Days of Thunder Gets Remastered In 4K Ultra HD

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman in Days of Thunder. Courtesy of Paramount Pictures.

Days of Thunder, which is now available digitally in 4K Ultra HD, is the first of three films to star Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.

Days of Thunder
Days of Thunder (Paramount Pictures)

Cruise stars as race car driver Cole Trickle, who is the burning need to win.  Businessman Tim Daland (Randy Quaid) discovers him and teams him up with legendary crew chief/car builder Harry Hogge (Robert Duvall).  The goal is to race for the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500.  After a crash, Cole turns to Dr. Claire Lewicki (Nicole Kidman) in order to discover the needed courage to live let alone race again.

Days of Thunder tries to recreate the success from Top Gun but falters in that regard.  Obviously, you can never go wrong with Hans Zimmer scoring a film.  Both Cruise and Kidman do their best with the material they’ve been given.  The film was also nominated for Best Sound at the Oscars, too.  The racing sequences are among the film’s highlights.  As far as racing films go, there are better films about racing–mainly Ford V Ferrari and Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby.

The 4K UHD edition comes just over a month before the 30th anniversary.  Despite this fact, the film’s special features are practically missing.  There are only two of them–listed below for your reference.  Days of Thunder first hit Blu-ray in 2008 with zero bonus features aside from the trailer.  The trailer doesn’t even carry over to the 4K UHD release.

BONUS FEATURES

  • Filmmaker Focus: Days of Thunder
  • Isolated Score

DIRECTOR:  Tony Scott
SCREENWRITER:  Robert Towne
CAST:  Tom Cruise, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Nicole Kidman, Cary Elwes

Paramount Pictures opened Days of Thunder on June 27, 1990. The film is now available in 4K Ultra HD on Digital with a physical release to follow on May 19, 2020.

Danielle Solzman

Danielle Solzman is native of Louisville, KY, and holds a BA in Public Relations from Northern Kentucky University and a MA in Media Communications from Webster University. She roots for her beloved Kentucky Wildcats, St. Louis Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, and Boston Celtics. Living less than a mile away from Wrigley Field in Chicago, she is an active reader (sports/entertainment/history/biographies/select fiction) and involved with the Chicago improv scene. She also sees many movies and reviews them. She has previously written for Redbird Rants, Wildcat Blue Nation, and Hidden Remote/Flicksided. From April 2016 through May 2017, her film reviews can be found on Creators.