Characters / Death Proof

Character page for the Death Proof part of Grindhouse Double Feature.

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Stuntman Mike

Stuntman Mike

Played By: Kurt Russell

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In the end, he begs for his life when the girls turn the tables on him.
• All Men Are Perverts: He stalks his victims, manipulates Arlene into giving him a lap dance, fondles Abernethy's feet while she's sleeping and of course the car crashes are part of a sexual thrill.
• Badass Driver: The man got into at least two car crashes and lived to tell the tale. We have to give him that.
• Bait the Dog: His first scene hints to him being a voyeur, but the majority of his screen time in the bar serves to hype Stuntman Mike up as being a charming, friendly and affable figure - to the point that even if he is a stranger, Pam doesn't think anything suspicious of getting into a car with him. Then he murders five girls in one go for sexual thrill.
• Big Bad: The main villain of the movie.
• Boisterous Weakling: Whenever Stuntman Mike is in his car and his victims are helpless young women, he revels in his cruelty and murderous actions. But when the second group of protagonists choose to actually fight back, Stuntman Mike spends the rest of his screentime fleeing from them in sheer terror, and begs for mercy when he's finally cornered.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': He doesn't drink in the first half and survives the crash. In the second half, he drinks some liquor to sooth Kim's gunshot wound - and is one-upped by the second set of girls.
• Compensating for Something: Lee and Abernathy watch Stuntman Mike burn rubber out of the service station in his Dodge Charger R/T 500 and conclude, "Little dick." Given that he gets his kicks by killing women with his car, and is later shown sitting with the hood ornament between his legs, they may be right. Later McGraw speculates Mike is impotent and that killing woman with his car is his only way of finding relief.
• Dirty Coward: Once he's confronted by victims who fight back, he's powerless.
• Faux Affably Evil: While stalking his victims, Stuntman Mike takes the guise of a cheesy but occasionally charming guy to hide being a murderous pervert. After getting run off the road, he tries to give his second batch of would-be victims a cheery salute for surviving, but they're not playing around.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a large scar running down his face, hinting that he's the bad guy.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: A Serial Killer who makes his kills with a death-proof car.
• Jabba Table Manners: He doesn't exactly eat his nachos delicately.
• Psychopathic Manchild: At his core, he is pretty much a mean-spirited child in an adult body.
• Screams Like a Little Girl: When his car crashes at the end, his screams are extremely high-pitched like a small child's.
• Sex Is Violence: It's implied that killing women with with his car is the only way he can climax.
• The Sociopath: Beneath his affable demeanor lies a callous and self-absorbed man who views serial murder as an exciting game.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He speaks quite softly to Arlene and Pam.
• The Teetotaler: Exploited. The fact that he wasn't drinking in the bar is what helps him escape charges for the first crash.
• Villainous Breakdown: When the second set of girls fight back, he loses it completely.

First group

Arlene/Butterfly

Arlene

Played By: Vanessa Ferlito

• Badass Boast: "Well, Stuntman Mike, I'm Butterfly. You best get ready for your lap dance."
• Brooklyn Rage: Downplayed. She's much more aggressive and blunt than her friends, curses a lot, and Vanessa Ferlito taps into her 'noo yawk' accent more than once.
• Butt-Monkey: She appears to be the one of her group.
  "Everything's funny to you two when it's happening to me!"
• Cluster F-Bomb: As mentioned above, she drops several f-bombs throughout the film.
• Decoy Protagonist: She's set up as the lead in the first set of girls - the one who notices Stuntman Mike following them and has more screen time. Then she's murdered right in the middle of the film.
• Final Girl: She has the elements - brown hair, slightly more prudish than her friends and gets Genre Savvy about Stuntman Mike. But it's subverted when she dies anyway.
• Foot Focus: The opening credits are of her feet on the dashboard of a car. Although according to the credits, Vanessa Ferlito had a foot double.
• Irony: She finds Jungle Julia's prank with the lap dance annoying, but has to later admit she's offended that no one tried to get her to do it.
• Mating Dance: She does a sexy lap dance to "Down in Mexico" by The Coasters.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: If she wants to play along to the lap dance dare, she must claim that Butterfly is her real name.
• Sidetracked by the Analogy: Invoked. When role playing with Marcie, she takes the time to go on about how fat Jungle Julia's ass is.
• Skewed Priorities: "You have two jobs - kiss good and make sure my hair don't get wet."
• Sour Prudes: She's quite grumpy about Nate's apparent desire to go further, and the idea that she has to give a lap dance to a complete stranger. She also seems insecure about people in the bar knowing her and Nate made out in his car, or anyone's assumptions that they went further.
• Unusual Euphemism: She refers to sex as "the thing".
  "You know, it's everything but."

