John Stockwell

Oblivion is our biggest fear and cinema has the capacity to bring back to life for a moment those whose memory has been captured on film. My mother and my uncle passed away in an extraordinary way that symbolized true friendship and the love between siblings. Their passing was the most important thing that ever happened in my life, and I keep the story as a treasure. When my nephew was born I knew that I needed to make it into a film, so that he could get to know his ancestors and the magic and poetry that existed between them. —Luis Palomino

Three young American tourists, Alex (Josh Duhamel), his sister Bea (Olivia Wilde) and a friend, Amy (Beau Garrett) are backpacking in Brazil. They decide to go by bus and visit portions of the country instead of flying directly to the North-Eastern beaches they wish to visit. After a bus crash leaves all passengers stranded, they are joined by two English men, Finn (Desmond Askew) and Liam (Max Brown) and an Australian woman, Pru (Melissa George) who is fluent in Portuguese. The group decide to head to a local beach to kill time where they find a cabana bar and tourists partying. After swimming and spending most of the day on the beach, they are served spiked drinks and pass out. The next morning, they awaken robbed of their luggage, money and documents on the deserted beach. Looking for help in the nearby village, they encounter trouble amongst the locals as they see some of their belongings worn on the ground. Kiko (Agles Steib), a local who can speak English, offers to take them to an isolated cabin in the woods where they can wait for help. After a long trek in the wilderness, Kiko shows the group the 'secret place', a cave beneath a waterfall but after taking a bad dive into the water below, Kiko hits his head on the bottom and is rendered unconscious; bleeding profusely from the cut on his head. Proceeding to the cabin in the jungle, they find clothes, food and prescription drugs under different names along with a drawer filled with other people's passports. They manage to seal Kiko's wound and reluctantly spend the night in the cabin. They are awakened in the night by a helicopter bringing Zamora (Miguel Lunardi), a physician, and a few associates and doctors surrounded by armed henchman. A woman who arrives first tries to give them advice to flee but they are confused and try to fight them before being beaten into compliance. Zamora proceeds to a makeshift operating room where he begins removing organs from Amy, who is sedated. He explains to Finn, who is tied to the table opposite, that organ theft for transplant for Brazilians from rich 'gringos' is part of an exploitation pattern of 'Brazilian resources' and that it is 'time to give back'. Victims' usable organs are sent to a People's Hospital in Rio De Janeiro and used for the benefit of the poor. After kidneys and liver are removed, Amy dies on the table. Meanwhile, the rest of the group have broken free of the cages they were locked in and fought of one of Zamora's associates, with aid from Kiko. While Bea and Pru flee into the jungle, Alex, Liam and Kiko attempt to raid the cabin. They successfully rescue Finn who is partially unable to walk due to sedation but whilst running away, Finn is shot in the head and killed. Alex realises that they must resume their escape but Liam decides to stay behind and fight back only to be shot and taken away to be 'salvaged'. Bea and Pru are seperated in the jungle. Alex and Kiko find Bea the next morning, hiding by the river. The three head to the now-flooded cave, eluding one of Zamora's associates chasing them with a bow and arrows. For a period of time, they are able to put some distance between themselves and their pursuers. They enter a cave and find Pru hiding. Diving and swimming to the secondary cave entrance, they find Zamora waiting there, where he shoots into the water killing Kiko and injuring Alex. The survivours are forced to backtrack through the water, finding only a few spaces for air. They are split up, finding breathing spaces and hoping not to fall prey to the archer following them. Bea and the archer meet in the same breathing spot but she over-powers him, stabbing him in the neck with an arrow. Alex, Pru and Bea escape the cave only to run into Zamora again. Alex attacks Zamora, hitting him in the head repeatedly with a rock but is interrupted by one of Zamora's henchmen who's armed with a rifle. Zamora instructs him to kill the foreigners. Seeing the trio of terrified survivours and Zamora in agony, the man hesitates. Zamora calls the gunman a coward whilst Pru begs for him to spare their lives. The gunman turns on Zamora, shooting him before walking away. Soon after, the survivours are met by local villagers who take them in. Later, Alex, Bea and Pru are waiting in line to board a plane in silence while a couple of tourists argue behind them over whether to take a bus. Alex turns and advises them to take the plane. The male tourist thanks him and boards the plane. The last shot shows Alex, Pru and Bea sitting on the plane as it takes off.

