Gone in 60 Seconds (2000 film)

Gone in 60 Seconds (also known as Gone in Sixty Seconds) is a 2000 American action heist film starring Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Christopher Eccleston, Robert Duvall, Vinnie Jones, and Will Patton. The film was directed by Dominic Sena, written by Scott Rosenberg, and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The film is a loose remake of the 1974 H.B. Halicki film of the same name.

The film was shot throughout Los Angeles and Long Beach, California. It was released on June 9, 2000 by Buena Vista Studios. Upon release, Gone in 60 Seconds received mixed reviews from critics. It was criticized for its writing and its direction as well as the acting, although Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie's performances, as well as the action sequences, were praised. Despite the critical failure, the film was a commercial success, grossing over $237 million against a budget of $90 million.

Plot
Kip Raines (Giovanni Ribisi), an aspiring but hapless car thief in Los Angeles, is working with his gang to steal fifty high-end cars for Raymond Calitri (Christopher Eccleston), a British gangster who has taken over organized crime in Long Beach. Calitri's base is a salvage yard. He also has a passion for woodworking, and often builds coffins.

While stealing a Porsche 996, Kip smashes a window with a brick and later engages in an impromptu street race, and his reckless behavior attracts the attention of the police. Kip and his crew narrowly avoid capture, but are forced to abandon the warehouse and the cars they have stolen so far. Detectives Castlebeck (Delroy Lindo) and Drycoff (Timothy Olyphant) impound the cars and begin an investigation.

Calitri kidnaps Kip and threatens to kill him in a car crusher for failing the job. Calitri's associate, Atley Jackson (Will Patton) is sympathetic to Kip's plight, and visits Kip's older brother, Randall "Memphis" Raines (Nicolas Cage), a former car thief who went straight years before, to explain the situation. Memphis meets with Calitri to negotiate Kip's release, offering him money, which Calitri refuses. Calitri agrees to release Kip, but only if Memphis steals the fifty cars within 72 hours. If the cars are not delivered on time, Calitri will find and kill Kip.

Memphis visits his mentor Otto Halliwell (Robert Duvall) and they assemble a crew from Memphis' old associates, all of whom have gone straight since retiring. These include Donny Astricky (Chi McBride), who is now a driving instructor; Sphynx (Vinnie Jones), a mute mortician; and Sara "Sway" Wayland (Angelina Jolie), a mechanic and bartender, who previously had a romantic relationship with Memphis. Kip and his crew also volunteer to help. Knowing the police will be watchful for the thefts, Memphis suggests they steal all the cars within a twelve-hour period. The group starts to identify the target cars, giving each a female name so that they can talk about them without the police catching on. The last car on the list is a 1967 Ford Shelby GT500, dubbed "Eleanor". Memphis insists on saving this car for last. He has attempted to steal "Eleanor" on several occasions in the past, all of which ended in disaster. (It seems the name refers to the '67 GT500 in general, rather than this specific example.)

While scouting the car locations, Memphis runs into Castlebeck and Drycoff. While they cannot charge him with any crime, they warn him that they are watching his activities closely, citing that he will be arrested if he commits the slightest violation of the law. The detectives then talk to an informant who tells them that some of Kip's previous Mercedes heists were accomplished by ordering laser cut transponder keys direct from Hamburg, Germany. They set up stakeouts to watch those cars specifically.

Before the heists begin, a member of Kip's crew impulsively steals a Cadillac Eldorado that wasn't on the list, which he found unattended with the keys in it. They open the trunk and find a stash of heroin. While the crew are arguing about what to do with the car, Castlebeck and Drycoff show up. Memphis and the crew try to con the detectives, telling them the car was brought to their shop to be detailed. Castlebeck pretends to fall for this, but after leaving, reveals to Drycoff that he saw a list in the shop of all the police units working that night, proving that the heist is happening and Memphis is involved.

On the night of the heists, most of the initial thefts are successful, with the gang members delivering the cars to Calitri's dock. When Memphis and others prepare to steal the Mercedes with the transponder keys, Memphis spots Castlebeck and Drycoff watching him from a surveillance van, and has the gang abandon those cars. Instead, they decide to break into the police impound, distract the guard and steal the Mercedes from the original heist. This plan is hampered when Otto's dog eats the keys to the Mercedes, and the plan is delayed until the dog passes the keys. However, they do eventually succeed.

Another hitch occurs when a member of Kip's gang, who had been told to stay behind, hides in the van and screws up the theft of a Cadillac Escalade, leading to a brief police chase. He gets injured by gunfire and has to be taken to a hospital. Meanwhile, Memphis and Sway rekindle their relationship while stealing a Plymouth Barracuda.

Castlebeck, furious that he could not catch Memphis in the act, returns to the seized warehouse to search for any more clues. He discovers pieces of a broken blacklight lamp, goes back to the warehouse again with a working blacklight, and discovers the list of fifty cars written in ultraviolet-sensitive paint on the wall. Realizing there are too many cars for them to watch, Castleback focuses on the Shelby GT500, knowing Memphis' penchant for this car, and its rarity. They check and discover that there is only one '67 Shelby in the area, registered at the International Towers in Long Beach.