Jungle Julia

Jungle Julia Lucai

Played By: Sydney Tamiia Poitier^note She goes by that name professionally but is credited as 'Sydney Poitier' as a gag to who her father is.

• AM/FM Characterization: According to her, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich was a better band than The Who and Pete Townshend should have jumped ship when he had the chance.
• Audio Erotica: She puts this on when telling Arlene what she said on the radio.
• Body Horror: Her leg is ripped off in the crash.
• The Bully: Was apparently one at school. And kind of is as an adult.
• Cluster F-Bomb: She drops plenty of 'fucks' into the conversation.
• Deadpan Snarker: She engages in Snark-to-Snark Combat with every other character.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: As the night goes on, her softer side comes out and she's seen hugging Arlene and trying to fend off Stuntman Mike when she thinks he's bothering her. She's also somewhat nicer to Pam by the end.
• Feet-First Introduction: She's introduced walking around her apartment, with the camera focusing on her feet before panning up to her head.
• Friendship Moment: When she sees Stuntman Mike trying to pressure Arlene, Julia comes to her defence and says she already did the dance - trying to get Mike to back off.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Several characters gush about her beauty, and she's frequently catching Stuntman Mike's attention.
• Ms. Fanservice: She gets the most Male Gazey shots of the rest of the girls, and appears to be the in-universe Ms Fanservice of her radio station.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Jungle Julia is what everyone calls her. She even signs her texts 'JJ'.
• Proud Beauty: She boasts that men of all ages and races have admired her ass.
• School Yard Bully All Grown Up: Pam says that she sleeps with guys she used to beat up in elementary school.
• Stacy's Mom: Inverted. She's said to flirt shamelessly with Shanna's father.
• Statuesque Stunner: Thanks to her long, luscious legs - she's a statuesque beauty. The script says she's maybe 6 ft, and her actress is just one inch below that.
• Sugar-and-Ice Personality: She's seen giving an out-of-character girlish smile when she gets a text from her boyfriend.

Shanna

Shanna

Played By: Jordan Ladd

• Affectionate Nickname: Shanna Banana.
• Beauty Is Never Tarnished: She gets thrown from the car and lands on the road apparently undisfigured. This contrasts with the more brutal deaths Arlene and Jungle Julia suffer.
• Berserk Button: Well she's quite nice about it, but she explains that every girl called Shanna hates being mistakenly called Shauna.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: With her blonde hair, she's the nicest of her group.
• Hard-Drinking Party Girl: She's probably the one of the girls who drinks the most and has fun - where Jungle Julia and Arlene are angsting about a boyfriend and Stuntman Mike respectively.
• Nice Girl: The nicest protagonist in the first half.
• Slashers Prefer Blondes: As the blonde of the group, she's the first to have her death shown.
• Southern Belle: Jordan Ladd puts on a southern accent for the role.
• Team Mom: She seems to be quite motherly towards her two friends.
• Token Wholesome: She tells the girls she's not letting them bring boys back to the cabin, and talks less about sex than the other two.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Her and Jungle Julia snipe at each other all the time for fun, and she jokingly says "it's how we tolerate each other after all these years."

Lanna

Lanna Frank

Played By: Monica Staggs

• Boyish Short Hair: A pretty wicked sort-of pixie cut.
• Designated Driver: Even a little stoned, she considers herself good enough to drive the others home.

Pam

Pam

Played By: Rose McGowan

• Age-Gap Romance: Defied. She insists she won't sleep with Stuntman Mike, and says he's old enough to be her dad.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After being scared by Stuntman Mike, she pleads with him to let her go.
• Blood from the Mouth: After Stuntman Mike kills her, blood can be seen pouring from her mouth and nose.
• Cluster F-Bomb: When Stuntman Mike takes her on a wild ride, she starts cursing at him.
• Dumb Blonde: Downplayed. She doesn't get any of the references Stuntman Mike makes and has a slightly ditzy personality.
• Even the Girls Want Her: She can be seen getting very into Arlene's lap dance.
• Genre Savvy: When hearing that Stuntman Mike is a teetotaler, she questions why he would spend hours in a bar of all places drinking club soda - and is suspicious that he was eavesdropping on her conversation with Warren.
• Granola Girl: She's dressed like a "dirty hippie" according to Jungle Julia.
• Hood Ornament Hottie: She assumes a pose that evokes this when examining Stuntman Mike's car.
• Kill the Cutie: She's a perky blonde, more modest than the protagonist and with an endearingly ditzy persona. Of course she's the first victim.
• Nice Girl: Aside from her Take That! to Jungle Julia (who was her bully in school), she seems like a very friendly and bubbly person.
• The Rival: She and Jungle Julia have been rivals since school.
• Slut-Shaming: She gets a Take That! to Jungle Julia by claiming she benefited from the Casting Couch.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Her face as she's about to get into Stuntman Mike's car says it all. She grimaces at the thought that the only bright side is that she has a guarantee he won't be putting his hand on her leg during the ride.

