With the Christmas season upon us again, time at home often means watching traditional holiday movies like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or modern classics like “Christmas Vacation“. For gearheads a seasonal favourite has to be “The Family Man“.
While not as car-centric as with Nicolas Cage’s “Gone in 60 Seconds” this movie does have some great vehicles that help tell the story of Jack Campbell and his Scrooge-like metamorphosis.
1999 Ferrari 550 Maranello
As the movie begins, protagonist Jack is an arrogant Wall Street hot-shot. He’s rich, powerful and drives a 550 Marnello. This two-seat coupe featured a front-mounted V12 engine displacing 5.5 L and pumping out 478 HP. Not a sports car, this was a true grand tourer.
The Ferrari epitomizes Jack’s nouveau-riche view of reality. He values only material possessions and money, even making his staff work on Christmas to help close a big-money merger. Jack inadvertently bumps into a guardian angel named ‘Cash Money’ and patronizingly tries to help the young black man. Cash decides to teach capitalist Jack a lesson about family, love and real happiness, even commenting “I’m gonna really enjoy this. You just remember that you did this, Jack, okay? You brought this on yourself.”
The next morning, Jack wakes in an alternate reality where he is married with kids, but is just a working class guy. Cash even takes Jack for a drive in his former Ferrari, explaining that he’s experiencing a ‘glimpse’ and Jack will have to figure out the lesson for himself.
2000 Dodge Grand Caravan
Jack wakes up in a modest house New Jersey, a far cry from his million dollar Park Ave apartment,. Making matters worse, in the driveway is the ultimate suburban dad-mobile; a Dodge Grand Caravan minivan. Jack is mortified by the vehicle. The underpowered minivan has a 3.8 L Chrysler V6 under the hood, putting out an anemic 180 HP that can barely spin up the front tires in the snow.
In one comical scene, Jack drives to his apartment, and is shooed away by the doorman. Jack rages about being the richest man in the building, then walks off in a huff threatening to have the doorman fired. But of course, the pathetic minivan won’t even start, and just cranks.
The ungainly Grand Caravan is all about function over form. Like a jellybean on wheels, it is entirely without style or cachet. But as a family hauler, it excels. The vehicle can fit the whole family in comfort including Jack, his wife Kate, little Annie and baby Josh with in his cumbersome car seat. A real family man puts his own desire for a cool car aside and gets a minivan.
1964 Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III
During Jack’s ‘glimpse’ old silver-haired Peter Lassiter (chairman of the investment firm Jack worked at) rolls into Jack’s new place of business at the kitschy Big Ed’s Tires. Lassiter’s vintage Rolls-Royce has a flat front right tire. Everyone at the tire shop runs to serve a customer with such a rare collectible car. One of only 2,044 built, the vehicle is a called drophead coupé, not a convertible, with custom body by H.J. Mulliner, and a silky smooth 6.2 L V8 engine.
Unlike other Scrooge-esque stories, Jack is not looking at his past, future or present; it’s an alternate present. He’s having a glimpse of what his life would have been like if he’d married his college sweetheart and had a family. The chance meeting with wealthy Lassiter is a plot twist that makes “the Family Man” interesting. Jack can interact with these ghosts of Christmas present. He impresses his old employer with knowledge and business acumen, and Jack is actually invited to a job interview at the firm he used to be president of. However, this is the devil tempting Jack.
The old-money wealth of the Rolls-Royce is juxtaposed against the working-class utilitarianism of Jack’s Dodge minivan. The cars highlights the material differences between a life centred on the pursuit of wealth, versus the true happiness of a life whose focus is family.
Many people find the ending of “The Family Man” quite sad, and each Christmas hopr for a director’s cut with an alternate ending. Once Jack learns the importance of love and family, his glimpse ends. He is a changed man, but will never see those sweet children Annie and Josh again.
The movie closes on a scene of reconciled Jack and Kate, sharing a cup of coffee at the airport. Rather than just a dream, one interpretation is that the couple will now begin their family life together, and the visions of Annie and Josh were the Christmas future Jack didn’t know he needed in his heart. But he also gets to keep his Ferrari.
The ending is brutally sad. Especially once you become a parent.
I like the idea it was also a vision of Christmas future. I don’t buy it, but I want to.
You know how in George Baileys visions of life (if had never been born) he has no kids? Then when he returns to ‘life’ little Petey, Tommy, Janie and ZuZu are there waiting for him at home?
I don’t believe the director would have Jack and Kate’s kids just be… dead. That’s too morbid. Like Scrooge, now that Jack has been changed, the kids will be born… just like Tiny Tim lived.
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Trust me on this one, bro!
I want to believe you…
this was a great holiday movie. and I remember that 550. for the longest time in that span of 5-7 years, i could only think about getting a 550, 575M or the F430. Mike
Front engine, rear drive… the way that God intended. Who can blame you for such thoughts?!
But not the F430, unless you are a regular at the track. Who needs mid-engine. The front engine V12 is just such a pure, grand-touring machine.
I love the scene when ‘Cash Money’ appears in Jack’s Ferrari. He’s even had a shave and a haircut (since the night before) and looks every part the driver of an Italian exotic.
loved that scene too. if anything, any scene that featured that car was beautiful; the airport, beginning scene and driving back to the new jersey house when he woke up.
speaking of mid-engines, have you driven the C8? it’s great technically, no doubt about it, but if I were looking I’d still want the C7s. i thought it was such a great iteration. I have made the move to GTs and rarely will I ever go back lol
I had a chance to drive a Viper at the Mosport Driver Development Track outside Toronto. I thoughtnit was the ultimatenin long nose, short deck, front engine madness. Scared me to accelerate out the corners in that thing.
Haven’t tried the C8 yet but perhaps in the spring. There’s a local company that lets you drive these dream machines
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https://demaras.com/2025/10/19/driving-an-aston-martin-just-like-fernando-alonso/