Anne Marie (Kate Bosworth), Eden (Michelle Rodriguez), and Lena (Sanoe Lake) are best friends. Anne Marie and her friends have been raising her 14-year-old sister, Penny (Mika Boorem), ever since their mother took off to Las Vegas with a boyfriend, who was not comfortable with the idea of bringing the two girls along. While Penny is at school, Anne Marie, Eden, and Lena work as maids at a large resort hotel, but more importantly, they are surfers. Anne Marie rises every morning before dawn to train for her surfing comeback. The girls train by chasing the perfect waves all along the shoreline and using that for practice, before heading to work during the normal workday. Her local network of surf nuts tells her every morning which beach to hit that day. Anne was once considered a rising star in women's surfing and competed as a youth, but a bad wipe-out and near-drowning incident temporarily halted her career and left her with deep-seated fears. Anne was competing in a surfing event and caught a perfect wave, but the wave turned quickly in the middle of her run, ending in a wipe-out. It left deep scars on Anne, and she is still trying to regain her confidence. Her friends, especially Eden, have encouraged her to try it again. Anne used to date Drew (Chris Taloa), who does not believe Anne has what it takes to make a surfing comeback. Anne talks a big game, but somehow, every time she faces a big wave, it triggers her deepest fears, and she backs out. Drew goads her into catching the big wave, and again Anne wipes out. Anne Marie has been invited to join in an upcoming surf competition at the famed North Shore surf spot, Pipeline. The competition is seven days away. Professional surfers like Keala Kennelly are already arriving in town to get a feel of the local conditions. Anne hopes to gain the attention of sponsors and get herself and her friends out of the near poverty they are living in. The friends know that sponsored girls like Keala Kennelly get paid $1,000 per photo, and $5,000 for every cover photo. They get flown all over the world and get paid to surf. They don't have to pay for sunglasses, surfboards or the other accessories. As the Pipeline competition gets closer, Anne Marie struggles to keep Penny under control and deal with her own personal issues. Penny is drinking beer out of their fridge and when she is unsupervised, Penny goes to attend adult parties where she drinks alcohol and smokes. Penny blames Anne for making their mother leave as she was messing up all the time. At work, Anne Marie meets and catches the eye of Matt Tollman (Matthew Davis), a National Football League quarterback in Hawaii for the Pro Bowl (it is hinted that he plays for the Minnesota Vikings). Matt is obviously instantly attracted to the surfer especially after she boldly confronts another NFL Pro Bowler that had trashed his hotel room, leaving a mess (vomit and feces all over the room) for Anne Marie and her friends to clean. Anne is fired by her manager for the little stunt she pulled. The manager argues that the NFL are their biggest customers and pay the highest rate, so the staff has no right to confront them, no matter what they did. The next day, Drew interferes with Anne's surf training, and this leads to her breaking her surfboard. After a few encounters, Matt says he wants to learn to surf, and Anne Marie agrees to teach him and several of his rowdy teammates to surf for $150 per hour (Girls wanted $20 per hour, but Matt says that he will pay $150 as that's what the hotel charges), with Lena, Eden, and Penny acting as coaches. Anne needs the money as she is out of a job. Anne Marie sees Matt again when she goes to the hotel room to get the money, but a call comes in for Matt from another woman. Anne Marie asks if it is Matt's wife, but he explains it is his niece. Later, they sleep together. Her acceptance of a non-local begins to cause friction between her and many of the young men in her surfing social circle. Anne Marie faces more problems when she and Eden argue about Anne Marie's lack of dedication to training for the Pipeline contest due to the sudden appearance of Matt. She also has to hear vicious comments from several of the other football players' wives and girlfriends staying at the hotel about how she is undergoing the "Matt Tollman makeover" while attending a luau at the resort. Anne Marie confronts Matt about their situation, and soon resolves to step up her game as she finally commits herself to the Pipeline Masters. On the day of Pipeline, Anne Marie wipes out during her first heat, but advances to the next heat after narrowly beating pro surfer Kate Skarratt. She is shaken, but Matt tells her a story about his first game as a quarterback and helps her regain her wavering confidence. Determined, but still afraid, Anne Marie returns to the water. Competing in the same heat is Keala Kennelly, one of the first professional female surfers, playing herself. While Keala surfs the first few sets of waves without wipe-outs, Anne Marie still has inhibitions about riding one, visions of another near-drowning incident holding her back. Keala finishes her turn, then paddles out and takes Anne Marie under her wing and encourages her to take the best wave of the day, on which Anne Marie manages to score perfectly. Although she does not advance to the next heat, she has regained her lost confidence, but more importantly, attracted the notice of sponsors, one of which includes an offer to join the Billabong women's surf team.