Just as Memphis is about to steal Eleanor, the detectives arrive. Memphis leads them on a dangerous chase through the city and around the docks, involving many police cars and a helicopter. He outruns the helicopter using NOS while driving in the L.A. River. Memphis finally evades the detectives on the Vincent Thomas Bridge, which is blocked by an accident, by jumping Eleanor off the ramp of a tow truck and landing on the other side.

Memphis delivers the damaged car to Calitri, but since Memphis was twelve minutes late and the car is damaged, Calitri refuses to accept it. Calitri then has the Shelby crushed and tells his henchmen to kill Memphis. Meanwhile, Kip and a repentant Atley hijack the junkyard crane and use it to knock out the guards and save Memphis, and force Calitri to flee into his dockside warehouse. Memphis gives chase just as Castlebeck and Drycoff arrive. Memphis and Calitri engage in a game of cat-and-mouse inside the warehouse, and the noise draws the detectives inside.

Just as Calitri has Memphis cornered, Castlebeck appears, confusing Calitri, who then prepares to shoot Castlebeck. While Castlebeck is trying to talk Calitri out of shooting him, Memphis ambushes Calitri and pushes him over a railing, saving Castlebeck. Calitri falls several stories and lands in one of his own coffins. Castlebeck notes that Memphis just saved his life, and decides to let him go instead of arresting him. As he leaves, Memphis tells Castlebeck where to find the container ship full of stolen cars.

The crew celebrates with a barbecue, and Kip reveals that he has parted out his motorcycle to buy a rusty, dilapidated 1967 Shelby GT500, which he gifts to Memphis as thanks for saving his life. Otto promises to restore the car, but first, Memphis invites Sway to go for a ride. The car breaks down before they get out of the yard.

Cast

 * Nicolas Cage as Randall "Memphis" Raines
 * Angelina Jolie as Sara "Sway" Wayland
 * Robert Duvall as Otto Halliwell
 * Will Patton as Atley Jackson
 * Delroy Lindo as Detective Roland Castlebeck
 * Giovanni Ribisi as Kip Raines
 * Christopher Eccleston as Raymond Calitri
 * Vinnie Jones as Sphinx
 * Scott Caan as Tumbler
 * T.J. Cross as Mirror Man
 * James Duval as Freb
 * Timothy Olyphant as Detective Drycoff
 * Chi McBride as Donny Astricky
 * William Lee Scott as Toby
 * Grace Zabriskie as Helen Raines
 * Frances Fisher as Junie Halliwell
 * Stephen Shellen as Roger
 * Trevor Goddard as Don
 * Master P as Johnny B
 * Carmen Argenziano as Detective Mayhew
 * Bodhi Elfman as Fuzzy Frizzel
 * Arye Gross as James Lakewood
 * Dan Hildebrand as Saul
 * Michael Peña as Ignacio
 * John Carroll Lynch as Impound Manager

Cars featured
The 50 cars, stolen in the film, are listed below. They are listed in the same order as seen in the film; by year and model, along with their respective codenames.

Production


In 1995, Denice Shakarian Halicki entered into a license contract to produce the remake with Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. Filming began in 1999, with Halicki as Executive Producer.

The film trailer was narrated by Melissa Disney and the film is widely credited as one of the first major movies to employ a female trailer voice.

Soundtrack
A soundtrack containing a blend of rock, electronic, and hip hop music was released on June 6, 2000 by the Island Def Jam Music Group. It peaked at #69 on the Billboard 200.

Box office
Gone in 60 Seconds premiered on June 9, 2000. In its opening weekend, Gone in 60 Seconds grossed $25,336,048 from 3,006 US theaters, leading all films that weekend. By the end of the film's theatrical run, it had grossed $101,648,571 domestically and $135,553,728 internationally, comprising a total gross revenue for the film of $237,202,299 worldwide. Though the film earned a $237 million worldwide box office gross, Slate columnist Edward Epstein argued that, after overhead, it lost roughly $90 million after all expenses, including the $103.3 million it cost to make the film, were taken into account over the four years following the film's release.

Critical reception
The film garnered a mostly mixed reaction from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 25% out of 137 reviews gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 4.4/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Even though Oscar-bearers Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, and Robert Duvall came aboard for this project, the quality of Gone in 60 Seconds is disappointingly low. The plot line is nonsensical, and even the promised car-chase scenes are boring." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.

At the 2000 Stinkers Bad Movie Awards, the film won the awards for Worst Screenplay for a Film That Grossed over $100 Million Using Hollywood Math and Most Intrusive Musical Score. Angelina Jolie received a nomination for Worst On-Screen Hairstyle but lost to John Travolta and Forest Whitaker for Battlefield Earth.

Legacy
The film has become a minor cult classic, and the design of Eleanor was instrumental in popularizing "restomods" of vintage cars, and Mustangs in particular.