The surface story is a quixotic cross country road race between dapper sociopath playboy Warren Oates driving a showroom GTO and ultra-laconic proto-grunge hippie gearheads James Taylor and Dennis Wilson behind the wheel of their primer gray souped-up '55 Chevy. In director Monte Hellman's hands, however, the raw materials of an AIP hot rod flick take on dark mythic overtones while becoming a quintessential document of end-of the '60s millennialism.