YMMV / Death Proof

• Accidental Aesop: As some have remarked, this film provides a very good lesson on why you should wear your seatbelt and why you should never hang your leg out of the window or put them on the dashoard in a car, given that when Stuntsman Mike crashes into the first set's car, three out of the four end up dying due to wearing no seatbelt (though the one who was wearing a seatbelt also dies too) and Jungle Julia gets her leg chopped off due to hanging it out of the window prior.
• Accidental Innuendo: When Arlene says of Nate "we just fucking met each other", ironically illustrating why they didn't do very much. In Ireland, 'met' is another expression for making out.
• Adorkable:
  • Pam is so adorable when she's drunkenly declaring she won't sleep with Stuntman Mike...when he's right behind her. Twice!
  • Zoe would be straight up Badass Adorable, if her chipper demeanor and adorableness didn't just barely trump the fact that she's a nigh-indestructible Made of Iron badass. How does she begin to try and convince Kim to do ship's mast? With the classic "I'll be your best friend!"
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When it comes to the Arlene lap dance subplot, is Arlene's annoyance with it simply her being a prude? Or since she frequently complains about guys trying to overstep their boundaries with her, is she annoyed at the thought that guys who may ask her to do the dance may expect her to do even more? And is her deciding to do it a reflex action from an attack on her pride...or is it her realising she can cut loose and have fun while still maintaining her boundaries?
  • Is Jungle Julia softening up over the night just a case of alcohol making her friendlier? Or is the cold treatment she got from Chris giving her a Heel Realisation, and make her appreciate the friends who are happily spending time with her rather than the boyfriend who can't be bothered to meet her?
  • Pam claims that Jungle Julia benefited from the Casting Couch to get where she is. Is that actually true, or is that just Pam's jealousy manifesting itself?
• Awesome Music:
  • April March's "Chick Habit" aka the English version of France Gall's "Laisse tomber les filles".
  • The little 'concert' Lee gives while Abernathy is dozing in the back seat. Mary Elizabeth Winstead does have a nice voice.
  • The remastered version of The Coasters 'Down In Mexico', which plays over the lap dance (only in the European release).
• Best Known for the Fanservice:
  • The first half of the film has three girls wandering around Texas in short shorts and tight t-shirts. This is so ingrained in pop culture, people who haven't seen the film assume it's just fanservice.
  • Then the movie's most famous scene - Vanessa Ferlito doing a lap dance to "Down in Mexico". It's only included in the European release, but because of this trope, that is considered the 'true' version.
  • And then in the second half, Mary Elizabeth Winstead in a cheerleader outfit and with a gratuitous shot of her ass in the frame.
• Broken Base:
  • Opinions are divided on the film. Some think that the car chase at the end more than makes up for all of its flaws. Others just can't stand sitting through the rest of the film up to that point. The main issue is that other than some Stylistic Suck at the beginning with the title card and film quality, Tarantino just made a Tarantino movie, which some feel clashes with the far more comedic and over-the-top tone of the rest of the project.
  • Which set of protagonists do you prefer? When the film first came out, the second set won out due to having entertaining characters like Kim and Zoe who also completely own Stuntman Mike in the end. However, they also are Unintentionally Unsympathetic for some with how they treat Lee and Abernathy's dour attitude. The first set are sometimes considered annoying and ultimately pointless since they get killed off suddenly, but there are some who find them entertaining (especially Shanna and Pam) and wish they had more screentime. Then there are those who hated all the protagonists, and those who loved both sets.
  • And then there's the dialogue scenes in between the car scenes. Are they just Padding with unlikable characters that one has to get through before something interesting happens? Or are they clever Slice of Life with witty dialogue that allows the viewer to care about the car scenes even more? And is one half the former while another is the latter?
• Catharsis Factor: After all the sadistic murdering Mike goes through, it is so cathartic to watch Zoe and her group beat him up.
• Complete Monster: Stuntman Mike is a former stuntman and expert driver who becomes a Serial Killer of women by using his car as a murder weapon. He modifies the car to make it "100% Death Proof" to immunize himself from harm. Then he can use it for vehicular homicide by crashing into cars full of people and killing them in the process, or drive so dangerously that any passengers will die from the blunt force trauma caused by being thrown around in his car and hitting hard surfaces repeatedly. He extensively stalks his victims beforehand, and seems to derive sexual pleasure from his kills. He also toys with his prey, as he pursues a group of women attempting a stunt where one of them is on the hood of their car at high speed. He chases them down the road in a lengthy pursuit to see them terrified for their lives, getting kicks off the whole thing.
• Critical Backlash: With Tarantino declaring this his worst film (although he did say there were parts he was proud of), there are lots who have rushed to defend it or praise it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Zoe obviously. Since this film was made, she has gotten more work as an actress.
  • Shanna's very well-liked due to her cute Southern accent, and being the nicest of the first set of girls.
  • And of course Lee, due to being played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead. A lot of fans wish she had been included in the car chase.
• Fanon: A lot of fans believe Lee was raped in some way by Jasper while the car chase was going on. This is despite Jasper expecting the other girls back any moment, and Lee having Kim's car to drive away in if things got icky.
• Fandom Rivalry: Believe it or not, with From Dusk Till Dawn over one specific scene: each movie's Fanservice dance. The IMDB boards used to have discussions about whether Salma Hayek's dance with the snake was sexier than Arlene's lap dance to Stunt Man Mike.