Chris Cole (Mark Wahlberg) is a fanatical admirer of an 80s heavy metal band called Steel Dragon. By day, Chris is a photocopier technician and by night, he is the lead singer of a Steel Dragon tribute band called Blood Pollution (the name is taken from a Steel Dragon song). Internal struggles among the actual Steel Dragon band members culminate with the firing of their lead singer, Bobby Beers (Jason Flemyng), and the starting of recruitment sessions to find a new vocalist. Chris experiences his own strife with his Blood Pollution band-mates, particularly guitarist Rob Malcolm (Timothy Olyphant). During a live performance, Rob's playing fails to live up to Chris' over-demanding standards regarding note-for-note accuracy to the original Steel Dragon recordings, and Chris sabotages Rob's amplifier mid-song - a fight breaks out between the two onstage. The next day, Chris arrives at Blood Pollution's rehearsal space (the basement of an X-rated theater) to find that he's been fired and replaced with his arch-rival, the (now former) lead singer of another Steel Dragon tribute band. Rob also cites Chris' inability to create his own musical style, preferring to remain the singer in a tribute band. One day, Chris receives an unexpected phone call from Steel Dragon's founder and rhythm guitarist, Kurt Cuddy (Dominic West), and is offered an audition for the band (thanks to two of Blood Pollution's groupies, who showed Kirk a videotape of one of Blood Pollution's concerts). After hanging up on Kurt once, thinking he's being made fun of, Chris ecstatically agrees. At the studio, he meets the band, as well as learning that Bobby Beers was fired because he was a closeted gay and gives an outstanding performance of "We All Die Young" (a Steel Dragon song in the movie, but it is actually a song by Steelheart, whose lead vocalist (Miljenko Matijevic) provides Cole's singing voice for the film). Chris joins the band as their new singer, adopting the stage name "Izzy." Following a successful debut concert with Steel Dragon, Izzy must come to grips with the pressures of his new-found fame and success. The band embarks on a lengthy tour and Izzy experiences the excesses of the lifestyle, with the group's manager, Mats (Timothy Spall), serving as a sympathetic mentor to Izzy. His new lifestyle impacts his life both for better and worse, particularly with his relationship with his supportive girlfriend, Emily Poule (Jennifer Aniston), when she decides not to continue with him throughout the remainder of the tour as a rock star girlfriend, though Emily and Izzy agree to get back together when the tour reaches Seattle. Eventually, Steel Dragon stops in Seattle for a show, and Emily arrives at his hotel room as they had previously arranged, although Izzy had become so inebriated while on tour he forgot about the arrangement and did not even know what city he was in. Although taken aback by all the groupies, Emily still tries to reconnect with him, reminding him of their plans to meet up once he got to Seattle, however he is too intoxicated to really understand what she is saying, eventually suggesting they go to Seattle together. Heartbroken with his inconsiderate behavior, intoxication and the fact that he is sleeping with so many groupies, Emily leaves him. After the end of the tour, Izzy reports to the next series of Steel Dragon recording sessions with song concepts for the band's next album. The rest of the band rejects Izzy's ideas, with Kurt explaining that the band has to stay true to the "Steel Dragon thing" to fulfill fan expectations. Izzy is angered upon realizing that he was only recruited for his vocal abilities. After a heartfelt conversation with Mats about how he feared he had no control over the direction life has taken him, Izzy begins to reconsider his rock star lifestyle. On the next tour, in a scene directly paralleling one near the beginning of the film with their roles reversed, Izzy hears a fan (Myles Kennedy) singing along with him toward the end of a live concert. Impressed, Izzy pulls the fan, who introduces himself as Mike, onstage and hands him the microphone to finish the concert. Backstage, Izzy realizes that what he wanted for so long was not what he thought, and he says goodbye to Mats, departing from the band while doing so. Izzy (now Chris Cole again) makes his way to Seattle (while Steel Dragon, failing to evolve to changing tastes and styles, has its fame fizzle out) and starts a new coffee-house rock band with his old friend and former band-mate Rob. He finds Emily working in the coffee shop she and her roommate purchased a few years earlier but is initially too ashamed to speak to her. While walking one evening, Emily sees a flyer for his band posted on the wall and takes it down. In the final scene, Chris is singing with his band in a bar and Emily walks in. Chris leaves the stage and speaks to her. They reconcile, ending the film with a kiss and the final note of Chris' first original song "Colorful" (which is actually a song by The Verve Pipe).