Second group

Abernathy

Abernathy

Played By: Rosario Dawson

• Action Mom: She longs to actually be this, as she calls Zoe and Kim on their using her being a mother to exclude her from antics. She certainly establishes these credentials in the ending.
• Action Survivor: As she doesn't have the stunt credentials of Kim and Zoe, and remains passively in the passenger seat for the car chases, she maybe doesn't quite qualify for Action Girl. But she still gets her licks in on Stuntman Mike in the climax.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: While initially seeming friendly, she does bully Lee a bit and puts her in danger so she can fool around with Kim and Zoe.
• Brief Accent Imitation: When quoting Zoe, she briefly imitates her New Zealand accent.
• Butt-Monkey: When Lee's not around, she's one to Kim and Zoe. And Lee is also there when they tease Abernathy about how Cecil slept with another woman on her birthday.
• The Face: She facilitates Zoe and Kim getting the car to test drive just through chatting to Jasper.
• Girly Girl: She's a make-up artist, loves John Hughes movies, and gets very excited when she discovers there's a copy of Italian Vogue in rural Tennessee.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Zoe often calls her 'Abbie', and she encourages Jasper to do so when he has trouble with her full name.
• Only Sane Man: Defied. She actually gets annoyed at everyone treating her like this, longing to be given the chance to cut loose.
• Pink Means Feminine: She wears a pink t-shirt to solidify herself as more feminine than Kim and Zoe (though Zoe is wearing pink too).
• Sour Prudes: Downplayed. She won't sleep with her director Cecil, only allowing him to hold her hand when they go to the movies, and is very annoyed at him sleeping with another woman on her birthday. But she clarifies that this is because she would rather be his girlfriend than The Mistress - which she will definitely become if she sleeps with him (and one of many, judging from how she says "his regulars").
• Spicy Latina: Downplayed. She does have a temper and gets sassy on Kim at one point, but she also mentions that she's half hungover and therefore not in the best mood that day. She's also less sexual than the other members of the group.
• Team Mom: Again, subverted. She's treated like the responsible motherly figure (and is the only one in the group to be a mother), but wants to cut loose.

Zoe

Zoe

Played By: Zoë Bell

• The Ace: Always lands on her feet, in excellent physical condition, completely unfazed by stressful situations. Also able to laugh at herself when she does mess up.
• Action Girl: She's a stuntwoman for a living, and kicks Stuntman Mike's ass in the end.
• Adam Westing: While Zoe Bell's real life persona was not necessarily known, Tarantino wrote her this way; she's an invincible stunt woman who does ridiculously reckless things and always comes out on top.
• As Herself: Judging by her being from Auckland, New Zealand and being a professional stuntwoman, it's safe to say Zoe is playing herself.
• Badass Adorable: A stunt woman in-universe and an Action Girl...she's also very geeky and puts on a cutesy baby voice whenever she wants to get someone to do something for her. Her first bribe to Kim is the classic "I'll be your best friend."
  • When she climbs back onto the Challenger to go after Stuntman Mike, she straddles the open window, lightly kicks the door and says "Giddy-up, girl!", all while wielding a metal pipe ready to bash his head in!
• Berserk Button: Subverted. It seems she's annoyed about being mistaken for Australian, but she's just joking.
• Brief Accent Imitation: "Bitch, get over here and get busy" - imitating Kim.
• Chekhov's Skill: Abernathy's story about Zoe falling down the ditch and landing on her feet foreshadows that Zoe will survive Stuntman Mike's attack.
• The Fool: It's said that she has a habit of ending up in awkward situations and coming out on top.
• Genki Girl: She's positively giddy in every scene, and even shrugs off nearly being killed in a car chase with a perky "that was a close one".
• Kick Chick: Stuntman Mike is knocked to the ground when Zoe gives him a picture perfect spinning heel kick.
• Shaking Her Hair Loose: She shakes her hair free when preparing to play Ship's Mast.
• Thrill Seeker: Zoe's one goal while she's in town is to play Ship's Mast (riding on the hood of a moving car, holding onto only a pair of belts for safety) on a car identical to one from Vanishing Point.

