In the Cars Movie
Lightning McQueen is an Arrogant Rookie

The Pixar Cars movie opens with an exciting racing scene. It is the final race at the Motor Speedway of the South and its come down to three finalists battling for the coveted Piston Cup Championship.

The leading contenders are the favorite seven-time champion, Strip "The King" Weathers, the dirty fighting and always second place Chick Hicks and a newcomer rookie named Lightning McQueen.

Chick causes a huge wreck amongst the mob of other race cars and Lightning, coming from behind, is miraculously able to dodge the ensuing chaos and takes the lead ahead of his opponents.

But Lightning McQueen is naive, arrogant and dismisses his pit crew by only accepting more gas, no tire changes. This short term gain gets him an entire lap ahead and just as he's at the final stretch, his two back tires blow out. He limps to the finish line as The King and Chick Hicks blow past him. Slow motion video determines that it is a three-way tie and a tie-breaker race will be held in one week at the Los Angeles International Speedway.

Eager to get to Los Angeles on a rumor that Dinoco will favor the first contestant to arrive, Lightning McQueen demands that his transport big rig, Mack, to drive through the night when Mack was ready to pull off at a rest area. Mack is very sleepy and is lulled completely when a gang of street racer cars play a Kenny G. tune to him. The rumble strip causes the trailer's back door to open and a sleeping Lightning McQueen rolls out onto the Interstate.

Lightning McQueen quickly wakes up when the oncoming traffic nearly collide with him and he quickly turns himself around and speeds off looking for Mack. The Cars movies shows a colorfully lit truck in the distance ahead and he catches up, barely getting past a freight train crossing his path.

The colorful truck is a Peterbilt that transports recycled waste, and he scolds Lightning for not having his headlights on. Race cars don't have headlights in Cars the movie.

Tearin' Up the Town

IRRISITIBLE! Loads of Cars Toys!

In a panic now that he can't find Mack, Lightning McQueen heads back to where he thinks Interstate 40 is, only he's become lost. He speeds (as race cars do) down the road only to have the local sheriff car start chasing him. It's an old car and it starts backfiring, and Lightning thinks he's being shot at. Lightning weaves back and forth and Sheriff thinks he's some wacko and continues to pursue him.

Lightning McQueen enters the tiny town of Radiator Springs at full speed, trying to escape Sheriff. In the process, he's managed to tear up the entire road with a statue of the town's founder, Stanley. Lightning is strung up and then impounded at Mater's.

The next morning, Lightning McQueen wakes up with a hillbilly redneck type of rusty old tow truck who introduces himself as Mater. "Like tuh-mater but without the tuh exclaims the truck. Lightning also has a boot on to keep him from fleeing and is hauled into court to face his charges of speeding and destroying the road.

He's hauled into court and the town's judge and doctor, Doc Hudson, arrives, he takes one look at Lightning McQueen and is ready to dismiss the case on the fact that Lightning is a race car. Then the town's attorney arrives. She's a sleek blue late model Porche named Sally Carrera and she quickly convinces the other members of Radiator Springs that this is a town worth saving and Lightning McQueen needs to repair the road as community service before he leaves.

Lightning is furious in the Cars movie at having to be kept "prisoner" in this hick town, complaining that his IQ is going down every minute he spends there. Just as Mater is hooking Lightning up to Bessie, the huge and dirty road paver, he unlocks the boot and Lightning McQueen speeds off down the road. He's elated that he's outsmart the tow truck but his mood changes when he runs out of gas. He comes to a stop in front of a billboard where Sheriff and Sally are waiting.

Lightning McQueen Eats Dirt

He's taken back and promised that he will be let go so he can get to the Piston Cup in California once the road is repaved. So Lightning rushes through it and does such a lousy job that he must scrape off the new asphalt and start over again.

Then, to Lightning's delighted surprise, Doc Hudson offers him a deal. Lightning McQueen may leave if he wins a race with him around Willy's Butte. Lightning thinks Doc is a crazy oldster and leaves him in the dust at the starting line. Doc just sits there and eventually makes his way slowly, asking Mater to come along.

Lightning McQueen knows how to race on tracks with engineered curves that can take a turn, and when he tries to make the dusty turn, he loses control and falls down a ravine into a bunch of cactus. Mater reels him in like a fish and Doc ambles along to the finish line telling him he races like he fixes roads. So Lightning starts scraping...