A group of men are having a bachelor party. But when misfortune befalls one of the strippers at the stag, a convoluted scheme is hatched by the party-goers to avoid blame. Victor Mallick returned to his home and found out that all of his friends have arranged a surprise bachelor/stag party for him. Two strippers were hired to cheer up the party. However, when some of the men accidentally killed one of the strippers, they are left to face the consequences of their action. —Anonymous

It's 1958 in Detroit. We are inside a car factory where numerous Plymouth Fury's are being assembled. Among the rather plain-colored vehicles, one of them stands out: a bright-red one. During the process, this particular red car is being fussed about by one factory worker who has his hand injured when the vehicle's hood comes down on it. Another factory worker takes a seat inside the vehicle; he will be found dead afterwords. Present day, September 16, 1978 in Northern California. Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon) is a meek teenager who spends his weekends playing Scrabble with his parents (Christine Belford and Richard Darnell), who still treat him as a child. Arnie and his best friend Dennis Guilder (John Stockwell) are going to their school, as usual. Arnie is clumsy, and his black-rimmed glasses characterize him as being nerdy. Dennis is a football player, who still befriends Arnie and tries to stand up for him. During shop class, Arnie is bullied by several students led by Buddy Repperton (William Ostrander). Dennis tries to stop the bullies, but he can't be all the time checking on weak Arnie. Today, Buddy stamps on Arnie's sack-lunch and also breaks his glasses. When both Arnie and Dennis tell the shop teacher that Buddy had a switchblade in his possession when he teased Arnie, it looks that the only consequence will be bad for Arnie, as Boddy announces he will take his own back pretty soon. Arnie and Dennis start their way back to their homes. Arnie notices a used Plymouth Fury with a placard announcing "SOLD". Supposedly, this is the same vehicle that we saw on the Detroit assembly line... only now it's dirty, gritty, broken, with pieces peeling off or falling apart. In spite of everything, Arnie falls in love with this car. He immediately wants to buy it. The owner, George LeBay, tells the story of the car: he inherited it from his dead brother, Roland. The current owner also tells Arnie that the car has a name: Christine. Arnie drives Dennis home in his new car. Once at home, Arnie's overprotective parents angrily start pestering him for having spent his money on a car without consulting them, and especially one in Christine's wrecked condition. Arnie angrily shouts back that throughout his life, they haven't allowed him to have something he truly wants, and that he is dead-set on keeping Christine. However, his parents refuse to have it parked in their driveway. Arnie decides to take it to a local junkyard garage run by an irritable middle-aged man named Will Darnell (Robert Prosky) for storage. Over the next several weeks, Arnie begins working on Christine whenever he has a bit of free time after school. He also starts to help Mr. Darnell around his garage. This was the first time when Arnie stood up to his parents. However, it's not only about being against parental control. Dennis also notices a subtle change in Arnie, as he seems to be more assertive. Weirdly enough, Arnie has stopped using his eye glasses. During a football game, Dennis is shocked to see Arnie arrive in Christine, now fully-restored into a shining beautiful red car, but also along for the ride is the new student, Leigh Cabot (Alexandra Paul). The sight of the two of them together causes Dennis to make a mistake on the field as he's tackled hard. This puts an end to Dennis' football career - and to his ambitions for the future-, so he ends up recuperating in hospital, surrounded by medical paraphernalia. Meanwhile, Arnie continues to date Leigh. One night, he takes her to see a film at the drive-in; and there, Leigh confesses to Arnie that she thinks he's moving too fast in their relationship. She also claims she feels unsettled when she is around Christine. During the movie, one of Christine's windshield wipers becomes stuck, and Arnie gets out to fix it. As he does so, Leigh chokes on a hamburger and immediately, the door latches lock themselves! Arnie tries to get back into the car unsuccessfully. Basically, Leigh has to save herself when she manages to unlock the passenger door, and a nearby viewer who saw her struggling performs the Heimlich maneuver on her. Arnie then drives Leigh home. At her doorstep, she tells him that she won't go anywhere in Christine again. There are weird things about the car, she says, like when only old songs can be reached through the radio aerial, but none of the local radio stations can be heard. Arnie then returns Christine to Darnell's garage. After Arnie's departure, Buddy Repperton and his thugs arrive, and they proceed to systematically destroy the car. Arnie sees the wreck done to Christine the following day and is shocked that all the work he had put into restoring the car has evaporated. Arnie suspects that Leigh was somehow responsible for the wreck. He is getting into trouble as home as well, as his temper is radically changed. His