Kim

Kim

Played By: Tracie Thoms

• Action Girl: Like Zoe, she's a stuntwoman for a living. She proves badass enough to get out of two car chases with all occupants of her car alive (the first of which had someone straddling the windscreen!), and gives Stuntman Mike a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
• Afro Ass Kicker: She wears her hair naturally in an afro and kicks Stuntman Mike's ass at the end.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Even outside of the climactic chase, she's quite loud and aggressive. When hunting Mike down, she lets the one-liners rip.
• Crazy-Prepared: She carries a gun in the event that she runs into someone in her building at the wrong time.
• Ethical Slut: She's portrayed as a likable character in spite of her habit of stealing men from other women. She is however in a relationship at the moment.
• Hot-Blooded: Kim seems very combative in general, and is positively euphoric when chasing down Stuntman Mike.
• Lad Ette: She's obsessed with cars, carries a gun and is the most tomboyish of the second group.
• N-Word Privileges: As the only black woman in the group, she drops the N-word plenty of times without anyone questioning her.
• Pseudo-Romantic Friendship: She and Zoe are very close, and Kim's condition for playing Ship's Mast is making Zoe agree to rub moisturiser on her ass.
• Religious Bruiser: At one point she tells Zoe off, saying "don't blaspheme!"
• Sassy Black Woman: Oh boy yes. She was written to be a female Samuel L. Jackson. She does however have a level-headed side, and gets realistically sad and worried - so she's not just this.
• Scary Black Woman: She's very formidable and no-nonsense. Her friends of course see her softer side, but the scary side comes out full force when she's hunting Stuntman Mike down. Zoe and Abernathy even seem a little intimidated as she goes into her Pre Ass Kicking One Liner.
• Token Black Friend: Inverted. While she and Zoe are a double act, Kim is an independent character who actually gets more lines and screen time than Zoe. The latter is defined as the best friend to Kim and Abernathy.
• Tomboy with a Girly Streak: She is extremely tomboyish but says she still watches John Hughes movies because "I'm a girl". She also Squees over Cecil's romantic present to Abernathy.

Lee

Lee

Played By: Mary Elizabeth Winstead

• The Beautiful Elite: Played by the beautiful Mary Elizabeth Winstead, she's also a Hollywood actress and model - with several admirers. She's also a sweetheart, and with a lovely singing voice.
• Brainless Beauty: Downplayed. She misses some obvious sarcasm and is easily trolled by jokes from Abernathy and Zoe.
• Butt-Monkey: As the one girl outside the established friend group of Zoe, Kim and Abernathy, she gets picked on a bit.
• Comically Missing the Point:
  • She ignores Cecil sleeping with another woman on Abernathy's birthday to Squee about his admittedly romantic gift of a mixed tape.
  • Kim ribs her and Abernathy for watching girly movies like Pretty in Pink, which offends the latter. Lee however just Squees "I like Pretty in Pink."
• Covert Pervert: While seeming like a wholesome girl, she lets a grip watch her pee so he can get off on it.
• Girly Girl: A glamorous Hollywood actress and model, and the most feminine of the second group.
• Head-Turning Beauty: Beautiful enough to be featured in Allure, has at least two crew members attracted to her, and the prospect of being left alone with her is all Jasper needs to allow the others to take the car.
• Hidden Depths: In addition to being a beautiful actress and model, she has a very pleasant singing voice.
• Ms. Fanservice: Spends all her screentime in a flattering cheerleader outfit, and gets a couple of Male Gazey shots of her ass.
• Naïve Newcomer: Sort of. Zoe, Kim and Abernathy have known each other for years, while Lee has only known the latter two from working on the film. As a result, she doesn't know their stories and is pranked a few times.
• Nice Girl: Despite being a little ditzy, she seems like a sweet and friendly girl.
• Not So Above It All: Although appearing more modest and wholesome, with her getting embarrassed about 'Tool Bot's fetish for her peeing - she gives Abernathy some sex advice, suggesting she's a pro at playing hard to get. It's also her who makes a joke that Stuntman Mike is Compensating for Something.
• Pom-Pom Girl: Well she's only playing a cheerleader in a film, but she's got the perky attitude.
• Token White: Until Zoe shows up, she's the only white girl in the second set of protagonists.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After the others depart for the test drive - therefore setting up the car chases - Lee is last seen with Jasper. She was either raped by him, managed to have awkward small talk for a long time or got bored and drove off in Kim's car.

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