Death Proof

A 2007 American slasher film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film follows stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell), who uses his specially modified car to stalk and murder young women. In the first segment, set in Austin, Texas, a group of friends — Arlene (Vanessa Ferlito), Shanna (Jordan Ladd), and radio DJ Jungle Julia (Sydney Tamiia Poitier) — spend an evening at a bar where they encounter Mike. He offers Arlene a ride home, but after Julia and Shanna leave, Mike deliberately causes a collision, killing Arlene and the other women, while he survives unscathed due to his "death-proof" car. In the second segment, set in Lebanon, Tennessee, Mike targets another group of women — Zoë Bell (playing herself), Kim (Tracie Thoms), and Lee (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). Zoë, a professional stuntwoman, wishes to perform a stunt called "Ship's Mast" on the hood of a 1970 Dodge Challenger. During the stunt, Mike attacks them, but the women fight back. After an intense chase, they force Mike off the road and brutally beat him, leaving him bleeding on the pavement. The film is part of the "Grindhouse" double feature, which also includes Robert Rodriguez's "Planet Terror." "Death Proof" received mostly positive reviews from critics for its stunt sequences and homage to 1970s exploitation films.