History Literature / Christine

* TemptingFate: In the film, Christine is following Buddy Repperton. After a brief chase, he goes fishtailing into the gas station and skids to a stop.
-->'''Buddy Repperton:''' Some shithead's following me!\\
''[the sound of an engine can be heard]''\\
'''Buddy Repperton:''' I just hope he comes in here!\\
''[Christine's tires let out a screech as she took the same turn more gracefully than Buddy managed to. She drives right into the side of Buddy's Camaro and comes to a sudden stop, the Camaro crunched against the gas station wall, its hood popped off of one its hinges and now flopped lopsided, which seemingly matches Buddy's shocked expression]''

[[caption-width-right:300:''She was born bad. Plain and simple.'']]

* TwentyMinutesIntoThePast: Released in 1983, and set in late 1978.

-->--'''Roland D. [=LeBay=]''' to '''Arnie Cunningham''', regarding the worst auto purchase in history. For both of them.

* DisproportionateRetribution: In the film, a factory worker sits down behind Christine's wheel while she's still on the assembly line, but already with a full interior. He accidentally drops cigar ashes on her brand-new front seat which was covered with a protective cover. She promptly kills him for it.

A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], directed by Creator/JohnCarpenter and starring Creator/KeithGordon as Arnie, Creator/AlexandraPaul as Leigh and Creator/JohnStockwell as Dennis was released the same year the book was published.

* FreudianExcuse: Regina Cunningham's childhood and parents were orders of magnitude worse than Arnie's, and the habits she developed to survive them made her a bully to her husband and son as an adult. Since this had results that she considered positive for them (Arnie's excellence in school, etc.), she thought this was a good thing. It was only after she'd already thoroughly botched the Christine situation that she realized how maladaptive it really was.

* CoolKidAndLoserFriendship: Dennis and Arnie. Dennis is the jock, BigManOnCampus and is regarded as a cool kid. Arnie is the stereotypical {{Nerd}}.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Christine not only drives like crazy, but specifically to hurt or kill people.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Arnie and his parents are dead, along with eight other people, but Dennis and Leigh ultimately managed to put a stop Christine rampage by destroying her... although the epilogue implies that Christine may be coming back and will track down everyone related to her destruction]].

* AdaptationInducedPlotHole: Christine is painted Autumn Red, despite 1958 Plymouth Furies only coming in white or gold. In the book, it's explained that she was custom-painted. In the film, she's shown coming off the assembly line in that color. Considering that the car starts off possessed in the film, and she's the only red Fury to be seen on the entire assembly line, it's possible that she "repaired" her paint job to red while rolling down the line.

** Buddy Repperton and Richie Trelawney take this to another new dimension. Shortly before being killed by Christine, they drive around in Buddy's Camaro while listening to "Beast Of Burden" by Music/TheRollingStones. If you haven't noticed yet that they look a lot like Mick Jagger (Buddy) and Keith Richards (Richie), then you will. Maybe, just maybe Christine also holds a grudge against rock music displacing her beloved RockAndRoll.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Buddy Repperton and Richie Trelawney look a lot like [[Music/TheRollingStones Mick Jagger and Keith Richards]], respectively which becomes particularly obvious in a scene where they are driving in Buddy's Camaro, and "Beast of Burden" is playing on the radio.

-->--'''Roland D. [=LeBay=]''' to Arnie Cunningham, regarding the worst auto purchase in history. For both of them.

* HorrorDoesntSettleForSimpleTuesday / NewYearHasCome: In the film, the final showdown occurs on New Year's Eve / Day.
* IDieFree: [[spoiler:Arnie died keeping [=LeBay=] from possessing him. The film plays this differently, with Arnie's last act being to lovingly stroke Christine's fender]].
* InfernalRetaliation: [[spoiler:In the movie, Christine chases Buddy Repperton and Richie Trelawney to a gas station where they wanted to meet Don Vanderberg. She crashes into Buddy's Camaro, shoves it into the gas station, and [[StuffBlowingUp causes it to explode]] [[ImpressivePyrotechnics in a spectacular fireball]] by igniting the spilled gasoline. Buddy manages to rescue himself and believes that Christine is destroyed in the flames. But she backs OutOfTheInferno, burning all over, chases him down the road, and eventually runs over him, leaving his flaming corpse lying on the asphalt]].

** Evil possessed car threatening your day... do you find some magic spell to exorcise it? Bring the ghost closure so he can move on? No, you run over it with [[MoreDakka an oversized Caterpiller truck]], crushing it and re-crushing it [[NoKillLikeOverkill over and over until it stops healing itself]], then have your local junkyard turn it into a 3 foot square cube.
** "Car possessed by ghost" qualifies all on its own. Especially as the novel's protagonist already theorises that it's a result of post-modern blood sacrifice magic ritual. Specifically, the previous car's owner's attitude towards the machine, and its history as well (two of the guy's family members died in it), equaled to having unknowingly performed a kind of enchantment ritual on the car.

* TheCheerleader: Minor character and PomPomGirl Roseanne, who is flirty and (at least compared to Leigh) [[BrainlessBeauty not too intelligent]], but not necessarily mean either. In the book, Dennis doesn't even always think of her by name, just as "the cheerleader". She does seem to be energetic and engaged while cheering on the football game in one scene of the movie.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: In addition to his other unpleasant affectations, Roland [=LeBay]'s introduction paints him as a racist conservative, freely using the n-word in his conversation with Arnie and Dennis, and saying that black radicals, "commies" and doctors are what's wrong with the world. He also shows a disdain towards colleges and universities because of his assumption that they're filled with people sympathetic to black people's plight.

%%* DyingAsYourself: [[spoiler:Arnie]]. Dennis has a dream of him appearing.

A [[TheFilmOfTheBook film adaptation]], directed by Creator/JohnCarpenter and starring Creator/KeithGordon as Arnie, Creator/AlexandraPaul as Leight and Creator/JohnStockwell as Dennis was released the same year the book was published.

* TheGlassesComeoff: