The Flying Car in Grease
What on earth (or off it, in this case), is the point of the red and chrome convertible, complete with happy couple Danny and Sandy, taking off into the wild blue yonder at the end of the movie Grease? Don’t despair – let us study some other case histories, and see if we can’t come up with a few suggestions.
Flying cars are actually more common in the land of movies than one might think. One of the earliest examples was the creation of The Absent-Minded Professor, which was dragged out of mothballs for a further cameo in the remake, Flubber – however, as there is no suggestion in the movie that Eugene or the science department of Rydell High School has been experimenting with any green rubbery goo of gravity-defying properties, I think we can rule this antecedent out. The cheerful chuffing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang offers no clues – Dick Van Dyke himself is flabbergasted when his restored racing car sprouts wings and takes to the skies, and Scaramanga wasn’t giving away any secrets with his flying Chrysler escape vehicle in The Man with the Golden Gun, though Q does mention to Bond that it is “perfectly feasible”, and that his branch were working on something similar at the time… We could always blame some rogue wizardry, as the flying family car piloted by young Ron in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets would indicate, but although Grease’s Principal McGee may be somewhat witch-like, I’m not sure her powers extend to levitating automobiles. Besides which, she’s too preoccupied cuddling up with Coach Calhoun at the end of the movie to do so.
Okay, so this is not helping, Tell you more, tell you more? Very well, let us look for some clues elsewhere.
From the pre-credit sequence, this film is already having fun pushing the boundaries of realism, remember. Swelling choir music, sunset, wave-washed sands, a kiss – from the outset, here is an emphatically romantic fairytale world, and this is “just the beginning”, as Danny points out. The cartoon title sequence with the lyrics “This is a life of illusion” also plays around with the messy teenage realism of Danny’s daily morning routine as juxtaposed with Sandy’s Disney princess waking moments, complete with a cute deer and those obliging song birds. Rizzo says ironically later that morning to her highness, “Maybe if you believe in miracles, Prince Charming will show up again some day, somewhere unexpected…”
And of course, so he does. Grease is a great modern musical parody of Cinderella – a funky fifties fairytale. Naïve country girl (read Australian…!) meets handsome prince of the school, relationship dilemmas ensue, prince undergoes a quest journey to prove himself worthy of his love. He fails a few times, but eventually succeeds in chivalric style (as Kenickie had already realised by asking him to be ‘his second’) by defeating the villain in a test of skill and bravery. Cinderella goes to the ball from which she is forced to make an untimely exit, but gets a fabulous makeover which proves she’s a princess after all, and they’re all going to live happily ever after, for they’ll “always be together…” Sha na na na na. Even though the fairy god-hunk appears to the wrong pink lady as far as the original tale goes, the parallels on the whole offer us some hope of explanation. The Greased Lightning car is a literal representation of the crux of all good fairy stories – the dream that comes true. The shop teacher did say that “If it was in any better condition, it would fly…” Thus, the car taking off into the clouds at the close of the movie is the ultimate happy ending where everything is in the best possible condition, and a reminder of the fun and metafictional nature of the movie as an updated and witty fable – it is the flying carpet, the white steed being ridden off into the sunset, the pumpkin which is magically turned into a dazzling coach.
You didn’t think the first glimpse of Sandy as hot chick, worthy Danny consort and Rydell’s reigning princess being a closeup of her high-heeled sexy red sandal was a concidence, did you?
Wop bama looma a wop bam boom!
