47 Fun Facts About Christine Trivia (Stephen King's Killer Car)

Christine is what make and model of car?

The 1958 Plymouth Fury was rare from the start, with only 5,303 built, so the film's crew dressed up cheaper sister models to fill out Christine's fleet.

Stephen King says the idea for Christine struck when he saw what on his own car?

The odometer rolling to 10,000 as he turned into his driveway made King imagine one that ran backward, so a car grew younger; he began writing the next day, expecting a funny short story.

Arnie, the bullied teenager who buys Christine, has what surname?

Cunningham changes as he rebuilds the car: his skin clears up, he stands up to his parents and wins the new girl, and a colder, crueller streak arrives with it.

Each chapter of Stephen King's novel Christine opens with what?

A rock and roll lyric opens every chapter, and the car shares the taste: Christine's own radio keeps playing the songs of the 1950s.

Stephen King's novel Christine is set in Libertyville, a fictional suburb of which city?

Pittsburgh was a rare trip outside Maine for King, who dedicated the novel to the city's own George Romero, the director who had just shot their film Creepshow there.

What is the name of Christine's bitter original owner, whose spirit possesses the car in the novel?

Roland LeBay sells the car and dies soon after, but his spirit stays with it and slowly takes Arnie over; the film has his brother George do the selling instead.

In the novel Christine, how did LeBay's young daughter die?

She choked to death in the car, and her mother later killed herself in its front seat, yet the old man kept Christine until the day he sold her to Arnie.

Arnie restores Christine at a do-it-yourself garage run by which small-time crook?

Will Darnell runs the garage as a front for his real trade, and in the novel he draws Arnie in as a courier on his cigarette-smuggling runs.

Arnie's girlfriend Leigh, the pretty new student who comes to see Christine as a rival, has what surname?

Cabot is a name she gives up: after the car nearly kills her on a date, Leigh ends up with neither boy and is married to a man called Ackerman by the book's end.

Which bully, expelled from school and blaming Arnie, leads the gang that vandalises Christine?

Buddy Repperton is thrown out of school for pulling a knife on Arnie, wrecks the car in revenge with his gang, and then Christine comes after every one of them.

In the film Christine, what order does Arnie give the wrecked car just before she repairs herself?

'Show me' is all he says, and the wrecked car pulls herself straight while he watches; the famous effect was a late addition, finished only after the main shoot had wrapped.

In the novel Christine, what do Dennis and Leigh use to batter the car to pieces?

A septic tanker truck does the job: Dennis rents a huge pink one named Petunia and rams Christine to pieces with it inside the garage where she was rebuilt.

In the novel Christine, how does Arnie die?

In a highway crash with his mother, after Christine has already killed his father; the film instead hurls Arnie through her windshield onto a shard of glass.

Which director made the 1983 film of Christine?

John Carpenter took it as a job he needed after The Thing flopped, and later admitted he had never found the book very frightening.

Producer Richard Kobritz got Christine after making which earlier Stephen King miniseries?

Salem's Lot got Kobritz onto King's list for unpublished manuscripts: he passed on Cujo, then snapped up Christine before the novel was even in print.

Who plays Arnie in the 1983 film of Christine?

Keith Gordon had been a teenager in Jaws 2 and Dressed to Kill, and later moved behind the camera to direct episodes of Dexter, Homeland and Fargo.

Which actor passed on playing Arnie in Christine for the 1984 film that made him a star?

Kevin Bacon was an early contender for Arnie but chose to make Footloose instead, and the part went to a relative unknown.

Which teen star did Columbia suggest for Leigh in Christine?

Brooke Shields, then famous for The Blue Lagoon, was the studio's idea, but the filmmakers never considered her and cast the unknown Alexandra Paul, who was 19.

Alexandra Paul, who plays Leigh in Christine, later spent five seasons on which TV series?

Baywatch cast her as lifeguard lieutenant Stephanie Holden from 1992, while her identical twin Caroline was doing rescue work for real with the San Francisco Fire Department.

Alexandra Paul's twin sister Caroline did what during the filming of Christine?

She secretly took her place in a scene as a prank, pushing a clutch on cue, and the director found out only when the real Alexandra walked up after he called cut.

John Stockwell, who plays Dennis in Christine, later appeared as which pilot in Top Gun?

Cougar is the pilot who loses his nerve after the opening dogfight and hands in his wings, which is the only reason Maverick and Goose are sent to Top Gun at all.

Which veteran character actor plays the state police detective in the film Christine?

Harry Dean Stanton's detective is run off the road and killed in the novel, but the film lets him live to watch Christine's wreck compacted into a cube.

Roberts Blossom, who sells Arnie the car in Christine, later played the neighbour children fear in which comedy?

Home Alone cast him as Old Man Marley, the shovel-carrying neighbour the boy dreads until the two talk in church, and who ends up rescuing him from the burglars.

Who plays the gruff garage owner in the film Christine?

Robert Prosky was a stage actor first, a mainstay of Washington's Arena Stage who became a film regular only in his fifties and then the desk sergeant of Hill Street Blues.

