Movie Cars: The Wraith

The film The Wraith is a unique piece in our study of movie cars for a number of reasons:

One, it’s one of the lesser-known films.  Following classics like Bullitt and Batman, The Wraith, a little film about a ghost taking revenge on the street-race gang that killed him is a smaller-scale film with an ensemble of cars that’s nothing to sneeze at: a Corvette Stingray, a ’66 Plymouth Barracuda, an ‘84 and an ‘87 Dodge Daytona, and a ’77 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.  

However, despite this impressive lineup of vehicles, the real main attraction of the film lies in the titular character’s vehicle: a ghost car portrayed by the Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor, a pace car for the PPG-CART Indy Car World Series.

The Dodge M4S was originally built by Chrysler Corporation and PPG Industries, with the body design developed by Chrysler, and the finish (specially designed for the car) created by PPG Industries.  Six copies of the car were produced in total; two of these copies were genuine stunt cars, made from molds of the original vehicle, with the other four merely ‘dummy’ cars, empty bodies on frames that were destroyed during production.  The genuine article, the real Dodge M4S was used for close ups only.

The Turbo Interceptor was a marvel in terms of technology, costing approximately $1.1 million to build, with performance well worth the price.  The car was powered by a Chrysler 2.2 liter four-cylinder engine that exceeded 194 mph that made the car a one-of-a-kind standout among other famous cars in film history.

However, after all that, in the end, The Wraith, and the Dodge M4S, was largely forgotten.  With no specifically interesting car chases, or anything else really to recommend it, The Wraith, not exactly a stellar stand-out, went mostly unnoticed in a decade full of other, more impressive films.  The car was cool, sure, but unlike films like Bullitt, not even the Turbo Interceptor could raise this film above obscurity.

So, why discuss it here?

For one: the car is cool.  The Dodge M4S was one of the more unique stand-outs in a string of iconic film vehicles, with a basic design that was memorable to those who watched it.  However, as we’ve discussed before, what makes a film car memorable or not isn’t always just the design or power: it’s utilization.

In Bullitt, the main spotlight vehicle is interesting because it’s the protagonist’s vehicle, a car that participates in a thrilling chase scene.  In Batman, it’s the Batmobile, for crying out loud.  In The Wraith?

The major player of the film is a ghost-car, a vehicle that arrives only when a major set piece is about to take place: the harbinger of doom for the film’s antagonists.  It isn’t just a vehicle, it’s a supernatural phenomenon, an indestructible machine that isn’t entirely physical.

There’s a mystery surrounding every time the titular Wraith makes an appearance, especially tying in the arrival of a newcomer into the town bearing suspicious scarring identical to the wounds of the deceased Jamie Hankins.  Without adding any specific abilities to the car, already, something is special about it: it’s a ghost car with a mystery intact, belonging to a vengeful spirit that only appears when he’s ready to challenge someone else in a street-race to the death.

And in the end, that’s the car’s major claim to fame.

The Wraith is largely forgotten among film fans in general, and even movie car buffs for the most part, due to any number of reasons.  However, the memorable aspect of the film isn’t solely the car itself: it’s the purpose within the narrative.  The car in The Wraith is unique in its utilization within the story itself, not belonging to a hero in a chase, or driven with a side of pure ‘cool’ factor.  Whenever this car makes an appearance in the film, it’s a sign that an Event is about to happen, that there’s going to be another death, to move the story along.  This is no mere vehicle, it is a harbinger of doom, shorthand to the audience that something important is about to happen.

Unlike traditional race cars, chase cars, and cars outfitted with tons of gadgets, the car from The Wraith is simply an apparition, a tool of revenge used to street-race, equal parts eerie and impressive.  And that’s what makes this particular vehicle a stand-out among other movie cars.

Are the race sequences groundbreaking in the way that the chase from Bullitt was?  No.

Is the car as iconic as the Batmobile?  No.

However, there is a level of iconography and cool factor about a haunted race-car that lends The Wraith a level of memorability that has stuck with it, even if only in a relatively small circle of fans that remember it.  In the end, is it a classic cinematic car?  Debatable.  But it definitely is one worth checking out.

Thanks so much for reading, I hope to see you in the next article.