Getting to Know Radiator Springs

As he finally makes his way, doing a decent job, he gets to know the people of Radiator Springs. Even the shy firetruck, Red, who clearly disliked Lightning at first, sprays him down to get the dust and tar off him. He begins to build trust in the town, and Sally is even warming up to him, her nickname for him, "Stickers," doesn't sound mean to him anymore.

That night Mater takes Lightning for an adventure: tractor tipping. They sneak out into a field and Mater quietly comes up to a sleeping cow-like tractor. He blares his horn at it, startling it awake and it tips backward making a funny belching sound. It's hilarious and Mater does it again and encourages Lightning to give it a try.

The next day, Lightning finds himself in Doc Hudson's garage, where there are numerous signs saying to keep out. He notices not one, but three Piston Cup trophies lying haphazardly in the garage holding tools and collecting dust and spiderwebs.

Lightning McQueen is shocked. He then realizes that Doc Hudson is the famous race car from the 1950s called The Hudson Hornet. Doc catches Lightning in his garage and tells him to get out, but Lightning is fawning over Doc, saying they are alike and why did he quit when he was at the top of his game. "You think I quit?!?" asks Doc. Lightning then sees a newspaper article framed on the wall showing a terrible wreck of a car - Hudson Hornet/Doc Hudson.

Lightning heads over to Flos to get his daily rationing of gas, but Sally allows him to get more and they go on a drive together. She takes him up into the mountains with some very beautiful scenery and a gorgeous waterfall. It's here that his infatuation with Sally grows.

At the summit, Sally takes McQueen to an abandoned hotel called The Wheel Well Motel and told him how it was very popular years ago. She also told her story of her days in Los Angeles as a high flying attorney, but how unhappy she was until she couldn't take anymore and drove away. She found herself in Radiator Springs and never left. In the Cars movie, Sally tells McQueen about Radiator Springs in its glory days, before Interstate 40 was built to save only 10 minutes of driving time.

Cruisin'

The next morning, the folks of Radiator Springs wake up to see a new road as smooth and gleaming as could be. Even Ramone, the low-rider, could go as low as possible for the first time in years. Before Lightning is ready to leave, though, he stops at all of his friends' shops to sort of stimulate the economy.

Suddenly lights are in the distance and the townsfolk brace themselves for customers. It's a mob of photographers, reporters, helicopters and Mack, Lightning McQueen's big rig truck! Lightning must say a hurried goodbye and Sally tells him he hopes he finds happiness, wherever that may be and he's whisked off, in a flurry of activity, to Los Angeles. He never got a chance to properly say goodbye to everybody.

One of the reporters stops to thank Doc Hudson for the call informing of Lightning's whereabouts. Sally overhears and is furious with Doc and she goes back to her safety cone hotel to be alone. Doc realizes in the Cars movie what a positive impact Lightning McQueen has on Radiator Springs

The Piston Cup Race

At the Los Angeles International Speedway, the tiebreaker race among Lightning McQueen, The King and Chick Hicks is being hailed as the "biggest race in history." Lightning psyches himself up for the race as he normally does, but he keeps getting distracted as he thinks about Sally cruising by the waterfall. He can't concentrate and he's behind in time, thinking he might lose.

Then to his great surprise he sees Doc Hudson acting as his crew chief. The cameras zoom in on Doc, in disbelief and awe at the famous Hudson Hornet. The crowd goes crazy with cheering for the old racing legend showing on the jumbo screens. Others from Radiator Springs are there to help as his pit crew, including Mater, Luigi and Guido, the fastest tire changer ever!

Lightning gets the boost he needs from Doc and was able to recover from Chick Hicks bumping him off the track from Doc's recommendation to turn right to go left. Lightning's now in the lead!

A desperate Chick Hicks sideswipes The King, sending him into a terrible rollover crash and he looked an awful lot like Doc Hudson did when he had crashed. Lightning McQueen slams on his breaks just before crossing the finish line as Chick Hicks zooms past, winning the Piston Cup.

Lightning goes over to The King and gently pushes him over the finish line, allowing him to finish his last race with dignity. The crowd goes crazy for Lightning, but when The Piston Cup is presented to the winner, Chick Hicks, nobody seems to care.

In Cars, Lightning McQueen is praised for his sportsmanship and is offered Dinoco sponsorship, but he declines, deciding to stay with Rust-Eze, the company who gave him his break into the racing circuit.

A few days later, Lightning McQueen returns to Radiator Springs, choosing the town to be his racing headquarters. This decision helps to revitalize the town with tourism. And at the end of the Cars movie, Mater got to ride in "one of them helicopters".