Not a Scratch on It: Difference between revisions

This is often a consequence of lawyers: for [[Product Placement]], car companies will often supply the vehicles for a movie, on the terms that the cars not be damaged, either because they'd like them back, or to perpetuate some ridiculous idea that their cars are indestructible. This is made worse in [[Video Games]], since some game companies have an irrational need to pay to licence real products instead of making the other company pay ''them'' for the advertising like everyone else, the makers of the products in question can set the terms to whatever they want, which can often mean indestructible cars. This can influence gameplay; at least one racing game has had to cut out damage models because the licensors wouldn't let them.

 

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* Mentioned on the ''[[Transformers (film)|Transformers]]'' DVD, where the CGI robots were given plenty of dings and scratches to help them blend into the environment, but the prop cars themselves were always buffed, sometimes giving them an almost CGI appearance.

* The [[Nigh Invulnerable]] Dodge truck in the movie ''[[Film/Twister|Twister]]''. The rest of the storm chaser's cars lose windshields to hail and get dented from storm debris, the hero's truck only gets a measly flat tire, and that's not even storm-related!

* In the 1984 film of [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|the story of the same name]], everything is run down, dirty and decaying except for a patrol helicopter that's seen outside Winston Smith's window at one point. Presumably because it would have been too much trouble to dirty down a helicopter and then clean it up again before returning it to the hire company.

** This is possibly [[Fridge Brilliance]]. A totalitarian government will make sure to keep patrol helicopters and other military vehicles in pristine condition because they focus more on the military than the rest of the country, akin to Soviet Russia or North Korea.

* Arguably, the vehicle driven by Dennis Quaid in the film ''[[Vantage Point]]''. He (playing a Secret Service agent) chases a vehicle being driven by his traitorous partner, and incurs three car crashes during the chase, none of which slow the vehicle down at all. It's only a full-on collision with a wall that stops the vehicle, and Dennis Quaid jumps out of the vehicle with nary a scratch.

* ''[[The French Connection]]'', when police officer Popeye Doyle drives recklessly to catch a suspect travelling to a nearby station in Manhattan. The car narrowly misses dozens of vehicles and pedestrians, and makes it without a scratch.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** Of the 26 Dodge Chargers used in the film, many were wrecked so a few could finish without a scratch. One of the original General Lee's had to be returned to Warner studios after shooting, and two Chargers that were acquired for two bucks on the condition they be sold back to the prior owner for a dollar and a quarter each.

* Justified in ''[[Knight Rider]]'', with the car being [[Nigh Invulnerable]]. Even more so in the recent TV movie, where the car isn't quite as invulnerable, but self-repairing. After a certain crash, the car still sparkled. (As per the tv movie, it also only worked when the system was on; turn off the computer, and you have a normal, smashable car. In the show, however, it was a high tech polymer, with the formula split between three different people. KITT did not become vulnerable until someone created an antidote, and then it was just so they could upgrade KITT into a convertible.)

== [[Real Life]] ==

* Volvos. The damn things are nigh indestructible, it takes a lot of deliberate effort to kill one, like driving one off of a cliff, ''Twice''.

 

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[[Category:Vehicle Tropes]]