An hour later they’d past the half-way mark when something blue flashed in McBrick’s smog-coated side-view mirror. It was a car; a diesel in fact. But this was no ancient Benz or Volvo. It was a BMW, and it was coming up fast. “Maybe you should slow down and let him pass,” his girlfriend, Sunflower, suggested. And he did. They looked in awe as the strange rocket car passed by with nary a puff of smoke. Phil stared with mouth agape as the blue streak sped over the apex and out of sight. “Damn, McBrick!” he exclaimed, “you shoulda’ bought that car instead of taking this donation from your English professor.”

“Yeah…” McBrick thought, as he looked with dread at the climb ahead, “then these damn hills wouldn’t be such a drag.” The wagons’s exhaust belched a dark cloud and woke McBrick from his day-dream. “Hey Phil!” he shouted good-naturedly, “quit bogarting and share the love!” They all laughed. McBrick flipped his cassette of Shakedown Street and settled in for the rest of the hill.

- Inspired by “Changes”, an ad for diesel engined BMWs.

Here we have the standard movie trope of the down-on-his-luck character driving a beater brick. Fred, played by James Marsden, is an “out-of-work slacker” who drives his 240 wagon into a rabbit. Not a VW Rabbit, but E.B., son of the Easter bunny, who proceeds to drop turds on the hood of Fred’s brick. But those are no ordinary turds; they’re jelly beans. Does Meguiar’s have anything for that?

Either Fred owns two cars or he swapped his head restraints between scenes. How else to explain the black interior in the publicity still with the beige interior from the frame grab. I’m sure it’s just a Movie Mistake, but I wonder if the prop peeps needed 2 cars because they destroyed one in a colossal stunt. Unfortunately it looks like I’m going to have to see the movie to find out.

Here’s the latest action flick from Nic Cage, “Drive Angry“.  He rips around in some late 60′s muscle cars, which is the height of originality. It’s like Cage wants to out-cool Kurt Russel in “Death Proof“, but just looks like a dude cranking his stick shift with a nubile Daisy Duke.

But it wasn’t always Chargers and Mustangs for Nicolas Cage. In the 90′s he drove Volvos in three different movies, forming the “Beige Volvo Trilogy.” Find out more, after the jump.

Television Tropes defines “Actor Allusion” as “…a joke or reference which is specific to one of the actors in a (film). It can be a little blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, or it can be bigger and more blatant.” For Nicolas Cage there was a running gag referenced beige Volvos, which showed up in three of his action adventure movies of the mid 1990s.

It all started with 1996′s The Rock, a Michael Bay thriller co-starring Sean Connery. Cage plays Stanley Lightspeed, a biochemist working for the FBI who needs to defuse a bomb on Alkatraz island. Connery’s character John Mason helps him out, but protests when Lightspeed becomes tired. To which Cage blurts out:

Look, I’m just a biochemist. Most of the time, I work in a little glass jar and lead a very uneventful life. I drive a Volvo, a beige one. But what I’m dealing with here is one of the most deadly substances the earth has ever known, so what say you cut me some FRIGGIN’ SLACK?

The insertion of the name “Volvo” and the cars beige color comes out awkwardly, as if he’s reciting a character description, not conversing as a human being. It’s a ham-fisted way to show how monumentally boring his character used to be, and comes across more funny than serious.

Next is Con Air, a prisoner escape flick from 1997. Here a beige 245 is used as a prop in a grotesque joke involving bird crap and a dead David Chappelle. Using Chappelle’s body as a message in a bottle, Cage secretly writes a note on his t-shirt and dumps his body off a plane flying above Fresno California. Cue the beige Volvo, recently washed but about to get really dirty. Click thumbnail images for full size.:

Finally, Cage steals a beige 850 after escaping from prison in the movie Face/Off.

Good to know that if it ever happens again, we can just fly our brick over the Hudson river, like this couple in “Håkan Bråkan & Josef“.

I watched Taxi Driver a couple nights ago and was surprised to see this yellow 144. First it was parked in midtown at the campaign HQ of Senator Palantine, then it appeared later at Sport’s place, with 12 yo Iris ( Jodie Foster) leaning against the front fender. Maybe it’s owned by Tom, taking a quick break from the campaign?

BONUS: Is that an Amazon I spy in the background?

This weird video has 11 ladies laying their hair on a 245. Don’t know what the video is for. A shampoo photo shoot? Whatever, I find it creepy and sexist.

Tank on empty, yo!

I haven’t seen the show myself, but it looks like the main character in the TV show “Medium” drives a nice gold brick.

As with most movie cars, the headrests are removed for good shots of the actors.

At some point the car explodes? Or is abducted by aliens?