Tom Cruise‘s 1990 cult classic isn’t just a great movie, it pays tribute to my favorite sport in a way that no film has ever done before or since. Cruise is a star that needs little introduction, and his career has spanned five decades of blockbuster cinema. He cemented his place as a leading man thanks to action films like Top Gun and Mission: Impossible.
While I may not be a fan of Tom Cruise’s films, I can’t deny that his longevity is impressive. His offscreen antics sometimes make his work difficult to sit through, but there’s one Cruise film that holds a special place in my heart. It got awful reviews back in 1990, but means so much to me as a sports fan.
Days Of Thunder Is A Love Letter To Stock Car Racing
Stock car racing isn’t held in the same regard as the other North American sports, and it hasn’t been treated too well in cinema. Sports films are common, but Tony Scott’s Days of Thunder is the only stock car racing movie that truly does it justice. It captures the thrills of the racetrack, and the larger-than-life personalities behind the wheel.
I’ll admit that it’s dripping with early 1990s cheese, but the character drama framework is really just window dressing for the NASCAR racing scenes. The sequences at the racetrack are pretty accurate, and it’s clear that the filmmakers actually cared about showing the sport in a favorable light.
Days of Thunder was a box office hit, grossing over $157 million (via Box Office Mojo).
Many of the sport’s biggest stars were involved, and it was a movie for race fans and not just about them. No other movie has come close to capturing the fandom, and Days of Thunder has been accepted by race fans as part of the pop culture canon. Some NASCAR teams have even run paint schemes inspired by the movie.
As a lifelong racing fan, I appreciate the realism in Days of Thunder, but it still has an exaggerated tone that lends some cinematic magic to stock car racing. I think it did a lot to legitimize NASCAR in the 1990s, and the sport peaked in popularity at the tail-end of the decade.
How A Days Of Thunder Legacy Sequel Could Work
Tom Cruise shocked the world when he starred in the long-awaited legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick, and it was even more shocking that the movie was actually pretty good. A sequel to Days of Thunder has been floated for years, and I think there is one key element that is absolutely necessary to make a good film.
NASCAR personalities need to be involved in the movie’s development. The sport has changed a lot since 1990, and those changes open the door for a compelling story if they are integrated accurately. Shooting during actual races and with real drivers will help lend further credibility to the movie, and it could help give NASCAR another bump in popularity.
Though Tom Cruise is much older than even the longest-tenured veteran in NASCAR, he’s still the perfect man to lead the film. I don’t see how a Days of Thunder sequel could work without him, and his starpower alone would get viewers to flock to the theater in droves.