parents notice the acute change in him and they comment that they want the old Arnie to come back. The long Scrabble nights are over, and Arnie has one big row with his father. But more and more, Arnie can only think of one matter: he wants to restore Christine to its full beauty again. Next day, first thing he does is going to the salvage garage to re-start work on Christine. Determined, he looks for his tools. Turning his back on Christine, he hears the crinkling of metal behind him. Arnie looks at Christine startled, and he realizes that, part of her engine is now repaired as if by magic. Arnie doesn't look startled anymore, and he encourages Christine to restore herself in front of him. The car flicks her headlights on, and obediently, there is suddenly mayhem: pieces are moving to their original position, the hood dusts itself off, the aerial strengthens up, buttons and seats start mending themselves and end up being shiny as brand new. The living malevolent car has the power to regenerate. A more-determined Arnie goes back to high school life. Nobody dares to touch him now. At night, Christine comes to life by herself and she seeks out and gruesomely kills each gang member who took part in destroying her. He runs after them. Eventually, Christine arrives at a gas station, spilling gasoline, setting it on fire so that the building becomes debris and ashes. Christine catches fire herself, but that doesn't stop her, as she still goes after Buddy. He tries to run away the scene, terrified because he has seen an unexplainable thing happened. The following morning, Chrisitne becomes the quiet, shiny, brand-new red car of the cover painting. Christine also kills grumply Will Darnell, by the slow method of crushing him in the front seat against the steering wheel. Christine has to deform herself in order to do this, but the following morning, she is in perfect condition. Some weeks later in December, Dennis catches Leigh in high school between classes and he talks to her about Arnie and his car. Dennis and Arnie are not best pals anymore, and Leigh had realised that, in spite of not having broken up verbally with Arnie, there is no place in his life for her. Holidays approach, and New Year's Eve is close. Dennis and Leigh talk about the supernatural element in Christine, knowing that they can only talk to each other about that, as nobody else would believe them. They know they will have to kill Christine. Dennis decides to call on his old buddy at his home, but Leigh advises him to take caution. After she leaves, it's Arnie who calls on Dennis instead. Arnie arrives in Christine and invites Dennis over. Arnie drives Dennis to the former's. Dennis realises about Arnie's dazzled eyes, even before Arnie starts doing things he would have never done before, during his nerd phase: he drinks beer in Homer Simpson-quantities, he terrorizes other drivers and even copies the "without-hands" motorbike stunt. Dennis watches how Christine's mile counter moves backwards, having less miles instead of more. Arnie tires to explain to Dennis how wonderful, strong and fulfilled he feels when he is driving Christine; Arnie's words increasingly become those of a starry-eyed lover. When Dennis leaves Christine, he is more unsettled than ever. Dennis is determined that the nightmare has to stop. He thinks that killing Christine is the only way of returning Arnie to normal. Dennis and Leigh may be having a thing going on between them, but it also may be that each one is the only safe rock of the other. They are worried about Arnie, especially Dennis, who really misses his best friend. Next morning, Dennis goes to the school parking lot and scratches "Darnell's Tonight" into Christine's hood, and drives off with Leigh. They go to Darnell's scrapyard and they wait for Arnie and Christine inside a bulldozer. Night falls down, and Dennis devises a plan. He tells Leigh to wait in the office. The plan is that she will shut door on Christine after her arrival, trapping the vehicle inside the office. Leigh leaves to do so. While she is on her way there, the car's lights suddenly break the night: she was hiding under a pile of garbage. Christine drives towards Leigh trying to run over her, but crashes on to one of the office walls instead. Arnie gets ejected through Christine's windshield and is impaled on a shard of glass, fatally wounding him. Arnie is bloodied, but in his last breath, he just caresses Christine's front bumper for the last time. In his own way, he dies happy. Enraged, Christine attacks Leigh once again. Dennis drives the bulldozer and he fights Christine, who is playing Pledging My Love at top volume on her radio. Christine is still set on dealing with Leigh first, so she approaches her top speed to run over her. However, Dennis drives the bulldozer up on to the car's back, stopping her and crashing her. Leigh climbs in to the cab of the bulldozer and embraces Dennis. Meanwhile, Christine returns back to life and begins to heal herself over again. So, Dennis has to drive the bulldozer over Christine, crashing her onto a thin layer of metal and glass materials, until her headlights flicker and then go out for good. Dennis compacts the red car onto a cube. The ordeal is over. However, later on, within that scrape-yard cube, a metallic stick starts to slowly move and straighten up...