Days of Thunder (1990)

Days of Thunder ushered in a new decade for Tom Cruise. As his first film of the 90s, it marks both a fumbled transition from his reputation in the 80s to the more dignified image he crafted of himself in the 90s and a more dramatic transition in his personal life as his marriage to Mimi Rogers ended and his marriage to Nicole Kidman began. For better or for worse, it's the latter reason that makes this film more interesting than anything else. On its own, there's hardly anything memorable.

There's reason to argue that Days of Thunder is really Cruise's first vanity project. The story was conceived after Cruise began learning how to drive race cars under the influence of his The Color of Money costar Paul Newman. Cruise enlisted the help of Robert Towne in writing the script; Tony Scott, director of Top Gun, and Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, producers of Top Gun, later became involved with production. Just like with Top Gun, filming was strained due to constant fighting between Simpson, Bruckheimer, and Scott and only worsened by the fact that the script was unfinished when filming began, with some scenes being written the day they were shot.

While some films have been able to get away with this (for instance, Cruise's most recent film Mission: Impossible - Fallout), Days of Thunder is definitely not one of them. Because of the return of so many key figures of Top Gun, some people have endearingly referred to Days of Thunder as Top Gun with race cars, but I don't think this is an entirely fair comparison. Top Gun, while structurally weak, at least provokes some kind of interest in someway for many viewers. Days of Thunder is just boring with little to redeem it. The story is exactly as one might expect: Cruise's character, Cole Trickle, is an arrogant but talented race car driver looking for NASCAR glory. After a car accident, he and his rival, named Rowdy, are both hospitalized and prevented from driving until they receive medical clearance. While there, Cole befriends Rowdy and falls in love with Dr. Claire Lewicki, played by Nicole Kidman.

There's nothing more I can say about the story that wouldn't spoil the ending, although it's pretty predictable. Cole largely remains a mystery to the audience; we learn very little about who he is and what his motivations are outside of racing glory. His relationship with Claire is similarly empty. I figure that this is a consequence of Cruise wanting to meet Kidman after becoming enamored with her in the movie Dead Calm and thereby shoehorning a love interest into the script for her to play.

After watching Cruise push himself to hit new dramatic heights with Born on the Fourth of July, this movie comes off as profoundly underwhelming. While Cruise has never ventured too far away from his action blockbuster roots, Days of Thunder is a clumsy and ill-fitting enough entry in his 90s films that it feels much more like cinematic growing pains. Days of Thunder is one last mindless, overly masculine hoorah before Cruise dived into much heavier and demanding projects. For that reason, Days of Thunder is mostly inoffensive -- outside of two uncomfortable scenes where sexual assault is turned into a joke, that is.

Cruise does nothing here that hasn't already been seen before. It's not a bad performance, but it's certainly not interesting. Cole Trickle lacks the same cocky charisma possessed by prior characters like Maverick, which is a bit strange, given that this movie pretty much only exists for Cruise to show off his stunt driving abilities and to woo Kidman. All the intriguing bits remained behind the scenes, such as Cruise getting into a car accident for real and receiving a speeding ticket during filming, and the passionate affair that ensued between Kidman and him. The affair in question lead to the ultimate demise of his marriage to Mimi Rogers, a relationship that was already faltering to begin with for a handful of reasons (with a large part due to a certain institution I've mentioned before).

It's unfortunate that Cruise's first film of the 90s is so underwhelming. The good news, though, is how quickly Cruise flipped his trajectory around to make the 90s arguably the best decade of his career.

Rating: 2.6/5 - March 10, 2020