Streets of Fire  

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Streets of Fire is a 1984 American neo-noir rock musical film directed by Walter Hill and co-written by Hill and Larry Gross. The film is described in its opening credits and posters as "A Rock & Roll Fable" and is a mix of various movie genres with elements of retro-1950s woven into then-current 1980s themes.

The film grossed $8 million in North America, against a production budget of $14.5 million.

Plot

In Richmond, a city district in a time period that resembles the 1950s (referred to within the film as 'another time, another place'), Ellen Aim (Diane Lane), lead singer of Ellen Aim and the Attackers, has returned home to give a concert. The Bombers, a biker gang of another part of town named the Battery, led by Raven Shaddock (Willem Dafoe), crash the concert and kidnap Ellen.

Witnessing this is Reva Cody (Deborah Van Valkenburgh), who asks her brother Tom (Michael Paré), an ex-soldier and Ellen's ex-boyfriend, to come home and rescue her. Tom returns, and after defeating a small gang of thugs, he takes their car. When Reva fails to convince Tom to rescue Ellen, he checks out the local tavern, the Blackhawk. He is annoyed by a tomboyish ex-soldier named McCoy (Amy Madigan), a mechanic who "could drive anything" and who is good with her fists. They leave the bar and Tom lets McCoy stay with him and Reva. That night, Tom agrees to rescue Ellen, but for $10,000 to be paid by Ellen's manager and current boyfriend, Billy Fish (Rick Moranis).

While Reva and McCoy go to a diner to wait for Billy, Tom acquires a cache of weapons, including a pump action shotgun, a revolver, and a lever action rifle. Tom and Billy meet at the diner, and Billy agrees to pay Tom, but Tom requires that Billy goes with him back into the Battery to get Ellen, since he used to live there; after some negotiation, Billy agrees to go, and McCoy talks Tom into cutting her in for 10% in exchange for her help.

In the Battery, they visit Torchie's, where Billy used to book bands. They wait until nightfall under an overpass, watching bikers come and go. Raven has Ellen tied up in an upstairs bedroom. As Tom, Billy, and McCoy approach, Tom directs Billy to get the car and be out front in fifteen minutes.

McCoy enters and is stopped by one of the "Bombers". Pretending to like him, McCoy follows him to his special "party room", close to where Raven is playing poker. McCoy then knocks him out. Tom finds a window and, as a distraction, starts shooting the gas tanks on the gang's motorcycles; he then reaches Ellen's room, cuts her free and, with McCoy's help, escapes just as Billy arrives at the front door.

Riding in the convertible, Tom sends his crew off to meet at the Grant Street Overpass, and leaves to blow up the gas pumps outside a bar. Raven appears out of the flames to confront Tom. After learning who he is, Raven warns he will be coming for Ellen and for him, too. Tom escapes on the one intact motorcycle. Billy persuades Ellen the only reason Tom rescued her was for money. Tom returns, as McCoy explains to Billy that Tom used to be Ellen's boyfriend.

Ellen follows Tom, while Billy and McCoy go back and forth once again about Tom and Ellen's love affair. Ellen and Tom also have an argument. When they all meet up on the street, they are in the Battery. They return Ellen safely home, where she initially rejects her home town as well as Tom. Later, he goes to the hotel where Ellen and Billy are staying, to collect his reward. He only takes McCoy's cut and throws the rest back at Billy. He then tells Ellen that there was a time he would have done anything for her, but no more. As Tom storms out, Ellen follows and the two embrace in the rain.

Meanwhile, Raven informs Officer Ed Price (Lawson), the head of the police department, that he wants Tom to meet him alone. If he agrees, he will leave the Richmond alone. Price warns Tom to get out of town. Tom, Ellen, and McCoy leave on a train, but Tom knocks out Ellen and returns to town for a climactic hammer fight with Raven. Tom defeats Raven and the defeated gang carries their leader away. Later that night, Tom bids a final goodbye to Ellen as she performs on stage and rides off with McCoy.

Cast

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Streets of Fire" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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