The film Christine opens with the car claiming her first victims where?

On the factory assembly line in 1957 Detroit, she mangles one worker's hand and another is found dead inside her, so the film's car is born bad; the novel blames her dead owner instead.

In the film Christine, where is Leigh when the car nearly kills her?

At a drive-in theater, Christine locks her doors to keep Arnie out while Leigh fights for breath, and a nearby moviegoer has to save her with the Heimlich manoeuvre.

Which song plays on Christine's radio as Arnie dies in the film?

Pledging My Love was a hit from beyond the grave: Johnny Ace accidentally shot himself backstage in Houston on Christmas Day 1954, and the ballad topped the R&B chart after his death.

Which George Thorogood song plays over the opening of the 1983 film Christine?

Bad to the Bone was offered to Muddy Waters first, but the bluesman's camp turned it down, and Thorogood ended up cutting it himself; a year later it was introducing Christine on screen.

Who co-wrote the electronic score of Christine with the film's director?

Alan Howarth was a synth player and sound designer who broke into films through a Star Trek trailer, then became the director's regular partner, scoring a run of his films through the 1980s.

With the real car so rare, the film dressed up which two cheaper models from the same maker as Christine?

Belvederes and Savoys shared the rare car's body, so the crew bought up a fleet of them, dressed them in her red and white, and destroyed most of them on camera.

The famous scenes of Christine repairing herself were achieved how?

Reversed film of a car being crushed did it: hydraulic rams inside a gutted double sucked the bodywork inward, and the scene was shot with the camera upside down.

In one of the film's best-known scenes, Christine corners one of Arnie's tormentors by forcing herself into what?

A narrow alley looks like safety until Christine grinds her way in, shearing off her own side panels to reach him; Roger Ebert called it one of the film's best scenes.

Christine is red and white, but real cars of her model and year were sold in only which colour?

Buckskin Beige with gold trim was the only choice that year; King's novel squares it by having Christine's first owner order her specially in red and white.

A car just like Christine gives Henry Bowers a ride in which later Stephen King novel?

It: near the end of that novel the car pulls up out of nowhere for the bully Henry Bowers, and at the wheel sits the corpse of his old gang-mate Belch Huggins.

Roger Ebert said audiences take sides during Christine's duel with what?

A bulldozer is what Dennis and Leigh finally flatten her with, and Ebert admitted that by then the car had 'such a formidable personality' that viewers pick a side.

In 2003 Stephen King named Christine and which other adaptation of his work as having bored him?

The Shining was the other: King wrote that both films 'should have been good' but were 'actually sort of boring', and that he would 'rather have bad than boring'.

Which company was announced in June 2021 as developing a Christine remake with Bryan Fuller?

Blumhouse and Sony announced it with Hannibal's Bryan Fuller writing and directing, but by late 2023 the remake was being described as stalled.

Which 2002 Stephen King novel about a mysterious car has been called a return to Christine's territory?

King's 1973 short story Trucks, about homicidal lorries, was an even earlier take on murderous machines.

Which director said he asked whether his script for Halloween Ends felt 'too Christine'?

David Gordon Green raised it himself while finishing the script, and his finale does follow a bullied outsider who turns killer, much as Arnie does.

What does Dennis lose for good after being distracted by Arnie and Leigh kissing beside Christine?

His football career ends on the spot when a hit lands while he stares at the couple; in the novel the long hospital stay that follows is why another voice has to narrate the middle of the book.

In the film, how does Christine kill the garage boss who hired Arnie?

She crushes him against the steering wheel after rolling back into the garage still in flames, yet by the time police find the body next morning the car is spotless.

Before Christine came along, its director had been developing which other Stephen King adaptation?

Firestarter was his project first, with a script he loved, but Universal dropped him when The Thing flopped, and Christine became the job he needed instead.

Which Happy Days star did Columbia suggest for a lead in Christine?

Scott Baio, then TV's Chachi, was the studio's suggestion, but the filmmakers turned it down and went looking for faces nobody knew.

To get his royalties sooner, Stephen King sold Christine to his publishers for an advance of how much?

$1 was all he asked: his books were earning out faster than advances were paid, so King swapped the usual cheque for a bigger share of the royalties from the first copy sold.

Christine was the third Stephen King film of 1983; which two had already come out that year?

Cujo and The Dead Zone had opened in August and October, a glut that had Roger Ebert joking he expected King to announce 'Amityville IV: The Garage-Door-Opener' any day.

Which future Jerry Maguire actress has a small early role in Christine as Roseanne?

Kelly Preston's cheerleader gets one flirtatious scene with Dennis while Arnie mocks her behind her back; in the novel Roseanne is his steady girlfriend until Leigh comes along.

A 2004 thriller loosely based on Christine, about a murdered car designer's revenge, came from which film industry?

Bollywood's Taarzan: The Wonder Car turns the story inside out: the spirit in the car is the hero's murdered father, back to settle scores with the partners who killed him.