• Fridge Horror:
  • Stuntman Mike's repeated insistence to Pam that he'll only drive her home if she's ready to leave when he is. He was low key offering her a way out! Had she stayed at the bar or got a lift from someone else, she would have lived.
  • Lee was left behind at Jasper's for what was intended to be maybe an hour or so. Goodness knows how long she'll be stuck there waiting for her friends. And if Jasper realises the women won't be coming back for a while, who's to say he won't start trying anything on her?
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Kurt Russell went from trying to kill Zoë Bell in this movie to being married to her in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
• Hollywood Pudgy: Not in the film itself, but Vanessa Ferlito is clearly a couple of sizes bigger than her more slender co-stars, and many fans called her fat or overweight because of this. Ironically in the film itself, Jungle Julia calls her "skinny bitch".
• Inferred Holocaust: As empowering as the climax is, the girls are likely going to be facing a lot of charges for road rage, reckless endangerment, assault and the damage done to Jasper's car.
• Just Here for Godzilla: As stated under Padding below, many viewers will watch the movie just to see the climactic car chase.
• Les Yay:
  • Kim and Zoe. In order to get Kim to play ship's mast, Zoe agrees to rub moisturiser on her ass after she gets out of the shower. There's a possibility this is intentional as the movie dropped several hints that they're a couple (but Kim does say she has a boyfriend). And Kim took Zoe's Disney Death a little harder than Abernathy.
  • Marcie takes the time to go on about how nice Jungle Julia's ass is for the sake of a roleplay. Shanna enthusiastically says "y'all are getting me hot."
  • Pam is also incredibly into Arlene's lap dance, dancing around excitedly as she watches.
• Love to Hate: Stuntman Mike obviously. He is played by Kurt Russell after all.
• Moe:
  • Shanna is an adorable Southern Belle with a cute, playful personality.
  • Marcie is such an adorable sweetheart, and fills the screen with cuteness.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • Pam is killed when Stuntman Mike makes her hit the dashboard at full speed, and we get a very Squicky shot of blood pouring from her nose and mouth as she dies.
  • The first crash scene sees Jungle Julia's leg being ripped off and falling to the road.
  • The same crash scene also has Arlene's face being carved up by a rogue wheel.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • Pam doesn't have a big role, only appearing in a few of the bar scenes, but Rose McGowan brings lots of sass and charm that makes her death all the more heart breaking.
  • Marcie, Jungle Julia's Genki Girl of a friend who acts out the lapdance scenario for Arlene when they meet her in the bar. Just five minutes of screen time, but she's so charming you remember her.
• Padding: People who don't enjoy the dialogue between the girls say that they should still stick through the movie to enjoy the final car chase.
• The Scrappy: Abernathy is probably the least popular of the girls. She spends a good amount of time whining about Cecil sleeping with another woman as if they had been exclusive - when all they had done was hold hands (read: that's all she allowed him to do). She picks on Lee several times and eventually lies to Jasper that Lee is a porn actress, then leaves her alone with the creep. Never mind that she doesn’t prove herself indispensable during the confrontation with Stuntman Mike. Kim does 100% of the defensive driving and shoots him and both she and Zoe prove themselves more than capable of beating him to a pulp on their own. Also she curses a little too much.
• Signature Scene:
  • The climactic car chase is considered the best scene in the film. Even those who don't like the character-driven first half say it's worth watching just for that.
  • Arlene's lap dance is a close second. Especially ironic, since it only appears in the European release.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: The first half of the film is very character-driven and Slice of Life - focusing on the sex lives of three girls and their preparation for a weekend trip. They spend most of their time in the bar, having conversations about insignificant things. This is all build-up for their shocking and sudden deaths in Stuntman Mike's first attack.
• Take That, Scrappy!: Abernathy tries to rant that Kim isn't as hard as she thinks, and gets promptly shut up by the latter. She also gets teased for Cecil sleeping with another woman on her birthday.
• Testosterone Brigade: A plethora of gorgeous actresses, many of whom dress in hot pants and have beautiful long hair (Jungle Julia in particular has lots of shots highlighting her hair, legs and ass) has given some the impression that this is two hours of fanservice.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The film does look timeless thanks to the music and fashions largely being Shout Outs to the 50s, 60s and 70s, but there are several things that place it in the mid-2000s. First is the technology - Jungle Julia uses a blocky Nokia cellphone, Lee listens to music on an iPod, Stuntman Mike takes pictures of the girls via camera (and therefore having to print them out and go to more effort to cover up his voyeurism by disposing of them, as opposed to deleting them off a smartphone). Abernathy is Lindsay Lohan's make-up artist - pin-pointing the movie to the part of the decade where Lindsay had moved past Disney and teen films, and was doing maturer roles before her infamous public breakdown (and no character referencing this). The girls also refer to Dwayne Johnson as 'The Rock', who had only just stopped appearing semi-regularly with WWE. The movie theatre sign the car crashes through is showing mid-2000s releases Wolf Creek and Scary Movie 3. Also, Kim and Abernathy allude to growing up with John Hughes movies, and the twentysomething Lee even Squees about Pretty in Pink - meaning they'd have been late 70s or 80s kids (Rosario Dawson, Zoë Bell and Tracie Thoms were born in the 70s).
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: As noted above, Abernathy. Her desire to 'cut loose' comes at the expense of leaving Lee alone with a potential rapist - after leading said man to believe that Lee was also a porn star.

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