Back in the early ’80s, there were all kinds of TV shows centered on one cool car like The Dukes of Hazard and Night Rider. Even some movies followed the same formula, like The Wraith which showcased futuristic sports cars. Here’s a review of another such example, ‘Black Moon Rising‘ from our friends at B&S About Movies, who are big horror movie buffs, and consider the movie’s writer, John Carpenter, a master of the genre.
Black Moon Rising (1986)
August 8, 2021 by R.D Francis
In a June 2016 radio interview with Justin Beahm, Carpenter explained that he wrote Black Moon Rising around the time he made Escape from New York which is why we “see” Snake in Mr. Quint’s squint, as a “my car is stolen and I’m going to get it back” story. And he added that he had “never seen the final film.”
And if it all sounds too familiar, like Corvette Summer (1978) familiar, you know Mark Hamill’s first post-Star Wars movie, itself a “my car is stolen and I’m going to get it back” story — without the sci-fi trappings and F.B.I tomfoolery — it probably is. . . .
And if the plot of Black Moon Rising sounds familiar, like The Fast and the Furious (franchise) familiar, then it probably is. . . .
Sam Quint is a reformed thief hired by the Feds to steal a computer disc that holds incriminating evidence against a corrupt Las Vegas-based corporation. After the theft, Quint’s on the run from Marvin Ringer (Lee Ving of Fear; The Decline of Western Civilization), his psycho-former partner, who wants the disc back. But, alas, during the course of the chase, Quint stashes the disc inside the Black Moon, a prototype supercar that exceeds speeds of 300 miles per hour — on tap water.
Then steps in master car thief Nina (Linda Hamilton in her first post-The Terminator role), who steals the oh, so The Wraith sci-fi wagon for stolen car syndicate mogul Ed Ryland (the so-awesome Robert Vaughn). Now Quint has to break into The Ryland Towers thus, the car-busting-through-the-glass-tower artwork of the theatrical one-sheet, where its offices operate Ryland’s “legit” businesses — along with a high-tech and high-volume chop shop in the basement-garage bowels.
R.D Francis
The original review on B&S About Movies is significantly longer, and though it mentions F&F, it omits the most important tie-in between the two films. The famous “…Dom, cars don’t fly…” scene in Furious 7 is directly lifted from the climactic ending of Black Moon Rising.
In Black Moon Rising , the ‘star’ car runs on hydrogen and is capable of 325 MPH, but in reality, the one-off vehicle called the Wingho Concordia 2 was a 1965 Volkswagen chassis and running gear, with an extreme, wedge-shaped body designed by Bernard Beaujardins and Clyde Kwok of Wingho Auto Classique in Montreal.
This ‘casrploitation’ hit can easily be found on YouTube and Amazon Prime.