Chevy and drift from town to town, making their only income challenging local residents to races. The movie
follows them driving east on Route 66 from Needles, California. They pick up a hitchhiker in Flagstaff,
Arizona (played by Bird). In New Mexico, they encounter another drag racing drifter (played by Oates, driving
a Pontiac GTO) and challenge him to a cross-country race to Washington, D.C. with the winner of the race
getting the title to the others' car. The characters are never identified by name in the movie, given only
names such as "The Driver," "The Mechanic," "The GTO," and "The Girl". The movie follows the group east
through small towns in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Tennessee. They never
make it to Washington, D.C. and eventually drift apart, with the film ending in a drag race in Memphis,
Tennessee after Oates and Bird have departed.
Budget
This film was considered a low budget film at the time of its production. It only cost an estimated
$850,000.00 to complete. In its initial release, it was expected to only make the rounds through the then
thriving Drive-in theater market, where low budget and B-movies found a thriving audience. Instead, due to
the fact of its primary characters being James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, this film experienced a surprising,
though short lived, successful run in the traditional theater market.
Trivia
Two of the '55 Chevys used in the filming of Two-Lane Blacktop were later used in the filming of American
Graffiti.
The camera car from Two-Lane Blacktop was also used in a later movie (Smokey and the Bandit) but it was
only heard and not seen. The director of Smokey and the Bandit felt that the Trans-Am used in the movie
didn't have the sound he wanted, so he had the sound of the '55 Chevy's engine dubbed over the sound of
the Trans Am's engine.
In 2003 Plain Recordings released a Two-Lane Blacktop tribute album entitled "You Can Never Go Fast
Enough" featuring Will Oldham, Calexico, Mark Eitzel, Giant Sand, Leadbelly, Sonic Youth, Cat Power and
others.
