at the local hospital. Despite his desire to wrap up his hours, get his car repaired, and get on his merry way to Beverly Hills, he grows fond of the town and its citizens and falls in love with an ambulance driver.

Dr. Ben Stone’s 1956 Porsche 356 Speedster takes center stage in this romantic comedy as the vehicle that lands him in Grady. Getting off the highway to bypass a traffic jam, Stone swerves to miss a cow and crashes into the fence of Judge Evans. After serving his sentence, Ben tries to leave town in his newly repaired Porsche but when he stops to help a local woman deliver her baby, his Porsche is crushed by an eighteen-wheeler. Some cars get all the breaks.


5. Mission Impossible 2

Directed by John Woo

Written by Bruce Geller, Ronald D. Moore & Brannon Braga, and Robert Towne

Starring Tom Cruise, Dougray Scott, Thandie Newton, and Ving Rhames as Luther

When the creator of a deadly virus called Chimera is murdered and the antidote is stolen by disavowed IMF agent Sean Ambrose, agent Ethan Hunt and professional thief Nyah Nordhoff-Hall are assigned to bring down Ambrose and contain the virus. Their mission, should they accept it, is nearly impossible.

In the movie, Ethan Hunt drives a Porsche 911 Cabriolet which is featured in a combustible scene in which he chases after Nyah who is behind the wheel of a 1999 Audi TT Roadster. They proceed to slam into each other while throwing quips and grins back and forth until an oncoming vehicle forces her off the side of the road and straight into Hunt’s Porsche. The two spin out in slow motion, finally coming to rest on the edge of a cliff, where Hunt leaps into her car and pulls her to safety. All in a day’s work for Tom Cruise.


6. Mystic Pizza (1988)

Directed by Donald Petrie

Written by Amy Jones, Perry Howze, Randy Howze, and Alfred Uhry

Starring Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lily Taylor, and Vincent D’Onofrio as Bill

Sisters Kat and Daisy work along with Jojo at the pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut. Kat, shortly off to Yale, finds herself drawn to a local architect she is babysitting for, while her more tearaway sister starts dating a guy from the money side of the tracks. Jojo leaves her man at the altar; she loves him but shies away from commitment. Meanwhile, the fame of the pizza continues to spread; it seems to contain something almost… mystic. 

One of the most memorable scenes from Mystic Pizza is when Daisy’s preppy boyfriend Charles Gordon Windsor, Jr. picks her up in his 1986 Porsche 911 Carrera Cabrio and takes her out for an evening on the town. Their tire blows out on a very picturesque New England country road and after Charlie fails to hail a passing car, Daisy fluffs her hair, shakes her hips and gives it a whirl. To their surprise and ours, this doesn’t help. But when he takes a page out of her book and drops his pants, they are immediately rescued by three girls in a VW Rabbit. In another scene, Roberts gets even with two-timing Charlie by dumping a barrel full of fish in his cherished Porsche. If she only knew sooner that the girl Charlie is with is his sister.


7. Disney's The Kid (2000)

Directed by Jon Turteltaub

Written by Audrey Wells

Starring Bruce Willis, Spencer Breslin, and Emily Mortimer

Russ Duritz is a wealthy L.A. image consultant, but as he nears 40, he's cynical, dogless, womanless, and estranged from his father. One night he surprises an intruder who turns out to be an 8-year-old kid named Rusty. There's something oddly familiar about the chubby lad and trying to figure out who he sparks a journey into Russ's past that the two of them take -- to find the key moment that has defined Russ.

In the film, Bruce Willis daily drives a black 1999 Porsche 911 convertible. However, at one point he goes back in time to 1968 and is shown in a 1958 Porsche 356 speedster with Fuchs. If I don’t explain that Fuchs manufactures high-end alloy wheelsets, some folks won’t know what the Fuch I’m talking about. The Speedster was built by the late great Ed Osborn who wanted disc brakes to match the beefed up engine and fitted REAL 911 R Fuchs to outlaw it up a bit.

8. Scarface (1983)

Directed by Brian De Palma

Written by  Oliver Stone

Starring Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, and Robert Loggia as Frank

A remake of the 1932 classic, the 1983 version follows Cuban refugee, Tony Montana and his close friend Manny Ray who escape Cuba during the Mariel exodus of 1980. Tony and Manny undertake a contract killing in order to secure green cards and then they go to work for drug dealer Frank Lopez. Tony brings a new level of violence to Miami. But he is impatient and wants it all, including Frank's empire and his mistress Elvira Hancock. Once at the top, however, Tony's outrageous actions make him a target and everything comes crumbling down.

The pelicans are definitely flying in this movie and so is that hot new silver 1979 Porsche 928 that Tony buys off the showroom floor to impress Frank’s mistress, Elvira.  Powered by a 5-liter V8, it’s got boom aplenty with a classic grand tourer shape to match it. In this classic scene, Tony upgrades from a pale yellow 1963 Cadillac convertible to a brand spanking new Porsche. During the inspection, his eyes spend more time on Elvira than they do on the Porsche and when she grows bored of his efforts to impress her, he leaves Manny with the details of purchasing the car while he escorts her back to the Cadillac and tries to charm her with his smooth (or not so smooth) moves.

>>Join the conversation about these and other movies featuring Porsche right here in Rennlist.com.

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